Ångerrätt and bad karma

I thought I had found the ultimate little diaper bag to go with our new double stroller: a Ju-Ju-Be BeTween. The bag seemed to be big enough to hold everything needed for a quick trip with two children without being too bulky and it even matched the somewhat odd colours of our ABC Zoom, so I ordered it online at "Lilla Max och jag". It was not until I actually held the bag in my hands that I realized that the pictures and videos on Ju-Ju-Be's hompage had maybe been somewhat flattering as the bag turned out to be a lot smaller in reality than what I had anticipated. It was simply way to small for my purposes so I immediately contacted the lady running "Lilla Max och jag" about a return. In reply I got an email saying that she did not really want to take back the bag, considering it had been on sale and that she had already paid for the delivery to me (p&p was included for purchases exceeding 300 SEK). Wasn't I maybe interested in exchanging it against the next bigger bag in that line? I wasn't. The BeAll is not just bigger, it also has a completely different design and I really don't like it. So I told her I was sorry, but that that bag wasn't for me and that I really just wanted to return the BeTween and get my money back. That was yesterday.

Today I had received another email from her with a new suggestion: If I didn't want the bag, why didn't I just sell it on Ebay? People there would often bid more than what the bag costs in the stores. I wrote back, again, and, with as much politeness as I could muster, let her know that this was starting to feel somewhat unfunny. According to Swedish law I have a whole 14 days of "ångerrätt" (meaning a right to "regret" my purchase and return the goods) when purchasing items online. If this right should be affected by the item being on sale or her paying for the delivery, shouldn't that be pointed out somewhere? But it neither says anything on their homepage nor in any of the mails I got. Hell, I did not even know the bag was on sale until she said it - on their homepage it just says "Nyhet!" (meaning "New!"). Last time I checked, "nyhet" and "rea" (meaning "sale") were not the same word. And either way: it doesn't matter. I just want to return that bag and unless one of you can enlighten me otherwise I also assume that I am BY LAW entitled to do that.

The real question though is why I keep attracting problems like this. Why do I constantly need to argue and discuss with people to get my right? Is it all about bad karma? I must have sinned BIG TIME in a previous life: defiling graves, stealing candy from orphans and snorting cocaine off a hooker's body, or something along those lines. And now it's coming back to bite me in the ass.

ABC Zoom

This afternoon we went out to buy groceries and returned with a double stroller, an ABC Zoom. I had seen it on the internet before and really liked it, but for my husband it wasn't love at first sight.
As opposed to about 95% of the other double strollers on the market the children don't sit beside each other in the ABC Zoom, but opposite of each other. You can also have them sitting back to back or facing in the same direction. It is extremely flexible - you can switch and turn around the seat units and the carry cot as you please. At the same time it is, of course, longer than your standard stroller, but actually not by that much. It LOOKS very long with the seats on it, but the frame itself isn't much longer than that of the Gesslein stroller we are using at the moment. It's something one will get used. I'd definitely rather have a long stroller than one of those monster strollers that should be sold with a "Caution! Wide load!" sign. The only alternative would have been a Phil & Teds stroller, but neither my husband nor I liked any of the models we tried.

Now all we need is the adapter for our Maxi Cosi Cabriofix car seat (very handy that it can be used with the stroller) and, oh right, the baby.

Roxie/Roxy

I am curious to find out what people associate with that name.

Do you think Roxie/Roxy is...
a) a stripper
b) a dog
c) a theater/club
d) all of the above
e) something else (please explain!)

So far it's one vote each for a) and b), but maybe there is others out there who have more suggestions.

Boy or girl

I have been thinking about this and not knowing if the baby is a boy or a girl has both advantages and disadvantages.

Disdvantages:
- You are never able to speak about the baby in a normal way, but always have to keep things open by saying "he or she". That gets a little annoying in the long run. My attempt to simplify the situation by referring to the baby as "klumpen" (the lump) and "it" was NOT appreciated by my husband, who felt that it was inappropriate to call a child that (as if the baby can hear it, please!).
- You have an extra hard time choosing a name. Finding a boy's name was difficult enough the first time (there was only one we could agree on at all). Now we have to come up with another one AND a girl's name as well, just to be prepared. Trust me, you do not want to start discussing names in the delivery room. It is a time-consuming, unnerving process and it does not help to know beforehand that half of the work is totally in vain.

Advantages:
- You provide a certain entertainment for the people around you who want to guess the gender of the baby. Like Muddiz's husband who, from a fuzzy ultrasound picture showing mostly the baby's head, deducted that we were definitely expecting a boy. (He was however not interested in betting on it. Coward!)
- You might be more motivated during the actual birth. With Pontus I knew what I was getting. I would not have needed to squeeze him out to know that he was a boy. It was like opening a present, but basically knowing what was inside. However, if you don't know if it's a boy or a girl there's only one way to find out: you gotta push and you gotta push hard. And then at the end you get the surprise. Like opening a present without knowing what's in it, to use that metaphor again. It sounds more enticing, doesn't it?

Happy New Year!

May all your wishes come true! Mine already did - Pontus did not wake up from the fireworks. (Have I mentioned just how much I HATE fireworks?)