There’s always that point towards the end of summer if you wonder if it will ever be cool again or even what cooler weather even FEELS like.  It’s around this time that you get excited when you see the high will only be 90 degrees that day.

So highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s… well, this “early” in the year, that just makes me so happy.

I know it won’t last.  I know we’ll be back to the 90s by the end of the week.  I’d like to PRETEND I don’t know that, but I do.  I’m not stupid and this ain’t my first rodeo.

But at the same time, I know this is the beginning of the end.  Eventually Autumn will be here in force and the days will shorten and cool off and I will be doing my little victory dance over here in my cave.

Summer is all about survival.  Making it out alive.  And with this little “glimpse” into Fall, I think I might just make it after all.

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Starting last year, I got her some My Little Ponies as I saw a display for them at Walmart.  They were not the ponies I remember from my younger years and therefore somewhat lacking.  But I wanted to see if she had any interest in such things.

And she did.

So I started looking around on eBay for old “vintage” My Little Ponies.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were many to be had and the prices, considering, weren’t that bad.  Especially if you weren’t afraid to do a little cleaning up.  I put it off and I put it off.  But this has been a good summer for the ol’ knitting biz and I had some jingle in my pocket.  So I went back to eBay and started bidding.  And buying.  And before long, the ponies started rolling in.

Her first and my first pony

We started, aptly enough, with Blue Belle.  The very same pony that started off my collection back in 1982.  Now, my poor Blue Belle didn’t look half as nice as this one by the time I was done with her.  She was my “off road” pony.  Often lacking her tail (and possibly her head too), I played with her in the pool, in the dirt… she was the pony that got to go where no pony went before.

I have higher hopes for this Blue Belle.

Then more Ponies arrived.  Liam got interested and would actually (*gasp*) play with Evie!

And, I have to admit, I was getting into it too.  A lot of these were ponies I either had or wished I had had back when I was little.  Evie would bring me the new ponies and I would brush their hair for her.  And she?  LOVES THEM.  I thought she was somewhat fond of the “new school” ponies but these “vintage” ones?  It’s love, y’all.  She throws a holy fit if I don’t let her take them to dinner/lunch/whatever.  She takes them to bed.  At least one pony goes with her at all times.  This last weekend, the favored pony was “Parasol”, a favorite of mine as well.  What can I say, the girl has taste!

Yesterday, another shipment of ponies showed up and I was officially ready to admit that maybe this was getting out of hand (of course, have I closed the eBay tab yet?  Newp!).  But, to my credit, I’m planning to give some of these ponies to my BFF’s daughter.  They’re coming to visit us this weekend and I’m hoping she enjoys playing ponies just as much as my chuckleheads do.  But, as of today, this was the “vintage” pony stash, minus the ponies being gifted to my dear friend’s daughter:

Yeah.  I think I should feel embarrassed or something.

Still, you can hardly blame me when you look at what passes for a My Little Pony these days.

Now tell me these don’t look some sort of bizaarro world-Bratz’ified-frankenstein crazy messed up version of a My Little Pony.  Look how big their HEADS are!  Especially when compared to their butts.  Now, the “vintage” ponies were hardly the model of accurate equine proportions, but at least the rear of the pony was one of the largest parts of the pony.  Just like a real horse.  This one?  Teeny butt.  HUUUUGE head.  And tons of mane hair, where the focus used to be on the tails.  Now they have these puny little tails.  And the ponies themselves are just smaller.  UGH.  I’m disgusted just looking at them.  These creatures are known as “G3 ponies”.  As in Generation 3. Wanna see a Generation 2?  It’s better, a little, BUT NOT MUCH.

Seriously.  I had to look that up because I thought it was a fake.  I didn’t know it was an actual My Little Pony. But, unlike the G3′s, Evie doesn’t mind this pony and has actually been carting this one around everywhere, lunch and nap included hence it’s rough appearance in the photo above.

Now for comparison’s sake, here’s one of the “G1″ or vintage ponies.  This is Applejack and I think she’s purty.

Now THAT is what a pony is supposed to look like.

