budgets

Bird herding and other tidbits....

Bird herding.

We get birds in our false ceiling in our retail building. Kind of startling when you open the back door and they fly up into your face, chirping loudly. Next door neighbor John and I opened the side door, and chased them from one end of the hallway to the other until they finally swooped under and out.

**********

Ummm.....about rumors. I hear multiple rumors every week. Only some of them pan out, and some are told in confidence. I've heard three different rumors about the chocolate shop, the first two of which obviously didn't happen.

Just saying....

**********

Joan Baez sure turned out to have good bones. I listened to her when I was a teenager, and here she is, still looking good.

**********

I dreamed I was Obama last night. I was running around trying to meet appointments, and looking for a bathroom, and wondering if the kids were O.K. and trying to keep up a good front.

I spent the last part of the dream desperately searching my luggage for a tranquilizer.

**********

I had two more lost sales of Settlers of Catan yesterday. Of course, I don't know if they would've actually purchased, but still....I've sold or could've sold more Catan in the last month than I did for the first 4 or 5 months of the year. Damn &%%*&^ budget....

But, you know? If you break a budget, it ain't no budget.

I just need to plan better, that's all. That and read the public mind.

**********

Ponyo, the new Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke....) movie, is in town. Past experience is that it will be here a week or two, only, so see it soon.

**********

I had a guy in the store with a southern accent, and we talked sports cards for awhile. I asked him if he was vacationing, and he hesitated and then said, "No, I work with the F.D.I.C."

"Oh, working on the Prineville bank? Do they have branch downtown?"

"They're in the Franklin Crossing building...."

"That was their first mistake," I said, and he laughed.

He bought a couple of Pirates of the Caribbean packs and left.

Next day, I had another guy with a southern accent buy a couple of Pirates packs. "Are you from the FDIC?"

He hemmed and hawed and then finally allowed as that it was true.

"You seem reluctant to talk about it."

"People blame us," he said. "People are pretty angry."

"They blame YOU?" I asked. "Thank god you guys are around."

"Yeah, well....we get yelled at a lot."

Interesting. You could tell he really didn't want anyone to know who he worked for....

The Budgeting Game.

O.K. Boys and Girls.

Let's play the Pegasus Budgeting Game!

The rules are simple.

I have 100 points to spend. Anything over 100 points and I automatically lose.

If I let more than 10% of salable product go out of stock, I lose.

Actually, this is my game and you guys get to watch! Or....you can go down the street and watch the lawns dry up on that abandoned house, whichever is more fun.

This is an honor system, I have to be honest about what is "salable", for instance.

I tend to frontload my orders, because they roll over on the credit card, so I get maximum time to sell the product. Something like this: 30% first week, 25% second week, 20% third week, 15% fourth week, and 10% reserved for opportunities.

The new game starts next week for Diamond orders (which are about 50% of all orders.) and on the fifteenish of June for everything else.

Let the best of my instincts win.

Meanwhile, I got my semi-annual order of standups in, yesterday. I order heavily on the Star Wars, which always sell; (especially Yoda, Darth, and Boba Fett, and I always have to have Slave Leia....) Always have to have John Wayne and Marilyn and James Dean; Elvis and Betty Boop, Pirate Johnny Depp.

New this time. Michelle and Barack. Heh.