Fraize Dotcom

Two weeks ago, ThinkGeek moved our offices down the street a few blocks. The new place is much nicer, and I get my own office. SWEET!

Rich asked me for photos, so here they are.

ThinkGeek has moved our corporate headquarters from our old offices on Main street, Fairfax, to our new offices on Main Street. We had movers take all of our boxes, desks, chairs and miscellaneous stuff, however we didn’t trust them with our computers. Therefore, it fell upon us to move our own machines

Everyone had to dismantle their computers, and label them. It was me and Chris, another merchant, who hauled them out to our cars, and drive the mile to the new office, and haul them back in. Those damn things are heavy. Especially the servers. I’m tired and sore after all that work

Saturday, I go to my new office, I have a whole office of my own, thank you, and set up my desk. The new office is very nice. Clean, unspoiled… It’s twice the size of the old place. More than enough room for everyone. I can listen to my music without headphones, have all the lighting I want… Wahoo!

So, we left at 9ish am, arrived in Jersey at 3:30pm. Yep, you guessed it. Another half hour was wasted trying to navigate around Edison itself. Signage in New Jersey, particularly around the Turnpike, we would eventually find, is insanely bad. I’ve driven around Newark before, and found it terrible as well. It was then that we started singing the song “I Hate New Jersey” in the car. It was an original composition.

The warehouse that holds ThinkGeek’s merch is HUGE. I mean massive. I don’t think I’d ever been in a single room this enormous before. Hell, they built a two-story office building INSIDE the warehouse. Crazy. We share the warehouse with several other notable vendors including Sirius Satellite radio, Kenneth Cole shoes, and Master Replicas (who happen to make our Light Sabers). We wandered through our rows. The operation is impressive. They showed us how they get the orders, print them up, pick the product from the bins, manage the inventory, pack and ship each order, as well as handling the checking in of new product. I got to see as they were checking in one of my items, and could whip out my PDA to watch the system note their addition to our inventory database. Cool!

We left more or less on time. Everybody piled into the Prius, and away we went. First stop – Dunkin’ for coffee and donuts. Good call ’cause as soon as we reached the i495 – 270 split, traffic stopped. Nasty. It delayed us an hour. Great start.

It was fairly uneventful through Maryland – Andrea told us about how the Baltimore area was her old stomping grounds and pointed out the sights along the way. She made jokes about National Bohemia beer, the local favorite, that was made from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor water, which gave it its distinctive chemical taste.

Delaware was a blur, no more than 15 minutes…Finally, we hit New Jersey with a wet thud. Halfway up the Jersey Turnpike, traffic stopped. What the…? 15 minutes into the stop, lots of flatbed and tow-trucks scooted by on the shoulder. Not good. A good hour to an hour-fifteen, we finally reach the accident. Lots of blinking lights, and an 18 wheeler, that had caught fire, and fire-roasted the tomatoes in the back. Ew. After that, it was smooth sailing to Exit 9 – Edison approacheth.

I’ve got to get on the road in a few minutes to head up to ThinkGeek’s warehouse in New Jersey. I’m taking two of our three customer support monkies along for the ride. I wake up extra early and get on the road extra early so I can, ostensibly, bypass traffic. Au contraire.

Traffic was about as bad as I’ve ever seen it. Perhaps it was the barest spitting of rain on the road? Maybe everyone thought, “hey, today I’m going to get a leg-up on my day and leave early!” simultaneously. I dunno, but it sucked balls, and took me 30 minutes to drive about 2 miles through Fairfax.

Anyway, I’m about to hit the road, Jack. Dunkin’ Donuts first, then the highway. Hooray. Kill me.

Ah, the Renaissance Festival! Gorgeous day, turkey legs, and very friendly vendors. Heather and I had a great time at the RenFest this go ’round, and are excited to go again later on in the season. We’re looking at weekends now as, “okay, we have a birthday party this weekend, knitting social this weekend, but this weekend is free so we can go to the RenFest…” Hee! Fun!

And, yes, I got garb! The first thing I sought out was a “poet’s shirt” – one of those big baggy cotton shirts that lace up at the neck. Then, the vendor suggested pants – either the balooning djini-pants that are so popular among the portly, or the velvet tights with the codpiece. Well, you know I had to go for the codpiece… A belt to match, and I had a complete outfit! I still need shoes, but that’s cool.

I wasn’t sure whether or not to go with the pants or a kilt… I got both. I found the kilt place, and they hooked me up with 5 yard “battle-kilt” that was reasonably priced.

So, I’m all garbed up! W00t!!

UPDATE: – Check out pictures from the day here. Note – no pictures of me in garb, yet.

Fall weather approaches, and you know what that means! Renaissance Festival!!!!1

Heather and I will be verily driving to Maryland on Saturday and hitting the RenFest for a day of frivolity and merriment! Also, I’ll be buying my new costume. Checkbook at the ready!

Ernesto moved through yesterday bringing lots of steady rain and some occasional strong winds, but really nothing terrible. Jen and Willie lost power for a little while. ThinkGeek’s power hiccoughed, but again, nothing bad. There was some minor flooding. Still, no big deal.

The nice thing about Ernesto, however, was the temperatures in the mid 60’s he brought with him. Glee! Nice. I actually had to wear a jacket yesterday.

Today, Rolf and I are going to the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum, where they house the Space Shuttle Enterprise, and many other aircraft in a huge hangar. I’ll shoot up lots of pictures for everyone to enjoy.