I also LUVZMESOMEbUKS

I just defeated the purpose of a gift card. In order to sleep tonight with a clean conscience, I must rationalize this.

See, Borders/Waldenbooks teamed up with Amazon.com -- awesome, I thought. Look -- I can get "The Time Traveler's Wife" for $3! And I can get three Joyce Carol Oates books for $0.01! Holy Toledo! I thought, happily clicking the "add to cart" button. I was an "add to cart" fanatic, throwing books on there I didn't know if I'd like, but hey, they were $0.35, so I could use them as paper towels if I wanted! Cheap! Cheap! That's all the frugal me saw. CHEAP! Under a buck! Can't even buy a tank of gas to go to the library for cheaper!

Then, I went to check out my e-basket full of CHEAP.

My gift certificate kept getting rejected. "We're sorry, there's a slight problem."

I said some pretty un-Christmastime words that would've made my grandma's ears turn red, and kept re-entering the same digits, because (say through clenched teeth) I KNOW it didn't work LAST TIME, but it's GOING to work THIS time, because there's NO reason for it NOT TO, I said. My dog looked at me with a whole new respect as I used curse words for nouns, verbs and adjectives. He's so proud.

But, in case you were wondering, you can't buy used items from Waldenbooks/Borders online with a gift card. Not even if your dog thinks you're the most foul-mouthed arguer in the word.

And ... gosh. The books, they were in my cart. There they say, those images of the cover, all waiting to be mailed to me from user LUVZMESOMEbUKS, the seller rated 96 percent on Amazon.com ... I couldn't let LUVZME down.

So I loved me some books. ... I'd feel guilty if I wasn't, well ... Kind of glad I still had that $25 gift card to spend.

See also: Erin goes broke but keeps warm by using penny novels as fuel and Dave just shakes his head and says "Erin, Erin, Erin"