Getting Ready for Christmas... Need Screwdriver NOW!

My beloved friend, The Illustrated Librarian, is wonderful, intelligent, lovely, and INSANE. She drop-shipped me an enormous box for Thing2's Christmas gift. Does TIL spoil me an my kids? Yes she does! Do I love her to bits? You betcha I do!

"It's the SHIT!" she shrieked enthusiastically over the phone to me. "She's going to go CRAZY over this!"

Once the box was delivered, and I pulled out the gift, it crossed my mind that -I- was the only one who was going to go crazy... putting this damn thing together.

Let me introduce you to the Disney Princess Vanity Table. Pink, pink, pink. And more pink. *See Picture #1* I opened the box and the vanity was in 3 trillion pieces, each one carefully wrapped in tissue paper. A tiny note complaining about carpal tunnel syndrome, written in Chinese, accompanied the package of screws and tiny parts. UGH! I was prepared for the worst. I didn't even have a glass of wine prior to beginning my put-together session. (Yes, I know, it's the End of Days.) I sat down and carefully pulled out all parts and then opened the INSTRUCTION BOOKLET. Not a page. A BOOKLET. *See Picture #2*

I really couldn't see how Picture #1 could be obtained from the parts in Picture #2. No. No. No.

All the instuctions were pictographs. No words. You must have to supply your own, including curse words. Part A, B, C, ... you get the picture. I started matching parts to letters, suddenly realizing the GENIUS of the Chinese manufacturing company: each piece identified by letter in the instruction booklet had the matching letter molded into the inside of the part! Ie., part A had a plastic A on it! Wooooooopeeeee! No guessing, no comparing parts, hoping you've picked up part C and not part Q. Each part was labeled.

From then on, it took me only 30 minutes to put together the table. Easy! All the parts were there, each one fit, and it worked perfectly. All Thing2 has to do is unwrap and play with it. If TIL's ears were burning at the beginning of the process--as I used a few choice words--then her heart was glowing with praise when I finished. TIL is right. It IS the shit. Thing2 is going to go bonkers. Once again, TIL comes through with the coolest gift.

XOXO, TIL!