place of nathan.

Last night was my first Town Council Meeting as a council member.

I made a motion and voted yes on all items.

Jim, our Water Superintendent gave a wonderful presentation about the real cause of water quality issues reported above fold on page one in a misleading article appearing in a weekend edition of The Evening Star. It ended up being a faulty water heater. Jim did a great, thorough examination and report. I can only hope The Evening Star will be sure to include this correct information in their paper tonight–although it will probably be buried and contain no photographs.

I enjoyed the meeting, and I enjoyed getting to talk to council members Bob Knott and Al Shuman for the first time, too.

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My garage door confuses me.

Last week, I had some issues with it–it started going down, but would stop after it went down about 6″ and would go back up. Sometimes it would take three or four tries, other times it would work on the first. Then it just started working properly. It worked great for several days.
Then last night, I noticed my door was open after I closed it–and I was POSITIVE it made it past the 6″ it got caught on last week, so I closed it again, making sure it made it halfway down. Later, I noticed it was up again.
This time, I was on the way to the local grocer, and as I pulled my car out, I watched it go all the way down and stop. Then I started backing up onto the road. After I was on the road, I gave it a glance, and it was all the way up again!
WHAT?
I went ahead to the grocery store and when I came back, I watched as the door closed all the way, stopped for about two seconds, then came back up again.
If I hold the button in for about 5 seconds past the stop, it stayed, so I got it down all right.

This morning, as I backed out, I stopped my car and was waiting for it to come back up, but it didn’t. It appears it works fine again.
WHAT?

I don’t understand! How am i supposed to troubleshoot something which I cannot duplicate?

Anyway, I’m glad it’s my door and not my wife’s garage door. Better me than her!

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Howard Schultz, who was the brains behind the growth of Starbucks, was CEO at Starbucks from 1987 to 2000, returns to the helm of the company he helped create, after a turbulent year. Starbucks is now considering closing stores, and slowing down their rate of growth.
Schultz is an incredible businessman, and I’ve admired Starbuck’s business pattern mostly because of Schultz’s decisions. He did some really smart, risky things in the 80’s and early 90’s to bring the company to what it is today, and I like the guy…

In other news, McDonalds has announced plans to open up espresso bars in its existing restaurants, including a front-of-house espresso machine…

Read more at Yahoo Biz.

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On Friday, I had one of those days. You know those days, when it seems if anything can go wrong, it will.

It was a very busy day around the office, and to add to it, Judy and Carrie updated and completed the 2008 Daily Life Journals (which we still have a few available for $10 each if you’re interested). Judy and Carrie are great!

Later in the day, I turned on the folding machine, and the belt was broken–so we had to manually fold all 400 bulletins by hand…not cool! Again, Judy and Carrie came to the rescue, saving me from having to work all night Friday (although I still had to work an hour late!)

Later that night, I went to my indoor soccer league game with my team (more on my team in a future post), Espresso. The game was scoreless through about 40 minutes, and it was a hard-fought game that we ended up loosing 2-0. In the course of the game, I took a hard-kicked soccer ball to the face. It knocked me to the ground, and I think I blacked out for a moment.
Today (three days later), my jaw still hurts from the impact, and I’ve been taking ibuprofen ever since. The impact messed up my neck and upper back, and I’ve been sore all weekend, and today is no exception.

In the past week, I’ve played playing sports twice and I broke my finger playing football and took a soccer ball to the face. Tonight when I run, I hope to put an end to my bad run…I haven’t took an injury while running since I was a freshman in high school 15 years ago, so I believe I’ll be okay…

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I just got off the phone with a telemarketer. Here’s a brief excerpt from the conversation:

T: I just need to verify some information, okay?
N:What is this for?
T: Yes, Your local Yellow Pages.
N: What Yellow Pages?
T: Yes, Your local Yellow Pages.
N: Where will this appear?
T: Yes, Your local Yellow Pages.
N: Will this appear on a website?
T: If you sign up for the web [unintelligible], it will, but if not, it will appear in print for your Yellow Pages.
N: What yellow pages?
T: Your local Yellow Pages.
N: What is the name of the company?
T: Yes, [unintelligible] Yellow Pages.
N: That’s not my local yellow pages. I work with local sales reps, and I’ve never heard of your company.
T: Yes, it is your local Yellow Pages.
N: No, not interested.
T: This is your local Yellow Pages.
…

I’m not exaggerating, either. actually, i think I left off a couple ‘Yes, your local Yellow Pages’ responses…
Don’t be like this, please.

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I have a new Email signature I’ve been using for about two weeks. I think I found this quote from Seth Godin, if memory serves me correct (and it normally does).

Repeat yourself until everyone is annoyed but your accountant.
-Jay Levinson

This reminds me of something Andy Stanley has said:

Vision Leaks.

How often to give vision to those around you? Can people figure out what you want, why you want it? Do you provide your spouse/dating partner vision for your relationship? Are you doing marriage/dating ‘aimlessly’? Does your spouse think you are? Remember, vision leaks, so repeat yourself until everyone is annoyed…

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Today I stopped in to the Waterloo Town Hall for the first time as a member of the Waterloo Town Council.

I have my own mailbox, which had several things in it! I think there are several month-end reports which we get the beginning of each month. I had several things in my mailbox! Reading material.

It’s all starting to set in, I’m a councilman. My first meeting as a member of the council is Tuesday, so I have five more days to prepare for the meeting. I don’t think anything will surprise me too much…especially since I’m expecting to be surprised!

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Tonight Iowa hosts its caucuses, where that state will largely determine the rest of the election year. On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are neck-and-neck. On the Democratic side, it’s Billary Clinton and Barack Obama, with Johnathan Edwards a somewhat distant third.
Nationwide Republican frontrunner Former New York hard-nosed mayor Rudy Guilliani is nearly a nobody in Iowa. Last night on the news, they talked about classical conservative Ron Paul actually beating Guilliani, which is a distinct possibility because 99.9% of Ron Paul supporters will be at the caucus, whereas a much, much smaller portion of Guilliani (and every other candidate)’s supporters will attend.

And so, the race toward November ‘08 begins.
And oh, how important my vote will be in May, after the electoral votes have already chosen the party winners!

Regardless of which candidate you support and when you cast your vote, be sure to vote!

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It has been an enjoyable two weeks vacation from blogging for me.

In the past two weeks:

• I was off work a total of five days I would normally have had to work!
• On Monday, Dec. 24, I was off work but Emily had to work until 1 p.m., so I drove her to work, and then hung out at Panara getting some KeyOne work completed, and then went to the downtown Starbucks, where I had a short americano and a coffeecake while waiting for Emily to get off work. I was able to read about 1/3 of Seth Godin’s All Marketers Are Liars. This was a great day for me, and was a wonderful way to start the Christmas season.
• I was able to spend time with my family, Emily’s family, my dad’s family, my mom’s family, Emily’s mom’s family and Emily’s dad’s family. It was a great time!
• I played in a great game of flag (AKA ‘light tackle’) football with Tyler Chalfant and gang.
• I (think I) broke the tip of my right ring finger during said football game. I forgot to take Advil this morning, and I can tell!
• As of January 1, I am officially a Waterloo Town Council Member. No more -Elect at the end!
• This morning I woke up with Emily at 5:30 and scooped snow for about 40 minutes.

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