It's Beginning to Look Like Autumn, Sort of

Well, we have started changing the look of the website again.  We are adapting the color scheme to a more autumnal palette.  We haven't gotten everything quite the way we want it yet, but that always happens when we do this.  We used to change the color scheme on a more regular basis, but for continuity sake, we kept the blue and grey scheme for a few months now.  Sure, we added a few images here and there, but for the most part, we have't been keeping up with the seasons.  One reason is that it is just so hard to find the original scheme after so many changes.  Also, we have been busy with other things, so site design went by the wayside, a little.  Hopefully, we will be going full Halloween by the time of the next post.  Speaking of the next post, it will be on the weekend of our anniversary.  Eighteen years.  Be prepared for some choice memories next time around.  Until then, see you soon.

Falling Behind, Falling Ahead

Hopefully, we will have everything done soon after this scheduled post is online.  Things have just gotten behind lately.  Part of that is the fluctuating wi-fi at the store.  Downloading has slowed down a lot recently, especially for pages with high interaction, such as graphics.  Wait times have increased by minutes.  Anyway, that is the reason why we haven't set up our YouTube page yet.  Uploading a five minute video can take over half-an-hour.  We don't know if that is typical or not, but we will be setting up the site using a different  connection, just to see if things speed up any.  We are also finished decorating the store for fall, not Halloween, that will be done later on.  The pictures of the store will be up soon too.  The digital camera just needs some more batteries before we can take all of them.  We don't know when we will be able to post them, but be on the lookout for them.  While the overall themes stay about the same on a year-to-year basis, there are some little tweaks here and there.  We will have quite a few more pics than we normally do, if all things go as planned.  Well, that's all for this time.  See you again in two weeks.

An Apple, or Three, a Day (or Every Other Week)

The latest edition of our 'Making the Logo' videos will be online about the same time this will be published.  We would love to have you see these clips here, but they are just a little too long to be part of the post.  We aren't really sure why.  So, you are going to have to check our Facebook page if you want to any of them.  But maybe not for much longer.  See, we are planning on starting a YouTube channel featuring not just those clips, but possibly other scenes of dry-erase marker art created by this author.  It would by under his (and by that I mean my) name.  It is just taking a bit longer than imagined to find the time to figure out how to upload everything and get things started.  We are just hoping that the upload times are better than there are for Facebook.  Each of the first two clips were around five minutes long, but they took over a half-and-hour to upload.  We aren't sure if it is our internet connection or if it is just the natural length of time.  Having a computer doing nothing but uploading for that long is not that helpful.  Still, it would get are messaging to a wider audience. We should have something up by our next regular update.  Check back then.

Where the Books Are, Seriously Where Are They

Last week, we received a very large special order.  The books weren't available from our primary distributor, so we had to go through our secondary one instead.  We have been using then since we opened, so we thought that there wouldn't be any problems with ordering through them.  The books were due this past Wednesday, but they never arrived.  We called the distributor to find to what the problem was.  It turned out there were quite a few.  Since it had been almost a year since our last order, they were slightly suspicious with our new order.  Admittedly, this had happened once before, but the problem was easily taken care of.  However, we had the further problem of going over our maximum order size.  Somewhere along the line, we were given a maximum daily order of about two hundred dollars.  This current order exceeded that, but a bit.  We had place an order that was above the limit before, but that may have been before the changeover.  Anyway, we didn't have that information in our records and the sales representative that took our order over the phone either didn't mention it or didn't know we had the limit.  The distributor had tried to call us.  Unfortunately, they were using the contact number we had set up before we had an actual storefront.  For some reason, they hadn't updated to the number we have been using for the last eighteen years.  This is the  number we used not only to call them for information, but the one we used to confirm our identity when using their recently discontinued  phone ordering system.  Why they weren't able to use this number is beyond us.  They finally emailed us, just before closing time the day before the books were scheduled to arrive.  The person in charge of our business email didn't get to read it until after we called to see what the problem was. (She had overlooked it because she didn't closely read the message header). They originally were going to have to look over our financial records, before they were going to release the shipment.  We didn't want that.  We also were unable to use a business credit/debit card to pay for the books upfront.  Finally, they released the books on our own account, but with the thinly veiled warning that a third party collection agency might have to be called in if we weren't able to pay. The customer had already paid us in full, so the money was available.  As of this writing, the books are in shipment and should be were soon.  We still use many services from this distributor, even though we may have problems in placing another order form them.  We will still use them for as long as we are in business.

Write Now and Then

For who knows how many weeks in a row, we really have nothing to talk about.  Nothing is happening at the store, and nothing looks like it will be happening in the upcoming future.  This is the primary reason why we are going to cut back on our posts.  Why write a post if there isn't anything to write about.  There is another reason why we will be cutting back, and it is personal.  Starting next month, I will be taking online graduate school courses to get my Master's in English.  I am not sure how much time it will take for me to finish the work for each class, but it will probable cut into the time I allow for writing this blog.  Since I also write two other, more personal, blogs, I felt that something had to give, and this blog was the one that had to go.  We will still update the rest of the site on a somewhat regular basis, depending on what needs to be done.  (I totally forgot to change things for Independence Day.). The Upcoming Books page will be updated weekly, while I hope to continue posting pics of the monthly Upcoming Releases board.  We will still post on our social media pages, although we have been ignoring Google + a little too much.  Hopefully, we will even have a short post here.  As of right now, I am planning to post on the second and fourth week of every month.  If I can convince someone, we might even be able to have a fill-in for the other weeks.  Anyway, I am sorry I have to cut back, but it is for a good cause.  See you in two weeks,  or so.

Delays Were to Be Expected

Let's go right down to business.  We sort of messed up last week.  We wanted to post a video in last week's post, but it was too big for the site.  We had to post it on our Facebook page instead.  We wanted to post it on other social media outlets, but we haven't yet.  Why?  It took over thirty minutes just to upload the video the first time.  We really weren't expecting it to take so long for such a short clip.  Seriously, it is just over a minute-and-a-half long.  We just couldn't find the time to post it elsewhere.  Anyway, check for it there.  We also have finally post some extra pics from last year's Adrianna Trigainni signing that we weren't able to until we updated some of our technology.  It was really quite simple, with the right computer.  While preparing for this week's post, we noticed that last week was our one hundredth post on the Blogger platform.  When taking into account the original blog, that is a lot of posts.  It would have been special if we had been able to include the clip, but since one week we did a re-post, this week would be the "official" one hundredth post.  Unfortunately, we don't have anything to add to that.  We are planning an announcement for next week, so be on the lookout.  Until then, keep reading.

Summertime Gladness

As you may remember, we change the logo on our welcome board every so often.  Usually, it is based on a seasonal theme.  For instance, for the last few weeks, the logo was in blue and red for Independence Day.  The "o's" were changed into stars, and red stripes came out of the right end.  This time around, we had a hard time coming up with an idea.  Ultimately, we decided that watermelons would suit the season nicely.  But how should we do it?  We first thought about making every letter some form of the fruit, but decided against it.  While most of the letters could be represented as whole melons or slice, the "t" would be all but impossible.  In the end, we decided to just go with the "o's" again.  The first two "o's" would be whole melons, but the last "o" would be a round slice, as if just cut open.  We used two shades of green to represent the striped outside rind.  For the inside, we used a green outline with a lighter green ring just inside.  A red flesh interior with black seeds completed the effect.  We were going to put a video of the process up here, but there was a problem with the upload, so just check the website or social media for the full story. See you next week.