Deryl Dodd

Last night we went to the Glass Cactus to watch Deryl Dodd and the Tejas Brothers. If you know me (and, really, if you didn't..why would you read this blog), you know that going out to a place to hear country music on a weeknight is way out of the norm for Philip and me. But, we were invited by some of our dearest friends and we try to take every opportunity to be with them. So, there we were.

Now, I know nothing of Texas music artists. Our agency has helped promote Texas Music Week in Puerto Vallarta for several years, so I've gotten to where I recognize at least some of the names. I'd also gotten to meet Deryl Dodd a couple of months ago at another agency function where he came as a favor to a friend of his to sing for a dinner I attended.

From what I can tell, Deryl is kind of a big deal in Texas Music circles. That I hadn't heard of him is just another indication that there is a whole lot that I know nothing about.

Last night was of course the first time I'd seen him in a performance type setting. After he played (while the Tejas Brothers were on stage) he came out and hung out around our table for the rest of the evening. I was amazed the number of people (especially women...he's a cutie) that kept coming up to him and coming up to him. What amazed me even more though is how genuinely kind he was to each person who approached him. He hugged them and spoke to them. If it had been me I would have been back hiding somewhere where people couldn't get to me.

The picture above is from the VIP room before the performance where we got to go back and chat before the show. He's just a generally nice guy, and sings them there songs pretty good too!

Relationships

Lately several reminders have come up about how much I am in a relationship business.

Yesterday we had a customer check in at my favorite hotel ever, the El Dorado Maroma. One of my agents had gotten confused about the facilities in the MiHotelito room section (she stayed at Maroma, but was in one of the infinity pool rooms). The customer had brought special bath salts with the express intention of enjoying the 2 person in room jacuzzi. The MiHotelito rooms don't have a tub at all. The swim up and the infinity rooms do, and all other El Dorado rooms do, and the agent had misspoken.

Because the agent had been down so recently, and because of several other initiatives we have undertaken to cultivate relationships with key people at key hotels, the person at the hotel (after speaking to our agent who explained the situation) expressed how happy she was to hear from us and that she was going to move the client into the Honeymoon Suite which happened to be available. Talk about a happy client!

I find examples of this everywhere. Earlier this week a couple came in to talk about taking their whole extended family on a cruise to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary. Because we already had a relationship (they went on another trip with us earlier this year) it was a very easy process. The trust was already there, and I already had the knowledge of what was important to them..what they like..what they don't.

It isn't just our business, either. Last night we went out to dinner with our 9th grader's advisor at school. If you don't know what an advisor is...just think of a "homeroom teacher" crossed with a counselor who stays with you through your whole four years of high school. I'm convinced we got the best one in the school. Rather than traditional conferences, he chooses to share a meal with the families of his advisees. He feels it helps to cultivate the relationship more easily so that things run smoother. Very very wise, I think.

Where do you see relationship business in your life?

What to be for Halloween?

I need your help. I have absolutely no imagination when it comes to Halloween costumes. None.

This year we're having a block party on Halloween and they're giving a prize for the best costume and, well, you know how competitive I am. Another requirements for my costume is that I'd rather it cost nothing or as close to nothing as possible.

Please make your suggestions in comments. Thank you in advance for your help.

Me vs. The Utility Companies

About 2 years after we moved from Plano to Addison, I was escorting a group to San Francisco and was actually on a street car holding on for dear life as we chugged up or down one of those legendary hills. My cell phone rang and, to my surprise and puzzlement, it was my electric company. How did they even get my cell phone? They were writing to let me know that they had just discovered an error in their billing system and had never adjusted the amount they were billing us at our old house. In other words, they were still billing me the approximate amount we'd always been paying at our old house even though we were in a new house. Our new house was only very slightly larger, but we also now had a pool.

You know that old joke about how a pool is a big hole in your backyard that you throw money into? It's very true. Not only the chemicals, the maintenance, the repairs (oh, the repairs!) but it also takes a lot of electricity to run the pump, the skimmer and the filter.

The bottom line was that I now owed the electricity company over $2000.00 for electricity I'd used and not been billed for. I politely informed them that, while I was sorry that they had such a bad billing system, that I'd promptly paid each and every bill sent to me and that their billing problem was their problem. They finally agreed to write off half of the amount and allowed me to pay the other half out over time.

This meant that now my electric bill went from about $200.00 per month to about $300.00 per month and that I was paying an additional $100.00 per month to make up the gap. Hello, your electric bill just doubled. YAY!

Not only that, but shortly thereafter my contract expired with said electric company so my price per kilowatt hour skyrocketed. I got to have a really quick education in shopping for electricity and understanding electric meters and electric bills.

And that I will share with you tomorrow!

Whale Sharks!

Have you ever heard of this?

Homecoming!

Presidential Libraries

Based on my wonderful visit to the Reagan Presidential Library, I'm now planning to visit at least two more in the next few months. (We have two currently here in Texas, a third one (for George W. Bush) will be right here in Dallas when it opens.)

In Austin, we have the LBJ Library. On my trip to Austin I also intend to see the Capitol as well as the Texas State History Museum. Great weekend! I would have hated it 20 years ago, now I find it fascinating.

