470 calories in an eggnog latte - 350 calories burned at the gym = 120 calories of eggnog latte that will end up on my abdominal rolls. Damn!
I just schlepped across the back parking lot through snow and slush to go the gym. I then spent 3o minutes on the treadmill running 3 miles (with some warm up and cool down walking in there), did 20 sit ups (I know, wimpy but I was short on time), and stretched. Then I had to shower and trudge back through the snow and wind to the office. I should be proud of myself and feeling really good but truthfully I am bummed. I am bummed because after all of that, I still did not work off enough calories to earn my much cherished and dreamed about eggnog latte.
I wait all year for the six weeks that Starbucks offers the coveted eggnog latte. For those of you not familiar with this little concoction from heaven, it is espresso with steamed eggnog and a sprinkle of spicy nutmeg. I can tolerate eggnog on its own somewhat but am not a huge fan. But eggnog with coffee has turned out to be a whole different story.
This past weekend I tried and tried to fit an eggnog latte into my plans but each time my plans were foiled. First I was going to get one and sip on it as I leisurely shopped my way through the grocery store. Instead I had to run through the store throwing items into the cart so that I could shop and pick up lunch before my husband ate Miles from lack of alternative food choices. With my plans thwarted for Saturday I decided that we could stop at the Bucks on the way to a birthday celebration for Miles and his friends (they are all within one week of each other). I forgot to factor into those plans the simple fact that I am always late and there was no way in hell that we had time to stop for anything, red lights included. So my plan for today is to convince my coworker that he wants Starbucks too and that he also wants to get out of the office for a little while to go there. I’ll let you know if this one actually comes to fruition.
We finally received our much anticipated shipment of AirCribs last week. We can finally start filling all of the orders that have been piling in since our launch at the ABC Kids Expo in September.
The shipment arrived last Wednesday late in the day so I walked in on Thursday morning whistling away as I envisioned shipping package upon package and seeing the backorder report whittle down to nothing. My bubble was blown to pieces when my coworker, Nathan, so meanly informed me that he planned to test every single crib before I could ship it. Every. Single. Crib. Can you hear me sobbing? Because I am. Still.
Testing each product is not a simple task. It means opening a case, getting out the box, pulling the AirCrib out of the box and stuff sack, and inflating it. But the testing does not stop there. Then we have to let them sit, inflated, for 48 hours to ensure that there are no problems. This means that every AirCrib that leaves our warehouse has been tested in the factory and tested again by us personally.
Why do we do this? Because we are out-of-our-minds-control-freaks that is why. It means tons of time invested on our part to ensure that you, the consumer, have a top notch product that we are very proud of. Can this go on forever? No way. My plan is for it to end with the next shipment!
I have so much to say that I will break this out into at least two posts, maybe more.
Last week I packed up and flew out to hot, hot, hot Las Vegas for our first trade show, the ABC Kids Expo. It was the first time that I left Miles and I don’t want to do it again any time soon. I really missed that little guy!
Anyway, I flew out to Vegas (did I mention it was hot there?) along with one of my two pieces of luggage. After all of my luggage arrived safe and sound I dragged it out to the taxi stand. Or at least what USED to be the taxi stand. They moved the stand and its endless miles of rope. The line was, as always, exceptionally long and smack dab in the middle of the (hot) sun. When it was finally my turn I collapsed into the cool air of a cab and nursed all of my old injuries that had resurfaced as a direct result of dragging the huge bags though the miles of taxi stand ropes.
We arrived at the convention center and I dragged the luggage to our booth. The booth looked great! All of our efforts to design an eye-catching and interesting yet low cost booth paid off. We also had a killer location - right on the main aisle. From the moment that I hid my bags until the end of the day our booth was full of people. We were ecstatic! It was the light at the end of the tunnel.
One of the best parts of the day was when a woman stopped by to take a look. I started giving her the sell and explained the how, what, and why. It turns out that she was from Babble, an online parenting magazine that I love. She was searching out new products to put on her blog and our product was selected!
We also had some neighbors stop by with their babies to try out the aircrib:
Emma, from Baby Snaps
Hayden, from Snug and Tug
All in all, a very exciting day at the show.
After the show (now this is where the fun begins) we hit the first bar that we could find in the hotel and partook in a little happy hour magic. It was definitely needed. And following that was a delicious dinner outside (not so hot once the sun goes down) on the strip across from the Bellagio water show. Definitely the best seats in Vegas and the food and company wasn’t too bad either (I had to include that in case any of my coworkers read this).
More tomorrow…
The unveiling of the AirCrib at the ABC Kids Expo is only a few days away. We are getting very excited here at the office and working like mad to finish all of the last minute tasks.
Even more exciting for everyone is the socializing that will go on. I am meeting up with three friends from college, two of whom I have not seen in over a year. We are going to squeeze into one hotel room and live it up like we did back in the day. Well, kind of. Now that I have a baby my living it up sessions are nothing like they used to be. Staying up past 10 o’clock - crazy! Yup, I am still the party animal that they once knew. They might be just getting in at 6 AM but I will be up and getting ready to go out. Does it really matter if you do Vegas by night or by day? I think I know the answer to that question…
Two of my coworkers will also be hosting guests - a girlfriend and a wife. Thankfully the girlfriend and the wife don’t go with the same person, although that could make things very interesting!
It will be my first overnight away from Miles. Being the overachiever that I am I couldn’t just break myself in with 1 night, nope, I am going to do FOUR. It will be tough but I will spend so much time fending off the shots that my friends send my way I won’t have much time to think about it.
Today is my first day back from a nice, long vacation. A lot has been happening while I was gone. Our tradeshow crate was packed and is now on its way to our first juvenile products tradeshow - The ABC Kids Expo! I am excited to hit Las Vegas again, it is a very fun city to have a tradeshow in. We have been busy signing up for as many cheap (I should probably say inexpensive or affordable but why bother) marketing opportunities as we can find. We should get some good exposure at the show. Once we can get people to our booth the sales should be a slam dunk. There is some positive thinking fer ya!
Today is also Miles’ first day at a new daycare center. I was very reluctant to leave the old center because I loved his teachers. At an open house at the new center yesterday I was reminded of why I made the switch. The new place is so much more professional and his teachers seem very nice and caring. The drop off this morning went without a hitch. I was a bit bummed because the teachers weren’t there, they both have children starting kindergarten today and so are coming in late. I tried to tell the fill in teacher all of the instructions but she was busy dealing with a screaming child. The phone hasn’t rang yet so they must have figured everything out.
We are all leaving the office at noon today to go boating for the afternoon - yippee! It is going to be a hot day so a nice cold brewski and a swim will be awesome.
