Warm weather = sleepy Phillip

Today started out as each day usually does. The sun rose and so did the temperature. I knew it was supposed to be a fairly warm day so I was looking forward to the time I would be outside (basically when I was driving to and from work) I met with Dave this morning to discuss in detail my new focus and my biggest job to continuously work on. I will be developing ways to gain customer information, build a database of our customers, and take the information in that database to help guide our marketing decisions. For example, we will be adding a section during the sale transaction that allows the cashier to input the customer's zip code. Once a month I will gather that information and use it to determine, on a monthly basis, where the customers live that shop the most often with us. This will help us when we decide what zip codes to target when we send out inserts in the newspaper or other media. I worked on creating a customer profile for pretty much the rest of the day to help guide me in answering the questions that will help us build an accurate and useful customer database. I know that this is probably not that interesting to my loyal readers (all 2 of you), but this type of process excites me. I left work to drive home in the 72 degrees and sunny weather. As I approached my apartments I almost considered to keep on driving until the sun went down, but I was low on gas and knew I would be getting hungry soon so I just went home.

When I got home I started working on the video editing rather aggressively. I finalized the menu and sub-menu screens and synced the 2 video tracks to began transitioning between clips. I completed the first 15 minutes of the ceremony video, and decided to take a break for dinner after getting halfway through the bulk of the editing process. I ate some noodles in Alfredo sauce with some garlic bread. After that I went back to work on the video for just a little longer. I should be done with everything including the menu links in another hour of editing. That is good since I really want to be done with this before the weekend so I can edit the reception video by the middle of next week. I had to stop editing around 9:30 to prepare for the Tennessee vs. Louisville basketball game that had a tip-off of 9:57pm. Tennessee struggled with many things in the first half, the most critical one being the inability to score and maintain possession of the ball. In the second half the Vols came out and played much better. They cut the Louisville lead down to one. Then Louisville went on an 8-0 run to gain back a large lead. The game was a lot of back and forth which made it painful to watch. Later in the game I realized that there were several calls not made when there was lots of contact. Some of these calls went both ways, but the majority of them seemed to favor Louisville (I know my perspective may be skewed but the TV announcers often agreed with my point of view). The game seemed over for the Vols around the 4:00 minute mark in the second half. The final score of the game: Tennessee 60 - Louisville 79 . Time for bed now. Work begins in 7 and a half hours.

Meditation of the day: Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you ad not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

Today was the first day it was supposed to start warming back up and I woke up more than ready for it. I headed out to work without a jacket, perhaps tempting the skies to dump a blizzard on Kennesaw just to spite me. I was relieved when this did not occur. I arrived at work to find that I really had nothing on my plate to do, so I did what I always do when that happens. I surfed the internet browsing competitors' websites. After doing this for about half an hour, I decided to try some brainstorming on a project that Vickie had given me. The objective: to create a graphic envelope front that would entice the bookkeepers to open the letter promoting our gift certificates for teachers instead of just laying it to the side to be forgotten until its too late. I tried several different drawings as you can see here. I worked on that for a while, and then I realized it was time to go to lunch. I kept my usual lunch date with myself at my apartment. (Hey at least I never get stood up or excuses) I returned to work and Dave caught me me asking if we could spend a good deal of time later that day talking/exploring how to build us an outstanding customer database. I said sure, and was looking forward to adding some more tasks to my plate. He came back about an hour later and said that we would have to postpone this meeting as the regional managers and Vickie we needing him to give input into their budgeting meeting to prepare for the upcoming fiscal year. I said that was fine (of course). Before I left work Stacy asked me if I wanted to come walking with her and Cooper around 6:30 after work. I said that sounded like fun. This is based on 2 reasons: 1. Cooper is hysterical to watch indoors and I can only imagine that he is even greater to observe in the wild, and 2. I will do anything to be outside on a beautiful day like this day one.

