From the Desk 6/14/2008

I woke up this morning at 7:00 and promptly began packing for my trip to Knoxville for filming a wedding. I gathered up all the filming equipment and then when I was putting it into my car I suddenly realized that I didn't want to drive to Knoxville today. I didn't have any plans here in Georgia, but I still just wanted to stay here for the day. But duty calls and I hit the road around 8:00am. I drove with moderate traffic up to Knoxville and arrived safely at my parents' house after passing G-mom and Papa on the road after they watered the flowers. I set up the cameras to charge one last time, just in case, and the got ready for the wedding. I picked up Hickey and we headed out to the Tellico Yacht Club.

We arrived in plenty of time to film the pre-ceremony shots and soon realized that with the wedding being held outside, it was going to be very hot. The ceremony went well, with only one minor hitch in our filming (due to my lack of sight for filming the exit of the bride and groom). We cooled off inside where the reception was to be held while the wedding party was taking pictures. We talked with our good friend Corey, the DJ. The reception was kind of a bust in terms of people dancing. It was really too light outside for people to feel like it was the time of day that one should be dancing, but that is what the bride wanted. The reception died off around 5:00, but we waited around until 6:00 for the bride and groom to make their grand exit complete with a barrage of bubbles. We packed up and drove back to Hickey's. I dropped him off and then I headed to my parents' house for a quick stop.

I gathered up my stuff rather quickly and then decided to head back down to Georgia before it got completely dark. On the way down I talked to Amy and was glad to hear that they had arrived home safely from their trip to Folly Beach. I drove through lots of traffic and arrived home at 9:45pm. I walked in the door and was beat. I unpacked and unloaded the video equipment and then after a small snack for dinner (at 10:30) I went to bed to start tomorrow fresh.

Meditation for the day: Lamentations 3:22-23 "Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

From the Desk 6/13/2008

This morning I woke up in a really good mood (but we'll get to that later). I had a mostly blackberry smoothie for some breakfast and then headed into work. I got there and after working on some plans for the Fall catalog mailing I realized it was time for our weekly website meeting, but after Mike conferred with all of us, none had anything to report on or add to the list so we postponed the meeting until next Friday. I had a ravioli Smart Ones for lunch while watching an episode of That 70's Show at my desk.

I decided to cut my lunch short to help Carmen out with a project for making some labels for some clearance items that needed to go out on the floor. Once we got that fixed (it took some assistance from Mike as well) I began the next phase of my catalog mailing project. I exported our customer accounts list and then edited out all the non-A/R accounts and businesses. I took a break in the midst of editing the list to take part in the office ice cream social that Mike planned for everyone. He sent Tausha and Blair out to get supplies and they came back with 5 kinds of ice cream, waffle cones and bowls, and chocolate syrup. Everyone enjoyed the break in the afternoon and the ice cream hit the spot. I then returned to my desk and sorted the list and trimmed out the schools we would not mail catalogs to and that brought the list down to around 6,000 addresses. I will run it through the de-duping software on Monday to avoid any duplicate mailings. Once I finished working on that it was time to go home and relax before my cause for happiness.

Now on to my reason for being happy today. I had a date tonight with Christina, a very beautiful young lady that works on the retail floor at the Box. I asked her to dinner yesterday and picked her up when she got off work tonight. We went to eat at Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant. The food was delicous, but was not nearly as good as the company. We ate our food and then headed out to Brooster's to have some ice cream for dessert (not like we hadn't had any earlier at work, but you can never have too much ice cream!). When we were pulling in we saw Leslie, one of Christina's friends from work. we got our ice cream and then we joined Leslie and her friends. We hung out with them for about 45 minutes and then we all dispersed. On the way to taking Christina back to her car we decided to go to my apartment and watch a movie. We watched The Chronicles of Narnia, then I walked her out to her car and she went home. I had a great time and I think she is coming hiking with the usual group on Sunday afternoon. I went to bed smiling and slept very peacefully though the night.

