I'm Glad Monday Is Over!

.....Wow! The Brain Fairy flew into my bedroom last night and stole my brain! And didn't even leave a damned nickel under the pillow for it. Guess it shows how valuable it is. :-)

.....The body made it into work without the Brain, but didn't get a damned thing done today. Last week was BAD in that mistakes were made and we ended up in recovery mode towards the end of the week. To the point where I had to go into work on Saturday and monitor response first thing in the morning. Thankfully the mistakes made were, relatively, simple mistakes and the path forward was fairly easy to lay out. Today we were all holding our breaths in the hopes that nothing else came up during the recovery on site.

.....I spent most of the morning trying to get someone, anyone, to take responsibility for moving some storage boxes that arrived from Georgia to home from their delivery truck into a temporary storage location. I spent hours making phone call after phone call, and frankly losing my patience in the interim. The afternoon was little better. It's kind of embarrassing to look in the mirror at the end of the day and when I ask myself the question, 'What did I do today?', the answer is 'Next to NOTHING!'

.....The Big Boss stayed out of the way, which was a relief. I'm sure the Piper will have to be paid at some point this week, but I'll avoid it for as long as I can.

.....Orders are picking up slightly. I'm pleased with the orders, but not so pleased with my etchers. Over the past couple of years you can see the downgrading trend on the quality of the sheets sent to me. I was doing a little comparison over the weekend, mainly pulling scrap pieces from the mistakes bin. Starting about two years ago the definition in the designs starts becoming less and less crisp and clean. Design lines start blurring and getting shallower. I've had a number of circlets where, when buffed, the design completely blurs. Or worse yet, disappears entirely.

.....I e-mailed the etchers yesterday and haven't had a reply just yet. I'll give it a day or two and then call down there to San Francisco. I hope this isn't the start of a move to another etcher. It took me a while to get into a groove with them and going through the learning curves with a new etcher will be painful.

.....I'll make you a bet that to save on the amount of HazWaste generated, they either put less on the designs. Or they don't leave the acid on quite as long so that it can be re-used. They might even dilute the acid with a less effective chemical. I'm not an expert so I'm only speculating. So it'll be interesting to talk it out with them.

.....TBT and I finally made it to the new Cash-N-Carry in West Bremerton. Nice new lay-out. Same general merchanidise. The prices on the smaller items aren't so great. But the savings are nice for the stuff you buy in bulk. Plus, the thing I always go in there to buy. The sugar free coffee flavorings. They make my daily protein drinks taste a hundred times better. TBT found a Kahluha flavoring she had to try as well. :-)

.....Took Lobelia to her storage location on Sunday. She still isn't dumped. I'm a little worried about that, as well as a leak that TBT noted in the bathroom over June Faire. She's coming back down this weekend for a bath and maybe some repairs. I probably will not have the time to do a complete re-chaulking. Maybe will definitely hit some of the problem looking areas. I need to schedule a little Lobelia Love this summer. Just wish I knew when.

.....Part of me wishes I were going to An Tir - West War this weekend. But there is so many things to get done around here. And I'm so behind. The house looks really BAD and definitely needs some Love. Guess I'll have to hear all the good stories next week.

.....Loving my iPod Touch. The versitility is excellent. I'm starting to find myself doing more and more with it. Music is on there. Books are on there. 'To-Do' lists are slowly being organized on there, as well as the schedules for TBT and myself. In about a week or the Black 'Brain' I used to carry around everywhere is going to be formally retired. :-)

.....Time For Bed,
.....Aaron / Arontius.