In College Station we have the George Bush Presidential Library. I can't decide what else there is to do in College Station. If you know of something, let me know. :-)

The Clinton Library also isn't too far off up in Little Rock, Arkansas. Just a little further up the road is the Truman Library. I think that would be fun..to visit and see things from before I was born.

Also, I missed the last two days of blog posts. You didn't say anything!

Learning

Today I am in a travel agency in Bakersfield, California. I am observing how they do things because they do things differently than we do at Legacy Travel. Today my role is that of a sponge. I am watching everything and listening to everything around me.

What I'm trying to learn about isn't exactly something I need to learn the facts about. The facts are pretty clear. What I'm trying to soak in is a comfort level.

What should you be learning today?

Reagan Presidential Library

What a fun day I've had! I took off this morning from DFW and flew to Los Angeles. I picked up my rent car and drove directly to the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. I've wanted to visit ever since I read that they were going to have an actual retired Air Force One as an exhibit that you could actually walk through. It was all so fascinating. Ronald Reagan was the first president that I ever voted for. (Second term) I love history now that I'm an adult. :-)

Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took today.



Now I am ensconced in my hotel room here in Bakersfield and, since it is 2 hours later at home, I am ready to go to bed!

Vitamins

What you see here is what it looks like while I'm in the midst of preparing the vitamins for my family to take each week. My journey with vitamins started at the suggestion of a doctor I used to see regularly (she is no longer in practice). I started vitamin supplementation on and off and consistently noticed that I felt better, more focused and energetic when I was "on" as opposed to when I was "off". So, I began taking them very consistently.

Then, this last spring I started researching if perhaps other people had results with nutritional supplementation and ADHD symptoms. Both of my kids are on ADHD medication and the main side effect is loss of appetite. Especially for my son, this is troublesome. My daughter seems to regain her appetite pretty quickly in the afternoon, but my son is as skinny as a string bean. I work very hard to get him to eat, but when he is on his meds it is very difficult.

So, I found some information about Omega 3 fatty acids and ADHD. I started giving them each a multi vitamin and a fish oil capsule morning and night. I had also read about B vitamins and vitamin E with ADHD also. So, I give them those as well.

I didn't want to leave Philip out of the fun, so I give him the multi vitamin and fish oil as well.

This fall I learned about Vitamin D and Influenza. So, we each take a vitamin D supplement daily as well.

The kids are still on their ADHD meds, but so far this year they are on lower doses. For instance, my son is on half the dose he ended last year on. I don't know for absolute certain that it is due to the vitamins and fish oil, but I know that it sure isn't hurting!

Fridays in Fall

Three years ago we bought a house where our lot adjoins the school our kids attend. For the 5 years prior to that we had commuted from North Plano, meaning that our kids were spending 8 hours a week in the car just getting to and from school. This doesn't include the time spent driving down to Dallas to play on athletic teams or coming to special events at school.

Our lives are so much simpler living this close to school. Our kids don't have to wake up as early, after school commitments are so much easier. It's a good thing.

One special thing about living in this location is Friday nights when we have home football games. Between school and kickoff, our house becomes the hangout point for a multitude of kids. My role is food production. It's amazing how much food 10-15 kids can go through, especially when most of them are teenagers.

Well, it's time to sign off...I must walk over to kickoff. :-)

Fabulous Terrah!

Getting Things Done

About five years ago I read the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. A lifelong list junkie, I am always looking for ways to be more efficient and effective, not to mention feel more in control of the chaos around me.

The book is a bit like an onion, the first time through it might not make a lot of sense. You latch on to the concepts that make sense at the time, then later you're able to latch on to a bit more. I think it's somewhat like studying a martial art.

Here is the official definition of "What is GTD?".

Here's the Wikipedia page on GTD "GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them externally. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks."

In the spirit of getting everything out of my mind, I make extensive use of Remember the Milk. It's an online task management system. It is actually free unless you opt for the pro membership which is $25.00 per year. It's completely configurable and amazingly powerful. I can access my lists from anywhere on my iPhone or on any computer. I can slice and dice my tasks how ever I would like to look at them.

Tomorrow I will be participating in a guided mindsweep via Twitter. I've never done it before and I'm looking very forward to it. Basically, the facilitator will tweet questions designed to help you remember all of the things lingering in your mind competing for your attention. Then you can put them in your system and get them done.

And, isn't that really the point?

Another Lifehack Courtesy of the iPhone

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I am keeping my eyes open for ways to eliminate the drag in my daily life. Ways to do things with less effort so that my energy and effort can be used toward moving forward.

For several years now, I take pictures of my kids as they leave for school. Now I also take a picture of the dog as well. Typically, I try to make sure that my camera is with me as the time approaches for them to leave. (Many times this didn't happen which meant either that I didn't get the shot or I was left running through the house to get the phone as they were scrambling to leave.) Then, after I arrived at the office I would pull out my USB media reader, pull the memory card out of the camera, upload the pictures to Flickr and put them in the appropriate sets so that they are displayed here on my blog over there to the right of the most current post.

