Happy Song; Gel Pack; Free Coffee

Here’s a happy song Paul found:

Handheld, by Momus

It’s a person singing a love song to his favorite handheld device, and then the handheld device sings back to him. The funny thing is that I can get genuinely choked up over this song. Well, it isn’t funny or surprising to my family, as they have also seen me get genuinely choked up over a child’s project on the life cycle of the monarch butterfly.

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One of the irritating short people who lives in our house took a plastic ice pack and, while it was thawed and pliable, wove it in and out of the middle bars of a freezer shelf.

I went several months thinking that probably one day we’d defrost the freezer and we could get it out THEN, and then yesterday I couldn’t stand it anymore and I used a knife and a hammer. There are shards of this stuff scattered, though I got as many as I could because I see the packet says DO NOT INGEST and DO NOT GET INTO EYES and OMG PLEASE DON’T EVEN LOOK AT IT.

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You know how some bags of Starbucks coffee say that you can exchange the empty bag for a coffee at Starbucks? Do the Starbuckses located within Target stores take those? I could just ask them, I suppose, but I hate asking questions like that. Sometimes the person I ask seems like their goal is to explain at length why it is outrageous of me to expect a positive answer to the question I asked so extremely deferentially and non-expectantly, and so then I end up saying over and over, “Yes, no, I get it….No, I just wondered…No, I completely understand…No, of course you couldn’t…Really, you SHOULDN’T, it would be WRONG to…no, I see. Okay. Okay. Okay. YES, okay! Okay, I think I hear my mother calling me.”

So I thought I’d just ask you.

25 thoughts on “Happy Song; Gel Pack; Free Coffee

  1. Dr. Maureen

    You can get free coffee in exchange for trash as Starbucks? For me, the only Starbucks anywhere near is the one in the Target near me. Also I never buy bags of Starbucks coffee, so I guess this doesn’t affect me and I also don’t know the answer. So! Glad to help you out!

    Reply
  2. Sarah

    I so connected with that last paragraph. I live in fear of the over explanation, the beating-you-over-the-head-with-every-ounce-of-knowledge-they-have-on-the-subject explanation, when all I needed was yes or no!
    My mom does this sometimes, too, if she has to turn me down when I’ve requested a favor (usually childcare, obv.) And I’m all, “No, I get it! You have a life too! Yes, of course you’re allowed to have plans! No, I’m not upset! It’s FINE! DEAR GOD LET ME GET OFF THE PHONE NOW TO CALL SOMEONE ELSE AND ASK!”

    Reply
  3. C C Donna

    Next time you have a dilemma like that, you should have your mother ask. Mothers are willing to sacrifice for their children. I am always most happy to step up to the plate, so to speak. Doesn’t bother me at all. Problem is that most of my family detours to another area if they see a confrontation coming on. Unfortunately, the person I’m confronting usually gives me the “I just work here” attitude which makes me call the manager. Want to go shopping Swistle?

    Reply
  4. Heather R

    Swistle, I will call anyone anytime for you and ask anything:) I have no fear at all of calling or asking in person. My husband hates calling places and usually just won’t ever find out the info he wants unless it is searchable online….I love than I can be of help in that area for him!

    Reply
  5. Nicole

    Ahahaha! I’m sorry for laughing about the gel pack – how very annoying but how very weirdly funny at the same time. Only a boy would do something like that. Or I’m assuming it’s one of your boys. Now I’ll feel like a real jackass if it was Elizabeth.

    Reply
  6. Beylit

    I had a ziplock of chicken do that once in my freezer. I had chicken frozen around the bars of my freezer drawer for years until I got angry enough to take a hack saw to it. True story. There I was sitting on the floor of my kitchen with a hacksaw in the kitchen attacking my freezer. And I wonder why my cats look at me funny sometimes.

    Reply
  7. Joanne

    I’m so glad someone called! I would have guessed no because they seem so DUMB at my Target’s Starbucks. I mean, they don’t always seem like actual Starbucks employees, so I figure they’re not. Anyways, good news!

    Reply
  8. Swistle

    Nellyru- I did it myself this morning, and it was easy as pie! I handed them the coffee bag (it has to say it can be exchanged for the free cup), and they handed me a coffee! I am now taking that cost off the cost of the bag of coffee, since I periodically get coffee at the Target Starbucks ANYWAY. It was AWESOME.

    Reply
  9. Misty

    The freezer pack thing is the act of ultimate naughtiness. Seemingly innocent with disproportionate consequenses. I am in awe. Good job, Swistlings!

    (Oh, sorry Swistle.) :)

    Reply
  10. Swistle

    BenBirdy1- I just sent a screenshot of your comment to my mom so we could engage in squealing. “OOOOOOOOOMG CATHERINE NEWMAN. DID YOU SEE IT WAS CATHERINE NEWMAN, _THE_ CATHERINE NEWMAN OOOOOOOOOOOOMGGGGGGGGG???”

    Reply
  11. Maggie

    Oh the flexible ice pack in the freezer – pure evil genius – or more likely (if your boys are anything like mine) pure lack of ability/interest in thinking it through. I have only the block ice packs and looks like I won’t be getting the flexible kind any time soon after reading this!

    Reply
  12. brzeski

    Totally laughing over here, because when I saw Catherine’s comment I was all “OMG Catherine NEWMAN commented on Swistle’s blog! Oh, Swistle is probably all calm about it, they must be friends and I’m a star-struck dork.” Heheheh. Dorks unite!
    Catherine, I do hope we haven’t dorked you into never commenting again. We love you. Is it fun to be an online rock star? Or annoying?

    Reply
  13. fairydogmother

    I see that you already got a happy resolution on your Starbucks question. Here’s the official answer according to my Starbucks sources in case anyone else winders or has a different experience: the Starbucks stores/kiosks inside Target, Fred Meyer, Safeway, etc are almost always licensed stores. They SHOULD honor all of the same promotions, etc just like they did for you. However, as my friends explained to me, the staff at those Starbucks outlets AND their computer systems are Target’s (or wherever you are shopping), not Starbucks employees or the official Starbucks computer system, so the outcome may vary from store to store & employee to employee if there is no button for them to press for whatever the promotion is, simply because they may not have the training or know how to ring it through for you.

    I’m such a nerd. Catching up on google reader and I had to find out the answer right away, and I don’t even drink Starbucks coffee…

    Reply

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