Anticipating the Baby Shower

Wow here it is Friday already! It's been a busy week and the weather has turned warm for a few days. That's great!. We're getting ready for the "baby shower" tomorrow. We're anticipating about 14 people coming to celebrate the anticipated birth of Baby Julian.

We've been talking with Kerri through the week about her trip home from Ashburn, VA - a four hour drive. During the last few days she's been having some cramping and contractions. Her doctor has put her on complete bed rest. So for the time being she's working from home. She was planning on leaving VA on Saturday morning but when the Dr. suggested she take her medical records with her, she's reconsidered. After much conversation with Patrick they've decided the best decision would be to not return for the shower. Most likely a wise decision.

Nonetheless, she's sending photos of her current state of "prego" and will be calling to talk with the gals on speakerphone during the shower. A great afternoon is still planned, (maybe even a surprise or two) but we'll all miss being with her and Patrick. We love you Kerri and Patrick. Stay safe, get well you are in our prayers.

A Good Day

On Sunday we went to church and enjoyed watching the Campbells and 17 other persons being welcomed into the membership. Afterward, I practiced with the church quartet. We'll be singing at both services next Sunday. We're doing "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" a ccapella and with a flute descant on the last verse. Should be nice.

We went home and had some chilli that Dee had lined up for us, because we had to go to the Tax Preparer guy in the afternoon. I dropped Dee off at Marshalls while I went and saw him. This is the first time in decades where I had someone do my taxes other than a friend. This guy knows the rules and idiosyncrasies of Clergy taxes and he's worked with some of my retired clergy friends. I'm glad I did. It worked out well.

Then Dee and I stopped at J. Clark's restaurant and used a coupon for dinner. Even though it snowed all day, most of it was just blowing around and so there was no accumulation. We spent the evening reading (I finished the book on "salesmanship" and started Dale Carnegie's book "How to Win Friends and Influence People". I've heard a lot about it over the years, but never read it.) and watching television. During the night we got about 4 inches of the light fluffy kind of snow.

Time at Dave and Buster's

We've been kind of busy lately with having the car inspected, Dee working and me doing research on Barbershop Harmony topics and going to the Mars Library Used Book Sale. It's been very cold and it snowed again last night although the temp got up to 44 during the day.

Last night we went to a Pittsburgh Baptist social function at Dave and Busters. It was a chance for pastors and their families to relax, enjoy a nice meal and then chat or if they wanted to join the kids playing the various video games and skeeball. It was very nice. I sat next to Bonnie Kirby from the Monongahela church. I knew her and her husband when I was growing up. We chatted about our work, our families and church experiences. I told her about my mom and how we're keeping in touch with her more often now. I asked her to possibly have someone look in on her, or be more intentional (from the church) about contacting her. She said she'd talk with some of the ladies in mom's Sunday school class. That would be great.

Dee sat next to the pastor's wife from the Coraopolis church. They really seemed to hit it off and conversed all night long. There were about 25 people there (three of whom were children). As I looked around the tables at the people there I realized how much the PBA had changed and became ever more aware that I'm glad I'm retired.

I bought several books at the Book Sale. One is about "How to Be a Star Salesman." Now that I'm in the Marketing side of the Barbershop Chorus, I want to learn the best ways to approach people, tell them what we have to offer, and then "close the sale" as they say. It's forced me to try to verbalize the benefits of using the "Bogmeisters" and thinking through what "needs" we'd be meeting for a local company or business. This particular author, Brian Tracy, says we should refer to ourselves as "consusltants" rather than sales people. Consultants listen more than talk, and they awk questions to better understand the needs of the person they are trying to "help". We'll see.

I've even been working on various "topics" to address during my 60 second "talks" at the Chamber Networking sessions. It's a challenge to think through what to say and how to connect with business people in creative ways. It's going to be fun to see what I can come up with for my "60 second spots".