Pandora's Casket

Over the course of shipping for December most packages arrived in somewhat timely manner. Although there were a few that took longer than normal to arrive it seemed to be a good ship month.

Towards the middle of the month that is when it really seemed to hit an all time slow. One reason was our weather here which slowed many packages down to where they were supposed to go. Snow, ice and everything in between made arrivals fall behind. I had priority mailings arriving in 5-9 days. Now, with that and the mad rush to mail packages out there is one package that comes to mind as a lesson for all sellers and buyers alike to take to heart.

I shipped a package out to Canada. For one thing sometimes International takes so long that I do not like doing it but money is money. The auto ship email was sent out before I realized it. I sent an email when in fact the item did ship. It shipped later than normal due to weather.
The buyer has a feedback of nearly 20,000 a big time power seller. The item was in route and he files a claim. OK, that is fine I explain the situation and offer proof of mailing. Was that good enough? No. He continues on and on telling me that I was deceitful. I really do not see how that is but I apologize for the late arrival and anything else.

This continues on and on over the Christmas holiday. Yes, even on Christmas eve he slams me more stating that I lied, deceived and I think I even had something to do with Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance. I sent him the official proof of mailing and also to Pay Pal who had held my funds. Which is normal. One thing though is that I do not appreciate reading that he does not think it will get there. Seeing the official form with the stamp is more than enough proof to show it was mailed. What am I supposed to do?

For being such a big time seller he should know that items take longer than normal and do get way laid from the US to any International destination. There is no way to track these ground packages unless the customs scans the form. Which in most cases they do not.

I really hope that sellers that are high up on the food chain take a look at their attitudes and stop thinking that they are all that and a bag of chips. Just because you are up there high does not mean that the lower sellers do not know what they are doing.

There was no sense in acting like an ass.

Ever notice that after the hliday is over there is always one or two people that you forgot to get a gift for? Or maybe, if you are like me have to send it and just got to busy, putting it off till the last minute to send the gifts out. One thing is for certain there are always and I mean always last minute gifts from Kmart under $25 to purchase. I still have a couple of gifts to mail out. Yes, better late than never, so I went to the site to check out the money saving gifts that can be found. I was amazed that there were so many really good deals, and they were in stock! A few other stores I checked out the items were not in stock so I was out of luck there.

With Kmart you know the items are always reasonable any way, plus it is a family name that we all know and trust. If you are looking for something you know that you will be able to save money by going to Kmart to shop. Plus there is always the lay away program that you are able to use to make payments on if you are little short of funds or you just want to wait to bring it home. There are few stores that make this available to the general public now days.

Are you wondering what types of gift items you can buy for under $25? There are actually over 25,000 to choose from but here are a few that might peak your shopping interest:


• Craftsman® 23-inch hand tool box with comfort handle
• Martha Stewart Everyday tall nickel pillar candle holders
• Route 66 girls fashion hoodies and embellished jeans

Now, remember that is just an example of the great items to choose from.

I don't know about you but I will be purchasing a couple of gifts there to FINALLY complete my holiday shopping. With the low prices and shipping it is really going to be a deal

Christmas went pretty well. One thing that I was relieved at was the weather. We had previously had ice storms, freezing weather, so when it warmed up to being almost bearable I was certainly delighted. We were delayed in cooking all the sweet items that are usually baked but most of it was completed on Christmas Eve.

The boys were so surprised at a few of their gifts which I was happy about. Nicky was the special one this year. Each year one of the children gets more gifts than the others. No, it does not offend any of the children as they know that their year is coming up as well. Plus they usually get everything that they want within reason. So nobody is hurting that is for sure. haha

I got my yearly Holiday Barbie. She isnt as pretty as some of the others that I have gotten in the past years. I really do not like the face or the dress. Maybe next year they will put her in a red dress with a lot of gold accents.

The main gift was splendid to me. The kids bought a fish tank and stand so Little Man will have a bigger home as he is out growing his tank now. I was going to get that in January so imagine my excitement at seeing that it was a great gift. No, I have not set it up yet. Sunday I will be playing with that!

