I've been craving new pens for a while. And new, pretty inks. It wasn't helped by Odysseus suggesting that the next volume in the Liquid Diet Chronicles (to be written after I finish the current project of the 4th, but CLEARLY not last Modern Gods book, at this point in the writing process) should be done in a burgundy or dark crimson.
Anyhow, I resisted the temptation...and then I gave in. Odysseus told me to go ahead and make the order I was considering from Goulet Pens, and I did. I ordered a Platinum Preppy because I've heard a lot about the silly little $4 pens (yeah, they're cheap, and kinda ugly, but damn do they write well), a TWSBI vac mini (it posts, was a little bit less than the full sized one, and something I'd been really wanting for a while, now), a sample of Noodler's Black Swan in English Roses (gorgeous, water-resistant red burgundy), and a full bottle of their Red-Black (which looks like you wrote in blood, and it dried).
I hadn't ordered pens or ink for myself in about a year. And Odysseus told me that this was my early (but not by a lot) anniversary present.*
I also ordered a set of Jinhao shark pens for my imp, who held his grades to all A's and B's (with the exception of his handwriting, which is still better than his daddy's). My imp, who loves snitching my fountain pens, and requests a few inked up with his favorite colors every so often, gave me one of his set of seven pens, and gave the pixie another. And the dumb little things are absolutely spectacularly nice writers. The little black shark in Chinese fine (finer than European fine) is incredibly smooth.
In any case, my fingers are ink-stained a bit, I have spatters on my left shin from where I dropped an ink syringe that I was using to fill a converter from a sample vial for the pixie, and I couldn't be happier.
In other news, my local Walmart had finally restocked their smaller Pen+Gear brand smaller 5-subject notebooks. Hadn't happened in a while, and my current favorite is that particular notebook that I'd written out the rough of Bite Sized in (I'm excited--that book has eight reviews, more than any single one of my other books, and all are 5-star), and am working through drafting Gods and Monsters in the second section. Walmart had three left.
Had.
I now have those notebooks in mint green (my old one), royal blue, red, and black.
I also snagged a package of their top-spiral memo books and mini-comp-books (same size as the little spiral books)--at $0.88 cents a pack (three in the comp book pack, four in the spiral memos), it was worth a try. I'm shocked and thrilled by how well they stand up under fountain pen ink, and am now questioning my choice to give the kids one of each out of the two packages to go with their new composition books.
Hi, my name is HH, and I'm a pen and paper nerd. And I share the voices in my head with anyone who wants a listen.
*I've already collected part of his Father's Day gifts, and know what I'm doing for his anniversary presents.
2 hours ago