The Case Of The Disappearing Gifts

Back about a month ago, my sister and I were discussing what to get my nephews for Christmas.

Let me step out of my story a moment and say, if you are a regular reader of my blog, you probably remember me telling this story.  Just consider this a refresher.  If you aren't, you'll want to know the backstory, or what I'm about to tell you won't make any sense.

And now, back to our story...my sister and I were discussing what to get my nephews for Christmas.  In the course of the conversation, she mentioned that she was going to order my gifts the next day.  A few days later, a rather large box arrived.  I thought it contained the gifts from her, but it didn't.  Oh, well, I thought.  They'll probably get here tomorrow.

December 26 came and went, and no gifts.

December 27 came and went, and no gifts.

By the 28th, I began to get a bit worried, so I contacted her and asked her to check the tracking numbers.  She did, and discovered that for some reason, the order didn't go through.  She re-ordered everything.  The two books arrived promptly.  The rest of it was supposed to arrive between January 4th and 7th.

The fourth came and went, and no gifts.  No biggie.  They'll probably get here tomorrow.

The fifth came and went, and no gifts.  I wasn't too worried.  They'd probably come Monday.

Sunday, then Monday came and went, and still no gifts.  It was then I began to worry.  Still, I didn't want to start pestering her.  I was torn on what to do.  I didn't want to seem like I was all "gimmie gimmie", but at the same time, I didn't want her to have spent money on stuff I never received.

I decided to give them a couple more days before I contacted her again.

Today, when I got off work, I had a text message from my sister waiting on me.  The gifts had finally arrived -- at her house.  In Alaska.

When she'd re-ordered them, she'd forgotten to specify my address as the shipping address.  She apologized, but all I felt was relief.  At least they hadn't been stolen.  Porch pirates are a thing here lately.  And there is the neighbor's dog...who has already torn up my outside decorations and tumped over my garbage can...

We had a good laugh, and she's going to pack them up and send them to me.  I'm not sure if she realized, but when she screen capped the shipping info, she also revealed what she'd gotten me.  I won't be surprised, but I'll be glad.  Two of the things were what I was planning on buying with Amazon credit -- if she hadn't gotten them for me.

So now, I have a bit of money on an Amazon gift card.  Some of it is the credit for the wax melter Cody got me, which arrived broken and I had to return.  Also, I got a $10 card from Ancestry.com.  Apparently, I'd referred someone, though I don't remember doing so.  All I can think of is someone must have clicked on a link I'd posted on Facebook or something.

Nevertheless, it's there and I'm going to spend it.  Now, I just have to decide what to get...more wax stamps...another journal...another book to add to my library...oh the possibilities are endless!

In other news, when I got home this evening, I made chamomile tea in my Keurig knock off.  I just tore open a bag of Celestial Seasonings and dumped the leaves into my little basket and ran a cycle as normal.  It worked!  I see a lot more tea drinking in my future. 

Finally, I did not sleep well last night.  I dozed off and on, but didn't really fall asleep until after midnight.  Not good when you wake up at 3:00 AM.  So, I'm a bit loopy right now.  I'm just going to leave you with this, which I never tire of watching.  Be sure to listen to the commentary, too.



The guy was right when he said this was the best thing on TV. 

By the way, I just wanted to point out that the guy to bulldogged Bevo and got his head turned, he's the one who saved the day.  If Bevo had taken off, they wouldn't have been able to stop him with those little leads. 

For now, at least, he's my new hero. 

It Had To Happen

You knew it had to happen.  They actually put the notice up yesterday, but it didn't fit into the flow of what I was posting.  Still, you knew it had to happen.

Yep, we're working tomorrow.

Some people are even working Saturday.

You knew something else had to happen, too.  It's actually been happening for several years now, but it just seems to rear its ugly head after an incident such as happened recently.

I'm talking about the Bevo/Uga incident.

