Here at the Tapir and Friends Gift Shop (aka The Animal Store) we got an Earth Day surprise a day early. Brian had been collecting packing material, and rather than put it in the landfill, he asked at the Post Office if they knew anyone who would want it. "The tapir people do a lot of shipping," they told Brian. He came on over and asked if we wanted a van full of packing material. And a van-full it was, too. It's not only the peanuts in the bags on the left, but all five boxes at the end of the hall are filled with styrofoam peanuts (popcorn), bubble wrap, and other goodies we can easily recycle. We go through lots of packing material since our main clientele is on the Internet and we ship lots of packages every day. We like to recycle! We shred paper, we cull packing material from incoming boxes, and now we will be helping Brian keep his business free of unwanted bags and boxes of packing stuff. It was a happy day for both of us. And . . . we got to meet Brian, a very nice guy, an eBay seller, and a music teacher. It was a busy afternoon in our shop, and if I'd had the presence of mind, I'd have asked Brian where his eBay pages were so I could link to them. I'll try to do that next time, because I think we'll be seeing Brian again soon! Brian felt terrific that he found someone who was ecstatic to have his extra packing stuff, and as a small token of our thanks, we gave Brian a Beanie Baby goose. He likes to illustrate songs with stuffed animals when he plays piano along with the kids. If you follow this link, then scroll down to the second photo, you can see Brian, second from the right in the top row.