Today was a special day.  My stepfather celebrated his 85^th birthday (he actually turned 85 earlier this week) with family and friends.  As always, we had lots of fun, gathered at their favorite local “diner,” taking one entire end of the facility.  My brother, sister, nephew, niece, niece’s boyfriend, hubby and I sat at one table.  As is typical, we joked and told stories of the silly things we did as kids, the things our kids did and so on. 

Meanwhile, at other tables friendly conversations were being held by all, and the room hummed in a happy, dull roar.  Waiters took our orders and served our food and people moved around, each taking time to stop for a few minutes to wish John a happy birthday and thank Mom for having such a nice gathering to celebrate his birthday.

At one point Mom, whose voice is anything but timid, brought the room to attention asking that all take just a moment out of their conversations to listen to a particular birthday card John had received from two of his dear friends.  Obligingly, all attention was turned toward the man standing beside John, holding a sturdy sheet of white paper, and wearing dark sunglasses.

“I want to share with you the birthday card we made for our friend John,” he said.  With that he began to move his fingers over the paper and “read” the words.

“Here’s wishing you a very happy

Birthday John

From Will and Kate, your friends,

And though the years keep gliding

By, our love for you won’t end.

So on this very special day

May love and joy prevail,

And as an extra added treat

We wrote this card in Braille.

Happy Birthday

God Bless

Will and Kate.”

Well, I don’t need to tell you, everyone was touched by this lovely sentiment, shared by those who have never laid eyes on the man whom they have known as a friend for many, many years. I was impressed with their choosing to share their greetings with John in the “words” they could read but he could not. Their entire lives they have relied on good people to present things to them that they could not see, with honesty.  Now, they were honestly presenting to him their feelings, and were confident he would trust them as they have trusted him.

Before we parted, I sat with Will and he read the words again for me, that I might transcribe them into the recognizable words to which we are accustomed.  I gave a copy to Mom and John, and I kept a copy for myself.  I will put it in my box of reminders – reminders of faith, love and trust.

Happy Birthday John! (this is the placemat Mom made for the occasion)

Another day of meetings and travel and then I’ll be home.  I don’t mind the meetings.  I don’t mind the travel.  I just LOVE being home! 

I have seen a few more posts this morning that make me realize there are many disagreements, presumably confined to the posting and comments between fellow bloggers.  Sometimes I wish I knew what the frenzy was about, but more often I guess I’m happy I don’t know.

I hope those who have been offended by me at any time, will let me know, and I will set it right.  I would hate to think there are those who think I would do so intentionally.  I suspect this is true for the majority of bloggers.  There is a lot of good to be shared here and certainly, there are those who come in for the single purpose of upsetting the apple cart, but I think the majority do not.

I hope everyone has a great day.

I’ll check back in tonight.

Happy sales to you (until we meet again)!

Celllman wants to know:

celllman ( 29) View items for sale

Today I discovered something that I would never have believed had I not been there.  I had an all-day meeting/brainstorming session with a group of co-workers today.  There were nine of us in the room.  There were 7 men and 2 women.  The room literally gagged me with the overpowering smell of a battle of clashing men’s colognes!  I mean, I was seriously having trouble breathing!

I just kept drinking my drink and trying to breathe as little as possible.  This, of course, presented problems of its own, and it meant I REALLY had to take a bio break pretty early on (having taken on too many fluids) and I was a little light-headed when I rose to take my break (too little oxygen!)

Women’s rest rooms always have these great “reminders” to not apply heavy doses of perfume, but I’m guessing the men have not gotten the word!

Now breathing comfortably in a hotel room in Chantilly, VA….

It is interesting to see what I thought was worthy of blogging about back then...hmmm...I still like them pretty well!

I am a serial killer..and I'm not proud of it

Eye tests - DMV style and other nonsense

Thank Goodness I'm not Skinny any more...and other random thoughts

Today I took a Walk -- jcarolek

The Artist -- jcarolek

Chainsaw, Wench, and Bark -- jcarolek

And then there was the time -- jcarolek

Stew, you say???? --- jcarolek

It seems like such a long time ago now, but it was only August when I began blogging.  I blogged about everything and anything that entered my feeble mind.  I did not expect to be met with criticism, and I was not.  I cannot attest to the state of the blogs before I started...though certainly, even back in August, I saw people having heated disputes and "leaving for good." (Yes, some of those have been back and have left several times since.)  I decided to take a look back as some of my earliest blogs...just to see what I was writing about back then.

