The afternoon so far

I almost bought a new sewing machine this afternoon. I mean, I was *this* close, I'd done the haggling, and the deal was practically sealed. But I came home empty-handed.

It was one of those "inventory clearance"-type things at a local trade and convention center, huge overstocks, great deals, etc. The place was busy and people were walking out with machines in droves. And there were some half-decent machines, although most of them were a generic name that I didn't recognize or know anything about. My mom and I strolled around and saw demonstrations on a number of machines that were very nice.

But there was one sewing/embroidery machine that I sort of fell in love with. It was a Brother, so a good name, and had nice lines and great features. Over the past few years, when my mom and sister have both bought new machines and I've looked at a few myself, I've come to the conclusion that buying one is a lot like buying a car. You can look at all kinds, test-drive them, compare features, but in the end there'll be one that just speaks to you, and that's the one you want.

So this one spoke to me, and it was fairly pricey, but not completely out of the range of what I'm willing to spend. My current machine is quite ancient, and although it still sews beautifully, I suspect and fear that one day it's just going to stop.

Now, I'm not a haggler. I like to think I will haggle, but when it comes right down to it, it's not really in me to do it. With my mother egging me on (she's not a haggler either, but she can encourage others to haggle) I got the price down to a point where I could live with it. At THAT point, I found out that this particular machine was not available on-site (except for the demo) and I had to pay for it and have it delivered next week.

That's when alarm bells went off in my head and I walked away from the deal. Most likely there was nothing to worry about and all was on the up-and-up, but--I didn't want to chance it.

So I almost had a beautiful new machine, but decided to err on the side of caution. *Sigh* It was awfully nice...