From the Desk 5/21/2008

Today I woke up feeling almost back to 100% as far as allergies and such. I ate some breakfast and then headed off to make a couple of stops on my way into work. I bought a little bit of gas (for $3.84 per gallon) and then cried a little bit. I then dropped some things off at the post office. I got to work and began working on creating a new item in the system to link to the website for a group of Summer Bridge Activity Books to be displayed as a main image. I was supposed to meet with Dave shortly after his weekly 9am teleconference. It rolled around to 10:45 and he came over to my desk, I thought to delay our meeting, but instead he had several last minute changes with the DVD project. I thought we had fixed everything, which we had according to his list, but they had some edits when they viewed it on the big screen at Mount Paran yesterday. After adjusting a few pictures and re-working some moving effects we began exporting the files again to burn over to a DVD-R (apparently the system at Mount Paran didn't like the DVD+RW we used the first time). We left that rendering while Dave, Mike, and I grabbed a bite to eat at Mellow Mushroom. I had planned on eating in today, but I decided it wasn't in my best interest to refuse the boss's offer. We went and I actually ate healthy (which I didn't think was possible at this place) by ordering a lil' Ceasar salad and a slice of cheese pizza. It was a good time to eat with "the guys" from the office for a change. I know it probably sounds silly, but when there are only 3 guys in an office of 12+ females it can be nice to hang out with your own gender sometimes. We ate and then returned to the office bringing food back for Vickie, Aimee, and Anna who were engrossed in a meeting when we left.

I finished the DVD project and then Dave had me burn as many copies as I could for the remainder of the afternoon. (I just had to change DVDs every 7 minutes so it wasn't a big distraction) I made a hiking sign-up sheet that will be psoted at my desk for our group to sign up for the days they are available to go hiking and then we can just build groups/pick dyas based on everyone's availability. I think it came out looking quite nice. You can be the judge. I finally met with Dave at 2:45 to go over some marketing ideas and some requests I had received over the past couple of weeks. We covered a new offer for partnership with a company called Preschool Adventures. It is really a neat concept that we definitely will try and team up with next year for some cross promotion due to the large area around our stores they cover, but the timing was too close to a deadline to work it in this year. I kept burning DVDs the rest of the day and also made some revisions to the display labels that Dave and I worked on. I also read an article in NSSEA magazine about retail sign creation. It outlined the rules for how to make an effective sign and pitfalls to avoid in design. I am happy to report that I grade myself as an A- on their grading of good design. I sometimes get carried away with colors, but sometimes it can be useful to bring out products in a plain white display. As it neared 5:00 I changed into my hiking clothes and Stacy and I hopped in my car to go hiking. Everyone else had conflicts, but they were valid ones so we let it slide this time. Besides, Mike said he would go hiking with me tomorrow so that would make 3 days in a row which is more of the consistent activity I'm looking for anyway.

The parking lot was full so we had to park along the road, then hit the trail. This was Stacy's first time hiking Kennesaw Mountain, and I must say that she did remarkably well. It is not that easy of a trail to begin with, and she didn't complain at all. It is nice to add another friend to the list of possible hikers so I can go several days each week. We paused at the overlook point and it was the clearest I've ever seen it. I took this picture, but do not know how well you can see things. I could actually see Stone Mountain today. After hiking, Stacy and I decided to go check out what was new at Dick's Sporting Goods. I walked in the door and almost drooled at what I saw. This was a 2-Story Dick's store with expanded sections for outdoor sports such as hiking, camping, and even a large Frisbee golf section. We wandered around the entire store looking at everything. I found a Camelbak hydration system that I intend to purchase in the future to take on my hiking trips that are longer than 5 miles. You can see by the pictures that I could have spent hours in there, but we were getting hungry and didn't want to be tempted to buy anything. We went to Borders for Stacy to pick up a gift for a friend. While there we found several books on hiking in the Georgia mountains that I will no doubt be asking for around Christmas time. (is Santa listening this early in the year?) We finally found the book Stacy was looking for and then I dropped her off at her car and went home. I cooked some dinner and watched part of National Treasure on USA. It reminded me that I need to pick up National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets sometime soon. I worked on some more small cleaning projects and then went to bed a little early (I have to be rested for my hike with Mike tomorrow after work!)

Meditation for the day: 1 Corinthians 1:10 “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.”