30 September 2009

Many changes are afoot. If you're reading this, you've no doubt noticed that we've been doing a little work in the digital realm (thanks again to Timmie who is magically able to take things that are simple for most of us - but for some reason very difficult for me - and make them so simple that even I understand them...).

The picture that is the new header on the blog is one of our pentacle stones, photographed in the Pembina River at noon a couple of weeks ago. It looks very large because I was quite close to it. In reality these stones are the size of the palm of your hand. I'm not sure why I didn't drown attempting to take that picture seeing as I had to submerge the camera (and myself) to make the shot.

At any rate, I feel like I should have webbed toes from all the sloshing around I've done in rivers and other bodies of water lately.

People may have noticed that Fred and I haven't been around the Store the last few weeks. We've been travelling. A lot. On Monday we got back from the Kootenays with a fresh shipment of brooms. This year we ordered them sight unseen and the good people who make the brooms picked out some amazing specimens (far better than, I think, if I had taken two hours to pick them out). These guys really know their stuff.

Also yesterday we had a visit from our crystal and jewellery people. In stock soon...every size of just about every sterling pentacle ring we've ever carried. And crystals I've never heard of before but apparently *do* exist (according to Melody) including something called "hypersteine" which looks like a low grade ruby or sapphire (or perhaps "black star" diopside) but isn't.

Good for business relations and other stuff, it looks like we're going to keep one in a special place in the till. Or, perhaps, seeing as the ones we got are the size of sparrow eggs and very heavy and hard, we may just keep a bowl full of them and chuck them at people who come into the Store to annoy us (also a valid way, I think, of maintaining one's business relationships!)

Let's see...other news...

Somehow the store computer password protected itself. Much fun and mayhem ensued until we figured out how to unlock it (interesting too seeing as to my knowledge we have never ever actually set a password for it). I can attest that it is impossible to guess a password that does not exist (can you say "divide by zero"?)

Anyhoo...it's all figured out and we all learned a little something about ourselves and the computer in the process.

And, lastly, even as I write this, Rasa is no doubt sitting on a jumbo jet on the tarmac somewhere waiting to embark on the next leg of her 24 hour journey to the fabled lands of Uruguay.

We all wish her the best in her new life and we're going to miss her dearly.

6 September 2009

So it's September 6th today. Noteworthy only because all day yesterday I thought it was September 4th.

Anyhoo...

To answer the already asked question: yes, we will be open regular hours tomorrow (Labour Day).

Other news: this week we received a large book order of most of our backorders. If you were looking for a particular book that hasn't been in for awhile, odds are good we have it in now.

Website development continues (slowly, but that's totally because I'm being glacial about it)...

Oh and a point of clarification: last night I was working late at the Store and, as so often happens, people came by about 9:30 pm and bounced off the locked door (I really need to reprint our hours in a larger font). Fred ran up to the inside of the door, barked twice and then sat there, the picture of utter abandonment and desolation, looking entreatingly at the people on the other side. People who promptly said, when confronted with this visage of utter sadness, "aw, poor dog. I can't believe they lock him up in there all night by himself."

This is not the first time this has happened. Trust me when I say this: if Fred's there, odds are very good I'm there too. You just don't see me.

Anyway, my point is, don't be fooled by his puppy dog eyes. He's playing you.

4 September 2009

So here's what's new in our world...

We have a new website thanks to Timmie. Like I say to my accountant on a fairly regular basis: "I'm glad there's people in the world who like to do what you do because it means people like me don't have to."

The site will actually be shop-able (is that even a word?) shortly. I just need to input some of the 17,328 items we sell...

Also, the calendar connected to the new site has been updated. I will endeavour to do my best to keep it as accurate a reflection of the paper version we have in the store as possible. Well, the printing will be neater and there won't be all those crazy arrows and squiggles from when stuff gets changed. But otherwise...exactly the same!

I kind of gave up on the old website calendar because, for some bizarre reason, it always kept defaulting to March 2007. Nothing auspicious happened in that month other than, I suspect, that was the month the calendar was created.

Anyway...keep checking back for exciting things to come...