Happy Xmas

I got a silver 2GB Ipod Nano, an old time AM/FM radio and Season 1 DVD of "My Name Is Earl"

Our Lady Of the Angels Fire

I read a book on the Our Lady Of the Angels school fire this past week. The fire occurred on Dec 1, 1958. 95 people were killed, 3 nuns, 92 kids. To Sleep With the Angels is a gripping account of the tragedy.

Working Out

I have began working our @ a gym in my office building. I go for about a 30-45 mins, riding a bike, lifting barbells, doing leg presses and weight machines.

Crappy Winter!

12/1/06 had a snowstorm and I had to stay home from work to dig us out. I hate winter. It has been cold but seems to be warming up a bit.
I have completed my initial ordering for the new merged company. Now we will address some other issues, like business cards for those below Partner and larger mailing envelopes.
I got my biannual haircut for the holidays and for pictures that are to be taken @work.

Back To Work

Back to work tomorrow. I have lots of invoices to process and a fair amount of orders to place. I need to get a final lot of cards in for the merged company and need to look @ tax season/year end ordering. This post is not exactly going to make people die of over excitement.

I had a nice long relaxing holiday weekend and now head back eager to serve the man until late Dec.

My Mr. T Encounter

In the excitement of Thanksgiving (as I call it Mr. T. giving)I forgot to post the time I saw Mr. T. in person. It was around 1990-1991, summer. I was in downtown Chicago by the federal plaza and I saw ahead of me as I was walking a red Rolls Royce convertible with the Il. plates of "Mr.T" I thought "what dork would have that for a plate" and I noticed the driver had a mandinka and was African American. I got to the corner and looked to the street on the right and noticed it was the Great T. himself. He smiled and we waved @each other. Then other people saw him and started getting excited. He was downtown because the previous person who had his plates accumulated tickets and his car got the Denver boot.
I'll have to post some other celebrity encounters that I have had.

Transition Update #4

All stationery items are in. This was completed Tuesday 11/21. I am waiting on 1 lot of cards and then I can tackle the staff below Partner.
I will still have to have mailing envelopes sizes 9x12, 10x13 and 10x15 produced, I will do that in the near future.

Happy Mr. T giving!

The numerous professionals here @The Purchasing Blog and Mr. T himself wish all a Happy Thanksgiving.

PS III & Hooters

My mother warned me about women who actually like going to Hooters for the food. This idiot is 22 months pregnant & waited several days outside in the cold for a Play Station III that she is going to sell apparently. Her baby's dad likes to play games. I know they both are not entertainment lawyers or some other career minded vocation.
After she got one, she went to celebrate @Hooters for the wings, and I don't mean Paul McCartney's group. I can't believe any adult has that much time on their hands to do something that stupid. Just like Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers who does not work because he might miss a Cubs home game.

Raucous Turkey Raffle

We went to Fish Fry @the Geneva Legion Hall on Friday night and they had the 1st night of 2 Turkey Raffles. My daughter spun the wheel twice and we won a turkey and an airplane model. It helped that several people including the MC bought tickets to try to see her win.

Exciting times. I wonder if Donald Trump or Diddy do things like this or do they pay people to attend things like this for them?

Tranisition Update #3

My mailing lables, #10 stationery, #10 window, #9 Business Reply & #10 Business Reply envelopes are in. Now all I am waiting for is the 1st page. I expect that
shortly.

Transition Update 2

My new #10 stationery & window envelopes are shipped and should be in Monday/Tuesday. My first page is in production, I expect end of the week. I have another vendor working on this product, I hope to see by Friday. I also have this vendor doing #9 & #10 Business Reply Envs, I hope to see this along with invoices by Friday as well.

The new company business cards for the Partners are all ordered and have already started to come in. I expect all cards in by Friday. Then we will look @ordering cards and possibly note pads to staff below Partner.

I am using Mobile DB to track the new company cards as well as notepads for the original company on my Palm TX & TE. I am considering buying a fuller featured DB like Smart List to Go to synch W/Access. I need to think of how I would use.

