Elizabeth and Paul and I just spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure out how to spell shipable/shippable. We still don’t know. We had good arguments for either one; spellcheck was not persuaded. In the end we felt “shipable” looked more likely.

Every year I mail a large Christmas box to Paul’s sister Beth. I struggle mentally with how much it costs to ship (just think of how many more presents I could have gotten her with that money!), but my sense is that what we send her is about 90% of her Christmas, so I use a lot of coping thoughts and I just DO IT. I could have things shipped directly for free, but then they wouldn’t be wrapped and labeled, and that feels grim when it’s 90% of someone’s Christmas; or else they WOULD be wrapped, and it would cost $$$ extra per gift, so I might as well channel that gift-wrapping expense into the shipping costs and then I get to use ribbon and festive tissue paper and tuck little treats into the crevices and so forth.

Where was I? Oh yes! But there are some things I wouldn’t wrap anyway—more like stocking stuffers or general holiday treats. Some of them are lightweight, and those are nice for the aforementioned tucking into crevices. But some of the things are heavier or bulkier, and take up a really surprising amount of room in the box, and what I would rather do is ship them separately for free. We talked about this idea before, for pandemic birthday boxes and pandemic Mother’s Day care packages, and now I am working on a Pandemic Stocking (box), for Beth. This would also work as a Christmas care package gift for someone: address it to Firstname GIFT Surname, and tell them to put the whole box under the tree as-is. (Not that it will all come in one box. No. It will come in like EIGHT boxes.)

Some things ship for free with $25+, other things require $35+. I’m willing to spend $35+ (we don’t budget quite as much for Beth as for my brother’s family of four, but…we do adjust disproportionately, keeping in mind that my brother’s family has two sets of parents/siblings shopping for them too, while Beth does not), but it’s something to be aware of as you’re shopping, so you don’t put together the perfect $25 package and find it doesn’t qualify for free shipping. And some things are drifting in and out of availability for shipping, or are only shipable/shippable to certain zip codes—but this is just to give a general idea of some things that might work for a Christmas care package / stocking box.

I briefly considered starting with an actual stocking, just to be cute—but Beth already HAS a stocking, so it would be more like an unnecessary increase in the cost. I was still tempted, for thematic cuteness.

 

In normal times, I would not have included a box of tissues, but these are not normal times. (They sometimes have the store-brand available for shipping even if nothing else is, though I’ll start by looking for Puffs or Kleenex to be fancy.)

 

Hand soap and hand sanitizer, too: the new ways to say I care about you.

 

And I feel a LITTLE silly about this—but I have been HUNTING DOWN this Lysol cleaning spray since March, and finally Finally FINALLY found it available for shipping from Target, and it comes in and out of availability, but if it is available when I’m ready to send a package to Beth, I AM INCLUDING A BOTTLE OF IT.

Is this a lot less like a Christmas stocking and a lot more like a standard weekly Target shopping trip of yore? YES. THESE ARE ODD TIMES, MY FRIENDS. I AM LEANING INTO IT. I will maybe get her some paper towels and toilet paper, too, and I will KNOW SHE WILL BE HAPPY TO SEE THEM AS IN NO OTHER YEAR OF HER LIFE THUS FAR!

 

Okay, now for some better / more normal stocking things. These cute little Thayers face mists:

William got me started on Thayers when he went on a skin-care kick and was participating heavily in online skincare message boards and so forth. He got a bottle of Thayers, so then I wanted a bottle too, and then Miss Grace was talking about all kinds of other face-mist options, and anyway now my cabinet is filled with like a dozen face mists but I always want more of them. This set has three little bottles to try: the unscented, the rose, and a seasonal cranberry orange.

 

Seasonal dish towels:

 

Seasonal Lindt truffles:

 

Seasonal pretzels (these dumb things are so good; I don’t even LIKE white chocolate OR pretzels and I can eat a whole expensive little bag in one sitting EASILY) (I tried the dark chocolate ones ASSUMING I’d LOVE them, and they did not hold the same magic for me, there is no explaining it):

 

Seasonal Ferrero Rocher:

 

Seasonal Oreos:

 

Seasonal Pepperidge Farm:

 

Seasonal Belvita bars:

 

Seasonal Larabars:

 

Shortbread cookies:

 

Glazed nuts. They’re kind of expensive, but they’re good hearty food while also being coated in delicious sugar/salt.

