arontius | The Sunday Before... (Reply)

.....It was an interesting day of catching up with a few things and contemplating others.

.....I woke up at about 0500 and pulled out the circlets I finished in the workshop yesterday. They went through the final polish and shaping. Then finally into their shipping bags. I do not like to rogue I'm using right now. I miss my fabulustre greatly and need to get at least a tube or two before the next order comes into the e-mail. I wish Alpha would come back on line.

.....I received a flurry of order requests over the past handful of days. Invariably people placed orders without checking in with me first (as the Ingasbo web-site requests) and invariably most of the order requests were for a.) patterns I do not have currently in stock AND b.) they are all wanted BEFORE Christmas. Sigh! I had to do three refunds this morning. Thankfully PayPal doesn't charge me for the refunds. But the people sending me the money ended up paying PayPal $1.50 each for the priviledge of having their funds returned to them. :-) TBT and I are thinking of ways we can beef up the web-site to explain this to better degree.

.....TBT still had a chance to chat and coffee at Starbucks before heading off to Ralph's birthday breakfast at the Airport Diner. The buffet was O.K. It has been better, and worse. I left full and we had a lot of good conversation around the table. Ralph was in a good mood and received a number of nice presents. TBT and I were extremely lame as we forgot to even get a Birthday Card. One of these days we'll join the human race and remember those things. :-)

.....Ran back home before noon where I packaged up circlets for shipment out via Priority Mail at the Post Office kiosk. Most of the orders were for the East Coast. I'm not holding my breath that they'll arrive by Christmas, but that would be nice. One order went out to Wasilla, Alaska. It has a chance to arrive by Thursday, but they were definitely nervous buyers. I received almost daily requests for status updates. They wanted the circlet at least a week ago and I told them it wouldn't be done, and they accepted that. But I should have checked the anxiety meter as they pegged it a few times. :-)

.....Threw boxes in the car and met Gwen as she dropped off Brigget for the day. I was fretting over a Sekrit Santa gift for a recipient who is a Duchess from the West. I google-stalked her a bit and I couldn't come up with any good ideas. As usual Gwen came through with a fantastic looking feast setting, complete with goblet. I think I just need to give in to reality and hire Gwen as the official Baronial Miracle Worker (tm).

.....TBT and I ran out a short time later and went shopping for Mom. She stayed home today, but I didn't harass her at all. She rode the bus by herself yesterday to the Kitsap Mall and walked its length back and forth. I was extremely pleased. The apartment was messy, but showed signs that she was working on it. So I felt that I needed to keep my mouth shut today. :-) I took her shopping list and went to the store for her. TBT found a turkey at a good price at Albertsons and we picked that up as well. We're going to have Mom over for Christmas Eve and do the family thing. Mom was all excited as she picked up a game Rhys wanted. She also picked up her own Mobile Hot Spot that she is all excited about using with her new e-Readers. :-)

.....TBT and I then braved JoAnn's, which wasn't too bad. Then ran to Gwen's for the present, then the Post Office, then a quick lunch before heading home. Picked up Rhys and went out shopping again. Back to JoAnn's with TBT's list of Christmas Wishes. Which kind of takes away the 'mystery' of Christmas, but sure makes shopping a lot easier. :-) Only problem was that JoAnn's had had a number of sales over the weekend and many shelves were bare, especially the Gingher Scissors! Which has become something of a tradition to get at Christmas.

.....Just so we could 'prove' our non-conformity, Rhys and I did the rebellious thing and went to Fred Meyers and bought a few presents that WEREN'T on the approved shopping list. :-)

.....All my Christmas shopping is done and I'm just about ready for the work week. I wish I were really on my vacation, but if I have any luck at all I should be able to get out at mid-day on Wednesday. I'm crossing my fingers hard as I'll still have eleven days of vacation still at that point. There is a large laundry list of things I'd love to complete.

.....The Wyverns have been discussing a project of painted canvas scenes that can be hung at halls like the VFW to give a more period ambiance to the places we use for events. She asked me to upload a bunch of local outdoor scenes, some of them of the Olympic Mountains. One of the pictures was of Hart Lake. It sure looked like a certain Heart Lake I hiked to as a Boy Scout a lot of years ago. Made me want to go out for a hike.

.....If the weather is even half decent maybe next week maybe I could sneak in a day hike to Olympic Hot Springs. I've never been there this late in the year, so I bet the trailhead is back a few miles from where I usually start. I may have to check on that.

.....Hmmm, need to check in with Sir Richard as well. I was going to see about hanging out with him for a day. Will have to see what sort of trouble we can get into. :-)

.....And it is after 2100. Time for bed. 0400 comes way too early....Zzzzzz.

.....Aaron / Arontius.