Lookee the present my sweetheart sent me for my birthday today!!! I turned 52 in a very happy way.

She actually mailed the tree to me, which I had not heretofore known was something a person could do. So this is also a 'what I learned today' post. (I've recently seen tiny saplings of fruit trees being delivered by mail, but that's nothing compared to this.)  The process is really damned ingenious. The tree base gets its planter wrapped in plastic and placed inside its own small box with lots of styrofoam packing material to keep it from moving.

Then that box goes inside a much taller shipping box with tabs at two opposing corners. Push the tabs in, and they hold the tree's box to the bottom of the shipping box. And it arrives quite intact, as seen above, to the amusement and delight of the recipient, as well as his cubiemate and other cow-orkers.

Thank you, darling! It is such a sweet gift.