 

Fun trail mix:

 

Reese’s Peanut Butter Trees:

 

Seasonal lip balm:

 

Fun little skincare samples to try:

(They also have cosmetics samples, haircare samples, “clean beauty” samples.)

 

Lotion sampler:

 

Cute seasonal face masks (FACE MASK SURE HAS A DIFFERENT MEANING THIS YEAR) (these are the old meaning):

(Or just one: reindeer, snowman, gingerbread, moose, penguin.) (I couldn’t find the polar bear sold on his own, so he must be a bonus that comes with the set.)

 

Seasonal tea:

(The peppermint is available year-round but I like it more at Christmastime.)

 

Seasonal coffee:

 

Treats for her pets:

 

Ridiculous charming birds:

 

New tree ornament:

 

Seasonal mug:

(Also available in dog.)

Several of my dears were talking on Twitter about heated shawls, and I went to get a link so I could recommend to them a heated throw blanket I had in mind for a future gift-ideas post, and it is ON SALE RIGHT NOW so I am going to mention it right now instead of in a future gift-ideas post:

Biddeford Heated Throw Blanket (also available in extra-long), on sale right now for $20 down from $30. That is the very price I aim for, and I believe it’s as low as I’ve ever seen it on a sale; I do sometimes get it on clearance for $15, but by then the color/pattern choices are usually down to my least favorites. And $20 is a nice price for many office/friend gift exchanges, if anyone is doing those this year.

(The SHERPA one, normally $40-50, is ALSO on sale for $20, but I haven’t tried that one so can’t personally vouch for it. I’m going to order one as soon as I can decide between the only two colors still available to be shipped to me.)

I bought one of these originally for Edward: he is a cozy indoorsy Edwardian invalid of a child, and was always tucking himself under a throw blanket, so I got him an electric one and he loves it so much I bought another to keep on a comfy chair in another room, plus another for my own personal sunporch room (mine is the navy/white patterned one pictured here, if you want to be twins; I get Edward the solid-color ones, since they blend better with our furniture, but there are no rules on the sunporch). And since then I’ve tried to always have one or two clearance-purchased spares in the closet in case one of the throws breaks or gets something spilled on it and can’t recover from the trip through the washing machine (sometimes they survive, sometimes not).

I highly recommend for anyone who tends to be chilly or for anyone who might be looking for a little extra coziness/cheer/comfort this long indoors winter. I’m thinking of getting one for Paul to have in the room he’s using as an office, which doesn’t get much heat; he’s been using a little desk heater but this seems better.

Edited to add: my friend J says she is buying heated throw + box of hot chocolate + those little airplane bottles of peppermint liquor, to give to friends/co-workers. Target doesn’t have the liquor for shipping so that part wouldn’t work if you wanted to send directly, but I love the idea of shipping a heated throw + hot chocolate + [cookies/mug/book/marshmallows/pillow] to a friend/relative—either for Christmas or just as a comforting surprise.

We did a post on this topic already to distract us from the election, but I’ve had more ideas / wanted to tell you which ideas I’d used, and also I’m getting a little panicky about shopping ARE YOU GETTING A LITTLE PANICKY ABOUT SHOPPING? It’s just…you know. Pandemic. Schools going remote or hovering on the edge of it. The uncertain gap between the election and the inauguration. Potential impending snow. The USPS still under poor management. Stores promising shortages and shipping delays. IT’S A BIT MUCH.

I talked last time about my idea to get Rob his own pizza pan, pizza cutter, and potholders, hopefully a pleasingly practical gift (he makes pizza A LOT) but also to give him a feeling of hope that one day he might not have to live with his parents; I’d expect him to keep using our stuff in the meantime, but to tuck this aside for his days of freedom. I did go with this idea: I couldn’t find the same pizza pan we have (which is completely unmarked) but I chose him this well-reviewed Doughmakers pan that is about the same size; I got him the same OXO pizza cutter we have; and I got him this set of potholders.

