Movie Friday: Mr. Holland's Opus

This week, in a conversation on Facebook, I recalled this 1995 movie, and knew that it would be great for Movie Friday!

This movie starred Richard Dreyfuss who played "Glenn Holland, a musician and composer who takes a teaching job to pay the rent while trying to compose one memorable piece of music to make him famous. However through the course, he discovers a passion for teaching he didn't know he had and ends up dedicating more of himself to it." (quote taken from Wikipedia)

The movie begins in 1965 and spans the 30 year career of Mr. Holland.  It has a lot of great American culture in it.  Definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen it before.  If you have seen it before, check it out again!


It's one of those great teacher movies, much like the movie Stand and Deliver.  As a teacher, I love these movies!

Have a great Friday!  Happy New Year!

A Dangerous Combination

Two weeks off of work and time to shop the big auction site is not a good combination!  However, I have picked up a couple of great finds!

The seller of these pieces had typos in their descriptions, so thankfully I just happened to stumble across them.  Also, luckily, that made it almost impossible for other buyers to find them.

First up, I nabbed this great mid-century ashtray and stand.  I got it for 99 cents!  With shipping, it was still cheaper than most pieces of Pyrex that I pick up on the big auction site.  Now, I don't smoke, so I'm not quite sure what I will use it for, but I think it will make a great addition to my collection of mid-century decorations.  Most likely it will stand by a chair in the living room, just looking awesome!

Secondly, I picked up this 1 1/2 quart Pyrex casserole in the Regency pattern.  I had not come across this pattern before, so I looked it up and found that it was a promotional pattern from Fall 1965.  Promo patterns are what I mainly try to collect.  I like them becuase while there may be thousands of Butterprint or Butterfly Gold or Spring Blossom pieces floating around, these pieces are a little harder to come across.  This piece has a little chip in the corner of the lid handle and a couple of scratches in the paint (nothing bad) but otherwise is in good shape.  Thanks to the typo in the description, it was a good deal at $3.99 (plus shipping).

So, have any of you found any great finds lately?

Thanks, Maria!

A few days before Christmas I was excited to have a delivery when the mail came.  Inside I found these amazing India inspired glasses, shipped to me from the amazing Maria, from the great blog Shallow Thoughts from Iowa.  These glasses perfectly complete my set.  Thank you so much!

My CSN Pick

Back in November, I won a $45 CSN Stores giftcard from a giveaway offered by Barbara over at If I Didn't Have A Sense of Humor.  I was ecstatic, but as I began shopping the CSN website, I was overwhelmed by choices of things to get.  I wanted to get something for the Shack, initially.  I found some amazing mid-century inspired clocks that I thought would be great.  There were some shelves that I looked at for the bathroom as well.  However, even though it took me almost a month to decide what I wanted, I finally decided to spoil myself.  I picked up this great 600 thread count sheet set.  I was most excited about them because the sheets are mercerized just like the sheets my grandma used to get.  They are incredibly soft, and I can't wait to get them on my bed.  Sweet dreams for me!  Thanks again, Barbara!

A Blogging Upgrade

I am pleased that Cul-de-sac Shack is now enjoying the advancements of a photography upgrade.  I received a beautiful new Sony Cyber-shot 12.1 megapixel camera for Christmas.  It's a huge upgrade from my 6 or 7 year old (at least) HP Photosmart M22 4.0 megapixel (which, for the record, I love this camera!).  I wanted a new HP camera initially, but I really liked the Sony.  I must have been a good boy this year, because Santa was good to me!

The old:

The new:

Glory to God in the Highest!

 

On this, the day of our Savior's birth, I wish you a very Merry Christmas.  May you and your family know true peace and happiness today.  If you are traveling today, I pray for travel mercies for you.

Where ever you may be, Rejoice!  For today is the day our Savior came into this world to save us all!

Luke 2: 1-14 NIV

The Birth of Jesus

    ¹In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ²(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³And everyone went to his own town to register.
    ⁴So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

    ⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ^[a] the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
    ¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
    ¹⁴"Glory to God in the highest,
      and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Merry Christmas!