I also order toner for our printers and we have 12-13 Tax Return printers located on 4 floors. I modified an Excel sheet, synched w/Docs to Go to tally up how many LJ 8100, LJ4250 toners to order and how many spent toners to be picked up for recycling.

Got My Vote On

I got up a half hour earlier than usual and voted. I was only gone from the house about 10 minutes. I am glad the election is over. I commute to downtown Chicago and have been hounded by the politicos for the past week. On Monday Judy Baar Topinka (JBT to me) was standing by my train and I shook her hand in front of numerous TV and newspaper cameras.

I used the new e-voting machines today. In Kane Co.(IL) they use a scroll wheel which highlights your choice and then when that choise is highlighted, you press a button like "Enter". Pretty easy. I can see how some technology challenged folks could have some trouble.

Transition Update

I began ordering business cards for the new company and submitted 1st page stationery samples to our print vendor. I input the new cards into my Purchasing d/b and for kicks used Mobile DB so I can have a version on my Palm. I may use it to keep track of passwords and some inventory issues.

What I am listening to

I picked up the new Beck CD, Information So far I like it, I need another or 2 before I decide how much. I recorded an Austin City Limits featuring Sujan Stevens and Calexico that I am looking forward to seeing. Sufjan Steven's CD,
Come On Feel The Illinoise is a nice effort.

Busy week

I have a busy week ahead @the office. One of the firms I am associated with has been merged and that means stationery and business cards to be ordered. It pretty much will occupy my time this week. To take care of the business cards, I am converting the data from one firm in an Access d/b and exported it to Excel. Here I'll print it out and check off vs a list I have of people who will need cards. Then comes the long ordering process. Lots of data entry. As that is completed over a couple of days, I will export the Excel sheet to a new section of my Purchasing Database, also in Access. This d/b is on our network (the other one was not) and we also order memo pads and have a 2nd firm that has cards so I can integrate all this info into one d/b.

I have to get 1st page stationery, 9x12, 10x13, 10x5 mailers, lables and business reply envelopes ordered.

On Message!

Finally an on topic post. When there is a need/desire to use a Minority Business Enterprise( MBE) vendor, the web is an excellent source for information. I use the City Of Chicago's site.
Using an MBE/WBE (Women owned Business Enterprise)can be a requirement to do govermental business as well as an effort to fulfill a firm's social responsibility goals.

Future on message topics will address how to use databases in the purchasing process,
as well as using web 2.0.

Cords

I like wearing cords. They are warm and comfy. I used to wear them as a kid in the '80s. I really like the jeans look, like the Levi 559s or 505s.

Palm Guy

My organizational skills are awful. So in Jan of 2002 I bought A Palm M125 organizer. It helped me get control of my schedule and I have been hooked ever since. I upgraded to a Zire 71 in May of 2004 and to a TX in April of this year. I also use a TE for work. I use my Palms to keep track of my schedule, maintain inventory and work on Word and Excel documents.I use alarms to remind me of meetings and other things I don't want to forget about. I've used them to listen to music, take pictures and remind me of things to buy.

The stand alone PDA is dying. The market appears to be moving to smart phones like the various Palm Treos and the UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC)market that is emerging. Palm
needs to upgrade it's OS either via
Access Linux Platform or a Palm owned Linux OS.

North Korea

Events out of the Korean Peninsula are rather scary lately. The North Korean regime (The Democratic People's Republic of) has fired missiles and detonated a nuclear bomb. It may be time to engage this cutie pie
Kim Jong-Il one on one and see if tensions can be calmed.

The Chinese and South Koreans do not want this regime to collapse because of the refugee crisis they will be confronted with. The Chinese also like having a buffer against the US allied South Korea as well as the DPRK's habit of giving the US the finger. The DPRK also has the US's attention. This keeps it off of Taiwan, much to China's liking. The South is concerned about the enormous financial and social cost of unification. Ask Germany. I say the regime will collapse. What will the US/South Korea do? Will the Chinese send troops in to restore order and install a friendly puppet government?

Deer crossing

Nearly hit a deer on the way to the train. I hit the brakes as it crossed the road, missed it by about a car length. I would say this is the 3rd time I have nearly hit a deer in my driving career.

