OT Thread No. 8 -- Even NICKers get knackered occasionally!
 

Old thread is HERE

:yay: Yay!!! New thread!

Got Satelite back :woot: and the weather is behaving, but hot :sun:
Still troubles at hubby's work. He's on his 9th day straight of working and doesn't seeing getting any time off til this weekend *sigh* I think a few more gray hairs have poped up on his head. Poor baby.

5 school days left! :bunny:

Poor hubby! (Is it Ed? Somehow I think I recall that is his name -- if it isn't, I apologize) I hope things get back to normal for him soon and that he gets some rest. :sleep:

Any word on his new job and your relocation? :look:

:no: Nope, no word, Still left hanging in the wind *sigh* But school is almost out and we have a couple of small trips planned for the summer and taking the boys on a Disney cruise for their birthday the beginning of Aug. They will offically turn 12 in the Bahamas :yay: Really looking forward to it. I love cruises. I've only done the Carnival ones and had a blast. They say that Disney is the best. Guess we'll see.

Sounds like fun. Tell us -- is the cruise really for the twins or really more for mom? http://i30.tinypic.com/2a4s8qe.jpg

:lol: Shhh! How about a little of both? ;)

Well, I'm back from my little trek to the East Coast. The flights weren't too bad -- I didn't have any impossibly long lines to wait in except picking up the rental car.

I'm not recommending HERTZ to anyone -- When I took the bus from the terminal to their site in Phila., there were 42 people in line in front of me (I had plenty of time to count them :irked:) and only a couple of agents working -- if you could call it that. Sometimes it looked like there were 4, but then one of them would get up and disappear for a while or wander over to talk to another one (tying both up). It took an hour-and-a-half from landing to driving away. They KNOW how many reservations they have, so they should be able to allocate staff accordingly. That is unacceptable (to me, at least) so I won't be using them again soon... :irked:

Otherwise, the weekend went well. The kids got properly hitched and nobody needed to pull-out a gun (that I saw :lol:) The reception was elegant and featured good food and heavenly desserts and I saw no bloodshed, so I guess you would call it successful. :lol: I got to visit with some old friends (old in any way you want to take it...:look:)

Any-Hoo, I'm glad to be sleeping in my own bed again! :sleep:

Besides the car deal, it sounds like a great wedding. No blood-shed...better than mine :lmao:

It's already HOT here :sun: *sigh* It' definately summer here

My book Fallen Angels was released on Tuesday. *crossing fingers* Can't wait til the end of the month to see if the sales go well. Already got one compliment on it on my blog :D

:hug: Congratulations! I hope it is a Best Seller! :read:

Last weekend was PrideFest here in Milwaukee -- one of the largest such celebrations in the midWest. It draws lots of people from Chicago and further -- it's a really big deal here.

I'm good friends with Carl, the owner of the local Bookstore, OutWords, and so I volunteered to help staff a huge booth they run at PrideFest. I worked 5-12 midnight on Saturday and 12:30-11 on Sunday. It was very busy when the weather was good and we were kept on our toes keeping up with people buying books, DVDs, t-shirts and what Carl likes to refer to as "Rainbow Crap" (which lots of people buy, spending lots of $$. :lol:)

Saturday evening, some really, really large thunderstorms moved in. If it were up to me I would have closed the place down. There was widespread flooding around the area and significant wind-damage, (so much so that it made the national news) but the PrideFest people were loathe to shut-down (it would have cost them big bucks) so we rigged-up tarps and went on selling rainbow crap in the driving rain and tornado-force winds. I was soaked to the skin for most of the evening. Unpleasant to say the least.

Sunday, there were storms again in the AM but by noon the skies cleared and the sun came out, so we set-up the booth and did a brisk business. Then at about 5PM thunderstorms reappeared. We were ready with tarps, etc.. At about 7 we learned that there were tornadoes in the area and the thunderstorms seemed to get worse and worse. Still the PrideFest folks tried to go on with the big show: The Indigo Girls were scheduled to appear as the main act later in the evening. When the wind picked-up even more, Carl decided that we had had enough, regardless of what the PrideFest folks thought and we began to hurriedly pack-up everything and prepare to abandon ship. We did an amazing job of getting all the product (including the "Rainbow Crap") packed into something -- which was remarkable considering that the usual pattern -- and the object of being there in the first place -- was that we take home less than we bring. Still we barely had enough boxes and stuff to pack what was left. We had planned for 3 days of retail sales and really only got 1.5 days where sales was possible. :(

Once we were packed, however, the tale is not over. Vehicles are not allowed on the SummerFest grounds until they are closed and the show was still going-on over at the Miller Pavilion. We couldn't just abandon the booth and leave all the merchandise sitting there -- people are basically honest, but that would have been too much temptation for some, i am sure. We simply had to sit there for 2.5 more hours until the Indigo Girls finally came-on and then finished their act for 200-300 brave fans (in my book, IDIOTS) sat in the driving rain with thunder and lightening-strikes all around them to see the show. The IG were under-cover on the stage, so they presented their entire show in this huge 3000-seat pavilion for 2-300 people :spineyes: sitting under umbrellas and ponchos. What-the-hell -- they got paid and they were dry...

When they finally cleared everybody out (about 10:30) we were able to bring in the truck and load up the mountain of unsold merchandise to take back to the store. What a bummer!

This has to be the worst PrideFest EVER - at least weather-wise. Poor Carl, probably didn't sell enough "Rainbow Crap" and other stuff to make it worthwhile to even drag all the stuff down to the SummerFest grounds.

AnyHoo -- that was pretty-much my weekend! :D

:lmao: but remember you were out there sitting too, Alex :hug:
Sorry the weather didn't work out *sigh* and wasn't that great for your friend to sell his stuff (rainbow crap- :rotfl: )

I, on the ohter hand, ended up getting my first sunburn of the season. :sun: Went to the beach to meet up with my brother who was in from out of town.

You're just jealous of all the fun I had in the rain... :lmao:

I have a "'bot" program that constantly roams the web looking for any mention of "Nick Wechsler." It often finds the name associated with high school soccer games in MA and track events in VA and other such events with others who share Nick's name and endless press-releases from the producer Norman Wechsler who goes by "Nick." Today it came up with this one and somehow the image of our Nick being the one involved made me laugh out loud -- I don't know why, it just struck me as funny -- how about you? :lol:

:lol: Oh, I think Nick would love to be a speaker about the process of said pregnancy! :blush:

Sorry, I've been MIA! I've been busy- then you know when you get so bored, you just don't want to do anything? Yeah, that's me at most times... I just don't want to do anything!!

Anyway, I hope all is well. :hug:

Good to see you back, Ica! :hug: