What a week! WoWZers! Out every night at some different function– 3 parties, 1 concert, 2 meetings, working every day except Thursday including Saturday– Thursday I’ll be cramming to get several jobs that have deadlines this week done. My head is spinning I’m going in so many different directions. And I’m just a bit worn out already and this is just 1/2 way!
Archive for February, 2009
Gotta LOVE this cup! From our late night [not too late] Starbucks run last night.
Probably the longest my bff has ever hung out in a Starbucks cafe!
As I clean house today, I’m also listening to a series of podcasts from Joseph Michelli, writer of “The Starbucks Experience”. “The Starbucks Experience” [the next book on my reading list] is not really about “Starbucks” but about good business principles. In one of the podcasts he sites a couple of paragraphs from a New York Times article that are to follow. Something we should all remember in these hard times.
We are more than our investments. We are more than the year-to-year or day-by-day changes in our net worth. We are what we do for charity. We are how we treat our family and friends. We are how we treat our dogs and cats. We are what we do for our community and our nation. If you had $100 million or $100,000 a year ago and now you have a lot less, you are still the same person. You are not a balance sheet, at least not one denominated in money, as was explained to me recently.
Losing and making money are not moral issues so long as you are being honest. You may have a lot less money as this year ends than you did two years ago. But you are just as good or bad a person as you were then. It is a myth that money determines who you are, and if you have gotten over that myth by now, then 2008 will have been a very good year.
source: New York Times columnist Ben Stein
A little known fact: Starbucks actually has 4 cup sizes [actually 5 if you count the sample cup]. There’s the short cup [8 oz.], the tall cup [12 oz.], the grande [16 oz.] and the venti [20 oz.] . The short cup is rarely used except upon customer request [and few of them even know it exists] or for espresso or a kid’s hot chocolate. The tall is readily accepted as small, the grande – medium, and the venti – large. Now, I know that 20 oz. may sound like a lot, but many times I wish they had a larger one, maybe 24 or 28 oz.?
(AP) The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled to its lowest close in more than six years on Thursday as sharp declines in key financial shares led the market lower.
The blue chips broke through a psychological barrier established in November to close at their lowest level since Oct. 9, 2002, the last bear market low.
The feeble performance marks a setback for many investors who hoped the Nov. 20 finish would mark the low point of the market’s extended decline from its October 2007 highs.
The market’s inability to rally also signals that investors see no immediate end for the recession, which is already 14 months old and one of the most severe in decades.
Georgia Thunderstorms Kill 1, Injure at Least 16
Published February 20, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
ATLANTA — One person was killed and at least 16 were injured when fierce thunderstorms swept Georgia and Alabama with tornadoes, hail and lightning, downing trees and power lines, authorities said Thursday.
At least three tornadoes touched down in central Georgia, according to National Weather Service teams who rolled out after daylight to determine if twisters had hit based on the damage from the overnight storm.
Kent McMullen, a meteorologist with the weather service in Peachtree City, said one confirmed tornado cut a 7-mile swath through rural Jasper County with winds of up to 100 mph.
At least 10 people were injured and as many as 100 structures were damaged in Jasper County, emergency managers said.
Two other twisters touched down in Taylor County and at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, south of Macon, McMullen said.
McMullen said a man died in the Hancock County town of Sparta, about 88 miles southeast of Atlanta. Authorities have not released the victim’s name and no other details were immediately available from local officials.
In Alabama, an apparent tornado uprooted trees in Geneva near the Florida line. No injuries were reported.
A spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency said besides the fatality, three others were injured in Hancock County.
Another two people were reported injured in Spalding County and one each in Coweta and Putnam counties. The Coweta County injury was from a lightning strike.
The storms also damaged at least two schools in Fayette County south of Atlanta.
