Getting caught up...
Yes, it's been a while, so let me quickly catch up...
- Happy Halloween!
- Happy Thanksgiving!
- Merry Christmas and/or Happy Whatever Doesn't Offend You!
- Happy New Year!
Okay that pretty much takes care of the traditional stuff. As for me, since the new year had started there have been three things that has happened that shows promise that 2013 is going to be a good year. (1) The "Hell family" (my newphew, his wife & their out-of-control kid) were finally exorcised (or moved out) from our house. A quiet house...finally, plus saving my sanity in the process. (2) Hockey has returned...TV is worth watching again (well, okay "Duck Dyntasy" as well.)
As for #3, let me back up a little here. Last year my brother & I decided to start up a manufacturiung company to make solid wood items. We had initially done some restaurant tables for someone we got to know whom did the refinishing of restaurant tables to many of the Applebee's restaurant tables across the United States. These orders were small in scale (5-10 tables each) so for a while it was just my brother working on it while I kept working on my character company since it was nearing the holiday season & and I fairly busy from mid-November until the end of the year. We made one phone call to a distribution place in Kansas asking if they were interested in any companies to find items to make for them. They said they'd give us a sample order to make for them, and then we'd deliver it to them & introduce ourselves to them. Long story short, they were impressed with our work & wanted to know what & how much we could do. Of coarse this happened in December, and restaurant places rarely do remodels or put up new restaurants during Christmas-time. We had to wait until 2013 rolled around, and then see what the various restaurants had planned for the year.
So 3 weeks ago, we got an email asking us to give them a quote on tables that need to be made for Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches. So we put in our bid & we also sent them a sample table made according to their specifications. We knew that our price for making them were higher than other places that had bid on them, but I guess they were impressed with the quality of our tables, and around noon today my brother got a phone call saying that we got the contract with Jimmy John's, and we'll be starting production on them the 1st week of February (as we're scrambling around trying to get the workshop organized so when the rest of the equipment shows up we'll have it all ready to set up.)
As for my character business, well that I'll obviously have to scale back to the weekends only (similar to when I was out in California & worked weekdays as a UPS driver) and I don't mind too much. It will be nice not having to call my costume company every 6-8 weeks having to order another body suit...or another set of paws...or having another head made. :[= =]
- Happy Halloween!
- Happy Thanksgiving!
- Merry Christmas and/or Happy Whatever Doesn't Offend You!
- Happy New Year!
Okay that pretty much takes care of the traditional stuff. As for me, since the new year had started there have been three things that has happened that shows promise that 2013 is going to be a good year. (1) The "Hell family" (my newphew, his wife & their out-of-control kid) were finally exorcised (or moved out) from our house. A quiet house...finally, plus saving my sanity in the process. (2) Hockey has returned...TV is worth watching again (well, okay "Duck Dyntasy" as well.)
As for #3, let me back up a little here. Last year my brother & I decided to start up a manufacturiung company to make solid wood items. We had initially done some restaurant tables for someone we got to know whom did the refinishing of restaurant tables to many of the Applebee's restaurant tables across the United States. These orders were small in scale (5-10 tables each) so for a while it was just my brother working on it while I kept working on my character company since it was nearing the holiday season & and I fairly busy from mid-November until the end of the year. We made one phone call to a distribution place in Kansas asking if they were interested in any companies to find items to make for them. They said they'd give us a sample order to make for them, and then we'd deliver it to them & introduce ourselves to them. Long story short, they were impressed with our work & wanted to know what & how much we could do. Of coarse this happened in December, and restaurant places rarely do remodels or put up new restaurants during Christmas-time. We had to wait until 2013 rolled around, and then see what the various restaurants had planned for the year.
So 3 weeks ago, we got an email asking us to give them a quote on tables that need to be made for Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches. So we put in our bid & we also sent them a sample table made according to their specifications. We knew that our price for making them were higher than other places that had bid on them, but I guess they were impressed with the quality of our tables, and around noon today my brother got a phone call saying that we got the contract with Jimmy John's, and we'll be starting production on them the 1st week of February (as we're scrambling around trying to get the workshop organized so when the rest of the equipment shows up we'll have it all ready to set up.)
As for my character business, well that I'll obviously have to scale back to the weekends only (similar to when I was out in California & worked weekdays as a UPS driver) and I don't mind too much. It will be nice not having to call my costume company every 6-8 weeks having to order another body suit...or another set of paws...or having another head made. :[= =]