I went home briefly and ate a small supper, changed into some appropriate walking attire, and then headed over to Stacy's. We decided to walk around her neighborhood as we were both unsure as to how far Cooper would feel like walking. That ended up being a good choice as Cooper was a good sport, but ultimately wanted to do nothing more than smell, lick, and eat things in addition to walking in a weaving pattern in an attempt to trip Stacy, me, or sometime both. We dropped Cooper off and continued on another lap around the subdivision to make our efforts at exercise more worth while. Cooper was slightly distraught at being abandoned at home while his mommy left as you can see at his attempt to peer out the front window.We finished and returned to Stacy's house to find Cooper missing us greatly (or maybe he just wanted a treat?). I drank some water and then made my way back to the apartment.

I arrived strangely inspired to began serious editing work on the wedding video and got the intro video, the main menu, the scene selection menu, and the main video track done. I looked up at the clock after that and saw that it was 10:15 and I probably needed to stop before I began the next phase that would certainly keep me up past midnight to complete. So I surrendered to sleep to fight again another day.

Meditation of the day: Psalm 8:1,3 "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place"

Probably should be grocery shopping...

I woke up on time this morning, and felt that I needed a reward to celebrate that occurrence. So on the way to work I stopped off and picked up some Chick-fil-A as my personal treat. I got to work and began working on the new version of the marketing calendar to include not only all of the activities from this year, but also to put it in a format that made everyone able to read it quickly and glean from it what information they needed. That process took longer than I expected, but it is coming together fairly quickly with little frustration. I ran back to the apartment for lunch and pulled some more video footage over to my desktop PC to begin editing tonight (hopefully). The remainder of the work day was fairly uneventful. The only thing that stuck out in my mind is Vickie realized that when Chris gave me a copy of the VBS flyer, which was by now waiting in line to be printed at Printing Impressions, she only gave me a copy she had. It didn't show the back side that had all the information about the stores, their hours, and our website info. I hurriedly re-made that back page since no one had an electronic version that I could edit, and then sent it out to the printer before we wasted money on mis-prints. When I left work the weather had warmed up a lot from the chilly 27 degrees the day began at. That was encouraging as I still miss the weather we enjoyed on our Charleston trip.

I got home and found a U.S. Mail Express envelope tucked under my doormat. I saw that it was from Chan, and when I opened it I found Flat Stanley and his entire journal of his travels. Basically Flat Stanley is a boy who was flattened when a bulletin board fell on him in class. He now travels through the mail to various people in many different places and will eventually return home on April 28th. He will be helping me film and edit videos this week and may even make an appearance at The School Box! I started pulling the last of the wedding footage over to my computer before fixing some dinner. I decided to wait until tomorrow night to began actually editing the wedding. I seem to get more accomplished if I work on it for a longer period of time in a few instances rather than work on it a little bit at a time. I watched some tv while finishing updating my myspace page (new layout, song, quote....check it out). I found that time passed much faster than I realized and it was time to do some reading before slipping into my sleeping coma for the night. Today was a good day, but I hope tomorrow is more eventful...I could use some excitement to liven up the days.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 40:1-2 "I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand."

Moody Monday

The work week begin by me oversleeping until 7:25am when I usually leave for work at 7:40. I was only a few minutes late, which doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't happen often, but since I rushed to get ready I felt drained and tired the entire day. I worked on some furniture tags for the Chattanooga store and then was putting some final touches on the summer learning flyer to go to print. I received a call at 10am from our rep with News for Kids (program that provides newspapers for classrooms to use for educational purposes) wanting to move our meeting to earlier in the day. This was a surprise to me as I had forgotten that we even had a meeting scheduled. We moved the meeting from 2pm to 12:30pm so they could make another meeting later in the day. I was working on various things until I realized that it was 12:45 and they had not arrived yet. They called shortly before 1pm and said that they were on their way. They arrived at 1:15pm and we began our meeting. They basically gave me an overview of the history of this program and our involvement with sponsoring it since its creation. The lady talked very fast and was extremely passionate about the product. We aren't up for renewal yet, but I know that we will be later this year so I was glad to have met our reps and know more about this program before we agree to continue our involvement. I took a late lunch and got back to work around 2:45pm. I don't really remember what I did for the rest of the day because all I wanted to do was go to sleep.

