General update, Monday

Last night I posted to Facebook, "It was a good weekend."

Michelle fussed at me a bit for that. She said, "You could have taken a little more time and care in telling our friends about the last two days, providing some entertaining and useful details, my Love..."

Actually, it sounded more like, "Jeeeez, honey, could you have been any more vague?"

So here we are.

I went to bed last night feeling rather accomplished. To start, with one exception which I'll see to tonight, all our tights orders are done and shipped or ready to ship. That may not seem like a big deal and two years ago it wouldn't have been, but dyeing fabric adds easily two and a half hours of work to every pair. Getting that much done is a big deal.

Of course, all orders done means there are none in the queue, but I can use the catch up time. I've got a couple of ideas I'd like to pursue - a new design for the tights foot, a couple new shirt designs, including Victorian/Steampunk - and having a break would definitely provide the opportunity.

We went Saturday to what I can only think to describe as an "autumn thing-y". It was an event (to stretch the meaning of the word almost to its breaking point) put on by a homeschool family with a cornfield who cut out a couple corn mazes, installed a zipline, had a cow and calf as a "petting zoo", with a hayride and "barrel train" pulled by an ATV. All this for $11 - or free to homeschooling families. Yea free, since it certainly wasn't worth the $11 we might have paid. We packed PB&J's and water and drove forty-five minutes so the kids could run around and be kids for a while. The best part (at least for me) was something called "The Corn Crib" - think giant sandbox, but filled 4" deep with corn instead of sand. Undressing for the evening, I collected 1/4 cup of corn from the rolled up sleeves of my shirt.  Not much for the grown-ups to do, but that wasn't really the point.

I posted pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/billTheTailor/AutumnFun#

I'm very glad to see Autumn here, finally. I saw my breath this morning as I walked to my car. I love the cooler weather, although it's hard on my old arthritic joints. It's afternoon now and in the sun the office is heating up - I'll get it's still a nice day outside.

This weekend I was very glad not to be out at Renaissance Festival. It rained Saturday, and temperatures dropped into the low 60's. I can't imagine what it must have been like to be out in it without appreciable shelter. Note to self: must add a waterproof interlining to my cloak - any lining at all would be a welcome addition. I'm hoping for dry weather on sixth weekend when I go out again, but one never knows.

The day job has decided that I am only to be paid when there is cash flow, a new state of affairs but not wholly unexpected. It will go back to regular salary as the company's money situation improves but in the meantime it makes things a mite dicey. There are a few debts we may have to stop making payments against for a little while until things improve, which they should once our current product truly gets off the ground. Another reason to expand Seamlyne a bit.

General update, Monday

Last night I posted to Facebook, "It was a good weekend."

Michelle fussed at me a bit for that. She said, "You could have taken a little more time and care in telling our friends about the last two days, providing some entertaining and useful details, my Love..."

Actually, it sounded more like, "Jeeeez, honey, could you have been any more vague?"

So here we are.

I went to bed last night feeling rather accomplished. To start, with one exception which I'll see to tonight, all our tights orders are done and shipped or ready to ship. That may not seem like a big deal and two years ago it wouldn't have been, but dyeing fabric adds easily two and a half hours of work to every pair. Getting that much done is a big deal.

Of course, all orders done means there are none in the queue, but I can use the catch up time. I've got a couple of ideas I'd like to pursue - a new design for the tights foot, a couple new shirt designs, including Victorian/Steampunk - and having a break would definitely provide the opportunity.

We went Saturday to what I can only think to describe as an "autumn thing-y". It was an event (to stretch the meaning of the word almost to its breaking point) put on by a homeschool family with a cornfield who cut out a couple corn mazes, installed a zipline, had a cow and calf as a "petting zoo", with a hayride and "barrel train" pulled by an ATV. All this for $11 - or free to homeschooling families. Yea free, since it certainly wasn't worth the $11 we might have paid. We packed PB&J's and water and drove forty-five minutes so the kids could run around and be kids for a while. The best part (at least for me) was something called "The Corn Crib" - think giant sandbox, but filled 4" deep with corn instead of sand. Undressing for the evening, I collected 1/4 cup of corn from the rolled up sleeves of my shirt.  Not much for the grown-ups to do, but that wasn't really the point.

I posted pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/billTheTailor/AutumnFun#

I'm very glad to see Autumn here, finally. I saw my breath this morning as I walked to my car. I love the cooler weather, although it's hard on my old arthritic joints. It's afternoon now and in the sun the office is heating up - I'll get it's still a nice day outside.

This weekend I was very glad not to be out at Renaissance Festival. It rained Saturday, and temperatures dropped into the low 60's. I can't imagine what it must have been like to be out in it without appreciable shelter. Note to self: must add a waterproof interlining to my cloak - any lining at all would be a welcome addition. I'm hoping for dry weather on sixth weekend when I go out again, but one never knows.

The day job has decided that I am only to be paid when there is cash flow, a new state of affairs but not wholly unexpected. It will go back to regular salary as the company's money situation improves but in the meantime it makes things a mite dicey. There are a few debts we may have to stop making payments against for a little while until things improve, which they should once our current product truly gets off the ground. Another reason to expand Seamlyne a bit.

The red tights.

The following story might be fiction. Of course, the names have been changed. Or just left off altogether.

It was an interesting journey, starting the day I first got the email from "S".

He'd ordered from us once before, that order preceded by a dozen emails, each one written in uppercase letters and absent of punctuation, and each one asking a single question easily answered by a simple reading of the website. Each time, I replied with a brief answer and a link to the page on the website with the details. That page was the "Tights" page. Every time.

