Shameless Product Review: It’s Shiny

It finally arrived.

The first one shipped directly elsewhere. Here’s what the tracking info, which I looked up long after the woodbasket was due, told me:

I emailed my contact “Khara” and requested it be resent. A “Jamie,” who wrote back that Khara had “moved on from the company,” responded that it would now come to my “correct address,” which was actually “goodbadi in care of” the initials of some local friends who innocently agreed to receive it for me, friends who only later realized the potential ramifications of their charity:

Friend: “You may have said, but why isn’t it going to your house?”

Me: “It’s not going to our house because I’m hoping to keep my blog totally anonymous. It’s probably a ridiculous hope borne of paranoia.”

Friend: “So what you’re saying is that you’re going to send all the wackos to OUR house?”

Me: “Hmmm. Good point. Maybe they’ll be nice wackos.”

Friend: “If there are serious repercussions, we’re moving to your house.”

But then, before the resent package arrived, our friends moved (not to our house, though; just into town). Their neighbors at their old house (also friends of ours, but herein referred to just as “their neighbors”) obligingly kept an eye out for the package, but it was our friends’ former landlord who actually ended up receiving it and who took it to the neighbors, who brought it last night to our friends’ daughter’s birthday party supper of pancakes, sausage, cider, and persimmon smoothie (and cupcakes and ice cream and fruit salad and more).

So as you can see, it was a rather convoluted process, actually getting my grubby paws on this “free” polished trim brass woodbasket for use, review, and keepage.

But the box looked flatter than I’d expected. Was it flattened? Just a little bit. I had to assemble it, apparently, so, after tearing open the nuts-and-bolts package and scattering them like a thousand points of light all over our living room floor, I used the heavy duty wrench that came with it to bolt on the feet, the handle mounts, and the handle.

And so far it works! It’s shiny (err, I thought it was going to be black with brass trim), sure footed, and–to me, anyway–totally worth the runaround it required of the UPS, our friends, their neighbors, and their landlord (and picking up those scattered nuts and bolts).

I trust that it will serve me well until I let you know otherwise.