The local Cult

IHOP - not the place with the tasty pancakes, but the cult that is centered in Grandview. Generally, I don't care if people join cults - not my place to stop them. I do care that Ihopians spend a lot time making sure that everyone knows how special their religion is.

Why do I call them a cult and not a church? Follow the $$. How does something that has existed for such a short time have so much wealth. I can think of lots of churches that have a hard time paying the bills, but this one (only 7 or 8 years old) can afford lots and lots of property including an entire strip mall.

Also, they use classic brainwashing. hours and hours of prayer while fasting. It's all 'up to the individual' of course, but is it really? Is it an environment where it's okay to say no when everyone else is doing it? Somehow I doubt it.

Want to join a cult? Fine, just don't keep trying to recuit me.

On an interesting note, Ihopians DO NOT like the following questions

1. Can I take your picture? I've never met a real cult member before.
2. What did you do before you gave your brain to IHOP?
3. Do they serve pancakes at services.

It's true - ask them. I did, the results were funny.

It's a garter snake

ha ha ha

get it??

if you don't then I'm pretty sure you don't knit.

Important breaking news

Thanks to Tony who published the information he got from Mary Anne's kansas city blog on about.com I now know about the newest challenge to my diet. Shatto is making ice cream. Their milk is amazing. I can't imagine how wonderful their ice cream will be. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I'm almost drooling on my keyboard while thinking about it.

Last Week

It's been over a week since I updated, and I could claim to be busy. I was sorta busy, but really I was just tired. I took 2 days off from the shop and that was a good thing, I needed it. Dan needs to take a couple of days off too since the Plaza Art Fair is coming up. He needs it, but I doubt he will take it.

I did craft. Mostly I knitted. I made scarves. Scarves shaped like snakes. I started a dragon, but he looked like an anaconda, so that was snake #1. The second snake I made on purpose. It is a green and pink garter snake. (garter stitch - get it??) and the 3rd snake is a coral snake. I saw one done very badly on etsy, so I decided to give it a try and do a better job. I think I did. Of course the person who made the snake I saw will probably hate mine and be happy they did a better job.

I also tried to find a domain name for my crafts. The crafts part is called "Whatever!" but all decent domains with whatever in the title were taken. Then I went for rainingfrogs.com, rainingpoodles.com, etherbunny.com, interruptingcow.com and they were all taken too. Then I took the word of the day from from 1999 schedule and most of those good ones were taken too. I tried my name spelled backwards (yecats) it was taken too. Finally I settled on ennasus.com I like it. The crafts are Whatever by Ennasus. The dresses will be (something) by Ennasus. What is Ennasus? It's my oldest daughter's name spelled backwards. The website will be up by Friday. Check it out then.

Art Fair Aftermath

The rain kinda sucked, but it cleared up for Sunday. Know what sucked more than the weather? The artists. The entitlement mentality was rampant. They rented a booth, so they owned the whole damned area. My shop was largely untroubled by the transient artists, but Sage & Daisy were. So were lots of other shops. I refer to them as transient artists because we are here all the time and we are artists too. The transients thought nothing of leaning their stuff on windows of open shops. One blocked the front door to Sage & Daisy and got pissy when asked to move her crap. I saw another leave her booth to smoke. She didn't want to smoke at her place, but she thought nothing of leaning against the window to Kevin's jewelry shop. Way classy.

Then there was the bathroom problem. Our shops have a common bathroom for customer use. We each have a key. The art fair promoters put port-a-pottys out for the fair, but many artists preferred to use our john. I can see that. The portable variety are kinda gross. What irked me was the way the EXPECTED to use it. On Friday I was asked for the key about 35 times. One lady (the pissy door blocking artist) asked 7 times all by herself. By the end of the evening a couple of transient artists were trying to go in my shop and get it for themselves. I was annoyed, but I'm fairly nice most of the time, so I got past it. Until Saturday. On Saturday one art fair vendor walked up to me, while I was with a customer at my button table, and said "key" with her hand outstretched. Tommy got it for her, but when she returned I told her no more. It was just too much.

Later Stephanie overheard her say to another artists that they pay so much for their spaces that we should be happy to get the bathroom key for them. I didn't get one dime of the cash she paid to sell her overpriced art. Next year I am making the key free for customers and $1 for everyone else. I pay enough for rent that she should be happy to pay me for use of my bathroom key. I should charge an extra quarter for anyone who wants to use my air freshener I keep under the sink.

Art Fair

The Westport Art Fair is in full swing and there is some cool stuff to see. I wish there were more cool artists though. Too many of them were unfriendly jerks and at least two of them lost a sale because they wouldn't acknowledge my presence in their booth. I guess I looked poor yesterday. Of course I am poor, but they had no way of knowing this. The color lady on the end of Pennsylvania - she got a sale. Her stuff is very cool, she is very nice and (this is important) SHE DOES NOT CHARGE TOO FREAKING MUCH FOR SOMETHING THAT ISN'T EVEN ALL THAT ATTRACTIVE. Seriously folks $500 for stuff glued to a canvas????? yeah - I understand why a lot of artists starve. No common sense.

Dan made the cool dress in this post. He worked on it for 6 hours. You can always tell when Dan makes the dress because of two key points.

1. The bubbles are all even. (I'm a bit more haphazard)
2. It's full length. I get bored and always end up making 'hooker' clothes that are mini skirts with crop tops. Dan has the patience to finish the dress and do a good job.

Stop buy the art fair this weekend and see it in person!

I'm heartless

I have watched the coverage of hurricane Gustov and I am heartless. I don't care about New Orleans and don't want to hear another word about it. I want to hear about Mississippi. Once upon a time we lived in Moss Point Mississippi. A quiet little town near Pascagoula. The house we lived in doesn't exit anymore. The street we lived on doesn't exist anymore, so much of what I knew and loved doesn't exist anymore. We didn't live there during Katrina, we had been gone for years, but I still feel the loss on a personal level. I loved that place and it pisses me off that people focused so much on New Orleans. yes, that was bad - BUT SO WAS EVERYTHING ELSE!! I look at Gustov and it covers the state of Mississippi, some of the worst going over my tiny little Moss Point. Yet all you see in the news is New Orleans this, New Orleans that. There are people in other areas NOT named New Orleans who have yet to rebuild, who can not put their lives together again from Katrina. new Orleans does not = hurricane Katrina. There is more to the story and the funds should be spread a bit more evenly out.

This time don't forget Mississippi, don't forget Alabama, don't forget Florida's panhandle or the parts of Louisiana that are not New Orleans. This time let's remember everyone and try to make sure that everyone gets help.