I picked up a stroller for Beth on August 7. Almost twenty days later, I have finally sent it. As I said before, the problem was the mailing stores. They kept giving me huge estimates for sending the package. I don’t know how they were calculating the cost, but they were obviously on crack.
I packed the stroller in a wardrobe box from U-Haul. It was the perfect size. I took it to DHL myself, and it was quite cheap. In fact, I’m thinking I should just do that all the time. Sending this big box at the DHL facility cost me as much as sending a hat-box-sized package from the mailing store. What the heck is wrong with them?
Anyway, the box is on it’s way. Sorry for taking so long, Beth. I’m hoping it gets to her in time for her birthday on Tuesday. It would be like an extra birthday present!
So that you can share her anticipation and joy, the DHL tracking number is 66173144144.
Enter the number HERE to track it.
The last time I visited my friends Chris and Janet in Phoenix, I saw a shrub that was being used all over the place in landscaping. It had little bipinnate leaves like a mimosa, but it had these gorgeous red and orange flowers that looked almost like orchids. They were beautiful! If I had a house in Phoenix, my yard would be full of these bushes. After a little research, I found out that it was called Caesalpinia pulcherrima, or Red Bird of Paradise. They are used extensively in the Phoenix area.
But I don’t live in Phoenix. I can’t buy these plants at the local Home Depot. So I found a plant that had some seed pods hanging from it. They looked a little like sugar snap pea pods. I collected seeds and brought them to Baltimore. I planted them in a pot so I could bring them in during the winter. They have seen three summers now.
For the last couple of weeks, I have been watching a flower spike develop on one of them. Two days ago, a bloom opened. I can’t even say how excited I am! This plant is going to keep blooming until it gets cold now. I think I will stop in the garden every day to admire the beautiful flowers. Heck, I may just start living in my garden so I can admire its beauty.
Wednesday evening my dinner was Honey Nut Cheerios. I often have cereal for dinner. Because of my recent cholesterol problem, I’ve made sure to include Cheerios in the rotation. Oats are supposed to help lower cholesterol, you know. But this particular bowl of cereal tasted funny. I didn’t know if it was the fact that I had been in school that day, or something I may have eaten earlier, or maybe just that the box had been open for a week, but it was strange.
Yesterday morning my Carnation Instant Breakfast tasted funny, too. In fact, it was hard drinking the whole glassful. Before putting the milk back in the refrigerator, I gave it a sniff. I nearly gagged. It was disgustingly sour. I checked the date. It said: “Sell by Aug 23″. I looked at the calendar. It said: “August 23″. The “sell by” date is supposed to give you at least a week of use, isn’t it?
So I once again have milk that soured before its time. What gives? Do I have an angry cow ghost haunting my house and making sure milk sours prematurely? Is my house built on an old nuclear waste dump and the radiation makes my milk sour quickly? Is the Pepsi in my refrigerator jealous that I drink milk so much and it’s verbally abusing the milk with sour words?
I think if there were some brand of milk that guaranteed it wouldn’t sour before the date, I would actually pay more to buy it.
To answer the question left in yesterday’s comments:
Last June we used my church for an end-of-the-year worship service with the eighth-graders. A couple days later, a lady at my church called to ask if we had taken any extra punch bowls home with us, because she couldn’t find one that belonged to the church. We didn’t think so, and there was another group who had used the church right before us, so maybe they moved it.
When things were getting moved around at school this summer, a glass punchbowl was discovered. Thinking it may be the missing punchbowl, my co-workers left it in my room.
A big thank you to wisenheimers Kim and Debbie who lovingly gave this punch bowl to me just as they had found it.
Today is the first day of school. I spent most of yesterday freaking out because I wasn’t ready, but I’m feeling pretty good this morning. I got a lot of stuff done yesterday. I finally got my room straightened out. And I got all my papers in order for the first day. Now if I can just get ready for tomorrow…
Here is what my room looks like this morning, minus the punch bowl with crap in it. I took that home.
And since I recorded the last two years of bulletin boards, here is my bulletin board that is based on this year’s theme verse:
