The Brad Weisman Show
Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show, where we dive into the world of real estate, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! #TheBradWeisman #Show #RealEstateRealLife
The Brad Weisman Show
Have Some Fun Today with CEO/Founder Stephanie Taormina
Hi This is Brad Weisman - Click Here to Send Me a Text Message
Discover how Stephanie's father inspired her to create her business and turn his mantra of "have some fun today" into her company's slogan. We delve into how his legacy has become a driving force for her and an affirmation for so many people. Stephanie also talks about her fascinating journey of merging her passion for interior design, art, and fashion, and how sustainability, charity, and made-in-the-USA products have become integral parts of her brand.
In this episode, Stephanie shares her experience of shifting her manufacturing to the US, creating products like recycled canvas bags, leather goods, and t-shirts. Don't miss out on this captivating conversation with the amazingly creative Stephanie Rado Taormina, and be inspired by her journey of spreading joy and positivity through design. #havesomefuntoday #stephanieradotaormina #realestateandyou #hfst
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Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show (formerly known as Real Estate and YOU), where we dive into the world of real estate, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! 🎙️ Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! 🏡🌟 #TheBradWeismanShow #RealEstateRealLife #realestateandyou
Credits - The music for my podcast was written and performed by Jeff Miller.
Hello, this is Brad Wiseman. You're listening to Real Estate and You, we are back in the studio, and today is a really special guest. We are not gonna talk about Real Estate today. Well, we might at some point, i don't know, but we're not gonna talk about Real Estate today. We are gonna talk about an amazing person from Reading, pennsylvania, who has this company, and you might see the hat that's on my table here. Her name is Stephanie Teramina. You have a company called Have Some Fun Today.
Speaker 2:Yes, I do.
Speaker 1:Are you having fun? today is my first question. Yes, I am. She's like until I got here. This is just terrible. Put me in this dark dungeon of a studio downstairs. But no, you have created a company since around 2014, which I have followed through the years via Facebook and Instagram and all those things, And it is just amazing, as a bystander on the outside, to watch what you have done and where it has gone, And I just wanna say congratulations and keep up the great work. All right. End of podcast. No, just kidding. So no, let's just dive in here. This is not something that was new for you. This whole design passion.
Speaker 2:True, I've been passionate about design since I was like 10 years old 10 years old.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what were you doing?
Speaker 2:building like were you making dresses or something? I was making huts Huts.
Speaker 1:I was not thinking. That's where this was going.
Speaker 2:Huts like what kind of huts, like with finding anything like things of wood, and we were very creative young children back in Shemokin PA when I-.
Speaker 1:Shemokin. You're from Shemokin, i am. I didn't know you're from Shemokin, isn't our Shemokin?
Speaker 2:damn too, that's another part, it's a different place. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a nicer place.
Speaker 1:What's funny is Shemokin is in the middle of nowhere. I played a gig there one time. Oh really Yes, years ago, when I was like 19 years old, I remember we didn't have GPS back then 19, it's a long time ago. Yeah, believe me Yeah, yeah So. But I remember going up there how to use a map And I saw Shemokin on the map And I remember thinking who lives here? Now, nothing against people from Shemokin, which you are, but it's in the middle of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I played in the woods a lot.
Speaker 1:Played in the woods a lot.
Speaker 2:And my creativity was developed with Barbies. Okay, did the Barbies live in the huts? No, no, no, we had. We created Barbie worlds in our house and our living room.
Speaker 1:Barbie worlds got it, That's different.
Speaker 2:That was my first foray into interior design. We would create our houses.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So then how does it go from that to have some fun today? I mean, how does it go? that's a big leap.
Speaker 2:Well, as a kid, you're using your imagination and dolls and creating worlds with your dolls was something that a lot of boys and girls experience?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely definitely.
Speaker 2:I was always really good at art And my mother had a hair salon and she always had all these magazines.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:So looking at these magazines you kind of like escape into different worlds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so true.
Speaker 2:So that was like the initial things that were hitting me as a young girl and my grandmother used to collect antiques and both of my grandparents' homes. I remember really taking it in the way it looked.
Speaker 1:The style.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know what I was doing then but I slowly developed a passion for interiors, but I didn't even know what.
