Congratulations to Matt, Alison, and Nathan welcoming Nicholas Ian into the world today! Our circle of friends is ever widening.
Based on the wonderful news we headed out to do some DVD shopping, more about that later. I want to talk about the in-between DVD stop because it set me up for a great let down based on the rest of the evening. Anyone who knows me knows about my media lists. I have lists for books, cds, dvds, etc. Well my book list goes with me anytime I'm headed within a 1/2 mile of a used bookstore. It has things I'm looking for, collections to fill out, missing books from favorite authors, recommendations and just things in general that I wouldn't pay full price for. Two collections that I've been working on for quite a while have been the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books. There are several incarnations of each, but the original series have gone through a dozen or more printings. I wanted the hardback versions that I read as a child. At Half-Price Books, these are classified as Vintage and Classic books and typically cost a little more, but it's usually worth it. So, over the course of many many trips, I've picked up all the original Hardy Boys (total of 58) and I had picked up 55 of the 56 Nancy Drew originals. I've been looking for #56 for a long long time. Tonight, shining with it's own little light on the Vintage shelf was #56. It was great. Then I was skimming the Stephen King section and there was "The Road to the Dark Tower." I had previously bought two copies of this book. One for Tom and one for Matt. When I went to get my own copy, I couldn't locate it readily so I figured I'd just wait for it to reappear. It took til now. Both of these finds made me think I was going to pick up my sought after DVD and be on my way in time to watch an episode or two.
I swear the DVD people are out to screw me over any way they possibly can. When a new set of DVDs comes out, the first place I check is Costco. They typically have the cheapest prices. Then it's a toss-up between Best Buy and Target. So, typically if I'm out DVD hunting these are my three stops at Robinson. Well, I headed to Costco for the second season of Veronica Mars which came out today. I want to make sure that we're caught up before the third season starts so we can actually watch a show in real time. So I cruise through all the DVDs at Costco. No Veronica Mars. Not a huge deal, they don't always get anything in. But they do have all 3 seasons of the original Star Trek series for $45 apiece. That's the cheapest I've seen them by far. And they have the first six seasons of the Simpsons for $15 apiece. So I had to exercise my willpower and just walk away.
So, I head over to Best Buy. I look in the New Releases, but there's a big gaping hole where Veronica Mars is supposed to be. No biggie, they usually file them in two or three places. I go to the regular shelves. Three copies of the first season, no second season. And they are nowhere to be found in the rest of the store. But of course, season 4 of 24 is on sale. Now I'm a bit peeved. So we head over to Target. Two places with signs advertising the second season arriving today...two holes right above the signs. Again no copies to be found, but Arrested Development is on sale. So now I've been to three places and seen sales at all three that on any normal day would already be sitting on my shelf, but still not the purchase I wanted. So, I had to break down and go to the ghetto Wal-Mart. They had it filed in two places one was empty. The second had two copies left. Boy are they lucky.