I’ve just spent three solid days searching the internet for a reasonably priced condo in Kauai.  If there really is a recession going on somewhere, it certainly hasn’t hit Kauai.  Most condos are listed for insane amounts of money per night, and they’re booked!  So I was almost going to pony up $329/night when fortunately I had the brains to use my secret weapon – the women at the gym.

Once again, by telling them about my situation, one of them brilliantly mentioned a site called Vacation Rental Owners.  I e mailed a bunch of people, and had offers of $139, $149 and $171/night within a few minutes.  My travel agent nearly had me convinced that there was nothing for less than $300/night.  Maybe I should change careers again.

Not that I have time to be surfing the net for condos in Hawaii.  I am now getting daily orders by the case, and it’s hard to keep up.  I can’t believe that I used to be baking while doing this, as it’s simply not possible.  All I can do is fill orders, as it takes an awfully long time to package each and every one of them.

I had two columnists write about the fruitcakes in the same issue of the Capital News this week!  It happened by accident, in that I thought Glenna Turnbull wrote for the Daily Courier.  So, I begged both Maxine Dehart and Glenna to write about my fruitcakes, and they both did.  It was good coverage in that both wrote totally different articles, and funnily enough some people only read one or the other column, so this way I covered a lot of ground.

Sure enough, a couple of stores have re-ordered, so fruitcakes are having their little bags packed and are being sent out into the wide world with a wave and a tear.  When I was mailing them the clerk at the post office told me that her boyfriend ate an entire Totally Decadent Fruitcake in one night.  So, she’s ordered two more, one of which she said he’ll get in his stocking, and the other she’s decided to eat on her own.

I was thrilled with the December issue of Martha Stewart.  Some issues don’t give me any inspiration, but this one was great.  I raced straight to Value Village and bought a piece of Christmas-themed cloth.  I’m going to make various sized drawstring bags out of them, and use them instead of paper wrap for strangely-shaped packages.  Then, they can be re-used.  Brilliant!

I often try to use restraint on myself regarding shopping, as you well know.  However, I have had the same Jones black and white hounds tooth check short coat for four seasons, and just couldn’t face another winter with it.  Winners had nothing, but wouldn’t you know it, The Bay had a special buy on Jones coats, so I replaced a Jones with a Jones!  Now I have a very basic black knee-length coat with a faux fur black collar.  Much less irritating than a hounds tooth check, that’s for sure.