Sometimes I'm a Stupid Git!

I was at the shop until almost 8:00 pm yesterday night, wrapping up this large Swarovski crystal order I'm sending to the West Coast. I got the day ended, then I started the sale, and finally had everything entered into the computer and was ready to plug in her credit card number, box the merch up, and send it on its' way today. EXCEPT ... like an idiot, I hadn't asked for, nor noticed that she hadn't included the three digit CVV number from the back of the credit card. *sigh* 

The CVV number, three digits on Visa 
and MasterCard, four digits on AMEX, 
is the Card Verification Value number. 
(I bet you didn't know what CVV stood 
for, right?) 

After several calls, I left a voicemail asking for those numbers and gave up for the night. I had a message from her this morning saying she had left it on our answering machine. I'm only hoping I can access that on our new phones when I get into the shop. I'm going to try and get in quite early. I want to wrap this up and send it to Northern California first thing this morning. It's a great order, and I'm very appreciative for the dollars (and the learning experience). but I'm a bit stressed, and until everything arrives safely at her door, I'm not going to breathe easily. 

I'm a generally positive person. DH is a generally 
negative person. It's a miracle we haven't killed 
each other yet because we're constantly grinding 
against each other, arguing about this and that. 

DH, of course, is sure I've messed everything up. No ... it's far from that. It's been a read adventure, however. I feel I should be wearing a safari helmet and carrying a weapon to cut the undergrowth from my pathway. I do mail orders all the time. I know better than to not ask for the CVV code. "sigh" Sometimes I can be an idiot. 

The box I've used for this shipment is too large to 
just fit through most slots. My local post office has 
a box that might work to deposit it, but I'd feel a lot 
better handing it directly to a postal person. It's not 
super heavy - three pounds or so - but it's bulky. 

But ... as I got onto the treadmill this morning, I said to myself ... "Self, you really don't want to exercise this morning. You're too stressed and you want to get to the shop ASAP, retrieve the numbers from the phone, finalize the order, get it paid for, seal the box and drop it off at the Post Office." I might even drive to the airport post office (they have their station open 24/7) to just get it out of my store and on it's way to my customer. Or not. I can just hand the box to Jean, our mail carrier. She won't appreciate the added bulk, but she actually parks her truck less than 1/2 a block from the store, so it wouldn't be a massive inconvenience for her. BUT, I'd rather like having that shipping confirmation slip in my hand before I open the store at 10:00 am. 

Often, after thoughts whirl for a while, clarity and 
order follows. I'm hoping that's the case today. 

So, these are the thoughts whirling around in my head. It's been more than a week that we've been working on this order. It kept growing and growing as she added more and more product, and the messages and emails we've exchanged could make a small children's book. But I'm hoping that this will all be out of my hands and into the hands of other professionals shortly. Then I might be able to breathe without that added stress factor. I hope Chickie is having a good time in Montana. She's been too busy to post much on FB, so I'm in the dark on that too. I do know she arrived safely and that they're visiting many family members who still live out there in the Big Sky country. I'll stay here with my water, water, everywhere and deal with my daily stresses as they come. Have an excellent Friday. I'll wrap up the week tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's NEVER Too Early to Think About the Minnesota State Fair!

Minnesota State Fair admission tickets went on sale yesterday and I immediately purchased the nine tickets I'll need. They're all loaded up on my phone now, ready to be scanned. I'll need to figure out how to print some out - DH comes after work one day and Chickie joins us on Sunday. I wasn't having any luck printing my tickets yesterday, but I'll try again later today and see if I'm any luckier. I always feel better with paper copies - you never know what might happen to a phone signal when you need it. 

The Minnesota State Fair, aka the "Great Minnesota 
Get--Together" put their pre-sale tickets on sale 
yesterday. (I drive by this entrance to the Fair every day 
to and from work). Getting the tickets early saves a little 
bit of money. Not a huge amount, but some. I still remember 
tickets under $10. Yesterday's tickets were $17/each and 
I buy nine of them. Oh well, it's only money, and it's for 
some of the best days of the year for me. 

I'm still pending on that mail order. I got a message from the customer late last night - that she's still thinking about a couple of things. I've responded that her current order is invoiced and packed and just awaiting payment, and that I'd be happy to start a second order for her, but this one needs to get moving. There are some colors in her order that I had very few of - where she's buying all of the remaining stock I have. If I have a local customer coming in for one of those colors, the computer is going to tell me that I still have some in stock. But I really don't because it's part of my customer's order. I need to wrap this first order up and she can start a second one if she wants. 

I have a box similar to the one on the left in this 
photo, filled with Swarovski crystals and ready to 
send to my California customer. But, I need her 
credit card before I can send it. Hopefully she'll call 
with that today. I need this wrapped up before the end 
of the week or our books will really be screwed. 

