The STUFF Sisters - Computers

The “Perfect Storm” Tech Mess

For many years we – The STUFF Sisters – have dedicated August to a month long Rug Sale. It is our way to treat our loyal customers to a great deal on the rugs we proudly sell at our store. But, this year it seems the “Tech Gods” were conspiring against us.

A couple weeks ago we discovered that our email host wasn’t working and our customer emails had not been going out, so our customers missed our colorful emails about our fantastic sale. Then last week our server went down, making it impossible for us function online. Then today, our phone lines went down. And, AT&T still hasn’t repaired them. Sloane was on hold for over 45 minutes (using her cell phone of course) begging for them to come quickly. She only rolled her eyes and laid her head on the desk a couple of times.

Today, of all days, the last day of our BIG FANTASTIC RUG SALE.

We have such kind and reasonable customers. One even tracked us down of Facebook to tell us the lines were down. Sloane was able to get his order over her cell phone. And, two more customers were kind enough to let us try and call them after hours to try and help them get their orders in before the deadline. But, what about everyone else? We started to worry.

Then Sloane had an idea…

She turned to me and said, “Let’s just extend the sale.” I immediately went to work getting the extension approved. And, since the whole month of August was a such a tech mess, we decided to just “go big”. We worked to extend the sale for another full month. It was time for an official “do over”.

Starting tomorrow – the 1st of September – we are going to try this again. You will be offered the same 20% off and free shipping deal on all our rugs until September 30, 2015. Wish us luck. Keep your fingers crossed the the “Tech Gods” will protect us this time.

We don’t often talk in our blog about sales and deals. Because we think it is more fun to talk about life, art, family and share personal stories. But, this is turned into a story about small business and what happens when a family owned business faces challenges that are frustrating and can cause our customers to be frustrated too.

Please know we work hard to avoid these situations. But, when life gives you lemons…you have to find a way to make lemonade. We hope you will take full advantage of the extension of this fantastic opportunity to purchase our gorgeous rugs at a discount. If you missed the August sale, you have a second change. If you purchased rugs in August, you have a second chance to buy more at the discount. And, if you didn’t know about the August sale, you now have the chance to go wild buying rugs.

Meanwhile, we will be dropping pennies in every wishing well in town until our luck improves.

Thank you for supporting our small businesses. It matters and we are deeply appreciative.

PS. AT&T says they are coming tomorrow morning to fix the phones. We could use a few “good luck” wishes about now.

This is us on the way to get donuts to celebrate having survived August.

Wasted Time

I try not to dwell on things that I can not change anymore. I still need lots of practice. Since I am not cured of this curse, I would like to vent my frustration with spammers.

I believe that any person that has any hand in creating the noise we call spam and wastes the time of their fellow humans should be inconvenienced in equally frustrating ways.

Here a few suggestions:

Red lights won’t change.
Their toothbrush is missing every morning.
Their food at restaurants doesn’t arrive in a timely manner.
Every time they bite into a taco it drips grease on their pants.
They can never find a parking space.
The 6′ 4″ Dude is always seated directly in front of them.
They constantly run out of milk for their cereal.
If they are a chick…their tights never stay up.
If they are a dude…their zipper won’t stay zipped.
Every time they are focused at work, someone places a completely unnecessary stack of papers on top of their work space and it can not be removed without each piece of paper being handle individually.

Feel free to add to my list. You will find more joy in facing your email inbox.

Steve Jobs’ Death Pisses Me Off

Personally I am tired of cancer taking amazing people from me and from our glorious world. Steve Jobs’ passing makes me sad, but it also pisses me off.

Personally I am tired of cancer taking amazing people from me and from our glorious world.

Steve Jobs’ passing makes me sad, but it also pisses me off. And I think this is a good thing. Because it will, once again, renew my passion for being part of finding a cure for all cancers.

My grandmother died from cancer, my mother has survived cancer more than once, my father is in Houston right now undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, and this week I have deeply needed one of my business mentors that died a couple of years ago from cancer.

Cancer Crew Cut — Me and my Dad. I shaved his head when the chemo started causing it to fall out.

