Well, the grand Christmas 2005 hunt for an XBox 360 is finally over and I am victorious. The prey is sitting on the bench in my hall. And it will soon be in the hands of some happy local family via Ebay. Why would I give it up? Well, TAD got one too and after what I’ve gone through to get one of these things I’m going to thoroughly enjoy the small profit we’ll be making on it.

For the last 2 weeks I have learned a very important lesson: Unless you enjoy whining, pouting, begging, driving all over town, depending on the mercy of disgruntled minimum-wage store personnel and standing in lines in the cold for significant amounts of time, never tell your tech-geek husband about the XBox 360 that you won in the company raffle until you can physically hand it to him. Sometimes blessings start out as curses!!

Two weeks ago, I was at work trying to work out a messy bit of XML and having a philisophical argument with TAD over IM (in other words, a typical day) when I caught a glimpse of the email notifier as it was fading away. I saw my name and XBox 360 and started holding my breath. I had won the regional raffle my company was holding. After reading the email several times to make sure I didn’t miss something, I immediately IMed TAD about it. Which was my first mistake.

Turns out a lack of planning became apparent shortly thereafter. My company didn’t HAVE the Xboxes to send me and my co-winner, but were in the process of trying to find some to send us. The whining ensued. TAD’s mantra became “I want my XBox!!!”. For me, it’s more of a “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” type of situation. We wouldn’t have had one before, now we’ll get one, but we’ll just have to wait for it. Unfortunately, I’m the only one in the house that feels that way.
Because I hate to see TAD so dispondent, I made a proposal that if we were able to find one ourselves we’d just expense them in to the company and they approved.

So the last few days have consisted of TAD and me bugging the heck out of stock boys all over town in every WalMart, Target, Costco and Best Buy we come near in the hopes that one of the rumored unannounced shipments will have just come in. A wonderful way to spend my vacation time off from work.

The rumor had it that Best Buy was again receiving a shipment this morning and that they weren’t going to let the lines form overnight this time. Because I love my husband so much, I got up early this morning and went to stand in line. I was the 7th in the door and finally got my heavy white box. Of course, several miles away, TAD was doing the same thing “just in case”. So now we have two, but not for long.

Oh well, it all works out in the end. TAD got his Xbox 360 and for the next 6 months or so I’m going to get not a word of complaint or rushing when I want to go to all the “hand in your man-card” stores like Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Joann’s, Michael’s, Cost Plus, Ulta, Linens and Things, or whatever else strikes my female fancy. Merry Christmas to me!