All and all it was another crazy, chaotic Christmas filled with fun and love with my family

The season for gift giving is nearly over. Why not give a special gift to a loved one that is expecting a new born into this world? By giving them the Cryo-Cell you will be helping to protect the child in the future. By using one of these Cycro Cell services it is known to help with over 70 diseases to date. Think about how many more that will be found in the next 5, 10 or even 20 years by using the U-Cord blood stem cells of that child that has been saved.

You are actually helping to give a possible life saving gift if in the future some unforeseen life threatening disease is diagnosed. Especially if this is your grandchild or even niece or nephew that you have purchased this gift for.

Now that the holiday season is winding down and you are a little more relaxed in what is needed to buy, this may be the one gift that the expectant parents will cherish as it will be something that is there for them and their child in the future. How special of a way to say you love them all by this type of gift?

There is still time to purchase this at any amazing low, reasonable cost. By entering promotional code D995 you will receive processing, testing and first year of storage plus the cancellation fee is waived! All this for only $995. That is over $700 off the cost of this wonderful life saving service.

Some might think that the cost is high, yet in thinking about it isn't this a small price to pay if it saves one of your loved ones lives in the future?

Remember that this sale ends tonight, December 24th so you have plenty of time to get a life saving gift at a reasonable price.

What a great gift during this time of year!

The Holiday Nut Wreath (Reminding me of an uncle and aunt of mine) that may be hung on your door to greet your guests or in your living quarters for that "warm" feeling.

Since the holidays are here there are so many different nuts available in the local super market, this is your starting place. Look for the nuts that you are attracted to. (This is not your spouse) Collect those with good coloring and texture. Remember to try to get colors that accent one another.

Now that you have gathered your nuts, it is time to sit down and make the wreath. Here is a listing of what you will need:

1 small can of varnish
1 Styrofoam wreath (white looks better for the background when covering) sold in many stores: Walmart, Target, Michaels
Leaves: May be real or fake for fill in
Looping of thin wire (for the back of the wreath to hang)
Glue: Super glue is fine, but a hot glue gun is much better to use
Ribbon: use festive colors in oranges, browns etc. Remember it is for Thanksgiving

Now, lets make the wreath:

To give the nuts a wonderful shiny appearance, spray paint or hand paint the nuts with the varnish. Set them on a wire rack to dry in a warm place for faster drying.

When the nuts are dry, glue them onto your Styrofoam wreath. Work your way around the wreath carefully making sure they are firmly in place. You should start with your largest nuts. Use the smaller nuts as fill in for around the larger nuts and wreath.

Using your glue and or glue gun, attach green leaves, or any color leaves that will give your wreath a festive bright look to the wreath. Fill these empty holes or spaces with the leaves.

Attach your loop of thin wire onto the back of the wreath for hanging.

Tie your ribbon into a bow and glue it on. You may also use wire for this ribbon.

There it is in a nutshell-A holiday Nut Wreath!

Have fun while making this wreath. You may also make smaller versions of this wreath to decorate your home with.

Last week was not a very good one at all. Between a few packages that seemed to go astray and could not be located to just the normal annoyances here in the household it just seemed like if it were going to go wrong it certainly did. My printer which is one of my life lines in business finally said Oh no I quit. Hoping that it would last until after the holidays to purchase another one was all lost. Trying to find a cheap yet workable printer for rush jobs is much like looking for the best diet pills to take. Extremely hard to do. Especially in this time of year. As it is a popular gift to give. Yesterday we trekked to get one. Not happy with it but it will do until I have my good one serviced now.

Our phone line was corrupt and needed to be fixed. It did not interfere with the internet but it was annoying that it would ring once and drop off. Jamie fixed that finding the problem in the freezing cold elements. Good job! Phone rings and calls are once more received.

