Cache of the Day - Getting through 2008

Two thousand eight had a lot of great highlights, many of which are included in this blog. Greatest things that happened this year:

• New Year's Masquerade Ball in Indianapolis




• Skiing in Wisconsin




• Baking in the sun in Phoenix




• Feeling the vortexes in Sedona




• A retreat from the desert while visiting Flagstaff




• Carefree exhiliration on the roller coasters at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio




• Big-city fun in Chicago




• The awesomeness of Washington D.C.

And then, fun musical stuff

• Night in Old Vienna with the BSO in February




• Tap dance recital in May




• Picnic with the Pops in July




• Cowboy concert at the mall with the BSO




• Holiday with the POPs Thanksgiving weekend




• Christmas musical at Sherwood Oaks Christian Church




• Messiah Sing with Bloomington Chamber Singers

Of course, there was the whole thing with Taylor getting appendicitis (see left).

Looking forward to another great year! Merry Christmas to all!

Cache of the Day - Kentucky Conference

We have branches in both Indiana and Kentucky (among other states), so we have a very strong presence at the state SHRM conferences. While we do a have lot of same foundational preparation for conferences in both states, our Employment Plus participants are delightfully different, the "souther" we go.





Here are some shots of our booth, as well as a picture me and our Area Managers (Chrissy Bowman from Lexington and Richmond, and Crystal Meredith from Louisville and New Albany), and a shot of some of our evening activities. Most notable, was our night at a place at Fourth Street Live, in Louisville, called The Rock Bar. They have the COOLEST karaoke ever, called Full Contact Karaoke, where you sing with an actual ROCK BAND!!!! I was in heaven! Here I am singing a John Mellencamp song with my rock band.


Once they figure out how to do Full Contact Broadway my life will be complete.

Cache of the Day - Going to a Professional Football Game

Joe and I used to have season tickets to the San Diego Chargers and we LOVED it! We had them during the era of "Air Coryell", so there was lots of offensive action on the field.

Of course, most of the fun comes from actually BEING at a NFL game. The tailgating, the food, the awesomeness of the stadium. Being within the crowd is always an experience, and The Wave was a big trend during the 80's when we had these tickets.

Time haven't changed much. We went to an Indianapolis Colts game last month, in their new stadium. Tailgating was at the downtown bars, but we still had fun stadium food and the crazy crowd. And, although The Wave was pitifully weak, we did get to experience the new Colts stadium.

Sadly, the Colts lost, but you still can't change that excitement for anything.

Cache of the Day - Running in a 5k

I like to run two or three times a week, and occasionally one of those days that I run will in an actual competitive event. I had a chance recently to run in the Bloomingfoods 5k Breakaway, a beautiful run through downtown Bloomington, through the Sample Gates at Indiana University, and then through the campus.

When I run in these events, I typically have three goals:

1. to finish the race without stopping to walk

2. to not be last

3. to not be beaten by any walkers

I am happy to say that I was able to accomplish all of these in this race. It felt GOOD!!!!

Cache of the Day - A Cowboy Concert

The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra played the first concert of the year at the College Mall and, to appeal to our future concertgoers (aka "little kids") we created a concert that was casual and fun....and cowboy! Check out our web site for a VIDEO and STORY on this concert.

All of the music was western, or western-related, such as "The Magnificent Seven", Aaron Copland's "Rodeo" selections, and a really fun-to-play "Pops Hoedown".

My favorite selection, however, was written by Gerry Amato, a talented musician and composer/arranger who has been at Indiana University and has arranged and played with us at the BSO. Gerry composed a "Cowboy Sing-along" (the audience LOVED it!), and I got to play a Sousa-like piccolo solo on the "Yellow Rose of Texas". It was SO fun to play! Gerry says he wrote it for me, and I am going with that! I will need to get his autograph on my picc part, with a special dedication from Gerry. Gerry's in Colorado now, but I know everyone in the BSO would like to see Gerry again. Hopefully it will be soon!

Most importantly, the crowd LOVED the concert and we expect they are now SO HOOKED on the BSO that we will see them again soon!

Yee-haw!!!!

Cache of the Day - Wine Tasting

I just can't think of anything that is as fun, romantic, relaxing, and self-indulging as spending a day on the wine trail.

Indiana has several of them, and Stacy and I spent a good part of the weekend visiting the Indiana Uplands Wine Trail. The only wineries we didn't hit were in French Lick, Bedford, and Bristow, but we'll catch those in a few weeks.

Tasting the wines, discussing their various characteristics and personalities is so educational, and comparing tastes with another is enlightening as well.

Stacy and I both prefer the drys, and stick to those primarily, but occasionally we'll try a "weird one", like the Black Currant at Butler Winery. The wine was so tart and sweet at the same time, that drinking even one glass was tough!

I wish every weekend could be as beautiful as this last weekend was. I'd be spending all my time exploring new wines on new trails!

Cache of the Day - Attending a National Conference

I recently had an opportunity to attend the National Conference of SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management. It was held in Chicago and it was such a great opportunity to network with other HR professionalisms and to advance my skills and knowledge in the profession.