Now, let's get one thing straight.  Nobody is blaming Bevo for the way he acted, and if they are, they don't know cattle at all.  See, that's exactly what Bevo is.  He's a bovine, and as such, deep inside his bovine brain, he knows he's a prey animal.  When he saw Uga, he didn't see a cute little mascot in a cute little red sweater.  He saw a predator.

He saw a wolf.

And he acted accordingly.  Put any dog in front of any bovine beast, and he'll react the same way.

On the other hand, Bevo's handlers are saying the incident had nothing to do with the dog.  It was just a coincidence that Uga was there when Bevo decided he didn't like being in that pen any more and made a break for freedom.

Still and all, once again, PETA has demanded that schools give up having live animals for mascots.  Won't happen, but they're hooting and hollering again.  I recall several years ago, they demanded The University of Georgia replace Uga with an animatronic model.  Didn't happen then, won't happen now.

Thing is, those animals live better than most of the people in this world.  The very same Uga has an air conditioned dog house on the sidelines of the football field.  Reveille lives like a Queen.  She picks where she sleeps, and if she picks your bed, you sleep on the floor.

Heck, when Mike VI was diagnosed with cancer, he received medical treatment that would be the envy of about 90% of the people in the world.

They are not in any way mistreated.  Quite the opposite.  They are pampered and spoiled and given the best of care.

They're treated a whole lot better than all those dead puppies and kittens PETA tosses in their dumpsters.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Almost There

Remember when I said that Wednesday felt like Saturday, and Thursday felt like Friday?  Well, yesterday felt like Sunday, and today feels like Saturday again, because there is college football on TV.  I have a feeling that by tomorrow, I will be totally lost, and have no idea what day it is.

Speaking of college football, Navy won handily, even though starting QB Tago Smith left in the second quarter with a knee injury.  The funny thing is, since he was out for the rest of the game, the second string QB played, but they didn't have a backup for him.  They had to go get someone out of the stands to suit up to be the back up QB.  By the fourth quarter, Navy was so far ahead, he actually got to play most of the quarter.

As for LSU, it looks like it's going to be a long season...

Friday after work, the plant gave us some Omaha Steaks filet mignons.

Can you believe, free steaks, and some people were complaining that they were so small.  I swanee, if they gave us half a cow, these people would gripe that they didn't give us the whole herd.  Entitlement mentality is everywhere.  Never turn your nose up at a gift, especially if it's free food.

Anyway, I got mine out to vacuum seal them, and discovered that they were already vacuum sealed.

I cooked one yesterday on my George Foreman grill because I didn't want to drag my charcoal grill out of the shed.  In retrospect, I probably should have.  It was good, but could have been better.

I've spent most of the last two days working on my mantle.  I did this much Friday after work.

By the time I sat down to watch Texas vs. Notre Dame, I had all but a little bit in the corner stripped.

The best part is, I finally got that piece of metal off the bottom.  I call it the heat shield.

I can strip the paint off of it, and stain the board underneath.  I think when I put it back, I'll just leave it plain metal.  You can't really see it anyway.

One thing I'd been concerned about was how to get this bit of paint out of the space between the mantle and the moulding.

No matter how hard I pushed the sandpaper into that crack, I couldn't seem to get that last little bit of paint out.  However, as I continued stripping the molding, I kept finding damage.   Splits,

gouges,

and some spots where I let the belt sander get away from me.  Oops.

Now, I'm thinking about just replacing the whole thing.  I have to go into town Tuesday anyway.  I may just run by True Value (the only hardware store in town) and see what they have.   I'll need to get a nail gun and some finishing nails, too.  I've been meaning to get one anyway, because I have some rooms that don't have crown moulding or baseboards.

Tonight, we got to meet Bevo XV.  He's still a yearling, but he's going to be a stunner when he grows up.

Finally, I've been on a Matt Redman kick lately.  This is my new favorite (after King Of My Soul and 10,000 Reasons).




I encourage you to check out some of his other songs, too.  He's got some good ones.