I also talked last time about how the one thing Rob misses about his phone (his broke and he is trying to go without) is its ability to have timers/alarms. He is currently using a kitchen timer that maxes out at 99 minutes, and he just keeps resetting it, and it is driving me crazy, I mean I wanted to solve that problem for him. I first tried to find a watch, but I got bogged down in options, and nothing seemed right anyway: even the ones that DID have alarms only had, like, three. I asked Rob how many daily reminders he needed, and he said about TEN. So anyway I chose this, and who knows if this is even the right kind of thing but anyway I bought it:

Robin Clock with Custom Alarms and Calendar Reminders. It’s designed for older people who need memory help, but it seemed perfect for what Rob needs it for, and it allows for limitless reminders—as well as annual recurring things such as birthday reminders.

And I got him a kalimba, which was Elizabeth’s idea: she remembered that my brother asked for and got one last Christmas and that it was fun to play with.

Rob also has a melodica (this Hohner 32), which has been tremendously successful, if you’re looking for a fun and interesting musical instrument for a musical kid, especially a kid who already has some keyboard/piano skills and would like to try them out in a new and odd way (it’s like a…piano-flute):

 

Based on your collective game reviews and also a reply to an email I sent to my friend whose family loves board games, I’ve bought these games so far to give to various children:

Carcassonne Big Box. I was hesitant to spend so much money (it’s been going up and down in price; I bought it at $60) for a game plus ELEVEN expansion packs when I don’t even know if the kids will like the game or not—but my friend said it was one of her family’s favorite games, and the price of the Big Box was going for only a few dollars more than the price of the basic game plus only ONE expansion set, so I risked it.

 

Duple. I thought this looked like something the kids would like, but to be honest the real reason I bought it is that it was in my cart going “Only 10 left!,” “Only 4 left!,” etc., and I panicked.

 

Ticket to Ride. A lot of you mentioned this and then my friend mentioned it too, so I bought it. I am a little crabby that I bought it on sale for $44, and this week Target has it on sale for $25. But BYGONES. I already considered the option that I could email Target and ask for the difference, but I am not going to do that (for one thing, I’d ordered it more than a week before the price change) (for another thing, all Contact Us links lead to phone calls or live chats) [edited to add: OKAY FINE I contacted them via live chat and they refunded the difference and I DO feel so much better about it].

 

Plus, I DID get Settlers of Catan on the $25 sale, after ALMOST buying it on the $44 sale, so I feel that averages out nicely. This is another game a number of you recommended and then my friend also strongly recommended. I have been warned that I need an extension set if I want it to work for 5-6 players, so I have one of those in my cart and will hope for a sale. (Does anyone know if the EXPANSION packs ALSO make the game work for 5-6 players? I got overwhelmed trying to figure it out and gave up.)

ALSO: on the recent Tipsy Swistle post, commenter Erin in CA mentioned to another commenter that she buys Deadbolt Mystery Society packs for her family and I went “!!!!!!!” followed by IMMEDIATELY ordering one to give as a gift to all five kids. I had no idea which to choose so I went with their 2020 Holiday box. (Make sure you pay attention to their instructions for how to order a single box that DOESN’T automatically renew. I ordered it as a gift to myself, which seemed to be one of their suggestions? I hope that works.)

 

If you’ve had any further ideas for the high-school/college-age/early-twenties set, this is a good time to mention them!

We have now had three kid birthdays during the Covid-19 pandemic/lockdown. We normally do family parties, and my parents have been living elsewhere during this half of the year for a number of years now, so the birthdays themselves felt fairly normal except that the older two kids were home (normally they’d have been at college), and we didn’t get pizza for dinner. The biggest difference was that I had to think way further ahead. For example, the ingredients for the chosen birthday dinner/cake: ideally I wanted to acquire as many of them as possible on the grocery shopping trip BEFORE The Last Grocery Shopping Trip Before the Birthday, just in case the store was out of something on my first attempt and I needed a second chance. (And I cautioned the kids ahead of time that it was possible they wouldn’t be able to have their first choice of dinner/cake—but happily I was able to find all the ingredients and/or make do with easy substitutes.) And then I had to label that stuff so no one in my household would eat it.

But also, the gift shopping. Shipping delays, and unpredictable shipping times, meant I had to think further ahead. And I haven’t been shopping in my usual stores, and one of my usual gift-buying techniques is to notice things in stores and think “Oh, I’ll bet they would like that!” I have also been known to wrap the pile of presents, realize it’s too small or something is missing, and go out the day before (or the day OF) a birthday to get one more thing—and that isn’t feasible right now. (My plan if that had happened was to write an I.O.U. and wrap it.) And finally, I have been trying to dramatically reduce how much I buy from Amazon, though that proved to be more challenging when some of my usual alternatives were unavailable, or too overwhelming to figure out right now.

