Ahh, thanks (((novusfemina))), the coffee did the trick, I made it through to 4:00 just fine.  But man, did I ever sleep last night, I slept like nobody's business....much needed! 

Yes, so I am feeling much better today & well rested, which means that I'm much more productive and functional today.  I am planning to use as much of today as possible to catch up on some paperwork & then move on to concentrating on the showroom here.  I think it's time to redo the display windows and rearrange the showroom, needs some freshening up.  I'm also on a quest to find a quality candle line to carry here, I can't seem to find one that meets my standards.  They must be clean burning, strongly scented, and it must have a decent burn-time and burn clean down to the bottom, without leaving any wax behind.  I'd prefer to find a good soy-based one, as they support america's farmer's and don't leave black soot when they're burned, but it's just been one disappointment after another so far.    I found a company producing soy candles (won't say the name) and thought I'd give them a shot, I ordered several jar candles of various scents and sizes, and also the beads, I was hoping to fall in love with them.  Sadly, they weren't consistent, one candle would burn fabulously, the next would burn leaving very little scent and half the wax in the jar.    Needless to say, I won't be reordering from that company, so now I'm on the search for a new one.

At the end of my work day I will be staying to meet with a bride to discuss wedding flowers, she is getting married in november, a bit short on notice, but more than some give me.  I've actually (recently) had a bride and groom stop in on their way to the wedding, saying that they needed to order wedding flowers....for right now!  That's insane!  I accomodated them the best I could by whipping up a hand-tied bouquet of flowers for her and a quick boutonniere for him, that was the best I could do w/ oh, say, 15 minutes!   I really enjoy doing weddings, it's the favorite part of my job  .

Moi Hair:
Rather boring, really.  Did same old wash routine with Pantene's combined shamp and cond, and followed up with the heavier conditioner on the ends.  No oil today, but aloe for the roots and bangs.  I've got my hair pulled up and clipped to the back of my head with one of my favorite cloisonne (sp?) barrettes, I then take the dangly ends and tuck them under, clipping them with two mini clippies to hold it in place.  I like it because when the 'do is done you can't see any of the mechanics holding it in place, just the hair....oooooh, mysterious!    It's pretty and it's easy, so it's one that gets used... a lot.  Can't see the pretty cloisonne clip though 

Some good news, I have a court hearing scheduled soon for two of my very delinquent customers, trying to collect payment, and one of them FINALLY paid yesterday....hallelujah!  It really stinks that it had to come to that, but come on, they were not just days, or weeks, or months late, they were years late, and we took every step possible to avoid having to do it legally, so too bad.  Now they are not only responsible for payment of goods, but all late fees and court costs that I had to pay up front.  It's hard when you're new in business, you try to be a nice guy and trust ppl when they give you a sob story, and you just wind up getting burned.  No more, no more sob stories, I've learned my lesson, payment or nothing.  Besides, what other business on earth allows you to take products without paying for them right away?  You can't go grocery shopping and say you're taking the stuff & you'll pay them at the end of the month when you get paid, no way!  Why should flower shops be any different?  It's a hard cycle to break here, especially being a small town.  People immediately get offended and defensive if you say that they cannot be billed, but I need to pay my bills to, so I don't feel so bad anymore.

Ok, rant over!  I feel better now!

I guess I'm off to get my "list" of work done for the day, til next time!

lol Maggie

Hmmm...taking stuff now & paying for it later. Isn't that what credit cards are for? 

(2nd half of my "too long post"!)

Random Comment:
My husband made an awesome dish for dinner (almost typed sinner!) last night, it was pasta in a lemon cream, dill sauce with cracked black pepper, mmmmmm!  He makes everything homemade, from scratch, the dill was fresh from our garden and the lemons from local farmers.  He really is an amazing cook, and he would make a great chef...if it wasn't for our whole vegetarian thing  .  Oh well, I guess he can just keep cooking for me and I'll have to keep eating it.    Speaking of vegetarian, I don't think I mentioned our wretched experience at a local vegetarian restaurant a few weeks ago.  First of all, why is it when people think vegetarian, they automatically think of these crazy dishes with all kinds of wierd stuff...like 'cold lentil soup with sprouts out the wazoo on a bed of tofun with birdseed and grass'.  I mean really, why can't they offer some normal "meatless" dishes too, I think that's the whole down fall of vegetarianism, make something that people would actually want to eat!

Anyway, to sum this up, I order a pasta dish with a sundried tomato pesto sauce, sounds good, right?  especially for $18?  I don't know how they could have messed up a pasta dish, but they did, it was horrendous, gross.  The pasta was so overcooked it was like chewing on pasta bubble gum, and the so called pesto was more like a watery oil with a few bits of sundried tomato in it.  It kept running down my chin, it was so gross.  No salad, no bread, just a soft flour tortilla cut into quarters and placed on the rim of the dish.  Who ever just sits down and eats a plain, raw flour tortilla?  It was really bad.  Hub's dish wasn't much better, his was supposed to be a portabella mushroom cap stuffed with spinach, raisins, peppers..and some other stuff, topped with gouda cheese.  What he got was a shrivelled mushroom cap stuffed with breading and raisins, breaded and deep fried and a little hunk of gouda on top, along with a little side salad.  It was greasy, too salty and texture-less, again it was gross & his cost $23.  We didn't finish our dishes, I ate less than half actually, and we didn't complain.  Only because they were honoring gift certificates for us that had expired a few days before hand, I guess that's just my nature to keep quiet.  So we left the restaraunt...hungry, went home and made something to eat.  Oh well, so much for vegetarian restaraunts!

Wow, I really blabbed on here, didn't I?    Till next time!

