Well, the first box of books came on Monday. They looked perfect! (What mother doesn't love her child?)
I unboxed a bunch of them to get them ready for Trinity's Condega Celebration event. (I didn't need this many copies for the event; I needed the box.)
The Condega Celebration is a fundraiser for our church's work helping those in need in other countries. It was held on Sunday afternoon. I brought Billy and Mandy, and some of my personal copies of the books to sell at a discount. We also spent money on other people's contributions, such as frozen homemade pies, dinner rolls and a tour of downtown Bend next spring. There were raffle items offered, like gift baskets of different kinds, some donated by local retail businesses. We also paid to get in to the event, which included a very nice Mexican dinner in honor of Hispanic Month, which began on Monday, with beer, wine and iced tea.
We sold some of each book, but Mandy's Little Science Lessons was the most popular, perhaps because some people already have some of the others. Billy and Mandy helped draw interest to the books.
"Oh, yes! American Girl dolls!"
I found myself explaining a number of times that no, the dolls in my books aren't American Girl dolls. Then I would go on to explain that there is a connection between Götz Puppenmanufaktur and American Girl dolls, that the first American Girl dolls were made by Götz and sold to the Pleasant Company, the original owner of the American Girl dolls. If you're interested, you can learn more here. I demonstrated the elbow and knee joints and explained how they make realistic positions possible. The fixed eyes (as opposed to the more common "sleeping eyes") make their faces more expressive, and the vinyl bodies are more realistic. These are important features for getting a range of variety of actions and emotions in the photos.
One young woman asked which was my favorite book. I have answered that question before: My books are like my children. Whichever one is in front of me (or in my hands) at the time is my favorite. Of course, the newest one is the best deal right now. It's only available from BookBaby or directly from me right now. Amazon and other booksellers only have it for presale, if at all. It won't be widely available until October 27th.
I never know which books people are going to want, so we took six of each to make sure I didn't run out of one that everyone wanted. One person bought one of each and asked me to sign them for her. Charlie was a big help, carrying some of the books in, watching the table when I grabbed a bite to eat and then carrying the leftovers back to the car. He had his own shopping to do. He went around and took care of all the items we had discussed as being what we wanted.
It was a good social event, as well as being a fundraiser. I don't know how much the program took in yet.
It was a very busy weekend, especially Sunday. We had a great church service. Our choir has grown, and the anthems are getting better.
Shortly after the service, we had our first bell choir rehearsal. I couldn't hear the director from the back row, so I will have to move to the front. Her voice isn't loud, and the reverberation from the bells seemed to make it more difficult to hear anything anyone was saying. I also couldn't see the music very well. The music stands up in front of the ringers, just a little too far for my nearsighted eye and too close for my farsighted eye. I think it will be fine with my computer glasses, though, which are corrected for both eyes at 20". I just need to remember to take them.
Saturday we unboxed ourselves, getting out of the house for another church hike. This time we met at Pastini's, a restaurant on the Deschutes River, where we could take the River Trail. There were seven two-leggeds and two four leggeds. (The seventh person was taking this photo.) It was a nice birthday activity for Charlie, whose birthday was that day.
The weather was perfect. It was sunny, not windy at all and not too hot.
The dogs, especially Sandy, were disappointed that no swim was scheduled, but they had a great time anyway.
We walked about 2.6 miles, including walking to and from our car in the parking lot.
After the hike was done, we had lunch at Pastini's. We ate on the patio, so the dogs could join us. It was hard to get enough shade, because the umbrellas were too high and in the wrong place. However, the food was excellent (I had the beet salad and a nonalcoholic beer) and the conversation was fascinating.
The wait staff brought Charlie a Tiramisu with a candle in it. Valerie's birthday had been on Wednesday, so Charlie gave her half of it. (The Tiramisu was huge!)
After we got home, Charlie unboxed his birthday presents. He got two books on gardening in Bend, a T-shirt and some underwear.
We had our anniversary this week, too, on Tuesday. Since it was the day for our Madroña Vineyards Popup party meeting, we turned it into a party to help us celebrate. It was a fun kind of party to have. The only interruption was the UPS driver leaving the rest of my books on the front porch, but we were on mute at the time, and we had already had our turn to talk, so it didn't matter.
I didn't have much time to knit during the week but got a few rounds completed at least. The design around the yoke is beginning to take shape.
Remember this squash I got for free from someone who left a box full of "free squash" on the Larkspur trail?
We ate the squash, half of it Tuesday evening with salmon patties, salad and homemade bread. I cut it in half lengthwise, then again in quarters lengthwise. I basted it with olive oil, added salt and pepper, followed by a mixture of bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese, then roasted all four pieces, as I often do with zucchini. It was white inside, like zucchini, but was slightly sweet, like butternut. We ate the other two pieces, reheated, on Friday night with quiche, salad and some flatbread.
For this week's cuteness, here are the Portland Stuarts during their nine-mile hike, which included visiting some of the Portland crow statues.
The trail was inspired by LAIKA's "Wildwood" film, coming out in theaters October 23rd, in which crows play a major role. The trail features one-of-a-kind crow sculptures, hand-painted by local artists, and is sponsored by generous donors from the Portland-metro community. All the sculptures will be auctioned off once the art trail closes in fall of this year, and the proceeds will support OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.
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What's in The Doll's Storybook: Mandy is growing mushrooms in the house. What are mushrooms, anyway? This week's story is Mandy's Mushrooms.
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