Silent Night, Holy Night

Tonight we continue family tradition, heading to church for Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion at 6:00 which always ends with the congregation holding candles and singing Silent Night.  Then we're heading over to Grandma's house for dinner afterward.  We have done this all of my life.  Grandma's now 90 years old, and we provide the food instead of her, but we still meet at her house.

I wanted to add a vintage video of Silent Night to fit the occasion, but I couldn't narrow it down to just one - I did however manage to narrow it down to two, so I'm sharing them both.

First up, here's a little Bing:

And to finish it up, here's some classic John Denver:

Hopefully all of you have finished your shopping so that you don't have to do any unnecessary rushing around today and you can enjoy the day and family.  Have a great one!

Movie Friday: White Christmas

For today's Movie Friday, I'm going to make this movie a tradition for the last Movie Friday before Christmas.  It was my featured movie for Christmas last year, and will probably be the featured movie for Christmas next year.  This is my all time favorite Christmas movie.  I have watched it three times already this year.  And, as I have already featured this movie, I don't see a need to reinvent the wheel, so here's the write up from last year.

"White Christmas!  A Technicolor classic in VistaVision!  This great uplifting movie from 1954 will always bring a tear to my eye.  It is the story of two ex-WWII GI's who return after the war to become singing and dancing entertainers.  The ex-GI's, played by Bing Crosby (who else?) and Danny Kaye, meet up with two sisters who happen to be the sisters of an old army pal.  The sisters, played by Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen, are on their way to Vermont to an inn where they are to perform for the holidays.  Crosby and Kaye follow the ladies to Vermont, where they find that the inn is run by their former General, who is played by Dean Jagger.  The story that unfolds is truly heartwarming and inspirational.

There is a lot of great music in this Irving Berlin classic, with the title song, "White Christmas," of course.  No one can sing "White Christmas" like Bing!

When Crosby and Kaye first meet the girls, the girls sing the song "Sisters" which I enjoy even more knowing that my grandma made my mom and her two sisters learn that song so that they could all sing together when they were growing up."

If the set looks familiar, it is.  It is the same set that was used in Holiday Inn, which I featured last week.

New Thrifty Finds

On Monday, I took several boxes of stuff to Salvation Army.  I have been doing a huge clean-out in my house, and all of the things that I have either replaced with vintage things or things that I have ended up with in box lots at auctions and have no use for find their way to Salvation Army.  There are two thrift stores about 45 miles from me that I really like.  Salvation Army (which has the easiest set up for donations) and DAV.  I like these stores because you can always count on them to have great vintage stuff at incredible prices.  There is a Goodwill that I always hit up as well, but I don't care for it as much.  It's more of the yuppie kind of thrift store, if you know what I mean.  Almost everything that they put out for sale is less than 20 years old.  Occasionally I find a vintage find or two, but Goodwill also charges much higher prices.  I'll mainly stick with Salvation Army and the DAV.  I wonder if it's a coincidence that my two favorite thrift shops are located on old Route 66?

After dropping off a backseat full of stuff at the donation center, I drove a block over to the thrift shop where I found that all of the Christmas stuff was already marked 50% off.  They have a huge section of Christmas, so I felt like a kid in a candy store.  I picked up a lot of things, but only a couple of them are out for display this year.  The rest are boxed up with the empty Christmas decoration boxes.  I'll find a place for them next year.

Here are my finds from Salvation Army.

This little Santa is sitting on top of the chimney in this fun vintage planter.  I added the little red flocked berries...he needed something in the planter part.  He was 50 cents.

This log and holly ceramic candle holder looks like it was someone's craft project.  It has the painter's signature on the bottom.  It was 75 cents.  In all, I came out of Salvation Army with a box full of Christmas goodies and one piece of Pyrex (an opal divided dish) all for $6.  Not bad!

The DAV is on my way to Goodwill, so I was not about to pass it up!  I got several things there as well, but these are the notable ones to share:

A beautiful Jadeite Fire King swirl mixing bowl.  It was truly a "start the car!" moment.  This little baby was priced at $4.98, and in my hands faster than you can blink.  I like the way the green looks up against the vintage pink Shiny Brite ornaments that I filled it with.  I think this may go on the kitchen table.

Lastly, I found this handpainted made in Germany dish.  It is in amazing condition.  Since it is marked Germany, I am thinking that it must be pre-WWII.  It just looked so much like something that my Grandma would have, that I picked it up.  It was also a bargain at $3.98.