Hehe - sorry for the bad restaurant experience, but I got a chuckle out of your colorful description of the food.  Especially the shriveled mushroom cap!

My roomate in college was vegetarian.  I remember how hard it was for her to get a decent dinner in the dining hall because event the flavor of meat made her queesy.  And the cook always used the same pan that they used for meat to cook her veggie dish in.  I think she survived college mostly on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

[hijack]  I had a reverse experience in college.  My food service was part of a research project for using soy in place of meat.  For 3 years I NEVER ate real meat via the school.  Unfortunately the texture and flavoring of the soy patties, etc had not yet been perfected and we were being served tasteless rubber patties.  Mock hamberger on Monday, mock chicken on Tuesday, mock turkey on Wednesday, mock salsberry steak on Thursday..... you get the idea.  The patties COULD NOT BE CUT with a table knife.  They could not be chewed!  Thank goodness for peanut butter, jelly and bread!!!

I think this horrible experience has permanently tainted me and I will never, knowingly eat a soy patty.  [/hijack]

Angel:  Yeah, I see what you're saying about the health factor, and we do eat tons of raw veggies and grains to get our nutrients, but people don't count on restaraunt food to survive.  That's just my view on it, when I go out to a restaraunt I am spoiling myself, and I want a dish that's going to taste awesome, I know it's not always healthy, but we cook at home 90% of the time and that's what we count on to keep us fit and healthy.  I want my resaraunt food to be indulgent and delicious, and perhaps a bit guilt-ridden  , that's what I look forward to.  We do on occasion eat the "crazy" stuff like sprouts and tofu (not tofun like I typed b4! ), but on the average we make normal meatless dishes, like chili, platters with your basic veggie sides and a meat substitute (like a "chik pattie" or something), veggie burgers, you name it.  Pretty much any dish can be converted into a meatless imitation, and made good.  I'd much rather that kind of eatin', guess I'm just a red-neck vegetarian .

Khrome:  Yeah, that's a real bummer when it comes to restaraunts, using a grill that they just cooked a million burgers on to cook up your veggie burger  , almost seems pointless, doesn't it?  Oh well, we try our best!

Curlgirl:  I LIKE that idea, I am totally stealing it!  A severe allergic reaction.....but can both my husband and I pull the same trick off???  Hmmmm...

Bikerbraid:  You are right, if you don't get a soy veggie pattie that is made well it can be really, really gross.  I remember when they first started to hit this area, some things were pretty good, but some were downright repulsive.  Since then I've learned the brands that taste the best, my favorite line is Morning Star, especially for their burgers, their Original Grillers are the best.    Boca is Ok too, but I still prefer Morning Star.

Hair:
Used Alterna again today, to see what kind of results I'd get, and once again it resulted in a "bad hair day".    My hair feels heavy and lifeless, no body or personality to it, what a bummer, I wonder why this is happening now when it worked so well in the beginning.  ???  It feels kind of waxy and keeps getting tangled, so I just pulled it back into a simple low ponytail with one of those wide barrettes.  Maybe I need to get that trim, maybe that's the problem, I guess I'll bite the bullet and call my hairdresser to schedule an appt. today.  Don't want to, but definitely need to.    I'll never have waist length hair at this rate.

Other:
My husband and I went to the mall yesterday, well we actually set out on a different mission first.  I had a few bolts of material that I needed to return to a fabric/craft store along the way, got a little over $180 back, yeah!  It was what not used from a wedding I had just decorated for, I bought way more than I needed just to be safe, falling short is never a good thing.  So, we went from there on up to the mall and did a little browsing, and a little shopping, and ate at our favorite german restaraunt in the mall, Dunderback's.  I love going in there, they have german music pumpin', great dark beers on tap, and sauerkraut *drool*, must be the european in me!    Plus, it's set up to look as if you sitting outside, with swags of yellow and white material on the ceiling, diffusing the lights nicely like an overcast day.  We both got the veggie garden pitas, I ordered a side of pub fries with mine, and he ordered a side of sauerkraut & we split them.  To drink I ordered a nice, tall 22oz Spaten Lager, and he ordered a 22oz Spaten Optimator, which is my usual favorite, but I wanted something a little lighter this time.  It was all good. 

I treated myself to a new pair of Vans, I go thru sneakers like crazy standing so much.  They're brown suede with a little bit of muted pink on them, suits my earthy side (yes, I am a very multi-faceted individual  ), and a cool, gauzy, hippie style tank top in a pale dusty rose color.  I wanted it in cream but my size wasn't available, so I had to opt for the rose.  I still like it.  Also suits my earthy/hippie side.  It was funny, as I was in the hippie store the clerk, a young guy-looked early 20's, asked me if "I could do him the hugest favor", if I could "watch the store for like 2 seconds cause he thinks that a girl "just heisted somethin''.  So I said sure, go 'head, and he ran out of the store after her, and came back empty handed and disappointed.  He asked if I saw her stash a shirt anywhere, but I didn't so I told him no.  As he was ringing me up he asked if I like incense, I said yes that I loved to burn incense, and asked why.  He told me to pick out 12 boxes for watching the store, I thanked him and told him no, that I didn't mind and that I understand because I have a store of my own.  We talked a bit, I wished him well and left.  Funny, how did he know that I wasn't going to rip him off while he was gone?  I never would, ever, but he didn't know that, my halo must have been gleaming! 

We exited the mall to encounter torrential rainfall, got soaked as we ran thru puddles to the van, and had a scary ride home in hurricane like conditions.  I said a prayer for us to make it home safely, and we did, thanks Big Guy!  And now here I sit, so I guess that about wraps it up, so more later, ciao!

Go for it, Mags!!  Eat up,those PB&J sandwiches are the bomb!!!