The important thing, of course, is that Evie enjoys them.  And she does.  She squeals with delight whenever she sees a new one.  She fawns over them and has favorites and loves to act out scenarios with them.  Which honestly, is what I was hoping for in the first place.   And as Kile mentioned, this is the ultimate in recycling.  Taking ponies that are 25-30 years old, have been played with sometimes by two generations of children already and they still have use left.

I say down with G3!  Vintage, all the way.

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But wipe those tears!  Because I’m posting today!

I went to San Jose for an extended weekend, which always disrupts the schedule and is very NON conducive to blog posting.   Many lovely things happened during this trip, included hanging out with some of my “board buddies” while I was there (and going yarn shopping and NOT BUYING YARN)  (I KNOW!).  The kids just loved the pool.  Well, Liam and Harry did.  Evie preferred to flirt around the edges which of course means she fell in that one time but Kile was right there so other than scarring her for life, it was fine.

I also got to spend most of a day with one of my best friends.  I hadn’t seen her in AGES so it was really nice to just have that time to hang out, be silly and just reconnect.  I need to see her more.  For sure. She let Harry drool all over her Mustang and we went to go see “Inception” after the kids were in bed.  An adult movie!  In a theater!  Be still my heart!

We even went to the beach for a day but that was less fun because me + crowds = GAH.  Plus there was sun involved and you KNOW how I feel about the sun.  But the little ones got to see the ocean, even if they were deathly afraid of it and wouldn’t actually TOUCH it.  Harry, on the other hand, enjoyed the ocean and got himself all nice and wet and sandy just in time to hop in the van and drive back to my parents house.  Wee!

Still, it was nice to go home.  Or it was nice until we hit traffic just before the California border.  They’ve been doing road construction on that piece of road all summer long, on both sides of the interstate (please see the first picture in this post, of us traveling west in a wee skinny lane).  But this situation wasn’t aided by an earlier rollover accident involving a big rig.  Of course!  It was cleared up by the time we got there, but the backup was still horrendous.

And after we got home, it was time to… go do our monthly grocery shopping at Walmart! I only wish I were joking.  But I’m not.  We earned our margaritas that night, fo sho.

But now it’s back to normal and that is just the way I like it.

As for what is NOT happening… I have it on good authority (i.e. Facebook) that BlogHer ’10 is this weekend.   Now it’s perfectly understandable why I’m NOT there this weekend.  I haven’t been the best blogger this year.  But it’s in NYC and I would LOVE a girl’s weekend there.  And I also have it on more good authority (again: Facebook) that My Little Pony will have a booth there this year and for some strange reason that really makes me with I were going.  But whatever.  Maybe next year.  I have a feeling I’d be more into the crafts sessions this time around.

So that’s about it.  I better get back to the knitting before the boss (i.e. me) cracks the old whip on me.  She’s such a slavedriver.

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…

This is me taking a HUGE deep breath and releasing an even HUGER sigh of relief.

That is the resolution I was hoping for.  Now I can go forward, relist the skirt and hope that someone, somewhere, will want it.  And if not, well, so be it.  But at least that sordid little chapter is over and done with.  I’m a little disappointed that it seems this gal has gotten off scott free.  As it stands, she got exactly what she wanted in the first place, which is to not pay for the skirt.  BUT.  The damage has been as undone as it can be and I can move forward.

At least I am secure in the knowledge that I did my best to stay polite and professional and true to my shop’s policies and the policies of Hyena Cart.  Whereas this lady will have to live with the knowledge that she overreacted, embellished the truth, and acted like a selfish toddler about the whole thing.  So there’s that.

Now it’s time to move on and focus on bigger and better things.

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The only thing that has changed now, a week later, is that the skirty made its way back to me yesterday (the poor thing) and I refunded her immediately.  She has still continued to leave horrible feedback and I am STILL trying to get that feedback removed.

In fact, I haven’t heard a thing from Hyena Cart admin about getting it removed.  Not a bleeding thing.  I’ve submitted so many requests and given as much information as I can and still, no response from them.  Not even a “We’re looking into the situation”.  Nadda.