All of these things together meant I had to start thinking about it a lot earlier and do a lot more careful planning. In case you have some medium/older-kid birthdays coming up in the next couple of months, here were some of the things I bought for my kids turning 13 and 15:

 

• Wireless bluetooth headphones. I have four people in my household who like over-the-ear headphones, and we have tried a few different kinds and these are hands-down the favorites. (The people in my household who prefer the in-the-ear kind favor these.) They do eventually break (especially when people keep DROPPING THEM and/or YANKING OUT THE CHARGING CORDS), and then I buy another set of the same ones. They come in a bunch of colors, and each person has their own color so we don’t get them mixed up. It drives me a little batty to have to get the attention of family members who are wearing headphones/earbuds; but on the other hand, during lockdown togetherness, widespread headphone usage is probably doing a lot of the heavy lifting of keeping us all civil.

 

• Jewelry box. Elizabeth needed one, and I had no luck finding something that seemed right: everything looked dated, or else too old or too young for her, or else didn’t have any compartments big enough for her giant hoop earrings. This box was a compromise: it’s not quite right, but it’ll hold MOST of her jewelry, and the cat on the top looks like her cat, whom she often refers to as a lovely gentleman. When I can shop in stores again, I will attempt to find an upgrade to give on a future gift-giving occasion.

 

• Cat stroller. I don’t know if this will ever arrive. I ordered it the first week of May, and it has not yet shipped but still says it’s supposed to arrive by tomorrow night. Well, we’ll see. This was originally going to be a gift for Elizabeth, but it became clear it wasn’t going to get here in time for her birthday, so now it is going to be a Pandemic Family Gift and we’ll have it when we have it. When I ordered it, it was not available in pink, or else I definitely would have ordered it in pink; I ordered it in navy blue plaid, which is now in turn no longer available.

 

• Whimsical purse. Before the pandemic, Elizabeth was starting to routinely meet friends in coffee shops and doughnut shops and so forth, and she needed a way to carry a phone plus money plus a couple other little things. Classically, this is solved by POCKETS (rare in women’s clothing, as we know) or a PURSE. But she squinched her nose at standard purse options. I got her this one, hoping it would hit the right note of “I am carrying a purse but NOT REALLY.” We will see if she is still at that stage of life when she is allowed to go to coffee shops again.

 

• Assorted stuff from Claires.com. Faux fur scrunchie. Giant organza scrunchie. Big heart-shaped hoop earrings. Little polka-dot scrunchie. Wave ring. A cute snake ring I NEVER would have thought to choose for her, except she saw it while we were browsing the site together (both of us pretending it was just for fun and not because her birthday was coming up) and exclaimed what a cute little snake friend he was.

 

• Terry Pratchett books. Henry has been on a Terry Pratchett kick. We own a fair number of them, and he was almost done reading them, so we bought him two we didn’t have yet: Monstrous Regiment and Equal Rites. (We are certain we used to own a copy of Equal Rites, but we can’t find it anywhere. It’s probably tucked into the bottom of a still-packed box of wall art or something.)

 

• No Thank You Evil game. Henry had seen a bunch of good stuff about this game online and really wanted it. It looked surprisingly expensive to me, and also maybe too young for him, and our family does not really PLAY board games much—but it was one of the very few items on his list, and the name felt Appropriate For Our Times, so I bought it.

 

• Phone tripod with remote. For those doing art projects and/or making TikToks.

 

• Meow Meow Meow shirt. Edward likes this kind of thing. I ordered it really early, and it came in plenty of time. (The link takes you to the “Pay attention to me” version, but the pull-down menu for Title offers the “Meow meow meow” version.)

 

• Some Very Interesting Cats Perhaps You Weren’t Aware Of. Ordered within perhaps fifteen minutes of seeing the title. Silly cat books are very popular at our house.

 

• Take It Away, Tommy. We are all fans of the Breaking Cat News cats.

 

• Candy. One year, when William was a younger teenager and was so apathetic about his birthday that I was in despair about what to get him and was all but choosing random things off the shelves at Target (sleeping bag! Minecraft periodic table!), I added a bag of candy—just to give him SOMETHING to open that I KNEW he would like. It generated SO MUCH ENVY among his siblings, it’s been a recurring idea for other birthdays. In a pandemic, when they can’t go with me to the store to get themselves candy with their allowance, it has achieved even higher levels of success.

I am trying not to pick at my lips, and perhaps you have heard of Hercules and his tasks. I remember saying to my dad in high school that I thought I could stop if I KNEW it was harmful. And he, trying to help me, said “Actually, I think that when skin has to rapidly and repeatedly regrow like that, it can lead to an increased chance of cancer.” And I considered that, and believed it, and it was not enough. Anyway, with the pandemic and the systemic racial injustice and the seasonal allergies, my lips are a mess and I am trying to at least give them a couple days’ healing. But I was proof-reading this paragraph and noticed I was lightly picking WHILE PROOF-READING.

Shawna asked about Father’s Day gift ideas. I had a good and fun and easily-shippable idea this year for my own dad—but my own dad reads this blog. You can email me if you want, if you are not my dad, and I’ll tell you the idea: swistle at gmail dot com. (And I’ll try to remember to update this post with the idea after Father’s Day, so it’ll be here for future years.)

[Edit as promised!: A dear friend recently sent me a pair of Kringle pastries from this company: O&H Danish Bakery They came shipped 2-day with cold packs, and they were so delicious and charming and surprising, and so fun to try, so I filed away the idea for future gifts. My dad likes treats, and likes danish, and likes trying new treats, and so for Father’s Day I sent him two Kringles, one pecan and one apple. You can pick your delivery date, so I made sure to order them early before the Father’s Day shipping dates filled up.]

Another idea I considered for my dad was to make a shipped-directly care package like the one I mentioned as a Mother’s Day or birthday gift idea. Specific contents would vary by the specific dad, but something like:

• Sweet! Snack cakes, candy, whatever your particular dad likes. The weather is getting warm, so that may affect what kinds of candy you choose.

• Salty! Fun flavor of chips to try, odd little cheese things, popcorn.

• Hearty! Pricier nut mix, dried meat, granola bars, trail mix.

• The men in my life do not seem as keen to Try Fun Bath Products as the women in my life, but I don’t think that should stop us from indulging them. Harry’s is a brand I like: a little more expensive than the baseline, but not enough to overly shock one’s dad’s sense of propriety if he were to see it in the store. Duke Cannon is a fun brand with fun product names: News Anchor Hair Wash, Big Ass Brick of Soap, etc. And I know Paul likes the manliness of Working Hands.

• I am still sending hand soap with just about anything. For my dad I would get a scentless one, but foaming because I would suspect he would not normally choose foaming so it might be a new mildly fun/interesting thing.

• Now that they’re carrying face masks, I’d probably routinely add a couple of those as well.

• Definitely anything you’ve heard your dad say he is having trouble finding at the store.

• My dad likes to get t-shirts, so it’s fun to find new ones.

• Good socks!

 

Or I think in general this would be a good opportunity to support any business you know of that’s trying to keep afloat and can ship things. Book stores, candy shops, coffee shops, any little specialty shop.

Realizing I still had to handle Father’s Day for Paul even when there was a pandemic made me feel like I do every time I get my period during the pandemic: SERIOUSLY??? EVEN NOW??? But at least we have already had Mother’s Day during a pandemic, which gives me a template for how to proceed. I’ve consulted to find out what he’d like for dinner etc. (groceries need good lead time these days) and if there’s anything particular he’d like to watch on TV. I will coach the children to consider what Acts of Service they might like to perform. I will probably take a bucket of soapy water and do some cleaning on the inside of his car, which is surprisingly dusty and grubby-looking. If he doesn’t mention a specific thing he wants me to bake, I will pick something from among the things I know he likes.

I also bought him a couple bags of sour candy: it’s not something I usually think to buy, but I know he likes it. I got Sour Patch Big Kids because I don’t think he’s ever tried those and it seemed mildly fun to try something slightly different; and Sour Skittles because surely he’s had them before? and yet I couldn’t remember ever having them around, so maybe not! And right now, grocery shopping is so fraught and sometimes I can’t justify space in the cart for treats, so treats feel extra special.

