Mr. Sam would be livid

I started my career in the marketing departing of Wal-Mart (SAM'S Club, actually) at the corporate headquarters in Bentonville. It was just four short months after Sam Walton, known to all of us as Mr. Sam, passed away. I was there for three years, until 1995, and you could still feel his influence in everything we did.

I knew things had changed by the time we moved to Austin in 2000. The evening we moved in we ran to the nearby Wal-Mart to get something we needed. Gary, a friend of mine from Wal-Mart days, was with me. As we stood in line, we looked around. With one glance, Gary said, "Mr. Sam would be rolling in his grave if he could see this now." I agreed.

It's only gotten worse, which makes me sad, as I am still a shareholder. Below is from a friend of mine in San Antonio. Not only is this not the Wal-Mart way I knew as an associate, heads would have rolled. At the very least, Mr. Sam would come back and haunt them.

Anyways, so he gets back from Hollywood Video with his movie, and bam, I get sick. I have to go get some medicine immediately. At this point its 11:20 p.m. and Im not sure what time HEB closes. I know that Walmarts are 24 hours (supposedly) so we go to the closest one (in the ghetto). Karl wont let me go in by myself, so he comes with me and gets himself a Hungry Man T.V. dinner and a few odds and ends. This lady comes on the loud speaker and the only coherent part of her announcement is 11 minutes.

Anyways, I get my medicine and we get in one of the three only open cash registers lines. There are about 15 people in each line and Im thinking this is ridiculous. So, I go ahead of Karl and get my medicine and then the cashier says, "Im sorry, it's midnight and we cant take any more customers." What do you mean you cant take any more customers??? His stuff is on the conveyor belt thing, his debit card in his hands and you are turning him, and about 20 other customers away??? Besides, that wasnt no 11 minutes. By the time we got in the store, got our stuff and got in line, that was all of 5 minutes (if that). If Michelle wasnt so damn slow of checking people out, maybe everyone in line would have made it through no problem.

"Im sorry, she said no more." Well thats bullshit. Turning people away. They need to have someone at the door telling you that they are closing and you have all of 5 minutes to get your shit and pay for it... not get your shit and get in line, but to hand over the cash for it. And thats another thing, there were still people walking in to the store after midnight and not a one of the employees at the front, looking through the bags said a damn thing. Have the deceny to tell people they are wasting their time.

Is she smarter than a fifth grader?

You have to wonder about those Carolina girls. First, Miss Teen South Carolina proved she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. Now, Kellie Pickler, an American Idol finalist from North Carolina proved that not only is she not smarter than a fifth grader, she's not even as smart as a third grader. However, it makes a funny video.

The latest on Leslie

You have to read John Kelso's blog about Leslie's new magnets. It also seems like Austin's most famous homeless person now has a home, or at least lives in a shed instead of a box. Be sure to watch the video that goes with the story.

I told Doug I want a new set of Leslie magnets to go with my last year's set, but I think Doug has had about enough of these s/he-nanigans.

Nothing to do today

Okay, that's not 100% true, but tomorrow is my last day of class for the semester. All my grading and class prep is done. Tomorrow my PR Writing class will present their end of semester project. After that, they will have their final writing test on Dec. 6. Both my PR Campaigns classes will present their client projects tomorrow and then they are done, except for evaluations. My Intro class is taking Test 3; their final on Dec. 6 is optional.

Obviously, I will have a lot of grading after tomorrow, but for today, it's eerily quiet. I have my own end of semester project for the Web Design class I'm taking, but no grading hanging over my head.

It's been an interesting semester, to say the least. Every class and every semester has a different personality. On the blog, I can't go into much detail, but I'm scratching my head on the way some things have turned out.

One thing I will say, this was my fifth semester teaching Intro to PR and between last semester and this, I really realized how much I love teaching this class. There is so much to cover and I'm able to get students excited about PR. Unfortunately, I won't be teaching it next semester. They are going to large, 300+ Intro classes. Instead, I'll teach an Ad/PR Management class.

I am looking forward to the break and am finally starting to think about the holidays.

Razorback sad

Despite being ecstatic about the Razorback's win over LSU, my joy quickly turned to sorrow Monday night when Doug woke me to tell me that Monday Night Football announced that Houston Nutt resigned as head coach. News came out yesterday afternoon that he's going to Ole Miss. Arkansas fans are vicious and it's surprising that he lasted 10 years. Lou Holtz only lasted 6 years as head coach. I'm curious to see who will take over the coaching job.

And I thought our dogs were spoiled...

Check out this article on Christmas gifts for pets. I don't think I can convince Doug to buy Allegra a $120 pearl necklace, do you?

Wooo Pig, Soiee!