I’m very discouraged by this.  I think it’s awful that this woman has been allowed to continue her rampage against me while I am unable to do anything to protect myself in return.

And at the end of the day, she has gotten what she wanted.  Initially, she wanted to not have to pay for the skirt and to not have a negative flag on her account. In the end, that is exactly what she has achieved, since I removed the flag as soon as she paid (not knowing that she intended to refuse the skirt and demand a refund).  I cannot replace the flag.  She gets no punishment, no slap on the hand.  And I am left with outrageously hurtful and rather false feedback on my shop.  Until I hear from Hyena Cart (which I’m starting to doubt will ever happen), I’m left out in the cold.  There’s not a darn thing I can do.  I still have a lovely skirt that is not paid for and that no one wants.

And at the end of the day, I think that’s the saddest thing of all.

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One of the congos I stock at, “Their Own Knitted World“, had their monthly stocking last week.  The featured fiber artist was “Becoming Art“, a fairly popular yarn and fiber dyer in the community.  I was pretty excited about this stocking.  I knit a sweet little skirt using some Becoming Art yarn that had been handspun by a good friend of mine.  It was so darling and I was so happy with how it turned out, that I wished I had knit it in Evie’s size, so I could keep it if it didn’t sell.

I had no idea what to charge for this skirty.  Handspun yarn tends to be a little pricey, but it was a small skirt and I wasn’t sure, in this economy, how much people would want to pay for something like this.  So I put it up as an auction with a fairly low starting bid price, decided to let the customers decide how much it was worth.

The auction started Friday night and was set to go through Sunday morning.  I got a few bids and was happy with each bid that came in because it meant this skirty would be going to a new home and would be loved.  At least I hoped so.

When the auction was over, I emailed the winner as is customary, letting her know she won and as soon as she submits payment, I’d get the skirt out in the mail to her.  A little less than an hour later, I heard back and was disheartened to hear from her that she no longer wanted the skirt.  The excuse was flimsy, at best.  It did make me wonder if she was experience buyers remorse and simply didn’t want to spend the money.  She suggested I email the person who had bid behind her to see if she wanted to purchase instead.  I was unsure what to do as I’d never experienced this situation before.  I looked to other sellers for advice and responded later that evening.  I told her I was sorry to hear her reasonings, and that she was welcome to not pay but that if she did not then I would need to place a “flag” on her account for non-payment, according to the Hyena Cart user agreement, which I linked her to online.  I mentioned that I had emailed the other bidder but hadn’t heard back and didn’t especially expect to as she had no obligation to purchase, whereas she did.   The responsibility here was hers and hers alone.  I asked her to let me know what she planned to do as soon as possible so I could proceed accordingly (ship the skirt to her if she paid, leave the flag if she did not, and possibly re-list the skirty in hopes that I could still sell it to someone who would want it).

I didn’t hear anything from her for two more days.  I was advised to ahead and leave the flag and plan to relist the skirt.  The flag is simply a note in her account, only visible to myself, her and to the powers that be at Hyena Cart.   I put up the flag and put a note on the auction listing that I would be relisting the skirt due to non-payment.  This is standard practice, and often you will see auction or regular listings relisted due to non-payment.  It is sad, but it’s true.  Well almost immediately I received an angry email from the lady, demanding I remove the flag and the note on the auction about relisting due to non-payment.  She viewed this as a public outing and was very offended.  She said she had been very ill the last several days and unable to email.  She also chided me for my lack of compassion.   I was STUNNED at this.  No where had I lambasted her publicly and her sudden shift to attack mode had me thrown off.

I responded right away, as calmly and professionally as I could.  I told her I was sorry to hear she had been so ill but that Hyena Cart policies were clear on this matter.  I quoted the policies to her and linked to them as well.

