Farewell, Its been fun!

As most of you have probably noticed, I haven't been updating my blog at over the past few weeks. This is due to a number of reasons: concerts, work, illness. I did want to thank all of you (3 people) who claimed to read my blog at every posting. I'm sure you will find something to fill the void this announcement will undoubtedly leave in your lives. I am officially shutting down my blog and ceasing to add more posts as I have run out of time to maintain this journal up to my standards. I will call more often and try to update you all on my happenings in GA to offset the lack of communication in this medium. Thanks for reading, it has been fun!

Pip

This Week in Pictures

Foreword: I know I have been terrible about posting updates, but things have been crazy busy at work and are looking to increase even more! Things have also been a bit hectic with my friend Leslie's wedding and the hassles and problems that have arisen because of things not happening as they should have have kept me scrambling at the last minute and away from my computer. I apologize to those of you who have been awaiting an update. As I do not remember the dates that everything happened I will just post pictures with descriptions and leave out the specifics.

Hiking picked back up and I actually hiked the 2 mile trail up to the top of Kennesaw Mountain and back down 3 times in one week! It is a part of my hiking at least 20 miles a month program. So far in the month of October: 14 miles (I'm gonna have to step it up next week)


I finally found a Frisbee golf course nearby and someone to play with, Leslie's (now husband) Brian! We played 18 holes one Saturday and then the morning of his wedding we played 36 holes with his friend from Birmingham, Ray. It was amazing weather both times we played and this course has a good mix of clearings and trees with moderate distances.

Christina and I spent one Sunday evening with Leslie, Brian, and Ryan (their son). We met at Monster Golf, which is an indoor putt-putt course that is decorated with scary pictures and characters illuminated by black lights. The course was fun, but poorly designed as there is no divider between the holes so if you have children this isn't the best place to take them as focus and staying in your section of the course is essential. I was especially disturbed by the picture of the dog holding its own head...really, who are the people that came up with this? We ate some dinner at Mellow Mushroom and then played some Wii back at my apartment. Definitely a fun day!

On October 18th, Leslie and Brian were married. The ceremony was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I was limited to my involvement in filming this event as I was a groomsman in the wedding. I was able to capture very little of the reception, but it will have to do. I managed to coerce my boss, Dave, into operating the one moving camera that was mandatory for the recording to be even mediocre. I was glad he was able to fill in on such short notice, but still felt bad having to keep him from enjoying the festivities. This is my last wedding I will film as PAT Entertainment is being retired. It has become too much of a hassle for me to drive to Knoxville to film and increasingly difficult to find dependable help for other projects. The two photos you see here were taken by Dave during the reception time of the evening. (A side note, Christina was in another wedding that same evening and managed to catch the bouquet at that reception...the jokes have been flowing from my co-workers ever since)

On Wednesday night, Christina and I went to The Hotel Cafe: Concert Tour at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta. This tour was kind of like a Storytellers Concert in that no one artist played all their songs in a row. One artist would play a couple of songs and then another would come out. They also frequently performed songs together. It was a very good show and we had a great view as we were standing only 10 feet from the stage. I had heard of a couple of the artists before, but enjoyed them all. Here is the list of who we saw preform that night: Samantha Crain, Katie Herzig, Erin McCarley, Ingrid Michaelson, Meiko, and Priscilla Ahn. Their music was beautiful and demonstrated the versatility of each artist to sing various styles of songs. One of my favorites was the song "Forevermore" by Katie Herzig as it used the children's song "playmate" as the chorus. I highly recommend all these artists.

This Week In Pictures 10/1

Wednesday 10/1: Christina, Leslie, Brian and I went to the Maroon 5, Counting Crows, Augustana concert at Lakewood Amphitheater. It was an amazing show where we lucked out and got tickets BOGO (buy one get one free) and still managed to be sitting in the center section with a great view. It was a little cool that night, but Counting Crows stole the show with songs such as Hangin'around, Long December, Mr. Jones, and The Rain King.


Saturday 10/4: I played Frisbee golf in the morning with Jubin and Chris. After attending the rehearsal the night before we made our return trip to Ridge Valley Farms located 5 miles past nowhere in Maryville, TN to film the wedding of Amy Chandler and Aaron Fraley. The weather was perfect for an afternoon, outdoor wedding. This picture you see here is a rare glimpse of Ryan Walker dancing. It was good to see these friends that I always seem to miss connecting with when I'm in town.

Sunday 10/5: As you can see from the photo progression on the left, I left around 6:15 am from Amy and Jon's house in Knoxville. My intentions were to drive back early and then pick up Christina and go to church. I got to see many beautiful changes in the colors of the sky during my drive. It seemed as though the sun was chasing me and was determined to catch me. It eventually did, and I realized once I got back into town that I was too tired to go to church so I did the responsible thing and caught up on a couple more hours of sleep. I relaxed the rest of the day and ended up eating a late lunch with Christina at Ihop around 3:00. (I suppose this might classify as an early dinner, but I'll let you decide) We watched the last of the Bourne trilogy movies and then called it an early night as I needed to unpack and play catch up from my weekend trip.

Monday 10/6: After work today Christina, Stacy and I went hiking to the top of Kennesaw Mountain. The weather has become ideal for these little adventures and I hope to take advantage of the closeness of the trails in the upcoming weeks. This picture is from the other overlook that covers the West side of mountain. The hike was refreshing, except for the odd encounter with a strange individual (either a boy scout or the next uni bomber) who asked us if we had any questions about the mountain. We didn't really stick around, we just ran away!

Wednesday 10/8: Today I spent a majority of my day at a marketing seminar sponsored by WSB-TV the ABC affiliate in the Atlanta market. We had a speaker talk to us about the dying media and where those users are going. We set out a sample advertising schedule and will be working closely with our Account manager to follow the plan and accomplish some exciting goals over the next year. My quote I had after the meeting concerning what we should be using and what we shouldn't sums up the meeting: "I've never felt more excited about being told I was doing something the wrong way" The WSB building was beautifully decorated and I will probably be going back there to finalize our ads and schedule sometime in the next month.

This Week In Pictures 9/30/2008

Friday 9/26 - Leslie and I worked a booth at the GA Aquarium teacher event sponsored by Barnes & Noble Booksellers. There were over 2500 teachers there, but that paled in comparison to the 18 ft. Whale Shark you see pictured here. After leaving there I went to Leslie's parents' house to help Brian move some furniture around in preparation for their wedding that will be held there.



Saturday 9/27 - Christina and I journeyed up to Fall Creek Falls in Crossville, TN where we met Amy and Laura for a backpacking adventure. Little did we know that the trail we selected was longer than expected (6 miles total!). We arrived at the campsite tired, but still enjoying ourselves. We ate our dinner and watched the campfire die before admitting that we were tired and then we went to bed. It was perfect weather (68 - 53 degrees) and it didn't even rain.


Sunday 9/28 - As we were still tired from hiking yesterday, we looked at the trail map and decided that once we reached the first road crossing we would hike the road back to our cars. This was not really a shorter distance, but we were able to keep a more steady pace on the pavement vs. the trail. We arrived at our cars and parted ways. Christina, Amy, and I went to Knoxville, cleaned up and ate lunch with the parents and Jon at Calhoun's. Afterwards Christina and I joined the Tuckers for some Rock Band 2 playing where we were eventually joined by Charlie, Hickey and Chan to add the the fun. Christina and I hit the road back to Georgia around 4:45 and then arrived home just before 8:00. We were both exhausted, but a milkshake from Hardee's helped to ease our fatigue. I went to bed around 10:00 as I could no longer keep my eyes open. I also slept like a dead person, not stirring or even dreaming until Monday morning when my alarm interrupted my slumber.


