We Have LIGHTS!

I spent all day down at the store watching guys climb scaffolding and tall ladders to hang my lights. They even cleaned the ceiling fans for me. Now THAT's customer service! :)






There are even lights in the basement! You can see the ugly yellow floor! (must remember to get floor paint or a big throw rug to throw over the ugly)
I get a phone and Internet down there on Friday. Shelves arrive May 5th or 6th.

Button, Button, I've Got A Button!

Here is a button I made to link to the Stringtown Blog with in case you're interested. Please save to your own server etc.

I'm Self-Employed!

Yesterday was my last day at the not so air conditioned air conditioner factory. YAY!It was pretty nice. All the guys said they'd miss me and I got a cake. (Chocolate cake with crushed strawberries in the middle and whipped cream type icing! YUM) Of course, every time one of them asked what I was going to do and I said "I'm opening a yarn store." I had to answer that same ::Man looks puzzled:: "Is there actually a market for THAT?" question. By the end of the day I was saying, "No, but I get to spend thousands of dollars on yarn!" So yeah, they all think I'm off my rocker, but I have faith that there are enough knitters & crocheters around here to support a real yarn store so Pthhhh! on those scoffing fellas.
I made these cards to hand out yesterday and to post places around town.

Today I met the electrician down at the storefront. He seemed surprised to see 15-foot ceilings even though I told them about that when I made the appointment. He only had a 10-foot ladder in the truck so he's going to have to come back Monday with an assistant and scaffolding. That's fine with me. I just want lights sometime before the store opens. haha I also met with the sales rep. from the cable company. Stringtown will have fabulous cable internet and a phone/fax number sometime next week.
I'm about to go down to the City Collections Office to put in the paperwork for the occupancy permit/business license. That should only take a couple of weeks to process so hopefully it'll be ready by the time I'm ready to open. My Sales Tax ID application has supposedly been processed and a number will be issued "today or maybe tomorrow, I don't know exactly." according to the lady in Little Rock I talked to today. Those people are slower than Christmas!!
So yeah, there is a lot going on and it's all round-about-yarn-related, but none of it is knitting or spinning or weaving. I'll be at Sweet Bay tonight working on the same old sample scarf I work on every Thursday.

FInally!

I just got a call from the guy who has been working on the loose
plaster wall at the shop and he says they are finishing up today, then
once everything up there dries I can paint. Whoo!
We can start cleaning tomorrow if we want as long as we don't touch
that wall till it's dry. I'm going to go over there and crank up the
heat tonight so maybe it'll dry faster. We've had a cold snap here,
and I think leaving the heat off down there to save on the electric
bill has cost us some drying time. I hadn't even thought of that, but
then the guy didn't complain about it either.
I guess in the next week or so I need to pick out my light fixtures,
schedule an electrician to install that stuff, schedule the cable guy
to install the internet and phone so I can start working down there,
get some paint mixed to match the color already on the walls, schedule
a plumber to come cap off the former shampoo sink pipes sticking out
of the wall, buy some cleaning supplies, a trash can, a tall ladder
(hello super high ceiling), and a vacuum for the store, make an
"opening soon" poster for the front window, and do a BUNCH of
cleaning.
At least I'm not stuck in waiting-for-the-plaster-guy-purgatory anymore :)

May The Gods Of Technology Smile Upon Me

Yesterday I bought all of that stuff for the store. See that airpot? That's for the two liters of coffee which will be powering me daily for the next couple of months.
I have about a month and a half to learn Quickbooks, Quickbooks POS, and get the laptop to be friends with the scanner, the receipt printer, and the regular printer/scanner/fax. I have to do all that while also ordering and setting up shelves/yarn/fiber/needles/notions/bags/etc. and making sure I have all the legal permits and numbers and things to file here and there taken care of. Did I mention the yard sale I need to toss in there somewhere?
With all that to do, what am I doing today? Sitting here at a little after 3PM still in my bathrobe thinking about cleaning my closet, going to the grocery store, and cooking chicken tonight. Yeah, my brain works like that.

Quitting

I'm trying to be nice and give 2 weeks notice at my job, but most of
the people I'd normally tell aren't here today because tomorrow is a
holiday. The ones who are here don't know if they are supposed to fill
out some paperwork or what, so I'm just telling them "OK, my last day
is the 19th" and trying to leave it at that.
When I say I'm quitting the boring auditor job because I'm opening a
yarn store they look at me like I just told them I'm going to levitate
the Pentagon with my super secret mind powers.

Good News & Bad News

The only knitting I'm doing right now is all swatches and sample scarf
thingies for the store, and I haven't even been able to work on that
the last few days. It's true what they tell you that if you're going
to open a yarn store you won't have time to knit, at least at first
anyway. So I'm giving you the good news and the bad news of the last
few days -

Good News: I sold my extra house! We close at the end of the month or
sooner, and the girl who is buying it to fix up for a rental property
has cash.
Bad News: The shed over there is full of junky junk. I have to clean
it out and haul most of it to the dump before closing. eek! When will
there be time to do THAT??

Good News: Work has started on the store space. There are workmen
there today knocking off loose plaster and sealing down the gaps so
that we can paint the plastered parts of the walls. I also found a
decent looking metal shelving unit and a wire magazine rack stuffed in
the dumbwaiter/freight elevator thing.
Bad News: Plaster makes a ton of dust which will need to be cleaned
off of EVERYTHING, and last night while we were over there taking
measurements for light fixtures and shelves Ian found a stash of human
hair clippings in the wall. (gross gross gross) He also found where
someone has drawn boobies on the wall with a pencil. Leave it to the
14 year old boy to find the boobie graffiti anywhere.

Good News: I'm losing weight because I'm so busy I forget to eat.
Bad News: I can't find my smaller pants so everyone gets to see my
"plumber's butt" when I bend over. haha

Flash Your Stash Day 2007!

Here it is in all it's messy glory:


Here is most of the spinning fiber stash:


& here is a little more of the fiber stash...OK, it's 15 pounds or so of Brown Sheep Mill Ends and maybe some carded Teeswater Cross stuff in that big ziplock baggie. Oh, and a bag of knitpicks something or other too:


There is more fiber hiding in the closet, but not very much...only like two or three pounds or something, I swear.