You may have noticed that Bullseye’s launched an eCommerce site where you can buy the full line of Bullseye Glass and Other Stuff online…yes, from the privacy of your own home, office or iPhone (I suspect that only Cynthia is capable of THAT particular feat).

It’s still in the “soft launch” stage as the IT people fine tune the software, but I couldn’t wait. I don’t care about software (ignorance is indeed bliss). I wanted to find out what the packaging was like! So I ordered up a bunch of stuff. And unpacked it.

Dan is used to finding inedible stuff on our dining room table. This lot beats all.

I wanted to see whether a) the sheet glass would arrive intact, b) it would arrive in a timely manner, and c)  I could find something WRONG with it.

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Dan and I argue about a lot of stuff. And, fortunately, we agree about a lot of stuff. I give him lots of advice. And he gives me more.  Sometimes it’s about the cat or the kitchen remodel, but mostly it’s about work. We’ve shared a life and a business for over 25 years. I can usually predict what he’ll approve of and what he won’t – especially when it comes to Bullseye.

He’s never had a problem with anything I’ve blogged about here. But I suspect that – given a choice – he’d keep politics out of the workplace. BUT, inspired by Ed’s comment yesterday (“My football, my rules”), I’m going to quit biting my tongue on this one.

I’m voting for Michelle’s husband.

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I know I promised to write about the GAS conference. You’d think that I’d have something to say about a project that consumed over a year of my life.  Maybe a simple BESTS & MOSTS list like Cynthia’s.

Oddly though, my BESTS were a little too much like my WORSTS. Stuff like:

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED GLASS FANATICS…

…craning for a view (the bleached head in the upper right-hand corner of the frame is me), I can’t deny the rock-concert allure of mobs watching really good blowers (and Paul Cunningham doing a Moje roll-up fills that bill brilliantly).

But somehow, conversing through a bullhorn lacks a certain intimacy.

…even if Dan seemed to enjoy the hell out of herding hundreds of compliant souls around the factory.

I appreciate the organizational steroids it takes to manage a project of this size, but I came away from  GAS  with a heightened appreciation for conferences on the scale of Ausglass‘ or North Lands’, where human contact doesn’t mean having your hand ground into the steel bleachers by some kid’s Doc Martens as he scrambles for a seat.

OK. Clearly I’m still in GAS rehab. I WILL try to find some less curmudgeonly BESTS in a day or two.

For now, I’m off to confer with the most appealing crowd in THIS neighborhood.

So you think your energy bill is high? Imagine using over $100,000 worth of natural gas every month.

Then imagine that the cost of that gas has increased by 50% in the last year.

If concern for the environment isn’t reason enough, maybe red ink will get you thinking about ways to cut back.

One 12,000 gallon cryogenic tank + two vaporizers = 50% reduction in natural gas usage per furnace.

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As heady as it is to think that we could conserve 6 million gallons of water a year with Daren’s recycling system, Bullseye is still a factory that is defined more by daily individual effort than by the periodic super-projects.

The humble factory drinking fountain. One little revolutionary idea.

Which is how the filtered water fountains happened.

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