Speaker 1:I was doing, but it's funny because I don't know if every kid is thinking that. No, you were thinking that at a young age.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, if every kid's got a couch, who cares? Or it's a picture or whatever, but you're actually taking it all in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i was, but I didn't even realize it, and I remember being like 10 or 11 and filling notebooks with drawings.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And I really knew, and I even created the name of my company and I didn't know How old are you then I was like 12, 13.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I knew I was going to either design like clothing or the homes that people lived in.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And now you know, in around adults, i'm sure you said, oh, this is what I'm going to do. And then a lot of people are like, okay, yeah, whatever You're going to, you'll change your mind or you'll do something else. But you kept this pattern going. You kept thinking this is what I want to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, i was always an artist. So you know, started with, you know, the coloring stuff, and then drawing, and then always in art classes. I excelled, um, and I went through grade school and high school and I was always into art.
Speaker 1:Any clothing in there at all.
Speaker 2:I would draw clothing.
Speaker 1:You would draw, i would draw clothing.
Speaker 2:I never made any clothing, um, and I remember when I was in high school, you know still with the art, but I, i didn't. I didn't think I was able to go to art school. I think I was really. You know, i think a lot of times parents push people away from creative suits Absolutely, and I did go to school, so they kind of all pushed me towards academics college Yeah. And, but I still got the Parsons brochure, you know college brochures.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, wasn't going there's no going online. Yes.
Speaker 2:So I remember looking at the Parsons brochure and just kind of thinking, oh, I wish Interesting. I went to Penn State, yeah. I don't know if you know that Um and my junior year of Penn State which is a good time.
Speaker 1:It was amazing. I had a great time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but my junior year I decided to apply to this program in France, where I could be an au pair.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And again before cell phones and all that stuff. And I went to France for a summer by myself and I didn't speak French fluently, but I had a little French English dictionary.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, and that was before you could speak into the phone and and it would tell you Yeah, no, there was none of that.
Speaker 2:It was really like this real yeah, I know what you mean. And it was there that, you know, i decided that when I graduated next year, i just didn't think that the subject matter I was studying was what I wanted to do And I was like God, i would really love to like graduate Penn State and go to Parsons and become a fashion designer. And I remember when I came home and I talked to my mom and dad about that and they were supportive.
Speaker 2:So I spent my whole senior year at Penn State um developing a portfolio for Parsons.
Speaker 1:Oh, get out of here And I then went to Parsons. So you agree, from there, from there, yeah, yeah, as well as Penn. State Yeah, awesome So it's funny how you can try to, and I want to say ignore. Yeah, maybe ignore. You can try to ignore the passion that is behind you sometimes you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And and there's a that's why I do this today I love entertainment, you know, and I got out of entertainment, uh, got into real estate, but the entertainment is always there, going like this, nagging at me, going hell, you should do something, you know. So it's the same kind of thing. You, you knew what you wanted to do, right, you did the college thing right. But that passion just came breaking through. There was nothing to stop it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it did, and I graduated Parsons, which is an amazing place to go to school if you are a creative person, highly recommend Parsons.
Speaker 1:What did you excel in there?
Speaker 2:Well, I was a fashion designer major So it's a pretty intense program. Like back when I went there, it was amazing because, like all the best designers in the world, actually came into our classrooms.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's incredible And I worked with Michael Kors. Are you kidding me? No, he was directly my design critique. Wow.
Speaker 2:We were constantly being critiqued. We would do work, it would get critiqued. So you really developed a really thick skin around things you created. you know, And I kind of come from that- Yeah, So you've done.
Speaker 1:You did that for a while And then you had, so you've been doing still interior decorating. Do you still do the interior decorating stuff for the interior design and things like that?
Speaker 2:I don't do it for other people anymore. I did it for 25 years while, i was raising my daughters before I started to have some fun today. It was an amazing way for me to kind of use my talents, and I even have you that one?
Speaker 1:Yes, you did. Oh yeah, that's a story. I took a comforter. Well, i'm just gonna quick tell the story, because you remember it, which is funny. So yeah, jess and I were gonna. We had a comforter first. Did we go backwards maybe on that? We had the comforter first and then did the wall color, or is that normal? I?
Speaker 1:think that probably happens to a lot of people because the comforter's, you know kind of a cool product and you're like, oh, i love that Yeah not thinking about the wall color, so it was like a grayish comforter. Gray, i found out, is impossible for a layman to figure out the color, cause there's gray, pink, gray, blue, gray red, like there's so many shades of gray, right, okay, so she comes. She came into my office, looked at the comforter, got the swatches out. This is Stephanie. She's looking at three colors And she goes oh, let's see this, this and this one. Which one do you like? I'm like oh, i like that one. Okay, that was it. You did it in like 10 minutes. Jess and I almost got divorced over this thing. I mean, it was like we were going at it, you know So, but that just shows the talent, or that's that thing that you have, that we just don't have.
