In a Western Place

I do not like a certain large-scale electronics chain store because they never seem to have what I'm looking for. And in the rare event that they do, they want twice as much for it. I'm recalling the sticky LCD protector sheet incident of last week, the 2GB CF card incident from the week before, and don't get me started on the what do you mean you have no more copies of Ratatouille fiasco around Christmas time. And I know what your thinking... well Kir, why do you even bother shopping there?

Convenience. Peer pressure. I don't know.

I arrived home from work ready to kick it with a glass of wine and fire up the ol' laptop for some Photoshop fun. The battery was drained, so naturally, I plugged it in.

Funny, I thought, the power cord feels awfully hot. Weird, when I move my knee the screen appears to be fading from bright to dim. What is that crackling noise? Did I just see sparks?

And sure enough, upon closer inspection, the cord was damaged from some sort of bending mishap (I plead the 5th). Rather than unplug the device and leave it be... I, of course, tried to figit with it... because the magic of my touch will somehow heal the cord's insulating cover, thus blocking the 65 watts of electricity from coursing throughout my being.

*** Kir would like to confess that she accidentally electrocuted herself this past December while unplugging the space heater. The details are unimportant, but she did learn a valuable lesson: long fingernails make excellent conductors of electricity.

After some quick research, I was expecting to spend anywhere between $39.99 - $59.99. This large-scale electronics chain store is a few short blocks from where I live, so I thought I'd jog over to see if maybe, maybe, they had a reasonably priced AC adapter for an HP laptop computer.

"Can I help you."

"Yes, do you sell AC adapters for laptops."

"Eh, not really... we have a universal adapter. But your probably going to have to get it from the manufacture. What type is it?"

"An HP."

"Oh we have HP, buuuuut it has to be a newer model." (proceeds to walk away)

(follows) "Um, it's a Pavilion dv 5000."

"Oh, yeah... we got that."

[What was that about? Do I not look like a person capable of possessing a somewhat "new" machine? Prejudice jerk.]

I looked at the price tag, $90! They wanted $90 PLUS tax! I walked out of that large-scale electronics chain store and directly into my friendly Rainbow grocery to buy some wine for the sole purpose of drowning my sorrows. That, and I was craving some honey mustard rice chips.

I spent the rest of the evening mucking about the interweb, searching for a new adapter and CONQUERING that entire bag of honey mustard rice chips. HP sells them for $59.99 - which, including overnight shipping, still works out to be a bit cheaper than said large-scale electronics chain. While I have no qualms about shelling out $50 on dinner for 2 on a Tuesday night, I'll be damned if I'm overcharged for a stupid AC adapter that I actually need.

In the meantime - PANIC - I need my battery recharged... or else, no access to my iTunes musical collection! (I really need to back my stuff up).