A Triumph & A Shrubbery!

Dhampiri on the shelf @ B&N

Yes, Monty Python fans, the homage was intentional.  Saturday night Snackers and I found ourselves wandering the local Barnes & Noble looking for something to do, yet again, and we came across something interesting.  A few weeks ago he and I were brain storming about how we could get the word out more on my books so that people would order them from Barnes & Noble and, thus, B&N would start putting them on the shelves.  One idea that we came up with is to make a really nice little full-color flyer, put it in a plastic counter stand and take it to B&N to put on their counter that shows the cover of a book, talks a bit about it, and says "Order today from your local Barnes & Noble!" or something along those lines.  Well, since we were already there I decided to ask them if they'd even put it on their counter before I spent the money getting one made.

She said that they absolutely would but wanted to check to make sure it was available by order first.  Well I knew that it was but I let her check anyway just for kicks and ... lo and behold, she said "We have it in stock" !!!!  HUH?! On March 3rd I could see through my printer that a book store had ordered 2 copies but I couldn't see who the book store was or where they were located and since the manager at B&N told me outright that the book would have to sell a certain number of copies before she'd put it on her shelves, that was the last place that I would have expected to find it so soon but there they were!  Two copies ON THE SHELF AT BARNES AND NOBLE!!!  So then she said, "If you want to sign them I'll move them to a feature easel on the counter" ... SOMEONE GET ME A PEN QUICK! lol

Dhampiri featured on the counter!

So I signed both copies and they put stickers on them that say "Autographed" and placed them front-and-center on the information counter! Squeeeeeee!

Oh yes, and the shrubbery.  Yesterday I went out to trim the shrubs in the front yard and realized that two of them are out of control - I've known that they were since I bought the house but I trimmed them last year and they're SO HUGE, that the outside is bushy and leafy but the center is dead so when I tried to trim them down I ended up with a half-dead looking shrub.  I had intended to cut them down to stumps last fall but didn't get it done before it got too cold so yesterday I sucked it up and handled it.  I only did one of the two because I didn't want my yard to be completely barren but I used manual hedge clippers to hack down everything that I could cut with my own strength, then used an electric hedge cutter to take down the larger stems and branches.  Then I raked out 10 years worth of dead decaying leaves and trash that has been stuck way down in where no one could ever get to it before, filling two trash cans with it all, pulled weeds, and watered the trees.  In addition to that, my front yard is on a slope and the gravel has all pooled at the bottom of the slope leaving the top bald in some areas so I raked the rocks back up the hill to cover up the bald spots and get them off the sidewalk.  AND, I found a $20 bill in the decaying trash and leaves that was under the shrub as I was raking it all out.  Almost two full hours of solid manual labor but I got a tan and ... BONUS!  My arms and back are KILLING ME today but it was a very nice workout!




Food:
130 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 granola bar
2 mini veg pizzas
1 fish burrito
1 weight watchers ice cream
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1287




Activity:
Yoga: 30 minutes
Shoveled a bucket of rocks and dirt out of the back yard, carried it to the car and hoisted it into the back for Snackers.