Also known as trying to catching you up on what I was up to the week around the launch. (You can also read the twitter version here)
Sunday's Drama - Honk, Honk, I'm Driving a Big-Assed Vehicle!
- We booked a mid-sized car at a great rate of $161 for a whole week, but somehow ended up with a big-assed vehicle (or "cross-over vehicle" in the current vernacular).
- Cool part? We got a vehicle with all the bells and whistles - seat warmers, Sirius radio, seating for 6 and plenty of room to move our entire office to Ottawa... and we did.
- Okay, M.Tinto - bring it on!
Monday's Drama - Early Mornings and Gay Cook
- We stayed overnight at mom's house, which was lovely and let us get some work done, but it also meant we had to move the Big-Assed Vehicle before mom could go to work.
- Mom is a high school teacher. When the sun is rolling over and hitting the snooze button, mom is heading out for the day... and so did we.
- Cool part? We got to see the sun come up, had plenty of time to grab a sandwich at DiRienzo's for lunch in Ottawa and still drop a review copy of CEOT at Gay Cook's house. Which turned into a lovely tour of the oldest house in Ottawa and a great chat with Gay.
Tuesday's Drama - Is That a Brick Wall?
- Driving huge vehicle is great for highway driving, pretty good for dealing with lots of snow and weather and fantastic for transporting way too much stuff from one city to the next.
- It is not, however, good for turning around in very very tight parking spots in icy lane ways beside brick walls. Not good at all.
- Oh, and we found our first CEOT casualty. There is always one that is closed before we launch. Cam Kong is gone. Replaced by Fuschian.
- Cool part? Nope. There's no cool part about scraping up a rental vehicle. We stressed and fretted all week. Luckily, mom noticed much later that we'd only scraped the Panel Guards not the side of the vehicle persay.
Wednesday's Drama - Media, Party, Party, Media... Friends!
- Wednesday was filled with drama top to bottom. Starting with the heavy snow overnight, the early morning interview at CKCU, the snow plow spinning out of control in front of us, the last minute prep scramble for and the holding of the launch party.
- Almost everything went really smoothly!
- Thanks to Robyn and everyone else who stepped in and insisted on helping and I think it was our lowest stress launch ever. Thanks guys!
- Cool part? Seeing everyone!
Thursday's Drama - Books, Pyrex & Beaver Tails
- In a week filled with drama, Thursday (or Valentine's Day) seemed to be chock-a-block filled with them.
- We delivered books to bookstores across the city, including Chapters Rideau. (who has already sold 18 copies). Our first, ever, book in an Indigo-Chapters store the first day it was available.
- We made a lovely dinner for our hosts
Rockr & Junkii, only to have the Pyrex roasting pan explode.
Literally EXPLODE!
- No one was badly hurt but both Rockr & I had bandages on by the end of the evening. No photos because I was too busy trying to clean up, make sure dinner wasn't ruined, make sure Rockr & Junkii weren't totally pissed at me for blowing up their kitchen... oh and picking up really hot pieces of Pyrex from under my barefeet.
- Cool part? Hitting the canal after all the drama (and not a small amount of drinking) at 10pm looking for Beaver Tails.
Friday's Drama - Where Did That Wind Come From?
- It was cold and snowy all week in Ottawa. Not really a surprise in February, however Friday was REALLY cold and blowy. Friday the day we'd earmarked for walking around Centretown delivering restaurant letters.
- After lunch with Marc, 3 deliveries in wind, and Sam taking a stack of Centretown deliveries off our hands, we decided it would be smarter (and warmer) to get back in the vehicle and do the Merivale road deliveries instead.
- Cool part? Friends. It always comes back to friends.
Friday night we drove to Kingston. We spent the day with mom in K'ton and headed home Saturday night to avoid more weather. Sunday we returned the Big-Assed Vehicle.
In 2-3 weeks should hear exactly how big a drama it is to scrape a vehicle when the insurance is covered on your credit card. Fingers crossed you won't hear anything more about this.
Congrats on the successful launch, cracking Chapters, and generally rocking through the whole week!
About the BAV and the scrape ... I drive a BAV. Not very green, but I like lots of heavy metal between me and other large objects hurtling around on icy streets. I think, all in all, a scrape is a small price to pay for getting you, Ger, and your office to Ottawa and back safely.
Pyrex has exploded on me, too. When I was about 19, I was visiting an elderly neighbour who wanted to make some nice sweet treat for me. So she put her Pyrex dish on the stove top to soften/melt some butter. She puttered ... we chatted. I was seated in her kitchen, at EYE LEVEL to the stove top. She had done the Pyrex / butter melting thing a thousand times, and I'd seen her do it, so no biggie. Suddenly - boom! Crack! Hot glass sprayed everywhere. Luckily, the chunks were fairly large and I just got a few tiny cuts on my face. After we both got over being worried about the other, we were able to laugh it off. But it was frightening and I'll never trust Pyrex entirely again.
Posted by: Venus | February 20, 2008 at 07:42 AM
The Pyrex thing was shocking to say the least.
Dealing with it after 3 pomtinis and at least one bottle of wine, was challenging.
Being rushed upstairs while Rockr & Junkii did all the clean up, was embarrassing.
Gerry's role was to rush back and forth and make sure I was okay, then back downstairs to make sure they weren't totally pissed at me, then back upstairs to make sure I didn't have a head wound, then back downstairs to make sure they hadn't gotten hurt, then back upstairs to make sure I wasn't in shock, then... We were lucky Gerry didn't twist an ankle with all that back and forth.
re: BAV - let's hope it's literally a "small price to pay".
Posted by: Lex | February 20, 2008 at 07:51 AM
Congratulations on your launch!
That pyrex story has me freaked out. I use it all the time - I think of the glass as a healthier option for my kids, but it's definitely not so healthy if it explodes in their faces, is it?? What were you doing when it exploded?
Glad you're okay.
Posted by: Cath | February 20, 2008 at 09:31 AM
She was pouring a frosty beer into a roasting hot baking dish.
And yeah, it made a mess, but thankfully it didn't hurt anyone beyond some stray glass bits on the bottoms of our feet and our hands form cleaning up. Also thankfully, the meat was almost fully done, and totally salvageable. While we didn't have gravy, we had a yummy juicy prime rib with lots of potatoes and a fantastic salad with fig/balsamic reduction that was to-die-for.
And now we have a great story that concludes with "...and then we drank loads of wine and wandered out to the canal in a hopeless quest for beavertails." We should have learned our lesson the night before (a Wednesday) when, at 10:30, we realized all the KFCs, Taco Bells, Pizza Huts, and St Hubert's in Ottawa close at 10pm. Evidently, so do Beavertails - even during Winterlude!
Posted by: Rockr & Junkii | February 21, 2008 at 09:14 PM
Ah ha, I was wondering if there was a cold/hot cause for the exploding Pyrex. I actually nearly missed being cut very badly as a child by exploding Corning Ware, and have had a phobia about things exploding on the stove top ever since. I'm glad I wasn't there, or I may have just lost it.
And re: the cross over vehicle: I'm sure I cannot top the comments that were attributed to me in absentia. Just glad you now see the utility, and that my move to the Dark Side was driven by need, and not want.
Anyhoo, I'm really glad to hear that CEOT has been completed and launched, you really deserve a big success like this, after all your blood, sweat and tears. Or did I get that in the wrong order? I think the sweat came first, then the tears? The blood was definitely last.....
Posted by: margotinto | February 24, 2008 at 08:52 AM