This weekend

Well Friday night is now turning into a blur. We had pizza for dinner and it rained a little that night.

Saturday I got ready for the reception. I did some ironing and some laundry and went card shopping for birthdays and get well cards. We got there a little after 2 and we sat with Bob and Liz, and Nelson and Chris and Rich. Ethel was home sick with a migraine. THose really suck. We had a good time. The food was a bit of disappointment to Mom and Liz. I enjoyed it. I even ran into some high school classmates of mine who knew the heberts. We got home by 6 or so.

Sunday I went to bingo, church, and to the store to get a gift for Emily. I had put a call into Claudia to see what I could get her and she called back on Saturday with a list. I decided to get a gift card. I did some letter writing. I got one letter written just need to print out and mail it. Mom made me a peach cake and we had hamburgers for dinner. Liz and Nel came over and gave me a pair of earrings.

Uncle Ray is coming along but still in the hospital. MOm has gotten updates through out the weekend. I will be mailing a card to him tomorrow.

Last Day

Well here I am at work trying to figure out what I am going to eat at Irma's Retirement party. It is going to be Veal Riccardo. Someone told me it sounds like Parmigiana.

Crunch time

Well howdy…everyone. It is about 2 hours before I go home for the day. I have been trying to get as much as I can done before I leave for my vacation tomorrow afternoon. I am getting a little anxious because I am afraid not everything that I want to get done will get done.

I have been getting a lot of wonderful suggestions for cell phones and I have a feeling I will be going with the Verizon ® Brand. I am going to check out the ones at Costco.

DEcided to get a cell phone

I have decided to get a cell phone but don' t know which one. I have put out a call to all my "groups" and asked them to post here. So don't be afraid people...Mom says she will get it for me as a gift.

My Requirements:

No extras (camera, internet, games etc)
i want a good package (minutes wise) if that's what they call it.

Days are getting shorter

In the last few days I have noticed it was getting dark before 8 pm. Most evenings have been cool as well. Of course so have the mornings. As mom said last night summer is almost over.

Mom had a great time at the literary club meeting Sunday. She was home by 6:30. She was watching TV when I got home. The next morning however she was vomiting and was rather weak for most of the day. She had a doctor’s appointment yesterday for the kidney and was told she had to get some more tests this morning. I called her around 11 and she had just gotten home and was having coffee.

Its been another one of those weekends

Hey everyone! It is a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I hope all is well with you and yours. It has been another one of those weekends. I am trying to relax before going out tonight. This weekend was full of excitement and stress.

Friday I went to the Pilot Pen Tourney in New Haven with my friend Dave for his birthday. Have any of you been following it or have heard of it? It was fun even though the players didn’t seem to be doing the whole best. Even people we sat with who had been to both sessions felt the same way. I had the pleasure of meeting Kassie & James DePaiva (One Life to Live Fame). Now here comes the stressful part. When I stopped to drop Dave off at his house I couldn’t get the car to start. It was nearly midnight and had to call my mother to pick me up. I was really worried about the car and about how much it would cost and just a whole bunch of things.

Saturday was spent getting the car back running. It needed a new battery. I ended up at sears getting the battery. The rest of the day was spent doing Saturday chores. I went to a neighbor’s birthday party in the afternoon.

This past week was a pretty good one. Work went well and had no problems. I am making more progress with keeping up on things (some of my organizational quirks). Next week I will be training a couple of people to cover for me while I am on vacation the first two weeks of September.

In the Volunteer realm it was fairly quiet. I did have my 4th District meeting on Thursday and we have a number of things coming up as we prepare for the 2008-2009 Election Season under way. Apparently we did pretty well at the Oyster festival despite the fact it wasn’t as crowded as we hoped. The Town Committee meeting is next week and several members have left for the Convention this week.

My woman’s club is having a membership drive/Ice cream social tonight at the home of my President. I still have to get the ice cream and as soon as I finish writing this I am going to get it. We start having our monthly general meetings in about three weeks. I expect that the week before will be a board meeting to review the summer activities. Oh that means I have to get the last board meeting minutes ready. It never ends.

I have to admit I barely did any writing this week. I haven't any letters to any of my pals or in my journals. It has just been too hectic. I have
Mom is doing pretty well. Her back seems to be healing nicely. She does get very tired and still needs to meet her limits. She is at her literary club kick off picnic in Bridgeport. They always have a great time.

