Hello everyone!
Chris reporting from Lego Central.
Orders are only backed up only through the 29th, which is good, but the lot amounts and volume of parts on some of the orders I'm looking at in my stack are...shall we say...freakin' big! So, for sanity's sake (mainly my own, but I'm sure Tracy will appreciate it as well) we're temporarily closed. We will re-open when things get hammered down a little. :-) Shouldn't take too long, however.
How's about all the shops on BL who now have to change their names so that it doesn't contain "Lego" in it. Man, I'm happy that Tracy didn't choose Lego-A-Thon for her shop name way back when. Imagine all the stuff we'd have to change!! Yikes!
Well, the Spice Girls are blaring out of my computer speakers (I listen to Yahoo! Music while I'm working since it's constantly going w/out interruption and today I have the "90's Pop" station going) and it's inspiring me to go pull some parts!
Later, dudes!
-Chris
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
At the other end of the world...
...here I sit, at the other end of the world. While Chris is busy working in LegoCentral, I'm sitting here at my "day job" - having just finished a can of soup for lunch (better than the lunch yesterday, no?). In case anyone is interested what the President of Brickathon, Inc. does for a "day job", I manage a fleet of almost 200 sulphuric acid railcars. I take care of all the shipments (i.e. - order taking, making sure the cars get out and to the customer, testing due on the fleet, logistics, etc., etc.) and am also my boss's "girl" or "secretary" (depending on his mood). My boss, JCW, is amusing, but I have magnificently fast typing skills so I can't say as I blame him at all for wanting me to type things for him that I can pound out in minutes (that would literally take him hours).
So...I'm feeling a bit better and as such that means hopefully more product will be listed in the store very shortly. I did get a few items put up last night, and plan on parting some sets pre-Superbowl Sunday to be uploaded probably early next week. We should have some new Indiana Jones parts in stock soon. We've got LOTS of things to sort and upload so just keep on checking back for new product as it really does change fast. When we re-opened less than 15 days ago we had almost 5,500 different lots - we've sold out of over 300 of those lots in this little amount of time.
I'd also like to take a moment and just say that Chris is doing amazing work. I know I appreciate her efforts greatly and your feedback has been much the same. Thanks for supporting our project in building the best little Lego store out there for you!
Best,
Tracy
So...I'm feeling a bit better and as such that means hopefully more product will be listed in the store very shortly. I did get a few items put up last night, and plan on parting some sets pre-Superbowl Sunday to be uploaded probably early next week. We should have some new Indiana Jones parts in stock soon. We've got LOTS of things to sort and upload so just keep on checking back for new product as it really does change fast. When we re-opened less than 15 days ago we had almost 5,500 different lots - we've sold out of over 300 of those lots in this little amount of time.
I'd also like to take a moment and just say that Chris is doing amazing work. I know I appreciate her efforts greatly and your feedback has been much the same. Thanks for supporting our project in building the best little Lego store out there for you!
Best,
Tracy
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Hello all my friends in Blogging-Lego Land
I have to clock back in at my day job in a few, but thought I'd say hello to all our lovely readers out there (and if you're reading, leave us a comment already!).
Today for lunch it's a can of Tuna fish and a donut. Yes, I lead a very, very exciting life away from the House of Plastic I call home.
Chris has been taking good care of the store. I haven't yet been up to adding more inventory and such, but hope to sometime soon this week start back at adding more parts and items.
We now have a new postage set-up so we can get packages ready quicker to mail out (we're sending out a batch today - I prepare them at night now) and we're sending out Tracking #'s on all US shipments in e-mail format. This is a nice new feature we can offer and I hope this information is helpful to folks. We're using Endicia and they have a set-up where you can track the package directly from the e-mail, which is great news for our customers! I wish we had a bit more ability for what we could offer overseas, but I do save all the Custom Label #'s for our overseas packages just in case it's needed.
In interesting news: Did you realize that it's illegal (per USPS Customs information) to send plastic toys to Italy? This happens all the time (there are quite a few Italian Lego collectors), but it's evidently a no-no and if you order from Italy your package could get confiscated by customs over there. I have heard that packages going to Italy take longer than normal, and that's probably why.
