Busy Afternoon

The baby I take care of is turning one. Her parents, with help from family and friends, had a fun party in the park.

The theme was Hawaiian shave ice,
which made for a colorful event.
The cone on the right is a piñata.

People could get a cup of ice and select their own flavors.

Matching the theme

Is it ok to say I hope I get to play with some of the gifts? 

Here is to a great year ahead and many, many more.

Swedish Sponges

When I was in the Swedish town of Visby on the island of Gotland I stopped by the grocery store. They had a local section and sold adorable sponges with sheep. They are washable and it says that they are 100% biodegradable.

I thought they would make a great gift (flat and not fragile). Little did I know I would see them all over Stockholm.

These were in a furniture store.

So many places in the old town had a selection by the door.

I saw sponges with hieroglyphics in the museum gift shop.

A nice window display in Stockholm featured sponges.

Times Change

I am part of group online that allows people to request things or give things at no cost. Sometimes people ask for things like overripe bananas because they are baking and realize they have only green bananas. They might also be looking for a printer or a pair of boots for a kid or absolutely anything.

Items offered include a new flavor of cereal that turned out to be unpopular or an outgrown bicycle or furniture. While I am trying to cut back on my screen time I find myself having a hard time pulling away from this group.

Recently someone offered all these candles, which I do not need. I noticed a little canister under the candles and asked if that was being offered, which it was.

It turned out to be a brand new container of candle adhesive. It looked a lot like the canister we were given at some point, but with an updated image. Times change!

I need to use it because the candles I have are smaller than the candlesticks I like. 

When I was looking for information about Stick-Um I learned that some people use it for other purposes, like hanging up kids' art and keeping bra straps in place. I will keep it for candles.

Oops

Look what I found in a draft from seven months ago! Better late than never.

We don't do a lot for the holidays, but we often exchange cards and sometimes gifts. This year I received a woven heart.

Using a laser cutter and special paper helps,

but these would still be a challenge to weave.

My gift was to try a new recipe, chocolate shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with freeze-dried raspberries. They won't last as long as a paper heart, but they were still enjoyed.

Some Days are Like That

Just one good thing after another!

• It was a nice temperature for a ride to the pool and I had a good lanemate that pushed me to swim a little harder.
• I was given some stationery and wrote a letter on paper.
• The wait to have my blood drawn was short.
• I remembered to take my coupon and own coffee mug when I went out to breakfast with A.
• (A little bad thing because even good days are like that - I washed the blanket the dog slept on with all our other clothing. I thought if i put the blanket in the dryer first all the hair would get fluffed off but I was wrong. I was hoping if I hung the laundry outside the hair would be blown off. Now I am hoping no one else will notice, which is most likely. Shh, don't tell.)
• The newspaper had two swimming articles.

Someone had an unused steel cup just like the one
I had lost and happily gave it to me, apologizing that
it had a Subaru logo. When I went to pick
it up she had wrapped it beautifully.

In addition to receiving stationery and a cup, someone else had a free pile I decided to check out. I am happy to say there was nothing I wanted, but as I was leaving I found a new-to-me little library. I remembered that I had an emergency stash of books with the grocery bags. That book found a good home and I found a book that our book club is reading later this year.

• Lab results came in and they were great.
• And to top it all off, I learned that Tom Hanks is playing Mr. Rogers in a movie coming out at Thanksgiving time. I love this quote from the Washington Post.

• Fans rushed to places not often associated with dealing positively with feelings: online comments sections. Their consensus? This is the purest, most perfect thing ever. Give it all the Oscars now.

Libraries

I joined the summer reading program at the library.
I have already received two prizes, a pen and a notebook.

I have also been to several local little free libraries lately and even remembered to take a picture of some of them!

I still enjoy checking ours each day.

I guess my love for it is obvious because I received this as an end-of-the-school-year gift from Z. and family.

Random Acts

Why would someone stick something small to the sign outside the library that lists the hours?

 I went to remove it and found a pleasant surprise!

I thought I should pass it on, but was encouraged to keep it. Thanks, random stranger!

Shopping

I have mixed feelings about shopping. Sometimes I love it, finding just the right thing for the right person at the right price. Sometimes it is a chore and I am annoyed by the store, the salespeople, and everything else.

This season I had a good experience but I had to wait until now to tell it because the recipient just opened the gift yesterday.

It was the season of cycling (not shown) and Harry Potter gifts. One set of grandparents gave the illustrated version of the third book, another set gave a Quidditch shirt, and we gave a deck of cards (purchased at the Platform 9 3/4 store in London), two games (purchased at a secondhand sale), and a Quidditch book (purchased at the library's secondhand store). The socks were the big purchase.

I had seen a blog post about great gifts for the season and even though they were a size too small, twelve pairs of socks for $15 seemed like a great deal. Such a great deal that they keep selling out, although you can find them on consumer-to-consumer sites.

I was not planning to pay two- or three-times the price so I looked to see where I could buy them locally.  Not far from from home was a store with limited-stock listing. I headed out there only to be told that the limited-stock listing was misleading. I got the full scoop.

Each day a truck arrives and sometimes the socks are on that truck. In that case the listing online shows limited stock for that item for that store. What usually happens is that someone comes in and buys the limited stock and then it is out of stock, but that is not immediately updated online. The trick is to show up at a store at opening time and head right to the sock section. I confirmed this story when I was at a different branch of the same store.

I had a plan. Run, take a very fast shower, check on line for a limited-stock listing, head to the store early, and make a mad dash for the sock section. This is what actually happened.

I got to the store about twenty minutes before opening. Nice to live in a moderate environment where waiting outside is easy. There was already one other person waiting. "Are you waiting to buy Harry Potter socks?" "No!" She seemed a little confused by the question, but that was fine because she was not competition. As an employee headed inside I asked if she thought there were any Harry Potter socks, but she did not thing there would be. Oh no. A bit later another person showed up and I asked the same question and he paused. "I am feeling pretty fast today." Oh no, what if he got there first and bought all of them?? He laughed and said he was not interested in the socks. We chatted for a bit, two more people showed up but I made a quick judgment about them and decided they did not look like competitors.

Then it was eight o'clock. I did not run. I did not elbow anybody. I walked over to the section (that I had scoped out the day before) and did not see any. Darn! Double darn! I found an employee in the area and she said she had not put everything out yet so we walked over to her basket. Bingo! She had four boxes of socks still in their shipping bag. I gave her a big hug and went to the register. I got what I wanted at the price I wanted and now I did not have to go back to try again. Score!

Of course I shared this story and everyone asked the same question. How many sets did I buy? Sorry, it did not occur to me to buy more than one and to sell them to my friends so they didn't have to go through the same thing.

Last night A. opened them and today wore the pair with owls.

Happy holidays, everyone.