Tuesday 9/30 - As you probably noticed I have skipped Monday because nothing much other work took place. Work today was filled with meetings, malfunctioning computers, and blast emails that wouldn't work correctly. The funny picture you will notice to the right was taken from the label of the Papa John's pizza box that Stacy and I shared while catching up on each other's previous week. In case the photo is unclear there is a line that reads: "This pizza prepared by Christ" I like to think of it as our own little Lord's Supper (even though I know it was short for Christopher)

From the Desk 9/23/2008

Weekly update:

Friday morning (9/19) I worked at home on the video I filmed earlier of Leland teaching a workshop on the CRCT Test and how to raise test scores. We will hopefully use this video and slides as a training tool to better educate our employees on what books will help on certain subjects/types of questions. I had to run into the office on my way out of town to adjust the margins on a Fall Product flyer that we were sending out to get printed. I made the adjustments, and then headed to Knoxville. Once I arrived, I visited with my friends at the Knoxville School Box, got an oil change (about 2,000 miles overdue!), and then cleaned my car interior at my parents' house. I met Hickey at Movies for Sale and we went to film the rehearsal of Elizabeth's wedding in Maryville. After filming we ended up at Applebee's from 10:00pm until they closed (literally we were the last customers out the door) at 1:45am.

Saturday (9/20) I got a haircut, met Chris and Jubin at Farragut Admiral Park for 9 holes of frisbee golf, and then got ready for the wedding. I picked up Hickey and we made our way to Mt. Carmel Baptist Church. We filmed the few shots we needed before going to eat lunch with Chan at Mr. Gatti's and stopping at Walmart for batteries. The filming of the wedding went great as I was able to film from an angle that I normally don't have as an option. The video should turn out really well! After filming Hickey and I met Paulette and Roger Chandler and Paul Walker to get pictures for the slideshow for Amy's rehearsal in 2 weeks. I stopped off by my parents house and then after dropping off Hickey, I headed home. I got home around 9:30 and was exhausted as it seemed that I had done nothing but drive all weekend. Christina came over for a little bit and then I went to bed, falling asleep very quickly.

Sunday (9/21) I picked up Christina and we went to His Hands. After the service we went to Stacy's to check on Cooper as Satcy was out of town. He seemed quite happy to see us and after about an hour of hanging with him, we went to Chili's for some lunch. After lunch we stopped by the apartment to get the Wii and a movie. We watched Robin Hood: Men in Tights at Stacy's while keeping Cooper company. After that we stopped by Krogers and got some hamburger patties and then went to Leslie and Brian's housewarming party. It was a blast. We played Guitar Hero and threw around the frisbee for a bit before grilling dinner. Leslie, Brian, Christina, me, Shannon, and Vincent were in attendance. We hung around the fire pit outside in the perfect weather as Brian manned the grill. We ate hamburgers, baked potatoes, baked beans, pasta salad, regular salad, squash and zuchinni for dinner. It was a grand feast that was delicious. After dinner we played more Wii and then eventually got into Wii sports. We stayed longer than I realized and ended up leaving around 11:30. I left the Wii at LEslie and Brian's so Ryan, her son who was too tired to play when he arrived, could play some this week. Besides, I have video work to do and could use the elimination of that distraction. I crashed into my bed after dropping Christina off at her apartment.

Meditation for the week: The message of this week's sermon at His Hands:

Matthew 7:7-12

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

From the Desk 9/16/2008

As you have undoubtedly noticed I have been less than frequent with my posts about life here in Georgia. Things at work have simply been too busy to write each day as unfortunately I have brought my work home with me several evenings recently. I also have been more social with helping people move, hiking, running several mornings, and generally hanging out with friends. As is the case there is not always time for blogging among the craziness. I will be trying to post each weekend some of the highlights from the week to keep you all in the loop. (is it necessary to "all" when addressing 3 people?)

This past weekend was the Wells' family reunion at Frozen Head State Park. My family seemed to like Christina and she liked them too! I think she will be joining us for our winter trip to Fontana in December so they will get a chance to get to know her better there. Other than that the week was filled with lots of deadlines at work one evening of mandatory organization work at home until 8:00pm to get caught up. I have done good, running at Kell High School's track the past two mornings and intend to run tomorrow (needed to give my legs a rest) Other than, not much going on. Hanging out with Christina and loving every minute of it, spending time watching football with friends and trying to catch some sleep when possible! I'll be in K-town for a wedding this weekend, but will be heading back to GA after it is over on Saturday night. So, see you soon!

From the Desk 9/8/2008

This morning I spent a good deal of time trying to schedule the next blast email to go out. The actual process of scheduling it was not the issue. That process only took a few minutes to complete. My hang up came when I sent the test out and none of the images appeared, only the alternate text descriptions of what was in the boxes appeared. I re-linked the images and made sure that the files were in the correct folder on both our end and on the mail server. I sent another test email out, but never received it. I figured we could fix it tomorrow since it wasn't scheduled to go out until Wednesday at midnight. I then turned my attention to resizing and re-spacing the information on the Bright From the Start workshop flyer to squeeze it into an 8 1/2 x 11 front and back flyer. It took the rest of my time before lunch to complete that and then it was time for a much needed break.

I drove Carmen and I to REI so she could register for a trail maintenance day on the 27th. I was going to sign-up, but since I'm going backpacking that day, I thought it wise to conserve both time and energy for later in the day. I did, however, browse their selection of some supplies I needed to pick up before the trip. We stopped by Chick-fil-A and after what was an uncharacteristically long wait Carmen got her food and we returned to the break room. We ate and laughed over everyone's crazy stories from the weekend. Once I returned to my desk I decided to learn a new trick on Photoshop having to do with Actions. Actions are pre-made effects that people have created and made available for free on certain websites to help create stunning effects with ease if you are not a pro at Photoshop (cause I'm not). I wanted to create a spiral binding on a notebook paper background to sample for the background of our new look of blast emails. After a little bit of frustration I figured out what I was doing wrong and was able to create the desired effect. I will have to put it in place tomorrow to see if it comes across the way I intend. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Chris in the warehouse re-rolling the window posters that were used during the Back-to-School sale. We rolled and re-packed around 30 posters, hangers, and suction cups to save for next year. I also contemplated changing clothes and hiking the loop at Burnt Hickory Rd. by myself after work, but those thoughts quickly vanished as I heard a terrible crash of thunder that matched the dark sky looming over the area. 5:00 came and I wasted no time in getting to my car as it was beginning to rain.

By the time I left the parking lot, it had ceased to sprinkle and had begun a mimi-tropical storm of wind, rain, lightning and thunder. I talked with mom on my way home to properly welcome her back home from her trip and then once I was home I ate some dinner. I worked on some laundry and typed up a few notes from the marketing meeting as I'm really trying to have that done by week's end. I paid some bills and then went to Target to buy a few food items to get me through the next week of lunches at work. I shopped wisely and managed to keep my purchase total much lower than usual (not buying a month's worth of food probably helped too!) I had finished putting away the groceries I bought when Christina called to let me know she was out of class. I invited her over and when she arrived we spent a good deal of time watching some old video footage on my computer. We watched everything from pranks at th old P&S building to footage of an actual good snow in Knoxville. It was fun remaniscing on time spent filming at all hours of the night with Hickey. After watching more footage than should probably still be on my computer, I walked Christina to her car and said goodnight. I went back inside to go to bed early so I could have the energy to get up tomorrow morning and run before going into work.

