Welcome Back!

Apparently I took January and most of February off from blogging, but I'm back!

So here is my rundown of all things Micawber's for January and February, 2010:

- Inventory Day! Once each year, at the beginning of January, we take stock of all the stock. This involves Hans asking all his friends and many relations to come help us out. We work in teams or solo. We take down EVERY book in the store and jot down the price and quantity.

Example: $16.99 /// (This means three books at $16.99.)

You get the idea. We start around 9 am and finish around 3 pm. We don't officially close the store, so a few brave souls venture in for a look around amidst the organized chaos. Inventory Day might sound like a drag, but it's actually kind of fun. At least it's fun one time a year.

- Karen goes to England every other year for the month of January and this was her year to go. She accompanies her husband and about 20 of his Hamline theater students for a month of study and fun on the emerald island.

This is what I noticed while Karen was gone:

1. 3 workers is not as good as 4 workers. Even in January, which is typically a slower month, I felt the lack of our 4th partner.

2. I helped with the filing while Karen was gone. I now have a much greater appreciation for that part of her job.

3. The guys were not as fastidious about cleaning in January. Luckily, we got a new vacuum cleaner and all is better now.

- I had surgery in February. As soon as we were back to 4 people, I went in for minor surgery and the store was back to 3 people for a while. Not only did they have to deal with a heavier work load, they also had to deal with . . .

- Lots of Water! There was a bad leak in the store ceiling while I was gone. It would come in periodic rushes from the apartment upstairs. Thank God it ended up being from the sink, not the toilet! It's all fixed now. And by some miracle, only three books were damaged.

Typically January and February are slow months in the book business. But, here at Micawber's we had lots of excitement!