Good call.

It is no fun on the road from Austin to Dallas.

It is no fun on the road from Austin to Dallas.

No, that doesn't sound fun.

I have two things to relate, one good and one bad, but I will separate them.

The Good Thing:

Xmas is Emmett's favorite holiday and he loves the whole season. When he was younger that brought some pressure to make sure it wasn't disappointing, plus there were times when EM and I had to negotiate co-parenting stressors. But we always did and he always had a great time.

And now....Emmett just brings so much bighearted cheer and buoyancy to the whole event. It's not hard to get it aloft because he provides a lot of helium. He pitches in, and he's happy and he's playful and laughy and helpful and affectionate with big bear hugs. He just steamrolls over any obstacles and glitches.

And also EM and I have worked hard on our relationship over the year, and she's well integrated with our family and has her own relationships with Matilda and Jacqueline. She's very generous and easygoing and fun to be with.

It's still expensive and sometimes stressful trying to pull it all off, but it was a very fun and loving holiday.

And I know it's not joyous for everybody, and, to be honest, it hasn't always been for me either. But it has been lately and I'm very grateful for that.

Mostly though I realized that Emmett is one of those rare people who has the Good Energy. Joyful and boisterous, playful and kind.

So, cheers to those who bring that good spirit into the room.

The Bad Thing:

Recently on the Giapetta project we've been pitching to a big game/toy vendor for our Marvel/Disney people. And we created prototypes for their licensed characters on new games/puzzles. These are hand-made prototypes requiring many hours of highly skilled labor by our lead partner Fred, and other fabricators.

After our last pitch, we left the prototypes with Head of Toy Company. His secretary asked for the address to mail them back. Ellen gave her the address for Fred's house, but didn't have the zip code. Secretary said, "No worries, I'll look up the zip code and send it."

Are you sensing that worries should be in order?

Somehow she put on the wrong zip code.

It arrived at a business that did not expect it. Opened up a box of strange looking prototypes that look vaguely technical. And they called the bomb squad.

Who came and blew it up.

Thousands of dollars worth of our unique prototypes that could not be easily replicated if you had the money. And, of course, Toy Fair is coming up in early 2019 and we were, of course, going to be using those prototypes to pitch our stuff.

So that fucking really sucks.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, sure, but I really didn't expect the Bomb Squad to be fucking with us.

Wow. That is a surprise bad thing, all right. I'm sorry. At least it's a good story?

At least it's a good story?

It is if we make a sale anyway. At the moment it's crippling. See what we can do under the circumstances and whether the toy company will cough up some money to cover the costs. Probably not because that would admit liability.

Oh my god, David, that's awful! I'm so sorry.

Oh my god, David, that's awful! I'm so sorry.

Thanks. My partners are just gut-punched by it. It's so much work and we're undercapitalized as it is. Honestly, this isn't the only time somebody has lost or damaged one of our prototypes either. These companies treat them like they're brochures instead of working models with carefully calibrated pieces and integrated art etc.

Oh no, David! I'm so sorry. What a blow.

God, that's awful. What a horrific thing to have happen.