doodledee

Last Sunday Grossie sent me a note letting me know that Amazon was running some crazy sale on this one Weber grill that's pretty mint if you're into that kind of thing. I went to the Amazon Grill Store and checked it out and confirmed that yes, a very nice grill was available at a very, very nice price. Such a good price that it was almost too good to be true, even. "It must be mistake," I remember saying at the time.

But seeing as I'm somewhat of a "purchase pussy", I naturally couldn't just order it right then and there, so instead I paced around the house for a couple of hours, sweating and agonizing over when/if I should pull the trigger. And by "couple of hours" I mean like "12". And by "agonizing" I mean "watching the Timberwolves and reading the paper and I think maybe having some ice cream". I have a pretty simple life, really.

In the end, it was an easy choice, even for me. The price was just too good to pass up. So at 11:30 or so that night, bathed in the comforting glow from my laptop screen, I logged in to end the multi-year madness that has been my Hunt For a New Grill.

AND HOLY BALLS THE PRICE HAS GONE BACK UP I'M SUCH AND IDIOT I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT IT BACK AT 2:30 WHEN IT WAS CHEAP AND I THINK I'M GONNA GO OUT BACK AND KICK MY OWN ASS

There's a life lesson in there somewhere.

So Monday rolls around and I stumble into work still pretty much in a daze over missing the opportunity of a lifetime. Taking advantage of some of free cycles I've got, I decide I'm not ready to quit just yet. I download the Amazon webservice developer kit and crank out a little program that will ping their product catalog every 30 minutes and email me if the price of the grill goes back down. Behold the power of geek in all its splendor and glory and idle time.

I also noticed - while reloading the grill's page 100 times an hour before my program was done - that Amazon was showing the wrong product image on the info page. The picture they were showing actually of a much more expensive model. I scrolled down to the 'suggestion box' and sent them a note saying that they had the wrong image and that - oops! - they also forgot to leave the grill on sale long enough for me to buy it. ("Maybe you didn't know I was shopping for a grill?" I asked.)

Completely unexpectedly, waiting in my inbox this morning was a reply from Amazon customer service. In a short but sweet note, they offered me the 'sale' price even though the sale is over. Long story almost over, after 20 minutes of staring at the 'click to order' button, I currently have a bitchin new grill on it's way to my house.

Everyone who read this far is invited over to my house to grill and shower in my awesome pressure shower. Please call ahead.