Monthly Archives: April 2008

Mall of America

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Today went went through a lot of Dynacord products and briefly touch on Midas and KT. I think some of the things we talked about were way above the level that most MI people are or that they may aspire to be at, but it is good information for them to know. The unfortunate part is that some of it is quite dry, like how to compare an amplifier and why you can’t just rely on some spec such as watts to really determine the best purchase to make.

We ran a little late, so I didn’t get back in time to get my car, so I’ll have to deal with it in the morning which means I now need to get up even earlier. Nathaniel and I went to the mall this evening to check things out. I really wasn’t impressed with the Mall of America. If you take away the amusement park, the theater and restaurants you really just have a mall. My only guess is that people here in Minnesota don’t want to have to go outside when it is cold and want to spend as much of the day/time as possible inside one building. I guess going to one place where you can eat dinner, watch a movie and then do some shopping could be attractive to some people, and it certainly doesn’t hurt to have the extras there, I guess i was just expecting more. There did seem to be some stores that you maybe wouldn’t see in a typical mall (I’m no expert). I think we have such a variety of stores already in our California malls that it just doesn’t seem too different here.

The Apple store was old school style, with a theater and actual registers. I tried to take a picture, but the manager stopped me telling me that they don’t allow pictures in the store. What kind of marketing is that? Is there something secret about their stores? Do they not want me to promote their stores and products?

MI Training

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The MI (Musical Instrument) training went well today. This morning was really good with a review of audio math and tidbit information, presented by Chris. This afternoon was spent primarily going through products that we already knew about and had been using, but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have a refresher course on some products that had been forgotten about, overlook or misunderstood before. I’m thinking this could be a great investment for other people in the company to come back and see. I understand that later in the week they are going to make us role play and try out sales techniques as well. I’m not sure if they will necessarily apply to us since we aren’t MI, but sometimes the pieces will fit in our puzzle as well as theirs.

I didn’t see anyone from EV today that we weren’t already working with in the training, but was thinking that I need to track down Guy and Sue to at least introduce myself in person while I am here. We had a good time hanging out with the guys both at the factory and then tonight at two bars/clubs in downtown. At the first one we had dinner and then went to the second one for a live band. Unfortunately I don’t remember the names, but the dinner joint was at the end of the of the train line and the other one was a good few blocks from there.

I ended up walking from the live music venue back to the train and then riding the train back to the Mall of America in order to get some time in on the phone, get some fresh air, get out of the club and experience some more of Minneapolis. It didn’t end up really saving me any time as I only got back about 20-30 minutes before the guys did on the bus, but at least now I can say I rode the train (not that I know what it is called). Happy Birthday Amanda!

Now I really need to get to sleep so I can get up in six hours for another fun filled day. I’ll be getting a car tomorrow after the training and I believe we have the evening off so we’ll see what kind of trouble we can’t cause on our own. I think it is worth reporting that I was thinking earlier today that we were either going home tonight or tomorrow, so I guess I’m just not used to these longer trips! Where’s Tara when I need her?

Hello from Minneapolis

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We made it to Minneapolis today and it was fairly uneventful. I just didn’t really like traveling on Sunday, but I guess there wasn’t much of a better option.  I am disappointed that I missed conference, but I know I can and will catch up as soon as they post the materials online. The flights were packed, but it was ok for me both times. On the second flight my reading light kept flickering on and off as it so desired, so it made reading hard as it got darker, but I was able to get some good time in. I didn’t really get to talk to anyone on the planes. The girl I sat next to the first time was sleeping the whole time and the woman the second time had headphones in before I even got on the plane.

It is on the colder side her, but not too bad from the little bit I saw. The hotel seems alright. We sat and talked at the get together at TGI Friday’s once we got here and got to know some of the people we will be spending the next few days with. I guess we will just see what comes tomorrow.

I was kind of thinking about trying to find someone else to do tomorrow while everyone goes bar/club hopping. I was thinking maybe I could find an FHE group and hang out with them, but maybe I will give the guys a chance and can always take a taxi out when things get bad.

If anyone knows of things that absolutely need to be done while I am in Minneapolis, MN, please let me know so I can make sure to do them. So far the only things on my list are the St. Paul Minnesota Temple and the Mall of America.

Melissa’s Birthday, Bon Jovi & Walking

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It’s way past my bedtime, but I figure since I didn’t write last night for a similar reason, I’d better get on it for tonight. I was only in the office for a few hours Friday after rolling in late and then taking off early for Melissa’s birthday bash. It was great hanging out there and the day couldn’t have worked out better for her birthday pool party. It had been cool and rainy all week and then was about 80 on Friday. It cooled down again today to about 60, so someone must really like Melissa, not that I could blame them. In any event, the party went well.

