Back, Unpacked and Angry

Coming home from any trip is a mixed blessing. You are so glad to be back in your own home, your own bed and eating your own food, but reality crashes in with tasks such as laundry, paying bills, buying groceries etc.

We got home much later than we expected after some real adventures getting home. The flight we were supposed to take from Charlotte to Newark on Wednesday with Continental was delayed because of a part that needed to be fixed in the plane, but the airline immediately began rerouting passengers on other flights and even with other airlines rather than have us sit around for 4 to 5 hours. Remembering what Terri and I went through to get to the show in Nashville last February, I think Air Canada could learn a thing or two from how proactive Continental was!!

So we found ourselves waiting around the Charlotte airport for an extra hour before boarding a flight to Philadelphia with US Airways. We reached Philadelphia on time, but had to race to the other end of the airport via a shuttle bus and reached the gate just as the flight to Bangor was boarding. No lunch for any of us, but the stewardess did make sure we each had 5 or 6 packs of pretzels! We arrived in Bangor a mere 40 minutes after the Continental flight would have been in and ALL FIVE of our bags made it!! We went over to both the US Air and Continental desks to compliment them for getting us here etc. and they looked quite surprised to get Positive Feedback!!

We jumped in the car and raced for Skowhegan to get to the New Balance Tent Sale that happens every year during the State Fair. With Nick and I having such odd sized feet (13 E for him and 12 AA for me) when it comes to sneakers, it pays to get our sneakers as seconds instead of paying full price. We then drove back to the hotel and stayed overnight so that we could do a bit of back to school shopping for the girls in the morning before heading back to Canada. Erin and Bethany love having outfits that no one else in the class have!

We arrived home late on Thursday night and dragged everything to the basement to unpack the following day. I downloaded all my e-mail and headed off to bed. As we unpacked, sorted laundry and got caught up on messages, I discovered a horrid copyright violation of my designs on both Multiply and a Russian site. 27 of the 95 designs I’ve created were there for anyone to request by e-mail!!! The Russian site also had a ton of Karen and Teresa’s works as well, so I let them know.

All 3 of us are getting very fed up and discouraged by the core infringers that trade stuff on such a large scale. I blogged about it on my Multiply site and asked them to answer some basic questions that have puzzled me since all this first began more than 6 years ago. So far, no one has been brave enough to answer... I wonder why??

Most stitchers are incredibly honest people who truly support the designers of the patterns they enjoy stitching. What is so sad is that a small percentage of techno-savvy pirates have the ability to do so much damage to the industry. Less stores are spending the money to go to shows. Less designers will go if there are no stores to sell to or take the risk of spending money to create something which can be stolen so easily. It is sad to think that some people truly do not consider this ethically or morally wrong. It is scary to be told that the legal system has much more important things to worry about that friends sharing something for the joy of it around the world. I wish I knew what the answer was... It just makes me glad that I have already begun to move on to other things.