It was a very satisfying day!

Now, before I end today, I was wondering if any of my readers have ever used Kiva?  You can find their website at kiva.org.  It is a non-profit organization where you invest in a loan for someone, most likely in another country, that is trying to better their life.  They might be starting a child care program, investing in a new animal or two for their farm...just about anything.  You invest $25, and when the person starts repaying the loan, you start getting your money back.  You do not gain interest on the money, you just help back the loan.  I have been looking into it, and I think that I might like to give it a try, but before I do, I was wondering if any of my readers had tried it, and what their experience with it was.  If nothing else, even if I lose my money, it isn't much and I'll just think of it as a donation.  The thing that I like is that once the loan is paid off and your $25 is back in your account, you can either reinvest it in another loan or draw it down and get the cash back.

Have an amazing Thursday!  The big day is almost here!

The Christmas Story - for the Facebook age

Updating the story for the digital age...still as important as ever!

Christmas Decorations 2010

It's that time again - time to share all of my Christmas decorations.  Things have been so busy this year that I wasn't able to get everything put out until yesterday!  So, here they are!  Warning:  Lots of photos ahead!

Let's start with the Christmas tree:

It takes me two days to put up my Christmas tree - it never fails.  One day to assemble it and put all of the lights on.  I'm really picky about the lights, and I wrap them around the branches of the tree from the stem clear to the tip.  It really makes the tree sparkle (and really takes a long time!).  It takes another day to put all of those ornaments on it.

Now for a close up of some of my favorite ornaments.  All of the ornaments on the tree are vintage.  Nothing modern here!  It takes another full evening to put the ornaments on the tree, as each one is individually wrapped in tissue paper to protect them.  It takes forever to get them all out (and even longer to put them all away)!

Some of the photos are crisp and clear, and some of them are blurry.  For some reason the auto focus on my camera works great on some of the pictures, but won't focus other pictures at all.  (I'm hoping to have a new camera soon!)

Has anybody else bought one of Mick's record bowls?  It looks great full of vintage Christmas ornaments!

Here's the top of my old 1946 Majestic console radio (remember, the one that I restored?).  It looks great with my new ceramic Christmas tree on it!  It also holds my little collection of vintage plastic nativities and a couple of red flocked reindeer.

Here's a better picture of the ceramic Christmas tree.  I picked this up about a month ago at a garage sale a family was having to settle an estate.  I was ecstatic when I found this!  It has a whole bunch of extra plastic pegs shaped like birds and butterflies that I could have used, but I prefer the little light shaped pegs.  It's a three piece tree, and I really like the snow on the tips of the branches.  It was a "Start the car!" moment when I got this for a mere $5!

The red flocked reindeer in the back is a vintage piece, but the little guy in the front is new.  I picked him up over the weekend at JCPenney.  I couldn't believe it when I saw him.  He is really a tree ornament, but he's happier here with his papa.  (Oh, and he was on 50% off sale, so I got him for $4).

My little collection of vintage plastic nativities.

It's Santa!  He looks pretty happy standing in front of the Majestic!

I have a soft spot in my heart for those awful old satin ornaments that were so popular when I was a kid.  As long as you don't snag them on anything they look great.  I like they way the light reflects off of them in these vintage dishes.

My coffee table is full!

My little collection of snowmen grew this year with the addition of the two handmade ones in the back of the photo, a Santa and a snowman.

Also new to my collection this year is the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" album on the coffee table.  I bought it mostly for the cover.  10 cents at the flea market on the square.

This is the second year for this flocked wreath / candle holder centerpiece here at the Shack.  This year I laid the little elves on it, as they had nowhere else to go.

This little nativity set is missing a few pieces, most importantly, Mary.  I hope to eventually find a replacement so that the family can be together again.  Sounds like it's time to hit up Etsy!  They were all in a $2 box that I got at an auction a little over a year ago, but no matter how many times I went through that box, the missing Mary and shepherd were nowhere to be found.  The little bell on the left rear was a craft my mom made years ago.  It's made out of a little clay flower pot turned upside down.  I saved it from my great-aunt's decorations when she sold her house and moved into assisted living.

