Miracle in Northern Idaho

As awful as I have been feeling, I had one thing to look forward to. Cecily invited us to go with her family & Colin's family (in the end Mom & Dad came too) to camp overnight and then bicycle the Hiawatha Trail. She did it last year when she was morning sick and said it was the best she felt the whole time. I really held on to that endoresement. My wonderful husband, who tries at all times to make me happy, agreed to try it and even agreed to use some of his dwindling leave hours so we could leave at noon on Friday.

The moment I stepped out of the car at the campground, I felt better than I had in weeks. We got the tents put up and then just sat around and enjoyed the perfect weather. Some of the kids sweet talked their Uncle David into watching them while they played in the river.

We had a wonderful dutch oven dinner of chicken and cornbread with watermelon and then smores. I was even able to eat a bit of the chicken with my potato slices cooked foil dinner style over the coals. Baby Colin, the cause of his mother's morning sickness the previous year, chowed down on some baby food fed to him by his Grandma, assisted by Grandpa.

The next morning, we packed our lunches, ate a great hotcake breakfast made by Mike and set off. It took us a while to rent the bikes and things for the people on the trip who needed them (David and I had all our gear, thanks to the lights borrowed from our hometeacher.) It also took us time to get all the trailers and tag-alongs attached to the bikes but finally about noon we set off. The Hiawatha trail is a mountain bike trail made from the old railroad route, complete with tunnels (where you must have good lights) and tressles. Because it is a railroad grade, it is very gradual downhill for 14 miles (not a strenous ride at all.) David volunteered to pull the trailer with Colin D., the water jug and the lunch.

It was a wonderful day, a wonderful ride, spectacular scenery, excellent company, and perfect weather, right up to the point where we had to wait for two hours in the sun to board the school bus that would take us back to the top of the hill. My husband of course insisted that I wait in the shade. I was exhausted and sore by the end but had not suffered from the morning sickness during the whole day--my miracle in North Idaho (and a tiny bit in Montana!)

P.S. We ate our dinner at "The Snake Pit", so infamous during the boom time of the late 1800s that a reporter from Boise wrote about a man being stabbed at the bottom of the stairs leading to the restaurant and all the men wanting their beer just stepping over him. The dinner and the ambiance were great.

I know I shouldn't but...

I am always looking for "omens" for upcoming Cougar games. It would be interesting to study the psychology of people who look for such things but I'm not THAT interested. I can't really believe in them because my lucky shirt has at times suddenly become my unlucky shirt.

Anyway, today I was manning my booth and suddenly around the corner (I'm not making this up) come two men that work for the same company (the name was monogrammed on their shirts), one is wearing a purple shirt and the other a crimson one--button-downs identical in every way except for the different colors. Purple shirt is walking slightly in front of crimson shirt but I pick a line and say to myself which ever shirt gets to the line first will win the Apple Cup. It is NOT looking good, purple shirt seems more aggressive and he has a good lead as they near the line. When suddenly, unbelievably, he sees the Tic Gums Guru in the booth opposite from mine (for full emphasis go to http://www.ticgums.com/blog/, scroll about 2/3 down to the video and go to the 1:33 minute mark) and wants his picture with him!!! Crimson shirt crosses the line first and I guess all is well now. Funny but later I saw them at my hotel and the purple shirt was still walking in front but he had failed when it mattered most.

Anyone done this before?

BTW, I'm all for the blog revival, I just wish my life was more interesting so I would have more to share.

Have you ever played the game where you try to think of something you have done that no one else has? Well, I might have done something today that might win. We are staying in the Congress Plaza Hotel, right on Michigan Ave. in Chicago. What makes it affordable is that it is "historic". That's what it says in the hotel's marketing brochure. We have interpreted that to actually mean "old." So, this morning we got up, ready to go and I was preparing for a shower when the lights went off. Turns out the electricity was out just in our room. Apparently you can't have the computer and phone charging, the coffee pot making coffee (Laura is with me) and the iron on and expect to maintain electricity. It was completely black in the bathroom but I needed my shower. Laura said she wished she had a flash light and suddenly I had an idea. The screen of my laptop gave off a lot of light so I took it in the bathroom and put it on the back of the toilet and proceeded with the shower.

Well, if you have every had to do that, let me know.

