"Lock the doors and close the blinds -- we're going for a ride..."

An Open Letter to arrrgylesocks :

Are you there, socKs? It's me, Shiny...

Listen -- I know that we're not rich. We're not wiping our kid's butt with hundred dollar bills quite yet. And we have a house and a car to pay off - as well as a washer/dryer which we need to pay for in full by August unless we want to pay interest.

Oh - and pre-school tuition. And since our precious '96 2-door coupe, Maggie, is starting to get weak, we may need to put her down. Or put her in a home or something.

The point is - I'm fully aware that we're not made of money. And that it doesn't grow on trees. (And buy inductive reasoning, that we may or may not be made of leaves.)

However. as we learned from yesterday's episode of "Desparate Housewives," we need to splurge a bit on ourselves every so often. No, I don't get turned on by golf clubs.

But I did find something cool. Geeky. Nerdy even. And it's on sale.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BIBGR2/trektoday/002-3562519-3316858

Yes. A Star Trek box set. Of just about everything ever associated with any of the series. 212 DVDs worth. It even has the silly movie with the whales.

It retails for just under $4000. But Amazon has it onsale for only $2500! That's a savings of $1400! When else will we get the opportunity to save $1400? Think of the possibilities!

Yes, this may seem like a lot of money now. But according to the Star Trek way of thinking, money will really have no value in about 300 years, so it really won't be giving up much of anything. And aren't you always wondering what you can use that Amazon.com gift certificate on? Contemplate no more!

And I know you'll give me the argument of Why Star Trek? I have two answers to that:

(1) Although I'm not as much of a fan as many others are, it's still a good show in many incarnations. And I don't have any Star Trek DVDs. Nada. It's kind of like our conversation contemplating why we don't have any Foo Fighters CDs. We don't but we really should.

(2) I promise, in view of everyone on Mindsay, that if you get me this, I no longer will beg you for the "Silver Spoons" DVD box set.

Please consider this. Whatever answer you have to give, I'll take it calmly and professionally.

Love,
-- Shiny