From the Desk 9/6/2008

This morning I woke up feeling the effects of little sleep from the night before. I changed clothes and then Brian came back with some coffee from Starbucks. We all slowly woke up with help from drinks and snacks once Brian's parents arrived to help. One of Brian's friends, Jeremy, also came to lend a hand. We made quick work of loading the truck. There was minimal pieces of furniture and a lot less boxes than the week before. It took about an hour to load the entire truck and it was packed from floor to ceiling, which meant that things should remain stationary and we will find no surprises when we re-open the door in Georgia. Leslie and Stacy headed out in Leslie's car a little ahead of everyone else so they would be ready for us when we got to the new house. I was going to accompany Brian in the truck and his parents followed us. We hit the road back to Georgia about 11:00 central time. We drove for quite a while before stopping to stretch our legs and refill on drinks and snacks. We talked a lot on the way back and Brian and I are going to be pretty good friends. It will be nice to have another guy friend that lives nearby to do things with.

We pulled into Leslie and Brian's driveway around 3:00 eastern time. We took a break and relaxed inside for several minutes before even thinking about unloading the truck. We made a list and Brian's mom went on a food run to McDonald's. While they were gone I decided to take a power nap on the couch while football was entertaining everyone else in the room. I was awakened by Brian who was holding a quarter pounder with cheese for me. That is the best way to be woken up; with food. We all ate quickly and then decided to get the rest of the work done. We unloaded the entire truck in about 30 minutes and then started re-arranging some things inside the house. Leslie's parents had come over and brought her son, Ryan. Stacy and I determined it was time to leave once Ryan began contemplating using us as target practice for his Transformers Disc Launcher. I drove Stacy home and then went home myself. I didn't realize how tired I was until I sat down and almost fell asleep in a matter of minutes. I called Christina and she was going to come over to watch a movie. I showered and then unpacked my bag from the weekend.

Christina arrived and we decided to watch "Stranger Than Fiction". It was the first time I had seen it all the way through and it was really good. If you have the opportunity I highly recommend it. I'm not a Will Ferrell fan in most roles he portrays, but his character is completely different in this movie. The movie also has a really good theme that I will sum up in this quote: "The hero in my books always die, but if your character knows that he will die and still does what he know will cause his death, isn't that the type of man you want alive in this world?" After the movie we watched some old TV shows and then it was time to say goodnight. We made plans to go to His Hands in the morning, and I went to sleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Meditation for the day: Titus 2:2 “Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.”

From the Desk 9/5/2008

Today I worked mainly on a new template for the blast emails we will send out to our mailing list. It took a bit longer than I had hoped to learn some more tricks on Dreamweaver to manipulate the background and header images that I wished to alter. I went through several concepts and designs for the header, from which I was going to base the rest of the design upon. I soon realized that I was working the process backwards and needed to create a theme/idea for the whole appearance before creating any graphics. I soon came up with an idea and then altered the background image first to put in place the foundation for the look of the rest of the pieces. It will look like a piece of notebook paper with the information boxes overlayed on the page to notify our customers of what we are promoting at that time. I set the new header in place and it didn't look quite right, but I decided to leave it for now and I would re-visit the design next week. I was going to eat lunch that I had brought, but instead decided to delay my lunch to eat with Mike, Blair, and Carmen for a cheap lunch at Ted's. I met with Chris at noon and we planned out the entire rest of the year's blast email schedule and themes. We were finishing up on some donation requests when Mike asked if Chris would like to join us. She replied with a big smile and said yes. Apparently Dave isn't a fan of Ted's so she doesn't get to go very often.

We all rode in Mike's car and found that it was a bit more crowded than it usually is at 11:00am when they first open. We were seated quickly and also received our food quickly. I had a bowl of New England Clam Chowder that was close to the best I've ever tasted. I also had two mini-bison burgers from Mike's 4 mini-burger plate. It was a good and filling lunch for only $4.55 (Mike picked up the burgers) We returned and I said hello to Christina since she had arrived while we were gone to lunch. Chris and I wrapped up the donation requests. I then began working on typing up some more notes from the marketing meeting. I didn't get too far on that as I had to re-work the coupon offer on our next blast email to better define the exclusions of the coupon and to change the date as we decided to push it back a week from the original schedule date. I worked on some various things until it was 4:30 and then I asked Mike if I cold leave early to go home and pack for my trip to Birmingham later tonight. He said of course and I stopped off on the sales floor to say bye to Christina until tomorrow night when we got back.

