This morning I went through my checklist of all the items we were sending to the stores for the Breast Cancer promo that begins on Tuesday. Once I confirmed that everything was in the correct place and all the items were set to go, I worked with Mike on the next project. We worked out the details of creating the actual .html page to send out the bast email on the Wednesday after Labor Day. I added the image boxes in the correct order and then remade the box leading the readers to the bonus savings and teacher classes sections of our website. I then worked with Kimdi, our Customer Service Manager, to create the necessary coupon code that is active on our website to allow the recipients of the email to use their coupon online. I got everything squared away on that project and then it was time for lunch.
I ate with Carmen, Stacy and Tausha and we all talked about the long weekend and what our plans were. After eating I worked on fine-tuning my notes for the marketing meeting on Wednesday. I added some example emails from Moosejaw and REI to illustrate my point about the need to make our emails look more professional/consistent. I also worked with Mike to see what technology we were going to have set up in that room for the meeting. The rest of the afternoon passed slowly as I was anticipating 5:00's arrival so I could go home and make sure everything was ready for Hickey's arrival. It finally came and I headed home. Christina came over around 6:30 and we ran to the store to pick up a few items. We ordered some pizza a little before Hickey was supposed to arrive. We were watching some TV when he got here and then we went through the introductions. We all sat down and watched some TV while talking about life in Knoxville and Hickey learning more about Christina and life down here. It was lots of fun and I was really glad to have a visitor. Christina left around midnight as she was staying at her parents house so they could leave for the funeral in Alabama early in the morning. Hickey and I stayed up watching old video clips and talking about life and stuff. We finally gave up talking and went to sleep around 2am.
Meditation for the day: Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”
Saturday, August 30, 2008
From the Desk 8/29/2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
From the Desk 8/28/2008
This morning I got to work and was quickly met by Vickie to coordinate the sending out of the Breast Cancer promotion materials to the stores. I then had James, the warehouse manager, use the forklift to get the pallet of marketing materials down so we could pull the donation bins from last year to relabel with this year's theme. I brought them 
back to my desk where they would wait until later in the day. I then began the creation of the Bright From The Start class schedule flyer. We hold classes that go towards Georgia teacher's maintaining their teaching certificates in our workshop room in the Spring and Fall. The schedule for the Fall is very busy with 15 classes being held on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings. My task was to create a flyer that was one sheet (front and back) that would list all the class titles, who taught them, a brief description, where it was held, date & time, and cost of the class. It occupied 4 pages in a regular text document so I knew that it would be near impossible to condense/arrange the information into 2 pages. I also had to incorporate a Fall looking background/border to catch people's attention. I worked on this flyer and got about half way done typing in the front page of information before lunch.
The usual group ate in the break room for lunch today and I brought parmesean noodles with sesame ginger chicken that I cooked earlier in the week. I also brought cookies that I had made last night when I baked some for Christina and I. The cookies were a hit and we ate lunch fairly quickly. Carmen needed to run to Best Buy to look for a present for her sister and asked us if we wanted to join her. Stacy had to return to work as she is swamped in preparations for the 2009 catalog, but the rest of us decided to go with her. We walked in Best Buy and instead of seriously looking for a present for Carmen's sister we became captivated by the video game demo stations they have set up. We played Wii bowling, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Rock Band, and Mario Kart. It was a fun way to break up the day and I'm sure we will be going back sometime to "browse" the new games. We returned to the office and I began to realize my space problem with the flyer I was creating. There was no way to include all the information on 1 sheet of paper so Mike suggested that I adjust the paper size to legal and see if that might help any. It took lots of adjusting the spacing of lines and the size of the background boxes, but eventually I was able to squeeze it all on the front and back of a single sheet of legal paper. I then re-linked the background to the color version that will be posted online. I was then put in charge of temporarily baby-sitting Stella, Aimee's dog. Stella weighs about 4.5 pounds and is a tiny poodle. She is also terrified of me for some reason and once she escaped Mike's empty office, she wouldn't even harbor the thought of coming near me when I tried to steer her back in. Eventually Aimee came and rescued her distressed pet from my "evil clutches". Not long after that Anna, Aimee and Vickie emerged from their meeting to dive into the Breast Cancer promotional items. Anna and I removed the old labels or covered the old labels with blank white ones, Aimee adhered the new labels to the donation jars, while Vickie divided the jars among the stores. We then all put roughly 200 donation cards in each of the store's boxes. Once we were finished with that process I glanced at the clock and it was 4:45! Time certainly passed quickly since lunch which was nice for a change. I wrapped up my projects for the day and talked to Mike about what we could work on tomorrow since he is done with his 4 day meeting with the software company who is providing the new system for our distribution center.
I went home to change quickly and then made my way to Stacy's to mow since it hadn't rained for the entire day (for the first time in 5 days). I arrived and mowed quickly as the grass had enjoyed the rain, but had not grown out of control yet. After I finished, Stacy grilled some steaks for us and fixed some corn to compliment the main dish. We sampled a new kind of steak sauce that she had picked up at Publix. It was a Merlot based sauce that was delicious. (This being said by the person who does not really like steak sauces as they are too bitter for my liking) We ate and talked about work stuff until the food was gone. I put the mower away and then left to head back home. Christina was eating dinner at her parents' house but wanted to come over after she was done. I showered and then started a load of laundry before
she arrived. We watched some random things on TV before settling on the Democratic National Convention's (DNC) last night of broadcasting. I am making a much more conscious effort to be educated about both candidates before the election in November. We watched a video of Obama's history and upbringing and then watched his speech where he accepted the official nomination of the Democratic Party to be a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. We soon grew tired of the celebration that ensued at the conclusion of his speech and I decided it was time to go to sleep. Christina and I said goodnight and then I drifted off to sleep thinking about the upcoming weekend of events including Hickey's visit to Georgia tomorrow night through Monday.
Meditation for the day: Ecclesiastes 5:3 "As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words."
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
From the Desk 8/27/2008
Today at work I was determined to get some small projects wrapped up so I could focus on preparations for the marketing meeting. That was the plan any way. I did manage to finish the testing flyer completely after some product revisions and text edits. Now we just have to verify that we will stock the same product and that the prices haven't changed before going to print. I began working on the next blast email that will go out soon containing both a thank you letter for shopping with us through the Back-to-School madness and a coupon as an additional thank you. We are trying something new with this coupon, making it valid for only 4 days to see what level of response we can get in a concentrated time period. I created the letter image box and the coupon image box before meeting with Chris briefly before lunch. We met to set the advertising schedule for Atlanta Parent Magazine and Chattanooga Parent Magazine. The rates for both of these publications rose only slightly from last year so we were able to keep the same schedule mostly and just adjust the size of some of the ads in order to cut some costs. After we met, Tausha, Blair, Carmen and I went to Willy's for lunch. My plan was to not eat out at all this week, but there was a meeting being held in the break room and none of us could get to our food or had a place to eat (the meeting in the workshop was still ongoing as well).
I ordered less than usual to cut my own costs a bit. We then ate too fast as we were starving and ended up with extra time on our hands. I got roped into accompanying the ladies to DSW next door. If you are unfamiliar with this store, as I was, it is a giant shoe store about the size of a Dick's Sporting Goods. I followed around various members of my group as I was uninterested in shopping for myself, but was forced to go along as I rode with Carmen over to lunch. We didn't linger too long and soon returned to work. Once back at my desk, I received a phone call alerting me that the stickers and donation cards we had ordered from Printing Impressions were ready for pick-up. I made a quick trip over to their store and picked up the items we were eagerly awaiting. I returned and divided the rolls of stickers out to the stores to use to cover the 20% discount stickers left on products not sold from the BTS sale. I spent the majority of the afternoon returning phone calls from several people who have called seeking advertising or wanting to team up for promotions. I usually hold returning these calls until I have several so by the time I get to the end of my call back list, my speech on why we cannot participate in their offer comes off as smart and professional. Just before 5:00 I ran to my car to grab some clothes to change for my hike with Christina, changed and then headed out the door to meet her.
We hiked at Burnt Hickory Rd. today as the weather was less rainy. We were making good time until we reached the small creek that we usually step across on stones. Apparently, due to the heavy rains we have experienced as of late the creek was swollen and the rocks we normally cross on were submerged. We continued along the edge of the creek on a path that I had never been on before. It took me a while to realize, but the path ended up connecting back to a portion of the main trail. Then after crossing a bridge, there was another side path that returned us to the loop we were hiking. We finished out the hike making pretty good time for the 3.5 miles we traveled. I dropped Christina off at her car and we made plans to get together later after I did some grocery shopping and she did some homework. I went home and showered before making my way to Super Target in Woodstock to buy some food to feed myself and Hickey this weekend. I was almost done putting things away when Christina called to let me know she was on her way. I started baking some cookies I had bought for us to eat while watching a movie. She arrived a few minutes later and the cookies were done soon after that. We ate and watched TV until it was time to say goodnight. We said goodnight and I went to sleep to recover from my hike.
Meditation for the day: Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
From the Desk 8/26/2008
Today began the same way last night ended: pouring rain. I swam my way into work and managed to get soaked despite parking 15 feet from the warehouse door. (I might recommend to the building improvements committee to enlarge the cover over the door so that is doesn't pour a steady stream of water on you as you use
store and Howell Mill store for the majority of the day. That effort was in vain as I got reacquainted with being wet walking out to get in my car. It rained the entire 40 minute drive to the store. Traffic was heavier than I was used to, but I knew that it was actually light for late morning traffic given the weather conditions. I arrived at the your key card to gain access to the building. I typed up the final list of questions for the video interview at the Northlake store today while I attempted to air dry. I was fairly dry by the time I gathered up my stuff to journey to the Northlake store around 10:00 and walked around, taking an official tour of the store guided by Cynthia, the store manager. She is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet and was genuinely excited to have me at her store. After getting the tour, I met Alison Brown, who I would be interviewing, for the first time in person. She seemed very energetic and I hoped that the energy she displayed would come across in the interview. We settled on filming in Leland's office as it was the nicest location available in the store. The filming went well. There was only one phone call that interrupted the interview and there were little to no areas that needed a re-take. Alison was very grateful for us doing this and I told her we were equally excited about her trip and the opportunity to tell her story to other educators by linking to the video and her blog from our website. Once I packed up my video equipment, I loaded everything back in my car as it began raining again. (It should be noted that the only time it rained heavily throughout the day was when I was driving on I-75, I-85, or the 285 bypass) I made my 
way, with no trouble in directions, to the Howell Mill store at the edge of Buckhead near downtown Atlanta. I arrived and began helping Leslie compile a proposal for a nearby school to purchase supplies from us at a discount to stretch the value of their educational dollars. We worked on the wording and some specific points we wanted to make before we went next door for some lunch. We ate at La Parilla Mexican Restaurant on their outdoor patio for lunch as the sun had come out (again, I wasn't driving anywhere). I had a delicious steak fajita salad while we talked about what was going on in our lives. We didn't talk about too much as we needed conversation for our dinner at Marlow's later tonight with Stacy. We enjoyed our food and as we were wrapping up eating....you guessed it. It started pouring again!
We walked quickly back to the store and wrapped up work on the proposal around 1:30. I said goodbye to everyone there and then hit the road back to the office. I encountered very little traffic on the way back to home base, but it rained most of the way back. When I arrived, I walked inside to be pleasantly surprised to find that Christina was working! I wasn't sure when she was working this week, but I was smiling as I greeted her and gave her a quick hug. We talked briefly about my journeys today and then I returned to my desk.I looked over the schedule left on my desk for the Fall installment of the Bright From The Start Workshops. I will need to create a 2-page flyer to print for the store to pass out as well as a full color version to link on the website. I talked with Vickie about my travels and we made a plan to get the donation jars and donation cards separated for each store and sent out by Friday so we can kick off the Breast Cancer promotion the first week of September. I finished out the rest of the day working on some more ideas for the marketing meeting. I went home briefly to get some stuff done before meeting Leslie and Stacy for dinner at 6:30.
I got less done than I had hoped, but I met the girls at Marlow's Tavern for dinner and laughs. We ate and caught up on each other's lives until 8:00 when we headed out the door into the once again rainy weather. I called Christina and she came over to hang out. I was on the phone with Hickey when she arrived and was sitting at my computer checking things online. I didn't hear her knock on the door, but figured out that she had arrived when she just came on in and appeared in the doorway to the spare bedroom and startled me slightly. We watched The World's Funniest Commercials 2008 on TBS. I enjoy these programs despite the never-funny host (and script writers) and when it was over we kept giggling about some of the things we just saw. We then turned to watching the last half of "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith". After that was over it was time to say goodnight and I walked Christina to her car. We made plans to hike tomorrow after I get off work. I went to sleep quickly and knew that the week only half over and I was already exhausted.
Meditation for the day: Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."
Monday, August 25, 2008
From the Desk 8/25/2008
This morning I woke up early for some reason and decided to use my extra time to read a couple more chapters in "Jimmy". I then got ready and went in to work. I spent the majority of the morning working on finalizing the cover for the toy catalog as I had received an email alerting me to the fact that the cover was not a standard 8.5" x 11". I re-sized the cover, replaced the product images with the hi-res versions I downloaded from vendor image sites, and added an 1/8" bleed area to the cover. I then submitted it to be included in the final proof. I revamped a document for Stacy to use to request co-op money from vendors for the amount of space their products/logo occupies in our new 2009 catalog. Once I made it and revised it once more it was complete and it was also time for lunch.
