San Diego!

I'm in San Diego for the Annual Meetings of ASOR and AAR/SBL! Watch for pictures, etc. on the Eisenbrauns Facebook page and Twitter feed. There's a picture of the ASOR exhibit there right now!

And they're off!

I'm leaving for the Annual Meeting of ASOR. Hopefully, this will be an uneventful trip, unlike last year, where it took me 18 hours! I could have driven faster.

I'm driving to Duluth, catching a flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul, and then a flight to San Antonio. ASOR starts tomorrow evening and then AAR/SBL will begin on Saturday. I fly home on Tuesday, but will stay overnight in Duluth. I'm not a fan of driving Highway 61 after midnight—there are way too many deer. I'm a bit gun shy after hitting one two years ago. So, another night on the road.

See some of you in San Antonio!

AAR/SBL Day1, or a comedy of errors

Day one is always the most tiring day for me. I make sure I stick around the booth to answer questions that may arise. About 4:30, I usually realize I haven't sat more than about 15 minutes all day. This year was a bit different, though.

Eisenbrauns always attends ASOR before AAR/SBL begins, but we have always ended Friday around noon. This year, because both are in Chicago and we had staff coming up for Saturday, we decided to sell at ASOR on Saturday as well. Merna volunteered—or was volunteered, not sure which!—to man the ASOR booth on Saturday. The plan was to close up there around noon and then have me drive from McCormick Place to ASOR's downtown exhibit and help her pack up.

Problem: I have a "clipped" driver's license. What that means is that I have a new Minnesota driver's license coming and am still using the Indiana one with a clipped corner and a piece of paper saying that the new one is in the mail. The problem is that the paper expired and the new license came the day after I left for Indiana. So, essentially, I have no driver's license. While the probability that I would be stopped was small, that was not a chance I wanted to take! The profit margin at conferences is thin enough without a hefty fine like that to pay.

So, Gina drove me up there so I could play pack mule for the books. Commence comedy of errors. Gina assumed I knew where the ASOR hotel was; I assumed she knew. We got out of the parking ramp and she asks where we were going. I looked at her with a mystified look and said that I thought she knew. She pulled off to the side of the street while she entered the name of the hotel into the GPS. We knew it was the Marriott on Miracle Mile. Fine, the GPS sent us down Michigan Ave. No problem...except that the festival of lights was going to happen Friday evening. And there was going to be a Disney parade at 5:00 PM. And they were going to close Michigan Avenue to traffic and pedestrians. And everybody and their brother seemed to be downtown.

Fine, so it just will take a bit longer. But the GPS took us to the Marriott Courtyard on the Miracle Mile. Gina dropped me there, not knowing it was the wrong one, and went to get gas in her vehicle. So, here I am in the wrong hotel with no idea where the correct one is. So, I called Merna. The call dropped before we could say anything. That happened three times. Finally, I got through, found out that the hotel was only about a block or so away. No problem.

Once I got to the hotel, I went up to the 5th floor, found Merna and we went to get our empty boxes to pack the books in. The room was locked. No one was at the registration desk. No one with a key was anywhere on the floor...not good.

I went down to the first floor, found someone with a key, and they opened the room for us. We packed up the books and proceeded to the first floor. Now we had to contact Gina, warn her that the GPS sent her to the wrong hotel and try to get her to the correct one. We couldn't trust the GPS, though. It had sent her on a wrong path the night before as well...so we tried to tell her where to go and how to get back to us, but one way streets downtown can be a problem...

We finally got reunited, loaded the car and headed back out to the massive amounts of traffic. We made very slow progress, and I had an appointment to choose next year's booth locations. It looked like I wouldn't make it, so I called Jim to have him cover for me. No answer. So, I called Andrew; he answered, but he and Jim both had a meeting at the same time I did. Bummer. Major bummer. If you miss your appointment, you risk losing a choice spot. Andrew did get a hold of Dan, though, and Dan said he would go. The problem is that Dan had never done this before and wasn't sure what to do...

Well, we managed to get to Lake Shore Drive and from there is was smooth sailing. We made it back to McCormick Place 5 minutes before my meeting. I moved quickly to get to the meeting. I got there only to discover I had the wrong time...I had another 25 minutes!

We got the booths we wanted.

SBL day -1

Today was a bit busy. I spent a good deal of it running back and forth between ASOR, ETS, and SBL. By the end of the day, I really needed a shower :)

We have 6 booths at SBL this year and have rearranged our floor plan to give us more space for books. I think you'll like it. We also have a new back drop behind our checkout this year. I posted a picture of it below. It contains over 160,000 book covers; Andy had to split it into 5 different files to keep his computer from crashing.

Setup went amazingly well, considering that at first there were only two of us instead of the normal four. Marti was stuck in Indianapolis overnight because of the FAA computer screw-up; Dave was tending ETS so I could do SBL setup. That left Gina and me. I don't know why, but it seemed to go faster this year. By the time Marti rolled in a little after 10 (she had a 6:00 AM flight!), we already had the backdrapes up, the tables draped, the posters up, and we were ready to work on books and the Skyline. I had already made one trip to ASOR for stuff we needed and had transferred some stock from ASOR to ETS as well—I was sure loving that the three conferences are only 2 blocks apart this year!

By 2:00, Jim had delivered all the ASOR stock and was helping Dave inventory and box the ETS produce. When Jim had to leave for a meeting around 3:00, I took over. We were completely done with setup by a little after 4:00—an amazing accomplishment! If we hadn't needed to inventory and move the ETS stuff, we would have been done even earlier. I don't know what was happening, but I sure am thankful!

Here's some pictures of the setup:

Gina, putting together book risers


David Orton of Deo (we distribute Deo in North America)



Gina and Marti setting up the rest of the Skyline display


Putting the finishing touches on the Carta posters

SBL in October!

Yep, you read it right: Eisenbrauns is offering in-booth pricing on titles now through the end of October. If you subscribed to BookNews you already saw this:

BookNews from Eisenbrauns

Eisenbrauns has two great deals going on right now and running through the end of October. One is for folks who are planning to attend ASOR, ETS, or SBL in New Orleans this year; the other is for those of you who can't make it. The odd thing is...it's the same deal: ASOR/SBL/ETS in October!

No need to pay New Orleans's sales tax, no waiting in line, no worrying about availability or having to elbow your way through colleagues to be sure that you get that book you dearly wanted, plus no shipping costs (for domestic orders over $99.00). Browse our virtual booth and get ASOR/SBL/ETS in-booth pricing, but only until October 31.

OK, enough said! Here's the link to the books:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/vbooth01

The fine print:
1. This sale includes forthcoming Eisenbrauns titles! We will hold any order that includes a book that will be published between now and November 1 until November 1, so that your order can all be shipped together. (Of course, your credit card will never be charged until the books are invoiced and shipped.)

2. The prices on this sale are in-booth prices; these prices are the very best that will be available on these books! Prices will not be lower either in-booth or after the meetings. Order form prices will be 10% higher than in-booth prices on Eisenbrauns titles.

3. We think we've included every book that will be in the booth, plus some extras!

4. No returns will be permitted on this sale.

5. Sale absolutely ends October 31; NO late orders will be accepted.

Of course, we still hope that you will come by booths 704-708 in New Orleans, at the SBL, or by the tables at ASOR and ETS, to say "hi," and chat a bit; but we hope that making this sale available now will make your time at the meetings in New Orleans easier and more enjoyable!