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".

Dee in the Newspaper

Well we got a couple of inches of snow during the last two days and the temps have been in the teens and low 20s - burrr. I think I'm ready for spring. Yesterday's Cranberry Eagle printed a picture of one of our quartets. Dee is in the photo as the recipient of the singing valentine (see photo from Feb. 11 on this blog) I had sent several pictures to the paper with an article, but they just printed one photo and it was that one. Still, Dee became the hero at her workplace because the photo description identified them as being at her store. Nice.

We had another visit by the GIANT raccoon on Tuesday night. So on Wednesday at Rotary I asked if anyone know what to do with a raccoon. One of the people at my table said, "My husband loves to trap them and remove them." I couldn't believe it, but there was the answer I wanted to hear. She said he'd be willing to come over and set a trap with an apple and peanut butter. So, on Thursday he came over with his cage trap that has a trap door that closes behind the critter when he goes for the apple. We set it out last night. But the cold and snow likely deterred the raccoon from wandering much last night. So it'll be interesting to see how this develops. I can see the trap outside my basement window as I look over the computer monitor.

I've been doing some reading about the Barbershop Harmony Society, it's history, it's offerings and ways to promote it within our community. I'm learning it's a process and that there is a cumulative effect as you stay with it and get your group's name before the public.

A Nice Day of Connecting

Yesterday I attended the Mars ministerium meeting at Glade Run Presbyterian Church on route #8. We planned the Friday Lenten luncheons series that will take place at the Mars UP church. We also talked about the Easter Sunrise service scheduled for 6:30 AM at the Mars Home for Youth. It's a good group of pastors who , encourage one another when feeling low and support one another in prayer. A couple of them are feeling exhausted and ready for a break. (Note: we clergy do tend to be workaholics.) It's interesting for me to sit back and realize what some of them are going through and how they feel about what the do. There were times I felt the same way. It was good way back when to be reminded to do some "self-care" if I wanted to be more effective in the long run.

From there I had some photos printed at Giant Eagle, and then went to the Chamber of Commerce networking luncheon. They are fun. It's interesting to hear how business people represent themselves to the public and to one another as they have 60 seconds to get their message across. I thanked them for their support of singing valentines and circulated two photo albums of pictures of the people we delivered the singing valentines to. (Here are a couple of more photos. Click photo to enlarge.)

Later Dee and I went to Barnes and Nobel and hung out, did some reading and had a coffee. I looked at some books recommended at the luncheon earlier in the day by Jeff Gitomer. He writes about how to sell and present your best foot forward. Good stuff. I have decided I'm going to work on a series of 60 spots for the Bogmeisters to use at the luncheons when I have my turn to represent the group and say what we do. Some of the people there are creative in their approach, and I like that. I'll see what I can come up with rather then the way I've been doing it. On the other hand, some of the people there say the exact thing every week (since there are new people in attendance each week too) and it's good to be reminded, BUT why not be creative and say something that hooks them, scratches where they itch, or makes them want to hear more or even tell someone else about "the Bogmeisters."

By the way, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but our Greater Cranberry Men's Barbershop Chorus is going top sing the National Anthem at a Pirates' game at PNC park on July 19 (a Sunday) at the 1:35 game with the SF Giants. Cool huh? We have a special code number for people who want to get a discount on tickets for the game. (We'll have to sell 350 tickets but all people have to do is call the Pirates, use our special code, and we'll get the credit. Also, we're hoping to make it a "Cranberry Day" event and have organizations purchase tickets through our code number.) More later

Singing Valentines

Saturday and Sunday were spent delivering Singing Valentines to about30 people in all kinds of situations. Some were delivered in restaurants to employees, and others to restaurants to customers we knew were dining out. Other venues included rehab centers, physical therapy offices, surgical center lobbies, nursing homes and retirement communities and first grade classrooms and elementary school cafeterias as well as private parties in homes and to a mom and her kids in her apartment. We sang in a bowling alley for a birthday party and at a church for a wedding shower! Anywhere and everywhere. We even sang to a lady who felt bad because she missed us - in an elevator! What fun! Here are some photos from the school Valentine...

We even delivered a valentine to a guy. So we had to change the words to one song to make the song appropriate...

We ended up delivering about 30 valentines. The quartet I was in delivered 16 in the two days and we sang a couple of times to groups that were not a part of that number just because the time and place was right for us to sing. On one occasion we sang in a nursing home and one of our guys noticed that as we sang a dementia patient who had been non responsive to most interactions seemed to come alive as we sang much to the astonishment of the nursing staff. Hummm. It seems our music is not only a joy to listen to, but has healing properties as well. I saw it first hand as it has the power to make grown men weep, ladies feel faint and everyone to smile.

Well, except for one little 3 year old boy at The Hardwood Cafe where we'd stopped for lunch. A birthday party for his 90 year old grandmother was in process and they asked us to sing to her after our lunch. The little boy(just after we'd sung to his great grandmother) on his way to the bathroom said en route - "You guys were boring." Tra-la - keeps you humble.

Then, just this morning I learned that the Sharp Edge quartet sang a valentine for a party Saturday night. A woman at the party is in charge of the up coming "Glass Slipper Ball" ($100/plate) next Saturday in Cranberry's Sheraton Hotel. She asked Chorus' Sharp Edge quartet (they really are good) to sing for the event. Awesome! (Needless to say, as the VP of PR I'm thrilled for them, and for our Chorus!) God is Good! Have a great day... more photos to come this week.

Recouping Day

Yesterday I laid low. We went out to breakfast at Freedom Square Diner, and then headed home. My sneezing and sniffling has hung on. I stayed home from Rotary and Dee went back out to pick up some things we needed. Later in the day we took down the little Christmas village from on top of the fireplace and packed it away for another season. Then we watched a little television and did some reading as we listened to the wind howl outside. Quient eveing for us.

I'm feeling better this morning so we're planning to go to Monongahela and take my mother out for lunch for her birthday. should be fun.