It's definitely summer................

Yes folks, summer has come to town...well, at least the people, perhaps not the weather exactly, although while many of you are experiencing rain, we are high and dry and hot during the day and cool at night. The town is full of car folks and the engines can be heard far into the night hours, but we don't care, we love our car people and appreciate the money they bring to town. Salty Yarns is experiencing a busy weekend with the Delaware Sampler Guild's retreat here at the hotel. Teresa Baird brought her pieces, which she designed and stitched on 40 count and you really have to see them to believe them. Gorgeous!!! I don't know how she comes up with her designs...unbelievable. Anyway, it's a fun group and since they put up with me, well needless to say I love them all! When they had their first retreat here I would just go plop down in the middle of them and talk. Sara had to keep calling me and asking me to come to the office where she kept giving me a stern talking too about my not being a member and how I need to stop bothering them. Try as I may, I just couldn't. Everytime I went into the lobby I'd stop and start talking to them again. Finally, probably in self defense they just made me an honorary member. So now Sara can't say a word when I go sit and talk. And they inspire me with the gorgeous pieces they are working on, well, Heather spent Friday night sewing badges on her daughter's girl scout uniform so I wasn't so inspired by that stitching, however, she inspired me as a mother. Is our job ever done...even at a retreat we're still working for the kids. I'll talk more on the retreat, but I started off by saying it's summer and I mean that because of the things people have said, and done here. First, Sara work up a couple of weeks ago to find a stranger sitting on their bed in the middle of the night. Of course as she was aware of a figure on the bed and knew the shadow was too big to be her son, Michael, she was a bit startled. Vernon of course, slept through it, but Sara woke him up and they marched the young man out of their room and out of the house. The next morning they found his hat and shirt in Michael's room. Fortunately Michael had fallen asleep on the sofa in the living room and thank God they just left him there for the night. Meanwhile, this becomes more unbelievable when you realize that the person had to walk up 4 flights of stairs. My parents (it use to be their apartment) never locked the door as no one in their right mind would walk those stairs. There is an private elevator which you have to have a key to use so no one can get upstairs on that except family. But the other door...well, mountain goats aside, no one would climb the stairs, or so we thought...O.K., now we have to lock that door. Apparently, from the clothes he left behind, he was a university student from Penna. and lost his way. He didn't threaten Sara and Vernon, in fact when Sara woke Vernon up he kept saying, "I don't want any trouble Mr Vernon" but anyway, here we go...another summer and more weirdness. And the shop hasn't been spared to say the least. In Sea Trader we are purging a couple of lines and have put them on sale. One line is 40% off...and a woman came in yesterday and starting telling me how much she's always wanted one of these bracelets and she went on and on. She looked at the 40% off sale sign and turns to me and asks, "Is this a good deal?" It took a couple of seconds as I tried to find the proper response without insulting her, and finally said, "Well, when I see something that's 40% off the retail price I generally feel it's a good deal." And after 2 hours of going over and over and over and over each piece, and constantly saying, "I'll bet you'll be glad to see me go" she finally left with 4 pieces! She was exhausting. Then we had a gentlemen rush into Salty Yarns and ask if we had "cribbage boards." Renee and I just looked at each other and I said "no, sir we don't" and he announced we should look into that and get some so when he comes back next year he'd be able to get one. We're a yarn store jackass...chances are that's not going to happen, is what we were thinking, but all he saw was us smiling and waiting until he was clear of the door and then said it. I looked at Renee and said, "Well, the summer fun has begun." Shop news: Jackie DuPlessis' class in August is now on the web site under products so go and check that out. We are anxious to get the numbers for who is interested as Jackie's is a pre-stitch and she wants to get the kits out to the stitchers. So if you think you might be interested take a look at the info and let us know. And finally, I want to thank all the stitchers who came to the Spring Retreat. We were overwhelmed with people as 71 showed up and a few of them without reservations. This created havoc with goodie bags etc., as I order those in advance according to the numbers we have at that time. But we were able to pull it together and in spite of the overcrowding we had a good time. Everyone was most cooperative. Several of the larger groups stayed in their apartments and had mini retreats with their groups so that the smaller groups would have the chairs in the lobby and the aux. room. Regardless of the amount of people, dinner went off with no complaints about crowding...of course we moved the bar out to the front porch since weather was permitting and that helped get people out of the lobby. Anyway, thanks to everyone for coming...and special thanks to Jody King for her baked goods. She never disappoints and her skills in the kitchen were evident in her honey cake and sweet potato pound cake, both of which were gobbled up by stitchers. Kay Owens brought Sara and I sour dough bread which we've enjoyed each year...thanks Kay. Nelsa Knight and Janie and Sandy Singley all brought wine...and you know how Sara loves wine, so thanks Ladies. And Becky Gutin reading about my sugar problems (well I don't think I have a sugar problem, however, my doctor has informed me I have a serious problem so now I'm off sugar...damn) brought me a bag full of sugar free Tastecakes. And I have to tell you folks, they are good. Obviously not the sweet sweet cakes but they are moist and the artificial sweeteners satisfy your sweet tooth. I've been enjoying them since. I've also managed to portion control them...kudos to me. Unfortunately, while I was able to show self control with the Taste cake I lost all control with the cashew clusters given to me by Trudy Edwards and Shiela Fitzhugh. Shiela Fitzhugh is a diabetic so she was giving all kinds of useful information regarding snack foods. I did really well to begin with...each day allowing myself only 5. My mistake was taking the bag home. One night I felt I needed that little something and instead of just taking a few out, brought the bag to the sofa.....well I think we all know the end result of that. But I thought, O.K., I'll get back on that diabetic train tomorrow and I've learned my lesson, plus I'm out of Cashew clusters so that won't happen again. However, yesterday Karen delivered 2 more bags from Trudy...oh, oh..self control, I have to exhibit self control. I've decided to leave them in my office where I show more restraint (possibly because Sara and Mary are watching me)....the only problem with that is they know where the clusters are and I've caught them eating them. But they don't dare take them while I'm sitting here watching them so I'm sure I'll get plenty. Thanks to Becky, Trudy, and Shiela....I'm like a man...the way to my heart is through my stomach. Well, payroll is calling my name, so I've got to run. I promise I'll do better....updating that is. Have a great weekend.