1/10/2010 Pussywillows

* Walks in with a bounce and lies down*
Ahhh, that feels so good Mr. Blog.
I ache from my head to my toe working so many hours in a row. Love to lay down a minute.
So Patti Byers, the Kenmore Elementary PTA president stopped by for the carnival stuff.
She is so wonderful! I had forgotten how well I organized the folders for the 12 committee members with checklists for their job descriptions. She said they didn't have a chairperson yet and it didn't surprise me. I'm the only person stupid enough to work for free doing carnivals for ten years. She asked me if I wanted to chair it and I couldn't help but laugh.
Teddy is in junior high now so I told her, "No thank you."
Did I tell you I got my copyright last week for my how-to book, 'Carnival on a Shoestring'?
Anyway, after Patti took off Connie stopped by with her suitcase and loaded games.
The snag with having "Supermom" as a business partner is when school started
she had to go back to her mom job. I'm a terrible mother compared to her!!!
So when she left and the van was near done I took a break around four.
The fog had burned off and it was sunny so
I dashed down to the swamp and picked pussywillows.
There were a few trees when we moved in and every year I'd clip and plant branches
and there was a great tree at Doyle Chiropractor on Dead Man's Curve
that I cut ten starts from and planted.
Now there are dozens of baby trees in the swamp
and when they put in the new river trail
I plan to plant hundreds all the way along the trail.
The first sign of spring.
Pussywillows.
Well, I'm off to the RV show so I'll see you Sunday night, late.
Ciao!

1/9/2010 Getting Loaded All Day

*Walks in slowly and lies down*
Oh my goodness Mr. Blog. I am so not used to working this hard, but,
I HAVE NEVER BEEN HAPPIER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!
I finished the bag toppers at noon and
started getting loaded.
Each suitcase weighs about eighty pounds and there are five of them. Near 500 games.
So. True to his word, Troy came home from school and loaded my entire mini-van.
My goodness it is full. Am I lucky he had weight-lifting this semester or what?!
He carried in the middle van seat so I have more room for storage
and to sleep.
I feel like it's friggin' Christmas, Easter, Halloween, my birthday and Thanksgiving
all at once.
Man, I wish I could jar up this joy and mail it to every person in the world.

1/7/2010 Best Day Ever

*Dashes in and perches on wingback chair*
Oh my goodness Mr. Blog! I barely have time to breathe!
I worked twelve hours a day Monday through Saturday.
My PTA pal, Gail Schultz, came on Friday and packaged 600 mini-racer cars in snack sacks
for me. At top speed we got them ready for the game bags.
Yesterday I needed to go to church even though I didn't have the time.
Terry was on the phone with a friend in the morning saying he was bored and going to play some basketball. When he hung up I said, "If you are bored you could always go to church with me."
He gave me a look like, "What's your point?"
So I dashed off and was thrilled to see my pew-homies, Carol, Char and Caroline.
Great sermon about Peter in the fishing boat was just for me!
And then...We closed with my favorite hymn, 'Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore.'
When I got home I called Nicholette and she said I can bring my canopy frame
and decorate it with yellow, pink and black streamers for Nixpix and Cookie Lee!
I have balloons too.
Then I heard a rowdy noise and it was Cub Scouts on the bike trail hiking!
My pal Meagan Colella is leading them and we used to have such a blast at camp together!
Her youngest son is already in third grade and he gave me the world's cutuest
invitation to the Pack 622 50th birthday Blue and Gold Banquet
celebrating the centennial of Boy Scouts! I got choked up when I saw his dear little
handwriting and remembered ten years of fun with the little cubs at camp and around the hood.
I hiked with them a ways and when I needed to come back and start work I saw some pussywillows in bloom! I'm taking some to the RV show for decoration.
I worked until ten last night and got all the games packaged so now I have
near 500 bag toppers to staple on by bedtime.
I need to get loaded all day tomorrow so I'll catch ya on the flip side!

