Best Michael's Trip Ever

Had a date night with the girls tonight. Popover Cafe and Michaels. (BTW, if you find yourself in NYC, Popover Cafe is amazing. Been for brunch and now dinner; both delightful. The regular food isn't as good as the popovers, which are amazing and come with Strawberry or Apple Butter . . . which I may or may not have licked from my knife on a few occasions. The Pomegranate Mimosa is to die for, and I'm not just saying that because I haven't had a drink in a while. But I digress.

After Popovers we "popped" up to Michaels. I had a few things I was going to try to return (a book about Scrapbooking for Babies, a set of pages with stickers and stuff, and a set of extra page inserts). I'll be honest with you . . . I don't scrapbook. I used to, sort of. I have a few big photo albums at my mother's house where I diligently put photos and programs and ticket stubs and all sorts of crap, in chronological order, labeled with names and dates, in just the way that if you knew me, you would not be surprised. But I don't really do that anymore. Someday I may regret it, not having a place to put the little "things" that come with life, but for now, I just don't. So, while these were a great gift, I just won't use them.

Now, I wasn't even sure these came from Michaels, but I thought I'd try to return them and see what I could get for them. The girl was all, "Well you don't have a receipt," and I put on my very sweet, "I knoooooow, these were a giiiiiift." There will be a 20% restocking fee without a receipt, she told me. "Ooooh no proooooooblem," I said, "let's just see what they come to." She gave me a hard time about the book, since they have a strict 14 return policy on books. "Ooooooh, reeeeeealy? Even if it's a giiiiiiift?" (are you annoyed with my voice yet?) Finally I got the girl to just give in and accept the book and everything, and I ended up with $26.10 on a gift card. Score!

So as we're finishing up the return, TO MY HORROR I hear, "Attention Michael's customers, we will be closing in a few minutes. Please bring your purchases to the checkout." OH NO!!!!! HOW LONG WERE WE EATING POPOVERS!?!?! I hear my two friends cry out, "OH NO!" because we had JUST gotten there. Now, I am a busy girl, and don't have time to just jet off to Michaels whenever I feel (I'm exaggerating, but I have felt a little pressed for time lately with all the classes I'm in), so I know this may be my only shot to get the yarn I need for B's birthday present and the candy melts for Super Bowl pops next weekend. But, I'm pretty good when it comes to Michaels. So I trot off down the aisle, straight for Vanna's Choice, where I find the three EXACT colors I had picked out earlier today. I then book it up the side aisle to the baking/candy section, where I find the EXACT melts I need (1 bag of dark chocolate), and not quite the exact frosting pen I need (there was a tube of plain white decorating frosting, but you had to buy the tips to go along with it, and I didn't have time for that; there was a "sparkly" white frosting tube that had a tip attached, so I guess these footballs will be a little flamboyant), and race back up to checkout. My friend Stephanie saw me running back up to aisle, and I wish I had a camera to capture the look on her face, as she saw me with arms full of stuff running up to the checkout. She said later that it sort of looked like "Supermarket Sweep".

I left with about $10 still on the gift card, so really I MADE money going to Michaels tonight. We always talk about who "wins" when we go shopping -- either who gets the best discount deal, who is the most responsible  and only buys what they came for, etc. . . . I totally won tonight.