The Old Songs

No, this is not a tribute to the Barry Manilow favorite. I'm writing a blog because as usual being in a booth has given me long uninterrupted periods for thinking. Today, however, the thinking has been curtailed by the uninvited intrusion of an old song my siblings may recall. Most of the people walking the aisles just pass by without looking at me. If they happen to make eye contact I say "Hello!" Three times in rapid succession and I was in the clutches of "Hello, Hello, Hello, I'm PC 99, Hello, Hello, Hello, I'm here to stamp out crime. Each night I find I'm walking the street, walking along, stamping my feet, if you want to rob a bank, then you are a silly old crank!" How many years has it been since hearing that song from somewhere other than my memory? What useful things am I not able to store in my brain because that is taking up space.

I sure would like to hear your stories about songs you thought were long gone but appeared at inopportune moments and just stayed!

Technology: Not for the Naturally Shy

A lot of you have already heard this story but I wouldn't want the rest of you to miss out. Tuesday night at Enrichment meeting we got bonus bucks for the service auction if we would tell our most embarrassing moment story. I gamely told about handing Terry Wright's dad the chewed gum right out of my mouth. Since it had been 26 years I didn't supposed I would ever get another story to replace it. That wasn't actually an active thought until the next day.

We use an instant messenger system to take care of some of the communications at Decagon. It took me a while to get used to it but it has grown on me over time. Finally I had grown quite comfortable using it--maybe a little too comfortable for someone who did not grow up in the technology era.

I needed to send a note to Reid because I was going over the budget and found an invoice I thought he would know more specifics on. The invoice was from 401 (k) Pro, Inc. for $500. (Note: I am trying to distract you with the $ amount!) So I wrote to Reid giving him all the details so he would have the best chance possible to find the invoice. Then I hit "ENTER". The message was gone--off to Reid and as it posted, right where I had typed (k) was a big pair of red lips. It looks so innocent as I have typed it here but believe me when I say that the shock value of having just sent a male co-worker not named David big red lips was high. I sat there for a moment while the situation sank in and then I decided I had better go explain to Reid. When I opened his door I could see he had his face in his hands and was laughing.

Next time it is time to get bonus bucks for telling your most embarrassing moment...I will have a new one!

The million to one shot

I go so long between posts that I forget how to actually make a post and it takes all the time I have allotted for writing to figure out how to start a new post.

I know many of you will be shocked to find a new post from me but we actually got high speed internet out at the Ponderosa (David's fine spread in the Palouse hills) and we don't have any TV. It is amazing what happens when TV isn't taking up your time--I've been reading books too!

The Ponderosa has many advantages but we found a major disadvantage this winter when all snow and winds hit. (If you find any of my words run together you can blame one of the twins who forcefully removed the space bar on my laptop on one of their visits! Though I believe it was a small price to pay to experience all their cuteness!) January 29th was one of the worst days and David and I had quite an adventure that Mom wouldn't write about in her letter because she thought it was scandalous. We knew that the weather was going to be bad so we left right at 5:00pm and headed out. There are two ways to get to the Ponderosa, one from the Albion highway and the other from the sewage treatment road. The Albion highway is the fastest from the North side of town so we tried that first but there is a big hill right off the highway that looked quite treacherous so we decided to try the other way (we have done this on a few occasions. David was driving his car and I was driving mine so I could drive back to Pullman when our evening was over. The driving was an adventure but we actually made it quite far. David was in front. At one point a man stopped me to say there were 4 foot drifts by Armstrong Rd. (The Ponderosa is just past that road) but David just thought he was being friendly when he waved at him and so he was way ahead of me when I got this news so I kept going. We were able to go quite fast which allowed us to make it a lot further than we should have but we finally got to the point where we decided to turn around. Now, however, we were without the essential speed. David's car got stuck and we managed to free it but conditions were worsening all time. The wind made it very cold. We found a good spot to get it off the main part of the road and decided to take my car back to town. I should have let David drive because he knew how much speed we needed and I wimped out. We did get two tries to get up the little hill but the deep snow pulled the car right into a huge drift and we were stuck for good. We decided to warm up in the car a little before trying to get the car going again but things looked pretty bad. David had run on that road many times and knew that we were only about a 1/2 mile from his house so we decided to head for warmth and safety. We had not gone far when we found ourselves in snow up to our thighs. The bottom of my pants were frozen by this time and every time I took another step into the drift the bootcut bottoms would lift to my knees. The going was very hard, I really wanted David to just get me out of the drift but his going was not any easier than mine. It took a lot of work to get the legs high enough to take the next step. We found some less deep snow on our trek but getting through all of it was quite exhausting even for just that half mile. Since then we have alternately called it the "adventure" and the "ordeal", never quite sure which it was. I'm sure by the time we have grandkids, the drift will be 20 feet deep. Anyway, that is how I spent my first night at the Ponderosa (IN THE SPARE BEDROOM, the only thing missing was a chaperone.) The next morning dawned beautiful and we ate our breakfast at a table in front of the big picture windows while waiting for the plow. It was VERY lucky that both our cars were off the road so the plow could get through. Dad and Mom came out when it was clear and gave us each a tug so we were on our way.

