From the Desk 8/22/2008

This morning looked to be full of last minuted decisions and adjustments as the deadline for an ad submission, a program sponsorship renewal, and a blast email creation had to be done before noon today. Things worked out quite nicely though. I got an answer on the sponsorship level we were committing to and notified my contact of our choice. She faxed me the contract over and I reviewed it, signed it, and faxed it back closing the door on that project. I then worked with Mike to figure out the few details I lacked knowledge on for creating and scheduling a blast email. We are wanting to send out one more big reminder of the last week of the BTS savings that end August 31st. I then worked on resizing the ad for the Atlanta Parent Phone Book and then changing the color settings to a spot color with red and black. It came out looking very nice and I sometimes forget how valuable spot color can be to differentiate yourself from other advertisers that use full color. It was then time for some lunch as the first half of the day had flown by. Stacy and her mom, who was in town visiting from Miami, stopped by to say hello. Mike, Carmen, Tausha, Blair and I ate in the break room and then I returned to my desk.

I went to our online resource and after creating the item in our point of sale system, made a barcode to use on the Breast Cancer donation cards we will have printed and will be sold for a $1 donation. I went out to the floor to make sure my barcode scanned and that the correct information came up in the computer system. I was happy to find Christina at the register to help me test the barcode (also for a chance to say hello and chat for a second). It worked as planned and then I returned to begin re-creating and updating a copy of the testing flyer that we will be using towards the end of the school year. I made the background and product area boxes for both sides, and then began typing in the product details for the items on the front. I made it about half way through before I realized that it was 5:00 and time for the weekend to begin!

I made arrangements with Christina to pick her up at 6:15 to go over to Stacy's for a cookout with her mom, Leslie, Brian, and Ryan. We stopped off at Krogers to pick up some chips and dip and drinks for us. We arrived to find Leslie's son, Ryan, full of energy and watching "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End". We chatted and snacked while Brian cooked the burgers on the grill. We ate when the food was ready and the food was delicious. It was easy to enjoy the food as Ryan provided entertainment to complete the dinner and a show experience. We talked while eating some brownies for dessert, and though they were packed with sugar they were not enough to keep Ryan awake for long after eating. As you can see by the picture here, he was knocked out by 9:00 and we all left shortly after that. Christina and I watched the first part of the new Psych episode on USA before falling asleep as well. We said goodnight and I crashed fast into a deep sleep.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 94:18-19 “When I said, "My foot is slipping," your love, O LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.”