Meditation for the day: Isaiah 46:4 “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

From the Desk 9/7/2008

This morning I was apparently more tired from moving and traveling than I realized as I woke up looking at my clock ans seeing that it was already 9:45 and too late to make it to His Hands. I talked with Christina, who had overslept as well, and we decided to grab some breakfast at Cracker Barrel before she had to be at work. We met at 11:00 and were seated after a few minutes of waiting. While waiting we browsed the country store and discovered that Cracker Barrel has caught the Webkinz craze as they had a large assortment of both the pets and the new clothing line to compliment the original toys. We also were listening to the old-timey gospel songs that were blaring though the speakers overhead. We were seated and it took a while for us to decide what we wanted. I usually have 3 favorites that I rotate between, but I wasn't in the mood for any of them this morning. I settled on Grandpa's Coutry Breakfast (2 eggs, grits, bacon, biscuits & gravy, and fried apples) and it was really too much food. (but I figured that I could eat big for this meal and not much else the rest of the day) After eating, Christina went to work and I returned to the apartment.

I spent the afternoon being fairly productive. I made the DVD insert for the Dave Matthews DVD I produced, printed the inserts, copied the DVDs, and printed the labels. I also duplicated the picture disc for Elizabeth's wedding as both her mom and Dustin's mom wanted their own copy after viewing it. I then did some laundry and general straightening around the apartment. I took a nap for a couple of hours while the House marathon was running on USA. I woke up and then went to update mt blog from my weekend adventures in Alabama. I also cleaned up some files that have now consumed almost all 750 GB of storage space on my computer. Christina called around 8:00 to let me know that she was done with her homework for the night and wanted to come over. She arrived and we continued to watch the House marathon, ocassionaly checking the score of the Indianapolis Colts game and Family Guy. We called it an early night and said goodnight and I walked Christina to her car. I went to sleep early (well..earlier than usual) hoping to motivate myself to run the following morning.

Mediation for the day: Luke 12:19 "And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."

From the Desk 9/6/2008

This morning I woke up feeling the effects of little sleep from the night before. I changed clothes and then Brian came back with some coffee from Starbucks. We all slowly woke up with help from drinks and snacks once Brian's parents arrived to help. One of Brian's friends, Jeremy, also came to lend a hand. We made quick work of loading the truck. There was minimal pieces of furniture and a lot less boxes than the week before. It took about an hour to load the entire truck and it was packed from floor to ceiling, which meant that things should remain stationary and we will find no surprises when we re-open the door in Georgia. Leslie and Stacy headed out in Leslie's car a little ahead of everyone else so they would be ready for us when we got to the new house. I was going to accompany Brian in the truck and his parents followed us. We hit the road back to Georgia about 11:00 central time. We drove for quite a while before stopping to stretch our legs and refill on drinks and snacks. We talked a lot on the way back and Brian and I are going to be pretty good friends. It will be nice to have another guy friend that lives nearby to do things with.

We pulled into Leslie and Brian's driveway around 3:00 eastern time. We took a break and relaxed inside for several minutes before even thinking about unloading the truck. We made a list and Brian's mom went on a food run to McDonald's. While they were gone I decided to take a power nap on the couch while football was entertaining everyone else in the room. I was awakened by Brian who was holding a quarter pounder with cheese for me. That is the best way to be woken up; with food. We all ate quickly and then decided to get the rest of the work done. We unloaded the entire truck in about 30 minutes and then started re-arranging some things inside the house. Leslie's parents had come over and brought her son, Ryan. Stacy and I determined it was time to leave once Ryan began contemplating using us as target practice for his Transformers Disc Launcher. I drove Stacy home and then went home myself. I didn't realize how tired I was until I sat down and almost fell asleep in a matter of minutes. I called Christina and she was going to come over to watch a movie. I showered and then unpacked my bag from the weekend.

Christina arrived and we decided to watch "Stranger Than Fiction". It was the first time I had seen it all the way through and it was really good. If you have the opportunity I highly recommend it. I'm not a Will Ferrell fan in most roles he portrays, but his character is completely different in this movie. The movie also has a really good theme that I will sum up in this quote: "The hero in my books always die, but if your character knows that he will die and still does what he know will cause his death, isn't that the type of man you want alive in this world?" After the movie we watched some old TV shows and then it was time to say goodnight. We made plans to go to His Hands in the morning, and I went to sleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Meditation for the day: Titus 2:2 “Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.”

From the Desk 9/5/2008

Today I worked mainly on a new template for the blast emails we will send out to our mailing list. It took a bit longer than I had hoped to learn some more tricks on Dreamweaver to manipulate the background and header images that I wished to alter. I went through several concepts and designs for the header, from which I was going to base the rest of the design upon. I soon realized that I was working the process backwards and needed to create a theme/idea for the whole appearance before creating any graphics. I soon came up with an idea and then altered the background image first to put in place the foundation for the look of the rest of the pieces. It will look like a piece of notebook paper with the information boxes overlayed on the page to notify our customers of what we are promoting at that time. I set the new header in place and it didn't look quite right, but I decided to leave it for now and I would re-visit the design next week. I was going to eat lunch that I had brought, but instead decided to delay my lunch to eat with Mike, Blair, and Carmen for a cheap lunch at Ted's. I met with Chris at noon and we planned out the entire rest of the year's blast email schedule and themes. We were finishing up on some donation requests when Mike asked if Chris would like to join us. She replied with a big smile and said yes. Apparently Dave isn't a fan of Ted's so she doesn't get to go very often.

We all rode in Mike's car and found that it was a bit more crowded than it usually is at 11:00am when they first open. We were seated quickly and also received our food quickly. I had a bowl of New England Clam Chowder that was close to the best I've ever tasted. I also had two mini-bison burgers from Mike's 4 mini-burger plate. It was a good and filling lunch for only $4.55 (Mike picked up the burgers) We returned and I said hello to Christina since she had arrived while we were gone to lunch. Chris and I wrapped up the donation requests. I then began working on typing up some more notes from the marketing meeting. I didn't get too far on that as I had to re-work the coupon offer on our next blast email to better define the exclusions of the coupon and to change the date as we decided to push it back a week from the original schedule date. I worked on some various things until it was 4:30 and then I asked Mike if I cold leave early to go home and pack for my trip to Birmingham later tonight. He said of course and I stopped off on the sales floor to say bye to Christina until tomorrow night when we got back.

I went home a quickly packed a change of clothes for the moving day and then a few items to get ready the following morning at Brian's townhouse. I drove and picked up Stacy at her house around 6:00 and we then drove to Leslie's house where we would leave my car. We piled in Leslie's car and hit the road to Birmingham. I was the elected navigator, being in the front seat, and directed us with Google maps directions to I-20. We drove for what didn't seem like very long and we were in the state of Alabama. We arrived at Brian's place around 8:30 (Central Time). We rested briefly before going out for the evening. Brian drove us to Papa ??? restaurant (I can't remember the exact name). Stacy and I split a sampler appetizer and we all ate and conversed with one of Brian's friends Ray who joined us shortly after we arrived. We listened to the live band play an eclectic selection of music that was in the range of their female lead vocalist. We laughed ate and drank until we were tired and then we returned to get some sleep before moving early the next morning. Stacy ended up crashing on the love-seat as her air mattress had mysteriously developed a hole. I crashed on the couch for the night and went to sleep quickly once I could lay still.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 143:10 “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”

From the Desk 9/4/2008

This morning I decided to work on typing up the notes from the marketing meeting. I made a final count of the cards that we collected with ideas on them and we went through 225 cards! No wonder it took so long to get through the ideas themselves without discussing anything extra. I managed to type out the notes that were specific to 1st - 4th Quarter ideas. That information alone occupied 5 pages in a regular document. I will tackle about 4 categories a day until I am finished. Most of the information is still fresh on my mind, but I can only stare at note cards for so long before starting to lose focus. I then worked on an idea with Mike to correct a problem with links on our homepage. At the time they only worked if you were using Firefox as your Internet browser. (something about the code using image mapping as hotspots not being recognized in Internet Explorer or something....very technical junk) So I broke the large image containing all the boxes as one into 4 separate images and just linked the image as a whole to solve the problem. Now the site works equally as well for Internet Explorer as well as Firefox. After putting out those fires, it was time to eat some lunch.