Here is one the made me laugh again, so I thought I'd share.

My first husband once went to borrow a circular saw from our landlord.

He left our trailor and a little while later returned with a look of consternation on his face.  -- He was holding a black umbrella.

He said, "I think Frank must be drunk!"

I asked why he thought so and he said," I asked him for a power saw and he hunted around and handed me this umbrella!".

I laughed until I was crying...in my husband's DE accent, his request sounded like "parasol"!  

Another, of the same era....

Every year, we had a big Halloween party for our friends in our local community theatre group. (They love to dress up anyway.)  We lived in a house in the woods with a 1/4 mile private dirt/gravel road/driveway. My then-husband, James, decided the number of people coming to the party would be more than we could easily accommodate parking-wise.  So, he asked the folks at the little church at the end of our dirt road if we could use their parking lot for our guests.  They were fine with that and James devised a plan.  Our guests would be directed to park in the church parking lot and then he and another of our friends would give them rides on the trailor behind the tractor up to the house.  Everyone agreed.

On the evening of the party our friend, Rich, arrived in time to help with the parking/chauffering duties.  I opened the door to find this 50-something, very heavy, jovial friend of ours dressed as a ballerina...pink tutu and all!

I said, "Rich! What a great costume!"  to which he smiled and explained, "James said he wanted Ballet Parking!!!"

I laughed until I cried!  James's version of the English laguage always cracked me up!   I could just see him having told Rich he wanted Valet Parking!

bj checked in from Nassau and looks to be having a wonderful time!  Only complaint is that the internet speed is too slow....but she arrived safely and is heading out to see the sights.

Meanwhile...here I sit in the hotel room in MD....not so glamorous.....and the blogs are goofy, so not even particularly enjoyable...

At least someone is having a blast!

Yes, indeedy!  I spent most of the time recovering from my computer's decision to "cough" during the compacting of my email folders.   Bothersome, yes, but steady as you go, I managed to resurrect every folder and email from the recycle bin (all the .bak files) and then rename them to coax Outlook Express to let me see them again....

I suppose I was supposed to get in touch with my OutLook Express tonight.

But, the clock on the wall indicates that I start work again in about two hours, so, to bed I must go!

Great seeing the new faces on the blogs tonight.

When I was in college at FSU, many moons ago, I attended year round. I managed to finish my BA in 2 ½ years, but to do so required taking heavy loads and taking no breaks.  Still, I wanted to enjoy some time with family, and so it was that during my second summer, my youngest brother flew down from Maryland to spend a week or two.  We had a great time, but it was a story he told me during that time that I think about occasionally, when I see very odd, rather unexplainable behavior, on the blogs and elsewhere.

Ray was a paper boy and as such, went around to his clients’ houses on a regular basis to collect their payment.  One afternoon as he was making his rounds, he approached a house not far from ours, but over a hill.  He could not see our house from theirs.  He rode up on his bike, dismounted and headed to the front door.  As he approached, he noticed the garage door was open and in the opening stood a teenaged girl.  She was screaming at him.

Ray was pretty frightened by her, for at 14 he had not yet hit his growth spurt and she was brandishing a gun.  She told him that she would use it.  Well, Ray did not tarry, and remounted his bike…as he did, the girl continued to scream and threaten him.

Ray rode his bike back to the house, on the way coming across a few of his friends.  He stopped to tell them the story, and being boys, they wanted to see for themselves.  They “casually” rode back past the house, and sure enough, the girl was ranting and raving, and now was brandishing a bottle of some nature, which she hurled at them.

Again, they beat a hasty retreat, this time going all the way home and reporting the incident to Dad.  Dad and my stepmom decided that our dog, Maitli, who seriously, had NEVER been taken on walks, was due for a nice walk up and over the hill.  So off they went, in their best, undercover roles, casually strolling by the house in question.  There she was, screaming and brandishing the broken bottle.

“Is that your dog?” she cried?

“Yes,” Dad replied.

“Well, I can cut its throat for you, if you like,” offered the girl.

“No, that’s OK,” answered Dad, “what’s your name?”

“Christopher,” she replied.

“Christopher, that’s an unusual name for an girl,” said Dad.

