Road Warrior

Sorry for the non-existent Blogging. My excessive travel has been draining my desire. Let's look at my schedule:

Last Week: At a CIO Summit at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

This Week: In Toronto with our Xyron Execs doing a business review on our new systems.

Next Week: Will be back to Toronto with our CEO to review business issues and problems caused by the new systems.

Week After: Will be in Scottsdale Arizona with my Boss (CIO) working on a "secret project" and meeting with the Xyron folks.

Week After that: I will be back in Toronto with my Boss (CIO) doing a business and operations review with the Canadian business.

These trips are usually Mon-Thurs so it's not all that bad. Normally I don't travel this much but it's not something I can avoid and still keep my high profile job (haha). Heather is not thrilled with me either so I am getting the usual "things go better when you are not around anyway" or "I guess I don't really need you". I'm kidding of course, she is supporting me fully. The only upside is the hotel in Toronto is situated right next to a brand new Stadium Movie Theatre and I got to go see "Fly Boys" and "Fearless" earlier this week. I highly recommend Fly Boys, it is a really good movie based on a true story from WW1. Fearless is another one of those subtitled kung fu movies, also good if you like that stuff. Talk to you soon.

Filing Americas Goes Hollywood

It’s a take! Pendaflex has made the final cut as one of the corporate participants in an episode for the TV show “The Office”, a top ten sitcom on NBC which just recently won the Emmy for best comedy.Over 30 companies were invited to participate in the episode, which revolved around the main characters attending a trade show... a concept we are quite familiar with. The trade show, which takes place in Philadelphia, serves as a setting for the main characters to scurry around for free giveaways.We were selected to have booth placement along with other great companies, including International Paper, Sharpie, Cingular, Herman Miller and Hewlett Packard. Mike Austin, Regional Manager for the West Coast and Sharon Mann, Public Relations Coordinator in Melville both participated in the filming and were part of a background scene demonstrating product. Banners were prominently placed on both sides of our booth giving Pendaflex it’s deserved moment of fame.The episode will be airing on Thursday September 28, please check your local listings for time.

Throwing a curve ball at Curves

Heather has had a membership at Curves for over a year now and, believe it or not, she actually goes there and exercises pretty much every day (except sat and sun). The only problem is, they don't open up the doors until 7am. She used to drop Isabelle off to school every morning and take Aubree with her and it worked well because Aubree was a cute baby and the owner loved to watch her. Since early this summer they changed ownership. Now that school is about to begin and Aubree is a bit too wild to take to the gym, Heather came up with a brilliant solution. She bent the ear of the owner and convinced them that she would be the perfect person to open the gym at 6:30am giving Curves an early niche and all she would require of them is to waive her monthly dues. This weekend she finalized the deal and now has a key to the gym and started this morning. So big congrats to Heather for coming up with a unique solution to her problem and having the guts to push it through. Now she gets to go early and exercise every morning and doesn't have to pay for it, and I can get to work on time.

On a side note, I was informed by my loving dear wife and daughter this Sunday while conducting Sacrament meeting that my face is getting noticeably "plump" and that I need to start an exercise program before I look like a pumpkin head for Halloween. Sheesh...

Certain Dri - miracle product

This falls under the gee-wiz category. Several months ago my body decided it had had enough of anti-perspirant and went on strike. Litterally overnight my system became imune to anti-perspirant and my armpits would swet and my shirt would be drenched, much to my dismay. I'm not a swetty person, so while this was annoying, not the end of the world. So I started trying out different brands to see if that helped and settled on Michem which had the highest level of the anti-perspirant chemical, otherwise they are all the same (just read the ingredients). Nothing worked. I could slather on the stuff an inch think and my pits would ignore it! So one day in Kmart I think, I found this anti-perspirant that had a different chemical in it so I thought I'd try it out. The interesting thing here, you roll it on in very small quantities just before going to bed and it stops all armpit swet for three whole days! It actually works! So if your anti-perspirant ain't cutting the mustard, pick up a bottle of this miracle drug and you will be amazed how well it works. It cured me! Amen.

