Archive: May 2007
Take it away, Fry:
Five years ago I was two years out of the military and mere months away from returning to Florida. Having since lived in Massachusetts, Illinois and Arizona I was preparing once again for what I thought to be the last move for a good long time. I packed up a 26 foot UHaul, hitched my Hyundai Elantra to the tail and packed it full as well and decided to head out late that evening. I have always been rather active and alert late at night and this evening was no different. I had a minimum 23 hour drive ahead of me and wanted to get moving. I start the truck and roll out, not 35 mins had passed and I realized how tired I was. I decided to stop at a motel (so fired up!) and pulled into the first one I saw. The truck had a tail about 7 feet past the rear tires. The motel lot had a slight dip, this combined with the car in tow got me good and stuck. Here I was maybe 50 miles outside of New Bedford and had to call a tow truck. Not just any tow truck mind you, it had to be a special giant truck pulling truck. This of course meant I was now about two hundred dollars into the trip. This was the beginning of what became the longest journey I have ever taken alone. It took me 5 days to get to Florida. The truck I had rented had a top speed of 52 mph and this dropped to about 31 on inclines.
-Fry
In closing, Posties? Fry. Fry? Posties. In Fry's last confessional, he mentioned something that I think is very important nowadays. Fry's brother is overseas currently, and like many families who have loved ones in the armed forces, would love to receive anything you can send. Magazines, chapstick, a yo yo, or even just a letter. With the 4th of July coming up, and Memorial Day just passing, I hope you all remember our beloved troops! All of them- DDay Anniversary is also approaching, June 6th, find and thank a WWII vet!
Photo Caption: Iraqi children take time out to enjoy a welcome distraction: Sgt Richard Fry smiles for the camera as he and fellow troops from the Big Red One man the streets of Iraq, passing out Beanie Babies and Otis Spunkmeyer Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins to eager little hands.Visit your local post office to drop-off your own care package. Heck, send stuff here and we'll send it! Seriously. :)
If you are going to be in downtown Orlando and want to stop by for some food, cake and a shot of tequila we would love to meet you.
150 North Orange Ave, Suite 304 - Orlando Fl 32810.
Out of curiosity I was wondering what is the most popular people are watching episodes of RockStartup. Please participate in the poll below. If you choose other please specify where in the comment thread. Thanks!
We crafted our companies new mission statement in a team brainstorm. There were volumes of great ideas and everyone participated. In the end I was very proud of the result:
"To empower everyone to value and exchange content, creativity and influence."
Short, sweet and right on target with our long term vision. We also set the theme for our company retreat which I will post about in a few months.
We discussed the pending release of froonooswaggle and gibblegabble at length and what it means for our future. I am really excited about this release, the entire team has busted their butts on it and it shows. Extra credit to Customer Love for finding some bugs last week.
I will give you a quick run down of the three days we spent in Key West:
Wednesday
Karen, Brit, David, Travis and I drove down to Miami to pick up Randy. We all worked sharing the connection from my wireless card. Macs are awesome. Pete took the shuttle from Fort Myers.
We stopped at the beach and at Robbies where my hand was eaten by a tarpon.
David was tired or lost his teeth, I can't remember.
We checked into our hotel then went out to grab a bite to eat. We then finished the night at Irish Kevins. You should ask Pete to post the video of him singing.
Thursday
We spent the entire day in meetings. Late night we met up for a little something special. I pulled a Postie Patrol on the Executive Team. I don't want to ruin the video, but I still smell like chocolate syrup. The blue team won (ok, ok it was a tie)
Friday
We started the day with early morning Parasailing. Pete overcame his fear : )
We went back to the hotel for more work sessions. Pete, Karen and David later took the boat home and Travis, Brit, Randy and I decided to go on a sunset snorkeling cruise. It was awesome.
All and all it was a fantastic few days and we are all totally pumped about the future. We are still looking for more peeps to join our executive team, if you are interested in a VP Finance or Operations role please let us know!
As usual, we wanted to get the entire trip on video for a Rockstartup episode, so Travis was preparing to film Britt getting ready the night before we left. "Getting ready" entailed a trip to the salon to get her nails done, etc.
Somehow, I was convinced to join this trip to the salon, as Britt didn't want to be the only one there. I had the first manicure of my life done, and to tell the truth, my nails look rather shiny, and the hand massage was rather pleasant.
However, it all turned to tragic and excrutiating proportions when, after my manicure, I was led into the room of torture ... aka the "waxing room". Yes, I somehow agreed to get my back waxed in preparation for the Key West trip.
Now, I'm not Chewbacca, but have a few patches of hair here and there on my back. The only thing going through my mind at the time was the scene from the "40 Year Old Virgin". I knew I was in for some pain, but had no idea what kind of pain I was in for. Travis and Alan were there the entire time, laughing and filming, while watching the waxing girl take pleasure in removing every strand of hair from my back with vicious rips of the tape (or whatever it is).
It took about 3 days for my back to feel somewhat back to normal ... I felt as if I had a brand new sunburn for a while. Ouch is an understatement. Look for an upcoming Rockstartup episode to document the entire torture scene. Hopefully, you can feel my pain.
Kudos to Jessica at the Beauty Spot for making it a TINY better than grating my back with a cheese grater.
This is going a little slower than we thought. We have about 45 minutes until we hit key largo. David are we there yet?... I'm hungry.
Pete drove to Ft. Myers last night and will be taking a boat to Key West this morning. Randy flew into Miami yesterday for a meeting and we are picking him up on our way down. Should be a great 8 hours in the van!
If you are a Postie living in Key West or you just happen to be in Key West this weekend let us know! We would love to meet you out for a drink friday night at a local watering hole. Hope to see one or two of you guys there!