She has a lot of activities coming up this September with her community service as well. Along with the Political activities, she has a couple of fundraisers to participate in. One of them is on the 14th when the Organization Folks on Spokes will take a bike tour through Milford, Orange, and West Haven to raise funds for Bridges.




She did tell me yesterday that her brother Ray in GA has colon cancer and is preparing for surgery, or tests, or both. Mom is anxious and concerned and is scared. She has lost her two other brothers already and this will be very scary for her. If you could all keep them in mind this week I would appreciate it.

My Brother Bob and his family are okay. Bob is getting ready for the semester teaching and Ethel continues to work in the real estate market. They did say good bye to their son John as he headed to Kuwait this week. I have no idea if they have heard from him yet I suspect he got there safely.

Still haven’t heard from Jim in a while. I did chat online with my niece Emily. She is a busy beaver with shopping and getting ready for school along with her sister and brother. I am hoping to get a hold of her this week.

Liz and Nelson are fine. They had the grandkids over on Friday. Liz is working and Nelson continues to enjoy his retirement. They have no plans for any trips this autumn. I am sure they will take some day trips. I think Liz is contemplating on bidding on another job that gives her the weekends off.

Well that’s about all the news I have for everyone. I have to start getting ready for the ice cream social. My contribution will be Strawberry ice cream…

Take care everyone!

Oyster Festival

Man I am exhausted! I was up by 5 and Mom was a short time later. We started getting ready for the Oyster festival and we left in separate cars. I got to Mike and Tessa’s Office by 6:30 or so. After they were setting up the tent for Voter Registration we headed down to the food court. The sun was just starting to burn through the fog. There wasn’t much activity and we were early. Mom arrived a short time later then as it got closer to 7 more and more people came and we began the food preparation. There was a significant less food vendors this year and I am not sure I can explain why. I think one of the reasons had to do with finances.

I was very impressed at the way the tent was set up. It didn’t seem to have the clutter and tight spots it did last year. My first job was helping shuck the corn. After that I helped with cutting the tomatoes. Mom left around 9 and I left a short time later. Everyone was doing something and we had one of our first visits from the health department inspector. They don’t fool around at all.

When I left the food court I stopped and talked with some friends from the RTC. One was a classmate of mine from school (elementary and High School). We were talking about classmates and teachers. The others were former club mates from the woman’s club.

There were a lot of people up in the center of town. Walking around and setting up their tents for the day. For the next several hours I spent it with the voter registration and Planned Parenthood. Mom was at the Bridges Mental Health Clinic tent. I went to see her to move the car from in front of the trash bin. I went back to my post and saw some friends and fellow DTC members who were there to do there parts.

Even Governor Jody Rell was making the rounds. I felt bad for her security guards who passed our tent. They were in full dress (jacket and tie). I could see Mrs. Rell from where I was standing but I didn’t actually get to shake hands or anything.

Mom left around 12 or 12:30 and went shopping. I left after taking a quick walk to the food tent. I was hoping to get something to eat but didn’t. Why not? For one I had no money on me and I didn’t feel comfortable just eating without paying. Two it was busy. I headed home. I had to go out by the hospital and by West Main Street and then out by Liz’s house. I got on the highway I think. It is becoming a blur now.

It was nearly 1:30 when I got home. Donny and Pam and the pups were just getting home from their vacation. They looked great and I got a cute Gettysburg magnet. They also had gone to visit his father and step mother in either South Carolina or North Carolina.

I brought in the groceries Mom had gotten from the store before coming home. She was weary and upstairs in front of the computer. I checked my mail and I got my stocking and the Insurance reimbursement yeah. That will come in handy.



The rest of the afternoon I relaxed. I had clam chowder and stuffed clams. Our neighbor Kim made it for us last night. I loved it but it was clearly salty. Yes I am paying for it tonight.

The rest of the afternoon I relaxed. I even fell asleep while watching something on H&G TV. I watched the Searchers for the umpteenth time. As always it was great. I watched a bunch of other things too. None of them really held my interest for long.

We had dinner around 5 or 6. We watched our regular PBS fare and the news while we had chicken and potato salad. The Shelton Little League lost their game on Friday. They have another one tomorrow. The news report showed how the team is getting home town support by watching them on the TV and the local bars up there.