“It’s my boyfriend’s name…he said I could use it.”

Well, she went on from there ranting and carrying on, and Dad was certain she was “on drugs.”

Nevertheless, she was, eventually, taken away to a psychiatric hospital.  I honestly do not know what she was suffering from that day, but clearly, she had some issues.  Her family (she was one of 11 children) was aware of her issues and had, apparently dealt with them for some time.

In this particular event, my brother was not really hurt, save being hit with the bottle, but he was scared by the experience.

Today, as I see people “going to see” the “crazy” antics of others, and as I read the “explanations” of others, that those acting out are on drugs, off drugs they should be on, mentally ill, drunk or what-have-you, I am reminded that for the most part only those very close to the person in question know the real cause of their erratic behavior.  How we react to things we could not possibly understand will often determine the results of our interactions.

So, if I see you acting bizarre on the blogs, if you want to call yourself Christopher because your boyfriend told you you could use his name, if everyone suggests I should come and witness your behavior for myself, I might well do so.  But I can also say that I will try to remember that I have no idea what has provoked you or what your personal issues are. And I hope I will not add to them.

I know we always like to see the explosion of the feedback pictures and the creativity involved in their creation, but I, for one, really appreciate the feedback from my buyers that lets me know what they liked about the transaction (or disliked, as the case may be.)  I liked this one that I received today.

Good pants, good site, seller works hard at her business. A+

To me, it takes a little extra time to convey the transaction in personal terms, but I sincerely appreciate the feedback.  And, this customer's shipment took 7 days to get to him.  Yep, shipped on 6/18 and arrived on 6/25...not speedy delivery, but he was very gracious!

She was destined to be an artist.  I just did not realize it at the time.  When my daughter was only two she started her artistic experimentation.  I, like every female living in the US today, had a tendency to receive make-up for Christmas from those who clearly had no clue that I don’t wear the stuff.  Never mind…it was a gift, so I kept it.

Jen decided early on that she should help make Mommy pretty by applying the eye shadows, blushes, lipsticks and whatever else was at her disposal in her first “art kits.”  I, deciding that being a willing palette for my daughter’s creativity was better than risking her decorating the living room walls, allowed her to “decorate” me to her heart's content.

On more than one occasion, I found myself answering the door to a salesman, or the mail man, looking like some sort of demented clown.  My then-hubby would scold me for allowing Jen to make me look so “special," but my gut told me there was no harm, and it would all wash off.  The delivery guys would just think I was insane and that was quite alright too.

Eventually, Jen tired of trying to make Mommy into something other than Mommy and she resorted to more classic forms of artistic expression.  Today, her talent truly impresses me.  Every time I look at the pastel of the woman that hangs in my office, I think of her applying that make-up and wanting to makeover her Mommy in pastel color.

Today I discovered the job I covet. We decided to eat lunch at a local Chinese restaurant and, as is the typical American custom, were presented with our Chinese fortune cookies at meal’s end.

Hubby opened his and, extracted the “fortune,” read it and laughed.  His said, “Music is important in your life.”  Some fortune, but, OK.  I opened mine and read my “fortune.”  Mine was quite profound. “The one good thing about repeating your mistakes is that you know when to cringe.”

I had to laugh.  Neither of these could even remotely qualify as a “fortune” and yet it made me realize that people are actually PAID to come up with these little bits of nonsense.  (I do not mean to upset anyone who goes to Chinese restaurants in search of real life guidance and such.)

I got to thinking about this job.  I could do it.  I think I just need to go through the newspaper and randomly clip out sentences or phrases…..I really would not have to think at all.  I am pretty certain there is no quality control involved in this particular job.  I mean, as a restaurant owner, am I presented with the various “fortunes” that will be found in the cookies I purchase from the vendor?  How could I get a poor rating on job performance as a fortune cookie fortune teller?

I think it would be a lot of fun to come up with some clever “fortunes” to leave the customers with as they wrap up their meal.

I wonder….has anyone ever quit eating at a certain Chinese restaurant because of the quality of the fortunes received?

With their latest fee reduction, the discounting of Final Value Fees by 14% for sales under $25.00, which is adevertised to run all summer long, they have effectively confirmed what many have long suspected. They do not rely on the small seller to actually make sales.  Rather, they rely on the small seller to list items for sale.  They make plenty of money on the listing fees, and know that many will take this offer as incentive to list their items.

