Back in the Saddle and Counting My Chickens

Having already borne the cost of the shipping for all the t-shirts, and clearing just enough profit on the original order to get an extra one to send to my mom, I figure any other payments that arrive are just going to be gravy. I got an email from one of my overseas readers who assured me that the international money order was 'dropped in the post' a few days ago, leaving me with only two shirts whose potential owners are MIA.

So I figured that I'd celebrate the conclusion of the t-shirt business by treating myself to something nice, if not extravagant. Nope, no Metro Pizza or lunch at the Grand Luxe--I decided to peruse the ol' wish list at Amazon and see if I could find just enough goodies to get me over that $25 Super Saver hump for the free shipping.

And by the way, I don't know if it gives anyone else a grin like it does for me, but one of the greatest things about buying stuff over the internet is dodging the sales tax. And you know I'm all about sticking it to The Man!

Anyhow, I hadn't bought any music in awhile, and regular readers know of my constant blathering about how music just isn't any good anymore. So I ordered The Essential Dean Martin CD--great stuff by one of the greatest vocalists of any era. I also broke down and ordered the CD single of Check Up On It by Beyonce. I know, it's not really my preferred genre, but a catchy tune is a catchy tune. Having put that one in the cart, it still left me with a few bucks I had to spend in order to get the free shipping deal.

And then I remembered...

Now that I have an actual working stereo/CD player in my vehicle, I've been listening to the radio again. And there are a couple of damn fine radio stations out here in Vegas, most notably an outfit called Area 108--it's just at cool as 91X back in San Diego. Anyhow, there's a song that I've heard a few times in the past couple of weeks that to me is the best thing to hit the airwaves since Franz Ferdinand released Take Me Out a couple of years back.

I don't know if anyone out there has heard of a Finnish group called H.I.M.--but their latest tune, Wings of a Butterfly is just a fantastic piece of work. I'm even gonna go out on a limb and say that it's my current favorite song. It's got that cool retro late 80's power-pop sound with a nifty guitar hook and vocals that on some level remind me of Linkin Park. Just a great all-around song, so of course I added that CD single to the shopping cart.

That got me to $27 and my shopping day was done.

Aaaahhh... the Internet. Is there anything it can't do?

Mikey