If Paul did not already have more t-shirts than he can cram into a drawer (going through those is one of the Pandemic Projects we haven’t been doing), this would have been a really good year for a charity/resistance shirt. I have this NPR one myself, and it’s really soft and nice:

The fit is unisex (i.e., men’s; i.e., why do we put up with this?), so I use mine as a nightshirt.

 

Black Lives Matter t-shirt:

 

Face mask for protesting:

 

This shirt:

 

This shirt:

 

This shirt:

 

I hope you will share your gift ideas (for your dad or for your husband or for other dads and dad-role-fillers in your life), to help everyone who hasn’t yet decided.

Some of you asked about Mother’s Day gift ideas, and thank goodness you DID, because I did not realize Mother’s Day was May 10th already. I mean, it is on the calendar, but I wouldn’t have seen it until I turned the page and it was only ten days away; and, as some of you noted, SHIPPING DELAYS.

My primary suggestion is the same care package idea I’m using for birthdays. This is an especially fun time to send assortment gifts like that, because there are so many things that are unexpectedly exciting right now (tissues! hand soap! store-brand pasta!). And when the act of acquiring things can be so fraught, it makes Receiving Things Without Having To Go Out And Acquire Them that much more gratifying.

I suggest having one box shipped as a gift for your mom (or for another mom you know), and having a second box shipped to yourself and not opening it until Mother’s Day when you may or may not have anything else to open. (If you order yours right away, you might have time to forget some of what’s in it.) The things I’ve been ordering from Target have been taking 3-10 days to arrive, so there should be plenty of time still. Downside: it’s common for things to arrive in many, many boxes, which makes it less like Here Is Your Gift and more like The Twelve Days of Mother’s Day. I like to send things like this with “GIFT” as a fake middle name (like “Swistle GIFT Thistle”), so the recipient knows that those boxes go together and should be put aside for the birthday/holiday.

Here is a list of general ideas I use to start making a custom assortment for somebody—but another idea is to pick one or two things from the list and do the whole box on that theme. One each of a bunch of different hand soaps or facial mists! A box of just face masks and lip balms! A whole box of K-Cups!

• These days I always begin with a box of tissues, a brand-name if available, but I’m finding the store brand more often available for shipping. If toilet paper is ever available again, I would definitely put in a 4-pack of that. For the rest of our lives, toilet paper is going to be a welcome and appreciated gift. The grandchildren will bring us a pack whenever they visit, knowing it’s always a surefire hit without really understanding how we can be clasping our hands in genuine delight when we already have an entire closet filled with it.

• And then I always put in a hand soap. I like Everspring lavender & bergamot, J.R. Watkins lavender, and many of the Mrs. Meyer’s.

• Something sweet: Lindt truffles and/or Ferrero Rocher and/or M&M’s and/or snack cakes, whatever they/you like.

• Something snacky/salty: kettle corn and/or Smartfood and/or Sunchips and/or Pringles, whatever they/you like.

• Something snacky/hearty, such as weird experimental granola bars, or apparently everyone’s favorite trail mix (also available in a smaller pouch, or in a batch of 10 individual snack packs). Two separate strangers have told me about this same specific trail mix while I was shopping. (It’s Archer Farms Caramel Cashew, in case you are reading this in the future and the links don’t work anymore.) One fellow customer was a nurse and she said at work they tried all the trail mixes and the whole department agreed that was the best one; the other fellow customer told me she gets in trouble with her kids because she sneaks out all the caramels. I don’t know how these conversations get started, but I am HERE FOR IT.

• Something from the category of beauty/care: lip balm, tinted lip balm (I like Red Dahlia and Sweet Violet), cutest tiniest wee Vaseline, face mist, hand lotion, moisturizer, nail polish, face mask, eye mask, hair masque, that kind of thing.

• Something you know/think is hard to acquire in the stores right now: tortillas, pasta, beans, Kraft Mac and Cheese, I’ve heard about people looking for the purple box of Annie’s mac and cheese, baking chocolate, dish soap, etc.

• Coffee (K cups version if they/you have a Keurig) and/or a fun tea, maybe some slightly special sugar, maybe a cute sugar bowl, maybe a mug if they/you are not already taking over a second shelf with their/your abundant mug collection.

• BEAUTY BOX.

• Best scrubby sponge—unless that seems like “Happy Mother’s Day, have some more drudgery!”