After a brief debate on where to go, we ended up going to Guido's Chicago Style Hot Dogs for lunch. Carmen, Tausha, Blair and I ate there and then brought Mike back some food when we were finished. I had 2 Corn Dogs and they were just as good as ones that you might find at a country fair. (that's a compliment) They had a variety of fixin's for the dogs as well as offering regular dogs, Italian sausage dogs, bratwursts, and pizza pockets. They had a choice of fries, onion rings, or chips for sides. I had never eaten there before and will probably go back if I am ever craving a hot dog as theirs are top notch. We picked up Mike's order and then headed back to the office. Mike had ordered 2 Chicago dogs, which were hot dogs (I think there was one under there) a pickle spear, tomatoes, peppers, etc. Basically it was a side salad on a hot dog. Too many flavors for my liking. After lunch I typed up an email and sent it to everyone who participated in the marketing meeting, thanking them for their ideas and participation. I also ended the message with a request to meet again in about 4 months to discuss the upcoming events at that time to get every one's input and plan everything 3 months out as thoroughly as possible. I received a reply from Alison Brown, who we are following her journey to Africa to teach, giving me information to type up a welcome letter to people who want to follow her travels through our website. I used that info to finalize a letter and then got it in a format that I could post on the website. I hope to have everything with that project up and running by the end of next week. I will let you all know so you can let me know what you think of the idea and how well it was executed on our website. 5:00 came around and I headed home to crash briefly before running an errand or two with Christina once she got out of class.

I was working on the DVD label and insert for the newly created Dave Matthews Band Stoytellers DVD. I managed to create the label and will probably base the design of the insert off of the label images. Christina came over after a brief stop off at her parents' house. She also came bearing gifts: cake that her mom had made and wanted to share with me! We drove out to Target so I could buy a Birthday card for Papa as it is his 85th birthday on Saturday. I had a hard time selecting a card as I usually don't buy cards for any occasion just on principle of saving trees (or something that is a valid excuse). I finally selected a card while one the phone with Amy discussing the hiking trip and various things. I then drove to KFC to pick up a gift card. For those of you have kept track over the years, I have a hidden talent for going to a fast food establishment with the intention of purchasing a gift card only to find that my first stop, not matter the type of restaurant, is always out of gift cards. I thought that perhaps my talent would not transfer across state lines, but again I was wrong. They told me that they don't carry them in the stores down here in Georgia so once again I was forced to create a certificate and then attach cash for true usability. Once we returned to the apartment and I had made the fake gift certificate we watched a re-run of "Grey's Anatomy" to continue hyping up for the new season. We watched part of "The Addams Family" before I walked Christina to her car. We said goodnight and I returned inside where I went to sleep shortly after checking email.

Meditation for the day: Matthew 28:18-20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

From the Desk 9/3/2008

The morning of the marketing meeting had finally arrived. I was overjoyed, thrilled, and pumped about the possibilities of the day. Then I opened my eyes and realized how tired I was from the concert last night and that my ears were still a little fuzzy from the volume of the show. I got to work and promptly filled the largest mug I could find with coffee, cream and sugar in an effort to renew the excitement I had felt about this meeting for the past two weeks. I printed a few things and checked with Mike on setting up the projector and having Internet access in the meeting room. Aimee arrived at 9:00 and we arranged the tables and set up the projector screen. We also made even more rolls of tape as I had seen Vickie's stack of cards and it dwarfed my stack of 30. I got all my visual aids in order and talked briefly with Chris and Vickie concerning one thing that needed to be brought up at the meeting by someone other than me. Everyone filed into the room and we began shortly after 10:00am. We explained how we would run this storyboard meeting. We would read the cards, tape them on the boards under the correct heading and then once we got all the cards up break down any categories too large to tackle as is into smaller categories. It took about 45 minutes just to read the cards. We began with 7 categories (1st Quarter, 2nd Quarter, 3rd Quarter, 4th Quarter, Misc., Retail, Warehouse, and Website). We ended up with 14 categories after each of us took a section and re-defined some of the cards. It was then time to use 3 blue dot stickers to "vote" on the most important category and 5 red dots to denote our most important card/idea. By the time this activity was finished, I briefly explained what we would discuss after lunch.

We left for the Olive Garden for lunch and had to split into two tables as it was very busy when we arrived. Vickie, Stacy, Anna, Kenny and I sat at what was deemed "the kids table". It was fun and full of insane ideas and ridiculous stories to pass the time. I enjoyed the salad and the tasty Zuppa Tuscana soup. We were also eating with Sherri, a long time employee of the School Box (15 years) who recently retired. It was a good mental break from the meeting, but I was already feeling the effects of the first part of the day and was more quiet than usual to conserve energy. We returned and after a few minutes fired up the second half of the meeting. I covered the importance of collecting zip codes at the check-out screen in the retail stores. I also demonstrated the information that MapPoint can give us if we have that information to input in the program. I then covered the "Open Box Experience" that I get every time I receive and order from Moosejaw, an outdoor recreation supplies company based in Michigan. Their approach to package extras isn't very expensive, but the impact it has is huge. I covered the basics of my proposal for the Extra Credit Customer Loyalty Program that I had already unveiled to Dave and Chris. Everyone seemed to be very enthusiastic to get that program off the ground which is good because that is probably my number one priority for the new year of marketing. We discussed zip codes, mailing lists, and loyalty programs as well as a demo of Alison's Adventure that will be an addition to our website in the next week or so. After I got through all of my stuff we looked at the time and decided it was time to adjourn for the day. We returned to our desks and I played catchup on emails and phone calls for a bit and then after speaking with Anna about more ideas and Chris about planning more blast emails, it was 5:00. I was exhausted after being in the meeting from 10:00 - 3:30 (with a brief recess for lunch).

I went home completely drained and mentally out of things. I ate a quick bite to eat and then went to work on a simple video project. I had set up my camcorder to record the vh1 Storytellers concert featuring Dave Matthews Band and had already pulled the footage off to my hard drive. I laid down the video track, created the main and sub menus and then split the video into chapters. I set the project to burn when Christina called to let me know she was leaving her parents house to come over and visit (in case you didn't use context clues from previous blog entries, Christina got a new phone and was now able to call in addition to texting). She arrived and we watched lots of America's Funniest Home Video clips as well as Family Guy and a brief stint of Palin's address at the GOP National Convention. We soon grew tired since neither one of us go the sleep we needed and I called it an early night. I said goodnight to Christina and then went to bed around 9:30. I faded in and out of sleep at first and then fell into a coma of dreams before 11:00.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 28:7 "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."

From the Desk 9/2/2008

This morning I got to work and it felt like a Monday, trying to get to things that were pushed off from the previous week. The majority of my day was spent working on the website. The School Box website has now launched our "pink" site to support breast cancer awareness and ties in with our retail promotion to raise money to donate to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In the process of the site changing, they have turned control of the 4 boxes at the bottom of our site over to us to change graphically how we want to. I was not expecting this to happen at the same time as the site changeover so when I first visited the site, the boxes at the bottom were missing. I spent the next 2 hours mostly on my own (Mike helped periodically) adding the new boxes to the site and then tying the links to all the information in the boxes. After fixing that problem, I noticed that the website header no longer appeared so I had to go work on fixing that problem. It ended up being something simple; the permissions on the image file were limited and I changed them to view for everyone and it corrected the broken image file quickly. It was then time for lunch.

