Well, after clearing up the yard the other weekend, I decided to put to outdoor christmas lights while the weather is still nice.
I bought the last few packs of contractor grade icicle lights on clearance at ACE after last Christmas (woohoo...love a sale!) I measured out where they needed to start & end to hit an outdoor plug and up they went.
Now, I knew I needed exactly two more packs (and would be paying full price...grrr), so off I went to the local hardware store. Buy them, get home, start uping them up and discover that...this year, each string is TWO foot shorter than last year, in the same brand! So now I'm 4 foot short over my garage

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Ah...the joys of the holiday season...