Weekend round-up
Friday night's signing at Book People was well attended with lots of great questions and discussions. The guys from Day Tripper also got a good reception. There was a lot of positive buzz during and after the event, but for some strange reason the actual book sales were low. I only signed about half the number of books as I did at the last Book People event, even though the overall crowd size was about the same. Very strange.
Saturday was a mall day. We had been promising the girls a day of clothes shopping at the mall for a while. To compensate for standing outside changing rooms, I snuck off to the mall's music and video store, emerging with a couple of DVDs and CDs. Nothing spectacular, just a couple of older movies we still have on VHS tape that I'd been meaning to replace on DVD - and was happy to see that they were on sale. One of the CDs was to fill what I thought was a gap in my Beatles collection. Erin insisted I already had a copy, while I was insistent that I still needed it. Turns out Erin was right.
After the mall we went car browsing. We are contemplating changing one of the cars later in the year and have drawn up a fairly lengthy list of possible replacements. As we were driving past several dealerships we thought we'd stop in and take a look at some of the contenders.
Dealer #1 - Even though we told them upfront we wouldn't be buying till November/December time we got the full service - attentive, but not pushy, sales guy. Answered all our questions, opened a whole bunch of cars and was happy to let us do two separate test drives.
Dealer #2 - Same upfront disclosure. Minimal attention. No real attempt to sell us on the cars benefits - in fact the sales guy agreed with each negative comment we made. When I asked for a test drive he boasted that the "sell two a week" and that the customers don't want any mileage on their new cars so they don't give test drives of this particular model!! Then he says he had a customer last week who was prepared to write a check but was annoyed they didn't offer test drives - you don't think !! I'm amazed that they think anyone would shell out thousands of dollars on a car without driving it. And even more amazed that if his boast was true, they find at least two suckers each week who are happy to do exactly that.
Guess which car stayed on the list and which one got crossed off?
Sunday was spent doing a lot of the things we had planned to do last week, but hadn't got around to. Given it was the first real clear sunny weekend for a while we focused on the yard. Planted a couple of vines, assembled the new fire pit, installed a new patio umbrella and lighting, plus rearranged some of the garden furniture; all basically to get ready for the delayed summer.
Also took Meggan out for a driving lesson. It all seemed to click this weekend. For the first time it really seemed as if she was in full control of the car and was actually driving it. She was also starting to plan her route ahead and anticipate rather than just react.
Talking of driving, I also managed to find time to watch both the British Grand Prix and the IndyCar race from Watkins Glen. Both enjoyable races, even if they were overshadowed by off track intrigues and antics.
The one thing I didn't do this weekend was write.
With the Book People event now done, and having taken a few days off, it's now time to switch focus and start getting ready for the upcoming San Diego Comics Convention and the various meetings with editors, a movie producer and my agent that I have scheduled.
Saturday was a mall day. We had been promising the girls a day of clothes shopping at the mall for a while. To compensate for standing outside changing rooms, I snuck off to the mall's music and video store, emerging with a couple of DVDs and CDs. Nothing spectacular, just a couple of older movies we still have on VHS tape that I'd been meaning to replace on DVD - and was happy to see that they were on sale. One of the CDs was to fill what I thought was a gap in my Beatles collection. Erin insisted I already had a copy, while I was insistent that I still needed it. Turns out Erin was right.
After the mall we went car browsing. We are contemplating changing one of the cars later in the year and have drawn up a fairly lengthy list of possible replacements. As we were driving past several dealerships we thought we'd stop in and take a look at some of the contenders.
Dealer #1 - Even though we told them upfront we wouldn't be buying till November/December time we got the full service - attentive, but not pushy, sales guy. Answered all our questions, opened a whole bunch of cars and was happy to let us do two separate test drives.
Dealer #2 - Same upfront disclosure. Minimal attention. No real attempt to sell us on the cars benefits - in fact the sales guy agreed with each negative comment we made. When I asked for a test drive he boasted that the "sell two a week" and that the customers don't want any mileage on their new cars so they don't give test drives of this particular model!! Then he says he had a customer last week who was prepared to write a check but was annoyed they didn't offer test drives - you don't think !! I'm amazed that they think anyone would shell out thousands of dollars on a car without driving it. And even more amazed that if his boast was true, they find at least two suckers each week who are happy to do exactly that.
Guess which car stayed on the list and which one got crossed off?
Sunday was spent doing a lot of the things we had planned to do last week, but hadn't got around to. Given it was the first real clear sunny weekend for a while we focused on the yard. Planted a couple of vines, assembled the new fire pit, installed a new patio umbrella and lighting, plus rearranged some of the garden furniture; all basically to get ready for the delayed summer.
Also took Meggan out for a driving lesson. It all seemed to click this weekend. For the first time it really seemed as if she was in full control of the car and was actually driving it. She was also starting to plan her route ahead and anticipate rather than just react.
Talking of driving, I also managed to find time to watch both the British Grand Prix and the IndyCar race from Watkins Glen. Both enjoyable races, even if they were overshadowed by off track intrigues and antics.
The one thing I didn't do this weekend was write.
With the Book People event now done, and having taken a few days off, it's now time to switch focus and start getting ready for the upcoming San Diego Comics Convention and the various meetings with editors, a movie producer and my agent that I have scheduled.