As we compared notes about our four-legged family members in an office meeting, inspiration struck. Wouldn’t it be fun to meet the pets of our shippers and carriers too? Last week, we had a blast exchanging adorable photos of our furry friends. (You can see them all on our Facebook page.) We’re a company – and a nation – obsessed with our pets. For example, according to the American Pet Products Association, we spent $58 billion dollars on our animals in 2014. I’d like to say I’m shocked and appalled, but the truth is
Read more →Archive for the Just Another Mary Monday Category
My husband and I decided that it would be a good idea to kick off the New Year with a few home improvement projects, beginning with the bathroom. Water damage from a storm meant it was high time to make some repairs, remove the wallpaper that had been there since we moved in, and add a fresh coat of paint. Since it was a small room, we figured it would be a fast, easy project; we could tackle it in a weekend. Talk about famous last words. We invited two friends over to help.
Read more →It’s only the second week of January and already my beloved football season is a bust. As I mentioned last week, the University of Alabama lost the Sugar Bowl on January 1st. Naturally I was upset (I bleed crimson, after all), but I did my best to stay strong and solider on. College football might be kaput, but at least I could still root for my favorite professional team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, right? WRONG! Just two short days later, the Steelers lost their first game, shattering all my hopes and dreams. Since football in
Read more →Some people spend the first day of the year nursing hangovers. Others spend it eating collard greens and black-eyed peas. As for me and thousands of others, January 1st means one thing-the Sugar Bowl, AKA college football playoffs! While the Sugar Bowl is a time-honored tradition and a national holiday (at least as far as football fans are concerned!) I noticed something a bit different during this year’s games. It appeared that the players – including my beloved Crimson Tide – had received a makeover. In place of their usual uniforms, Nike seized the
Read more →With 2014 coming to a close, I have goal-setting on my mind. I love setting goals, mostly because of how great it feels once I crush them. Sometimes I even make really easy goals, just for the satisfaction of checking them off my to-do list. “Wake up.” Check! “Eat breakfast.” Check! “Get dressed.” Check! Just like that, I’m on a roll! New Year’s Resolutions, however, are much more daunting. Although I like the idea of creating a plan for the coming year, my experience confirms what statisticians report– only 8% actually achieve what we
Read more →On Friday, Bob told you about our staff retreat, where we confronted everyone’s greatest fear: rejection. Our mission was to go out during our lunch break, find complete strangers, and make off-the-wall requests. When those strangers said no, we’d learn once and for all that rejection isn’t as scary as we thought. As soon as the rejection game was announced, I decided then and there that I was going to win this thing. I would rack up the most rejections. My first stop: Pier One. I started by asking Lauren, an employee, to put
Read more →Last week, I promised you a post about “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.” I can’t for the life of me figure out why Gayla Peevey, who recorded the song at the age of ten in 1953, would ask for such a thing. I mean, what would you even do with a pet hippo? What would it eat? Where would you keep it? The folks at Lite 98.7 asked similar questions and discovered that one measly hippopotamus will run you about $100,000. Not only that, you’ll also need a large water source ($150,000), 20
Read more →On Thanksgiving Day, it happened. Radio stations all over the country temporarily switched to a 24/7 all-Christmas music format. This year, in the United States, more than 500 radio stations will be playing holiday classics through Christmas Day. I happen to love Christmas music. Who doesn’t enjoy Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” or Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”? But there are certain songs I just cannot tolerate, like those dogs who bark “Jingle Bells”. According to a survey conducted by Edison Media Research, I am not alone. The novelty version of
Read more →As many of you know, my family does Thanksgiving a little differently. Every year, we head to the hills of West Virginia to spend time at Deer Camp with our nearest and dearest. I usually play the role of fry cook, which means during my “vacation” I’m up every day at 4AM, getting a huge breakfast of ‘taters, eggs, venison and biscuits ready to fuel everyone through a long day of deer hunting. It reminds me of this Mom who “vacations” at the beach! This year, Dale and the boys are heading to the
Read more →
