Wow...

I can't believe the progress that happened on one night of fixturing!

Here is the before picture:
Now, that was before the massive clean out on Tuesday morning. 1/3 of the store was completely empty and it looked like a roller rink! Here is what it looks like one shift into the fixturing week. Yes, this was all done in a mere 8 hours... that includes unloading the fixture trucks!
The crew managed to get up just about every piece of gondola we need! They just have to finish up the back of the perimeter wall, level, and skate everything into place. I was completely shocked to see this much progress in one night. The guy from BRU who was running the fixture crew was completely amazed at how hard the crew worked and said it was one of the best crews he has ever seen. Kudos to my team! So, at this rate we are about 2 days ahead!
I decided to go to work today, on my vacation day, to just check things out and post a few layouts. I ended up posting just about all the layouts I had since the gondolas were up. It is starting to feel real now!

Feelin' hot hot hot...

I was at Old Navy yesterday. I figured I would stop by and see what was left from their weekend sale. Well, I found quite a bit of stuff that I liked including two bathing suits. I know that I blogged about my Wii's honesty about my weight yesterday, but I am not super fat and I don't look super fat. So, I tried on the two bathing suits. Not bad... actually I was shocked to see that it really wasn't that bad... especially since I am determined to lose some of this weight by the July 4th weekend. I couldn't decide which one to get so I got both. Please let me know which suit you like better. I like different aspects of both of them. I also got a short white beach skirt to go along with them. So, please let me know which suit you think I should keep!

My Wii called me...

... overweight! I knew I was, but it's different when your Wii basically laughs at you. The good news is that I thought I needed to lose about 30 pounds, but If I lose more than 22 pounds I will be unhealthy and underweight. My BMI will be too low. So, that is a good thing!
Today was my first day back in Newington. I was up about 2 hours early so I decided to finish watching my movie, "August Rush". It started off cute but clearly became predictable. I guess that is the issue with chick flicks... they are great at tugging your heart strings but you can tell how the movie will end about 15 minutes into it. No sooner did I get out of the shower was my phone ringing. One of the managers at Newington had got my number from someone at a different store and was requesting that I "swing by" Concord to get 12 Wiis. So, my morning commute turned into about 2 hours. 30 mins to Concord, 20 mins of chat time and another hour on Route 4 through all sorts of quaint towns in NH. I enjoyed the ride. I built some furniture today... two changing tables. I love building things so this was a good day!
When I got home I decided to hop on my Wii Fit board to combat the overweight comment. It was pretty fun. According to my tests and exercises tonight I have horrible balance. In real life I do not think I have horrible balance. I had issues heading the soccer balls that the Wii kicked at me and apparently I am a pathetic skier too. I must say that it did get my heart pumping and that it was fun to work out tonight!

What an adventure...

So today I let loose. Yes, I actually had a fairly relaxing day. I spent my morning resting, doing some cleaning, making apple and pear chips... I laid out in the sun reading my homework. I actually ended up with a sunburn, which I discovered about an hour ago in the shower. Ouch!
I invited some people over for dinner tonight. I have not seen these friends in quite some time. I was so glad to see them! They just got a motorcycle and I asked Jason to take me out for a ride. I have never really been on a motorcycle before so this was very exciting for me! We went for about a 10 minute ride. I was only scared when we were going around some bends. I think if I ever had a commute that was more than 20 mins I would like to get a motorcycle. I guess I am a much more relaxed rider than his wifey!

For dinner we had grilled chicken marinated in different types of marinades... they were all yummy. I have plenty of left overs for the rest of the week! When I was at the grocery store I saw these things called "fiddle heads". I have never heard of fiddle heads. Apparently they are the shoot of a fern as it comes up in the spring. They are all curled up like little fiddle heads. I put them in a pan with olive oil, a bit of butter, salt, pepper, and fresh lemon juice. They were kind of tasty!
So that was my day in a nutshell. Tomorrow I am back to commuting to Newington for training!

New toys...

