After work, I went ahead to Pentagon City, where I pick Jeff up at 6:30. I had a Borders coupon good for 30% off a single item, and I knew that Jasper Fforde’s most recent Thursday Next novel, Something Rotten, had just been released in paperback, and the first in his new “Nursery Crime” series, The Big Over Easy, in hardcover. So I decided to use the coupon on the new hardcover, and pay the full price on the paperback. On the way to the cashier, I passed a table full of young adult books, with a posted offer to “buy 3, get the 4th free.” So I did.

Walking out of Borders with my heavy bag of six new books, I stopped in Best Buy to discover a four-foot high box of new computer games offered at two for $40. So I bought two.

So now I certainly have enough to keep me busy… at least for this weekend. Good timing, too, since I’ve been feeling a void after having finished the new Harry Potter book so quickly last weekend.

Oh, and when I got home, there was an early birthday card from my mom, with a note that she wanted me to have my presents–checks from her and from my grandmother–early enough to cash before our trip to New York next weekend, so I’d have some extra mad money while there. Turns out, though, that the birthday cash almost exactly covered today’s purchases, so thanks, Mom and Mammaw, for the cool new books and games you bought me!