Hospice pissed me off as well. They are supposed to call each Tuesday with appointments. Rarely have I had one of those calls. I asked and asked to have one set day if possible. As getting dad ready at the spur of the moment only creates havoc. He rants and raves and does some pretty mean things when he is angry. I explained this to them, as they call and say Oh we will be there between 10-2 today. Looking at the time it is 945. Nice for letting me know. I went off. I apologized to the woman on the phone, as it really is not her fault. I felt bad but have some consideration.

When the nurse got here she apologized as well. The funny thing is they sent me a bouquet of flowers saying they were sorry. Made me feel even smaller. Well, for a while until they called and said my home was cold. Which granted there are times this house is really cold, but please do your job (which that is not part of their job) and do not tell me how to live. I felt as if it were an invasion of my space. After explaining a few things (in a nice manner) it was understood. This is why I have a problem with agencies......

It was just one thing after another. I really hope this coming week is smoother

Lately I have had more and more calls for the Occult side of the business. Which is great as that is my main business entity so that makes me very happy. but the calls sometimes are a little, well, whacky even for me.

The other day a person called asking about tarot readings. OK, I do not do them in person since moving to Indy. I explain all this to her. She proceeds to tell me that she is looking for oils and incense but she is not sure what she really is looking for. OK, confused? I did the one thing that I should have used my psychic ability to tell me not to do, I asked her what it was she wanted the oils for.

She tells me that that they have found a confirmed ghost in a house and they are going to get rid of it. That they have been doing this for two years, but the one guy has quit so they do not know what to use to get Casper out of the house. And she needs the products by the next day.

My response was to ask if they had really done this before as if they did not do it correctly they were going to piss the ghost off and make matters worse for the person residing in the home. She laughs and says that they know they were going to piss it off and she starts giggling. I am by this time astonished once more by the stupidity of people that do not have a clue as to what they are dealing with. So, it is now my turn to inform and well, have some fun at the same time.

I asked about the tarot reading. Why does a ghost need one? I mean really? You can figure out that the entity is attached to the home or person for a reason so that would be your past. The present and future is pretty clear-he or she is dead. Please send $25 there is your reading. Now, I know that you can do a lot more with the tarot as I do them myself but come on let us get real here.

I tell her all the things that she needs. Oh she knows all about sage as that is all that she thinks they are gong to use. After I told her the other items and prayers she would need, she was like Oh my God! All that? I laughed and said well you guys are the ghost busters, I have only been in the occult for over 30 years, what do I know? Yes, I was laughing by this time.

The end result was I told her to look in the phone book under metaphysical or occult for a store that offers the mundane mass produced products that sit on a shelf forever. Of course, I told her to visit my store in the future for their ghosty needs.

The bottom line is that talking to people like this confirms that I did the right thing in moving here to get away from those people that want things that they just should not be given. These are the types of people that demean those that actually do rid entities.

I would have loved to have been there while they were ridding the house of the ghost. Would have been entertaining to say the least. I suspect she will call needing an exorcism next.

There are still a good couple of weeks to shop for your holiday gifts. During the time of December 12th through December 13th Searsis having a great sale on items that will surely please even the hard to shop for person.

For example while I was looking over the items myself I found a pretty good deal on the Canon Powershot 8.0-megapixel 4X optical zoom digital camera. Now I have been looking for a camera for a present for Shay this year and this one seems to fit the criteria and the budget. Right now the camera is $149.99. Which is not a very bad price. What is even better is that you will receive $20 instantly off that price making the camera only $129 plus tax of course. That is reasonable to me. Plus Canon's are really good cameras that seem to last a long time. Or at least the ones that I have owned has. This deal will make her happy and my checkbook happy as well.

Now, there are a ton of deals at Sears that you should look into. The sale has a number of days left for you to either go to Sears in person or my favorite, shopping online in the comfort of my home.

Not looking for a camera? Not to worry there are other sale items as well. How about a Sylvania 20” class LCD HDTV this year for the entire family to sit around watching your favorite shows? The price on this is only $199! You are actually saving $100 on this unit.

With shopping days diminishing it is nice to know that there are still great deals at Seas!