So, as most of you know the two cats - Fritz and Zee - both have the nickname Houdini. Fritz has actually chewed a hole in my screen patio door big enough for Zee to get out and announce her accomplishment to us. Meow!! What a shock... So, to curb Fritz's appetite for escape Nick, Fritz's dad, and I split the cost of a "cat veranda". Basically it is a cage that hangs out of the window like an air conditioner. Both of the cats love it and they have backed down on the destruction of screens! Here are a few pictures that I took of Fritz exploring his new toy. All that is left for me to do is put the hard wire mesh screen up on the patio door to prevent Zee from getting out again!

Dutch also got a treat this week. One toy, six squeakers, 5 minutes of fun, 10 minutes of clean up. Dutch has a thing for killing anything that squeaks and is filled with fluff. Once it is dead I get to clean it up! Good thing I just cleaned the day before!

Dutch often gets fluff lodged in his squishy lips.

Zippity do da...

What a week it has been! I have been blessed with two days off in a row this week and what a joy it was. So, here we go...
Sunday is usually my day off. Poor Liz was in the hospital so I had to close on Sunday and stay until 9pm. It was the last day of our abatement, which required us to have a security guard as the doors have to remain open for their vents. The security guard showed up almost 3 hours late. I was so upset because I thought I would be stuck there all night. Thanks to my DLPM for saving the day!
Monday was ok. I rode my bike to work and I felt so sluggish. Good thing I left early as it took me an extra few minutes to make it to the store. Upon my arrival my day got very interesting. Turns out one of the guys from another store who is helping us with the night crew has a thing for me. He had the other guy tell me. Yes, I am flattered and no, I will not be going out with said person who likes me. My DM showed up and spent the day with me. Joy. I like her but sometimes I just wish she would pick better days to come. I left work 3 hours late! I finally got home and finished my paper... well, most of it.
Tuesday was the best day of the week so far! I finished my paper and presentation and was able to spend some time mowing the lawn and cleaning. I also had the chance to talk to my crush some of the day and ended up hanging out with him that night. The crush had been fading but now I just don't know. I guess time will tell

My lawnmower was broken for a while... this is what my lawn looked like before I mowed it!
Today was pretty laid back. I went to a dermatology appointment in Nashua only to realize that I was a week early! They took me anyway as it was better for them. I ended up getting a Rx for oral antibiotics and Retin A. I am not thrilled about the antibiotics as they just make the bacteria stronger. But, maybe this will help and I will look as beautiful on the outside as I feel on the inside. My presentation was ok. Nothing special. Paper is turned in.

Kind of a boring week except for Tuesday. Sorry this blog was so blah. Next time it will be better... I promise!

Case of the Mondays...

... well, Sunday through Tuesdays. Its been quite the odd week thus far and it's only Tuesday. I have been in some sort of funk. I think it is because it is nice out side and I just want to go hiking and fishing and all sorts of outside activities, but the reality sets in that I have homework to do and a paper to finish and associate evaluations to write (only 13 to do this year)... the list goes on and on. I am now losing six hours of my week due to my commute to Newington for training. I was unaware that it is about 100 miles round trip! I definately will not be forgetting to put in my expense report on this one!

So here we go, my week in review so far... Sunday was mother's day. I spent my morning working on my paper and cleaning the kitchen. I feel as though I am always cleaning the kitchen. I am not sure if that is because it is the main area of the house that you see when you walk in or if it is because I just don't like a messy kitchen. I also decided that I would tackle some of the junk in my bedroom. Of course now I have more to do in there because I have created the well known "go through this crap" pile. You know, papers that you have accumulated over a very long period of time that you are not sure if you should throw away, keep, or shred. My pile is quite extensive. I also have a big bag of trash that I pulled out of there. My mentality was if I haven't looked at it since I moved in than I probably don't need it. I still have my closet shelf to go though. I have lots of Christmas merchandise that I never put up on Ebay. I guess I will have to figure out what to do with that stuff too! So, I went to my mom's house for dinner. She cooked because she wanted to try something new. It was quite tasty and I am enjoying the leftovers this week. My dad played with my camera and we tried out his new printer. I sure do know where I get my gadget obsession from! I didn't stay much longer after dinner as I wanted to come back and get ready for my Monday.
Back home from my parents house and I have to hop on the computer to see what is going on. Of course I see someone I have been wanting to talk to all day and I open my mouth about something. That was mistake number 1. You can't attempt to open your mouth and have a short conversation. So, not only did I end up staying up later than I had hoped (I was glad to do it) but I had a hard time sleeping as I second guessed the entire conversation. I felt like a complete dork and felt that what I had to say was said in vain. A simple honest reaction would have been nice. I don't do well with vague.
So, Monday morning rolls around and I am having a very hard time getting up due to the fact that I was up late and couldn't sleep. I have not had to get up at 4 am in some time now and I had to do it so I could be in Newington for 6 am. So, here we go... first day of training and I am going to be late. I have not been to that store in 6 months and I only have a vague idea of where I was going.