Speaker 2:You know it's like anyone like I'm jealous of people who can write code or who are like amazing with math and accounting. Exactly, there are two things that I utilize in my business that I have cleared about Exactly. And I wish I could do it.
Speaker 1:Delegate. Delegate delegate. Exactly leverage, leverage everything. So that's cool. Now what takes you from there into the have some fun today? I mean, that's a whole different, you know realm, whole different thing.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, it's really funny When I was doing the interior design and it was awesome. I loved doing it. I got to do so many wonderful projects. In the interim of all of that, I was also started to paint again I'm a fine artist And so I was kind of merging both of those together aspects of what I do. And you know along the way my dad would often say to me aside from have some fun, today, he would say, stephanie, why aren't you doing fashion anymore?
Speaker 2:You know, and it bothered him that I wasn't. Isn't that interesting. A fashion designer And I'd be like dad. What I'm doing is still using my degree. I'm still creating things for people, but it always kind of bothered him.
Speaker 1:Isn't it funny how parents know us sometimes more than we know us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i mean, he's probably just like laughing up there. Yeah, You know the fact that I am now like you know, i mean the past nine years have been intense.
Speaker 1:You know like to bring something. Yeah, that was nothing, exactly Nothing to something.
Speaker 2:Mila Kunis is wearing it in a commercial.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, and I didn't even know about it. Amazing.
Speaker 2:So it is. it's very surreal And I'm sure my dad is like I got you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so tell the story a little bit about your dad. That's so. he used to say that have some fun today to everybody he met.
Speaker 2:Yeah, My dad. I don't know if you've ever met him.
Speaker 1:I did not, i did not, but he was a fantastic human.
Speaker 2:My dad was a coach, high school coach And you know, back then, when you were a Catholic school teacher, you coached everything that you could coach.
Speaker 2:So, he was a super busy guy, always loved working with kids And he was really into psychology. So I feel like my dad's success is partially due to his love of people and his understanding how people think and what impacts people. And I don't know exactly when he started saying it, but somewhere, when I was an adult and living back in this area, it just started happening and we can't really pinpoint when, really, but it was a long time ago and it just became something that we kind of joked about, because you couldn't be around my dad without leaving and him saying have some fun today.
Speaker 2:I mean it was even on his answering machine. It was at our company that my family owns. It's on the punch cards.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He, my dad, embraced this phrase while he was alive. It's amazing. And then when he got sick, this is this was something that really impacted me. I spent the last three years of his life in hospital rooms and he was in many hospitals and I would remember walking out of his hospital room saying good night to him and he was really sick and even in that physical state and emotional state, he still said to me have some fun today.
Speaker 1:Amazing Yeah, sorry.
Speaker 2:That's tough.
Speaker 1:That is tough And it's a. I don't think you want to call it a mantra, or it is. It's also an affirmation, and I think what it does too is what's interesting about a saying or a phrase. When he says it to you, there's no way you can't hear it.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So you hear it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then your brain goes fun. Today, you know it's like I swear that that happens. It's a record And there's no way you could take that negative.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we just have some fun today You're like, oh okay, that sounds like a good idea to me, right? So what an amazing thing. And what's amazing about, too, is that now his legacy is everywhere. Yeah, that's, that's the part, that's just you know talking about. He has no idea of the impact that he made by saying follow your dream for one, and then for saying that phrase that you picked up on and put it on clothing, and now it's everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, when he at his funeral, over a thousand people came to my dad's funeral Wow, and you know we had that celebration afterwards and it was such a beautiful day. It was really unbelievable And I just remember the people coming up to me and telling me stories about how he impacted their life, the positive ways that he did that And I remember you know going home and over the course of the next couple of months.
Speaker 2:you know I don't know if you've ever lost anyone really close to you, but you know you definitely go through this like few months at least of like processing the loss.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm a very spiritual person and I just remember, you know, doing like a morning gratitude practice And for me when I create things, i see them. I see, I get a vision of what it should be, whatever I'm working on, or you know, even when I was doing design for people like I would meet with them, i would have the consultation and I would say, you know, just give me a couple of days. This is my process. I like process it, think about it And then I see it.
Speaker 1:And you see it, i see it in my head, and it was that morning.
Speaker 2:Months later, i saw a painting that I would make That had the words have some fun today, wow. And as soon as that happened, i saw visuals of that and many of the products that are still part of the brand today. And I called my mom and I said I'm going to start a brand And you know, whenever.
Speaker 1:I say anything.