Since the majority of those items listed will go unsold, it is really no sweat off their back to reduce the FVF.  14% of 0 is not a huge loss for eBay!

I continue to list at the rate I was always listing. I have noticed that with this offer, there have been MANY more listings, hence fewer sales for each, but a huge jump in income for eBay...they are, after all, collecting their bread and butter money up front when all these excited sellers list their items.

Happy selling!  Enjoy your Sunday and don't get discouraged.  eBay is what it is.  We continue to work with what they offer!

OK, I have been told that my number crunching is OK as long as I don't pull a Ross Perot with Pie Charts and such....

I promise...no pie charts...

Number MUNCHING instead of number CRUNCHING?

Criteria	Average rating	Number of ratings
Item as described		104
Communication		103
Shipping time		105
Shipping and handling charges		103

Well, OK, not "dancing" with them, but acknowledging them for what they are IS important to me.  I don't think it fair to discount the value of the customers' voice as expressed through the "sort of" anonymous stars system, any more than I would discount their words in their verbal feedback.  Why do I say this?  I feel my customers leave their honest opinion of my service and our transaction in both aspects.  I always leave my feedback for them when I print their shipping labels so they need never worry about retaliatory feedback. 

The stars actually give me a great indication of how well the majority of my customers feel about the total transaction.  This means that I follow up to ensure they received their item (through the delivery confirmation which I include on every shipment).  If the package is taking a long time to get to them I worry right along with them.  Case in point.  I sent an expensive item out last Saturday.  I sent it via Priority Mail and it had to travel only from VA to MA.  On Tuesday I began checking the tracking number and my gut started feeling really bad as day after day I was greeted with the standard response that the label had been created.

On Friday, I finally was rewarded with a response that: 

Arrival at Unit

Your item arrived at 7:11 AM on June 22, 2007 in EAST FALMOUTH, MA 02536. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.

Great, that wasn't even his post office, but it was getting closer.....are we playing a game of Marco Polo here?

So, I contacted the customer, letting him know that though the PO had accepted my shipment on 6/16, it was only now in a "post office near you."

Today I was happy to see that it had been delivered, and that in his feedback, my customer had mentioned great communication.

Back to the stars.  I do pay attention.  If I see the numbers taking a dive, I know I am in need of a closer look at my practices.

I have now surpassed the 100 count of customers leaving star ratings.  I know that these numbers mean the following:

104 have rated me on my description. With my score of 4.9 I know the best I could have received was 98 grading me a 5 and 6 grading me a 4.  Anything better would have put me over the 4.95 point which would be reported as 5.0.

103 have rated me on my communication. My score of 4.9 means that the best I could have received was 97 5's and 6 4's.

105 have rated me on my shipping time. With the 4.9, I know the best Icould have received was 99 5's and 6 4's.

103 have rated my shipping and handling charges. With a 4.8, I know the best I could have received was 87 5's and 16 4's.

Now, of course this does not take into account those who chose not to leave the detailed feedback.

It is also possible that one of my customers left me a 3, which would only mean that more of the others must have left me a 5.

So, either my customers would prefer that I charge no handling fee (I charge $1.25 which includes insurance on single items and $1.75 on shipping of combined items) or, perhaps they would prefer that I give them the option of lower S/H without insurance...but that sets me up for bad feedback in another way.   I will have to determine whether I can afford to bring that down further, to help raise that S/H star.  But, at some point, I have to simply accept that the perfect 5.0 stars are not worth the cost.  And, at that point, I will have to be happy with my 4.9's and 4.8.

When I make a mistake, I work my tail off to correct it. And this happened one day this week.  I had a lot of orders (very good) and I was swamped with my regular work (pays the bills) and I was doing my usual, six things at once routine.  Hubby has become my shipping guy, meaning that, I print the invoices, pull the merchandise,  print the labels, wrap the packages, and he affixes the labels, applies tape over the address area and  takes them to the Post Office for me.

On Wednesday, as I mentioned, I was running to beat a deadline.  I was happy to make the deadline and hubby took the packages to drop them off at the Post Office on his way to a meeting.