After I left work Stacy and I headed over to Applebee's to meet Leslie for some dinner. At first we thought we were going to have to hang at a bookstore for a bit until Leslie arrived from the Howell Mill store, but she called and left work a little early so we were able to go straight there. We got the sample appetizer for our meal (Stacy and Leslie split one and I had one all to myself!) and we talked ll about our Easter weekends, my Charleston trip, and our upcoming weeks to see where our schedules aligned so we could hang out some more. It was good to hang out with good friends at Applebee's since I opted out of Friday night's trip with the Movies 4 Sale crowd.

I went home and begin pulling over video footage of the wedding from March 15th. I also spent some time to catch up on laundry from the weekend and generally straightening around the apartment. Not that anyone would come over and be appalled at its condition, but I would go insane if it were not organized and clean. I spent some time catching on former blogs that I neglected to write/post and also spent a bit of time napping to catch up from my late evening Saturday night/Sunday morning. I eventually decided to go to sleep in a classic fashion, watching an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. I head the into finish and that is the last thing I remember until my alarm clock would certainly scream the following morning.

Meditation of the day: Psalm 37:7-8 "Be still before the Lord an wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret - it leads only to evil."

He is Risen!

Easter Sunday i usually filled with expectations for great music and worship, but for some reason I woke up viewing it like any other Sunday. That feeling left quickly as I arrived at CBCB to assist in recording the services and heard the choir specials for the day being rehearsed. There is one song that is a combination of "Christ Alone" and "The Solid Rock" that sent chills down my spine as the melodies and harmonies blended together to make a heavenly sound. The first service went fairly well as I was running the recording sound board for the first time in almost two months! My sidekick Chuckles was there to make sure I didn't botch everything up beyond repair. I decided to sit in the second service with Hickey, his "friend" and his friend's daughter. It was a different experience being in the service and singing with everyone. Both were a wonderful experience and I feel were more meaningful than my last few Easters.

After the service I drove mom and dad over to G-mom and Papa's for an Easter lunch extravaganza! We had ham, cauliflower casserole, green beans (I passed on these of course), a type of jello salad, and macaroni and cheese. For dessert we enjoyed either Mountain Dew Apple Cobbler or Buttermilk Pie. It was good, but as always at family gatherings I ate too much. We sat in the sun room talking about my job and other various topics until the UT basketball game came on TV. We watched the first half there and at halftime, we ventured over to Grandmother's to join the other side of the family and watch the second half of the game. It was so nice to see so much family in one day. It reminds me of how blessed I am to have a close family that is willing to travel to see each other on special days.

I stayed later than intended in Knoxville, but made my way out of town around 6pm. The traffic was fairly light considering it was the close of Easter weekend and that usually means lots of people traveling. I arrived in Kennesaw around 8:45 and proceeded to unpack a bit from my trips. I decided to take a break from that an watch the Lady Vols play Oral Roberts in their first game of this year's NCAA Women's Tournament. They were playing up to their usual high standards as I slowly drifted off to sleep and rested soundly until Monday began.

Mediation of the day: Psalm 33:20-21 "We wait in hope for the Lord;he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name."

A beautiful day

I woke up early on Saturday morning to take my car over to the Toyota Dealer for routine maintenance as the mileage on my car climbs due to frequent trips to Knoxville. After I dropped my car off, mom picked me up and were soon joined by dad and Amy at the ihop on Lovell Rd. for a breakfast feast. It was at this point that Amy and I realized that we had done the unthinkable: we forgot mom and dad's anniversary! Our waitress overheard our conversation and at the conclusion of our meal she brought out a chocolate chip pancake wrapped around ice cream with whipped cream and sprinkles on top as a free anniversary dessert. It was delicious, but did not make up for our error. Next year we will do something truly special.

