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April 30, 2007

Springtime Chores

My posts have been slow in materializing these days due to the beautiful weather and training in my new position... Sorry all...
This past weekend was spent mowing and doing chores around the outside of the house. You ever notice how the grass doesn't grow all winter (late fall and early spring too) and then after you apply the first round of weed-n-feed it grows like a hippy's hair on Rogaine? I cut the grass less than a week ago and this is what it looked like, in my eyes, before I started mowing with our semi self propelled mower, on Saturday:

Of course, our yard is a little smaller and hillier, but you get the picture. I was a little sore after making the rounds and fighting with grass that grew six inches in less than a week...
While I tended to the greenery, Jim was blasting away the winter residue on our lengthy driveway in preparation to re-seal it. Now mind you, we went out in early January and got the pressure cleaner, the sealer and all the necessary equipment and tools to do this (the first time the weather warmed up to 70 degrees). We took turns back then and cleaned it hoping to seal it in a day or two. The weather turned sour and we never got back to sealing until now. The sun came out Sunday morning and it was decided that the day for black topping had arrived... We garbbed ourselves in our Sunday worse and headed out to spread the 30 gallons of black goo onto what seemed to be something like this:

Again, the photo maybe somewhat of an exaggeration, but I can assure you that our arms, legs and backs were feeling not too great, after we were finished.

We were invited over to our neighbor's house for dinner last night. Which was a great thing, as I had no energy to cook anything. It took Jim and I about an hour to get all the sealer off our hands legs, faces and other extremities, but it did feel good to be clean and sweet smelling again.

For those of you that want to know what the driveway and yard really look like, here are a few pictures taken this morning:



I work later tonight (training with store closing procedures) and have been asked to fill in for the manager that has been training me for the rest of the week... Indoctrination by fire??

Over and "Out" from "Springtime in Toano"...

April 22, 2007

Earth Day 2007


Just a beautiful picture of Toano, VA (and the rest of this side of our unique planet)... Over and "Out" for today!

April 20, 2007

Virginia Tech: In Memory



Ross Abdallah Alameddine
Christopher James Bishop
Brian Roy Bluhm
Ryan Christopher Clark
Austin Michelle Cloyd
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
Kevin P. Granata
Matthew Gregory Gwaltney
Caitlin Millar Hammaren
Jeremy Michael Herbstritt
Rachael Elizabeth Hill
Emily Jane Hilscher
Jarrett Lee Lane
Matthew Joseph La Porte
Henry J. Lee
Liviu Librescu
G.V. Loganathan
Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan
Lauren Ashley McCain
Daniel Patrick O'Neil
J. Ortiz-Ortiz
Minal Hiralal Panchal
Daniel Alejandro Perez
Erin Nicole Peterson
Michael Steven Pohle, Jr.
Julia Kathleen Pryde
Mary Karen Read
Reema Joseph Samaha
Waleed Mohamed Shaalan
Leslie Geraldine Sherman
Maxine Shelly Turner
Nicole White
This list was updated April 21, 2007 @ 5:30am

April 18, 2007

From the halls of Montezuma....


Just a cool picture I found on rickster67's gay.com profile... Thanks dude!

Over and "Out" from Toano, VA

April 17, 2007

And so it begins...

Yesterday was my first day of training in my new position. It was awesome. I started the day by driving to Suffolk to sit in on the training for the managers that are manning our Hiring Clinic for the new store. I got to meet the new store manager (transferring down from one of our Chicago stores) and the Merchandise/Sales manager (coming from our store in Chesapeake). They both seem like great people and I think we will make a terrific team.
After the hour long meeting, I drove back up to Newport News and spent the day with the warehouse manager in the store I have been working in. We reviewed "Best Practices" and systems/procedures for the receiving, internal movement, and shipping of product within the store. I can see how important it is going to be for us (in the new store) to hire a competent person for this position. It will make or break the ease of my job for sure.
I will continue to train in Newport News for the balance of the week, then train with the Operations Manager in the Richmond store next week. I look forward to working with the manager up there, as I respect and admire the techniques he uses to deal with situations with customers and associates.
Not sure what happens after next week, other than recruiting and working with the new store manager, but I look forward to each day!
That's it for now folks, Over and "Out" from Toano, VA

April 8, 2007

Easter Bunny? I don't see no Easter Bunny?


Happy Easter all!!!



Over and "Out" from Toano, VA

April 7, 2007

Something new and blue

Jim was concerned about the commute for me and the age/mileage on my Sebring convertible, so to keep him happy we went shopping today, and this is what we ended up with:

My old Sebring got traded in... and this Equinox is awesome!!!

More to come, from Snowy Toano... Over and "Out"