Yes, Brewer. Cookies mean no more frequent posts. Obviously.

I guess having the cookies show up shook up my world to the point where I stopped writing. I didn't feel that diverted but the evidence is right here.

It has been a little crazy with the cookies. We've had one cookie booth so far which was a flop. Luckily we have girls selling at an outrageous clip all on their own. My inbox is filled with daily requests for more cookies. We had to go to the warehouse to restock and on Saturday we are restocking again. We have two more booth sales this weekend and two next weekend. Then it is over. Will the troop be stuck with cases and cases of unsold cookies like last year? It's hard to gauge when the mania for cookies has passed and folks are suddenly sick of them.

In bigger news, Monday starts a long term zombie gig for me. It's going to be five weeks of teaching in a second grade class at Walking Distance School. I pretty darn happy about the whole thing. I shadowed the teacher today and she frantically tried to cover everything I could possibly want to know while trying to teach today's lessons at the same time. Finally I asked, "What do I absolutely NEED to get done before you get back?". She jotted it down on a post-it. I'm going to be just fine in this assignment.

You'll be hearing a whole bunch about this little group of zombies since I'm stuck with them for so long. Let's hope they provide good story material...but in a good way. Not a nightmare way.

Cardboard Anonymous

Hello. My name is Jennifer and I have a problem with cardboard boxes.


I'm not a pack rat. I am often chided by my family as having no sentimental feelings for things at all. Books, toys, clothes, knick-knacks. It doesn't matter. If we haven't used it in awhile, I find a new home for it, sell it on Ebay, give to charity or pitch it. Nothing gives me quite the satisfaction as cleaning out a closet or drawer and having a bag of leftovers to show for it.


But I am pack rattish about one thing. Cardboard boxes. I cannot throw away a cardboard box easily. When the basement flooded last year along with losing all the appliances and tools, the water melted down my small mountain of collected boxes. I really can't explain it except to say that when I have an empty box, all I can think is, "We are going to need just this size box soon. I should keep it." When we were doing serious Ebay selling, we did need boxes of all sizes. But it's been awhile since either of us sold anything, so the collection in the basement just got bigger and bigger.



I wrote the other day that the flood was just over a year ago now. When I went down in the basement that very evening, right back in the same spot was a new mountain of boxes. It only took a year to get them all back and more. The Man said they had to go. The kids said they had to go. I relented. They had to go.


Over in the city parking lot is a recycling dumpster for cardboard only. I had The Boy flatten out the collection and load them into the van.
The Man drove me out to the dumpster and helped me load them in. I hated every moment of it.

Then it was done. The corner of the basement was empty. We were box-less. The next week The Man said, "I know I don't have any right to ask, but do we have any boxes?" All I could do was laugh.




But I think I'm cured now. I still put boxes in the basement, but I flatten them first and then stack them. Today, the stack was big enough for me to return to the dumpster, alone, and drop off all of this:Capri Sun boxes, the box The Man's new chair came in and a few extras that have shown up in the past month.

Unfortunately, right after that I went out and picked up 50 brand new boxes!Happy "The Cookies Are Here" Day!

What a Weekend

First of all...It's over! It's over! It's over! We sold every single box of cookies we had plus 43 boxes that we took in from another troop at the last moment. A grand total of 1243 boxes of cookies sold this year. Our last two booth sales Friday and Saturday night completely wiped us out. This has never happened before, not even close! What a relief! We could go to the mall lock-in and celebrate.

And that's what happened next. Saturday night, out at Southpark Mall, Fearless Co-Leader and I took all the girls to one very long night locked in a mall. We shopped, ate, danced, played mini-golf, saw "Horton Hears A Who", went down giant inflatable slides and slept. Yes, slept! Here's proof...

Sleeping has never been part of the lock-in before, they usually stay up talking and giggling, but this year they all passed out. So did I. I fell asleep at the movie too! Cool part of this year was the pillow making craft that everyone (except leaders!) got to do. That's what they are all sleeping on.

The Man and his dad are back from Florida safe and sound. They bought a camera while they were there, so someday I'll have pictures up and lots of details from the trip. It sounds like they had a really terrific time. I'm really excited about seeing the pictures from Kennedy Space Center.