I continued on with my next conference call and worked on leaving feedback at the same time.  As I went to leave feedback for one of my customers, I realized I had just shipped the wrong shirt.  She had ordered the one with all the colorful hummingbirds, and I had shipped the Advice From a Hummingbird shirt. Darn it!  Well, I packaged up the correct shirt, printed another label and, once my meeting was over, dashed down to the Post Office. 

I took my turn in line, and when I reached the counter, I asked about the possibility of retrieving a package my husband had dropped off an hour and a half earlier.  Well, these ladies see me or my husband every day, so they were super nice and took a look for me.  No, there was no such package awaiting the truck. 

OK, perhaps he was going to drop them off AFTER his meeting.  His meeting was just about over, from my calculations, so I called him on his cell phone.  He did not answer.  Figuring he must still be in the meeting, I decided to wait a few minutes in the PO parking lot, in case he drove up.

Five minutes later, I tried his cell phone again.  This time I got him, and he assured me that he had delivered the packages before going to his meeting, but that he had used the drive by drop box in the parking lot.  Great!

Back into the PO I went and when I again reached the counter, I announced that hubby had put them in the box outside.  Well, they were very nice, but shook their heads…no they could not go out there to retrieve it.  Knowing that the pick-up for that box was to take place in approximately 15 minutes, I asked if they might be able to nab it once the box was emptied.  Yes, they would be on the look-out, and I should call them in the morning.

Thursday morning I called and sure enough they had retrieved my errant package.  Yippee!!!  I quickly went into PayPal and canceled the postage, and, when I took my packages in that morning, they gave me back the one they had collected for me.

My final step in this whole process was to refund the excess S/H the customer had paid for her shirt shipment.  The Postal Service might lose packages, crush packages or delivery them at the speed of a turtle sometimes, but the Postal workers truly go out of their way to help me provide the best service to my customers….in spite of myself!

I promised to update information regarding the U-PIC insurance claims process, as soon as I had completed my first claim.  Today I did just that.  Following this report I will repost an earlier one explaining what U-PIC is.

The Claim:

On May 16 I shipped a lamp to a customer.  It was well packed. I insured it, as I do all my shipments, through U-PIC.

On May 26 I was notified by my customer that the lamp had arrived, but the box was nearly demolished, and the lamp was broken.  She asked what to do.

I refunded her money immediately and then asked that she fill out and mail me the completed letter attesting to the damage. (she did also send me a photo of the broken lamp via eMail).  She promised to do so and I received her attestation a few days later.

I completed my part of the claims form and submitted the claim via regular mail to U-PIC. (I could have FAXED it, but I wanted to test the turnaround time).

I sent the claim in on June 14.

On June 20 I received notification that my claim would be paid.

On June 22 (today) I was notified that my check had been mailed.

The amount recovered was the auction price and the shipping charges paid by my customer.

The process was flawless.  And the cost was 65 cents for insured value up to $100.

I am a happy U-PIC customer!

By Request -- What is U-PIC -- jcarolek

I just read your post and it reminded me of this one I wrote a few months ago.

A measure of success -- jcarolek

When my daughter was about 20 months old we were in the process of trying to buy a new house.  One afternoon, we had a meeting with the realtor and I left work early to meet my husband at home so that we could drive together to meet her.  Hubby was running late, but had loaded the kids into the car to take them to the babysitter’s house.  After loading them in and buckling then in place, he realized he had locked his keys in the house.

He went into the back to retrieve the emergency key to the house and dashed in to get his car keys.  Meanwhile, in the car, the 3 ½ year old boy and 1 ½ year old girl were getting bored.  The back passenger windows were “child safe” –  they went down only halfway.

Well, I don’t know about your kids, but, particularly in my daughter’s case, mine were inclined to “test” these constraints. So it was that, as I drove up to meet my husband, to drive to our engagement, I witnessed my 20 month old crawling out of the window of the car. 

I was too late to affect any change in the course of events. I could only watch in horror as I saw her fall to the driveway, suddenly “informed” that little girls do not “float.” 

The good news was that we were quite poor and had a standard “pine straw” driveway…no gravel, blacktop or concrete to make matters worse, but still, I jumped out on my now parked car and ran to my daughter.  I could tell by the pine straw now clinging to her shirt, that she had landed on her shoulder…not her head.  (Thank God for small favors.)

