From the Desk 5/14/2008

Today I arrived at work optimistic about what I might learn today to help me have more things to do to fill up my days at the Box. I worked on some revisions of flyers for Vickie and Chris until about 10:30 when Mike and I were scheduled to get together for some exporting, mailing list work, and general Dreamweaver training. However, things got backed up as usual so we didn't actually meet until 11:45 after we scarfed down some take out from a nearby Japanese restaurant. We exported the mailing lists from each store and then I sorted the data by store to determine the number of members signed to our list in the month of April. I then compared that number with the total transactions that each store did to figure the sign-up to transaction percentage. The store with the highest percentage won the mailing list contest for the month of April. Douglasville won with 30.8% which was about 20 points higher than the second place store, Knoxville. I passed along all the info to Vickie so she could declare the winner and then pick up gas cards for all the employees in the winning store. Mike then had a meeting at 1:30pm that wasn't supposed to take long, but we decided to push the rest of the training back until Friday afternoon.

Dave brought me the images and names I needed to get started on the project for his son's school. I will create a slide show using three pictures for each student to show them as a baby, a young child, and then how they look currently. It will also display their names and be set to music. I figured out everything I needed to know in iMove, the program on the Mac, to complete this task. I worked on it for the remainder of the afternoon and then changed clothes so we could go on our hike.

This time Dave accompanied Carmen, Mike, and I around the 5.4 mile loop at Kennesaw Mountain. I was glad that Dave came along because once we got past the rocky parts and onto the smoother, gently rolling paths, Dave and I ran for a bit. This was good as it pushed me harder than I'm used to being pushed on our hikes and show me that I still have a long way to be at the level of fitness I'm aiming for. We did the 5.4 miles in about 1 hour and 15 minutes which was good because it was going on 7:25 when we got back to the cars and the park road closes at 7:30! Dave took me back to my car then I drove home quickly, showered, changed, and then left again. I had gotten a text from Leslie inviting me to join her and her friend Shannon for some dinner at Taco Mac. I hadn't planned on it, but it sounded like fun and I'm always up for some wings at Taco Mac. I arrived and they hadn't ordered yet. I met Shannon, who is going to be a junior at Old Miss, but was in town for a visit with family. We ate and drank and generally laughed over the strange happenings in our lives. We left there around 8:40 and I went to the apartment beginning to feel the effects of my hiking excursion from earlier. I worked on the video very briefly and then decided to relax for the rest of the night before falling asleep watching a movie. I no doubt will feel the impact of my run through the mountains tomorrow morning as I crawl out of bed, sore and tired.