The store’s website is down….which means email is not getting to me either…..and I’m having trouble getting a hold of my webhosting provider.  Very frustrating!

I will get the site back up as soon as possible, but in the meantime if you need to reach me by email send it to dreamchaserbooks@shaw.ca.  I’ll also be updating the blog with events and news.

Over the last few days I have had some very odd things happen.  It all started on January 13th, last Tuesday.

There are two blogs that I read everyday:  Joseph Mallozzi’s and John Scalzi’s.  Both are writers; Joe for Stargate and John, science fiction novels.  Joe lives in Vancouver.  John lives in Ohio.  So, on Tuesday I was checking in with Joe’s blog and the first line says that he’s meeting John for dinner.  Wait a minute!  John Scalzi is in Vancouver….cool!  I then go to John’s blog where he has posted a picture he took from his hotel room of downtown Vancouver asking his readers to guess where he was.  As I was reading the guesses that had been made so far, my phone rings.  I glance at my call display and it’s says:  234-567-8900, and is from Ohio.  First of all that is a pretty odd phone number….but for it to come in while I’m reading the blog of one of my favourite authors who lives in Ohio but was in Vancouver at the moment,  seemed a bit spooky!

Then yesterday (Sunday), I was out running errands.  I always glance at license plates and the very first one I noticed had the letters “das”.  Well, das is a major commenter on Joe’s blog…and one who’s comments I always enjoy….so of course I immediately thought of her.  Then a few blocks later the car in front of me has a vanity plate “wolfmn”.  I did a double take on it because another commenter from Joe’s blog is wolfenm…..my online world seems to be colliding with the real world!

Then today, I was working on my laptop.  As I was opening a new Word document, I was thinking ‘gotta remember to change this to landscape’.  Once it was open, it was landscape…..they always open in portrait, except for that one!  Every other new one after that was portrait…..it was a bit spooky again!

Can’t wait to see what’s next!

]]> http://dcbblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/oddities/feed/ 0 Shelley D http://dcbblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/yipee-yahooo-woowee/ http://dcbblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/yipee-yahooo-woowee/#comments Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:04:56 +0000 Shelley D http://dcbblog.wordpress.com/?p=133 ]]>

I finished taking the inventory!  If I had any energy left, I’d do a little happy dance   Instead I think I’ll just take the rest of the day off, and surf around on the net until closing time.

Hope everyone else had a productive week….and have a good weekend!

Is it just me or are others having trouble getting back into their regular routine this January?  I’m usually raring to go after I get back from a break….and I got an extra long one this year thanks to all that snow we had!

But I just can’t seem to get going on the things that need doing.  Like working on the schedule of events for the next few months.    I started on it in November, as usual, and made good progress until the holiday busy-ness started so put it aside for after the holidays.  Which is now and I have no energy for it.

I’m wondering if that’s partly because of the poor response to events lately.  I put so many hours into organizing the fall months and was quite excited about the offerings.  Then less than half of them even ran, and those that did pretty much only had minumum numbers registered (or less….we ran a couple with only 2 or 3 people).  Especially in November and early December, it seemed that all I was doing was updating the website to cancel yet another scheduled item due to lack of registrants.  Quite frustrating, to say the least.  Especially since I’d tried so hard to arrange for the types of classes that people asked for on the survey I conducted in the summer ……and those were the least attended of them all!

But whatever the reason I have no energy for event scheduling, I’m also surprised at how little of anything I’ve accomplished this week.  I just can’t seem to get back into my usual rhythm……maybe it’s the lead up to Mercury going retrograde.  Whatever it is, I hope it’s gone for next week!  I have a LOT to do right now

In the last store newsletter, I promoted the blog and said I hoped in September to have daily posts….good thing I also said ‘no promises’! It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say.  I’ve just been so busy catching up on paperwork, planning my fall buying/meeting with sales reps, finalizing the events schedule, and oh yeah, serving customers, that the end of the day keeps coming long before the end of the work.

The catching up on paperwork is partly my own fault.  Through the summer months, it is so hard to go sit in the backroom, which has no windows, and do my bookkeeping.  If I can’t be out in the sun, I like to at least see it. I say partly my own fault, because I am always behind on paperwork to some degree as it generally has the lowest priority on my daily list of things to do ….not because I don’t like doing it (I actually enjoy bookkeeping & accounting…I know, weird!) but because it truly is the low item on the priority totem pole.  I just didn’t realize just how far behind on it I was though. But that pile is now shrinking as I devoted a couple days to it last week and a couple more this week.

Probably the most exciting thing I’ve done so far this month was drop off the renovation plans at Coquitlam City Hall and apply for the building permit.  Another step towards the ‘new’ DreamChaser Books!

I’ve also been talking to readers, and have 3 new ones to substitute while Beverleigh is off….Sabrina, Peggy and Ondrea.  More on them in an upcoming post….but there are very brief bios in the News section at my website.

And that’s about it…..I do believe that catches up the news for this month!

It’s going to look like I did nothing but write posts today….not true!  Most of them were started, even finished, but not proof-read, spell-checked, all that editing type stuff….or they just needed that last little bit more to make them complete.  But I will admit that working on the blog is a “productive procrastination” ploy…..I should be doing paperwork; I should be working on the website to get confirmed events up; I should be confirming those last few events…..but….. 

After a month of working on the fall schedule, I just don’t want to see it today!  Which then also rules out website updates.  And it’s one of those days where I know I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on the paperwork, which would result in errors, which would result in even more work.

What I feel like doing is curling up with a good book….and hey look!  I got a shipment in yesterday and added 5 to my list….so, maybe just for an hour.  I do need to read them so I can make recommendations <wink, wink>  More productive procrastination

I’ve been busy planning all the fall events for the past month or so….and I think I now have a working schedule.  Finally!  It’s at least the 5th iteration, and still not finalized or totally confirmed, but it’s very close.

