A PENNY FOR HIS THOUGHTS

Last week during our closet cleaning excavation, Big Bore discovered something I hadn't used in years--my Jelly Belly bean dispenser. He cleaned it up, and when we were in Wichita the next day we purchased a pound of various flavors at Candyopolis--a combined half pound of strawberry jam, buttered popcorn, peach, and caramel popcorn, then a half pound of Big Bore's favorites--watermelon and cantaloupe.

Friday he put all the beans in the dispenser, put out a little glass filled with pennies, and we were in business. Then he left town for five days of male bonding, cutting and hauling wood in the next county. While he's been gone, Sweet Neighbbor Girl and I have been madly inserting pennies like there's no tomorrow! When Big Bore gets home this afternoon and has a bean craving, is he ever going to be surprised to find a near-empty dispenser! What in the world happened to all those Jelly Bellys???

What he won't know, initially anyway, is that neither Sweet Neighbor Girl nor I have eaten a single watermelon or cantaloupe bean. We don't like them. Whenever those two flavors have popped out of the dispenser, which is often, we've put them in a cup, saving them for Big Bore. But I'm going to hide the cup for a little while just to see what kind of reaction he has. I might even keep it hidden until SNG gets home from school so she can be in on the joke. Won't that be great?

I can't wait for him to get home--just so I can pull this off! The highlight of my day!