WE had a thunder shower around 4. it didn’t last long but it was nice. I don’t know if other places got it more or how it effected the rest of the festival. It probably didn’t.
Anyway, I am starting to get a headache and I need to get some sleep….see ya all later

Thankful for today

Well today went a whole lot better. I think Sue and Patti were still a little annoyed by yesterday’s events but I reiterated my word it wouldn’t happen again. I did get a lot done despite the fact I was exhausted. I really didn’t get any sleep last night.

I still have some readdress mail and bulk mail to do and I think I need to do that after I do the lockbox and before the readdress mail. I have noticed that the mail has been light enough to be able to get it delivered and have people get their mail within a certain time. I know I am going to be making an effort.

For most of the day the weather was nice. That is until about 4 when a thunderstorm passed through. It came down hard and heavy. It didn’t last very long either. When I got home it was stopping.

Mom wasn’t home yet so before coming into the house I got Donny and Pam’s mail and watered their plants. I really hope I didn’t mess it up. One looks like its dying. I will probably water them again tomorrow.

Tomorrow is pay day. I will be paying some bills and I hope I have enough to do it. I have a feeling I won’t. I know my Union plus balance went up in the last couple of days. I have bought lunch and breakfast with it.

Tomorrow night is the party for Evette. It is being held at the Playwright Restaurant. I am really looking forward to this.

Well it is now getting to be 10 pm. I need to get to bed

I know I screwed up yesterday

It is after midnight and I just have been channel surfing. Last I watched parts of Road house. It was good and because it was on AMC there was more of it then if it was on other channels. There was some editing but not enough to lose the meaning.

Well I really screwed up at work yesterday. As you know sometimes I put things aside to work on other things and unfortunately it was not a good thing to do. It was the YHP remits. There was money on some of them and old dates on them. Patti had to talk to me and Sue came in really pissed off. They are waiting to see if an $1100 check is found. Sue told me the girl who sends them got written up (which I suspect will happen to me). I haven’t seen it and I am hoping it won’t be in with all the magazines stuff that I have been trying to work on.

Patty reminded me if I get behind even the slightest to tell her. So why do I find it hard to do that? Probably because I don’t want to admit that I screwed up. I was very glad to get out of there this afternoon.

I got home close to 5. Mom was up in her office and was going to get dinner ready. She was really pissing me off tonight. Every time I said something to her she looked at me like I had to fucking heads. She couldn’t understand me. I don’t buy it. I spoke clearly and distinctly. She can’t be THAT fucking deaf.

It has been a couple of days again

Well it has been a couple of days since I wrote. I tried to write but being Monday and trying to get things done on that day its not always easy. I do surf the net but that’s about it. Any thing else is left until I get home.

Yesterday wasn’t bad. I worked came home and hung out. I got a birthday card and letter from Heather Hoffman. I was going to write her last night but as the case lately I have been watching TV or going to bed. I actually went to bed early because I was tired.

It did rain a little bit around New Haven and Milford. Apparently some parts of the state got heavier rains. The sun was out when I got home and the rest of the night was fine.

Today was a bit aggravating. I had a dream that I was with a co-worker and we were walking near the train station and she pushed me over the side of the cliff. I some how landed on my feet. That’s about all I remember of the dream.

I woke up around 4 and stayed awake and heard the NPR morning news go on. I think that’s about the time I hit the internal snooze button because I think I may have fallen asleep again until 6:30.

I got ready for work and managed to get online (briefly because it was slow for some reason) and watch TV.

I got to work on time and started doing my work. I got a lot done. I still have a lot more to do. Maria B returned to work after being on sick leave. She looked great. There were a couple of people I wanted to slap and one of them was a person I considered a dear friend. They just got stupid. I went to this one cow and asked her to do me a favor and she snottily says to me I am not the person who wrote. No shit you stupid bitch. When I told Mk she said it was the way I said it. You know I am so sick and tired of people being so damn sensitive. I said to her “could you do me a favor” and MK said was the way I said it. On top of that someone didn’t even bother to look at her damn chart she ordered and got this morning.

