trolley adventures continue

This morning I arrive at the trolley station, trot up the stairs, and start to wait for the trolley to arrive. Feeling a bit cold (OK, by San Diego standards it was cold), I decided to run back to the car to get my coat. As I'm returning to the station I see my trolley roll off into the distance. At least I was warm while waiting for the next trolley.

So ... when it's time to leave work, I get down to the street (from my 3rd floor office) and remember I had left my coat up in the office. Jogging back up the steps, I grab my coat, and hit the street again. I'm zipping up my coat as I see my trolley rolling off into the distance. In my mind I'm saying, "unbelievable." I guess I could have said it out loud and no one would have thought anything about it since it is downtown.

So ... I wait for the next trolley to arrive, which takes about 30 minutes. When it does arrive, it is a two-car trolley as opposed to the normal four or six car trolley. It's barely started on its route and it's already crowded like a cattle car. And it only gets worse with each successive stop.

Directly in front of me is a lady talking out loud, to no one in particular. My first thought is that she was talking on a bluetooth. Then I notice she doesn't have a bluetooth. Then I try not to make eye contact because the stuff she's talking about is really strange.

But at least I had my coat. And I was warm.

company dives into lending poo

Long ago I signed up for Google Alerts, a news aggregating service that Google provides. You create profile of keywords and Google spiders newspapers and other news sources for those keywords. It then sends you an email with a brief synopsis and a link to the full story.

One of the profiles I created is for my day job at Blue Haven Pools and Spas Supplies Direct. Today I got an alert that read, "Company Dives into Lending Pool." It took me to the New Orleans Business News website. Here is a screen shot of the story:


To read my comments in yellow, click the picture to view a larger image. The URL is quite funny (at least I think so). It reads, "company_dives_into_lending_poo.html."

Here's the orginal story.

old co-workers and friends on tv

During the Olympics, I'm watching a commercial for 24 Hour Fitness and one of the guys is a friend of mine from Opportunity Camp. A week or so later - while watching PBS with the girls - he's on another commercial. Bobby Brindley hosts our nightly talent show at camp and is a genuinely funny and nice guy. Of course, he "officially" goes by Bob, but we still call him Bobby.

So ... today I'm watching the early morning news (around 6:15 or so) and who do I see on a local Jerome's furniture commercial? One of my former co-workers from Blue Haven. Here's the link to see his commercial. He's the last of the "fake" sales people in the commercial.

winter safety covers for your pool

If you are looking for a safety cover, you are looking for the best way to protect your pool. Safety covers not only protect your pool, but they provide an extra line of defense for your children and pets. They provide a convenient way to keep your pool clean through the winter months, making it easier (and quicker) to enjoy your pool the next year.

We recently spent some time revamping our selection of winter safety covers at Blue Haven Pools. You can view our standard, in-stock covers or try our custom design option.

i'm telecommuting today

In light of the fact that I'm telecommuting today, I thought I would share this great Dilbert cartoon on the evolution of telecommuting. View it here.

a love-hate relationship with the trolley

My love-hate relationship with the Trolley system continues. Tonight the girls have a softball game so I decided to drive into Old Town, park, and ride the Trolley into downtown from there. That would allow me a short ride back to Old Town after work where I could pick up the car and drive south to the game. Of course, that is based on the presupposition that there would be AVAILABLE parking at Old Town! After ten minutes of circling the lot, I gave up and figured most of those cars were from people going to work and few would be leaving. That meant I had to drive to the next closest trolley stop that has public parking -- back in Fashion Valley. Back on the freeway, up another highway. Then ... wait ... wait ... for about 20 minutes until the next trolley arrived. It took me back to Old Town (where this whole adventure had started) where I had to get off and wait for a transfer trolley to downtown. Unbelievable! Part of why I'm writing this is so I can remember where I parked when I leave work tonight ... and I'm not kidding!

i'm a trolley rider

We shuffled up our transportation plan at Blue Haven Pools and Spas Supplies Direct and I'm now an official trolley rider. The trolley in San Diego was built originally as a tourist attraction and not so much for commuters. Having lived in the Bay Area for five years, the trolley system is far behind BART -- Bay Area Rapid Transit. But ... it does save me money on gas and allows me time to read.

Since becoming a trolley rider, I've read two books by Vince Flynn. Yes, they are fiction. Maybe this trolley business is changing me ...

custom spa covers

We just released a new custom product builder at Blue Haven Pools and Spas Supplies Direct. It allows you to design a custom spa cover online. Of course, you need to be able to measure your existing spa ... we haven't figured out how to do that for you ... yet.

expert author

Finally someone recognizes true talent. According to ezinearticles.com, I'm an "expert author." You can see for yourself. It didn't involve bribery or extortion ... it didn't involve a whole lot other than uploading some articles. But hey, that's what expert authors do ...

Redneck Pool Heater

In the due course of doing "competitive" research for Blue Haven, I came across this site called "Redneck Pool Heater." Warning: it contains pictures of real rednecks. You have read it to believe it.

blue haven memorial day sale

Note: Here comes a shameless plug.

Blue Haven Pools and Spas Supplies Direct is offering 10% off everything in our store through May 31st. This is in honor of Memorial Day and is our way of saluting the American spirit. Simply use the promotional code "MEMORIAL2008" during checkout to receive your discount.

My personal pick is the Ensolite Floating Lounge Chair.

advo / red plum

I'm just about finished designing a marketing piece for Blue Haven that will be used with ADVO (now Red Plum). ADVO is the one that puts together all the mail stuffings -- grocery ads, etc. This is the "big sheet" which simply means, it's big. We'll be doing two saturation drops.

three c's

I spent several days this past week interviewing potential candidates for two job openings at Blue Haven.

