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Honey, Can You Spare A Hundred?


Hey! When did they put Jack Layton on the $100 bill?

If you dropped by last week you learned it was my birthday. What you didn't know was that through the magic of post-dated posts I wasn't even here. Ha, fooled you. Last week Mrs. dufus and I travelled out to beautiful Kelowna, British Columbia on Good Friday to visit her mom (the dufus-in-law) for Easter. We had a nice visit of 5 days then flew back in time for my birthday.

We did the usual things. I read a couple of books. We ate out a lot. We watched hockey on TV. We visited a winery or two. We even met up with a couple of good friends who coincidentally were travelling in the same area. And as a surprise for her mom we took my wife's son (Jr. dufus-by-marriage) with us without telling her in advance.

It was a good week. Especially for me. Mrs dufus' mom bought me a golf shirt and sweater in advance of my birthday and sprung for a great dinner at a wonderful French restaurant called Bouchons Bistro where, according to their site, Neil Young (my musical hero) claims it's the best meal he had on his 2009 world tour. Is she a great person or what? Thankfully, according to my wife, they don't play his music in their restaurant...or sell any of his CDs. (It's okay, hon. I already have them all.)

Neil and Chef Dominique
"A man needs a chef"

But it didn't stop there. My credit cards were a little tapped out having sprung for the airfare and having made maybe a trip too many to Amazon.ca for CDs over the month of April. So I asked Mrs. D if she could give me a bit of cash against what she owed me. So she gave me a hundred dollar bill.

Well that piece of paper was worth well more than it's face value...over and over. And it lasted me close to 2 days! Every time I went to use it the cashier couldn't make change. So, guess what? I had to ask Mrs. D if she could pay. She'd pay. And I'd get to keep the $100. And it kind of added up. Remember that MasterCard ad? Yeah, well that was what this was kinda like.

It went something like this:

Beer and miscellaneous groceries: $82
Chapter's book store for a good read: $35
Mission Hill Winery for a gift for my daughter: $27
Lunch with coincidental friends: $68
Never any change for a hundred dollar bill: priceless

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else there's Mrs D's purse!

Thanks for the great week, hon! I owe ya.

***

By the way, Canadians are voting in an election today. If you're Canadian don't forget to vote. I'm gonna vote early and vote often!

I love democracy.

Comments

Linda Medrano said…
I adore this! Men! When Alex was new as my "partner", I told him I wanted to run to the corner and pick up a Diet Coke. Problem, I had NO cash. So I asked Alex, "Honey, do you have any change?". He responded that he did not. I looked in the bottom of purses, under couch cushions and everywhere to dig up the necessary 89 cents or so I needed.

Later that same day, I was putting away laundry. In Alex's sock drawer, there was a roll of cash, maybe $500 or so. I brought it out to him and said "I asked you for coke money and you said you didn't have any. What is THIS?" Alex responded, "No you didn't. You asked me if I had any change." Uh huh.
nonamedufus said…
Linda: Great story! Speaking of how men and women view things differently... When my wife gets home from work at the end of the day she tells me "Well, I think I'll change." I always ask "Into what, a pumpkin?" For her the humour of this wore off a long time ago. I still think it's hilarious!
00dozo said…
Nertz. I've been working on a "Priceless" article of my own. Just sayin' that I don't want to be a 'copycat'.
;-)

Trivia time: Did you know that Bahamian paper currency is printed in Canada? And like Canadian currency, you can confuse colours with the denominations of the notes. Here, the hundred dollar bill is almost the same colour as the ten dollar bill. The fives and the twenties are also close in colour. And I thought the US currency was confusing - well, not so much anymore.

(P.S. Due to a glich in Blogger, I got a preview of your latest PPP picture and assumed you were off to far away places.)
nonamedufus said…
00dozo: The priceless parody just seemed to fit. Go for it. I wonder what would happen if I tried to pass off Canadian Tire money in the Bahamas?
00dozo said…
Do they still make Crappy Tire money??
;-)

As for passing off Canadian currency, I once had inadvertently gave a cashier a Cdn one cent coin. One frakking penny! It was rejected, with disdain I might add. What kills me though, is that people - mostly Bahamians - will not pick up a penny should it fall from their hand when receiving change. True story: I once needed one penny for a grocery purchase (it was a total of $25.01, or something like that) and I didn't have any loose change but the cashier was waiting for me to make good on the total. Really. I scanned the floor and found three cents. I left the extra two for the next poor bastard who had to face this cashier.
Ziva said…
Well this is convenient, you seem to be having a hard time getting rid of that hundred, and I'm all out of cash. I'll happily take it off your hands. You're most welcome.
nonamedufus said…
00dozo: Yeah and how come Canadian quarters won't work in American vending machines. Canadian machines seem to take American change. Elitists!
nonamedufus said…
Ziva: Aw, too late. I used it on the 3rd day to pay for lunch. But good thinking!
Madge said…
I love Kelowna, and Penticton too. The last time we took off for the Great White North, we had to get inspected because we couldn't agree the last time we were up there. We've learned to get our story straight so they just let us through. Oh, well actuall now, we can't leave The States because we don't have passports or modified drivers licences. So much for going to Vancouver to watch the strippers.
nonamedufus said…
Madge: Well, we're in Aylmer, Quebec across the river from Ottawa so we don't need a passport to travel out of Quebec...yet.

That part of the country - the Okanagan - is gorgeous. We drove down to Penticton for lunch one day to a restaurant on the lake with a picturesque view and food to die for. It was a nice break.
Madge said…
Quebec! Cripes that's clear across the country. Glad you had a good time. :)
nonamedufus said…
Madge: Well, yeah. Now you know why my credit card was tapped out after flying there!
meleah rebeccah said…
Oh yay! I'm so happy to hear you had such a great birthday week. And, that you got to hang onto your 100 bill!
nonamedufus said…
meleah rebeccah: You know, if I include dinner with my grandkids on the weekend I managed to stretch out my birthday celebration for about a week and-a-half. I wasn't as lucky with the $100.
Just money, really.
nonamedufus said…
R2K: Oh, yeah, money, money, money.
Anonymous said…
Sooooo....

How does one tap into Mrs.' D's purse?

*whistles*

hee hee hee

You sly Nomesters! You weren't even there! And there I was envisioning you with Sugar Plum Fairies in my head.

I think I need another DDP.

*grin*
nonamedufus said…
Quirks: No, I was with the Sugar GRAPE Fairies! ha, ha, ha.
Nicky said…
Why don't I ever have these problems? I buy a pack of gum with a C note and the cashier doesn't even bat an eyelash!! Teach me, Master Dufus!!
nonamedufus said…
Nicky: I think you might be going to the wrong stores at the wrong time of day. Oh, and you need a friend or spouse to bail you out!
Fanastic stuff man. I'm in the infancy stages of this blogging thing (created it 3/25)and yours was one of the first I fell in love with. I'll continue to read and try to learn along the way.

Thank you.
nonamedufus said…
bigmikesinphilly: Hey, thanks for the kind words and welcome to the world of blogging. Drop by and comment anytime. I look forward to watching you develop your stuff!
So, what you're saying is that if I carry around a hundred dollar bill, Mrs. Dufus will magically appear and pay for everything? Score!
nonamedufus said…
Boom Boom: And if you play your cards right she'll give you the $100 too! Sweet, eh?
Quirkyloon said…
Sooooo....

How does one tap into Mrs.' D's purse?

*whistles*

hee hee hee

You sly Nomesters! You weren't even there! And there I was envisioning you with Sugar Plum Fairies in my head.

I think I need another DDP.

*grin*

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