I goofed...

...but not too badly. I should have ordered the knives for the Soldiers' Holiday Care package at least a few days ago. I suppose that I was waiting/hoping for a few more donations, but we got what we have got and I guess that is it.

I looked at knives in stores today. I went to Dick's Sporting Goods, WalMart and The Sports Authority. Dicks was the only place with knives I would even consider buying, such as the Buck Bantam BLW, although the price offered was ridiculous. They wanted about $24 apiece. I can order them online for about $11.99 apiece plus shipping. The way I goofed is that if I order them online now, the cost of shipping to me will be about $25 for 2nd day air, or $37 for next day air. I sent in an inquiry to Smoky Mountain Knife Works to see if they can help out with the shipping in any way. I just don't want to add any more money out of pocket than I have to. The remainder of the donations will go to the knives and to goodies I bought today for inclusion in the package. It leaves me virtually nothing for shipping on the knife order, but I am hopeful they will help out. If not, I'll order 2nd day air and hope I get em by Wednesday, and get em out by Thursday to Jamie and his unit. They may wind up being late if sent then, late for Christmas of Chanukah, but not for New Year's Day I suppose. Then again, I imagine any time they get a package it is good for them.

By the way today I picked up the final goodies and other items for the packages:

$ 12.99 - A box of 24 packs of Swedish Fish candies

$ 11.99 - A box of assorted cracker/cookie packets

including Goldfish Crackers, Mini-Chunk cookies

and some others

$ 6.39 - A large multi-pack of Wrigley's Spearmint

chewing gum

$ 11.59 - A 30 pack variety of Nestle's crunch Bars,

Butterfinger Bars and Baby Ruth Bars

$ 5.88 - A 200 ct. box of Sweet Stripes Candy (peppermint

candy balls with red and white stripes like candy cane)

$ 1.96 - A can of Washburn's Old Fashioned hard candies

$ 55.18 - Total for today's purchases when tax was added at a rate of 8.625%.

Add that to the previous items bought so far:

$ 35.04 - 200 pairs of Ear Plugs
$ 29.23 - Costco for Tootsie Roll Pops, 12 decks of playing cards, and 10 pack of ChapSticks $ 34.90 - A Cigar Sampler, box of 25 cigars

$107.72 - Total for Previous Purchased Items, note I just added tax I had forgotten to

show in previous posts on this (total before reflected w/o tax was $99.17)

$162.90 - GRAND TOTAL SPENT SO FAR (Of the items pictured above some were bought today, some previously, and I am throwing in the deodorant sticks for shits and giggles.)

$290.00 - Total Donations Received Including What I Donated (excluding the postage I am paying that out of my pocket)

$127.10 - Left Over For Purchase of the Knives. yes I went over budget and will not have enough for the knife purchase as planned, but I will make that up out of my pocket. My mistake for spending a bit more on goodies than I had to spend.

The knives themselves will be $131.89 without shipping, and there should be no tax since these guys are not in my state. That will leave me only $4.79 short. If I have to pay next day air that will add $37.24 to the order, making me about $42.03 in the red. Hopefully Smoky Mountain Knife Works can do something better for shipping by next day air. While second day air is $12 less expensive, I figure next day air will get them here that one important day sooner, so I can ship then to Jamie and his unit a day sooner. I wish I had ordered these a week ago, there would have been free ground shipping. Oh well. So much for my procrastination, now I'll pay the price to try to get them there on time.

By the way, when I ship the packages out to the troops, I send them Priority mail which gets them to their hub point here in the US quicker, but does nothing to actually speed them up in the military mail. I suppose nothing short of knowing a General could do that. Anyone want to recommend a General with whom you are on good terms who has pull with this sort of a thing?

All the best,

Glenn B