In addition to the two new cds, my birthday present House Corrino and the five pound bag of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips (just rubbing it in again), Mrs. Claus brought a few other pleasant surprises back from SoDak.

While in the WalMart in SoDak last month, I made one of the impulse buys at the cash register. For a package of beef jerky. Son said it was godson's favorite.

It was great. Slightly sweet, barely spicy, none of the expected heartburn.

Heelers made it clear they would die for the stuff. Or kill, whichever. We wiped out almost a whole package in one day on check station. Better than eating candy or nuts.

Couldn't find any more anywhere in our community. Not even the truck stops.

So wife stocked up in SoDak. Heelers and I ate another package today.

I am also hooked on the Cream-Savers hard candies. Great for keeping your mouth working and awake going down the highway.

Orange, strawberry, and now caramel/chocolate.

And, lo and behold, the wife comes home with packages of raspberry Cream-Savers!

Love raspberries. And these artificially flavored candies aren't bad. Sort of like raspberry sherbet. Which, of course, is nothing like real raspberries, but it has the memory of true berries.

She also bought a small basket stuffed with toiletries, or some such things. A Christmas present.

For whom?

Nobody in particular, just somebody. She does that. Christmas shopping in July. And she is always right, it always comes in handy for somebody.

While shopping for supplies for the college son, we were looking for Corel bowls. Wife pointed out a ivy pattern, telling him that would match ours.

Now I may not be the most observant male on the planet, but our Corelware does not have ivy on it.

"Yes it does. The sets (note the use of the plural here) we're going to use when we get the kitchen remodeled."

This is all new to me. But she has our new kitchen planned, and has already begun buying the accessories for it. As in last year, even.

But she's right. Knowing how our luck with merchants goes, if we wait until the kitchen is actually done the way she wants, that pattern of Corelware will be discontinued and gone forever. So they're sitting in boxes in the Green Room.

And I never knew.

Found a cutting board in the same pattern, and asked her if she had one yet.

Nope. In the basket it went.

She hasn't been wrong yet.