Is it Thursday?
You have probably picked up by now that I publish something I cleverly call Thursday Thoughts each Thursday. Random thoughts about random things. You probably also realize that today is not Thursday. Why am I publishing my thoughts today instead of tomorrow? And more important, why do I feel compelled to call it Thursday Thoughts even though it isn’t Thursday? There is no good answer to the latter question, except for the fact that I am in love with the alliteration of the title. I could have called this post Wednesday Wonderings or Miscellaneous Midweek Minutia. But I didn’t. As far as the first question, I will tell you now not to expect a posting on Thursday, thoughts or otherwise. The reason for this is that Bill and I will be traveling to Vermont on Thursday. Our travels will take us all day long, as our plane leaves DIA at 6:40 a.m. MDT and arrives Manchester, New Hampshire at 4:55 p.m. EDT. We will then get in our rental car and drive another two hours to Montpelier, Vermont, where our family resides. If all goes well, I will be kissing and hugging our two grandboys by 8 o’clock Thursday evening. Pray for us!

Can I Return This?
Yesterday morning I went to Target just after they opened at 8 a.m. I bought a few things in preparation for a day with grandkids. Since the store had just opened, there was only one checkout stand available. The clerk, who appeared to be new, cheerfully checked me out, but when it came time to pay, the credit card machine was confused and wouldn’t work. She called for help, and the problem was quickly resolved. When the clerk told me the amount due, it struck me as kind of high, but I got distracted by the credit card machine problem, and paid the amount she said. When I got to my car, however, I looked at my receipt and noticed she had charged me twice for my toilet paper. Being Target, however, when I went back into the store and headed directly to the customer service station, they quickly rectified the problem without question. Two things struck me: First, Target is amazing at how quickly they handle returns, and handle them without question. There is no way she could know that I hadn’t simply put one of the packages of toilet tissue into my car. I love that. Second, I am horrible about paying attention to what I pay for things, particularly groceries when I go through self-check. I wonder how many times I have paid twice for something or paid the wrong price? I’ll bet many, many times.

Grand Opening
At long last, Bill has finished the playhouse. Well, except for a few finishing touches. So today, since we had all of our Denver grandkids visiting, we held the grand opening. The opening included a ribbon cutting ceremony (well, it was actually yarn, but with three pairs of scissors doing the cutting), a speech by papa about how much he hopes the grandkids will enjoy playing in the house he built for them, and some treats, including regular pretzels, peanut butter filled pretzels, and sliced peaches, which Maggie Faith and Kaiya prepared. All in all, it was a grand ceremony. And the kids spent the entire day playing either inside of the playhouse or in the sandbox underneath the playhouse. Even Cole got involved in the festivities. He especially likes using sand as confetti. And pretzels.

This photo looks a bit creepy what with the blurry heads peeking out of the windows; kind of like a horror movie complete with ghosts. In reality it was Alastair, Kaiya, Mylee, and Magnolia peeking out, with Dagny ready to go down the slide.

By the Way….
If I should miss a day or two of posting, don’t panic and think I’m back in the hospital. I am simply enjoying our trip to Vermont. My plan is to continue posting, but one never knows….

Ciao.