That's my update for the day. Chris is right, I have been playing Final Fantasy X again. After I finish this I plan to start X-2 again (never finished that) and then probably try FFXII as I have it but haven't played it. Of course, I also have to find time to build, have a life outside of Lego (riiiiight) and do normal daily duties of living! Ha!
-Tracy
Today for lunch it's a can of Tuna fish and a donut. Yes, I lead a very, very exciting life away from the House of Plastic I call home.
Chris has been taking good care of the store. I haven't yet been up to adding more inventory and such, but hope to sometime soon this week start back at adding more parts and items.
We now have a new postage set-up so we can get packages ready quicker to mail out (we're sending out a batch today - I prepare them at night now) and we're sending out Tracking #'s on all US shipments in e-mail format. This is a nice new feature we can offer and I hope this information is helpful to folks. We're using Endicia and they have a set-up where you can track the package directly from the e-mail, which is great news for our customers! I wish we had a bit more ability for what we could offer overseas, but I do save all the Custom Label #'s for our overseas packages just in case it's needed.
In interesting news: Did you realize that it's illegal (per USPS Customs information) to send plastic toys to Italy? This happens all the time (there are quite a few Italian Lego collectors), but it's evidently a no-no and if you order from Italy your package could get confiscated by customs over there. I have heard that packages going to Italy take longer than normal, and that's probably why.
That's my update for the day. Chris is right, I have been playing Final Fantasy X again. After I finish this I plan to start X-2 again (never finished that) and then probably try FFXII as I have it but haven't played it. Of course, I also have to find time to build, have a life outside of Lego (riiiiight) and do normal daily duties of living! Ha!
-Tracy
New career path?
We received this feedback today:
"Brick-A-Thon for President! USA! USA! USA!"
Hmmmm...whaddaya think, Tracy?
:-)
LOL, I love it!
"Brick-A-Thon for President! USA! USA! USA!"
Hmmmm...whaddaya think, Tracy?
:-)
LOL, I love it!
Today's post.
Good day to all who are reading this!
Today I'm finishing up 2 larger orders that were placed on the 27th then hammering out some other larger ones that were placed on the 28th and going beyond that time permitting. This week is so much more...calmer...than last week. It's lovely!
I was surprised to see that Brick-A-Thon was on the "Featured" store list on the front page when I looked yesterday. Not bragging, but even though we got there because another store closed, it's still a good feeling knowing that all the work that Tracy and I put into this store is worth it. Seeing that and getting the feedback and nice comments that we do from our Lego friends and customers is totally worth it as well!
I was also surprised to see when I logged in this morning that I was 1 of over 5,000+ users currently on BL. Tracy says that people are thinking that bots or whatever go on the site which will jack up the numbers like that. Even still, that was odd to see.
I really don't have much else to report this morning. Maybe Tracy will grace the blog with her ramblings today and have something more interesting to say. :-)
Cheers!
-Chris
Today I'm finishing up 2 larger orders that were placed on the 27th then hammering out some other larger ones that were placed on the 28th and going beyond that time permitting. This week is so much more...calmer...than last week. It's lovely!
I was surprised to see that Brick-A-Thon was on the "Featured" store list on the front page when I looked yesterday. Not bragging, but even though we got there because another store closed, it's still a good feeling knowing that all the work that Tracy and I put into this store is worth it. Seeing that and getting the feedback and nice comments that we do from our Lego friends and customers is totally worth it as well!
I was also surprised to see when I logged in this morning that I was 1 of over 5,000+ users currently on BL. Tracy says that people are thinking that bots or whatever go on the site which will jack up the numbers like that. Even still, that was odd to see.
I really don't have much else to report this morning. Maybe Tracy will grace the blog with her ramblings today and have something more interesting to say. :-)
Cheers!
-Chris
Monday, January 28, 2008
A blip about what I enjoy building the most!
Monday again!
Tracy made it back to her job in Tampa today for the first time in almost a week. I'm happy to report that she's acting like herself! I'm sure she still feels a little yucky, but hopefully she'll keep getting better by the day. This morning she proclaimed, "I can smell!". She was so excited! Yes, being sick is not fun. I'm glad she's doing better.