Meditation for the day: this is a quote I pulled of my Google homepage

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
- Aldous Huxley

From the Desk 6/12/2008

This morning we had a guest at work...Cooper! Stacy needed to bring him to watch over him as she was not supposed to leave him alone until tomorrow since his surgery was only yesterday. I begin working on some graphics stuff that Chris had met with me about yesterday. I made a new template for the Service Awards given to each employee every five-year increment that they are employed with The School Box. I also made a new header for a rack for our Northlake store that holds Pacon cardstock, colored paper, and art paper. I worked on various other signs and finally created a template that I am happy with for the Webkinz pet of the month. If you don’t know what Webkinz are, consider yourself lucky as they are reminiscent of the Beanie Babies that created a frenzy several years ago. If you are brave enough, you may check out their website here. I worked on setting up a printing schedule for the first three days next week. I had to create this so I would not be monopolizing the copier all day by printing close to 5,000 copies of the New Teacher letter that will be distributed to the new teachers at their county orientation throughout metro Atlanta, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. I also have to order the paper so we have something to print on that has some color, but that will have to wait until tomorrow as Corey is out of the office today.

I ate my lunch while watching a couple of episodes of That 70’s Show. I tried the Fiesta Chicken with rice meal by Smart Ones. It was delicious and probably ranks in my top three meals in this healthy line of microwaveable dinners. For the remainder of the afternoon I felt kind of sleepy, but still managed to create an example of a new page I want to have created on the manager’s area of our website. I want to set-up an order area for retail signs so the managers can let me know what signs they need printed and sent to them at the beginning of each month. I don’t know when it will be up and running, but here is a sample of what I would like it to look like. I finalized the insert sheets for the Communicator Clearboards by the each and as a 10 pack that will be sold only in our larger “catalog stores”. Our catalog stores are the large stores that have space to stock items that we usually only special order at a customer’s request. I printed the inserts for the 24 sets of 10 and the single inserts for the 650 individual boards that we will sell in all of our stores. I found that the printing took a little longer than expected and finished just as I was leaving for the day.

I headed home to change clothes quickly and then headed out to mow the grass at Stacy’s. It didn’t take very long to mow the grass, but I was surprised at how high it had gotten since the last time I mowed. It took about 20 minutes to cut the grass, only having to stop once to empty the bag attachment. When I finished I grabbed a bottle of water and tried to cool down. Shortly after that, Leslie arrived with takeout from T.G.I.Friday’s to share with us. We decided to bring the food to Stacy since she had to remain at home to care for her recuperating Cooper. (that sounds kind of weird…like they’re the same word only not) Anyway, back to the real world…we shared the sampler appetizer (buffalo wings, mozzarella sticks, and potato skins) and the sesame jack chicken strips. Stacy provided chips and salsa to complete the meal. It was good food and lots of fun reminiscing about our meal at Marlow’s last Friday night. We finished eating and I sadly had to leave rather quickly to get home and work on some video editing. I got home and after about an hour and fifteen minutes I was finished and ready to create the menus and burn the reception off to DVD. It took far less time than I anticipated, which was very nice as I also wanted to update my Facebook and Myspace pages with new profile pictures from my trip to Folly Beach. I finished a load of laundry and then went to bed to rest up for Friday and the weekend in Knoxville.

Meditation for the day: A random thought I had after talking about relationships with Stacy and Leslie....

"Love is only a game if you agree to play by the rules"

From the Desk 6/11/2008

This morning I woke up at 7:00 not even hearing my alarm that was to wake me at 6:00 for a morning run. I slept 9 straight hours and apparently I needed to as I didn't wake up once last night. I got ready for work and then packed up a Smart Ones dinner for my lunch. I stopped off at Chick-fil-A for some breakfast since I haven't bought milk since being home. I got to work and toted in my video equipment as I needed to re-film Vickie's spot since she didn't emphasize the right parts of her speech. After filming her spot (it only took one take!) I started chipping away at emails. The process went faster than I thought it would and after answering, creating what they requested, and filing away half of the emails it was time to go to lunch. Sal, Mike's new IT assistant, started today so we all went out to lunch to welcome him to the family. Mike, Carmen, Blair, Stacy, Sal, and I went to our favorite Japanese restaurant where I had some volcano roll sushi for lunch. I was delicious and our service was quick so we actually got to spend time talking instead of trying to throw our food down once it arrived.

We returned to work and I began working on the rest of the emails. I made several updated signs and a few new ones. I met with Vickie, Aimee, and Anna to discuss the final changes to the video clips for the Summer Training seminar next Tuesday. I had some editing work to do, so I left around 3:30 and went home to finish that project up for the Box. I finished the work for the Box around 5:30 and then ate some dinner. I was about to start working on the wedding reception video, but then Stacy called. She has had a rough couple of days with her dog, Cooper, being neutered. She asked if I wanted to come over and just hang out since she couldn't leave. I told her sure since she sounded kind of lonely. We talked all about my trip to Charleston and a lot about what was coming up with work over the next few weeks. I hung out there until 10:00 and then returned home where I almost immediately fell asleep. Apparently I needed one more night of an early bedtime to recoup from my trip.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 19:1-2 "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.”

From the Desk 6/10/2008

I woke up this morning around 8:15 and realized that I was glad we canceled the morning run. Since we went to bed after 2:00 last night, I don't think it would have been a very successful run anyway. I got up, showered and packed my stuff up. I did a check around the house to make sure I had all my stuff while Hickey was packing his stuff up. We each grabbed some waters and said our thank yous and goodbyes. I wish we could have stayed a couple of days longer, but I'm sure enough work has piled up while I've been out for only 2 days. We hit the road back to Kennesaw just before 10:00 and found that traffic was actually fairly heavy leaving James Island area.

We made good time and the weather was once again perfect for driving. We stopped off just outside the Georgia border for some food and gas. I filled up for $3.83 per gallon which was still better than I would have gotten at home. We decided to try Checkers for lunch. I have seen these restaurants all over when driving around, but have never eaten there. I got a bacon cheese burger and Hickey tried a cheeseburger and a hot dog. They were delicious and now I can add another greasy, unhealthy establishment to the list that I could eat at if starving. We got back onto I-20 and journeyed on. We made our way through the 285 bypass once again avoiding the downtown Atlanta traffic. Even for 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, the traffic was heavy as it always is in that area. We arrived back at the apartment at 3:00 just as Amy called my cell phone to see if we arrived safely. Hickey transferred his luggage into his truck, grabbed a cold water from the fridge, and then left to drive up to Knoxville. I unpacked most of my stuff before having to go for my first doctor's appointment with my new doctor through Kaiser Permanente. I arrived and the lady at the check-in desk was very helpful and walked me though everything I needed to fill out for my new health records. I met with Dr. Sarah Caceras-Cantu and she was very nice. They took my blood pressure before she came in and it was running quite high (148/80!) but I explained that I had just driven 5 hours after getting 5 and a half hours of sleep and was badly sunburned. They told me they would take it again before I left. When they took it a second time it had come down to 138/80, which satisfied them that I was probably telling the truth and was just very tired.

I returned to my apartment and started a load of laundry. I had called Carmen to see if we were still hiking, and no one was able to go, which was fine with me since I could barely stand from fatigue. I took an hour nap after eating some dinner and then ended up going to bed at 10:00 after chatting briefly with Stacy online about the past two days' occurrences at the office. I went to sleep to the sounds of the Law & Order theme song on my TV and despite the itching/pain of the sunburn I sustained I went to sleep very quickly. I am sure that I will need the rest as I checked and had received 25 emails since I checked it on Sunday night that I will have to sift through through tomorrow at work.

Meditation for the day: Isaiah 40:30-31 "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

From the Desk 6/9/2008

This morning I shut off the alarm as soon as it rang and slept for another 45 minutes. After suffering what felt like 3rd degree sunburns and being sore from our workout from yesterday Hickey and I decided to skip the morning routine in favor of more sleep. I got up eventually and met Amy in the kitchen. We collected all we needed to begin making a breakfast feast for everyone. With minimal guidance, Amy became a master at the French toasting. I made the batter to dip the bread in and fix the scrambled eggs. Amy and Beth cooked the bacon. The gas stove top we were cooking on was very nice and cooked things very quickly, which meant that the food was ready before most of the people were. Everyone ate and was satisfied with the deliciosity of their breakfast. (see, siblings can work together on stuff!) After breakfast I worked a little bit on the puzzle while Hickey cleaned....and cleaned, and cleaned...I think he may have even repainted the baseboards. After getting everything in the kitchen up to Hickey's standards we grabbed some stuff and headed out for our short road trip for the day.

Amy, Jon, Hickey, and I drove to Lady's Island to eat some lunch at the much hyped, Shrimp Shack near Fripp Island. It took us a little over an hour to arrive at our lunch destination. We passed many things along the way that we would visit on our return trip. At the Shrimp Shack, there were many good-looking things on the menu, but I decided to go with Jon's recommendation of a shrimp burger. This was my first experience with this particular dish and it was not what I had expected. The burger part itself was tasty, but when mixed with the flavor of a regular bun, the mixed tastes were confusing to my brain. It was good, but not something I would order again. Across the street from the Shrimp Shack is the Gay Fish Company, which was featured in the movie Forest Gump (but renamed in the movie as the Bubba-Gump Shrimp Co.). We stopped off at Barefoot Farms in search of their legendary homemade peach salsa. They were sold out when we arrived, but Amy decided to try pineapple salsa and some raspberry jam instead. Our next stop was the Carolina Cider Company. Amy and Jon had remembered seeing a sign advertising cherry cider and wanted to satisfy their curiosity. We stopped off and sampled not only cherry cider, but muscadine cider also. The later tasted similar to grape juice but produced a much bolder flavor. They sold peach salsa so Amy and I bought some for comparison from Barefoot Farms. We left from there and returned to the house to relax for a bit.

We didn't eat dinner with Tom, Beth, and Jake since we ate lunch around 1:30. We instead went down to the beach to take some pictures. We took pictures along the shoreline, under the pier, and on the pier. The sunset made for perfect lighting and some great pictures. I have included several of those here for you to ooh and aah over. We walked out to the end of the pier where there were still lots of people fishing. There was one man fishing who started to reel something in and then there was a large crowd gathering around him as he used his net to bring in his catch the rest of the way. He had hooked a baby shark! There were lots of people who brought their children over to see and touch the creature before he did the right thing and release it back into the water. I must admit that it was really unique seeing a shark up close, but it also made me think about the fact that it was in the same proximity that we were swimming in yesterday. It kind of reminds you that when you're in the ocean, you are a guest in other animals' worlds. As Amy and Jon walked back towards the house along the beach, Hickey and I decided to run as the temperature was cooling down to a comfortable level. We ran past the house without realizing it and then ran back past it the other way to find Amy and Jon with no success. We eventually realized that Amy and Jon had begun walking on the sand near the walkways and we had actually passed them twice. So we walked back to the beach access and met Amy and Jon to return to the house. We soon became hungry so Hickey and I finally decided to go buy some frozen pizzas and snacks. We went to the nearest Publix and found it to be closed (at 10:00?). We eventually found a Piggly Wiggly that was still open and procured our food. We returned to the house, fixed and our food. Hickey and I worked on the puzzle for the rest of the night while Amy and Jon watched Semi-Pro. The others had already gone to bed and after the movie Amy and Jon went to sleep. Hickey and I remained awake to finish the puzzle no matter how long it took. Apparently, it took until 2:00am to finish the puzzle and we found that it had 3 missing pieces when we finished. Too tired to look for the missing pieces, we turned in for the night to rest a little before driving home tomorrow morning.

Meditation for the day: Revelation 2:3 "You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary."

From the Desk 6/8/2008

I woke up at 8:15 on Sunday morning and felt much better after resting. Even though I didn’t do much else aside from driving all day, but driving seems to take it out you nonetheless. Hickey actually woke up when the alarm clock sounded and we got up and got our running gear on and headed down to the beach. We ran about 2 miles stopping at the same point on our way down towards the pier and our way back to do push ups on the concrete platforms at the edge of the sand. It wore us out partly because we ran a good distance and each did around 50 push ups and partly because it was very sunny and very hot. We returned to the house and I drank what seemed like a gallon of water while Hickey took a shower. I then took a shower and we hung out with everyone in the living room for a while until we decided to hit the beach.

Beth and Jake were already on the beach when Amy, Hickey, and myself arrived so we just dropped our stuff and set up camp with them. I had used my new spray-on sunscreen to guard myself against the sun’s burning powers and then used the smaller rub-on bottle to protect my face. The findings of the next day would show that I should have had someone else spray me to ensure total coverage, but we’ll get to that later. We laid out to catch some sun and enjoy the beautiful weather. We went for a short swim to cool off where I unfortunately lost my sunglasses to an unexpected wave. I guess it’s a good thing that I bought 4 of the same style for $10.00 each about 5 years ago. That way the loss of one pair isn’t a disaster or too costly. I had another pair in my car that I could use the rest of the trip. We then laid in the sun a little longer to dry off. We became hungry and decided to return to the house for some food. We had been on the beach for about 3 and a half hours and felt drained from exposure to the sun. We ate some turkey sandwiches and were joined by Jon who had finally woken up from his late night of gaming. We decided to go ahead and shower and get clean for dinner.

We hung out and relaxed until we all got into cars to go to dinner at the Charleston Crab House. Hickey and I discovered this gem the last time we were in Folly Beach and recommended it as a good place to dine. We arrived and only had to wait momentarily for a table for our party of 7. We were seated outside overlooking the water, but under the shade of a canopy. I ordered the bacon-wrapped stuffed shrimp with mashed potatoes and a salad for my meal. Everyone loved the hush puppies, which was the real reason for why we came back to this restaurant. We ate until we couldn’t move and then loaded back up in the cars to return to the house. Amy rode with Hickey and I and we stopped off by Walmart on the way to pick up a few forgotten items. (a puzzle, ice-pops, etc.) We returned to the house and Hickey and I began putting the puzzle together. We worked on that while Jon and Tom were watching game 2 of the NBA Finals. We were drained from our exposure to the sun and were beginning to feel the effects of the sunburns that we obtained so we went to bed around 10:30 to start early tomorrow with another run on the beach.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

From the desk 6/7/2008

This morning I woke up feeling more than ready to get away for a few days. I did some last minute laundry and then finished packing for my trip to Folly Beach. I had scheduled an appointment with Comcast to upgrade/install digital cable with HD some time between 8am – 11am this morning. The tech showed up around 9:15am and was really nice. He was able to fix the cable jack that didn’t work and then quickly got everything set up for me. This was a very pleasant experience with Comcast, which was drastically different from the last encounter I had. Hickey called me and informed me that he had gotten a late start, but that he was on his way. I used this extra time to do some things like fill up on gas, eat some lunch, and take a 2-hour nap. It was probably good that Hickey was running behind because I didn’t get much sleep between Friday night and Saturday morning so I would have been very tired driving the 5 hours it would take to get to Folly Beach. Hickey arrived shortly before 4:00 and we loaded up and hit the road.

I wisely planned for us to take the 285 bypass as I-75 southbound was closed down to only one lane due to construction. We drove straight there, not even having to stop for gas (I got about 550 miles out of one tank!). It took us right at 5 hours and the traffic was light except for one slow down near the South Carolina border due to construction. We arrived about the same time that everyone else in our group was eating dinner at Applebee’s so we decided to stop off at a Sonic to grab a quick bite for ourselves. This Sonic was unique as it seemed to employ only male skating carhops. After a five-minute struggle to get some honey mustard sauce for Hickey’s popcorn chicken we ate and then headed off to our final destination. We arrived at the beach house and unloaded our stuff. I was excited as my car was going to be parked in a garage for the next 3 days. We got a quick tour of the house and were instantly amazed at how nice it was. We were only the third group of people to stay in this house since it had been finished. All the appliances were stainless steel and brand-new. The floors were hardwood and the rooms were very lavish and spacious. This was about as nice as the Disney Key West resort I stayed in about 5 years ago in Florida. After Hickey waged a great war on a herculean cockroach residing in Amy and Jon's bathroom, finally claiming victory, we went upstairs to hang out in the living room. We played some Guitar Hero with Jon and Amy before finally crashing from fatigue at 12:15am. Hickey and I were sharing the room with 2 twin beds (cause that’s the way we like it) and quickly fell asleep after deciding to get up and run on the beach the next morning.

Meditation for the day: Isaiah 30:21 "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."