At around noon today, I opened the front door and collected the mail.  I had lunch and then went back to work in the nerve center. (Or is it a batcave?  Arkham asylum?  Maybe I am a Batman character?  The Internet Shopping 24/7 Shopper: using his computer and marketing skills and his strong desire to help others improve their lot in life, he has set out on a mission to learn as much as he can about online shopping and to protect society from the combined evil forces of the Riddler, Joker, Catwomen, Poison Ivy, Two Face, Penguin, Clay Face, Scar Face, Man Bat, Clock King, Mad Hatter, Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn, Bane, Ra's Al Ghul, Talia, Scare Crow, and Killer Croc.  Disguised as an absent minded marketing and ecommerce professor for a major university, The Internet Shopping 24/7 Shopper gets online, ferreting out both the good and the bad of online shopping for the benefit of buyers and sellers, and society at large -- e.g., consumers, retailers, manufacturers, shareholders, employees, educators, students, etc.)  Anyway, after lunch, I returned to the room where I type this stuff  in order to complete a review of a scholarly paper for an academic conference to be held in October.

At around 2:30pm, Double-M, a Senior Editor for a leading business magazine (I have withheld his real name because I forgot to ask him if I could print his actual name and I like to respect people's privacy), had come over to the house to discuss ecommerce, my research and me.  (Double-M stands for Senior Editor Man of Mystery -- I got the sense that he approves of Austin Powers and to me SEMM was not cool enough of a name for him.)  He noticed the L.L.Bean delivery at the front door and brought it in to the house.  I was impressed with the speedy delivery and I had decided that L.L.Bean was going to get a Brucie.

Double-M and I entered the nerve center and we were chatting about this and that, when I heard the rear doorbell ring at around 3:15pm; then I heard the rear door open; and then I heard some rustling by the back door.  I thought that perhaps Amy had returned from being out with the two boys as she had gone out with the them at around 1:30pm, (though I was expecting her to return much later).  I called out "Amy" and no one replied.  Soon after this, I heard the rear door close.  I thought that either Amy had returned and was going to play with the boys in the backyard or that one of the neighborhood kids had opened the door looking to see if Ben and Sam were home.  At around 4:30pm, Amy entered the house with two boys.

At around 6:00pm, Double-M left the house via the front door.  After he left, I went into the kitchen to try and make some dinner plans.  As I entered the kitchen, I noticed two boxes containing my Lands' End items by the back door.  I thought "wow, Lands' End deserves a Brucie as well."  When I saw them I then assumed that the shuffling I heard at around 3:15pm was Amy bringing in the boxes before heading off to the backyard with the boys.

I later discovered that Amy had not brought the boxes inside the house.  I knew that I had not carried them into the house.  So, who did?  Double-M?  No, he was in my line of sight for the entire afternoon.  Two alternatives that I am considering are either a friendly neighbor or the UPS delivery person.  If it was the UPS delivery person, then I would consider giving UPS a Brucie as it was raining out, so dropping the delivery inside the house was better than leaving it out in the rain.  (If it was a neighbor, I would give them a Brucie as well.)  I suspect that some consumers would consider giving a Noosie to UPS for entering the house without an invitation.  If UPS did in fact place the boxes inside the house, then to me it would have been equivalent to our USPS letter carrier (i.e., what used to be referred to as the mailman) opening our front screen door and dropping our mail inside our front vestibule when we have the front door open on a fine Spring or Summer afternoon.  The UPS delivery person could not have simply dropped the boxes just inside our rear door because we have steps there and the boxes were too large to balance on them; if placed on the steps, the boxes would have tumbled toward the rear door and then it would have been difficult to close the rear door, not to mention that it would not reflect well on UPS to see the boxes sitting tilted sideways on the steps.  The only inside rear door drop off alternative was to place them on the landing at the top of the steps (which is only three to four feet inside the house) and so, imho (in my humble opinion), UPS would have made the right call.

I forgot to mention that on Thursday, I purchased a new Web address, www.RedSoxYankees.com, from Register.com.  It is the first time that I had ever used Register.com and I have to say that I approve of their service.  They include the opportunity to create a free three page website at no additional cost -- the site includes a banner ad at the top.  That's ok with me for a start.  This site reflects my respect for the Red Sox - Yankees rivalry and I decided to create a place where fans engaged in this rivalry could come together (via a discussion forum -- also provided for free by Coolboard.com) and get into it online.  Go Sox.  You are going to win the World Series this year.