If you would like to flag a buyer for non-payment in the case of a drawing or auction, you can do so via the Order History page (use the Flag link all the way to the right of the order table). These flags are not visible publicly, but if a shopper is flagged by multiple sellers, he / she may be blocked from shopping at Hyena Cart.

http://hyenacart.com/hc_seller_tut.php#m34

I felt this proved that the flag on her account was not public as she seemed to think.  I told her I would not remove the flag as the issue of her not paying for the skirt was still unresolved.  Simple enough, yes?  Policies state that an item will be re-listed (and appropriate feedback left) if an item is not paid for 2 hours after purchased.  I waited two days.  I thought I was being very lenient.  But apparently not, according to her.

Several hours later, I received notice she had paid for the skirty.  I thought that meant the issue was over.  I wasn’t happy about sending this beloved skirt to someone I knew wouldn’t appreciate it, but at least the issue would be resolved.   I planned to print a shipping label and get it out in the mail as soon as possible, and put this whole thing behind me.

But then, shortly after she paid,  she sent me an email saying she had paid for the skirty and left negative feedback against me on the cart.  She also mentioned she had posted on two separate Yahoo Groups about this issue.  I know some ladies who belong to one of the yahoo groups and they said the posting mentioned me and my business by name and was heavily skewed to portray me as a mean spirited and uncompassionate individual.  I was rocked.  She accused me of calling her out publicly when I left a private flag and she goes to post to two public Yahoo Groups?  I didn’t even know what to SAY about this.

I wrote a short email that I planned to ship the skirt out first thing in the morning and that I had removed the flag, since she had paid.  I asked her to remove the feedback (which was hurtful and full of misinformation to boot, since she accused me of not sending her the skirt when she had only just paid just before leaving the feedback!) and that I still wished to come to a peaceful resolution. I also asked her if she would rather I refund her for the skirt instead of shipping it out.  I then responded to the feedback she left, trying to give my side of the events.

I shipped the skirt out in the morning heard nothing from her and the next evening I had by chance happened to check the feedback, to see if she had removed it, only to see she had responded to MY response.   She had copy and pasted my email to her, as well as stated she did not want the skirt and she would be sending it back to me as soon as she received it.  She said she didn’t care if she was refunded.  She also mentioned again that she was ill and her particular illness causes her to get sicker with stress.  She wanted a public apology before removing the negative feedback and she hoped I would give the skirt away to someone as a result.

I was stuck on that she didn’t even want the skirt and felt sick that I had mailed it to her at all.  Why hadn’t she emailed me after I said I would be mailing her the skirt?  I had mentioned that I would refund her without a flag on her account if she wanted.  I couldn’t figure out what she wanted.  As for a public apology, that was simply laughable.  What did I have to apologize for? Had I smeared her on two separate Yahoo Groups and left hateful negative public feedback?  No, all I had done was expect payment from someone who had won an auction.  I had nothing to apologize for.

I emailed her again, against my better instincts, trying yet again to explain my side and ask her what her motivations were.  I wanted to know how I could make this all just go away as it was really upsetting.  Her response yielded no new information, however, just more of the same.  Except this time she mentioned she expected immediate reimbursement when the skirty was returned (as opposed to not caring about being refunded as she stated in her feedback).  I never expected not to refund her immediately but found the difference interesting.

Mostly, I’m just sick at heart over all of this.  I have put in a support ticket with Hyena Cart to get the feedback removed and they are reviewing my case.   At the end of the day, this is still a beautiful little skirt and I loved to knit and would still love to see go to a loving home.  But seeing all the drama that is now attached to it, my hopes of that happening are fairly low.

So that brings me to today.  I’m very frustrated and rather depressed about the whole thing.  It has me questioning all sorts of things.  I’m just not sure where to go from this point forward.

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But my niece being here wasn’t what made it busy.  And it probably wasn’t my parents coming to visit either.  They stopped over in Reno for a couple days on their way home.  They’d driving clear around the country, crazy people that they are, and had been away from home for about a MONTH.  They came over both days they were here and we had dinner with them both nights.  It was nice to visit with them, but wasn’t terribly conducive towards getting stuff done. Especially considering the fixing up that had to be done in anticipation of their arrival. Still, that alone wasn’t enough to make last week so frantic.