Lou Pinella/Cubs

I think Lou Pinella is a good choice, but the Cubs will never be a consistent winner until the Tribune Company sells the team. It looks to me like the Tribsters are positioning the Cubs for a sale in the next year or so by keeping Jim Hendry and his ill gotten 2 yr contract extension and not signing Pinella beyond 3 years. It is no secret that the Trib has had financial issues and they may sell their broadcast media outlets.

One reason they bought the Cubs was for programming for WGN TV & radio. It should be interesting.

Gasping For Air-Choke

The Bears came back from a 23-3 deficit to win Mondays game vs the Az Cardinals 24-23. One of the worst chokes in NFL history. Say bye Dennis Green. After Rex Grossman's 4th int (also 2 fumbles, 6 turnovers total)I decided the game was over. I shut down in the living room and had to turn the PC off. The game was being recorded on it and I saw Brian Urlacher strip the ball from the Edge. Tillman returned it for a TD. So I watched the rest of the game. WOW.

Larry King Watch

I heard Larry say this recently:

"Has your pit bull killed anybody?"
(to Rachel Ray)

He throws softballs and kisses plenty of butt. Not bad work if it's Suzanne Sommers' like last week.

I like how he'll have somebody like Henry Kissinger and then he'll promote someone like Phyllis Diller later in the show.

Beyonce

Wow. I am tired of her. I recently opened an envelope and she showed up. Her dad decides everything and she just recycles music. What does Check On It mean anyway?

I guess her House Of Dereon sells stuff so there is the purchasing/business angle. There must not be a lot of money in making hip hop/rap records because all of these people are selling clothes and drinks. I can't wait until one of these artists starts selling their own branded toilet paper

Speaker Hastert

There have been a lot of calls for the Speaker's head because of the Foley scandal. I think it is always best to reserve judgement until all facts are known. Count me on that side. I live near his local office, so I guess as a neighbor, I have a bias. Though not a Len Bias, he's dead.

If the Speaker does resign who should replace him? Donald Trump? Phyllis Diller? Dusty Baker? He needs a job! If he does not get it, he'll blame Steve Stone

Sean Hannity

Everytime I see this guy on TV he agrees with everything George Bush says and does. No disagreement anywhere. If the president were to call taking a dump a patriotic duty (no pun intended) he would be the first to the men's room.

At lease he has an audience. I thought Air America was a new airline when it was first announced. I would ask the last person there to turn off the lights, but they probably did not pay the electric bill.

Google Spreadsheet

One thing I have been playing around with lately is Google Spreadsheet. I think I actually have found a practical use for it. I have been passing a spreadsheet with a co worker and have had trouble keeping track of updates and which is the current version. Here we both can update and there is no doubt about current versions.

See what lots of IPO money can do!

Da Bears/What Would Ditka Do?

The Bears are 5-0. Wow. I am trying not to get too excited. I have always lived my adult life by the adage WWDD- What Would Ditka Do? Whenever I am confronted by a problem I ask what would he do? Buy the Sun-Times or Trib? Regular or decaf? Martin or Lewis? Dick York or Dick Sargent?

Marketing

I love this country! In the past 24 hours, I have received samples of 2 new products. From the good folks @Gillette the new Fusion razor was sent to me. I have not been this excited about a shave since my first one sophmore year in highschool
Gillette Fusion
Tell Casandra Mike sent you!



On the way home tonight, Starbuck's was passing out samples of a maple latte. I was not crazy about it, but 2 weeks ago they passed out samples of the Pumpkin Spice Latte which I liked and have already purchased one.
Maple Macchiato

Burn!

I burned my fingers on Sunday making Poptarts. What this has to do w/Purchasing I don't know other than I did purchase them @some point.

Stuff I Like

Google Finance

The Morning Blog CNBC's Morning Call

My webpage

Zoho Creator

Update! Check out Zoho Creator. On line database creation. I am experimenting with it to collect data. I might use it in my role as a Purchasing Coordinator

Test

This is a test of my Mr. Buyer Blog. Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk.