They're HEERE!

I picked up Knit With Courage today (all 800 pounds of them) from the printer, they're here and they're BEAUTIFUL! And they're taking up their own private little corner of my literary warehouse, aka my garage. And it's a one car garage. And we put our car in it.

We might as well just MAKE a garage out of the boxes of books at this point...

Several hundred books have already shipped, I have more orders to get to tomorrow (or, rather, Gerry will pack the up for me tomorrow and we'll have the PO come and pick them up if he doesn't feel like lugging them to the PO) and I have 48 pounds of books packed in a box to take with me to Portland tomorrow.

When I teach I usually travel with 3 bags, one for clothes, one for samples, one for knitting stuff. Northwest is now charging $15 for the first bag, $25 for the second, and the third is my carry on. So my packing is a challenge since I'll be away a full week, I have 7 classes to teach, a book signing AND a TV appearance. I'm counting on Shannon to let me use her washer when I get to Cleveland...

I'm taking one BIG suitcase with clothes and a few sample garments, a big box full of books for the TKGA show, and my carry on with abbreviated knitting stuff and - guess what? - more books. I'll ship even more books out to Cleveland so they'll be waiting there for me when I arrive.

In addition to picking up the books today, I also rode my bike to a new nail salon quite nearby and had one of the absolute BEST manicure/pedicures I've ever had - really great! If you're in St. Paul and you're looking for a good $40 mani/pedi, Happy Nails is the place. My only complaint was that the music was a little loud, but I had my headphones on listening to a history of 14th Century France, so I really didn't care.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be one of those competitive bike folks, I enjoyed the bike tour last weekend, and I LOVE riding my bike to the local yarn shops and on errands, but I'm not a very competitive person - it takes a lot of the joy out of some things for me. Actually, I can be VERY competitive when it comes to Trivial Pursuit, so much so that I avoid the game because I can become absolutely terrifying. But it's my deep, dark, secret pleasure...

Local Signage
I'm so excited, I found out today that my PR person's scheduled a book signing at Common Grounds Bookstore in the Cathedral Hill section of St. Paul. I think I'll ride my bike. Maybe local celeb GK will be there...?

and, ironies of ironies, just as I finished the last sentence Max came bursting into the house with the announcement that "The woman who writes the Warriors books is going to be at Red Balloon tonight!!" - which just happens to be 1/2 mile from our house...

So I abandoned any thoughts of packing, at least for the time being, and ran with Max down to the bookstore where we caught the tail end of Victoria Holmes (one of the three women who write the books, all under the name, Erin Hunter) giving a talk about writing the books.

Max was #82 in line, but he got his books signed, bought a new one, and slightly flabbergasted Ms. Holmes by asking, very politely, "Is it okay if I have my picture taken with you?" She said he was very polite, and I was insanely proud.

Brag Alert: Max is a very thoughtful boy, and does seem aware of the concept of personal space, but I never would have thought - given his excitement - that he'd think to stop and ask permission to take a photo. Kvell...