Over the weekend, RO and I went to a trade show, the Seattle Gift Show, to buy for the store. It was a lot of work. There were acres and acres of pottery vendors, art vendors, furniture vendors, jewelry vendors, candle vendors, clothing vendors. It went on and on and on. We spend two days there.

I am not a buyer at heart. My eyes glazed over by the time I saw my one hundredth vase. Thankfully RO knows what he's looking for, so I handled the paper work while he was shopping.

We met a rug importer who later stopped by the store to check us out. This vendor sells $10,000.00 rugs. He was impressed by our store and has offered to sell rugs through us on consignment, which is very nice because we can't afford to keep many $10,000.00 rugs in stock.

RO and Boone are now headed down to Las Vegas for a furniture show. I kind of wish I was there. Although the thought of another two days of buying kind of bores me.

I'll stick with running the store.

The store is next to a tourist area. Near by there are many little boutiques and gifts shops. Our store having an effect on the neighborhood.

The restaurants and the stores with different merchandise like us. We are the biggest and splashiest place on the block so they benefit by the extra foot traffic.

One boutique, unfortunately, carries similar merchandise as our store. They are suffering. The owner hates us-- she said so to some of our vendors. I really don't want to brush it off with "It's just business and in business you compete." But, at the same time there is little else I can do. Our store is probably five times larger than her's, with ten times the selection. She has a narrow alley, while we have a 5000 square foot building.

Last night we had dinner at Sally's.

Sally and her husband built my house back in the 1950's. They lived there for decades. After her husband died, she bought a smaller house 4 lots over.

Well, Sally is 80 now. And she doens't look a day older than 60. She's fit, smart, active and attractive. I hope I'm half as alive as she is when I turn 70.

We try to have dinner with Sally regularly. She loves the company and likes to keep tabs on her old home. Last night she gave us 4 old photos of my place, dating back to the 50's.

I think I'll blow them up, frame them and give Sally a copy.

The sewer at the store is all fixed up.

Saturday night, RO, Steven and I went out for dinner at Blu Sea Sushi. It's a fun conveyer belt sushi restaurant with a nice martini bar.

Steven really liked the bartender. So, RO looked at the bartender and shouted "Hey! Are you straight?" Steven and I broke out laughing. When RO gets tipsy, he gets loud.

After Sushi, we went to C.C.'s for a couple of more drinks. RO got even more obnoxious. I decided to just let him get it out of his system. We've been working so hard, that he needs to blow off some steam.

Next day, no hangovers!

Sunday night we had dinner at Matt and Sandy's. It was a great dinner. It was nice to site down with friends.

The store is doing fine. Over the weekend, we composed our first newspaper ad. We'll see how it looks in print.

It's one of those days. The sewer line at the store is blocked up. The plumber can't find the blockage. Right now they are flushing the sewer line out so they can push a small video camera into it.

Last night RO and I saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's a good movie, though I have some complaints with the story-- too much magic. Magic and the kids are in trouble. Some more magic and the kids are safe. Bad magic and someone dies. Good magic-- he comes back to life. More magic and the day is saved.

The magic feels like C.S. Lewis cheated with the story, which is disappointing because the rest of the movie (and book) are so well put together.

After the movie I got to meet Randy Hansen Randy is a friend of RO's who has had some success as a professional guitarist and a Jimmy Hendrix impersonator.

Last night Steven came over and joined us for our first machine dinner. Between the store and my job, we don't have enough time or energy to make good dinners. So, we got a crock pot and a bread machine. By 7pm both were finished, so all we had to do was sit down and enjoy our meal.

Steven is still overwhelmed with work. What is it about workoholism and my friends? I guess it's better than hanging out with slackers.

The store is going well. January may be a better month than December.

Over the weekend, I spent most of my time in the back room cleaning and organizing. I bought half a dozen rolling racks and we got all the crap off the floor and onto the shelves.

For the first time since we opened, our garbage is under control. I did three garbage runs. Much of the cardboard in our garbage area had started to rot away. I used a fork and shovel to get it into the truck bed.

The thing I miss most of my life before the store is the absence of enough. I used to be able to read, or watch TV, or sit in the hot tub, or hang out with friends until I had enough. There was still time left over for house work. Now my days are full. I still have my old full time job. The store takes up whatever free time is left over.

I think we have enough employees a the store that RO and Boone can start taking days off. In fact, Boone took Sunday off. We are going to try and schedule things so that RO can take Monday or Tuesday off, however I'm not sure he will. He'll probably do the buying or consulting on those days.

Me... Well Between my fulltime job and the store, I'm working seven days a week.

Although, Saturday night RO and I saw Brokeback Mountain with Steven and Vic. Brokemback Mountain is a good movie, but not the great movie I'd heard it was. I enjoyed it, but I'm in no hurry to see it again.

I'm back in Seattle and working hard. Between my day job and the store, I don't get much free time. We need to hire another full time person for the store-- RO is stretched very thin. But, that's a big commitment.

It's 3am in the morning. I am still in Phily. There is no one at the airport but the clean staff and a few straglers like me.

The cleaning staff spends most of their time joy riding the electric cars or sitting around and gabbing.

I want to sleep but can't. The one man who is actually working is running a loud floor buffer near me.

I still haven't found my camera.

The bank of pay phones next to me has started ringing randomly. It's kind of wierd. I picked up one of the ringing phones and no one was there. Then, the phone next to me started ringing.

I am stuck in Philidelphia. I was flying back from Toronto with a connecting flight in Phili. The flight from TO was delayed and I missed the connector. Right now they have me booked on the next flight to Seattle. That's not till the morning.

To make matters worse, while I was rushing around the airport I lost my camera. It had all my XMas pics on it. I feel bad about that.