semi OT - Help with an ethical problem

[MikeG]

Hi all,

Over the Thanksgiving holiday my MIL asked what she might get me for Christmas. I pointed her to the Lee Valley website and supplied a list of items I would be interested in. (given her financial limit). Well, today a Fedex truck dropped off a nice sealed Lee Valley box, that is currently sitting on the kitchen counter. SWMBO insists I not open it until Christmas....I cannot stand it. I mean its just sitting there... looking pretty... and beckoning me to open and caress whatever is inside. I can almost hear it whisper my name...calling to me...

I need help coming up with a viable reason to open the box NOW. (I may also need help with my tool addiction).

The only thing I can think of is that I must open the package just to insure nothing is broken.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

PS. yes I know I have a wonderful mother-in-law

[Dave Hinz]

You need to inspect for concealed damage. Wait too long, and UPS won't reimburse. You have no other choice.

See?

Does "you suck" qualify as a suggestion in this context?

[WillR]

What's your full email address. I will send you my shipping address=20 soonest. Ship to me rush! I will keep it safe until I believe that you=20 have the moral strength to own it.

:-)

--=20 Will R. Jewel Boxes and Wood Art

power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those=20 who have not got it.=94 George Bernard Shaw

[Upscale]

A goodly portion of my Christmas hours as a kid was spent opening my Christmas presents to see what I had and then wrapping them up again so no one could tell. That's *how* you can do it although I'm guessing you're looking for some rationalization to open it.

Any chance you or your wife has set up an online account on the LV website? You can go there and look at account information and see a listing of everything bought either at the store or online just as long as you've used your LV customer number when making those purchases.

[David]

Send SWMBO to the mall and then slit the bottom of the package, remove and inspect the contents. Repack and retape the bottom of the package. Now you'll sleep at night (unless the guilt gets to you!).

I have to restrain myself from looking in the closet of a spare bedroom where I know a package was placed by SWMBO yesterday moments after UPS dropped off a gift for me. I struggled to not look out the window to check out the size of the box as the UPS guy approached the house. I wanted to look for the tell-tale LV package tape...there must be a 12 step program for us.

Dave

[alexy]

Absolutely. You did hear the rumor that they changed their return policy to ten days, including items damaged in shipping or packed incorrectly, didn't you? They are notifying customers of the new policy with package inserts. Better check yours out quickly!

;-)

[Gerald Ross]

When I worked in the ER, I have been known to take a package down and have it x-rayed.

[Dave Hinz]

For the record, you can see through a surprising array of objects with a nuclear imaging detector. Never did muster the courage/idiocy to see if scratch-off lottery tickets would work, though, because we were pretty sure that just trying it would be illegal somehow.

An "empty" milk jug from the sump crock, in a radon-prone area, positively glows on a gamma camera. Um, so I've heard.

[Robatoy]

How COULD you????? Hath thou no pathience?

[Robatoy]

*wags finger*..no no no no nooooo!!! We had this discussion about shipping cartons. All will be fine. Have SWMBO inspect for shipping damage...errrrmm...AFTER she ties you up....then...who knows?

[Morris Dovey]

| Over the Thanksgiving holiday my MIL asked what she might get me for | Christmas. I pointed her to the Lee Valley website and supplied a | list of items I would be interested in. (given her financial | limit). Well, today a Fedex truck dropped off a nice sealed Lee | Valley box, that is currently sitting on the kitchen counter. | SWMBO insists I not open it until Christmas....I cannot stand it.

You identified the issue in the subject line - whether or not to honor the wishes of the person who cared enough to spend on stuff you really wanted. 's pretty much up to you. Think of it as a test.

BTW, you suck!

Have a happy Christmas!

[ And if you're /really/ concerned, send the package to me and I'll inspect for damage :-]

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Gordon Airporte]

Oh, on of those unethical ethical question :-) Let slip what you got her, then point out to her that she's pretty much forced by her innate sense of justice to tell you what's in the box. Or maybe claim that you heard scratching coming from within the box and had to open it in case there was a cute little moose trapped in there, which you hear happens all too frequently with Canadian products.

[Ba r r y]

Try not to get it all wet with drool.

Mine bought me my first flying lessons years back. She was my first passenger when I got my license!

I know exactly how you feel, having nice in-laws is a wonderful thing. My brother has the proverbial version (a.k.a. "The Costanzas"), so I know how lucky I am.

Barry

[Ba r r y]

Go for a shot commercial airplane trip and bring the box as a carry on! It'll have to go down the security belt...

Barry

[Ba r r y]

My patience is so bad, I already gave my wife HER Christmas present, 'cause I can't keep a secret.

[MikeG]

Might be able to use the scratching idea, but her present, is a corner cabinet I'm building to her size specs, so she already knows what her gift is.

Mike

[Robatoy]

*I* can keep a secret. I never told a soul about Larry and that goat-thing.

[New Wave Dave]

I think you just might need what's in that package to finish the wife's corner cabinet x-mas present!

[Glen]

My suggestion ---------- we trade MILs.

;-) Glen

[Mike Marlow]

Hmmmmm.... I think this one should be archived for the next time a thread pops up on "instant gratification".

Suffer it my boy, suffer it. There's just nothing like the feeling of Christmas morning and you finally get to open that package that's been waiting for you for 3 weeks. Your imagination has invoked every conceivable image of what it could be, and you've exhausted yourself trying to remember all the hints that you dropped about what you "really need". Finally, you're convinced that it "must" be that one thing that you've really dropped the hints about - it has to be. Ahhhh... then comes the child like thrill of Christmas morning and you can finally immerse yourself in the long awaited excitement of tearing it open, only to discover it's none of the things you've hinted about. Alas before you can even realize what's happening you hear "what the hell's this???" slip out of your very lips.

Maybe you better open it now - just to keep peace in the family of course.