Georgia Power Co. reported more than 4,000 customers lost electricity at the height of the storms Wednesday night, with all but about 60 restored by midmorning Thursday.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s Electric Membership Corporations restored power to nearly 9,400 customers who lost it Wednesday night. Crews worked Thursday morning to reconnect a couple of hundred customers in Jasper and Spalding counties after about 30 utility poles were broken in the storm.
source: FoxNews.com
Hawker Beechcraft “Dear Starbucks” ad
Published February 19, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Starbucks
My love for advertising, marketing and Starbucks caught my attention on this one. To just set the stage- Starbucks is trying to sell [or has sold, I’m not sure which] the $45 million corporate jet it bought in December, along with a seven-year-old Gulfstream that it tried to sell before taking delivery of the new airplane.
Hawker Beechcraft’s “Dear Starbucks” ad campaign starts today
“Dear Starbucks, You Still Need to Fly. We’re Here to Help.”
So starts a new Hawker Beechcraft ad unveiled today that’s aimed at promoting the use of business jets. That’s become unpopular after the heads of the nation’s Big Three automakers flew jets to Washington to ask for bail-out money.
“We recently learned in the press that you’re selling some of your business aircraft,” the ad went on to say. “That must have been a difficult decision, since taking advantage of business opportunities in today’s challenging times calls for speed and flexibility impossible to find with commercial carriers.”
The ad also promotes the company’s Hawker 4000 business jet.
Hawker Beechcraft joins Cessna Aircraft and trade groups the National Business Aviation Association and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association in campaigns to counter the negative image business jets have gotten recently.
source: Air Capital Insider blog
I had the INSTANT coffee product “VIA” today. We got samples in the store of the Colombia and 
the Italian Roast.
VIA Ready Brew gets good reviews from Chicago Tribune critics
“Having imbibed a lot of instant overseas, I did recognize an initial familiar instant aroma, but the taste was far superior to any instant I’ve ever had,” writes Monica Eng. “If I’m stuck at my desk on deadline, and especially if I just want a quick inexpensive iced coffee on a hot day, I would turn to this powdered product in an instant.” The Chicago Tribune’s restaurant critic, Phil Vettel, sampled VIA and said it was “surprisingly bold and complex,” “totally acceptable, especially if I were in a rush,” and “really good if a little on the burned side.”
source: Starbucks Gossip
All I can say is that people in Chicago must be starved for good coffee. I totally agree with the “an initial familiar instant aroma”. I totally got that. I guess it might have it’s “place”, possibly if I were staying at a hotel where they have the little coffee makers in the room and there’s not a Starbucks within like 100 miles… maybe then I’d opt for VIA, but it’s hard to say. I just might go without. I think I might try some in the next batch of chocolate chip cookies — that might be interesting.
We got new bags in the store this week. “Starbucks Shared Planet YOU and Starbucks. It’s bigger than COFFEE” AND MUCH BIGGER THAN INSTANT COFFEE!!! So much BIGGER!
3 months ’til our birthdays 🙂 YEAH!
3 weeks ’til Ellijay 🙂 🙂 YEAH! YEAH!
I’ve just been too crazy busy to blog but I did want to blog just a bit tonight so you know I’m still breathing.
This is a new “green” tumbler we’ve got at the store. Actually, we’ve had them for some time. I don’t think I’ve blogged about them before– well, maybe I have. But I’m sure I haven’t posted a pic of all 4. This is the first time that I know of that Starbucks has had a tumbler in the venti size. This particular design comes in all 4 sizes, short, tall, grande and venti. And, the opening is patented. You can drink out of any side of the lid with the patented design. The lid screws on one way and you just screw the top [lighter green] part the opposite way and it opens — cool design. The graphics are GREAT too! Some on the acrylic and some printed on the inside label giving it sort of a 3D effect.
This is what’s coming tomorrow. Even before the “Value Meals” begin on March 2 – there’s VIA, an INSTATE coffee. I understand that times are tough and the instant coffee market is a 17 million $ market but this feels sort of like a kick in the seat 
My “INSTANT” is 4 minutes!
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