My Cool Dad - by Isabelle

My Cool Dad
By Isabelle Adams
Dedicated to my cool dad

In my family I have a little sister, a mom, a dad and a pet dog. The person I look to for help is my mom. The person I look to when I have nothing to do is my sister. The person I look to when I am alone and scared is my dog. And the person I look to when I am feeling down is my father.
The title fits in because every one in my family has a meaning to me. My mother is kind. My sister is there for me. My dog understands love. And my dad is simply a cool dude.

Go Mets!

This year I recieved four field level tickets to a Mets baseball game from one of my vendors at work who we spend a lot of money with. So this Saturday we went to see the game as a family. We figured Aubree would only last a couple of innings but she made it through the whole game. We started the night off with a trip to Arby's in Queens which is the closest Arby's we have. You wouldn't think that would be much of a treat but we loved it! Yummy Beef n' Cheddar, mmmm. Then the game started at 7pm and we had a blast. Unlike the previous two mets games I've been to over the years, the Mets are acually winning this year and this game was a pleasure to watch. They were behind halfway through the game then the Mets started hitting home runs and killed the Phillies 11 to 5. It was very exciting for the girls, and we really got into the spirit of the game with the rest of the fans. My silly camera died after three pictures (dumb battery!) so you will have to forgive the quality.
We got to sit in reserved field seats that were just behind the dugout of the Mets. Isabelle bought herself a pretzel and we brought orange cream shakes from Arby's with us. Isabelle really wanted a ball but I could not convince the players to throw us one, albeit we came close.

Isabelle and her Cello

Isabelle and her Cello, she has been accepted into Orchestra this year in school. She is really looking forward to it.






Heather is living her "dream" through Isabelle I think (yes, one of "those" mom's). Hahaha

Aubree is aspiring to be a test pilot.... here she is testing out my socks and sneakers.

Summer Projects

A project even Dad would be proud of! While out on one of my Canada trips Heather decided to remove all of the nice shelving that was in Isabelle's closet so she could paint it. As usual, when I got home, guess who got to repair the mess.... So we took the opportunity to adjust the shelves and complete the closet with baseboard (the one thing Dad refuses to do is baseboard inside closets, thus they all need done). One down, two more to go...




A regular Bob Villa at work!

Long time no Blog

Hello! It's been an unusually long time since I have updated my blog. My apologies (I'm usually the one getting on everyone else's case for not posting new material). The month of July and now August have been extremely busy at work and at home. I have had a couple of long trips to Toronto but the project has been mostly completed with success and now I can focus on the rest of the North American Division and the Creative Division in Scottsdale Arizona (which will entail at least one more trip to Canada to show the creative execs how well the new systems in Canada work).

We made a huge mistake earlier in the year by scheduling a trip to Utah in early August and I had to be in Stamford Connecticut for meetings with the CEO, CFO and my boss the same week we planned on leaving and thus, had to cancel (or jeopardize my future with Esselte Corp). Needless to say, the girls have not been too happy with me during this summer either. While complaining that she is "bored" all the time, Isabelle has been attending summer Cello lessons and Tap Dance lessons all summer long and is doing very well at both. This past Saturday Isabelle's class performed at the Bellport "Dock Show". We got to sit outside near the bay and watch the girls perform. Speaking of which, we actually made it to the local beach a couple of weeks ago (Smithpoint park) about 15 min from the house. The ocean was a bit chilly but the waves were nice and we had a blast soaking up the sun.

Heather is still working frantically at her new business and is doing well, school is about to start in a couple of weeks. I'm still suffering as the 1st councilor and ward exec sec in the Bishopric, and Heather has had at least one more of her Primary Activity extravaganzas. So it has been a very busy month. We only had 48 people show up to church this Sunday, a new low.