I thought the family was going to eat together in the break room (minus Stacy as she was in a meeting), but it ended up being just Blair and I. Tausha was swamped with making sure payroll was done, which we didn't object to, and Carmen was buried in invoices from the long weekend. Blair shared about her trip to the beach and I told her about my weekend visit with Hickey and Christina. We returned to our respective desks and I began working on the next project: re-working the teacher resources page. We have a tab along the left-hand side of the website that is named teacher resources and contains links to website that students, teachers, and parents can use. The box at the bottom of the website is also named teacher resources, but contains links to PLU teacher class schedules and answer keys to CRCT testing books. To solve this problem of the same name being used for 2 things, I combined the pages into one page that holds all the information and is linked form both the side tab and the graphic box. Once I made the page, I had to link the updated class schedules to the new page and link the box to that page. I finished that up around 3:00 and then followed Vickie's suggestion to go ahead and roll up tape and stick on a lid so we can quickly put tape on the back of the idea cards and stick them up on the wall tomorrow. I made 75 rolls and I have a feeling that we will need more, but its a start. I also responded to an offer for our participation in a teacher open house event held at the Georgia Aquarium. It is a win-win situation. We get to promote The School Box, meet teachers, and view the aquarium. Leslie from Howell-Mill will be attending with me, which means that I might not get lost! After wrapping up things that had to be done before Thursday it was time to go home.

I went home and straightened and cleaned up after the weekend. I ate some dinner and then got a text from Christina to let me know she was on her way. 92.9 Dave fm was putting on a free concert tonight at the newly renovated Pontiac Garage, located in the basement of The Tabernacle. The headline band was Needtobreathe, a band that I hadn't heard of until about a week ago when Christina first heard them and bought their CD. I listened to it and loved their sound and lyrics. We drove down to the venue and got there a little early so we could be standing near the front of the stage whe the bands started playing. The opening act was Matthew Mayfield, a singer/songwriter who played acoustic guitar while letting his mellow vocals sail over top. His voice reminded me of a mix between Dave Matthews and the lead singer of Lifehouse. The combination was great and his lyrics centered largely around the image of fire to illustrate passion, love, pain,etc. I purchased his CD "The Fire EP" at the end of the show. The second act was a guy named Andy Davis. He was from the Nashville area and played both guitar and piano (not at the same time). My description of his style and voice will seem a little odd, but its all I could come up with. He had a sound like Fiona Apple mixed with David Gray, and a voice like David Gray mixed with Rufus Wainwright. The combination, again, was beautiful. We involved the audience in the song "Let the Woman" by teaching us to sing part of the song and then giving the audience the cue to join in his song at the appropriate time. He played a great set and I also picked up his CD. After a few minutes of tuning and changing the stage setting around, Needtobreathe came out to play for us. They stole the show. I'm not sure if they are solely a Christian band, but their lyrics certainly lead one to believe that. They opened with the song "Streets of Gold" and I really enjoyed the way that the songs they played seemed to be over, but they always played an instrumental segue way into the next song so there was little to no silence. They played several of my favorites such as "More Time", Signature of the Divine (Yaweah)" and "Spare the Time". The show ended with their last song, "Washed by Water" being dedicated to the people displaced by the hurricanes hitting New Orleans. They pulled out their acoustic guitars and sat at the edge of the stage about 15 feet from where we were standing and played the last song without amplifiers or mics. It was eerily quiet until they started playing the song and then asked everyone to join in singing the chorus with them. It was almost like a worship service at a church the way that everyone's voices blended in and carried the powerful lyrics across the room. It was an amazing show and I was sad that it was over, but I knew that I needed to get sleep for the meeting tomorrow anyway. Christina dropped me off at my apartment around 11:30 and I went to bed soon after walking in the door. I went to sleep still hearing the songs echoing in my head.

Meditation for the day: I decided to put the lyrics to the song "Washed by Water" for the meditation for today as I think they are very applicable to everyone's lives.

"Washed By Water" ~by Needtobreathe

Even when the rain falls
Even when the flood starts rising
Even when the storm comes
I am washed by the water

Daddy was a preacher
She was his wife
Just tryin to make the world a little better
You know, shine a light

People started talking
Trying to hear their own voice
Those people tried to accuse my father
Said he made the wrong choice

Though it might be painful
You know that time will always tell
Those people have long since gone
My father never failed

Even when the rain falls
Even when the flood starts rising
Even when the storm comes
I am washed by the water

Even if the Earth crumbles under my feet
Even if the ones I love turn around and crucify me
I won't never ever let you down
won't fall, won't fall, won't fall as long as you're around me

From the Desk 9/1/2008

This morning I slept in until 9:45 and then fired up my laptop to update my blog for the past couple of days. I let Hickey sleep until he woke up on his own (about 11:00). I was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't really sore from running yesterday. I ate a small breakfast and then once Hickey woke up and had packed we decided to play some Wii Tennis before he headed back to Knoxville. We wanted to win at least 3 matches and in order to do so we ended up playing 5 as we couldn't get past our opponents for 2 matches in a row. We eventually came out victorious and Hickey gathered up his bags and headed back home. It was fun having him visit and I wish he could have stayed longer so we could have gotten into some filming adventures. (there's only so much you can do in 3 days)

After Hickey left I sent Christina a text (as her phone still only can send/receive texts and not calls) and asked her if she wanted to hang out for the rest of the day. She came over a little later and we watched some TV before settling on watching "National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets". Christina really liked the movie and myself, having already seen it several times, took this time to nap unintentionally. We ran a few quick errands and picked up some food from Arby's to eat while watching the onset of the UT vs. UCLA football game. The game looked to be a victory for UT until the second half when the UCLA quarterback turned his game around 180 degrees to look like a veteran player commanding his troops on the field. Christina left before overtime started as we both had to work tomorrow. I walked her out to her car and we said goodnight. I returned to watch the overtime period in which UT ultimately lost due to a missed field goal. After looking back on the day, I seemed to take the advice of the speaker at His Hands on Sunday. I relaxed and rested all day long and he was right I felt better, but I probably should have gone to bed earlier to avoid the effects of not much sleep to start out the work week. Oh well, I'll just take a nap tomorrow after work.

Meditation for the day: 2 Timothy 1:13-14 “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”

From the Desk 8/31/2008

This morning I woke up and got ready for His Hands. I then woke up Hickey by assaulting him with a barrage of various objects until he acknowledged he was conscious. We left and picked up Christina around 9:40 and then headed to His Hands. The service was good as usual, and I again recognized some of the songs that they have played before. We observed the Lord's Supper and then the band played the song "I'm Not Alright" by Sanctus Real. It is my favorite song by that band, but I never thought about the words and how they match up with the meaning of the Lord's Supper. Some of the lyrics are: "I'm not alright, I'm broken inside and I all I go through brings me closer to you, closer to you". By accepting/observing the Lord's Supper, we are remembering Jesus' body and blood that became broken like ours so we could have new bodies that were un -broken in heaven. Everything He did, He did to bring us closer to the Father and by following His example and teachings we are brought closer to the Father as well. The final song was not one I recognized, but it was slow and soft using only an acoustic guitar and soloist. The message was taught today by the guy that usually does the greeting. It was on a topic that everyone can apply: resting. The scripture was Matthew 11:28 and the references to every one's schedules being packed with activities, work, family, and even church hit home for pretty much everyone. I have, since moving down here, tried to pack my days full of things so I would be busy and not have "too much" free time. I think other than Christina, work, and exercise I will try to minimize my schedule to allow for more rest. We wrapped up the service with a loud song of praise. When we were leaving we decided to grab a quick bite to eat before Christina had to be at work.