I went home a quickly packed a change of clothes for the moving day and then a few items to get ready the following morning at Brian's townhouse. I drove and picked up Stacy at her house around 6:00 and we then drove to Leslie's house where we would leave my car. We piled in Leslie's car and hit the road to Birmingham. I was the elected navigator, being in the front seat, and directed us with Google maps directions to I-20. We drove for what didn't seem like very long and we were in the state of Alabama. We arrived at Brian's place around 8:30 (Central Time). We rested briefly before going out for the evening. Brian drove us to Papa ??? restaurant (I can't remember the exact name). Stacy and I split a sampler appetizer and we all ate and conversed with one of Brian's friends Ray who joined us shortly after we arrived. We listened to the live band play an eclectic selection of music that was in the range of their female lead vocalist. We laughed ate and drank until we were tired and then we returned to get some sleep before moving early the next morning. Stacy ended up crashing on the love-seat as her air mattress had mysteriously developed a hole. I crashed on the couch for the night and went to sleep quickly once I could lay still.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 143:10 “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”

From the Desk 9/4/2008

This morning I decided to work on typing up the notes from the marketing meeting. I made a final count of the cards that we collected with ideas on them and we went through 225 cards! No wonder it took so long to get through the ideas themselves without discussing anything extra. I managed to type out the notes that were specific to 1st - 4th Quarter ideas. That information alone occupied 5 pages in a regular document. I will tackle about 4 categories a day until I am finished. Most of the information is still fresh on my mind, but I can only stare at note cards for so long before starting to lose focus. I then worked on an idea with Mike to correct a problem with links on our homepage. At the time they only worked if you were using Firefox as your Internet browser. (something about the code using image mapping as hotspots not being recognized in Internet Explorer or something....very technical junk) So I broke the large image containing all the boxes as one into 4 separate images and just linked the image as a whole to solve the problem. Now the site works equally as well for Internet Explorer as well as Firefox. After putting out those fires, it was time to eat some lunch.

After a brief debate on where to go, we ended up going to Guido's Chicago Style Hot Dogs for lunch. Carmen, Tausha, Blair and I ate there and then brought Mike back some food when we were finished. I had 2 Corn Dogs and they were just as good as ones that you might find at a country fair. (that's a compliment) They had a variety of fixin's for the dogs as well as offering regular dogs, Italian sausage dogs, bratwursts, and pizza pockets. They had a choice of fries, onion rings, or chips for sides. I had never eaten there before and will probably go back if I am ever craving a hot dog as theirs are top notch. We picked up Mike's order and then headed back to the office. Mike had ordered 2 Chicago dogs, which were hot dogs (I think there was one under there) a pickle spear, tomatoes, peppers, etc. Basically it was a side salad on a hot dog. Too many flavors for my liking. After lunch I typed up an email and sent it to everyone who participated in the marketing meeting, thanking them for their ideas and participation. I also ended the message with a request to meet again in about 4 months to discuss the upcoming events at that time to get every one's input and plan everything 3 months out as thoroughly as possible. I received a reply from Alison Brown, who we are following her journey to Africa to teach, giving me information to type up a welcome letter to people who want to follow her travels through our website. I used that info to finalize a letter and then got it in a format that I could post on the website. I hope to have everything with that project up and running by the end of next week. I will let you all know so you can let me know what you think of the idea and how well it was executed on our website. 5:00 came around and I headed home to crash briefly before running an errand or two with Christina once she got out of class.

I was working on the DVD label and insert for the newly created Dave Matthews Band Stoytellers DVD. I managed to create the label and will probably base the design of the insert off of the label images. Christina came over after a brief stop off at her parents' house. She also came bearing gifts: cake that her mom had made and wanted to share with me! We drove out to Target so I could buy a Birthday card for Papa as it is his 85th birthday on Saturday. I had a hard time selecting a card as I usually don't buy cards for any occasion just on principle of saving trees (or something that is a valid excuse). I finally selected a card while one the phone with Amy discussing the hiking trip and various things. I then drove to KFC to pick up a gift card. For those of you have kept track over the years, I have a hidden talent for going to a fast food establishment with the intention of purchasing a gift card only to find that my first stop, not matter the type of restaurant, is always out of gift cards. I thought that perhaps my talent would not transfer across state lines, but again I was wrong. They told me that they don't carry them in the stores down here in Georgia so once again I was forced to create a certificate and then attach cash for true usability. Once we returned to the apartment and I had made the fake gift certificate we watched a re-run of "Grey's Anatomy" to continue hyping up for the new season. We watched part of "The Addams Family" before I walked Christina to her car. We said goodnight and I returned inside where I went to sleep shortly after checking email.