I was kind of slacking on the whole coming up with a plan for Bon jovi that night. I ended up starting to send text messages to people who i thought might be interested and Megan D. jumped on the Bon Jovi fan bandwagon. Did I mention this was at the time that we needed to be on the road? I picked her up and we hightailed it to In-N-Out and then the Honda Center. We ended up missing Daughtry by the time we got parked and into the center, but I was ok with that. Bon Jovi was great, especially since I’m not a huge fan or anything. They were good entertainers and put on a good show. They had a cool set with these awesome LED screens that kept moving around. They started as four independent screens and then merged together two form two widescreens. At one point they all came together to form an ultimate widescreen and then started separating horizontally which was really trippy.

After the concert we tried to visit Teal, but she wasn’t serving tables any longer so we tried not to torture another waitress at Cheesecake Factory Anaheim. I really love their strawberry lemonade. I think I’m over the cheesecake and it is all about the strawberry lemonade now. Megan had a blast. We finally made it home, with me getting home around 2:30.

Nine o’clock rolled around way too fast this morning and it seemed like a long way to go to my TV to watch general conference. I had a hard time finding it at first, but finally was able to figure it out along with how to schedule a manual recording. Between sessions i took a shower and ate a snack. After the second session I went to Target to get some stuff for the trip and went to the office to copy my Parallels Image to my external drive. I ended up leaving the drive there copying as I ran out to get to the priesthood session of conference, so I’ll have to swing back by tomorrow before we leave or I will have no Windows access at all on my laptop!

I don’t really have much to report from conference. I think I was still sleeping during the first session and was busy packing/playing with luggage during the second session. It didn’t seem there was anything really new or life shattering in priesthood, but I got that we are doing fairly well with responding to emergencies and needs, that we need to make sure we don’t let our compass slip a few degrees or we will crash and burn and that we shouldn’t be doing anything we don’t want our kids to be doing. I guess that phrase “don’t do this at home” doesn’t really work?

After conference i went to Oceanside. We walked the pier and along the coast and talked. We stopped at Chili’s for a daiquiri and I enjoyed some skillet queso for dinner. It was great fun, but I was probably out too late since I figure I need to be up at 6 to get ready and packed for my flight. If I had it to do over again though, I’d do the same thing, so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining, especially since it isn’t going to do me any good, right? I’m pretty sure that was the most walking I’ve done since I was in Salt Lake around New Year’s. So I guess we need to get out and do it more often or something.

Too Long in Office

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I spent entirely way too much time in the office today. i was there shortly after 8 and was all alone until almost 2 when pyro showed up with lunch. It was fairly quiet, so I was able to get a lot done, but that also lead to a lot of boredom with no one around to motivate me… I got my email down to two messages though, so I must have been doing something right and also got the support system down to zero!

I got home taught for the first time possibly ever tonight by Tyler. It was good talking with him and learning from him. I went straight into Institute and then an elders quorum presidency meeting. Next thing I know, it’s after 11 and I just got home. Needless to say, I will probably be late to work in the morning. I think I’ve put in enough extra hours this week so it will be OK and I’m leaving early tomorrow…

Making Music

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We had our first elders quorum presidency meeting tonight. I had a feeling this calling was going to be a lot of work, but I didn’t quite think it through that it would mean less sleep as well too! We couldn’t start till after 8, so we didn’t end till about 10:15. We spent most of the time tonight working on home teaching assignments.

Work went pretty well today. I was able to get payroll done and submitted. I gave up on the whole online thing, I just figured it was going to take way too much work to go through all the steps and it seemed really slow. It is so much easier to call in the time and let them deal with it on their side. The downside of relying on them is that I don’t really get a preview and just have to hope it is all right as compared with doing it myself, but I think I can take that chance for now.

Since I stayed at work late I had to get over that working late hurdle. Around 5:30 it starts to kick in that you’re tired of being there and you’ve really accomplished everything you set out to accomplish that day. So you have to decide what to do. I ended up spending the rest of the evening working on getting the books current and going through the depreciation schedules and such. It was good to get that done and is something that tends to be hard to do during the day because of constant interruptions. I’m taking some time off tomorrow afternoon to go bowling with Sib, so that should help make up for the extra hours I’m putting in elsewhere this week. If anyone would like to join us, you’re more than welcome. I think we’ll be getting started about 2:15.

I went to Men’s Wearhouse this evening to get some new white shirts as some of mine were starting to look worn. Of course I started browsing ties and then decided to ask the stupid question of what killer deals did they have going on right then. They pointed me to some suits and I’ve now got two new ones on the way. This is why I don’t go shopping!

Last night pyro and I made music on hold for our phone system. We had been talking about getting some new music for a long time, but it is so hard to find good royalty free music that is cheap. Pyro finally suggested using GarageBand to make our own music, so we did! It was actually kind of fun. I’m sure if you looked at the time spend on doing it, it would have been cheaper to buy something, but this was more fun and we can say we actually made it ourselves!