It came! I wiped off the drool before I took this photo. Now there's one little complication; I have a couple of chores that I promised (myself and a friend) I'd do before opening my nnnew tttoy. I did something similar several years ago with several boxes of (almost equally) anticipated Girl Scout Cookies (Trefoils; I really love Trefoils). I promised (myself only, this time) that I wouldn't eat any of them until I had completed my training and running a race that would qualify me to run the Boston Marathon. I stacked the boxes on my desk and pasted my Boston race application to the stack and had to stare at it for several weeks until I, indeed, successfully qualified for Boston. (I ate an entire box of the cookies immediately after crossing the finish line -- and puked about ten minutes later.) Well, my promised chores aren't going to take more than a few hours, so it should be easier this time. In fact, look for a new photo of this box ripped to shreds tomorrow.

BTW, the black thing is neither a bass fishing rod nor a billy club (although it could be used as either one in a pinch); it's a horizontal extension thingie (a new thingie) for my (also new, really cool) Manfrotto studio tripod. With a little effort, I should be able to cover marginal skill with flashy gear. (Hope this works better for me than a similar strategy in tennis, skiing, and other such things.)