From the Desk 5/5/2008

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! I woke up late today which did not help my cause for getting up at 6:00am to go run in the weight room. I got to work and verified that the palettes containing the newspaper inserts did indeed get loaded on the truck to Chattanooga. I also put together the packets with notes in them instruction the managers about the new set of retail signs I sent them. I worked for the most part of the morning on creating an example of a newsletter that we would send out monthly to our customers via email. We need to make more of an effort to communicate with our customers on a regular (at least monthly) basis to ensure maximum customer retention. I ate some left overs from McAlister's for lunch (without the tea unfortunately) and then worked for the remainder of the afternoon on my secret project of establishing a customer loyalty program for The School Box. I was occasionally interrupted by some jokes between the cubicles and once was interrupted by Mike who posed an interesting question of: "I want to know who thought that this product was a good idea?" (see the picture of a pen with a magnetic end and flexible joint for some questionable approaches to product uniqueness)

After work I went home for about an hour until Stacy came and picked me up. We went to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate Leslie's son Ryan's birthday. I took me back to the days when I worked at Funscape as I watched all the kids try their hardest to win tickets and beat their friend's at whatever game they were engaged with at the time. We eventually sat down and ate some pizza, watched the kids dance with Chucky (they really loved him), and watched Ryan open some presents. He got Transformers, Spider Man, and Speed Racer toys (which really reminded me of the days of GI Joe and TMNT action figures). We all sang and then ate some cookie cake. After letting the kids burn off what energy they had gained from the sugar and beverages we packed everything up to leave. Ryan left with his dad, Carson, and Stacy, Leslie, Brian, and I went to T.G.I.Friday's. We originally wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but realized that they would all be overcrowded and not worth the wait. So we ate some appetizers and had some drinks to celebrate in our own way. Stacy dropped me off at the apartment and I finished a load of laundry before relaxing with some TV and then not soon after going to sleep.

Meditation of the day: 1 Chronicles 16:34 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."