10.29.08

So here we sit at the Chick-fil-A First 100 in Flowery Branch, Georgia. The music is LOUD, it’s karaoke time and karaoke can be like really, really good or it can be really, really bad, usually the latter but tonight there’s been some of both. My running partner is here and her CPA also. The CPA is going to sing shortly I believe.

We were interviewed by a reporter from the Gainsville Times this morning and the article and photo is already up on the Internet. Click Here.

We left the house early this a.m., like 3:30 a.m., and got here about 5:00. Usually they start signing people up about 6:00 but now they have a new rule since they’ve had so many First 100s where people have like shown up so early. I heard that in Athens there were like 300 people at 6:00 a.m. 😮 So, the new rule: At 6:30 a.m. if there are more than 100 people they do a lottery– if your name is chosen to be one of the First 100, then you’re one of the First 100. If it’s not, I guess you’re not Fortunately, at 6:30 this morning there weren’t 100 people here. We ended up being numbers 25 & 26. I don’t think it filled to 100 until the early afternoon.

We about froze this morning. It’s been quite cold and windy! However, we have a propane heater. We used it this morning. In the afternoon it got better but still it was really windy. Right now there’s no wind, we have the heater going, the WIFI has been going all day and we have satellite TV as well. Life is good. Actually, life is REAL good! And it got REAL good when my cousin, Anna… my WONDERFUL cousin Anna brought me STARBUCKS! Thank you Anna!

I worked all day. Got A LOT done– a billboard, the State soccer program and a proof of the NewsBulletin. Very productive day!

BIGGER Tom is home with Sari Beri. Tomorrow I will take him to the dentist and we will go vote as well.

I LOVE these First 100s and this one has been exceptionally nice– even with the cold 🙂

Delta completes deal to acquire Northwest Airlines

NEW YORK – Delta Air Lines has completed its $2.8 billion deal to acquire Northwest Airlines, creating the world’s biggest carrier.

The announcement late Wednesday marked a swift conclusion to the deal. Earlier in the day, the Justice Department granted antitrust approval, and a lawyer for 28 air travelers who had sued to block the deal said the parties had settled the case.

The new Delta will be headquartered in Atlanta, and Delta chief Richard Anderson will head the combined carrier, which will integrate over the next 18 months.

source: YAHOO News

Hundreds line up for chance at free Chick-fil-A food

Rachel O’Neal, left, and Erica Schmidt try to stay warm this morning while visiting with friends on the parking lot of the new Chick-Fil-A on Spout Springs Road. The group was part of the “First 100 Fans” promotion that included free meals for a year for the first 100 customers when the store opens Thursday morning.

FLOWERY BRANCH – Thursday, it’s a Chick-fil-A restaurant.

But today, it’s Chick-fil-A campground.

Braving bone-chilling temperatures this morning, dozens of people had set up tents across the parking lot of the Chick-fil-A off Spout Springs Road in anticipation of a year’s worth of coupons for free meals.

The restaurant opens at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, but employees will hand out the coupons starting at 6 a.m. to the first 100 people who show up at the door.

The “First 100 Fans” promotion began unassumingly in 2003, but to the surprise and delight of corporate officials, has turned into a major event with a faithful following.

Restaurant workers now begin registering people 24 hours before the giveaways and treat them to free food, movies, games and ice cream throughout the event.

Some people show up hours before registration starts, said Lauren Thigpen, a marketing official based at the chain’s Hamilton Mill Road store in Buford.

About 60 people were in line when she began signing in people at 6 this morning, she said.

One of those was Teresa Henderson of Buford.

No novice to the promotion, she had not only set up a tent, but she was sporting cow gear – a cowbell necklace and black and white spotted visor – in honor of the chain’s famous mascot.

“It’s not even about the coupons any more,” Henderson said as to why she attends the openings. “It’s the people.”

source: Gainsville Times

Do you know how to catch wild pigs?

A chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist government In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, ‘Do you know how to catch wild pigs?’

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. ‘You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence.

They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms – just a little at a time.

One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch!

Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government ‘help’ is a problem confronting the future of  democracy in America , you might want to share this with your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life, then you will probably won’t share it, but God help you when the gate slams shut!

In this ‘very important’ election year, listen closely to what the candidates are promising you!

Just maybe you will be able to tell who is about to slam the gate on America .

“A government big enough to give you everything you want,
is big enough to take away everything you have.”

– Thomas Jefferson

source: thanks Kevin 🙂

10,000 Starbucks Employees Meet In New Orleans

They’re bringing business and civic assistance, too

Starbucks is brewing up some needed convention business for New Orleans this week and leaving an imprint on the community, too.

The company has brought an estimated 10,000 managers here for a leadership conference that could have been held in Seattle.

While here through Thursday, Starbucks employees will volunteer to help build a playground at a local school and team with non-profit organziations to work on recovery projects in at least three neighborhoods.

Starbucks volunteeers will assist with the restoration of homes, parks and schools; including painting, landscaping, planting trees, building playgrounds and creating murals.

Monday afternoon they worked to restore a home in the 4300 block of Walmsley Avenue in Broadmoor.

It’s a sorely needed and much appreciated bump in business for those in the hospitality industry in New Orleans.  The meeting is expected to generate about 31,000 room nights at local hotels.

source: Rush Radio

Starbucks Robbed Sunday Night

MILWAUKEE — A McDonald’s and a Starbucks were robbed Sunday night in different parts of Milwaukee.

Police said a person hid in the bathroom of the Starbucks on 2500 N. Downer until closing. He then emerged at about 10:20 p.m. with a handgun and demanded money, police said.After he got the money, he fled on foot, police said.

source: wisn.com

Google Earth Comes to the iPhoneGoogle Earth Comes to the iPhone

Google Earth. On the iPhone. That is, I would imagine, all you need to know to send you careening off to the App Store, from where you can grab the free download of Google’s Aerial Opus.

What’s surprising about this iteration of Google Earth is the speed at which it runs. A few years back my Mac notebook (an iBook) struggled to run Google Earth without glitching. This version speeds along at a fair clip, although a bad data connection will certainly slow things down — like the desktop version, the application is constantly streaming data from the web.

The iPhone niceties you’d expect are here. Pinch to zoom, twist to, well, spin the map. This should be a boon for German tourists in Barcelona, whose over-accurate maps depict the coastline as running on a diagonal, just as it is in real life. This leaves locals baffled when helping the Germans out with directions — all our maps reference the sea as “down” and the mountains as “up” and sticks the blue strip of water straight across the bottom of the map, throwing everything off by an innacurate – yet easier to use – 45º.

Tilting the iPhone will tilt the horizon and you can then use a finger to “throw” the landscape below you. There’s also a compass in the top right corner which moves as you spin the maps. And of course, the app can find you using the location functions of the iPhone.

The app lacks a lot of features of its big brother: No road markings, for example. But results for both Wikipedia and Panoramio pop up — an easy way to find places of interest nearby. Go try it. It’s free, and fun.

source: WIRED.com