Coming up: I have a trip to a resort in Wisconsin for a CIO summit. School starts in 14 days for Isabelle who just got her letter from Mr. Whaley (the teacher we petitioned the principal for and who Isabelle had in first grade) so she is very happy. Isabelle will be getting braces soon. Aubree is getting more teeth in and no longer sleeps as a result (neither do we!). We have just re-booked our Utah tickets to December 20th-Jan 3rd! Let's hope this time it sticks!

Talk to you soon!

MyParklane - Heather Adams

Heather is doing well with her new business. She is working out of the house as a Sales Director for Park Lane jewelry. She hosts parties and gets loads of free jewelry, you can't beat that. This started out as a "hobby" and is now actually generating some decent revenue. She just setup a new website you can buy jewelry from. If you are interested in getting some free stuff or buying some nice jewelry just let her know and she will hook you up. Or, if you want to start your own business she can do that too.

Clearing out the "best of" off the camera

These pictures came off my camera after sitting there for a couple of months. Consider this the "best of" collection from Easter to today. Enjoy!

Continued...

Day Off today

I took today off so that Heather and I could go out to eat for lunch. We went to a new place called "Charlie Brown's" that just opened up not too far from our place. We were pleasantly surprised at the lunch prices and selection. I had a mouth-watering Hickory burger, and Heather had a French Dip sandwitch, both very good. Aubree ate fries and was also pleased. We rarely get to have lunch together so this was very nice. And don't believe a word Dad says, we do NOT constantly eat out, only on special occasions and and when company is in town.

Happy 35th B-day for Daddy

Lunch at Uno Pizza, for Daddy's Birthday. Aubree playing with the "table toys" available.

Isabelle with her 4 year trophy, it's all over...

Aubree and I working our way through Costco to get Isabelle's flowers for the recital.

On my way to Toronto again

On my way to Toronto, flying out of LaGuardia Airport

Working hard in the office

So i am here in Toronto this weekend working away with a huge team of Canadians and consultants doing simulation tests on our new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system in Canada before we go live in July. I left at 4am to get to the airport and it's close to midnight and I am still here in the office typing in thousands of manual PO's and Kanban tickets for the system (grunt work). I can't wait to do this again tomorrow and Sunday, and Monday.... :(

Working hard in the war room

Pack Night - Pinewood Derby

Tonight was Pack Night and once again, Heather is in charge of this once-a-year event where we have the pinewood derby (this will be our third). We went over to the church on Monday with the Blom family (primary pres and YM pres) to setup the room and put the track together when we discovered that the track, which is normally stored in the upstairs attic, was missing. So I put on my detective hat and started calling everyone I could think of to find out where it went (it was there a few days ago). I called the Bishop, 1st Councilor, Ward Mission Leader, Activities committee, two High Councilman, both English and Spanish speaking missionaries, and two other wards/branches that have access to our building. I then checked the outdoor shed, and the dumpster all with no results. Also missing is all the wood we use every year for our booths for the Christmas party. I suspect we may never know who cleaned up the attic. So Bro. Blom (who is very handy with tools as a profession) committed to make a new track by the next night. Let's just say he had to spend all day building it and we cut it pretty close.

I got the honor of performing the announcing (hey, give me a mic and I'll make John Madden proud!) and I was also responsible for tracking the cars and rounds with a program I found on the web which calculates the lanes and who goes when etc. We got ready to start the racing when the alarm bells started going off in the church and smoke started billowing out of the Kitchen. They decided to heat up those large pretzels for the concessions stand and there was something that burned on the oven heating element causing the smoke. So I got to call the fire dispatch and try and cancel it (the fire engines showed up, but they were updated by dispatch and left). After that, the event went off very well and once again, Heather did an excellent job of organizing and running the event. I keep telling myself that this stuff gets easier once you do it more than once, but I'm just humoring myself to keep sane.... : )

The three winners for the race.

The new track