The Gift
The gift... oh... the gift...
If I assign myself a grade as a husband, it would be probably a C... B- at best. "You are your own worst critic" and all that aside. I am woefully bad at getting presents for her. Late, weird, not wanted, "what IS this?!?!" you name it, it's happened (if you are a husband reading this, I feel your pain. If you can not relate because you have phenomenal gift planning, I welcome your help).
The 'good' ones I HAVE gotten, also have sometimes come late, to her chagrin.
I get in my own head and never know what she wants, dragging things out and end up with zero time to get something in time. That's what I like to tell myself.
I waffle on a few gifts. She seems to have drop an explicit hint here and there also. A list develops. But nothing jumps out at me as YES, THAT'S IT! For a birthday like this, it's gotta have that impact.
I mentioned over complication previously right? Yes... so here's the thing... I don't love getting gifts that have been explicitly dropped on me, particularly for an event like this one. Oh I can hear the groans... save it LOL
A little while back, I feel she ribbed me for a gift that I've "owed" her for some time. It was an item that I scoffed at buying because "how hard could it be to make that for far less $". Yes, oh yes, I said that... many many moons ago... make that many cycles of the sun ago. Excuses aside, I still would prefer to MAKE this item but time to cut my losses.
I will not reveal the gift here as I would prefer she opens it before I reveal it to anyone. OK, I think one person knows because I needed some help an issue covered below.
Now... where the heck do I buy this thing? I recall she had found a website selling them but God help me if I could remember it. Well, a little help from God maybe came my way as I stumbled on, I'm pretty sure, the EXACT website she had shown me quite a long time ago. What's this? Promotion? SCORE!
Now... here's an insight to how my brain works, for no reason other than I enjoy typing.
This item has a large wood component to it. It is also out of country. I start wondering... would I run into import issues with the wood (COVID shipping issues aside).
I reach out to a friend about bringing goods in from this particular country, Japan (as a tease to the gift). He wasn't aware of the particular issues I had but did not see any issues with the vendor, they do appear very internationally oriented. OK, where can I get my answers.
Google is not particularly helpful but does dig up some CBSA information.
I'll admit, I'm old... I fail to realize the use of these new fangled social media sources, except for this one time. I decide to FaceBook message CBSA. Guess what? I got an answer back! Man, this interwebs thing is great!
Sadly they didn't have an exact answer and referred me to CFIA. I look up their FB page and repeat (I'm getting the hang of this right?). Answer back same day! No problems with the goods being imported. Alright! Now we're talking!
Simultaneously I had e-mailed the vendor asking about shipping experiences to Canada and all roads led to Rome... or Canada in this case :)
That was Jun 18. Guess dear reader, how long it took me to finally submit the order?
I'll wait...
Ready?
Evening of Jun 26... yes, a full 8 days later!
Do not despair, however, this story will not end in a flaming pile of wrapping paper. The shipping only expected to take 4-6 business days, tag on a little bit for COVID delays and I'm sitting plenty pretty at this point.
The ordering process had me holding my breath for a bit because they couldn't take my credit card. Paypal wasn't doing something right either and then I figured out that my credit card had caught the transaction as suspicious since it was thousands of miles away from where my bank expected me to be.
This was relatively easily solved. Now, how to pay this bill without Sonia noticing...
NOW, I get a checkmark
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Project SuperLeggera
Recounting the journey to complete Project SuperLeggera
My performance as a husband has, self-admittedly, been very lacking as of late. Mother's Day was a let down this year, COVID was an excuse but really not really. Past birthdays and Christmas presents have been wanting as I trap myself in the "...don't know if she will like this?"
Many ideas come up but the action is severely lacking.
With my wife springing a very successful surprise milestone birthday for me last year, it was only fair that I attempt the same for her this year.
Then... COVID happened. What is even possible? Will things open up? Will things shut down again? *sigh* what a world.
