From the Desk 8/19/2008

Today I began working on a example version of a completed Marketing Worksheet to demonstrate the level of detail and the value of having the information available to everyone in the office can be. I also got my morning coffee and found that we were out of the french vanilla creamer so I had to try the hazelnut kind today. It wasn't as good, but still tasted better than just coffee by itself. I spent some time compiling groups of images together that I had downloaded from my swarm of emails late yesterday from various vendors. Once I grouped the images into a folder I compressed the folder to a size that I could submit via email to the company that is putting together the toy flyer. Once I sent the almost too large file it was time to eat some lunch.

I had brought some food to eat, though I wasn't sure that it was enough to fill me up until dinner. So...I had Stacy pick me up some food from La Nipalito's when her, Blair and Tausha got some take out. They came back and met Carmen and I in the break room for our Mexican feast. We ate and laughed trying not to focus on the fact that time seemed to be passing too quickly. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was around noon which is when I was supposed to meet with Chris and our rep from Atlanta Parent Magazine. I gathered up my stuff, threw away the trash and headed back to my desk. I sat down for about a minute then Chris came and got me to join the meeting in Vickie's office. I met Julia, who thoroughly outlined what we had done with them last year, the increase in cost for this year (which was minimal) and some new offerings they had to present. We talked about the growth of the publication as they are celebrating their 25th year this October. We talked about my journey to get down here and what I do most days as I am the person Julia will contact in the future to get artwork and communicate changes. The meeting was very informative and lasted right at an hour, which in my mind is a good length to say what needs to be said, have some light-hearted non-work talk and wrap everything up nicely. The rest of the afternoon was spent adjusting and eventually replacing the bow and ribbon the front cover of the toy catalog for a more realistic 3-D looking version. I think we now have finalized all the product to appear on the cover, the layout of the product and the finished design. Now I have to find hi-res images of the products to send to the catalog company so they can send us a finished proof of the entire catalog for approval. I wrapped up work on image searching and headed home around 5:00.

Once home I changed clothes and went to the fitness room to run. I managed to squeak out 25 minutes of light jogging before feeling the effects of my non-hiking inactivity lately. I then returned to the apartment where I continued my workout with incline and decline push-ups, sit-ups and stretches. After feeling accomplished for the day, I ate some Special K fruit and yogurt for dinner. I then tried my hand at Wii Golf and ended up playing pretty well. I made par on a round of 9-holes. I grabbed a quick shower before Christina came over. She told me about her one class that she had today and then we went to Sonic to get a treat. We both had the Fried Ice Cream Cinnamon Blast and it was just as good as it sounds. We sat in the car enjoying our dessert while listening to Mark Lowry's Twenty-Stories Tall comedy skits. Once we finished licking the inside of the cups to get out every last bit of the tasty treat, we drove back to th apartment. We channel surfed briefly before settling on "Jaws". (her pick even though I like the movie myself) We watched until we got too tired to keep watching and then we said goodnight and I went to sleep.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 16:8 “I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”