Happy Birthday, Lynn!

I have the best sister in the world, and today is her birthday!

Just for the record, I've forgiven Mom for having you instead of the older brother I asked for!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LYNN!

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Speaking of birthdays, I haven't seen Holly since Christmas, so I haven't been able to give her Birthday presents.

Actually, this is a pretty good arrangement because I can find lots of things with hearts on them due to the proximity of Valentine's Day. She collects heart-shaped jewelry and other items.

Well, I'll get to see her tomorrow, and she'll get some of her presents, but I'm still working on some of them, and she won't get them all tomorrow. 

Can you say "procrastination?"

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I went out this morning to do several errands. One of those errands was to pick up two books at Borders, and I have to say that Borders has never been as much of a disappointment as it was today.

The two books I planned to get were Backup, and Coraline.

They just plain didn't have Backup, but Coraline was marked as "likely in store." I went looking for it in Science Fiction, and went back to the catalog and discovered that it was also stocked in the "kid's independent reader" section. Couldn't find it there, either, went back to the catalog, and it said "not in store." If I'd been a little quicker, I might have found it.

I went to the help desk, which was unmanned for at least a half hour in spite of the fact that there was at least one person waiting for help that entire time, and most of that hour had two or three people waiting. There would have been more, but people periodically gave up and went away.

I went to the cafe to get something to drink, but they didn't have anything I wanted except water, but I really didn't want to pay $2 for a few gulps of water.

Back at the help desk, with no help forthcoming, I had lots of free time to look around. The row of bookcases that has been there since the beginning of time (you know, the ones that display bestsellers) is no longer there. But there's lots more room for customers in the space it's freed up. If the bookcases were still there, they probably would have had the books I was looking for in them. I miss them!

Although the store was full of shoppers, and the line of people purchasing things was threatening to take over all the floor space, expand outdoors and take over the earth, there were very few people actually working in the store. I was going to say it looked like the first day the last Harry Potter book was released, but they had enough people there to deal with it that day. Today, they didn't.

What is wrong with the economy?

I keep seeing things that there's a large demand for in the store (in spite of the economy), but they're not in the store! I mean things that manufacturers could sell twice as much of if the items were just in the stores, but they're not there. People were all over the store with cash in hand, trying to buy things that the store didn't have!

Could this have something to do with the economy?

Anyway, I did, finally, track down someone who reserved Backup for me at the Springfield store, and said that they would search for a copy of Coraline, and if they could find one, they'd hold that for me, too.

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For those of you who enjoy fantasy on TV, Hallmark will have The Good Witch on this weekend, followed (in some showings) by it's brand new sequel, The Good Witch's Garden. It also has a couple of other showings later in the month, so check your local schedules.

It'll be on TV in a little bit and I want to catch it.

Oh, and have any of you been watching Legend of the Seeker? It seems quite a good fantasy story, based on books by Terry Goodkind, and several stations have it on at odd hours, so, once again, check your local schedules.

I have to go. I hope you're having a great weekend.