OOPS!
Mods? Please? Happy thread?

done. most excellent happy post has been moved to happy thread.

I cut my left thumb pretty well this morning with a box knife. I was cutting a box down a bit to fit a tripod I sold on ebay yesterday and was just being careless by holding a big ruler as a straight edge with the tip of my thumb extending out a bit too far. So it's sliced right at the top of the thumb nail into the meaty part.

I grabbed some paper towels and held it for awhile. Then I went to our bathroom to look for band aids, a useless trip as we seem to have a pretty pathetic first aid kit. I finally found some finger band aids which which work pretty well for fingertips. Later I went to the store and got some steri-strips and stuck them from my fingernail over the cut and onto where my thumb print is. Wrapped it up again in a band aid and the wrapped the thumb with some tape to hold the band aid on.

I hate when I do shit like this, it makes it hard to do things I need to do like finish the garden or put my wife's car back together.

I've found for fingers, liquid bandage is best. Depends on how bad the cut is though.

The great thing about the 'glue' is that it doesn't come off when you work with your hands or wash your hands. Doesn't work with big gashes though.

*bites tongue*

I'm sorry about your gash.
(tongue unbitten - less painful that way)

My thumb about 12 hours after I cut it.

Now it's 2 days later and it feels better. I've cleaned it up and slept last night with just a sterile-strip on it.

Oh gawd, I did not want to see that. I am sorry for your finger. Now excuse me....:vomitblu:

Jeanie Mac!
Chris you have to warn us before you post those!
(not seriously, like, it was just shock-a-rama)

Nasty, nasty nasty. For you I mean. Horrrid injury.
Glad it's still attached at least. Just painful as fuck I bet.

Upset today? Well.... more like cross. But there's no thread for that.
I got Dad some Wetherspoons vouchers for his birthday.
It's a chain of pubs in the UK - decent, clean, family places, reasonable food and good drinks prices. Mum & Dad like them. £20. That would cover 2x2 meals.

Now I had to wait til payday. Yesterday. Because I had no money until then.
I thought I could walk into a pub and just buy vouchers, or a gift card, like you can in pretty much every national chain from make-up stores to supermarkets. In fact he got two gift cards from other members of the family.

No. Only online.
Well okay. It's not like I'm computer illiterate or can only pay in cash (both thanks to the 'rents I admit.)
So I ordered. £20. And paid extra for Special Delivery.
Wait, where are they? I know they can arrive until 13.00, but these things tend to come early or not come at all.
So I called Customer Services, just to check.

Hah.

If you order vouchers, they are set up for despatch the NEXT DAY. I'm not talking about ordering at 21.00, I ordered before 12.00.
Nothing on the website (and I've gone back over it with ant's feet) tells you this.
Fuck it arriving before 13.00 tomorrow - it could arrive in a weeks time now for all I care.

Customer Services are calling me back.
It's not the money. Although I'd like a refund.
It's being a shitty daughter that bothers me. Even though I tried not to be. Shoulda just put a £20 note in his card, eh?

That doesn't make you a shitty daughter at all. Things happen and stuff gets delayed. Its not like you did on purpose or put it off until the last minute because you didn't care. You do care and thats why it is upsetting you in the first place. I still have Christmas presents to give out and I don't feel shitty for it.

Not a shitty daughter. You bought a no-stress-all-round cake and carried it with care and love all the way through town.

Got a refund on the delivery cost.
In the mean time talked to Mum. She said "Don't cancel the vouchers, he'll love them. Just tell him you were let down and something is coming."
Sage advice from the Mater.

I got him a photo card from Moonpig, which he loved.
And we brought in his cream cake with candles and sang Happy Birthday (and didn't give any money to Paul McCartney, haha!)
And Mum says he was very happy.
I also got up early to make sure all his cards and prizes were on the breakfast table.

So anything else is a bonus...
I still feel crummy though.

Don't beat yourself up over it! My wife always says "In five years will you look back and remember it? Will it have made a difference?"

Chances are most likely it won't!

I checked out the Wetherspoons website. Looks like a nice chain. Over the years of my visiting the UK I have seen Pub-Grub really evolve. There was a time when all you could get was fish and chips, bangers and mash, etc. and the Sunday carvery and mainly beer and ale to drink. Now they try to be a lot more creative and offer much more. My British relatives say it started to change when Brits income improved and they began traveling on the continent and elsewhere and came home and demanded more from the local pubs. Pub food isn't always the bargain it used to be but it's head over tails better then most of the chains here in the USA!

Don't beat yourself up over it. Your mum isn't, after all ;)

Thanks peeps.
You know me - any chance to over-react and I'm on it.

All is calm, all is bright now.
And when the vouchers arrive (and I bet they get them out lickety-split now) I'll be Best Daughter of the Year. Which I am intrinsically, just sometimes I screw up.

ETA - Chris, I must start a Pub Food in the UK thread or somesuch.
Because you're very right - it's changed enormously in my lifetime and I'd like to celebrate it.