Meditation for the day: Matthew 28:18-20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

From the Desk 9/3/2008

The morning of the marketing meeting had finally arrived. I was overjoyed, thrilled, and pumped about the possibilities of the day. Then I opened my eyes and realized how tired I was from the concert last night and that my ears were still a little fuzzy from the volume of the show. I got to work and promptly filled the largest mug I could find with coffee, cream and sugar in an effort to renew the excitement I had felt about this meeting for the past two weeks. I printed a few things and checked with Mike on setting up the projector and having Internet access in the meeting room. Aimee arrived at 9:00 and we arranged the tables and set up the projector screen. We also made even more rolls of tape as I had seen Vickie's stack of cards and it dwarfed my stack of 30. I got all my visual aids in order and talked briefly with Chris and Vickie concerning one thing that needed to be brought up at the meeting by someone other than me. Everyone filed into the room and we began shortly after 10:00am. We explained how we would run this storyboard meeting. We would read the cards, tape them on the boards under the correct heading and then once we got all the cards up break down any categories too large to tackle as is into smaller categories. It took about 45 minutes just to read the cards. We began with 7 categories (1st Quarter, 2nd Quarter, 3rd Quarter, 4th Quarter, Misc., Retail, Warehouse, and Website). We ended up with 14 categories after each of us took a section and re-defined some of the cards. It was then time to use 3 blue dot stickers to "vote" on the most important category and 5 red dots to denote our most important card/idea. By the time this activity was finished, I briefly explained what we would discuss after lunch.

We left for the Olive Garden for lunch and had to split into two tables as it was very busy when we arrived. Vickie, Stacy, Anna, Kenny and I sat at what was deemed "the kids table". It was fun and full of insane ideas and ridiculous stories to pass the time. I enjoyed the salad and the tasty Zuppa Tuscana soup. We were also eating with Sherri, a long time employee of the School Box (15 years) who recently retired. It was a good mental break from the meeting, but I was already feeling the effects of the first part of the day and was more quiet than usual to conserve energy. We returned and after a few minutes fired up the second half of the meeting. I covered the importance of collecting zip codes at the check-out screen in the retail stores. I also demonstrated the information that MapPoint can give us if we have that information to input in the program. I then covered the "Open Box Experience" that I get every time I receive and order from Moosejaw, an outdoor recreation supplies company based in Michigan. Their approach to package extras isn't very expensive, but the impact it has is huge. I covered the basics of my proposal for the Extra Credit Customer Loyalty Program that I had already unveiled to Dave and Chris. Everyone seemed to be very enthusiastic to get that program off the ground which is good because that is probably my number one priority for the new year of marketing. We discussed zip codes, mailing lists, and loyalty programs as well as a demo of Alison's Adventure that will be an addition to our website in the next week or so. After I got through all of my stuff we looked at the time and decided it was time to adjourn for the day. We returned to our desks and I played catchup on emails and phone calls for a bit and then after speaking with Anna about more ideas and Chris about planning more blast emails, it was 5:00. I was exhausted after being in the meeting from 10:00 - 3:30 (with a brief recess for lunch).

I went home completely drained and mentally out of things. I ate a quick bite to eat and then went to work on a simple video project. I had set up my camcorder to record the vh1 Storytellers concert featuring Dave Matthews Band and had already pulled the footage off to my hard drive. I laid down the video track, created the main and sub menus and then split the video into chapters. I set the project to burn when Christina called to let me know she was leaving her parents house to come over and visit (in case you didn't use context clues from previous blog entries, Christina got a new phone and was now able to call in addition to texting). She arrived and we watched lots of America's Funniest Home Video clips as well as Family Guy and a brief stint of Palin's address at the GOP National Convention. We soon grew tired since neither one of us go the sleep we needed and I called it an early night. I said goodnight to Christina and then went to bed around 9:30. I faded in and out of sleep at first and then fell into a coma of dreams before 11:00.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 28:7 "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."

From the Desk 9/2/2008

This morning I got to work and it felt like a Monday, trying to get to things that were pushed off from the previous week. The majority of my day was spent working on the website. The School Box website has now launched our "pink" site to support breast cancer awareness and ties in with our retail promotion to raise money to donate to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In the process of the site changing, they have turned control of the 4 boxes at the bottom of our site over to us to change graphically how we want to. I was not expecting this to happen at the same time as the site changeover so when I first visited the site, the boxes at the bottom were missing. I spent the next 2 hours mostly on my own (Mike helped periodically) adding the new boxes to the site and then tying the links to all the information in the boxes. After fixing that problem, I noticed that the website header no longer appeared so I had to go work on fixing that problem. It ended up being something simple; the permissions on the image file were limited and I changed them to view for everyone and it corrected the broken image file quickly. It was then time for lunch.

I thought the family was going to eat together in the break room (minus Stacy as she was in a meeting), but it ended up being just Blair and I. Tausha was swamped with making sure payroll was done, which we didn't object to, and Carmen was buried in invoices from the long weekend. Blair shared about her trip to the beach and I told her about my weekend visit with Hickey and Christina. We returned to our respective desks and I began working on the next project: re-working the teacher resources page. We have a tab along the left-hand side of the website that is named teacher resources and contains links to website that students, teachers, and parents can use. The box at the bottom of the website is also named teacher resources, but contains links to PLU teacher class schedules and answer keys to CRCT testing books. To solve this problem of the same name being used for 2 things, I combined the pages into one page that holds all the information and is linked form both the side tab and the graphic box. Once I made the page, I had to link the updated class schedules to the new page and link the box to that page. I finished that up around 3:00 and then followed Vickie's suggestion to go ahead and roll up tape and stick on a lid so we can quickly put tape on the back of the idea cards and stick them up on the wall tomorrow. I made 75 rolls and I have a feeling that we will need more, but its a start. I also responded to an offer for our participation in a teacher open house event held at the Georgia Aquarium. It is a win-win situation. We get to promote The School Box, meet teachers, and view the aquarium. Leslie from Howell-Mill will be attending with me, which means that I might not get lost! After wrapping up things that had to be done before Thursday it was time to go home.

I went home and straightened and cleaned up after the weekend. I ate some dinner and then got a text from Christina to let me know she was on her way. 92.9 Dave fm was putting on a free concert tonight at the newly renovated Pontiac Garage, located in the basement of The Tabernacle. The headline band was Needtobreathe, a band that I hadn't heard of until about a week ago when Christina first heard them and bought their CD. I listened to it and loved their sound and lyrics. We drove down to the venue and got there a little early so we could be standing near the front of the stage whe the bands started playing. The opening act was Matthew Mayfield, a singer/songwriter who played acoustic guitar while letting his mellow vocals sail over top. His voice reminded me of a mix between Dave Matthews and the lead singer of Lifehouse. The combination was great and his lyrics centered largely around the image of fire to illustrate passion, love, pain,etc. I purchased his CD "The Fire EP" at the end of the show. The second act was a guy named Andy Davis. He was from the Nashville area and played both guitar and piano (not at the same time). My description of his style and voice will seem a little odd, but its all I could come up with. He had a sound like Fiona Apple mixed with David Gray, and a voice like David Gray mixed with Rufus Wainwright. The combination, again, was beautiful. We involved the audience in the song "Let the Woman" by teaching us to sing part of the song and then giving the audience the cue to join in his song at the appropriate time. He played a great set and I also picked up his CD. After a few minutes of tuning and changing the stage setting around, Needtobreathe came out to play for us. They stole the show. I'm not sure if they are solely a Christian band, but their lyrics certainly lead one to believe that. They opened with the song "Streets of Gold" and I really enjoyed the way that the songs they played seemed to be over, but they always played an instrumental segue way into the next song so there was little to no silence. They played several of my favorites such as "More Time", Signature of the Divine (Yaweah)" and "Spare the Time". The show ended with their last song, "Washed by Water" being dedicated to the people displaced by the hurricanes hitting New Orleans. They pulled out their acoustic guitars and sat at the edge of the stage about 15 feet from where we were standing and played the last song without amplifiers or mics. It was eerily quiet until they started playing the song and then asked everyone to join in singing the chorus with them. It was almost like a worship service at a church the way that everyone's voices blended in and carried the powerful lyrics across the room. It was an amazing show and I was sad that it was over, but I knew that I needed to get sleep for the meeting tomorrow anyway. Christina dropped me off at my apartment around 11:30 and I went to bed soon after walking in the door. I went to sleep still hearing the songs echoing in my head.

Meditation for the day: I decided to put the lyrics to the song "Washed by Water" for the meditation for today as I think they are very applicable to everyone's lives.

"Washed By Water" ~by Needtobreathe

Even when the rain falls
Even when the flood starts rising
Even when the storm comes
I am washed by the water

Daddy was a preacher
She was his wife
Just tryin to make the world a little better
You know, shine a light

People started talking
Trying to hear their own voice
Those people tried to accuse my father
Said he made the wrong choice

Though it might be painful
You know that time will always tell
Those people have long since gone
My father never failed

Even when the rain falls
Even when the flood starts rising
Even when the storm comes
I am washed by the water

Even if the Earth crumbles under my feet
Even if the ones I love turn around and crucify me
I won't never ever let you down
won't fall, won't fall, won't fall as long as you're around me

From the Desk 9/1/2008

This morning I slept in until 9:45 and then fired up my laptop to update my blog for the past couple of days. I let Hickey sleep until he woke up on his own (about 11:00). I was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't really sore from running yesterday. I ate a small breakfast and then once Hickey woke up and had packed we decided to play some Wii Tennis before he headed back to Knoxville. We wanted to win at least 3 matches and in order to do so we ended up playing 5 as we couldn't get past our opponents for 2 matches in a row. We eventually came out victorious and Hickey gathered up his bags and headed back home. It was fun having him visit and I wish he could have stayed longer so we could have gotten into some filming adventures. (there's only so much you can do in 3 days)

After Hickey left I sent Christina a text (as her phone still only can send/receive texts and not calls) and asked her if she wanted to hang out for the rest of the day. She came over a little later and we watched some TV before settling on watching "National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets". Christina really liked the movie and myself, having already seen it several times, took this time to nap unintentionally. We ran a few quick errands and picked up some food from Arby's to eat while watching the onset of the UT vs. UCLA football game. The game looked to be a victory for UT until the second half when the UCLA quarterback turned his game around 180 degrees to look like a veteran player commanding his troops on the field. Christina left before overtime started as we both had to work tomorrow. I walked her out to her car and we said goodnight. I returned to watch the overtime period in which UT ultimately lost due to a missed field goal. After looking back on the day, I seemed to take the advice of the speaker at His Hands on Sunday. I relaxed and rested all day long and he was right I felt better, but I probably should have gone to bed earlier to avoid the effects of not much sleep to start out the work week. Oh well, I'll just take a nap tomorrow after work.

Meditation for the day: 2 Timothy 1:13-14 “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”

From the Desk 8/31/2008

This morning I woke up and got ready for His Hands. I then woke up Hickey by assaulting him with a barrage of various objects until he acknowledged he was conscious. We left and picked up Christina around 9:40 and then headed to His Hands. The service was good as usual, and I again recognized some of the songs that they have played before. We observed the Lord's Supper and then the band played the song "I'm Not Alright" by Sanctus Real. It is my favorite song by that band, but I never thought about the words and how they match up with the meaning of the Lord's Supper. Some of the lyrics are: "I'm not alright, I'm broken inside and I all I go through brings me closer to you, closer to you". By accepting/observing the Lord's Supper, we are remembering Jesus' body and blood that became broken like ours so we could have new bodies that were un -broken in heaven. Everything He did, He did to bring us closer to the Father and by following His example and teachings we are brought closer to the Father as well. The final song was not one I recognized, but it was slow and soft using only an acoustic guitar and soloist. The message was taught today by the guy that usually does the greeting. It was on a topic that everyone can apply: resting. The scripture was Matthew 11:28 and the references to every one's schedules being packed with activities, work, family, and even church hit home for pretty much everyone. I have, since moving down here, tried to pack my days full of things so I would be busy and not have "too much" free time. I think other than Christina, work, and exercise I will try to minimize my schedule to allow for more rest. We wrapped up the service with a loud song of praise. When we were leaving we decided to grab a quick bite to eat before Christina had to be at work.

Deciding where to eat was like an Olympic event. There was lots of preparation, discussion, and planning that went into even naming the participants (restaurant choices). Once the contestants were named they had to qualify for the event (were they quick enough to eat and leave before Christina had to be at work). Finally, they had to be a brand new face in the competition (someplace Hickey had never eaten before). We settled on Ted's Montana Grill as it was located in the same shopping center as The Box. After much discussion with the waitress about the quality of green beans they served, Hickey placed his order as did Christina and I. We ate and talked about the service as it was a stark contrast to CBCB back in Knoxville. We dropped Christina off at work and then Hickey and I returned to the apartment. I took a brief nap on the couch while Hickey updated his MySpace photos. We then watched various music remix videos on YouTube until it was time to go to The Box. I wanted to arrive about 30 minutes before Christina would be ready to leave as I needed to update the website header since the sale advertised was ending today. I tweaked and worked with the header graphic and finally got it working.

When we walked out to the sales floor Christina was almost ready to leave and soon we left. We stopped by the apartment to change into running clothes and start my camcorder recording the VH1 Storytellers performance by Dave Matthews Band. (Side note: if anyone can tell me an easy way to capture straight from the TV to my camcorder I'd appreciate it). We left and stopped by Christina's apartment so she could change into running clothes. We then went to Cobb County High School's track and ran and walked for about 3 miles. It felt good to be active and the weather couldn't have been nicer. After that we returned Christina to her apartment so she could shower and Hickey and I followed suit at my apartment. We all watched some TV before realizing that we were hungry. We once again went through the difficult process of picking a place to eat and ended up at one of my favorite restaurants: The Marietta Diner. We were seated and all ordered various sandwiches (my Crab meat Melt Sandwich was phenomenal!). We ate and talked and mostly people watched as the mirrors lining the interior walls of the dining room made it easy to observe other tables without being obvious. We opted out of dessert as none of us could eat anything else. We returned to the apartment and ended up watching some of a comedy special on Comedy Central before I walked Christina out to her car as we were all exhausted from our day. We said goodnight and then I returned to watch part of a Dane Cook comedy show before I grew too tired to keep my eyes open. I checked email and then crashed into my bed falling asleep quickly.

Meditation for the day: Matthew 11:28 "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."

From the Desk 8/30/2008

This morning I woke up and showered then woke up Hickey in the usual creative way. I placed my alarm clock on his bed about 6 inches from his face with about a minute to go before the alarm sounded. When it went off we kept trying to swat at the alarm on what he thought was on a night stand beside the bed (there wasn't one there). In the process of flailing his arms, he wrapped up the alarm clock in his other arm and only realized this once he opened his eyes and found the snooze button. He eventually got up and we made our way to Leslie's parent's house to begin moving her stuff to the new house. It took about 15 minutes to get there and we didn't get lost (thankfully). Once Mike and Aimee arrived with the School Box truck we began loading the furniture that we had already moved out to the driveway onto the truck. There was a particular piece of furniture that had it in for me. The large couch we moved gave me a slight cut on my pal under my thumb, but it didn't really bleed that much. When we moved it out to the truck, it struck again and this time I required some first aid to stop the bleeding. (see the picture for the graphic footage) We moved boxes, furniture, games, etc. and had the entire truck loaded in around and hour and a half. We figured out who was following in what order to find Leslie's new house, which no one except Leslie and Brian knew where it was. We traveled further down Cobb Parkway (Hwy 41) into Cartersville and into Euharlee in Bartow County. We arrived at the new house and after receiving a brief tour, began unloading the truck. The system was actually very effective for unloading. All the boxes went into one room and then Leslie directed where each piece of furniture was to go so there was minimal re-moving. We unloaded the entire truck and got the new HDTV set-up to watch some football in 35 minutes. Anna arrived with pizzas and drinks and then we all took a break to watch some of the Florida vs. Hawaii game while eating.

After a few minutes of rest, Mike and Aimee left to return the box truck and Anna headed out as well. Stacy, Hickey and I stayed behind to help unpack some boxes and set the furniture in the correct place within each room. We worked until around 2:00 and then Hickey and I departed to continue in our adventures. We arrived back at the apartment and decided to take it easy for a while. We watched some TV and then after eating some food broke into playing some Wii Sports. Our main game of choice was tennis and then boxing eventually was included. We created a Mii (personal character for each player that keep track of their records in the games, etc) and I think it came out looking very accurate. Here is mine for comparison (also fairly accurate in my opinion). We played about 15 matches which took over an hour of playing time, working up a little sweat.

Christina came over after she got back in town from the funeral and she joined in our tennis games. It was mostly Hickey and Christina against me as I figured I owned the game and had a bit of an advantage. We played a few games and then switched to bowling for several games. After feeling worn out from the games, we deiced to watch Transformers. (Side note: beginning a movie that is over 2 hours long at 10:45pm is not a good idea if you expect to stay awake) We watched the movie and ate some ice cream. I remember most of the movie, but woke up as the credits were scrolling. I walked Christina to her car and then said goodnight. I went back inside and crashed quickly on my bed knowing that I would have to get up in 6 hours for His Hands.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 25:3 "No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse."