The Life & Times of Louis & Amber - So a funny thing happened the other day...

Anyone who knows Amber knows she can't pass up a "good bargain". I say "good bargain" because we have differing definitions of what that might be. I define a good bargain as either free, or someone paying us to take whatever item is under discussion. My philosophy is zero dollars is cheaper than anything more than zero dollars. Her philosophy seems to be that something significantly cheaper than normal is a good bargain, whether we need it or not. So it will come as no surprise that Amber's favorite pastimes include garage sales, Goodwill, Salvation Army, and the New Hope Village Store. This seems to be genetic as well, since Amber's sister Rikki, and our daughter Meredith both seem to enjoy bargain shopping as a form of entertainment.

Rikki is attending Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, our alma mater. This works great for us, as we get to see her from time to time while we are back in the States. Why, just the other day, while I was teaching at Ankeny Christian Academy, Amber & sister Rikki took the opportunity to pursue their mutually enjoyed hobby. And here is where the funny thing occurred.

The M.O. - or modus operendi, if you will - for these bargain excursions is thus: One must search selected store for items that catch one's fancy. These items are then collected and reserved for the purpose of discovering if said items look as attractive on ones person as one may imagine they might look when observing this item on the hanger. In other words, they get a whole bunch of clothes together, then take turns trying them on and telling each other if it looks good.

Amber's turn came to try on some of the clothes she had found. She would go into the dressing room, put on whatever item happened to have been chosen, then come out and pose for her sister. Rikki would then tell her "Yes, that looks nice." or "No, not your style" or what-have-you. After exhausting her supply of potential bargains, she put on all her original clothes and emerged from the dressing room. However, Rikki wasn't aware that Amber had completed this trial process. She took one look at Amber's jeans and said "No, I really don't like those on you." Unfortunately, she didn't know that these were pants Amber had owned, and in fact was quite proud of, for quite some time. Oops.

In Rikki's defense, she claims that the pants leg had gotten caught somehow in Amber's shoe and made the bottom of the leg look funny. I'm not sure whether to believe her or if her fashion sense has become so sophisticated that us old people can no longer look "cool".