Here's a view of the same table, but I have swapped out the vintage orange glass lamps that belonged to my grandma and put in these beautiful pieces made by Colonial Premier.

Lastly, even the door gets a little decoration with this door hanger, complete with little silver bells.

Thanks for sticking around through the whole tour.  The living room is the only room that is getting decorated this year.  I only used around half of my vintage ornament collection this year.  Hopefully next year I can use more of it - although if I keep collecting them, I'll never be able to use them all!

Have a great Tuesday!

Movie Monday: The Polar Express

I know that it isn't Friday - but I had one too many Christmas movies to share...and one too few Fridays to share them.  So, we'll begin and end this week with movies!

This great 2004 movie is based on the absolutely amazing children's book written and illustrated by Chris Val Allsburg.  The Polar Express is my absolute favorite children's book to share with my students at school.  It always gets me choked up.  I always try to have a little silver sleigh bell with me when I read the book, and I ring it at the end.  It's so magical to see the way the kids light up when they hear the bell after hearing about it in the book.  I can remember my teachers reading it to me when I was little in school.  I was ecstatic when the movie came out.

So, here it is - the 2004 movie that is bound to become a holiday classic.  The Polar Express.  Want to know more about the movie?  Here's a link to the Wikipedia article over the movie.

I know at least one of Chris Van Allsburg's other books has been made into a movie as well.  Anybody remember Jumanji?

Have a great Monday!

And The Winner Is...

I really enjoyed all of the Christmas memories that were shared as part of my giveaway entry process.  It let me get to know my followers a little better, as I got to see a part of you that is more personal.  So many times I see the long list of followers, and several of them I never hear from.  It was great to hear from some of you!  I also gained 15 new followers in the process of this giveaway, and to all of you new followers, welcome!

I had 23 entries in the giveaway for this...

...with entries from new and old followers alike.  So, at midnight last night, just as the entry period had ended, I headed over to Random.org and entered the data into their great little random number generator.

The winning number is...

That doesn't tell us much until we look at the list of entrants, so...

Congratulations to meeyeehere!  Please email me at culdesacshack (at) gmail (dot) com with your shipping information and I'll get it on it's way to you!

Thanks again to everyone who entered.  And, as always, thanks for following Cul-De-Sac Shack!

Have a great Saturday!

Movie Friday: Holiday Inn

Today's the last day to enter my 100 Follower Giveaway!  Have you entered yet?

Okay, so technically I guess this isn't strictly a Christmas movie, but I keep it with my Christmas movies.  This 1942 Irving Berlin film stars Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.  A song for every holiday, Bing's character opens a restaurant / club that is only open on holidays.  This is the movie that introduced the world to the now legendary "White Christmas" sung by Bing Crosby.  The success of the song White Christmas in this movie led to the creation of the movie White Christmas - another Irving Berlin masterpiece.

Check out the trailer below, and if you enjoy it, track down a copy of the movie!

Have a great Friday!  This is my last day of school this year!  Won't see my kiddos until after the New Year! (I think that we're all ready for a little break!)

Vintage Christmas Window Shopping

Have you entered my 100 Follower Giveaway?  Enter now, before it's too late!  Entry period ends at 11:59pm Central, Friday, December 17.

It's been a while since I have shared some fun finds from the big auction site, so last night I spent some time window shopping the listings.  For you viewing pleasure, 2 lots of vintage pink Pyrex and many different listings for vintage Christmas items.  My favorite, I believe is the green ceramic Christmas tree, as I have one almost identical to it (this year's new vintage Christmas addition to the Shack).  Although, the red cellophane wreaths and the red bottle brush wreath would make great additions to the Shack as well!  I'll share pictures of my Christmas decorations soon, I only have a couple of things up so far as things have been hectic at work, and I'm just not in the mood when I get home at night.  I hope that changes this weekend.

Anyway, as always, I am not affiliated with any of the sellers whose listings you find below.  I do not receive any financial benefit for sharing these with you.  Just wanted to let you know.  :)

Have a great Thursday!  Just today and half a day tomorrow, and I'm out of school until after the first of the new year!  Woo Hoo!

Teachers Are People

I have met a few Georges in my 5 years of teaching.  Hope that you enjoy this little Goofy cartoon.  I can definitely relate to a lot of things in this little cartoon - somehow the times may change, but still many things remain the same.

Sometimes though, I think that I sound like the teacher in Charlie Brown...wah wah wah wah wah.



Have you entered my 100 Follower Giveaway?  There's a great piece of Pyrex that's ready to go to a new home!

Franciscan Del Mar

I did quite a bit of my Christmas shopping over the weekend, and while I was out, I made a few minutes to visit a couple of my favorite flea markets / antique malls.  As I posted over at The Pyrex Collective, I picked up a few pieces of Pyrex.  However, my favorite find of the weekend was this Franciscan Del Mar pattern chop plate / platter.  I absolutely love this pattern.  It may now be my favorite mid-century pattern.  It is in excellent condition, and a steal at $6!  My Sunday School class is responsible for taking fellowship refreshments to church this month, so this platter held half of the cookies that I took - 4 dozen chocolate chip.  I put the 4 dozen snicker-doodles in my square yellow Pyrex bowl.  Anyway, every one of the chocolate chip cookies were eaten.

Here are the three pieces of Pyrex that I picked up.

Two lime green two quart baking dishes.  These are going to look great with some nice warm brownies in them!

A Terra Cotta Rose 474-B casserole.  Great fall colors, perfect for next Thanksgiving!

Have you entered my 100 Follower Giveaway?  There's a great turquoise snowflake Pyrex divided dish up for grabs!

Heat Wave

The temperature reached a steamy 26 degrees F here in my little part of Missouri today.  I felt like this video might be appropriate (especially since that is a whole 10 degrees warmer than it was yesterday!).  LOL!

Enjoy!

100 Follower Giveaway!

It's finally time to post the 100 follower giveaway!  I love the items that are in this giveaway, and I hope that they appeal to you as well.

First up is a turquoise snowflake Pyrex divided dish.  The color on this is great; so mid-century!  I have managed to collect 3 of these little babies now, so it's time for one of them to make one of my followers happy!

Up next is a Hazel Atlas milk glass bowl with a turquoise kitchen design.  To go along with this I have included a milk glass mug with a similar kitchen design in red.  I suspect that the mug is also Hazel Atlas, however I can't find a maker's mark on it.

So, that's it.  Not a large quantity of items, but good quality items.  I'm hoping to be able to get these sent out in time so that the luck winner will have them in time for Christmas, but I can't guarantee that they will make it in time.

Now for the rules.  Leave a comment below stating your favorite Christmas memory.  That gets you one entry.  Blog about the giveaway, and I'll give you a second entry (make sure you leave a link to the post).  You must be a follower of Cul-De-Sac Shack (so, if you aren't, be sure to click the "follow" button on the left column).  I will only ship to addresses in the continental US and Canada - sorry if you live outside of these areas.  Entry period runs through 11:59 PM Central time Friday, December 17, 2010.  If you have won one of my giveaways recently, please feel free to enter this one as well.  The winner will be chosen using a random number generator from Random.org.  All entries will be numbered in the order in which they are received.

Good luck, and thank you for reading Cul-De-Sac Shack!  I can't believe that I actually made it to 100 followers!

Oh, and my favorite Christmas memory?  Every year my little sister and I stand in front of the Christmas tree and have our picture taken.  We have a photo for each year dating back to at least the late 1980s.  It's a tradition, and oddly, I look forward to having that picture taken each year.  We're a pretty close knit family.  Merry Christmas!

Movie Friday: The Christmas Gift

This week's movie is a made for TV movie from 1986.  The movie starred John Denver as a New York architect who goes to a beautiful, sleepy Rocky Mountain town just before Christmas to work on a project to transform the quiet town into a major ski resort.  The neat thing about this town is that everyone there believes in Santa Claus.  The movie is about the struggle of the town to fight off the development and how Denver's character finally turns on his boss and helps save the town.

I couldn't find but this one clip on YouTube.  I used to watch this all the time when I was little.  Mom bought it on VHS, and I must have almost worn out the tape.  From what I found last night, it looks like it is now available on DVD.  Who says made for TV movies can't become classics?

Have a great Friday!

I'm Still Alive

Just a quick post today to let you all know that I'm still here.  I haven't been home much this week due to having family here from out of state.  I am still working on what to include in the 100 follower giveaway, and it will be posted soon.  Sorry for the lack of posts this week!

What a Weekend!

It was a very busy weekend, and I have nothing vintage to share.

Saturday was the Christmas Parade in the town where I teach.  A little town of about 1,000 people had a parade with around 50 entries in it.  I think that's pretty good! Our Community Teachers Association (I'm Vice-President) had a float.  I love the people that I work with, and we always have so much fun when we get together.  The theme for the parade was "Christmas Miracles" and as we couldn't do a religious theme, we chose to focus on families being together, and focused on military families being reunited for Christmas.  The grandson of one of our members is a Marine and he's home now, so he agreed to be on the float.  It was a great day.

Then on Sunday I had church and Sunday School, took my truck to the mechanic (the steering gearbox needs to have a seal replaced - so no power steering on the drive to the mechanic, 15 miles away), then drove over to the town I teach in to a photographer appointment.  Back home for our Sunday School Christmas party (always a good time) then over to Grandma's to visit my family that is visiting from out of state, and finally, home to do a load of laundry before bed.

Therefore, I really have nothing vintage to post about today.  However, I do want to share this great clip of Rose Nylund's St. Olaf words.  Somehow, this seems to be a great way to start out the week.  Hope you enjoy, it's not very long.

Have a great Monday!

And The Person Who Gives a Hoot Is...

It's time to announce the winner of the art glass owl paperweight that was the subject of my giveaway last week.  Remember this little guy?

Thanks to Random.org, I can now announce which person from the 9 entrants will be receiving this little guy.

The winner is comment number 1, which is Linda @ A La Carte!  Who says the first entrant never wins?  Congratulations Linda!  Please send me an email at culdesacshack (at) gmail (dot) com with your shipping information and I'll get this little guy on his way to you!

Also, yesterday afternoon I hit 100 followers, which I think calls for another giveaway.  Something special to celebrate the event.  This week I will be gathering things together and announcing what the prize will be.

In the meantime, if you are looking for another giveaway to enter, my good friend Mick over at Everyone Goes to Mick's is having a giveaway to celebrate his first blog birthday!  Congratulations Mick!  Click here to enter his giveaway!

100 Followers!

WOW!!!! Thanks to all of my loyal followers!  I just hit the 100 follower mark.  I think this calls for a  giveaway.  I'll figure out what will be included and get it started hopefully sometime this week.  Also, I hope to be able to announce tomorrow who the winner of the art glass owl paperweight is.  Thanks for reading!

Movie Friday: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

** Don't forget to sign up for my current giveaway - entry period ends at 11:59pm tonight! **

Time for something a little more modern.  This is an absolute must each Christmas season!  Most of my favorite Christmas movies are more touching, but everybody needs a little comedy once in a while!

Have a great Friday!

Follow Up

Last Friday I posted a question for everyone to give input on.  I had received a package I had ordered off the big auction site, and discovered that it cost the seller more to ship it than I paid for the item and shipping combined.  They are a new seller, so I presumed that they just didn't know what they were doing yet.  I asked if I should offer to compensate the seller for the extra shipping costs.  I appreciate all of your thoughts and input, but before I ever received a comment, I got into PayPal and sent the seller a payment to make up for the extra shipping charges, along with a message about what the payment was for.  I felt that it was the right thing to do.

Now, if you were the seller, wouldn't you contact the buyer and acknowledge the extra payment in some way?  Some simple statement of gratitude for their act of kindness (after all, I was in no way obligated to right their wrong) seems appropriate, does it not (you know, a quick email message)?  Maybe my expectations of humanity are too large.  After 5 days, I have heard nothing from the seller.  I didn't expect anything over the weekend as it was a holiday weekend, but after 5 days, I'm sure that they know about receiving the payment.

Now I'm just irritated.  I tried to do the right thing, but was completely ignored.  I don't think that I will consider buying from this seller again, and most likely the next time that a seller makes a mistake like this, I'll just let them eat the extra cost.

So, was I expecting too much to think that I might get a simple "thank you" from the seller?

P.S. If you haven't entered my current giveaway, you may do so here.