I scooped her up and brushed her off, kissed away her tears and asked her if she was hurt. She replied that she was OK, but it scared her.  I wasted no time getting both kids re-buckled in, and begging an explanation of my husband, who had, at about that time, sauntered out of the house, blissfully unaware of his daughter’s fall.

We took her to the doctor later that afternoon, when it became apparent she was favoring that arm.  Our regular doctor was not on that day, and the doctor at the HMO who saw Jen, sent her for X-rays, read them and assured us there was nothing to be concerned about.  We should take her home and give her Tylenol if the pain bothered her.  There were no broken bones. That was Friday.

By Sunday, Jen looked as if she had no shoulder on that side.  She was still in pain and was not using her arm at all.  Monday morning, we were back at the HMO and her regular pediatrician.  He took a look at Jen and a look at the X-rays taken three days earlier and decided to send her back for more X-rays. This time they took various pictures in various positions (her first modeling job!)

Sure enough, his suspicions were verified.  Jen’s collar bone was not only broken, but dislocated.  The first X-ray had not been able to pick up the break because the dislocation placed the one part of the bone directly behind the other, giving the appearance of single, unbroken bone.

For the next few weeks, Jen wore the little harness that holds the shoulders in place, allowing the best healing of the broken collar bone.  She still has the lump where the two parts of the bone overlap, but nobody would notice, if they were not looking for it.

What I learned in this whole sequence of events follows:

• Safety features are only as good as their safe implementation
• Children will find a way to push the envelope
• Outward appearance of inner health is often inaccurate
• Experts can miss things too – I can and should continue to challenge when I see an “obvious” problem
• Even when I can see the world falling apart before my very eyes, there ARE times when I CANNOT affect a change to the events.

On the plus side, my daughter has not decided the take up sky-diving yet (though bungee-jumping was on her list of first things to do when she turned 18! LOL

Some people just really like to talk about things they know nothing of.  Well, OK, to be honest, they  “read all about it” in the newspaper, or “saw it on the News” on TV, or what have you, but what tickles me to no end are the quantum leaps in logic they take to reach their “opinion” on the matter.

Now, I see this in many subject areas, but the one which had me rolling took place yesterday at my sister’s house.  We had traveled to MD to share my nephew’s birthday with him and family and friends had been invited.  Due to the middle of the week date, the gathering was relatively small…with about 16 attending. 

My sister was going just a bit mad with the “elder” bunch who did as is the norm and went on and on about their health, ailments, operations, medicines…yada, yada, yada. 

I don’t recall how it happened, but eventually, the subject made its way around to the email, and the forwarding of email jokes, and WARNINGS and the like, but, we got to hear the opinions of these haters of the computers, as they spoke about the evils of their email systems which prevent them from opening attachments (but apparently present no problem in forwarding these gems on to the rest of the free world.)

I escaped a few times to go play with the dogs and cats out in the yard, but I returned, and in true soap opera style, the subjects were beginning their “same old story” phase….we were heading back into the health discussions again.

As my sister and I chuckled at their constant regurgitation of the same topics, she suddenly thought to show me that she has been printing out my blog posts that pertain to the family, and adding them to the book of such I had gifted each family member with this Christmas….I had to laugh when she showed me that the blog entries had outgrown their one inch binder and spilled over into a 3 inch binder….hmmm

Well, that was sufficient to get the subject changed to eBay.  And then the EXPERTS began to share their opinions.  In case you are wondering…..

The EXPERTS Have Spoken:

1. Everyone on eBay is a SCAMMER.

2. Everyone on eBay gets SCAMMED.

Uh-huh….OK, that fact that I have been buying and selling on eBay for more than seven years does NOT qualify me to speak on such matters.

My dear sweet mother even suggested that I might have been scammed in a gift I had given her.  Yes, I had bought two cats figurines from another eBay seller.  My mother loves cats and collects cats, both living and inanimate.  Her concern that I had been SCAMMED was due to the fact that…..

BOTH CATS WERE FACING THE SAME WAY!!!!

“Huh? What are you talking about Mom?”

“Well, in a pair, one is supposed to face right and the other left.”

OK, well, I’m thinking I did NOT get scammed, because I did not buy a “pair of cat figurines...”  I bought two cat figurines….BUT…then again, I’m NOT the expert on eBay and SCAMMERS!!!

Honestly, we had a great time at the party. All these little kids are now grown….