Jane's Journal

21

Nov 2006
5:13 AM EDT

Pretty soon I will be continuing on my NASCAR pursuit. Since I got back from Charlotte in October I have really been focusing 100% on the work at the store. It has been a lot of fun working on the Heat and Eat project and I wanted to enjoy that time. But now if I am serious about finding work for the next race season I need to start focusing on that. In the next week or so I will be following up with anyone who said “they know someone in Charlotte” and putting together a list of people I could meet with will I am down there. I will be leaving for Charlotte some time after Dec 3rd and I am planning to stay for about two weeks. I will then head back to Wisconsin for the Holidays and to complete packing up my stuff to go into storage. After the 1st I will move on a permanent basis and continue the job hunt. Okay – I can stop writing now because my coffee pot is done doing it’s thing. I have to stay in the kitchen and watch it because I am tired of it over flowing. It has a very poor design and the filters tend to fall down and clog the top and before you know it you have coffee all over the kitchen!! It think that coffee pot will find a new home when I am packing up to move. Happy Thoughts, J

19

Nov 2006
7:09 PM EDT

We survived the big hunting day at the store. It really was quite busy. I have never sliced as much Summer Sausage as I did on Friday. It seem to be the lunch meat of choice for hunters. The outfits that Laura and I wore on Friday were quite a hit!!!! I tried to attach a picture but once again the computer is challanging my skills and I cannot seem to get it done.

17

Nov 2006
5:12 AM EDT

Today, according to my parents, will be a very busy day at the store. All of the deer hunters will be coming in to pick up their final supplies for the week. As most of you know I am always excited about an opportunity to dress up!!! So today Laura and I have a little hunting outfit we have put together that we are going to wear at the store. I think the hunters will get a real kick out of it. Slicing meat and frying chicken can sometimes get a little boring so we like to change things up a bit. Have a great weekend – good luck to all the hunters. J

16

Nov 2006
5:03 AM EDT

Evidently there was not enough dynamite in Athens to implode the old tavern yesterday so they just used a very large back hoe to knock it down. Not as exciting as an implosion but I guess it got the job done. It only took about 4 hours to get the building down. Right now you would never even know it was there. Well the count down to moving to Charlotte has started so yesterday I had to get serious about training my replacement. I worked most of the day with Laura training her on most of the computer work. She is doing quite well. The other day Dan was testing her and asked her if she was working in Word or Excel. She was quite for a minute and then replied that she was working in the computer. She now knows what Word and Excel! The orders for the Heat and Eat meals are slowly coming in – we were hoping the response from our open house would have generated more orders but some is better than none. Sales at the store are doing real well. Monday we had put 75 meals and by Wednesday 1/2 of them were sold!!! J

1 comment(s) - 12:05 PM - 11/17/2006

15

Nov 2006
5:04 AM EDT

This weekend while at Dan and Renee’s we went to the Science Museum to see the Bodyworks Exhibit. I don’t know if any of us really knew what to expect!! Was it really going to be gross or just a little creepy. I think once we got past the first exhibit it was so fascinating to see the bodies and what they had done with them that the creepy element went away. It really is quite amazing and I would certainly recommend that if you have the opportunity that you should go. I am sitting here right now looking our my kitchen window and I am watching some men put up barricades on Hwy 97 right across from my building. I guess the credit union has purchased the old tavern and they are going to tear to down and make additional parking. This will be the first implosion I while have ever witnessed. I’ll keep you posted. It still blows me away that they are tearing down a bar in Athens, a bar in Athens!!! Boy times are a changing. J

14

Nov 2006
4:59 AM EDT

Hardly do you ever get what you ask for but I guess the “let it snow” thing really worked. Boy did Athens get hit with quite a snow storm on Friday. It was exciting to see the snow but it put a little damper on our travel plans for the weekend. Laura and I were heading to Prescott to visit Dan and Renee. Our original plan was to leave about noon. We were going to stop in Chippewa and take a tour at the Lennie’s Lodge and then head over to Lake Elmo, MN and go out for Happy Hour with some of the Retail Construction Folks. Well by noon we had heard such horror stories about the roads that we put our plans on hold. About 1 o’clock we called our cousins who was also traveling to the Cities and they said once they got to Chippewa the roads were fine. So we dug out the car and started out on our trip. Getting out of town and on hwy 97 the roads were pretty bad. Highway 29 was not too bad and just like they said once we got to Chippewa the roads were clear. Because of our late start we could not fit the Lodge tour in – maybe next time. We arrived at RCI at 5 minutes to 5. Just in time to head to the Twin Point for a drink. They did not have 1 flake of snow in Lake Elmo!!! J