Just getting out of the drive way I was late. I also had to stop and get gas and find breakfast!

So when I get to Newington I spend time with my trainer and we chat about how things are different, who knows who, the good ol' days at the company and how exciting it is to be part of this new milestone in the company. Time to open and my buddy that I am working with on the floor has to cover pick up and my manager trainer has to deal with drama on the other side of the store... great! I didn't learn too much on Monday so I hope that Wednesday is much better. I am going to help my training buddy reset part of his department so that I can learn where to find everything I need on their systems. Fun.

So, I pass out the minute I get home from picking up Dutch from my mom's. Of course this is not good as it is only 8 pm. So, about 4 hours later I wake up. Not good. I am now wide awake and of course I find myself going online. I decide to say hi to my friend that I talked to on Sunday (this is after I said I wouldn't be the one starting any conversations anymore). But, it was the middle of the night and I felt like talking. This tends to happen to me quite frequently with this person. 4 hours go by and after that I am not so sure what to think of the conversation from Sunday besides there is a 1% chance that I didn't open my mouth in vain.

So, literally after about 2 more hours of sleep Dutch is up for the day therefore I am up for the day. I did some homework, read what I had of my paper and decided that I hate what I have but it is too late to redo it, and had my oil changed. Of course this is me we are talking about so you know that something had to go wrong with the simple oil change and rotation of tires. I get a call about 15 mins after I get to work (walked there to do some homework in the training room) to inform me that I have a screw in my tire and that they can plug it for $15. Great! Just another thing to add to my super awesome 48 hours. They finally called me back to tell me that my car was ready and the bill is way more than they said it was going to be (once again you know something has to happen to me) and that took a while to fix. But, it's all good now. My car is happy and my tire has a plug.

That brings me to about 3:30 this afternoon. Fritz was trying to get outside so bad that he started chewing his way out of my screen slider. I wonder if they make sliders with glass on the bottom and screen on the top like they do for regular doors. Anyway, I gave in and let the two cats outside to enjoy the weather. My lawn mower is having issues starting this year so the cats feel like they are in the jungle and really enjoy hunting for flies and other bugs. Fritz just likes to sit there and sniff the air.

Fritz enjoying the warm air.
Zee hunting bugs.
Zee looking out from the jungle for bugs.

So, tomorrow is Wednesday. I have to be up at 4 am and won't get home until about 10 pm. I am not looking forward to tomorrow at all. Hopefully my trip to Newington will be worth it and maybe school will get out early. And maybe I will stop feeling like a dork and have some honest feedback from that conversation that keeps running through my head.

I hope that you all don't think I am upset or depressed because I am not. I just feel like talking this week and this is one way for me to decompress and get my thoughts out.

Just another day at the construction site...

It has been one heck of a day. I am currently sitting in the classroom where I learn about compensation and benefits every Wednesday. I need to unwind before my quiz (I am super nervous) so I thought I would blog about my day.

If you have never been in a remodel before.... DON'T VOLUNTEER! It is very exciting, but man is it stressful. Dave, my boss, was off today. Murphy's law states that when the boss is out of the office every possible problem will happen. Murphy's law was in place today! The tent for the abatement came down at an ok time... a bit too late for me but it was ok. Then the tile had to start going down. The area of the store that was done last night was the front end. You have to understand that this is the most critical part of the store and any tiny obstruction in the front end causes utter chaos. My front end had caution tape all over it, customers were basically put through a maze to get to a register... it is every manager's worst nightmare!