Of course online it was a joke too. I was talking to LL because we apparently hit a nerve with this’ Vicky’ with our comments about how this one idiot decided she would cause drama. Well Vicky had been very condescending and patronizing. As I looked over all of her messages she seems to be like that in all the groups but especially to us for the way we made comments. I wanted to tell the whore she should mind her own business. Instead I told her how I felt about people announcing their departure. She did not respond to my email but LL were noticing she was blatantly patronizing. I told LL I am not going to have that person as a pen pal.

I had a stressful weekend.

Hey everyone. Yesterday turned out to be rather stressful. I ended up not writing a whole lot because of that stress.

While vacuuming I managed to make a big mess. I was vacuuming in the bathroom in the kitchen and I wasn’t paying attention to where I had the wand/hose to the Kirby (in the toilet). It sucked up about 1 or 2 cups of water into the bags. It then leaked all over the floor. I finally had to tell Mom and she was really upset. We finally got it apart (the bag from the rest of the machine and as I did it a ring of hers popped out. It was one she thought she had lost. The whole ordeal was very stressful. Donny checked out the vacuum cleaner and feels I didn’t do any damage to the motor. I just didn’t use it the rest of the time vacuuming downstairs.

I have to admit I was pretty angry and thought Mom was incredibly abusive at least
Verbally. She was better by the time we left for Cheryl’s. We had to go in separate cars because Mom had dinner plans with her friend Martha.

Liz pissed me off too. Her whole attitude was just obnoxious. When she asked if they got to see Mom we told her she had a dinner date…she actually thought we meant a date with a guy. What a fucking moron. She asked me if we had heard from Jim and I said yeah he called to ask a question. What is she fucking entitled to know? She made some comment for the life of me I don’t understand. After some of us went in and we all went into the house I stayed in my bathing suit longer than anyone else. Liz whispers ‘get dressed’. Ah who the fuck died and left you the boss of me?

During mass today all those angry emotions came back. Now really Mom didn’t do anything or say really anything to me to get me on that track. It was just me remembering the events from yesterday.

I know I have absolutely no patience with Mom when she wants to do something with the computer. She wanted to find the website for a new show on PBS. She asked me oh how to save it. She was also going to find EBAY. Well she was going to write the entire URL in the MSN search engine box. Hello? I told her not there like freaking three times.

I told her how to get home tonight from Gayle’s house tonight. “Oh no that’s saying going south”. Why do you fucking contradict me every mother fucking time I open my mouth?

I also found myself saying I can’t stand being with any of my family these days because they either think they are better than me or speak down to me or just absolutely disregard anything I feel or think. I actually thought this yesterday.

Stormy night

Morning everyone! Things here in my end of Milford are fine after that wicked and wild storm last night. The Devon section lost power and I am not sure if they are with out or not. I took a look at video from last night and a couple of trees in Stratford came down and caused power outages and some minor fires. In North Haven a woman’s chimney was struck and pieces of it went flying out on to the driveway. There was hail but we didn’t see any around our house.

I went to bed early last night for two reasons. I was tired and the thunder and lightening was still going on at that point. Once it stopped I had fallen asleep.

Today was a cool day. I don’t think it got up past the 70 degree mark at all. It was raining by the time I left for home. I also drove Carol H home as well. Traffic was a mess but we managed to get home okay. The thunder and lightening went on for about an hour and a half. I think it was over by 6. The rest of the night has been quiet.

Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful all day. That’s great because I want to go to the picnic and go swimming. Sunday is supposed to be a little troublesome but this is August.

Making Plans for Tourney

Afternoon everyone I am at work and having lunch. The temperature in Milford is 79 and partly cloudy. In New Haven its 76 and partly cloudy. Scattered thunderstorms are expected for Haven as I am leaving work (L).

I heard from Dave via email. He told me the dates he would like to go to the Pilot Pen Tourney and they are the 21st and/or 22nd. I am going to shoot for the 22nd first. The games start at 7 but the gates open at 5. If they are sold out I will go for the 21st. IF they are BOTH sold out don’t know what to do. I might get out early either of those dates and go home and get freshened up and we could have an early dinner.

August 6, 2008

Morning everyone! It is nearly 10 and I am just having some tea and trying to finish opening today’s mail. It is a rainy and damp day. I think there are a lot of people who are in a bitchy mood too. I do admit I have a little headache forming but that’s because I hit my head on the handles of the mail cart this morning.