It was the best of times...

In the freezing, windy, wintry weather outside of Walmart yesterday, Fearless Co-Leader and I along with four hardy girls sold a grand total of 208 boxes of cookies in four hours. We were so cold we couldn't make change or open bags. The cookies were blowing over. Our poster wouldn't stay taped to the table. Most than once we had to chase wayward bills across the parking lot. The ink froze in our pens. That's cold! But it was the most cookies, by far, that we've ever sold at the booth. The runner-up would be last year, at the same Walmart, when we sold 167 boxes. This sale exceeded all of our expectations.


This morning, Fearless C0-Leader and I joined by three sleepy girls sold a whooping 34 boxes during four hours of sitting in a warm and cozy Drug Mart. It was the dullest and worst booth we've ever run. What a weekend!

Wi-Fi Baby!

I may be too entirely excited about this but I am writing this from up in my bedroom! The WiFi is finally here. No more waiting for the Man to clear out so I can check an email or find the Pythagorean formula for math homework. No more dodging in to check the bills or my EBay while the Man is thrashing away at Guitar Hero. I've got my own space now!

This past Saturday was World Friendship Day for Girl Scouts. Our troop did Ireland and by the time we were done planning, it was out of control. We had our display, Shrinky-Dink pins, tattoos, a coin toss game, mashed potatoes and music. We needed three tables. Everyone else only needed one. And it was all on minimal effort, really. We barely put any thought into the thing at all.

After the festival, my trusted co-leader and I along with four of our girls hefted cookies door-to-door. (In truth, they hefted, we adults stayed in the warm van and talked to them with walkie-talkies!) In a combination of poor planning with a dash of sabotage, we have been burdened with about 30 cases more than we need. It's a problem. We ordered enough to cover all our cookie booths ahead of time based on last years numbers. But some of the cookie booths fell through and the ones that we ended up with are stinko. So now we are out pounding the streets trying to sell, sell, sell. It also doesn't help that my girls just up and decided not to sell cookies on their own this year. Girls who in years past have sold close to 200 boxes, this year sold less than 20. It was a troop wide epidemic. I know it's their age, but I didn't think it would be this bad! Ah well. We'll be having cookies as the troop snack for the next year!

Yesterday on the radio I heard that They Might Be Giants would be coming in concert this Wednesday. We love TMBG so much, even the kids. A quick discussion between us parents and we decided that we would take the kids to the show and let them skip school on Thursday. What rebels, eh? Come to find out that this "All Ages Show", is actually "14+, No Exceptions". I am so bummed out. I would like to know if it was TMBG who has slapped on the age restriction or the Beachland Ballroom, that gem of an establishment. I hear you, "Just take them anyway. No one's going to ask you for their birth certificates at the door!" And I would, if they could actually pass for being 14, but they just don't have that look yet. It would end up being a giant ass hassle, I just know it; The Man will end up in little snarking match with some pompous club owner and in the end we would all end up escorted away by security. I asked the Magic 8 Ball what we should do and it said "Ask again later". Sounds like good advice.

The Cookies Are Here!

What else is there to say? This morning my trusted co-leader and I went and picked up 85 cases of cookies from a giant warehouse where big burly guys loaded them directly into the vans. That was so much nicer than how we had to do it in past years. Back in the day (last year) we had to drive to a dark church gym, find our cookies and then load them box by box ourselves, slogging through the mud. No fun at all.
85 cases is 1,020 boxes of cookies, in case you were wondering. That's not how many are in this picture; my co-leader has the other half. If you need cookies, for certain, I'm the chick to talk to!

Down to the last crumb

The cookie sale is finally, finally over! It's been a long three weeks of cookies, cookies, cookies and more cookies. The troop did four cookie booths in the past three weekends and sold a ton! We handed in all the paperwork and money today and I recycled everything else. That felt good!

There's 30 boxes of cookies left out in the van, but they shouldn't be a problem to unload. (You need any cookies?) Now I can get the van seats out of the house and back where they belong. Now I can find the surface of my desk. Now my phone will stop ringing all the damn time. Now I can talk about something else!