Speaker 2:I do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i'm one of those people. And so she said okay, And then here we went, you know so Wow, and here it is today. Yeah, and where it is. This is just amazing, great story, great story. Yeah, i'm just amazed at how it went from that to this. That's incredible, very incredible, so that's awesome. So let's go from there. Now is it worldwide, it's everywhere.
Speaker 2:I mean it's global. We ship globally. I you know we're on the internet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, so it's everywhere. Yeah, as soon as it's on the internet, you're everywhere. Right, you're global.
Speaker 2:We haven't delivered to Mars, or you know Well?
Speaker 1:that's next. It's not on the rover. Maybe we could get the rover to have some fun today on it. That'd be really good.
Speaker 2:That would be hilarious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also your philosophies. You have some. There's interesting stuff I saw on your website And one of them is the mission is making people smile. Very simple mission, but very you know it means a lot Making people smile Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know it's. It's really interesting for anybody who owns. Have some fun today and wears it.
Speaker 1:Yep my wife has bag, she has shirts, she has all that stuff. I know Jessica Pritzman was going through some stuff and some tough times and I love that they all had that shirt on that one picture. That brought the whole spirit up. That could be the reason that she's doing well. It could be you know what I mean Like that helps everybody, it's energy and it's good energy and it's all around you.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what it is. So when you're wearing the product and I do this as an experiment sometimes I'm in New York City and I have my baseball hat on- Right right. For example, i'm walking down the street and you're passing all kinds of people. Oh, yeah. And I will watch someone's eyes go to me in general and then go up to my hat clearly reading it, come down to my eyes, smile and we pass.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:That is what have some fun today does.
Speaker 1:That is a that's an incredible experience, because you just changed, you just affected somebody that you don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:By wearing a hat. Yes, with words on it. Yes, that's pretty awesome. I know That's pretty awesome. What if we all wore one?
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:I got one today, Just so you know. Look at this puppy. Yeah, what you doing, Brad? I?
Speaker 2:wanna hear what happens. What are you?
Speaker 1:wearing. I'm gonna have to do that. It's gonna be an experiment of mine.
Speaker 2:You know, if you're, let's say you wear it out to happy old, yes, whatever.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:It's an energy exchange that makes people smile.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool, Pretty amazing. What do you think Hugo? Pretty amazing. What do you think Tony? Tony's here too. So we have social media Hugo's here producing the show. I think they're just sitting here just listening. They're all very. They're both very quiet. You know what I'm saying? Very quiet, But I love it. So so, going back to that, what's what's next? Where do you go from here, Like, what products are you making next?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, this year we're, you know we've had a lot of challenges. Yes, COVID. Covid was quite an interesting experience for all of us, especially.
Speaker 1:Did you make the mask with it on?
Speaker 2:No, I didn't.
Speaker 1:I just thought maybe you know I. Probably not a good thing to have some fun today. Put on there.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I thought about doing it. We did not do that. Supply chain stuff was crazy.
Speaker 1:Oh, true, true, true true.
Speaker 2:So we really had to be creative. So we actually changed our manufacturing and we're not manufacturing in China anymore.
Speaker 1:Good for you, and we have moved things over to India and the US.
Speaker 2:We're doing a lot of things in the US now It's it's hard to do but we're doing.
Speaker 1:Real quick question about that Sure, Just because I don't know Why. Why does everybody go to China?
Speaker 2:Because they can make things affordably and then they can sell them at a lower price point.
Speaker 1:Got it. You know, that's what I figured. So it's about yeah, it's, it's it's manufacturing, yeah, it's manufacturing, got it.
Speaker 2:And trying to make things as affordable for our consumers as possible.
Speaker 1:But do you think if, if any Americans would be asked the question hey, you're going to pay $5 more for this, for it to not be made there, don't you think I do? you think that people, i think people will do it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i think. I think people would you know and the people who wouldn't, well then, that's okay.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm proud of you for doing that, Cause I think there's, there's. It's not good Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, the other thing that we did was we decided that we wanted to be more sustainable.
Speaker 1:So Good for you.
Speaker 2:Now the things that we're making are sustainable as much as we can.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's going to be very hard. There's limits for everything.
Speaker 2:Our canvas bags are recycled canvas.
Speaker 1:Get out of here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, So I thought that was pretty cool And we're only using natural materials Good good, good. And we're trying to produce in the United States as much as we can. So we do have some new things coming out that are made in the United States.
Speaker 1:Well, the belt buckle you have on that. Is that new or no?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is new and it's going to be coming out in the weeks.
Speaker 1:Oh, so wait, you have it before anybody else. What? how does that work?
