Happiness is free (or very cheap)

I love when I am not disappointed. Remember a few weeks ago, when I signed up for the free coffee maker, but was doubting if I would ever get it? Well, I came home from work on Thursday to see a HUGE box on my porch and I knew that my little slice of frugal, caffeinated heaven had arrived! Hurray! I spent this morning learning how to use it. It is fun; it works much like an electric teapot, except with coffee (obviously). Great for if I want to brew just one cup. There are a few drawbacks to it... like that I am a coffee snob and buy whole beans and grind them myself and for this pot, you need to buy the company's pre-packaged (and not as tasty) "pods" of coffee. And that I really don't need another appliance in my kitchen. And that -- wait. Darn it, I am going to enjoy this. So forget all my gripings -- I love my little Senseo pod machine (sounds like it is from a sci-fi movie!)!

Another happy-making thing in my world is that I have been scoring big time on the free/very cheap books this week. A fellow Ann Arbor blogger was giving some of hers away, so I took Eva Moves the Furniture and *umm* ... I can't remember the second one right now! But it looks good! :-) And today the Ann Arbor library was doing their annual "we have too many books, come buy some at super low prices" event. My husband and I went a bit nuts. To put it mildly. I picked up: A Widow For One Year; The Seal Wife; City of Darkness, City of Light; Atonement; and Killer Dolphin. And my husband bought a big stack of his own. For practically nothing. Hurray for frugality! And good books! :-)

The best part of the library experience today was that a complete stranger (young-ish college student) come up to me and asked about my bag. It was the Well-Traveled Bag, of course, and she wanted to know how I made it, if it was hard or expensive... and she kept saying how much she loved it! It was a wonderful compliment. I was glowing with pride!

Finally, I have put in some good work on the mohair monster. I just haven't been racing along because I have been so busy drinking free pod coffee and reading free books!