Deciding where to eat was like an Olympic event. There was lots of preparation, discussion, and planning that went into even naming the participants (restaurant choices). Once the contestants were named they had to qualify for the event (were they quick enough to eat and leave before Christina had to be at work). Finally, they had to be a brand new face in the competition (someplace Hickey had never eaten before). We settled on Ted's Montana Grill as it was located in the same shopping center as The Box. After much discussion with the waitress about the quality of green beans they served, Hickey placed his order as did Christina and I. We ate and talked about the service as it was a stark contrast to CBCB back in Knoxville. We dropped Christina off at work and then Hickey and I returned to the apartment. I took a brief nap on the couch while Hickey updated his MySpace photos. We then watched various music remix videos on YouTube until it was time to go to The Box. I wanted to arrive about 30 minutes before Christina would be ready to leave as I needed to update the website header since the sale advertised was ending today. I tweaked and worked with the header graphic and finally got it working.

When we walked out to the sales floor Christina was almost ready to leave and soon we left. We stopped by the apartment to change into running clothes and start my camcorder recording the VH1 Storytellers performance by Dave Matthews Band. (Side note: if anyone can tell me an easy way to capture straight from the TV to my camcorder I'd appreciate it). We left and stopped by Christina's apartment so she could change into running clothes. We then went to Cobb County High School's track and ran and walked for about 3 miles. It felt good to be active and the weather couldn't have been nicer. After that we returned Christina to her apartment so she could shower and Hickey and I followed suit at my apartment. We all watched some TV before realizing that we were hungry. We once again went through the difficult process of picking a place to eat and ended up at one of my favorite restaurants: The Marietta Diner. We were seated and all ordered various sandwiches (my Crab meat Melt Sandwich was phenomenal!). We ate and talked and mostly people watched as the mirrors lining the interior walls of the dining room made it easy to observe other tables without being obvious. We opted out of dessert as none of us could eat anything else. We returned to the apartment and ended up watching some of a comedy special on Comedy Central before I walked Christina out to her car as we were all exhausted from our day. We said goodnight and then I returned to watch part of a Dane Cook comedy show before I grew too tired to keep my eyes open. I checked email and then crashed into my bed falling asleep quickly.

Meditation for the day: Matthew 11:28 "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."

From the Desk 8/30/2008

This morning I woke up and showered then woke up Hickey in the usual creative way. I placed my alarm clock on his bed about 6 inches from his face with about a minute to go before the alarm sounded. When it went off we kept trying to swat at the alarm on what he thought was on a night stand beside the bed (there wasn't one there). In the process of flailing his arms, he wrapped up the alarm clock in his other arm and only realized this once he opened his eyes and found the snooze button. He eventually got up and we made our way to Leslie's parent's house to begin moving her stuff to the new house. It took about 15 minutes to get there and we didn't get lost (thankfully). Once Mike and Aimee arrived with the School Box truck we began loading the furniture that we had already moved out to the driveway onto the truck. There was a particular piece of furniture that had it in for me. The large couch we moved gave me a slight cut on my pal under my thumb, but it didn't really bleed that much. When we moved it out to the truck, it struck again and this time I required some first aid to stop the bleeding. (see the picture for the graphic footage) We moved boxes, furniture, games, etc. and had the entire truck loaded in around and hour and a half. We figured out who was following in what order to find Leslie's new house, which no one except Leslie and Brian knew where it was. We traveled further down Cobb Parkway (Hwy 41) into Cartersville and into Euharlee in Bartow County. We arrived at the new house and after receiving a brief tour, began unloading the truck. The system was actually very effective for unloading. All the boxes went into one room and then Leslie directed where each piece of furniture was to go so there was minimal re-moving. We unloaded the entire truck and got the new HDTV set-up to watch some football in 35 minutes. Anna arrived with pizzas and drinks and then we all took a break to watch some of the Florida vs. Hawaii game while eating.

After a few minutes of rest, Mike and Aimee left to return the box truck and Anna headed out as well. Stacy, Hickey and I stayed behind to help unpack some boxes and set the furniture in the correct place within each room. We worked until around 2:00 and then Hickey and I departed to continue in our adventures. We arrived back at the apartment and decided to take it easy for a while. We watched some TV and then after eating some food broke into playing some Wii Sports. Our main game of choice was tennis and then boxing eventually was included. We created a Mii (personal character for each player that keep track of their records in the games, etc) and I think it came out looking very accurate. Here is mine for comparison (also fairly accurate in my opinion). We played about 15 matches which took over an hour of playing time, working up a little sweat.

Christina came over after she got back in town from the funeral and she joined in our tennis games. It was mostly Hickey and Christina against me as I figured I owned the game and had a bit of an advantage. We played a few games and then switched to bowling for several games. After feeling worn out from the games, we deiced to watch Transformers. (Side note: beginning a movie that is over 2 hours long at 10:45pm is not a good idea if you expect to stay awake) We watched the movie and ate some ice cream. I remember most of the movie, but woke up as the credits were scrolling. I walked Christina to her car and then said goodnight. I went back inside and crashed quickly on my bed knowing that I would have to get up in 6 hours for His Hands.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 25:3 "No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse."

From the Desk 8/29/2008

This morning I went through my checklist of all the items we were sending to the stores for the Breast Cancer promo that begins on Tuesday. Once I confirmed that everything was in the correct place and all the items were set to go, I worked with Mike on the next project. We worked out the details of creating the actual .html page to send out the bast email on the Wednesday after Labor Day. I added the image boxes in the correct order and then remade the box leading the readers to the bonus savings and teacher classes sections of our website. I then worked with Kimdi, our Customer Service Manager, to create the necessary coupon code that is active on our website to allow the recipients of the email to use their coupon online. I got everything squared away on that project and then it was time for lunch.

I ate with Carmen, Stacy and Tausha and we all talked about the long weekend and what our plans were. After eating I worked on fine-tuning my notes for the marketing meeting on Wednesday. I added some example emails from Moosejaw and REI to illustrate my point about the need to make our emails look more professional/consistent. I also worked with Mike to see what technology we were going to have set up in that room for the meeting. The rest of the afternoon passed slowly as I was anticipating 5:00's arrival so I could go home and make sure everything was ready for Hickey's arrival. It finally came and I headed home. Christina came over around 6:30 and we ran to the store to pick up a few items. We ordered some pizza a little before Hickey was supposed to arrive. We were watching some TV when he got here and then we went through the introductions. We all sat down and watched some TV while talking about life in Knoxville and Hickey learning more about Christina and life down here. It was lots of fun and I was really glad to have a visitor. Christina left around midnight as she was staying at her parents house so they could leave for the funeral in Alabama early in the morning. Hickey and I stayed up watching old video clips and talking about life and stuff. We finally gave up talking and went to sleep around 2am.

Meditation for the day: Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

From the Desk 8/28/2008

This morning I got to work and was quickly met by Vickie to coordinate the sending out of the Breast Cancer promotion materials to the stores. I then had James, the warehouse manager, use the forklift to get the pallet of marketing materials down so we could pull the donation bins from last year to relabel with this year's theme. I brought them back to my desk where they would wait until later in the day. I then began the creation of the Bright From The Start class schedule flyer. We hold classes that go towards Georgia teacher's maintaining their teaching certificates in our workshop room in the Spring and Fall. The schedule for the Fall is very busy with 15 classes being held on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings. My task was to create a flyer that was one sheet (front and back) that would list all the class titles, who taught them, a brief description, where it was held, date & time, and cost of the class. It occupied 4 pages in a regular text document so I knew that it would be near impossible to condense/arrange the information into 2 pages. I also had to incorporate a Fall looking background/border to catch people's attention. I worked on this flyer and got about half way done typing in the front page of information before lunch.

