What I Learned From the Wedding of the Century

So, my daughter got married last Sunday, I survived the ordeal and I'm here to tell you that throwing a wedding is probably right at the top of my list of "Holy Cow! Events"... In case you haven't had the pleasure yet, I thought I'd share some helpful tips about what I learned along the way.

1. No matter how organized you think you are, no matter how many lists you make, no matter how many meetings you have, emails you fire back and forth, phone calls you conference, books you read or advisors you have - you are going to forget stuff.

2. No matter how many times you say, "I will NEVER act like so-and-so's mom!" - yes, you will.

3. No matter how many times you say, "I will not pay that much for....." - yes, you will.

4. No matter how many fittings you go to - you will cry when you see your daughter in the dress.

5. Surround yourself with friends and family, keep smiling, ask for help, plead for help - and no matter what else you say no to - say a resounding, "yes!" - to the open bar.

6. PS - get an amazing photographer - you will be stunned at the stuff you miss!

At this point - you should all be feeling very sorry for me - and you should all run down to the bookstore and buy at least $10.00 worth of books to help me feel better.

The Buzz....

Just thought you might like to know that it's definitely fall in upstate New York! I just got back from a book trip near Rochester - it's absolutely beautiful going up through the Finger Lakes Region right now - the trees are just starting to turn, the weather is perfect, dry and cool and every little town seems to be having a fall festival of some sort - delightful! If you have a little free time, its really worth the drive up.

We've added over 4000 books to the inventory in the last 10 days! This is impressive because I'm so busy trying to plan a wedding that I hardly have time for anything else! But I've discovered that if you give up sleep you can get a lot more stuff done! So, there are hundreds of mysteries, thrillers, romance, history, children's books.... you name it - I've added some to the inventory!

Now that it's fall -- you have a little more free time - do something nice for yourself.... come browse your favorite bookstore and take home a stack! You deserve it!

Cheers! ~ Judy

Where did the Summer Go?

This has been one speedy month! I try to update the Blog early in the month -- somehow I totally missed the 'early' part! Oh, well -- you guys are creative - pretend I wrote something pithy and interesting that stimulated some fabulous dinner conversation.

I'm actually in the middle of planning a wedding - our second one this year! I'm completely confused by all the rules, details and drama associated with throwing a wedding. What it boils down to is - a big party with a fancy dress. Now if someone could just explain to me how that should equate to a minimum outlay of $25,000 I would definitely give you a free book!

I'll keep checking my email for your replys!!

Read On - Get Smart!

Whew! We Work HARD!

We spent this last week installing new shelves (eight of them!), and opening boxes - it's been like Christmas around here! A total of just over 2200 books have been added to the database - Classics, Romance, Westerns, Self Help, Mysteries and Sci-fi made up the largest numbers - but there were lots of history, education and Autobios as well.

We're working as fast as we can to fill the shelves - stop by or visit the website soon to get the first pick before the one you really wanted gets snapped up!....... 300 boxes will go faster then you think!

See you soon!

The Sunshine State

We have made our last official trip to Florida! For those of you who are new to us.... we bought a bookstore in Florida - 70,000 books! One of those, too good to pass up kinda deals. We packed it, stored it, loaded it on to a container truck, it was hauled here by train where we unloaded it - and now - FINALLY we'll be adding the books to our growing store! The last load that we hauled up here was 11,800 lbs - whew, do I feel strong or what??

You might want to plan on visiting the store to pick up a book or twelve....

I don't know - I'm just saying.

Learning Mode

The only road to success is through failure. ~Thomas Edison

He ought to know, right?

I'm in learning mode right now. I have been attending marketing workshops with the wonderful, helpful, knowledgeable folks at SCORE - love those guys! I love learning - I want to know everything, so whenever I can fit it into my schedule I try to spend time learning something new. I'm hoping it will help keep my brain from shriveling up into a tiny walnut! Sometimes it's related to the business but other times I just want to learn how to do new stuff, or I have to learn new stuff because my kids got involved in something that required my interaction - archery, forestry, birding, jewelry making - the list is endless and I suppose thats a good thing because if I reach the end of the list of things I want to learn it's probably time to die!

Read books ~ Learn!

GRRrrrr!!

I have wasted an enormous amount of time and energy over the last four days dealing with thieves. Someone brought stolen DVD's into the store to sell to us - we, trusting fools that we are, bought them. Over the next few days - police, other retail store owners, the person who claims the DVD's were stolen from them, myself and my employees have dealt with the fallout from this. This will cost me time and money - filling out reports, talking to the police & the other retailers involved, making new store policies about taking in merchandise, having the items confiscated as evidence and in tax dollars spent to cover the cost of police salaries and the running of the court system. I am angry and frustrated over having to deal with such a mess because the most frustrating part of all of this is that the thief got exactly $11.00 in cash.