That’s it. Cancer has got to go. That is why today I am going to make a donation to The Susan Henke Miller Breast Cancer Research Fund (the same charity our annual event Wings of Hope supports) in honor of Steve Jobs.

I don’t want to feel powerless today. I want to feel empowered and inspired by Steve’s legacy. Owning his inventions are not enough for me today. I want to kick back at the loss that cancer has brought us all.

Until there is a cure….

New Digs

The beginning of the school year does not bring on the deep desire to sniff crayons or markers. It does not make me yearn for sweaters and boots. I don’t even want the cooler weather to drop down too soon. Around our house, it simply means Mama’s got the bug to move furniture.

Last year it was the excitement and sadness of converting the young man’s room from a bunk bed setup into a double-twin-bed lounging paradise. We got him some new furniture on this site. It was a day fraught with tears for what seemed like the true end to the “kid” room and therefore childhood. At least that’s what I manifested it into.

This year – two days before the first day of school – the golden child’s desk moved from the kitchen to the room we labeled years ago “the playroom” due to its housing all the games, the toys and the air hockey table. His desk had been in the kitchen since the second grade when he and I started sharing a computer. The computer and he faced the wall so I could easily see the screen from any vantage point in the kitchen. Not on my watch was he going to accidentally dance with porn! No way!

a boy and his desk — The boy and his new desk.

The domino effect of house re-arranging is that it gave me the opportunity to tweak a few more things that needed change. It just stands to reason that, if he and I are no longer sharing a computer and a desk, we should both get new digs. So this boy’s mama moved a desk into her dressing room, and all has been bliss. I am safely nestled into the second floor of the house with a window for taking in Hyde Park vistas and with seashells on the sill for moral support. Right now I’m loving the sleekness of the desk surface, but I know that will change.

My move from the epicenter – our kitchen – is providing me with much-needed clarity for the writing I’ve been yearning to do. I am able to leave the hubbub after dinner and enter a little silence – which I still love to have pierced by my baby boy as he attacks his mountain of homework.

Sloane

In Retreat

Sloane and I are in an Internet retreat learning fabulous tips and tricks for our blog posts. We know you will be very impressed with our new skills. Okay, not really, you probably won’t notice anything, but please feel free to find joy in knowing that we are learning new skills to throw around our blog.

Casey Simmons and Sloane Simmons working on pursuegoodstuff.com — Website work is so much fun!

Keepsakes

My husband has a unique name: Harl A. Van Deursen. When we married, I did not take his name. I liked my name just the way it was, and, to this day, he will tell you he wishes he had bucked the status quo and taken my name.

Sloane and Harl, August 1981 — Here we are, the happy couple in August of 1981. I may have been, like most young girls, writing his name mingled with mine in a "practice" signature. Alas, common sense won out five years later when we married.

His unique name made for very interesting direct mail, and I started saving mailing labels 20 years ago from credit card companies and those just generally wanting us to commit to a product, sale or promotion. These labels still make me laugh out loud and, occasionally, I add a doozy to the binder clip. A general sampling:

Van Harl

Harl Harl Van

Carl Bandeursen

Harl Vandevresen

H. Van Van

Harz Van Dee

Reich Barl Van Deursen

Van Sloane Deursen

Lately I find myself keeping great spam email because sometimes I can’t stop laughing – not only at the subject line, but at the thought of who actually opens these missives from the ether. (I can assure you I don’t. They are safely locked in my special spam folder and are virtually untouched.) Most of the good ones are sex related, and please stop reading now if you are faint of heart.

My current subject line favorites:

ELECTtrifying bed-action

be her wild banger

Want a King banana down there?

BECOME A MATING CHAMPION!

Some magic for your wand.

Torpedo her ALL night

make your woody outstanding!!

Stress Cooling Lovemaking?

BANG Ladies Like Crazy

(All capitalization and punctuation has been left intact from the originals.)

Casey is a little fed up with my cackling, but she seldom fails to bite and ask, “What’s so funny?” Mass marketing hasn’t really changed that much with the advent of electronic mail. My husband and I knew not to give much heed to a company that not only didn’t know our names but mixed them liberally. And, as a heterosexual female, the spam I receive daily doesn’t warrant a click.

If you want to talk me into something, know a little bit about me. Now, that’s true marketing.

Sloane