greetings from Maumee

My flight experience was not the usual. I flew American Airlines (Continental is my regular carrier but I might have to rethink that) and the flights took of on time and landed early. The plane out of Newark was decent sized and there were some empty seats; the landing was so soft that I did not even realize we had landed. Nice. Then I had to change planes to get from Chicago to Toledo and the plane was so small they had to stow my little carry-on bag. I had two carry-ons, actually -- these days they charge $15 to check the first bag - bah. The puddle-jumper had about 6 passengers and the flight, which was only 1/2 hour, was not what I would call smooth. But it did land early, something in its favor. A cute little airport. I spent all afternoon today in the Checker warehouse, setting up my booth and pre-printing a few pieces of fabric just so I'm not rusty tomorrow when the hordes descend - LOL. I'm here to demonstrate a couple of different stamping and stencilling things shop owners can teach, even if they don't have wet space. Of course, I have only half a table -- a true hardship (for the other person) -- but we'll have to cope. Fortunately for me, Shelly Stokes of Cedar Canyon Textiles (paintstiks & rubbing plates) is sharing my table, so it should be fun. I've already opened up the painstiks and started improving some really ugly fabric. This warehouse is enormous. Acres of fabric, a whole separate space for notions - amazing! Here's the aisle right across from our demo area. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, I can shop -- but I'm not sure I will. On the other hand...when tomorrow's demo is over (from 7:am when shopping madness begins in earnest) till 5:pm, if I am still standing and there is anything left on these miles of shelves - we'll see. There were a number of shoppers today: shop owners who had come to take the new EQ 7 (or some such number) class. They had shopping carts and pallets full of fabric - oh, my - I hope these people were driving. Most of them will be back tomorrow, but there will be an estimated 600 people here so shopping the empty aisles today was a luxury. Checker is taking all the demonstrators who are here out to dinner tonight at some ribs place (I assume) that has BONES in the name. I'm sure it will be fattening, and probably good. More tomorrow.