09

Nov 2006
5:28 AM EDT

Yesterday’s big excitement for the day was that the online store to purchase the Heat and Eat meals is up and running. I had been having trouble getting the website online. I guess there was some technical problems with the IPS, RPS (???) routing #, I don’t know much about that part of the website. Well, I don’t really know much about anything about building a website but I am figuring it out. But the online store is working well (knock on wood). Now that we had the big sampling event we are waiting for the orders to roll in. In the mean time I am back to my cleaning project at the store. If anyone is in need of hundreds of Kotex from about 1950 let me know. I swear every corner I look in there is another box. Maybe in 1950 they were so modest that they had to hide the Kotex and they eventually just forgot about them. “Some people seek happiness……others create it” J

08

Nov 2006
5:01 AM EDT

The open house was a big success. I am so happy about the turn out. We had about 75 people come to the house for the sampling event. It really turned out very well. I think the meals were a big hit. We had lots of positive responses from everyone – now let’s just hope they order some of the meals. We did get 3 order yesterday and we were not even really pushing anyone to purchase anyone. The concepts of the heat and eat meals is really great for busy people and most of our clients agreed and were happy to finally have an easy option available for dinner. Well I have to get busy this morning. I have been trying to set up a web site for Hartmans but was having some technical problems. But it is on line now!! We are going to have an online store for ordering the Heat and Eat Meals. I need to get busy right now and get the on line store finished!!!! hartmansvariety.com J

07

Nov 2006
4:51 AM EDT

Today is the big day for our Open House Sampling Event at Jud’s house to launch her Heat and Eat meals. We have been super busy the last two days making all the food we will be sampling. We have 10 entrees for the people to try. We all are very excited about today – we are hoping for a good turn out of people. So far the response to our meals has been very good so we can’t wait to see what happens today. Our goal today is to introduce the products to the people and get them to preorder their meals. That could be a big challenge because our experience is that many people do not due much planning when it comes to dinner. We are hoping to make it as easy as possible and they will preplan their meals. Voting Today!!! J

05

Nov 2006
5:52 PM EDT

Usually on Thursday nights the deli gals head over to the neighbor hood pub (aka THE LANDMARK) for ladies night. We have a couple of drinks buy and few lottery tickets and then head home. It’s not usually real happening and we are usually the only ladies at the bar. This Thursday however we had to head The Eleventh Frame to confirm our arrangements for our Thanksgiving Bowling Outing. Well they had men’s bowling going on and the drinks were really flowing. I finally had to leave Laura at the bar and call it quits. 11:30 pm is way past my bed time. I guess if I am going to continue to go out on Thursday nights I will have to write 2 entries on Wednesday!!! Needless to say I had to take an extra long nap during my lunch break on Friday. J

02

Nov 2006
5:01 AM EDT

Boy is the weather getting chilly – there is already a layer of ice on the potato creek that runs behind my Mom’s house. I think its going to be a great winter. Great if you like the cold and lots of snow!!! Yesterday I spent most of the day preparing to the Open House – Sampling Event that we are having next week at Jud’s house. It is going to be an event to kick of the Heat and Eat meals that she is now making. We have invited over 100 people to her house next Tuesday to sample the dishes. Our goal is to try and get people to preorder their meals on a weekly basis. Just in case that anyone is concerned that I do not have any heat in my apartment that problems has been resolved. Thanks to Cousin Dan - he came and put in a thermostat and started the pilot light. It sure is nice to have heat but the heating unit sounds like a 747 taking off in the living room. O well – you have to take the good with the bad – I’ll take the heat!!! J

01

Nov 2006
5:01 AM EDT

Does anyone love day light savings time in the fall as much as I do. I have really enjoyed waking up the last few days and the alarm has not even gone off. I always thought I was an early bird but may 7:30 early fits my schedule better than 6:30 early. Day light saving time was also very handy on Sunday morning after being out very late. Renee and I got up at 11:00 am – then magically it was 10:00 am. 10:00, that’s not too late sleep on a Sunday!!!! J

1 comment(s) - 02:47 PM - 11/02/2006

30

Oct 2006
6:16 PM EDT

This weekend Renee and I got together with our Women on Snow group. Several years ago group of us would get together during the winter and go snowmobiling. It’s a great group and we have always had a blast. The last several years there has not been much snow but we still continue to get together. Since we really don’t snowmobile much and I’m not sure if I will even be in Wisconsin this winter we decided to rendezvous this weekend in Wausau. We had 6:30 dinner reservations at Herford and Hops. We arrived about 5:30 so we could have a few cocktails before dinner. Well it was about 7:30 before we got seated so we were well on our way to having a good time!!! J

30

Oct 2006
5:17 AM EDT

I have been about one week behind in keeping up with my journal and I am going to be try to get things up to date. Not much exciting happened last week so that will make it easier. Most of last week was consumed with cleaning out the upstairs at the store. I have really come across some interesting items. I am finding some really old store items that have been left over from many years ago. I’m not sure if it is really worth anything but it seems a shame to throw it away. I am just putting all those items in one room and will make some decisions later. Any suggestions let me know!! What does a person do with 50 boxes of Herdsman Dairy Disks? J

27

Oct 2006
5:31 AM EDT

Tuesday was back to work at the store. I have several projects that I want to complete before I make my move to Charlotte. One is to help my Mom launch her new adventure of Jud’s Own Heat and Eat Meals. She is preparing fully cooked meals that need to just be heat up and dinner is ready. So fare we have prepared a good selection of meals and they have been selling quite well with our existing customers. We have a few ideas to try and increase sales and will be working on those in the next couple of weeks. We would ideally like people who need family portions to preorder their food. I have also taken on the task of cleaning out the upstairs of the store. For anyone that does not know it has about 90 years of stuff in it and needs a serious going thru. There are some treasures but mostly just a lot of old ****. We are hoping by cleaning we can get the catering supplies much more organized. Not much exciting now just work, work, work!

