So where have we been anyway?

…very good question!  We have been insanely busy which is why we’ve been so lax with this blog.

Mostly we’ve been occupied with feeding our baby company.  Whenever I tell people about how great the business is doing, they seem to think that means it’s actually making money.  Those silly people!  Like all infants, Hallowed Grounds leeches energy and resources from us, without our having any hope of benefit (beyond, of course, the love we bear it) for a very long time.  It’s funny, but the neediness of the company makes me cherish it even more, I guess because it’s mine.  The Japanese have a word for the otherwise whiny/annoying behaviors which cause authority figures to indulge and adore their dependents.  It’s called Amae, which has no real equal in English – co-dependent is close but is much more pejorative.  Anyway, this little business is Amae-ing us all over the place.

For one thing, we’ve taken a seasonal turn in direction with our product.  Since no one seems to want our hot lattes when it’s 100+ degrees out every day, we started focusing on our iced toddy.  We’re coming close to the perfect blend and we’re getting into a bunch of offices to let us  sell directly to the employees.  This is the postcard I made…

Lucy and I are of two minds about what else to do with the toddy.  We both want to bottle it, but I’d like to do it sooner rather than later, and she’s more avid to focus on these office visits.  I’d  also like to sell it by the gallon to local restaurants to put out like they would iced tea.   I guess I’m trying to drag us more into a product line instead of being so heavily service-oriented, and she’s more into selling the idea of US as the bearers of the toddy.  Unfortunately time and money limitations are such that we can’t do both!

So anyway, after all this explanation of how brutally laden our schedule is, I have to confess that I’m on vacation right now.  I’m up in New York City staying with my friends Michele and Tim and their two kids.  The kids and I don’t quite agree about how much sleep I should be getting on my holiday.  I’m sleeping on the couch so it’s pretty much open season on Meg.  Poking at me is apparently an awesome morning activity.  I did a great evade this morning and got into the top bunk in their room before they really laid into me.  I hid the ladder in bed with me.  I thought maybe they forgot about me, but about an hour later the older one shimmied up, curled up with me and played his very loud gameboy.  I tried to kick him out but he said he just wanted company.  It’s hard to get mad when they’re so cute.

I’ve had a great time so far: lunch with our closest family friend Bertelle (who reads this post btw – Hi Bertelle!!), visits to the MOMA, running in Central Park.  Tomorrow the family and I will head out to their beach club and from there I’ll go on to see my Mom in Sag Harbor, which is the bay side of the Hamptons.  It is magical out there.  The spot where she lives is nothing like the Sex and the City image of the Hamptons.  It’s not a scene at all, just water water water.

Then I’m going to end my break by going out to Los Angeles for 4 days to visit my sister.  She’s living out there for the next couple of months.  I’ll get to hang out with my nephew.  Missing him is like a constant yearning in me.  And I’ll hear my brother-in-law’s stories, which somehow manage to be both funny and touching.  And if they know what’s good for them, I’m pretty sure they’ll feed me well.  Otherwise they’ll have a VERY CRABBY VISITOR on their hands.  That is a WARNING, Zandy!!!  ha!

I’ll probably write again soon.  Unless I’m just too busy doing…nothing.  Ahhhhhh.