Kid and Caboodle

At the grocery store this afternoon, I found a large, chocolate confection resembling a giant truffle. Since I LOVE chocolate, I yielded to temptation and brought it home even though it’s not anyone’s birthday or any other type of special occasion. “It looks like an army helmet,” my husband commented when he saw it. You can see for yourself below:

Chocolate truffle cake, with apple for size comparison

The label on the cake is pretty awesome, too:

7" Chocolate Truffle Bomb: Dark moist chocolate cake filled with a silky chocolate cream and chocolate mousse all enrobed in a chocolate ganache.

I wonder if I could learn how to make one of these?

Someone once told me that men and women approach stores in different ways. Men supposedly are “hunters”; they go into a store, get what they came for, then leave. Women, on the other hand, supposedly are “gatherers”; they browse through the aisles when they shop and buy accordingly.

Today, with our cul-de-sac finally cleared out from Snowpocalypse, Chris decided to run some errands, including a trip to the store. I gave him a list of supplies we needed such as milk, bread, eggs and ground meat.

Not only did Chris come back with the items on the list, but he also purchased several packages of chocolate (including a Valentine’s Day box for me — aw), several types of ice cream, cookies, goldfish crackers, Cheez-Its and Velveeta shells-and-cheese.

So much for that generalization!

I did it: I went out to the mall today. I didn’t really want to join in the Black Friday madness, but once again A.J. has outgrown all his slacks. I did delay my expedition until mid-afternoon, though, which is probably why I didn’t really find shops any busier than usual. While I was at the mall, I also bought A.J. some new sweatshirts (again, he has outgrown all the ones he had last year) and bought my husband two pairs of running shorts. I also found a purple cardigan for myself to replace one that was damaged when it was accidentally run through the washing machine. So, all in all, it was a productive trip. I think I’m going to try to stick to online shopping the rest of the calendar year, though!

Replacement purple cardigan

The weather has finally gotten cold enough to prevent A.J. from wearing shorts all the time. When I pulled out his winter wardrobe, though, I realized A.J. had pretty much outgrown all of it … again. Drat! I’m glad to see A.J. is such a healthy boy, but it’s a real challenge to keep up with him.

I ran out this afternoon to get A.J. some jeans that were long enough to cover his ankles. Once again I forgot to account for how slim he is, though. Whenever I buy a pair of slacks long enough for his legs, it is usually too large for him at the waist. My husband joked that we should encourage A.J. to be more sedentary and feed him lots of fattening foods so his clothes will fit. Ha ha. But seriously, I guess we’ll have to see if A.J. is old enough to deal with a belt now.

My new laptop finally arrived!  Yay!  I’m sure the folks at DHL are as happy as I am to be done with this madness.  Now I need to start configuring it ….

I’m still waiting to receive my DHL package. Despite talking to DHL headquarters late Thursday night, they made another attempt to deliver in the early afternoon yesterday, when I wouldn’t be home.  Finally got hold of the number for the local DHL office and spoke to the manager yesterday.  The latest word is that it’s supposed to arrive between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. today. Heh.

On a more positive note, A.J. has learned how to ride his bike! I had him put his bike facing downward on a hill and told him to start pedaling as quickly as he could once the bike started to move. Once he mastered that, I gradually had him start off on surfaces that were more and more level. Now he can start off at will; I no longer have to balance his bike for him so he can start riding! Yay! Next task: to teach him to stop his bike by using his brakes rather than dragging his shoes on the ground.

A.J. also served himself breakfast for the first time this morning! He dragged a chair over to the refrigerator and got down a box of his favorite cereal then opened a small carton of shelf-stable milk and poured both into a bowl. Yay! Maybe tomorrow morning he’ll let my husband and me sleep in now that he knows he can feed himself ….

I’ve been playing around on Facebook lately. It’s a useful tool to maintain social ties, especially with people who live far away, but it is a real time sink!

We’re supposed to go boating with some friends today. I want to socialize, but I’m not sure I want to go out in the 90-plus degree weather we’re supposed to have today. I’d better start making a lot of ice ….

Still no package from DHL.

Just called DHL to find out why the new computer that was supposed to be delivered today still hasn’t arrived.  At first the customer service person claimed they had tried to deliver it, but no one was home.  When I told them that I had been at home all day, she claimed they had left a voice mail message. When I told them that I had been working from home all day, sitting next to the phone, she then said she would call the local delivery office.  Theoretically I’m supposed to get my new computer between 7 and 8 p.m. tonight; some manager is supposed to make a special trip to my house.  I hope so.  I never want to deal with DHL again if I can help it.  I’ve called DHL every night this week trying to get through to them that they should not try to deliver the computer until Thursday, today, when I am home.  But they tried to deliver my computer Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and claimed they never got the messages that I wouldn’t be home.  If they want to ignore my messages and waste staff time and gas, that’s their business.  But it’s not a very efficient way of running a business.

Due to some sort of inventory overhaul, my office has asked that when I return to work on Tuesday I turn in the government laptop I’ve been using for the past few years. This means I am now shopping for a new laptop so I can continue telecommuting on Thursdays. Arrgghhh!

We do have another machine in the house, but I don’t like using it because it takes a very long time to boot up and is starting to fall apart. The touch pad and one of the USB ports don’t work properly, for example. The machine also is configured to my husband’s preferences since he is one who uses it the most. This means that even when I go into “my” profile, the browser tries to load all kinds of bookmarks I don’t want and the virtual desktop is cluttered with all kinds of software I don’t use. I think it would be cleaner for us to have separate machines altogether; we can transfer files between machines as emergency backups, but in general each one of us should be able to set things up as we like on our machines. Having two machines in the house also will enable both of us to telecommute at the same time, or let our son play on one machine while we do some work or play something else on the other.

I glanced at a few Web sites selling computers this evening and was fairly bewildered by the wide array of choices at my disposal. I know three things I absolutely need: wireless Internet capability, video-playing capability and the longest-lasting battery power available. I know I don’t want to spend more than a certain amount of money, and I assume a speedy processor and a lot of hard drive space are important. Pretty much everything looks the same after that point, though.

While I was shopping, one thing did catch my eye: Dell is selling a number of machines under the (PRODUCT) RED campaign, in which companies donate a percentage of the sales of specified products to help fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa. I had read about this campaign from an article one of my co-workers wrote recently, but had not realized computers were one of the things one could buy. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of going with a (PRODUCT) RED laptop. As I have written before, I regularly shop at places like The Hunger Site or Ten Thousand Villages so I can contribute to good causes while shopping. Since I’m going to buy something anyway, why not buy it at a place that also is helping the less fortunate?

Had a good, if brief, visit with a friend from out of town.

Had a surprise visit from my parents this morning. My son was very happy to see them. They took away an old sliding glass door and a kitchen window left over from our sunroom project and a piece of glass from the screen door in the front of the house. Now we have room in the garage again!

Did some shopping at World Market, found a fruit wine I have been looking for and a nonalcoholic drink that is hard to find in regular stores.

Had dinner at a place I have never been to before — Noodles and Company — and enjoyed it. The food was good, and the server was very helpful.

I seem to have managed to avoid catching my husband’s cold.