Boxes, Puffy Taco's, and cookies

Yesterday, after work, I went to the post office to mail one of the presents to Germany. I don’t normally send anything in the mail, so I just brought the framed print with me to the post office. I knew they probably didn’t have a box that would fit it, but I thought it was worth a try. Nope. They suggested Staples, which didn’t have the right box either. After one more stop, I finally found what I wanted at a U-haul moving center. After $22 I had the right box, tons of Styrofoam peanuts, and some foam things that protect the corners. I’ll try and ship it again today. Right next to the U-haul center was a restaurant called Arturo's Puffy Taco. That's all I have to say about that.

We watched Vanessa’s cousin Sarah last night. She was only at our house for 3 ½ hours. She didn’t say a word for the first hour she was there, then for the last hour she was bouncing off the walls. Very cute kid (6 years old), but every time she comes over I start questioning my decision of wanting kids. It really sucks not being able to watch what you want on TV. She was unhappy, because we were watching “Cheaper by the Dozen”. She owned the DVD, she had already seen it many times. She wouldn’t talk though, so I turned on the Miami vs. Patriots game. I cant’ believe the Patriots lost. Amazing. After 30 minutes of watching football and with Vanessa’s help (more on that below) Sarah started talking and asked if we could watch something else. She wanted to watch Monster House. I had already seen the episode that was on, but I compromised and watched it, because I remember how boring I was watching sports when I was a kid.

I noticed something about Vanessa last night that I have seen her do many times, but I always thought of it as a weakness rather than a quality. Sarah was not talking and refused to do much of anything. My reaction after several attempts to get Sarah to open up was to just ignore her and to stop trying to please her. Vanessa on the other hand kept talking to Sarah, asked her to make cookies with her, and kept asking her questions. After a half hour of this, Sarah opened up and started talking. As I was watching this, I realized Vanessa does this for me too when I am in a bad mood. It something no other girl I dated has been able to do. It really is a quality and is part of what makes Vanessa a great wife, cousin, and teacher.

I woke up at 3:45 this morning. I went downstairs and watched some TV so I wouldn’t fall asleep again. I watched the season finale of The Wire. What a great show. It took me a couple of episodes to get into it, but now I'm hooked. So far it looks like it will be raining and snowing for most of the trip with highs in the 40’s and lows in the 20’s. We have a lot of cold weather gear from our trip to Banff, Canada last year, and I bought some new mini umbrellas the have an auto open/close feature. Only 3 more days!