Editing The Pen Addict 296/transcript (section)

== Sales Figures ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, people return for like the last hour or two of the show like we did a little bit more sales but from like, say like noon to three o'clock, I mean, complete ghost town. Like, you know, I walked over next door. It's in a good location in LA. There's a huge like outdoor shopping area next door so we walked over, got some Japanese food for lunch, came back, we all sat there and ate and like, didn't miss a thing. Didn't miss a beat at all. And then Sunday is like traditional DC Sunday where the public arrives, they start lining up. The line goes out the front door of the hotel, down the block. I saw some pictures

'''Myke Hurley:''' of that line. It looked wild.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So Sunday is absolutely packed from open to close. Like, maybe the last hour we finally could catch our breath. You know, we ate no lunch on Sunday. I had one bathroom break just because I had to go and that was it. Like, that's how busy we were and Anna worked the whole day with us too and she wasn't even supposed to but thank God she did or else we would be hosed but it was me, Myke and Lisa Van Ness and Anna and we hardly saw each other all day because we were just doing, you know, we had three tables but we were all so busy with customers. We were just like, all right, hand me the card swiper or, you know, where's this, where's that but it was just so busy. It's like two or three day, I mean, two or three deep or four deep with people like the entire time and it was great. I mean, it was, it's fun. It goes by fast, you know, got to see a ton of people, help a ton of people which I love doing and it was kind of fantastic but I don't recall ever being so tired after a single show day than that day. I'm sure I've been there, you know, it's got, I'm sure I've got recency bias but like my calves are still sore from Sunday just from standing and walking around so much on Sunday. without really stopping so we were wiped out by the end of the day. Fortunately, packing went, went pretty well. Sunday night and we were able to go relax and have a nice dinner and you could just see us all at dinner. We were like so quiet, we were just like sunk into our chairs. I would expect that packing was easy if you were busy because it meant that there wasn't much to pack. Yeah, yeah. That's, well, this one was a little different because Lisa does a lot of shopping at this show so there was, there was a, quite a bit more than we were normally left with on Sunday because she ended up buying a bunch of, oh yeah, yeah, like 300 inks and, you know, crates of paper and all kinds of stuff so, but yeah, so, but in general it was, it was pretty good but we didn't get out of there till probably 7.30, 8 o'clock, Sunday night, I think. No, maybe, maybe around 7, 7.30 before we got to go finally eat dinner so, that was, that was a really good meal. That was the first thing we'd all eaten all day since breakfast so, we were all pretty hungry and exhausted but, it was a really good show overall, you know, no complaints, the, I missed most of the drama because I didn't arrive till like 2 o'clock Friday afternoon which worked perfectly for me but there really wasn't that much drama to, to have anyway, you know, it could have been worse. I mean, when you're holding an event and the fire marshal hasn't approved the room, I mean, I would imagine everything's kind of on edge Thursday afternoon, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep, yep. Yeah, it sounds like, honestly, given the circumstances that everybody was placed in which is kind of the fault of no one really, construction will always take longer than you expect it, it kind of sounds like the situation was dealt with pretty well, like, all things considered. Like, it seemed like they did, basically, sounds like all that anybody could really to try and make things run smoothly.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, overall, good show. You know, no real negative things to say but, yeah, super fun, great people, as always, the best part, and lots of good stuff, saw lots of new pins,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' you know, did a little bit of shopping, but I think I may have, should have had Blue Apron prepped for me on Sunday afternoon so I was just eating behind the table, right? Then you would have