Today I'm working on some bigger orders placed over the weekend, including one for a child's birthday party. It's interesting to see some of the bits in some of these orders that I pull and I wonder what people plan on doing with the pieces. :-)
Before I moved down to Florida (I grew up in Wisconsin and lived there 'til I moved down here a little over a year ago) I really didn't know too much about Lego and really didn't care too much about it either. I worked a 2 daycare/preschools and there's always bins of parts and such in places like that for kids to play with, but I guess I just never really noticed it. Since meeting up with Tracy and going to the Lego store in Orlando a lot, I've grown to know about the parts, what they're used for, how they work, etc. Last night I built a police helicopter from the "City" series (and used the "Polizei" stickers instead of the "Police" stickers - nice to have the choice!) and a garbage truck from the same series. I'm also very much into Exo force and have a nice little collection them (but I only like to build the robots with the guys with the crazy hair, not the "bad guys"). Lego really is a wonderful product to deal with and fun to play with as well!
This was a bit longer than I intended it to be, LOL!
Back to work for me!
-Chris
Tracy made it back to her job in Tampa today for the first time in almost a week. I'm happy to report that she's acting like herself! I'm sure she still feels a little yucky, but hopefully she'll keep getting better by the day. This morning she proclaimed, "I can smell!". She was so excited! Yes, being sick is not fun. I'm glad she's doing better.
Today I'm working on some bigger orders placed over the weekend, including one for a child's birthday party. It's interesting to see some of the bits in some of these orders that I pull and I wonder what people plan on doing with the pieces. :-)
Before I moved down to Florida (I grew up in Wisconsin and lived there 'til I moved down here a little over a year ago) I really didn't know too much about Lego and really didn't care too much about it either. I worked a 2 daycare/preschools and there's always bins of parts and such in places like that for kids to play with, but I guess I just never really noticed it. Since meeting up with Tracy and going to the Lego store in Orlando a lot, I've grown to know about the parts, what they're used for, how they work, etc. Last night I built a police helicopter from the "City" series (and used the "Polizei" stickers instead of the "Police" stickers - nice to have the choice!) and a garbage truck from the same series. I'm also very much into Exo force and have a nice little collection them (but I only like to build the robots with the guys with the crazy hair, not the "bad guys"). Lego really is a wonderful product to deal with and fun to play with as well!
This was a bit longer than I intended it to be, LOL!
Back to work for me!
-Chris
Sunday, January 27, 2008
La la la la laaaaaa!
Happy Sunday!
Tracy is still making her flu recovery and is currently playing Final Fantasy 10, I believe, on the PS2. She's gearing up to go back to work at her "away from Lego" job tomorrow. It took almost a week for her to shake the flu, and she's still not done caughing and being congested. I hope nobody else has to get what she's got. Yucky! :-(
Today I'm going to be working on a few of the smaller orders that we received yesterday. Tomorrow it'll be back to full business to get the biggers ones pulled and out the door. It drives me insane to get too far behind on orders, like what happened last week, so on the weekend I usually try to get some of the smaller bits pulled and invoiced so things don't creep up on me. Last week I felt like the game "Tetris" for the NES (I'm a huuuuuge 8-bit NES fan). The bricks (no pun intended) kept coming and stacking up on me. BUT, all is well now! :-)
Hope all who are reading have a wonderful Sunday!
-Chris
Tracy is still making her flu recovery and is currently playing Final Fantasy 10, I believe, on the PS2. She's gearing up to go back to work at her "away from Lego" job tomorrow. It took almost a week for her to shake the flu, and she's still not done caughing and being congested. I hope nobody else has to get what she's got. Yucky! :-(
Today I'm going to be working on a few of the smaller orders that we received yesterday. Tomorrow it'll be back to full business to get the biggers ones pulled and out the door. It drives me insane to get too far behind on orders, like what happened last week, so on the weekend I usually try to get some of the smaller bits pulled and invoiced so things don't creep up on me. Last week I felt like the game "Tetris" for the NES (I'm a huuuuuge 8-bit NES fan). The bricks (no pun intended) kept coming and stacking up on me. BUT, all is well now! :-)
Hope all who are reading have a wonderful Sunday!
-Chris
Friday, January 25, 2008
Back open!
It's been a long week, but we're caught up on orders. Yay!
All I have to say is...
NEXT!!!!!
:-)
All I have to say is...
NEXT!!!!!
:-)
Never fear, Brick-A-Thon is here...or will be soon!
Chris reporting for duty, alive and kicking!
Most of our orders have gotten processed and invoice, but I still have around 6 outstanding that were semi-larger that I will be processing today. We will re-open no later than tonight.
Tracy is feeling better as well and surprisingly I'm still dodging and weaving this flu B thing that she has. *knock on Lego* I hate being sick more than she does, if that's possible.
That being said, on to the processing!
-Chris
Most of our orders have gotten processed and invoice, but I still have around 6 outstanding that were semi-larger that I will be processing today. We will re-open no later than tonight.
Tracy is feeling better as well and surprisingly I'm still dodging and weaving this flu B thing that she has. *knock on Lego* I hate being sick more than she does, if that's possible.
That being said, on to the processing!
-Chris
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Sick, Closed, but not stale!
Tracy here -
Being that I can't keep still, even with "Flu B" (whatever that is), I'm posting bagged up parts (so I'm not infecting our LEGO!).
Went to the doc yesterday and they now have an amazing little test that will tell you what type of flu virus you have (A or B) and it looks like one of those pregnancy tests you see on t.v., sort of - in that a little line matches up to the type. Man how things have changed in the past few years - I always just assume I have the flu and treat it as such, but now the doc has given me some flu treatment to help fight it, etc. - incredible how we're coming along medically out there!
Glad that we have Chris on board, as otherwise the shop would be down a LOT longer.
Hope to be re-open again no later than Friday.
Tracy
Being that I can't keep still, even with "Flu B" (whatever that is), I'm posting bagged up parts (so I'm not infecting our LEGO!).
Went to the doc yesterday and they now have an amazing little test that will tell you what type of flu virus you have (A or B) and it looks like one of those pregnancy tests you see on t.v., sort of - in that a little line matches up to the type. Man how things have changed in the past few years - I always just assume I have the flu and treat it as such, but now the doc has given me some flu treatment to help fight it, etc. - incredible how we're coming along medically out there!
Glad that we have Chris on board, as otherwise the shop would be down a LOT longer.
Hope to be re-open again no later than Friday.
Tracy
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Temporarily closed.
I talked with the boss and we decided to close shop for a day or so due to all the orders we've gotten in. I like to get things processed and out the door to our customers quickly and that's proving to be difficult this week unfortunately.
We appreciate every single order we get and want to give each one the attention it deserves instead of rushing to get things finished, which leads to inaccuracy. I'd like to avoid that all together.
Rest assured we will re-open within the next day or so.
Thanks for your patience!
-Chris
We appreciate every single order we get and want to give each one the attention it deserves instead of rushing to get things finished, which leads to inaccuracy. I'd like to avoid that all together.
Rest assured we will re-open within the next day or so.
Thanks for your patience!
-Chris
Wednesday
So today is Wednesday - crunch time usually. The day I try to get most outstanding orders from the weekend completed and get the store fully caught up.
Unfortunately that won't be the case this week. :-(
Today I'm still plugging away at the 21st (there were a TON of orders that came in on Monday - must be the unofficial "Lego Purchasing Day" for Bricklinkers!). Sooooo, if you placed an order with us on the 21st expect an invoice soon!
Tracy is home sick today. She had a fever overnight and since she has a co-worker who's health is up and down where it probably would be a bad, bad, very BAD thing if she got a cold with congestion, Tracy opted to stay home today and nip this in the bud.
As for me, I'm feeling a-ok (I worked as a pre-k teacher for a bit before moving down here, with some work as a cook at an Italian restaurant in between teaching gigs) so my immune system is fortunately still strong from that. Nah, I'm not bragging at all. ;-)
I'm just darn-diddly-arn determined to get these orders cleared out.
-Chris
Unfortunately that won't be the case this week. :-(
Today I'm still plugging away at the 21st (there were a TON of orders that came in on Monday - must be the unofficial "Lego Purchasing Day" for Bricklinkers!). Sooooo, if you placed an order with us on the 21st expect an invoice soon!
Tracy is home sick today. She had a fever overnight and since she has a co-worker who's health is up and down where it probably would be a bad, bad, very BAD thing if she got a cold with congestion, Tracy opted to stay home today and nip this in the bud.
As for me, I'm feeling a-ok (I worked as a pre-k teacher for a bit before moving down here, with some work as a cook at an Italian restaurant in between teaching gigs) so my immune system is fortunately still strong from that. Nah, I'm not bragging at all. ;-)
I'm just darn-diddly-arn determined to get these orders cleared out.
-Chris
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Go Chris, Go!
*Whew*
I am working on orders, really! I'm just so excited by the new blog.
Tracy is a little under the weather, so she came home from work at her other job early. She's currently watching some random cop show on TV. She's so silly. :-)
I'm sure she'll be posting some different inventory over the next day or so. We just re-opened this past Friday after being closed for almost a month. Our goal was to get all the unlisted bits in the house posted. We almost did it, too! We also re-organized things around here to make order pulling more efficient. Hopefully it won't affect the promptness of invoices being sent out - I'm kinda feeling like the rabbit in the story of the tortoise and the hare. I'm sleeping under a tree around the bend and the orders are slowly creeping up on me.
Nah, it's not that bad. Being 2 days out is actually ok. It's ok. Right?
;-)
Ok, back to work.
Go Chris, Go!
I am working on orders, really! I'm just so excited by the new blog.
Tracy is a little under the weather, so she came home from work at her other job early. She's currently watching some random cop show on TV. She's so silly. :-)
I'm sure she'll be posting some different inventory over the next day or so. We just re-opened this past Friday after being closed for almost a month. Our goal was to get all the unlisted bits in the house posted. We almost did it, too! We also re-organized things around here to make order pulling more efficient. Hopefully it won't affect the promptness of invoices being sent out - I'm kinda feeling like the rabbit in the story of the tortoise and the hare. I'm sleeping under a tree around the bend and the orders are slowly creeping up on me.
Nah, it's not that bad. Being 2 days out is actually ok. It's ok. Right?
;-)
Ok, back to work.
Go Chris, Go!
Hello from Lego Central!
Hi! I'd like to welcome all who are reading this to the official Brick-A-Thon blog. I'm Chris (ummmm...the one in the shirt and jeans in the picture above, *teehee*). I work on putting together most of the orders we get at Brick-A-Thon, including packing them up and shipping them out.
We've decided to keep this blog to let you become more aware of what is new at Brick-A-Thon. Since I'm the one working on your order, this can also be used as a tool for communications on how things are going in the way of order processing. It will also help you get to know me better. Everyone knows Tracy (well, not EVERYONE but people on BL sure as heck do!), but after being around Lego and Bricklink for a little over a year, I barely know ANYONE! I want to make new Lego friends, too! :-)
I will try to update this daily, but since the store re-opened on Friday we've been getting SWAMPED with some pretty amazing orders! Usually I am able to process and get things out the door within 2-4 business days, but until things calm down a little there might be another day tacked onto the processing time.
Today I'm working on orders placed on the 20th, and hopefully I'll be working on the 21st by this afternoon. So if you ordered on these 2 days, expect an invoice sooner than later. :-)
I'd like to thank all of our customers for their business and support. Tracy and I really appreciate all the nice comments and feedback that we receive. 2008 should be a great year all around!
-Chris
We've decided to keep this blog to let you become more aware of what is new at Brick-A-Thon. Since I'm the one working on your order, this can also be used as a tool for communications on how things are going in the way of order processing. It will also help you get to know me better. Everyone knows Tracy (well, not EVERYONE but people on BL sure as heck do!), but after being around Lego and Bricklink for a little over a year, I barely know ANYONE! I want to make new Lego friends, too! :-)
I will try to update this daily, but since the store re-opened on Friday we've been getting SWAMPED with some pretty amazing orders! Usually I am able to process and get things out the door within 2-4 business days, but until things calm down a little there might be another day tacked onto the processing time.
Today I'm working on orders placed on the 20th, and hopefully I'll be working on the 21st by this afternoon. So if you ordered on these 2 days, expect an invoice sooner than later. :-)
I'd like to thank all of our customers for their business and support. Tracy and I really appreciate all the nice comments and feedback that we receive. 2008 should be a great year all around!
-Chris
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