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The Internet and the Zen GardenI just made points with my better half, and the Internet saved my butt. I thought I would share this heartwarming story with you. A couple of months ago, Kate advised me that she knew what she wanted for her birthday - a Zen garden. It's this little desktop - for lack of a better word - sandbox that has a couple of stones in it. It comes with a little rake that you can use to make designs in the sand. I know what you're thinking - "oh wow, man." I thought the same thing. But Kate mentioned it again a couple of times, including during a conversation with a close friend of hers. I knew I was in trouble. She rarely focuses on a gift like this, so I figured I'd better get it. And I've got to get her to stop taking yoga lessons. Being the hardcore procrastinator that I am, I went to the nearest Nature Company store to pick up one of these things (her birthday is tomorrow). Uh oh. Without bothering to check with me, the Nature Company seemed to have closed their stores, at least the only one that I knew about. I figured I was going to have to buy an extra big bucket-o-flowers. On the return trip, I stopped at a couple of other nature and nursery oriented stores on the off chance that these things were more popular than I thought. No luck. I got home and thought I'd let my fingers do the walking on the Internet, and see if I could get something shipped overnight. The first problem was to find one of these silly things. I went to "Ask Jeeves" and queried "where can I buy a Zen garden." I got a lot of different responses, but one of them was for the "official Zen garden site." I couldn't believe it was going to be this easy! I clicked anyway and, son-of-a-gun, it was what Kate wanted. I could buy them on the site, but thought I'd check to see if they had any local stores. Sure enough, the site pointed to the Discovery Channel stores and I clicked through. Their site told me that the Nature Company stores were closed, but that these silly Zen gardens could be found at the Discovery Channel stores. I went to their store directory, clicked on Illinois and found that they had a store in Schaumburg, almost around the corner. Well not that close, but certainly closer than Peoria. Just to be sure, I called them and "yes, we've got plenty of the Zen Gardens." Whooppee! So tomorrow morning, Kate will get her Zen garden and I'll look like a star. All it took was about 5 minutes on the Internet and a phone call. Of course, that's only if you don't count the two hours going to a store that had big sheets of white paper hanging in the windows or the round trip to the store in Schaumburg. All I can say is that it better be what she wanted. And if you're thinking about getting a Zen garden - they look pretty easy to make. In fact, if you've got a cat, you've already got one. Although I'm guessing that your pet doesn't fully appreciate the Zen-like qualities of her facilities.
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