Now, however, since I have an iPhone which has a pretty great camera (although no flash) and the wonderful App Store has a free Flickr app that supports upload as well as organization of the pictures right from the phone itself, I just take the photo right with my phone (which is always in my hand anyway) and upload it immediately. Voila! I've eliminated a step.

Fun! What step will I eliminate next?

My experience at Dirty Dawgz Self Service Dog Wash in Dallas

Since the weather has turned cooler, getting out in the back yard with a hose to wash Lacy doesn't look very appealing. She really needed a bath, though, and other people at the dog park have told me about a place down at Preston and Beltline called "Dirty Dawgz" where they have equipment to wash your own dog indoors. It's cheaper than having someone else do it and there is warm water and climate control. So, after the Cowboys narrowly defeated the Chiefs in overtime, Lacy and I got in the van and drove over there.

We were pleased to find when we arrived that there was only one other person washing their dog at the moment, so we wouldn't have to wait for a tub. The nice lady brought cleaned the tub from the last customer and lacy hopped up into the tub and was secured by a loop around her neck latched to the front of the tub. The lady brought me a fur comb to start combing and told me that it was a Furminator. Well, it wasn't a Furminator, but rather a knock off. It wasn't pulling any fur off of my very furry Golden Retriever, so I asked if she could bring me the actual Furminator I had spotted on a table across the room. (We have a Furminator at home and use it regularly.) The Furminator wasn't doing any good either so I examined it more closely and found that the teeth were all bent and dull. I'm sure it had been used constantly over an extended period of time and had just seen better days. Note to self: bring your own Furminator from home next time.

So then the nice lady came over and showed me how the sprayer worked. You can either spray just warm water, water with shampoo, or water with conditioner. Since Lacy has a significant itching problem, I opted to pay $3.00 extra for the little bottle of oatmeal shampoo. As I went to squeeze some shampoo onto my hand to soap her up, I was dismayed to find that what was in the bottle was significantly watered down. I closed the bottle and shook it up well and tried again. Still water. I called the lady over and let her know that my bottle contained basically water. She explained to me that the shampoos were professional grooming shampoos and that they were supposed to be watered down. Whatever. I still needed to soap up my 70 pound sweetheart and water was not doing the trick. I walked over to the table and grabbed another bottle that was labeled "Anti Itch". The lady informed me that that shampoo would be another $5.00. I told her, "Whatever, there wasn't enough shampoo in the other one." This next bottle had the same problem. By the time I had emptied the mostly water onto her, she still didn't have a good lather going. The lady finally brought over the big gallon bottle of the original oatmeal shampoo and let me have some of the undiluted stuff so I could finish soaping her up. Note to self: Bring your own shampoo next time.

I scrubbed her for a good long time because she loves it. Finally I started rinsing her with the lovely warm water. I rinsed and rinsed until all of the soap was out. Then, I took one of the little microfiber towels that the nice lady had provided and started drying her off. I noticed that the towels smelled a little "industrial" for my liking. (I'm very smell oriented and this probably wouldn't be an issue for most people.) I'm sure they have to wash those towels over and over and there are probably health department rules about how they must be sanitized. Note to self: Bring your own towel next time.

Lacy hopped down from the tub and the nice lady brought to our attention that there was doggie perfume that I could choose from, so I picked a nice scent and sprayed it on her. We paid and came home. Lacy didn't scratch herself at all for several hours, so I'm very pleased about that and can tell that I'm going to have to continue bathing her frequently throughout the winter months.

Since it looks like this is going to be a regular part of our schedule, I did an exhaustive search to see if there was anywhere else that was less expensive. What I found was that Dirty Dawgz is the best bargain in dog washing in the Dallas area. There were other facilities, but they were much further from my house and generally at least a dollar or two more expensive. I looked into having her washed at a dog grooming place and, goodness, that's a racket!

Also, I found a website to purchase the professional dog grooming shampoos. They indeed did say that they could be watered down 16 to 1. I'm still going to take my own shampoo though, and I do think this is one area they could improve.

Overall it was a good experience and we'll be back!

Tools!

Aren't you trying to do more with less? Isn't everyone? Less money, less time, it seems that everyone is feeling the squeeze.

If you read this blog or follow me on Twitter, you know that there are three new iPhones in our house. I'm dedicated to figuring out all of the ways it can make my life easier and/or more effective.

I haven't really utilized RSS feeds in the past. I've found, though, that there are people who are writing about things I'm trying to get better at, and I would be smart to avail myself of their wisdom. So, yesterday I set up Google Reader and set it up on my iPhone home screen so that I can easily access it while I'm standing in line, waiting at stoplights, etc.

I've added "Google Reader" to my morning list of things I do between 5:30am and 7am each morning. I've also added a task to remind me once a month to go through my subscriptions and see if I want to let any go.

Here is the list of people/sites I've subscribed to:
Chris Brogan
Copyblogger
David Allen
Inside Facebook
ReelSEO Video Marketing
The Happiness Project
Peter Shankman

Who else should I be reading?

Every.Day.

I am publicly making a commitment that I will do a blog post every day from now until the end of 2009.

Keep me accountable, won't you?