It's my last day of swimming this week. It's been cold - the water has been perfection, but the actual weather has been cooler than we usually have in early June. It's made for some very quick runs out to the pool, and even faster runs back into the building. AND, the sauna is out of order, so we can't even dart into there to warm up slightly before taking our showers after swimming. That sucks! However, being in the pool, listening to my book and swimming ... that's wonderful. I'm not a fast swimmer, but I'm in the water for a minimum of 45 minutes of continuous swimming. So it's a good workout. 

This is our pool during the day. We're usually pretty crowded 
at 5:00 am. My lane is usually shared with at least one other 
person. But if we are joined by a third, I do warn people that 
I'm not a fast swimmer, so they'll be passing me regularly. I'm 
not a total turtle, but I was never speedy, even when I was 
young. I just plod along, stroke by stroke like a turtle ... LOL. 

So I hope all of you have a fabulous Thursday. I'm hoping today will see resolution of the mail order and a correction to our stock on hand quantities that will allow me to accurately respond to my in store customers when they ask if something is available for purchase. I had some fun customers yesterday, I hope I'll have some fun ones today as well. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Wednesday - Chickie's Vacation is a Bit of a PITA

It's Wednesday, and normally it would be a "day off". Not this week. Today I'm heading out to the swimming pool, then wrapping things up at home, and heading to the shop for another day's work. Although DH and I haven't killed each other yet, I'm only getting a single bathroom break at an unpredictable time, and I haven't had any time for a lunch yet. I'm not really very happy with how this week is going so far. GRRRRRR

I want my normally scheduled life back ASAP. If I 
didn't have the pool or the treadmill in the mornings, I'd be 
going completely nuts. Thank goodness for the water and 
my friends at the YMCA. 

I did foresee my lack of time in many ways. I have several more dinners left in the refrigerator before I have to dive into my freezer, and the grocery store opens at 6:00 am, so most days I can easily drop by there on my way to work to pick up this or that. I also have a pantry of items that can just be popped into the microwave, so I'm certainly NOT going to starve to death. But, I miss my days of cooking, I'll miss my weekly chat with Aearwen today, and dang it, I want my "normal" life back. 

I'd like a "normal" life again, but I'm really not sure 
exactly what that entails right now. Still, I'm still alive 
and kicking, and while I can, I'm going to live things 
to the best of my ability. 

On the positive side, it's been very nice having DH working in the basement area while I'm on the sales floor. I don't get interrupted by him, and I can work on things that I've got in the works. We've been working on a huge sale of crystals, and if I can pound out an accurate invoice and get her credit card information, I'll be able to send that off on my way home tonight. It was just one of those chance things - a sample order through Etsy, and a meeting of the minds. I sent her inventory sheets, and she ordered - a LOT. It'll make a real difference in my sales numbers this week, but it's also a LOT of work to get together, invoiced, and sent out. She should be phoning me today with her credit card information, and under ideal conditions, I should be able to clear my desk of this order by tonight. 

I'm using one of the larger Priority Mail boxes 
for this shipment, which gives you a bit of an idea 
about how many of these very small Swarovski 
crystal beads my customer is purchasing. It's a good 
sale and I'm delighted to have gotten it, but it's also 
a bit of a PITA because I have to interrupt all 
the time to help in-store customers. 

Chickie seems to be having a lovely time in Montana. They arrived safely earlier this week (on Monday, I think), and are happily catching up with family members. I'm sure Chickie is resting up from the long drive, and also trying to rest up before she has surgery later this year that will keep her immobile and unable to work for SIX MONTHS! It's another one of those deadlines that's breathing into our faces. She has bone spurs in her spine that are growing inward toward the spinal column, rather than outward as body support. They're very painful, but also if they continue to grow, they'll impact her spinal column and leave her paralyzed. Not good! But she had to lose quite a bit of weight before Mayo would even consider the surgery, so they put her on Ozempic injections. They actually seem to be working well for her, she's getting down to about 220 lb which she considers a great number. Anyway, that's also looming in our future, and we have to close the store, hopefully before her surgery. 

I used to love watching "Columbo". Peter Falk was wonderful 
in the role, and it was always that last question that would 
pull things together for him. That "one more thing". 

Just one more thing to worry about, right? LOL Have an excellent Wednesday, I'll be glad to see the end of it and look at only three more days to work this week. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Just One of Those Days!

I'm just doing a quick "check in" because I'm really tight on time this morning. It's 6:00 am, I've been up for quite a while - morning meditation, 45 minutes on the treadmill, shower and now blog. But I have to go to the shop very early to finalize a huge sale that we're sending out ... probably tomorrow if the payment comes through today. I have to make sure it's ready to go. Plus we got another mail order yesterday - much smaller and easier to handle. That one I need to wrap up and get into the mail on my way to the grocery store this morning. 

It's just one of those days - LOL. Have a 
great one and I'll have a bit more time 
tomorrow (hopefully). 

So ... I'm exercised and showered, and I'm going to eat a quick breakfast and head to the shop. It's just one of those days - LOL. Sometimes they happen and they're usually for really good reasons. Hopefully I'll have more time tomorrow and in the meantime, have an EXCELLENT Friday. Slava Ukraini.