happy early birthday to me!

This evening, when Doug got home from work and checked the mail, a surprise was at the bottom of our stairs...

Granted, it came in a package, but who cares about the packaging when THIS is inside?!

(In case anyone is wondering what the black blob on the bookshelf is, it's nothing illicit, it's simply where I put something I'm sending Victoria, so I didn't want to ruin the surprise. Also, I was too lazy to take another picture and move said object.)

So, HUGE thanks to Dad & Mom for this early birthday present. There is a pretty funny story about this gift. When Doug & I were at my folks' over the holidays, I was browsing for vacuums online, as Doug & I have been in desperate need. We've been borrowing his mother's vacuum, and it started getting a little inconvenient for both parties when our vacuuming needs conflicted. Anyway, so I was just browsing online, trying to get a feel for how much we needed to be prepared to spend. In the meantime, my mom's vacuum has taken a turn for the worse... including a missing wheel, broken attachments, the fact that the ... pole? that is attached to the head of the vacuum no longer stands upright... SO, Dad was online and happened to notice that in his online history, sundry vacuum sites had been visited. Being the clever & perceptive man that he is, and also knowing the current state of Mom's vacuum, he thought to himself, "Ooh, my wife has been looking at these! I'll surprise her with a new vacuum!" Done & done - he ordered the new vacuum, and when it arrived, he proudly presented it to my mother, telling her he knew that she had been looking for a new one. To which my mother confusedly responded, "... No I haven't." To which my father confusedly responded, "But you were looking at the online. I saw the history." Well, my parents are both brilliant Cornell graduates, and they quickly put the pieces of the puzzle together and realized that, ah, it was their daughter who was responsible for this costly enterprise. Being the clever & thoughtful parents that they are, they once again looked at the sites I had visited, and, in the words of Paul Harvey, now you know the rest of the story.

I have the greatest parents in the world. And not just because they give us stuff, although that definitely doesn't hurt their case. Kidding, Mom... kidding.

The way my vacuum sees our living room.

Thanks again, Pappy & Mumsy. :) You guys are consistently too much.