Last night was quiet. I did some laundry and then went to bed. My wrist was hurting and I think it could have been the pork in the rice and pork or the delicious eggplant Mom made. She had to go and get a whole new one because the one I bought a week ago was all rotten to the core.

Monday Mom got the new cable box and it wasn’t working. All of us were a little perturbed because it was a used box and we believe we should be getting a brand new one. Yesterday someone to come out and he got it working (and its awesome) and explained that we are just renting these boxes and not buying them. When I got home I did some channel surfing and we got channels back that we lost months ago. We even got more channels then we did before!

Jim called earlier in the week as well. He wanted to know the restaurants around Milford. Mom seems to think he wants to take Liz and Nelson out for dinner sometime for hosting the girls. I think they (Mom and Jim) have been playing Telephone tag.

Cheryl called and invited us to Bryan’s 15th Birthday picnic this Saturday. It is from 2-5 pm. I told Mom that I would be giving him $20 for a birthday present. Mom has dinner with Marsha but will stop for a little while and I will go home when I want.

I got a lovely letter and picture from my pen pal Annie P in California. She is getting ready for school next week I believe. I can’t think of anything else she wrote at the moment.

I did mail the really over due letter(s) to Molly Dodd and my intro to a girl named Meadow in Canada. I will be starting another one to Molly soon.

I am getting my hair cut on Saturday morning as well. It will be by 11:30. My hair is starting to look like a bush.

The neatness begins

It is after 10 and I am at work. I have been working on lockbox. I had 17 charts to deliver. It has been a little busy here for the last two days since I have been a day behind almost for two weeks. I did manage to keep up on some things like the bad addresses, and the bulk mail and picked up the mail from the lobby. I worked on that this morning.

Because of the recent complaints of bugs there were modifications to the office. New “decorative” bug lights were installed over the weekend. Also we got word that the office is “Going Green” with new trash baskets and new recycle bins. We also have been giving instructions on what can and what can’t go into the bins/baskets etc. When I walked in here this morning I noticed that things that were on the floor were no longer there and I suspect it was mentioned to my immediate supervisors/management team. I have never claimed I was the neatest person in the world. I mean I am constantly leaving stuff around papers on the floor, dishes around, etc.

It is now after 2:30. I have been working on yesterday’s mail and it is done. It just needs to be sorted and it will be as soon as I do the personal/readdress mail. I also did some surfing on the net and found out some stuff.

The stuff has to do with the entertainment world. Morgan Freeman who was in a serious car accident yesterday in TN is in critical condition at a local hospital. You should see some of the insensitive and stupid comments on the IMDB.com board for him. Actually for IMDB that’s normal.
Today I found out that Kevin Sorbos’ family lost a member. It was their 14 year old Brussels Griffon Gizmo. I was told it died last year while at a LA park when Mrs. Sorbo took the kids and the dog to the park. A Rotweiler attacked and killed little wonder dog. I’m told they have a new one name Mully or Molly.

A busy Weekend

Well Hello everyone. The last two weekends have been incredibly busy and that’s the way I like them. As you recall last Saturday I went to Mohegan sun for dinner the James Blount/Cheryl Crowe concert. Everything was awesome. The seats were great even though they were up very high. On Sunday Mom and I had brunch with Liz and Nelson and our two nieces/granddaughters from PA That Sunday afternoon Mom and I went to a fundraiser house party for CT Speaker of the House Jim Amann. There was a lot of food and the weather was fine (it rained actually) and I had the pleasure of meeting actor James Noble (I) . He was charming.

This weekend I helped out for a couple of hours at my club’s tag sale on Saturday. The tag sale was to last until for so I have a feeling it was called off when the weather hit. The storm came through violently around 12. It lasted about 1 ½ hours and apparently caused some flash flooding and downed power and telephone lines through out parts of Milford.

As the storm subsided a little my friend Dave picked me up around 1 or so. He was in the middle of finishing his contributions to the picnic when the storm hit. We headed to Torrington and it was starting to clear up. It stopped completely raining by 2 and the sun came out and we played a few games on Wii and then went into the hot tub then had dinner. The main entre was barbeque chicken, and ribs, grilled vegetables, and some peanut butter chocolate cake for dessert. We watched a movie called Gone baby Gone. It was a bit much on the language and I wasn't comfortable with the whole thing and I asked if we could change it and the hostess didn't. (Personally I think that's rude) but we still watched it anyway, we left there around 11 and got home by midnight.