The Razorbacks beat #1 ranked LSU last night in triple overtime. Not only did my beloved Hogs win, the game was exciting to watch.

Doug's parents left this morning. They arrived Tuesday for Thanksgiving. It's actually been fairly quiet, although Doug might not quite agree. I've actually been sick with some sort of congestion, basically coughing non-stop, including all night long. Sleep hasn't been easy and I passed on most activities. Still, I think Jim & Barbara had a good time. Doug took them to the usual haunts.

Thanksgiving was fun. In addition to Doug's parents, we had two friends over. I think everyone had a good time.

This is the last week of classes and then finals. I am heading into the home stretch.

Best Thanksgiving television show ever

Fans of WKRP will remember the "Turkeys Away" episode. For a Thanksgiving promotion, the station decides to give away turkeys in a turkey drop. However, they decide to drop live turkeys, not realizing they don't fly. Hilarious! Later reruns of the show didn't air this episode for reasons of political correctness.



Have a great Thanksgiving!

Yum!

Last night I had one of the best things I have ever tasted when we went to dinner at Siena. We were (belatedly) celebrating our anniversary and Doug made reservations at one of my favorite restaurants. It's actually been several years since we've been there, but he thought since I'm reading about Italy and dying to go, at least he could take me to Siena for our anniversary.

The dish that was so good was an appetizer:
Fichi Ripieni con Pecorino Toscano
Wood roasted figs wrapped in Parma
prosciutto and stuffed with pecorino Toscano,
garnished with Tuscan olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar

The flavors just exploded in your mouth. I think I could have made an entire meal from this dish.

I have to say though, the rest of the meal wasn't as great as I remembered. The ravioli was outstanding, but the veal chop I got seemed a little tough and chewy -- not what I expected from veal. Doug liked his pasta Bolognese and while he didn't say it, I don't think he was wowed by his Cacciucco.

There was also an issue with the wine. Looking at the cork, he noticed that the wine line was too far up, which means the wine may have gotten too warm. When he sampled it, he thought it was okay and just needed to decant a bit. Of course, when it finally opened up, you could tell the wine was starting to go bad. We probably should have sent it back, but we don't like to cause a fuss.

Still, the service was great, and while the port and dessert looked great, we were stuffed and ready to head home for the evening. Overall, Siena is still one of my favorites, if for no other reason than the figs!

Losing it, just a bit

I don't know if at 37 I can blame it on old age, or if it's just the end of the semester or what, but this morning I started wondering if I was getting a bit addle-brained.

I picked up my cell phone to see what time it was, then I went to get the clothes I wanted to take to the dry cleaners. Noticing none of Doug's clothes, I reached in my purse for my cell to call him, and it wasn't there. A minute earlier I had it in my hand and now it was gone. I searched the purse, the table and just couldn't find it. I decided to use my home phone to call it, only to find that I had dropped it in the closet when I was grabbing the dry cleaning.

Then, at the dry cleaners, I pulled out the top I wore yesterday to show that I had spilled on it and there were spots. Only looking at the shirt, there were no spots on the front of the shirt. Had they magically disappeared overnight? Flipping the shirt over, I found the spots. Guess I wore my shirt backward all day yesterday and no one, not even myself, noticed.

I'm glad I'm not preforming brain surgery today -- I'd probably leave a sponge inside someone's skull.

New blog to check out

Gigi Taylor is a Texas State professor and advertising professional. She is also one of the many people suffering from cancer. She was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and has a tumor on her liver. The prognosis is good and she's started chemo. She's also started a blog to talk about going through her treatment. Please check it out.

I want a pet hippo!

Has hell frozen over?

Either two nemesis have called a truce, or it's the end of days, when the lion lays down with the lamb. Much to my surprise, Allegra and Dexter both snuck on the bed when I laid down for a quick nap to relieve the tedium of grading papers. I don't know what surprises me more, Dexter getting on the bed (which he hardly does when there is someone on it), Dexter getting on the bed with Allegra on it (heaven forbid!) or that Dante wasn't anywhere to be found.

Dog hike

This morning we took the dogs for a hike at Walnut Creek Park. I really love this place, partly because it's leash-free and partly because it's close to Pflugerville. However, with the trails, woods and creeks, you can forget that you are in the city. It's a great way to get an hour of exercise and fresh air. The dogs love to roam and splash in the creek. It's fun to watch them run ahead, turn and run back to us, simply because we walk slower than they run. Of course, after an hour, they are tired and no longer run back, but simply choose to stop and wait.

I've read some comments online where hikers hate that this is a mountain bike park. We've never had issues with that. The cyclists are friendly, even when Dante, aka "cement head," doesn't listen and decides to block the trail instead of getting out of the way as we told him to. So much for hundreds of dollars of obedience training. The cyclists just laugh and keep going. Also, we go early enough in the morning that cyclists aren't much of an issue. As we were getting back to the car at 10 a.m., there were about a dozen cyclists gearing up and getting ready for their ride.

This is the first time since the spring we've been to the park. One nice addition since our last visit was trail markers. Not that the park is that big, but it's nice to know where we are heading. Now that the weather is great, I can't wait to load up the dogs and start hiking on the weekends.

Guys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses

I have a bacterial infection in my left eye. Ugh! Twenty years of wearing contacts and this is the first time it's happened. In addition to having to put drops in both eyes every three hours, I also have to wear my glasses and I hate wearing glasses. Blah!

Auctioning off my heart

Last night was the Find Your Heart in the Art charity art show benefiting the American Heart Association. My piece went for $175 in the silent auction. That was the max amount, or the "buy it now" amount (I'm not sure how that works). There was actually a bidding war on it. Woo-hoo!

The event was nice and I got to see a lot of people I know. I even met a few new folks. Unfortunately, I was exhausted. The next art show needs to be a day where I'm not on campus all day.

Great media personality

Last week was Mass Comm Week at school. With more than 50 speakers in more than 30 sessions, I was exhausted by end of day Thursday.

Our keynote speaker was Ralitsa Vassileva, anchor at CNN International. As chair of the week, I spent a lot of time with her and the one thing that struck me was how humble and sincere she was. I wasn't sure what I expected, but having worked in the media since high school, I was not expecting this. She is truly a nice, sweet, sincere person.

One example, after her talk, students lined up to speak with her, get her email address, etc. The speaker after her was local morning radio personality Bobby Bones and the room was utter confusion with students leaving after Ralitsa and more coming in to here Bobby Bones. Eventually, we migrated out into the hall. We're in the hall for several minutes, the door to the packed auditorium is open and I finally suggest we go down to the first floor where it is quieter and they could talk without having to whisper. We go downstairs and the director of the School of Journalism & Mass Communication offers her office, but asks Ralitsa if she would like to freshen up a bit before continuing. Ralitsa politely declined, saying this one student had waited to talk to her for 30 minutes and she didn't want to keep the student waiting. She talked to the student for at least 15 minutes. What a pro!

Not only did Ralitsa give the keynote at the school, she went with us to the celebration that night for the 10th anniversary of our graduate program. She also attended a dinner the director hosted, which included some of our top broadcast students. She also spoke for 45 minutes at 8 a.m. to an Intro to Mass Comm course. All the while she was an utter pro and did an excellent job with the students' questions, even when the questions were a bit loaded.

In addition to her being a sincere person, her talk was interesting. She grew up in communist Bulgaria and became a journalist with the fall of communism. She talked about coming to the US with her son and just two suitcases because that's all they had. She discussed meeting Ted Turner and what a visionary he was.

Students in the Online Journalism class were live blogging during the event. See what they wrote about Ralitsa. I know as a jaded media watcher, Ralitsa renewed my faith in the way journalism should be.

Media experts to speak at Texas State

Two months of hard work pay off this week. It's the annual Mass Comm Week at Texas State. We will feature more than 50 industry experts and notable alumni covering a variety of issues, topics and trends in mass media. Our headline speaker is CNN International anchor Ralitsa Vassileva, who will discuss her career and international news coverage at 2 p.m., Oct. 24 in Old Main 320. Here is the complete schedule.

Thanks to my PR Campaigns team, we've received a lot of coverage about this event, including a mention in the Statesman, three advance pieces in the student newspaper, The University Star, and a piece on KTSW (the student radio station).

The last few days has felt like the calm before the storm. It seems like I have everything in place, but it just feels like that can't be right. It's like I'm waiting for the shoe to drop. What did I miss when organizing this? Maybe the fact that I'm worrying about this means that it's all put together and well planned. Maybe I'm just a worrier by nature (okay, that's not a maybe, that's a fact).

I am, however, looking forward to this week and hope the students, faculty and guests are looking forward to it as well.

What's been keeping me busy

I have been so busy this semester. I'm teaching four classes and then taking a fifth -- a Web design class. I think I could keep up with that, but I'm also in charge of our annual Mass Communication Week at school. This is three days where we bring in guest speakers, industry experts and notable alumni, to discuss issues, trends and careers in the mass media. This year we have more than 50 guest speakers. I've spent a lot of time arranging the event, trying to get through the university red tape to pay for travel, and working with a team of students from my campaigns class to publicize the event. To see who we have coming, click here.

I can't wait until two weeks.

Finding my heart in the art

One of my fused pieces will appear in the Find Your Heart in the Art show. The show is Nov. 1 and is a benefit for the American Heart Association. Show details can be found here.