My insurance plan has a rewards program for wellness activities, such as getting an annual physical, a flu shot, and a diabetic eye exam, among other things. I try to hit all of them, not so much because there’s a reward, but because I like the idea of trying to live a long life, and given my various physical and mental illnesses, I need all the help I can get. I got a call about a month ago or so from the insurance company wanting to do what they’re calling a wellness interview. So I did it, and was told that the interview would be worth a $25 gift card. They also informed me that I had a backlog of unrequested gift cards and wanted to know if they could send them my way. I said sure, and let’s make them Barnes & Noble gift cards while we’re at it.

While I love reading, the B&N gift cards are to feed my other hobby – LEGO Architecture. The local store has a fairly good selection of LEGO Architecture kits and my plan was to get the cards in and go shopping.

So I ordered all the cards I had coming to me and then promptly forgot all about it.

Fast forward to this afternoon, when I went to go check the mail for the first time in a couple weeks (between the emergency trip to North Carolina to be with Mom following her stroke and the planned trip to Arizona to be with my wife’s family, we’ve been a little busy to hit the mailbox). Lo and behold were my $25 gift cards. All four of them. My wellness activities had netted me a hundred bucks’ worth of LEGO.

So this evening we went to the Barnes & Noble and reviewed the selection, and eventually decided on only one kit – the largest one I’d ever purchased, and the second-most expensive. (I purchased Fallingwater, the crown jewel of my collection, long after it had been retired, and the price reflected the retirement.) Today’s purchase is pictured above, and it ate all but about two and a half bucks of the gift cards. Note the number of pieces in the kit. I anticipate being at this for the rest of the evening and well into tomorrow before I finish.

So I told you all that to tell you that this is going to be a short post because I have a tremendous LEGO set to build. I’ll post pictures when I’m done.