www.beckinabox.com

After work today Big Rick and I went down to Philly. He ordered 20 boxes of honey balls from Cosmi’s Pastries. He had, earlier in the week, got boxes of honey balls from Nino’s Pastry Shop, which is usually pretty damn good. The honey balls were made all wrong at Nino’s and he went to complain, this is after he gave most of the boxes away as gifts.

So I accompanied him down to Philly. We had a lot of fun. He’s been ordering from Cosmi’s for a while now and said he should have gone there first instead of Nino’s. He gave me another box of the honey balls and these were a HUGE difference. Very good. Then he took me to another bakery not too far away called Potito’s. There he got me a tray of cookies for coming down to Philly with him. He met the owner of Potito’s a few years ago at Jefferson hospital. They ended up befriending each other. Rick often visited his shop when he was in town. A couple years later the owner died from leukemia at a relatively young age. Anyway, when we got to Potito’s the daughter remembered Rick, even some details, from Trenton, owns the pizza place. I guess he’s a hard one to forget. It was a very sweet moment.

Now I must get back to drawing my Christmas cards and back to watching Battlestar Galactica.

Bettie Page dies at 85; pinup queen played a key role in the sexual revolution of the 1960s and later became a cult figure.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-page12-2008dec12,0,5310709.story

Every year Maker’s Mark sends me a unique gift around the holidays.This year they sent me Maker’s Mark wrapping paper along with Maker’s Mark gift tags and Maker’s Mark ribbon. Thank you Maker’s Mark for the gift and thank you for making such great tasting bourbon!

I just got back from the liquor store. I purchased a bottle of Ciroc vodka. I use that for my delicious martinis. Other than that I got all ‘wintry’ beers, stouts. Samuel Adams Cream Stout, Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. For some reason stouts remind me of winter. Delicious.

2 weeks ago I added the Battlestar Galactica Season 3 six disc set to the top of my NetFlix queue. It was in order from disc 1 to disc 6. They sent disc 4 first. That’s no good, especially considering I’m on the 1 DVD out at a time plan, so I filed a complaint and sent it back and they sent me disc 1 right away. I had sent that back and then they sent me disc 3. What’s wrong with them?

So this time I called them up after a wait of 20 seconds I was patched through to Sara at NetFlix customer service. She has a wonderful voice and couldn’t be nicer. She told me that she would sent disc 2 out right away and to hang onto disc 3 when I get it. She told me they were having problems with sending seasons out in order so she would delete the other 3 discs from my queue and for me to just add them one at a time until they correct the problem.

Sara was more than helpful and extremely pleasant. I wished her happy holidays and the total phone called was 2 minutes long. Less than a minute after I hung up I got an email from NetFlix asking me to rate my experience.

I wish I could put in additional feedback on the experience because I found it more than satisfactory and though Sara at customer service was wonderful. Happy holidays Sara!

After dinner at Amici’s tonight I have another viewing to go to. My Aunt Jo died. This is my second aunt to die in a week and a half. Here’s Aunt Jo’s obituary:

Josephine Guarnieri

Josephine Reno Guarnieri, 87, of Hamilton Township died Thursday at Compassionate Care Hospice at Saint Francis Medical Center, Trenton. Born in Trenton, she resided in Hamilton Township for the past 45 years. Mrs. Guarnieri retired in 2006 after more than 30 years from Little King Deli, Route 33, Hamilton Township.

She was the daughter of the late Gaetano and Antonietta Reno; sister of the late Carmen Aregnano, Frank Renio, Paul Renna, Frances Graziano, Caroline Mirabelli, Dorothy Botteri, and Madeline Scardone. She is survived by her husband of 67 years, Alfred Guarnieri; two sons and a daughter-in-law, Alan R. and Denise Guarnieri of Bordentown Township, and David Guarnieri of Hamilton Township; a sister-in-law, Sue Aregnano; two grandchildren, Alexa and Lucas Guarnieri, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

The funeral will be held 9:30 a.m. Tuesday from the Brenna Funeral Home, 340 Hamilton Ave., Trenton. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. at Saint Mary’s Church, 45 Crosswicks St., Bordentown. Burial will follow in Brig. General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery, North Hanover Township. Calling hours for relatives and friends will be 6-9 p.m. Monday evening at the Brenna Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in her name to the Alzheimers Association, Inc., Greater NJ Chapter, 400 Morris Ave., Suite 251, Denville, NJ 07834. (973-586-4300).

Mike Murray was flying into Atlantic City Airport today and I had asked him if he would like me to pick him up. He agreed. Every time I go down to Atlantic City I always drive by the Pic-A-Lili. Since I was a kid I would see this roadside restaurant in the middle of the pine barrens and always wanted to stop there. After I picked up Mike I asked him if he was hungry and of course he was, he’s always hungry. I finally went to the Pic-A-Lili. We sat right at the bar. Besides us, there were only a handfull of other customers in there, they all sat at the bar and they all seemed to be hunters. Kinda odd. The lovely girl that waited on us said they get a lot of hunters in there. Which brings me to this, what do hunters do? Is hunting their occupation? Do they sell the animals that they catch or kill? It’s a Monday afternoon, is that their day job? Well?