The power of a voice

Sometimes, you just need to hear someone's voice to know they're okay. Sometimes, you just want to talk to that person.

The long-distance lines into Louisiana have been down since Katrina hit, and that it understandable. However, it does make it hard for those of us with loved ones in the area. So I was very glad when I got a voice mail from my mother on Monday letting me know that she was okay, just without power. On Tuesday, I got another voice mail that the power was back on and she was still fine. The aggravating thing here was that the only reason I was getting voice mail was that I get terrible cell phone reception in my office, so her calls went straight to voice mail - the phone never rang. When I tried to call her back, my call wouldn't go through. I was very happy when she called early this morning and we actually got to talk!

In further Katrina news, it is interesting to note that the Superdome refugees are being moved to the Astrodome. From one dome to another, at least this one will have power and A/C. I also find it interesting that several of the news feeds have reported that the schedule for the Astrodome has been cleared until December to accomodate the refugees (this apparently from the Govenor's spokeperson). Hmm...that was probably pretty easy since the Astrodome isn't currently in use by anybody - the Houston Texans use the new stadium, Reliant Stadium, across the street. Now, the associated secondary buildings are used for events (conventions, homeshows and the like), and it may have been necessary to clear those off the schedule temporarily, but they are not in the dome itself.

I wonder if they will make Dome dogs available again? Seriously, though, I hope one day that life can return to normal for all the residents of the Gulf Coast. I hope to stroll along the French Quarter as I have done before, and munch on bengiets from the Cafe du Monde, to eat gumbo in the cafes, to breathe in the sultry air that is Louisiana, my home state.

East side, West side...

It is very important which side of the hurricane you're on.

Various members of the family live in South Louisiana; luckily in Baton Rouge, not New Orleans, so I've been keeping a somewhat close eye on Hurricane Katrina. It became a much closer eye Saturday, when I found out it was making an apparent beeline for New Orleans. DH had just had LASIK (and has recovered nicely), so all the parental units were checking in on him. My father had been planning on flying out of New Orleans Monday to visit my brother and his family in Germany, and so mentioned the troubles he was having getting his flight changed when he called. I suggested getting his flight changed to depart out of Houston if he ever got any customer service response, come over a day early and get west of the storm.

Apparently no one at the airline customer service was authorized to make a decision about changing flights originating out of New Orleans, even though Katrina was bearing down on the city by late Saturday. My father, being resourceful and having a grandchild to see, checked out the airline's website and found the names of the executives. He then searched for the phone numbers of those executives. They were unlisted, but a company advertised that he could purchase the number for a measly $7.95. He did and called the number. The number was correct for the airline executive; the executive was at home! Thirty minutes later someone called my father back and rerouted his flight through Houston.

So between the LASIK patient, watching Katrina, and getting the air traveller on his way, it was quite a weekend. Everyone else is battened down at home. The phone lines are busy, but the news reports seem to indicate that damage isn't too bad, so I'm trying not to worry.


On the stitching front, I finished another ribbon colorway last night. I hope to post a picture of all eight ribbons stitched up soon. I almost feel like I could stitch the design in my sleep now. I'm also getting very close to the color fiddling stage for the dragon welcome. Sometimes that's hard, and sometimes it is easy to do.

My head still hates me

But it is getting better.

For those who haven't picked up from previous blog entries, I suffer from migraines. This means that every now and then, my head decides that it wants to remind the rest of the body that it is in control and it uses pain as its medium. It is mostly under control now.

I might get to work on some new designs tonight, one of which is getting close to the fun stage, the color-picking stage. Actually, this is a very fun design (I think) - it is a welcome sign with several dragons surrounding it. I haven't decided what color the dragons will be, but I think this will be a very colorful design. And very sparkley - we must have metallics! I'm starting to get excited because the first conceptual version of this design just didn't work, so this is the second version and I'm liking it a whole lot more.

Other than new designs, I'm trying to work on the whole marketing thing. The problem is having an engineering background instead of a business background. Oh, and probably the whole shy, quiet thing. I'm thinking of doing some kindof a contest, but what kind? Name that design? Scavenger hunt on the website? hmmmm... Pondering continues.

We have normality

One week back from Charlotte and things are starting to settle back into what feels like normality. I think I have recouped most of the sleep I have lost, although visions of new designs are dancing in my head. I spent several nights not stitching at all (the horror) and instead did some basic house cleaning, unpacking and the like. DH got a double-batch of cupcakes to take to work to make up for me being gone on his birthday.

