From the Desk 9/8/2008

This morning I spent a good deal of time trying to schedule the next blast email to go out. The actual process of scheduling it was not the issue. That process only took a few minutes to complete. My hang up came when I sent the test out and none of the images appeared, only the alternate text descriptions of what was in the boxes appeared. I re-linked the images and made sure that the files were in the correct folder on both our end and on the mail server. I sent another test email out, but never received it. I figured we could fix it tomorrow since it wasn't scheduled to go out until Wednesday at midnight. I then turned my attention to resizing and re-spacing the information on the Bright From the Start workshop flyer to squeeze it into an 8 1/2 x 11 front and back flyer. It took the rest of my time before lunch to complete that and then it was time for a much needed break.

I drove Carmen and I to REI so she could register for a trail maintenance day on the 27th. I was going to sign-up, but since I'm going backpacking that day, I thought it wise to conserve both time and energy for later in the day. I did, however, browse their selection of some supplies I needed to pick up before the trip. We stopped by Chick-fil-A and after what was an uncharacteristically long wait Carmen got her food and we returned to the break room. We ate and laughed over everyone's crazy stories from the weekend. Once I returned to my desk I decided to learn a new trick on Photoshop having to do with Actions. Actions are pre-made effects that people have created and made available for free on certain websites to help create stunning effects with ease if you are not a pro at Photoshop (cause I'm not). I wanted to create a spiral binding on a notebook paper background to sample for the background of our new look of blast emails. After a little bit of frustration I figured out what I was doing wrong and was able to create the desired effect. I will have to put it in place tomorrow to see if it comes across the way I intend. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Chris in the warehouse re-rolling the window posters that were used during the Back-to-School sale. We rolled and re-packed around 30 posters, hangers, and suction cups to save for next year. I also contemplated changing clothes and hiking the loop at Burnt Hickory Rd. by myself after work, but those thoughts quickly vanished as I heard a terrible crash of thunder that matched the dark sky looming over the area. 5:00 came and I wasted no time in getting to my car as it was beginning to rain.

By the time I left the parking lot, it had ceased to sprinkle and had begun a mimi-tropical storm of wind, rain, lightning and thunder. I talked with mom on my way home to properly welcome her back home from her trip and then once I was home I ate some dinner. I worked on some laundry and typed up a few notes from the marketing meeting as I'm really trying to have that done by week's end. I paid some bills and then went to Target to buy a few food items to get me through the next week of lunches at work. I shopped wisely and managed to keep my purchase total much lower than usual (not buying a month's worth of food probably helped too!) I had finished putting away the groceries I bought when Christina called to let me know she was out of class. I invited her over and when she arrived we spent a good deal of time watching some old video footage on my computer. We watched everything from pranks at th old P&S building to footage of an actual good snow in Knoxville. It was fun remaniscing on time spent filming at all hours of the night with Hickey. After watching more footage than should probably still be on my computer, I walked Christina to her car and said goodnight. I went back inside to go to bed early so I could have the energy to get up tomorrow morning and run before going into work.

Meditation for the day: Isaiah 46:4 “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

From the Desk 9/7/2008

This morning I was apparently more tired from moving and traveling than I realized as I woke up looking at my clock ans seeing that it was already 9:45 and too late to make it to His Hands. I talked with Christina, who had overslept as well, and we decided to grab some breakfast at Cracker Barrel before she had to be at work. We met at 11:00 and were seated after a few minutes of waiting. While waiting we browsed the country store and discovered that Cracker Barrel has caught the Webkinz craze as they had a large assortment of both the pets and the new clothing line to compliment the original toys. We also were listening to the old-timey gospel songs that were blaring though the speakers overhead. We were seated and it took a while for us to decide what we wanted. I usually have 3 favorites that I rotate between, but I wasn't in the mood for any of them this morning. I settled on Grandpa's Coutry Breakfast (2 eggs, grits, bacon, biscuits & gravy, and fried apples) and it was really too much food. (but I figured that I could eat big for this meal and not much else the rest of the day) After eating, Christina went to work and I returned to the apartment.

I spent the afternoon being fairly productive. I made the DVD insert for the Dave Matthews DVD I produced, printed the inserts, copied the DVDs, and printed the labels. I also duplicated the picture disc for Elizabeth's wedding as both her mom and Dustin's mom wanted their own copy after viewing it. I then did some laundry and general straightening around the apartment. I took a nap for a couple of hours while the House marathon was running on USA. I woke up and then went to update mt blog from my weekend adventures in Alabama. I also cleaned up some files that have now consumed almost all 750 GB of storage space on my computer. Christina called around 8:00 to let me know that she was done with her homework for the night and wanted to come over. She arrived and we continued to watch the House marathon, ocassionaly checking the score of the Indianapolis Colts game and Family Guy. We called it an early night and said goodnight and I walked Christina to her car. I went to sleep early (well..earlier than usual) hoping to motivate myself to run the following morning.

Mediation for the day: Luke 12:19 "And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."