At least I can now officially feel defeated and get on with it, having done all I could.

you can always counteroffer. He sounds like a lazy sack, so he may work with you so that he doesn't have to find a new tenant.

How Conversations Sound in the Afterlife (According to Psychics)

I like getting gift cards as long as they're to places I actually like to shop (like bookstores!) because they're permission to be self-indulgent. When people give me money, I feel like I really ought to put it toward our debt, but with a B&N gift card I have no choice but to buy books.

ITA.

I'm getting my senior-in-h.s. nephew an iTunes gift card, since I don't know what music he's into these days and I know he doesn't do much reading. My mom's getting one from Lowe's (she wants to redo the plantings around her mailbox), sis is getting one from Macy's (her gastric-bypass means that she's in desperate need of clothes in her new smaller size), and my brother and SIL are getting ones from B&N. It makes sending things across country much cheaper, as well.

Gift card hater here, but I suspect the real root of the problem is that I seriously loathe shopping.

As much as I really do know that people who like to get gift cards think of them as great gifts, it always feels more like "if I don't use this, then I've just totally wasted your money and thoughtfulness, but OTOH Store XYZ gives me a screaming headache every time I set foot in the place, and I can't use the damned thing anywhere else, and really, isn't this just your way sticking me with the unpleasant task of shopping?"

I'd rather just get a cookie.

(eta: really unfortunate x-post timing with Kathy! So, adding disclaimer of -- so totally my issue, and didn't mean any implied cranky on your plans!)

I'd rather just get a cookie.

SEE the DeBeers Diamond/Cookie Coalition got to you.

I'm probably going to get gift cards for my team members, partially because I think it's appropriately impersonal -- I'm their boss, I don't want or need to know that much about their tastes and interests. I think I'm going to give my works-from-home person a Starbucks gift card, because I know she goes there, but I don't know about the other two. They are both readers, so maybe a Borders gift card.

OMG! I just realized that I haven't paid my rent yet. Talk about a shock to the system.

That means I have to go pay it during this evening's Snowpacalypse.

I'd rather just get a cookie.

How about a gift card for the cookie store?

Dude, Cookies are Eternal Undying Love! I know it to be true!

One year my boss got me a gorgeous vase to match my new couch. But I've been his assistant for 6 years, so I think the relationship is a little different, maybe? I dunno, it isn't weird to me. When I was at JPL, the guys always brought me back some sort of goodie when they went on overseas travel, usually chocolates, snowglobes, or such. When my guys go home to Russia, they always bring me back handmade nesting dolls.