We ate in the break room after the ladies returned from a trip to Target where they bought food supplies for the week. We are all going to try and be good this week, not eating out at all. We finished up eating and then I returned to the project that would consume the rest of my work day. I decided to go ahead and knock out the creation of the testing flyer for early next year. I know it seems silly to create this piece so early, but the only thing that should change would be the prices, which won't take long to update. This should be a time saver as when the time rolls around for production of this piece we should be able to focus on the next event as this piece will already be complete. I had to grab some of the product images from last year's flyer, and re-typing the copy and descriptions took a considerable amount of time. I chipped away at each group of books, timers, and other items slowly. I managed to complete the entire front side and about half of the back side before I realized what time it was. It was close to 5:00 so I went out to my car to get my hiking clothes. I changed and met Stacy at my car.
We decided to hike up Kennesaw Mountain today as it had been raining off and on all day and the
trail at Burnt Hickory Rd. would probably be flooded in parts. When we pulled into the parking lot we instantly noticed that there were only 4 cars there today so the trail would not be crowded due to the weather. It sprinkled lightly off and on through parts of the hike, but never enough to get too wet. We made it to the top and were surprised to have a clear view of downtown. I had imagined the view being clouded over and visibility to be very limited, but apparently the rain had cleared out the smog that usually cloaks the tall buildings in downtown Atlanta. We took a brief rest and then started back down the trail. We were about 50 feet away from the end of the trail and the parking lot when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Stacy had stopped walking and began flapping her arms with a panicked look on her face. She drew a breath in sharply and then 
managed to yelp out, "moving!" I turned and looked ahead on the trail and saw the cause of her panic. About 15 feet ahead of us was a 2 ft. long snake slithering across the path. I kept a safe distance as I was unsure what type of snake this was. I managed to snap a couple of pictures and have zoomed in to show you what we saw. I would find out later (after researching online) that this snake was indeed a copperhead, one of Georgia's most common poisonous snakes. We allowed the reptile to peacefully cross the path and then continued on to the car. I dropped Stacy off at her car at the Box and then went home. I ate a quick dinner after talking on the phone with mom for a while. The rain continued all night and I took advantage of the music the rain created on my windows by reading more of "Jimmy". I read until Christina came over and then we talked about our days and watched some "Family Guy" on TV. It was good to laugh and I think it cheered her up. After several episodes I walked her to her car and we said goodnight. I returned inside and got my video equipment together as I would be filming at the Northlake store tomorrow. I went to sleep again listening the rain gently singing me to sleep.
Meditation for the day: Romans 12:4-5 "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."
Sunday, August 24, 2008
From the Desk 8/24/2008
This morning I picked Christina up around 9:35 to go to His Hands. I was hoping that there would be a message of comfort found for Christina this morning. We sang several songs before we observed the Lord's Supper. The song we sang after that was not one I recognized, but I could identify with its message. The words of most of the songs of the morning spoke of fire and burning with life for God. It was hard to get "fired up" when I knew that someone I cared for so much was hurting, but the song after the Lord's Supper took a different approach. It spoke of the never-ending fire of God's love for us. It mentioned strength, comfort, and understanding. There couldn't have been a more appropriate song to hear this day. The message today was on Matthew 7:1-6. We spoke of the dangers in judging others and how we always want to try and fix things, but often things are not right with us so that hinders our help to others. It was interesting to see the way that Jesus first addresses the Pharisees by calling them hypocrites, then he turns his focus to everyone else demonstrating that we should be careful who we share our witness to as they could break us down if we aren't prepared. (reference to scripture: Don't cast your pearls to the pigs.) We finished with a song proclaiming loud praises and shouts of victory. I may not have felt on fire when I arrived, but I left that way.
Since Christina didn't have to work today I took her out to eat at Chili's after church. I had a burger that would have given most doctor's some business for cholesterol medication, but I only ate half of it. After we ate we went back to Christina's apartment and just sat there being silent. We fell asleep every now and then, but I mostly remained awake to hold her and keep her from falling over. Once we had rested and relaxed for a couple of hours she needed to go to her parents house and check on her mom. We left as it was beginning to rain again and then I drove home. I started a load of laundry and then made the label for Elizabeth's picture disc. I set it to render and burn so that it would be complete when Hickey came down this weekend so he could take it back to her. I also got a head start (as I am very excited about it) by packing my hiking pack for our trip in late September. I decided to go ahead and pack as I knew that I would re-pack and take out unneeded things several times before we actually left.
I decided to cook several things that I could reheat and eat for lunch throughout the week so I placed chicken strips into several different marinades to soak up the flavor before I grilled them. I was watching the movie "What Women Want" on TBS and once it ended I began my cooking. I grilled chicken with Teriyaki, Sesame Ginger, and Italian marinades to offer a variety of flavors for the week. When I had finished it was time to think about going to bed. I did a few things online before deciding to read another couple of chapters in "Jimmy". I grew tired from reading and then went to sleep quickly, listening to the rain gently bouncing off the window over my bed.
Meditation for the day: Matthew 7:1-6