The DTC is making preparations for the Oyster Festival that is happening in two weeks. Every year we have a food tent and we sell the gyros, hot dogs, hamburgers, beer, soda, the normal stuff. We are among many selling foods. I will be there helping preparing the food for cooking and stuff but then I am getting my butt out of there and working at another tent up the street. We are also making preparations for the upcoming election. I believe I have volunteered to do house visits in New Hampshire sometime in September and or October. There will be bus trips there. We still do not have a headquarters for the city picked out.

The woman’s club had their tag sale and I think it was closed early due to the storm yesterday. I just tried calling my President and her phone is out. We do have our ice cream social on August 24, 2008 and will be announcing our “Scholarship” winner. Then we will be starting up or autumn activities. It is usually very busy the first part of the year.

Work is going well. We just finished up our month end push and I don’t think we did as well as we usually do. OH well there is always next month! We got word last week that we will be giving a retirement party for a dear friend of mine. Her name is Irma Hammer. Her retirement party will be on September 11, 2008. It will be at restaurant in West Haven (one we frequent quite often for these parties). Another co-worker will be having a birthday party for herself at local restaurant on august 15.

I am happy to report that Mom is doing very nicely in her back surgery recovery. She is out running some errands as I write this. There are some things she can’t do yet but she was told do only what she feels she can do. We put up a new kitchen clock this afternoon. She has been painting a book case in the kitchen.

We had the kitchen and dining room painted this week and it looks really nice. We had the walls painted white. It makes the two rooms look much brighter on dark days and at night.
She performed her JP duties at a wedding last Saturday and had a great time. I don’t know if she has anymore coming up but I hope so. It seems she enjoys them.

She is also getting ready for her annual “Meet and Greet” for the candidates in September. She talked with the candidates (local only-can you imagine Senator Barak Obama coming to my home????) and got the final date this past week. That means the annual speed cleaning.
I suspect she will jump into all the activities with a running start even though she was told she still had 4 to 6 weeks recovery to deal with for her back. 

I haven’t heard from my Brother Bob recently. I am guessing that he is getting ready for the academic year to start up at the colleges. I really don’t know if he going to be continuing the “itinerant Professor” gig or stay with one college. Ethel continues to deal with the Real Estate Market with a vengeance. She was always good with this and I hope she does well in today’s market.

Their children are okay. Diane is preparing for her trip to Cambodia. I have no idea what show she is traveling with but it will be an exciting one I am sure. John I believe is being deployed some time in the next two weeks for Iraq. This will be his third deployment. Robert continues to work and do his National Guard duty.

Jim and the kids are kind of quiet this week. The girls left here last Sunday for their trip home. Apparently they caused their Uncle Nelson to bellow at them (smirk) for something they did. I haven’t been able to write them this week but I hope to catch up with that tonight before I start to vegetate. I am not sure when Jamie is to visit here but I have a feeling it won’t happen. He may not want to be up here by himself. I believe they start school before Labor Day. I did email Jim last week but no answer. I am trying very hard not to get annoyed, worried, or pissed off. My next step is to call him.

I talked with my BIL Nelson just a bit ago. They survived the thunderstorm that passed through here yesterday. There wasn’t any flooding in the basement. They are relaxing today. Liz has been working and recovering from the girls visit. She really outdid herself and she also exhausted herself as well.

Their kids are well. All the kids that return to school this September are getting ready to do that. Adam just finished his bar exams this weekend is now returning to normal state. He was really studying hard and getting a little stressed out. Once he passes his bar he will be moving to NY to begin his career and his new job. I can’t remember the name of the law firm but he was there last year as an intern.

Well that’s about all the news for now. I am going to do some letter writing and get some ironing done before it gets really late. Dinner is in the oven and cooking and we will be eating late.

Everyone have a great evening, and I will pop in before going to bed.

A Good Friday

It is after 10:30 am in the morning I have been doing the work, and surfing the net. I am tired but having tea. It is a little quiet but good spirits today. I hope to have all the mail opened and delivered by the time I leave here at 4.

I called Mom a couple of times the first time she wasn’t home the second time was at lunch time. She had just come in from running some errands. She got her prescriptions and got gas (as I did this morning) and then went to Christmas tree shop and got a clock for $7 and the three lunch totes for $4 each