I know there aren’t as many songs heralding colder/cloudier weather than there is about the sun and flowers and birds and blah blah blah… but there should be.  Because it’s been unseasonably cool the last couple days and it has been MARVELOUS.  I can see the end of the summer in these cool(er) afternoons and it makes me so freakin’ excited.

There’s always that point towards the end of summer if you wonder if it will ever be cool again or even what cooler weather even FEELS like.  It’s around this time that you get excited when you see the high will only be 90 degrees that day.

So highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s… well, this “early” in the year, that just makes me so happy.

I know it won’t last.  I know we’ll be back to the 90s by the end of the week.  I’d like to PRETEND I don’t know that, but I do.  I’m not stupid and this ain’t my first rodeo.

But at the same time, I know this is the beginning of the end.  Eventually Autumn will be here in force and the days will shorten and cool off and I will be doing my little victory dance over here in my cave.

Summer is all about survival.  Making it out alive.  And with this little “glimpse” into Fall, I think I might just make it after all.

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So it’s becoming apparent that Evie is something of a girly girl.  I wouldn’t have expected for it to manifest so soon, but there you go.  She tends to want to surround herself with pink, purple, ruffles and fluff.  She has very girly reactions to things and a decided love for all things “pwitty”.  “Fowers” and “futterfwies” and “buuds”. (Flowers, butterflies and birds, natch.)

Starting last year, I got her some My Little Ponies as I saw a display for them at Walmart.  They were not the ponies I remember from my younger years and therefore somewhat lacking.  But I wanted to see if she had any interest in such things.

And she did.

So I started looking around on eBay for old “vintage” My Little Ponies.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were many to be had and the prices, considering, weren’t that bad.  Especially if you weren’t afraid to do a little cleaning up.  I put it off and I put it off.  But this has been a good summer for the ol’ knitting biz and I had some jingle in my pocket.  So I went back to eBay and started bidding.  And buying.  And before long, the ponies started rolling in.

Her first and my first pony

We started, aptly enough, with Blue Belle.  The very same pony that started off my collection back in 1982.  Now, my poor Blue Belle didn’t look half as nice as this one by the time I was done with her.  She was my “off road” pony.  Often lacking her tail (and possibly her head too), I played with her in the pool, in the dirt… she was the pony that got to go where no pony went before.

I have higher hopes for this Blue Belle.

Then more Ponies arrived.  Liam got interested and would actually (*gasp*) play with Evie!

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And, I have to admit, I was getting into it too.  A lot of these were ponies I either had or wished I had had back when I was little.  Evie would bring me the new ponies and I would brush their hair for her.  And she?  LOVES THEM.  I thought she was somewhat fond of the “new school” ponies but these “vintage” ones?  It’s love, y’all.  She throws a holy fit if I don’t let her take them to dinner/lunch/whatever.  She takes them to bed.  At least one pony goes with her at all times.  This last weekend, the favored pony was “Parasol”, a favorite of mine as well.  What can I say, the girl has taste!

Yesterday, another shipment of ponies showed up and I was officially ready to admit that maybe this was getting out of hand (of course, have I closed the eBay tab yet?  Newp!).  But, to my credit, I’m planning to give some of these ponies to my BFF’s daughter.  They’re coming to visit us this weekend and I’m hoping she enjoys playing ponies just as much as my chuckleheads do.  But, as of today, this was the “vintage” pony stash, minus the ponies being gifted to my dear friend’s daughter:

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Yeah.  I think I should feel embarrassed or something.

Still, you can hardly blame me when you look at what passes for a My Little Pony these days.

Ponies Galore

Ponies Galore

Ponies Galore

Now tell me these don’t look some sort of bizaarro world-Bratz’ified-frankenstein crazy messed up version of a My Little Pony.  Look how big their HEADS are!  Especially when compared to their butts.  Now, the “vintage” ponies were hardly the model of accurate equine proportions, but at least the rear of the pony was one of the largest parts of the pony.  Just like a real horse.  This one?  Teeny butt.  HUUUUGE head.  And tons of mane hair, where the focus used to be on the tails.  Now they have these puny little tails.  And the ponies themselves are just smaller.  UGH.  I’m disgusted just looking at them.  These creatures are known as “G3 ponies”.  As in Generation 3. Wanna see a Generation 2?  It’s better, a little, BUT NOT MUCH.

Ponies Galore

Seriously.  I had to look that up because I thought it was a fake.  I didn’t know it was an actual My Little Pony. But, unlike the G3′s, Evie doesn’t mind this pony and has actually been carting this one around everywhere, lunch and nap included hence it’s rough appearance in the photo above.

Now for comparison’s sake, here’s one of the “G1″ or vintage ponies.  This is Applejack and I think she’s purty.

Ponies Galore

Now THAT is what a pony is supposed to look like.

The important thing, of course, is that Evie enjoys them.  And she does.  She squeals with delight whenever she sees a new one.  She fawns over them and has favorites and loves to act out scenarios with them.  Which honestly, is what I was hoping for in the first place.   And as Kile mentioned, this is the ultimate in recycling.  Taking ponies that are 25-30 years old, have been played with sometimes by two generations of children already and they still have use left.