WHAT COLORS CAN I GET IS BLACK OKAY OR DOES IT COST MORE

WHAT MEASUREMENTS DO YOU NEED

CAN I MEASURE MYSELF

And so on, for about a week. When he did finally order, he sent his order in an email. I - once again - sent him to the website.

He ordered our smallest adult size, waist about 30", inseam about 28". He's a little guy. I'm guessing 5'-8" or so, 140 pounds tops.

We get customers like this from time to time. Ordering online is a big deal to them, apparently, and they like a human touch. I treated him like I treat them all: as long as they're polite and respectful (most of them are), I'll email with them all year if needed. I sent his tights with a relieved sigh, figuring that was the end of it. After that much work, it usually is.

Then he ordered again.

I knew it was coming. I felt it like the approach of a thunderstorm. An increase in pressure, a slight headache, the feeling that, given the right circumstances, hail the size of pomeranians is going to smash the roof of your car into the back seat. The clouds gather on the horizon and you can see the writing in the sky, "We can see your house from here."

His email arrived late at night, written in all lowercase letters as if the CAPS LOCK key on his - probably - borrowed laptop had been stolen.

i was wondering, he wrote, the absence of capital letters probably giving him a migaine, if you could make my next pair with a larger codpiece.

5'-8", weighing in at no more than 10 stone. How much I weighed in college, and two inches shorter. Wanting a larger codpiece. Speaking as a tailor, men don't vary much size-wise, so there is only one codpiece pattern for all sizes (except for very large sizes, and then we only make it taller so the ties will reach). With exceptions, of course, one set of penis and testicles is pretty much like any other, regardless of the comparative heights and weights of different men. We had, apparently, reached an exception.

Now, I wrote back, is the point where our communications get a little delicate.

I sat and considered very carefully my next sentence.

Do you want the larger codpiece for modesty, or because...

I tapped my keyboard in a light rhythm, hoping for the right metaphor. Inspiration struck, or more accurately, fired.

...or because you're packing a .44 magnum long barrel into a .38 holster?

When his answer arrived, it was concise and straight to the point:

I don't want it for modesty.

His order arrived in our shopping cart about an hour later, with a rather narrow window of a shipping date - after date X and before date Y, but USPS is usually reliable so I'm not too worried about that. We had a week before they were due.

I cut them right away. Michelle dyed them the next day. That was about a week ago. I assembled them tonight. I did indeed make the codpiece bigger, hopefully in the right way. Being a guy myself I have a pretty good idea where to make the adjustments.

In a departure from our normal procedure, I'm not going to email him after a week and ask for pictures.
 

The red tights.

The following story might be fiction. Of course, the names have been changed. Or just left off altogether.

It was an interesting journey, starting the day I first got the email from "S".

He'd ordered from us once before, that order preceded by a dozen emails, each one written in uppercase letters and absent of punctuation, and each one asking a single question easily answered by a simple reading of the website. Each time, I replied with a brief answer and a link to the page on the website with the details. That page was the "Tights" page. Every time.

WHAT COLORS CAN I GET IS BLACK OKAY OR DOES IT COST MORE

WHAT MEASUREMENTS DO YOU NEED

CAN I MEASURE MYSELF

And so on, for about a week. When he did finally order, he sent his order in an email. I - once again - sent him to the website.

He ordered our smallest adult size, waist about 30", inseam about 28". He's a little guy. I'm guessing 5'-8" or so, 140 pounds tops.

We get customers like this from time to time. Ordering online is a big deal to them, apparently, and they like a human touch. I treated him like I treat them all: as long as they're polite and respectful (most of them are), I'll email with them all year if needed. I sent his tights with a relieved sigh, figuring that was the end of it. After that much work, it usually is.

Then he ordered again.

I knew it was coming. I felt it like the approach of a thunderstorm. An increase in pressure, a slight headache, the feeling that, given the right circumstances, hail the size of pomeranians is going to smash the roof of your car into the back seat. The clouds gather on the horizon and you can see the writing in the sky, "We can see your house from here."

His email arrived late at night, written in all lowercase letters as if the CAPS LOCK key on his - probably - borrowed laptop had been stolen.

i was wondering, he wrote, the absence of capital letters probably giving him a migaine, if you could make my next pair with a larger codpiece.

5'-8", weighing in at no more than 10 stone. How much I weighed in college, and two inches shorter. Wanting a larger codpiece. Speaking as a tailor, men don't vary much size-wise, so there is only one codpiece pattern for all sizes (except for very large sizes, and then we only make it taller so the ties will reach). With exceptions, of course, one set of penis and testicles is pretty much like any other, regardless of the comparative heights and weights of different men. We had, apparently, reached an exception.

Now, I wrote back, is the point where our communications get a little delicate.

I sat and considered very carefully my next sentence.

Do you want the larger codpiece for modesty, or because...

I tapped my keyboard in a light rhythm, hoping for the right metaphor. Inspiration struck, or more accurately, fired.

...or because you're packing a .44 magnum long barrel into a .38 holster?

When his answer arrived, it was concise and straight to the point:

I don't want it for modesty.

His order arrived in our shopping cart about an hour later, with a rather narrow window of a shipping date - after date X and before date Y, but USPS is usually reliable so I'm not too worried about that. We had a week before they were due.

I cut them right away. Michelle dyed them the next day. That was about a week ago. I assembled them tonight. I did indeed make the codpiece bigger, hopefully in the right way. Being a guy myself I have a pretty good idea where to make the adjustments.

In a departure from our normal procedure, I'm not going to email him after a week and ask for pictures.