The fun just never ends!!!

Wow, what a day yesterday was! Bobby and I had the grandchildren for a sleep-over on Friday, and we went over to DC on Saturday. Why did we go to DC? Well, Fahrney’s had an open house, and Bobby wanted to get me a pen for my birthday. (Nice guy, that Bobby, eh?)

I love going to Fahrney’s because I love looking at all the beautiful pens. I was a bit worried about Rebecca and Liam becoming bored—after all, how interesting can pens be to kids who are 5 and 4 years old, respectively? Well, actually, it turns out the store was quite interesting to the little kids. It helped that the first thing that happened was one of the nice ladies there gave each child a chicken pencil—a pencil with a cap that was actually a pencil sharpener topped by a rooster head. They thought that was the coolest thing ever! It also helped that the display cases and counters were at an eye level for two fairly small people, and they absolutely had a blast looking at those pens. Honestly, Rebecca and Liam were about as perfect as one could expect two children in a “grown up” store to be!

The pen that caught my eye (and, I found out later, Bobby’s eye) was a Stipula La 91, also known as a Bayonet. Check it out here:

http://www.pens.it/pens.htm?stipula/_91.htm

Raffaela, the Stipula representative there, had one in tortoise (which to me looks more like one of those beautiful gold, black, and brown koi) and others in blue, black, and red. The tortoise was translucent and seemed to glow, while the other colors were opaque. She said that Stipula isn’t making the tortoise La 91s any more, but they will be starting production for the plain colors again. Even more appealing to me was the fact that it came with a .9mm stub!

That was the only pen that really hollered “BUY ME” at me, so that’s the one I got. And, boy, is it a treat to use! The pen is actually very small and takes only cartridges, so I loaded it up with a Pelikan turquoise cart as soon as I got home. The nib has some very nice “give” to it and lays down a lovely wet line. The pen is also remarkably weighty, and it fits perfectly in my hand. My pen is a lot lighter in color than the photo on line; and I have the feeling that I’m going to be spending a lot of time turning the pen over and over in my hand, just looking at it rather than writing with it!

After we got home from DC and returned the children to Sara, we went out for dinner with our friends, Mollie and Skip, and our daughter, Katrina, and son-in-law, Chris. We went to Sheridan’s, which is very much like an Irish pub . . . only it’s set down in Smyrna, DE. Their fish and chips are the best I’ve had this side of the Big Pond. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Mollie was very generous, as was Skip, and K & C gave me three Queen CDs! Woo hoo—gonna play me some Freddie!

When we got back home after our lovely dinner, I remembered that I hadn’t checked the mail; and when I did, I found that I received the backordered pen that I got with a gift certificate from K&C for Swisher’s Pens: The Namiki MU/M90. WHAT a cool pen! Check it out here:

http://www.namiki.com/limitedEditions/mu90.php

It is, as you might expect, an absolute nail; but it’s just as smooth as smooth can be. I filled it with Rohrer & Klingner Cassia (a very nice purple-purple). My pen is #309. (You know, I never in a thousand years thought I’d ever be getting any “limited edition” pens—I mean, how ostentatious! But here I am with four of them. I guess it only goes to show that things don’t always go as one might think!)

And, by the way, the folks at Swisher Pens absolutely ROCK. I had a couple of questions and concerns when I placed the order and afterward when they sent the payment request, and they sent replies within hours of my e-mails. You just don’t get (or rarely get) service like that any more. The Swisher folks are wonderful!

Ok, now I really am going to have to get rid of a few pens. My collectulation (or is it an accumulection?) is getting out of hand…