Thanks, Tep. Although our mail doesn't usually get here until 4, so I guess waiting is in order.

:: trembling lip and longing gaze out of window

Kat, did you get yours from UPS?

Nope, sorry. I preordered one at Vroman's in Pasadena. They had a big to-do last night, which I did not attend because large groups late at night? NSM fun.

But we went this AM (large party also from 8-9) and it was easy peasy to get it. It was literally pick up a book and took less than 2 minutes. For book 7, I"m going to order from them again.

It's kind of sad to think she's 12 and doesn't know how to do anything. Like you said, that's the path to rice in a tube living. My kids love to help me cook, but it's not a lot of help, if you know what I mean.

beth, is the little girl an only child? I do know my mother did a lot for me, like laundry--particularly, because if she was throwing on her stuff and my dad's, it was just as easy to throw mine in, too. I wonder if they just don't think of it, because it seems so small.

That said, I'm an only and I always had chores. I had to dust every Saturday, for as long as I can remember. I had to make my bed, change my sheets. By the time I was 12, I was the one putting on supper as often as not, because my mother was back to work full time, by then. I had to clean the kitchen, vacuum, and pick up, before she got home. She was *really* cranky when she came home from work. Now, I understand why. Then, it used to bother me/piss me off.

yes, she is an only. Really sweet, good tempered ,etc. Mom and dad don't have her do the dishes because she does a bad job. I kind of understand what has happened, because - she is an only and an easy child too. I think they should have her start with some cooking - because she is the world's pickiest eater. I think learning to cook will either a) expand her tastes if only a little bit or b) ensure that she can at least cook the things she likes to eat.

I do not want to go to work. I wish to steal HP from DH and sit and read with a fan blowing on me. If I can't do that I want to read my cheesy book on the Loch Ness monster while DH reads HP . so I can have it tomorrow.

ps why is my typing worse than usual?

I was the younger of two daughters, and the more into house stuff. (Mostly so I wouldn't have to go out where the other kids were, because they sucked.) So I learned how to clean, cook, sew a little, do laundry, etc. My sister learned as little of that as she could get away with.

Twenty years later my sister's the one with the house, husband, and kids, cleaning every weekend, making meals every night, and doing laundry all. the. time. (Seriously, it's like the dryer is on all the time when I visit.) I live in an apartment that was vacuumed a week ago, dusted some time in May, and dinner will probably involve either pizza or something currently in a box in the freezer. Or perhaps the rest of the Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide ice cream that I'm currently eating, except I doubt any will be left then. I can clean. I can cook pretty durned well, if I do say so myself. But I rarely have to.

Huh. I was an only child (half-sister is 21 years older), and by the time I was 8 I was doing everyone's laundry and the dishes. And the dusting. And a few other chores. Was main cook by 14, but that's another story.

Most of my childhood I didn't have any chores beyond not making my room nasty (we had a maid for the time we were in Jamaica). Even in England, I didn't have to do anything.

Magically, however, at university I started doing all my chores, and apart from a few bleach spills (I just bleach less these days), never had a problem with any of it. Everything was either detailed in instructions, or common sense.

I was washing the dishes by 8 or so. My smarter siblings never got good at it; my mother got a dishwasher when I went to college. I also cleaned bathrooms by about that age. My mother was big on chores and independence. I packed my own school lunches (with help as needed) at 6.

Basically, UPS was going to deliver assloads of the (pre-packed and addressed) books to local USPSs yesterday, who would then deliver the books today.

This is how mine came (still unopened...sniff). IME, if your UPS tracking # says "Out for delivery" it will come via UPS truck. If it just shows as being close to your house, it shows up via US Mail (and the tracking number just tracks it to your post office).

So if it says "In transit to final destination," and my mail's already come today, I'm not getting my book until Monday, am I?

That completely bites.

I guess now the decision is, do I wait until Monday, or do I walk up to B&N and just return Amazon's copy when it arrives?