Shortly after we opened, a guy from the fire department showed up to demand that we put our fire alarm back online. We have been having issues and have a crew in the store 24/7 to watch for fire and to call 911 if necessary. That was not good enough for him. Keep in mind we are having the entire fire system replaced and back up online in about 2 weeks. So, LP had to drop everything and come up from RI, the fire marshal left me a voice mail on my cell phone (how the heck did he get that number???), and everyone was just stressed over this issue that we have been trying to fix for 3 weeks. The bad part is that the fire department has been called by the alarm company 4 times and have shown up for no reason. They have told us that we will be fined if they have to come out again... yet they want us to put back online an unreliable system. They also said that the guard we hired is not adequate and that if we want to be offline we would have to hire one of their guys to watch the store. Yet another way for the city to make money!

Here is what happened today (visually). There are no pictures of staff trying to pull out their hair in these pictures.

This is "the tent". It holds all the cancer causing asbestos until the guy from the EPA says "IT"S TIME!"

As opening draws closer this microscope becomes my best friend... as well as the EPA guy. Air samples are burned onto a slide and checked under a microscope to see if the air is clear!

All clear! Tear that tent down!
Abated floor in the front end. This had to be tiled today while we were open! Can we say headache!
After all said and done for the day this is what you see when you walk in the front door.
We even had a welder in the mezz (upstairs store room) adding support beams to the ceiling.

Just call me Lance...

Today was the day. Beautiful weather, somewhat enough sleep last night, and the right shift. I rode my bike to work today for the first time! Well, I had a test run a few weeks ago, but this was the first real time that I did it for a scheduled shift. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was colder than I thought this morning so my hands were freezing about 5 minutes into the ride. There was almost no traffic since I left my house at 5:20am. On the way home there was a bit more to deal with though.
The only down side to this is that my coworkers make fun of me and I have a slight helmet head when I get to work. I know they are just jealous that they live too far away to ride a bike to work and they know that I am going to be super fit by the time summer really starts! My DM was in my store today and my boss told her about my commute and of course she got a chuckle out of it. Then she realized that I would be saving money and she told us that she put in a proposal to have us go to a 4 day work week. So, four 12 hour days instead of five 10 hour days. I would love to have 3 days off a week! Who wouldn't? That would save on gas and help out the environment. I like it and hope that it gets approved!
I attempted to take pictures of the dramatic changes at work this morning only to find out that my camera battery was dead. They are cruising along with the abatement and tile! It really is coming together! I should have new pictures by the end of the week.

BIG changes are underway!

It officially looks like a different store this week. The store doesn't have just a new unfinished exterior and temporary bathrooms anymore. In the past 24 hours the store has gone through a huge transformation! Most of the gondolas are now up on skates (little platforms that the shelving units sit on so we can "easily" move them around the store. This avoids taking the goldolas apart and rebuilding them.), some of the gondolas are moved into different locations so that flooring can go down, and walls have been removed!

Please note that all of the pictures you see here were taken today to show how quick this construction crew works!

In this picture you can see from the front of the store all the way to the back! There used to be a wall here. Actually the wall was up 24 hours ago. They move quickly! The doorway to my new office can be seen on the right hand side of the new wall!

This picture was taken from the end of the new wall in the above picture. It looks like a roller rink! This is where our apparel department used to be located, complete with carpet (carpet removed yesterday).

Here is the new floor! This picture was taken from the opposite end of the store. My new office is on the left hand side in this picture... all the way at the end of the picture.

The construction guys used too much muscle when moving the Disney DVD endcap. Look at the mess!

The construction guys thought it was necessary to protect the new floor from the skating gondola. The wall on the right of the picture was in our store room... now it is the back wall of the sales floor. We lost so much store room space!

And when I got home I realized that I hadn't taken a picture of my pretty tree. Of course looking at this picture I realized that my landscaping looks horrible. Maybe in the next year I will be able to afford to do some beautifying of my front yard.