No more excuses though, time to forge ahead and make the best of what may come. Here we go......!
The What
What with the COVID monkey wrench I thought about a compilation video of well wishes. Then things started to open up, we were starting to have more park picnics with friends. Let's try and put together a surprise party for the locals.
June 9th - send out general invite to get the ball rolling, no idea what, but maybe a when, the weekend before the big day. Phew, one item off the checklist.
Already...?
A few hours later, would you believe it... an invitee almost gets me busted!
[Background]: the e-mail went out to my wife's friends, mutual friends, etc. I typically use BCC for group e-mails like this, so I was afraid SPAM filters might catch it. In case my wife happened to look at my e-mail/phone, I also decided to use a semi-cryptic subject: Project SuperLeggera. You can see where this is going...
Invitee (to remain unnamed unless they identify themselves) sees this odd looking e-mail from me (they have received e-mails from me before) and proceeds to message my wife directly asking "did your husband send this email?", wife turns to me and repeats the question.
Totally unprepared to be caught this early in the game, I didn't know how to respond and almost gave it up. I recovered just enough to brush it off as "no, must be phishing, tell them to delete it". She proceeds to show me the SCREENSHOT the invitee sent her. I can see the email subject AND the FIRST FEW LINES OF THE EMAIL in the screenshot!!! By sheer coincidence, I had put some text at the beginning of the e-mail that did not give everything away. *phew*
My c-grade acting seems to have worked... although she questions my reaction, I make up a story about how she asked the question. Disaster averted!
I wait a few hours and then private message the invitee directly and explain the deal.
Sadly, now the awesome mission name has been compromised and only one further e-mail will go out to update the project name. I really am over complicating things, but where's the fun in simple? Am I right?
My performance as a husband has, self-admittedly, been very lacking as of late. Mother's Day was a let down this year, COVID was an excuse but really not really. Past birthdays and Christmas presents have been wanting as I trap myself in the "...don't know if she will like this?"
Many ideas come up but the action is severely lacking.
With my wife springing a very successful surprise milestone birthday for me last year, it was only fair that I attempt the same for her this year.
Then... COVID happened. What is even possible? Will things open up? Will things shut down again? *sigh* what a world.
No more excuses though, time to forge ahead and make the best of what may come. Here we go......!
The What
What with the COVID monkey wrench I thought about a compilation video of well wishes. Then things started to open up, we were starting to have more park picnics with friends. Let's try and put together a surprise party for the locals.
June 9th - send out general invite to get the ball rolling, no idea what, but maybe a when, the weekend before the big day. Phew, one item off the checklist.
Already...?
A few hours later, would you believe it... an invitee almost gets me busted!
[Background]: the e-mail went out to my wife's friends, mutual friends, etc. I typically use BCC for group e-mails like this, so I was afraid SPAM filters might catch it. In case my wife happened to look at my e-mail/phone, I also decided to use a semi-cryptic subject: Project SuperLeggera. You can see where this is going...
Invitee (to remain unnamed unless they identify themselves) sees this odd looking e-mail from me (they have received e-mails from me before) and proceeds to message my wife directly asking "did your husband send this email?", wife turns to me and repeats the question.
Totally unprepared to be caught this early in the game, I didn't know how to respond and almost gave it up. I recovered just enough to brush it off as "no, must be phishing, tell them to delete it". She proceeds to show me the SCREENSHOT the invitee sent her. I can see the email subject AND the FIRST FEW LINES OF THE EMAIL in the screenshot!!! By sheer coincidence, I had put some text at the beginning of the e-mail that did not give everything away. *phew*
My c-grade acting seems to have worked... although she questions my reaction, I make up a story about how she asked the question. Disaster averted!
I wait a few hours and then private message the invitee directly and explain the deal.
Sadly, now the awesome mission name has been compromised and only one further e-mail will go out to update the project name. I really am over complicating things, but where's the fun in simple? Am I right?
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