2002-04-30 - 9:10 a.m.

Unto the Lords and Ladies of the Realm do come greetings from the Lady Ursula:

It must be hard for you reading this to understand what my life is like. There is no such thing as a typical day. For those of you who share the merchant adventure, you may want to skip this and read previous entries.

The day dawns early for me. My lord leaves to go to work at 6:30 am. I generally like to come to terms with the day slowly. I sit and weave on the inkle as I drink some cold caffeine, my drug of choice. The cat keeps me company. It is his job to make sure I forget nothing in the morning. He leads me to open drapes and remove birdcage covers, turn on the rabbit's light, etc. The rabbit lives in the coal room in the basement. We, the cat and I, make our rounds before he goes to sleep. He is nocturnal.

Our house is also being renovated, which means I must be showered and dressed before the contractors show up. I can get in a half hour of yoga before this happens. They arrive between 8:30 and 9 am. This week scaffolding will be going up. It is disconcerting to be on the third floor and have someone moving on the other side of the window from your loom. The outside walls have rotted and are falling off, allowing water down the walls. Typically this is not a good thing.

I open officially for business at 9 am. This means I pick up the cordless phone and walk around with it while working, just in case anyone wants to place an order. I spend an hour or so on the computer. Today I added a few book titles to the webpage. Then I must enter the new shipment into the computer database. Since I just got back from a show, I must also enter my sales into the computer as well. This will take a half a day.

I break for lunch. At this time, the cat feels he should be eating too. He is overweight and only gets fed at 4:30 pm. Noon is when he thinks he should get fed in addition to 4:30. Tough luck Buddy.

The birds are my alarm system. The door bell does not work so they feel it necessay to screech when the UPS man comes with supplies. I have 2 conures and 2 cocktiels and a ringing in my ears. Yesterday the yarn finally arrived. The dyehouse ran late with this spring's colors. I have to order now as summer shutdown will be soon upon us. It happens in June but colors come to the dyehouse schedule, not mine or my customers. It is the nature of planned production. The wholesaler stocks up as much as they can but may not always have what I need.

Sometime in between, I actually get to weaving. I spend time winding the last batch of my handdyed yarn into balls from the skeins I dyed. Balls are easier to work with and don't get tangled. I use a swift and a ball winder. Then I go to the triangle loom and plan the next color. I hope I don't run out of yarn. I am using all the little bits of leftovers from other projects. It's coming together nicely. You'll see it soon. This one was inspired by Monet.

Now I have to warp the big Schacht. I dread this. I have been putting it off for a while. It takes so much time. I have poor eyesight and never thread it correctly. My attention wanders with all the things I need to do and I mis thread, having to undo and redo. Not as easy as a computer. The fault is mine, not the loom's. Pay attention Ursula! I am putting 12 to 14 yards on for tea towels. They're going to be cotton flake. If I have time before the show, I will dye them to this year's exciting colors. I am running out of time. The show is coming up fast. I need to warp the rigid heddle to make matching placemats to go with the towels.

4:30 is here and the cat demands to be fed. I turn on the TV to catch a bit of Trading Spaces and finish stitching the edges of some pouches by hand.

In an hour my husband comes home and also gets fed, if I remembered to thaw some meat. He does the kitchen cleanup as I find yet another project to work on while we watch the Stanley Cup playoffs. If possible we try to catch the Daily Show with Jon Stewart at 7 pm before switching to the game. This is how I get my news. I prefer news with a twist of humor. Last night I made pouch drawstrings and finished some new garb. Tonight I may warp the inkle with another project. During commercials I run the vacuum to cleanup the massive amounts of birdseed that end up on the floor. Then off to bed. My husband takes care of the birds and rabbit and scoops the cat up to go into the basement. He, the cat, is not allowed to play with the birds at night. And then it begins again.

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