JANUARY 2007 My niece, Lisa and her new husband (see July 2006), Kyle were last minute visitors from Texas for Christmas.  I approached Kyle about delivering the BLACK BOWLS and he gladly accepted!!  With all the holidays’ activities, they were having trouble trying to decide how and when to deliver the BLACK BOWLS to Mom.  So when Mom came over for dinner one evening, they had left the black bowls in her chair at the dining room table.   Mom saw those BLACK BOWLS when she went to sit down and gasped.   She was not expecting to see them.      Black Bowls Saga by Joan Cook   2007 Continued   AUGUST 2007 It has been awhile since we have exchanged hands with the BLACK BOWLS.  After the last delivery, Mom had asked me for names of friends in my area that she could email to help her with the delivery of the BLACK BOWLS.  Of course, I had forgotten all about them with the many events that were going on this summer.  Mom contacted my friend Sarai by email and stated in the subject line, “This is Joan’s Mom, Do Not Delete”.  So Sarai decided to read Mom’s email and accepted the job as BLACK BOWLS deliverer!! Sarai, Rod and I belong to a Victorian Dance demonstration group and we had our semi annual meeting here at our house.  I usually end up downstairs with all of my Victorian gowns and dresses, exchanging ideas with other people.   Sarai was the last to arrive due to work and asked another member, James, to keep me busy while she figured out what to do.  James did not have to do anything since I was busy jabbering away with friends downstairs.  I brought some of my friends back upstairs to my office to view Rod’s tuxedo in the closet and when I glanced over at my desk, there were all 4 of those BLACK BOWLS spread out behind my computer keyboard.  My mouth dropped open and I was speechless!!   My friends were wondering why I was speechless and I had to explain the story about the BLACK BOWLS to them.  Just then Sarai popped in and it struck me at that moment, it had to be Sarai, because I remembered giving her name to Mom and she had not arrived yet when I occupied my office earlier. I accused Sarai and she said “Why do you think it was me”?  Sarai was answering all my questions without actually saying “I did not do it”.  But as she puts it, “I didn’t say I did it either”!!!   Sarai finally smiled real big and confessed when she was leaving our home.   I called Mom to let her know that the BLACK BOWLS had been delivered and she snickered.  According to my sister, Peggy, Mom had hid those BLACK BOWLS in her home really good (see Oct 2006 comment “You will never be able to find the BLACK BOWLS in my house ever again!”) and Mom had a little trouble finding them in order to send them to Sarai.     DECEMBER 2007 Rod and I had decided that it was time for the BLACK BOWLS to go home to Mom.  While riding in the car, we started scheming ideas on how to return them to her.  Bingo, it hit us!  Mom goes to the beauty shop every week and I had met Lynda, her beautician, several times before.  Now we had to figure out how the delivery would be done.  I had a cute/ugly green Grinch doll in my Christmas pile and when you squeeze his hand, he belts out Grinchy statements like “Bah Humbug on Christmas”!  Naturally, I had to add Christmas stickers to the BLACK BOWLS and asked Peggy to pick up a bag of Mom’s favorite candy, Ghirardelli chocolate square (which is my favorite too).  I sent the Grinch and the BLACK BOWLS in the box with all of the Christmas gifts sent to my sister, Peggy.  I called Lynda, Mom’s hairdresser, and asked her if she knew all about the BLACK BOWLS.  She replied, “Boy, do I !!”  After finding out that Mom’s appointment was set for Friday, I made arrangements with Peggy to have her drop everything off with Lynda the day before.  The BLACK BOWLS Friday (before Christmas) had finally arrived and Rod, Peggy and I were anticipating Mom’s reactions to delivery.   I was on the phone with Peggy, when Mom came home from the beauty shop.  Mom came into the room and told Peggy, “I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY!!”  We all howled laughing!! Mom emailed me her story.  As I went in the beauty shop where Lynda does all her shampooing and styling, there was this Grinch sitting there with candy in a bowl.  She said “That's yours!”   I had thought that she was offering me a piece of candy.  So I picked up one candy, squeezed the Grinch's hand and he belted out something.  I remarked to Lynda, that she was probably tired of hearing the Grinch by now.  She said, “No, that it was the first time she had even heard it.”  She again said that it was mine and I looked at her with a puzzled look on my face.  She told me to go over and look at it.  So, I went over and search all over the Grinch looking for a name tag. I sat there starring at it and it was then, that it had hit me.  I realized that the BLACK BOWLS were sitting there filled with the candy.    There you have the story.  You really caught me off guard.  VERY CLEVER!  Mother.