No, what helped was I released my first ever knitting pattern last Thursday.  That combined with the above events made for a very chaotic week.  The pattern release went SO well.  Better than expected, even.  But the pattern release coincided with doing the monthly grocery shopping.  A grocery shopping trip that would have taken place the day before had my parents not been in town.  So when I got home not only did I have to deal with lunches for kids and putting away groceries, but I had to mail out patterns and organize lists and blah blah blah.  OY.  Never again.

It didn’t stop there though, because we went to see Eclipse that night as well.  And because I have rocks in my head, I stopped on the way to the movies to pick up my new DSLR camera at Sam’s Club.  Yep, I made enough with the pattern to finally get it!  Which is exciting but I have had ZERO time to sit down, figure it out and play with it. Which makes me sad.

We went from there into the weekend.  Not just any weekend, but a holiday weekend.  And a “beginning of the month” weekend (which are always a little nuts around here).  And we had to drive to Winnemucca on Saturday to trade kids (my niece for Harry, who had been staying in Elko), which ate up the better part of a day.  Good thing it was a three day weekend, because otherwise, we never would have gotten all our errands done without exhausting ourselves.  As it was, Sunday was busy busy busy as we rushed to get errands done.  Errands which included shopping for Liam’s birthday which is TOMORROW. (OMG.)

And yet we managed to get what we needed to done in time to come back and enjoy a nice mellow 4th of July at home, complete with running in the sprinklers, bbq burgers, corn on the cob and watermelon for dinner and s’mores for desert out in the backyard in a makeshift firepit.  We even watched fireworks on TV.  How’s that for patriotic?

We finished our errands on Monday, complete with a picnic at the Sparks Marina.  Evie didn’t care for the heat, but otherwise we all had a great time.

And now… things are getting a little more back to normal around here.  I got caught up today on the things that got neglected last week and while my nerves are a little shot, I’m mellowing out too.  Shoot, tomorrow might be normal.  Well, except for it being Liam’s birthday. Damnit!  It’s always something.

Oh well, maybe things will settle down sometime next year.

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30 Questions:

1. It’s 2AM and you are not home. You are more than likely:
I’m stealing Zoot’s answer of in jail or in the hospital.  Or possibly visiting family on a “vacation”.

2. What’s the last thing you spent more than $100 on?
Hmm.  A new fence for the back yard.  The deductible to replace the glass in our sliding door in the kitchen.  Repairs on Kile’s old van.

3. What do your bank checks look like?
Gosh.  I had to think about this one.  I haven’t used a check in ages.  If I recall correctly, they’re pastel Victorian foofy style.

4. Where did the shirt you are currently wearing come from?
Walmart.  It was $4 and I have several others in different colors.  This particular one is a “dip dye” style, that goes from light pink to dark pink.

5. Name something that will be on your Christmas wish list:
Well, I’d like to say a DSLR camera, but a) I might be able to save enough to get one before then, or b) would just wait to get one with tax return monies.  I’m going to have to go with a Disney Cruise.  Or maybe moving to Portland.  I like to dream big.  I guess on the small side, a new case for my iPhone or an external harddrive to store my pictures on.

6. What color is your toothbrush?
Purple, gray and white.

7. Name something you collect and tell us about it.
Right now we’re collecting place settings of interesting looking everyday tableware so we can have a collection of all different kinds.  I’m kinda psyched about that.  I also collect yarn like no body’s business.

8. Last restaurant you ate at. Who were you with? How was it?
I’m assuming you don’t mean fast food because that would be Jack in the Box yesterday for lunch with Kile, Liam, Evie and my niece Emaleigh.  Regular would be the Evergreen restaurant in Tahoe City that I mentioned in my last post with the same peoples.

9. Who was the last person you bought a birthday card for?
Kile.  His birthday was June 10th.  He’s FORTY.  Old man.

10. What is your worst bad habit?
I have so many!  Sloth?  Uhm.  Salt.  I can’t kick salt.  Or ranch.

11. Name a magazine to which you subscribe?
Entertainment Weekly

12. Your favorite pizza toppings?
I love to order pineapple and salami with bbq sauce instead of pizza sauce from Dominos, but got a little tired of it so we have been taking a break with regular pepperoni for a while.  The other night we added black olives to that.

