Kids & The Crew

Today's activity (like most days in our household) revolved around soccer. But this event was a little different than the norm. This time, the Columbus Crew came down to our school district to run practice drills with the kids coming to their game this weekend. It was an incredible opportunity and the fields were swarming with kids of all ages.

Making it even better was the fact that they raffled off a Crew jersey and my daughter won! All the players there signed it. You can bet she'll be wearing it to the game. :)

Tow-Day's Activity

Not much activity around me today other than having my car towed for repairs. An activity I would have rather skipped. :(

A Good Laugh

My day was full of activities today, capped off by Open Mic night at Wiley's in Dayton, Ohio. I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought a lot of these fledgling comics might not be that funny or prepared, but I was pleasantly surprised. They all had good material, good delivery, and seemed atune to the audience and what was working and what wasn't.

Bottom line: I laughed. They did their jobs and I had a great time. I'll have to go again.

The New and Improved Pampered Chef Party

It's been a long time since I've been to a Pampered Chef (PC) party. I don't remember it being such a production, or maybe the one I went to last night was just more elaborate than the one I went to a decade ago.

To begin with, there were about 30 women there. I was surprised at the turnout and really just went because I felt obligated to since my boss Lisa was hosting the party. I do like Pampered Chef products, so wasn't too put out. What I didn't expect was the sales pitch showcase that followed.

The PC representative told us she's been doing this for 22 years. She had products laid out on Lisa's kitchen island. That was nice. I like being able to see and touch items before I buy them. I actually got to do more than that; the rep demonstrated how easily and efficiently she could cook a meal for us using all those products. And we were welcome to help and try out any item we wanted.

She whipped together a Mediterranean chicken pasta in a heavy piece of Pampered Chef bake ware. She used the chopper and the manual food processor to prepare the ingredients, along with the garlic press, measuring spoons, measuring cups, bowl scraper, rubber (?) hot pan grabbers, knives, prep bowls, and olive oil spritzer. Then she made another dish using some kind of rubber item atop a pot of boiling water and a baking stone. I have to say, the demonstration was very effective. I'll bet most of us bought the items she used.

But she didn't stop there.

On the table behind us were beautiful displays of appetizers -- which were recipes that could be found in the Pampered Chef cookbooks. Plus, they were served in Pampered Chef dishware, using PC tongs and other accoutrement. Not surprisingly, everything was delicious and we eagerly filled out our order forms in between the appetizer course, main dish, and dessert.

But even more than the actual products, I was impressed with the presentation. I know my boss and the Pampered Chef rep made a fortune off of us last night, but they definitely earned it. It was the best sales pitch I've seen in a long time.

Bye, Bye Laundromat!

My weeks of hauling laundry to the laundromat are over! Our new washing machine was delivered today. We've already started washing the massive pile-up. But truth be told, I liked going to the laundromat. I could do several loads at the same time and had the luxury of reading while the clothes were spinning. Not so at home. Here I pop a load in and then turn around and see all the rest of the chores that need done.

I think I miss the laundromat already.

Reconstructing Amelia

My activity today (besides work, and all the regular stuff) was going to the library to return Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight.

The book was compelling, I'll give it that. I could barely put it down. It starts with a mother getting the terrible news that her daughter has committed suicide at school. She is consumed with guilt and grief, but then starts to question whether Amelia really killed herself or not.

She begins searching for answers and reconstructs Amelia's last few months of school through texts, the school gossip rag, notes, and emails. A much different Amelia than the one she knew starts to emerge and she begins to question how well she knew her daughter after all.

As a writer, I couldn't help but pay attention to the structure of this book. I don't mind books that use different formats to show us a character, or tell us a story. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society was an excellent example of this approach. It worked well in Reconstructing Amelia, too -- to a point.

The plot was full of twists and the writing was paced well. As I said, I could hardly put it down. My one criticism would be the chapters that were told from Amelia's point-of-view. While it was helpful to have her first-person account of things that were going on, it also created some confusion in the very non-linear structure. We got present day emails, then backtracking to Amelia's telling of her story, then texts, then her mother's perspective. I'm not a fan of this approach, but McCreight pulled it off well enough that I could piece it together. But I can't help but wonder how different our reconstruction of Amelia would have been if we didn't have her to fill in the blanks?

I'll definitely look for more by Kimberly McCreight in the future. Meanwhile, I took this book back to the library and had the hardest time figuring out what to read next. Good books always do that to me.

Travel Agents 'R Us

My inaugural May "activity" exercise turned out to be a little more sedate than those to come. I spent a good part of my day playing travel agent.

I have two upcoming business trips: one to China, and one to Dallas. Not surprisingly, I'm adding vacation days to both trips, so the first order of business was researching all the possible things I might do in each place. By "all," I mean ALL. Guidebooks and Internet sites have been exhausted.

Next, I had to build an outlined itinerary. (I really missed my calling. I should have been a travel agent.) The trip to Dallas is pretty easy. I only have one day to myself and I picked 4 sights to see. I've already been there once, so don't need to go back to the Book Depository. Plus, my hotel was chosen for me. I spent a fair amount of time looking at flight schedules that will give me more free time, and found the ones I want. Dallas is pretty much done.

China is another matter. This is where things get tricky. I'm going on business, so the week of business - hotel, schedule, dates -- are taken care of. My co-worker is going with me and she's never been, so we padded two days beforehand to explore. Then, after my business has wrapped up, my family is flying out for a week of vacation. So, I have sight-seeing to plan before AND after my business there. And both parties want to see basically the same things. Which I've already seen on my last trip to China.

It sounds like all this repetitious excursion planning should be easy, but it's not. There are some things I don't mind doing for a second or third time, some that I just don't want to do again at all, and some things that could be explored differently. I actually started a spreadsheet to figure it all out. I have to finalize itineraries soon because I need to choose hotels for the vacation parts of the trip before I can book tours (which will pick us up at said hotels). Plus, I need to have hotel reservations in place before I can apply for the trip visas we'll need.

Choosing hotels isn't easy! I want to optimize hotel reward programs, plus get a good deal, plus be centrally located. I've got maps out and reward program numbers all over the place. I want us to be able to walk and sightsee from our hotel but don't want to pay a fortune for rooms or cabs. I really need to finalize the list of things to see.

So far, I've reserved flights, made a spreadsheet of the best tours and sights I want to see in China, and figured out my extracurricular itinerary for Dallas. It sounds like I've accomplished very little despite the number of hours I've been working on this. But I consider this my researching and outlining stage. As with writing, once I do this legwork, fleshing out the details will fall into place quickly. Or so I hope.