Winning / Losing

Today (Saturday) was Fitness and Health day at school. So being the involved parents that we are, we went and were involved. In particular we bought school bags, school sweat pants (as we call them here, but that sounds grim, doesn't it), school bags, school shirts and school jumpers. I wasn't allowed to buy school blankets. Susanne said that they were the wrong colour. Or something.

There was, as there tends to be at these things, a raffle. I used to be one of those people who say that they never win anything at raffles and similar things. I've discovered that the way to win things at raffles and the like is to buy a lot of tickets. Being the socialists Obama supporters that we are (or would be, if we were allowed to vote, or donate, or anything) we think that taxes should be higher, and education funded better. So instead, we buy a lot of raffle tickets.

So we won a Hannah Montana frisbee. I'd just found someone to give that too when we were offered a plastic golf caddy for kids instead, complete with a 'gold club' and 'golf ball'; the club looked like a plastic stick, about a foot long, and the ball looked like a table tennis ball. We managed to get rid of that too - the boy we gave it to was very pleased. Then we won a recycled basket ball (the basket ball wasn't recycled, it was made of recycled stuff). Then we wone the grand prize - a Wii Fit. And finally, two Washington Mutual water bottles. (There were about 50 WaMu [as we say] water bottles, which is probably related to the fact that Washignton Mutual are one of the plethora of banks that have collapsed.)

Wii Fits, you might not know, are pretty hard to get hold of in the US. (Conspiracy theorists say that they are sent to Europe, because of the exchange rate). Amazon currently says:

"Wii Fit" purchase limit policy
As you may know, the Nintendo "Wii Fit" is in great demand, and there are shortages of this product across the U.S. In an effort to provide as many customers as possible with the opportunity to purchase a "Wii Fit," we are limiting the total number of "Wii Fits" that can be purchased. As a result, each household may only purchase one Nintendo "Wii Fit" unit total.

Which would be more relevant if they actually had any in stock. But they haven't. So we are one of the privileged few to get our hands on one. And we made a profit on the raffle.

However, a Wii Fit ain't much use without a Wii to stick it into. And our telly is a bit old and tired, and if it's got a Wii Fit in it, then Susanne won't be able to watch 'Jon and Kate Plus Eight' and we know what a disaster that would be.

So first I went to Consumer Reports to look at tellies. And after contemplating driving to shops and getting harassed by salesemen, I ordered it from Amazon. Another advantage of buying from Amazon is that you don't pay any sales tax, which here is 8.5%. In theory, you should confess to all the stuff you bought from Amazon on your tax return at the end of the year, and pay the tax on it. I confess some of it, 'cos otherwise I think it looks suspicious, but in fact this makes me a weirdo.

Then I went to shops to try to buy a Wii. Wiis have been around for almost two years, and they are still really hard to get hold of. Again, there are conspiracy theories aplenty about this, but we're not going to worry about that. In one shop I went to they said they might have some in a couple of weeks. In the second shop, they told me that they release an advert at midnight on Saturday night. If there are Wiis on it, they will have them in store on Sunday morning. If I wanted one, I should try to arrive at the store half an hour before they opened. If I really wanted one, I should try to arrive at the store an hour before it opened.

If you're going to buy a Wii, you have to get Rock Band. That's almost a law. And a wireless guitar. And probably a charger thing. And whatever extra bits and bobs they try to sell you. (And there's no shortage).

The amount winning the raffle has cost us is now into 4 digits. Dollar digits, which isn't quite so bad though.