Am We Being Churlish?

Joiedeblog has a question for its readers - if said readers were to purchase a wonderful book of pictures of treehouses . . . and if said readers were going to be paying $37.50 for this handsome hardcover . . .  would said readers feel a little bit miffed if there was a sticker on the front cover that said "As Seen On Animal Planet!"  Or, if that didn't bother them, would it bother them if they tried to remove the sticker so as to leave the beautiful cover photo completely visible - or were planning to give it as a gift to someone they judged indifferent to Animal Planet - and found it was well nigh impossible to remove it without damaging said cover?  It bothers us!  And we don't think we're being completely churlish in thinking that a truly removable sticker could have been used!  

And in a related story, we would like to lodge a small protest against large removable price stickers on gift books that are anything but - you begin to take it off and next thing you know - the book looks like it came from a bargain bin!

Always Read The Police Report Before Leaving the Station !

I thought I was done writing about DumpsterGate - but I was wrong!  I picked up a copy of the police report last Friday, because our new Dumpster company needed it to file an insurance claim.  I went to the beautiful new building in East Cambridge, gave them my file number, and was back in my car 5 minutes later, report in hand.  This morning, I thought I would be prudent and make a copy of the two page report before I sent it. As the second page printed my eye caught a strange phrase on page one: "3 birds, contained inside a bird cage, were dead."  Come again?  What? I read more - and my police report actually belonged to a Cambridge man who reported a house break-in: one stolen laptop and three dead birds.  When I called the Records department to request a copy of MY report - and gave them the file number of the one I had received, the clerk said "that file is from 2008!"  I looked - and yes, the date on the file was 8/17/2008.  The number bore no resemblance whatsoever to the number I had given them. So . .. my advice to one and all - always make sure that you are getting the report you asked for.  And spent an hour driving over to pick up.  And paid for.  (Okay, only $1)  At least they agreed to mail me the correct report!

Do People Still Send Postcards?

We've always sold a lot of postcards at Joie de Vivre.  Over the years we've had customers who bought lots of them, and despite a recent slow down in notecards, we still sell a lot of postcards.  Postcards are a time honored inexpensive wall decoration of course, and we have customers who do other interesting things with them as well.  Writing teachers who give one postcard each to a class of students and ask them to write a one page story about the picture for example. (always thought that would be a lot of fun to do.)  And I think some people buy and keep them because they love the images.  Anyway, a young woman bought a bunch the other day and on impulse, I asked her what she did with them.  And she told me about PostCrossing.  It's a website where you sign up to send postcards to people all around the world.  You request an address, and send a postcard.  Once you've sent yours, your name will come up when someone else, somewhere else, requests an address.  I took a look at it and instantly joined - and just sent my first postcard to a 26 year old philologist in Russia who likes Scottish Country Dancing, music, and speaks 6 languages!  (You get to fill out a profile of who you are and what kind of postcards you might enjoy, though of course you can send whatever you like.)  Anyway, in these days of decreasingly interesting snail mail - this strikes me as a great idea - therefore, I pass it along to my postcard loving customers!  Have fun!  Who knows, maybe you'll get one from me.

DumpsterGate Update

So, the police came and took notes on our dumpster incident - two big, tall, very nice policemen.  And when I say they took notes - I mean it - they had a tiny little composition style notebook and wrote down all the details.  They called into the station, got my file number, and left us with this.  Way to rock it old school !!

(and any readers who are confused by this post, please see previous blog entry!)

Waiting for the Police to Come

Our blog post today has a rather dramatic title - but that's exactly what we're doing here at Joie this lovely afternoon.  Don't worry readers - we are all okay - but we have suffered a rather surreal theft.  Last night when I was leaving the parking lot, I noticed that one of our two dumpsters was - gone.  I thought it was odd - but I was on my way somewhere, so decided to deal with it in the morning, assuming in the back of my mind that our dumpster company, a new one, was switching out the old container for a newer one. Then, this morning, I was distracted and forgot all about it until our neighbor who shares it came in to ask where it was.  So, I called the company and after much back and forth - they checked with the drivers, the dispatchers, etc - they said they had nothing to do with it and could not proceed to replace it until we supplied them with a police report.  It kind of boggles the mind - who would take a dumpster?  A customer (whose husband is a contractor) suggested - a contractor.  She knew of disappearing dumpsters suddenly reappearing on job sites . . . and it's true, you would need either a truck or a several strong people to take that thing away.  Who knows.  But the theft happened, rather brazenly, in the middle of the day, because it was there in the morning.  Anyway, here we sit waiting for the police to come!  Stay tuned . . . for more Dumpstergate details!