'''Myke Hurley:''' been totally fine, then you would have been totally fine, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a top class segue because this episode is brought to you by Blue Apron, the number one fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the US. Blue Apron delivers fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and step-by-step recipes right to your door. These recipes can be cooked in under 45 minutes, and Blue Apron offers 12 new recipes each week, of which you can pick two, three, or four based on whatever best fits your schedule. The Blue Apron menu changes every single week based on what's in season so you're getting the best food possible. Upcoming meals includes spicy chicken and stir-fried vegetables with jasmine rice, soy-glazed Korean rice cakes with broccoli and soft-boiled eggs, and strip steak and potatoes with spicy maple collard greens. Now, Brad Dowdy, tell me about a great meal that you've had.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I've had two great meals and only one burn on my hand from my cooking of Blue Apron. No, that's a good ratio. Yeah, I think that's pretty good. Seeing how I don't cook and Blue Apron allows me to cook at my house, so two meals. One, I cooked up the shrimp rolls, which is like a lobster roll but with shrimp as you can imagine, and sweet potato fries. It was really good. The kids and wife loved it. I was able to, you know, work on that and get that all made for one evening when my wife was working. I had it timed perfectly because Blue Apron lays out the recipe, the order you should cook everything, and the time it's going to take to everything, so I planned it perfectly. She rolled in the door right when I was setting the table for our wonderful meal. So, yeah, I was King Dowdy that night. And the next meal, which her and I, my wife and I cooked together, which was another fun thing, was a Mexican chicken casserole, chicken and rice casserole, which was fantastic. Absolutely loved it, you know, despite the little blister on my thumb that I got from toasting the tortilla chips and sticking them in a very, very narrow area of the oven and trying to reach in and grab it. That wasn't a good idea. Blue Apron did not warn me about that, but that's something I need to work on myself. But the food was awesome. It was cool to cook something myself, you know, for the family, and then, you know, my wife and I got in the kitchen and cooked a meal together. All from Blue Apron and it was great. Great food, great fun. So, thank you, Blue Apron.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Look at that. You can't get a better worse than that. With incredible ingredients and chef-designed recipes, Blue Apron lets you see what the power of food can do. Blue Apron is treating you, our listeners, to $30 off your first order and free shipping. Just go to blueapron.com slash penaddict. So, check out this week's menu and get $30 off with free shipping at blueapron.com slash penaddict. Blue Apron, a better way to cook. Our thanks to Blue Apron for their support of this show and RelayFM. So, come on in. What did you buy? What did you see? I want to know. I want to know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, I'm going to cut straight to the chase. I bought zero pens.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, and we'll talk about that as we go through. You know, I had some things on my radar, but I end up with no purchases of pens, but I did buy some things. what I saw that kind of had the brain making a mental checklist. The new Edison acrylics. I almost pulled the trigger on one of those. They look good. I will probably end up with one this year. Brian's kind of refreshed the acrylic lineup for a lot of the models, especially the Menlo, which is where I'm shopping these days. I want to get a Menlo pump filler. So, we'll have links to all this stuff in the show notes. You can go see like what these acrylics look like. They look wonderful. So, the second from the right was the one I handled very, very much. It's like a blue and black swirl, but some very bright blues and some dark black swirls and a little bit of transparency, translucency. So, that was, I was very interested in that one. And, since you know I like my blues, Myke, the Aurora Urano was this crazy bright blue. It's good looking. I'm not going to buy this pen because I don't need to spend that kind of money because I already have my Nebulosa, which I like better, the purple acrylic. But, this one was kind of the hit of the show. People really enjoyed that one. And then, Aurora also is starting to roll out the Optima Flex pens. I may get one of these. I'm not totally down with them. I love the Optima shape. It's got the flex nib from the models that they, the 88 models that they did last year. But, I think the colors, since I can get some cooler Optima models, I might just pass on this and see if I can later just get a flex nib because they'll eventually start selling these nibs on their own, the flex nibs. you know, I'd rather probably get some neat looking acrylic and then pay extra to add in a flex nib than go with one of the standard colors. Even the orange Optima Flex, like that would be the one to go for, right? I'm just gonna say,

'''Myke Hurley:''' they look awfully like Pro Gears.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, they do. They do. But, you know, it's the traditional Optima shape and it is very much in a Pro Gear shape is the same way. And, you know, they really do, which is probably why I like them so much. Right. Except they're probably twice as much. Like, I didn't even check the price because I'm not super interested in them. I kind of more want the nib just to play around with and write with, even though it's not a super flexi nib. It's an enjoyable nib to write with. Two of the things that were not at the show proper, but at the tent, like this is where you get to see the real stuff, Myke, you know that, in the pen show after dark. In the tent, I got to see two things that I'm super interested in. One is from the Red Dragon Pen Co., which is from friend of the show, friend of the slack, Chewbacca. This is his company. He started, he's just starting to make pens. And Crystal, from Squishy Ink and Hipponodo, had one of his pens. I believe, if you're listening to this show, click over to the show notes, click on the Red Dragon Pen Company link, you'll see an image at the top of his homepage. I got to handle that orange pen in the page. And I have to say, Myke, I'm very impressed. The one that's

'''Myke Hurley:''' in the banner photo, the clear and orange one? It looks nice. Yep,

'''Brad Dowdy:''' the clear and orange one in the banner photo. It's really nice. It's a good shape. It's a good weight. It's a great acrylic. He does, on the ends of the pen, cap, and barrel, he does, it's kind of concave, almost like a dimple. So, I enjoy that feel. I don't know, it's a really, really well done pen from what I can see. Just in the few minutes I had to play around with it, I very, very much enjoyed it. So, I will be maybe talking to him about what we can do for a pen sometime this year. I also need to pull the trigger on my Conant Slimline pen. So, there wasn't one there, but there was a Conant King size there and it keeps reminding me how good these freaking pens are.