The usual group ate in the break room for lunch today and I brought parmesean noodles with sesame ginger chicken that I cooked earlier in the week. I also brought cookies that I had made last night when I baked some for Christina and I. The cookies were a hit and we ate lunch fairly quickly. Carmen needed to run to Best Buy to look for a present for her sister and asked us if we wanted to join her. Stacy had to return to work as she is swamped in preparations for the 2009 catalog, but the rest of us decided to go with her. We walked in Best Buy and instead of seriously looking for a present for Carmen's sister we became captivated by the video game demo stations they have set up. We played Wii bowling, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Rock Band, and Mario Kart. It was a fun way to break up the day and I'm sure we will be going back sometime to "browse" the new games. We returned to the office and I began to realize my space problem with the flyer I was creating. There was no way to include all the information on 1 sheet of paper so Mike suggested that I adjust the paper size to legal and see if that might help any. It took lots of adjusting the spacing of lines and the size of the background boxes, but eventually I was able to squeeze it all on the front and back of a single sheet of legal paper. I then re-linked the background to the color version that will be posted online. I was then put in charge of temporarily baby-sitting Stella, Aimee's dog. Stella weighs about 4.5 pounds and is a tiny poodle. She is also terrified of me for some reason and once she escaped Mike's empty office, she wouldn't even harbor the thought of coming near me when I tried to steer her back in. Eventually Aimee came and rescued her distressed pet from my "evil clutches". Not long after that Anna, Aimee and Vickie emerged from their meeting to dive into the Breast Cancer promotional items. Anna and I removed the old labels or covered the old labels with blank white ones, Aimee adhered the new labels to the donation jars, while Vickie divided the jars among the stores. We then all put roughly 200 donation cards in each of the store's boxes. Once we were finished with that process I glanced at the clock and it was 4:45! Time certainly passed quickly since lunch which was nice for a change. I wrapped up my projects for the day and talked to Mike about what we could work on tomorrow since he is done with his 4 day meeting with the software company who is providing the new system for our distribution center.

I went home to change quickly and then made my way to Stacy's to mow since it hadn't rained for the entire day (for the first time in 5 days). I arrived and mowed quickly as the grass had enjoyed the rain, but had not grown out of control yet. After I finished, Stacy grilled some steaks for us and fixed some corn to compliment the main dish. We sampled a new kind of steak sauce that she had picked up at Publix. It was a Merlot based sauce that was delicious. (This being said by the person who does not really like steak sauces as they are too bitter for my liking) We ate and talked about work stuff until the food was gone. I put the mower away and then left to head back home. Christina was eating dinner at her parents' house but wanted to come over after she was done. I showered and then started a load of laundry before she arrived. We watched some random things on TV before settling on the Democratic National Convention's (DNC) last night of broadcasting. I am making a much more conscious effort to be educated about both candidates before the election in November. We watched a video of Obama's history and upbringing and then watched his speech where he accepted the official nomination of the Democratic Party to be a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. We soon grew tired of the celebration that ensued at the conclusion of his speech and I decided it was time to go to sleep. Christina and I said goodnight and then I drifted off to sleep thinking about the upcoming weekend of events including Hickey's visit to Georgia tomorrow night through Monday.

Meditation for the day: Ecclesiastes 5:3 "As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words."

From the Desk 8/27/2008

Today at work I was determined to get some small projects wrapped up so I could focus on preparations for the marketing meeting. That was the plan any way. I did manage to finish the testing flyer completely after some product revisions and text edits. Now we just have to verify that we will stock the same product and that the prices haven't changed before going to print. I began working on the next blast email that will go out soon containing both a thank you letter for shopping with us through the Back-to-School madness and a coupon as an additional thank you. We are trying something new with this coupon, making it valid for only 4 days to see what level of response we can get in a concentrated time period. I created the letter image box and the coupon image box before meeting with Chris briefly before lunch. We met to set the advertising schedule for Atlanta Parent Magazine and Chattanooga Parent Magazine. The rates for both of these publications rose only slightly from last year so we were able to keep the same schedule mostly and just adjust the size of some of the ads in order to cut some costs. After we met, Tausha, Blair, Carmen and I went to Willy's for lunch. My plan was to not eat out at all this week, but there was a meeting being held in the break room and none of us could get to our food or had a place to eat (the meeting in the workshop was still ongoing as well).

I ordered less than usual to cut my own costs a bit. We then ate too fast as we were starving and ended up with extra time on our hands. I got roped into accompanying the ladies to DSW next door. If you are unfamiliar with this store, as I was, it is a giant shoe store about the size of a Dick's Sporting Goods. I followed around various members of my group as I was uninterested in shopping for myself, but was forced to go along as I rode with Carmen over to lunch. We didn't linger too long and soon returned to work. Once back at my desk, I received a phone call alerting me that the stickers and donation cards we had ordered from Printing Impressions were ready for pick-up. I made a quick trip over to their store and picked up the items we were eagerly awaiting. I returned and divided the rolls of stickers out to the stores to use to cover the 20% discount stickers left on products not sold from the BTS sale. I spent the majority of the afternoon returning phone calls from several people who have called seeking advertising or wanting to team up for promotions. I usually hold returning these calls until I have several so by the time I get to the end of my call back list, my speech on why we cannot participate in their offer comes off as smart and professional. Just before 5:00 I ran to my car to grab some clothes to change for my hike with Christina, changed and then headed out the door to meet her.

We hiked at Burnt Hickory Rd. today as the weather was less rainy. We were making good time until we reached the small creek that we usually step across on stones. Apparently, due to the heavy rains we have experienced as of late the creek was swollen and the rocks we normally cross on were submerged. We continued along the edge of the creek on a path that I had never been on before. It took me a while to realize, but the path ended up connecting back to a portion of the main trail. Then after crossing a bridge, there was another side path that returned us to the loop we were hiking. We finished out the hike making pretty good time for the 3.5 miles we traveled. I dropped Christina off at her car and we made plans to get together later after I did some grocery shopping and she did some homework. I went home and showered before making my way to Super Target in Woodstock to buy some food to feed myself and Hickey this weekend. I was almost done putting things away when Christina called to let me know she was on her way. I started baking some cookies I had bought for us to eat while watching a movie. She arrived a few minutes later and the cookies were done soon after that. We ate and watched TV until it was time to say goodnight. We said goodnight and I went to sleep to recover from my hike.

Meditation for the day: Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

From the Desk 8/26/2008

Today began the same way last night ended: pouring rain. I swam my way into work and managed to get soaked despite parking 15 feet from the warehouse door. (I might recommend to the building improvements committee to enlarge the cover over the door so that is doesn't pour a steady stream of water on you as you use store and Howell Mill store for the majority of the day. That effort was in vain as I got reacquainted with being wet walking out to get in my car. It rained the entire 40 minute drive to the store. Traffic was heavier than I was used to, but I knew that it was actually light for late morning traffic given the weather conditions. I arrived at the your key card to gain access to the building. I typed up the final list of questions for the video interview at the Northlake store today while I attempted to air dry. I was fairly dry by the time I gathered up my stuff to journey to the Northlake store around 10:00 and walked around, taking an official tour of the store guided by Cynthia, the store manager. She is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet and was genuinely excited to have me at her store. After getting the tour, I met Alison Brown, who I would be interviewing, for the first time in person. She seemed very energetic and I hoped that the energy she displayed would come across in the interview. We settled on filming in Leland's office as it was the nicest location available in the store. The filming went well. There was only one phone call that interrupted the interview and there were little to no areas that needed a re-take. Alison was very grateful for us doing this and I told her we were equally excited about her trip and the opportunity to tell her story to other educators by linking to the video and her blog from our website. Once I packed up my video equipment, I loaded everything back in my car as it began raining again. (It should be noted that the only time it rained heavily throughout the day was when I was driving on I-75, I-85, or the 285 bypass) I made my way, with no trouble in directions, to the Howell Mill store at the edge of Buckhead near downtown Atlanta. I arrived and began helping Leslie compile a proposal for a nearby school to purchase supplies from us at a discount to stretch the value of their educational dollars. We worked on the wording and some specific points we wanted to make before we went next door for some lunch. We ate at La Parilla Mexican Restaurant on their outdoor patio for lunch as the sun had come out (again, I wasn't driving anywhere). I had a delicious steak fajita salad while we talked about what was going on in our lives. We didn't talk about too much as we needed conversation for our dinner at Marlow's later tonight with Stacy. We enjoyed our food and as we were wrapping up eating....you guessed it. It started pouring again!

We walked quickly back to the store and wrapped up work on the proposal around 1:30. I said goodbye to everyone there and then hit the road back to the office. I encountered very little traffic on the way back to home base, but it rained most of the way back. When I arrived, I walked inside to be pleasantly surprised to find that Christina was working! I wasn't sure when she was working this week, but I was smiling as I greeted her and gave her a quick hug. We talked briefly about my journeys today and then I returned to my desk.I looked over the schedule left on my desk for the Fall installment of the Bright From The Start Workshops. I will need to create a 2-page flyer to print for the store to pass out as well as a full color version to link on the website. I talked with Vickie about my travels and we made a plan to get the donation jars and donation cards separated for each store and sent out by Friday so we can kick off the Breast Cancer promotion the first week of September. I finished out the rest of the day working on some more ideas for the marketing meeting. I went home briefly to get some stuff done before meeting Leslie and Stacy for dinner at 6:30.

I got less done than I had hoped, but I met the girls at Marlow's Tavern for dinner and laughs. We ate and caught up on each other's lives until 8:00 when we headed out the door into the once again rainy weather. I called Christina and she came over to hang out. I was on the phone with Hickey when she arrived and was sitting at my computer checking things online. I didn't hear her knock on the door, but figured out that she had arrived when she just came on in and appeared in the doorway to the spare bedroom and startled me slightly. We watched The World's Funniest Commercials 2008 on TBS. I enjoy these programs despite the never-funny host (and script writers) and when it was over we kept giggling about some of the things we just saw. We then turned to watching the last half of "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith". After that was over it was time to say goodnight and I walked Christina to her car. We made plans to hike tomorrow after I get off work. I went to sleep quickly and knew that the week only half over and I was already exhausted.

Meditation for the day: Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."

From the Desk 8/25/2008

This morning I woke up early for some reason and decided to use my extra time to read a couple more chapters in "Jimmy". I then got ready and went in to work. I spent the majority of the morning working on finalizing the cover for the toy catalog as I had received an email alerting me to the fact that the cover was not a standard 8.5" x 11". I re-sized the cover, replaced the product images with the hi-res versions I downloaded from vendor image sites, and added an 1/8" bleed area to the cover. I then submitted it to be included in the final proof. I revamped a document for Stacy to use to request co-op money from vendors for the amount of space their products/logo occupies in our new 2009 catalog. Once I made it and revised it once more it was complete and it was also time for lunch.

We ate in the break room after the ladies returned from a trip to Target where they bought food supplies for the week. We are all going to try and be good this week, not eating out at all. We finished up eating and then I returned to the project that would consume the rest of my work day. I decided to go ahead and knock out the creation of the testing flyer for early next year. I know it seems silly to create this piece so early, but the only thing that should change would be the prices, which won't take long to update. This should be a time saver as when the time rolls around for production of this piece we should be able to focus on the next event as this piece will already be complete. I had to grab some of the product images from last year's flyer, and re-typing the copy and descriptions took a considerable amount of time. I chipped away at each group of books, timers, and other items slowly. I managed to complete the entire front side and about half of the back side before I realized what time it was. It was close to 5:00 so I went out to my car to get my hiking clothes. I changed and met Stacy at my car.

We decided to hike up Kennesaw Mountain today as it had been raining off and on all day and the trail at Burnt Hickory Rd. would probably be flooded in parts. When we pulled into the parking lot we instantly noticed that there were only 4 cars there today so the trail would not be crowded due to the weather. It sprinkled lightly off and on through parts of the hike, but never enough to get too wet. We made it to the top and were surprised to have a clear view of downtown. I had imagined the view being clouded over and visibility to be very limited, but apparently the rain had cleared out the smog that usually cloaks the tall buildings in downtown Atlanta. We took a brief rest and then started back down the trail. We were about 50 feet away from the end of the trail and the parking lot when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Stacy had stopped walking and began flapping her arms with a panicked look on her face. She drew a breath in sharply and then managed to yelp out, "moving!" I turned and looked ahead on the trail and saw the cause of her panic. About 15 feet ahead of us was a 2 ft. long snake slithering across the path. I kept a safe distance as I was unsure what type of snake this was. I managed to snap a couple of pictures and have zoomed in to show you what we saw. I would find out later (after researching online) that this snake was indeed a copperhead, one of Georgia's most common poisonous snakes. We allowed the reptile to peacefully cross the path and then continued on to the car. I dropped Stacy off at her car at the Box and then went home. I ate a quick dinner after talking on the phone with mom for a while. The rain continued all night and I took advantage of the music the rain created on my windows by reading more of "Jimmy". I read until Christina came over and then we talked about our days and watched some "Family Guy" on TV. It was good to laugh and I think it cheered her up. After several episodes I walked her to her car and we said goodnight. I returned inside and got my video equipment together as I would be filming at the Northlake store tomorrow. I went to sleep again listening the rain gently singing me to sleep.

Meditation for the day: Romans 12:4-5 "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."

From the Desk 8/24/2008

This morning I picked Christina up around 9:35 to go to His Hands. I was hoping that there would be a message of comfort found for Christina this morning. We sang several songs before we observed the Lord's Supper. The song we sang after that was not one I recognized, but I could identify with its message. The words of most of the songs of the morning spoke of fire and burning with life for God. It was hard to get "fired up" when I knew that someone I cared for so much was hurting, but the song after the Lord's Supper took a different approach. It spoke of the never-ending fire of God's love for us. It mentioned strength, comfort, and understanding. There couldn't have been a more appropriate song to hear this day. The message today was on Matthew 7:1-6. We spoke of the dangers in judging others and how we always want to try and fix things, but often things are not right with us so that hinders our help to others. It was interesting to see the way that Jesus first addresses the Pharisees by calling them hypocrites, then he turns his focus to everyone else demonstrating that we should be careful who we share our witness to as they could break us down if we aren't prepared. (reference to scripture: Don't cast your pearls to the pigs.) We finished with a song proclaiming loud praises and shouts of victory. I may not have felt on fire when I arrived, but I left that way.

Since Christina didn't have to work today I took her out to eat at Chili's after church. I had a burger that would have given most doctor's some business for cholesterol medication, but I only ate half of it. After we ate we went back to Christina's apartment and just sat there being silent. We fell asleep every now and then, but I mostly remained awake to hold her and keep her from falling over. Once we had rested and relaxed for a couple of hours she needed to go to her parents house and check on her mom. We left as it was beginning to rain again and then I drove home. I started a load of laundry and then made the label for Elizabeth's picture disc. I set it to render and burn so that it would be complete when Hickey came down this weekend so he could take it back to her. I also got a head start (as I am very excited about it) by packing my hiking pack for our trip in late September. I decided to go ahead and pack as I knew that I would re-pack and take out unneeded things several times before we actually left.

I decided to cook several things that I could reheat and eat for lunch throughout the week so I placed chicken strips into several different marinades to soak up the flavor before I grilled them. I was watching the movie "What Women Want" on TBS and once it ended I began my cooking. I grilled chicken with Teriyaki, Sesame Ginger, and Italian marinades to offer a variety of flavors for the week. When I had finished it was time to think about going to bed. I did a few things online before deciding to read another couple of chapters in "Jimmy". I grew tired from reading and then went to sleep quickly, listening to the rain gently bouncing off the window over my bed.

Meditation for the day: Matthew 7:1-6 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.

“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

“Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you."