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As most of you know, our Pentiques office is in our home. A home that includes 2 children on summer vacation, an iPhone with a husband app, and our Boxer, Money. The latter being named after Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn’s movie Swingers. “You’re Money, and don’t even know it!” Stephen, thank you for producing such a great movie! Anyway, I’ve mentioned when you come to Pentiques you never know what you will encounter. Yesterday morning I was taking care of the usual, cleaned up the house, showered, finishing up the pot of coffee (Svabiks run on Dunkin!), I just put on a robe when, Money starts barking and the kids scream “someone’s here” I’m thinking mailman. Safe bet right? He’s seen me in a robe in the morning hours. To my surprise, a gent at the door with bags full of vintage fountain pens. Yes, that’s right, I looked at his pens first:) He had quite a few in tow. Then I realized I was making a terrific first impression on a Pentiques client. I laughed it off, he walked in, and Aaron escorted him to the office like many before him. We have many friends, clients, professionals, take their day off to come visit us for part swaps, check out the new inventory, or just play pens. It’s like Disney Land for pen lovers. Pen & Tique (the Oscars in the 55 gallon tank) keep a watchful eye like junk yard dogs. Soon after initial meetings, it’s not a surprise to find people sitting on the office floor surrounded with feeds, barrels, caps, jewels, nibs, prototypes, completing their pieces while being welcomed properly by Money. Right Jan?!?! Our doors are open to the pen community … don’t be strangers.
I’ve always known I’m married to quite the man. I’ve been caught calling him Midas because anything he touches does turn to gold. Not literally, of course, but significantly enough for everyone around him to notice he is quite the wiz. I won’t go on and on about how wonderful, intelligent, sexy, etc. my husband is .. but I will tell you he did it again! As I was doing my regular mommy duties, cleaning up the house, emptying the last of the coffee into my cup, and preparing for my day, off in the distance was alot of power tool racket. By off in the distance, I mean in the office. Of course I was wondering what Aaron was up to now, but he’s always up to something, so I didn’t think of it again until he came into the kitchen with a successful all be it gloating grin on his face. He asked me to check out his newest masterpiece. All I saw was what is in the picture to your left. That piece of machinery is Aaron’s buffer sitting on the work bench among his other tools (off to the right), and beautiful Lady Liberty collection. Up to this point, the buffer’s cloth wheels, when spinning, fling debris in all directions. The only way to prevent the mess was to rig up a contraption to catch the muslin cloth pieces. This is how he did it. See the small white pvc pipe coming off the buffer on the left. It is attached in two places to the hoods on the buffer. The hoods don’t completely prevent the scatter of debris, so Midas (aka Aaron) attached an old upright vacuum cleaner that is located in the cupboard to the left to the pvc pipe. He proudly gave Andrew (8), Joshua (3), and myself a quick demo of how his masterful contraption works. Turn on the vacuum in the closet, buff pens, & NO MESS!!! Pretty amazing! You can see why I had to share. Who knows what he’ll come up with this afternoon.
I posted on my Facebook status that I just applied for a position at Youngstown State University. It just so happens to be where Aaron and I met (US History II), got married (beautiful church on campus), and participated in various other activities (no comment). I’m sure you’re wondering what first attracted me to him. Here goes, his KNEES. Yes, I said it. His knees. I know it sounds crazy but I knew when I looked at them the first time they were the joints of a well crafted man. Go ahead and laugh, out loud I’m sure. Back to the story, we graduated June of 1995. I remember driving to commencement with the windows down, Boys 2 Men on the radio, and admiring the gold watch Aaron had just given me. Aaron graduated with honors with a BS in Criminal Justice Admin and I with a BA in Speech Communication – imagine that! To return to our Alma Mater, YSU as a professional would be a journey full circle. I must say, the waiting is very difficult. I tend to be a tad impatient, just ask Aaron and the kids. I want things done NOW! The lawn, shrubs, garage, etc. You see where I’m going with this. So you can imagine how frustrating a little bit of waiting on a phone call for an interview can be. We’ve all been there, find the perfect position, get excited about it, have the credentials to snag it, but the red tape takes a while. I find myself thinking about the job like a young girl thinks about the boy next to her in class. I’m ready for this, I’ve been home for eight years now, it’s time to unleash “The Kim” once again!
Yes!!! We did it, there was an Aaron sighting outside of the Pentiques/Svabik Pen Co. headquarters. Today was the anual Silly Olympics at Andrew’s elementary school. I brought our youngest to participate in events like dunk tank (dunking teachers and the principal), football toss, hoola hoop race,etc. with Andrew’s class. We had a great time, but the best part of the day was having Aaron join us. He is so focused on all the jobs at hand, his days fly by without realizing it. Andrew was so proud to have his dad with him. It’s all he talked about before bed time, it was so important to him that dad be there. This is quite a short entry, but the point is .. A dad’s quality time with their children is so very important. So, all you fathers, dads, and stepdads, be there for your children, they don’t forget it.
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