Before and After

John and I took out a stupid amount of sushi tonight for dinner:

And this was the aftermath:

 

We ate like champions!  So amazingly good!!

This Week in Random/Awesome/Educational

Random: John came and met me for lunch on Friday.  There was free pizza at my office, so we scored some slices and drove to the parking lot behind the mall for a romantic meal together.  We we talking and out the window we saw the most adorable little dog, happily running towards our parked car.  I rolled down my window, greeted him with a proper "hey buddy!" and asked where his person was.  He didn't respond, he just continued on his parking lot run, blissfully unaware of the potential danger the parking lot could offer.  To be fair, the lot behind the mall does have a lot of space where there are no cars, but it is still a parking lot with cars driving through it, and I judge it as not the safest place to be running around.  The dog didn't care about my concern, ran blissfully, pissed on some light stands, and eventually ran over to what must have been his person's car and got a ride home.

Awesome: I spoke with my nephew Earl on the phone last week and he was playing pretend with his little sister.
  Earl: "Liz is the Princess and I'm the Knight.  But I don't have any armor right now, so I'm wearing my
  pajamas.  My pajamas are actually pretty good armor, so it's okay."
I agree with Earl, my pajamas are some of the best armor I own; defending my right to naps and lazy Sundays!

Educational: My Mom baby-sat my niece and nephew all last week and throughout each phone conversation we had, there was a repeated message that I read loud and clear from the background noise: "don't have kids!"

Well Hello!

This is another post about my Christmas Cactus.  You can see previous entries here, here, and here.

So the cactus has been producing flowers since I last posted about it on November 27.  It's usually only one or two flowers at a time, but that is a lot of blooming for a plant I thought only bloomed once a year (and for a limited time!). The flowering has been so consistent, that I actually stopped noticing them as something remarkable.  The cactus caught my eye this morning, however, as it was full of colour with 7 full blooms!  I also counted 14 buds in various states of growth towards flowering.  I asked Mom her thoughts on it's continuous state of blooming, and she said: "It must be happy and healthy".  Way to go, my plant buddy! I hope you stay happy and healthy for many more years to come!

I noticed some blooming action this morning!

Up close flowers.

So pretty!

iPod Replacement - Success!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I sent away for a replacement iPod Nano, as my 1st Generation Nano from 2005 had been recalled by Apple. It wasn't clear what the 7 year old iPods were being replaced with, so I was excited at the possibility of getting a brand new one (the new ones have touch screens!).  Apple emailed me this morning to let me know my replacement had been shipped and provided me with the UPS tracking number so I could watch it's delivery progress in real time.  I tracked the package obsessively throughout the day, and was excited when it read: "out for delivery" with an estimated arrival time of "end of day" Tuesday! That was today, People! 

My iPod was being delivered to my work, so my excitement was growing throughout the day.  While on a walk at lunch-time I spotted the UPS truck near the office and was overjoyed with the idea that it MIGHT ALREADY BE THERE!  Sadly no package was waiting for me upon my return, so I went back to obsessively checking the whereabouts of my package with the tracking number.  And my heart and brain stopped working when the internet told me that the package had already been delivered twenty minutes earlier.  The "proof of delivery" page on the tracking site said it was signed by a name I didn't recognize.  A silent panic attack was erupting in my head, as I calmly told my colleagues I was going to go look for it.

There are three units at my work address, so I went to the other two units to see if anyone signed for my package.  No luck.  Next I contacted UPS customer service, for what turned out to be an excellent customer service experience.  I (sort of) calmly explained what had happened and the CSR clicked a few buttons and was able to tell me that the package had been delivered to the wrong address (three doors up the street).  It might sound odd to say, but I was so grateful to be told the truth in such a matter-of-fact way. I wasn't mad - I was just happy it was somewhere and not lost. The CSR let me know he was sending a urgent memo to the driver to have it picked up and brought back to me, and that UPS would call me back within the hour to provide me with more details. I was still in hunting mode, so I told the CSR I was also going to check out the address up the street, and if I was able to get the package back myself, I would call back to let him know.

I went up the street to a local realtor, who had indeed received my package. The woman at the front desk let me know she had just phoned UPS to inform them she received a package by mistake.  She wasn't able to give it to me - and I understood - as UPS was on their way to get it from her, and it would look bad if they came to get it and she didn't have it anymore.  I didn't mind the further delay, I was just happy that it was confirmed safe and sound.

So at 4:15pm the UPS driver returned with my package and lightened the situation by making a joke about whether I really wanted it. I smiled; I was just happy to have it. Everything worked out and it did arrive by "end of day" Tuesday like they had originally said.

And after all the commotion, inside the package I found:

iPod Nano - 6th Generation, 8G - For The Win!

And just to recap, this replacement is superior to my 1st Generation Nano as it has 8G (mine only had 4), it has a touch screen(!), and it is the most recent model they have.  Thanks, Apple!  Anything else you want to recall?