Actually the title of the blog comes from the tagline of the original Rocky movie. David and I watched Rocky Balboa this past weekend (stop laughing Nige & Scott). If he was a million to one shot when he was in his prime, this was more like a billion to one but I liked the movie, it had a very good message about how you don't just talk about things you do them.

Tradeshow Giveaways 101

Having spent approximately 21.25 hours at a tradeshow last week and making only 34 contacts I was in a perfect position to study attendee behavior with regards to giveaways. You tell me if I have enough to write a full thesis!

I grouped the attendee into 9 classifications to make the analysis easier.

1. The "Snatch n' Grabbers": The goal of these attendees (maybe most of them fellow exhibitors who are not interested in what you're selling) is to make the pass so quickly it is impossible for someone in the booth to make eye contact. I saw a guy make off with a whole handful for ball-point pens using this method. In fact I don't think he even looked down at the pens as he passed. He had spotted them from afar and planned his attack. As far as I could tell it was a success, no one in the booth was able to make contact and he is now the proud owner of a bunch of cheap pens. It is a good thing he got so many because my experience with the freebie pens are than they don't write for very long!

2. The Grandmas: "I have three grandchildren. I couldn't possibly take just one." This implies that it would be the booth person's fault if two out of three grandchildren are disappointed. Every time I see this behavior I have a great picture in my mind of Mom coming to the booth. "I have 29 grandchildren--is it OK if I clean you out?!?!?!"

3. The Ponderer: This type pauses in front of the booth and considers the give away. It appears that their main hope is the the person inside the booth will see them and offer the give away so that they don't actually have to ask for it.

4. The Greedy: It is to protect yourself against these types that I have learned that you NEVER take more than one give away. (We learned this the hard way the year we took four different kinds of ducks to IFT--the very bold felt that they were entitled to one of each kind.) The booth across from me didn't know this. The had a bowl of candy, mini-screwdrivers, post-it pads, and pens. I saw a number of people stop and take one of everything (now, the booth personnel had no sales training so the only outcome was to encourage people to take their freebies.) Sometimes I refer to these guys as the "trick or treaters". You can tell who they are because they have a bag on each arm and both are bulging.

5. The Sneak (very similar to the "SNG"): They do a careful analysis of the booth to make sure no one is looking, and then they make off with the goods. If no one is around they get very bold and take as much as they can hold with the grabbing hand.

6. The Chatterbox: This person must justify to you that they are worthy of your give away. The booth next to me was from Australia and they were giving out very cute stuffed Koala bears. These were a great draw to the booth and admittedly they did a great job of using the bears to start sales conversations. But some of the people would say things like "I've always wanted to go to Australia, can I please have a Koala?" "I went to the zoo yesterday (we were in San Diego) and I thought the Koalas were the cutest animal in the zoo, can I please have a Koala?"

7. The Desperate: I wonder if there might be something pathological about this type. It's like they are programmed to take whatever they determine to be free without thinking about any other consideration. My best example of this was not at this show but I have never forgotten it. We had taken the DA7200 which has a large sample dish maybe 6" in diameter. It is our instantaneous water activity instrument. We put some kernels of corn in the dish as part of our demonstration. Then one of our guys in the booth thought it would be really funny to throw a few popped kernels in the dish. This was very funny and we have been laughing ever since because some desperate soul reached into the sample dish, grabbed one of the popped kernels and popped it in their mouth! Here at AAPS, a guy we buy advertising from stopped by and the Koala lady had given him 2 Koalas (for his grandchildren, of course!) and I had given him a Nalgene bottle (our give away for people who brought in their postcards.) He set his books down with his treasure on top. His back was to the aisle and I had to stop more than one person from grabbing his stuff--unbelievable!

8. The Well Mannered" These people will very politely step up and just simply say, "May I have one of these?" How can you say no to that? All you can say is you are welcome.

9. The Possessor: You may have heard possession is 9/10 of the law. Perhaps the thought process of this type is "If it's in my hand, how likely are they to make me put it back." I think this works rather well actually. I won't make them put it back.

Of course there was the guy this last summer who actually got irate with me when I would only give him one hat. He berated my for probably 5 minutes. Funny thing is the longer he went at it, the more determined I got that I would not give in. He came back the next day and started in again but I am happy to say he went home with only one hat.