From the Desk 8/4/2008

This morning I slept in till 7:30 (not my plan) and rushed to get ready for work. I think that now I am caught up on sleep as I went to bed early last night after having napped for a combined 3 hours yesterday afternoon. I got to work and began working on some ideas for new marketing ventures for the 4th quarter of the year. I was pleased with a couple of them and then Mike approached me about an idea that he had and we kind of collaborated together to come up with the finished product of an idea. I will be posting more about that idea the close it gets the time we will implement it into our website. I also worked on tweaking the coupon sheets for the workshops that will be held in the fall. I met with Chris and Vickie briefly to discuss updating the coupons on our website and it was determined that from now on I will be updating them as I can do this quickly and probably have a better idea of when they need to change. I worked on some more graphic ideas for the 2009 catalog and then took a break around 11:30 for lunch with Stacy and Blair. We were all good today and brought our lunches. My goal this week is to only eat out one day for lunch and that will be on either Wednesday or Friday with Christina as she is off both of those days. We relaxed and laughed our way through lunch until it was time to return to work.

After lunch Stacy and I met with Vickie to discuss/proof catalog covers for the Holiday Toy flyer. We approved the insert promoting the one day sale and coupon, but we wanted a couple of days to brainstorm and make rough versions of a cover that we could design ourselves. I almost began working on brainstorming that and then I finally remembered to send out an email letting the powers that be know about the new feature I put on our website. If you visit our website and click on the part of the header that promotes the back-to-school sales flyer you will be taken to a flip book version of the flyer. I worked with a company online to upload the flyer and we purchased a single license to make sure we followed the rules for publication. I linked the flyer to the promo on the header and it works beautifully. Let me know if you think that this tool would be appreciated by our customers or if it just comes across as a gimmick. I then worked with Stacy to check in and split out an order to the stores. It was 3 pallets and although it was not particularly hard labor, I wasn't dressed to work in the warehouse so I got hot very fast. It took us about 45 minutes to complete the checking in process and then I returned to my desk to find that I had gathered 15 emails in the hour I was away from my desk. I sorted through the urgent ones and then brainstormed with Vickie and Chris about a theme for the Breast Cancer focus in October. I will share the winning theme once we have settled on it. I straightened up my area and then realized it was 5:00 and time to go to Target and then home.

I ran by Target to get some cleaning implements I was out of and some bottled water. I went home and fixed some dinner with enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I snoozed briefly on the couch and then went to work on updating the blog and reading my newest issue of MacWorld. I got a free 6 month subscription to the magazine which I find interesting since I don't own a Mac (even though I really want one) The main focus of this issue was 53 free or low-cost applications that could help you do really cool stuff with your Mac. I read about half way through that article and then set-up the file to create Elizabeth's picture disc. I was looking at some canvas art online trying to find what I was looking for to have in my apartment when Christina called to let me know she was out of work for the night. She came over and we watched a few episodes of Boy Meets World. She hasn't been feeling 100% over the past couple of days so I didn't keep her up late tonight. I walked her to her car and we said goodnight. I went to sleep almost immediately after going back inside my apartment.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 119:130 “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”