Of course, there were some crazy moments last week- picking up DH's car, then rushing back to the house to pick up the new models, then rushing to the LNS before it closed to show them to the owner. Going back to the gym Friday night (finally!), then coming home to get some final cleaning done before the in-laws drove in at midnight.

The weekend was busy with the in-laws visiting. It was fun, though. We went to see the Lord of the Rings exhibit at the Natural Science Museum - a must see since it would be closing next weekend. Very cool. The costumes and artifacts were fantastic. Then a double-dose of shopping Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. My feet are killing me!

Finally we had some quiet time last night. I got out a drawing I had worked on in Charlotte for a new design. It is coming along nicely and will be ready for charting soon. Tonight we'll have to work on a photography project so that the light table can be cleared off and I can transfer the drawing to graph paper. I also worked on a couple of other rough sketches while watching The Stepford Wives (a rather bizarre movie) and finally got some stitching in before calling it a night.

Hello, is this thing on?

Well, so much for carrying on with the live commentary - the hotel's gateway server was down for all of Sunday, so I wasn't able to log in (except for the short amount of time I was able to get on and charge my credit card) all day. Sunday was typical for a the second day of a trade show - slower than the first day. It was also DH's birthday, so I had to call and let his friends know they weren't to kill him in their game of paintball; I guess it is the guys' equivalent of a birthday spanking!

Things finally wound down to the offical close and then it was time to break down the booth. That went fairly fast, then several of us gathered in the lobby for a designer pow-wow. It is actually quite difficult to maintain both the creative and the business end of being a cross-stitch designer simultaneously. And, there are lots of critical business decisions that have to be made: everthing from what a pattern cover layout/size will lookout to what trade shows to attend. Of course, there is not a single path to success - what makes one show successful to one designer will not make it sucessful to another. Anyway, the discussion was good, although ordering the pizza was a pain (and its own lesson in marketing).

Monday, I wrapped up my packing. Nick Smith (of Dragon Dreams fame) was kind enough to run me to a shipping center so that I could send my big packages home. I had enough time to lend a hand to Connie (of Needleworks by CJ) for her packing and help people corral carts for loading. Then it was time to catch the shuttle to the airport - it was there that my adventure home would truely begin!

I arrived at the airport at 12:30, but my flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 3:45. No problem, I thought. Time to get some lunch, read my book, do some stitching. The flight wasn't delayed, so I filled the time, got on the plane, and got settled in my seat and was looking forward to getting home and having some real Tex-Mex for dinner. It wasn't until we were on the tarmac that they told us it was storming in Houston and we couldn't take off from Charlotte! So we waited a bit. Then the pilot turned off the engine to save gas; then the plane got hot, so he took a show of hand to see who wanted to stay on the tarmac (saving our place in line) and who wanted to go back to the gate. We waited on the tarmac some more. Then we were third in line to take off - we got out on the runway and then the pilot said we were either going to take off or go back to the gate. We went back to the gate. The airline employees were extremely considerate through the whole thing and kept us informed, and by going back to the gate at this point (to get more gas and wait another hour for the storms to clear out of Houston), we were able to stretch our legs and get some dinner since the flight was now so late. By the time we got to Houston, there was no signs of the storms that had kept us waiting almost 3 hours in Charlotte!

By the time I got home, I was exhausted and ready for bed. I said hello the the cat, and then crashed for some well-desrved rest!

Ah... Lunch

Ok, I just didn't realize how hungry I was getting, but I feel so much better now. I'm not far removed from a hobbit. You just can't make me skip meals. My husband tries it, but not often. Nick, Jenn's husband, was the hero, and went out to Panera to get us all something that wasn't fried or hotel stuff. I always liked that Hitchhiker's quote about the three major phases of civilization, which are the how, why and where phases (it goes something along these lines): The first phase of civilization is characterized by the question "How do we eat?", the second by the question, "Why do we eat?" and the third by the question, "Where should we have lunch?"

Now to make it to tea time.

Live from Charlotte

Yet another trade show post....

I arrived yesterday - it almost seems like a week ago. Somehow all the printing got done, the last model got framed, car troubles notwithstanding, and all the models fit into the new suitcase. Then the quandry of what other suitcases to take had to be solved. I actually took less luggage than I thought. The model suitcase held most of the trade show "stuph" plus a pillow for padding. The printer had to go into a carry on, so it was padded by clothing. That just left a small second item to check and the backpack for the laptop.

I was dropped off rather early at the airport because someone else had to go to work, but that meant I didn't need to rush through security (and the printer presented not problems), had time to get some breakfast, and still had time to stitch.