Speaker 2:Because I get to wear all the proto samples. She acts like she's special.
Speaker 1:Are you special? I am very special. Well, it's a cool belt buckle because I know Tony recognized it right away. She's like, oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, i'm really excited about it. That's very cool So we have a bunch of really like beautiful, beautiful products coming in this year. We're doing these beautiful leather products that are made in India. We are also doing a t-shirt that's going to be made in the US We're excited about. We're also going to be doing some new recycled canvas bags that our local town has. I have so many people emailing me about these canvas wristlets we used to make that we sold out of when we were on QVC.
Speaker 2:Gotcha That was a really popular item And since then we have we kind of move on from a product, then we'll bring it back. It's really popular and people are asking for it. So we have a lot of. we have a lot of cool things coming out. And we also just did a really cool charity event.
Speaker 1:I saw that on social media. I wasn't sure exactly, but I know that you were somewhere and had a bunch of people and then I saw your painting in the background. Yeah, so I'll tell you I don't read much, I just look at pictures. You were somewhere and you had a picture.
Speaker 2:So I had these bags that I made a couple years ago, and on a small portion of them there was a flaw in the leather, and I would not sell something that was not perfect, and so I was trying to think of how to create something fun out of these That would be a sustainable act. So we took these bags and we reached out to a bunch of artists in New York City, and we asked each of them to create a work of art using the bag.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that's cool.
Speaker 2:And then we had a party. We have a link actually on our it's going to be on our website We're working on it right now where you can still bid on the bags, because we have four left that we want to raise some more money for, and so we had a party last week and we donated all of the proceeds and are going to be till the end of the month to a mental health organization.
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:It's called Vibrant Awesome And they're the people that run like the suicide hot hot line.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:And they provide great services all over the country.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So we really want to do more of this kind of stuff I mean it's you're having fun, it's involving fashion and art and it's doing something good, and it's also sustainable.
Speaker 1:Love it, so we're just so excited to be on the team. Win, win, win, win. It's win all around, and also it looked like you had a good time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had a good time, but I want to do them in other cities.
Speaker 1:I love that idea.
Speaker 2:I'd love to do one in Redding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, there's plenty of great artists here And we have great venues too. Different stuff Yeah, absolutely, that's something we just did recently. So are you still so before we end? are you still like is it just you? I mean, you have other people helping you design stuff. I mean, how does that work? I mean, i'm the designer, you're the designer, i'm the creative director.
Speaker 2:I do all the creative vision stuff. But I my partner, jay Schwyd, has been helping me tremendously. He's like kind of, you know, my director of operations. And then I have a lot of people who we have a marketing team out of Florida And I have a PR team out of New York And so we have like entities that are helping this grow.
Speaker 1:It's awesome, very cool. So I've been working on my own brand, so I just wanted to see what you think of what you think of this It's really original And I just want to see what you think. Okay, so it's, it's have some more fun today, do you like it? Yeah, i like that.
Speaker 2:I like that.
Speaker 1:I mean, it took a lot of time.
Speaker 2:That's adorable. Yeah, it took a lot of time, i have to steal your idea, And I was.
Speaker 1:I worked, I drew it myself, this part myself.
Speaker 2:I might have to just take a picture of that. Okay, just like copy it.
Speaker 1:So this is going to be Alan T-shirt soon, yeah. You know that kind of stuff. I mean, i'm not used to doing that kind of work, but I thought I would try something new.
Speaker 2:Might be a trademark in front of you, you think so. I hope you have a good lawyer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Darn it.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to thank you for coming on the show today. Thank you So much. What great stories, what great times. I love where you're going with things. I just can't wait to see where it goes next and who's going to wear the shirt next. Yeah, me too. I'm like a president or something like that. Can I get a president or somebody out there? or like John Travolta or somebody like that? Has he worn it yet?
Speaker 2:No, not John Travolta.
Speaker 1:Anybody any try to think of who else would have worn it?
Speaker 2:I saw a bunch of people Haley Halle Berry, she wears it all the time Halle Berry's herself and her boyfriend husband has worn it Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i've seen it a couple of times in there. That's amazing. Keep up the great work. Thanks for coming in today. I very much appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, brad, and that's it.
Speaker 1:There we go. Stephanie Terramina, that was amazing. Have some fun today, by the way, and look at this fancy hat I have here. I'll have to wear this and see if I put smiles on people's faces, which I think I will, hopefully, and also my creation too, which we're going to use. That, all right, that's about it. We'll see you next Thursday at 7pm, all right, thank you. Have fun.