I say down with G3!  Vintage, all the way.

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Wow, I’ve been quiet for a while haven’t I?  Days pass and pass and before I know it, weeks have gone by without a blog post.  So sad.

But wipe those tears!  Because I’m posting today!

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I went to San Jose for an extended weekend, which always disrupts the schedule and is very NON conducive to blog posting.   Many lovely things happened during this trip, included hanging out with some of my “board buddies” while I was there (and going yarn shopping and NOT BUYING YARN)  (I KNOW!).  The kids just loved the pool.  Well, Liam and Harry did.  Evie preferred to flirt around the edges which of course means she fell in that one time but Kile was right there so other than scarring her for life, it was fine.

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I also got to spend most of a day with one of my best friends.  I hadn’t seen her in AGES so it was really nice to just have that time to hang out, be silly and just reconnect.  I need to see her more.  For sure. She let Harry drool all over her Mustang and we went to go see “Inception” after the kids were in bed.  An adult movie!  In a theater!  Be still my heart!

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We even went to the beach for a day but that was less fun because me + crowds = GAH.  Plus there was sun involved and you KNOW how I feel about the sun.  But the little ones got to see the ocean, even if they were deathly afraid of it and wouldn’t actually TOUCH it.  Harry, on the other hand, enjoyed the ocean and got himself all nice and wet and sandy just in time to hop in the van and drive back to my parents house.  Wee!

Pacific Blue

The Boardwalk

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Still, it was nice to go home.  Or it was nice until we hit traffic just before the California border.  They’ve been doing road construction on that piece of road all summer long, on both sides of the interstate (please see the first picture in this post, of us traveling west in a wee skinny lane).  But this situation wasn’t aided by an earlier rollover accident involving a big rig.  Of course!  It was cleared up by the time we got there, but the backup was still horrendous.

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And after we got home, it was time to… go do our monthly grocery shopping at Walmart! :thud: I only wish I were joking.  But I’m not.  We earned our margaritas that night, fo sho.

But now it’s back to normal and that is just the way I like it.

As for what is NOT happening… I have it on good authority (i.e. Facebook) that BlogHer ’10 is this weekend.   Now it’s perfectly understandable why I’m NOT there this weekend.  I haven’t been the best blogger this year.  But it’s in NYC and I would LOVE a girl’s weekend there.  And I also have it on more good authority (again: Facebook) that My Little Pony will have a booth there this year and for some strange reason that really makes me with I were going.  But whatever.  Maybe next year.  I have a feeling I’d be more into the crafts sessions this time around.

So that’s about it.  I better get back to the knitting before the boss (i.e. me) cracks the old whip on me.  She’s such a slavedriver.

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So I guess my belly-aching did some good… I just was notified by HC Admin that the negative feedback was removed from the shop.

This is me taking a HUGE deep breath and releasing an even HUGER sigh of relief.

That is the resolution I was hoping for.  Now I can go forward, relist the skirt and hope that someone, somewhere, will want it.  And if not, well, so be it.  But at least that sordid little chapter is over and done with.  I’m a little disappointed that it seems this gal has gotten off scott free.  As it stands, she got exactly what she wanted in the first place, which is to not pay for the skirt.  BUT.  The damage has been as undone as it can be and I can move forward.

At least I am secure in the knowledge that I did my best to stay polite and professional and true to my shop’s policies and the policies of Hyena Cart.  Whereas this lady will have to live with the knowledge that she overreacted, embellished the truth, and acted like a selfish toddler about the whole thing.  So there’s that.

Now it’s time to move on and focus on bigger and better things.

Goofy Boy

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The suckage?  It continues.  Remember where we left off, folks?  She was going to refuse the skirt and had left horrible feedback and I was trying to get that feedback removed.

The only thing that has changed now, a week later, is that the skirty made its way back to me yesterday (the poor thing) and I refunded her immediately.  She has still continued to leave horrible feedback and I am STILL trying to get that feedback removed.

In fact, I haven’t heard a thing from Hyena Cart admin about getting it removed.  Not a bleeding thing.  I’ve submitted so many requests and given as much information as I can and still, no response from them.  Not even a “We’re looking into the situation”.  Nadda.

I’m very discouraged by this.  I think it’s awful that this woman has been allowed to continue her rampage against me while I am unable to do anything to protect myself in return.

And at the end of the day, she has gotten what she wanted.  Initially, she wanted to not have to pay for the skirt and to not have a negative flag on her account. In the end, that is exactly what she has achieved, since I removed the flag as soon as she paid (not knowing that she intended to refuse the skirt and demand a refund).  I cannot replace the flag.  She gets no punishment, no slap on the hand.  And I am left with outrageously hurtful and rather false feedback on my shop.  Until I hear from Hyena Cart (which I’m starting to doubt will ever happen), I’m left out in the cold.  There’s not a darn thing I can do.  I still have a lovely skirt that is not paid for and that no one wants.

And at the end of the day, I think that’s the saddest thing of all.

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