By the time I arrived in Charlotte, my stomach said it was lunchtime, but I still had to get to the hotel. The shuttle did arrive, but it was a sultry 10 minute wait outside where I was greeted by two North Carolina mosquitoes. Has West Nile made it this far north yet? Check into the room, then LUNCH!

Post-lunch, I am a normal human being again. I find the box that I shipped with my stands and proceed to deconstruct the front of the hotel room. Setup doesn't take too long, but the one thing that really lacks in these rooms is lighting. Therefore, I hookup with Jo for an interesting trip to Walmart (or "Walmark" as Kayla calls it) since we are both in search of lighting. Back to the hotel, and then Connie and I decide to search for dinner, since the hour is now late. Post-dinner and it is time to set up my new light. Flourescents are your friends - what a difference it makes. I'll figure out how to get it back to Houston later.

Then it is time to crash because the next day is the show.

Charlotte - day the second. (now in real time)

Wake up early, (blah too early for someone on central time), get some breakfast, then back to the room for some last minute arranging in the room. Lay out the catalogues with the new inserts - throw open the door and wait for the customers.

Ok, there's not a torrential flood, but we're working on it.

Not far from the madding crowd

This weekend was tax-free shopping weekend here in Texas and for some reason I heard the siren call of the shopping mall. Not that I didn't have a dozen other things that I needed to do, especially with the Charlotte show coming up in short order. Not that I didn't try to avoid it by going to the gym, and doing other work. Somehow, I ended up at the mall on Saturday afternoon.

I drove out there, thinking, "I'll park at the Foley's Men's store. It won't be too bad. I'll pick up a couple of pairs of pants, then get back home, no problem." When I got to the mall, I realized my mistake. It looked like the weekend before Christmas. The place was packed - even the Men's store. I decide to be undaunted and find a parking spot.

Task number one: (and here's where I prove my insanity) exchange shoes. Ok, not too bad. Put shoes back in car and head back into mall. Task number two: find pants and anything else. The anything else come up because we were out shopping last weekend with the mother-in-law and the store had this sneaky little promotion: spend a certain amount of money and get a $10 award card that is only good on the tax free weekend. So, between all of us shopping before, I collected a couple of these. The trouble is, I can only use them one at a time. So now, in the mad crush, I have to shop, buy, shop, buy, in order to make the most of my coupons. This I do; and combinded with sales and other coupons earns me a very nice originally priced $59.99 shirt marked down to (drumroll please) $2.91. Ahhhhh... yes all worth it. So, now DH patience with me being gone is rewarded with a couple of new shirts for him and I am gone from the mall.

Charlotte progress: The banner stands are boxed and shipped! All of the patterns are printed except for the last design, which should arrive from the model stitcher today. Order forms and freebies will be picked up from Kinkos tonight, and all printed material will go to Jo tomorrow. Except of course, for whatever has to go with me (the last pattern, catalogues, the like). I'm actually much calmer this week than last, though I don't know if I will stay that way.

Ok, time for a small rant. It will just be a small one I've just taken a look at the new book listings at Hoffman's and I'm almost glad I don't stitch other designs any more. I'd be so disappointed. Some of that stuff looks like I've seen it before. Ok, I'm grumbling because they still haven't picked me up yet. I've promised myself not to send stuff off to them again, at least not until after Nashville. I do have a distributor now- one of their competitors. pffft. Maybe I should wait for them to come to me. Ok, rant off. I'll be nice again.

Weirder and Weirder....

So I figured out how to enable comments (so all you secret readers out there, feel free to comment away), and blogger decided to eat the last post. Here's what it said:

Designer gets migraine.
Blogger eats post.
Film at 11.
Much to do for Charlotte.

Kindof ironic that Blogger ate a post about eating a post. Anyway, the migraine days are still with us, but we are dealing with them. Things are getting done for Charlotte. I am slave driving myself and one last model stitcher to get two more pieces done. The other two designs are done and printed (yay!), the patterns just have to be bagged up. Tonight I will see if my model-toting solution is going to work. Will the models fit in the really big suitcase I bought? Slowly, but surely it is all getting done.

As if the pressure of getting ready for a trade show wasn't enough, my husband's birthday will occur while I am away. He said it would be okay for me to be away, but still, I will be away. And I haven't picked out a present yet. It doesn't help that he keeps changing his mind on what he wants, so it is not entirely my fault.

A small vent about IKEA. They have the perfect lighting solution for my displays. They just don't have it in stock in Houston. They have it in stock at about 75% of the stores around the country, but they won't ship from one store to another. They also won't ship direct on a product that is only offered in store (but is pictured so tantalizingly on the web). Grrrrr.