I’m both excited about it and exhausted looking at it!  If I’ve chosen the right things to offer (meaning everything is actually attended by living, breathing students) I’m going to be working 11 hour days 4 days out of my 6 days per week.  Well, working might be stretching it….but I’ll be at the store for 11 hours, 4 days a week!  We’ll see how it goes….might be time to have Amber work some mornings during the week.

I’m excited because it’s the start of a new ’semester’ with some new courses like:

• a Faery Workshop in September and again in October
• Holistic Health Series on Tuesdays – various local healers will be here to give an overview of their work and answer your questions
• Psychic Skills Series – a set of 6 classes to get you started using your intuition, psychic senses and working with energy.
• Guided Meditation Circle on Thursdays – regular weekly meditation
• Energy Share – for all energy healers to share healing & conversation with others
• A Course in Miracles Study Group – one Sunday afternoon per month
• a Beginner’s Crystal workshop
• and a few more yet to be confirmed….

Then there’s the old favourites:

• Angel Awareness
• Monthly Reiki Share
• Chakra Readings
• Children’s StoryTime
• Mystical Mentorship for Teens PLUS new Mystical Mentorship for Children (this was Develop your Sixth Sense for Teens)
• Meditation Classes (with a new teacher)

I’m also still working on some Friday night events that will feature local authors and other inspiriation speakers.  As well, I’m planning on having a guest reader here one weekend a month.  Stay tuned!  As things are confirmed, I’m posting them to the website.

I actually finished this one a couple weeks ago…..but haven’t had a moment to comment on it. 

I found End of Days to be on par with anything by Sylvia Browne that I have read.  I read her books when I want a good, quick overview on a topic, and she delivered on this one. 

She starts out with a look at the various myths and prophecies from native traditions…..Mayan, Aztec, Hopi etc.  She also discusses several religions view on the end of days….from Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam to Rastafarinism(?), Baha’ism, and Zoroastrianism.  She then moves on the predictions of various prophets like Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and Sir Isaac Newton.  Then it’s the doomsday cults.  And finally, she finishes up with her own predictions for the rest of this century.

As I said, it is a good overview and summary of a lot of the material out there on the end of the world predictions and prophecies….there isn’t a lot of depth to the material, but that’s not what I read Sylvia for anyway, so this book lived up to my expectations.  I would recommend it if you’re looking for a quick read on the topic.

WooHoo!  Hit 100 views!  Okay, so compared to some sites that’s nothing, but, I’m new at this! And I haven’t really promoted it yet, so I say 100 in a month is great!

Plus…Spambots have found me!  Yipee!  I’m starting to get hit with spam comments….guess that means it’s officially out there in the internet ether. 

Okay….enough silliness, time to get back to work.

I live with a cat.  Her name is Reno.  She is one of the sweetest cats I’ve ever had the pleasure to be owned by….but still aloof (she is a cat, after all!)  She’s also a klutz and scared of her own shadow.  I have never heard her hiss.  I’ve never seen her puff her fur to look intimidating.  I’ve never heard her growl.  She is 15 years old, and I’ve been owned by her for 14years and 3 months. 

Well,  this morning, I’m reading my usual line-up of blogs & websites as I eat my breakfast.  I hear a thump on the deck.  I wander over, munching my toast, to take a look and see…..nothing.  So, I figure it was another crow recovering the cherry it stole from my neighbours tree and then dropped on my deck….happens alot this time of year.  Back to my reading I go.  Reno stops by for a quick thank-you leg rub for the wonderful breakfast she’d just inhaled and heads over to her favourite sunning/bathing spot in front of the sliding-glass door out to the deck. 

I’m expecting a complaint ‘mrwewp’ over the fact that I’ve closed the screen door, but instead I hear a hiss.  A hiss!?! from Reno?!?  I jump up and see her all puffed up, and now growling….what the….?!?! Who’s taken possesion of my cat!

To give you a bit more context….this is the cat that ran as fast as possible, with her belly as low as possible from a chickadee that flew in one day.  The same cat, that let out pitiful howls of terror when two Stellar Jays ‘trapped’ her on the deck by sitting on the railing, one at each end, and needed me to ’save’ her…..and here she was all puffed out, standing up, hissing and growling!  Granted, she had a screen door between her and whatever meanancing thing this was out on the deck, so that may have given her some false courage.

What was out there?  Another cat!  Still not sure where it came from, or how exactly it got on the deck (this deck has no stairs, so no ground access)….and it was cowering at the far wall, seemingly terrified of Reno.   

I reached to open the screen, figuring that Reno would bolt the other way, but no….she’s right there, ready to charge.  So I grab Reno, taking her into the living room so I can go out and get the other cat without having to break up a fight.  As I’m coming back, I hear scrambling claws, mournful howls….what is going on now!  And where is the other cat!  I can’t see him anywhere.

Just as step out onto the deck, Reno is back, trying to force her way out….I push her back in as I close the door….catching a whisker or two, I think.  I turn to look for the other cat, thinking it’s crawled under my lounge chair….but no!  It’s hanging of the edge of the deck about to fall.  I’m only able to take one step before he falls…into the ornamental tree just off to the side of my deck.  He slides through the tree, and hits the ground, running at top speed.

He stops two yards over and looks back at me with that accusing look that only a cat can give that it was my fault he made such an undignified exit from the deck….and then he takes off at full speed.

As I go back inside, Reno insists on going out, so I let her.  Once she’s determined that her deck/territory is all clear, she comes back and tells me all about how she stood up to that interloper….she’s a very chatty cat …..and that some treats are in order for how bravely she protected me.  Good try, sweetheart…..I’m not buying!