13. Whose number were you looking up the last time you used a phone book?
Do we even HAVE a phone book?

14. Other than family, who is the person that you love most?
I hate people so this a tough one.

15. What is the last thing you cooked?
I helped Kile fix dinner on Father’s Day.  I made the fried rice and helped with the General’s Chicken.

16. Name something you wouldn’t want to buy used
Underwear.  Or for those in the cloth diaper community who would know what I’m talking about: mama cloth.  EEP.

17. Which shoe do you put on first?
Right.

18. What is the last thing you remember losing?
My sanity.

19. What is the ugliest piece of furniture in your house?
The couch in the living room, for one.  My recliner for another.  We’ll just stop there.

20. Last thing you bought and ended up returning?
I don’t return very much as I usually don’t put out money unless I KNOW I need/want it.  That said, the last thing was probably something Kile bought for a project that ended up not being the right thing.

21. What perfume/cologne do you wear? If none, why?
I love perfume but never seem to have any.  I bought some for Christmas a couple years ago but someone stole it.  Sigh.

22. Your favorite board game?
Monopoly.  It’s a classic.

23. What was the last board game you played?
See above.

24. Where did your vehicle come from?
Carson Dodge in Carson City.

25. If a movie was made about your life what would the theme song be?
Oh dear.  I think I know the answer to this but can’t think of it off the top of my head.  It would be something very maudlin though.

26. You’re sad, who can cheer you up easily?
WHO?  Or what?  My kids can usually make me smile if they’re not being too wild.

27. What was the color of the bridesmaid dresses of the last wedding you went to?
Oh dear me.  I can’t even remember the last wedding I went to.  How about the last wedding I was *in*?  Cuz I think that was lavender.

28. What house cleaning chore do you hate to do the most?
All of them.  SNORT.  Though cleaning bathrooms tops the list.  Cleaning Harry and Liam’s room is along the same lines.

29. What is your favorite way to eat chicken?
Grilled breast, marinated in something super yummy or topped with a little pesto.  NUMMY!

30. It is your birthday. You hope the cake is?
I kinda like homemade cake.  White cake.  Chocolate frosting.  Or cupcakes.  I have a thing for cupcakes.

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I’ve been writing a knitting pattern.  Did I tell you all that?  It’s a labor of love and I have a release date set for 7/1/10 on Ravelry and my Hyena Cart.  This is huge for me.  I’m so proud of this pattern.  I really hope others love it as much as I do, and find it useful.  That would make the hard work all worth it.

I got my new iPhone!  It arrived a day early on 6/23 and that was stressful in and of itself because of COURSE that’s the day they wanted to “seal” our streets and the whole neighborhood was closed down for a good portion of the day.  When the Fed Ex guy rang the doorbell at just before 4pm, he said he tried to deliver earlier but the streets were closed.  Thank goodness he tried again!

And thank goodness because we weren’t really home yesterday.  We went to Tahoe to pick up my niece from camp.  She’s going to be staying with us for a while and I’m pretty excited about that.  She fits in really well around here and the little ones just adore her.  Wanna see some pics (that I took with the new iPhone!) I took of our little trip yesterday?  Sure you do.

The "Gondolas" you can take up to Heavenly. They're outrageously expensive or else we would have given it a go.

Oooooh... fountain.

Evie likes fountains.

Carmen Bearanda. No, I'm not kidding.

A rather precipitous mountain at Emerald Bay.

And there you have it.  Tahoe is gorgeous.  We had lunch at a lovely place in Tahoe City called “Evergreen.”  If you are ever in the area, it doesn’t much matter what you order off the menu but make sure your side is the french fries because they were OUT OF THIS WORLD.  I had a burger, my niece had pulled pork and Kile had fallafel and it was all outstanding.

So I thought I should probably throw out an update and let you all know that I am here but I am up to my eyeballs in projects.  And doesn’t my iPhone take some pretty pictures?

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