The four days were jam-packed with sessions and workshops as well as key note speakers. Sydney Poitier opened up the conference on Sunday. We were able to see a Lionel Richie concert on Tuesday night. And I was most impressed with our speaker Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian, who spoke on the qualities we look for in a president and in particular to the qualities of Abraham Lincoln.

We had an intense schedule but we still made some time for Chicago-play, which included awesome restaurants, a boat ride on Lake Michigan and the Chicago river, and a much anticipated trip to Greektown.

The week was intense but worthwhile, and I felt like I gained such knowledge and can bring that information back to our local chapter of SHRM.

Cache of the Day - Roller Derby

I guess I always thought the roller derby was for big, bold, brazen women who were just looking to get into a fight with other big, bold, brazen women....and I was right!

We recently went to a roller derby meet and witnessed - right there in the "Suicide Zone" how the roller derby works. Actually, the "jags" were quite exciting and it was amazing to see how competitive these women are.

Check out these pics of the Bleeding Heartland Rollergirls out of Bloomington, Indiana!

The Bloomington team won and I'm glad because I would not have wanted to mess with them if they didn't!

Cache of the Day - Summer Fun

Check out these photos of Stacy and I and Taylor and Davie at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio last week - home of the world's most horrifying roller coasters.






They weren't so bad, really, and actually lots of fun. I liked the Maverick the best (see below).



Taylor and I still prefer Space Mountain in Disneyland as our favorite roller coaster of all time.








Let me know about your most exciting roller coaster experience.

Cache of the Day - Brain Games

Once a year, the Lawrence County History Museum hosts a fundraiser called "Brain Games", and corporate teams throughout the area compete - in a Jeopardy style competition - for the opportunity to claim themselves The Brainiest.






There was a spot opened up on a realtor team and they needed an extra contestant, so Joe arranged that I fill out the team of 5. Although we didn't win, we did pretty darn good.
I've also mused that I would enjoy being a contestant on Jeopardy, but this is probably the closest I would come. What is "she's just not fast enough on the buzzer"?

Cache of the Day - Derby Madness (and Sadness)

I don't know what it is about horses, but I have loved them my whole life. I love the power, the grace, the spirit. And when the Kentucky Derby rolls around, I celebrate like it's a national holiday.

This "first Saturday in May" was this past Saturday and Eagle Pointe (where I live) had a Derby Party at the Eagle's Nest. In addition to the comfort food (lots of potatoes and ham and barbequed green beans), we had an open bar with - of course - Mint Juleps (among other libations, since Mint Juleps taste TERRIBLE!!!!).

They also had a Derby hat contest (which I didn't win...but I was close!), and a great auction for the horses that were running.

We watched the race, where I was cheering on Eight Belles, because of her stats and, yes, because she was a girl out to beat the boys. And she beat 18 of them by coming in second! That was so cool. Until they discovered that she had broke her two front ankles and they had to euthanize her (thus the "sadness" in this cache). Of course, I cried uncontrollably.

I actually had a chance to go to the Kentucky Derby in 1992 and it was one of the most memorable days of my life. I can't wait to go again!

Cache of the Day - Birthday Fun

Thanks for all of you who joined me for the "birthday crawl'! Despite a couple of setbacks (Trulli Flatbread - our first location - decided they needed to close for two weeks and THEN I had the date for Dot Dot Dot wrong and we ended hanging out at the Bluebird for a random band and then onto Sports with no band) we still had a good turnout and I LOVED hanging out with a wide diversity of friends.


Here are some shots from the night:











Shannon and Lara on the left and Ryan and Gretchen Bass on the right, with Stacy (aka "Bono") at tutto bene.
















Also at tutto bene was Sharon and Michael (left) and Brandon and my nephew Eric on the right.




Jeff, my buddy from Sunrise (and mountain bike riding pal) joined the group at The Irish Lion (see below). To the right is Travis, who brought along his friend Brian (left), and my good friend James is on the right. Travis said he would bring along Bill Clinton, but Travis is a liar.







Yes, everyone is wearing crazy glasses, which they found in their "party box". If you wore the glasses, the party seemed funner.







I enjoyed the whole evening! Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate!

Cache of the Day - Bloomington Business Expo

The Bloomington Business Expo is sponsored by the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce and features over 170 exhibitors and is attended by over 3,000 visitors. Employment Plus had a booth this year and here are the girls ("assume fighting position") that were partially responsible for greeting attendees and letting them know of our products and services. Here is Sarah, Elizabeth, me, and Gahimer.

It's also fun to see what other businesses have got going on. I really enjoyed the "hook" that this local financial institution had to draw people in. I had 15 seconds to gather all the "cash" I could while it blowed around the booth. I was able to stuff something like $473 into my fanny pack, which wasn't enough to win "real" cash, but it was still lots of fun.

Thanks to Deb Owen for snapping the money booth pics. Visit her other great shots by going to her site http://debowen.typepad.com/photoblog/