Well. Several weeks ago, I completed an online survey for a publisher, with the promise that I'd receive a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com. I'd forgotten about this entirely until today, when I got email telling me I could redeem the certificate at MyChoice.com.

When I went to MyChoice.com, I discovered that there were many vendors to choose from, not just Amazon. So I looked around, because while I like books, $10 doesn't go that far in a bookstore, especially when you add in shipping.

I discovered that I could get a gift certificate to Cabela's, which (for those of you Not in This Country) is what I think of as a sort of, well . . . redneck LL Bean. Lots of very cool outdoor stuff, really, if you can manage to get yourself past the guns and the meat grinders and such. (The store in Milan has this incredibly wonderful diorama that should be in a museum, and a very cool aquarium filled with native fish . . . no signage anywhere to tell or show you what they are, of course, because if you shop at Cabela's, you're supposed to Just Know. When you fill out an online order form, the drop-down menu where you enter your title offers CAPT, MAJ, COL, GEN, and SGT in addition to the usual DR, MR, MRS, MS. Actually, the first several times I went there I made Emil come with me because it's such a Testosterone Palace that I felt uncomfortable going by myself.)

So why would I get a gift certificate from them, you wonder? One word: Gloves. I've been on a quest for winter biking gloves of a very specific type: I want a waterproof shell that I can wear alone in 40- and 50-degree weather (that's 5- and 10-degree weather for those of you who - oh, hell, you know who you are), and that I can layer over thin cotton or wool gloves when it gets really cold. I've tried biking stores, I've tried LL Bean and Eddie Bauer and Eastern Mountain Sports (where I got them before) and Dunham's and MC and Dick's and every place I can think of, to no avail; I can only find insulated gloves. If I had to ride with insulated gloves on a cool rainy day, my hands would melt.

But - BUT - a week ago I found a pair of really spiffy Gore-tex gloves just like I want, on sale for a modest $15 at Cabela's. (They come in three very attractive camo patterns, too . . . ) I've been holding off, since I'm feeling too cheap to spend the fifteen bucks. When I got the email today, though, I decided to get a Cabela's card, hoping that it would arrive before these incredible gloves sell out. (There's not a lot else I'd buy there in that price range, to tell the truth.)

Just now I checked my email and discovered that my gift card is electronic, and has already been delivered! So I pointed my browser at the gloves and ordered them . . . in a mere 3-6 business days I will ascend to the pinnacle (descend to the depths?) of Fashionista Geekdom as I ride along with my hands smartly encased in Max 4HD Gore-tex.

Don't ask me why this tickles me so, but I can't wait for those gloves to get here . . . when they do, I will post pictures, I promise.