1/5/2010 Camping in a Parking Garage

*Drags in and flops on couch*
Ugh Mr. Blog,
I am so beat.
I have not worked four twelve hour days in a row since I was carrying mail for the post office during the presidential election of 1984. Reagan Mondale and I was a T-6 which means I had five mail routes that I cased and carried on a rotating schedule to cover the regular mail carrier's day off. There was so much mail I stayed in and cased political mail for a few sixteen hour days. 'Course I was only twenty-five back then.
Anyway, I worked twelve hours a day for four days rolling gameboards and packaging games.
My high school pal Margo Thorning Serano came and helped me yesterday.
Geez she is delightful! When they were passing out charm she got in line twice!
She fell off a loading dock five years ago and trashed her back and hips.
She had to get her back fused and is getting a double knee replacement at the end of this month. Despite being in horrible pain and in a wheelchair, she offered to help me.
I picked her up and she used her walker to get to and from the car and I'll tell you what
that girl is a workhorse! I can't really tell you how many hundreds of games she packaged for me but I think I am about half done.
So I had some other great news yesterday!
I got my City of Kenmore business permit in the mail!
I am going to camp at the Qwest Field parking garage in my mini-van for the RV show!
Isn't that exciting?!
It is a bad part of town but don't worry.
I'm taking my aluminum baseball bat that I keep under my bed for when Terry is out of town.
He looks like a blond Charles Manson so I never worry when he is home.
I'm also taking my good butcher knife that would make a clean wound in case someone tries
to murder me. That way they won't get an infection when I stab them.
I am so excited. I'm taking the middle bench out of my Ford Windstar mini-van
and loads of camping gear.
I'm going early to get a spot in the parking garage.
Terry says it would be ten degrees warmer in there than in the outside parking lot.
Yikes! I have another twelve hour day of packaging so I'd better dash!
Ciao!

1/3/10 The Evil Wife

*Walks in cheerfully and perches on the edge of the chair*
Yikes Mr. Blog,
My marriage is hanging by a thread this time.
My friend Molly McLean stopped for coffee on her way back to Oregon
and I told her about trying to sneak out a loan without telling Terry.
I was so sure I could sell the games and replace the cash before he noticed
AND get Gin Latin printed. Ugh! Gin Latin will make
Terry an instant millionare.
That is why I worked twelve hours the last two days
to get ready for the RV show next week!
And guess what?! The Seattle Times Business section yesterday reported attendance up
at all the garden and boat shows by 5% for the first time in two years!
54,000 people went to the garden show!!!
If that many come to QWEST Field for the RV Show next week I KNOW I can sell the
last 479 driving games!!!
So anyway, back to Molly.
When I told her about the loan fiasco she reminded me of the Laser Hair Removal fiasco
and asked me why I never learn from my mistakes.
She doesn't even know about my E-Bay fiasco or the time I got us sued for a quarter of a million
dollars and I don't need to share that with her or anyone.
I DO LEARN from my mistakes!!!
I am just a risk-taker and that is how God made me Mr. Blog!
I'd better run-got another twelve hour day of game board rolling.
Ciao!

1/2/10 Groundhog's Day and The Talk*

*Dashes in and lies on brown leather couch*
Hi Mr. Blog,
Happy Groundhogs day! When I was working the red-eye flights from LA to Cleveland in '92
we would save the apples left on the plane and take them to our hotel.
It was around six am and dawn
and we'd huck the apples off our hotel balconies towards the bushes near the creek
and loads of small groundhogs would run out and grab them.
They would sit up like prairie dogs only they were so much cuter!
I'd never seen one before except Puxatwanny Phil on TV.
I wondered if I could get one for a pet they were so darn adorable.
So last night Terry told me he knew I'd gotten into the home equity account
and I told him I took out a bit for printing the game.
I had hoped to sell fast enough to replace the cash before he noticed
but it just didn't work out for me.
I thought he was gonna divorce my ass on the spot!
But I told him when Gin Latin goes global
the first thing I'm going to do is pay off the house.
He seemed happy about that.
He even peeled me an orange when he got back from the store AND put it in a bowl for me.
That is VERY significant.
I had folded and rolled games for twelve hours by then and was exhausted
and my arthritis was starting to make my fingers stiff.
I'm relieved he knows 'cause the guilt was killing me.
Just wish I could get this business going faster.
Well-time for another twelve hours of game board rolling!

2/1/10 The 47th Annual Seattle RV Show at QWEST Field

*Bounces in and perches on the edge of the dark leather wing back chair*
Hi Mr. Blog! Did you miss me?
I had to take a sabbatical to get my head back on straight.
No, I can't tell you about it today.
Maybe in a few months.
I had the best news Friday! Out of the blue, Nicolette Johnson calls me and tells me I can
split a booth with her at the RV Show at QWEST Field February 11th-14th! Next Week!!!
Her dad owns an RV store and is friends with the organizer, Dave Henderson, and he helped us
work out all the details. I had given up working at the show because I couldn't afford
the outrageous $500.00 vendor fee and didn't have that much credit on my business account.
If I can sell all 479 remaining games I can pay off my business loans AND
get Gin Latin 1 printed in a few months
AND go to the Boy Scout jamboree in Virgina this summer!
Woo Hoo is all I have to say about that!
Gotta go assemble those games.
See you later Mr. Blog!