Task number one was to sift through the mountain of resumes we received. After going through the first dozen or so, I half-expected to receive at least one or two from a Rear Admiral or nuclear physicist. And this was my stack of resumes for an entry-level position. Maybe next time I’ll thin out the competition if I put “No Ph.D. required.”

Then came the interviews. I’m probably one of the rare birds who actually likes interviews. I enjoy the give and take, as well as watching how people respond to questions they might not have expected.

When I’m interviewing potential employees, I’m looking for three specific things. The list I’m about to share didn’t originate with me. I first heard this explained by Bill Hybels at a pastor’s conference in Seattle. It made such good sense, that I decided to adopt it as my own approach to selecting leaders -- or hiring people.

Character. Does the person I’m thinking about selecting seem to have good character? Is this a person I could trust? Will they be a person of integrity?

Chemistry. How would I feel about sharing an office with this person for eight or more hours a day? Is there a sense that we would enjoy working together? Do I think they would drive me crazy!

Competence. Do they have the skills to do the job? Do they have an aptitude for learning new things?

They are listed in the exact order of importance. If a person has competent skills but lacks character, I’ll take a pass. If a person has character and is definitely competent, is there enough chemistry to where we could work well together? Generally speaking, competence can be gained through training and coaching; character is not so easily learned at a conference.

What is true in hiring new employees, is also true in selecting ministry leaders or when looking for a husband or wife. Too often people compromise by choosing competence or chemistry over character.

But when you have all three ingredients in good measure ... watch out! You have the makings of a true blessing.

pool slide tips

One of my many opportunities at Blue Haven is to write the content for our email newsletters. Most of the time I wax eloquent about chlorine or some other glamorous topic. But we recently began a push on S.R. Smith swimming pool slides and have stepped up our marketing efforts. So, we dedicated our last email blast to pool slide. To help lighten things up, I offered the following pool slide tips:

Tip #1: Never go down the slide without your toupee securely fastened.

Tip #2: It’s not wise to carry the family cat on your lap. You might enjoy it, but the cat won’t.

Tip #3: All slides are more fun when there’s bluegrass music in the background.

turbo twisting into your pool

We have a pool slide at our house. It's kind of old-school but it gets the job done but putting you in the water instead of on the concrete. At Blue Haven Pools and Spas Supplies Direct we don't sell old-school pool slides ... we sell the thrill rides! I recently updated several of our product listings (mainly from a company called S.R. Smith) and added a few videos. Here's a link to the Turbo Twister Pool Slide, not your grandpa's pool slide.

win a free beach ball

Blue Haven Pools and Spas Supplies Direct is giving away free beach balls to contest winners. All you have have to do is register for a chance to win. Who wouldn't want to win a free beach ball during the middle of winter?!?

We'll pick a different winner every day.

www.freebeachball.com

let's bring everybody up-to-speed

Wow, it's 2008 already and this blog was last updated one month ago. In the blogosphere, that is grounds for a time-out. It's not that I've forgotten how to type ...

Let's see ... where to start. Hannah and Hope are both involved in softball (opening day is this Saturday). We're really pleased with their coaches and both girls are enjoying the game. What more could you ask for! Look for pictures to be posted once the season gets underway.

Hannah recently represented her school in the county-wide spelling bee for Christian schools. She came in second out of all the fifth graders. She was a bit nervous, but probably only her parents could tell.

Hope is working on a state report project on New York and will be dressing up as the Statue of Liberty :-)

On the baseball front ... my Christmas gift was season tickets to the Padres (20 game package). I'm stoked! As an added bonus, my parking garage for Blue Haven is a short five minute walk from Petco Park. Free parking! That alone should save me enough coin to buy a hot dog.

LifePoint is doing well and we recently launched a new LifeGroup (that's our version of small groups).

For those of you snowed under, it's never too early to love your swimming pool. To show my sensitive side, here's a promo code you can use at Blue Haven Pools and Spas to save 10% of every purchase over $50 and get free shipping and handling.

Use "ILOVEMYPOOL" during checkout and we'll do the rest.

healthy start 08

We've made a few changes at Blue Haven and one of them is our new "Healthy Start 08" section. As you might guess, it includes helpful information about getting in shape. We thought it might be timely now that the new year is rolling around ... and so are most of us! Rolling around, that is.

One of the more interesting features we added to the Healthy Start section is a body mass index calculator. It uses information published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition to help determine your optimal weight based upon your height. Note: it does operate on the honor system :-)

Save 20% on Holiday Stuff

Note: you are about to read a shameless plug.

Over at my day job -- Blue Haven Pools & Spas Supplies Direct -- we have created a holiday clearance section where every item is 20% off. These are items that we have stock and are ready to ship. If you're looking to buy your favorite blogger a gift, you might consider The Tingler ... it looks painful but I'm sure it feels fantastic!

artificial christmas trees

It's that time of year -- time to decorate the Christmas tree. We enjoy letting the girls pick out their favorite ornaments and place them around the tree. A few years ago we decided to buy an artificial Christmas tree and it has survived several moves back and forth across the country. No needles to pick up and the lights are already wired on! It doesn't get much better than that!

One of the items we picked up at Blue Haven Pools & Spas for our holiday catalog are artificial Christmas trees. And these are not your big-box discount store trees ... these are really nice trees. Click here to see our collection of artificial Christmas trees.