25

Oct 2006
4:08 PM EDT

Monday my parents and I went to the Sysco Food Show at the Arena. I never saw so much food – and of course everyone had something to sample. We had just a few items we were there to look for. But when it was all said in done we had picked up a couple new items to try at the store. Two new items are a gyros sandwich and a packaged Cinnabon Pretzel. After the show we headed back to Athens. It was nice to be home in my own bed – especially after my experience at the Microtel. So tomorrow it’s back to work at the store after my two week vacation. J

24

Oct 2006
4:48 AM EDT

Okay, I made it thru my last night at the Microtel!!! On Sat morning I once again headed to the temp agency to check in and then headed off to work at the track. Work started the same as Friday arrive at the track at 11 am and start setting up you suite. Today I had to have a full service bar with beer, wine and mix drinks so they assigned a bartender to my suite. Aaron a 21 year old college student was my bartender. He had never been a bartender but he was a sharp kid and caught on fast. We had a good time working together. Today we had a full house of about 65 people so we were hustling most of the day. We did not have quite as much time to watch the race today. Overall it was still a fun day. It also turned out to be a very profitable weekend as our group was genereous with their tipping. After the race was over and Aaron and I cleaned up the suite we left the track. The traffic from the race was absolutely crazy. It took me almost an hour to get a shuttle to get to my car. Then I had to jump into the traffic on the road. About 1 am I was finally cruising north on the interstate. I was going to try and drive as far out of town as I could. Well I only made it until about 2 am and I pulled into a rest stop and hopped in the back seat for a little nap. The rest stop was filled with other people with the same idea. J

24

Oct 2006
4:39 PM EDT

I woke up from my nap at the rest stop about 6am and continued my drive. My goal was to make it to Madison by Sunday night. The first part of my drive as absolutely beautiful. I headed north out of North Carolina which took me through Virginia and West Virginia. What a great part of the country! Much better scenery than Southern Illinois. I had to take a few additional naps on the way but I was able to make it to Madison by 10:30 pm on Sunday. About 9 pm I was quite tired and was not sure if I could make it but I stayed focused on the nice comfy bed I would have at the Holiday Inn in Madison. That certainly was a better option than sleeping in the back of my car again. The thought of those super nice sheets they have got me there.

2 comment(s) - 07:53 AM - 10/26/2006

23

Oct 2006
4:27 AM EDT

On Friday I headed out for my weekend job at Lowes Motor Speedway. I was able to get this job with a temporary agency in Charlotte so I had to go to their location and get my assignment - it was not in a very desirable location. It's the type of place that people just show up in the morning and then are sent out to work that day. When I arrived they were trying to sort out the group of people that had showed up. 3/4's of the people did not qualify for the work because they did not understand what black pants, black shoes and whie shirt was. That was the uniform that we were to wear. After about 1 hour I was finally on my way to the track. After I arrived there we were issued a uniform to wear and assigned to a suite. My responsibilites for the weekend would be to serve drinks and food for the people in my suite. The suite I was in was owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc and they were entertaining a variety of political people this weekend. On Friday I only had about 25 guests in my suite so it was not really a lot of work. It was a long day though as I started at 10 and be finished about midnight. I really had a great time working the suite and what a spectacular view we had of the race. Because there were not many people in the suite I was really able to watch to the Busch race. What a great race. I was not sure if I was even going to return for work on Saturday but It turned out to be so much fun that I would endure 1 more evening in my bad hotel so I could return for work on Saturday. J

19

Oct 2006
6:12 PM EDT

Thursday evening I met with a gal who lives in Charlotte but is originally from Mosinee, WI. I meet her online when I was looking for a place to live. It turns out that she has worked in the racing industry for several years. When talking with her online I had my doubts about some of the things she said. She seemed to be a real name dropper. After meeting with her it turns out is really is quite connected in the the NASCAR community. She worked for Richard Childress for 6 years. She actually call him while I was in her office. It turns out that she is also good friends with Ricky Rudd. She was married for 3 years to one of the top engine builders in the industry. She has lived quite an extravegant life sytle since she got married and is not shy about sharing her lifestyle. I will continue to stay in contact with her and see what happens. J

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Username: Jane

Gender / Age: Female, 57

Location: USA

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