A lesson: always make sure the recipient of your gift still lives in the place you think they live in.

A man just attempted to deliver a lovely arrangement of flowers for a woman who last lived in this building over a year ago. Perhaps I should have just claimed them rather than sending them away with their bearer to track down the recipient.

A vaguely-related regular reminder: if you're mailing a gift package to Canada, make sure it's marked as a "gift". Also, it's generally advisable to make sure its value is under C$60, since otherwise the recipient will be paying both 15% tax on the gift you sent, plus handling fees. (C. says it's C60 - someone at a post office once told me it shouldn't be worth more than $35 - I've always erred on side of safety and asked for gifts under $35 in value only to avoid the fees.) Handling fees are C$5 for the post office and somewhere in the $25-$35 for UPS and Fedex. (More information on the annoyances of shipping from the US to Canada in particular here.)