After breakfast I went to Kohl's to get a dress shirt for Easter (and a tie to match!) and then followed Amy and mom around briefly as they too were looking for new Easter apparel. I picked my car up on our way back towards my parents' house as it was ready far earlier than predicted. I drove home for a minute or two and then met Elizabeth and Dustin at Fudrucker's to finalize some wedding business. It was really good to see them both, and I realized how much I miss hanging out with them since I've left town, etc. With a contract signed and a deposit collected, I picked mom up at the house and then we drove out to Amy's to meet up with her and Samus. We all piled in the Altima and headed downtown for some walking and potential shopping at the Mast General Store. The weather was absolutely perfect as it had been for the two previous days as well. We walked down the street to see and hear many different things. There was a street preacher barking out the truths of the Bible on the corner across from Market Square. I usually try to listen for a bit when I see this, but due to time constraints, we kept walking. Also, becasue the puggle doesn't know then meaning of the word wait (or hold on, sit still, be patient, etc...but then she wouldn't be a puggle would she?). We ventured into the Mast General Store where we were introduced to the store's mascot, an overweight pug named Jupiter. I had to chuckle to myself as I wondered if the dog was named Jupiter due to it's immense size or due to its astrology sign. I will have to just wonder as it would be rude to ask such a question. We perused around the store for several minutes, but most of my time was spent in the lower level with the hiking supplies and outdoor apparel. I showed great restraint and did not purchase anything, but believe me when I say that I wanted to purchase a lot of what I saw. After leaving the Mast General Store, we continued our walk down the sidewalk towards the Tennessee Theater in search of the bricks in the sidewalk that bore the namesake of all my grandparents. We eventually found them and then made our way back to the parking garage, stopping along the way to take some pictures for Amy's facebook page and carrying Samus over the grates in the sidewalk as she is deathly afraid of falling in.

We stopped briefly off at G-mom and Papa's to say hi and let them visit with the puggle. Then we made our way back to our respective homes to do various tasks. Mine included laundry, picking up stuff at Walgreens and then making a traditional trip to McKay's. I had some CD's to sell back and was curious to see what new treasures had come in. I was tempted to purchase a book on the Golden Age of Advertising featuring page after page of ads from the 50's and 60's, but I realized that no one ever comes to my apartment so why would I need a good coffee table book for people to look through? I passed on the book this time, but if it is there next time I go, I will probably not be able to refrain. I made my way back home and waited there for a bit grabbing some food and awaiting a phone call from Hickey to let me know when I could begin helping his "friend" move. I eventually made my way back over to Amy's around 7:30 to play some Wii Sports with Amy, Laura, and Jon. It was such fun, and every time I play I realize more and more that I will eventually have to buy my own Wii so I can play whenever I want. We played a variety of games until 10:15 when Hickey called to say he needed my help moving the big stuff.

I drove down to the "friend's" apartment which was conveniently located on Pleasant Ridge not far from Amy and Jon's house. We loaded up several large pieces into Hickey's truck and prepared for a trip out to John Sevier Hwy to unload it's contents. I rode there with Hickey's "friend" and was introduced along the way to a group called Rehab. They are basically a mix of Papa Roach, P.O.D., and Linkin Park. I loved several of the songs and will undoubtedly purchase the album sometime soon. We arrived at our destination and unloaded everything without any major problems. There were some tight spaces to carry things through the halls, but with Hickey and my vast moving experiences we handled it quite well. We dropped Hickey's truck off and realized we were hungry so we next found ourselves at the ihop on Merchant's Dr. I never thought I would be going to eat at an ihop twice in one day, but it was well worth it. Hickey and I spent the majority of our time making his friend laugh uncontrollably. We also were surprised when we saw Clay, Amber, and another friend of theirs walk in to sit at the table next to us. We told jokes, were way too loud, and probably annoyed the staff at times, but when you are at ihop at 1:30am what do you expect? We departed from there and I went home to crash. It was the first time in a while (with the exception of my Charleston trip) that I have been up past 2am. I must now sleep to be awake to fully experience Easter Sunday!

Meditation of the day: Psalm 27:7 "Hear my voice when I call, O Lord; be merciful to me and answer me: