Rockin
So stoked. I was just telling Jason how awesome it would be to see Heart in concert. I would not have said that in the past, but with my growing appreciation for different music...it would most definitely rock. So I went to ticketmaster to see if they were on tour and what do you know...they SO are with Cheap Trick and Journey. HOW awesome of a show will that be???? YES. September 13, baby.
Happy 4th!
Happy 4th of July everyone!!! We plan on going to the Miner's game tonight and we hope the rain holds off. Tomorrow we hang with Tim and Rachel and Sunday who knows?
Not to keep the morbidity going but RIP Bozo the Clown :( My earliest memories involve him!
Bye Smokey
So Smokey died sometime during the night. He was still alive last night around midnight when I fed him by syringe. It's amazing what people do for pets. He stopped eating his pellet food sometime last week and during the weekend I noticed that he was not eating any of his favorite foods such as lettuce or hay. Nor was he drinking water. Monday morning I rushed him to the vet so that he could be looked at and all she said was to change his cage, change his type of bedding and give him vitamin C. Boom, $50+ for the upgrades. She also gave me food to force feed him through a syringe. The past two days I have been holding him up and squeezing food into his mouth. It stunk. It also didn't work. I was able to use an online question and answer vet (by the way, I'd recommend this to pet owners) to see what else could be done. I explained to her that he was gurgling and had eye and nose discharge. She was very helpful by saying that he probably had a respiratory infection and that he needed to go to the vet again for antibiotics. Well, that would have been the plan except...he did not make it. All is fine though. Just a downer
Swingsets and bologna
This was really a melancholy weekend for me. Jason had to deal with the fact that I was melancholy. First off, the weather made it kind of a downer BUT I thoroughly enjoyed the cool breeze that it brought. Heavens yes. Second, well, I used to work at Archway Services for Children and there was one male employee. He's approximately in his mid 30s and his wife had been struggling with cancer for a long period of time. They have to little girls, one 7 and the other 5. Well, she died I believe Thursday so Jason and I drove up to Whittington Saturday night for the visitation so that I could pay my respects while Jason waited in the car. It's such a sad situation. To me, the hardest thing about losing a loved one is having to survive without them. By far. You have to learn how to celebrate the holidays, how to go to the places that you went with that person and basically how to enjoy things without them. It's a lifelong empty space but eventually you survive. Occasionally it will hurt again but the smiles are not far behind. This situation made Jason and I realize how you just never know. This man married his wife in '98 and here it is only 10 years later and boom, she's gone. Not to mention, my dad was in his very same position back in '86 for the same fatality.
I do not want to dwell on that topic, but that's the mood. Plus, my guinea pig is probably going to die here in the next couple of days. It is hardly worth having a pet because eventually you have to deal with the loss of them.
So after the visitation Jason and I just went to Rend Lake to relax our minds. We sat by the lake on a perfect sitting log and just let our minds wonder. Then we decided to throw sticks in the water where one of Jason's sticks got caught in the wind and smacked me on top of the head. I can still feel the pain but it was funny. We both loved playing outside when we were younger. It sucks getting older because then you have to let go of that freedom. After that we drove back to Marion and saw 'Get Smart'. It's a actually a really good movie. So, I hope y'all had fun this weekend celebrating Bjones' birthday. By the way, Happy Birthday Bjones! Sorry we could not make it. Jason has a big day coming up and well, duty calls.
Great News (for me)!!
Don Sol is no longer one of my sales reps!!! I don't know what happened yet because the wording was picked carefully. "R. is no longer with our company." was all that was said worth relaying. Life can only go up hill from here!!
Hooray for El Mayor (the tequila, not the man...or maybe both)!! Victory is ours!!!
Little El Mayor (the brother, not the half pint) was so looking forward to meeting El Mayor's (the man, not the tequila...or both) nemesis, but alas it did not come to pass.
Jason
UPDATE: He was fire due to complaints about his attitude.
Fog
We may go to Huntsville, Alabama for our anniversary.
It's close enough and it's a state that neither of us have really stayed in.
Good times.
We may just stick to Rend Lake....
You never know.
Cuatro Anos
I need some ideas on what we can do as a weekend getaway for our upcoming anniversary in July. Sure it's kind of far off, but some things take reservations. We've been to Memphis and Nashville...what other things can we do that's nearby? We really don't want to go over 4 hours somewhere. We thought about Gatlinburg (sp?) but it sounds overrated. I'm not interested in Branson nor do we want to use this time to go to Holiday World. Does anyone have any ideas? What else is there to do around here? I'd like to do something that we've never done before or we may just keep it simple and rent a boat for a day at Rend Lake. I just wondered what everyone's knowledge was.
I just got back from Cincinnati on Tuesday. I got to see a lot of people that I don't see often. It's nice and so fulfilling. I also got to go to the Great American Ballpark, which is my turf. Ken Griffey hit his 599th homer the night we were there. I swore he'd join the 600 club that night but it didn't happen.
Last night we saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall...I actually didn't mind it.
I am a failure??
I have this one sales rep whom always talks about how I should be doing things or whatever. He tells me, in no certain terms, that I am a hack. "The big liquor stores have a better premium tequila section. You should be carrying Don Julio, buying that El Mayor was a mistake." blah blah blah. Don Julio is one of his products, El Mayor is not and all he is trying to do is talk me into buying his stuff. In reality, all he is doing is pissing me off. Besides, I tried El Mayor and it is fine tequila. Just as good as Patron, but about $10 less per bottles. Not to mention it has a great presentation. This jerk-off is constantly telling me I am going to fail when I own the store. Oh really!?! Then why, since I have taken over, have we shown significant growth EVERY SINGLE MONTH!! Up 10 - 50% in gross sales!! Any business would kill for that!! I'm not just talking beer and cigs, but actual profit items like wine and liquor!! Last month alone, liquor was up 33% and wine was up 56%!!! I apparently am doing something right!! He also keeps blabbing that when CVS builds, I will be out of business. Whatever jackhole! I offer 2 major things that they do not: knowledge & selection. They can do whatever they want, I am just concerned with what I do. If I do things right, business will take care of itself. I already have established a customer base outside of Benton. I have people that drive from Mt. Vernon, Marion, Du Quoin, Salem and even Effingham to buy from here. I am even cutting into the Carbondale market. I am catering (booze wise) a wedding in Carbondale in June. I beat out every liquor store in this entire area for this wedding, which had a huge, huge order and has already pre-paid for everything!!! I don't mind being wrong about something, but I take my job seriously. I follow sales numbers, national and world trends carefully and try to keep on the edge. I regularly stock new items as soon as they are available and even start requesting items before the sales reps have even heard about them. I work very hard at this and don't appreciate some guy who failed at his own business venture years ago and now holds a grudge towards me. Rumor is he actually wanted this store and even approached Dwayne about it and Dwayne told him no way. Lastly, he hates Nick B. and I have stood up for Nick to him several times, which has lead to many arguments. I don't remember the entire story, but it involves his son and football. Oooh, that reminds me of another thing. He came in one day when I was talking to someone about my latest hire. Rodney asked me who I hired and I told him it was Nick's little brother and he got all snippy again. Told me I made a mistake. Jerk. Well, that's all. Just had to vent for a moment. Jay