Rant and Rave

It’s been far to long but a ton of stuff as been going on so we’ll start with the good, then the bad, and maybe even the ugly.

Good
At the house we’ve been busy with work stuff and purchased a treadmill and bo flex which we are super excited about. Then of course we had this whole thanksgiving thing that most of you participated in so happy post turkey day to you! Also both of our families traveled up from west texas to come meet us for turkey day and for an incredible experience at “the death star”, “jerry world”, or as most of you call it “cowboys stadium”.

Bad
Things have been insane for Laura and I with our work schedules and now we are seeing each other about every other day. Should improve quite a bit with Laura’s new project she starts tomorrow, most of the time we haven’t seen each other we’ve actually been with our families while they were here. It’s really hard trying to balance time with work and 2 families with me working retail, needless to say i’m tired!

Ugly
Alright so most of you that read this are Tech fans so you will understand what i’m about to say. It’s really hard being a Tech fan! I’ve been one nearly all my life and this is one of the hardest years that I have been a part of. I personally got to see 3 games this year, 2 in Lubbock and 1 in Dallas. Every game I’ve seen I honestly could not tell you what team was going to show up. In the Mike Leach era I have seen some changes but this year has just changed my perspective due to massive inconsistency. Who’s the QB? How many interceptions will this one throw? Do we know how to tackle? I mean come on these are basic fundamentals of the game and here we are rotating 3 qb’s based on injuries and about a bazillion interceptions between them. I now fully understand the power of the turnover! The positive side of this horrific season is that we will still make a bowl game, somewhere! It’s likely going to be the Alamo bowl with wishful thinking however with Tech anythings possible.

As always thanks for reading!

the new stuff

The last few weeks have been a little crazy with the Kirk family. You of course have probably already heard my awesome news from the CEO of Home Depot, if not please see previous post. We have been all over the place starting with the Kansas State game a couple of weeks ago in Lubbock, we were able to get some tickets from family and decided to make the trip. It’s rare for us to do something like this because we always have to board the dog and that’s an extra $75 for a weekend. We had a great time stopping in to see some family and check out a terrific football game. By the time we got back we were just zonked and didn’t really do much the rest of the week. Last week was a little crazy for us too because Laura had to fly to New Mexico for 3 days and I flew into Lubbock. The timing was great because she flew home the day I flew out. However the hard part was that we didn’t see each other for a week. But I flew home for some family hang out time which was long overdue. While I was away Laura took a weekend for herself off the grid. I think the only thing that would have made the weekend better was not having the dog around. All in all we are doing good, Laura heads out tomorrow to go make her trip to see her family for the weekend while I hang out at home at try and scare some kids on Halloween. So as always thanks for reading, and Happy Halloween.

The most amazing thing………..

Alright on Tuesday of this week I was at work doing my thing and around 11′ am we get this call that a man named Frank Blake is walking one of our sister stores.  Frank is a pretty important guy because he happens to be the CEO of Home Depot.  My first thought was if he’s at that store he will defiantly be coming here.  So I’m thinking ok how much can I really do because I’ve only got  few minutes and well it is what it is.  So I finished up a bay that I was working on and clean up some in my area and head to our receiving department.  As I walk out I find a couple looking for something in our flooring department so naturally I stop to help them.  As I’m helping them I decide that in order to finish their project they are going to need something in the paint department so I start to take them.  As I turn and follow then I find Frank standing behind me and he said, “that’s a great job you’re doing there”, so I said thank you Mr.Blake then he responds “you can call me Frank”. Which means he listened in to some of my conversation with those customers.  So now I know he’s in the building, time to give everyone the heads up because he was sneaky and came in through our garden area and not our main entrance.  So now I’m really pumped that he’s in my store and that he was able to shake my hand and tell me great job.  Everyone in the store automatically steps up their game now because they know he’s here and kind of gravitate towards him, I already got to meet him so as I’m traveling back to my department I find several more customers that all need my help because the other associates have gone to meet Frank.  So in the end I encountered Frank 5 times at completely different areas of the store so before he left he gave a compliment to my manager about me saying “that guy is incredible he’s all over the store providing excellent customer service”.  My manager tells me that she responded with “that’s just the way Allen is in our store, we are lucky to have him”.  The thing I’m struggling with I know that there isn’t really a higher compliment that I could get in the store from anyone because he is “the guy” in charge.  Sometimes when I think about it I want just explode with happiness, then other times it’s a humbling thing knowing that I am a true Orange Blooded person working for a great company.  Home Depot is a really great company and I enjoy working for them and it’s a unique culture all to itself and they like to call on their employees to “Live the Orange Life”, and I like to  think that I’m doing that.

Thanks for reading.

Rain Rain Rain

It’s been a fun couple of weeks since I last updated everyone.  Laura and I are in a healing phase right now because we have both been sick the last month on and off, it’s YUCKY!!!  So we really haven’t been all that exciting, so sorry no real exciting stories or anything.  Laura’s first deadline is tomorrow so WOO HOO I get to see her for the 2nd consecutive weekend!!!!!  We are actually going to Grapefest in Grapevine, should be fun.  If you’ve been before do you have any “must do’s” for us?

So it’s been raining a lot, in fact it’s kinda freaking me out.  Mainly because our roof leaks a little bit (great rent house right?)  Luckily since it’s not out of control rain nothing major has happened.  However I think it’s on like it’s 5th straight day of rain which is all kind of nuts, and they say it won’t end for a few more days.  See back in West Texas I had never seen anything likes this because it rains for about a day at the most, then dries up and goes away.  Here I’m going to say that I may actually have to purchase rain boots because i’m getting freakin tired of trekking through parking lots with wet shoes and socks.

Yeah for the start of football season, GO RED RAIDERS, GO COWBOYS!

Thanks for reading.

Fantasy Football

Well you can say what you want, but I like it.  At first before I started playing I thought it was just a joke for “losers who can’t play real football”, then I came to the conclusion that I fall into that category so now I play “fantasy”.  Actually the only reason I started was because I was invited, the I realized it actually helped me appreciate other teams.  The Cowboys are definitely my fan favorite but I wanted more.  It’s not much but it gets me interested into watching for of the details and appreciating great plays and other great teams.  Needless to say I’m playing in 3 leagues this year, one less than last year but when you kind of get the hang out it you can play several leagues at once.  I realize of course in saying that it sounds super nerdy, but it also helps you pick up a couple of great players you might have just passed up to help you beat your friends.

So in other news, LJ is still sick so much coughing it’s nearly making me gag.  We went to the doctor and she got a shot but it made her worse so she can feel better (ha ha that sounds very Obama-ish).  I have a minor surgery appointment set for Thursday to have a screw put in for a tooth implant.  I’m not even  getting put under and they say that the actual tooth pull is the hard part.  If you remember from a few months ago my root canal turned bad and they pulled my tooth then, had less pain than the wisdom tooth removal so I’m thinking it won’t be bad.  So there could be another update this week while I’m off work so stay tuned.  As always thanks for reading.

The Skinny

Well it’s been far too long.  I honestly have no excuse for keeping you up at night wondering what exactly we have been up to.  Needless to say, not that much.  I was sick, Laura is now sick.  It’s just kinda been like that over the last few weeks.  Really this is my first post in august, that’s so lame.

So now that the apology is out there I would just like to thank my company HD for sending me to training for a week allowing my schedule to be 8-5 M-F, you guys rock!  I learned a lot of things I didn’t know and some I didn’t want to but you know what if it’s going to make me a better leader of my people so be it, I APPROVE.  Laura is been working like crazy meeting “busy season” deadlines and had 56 hours of overtime in the last 2 weeks, also lame.  Needless to say we haven’t seen a lot of each other lately.  We joked last week how we hadn’t eaten a meal together since her birthday on the 3rd.  Anyhow I get to go teach two classes at 5′ am so i’m off to bed tonight and then boom, teaching class and fantasy football draft.  It’s gonna be a good day.  As always thanks for reading!!!

MIA

Sorry for the lack of post, the computer had something called a system boot error and wouldn’t load windows. A trip to bust buy and a reformat later we are officially back in action. So the 4th of July just happened and Laura and I went to Snyder to hang out with the fam. It was great, lots of fun and lots of sleep. It ’s amazing how being away actually relaxes you. I’ve been told I had to go to Snyder for the 4th because it’s the one holiday that the town really gets up for. It’s true they got up, and it was a little fun. It was blazing hot in the morning for the parade and a cool 75 for fireworks. All in all it was a fun trip but my advice for all the readers is definately don’t forget to take off that wedding ring to play outdoor sports and last but not least, be careful with fiber muffins. As always thanks for reading.

2wks and still kicking

Sorry for the lack of updates, lots of visitation at the house and also that whole promotion thing at work. Be aware that this post is coming to you around 2′ in the morning because I just got off work around 1′ and am trying to let my body chill out a little bit so I can actually sleep and not just toss and turn for awhile. Things have been chugging along here. My best friend Jeremy T visited this last weekend, went to a Rangers game which was ridiculously delayed due to a “light delay”. Also had the oppurtunity to take in some golf for the first time since I moved here, very cool to have GPS on the cart, however it doesn’t really make me a better golfer………….. With my new shift changes at work Laura and I are still in a transitional phase with my new schedule, for instance I haven’t actually seen her for more that 45min in the last two days. We are working through it, just takes some patience, time, and flexibility on both of us. I’m not sure many of you know this about me, this is really personal and I feel that the more I talk about it the more likely I am to take action regarding it so here it goes. My college career has taken me on a wild ride, I graduated in 01′ and started one month later bright eyed and ready to go. Then I transferred to another school 2.5 yrs later due to extremely low GPA, and also was forced to take 1yr off because of this. So that brings us to 04′ish of which I start at a new school and am now working full time. I carry this on through 06-07 and I leave under the impression that the rest of my classes can be carried out online. Here I sit, 4 classes away from finishing and looking to get these classes from yet another school because my school doesn’t offer the classes I need. My current problem is that I haven’t really pushed myself into finishing and I need to. 4 classes seriously?????? What’s my problem, so needless to say it’s time for action.
As always thanks for reading!!

Good day

So it finally happened, I got promoted. The thing is i’m stuck where I can’t tell anyone until monday. Now I wait, I begin my new gig on monday as department supervisor of plumbing. The great thing about blogs is that you can say what you want and nobody else reads it. It’s a great way to express yourself so that you don’t explode all over the walls. As always, thanks for reading (if anyone is actually out there).

back to work

So like I said before the weekend was great lots of work around the house and it’ really making a huge difference.  Mostly thanks to my lovely wife!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I think it was Sunday/Monday morning around 1am when we were awakened by our beloved dog. We are calling it a mowl (part moan and part howl) from our dog in his sleep. Apparently he was dreaming and all we heard was this loud mowl for a solid minute. Laura froze and I raised up completely freaked. At first we thought something was wrong and then we woke him up and then realized he was dreaming. False alarm, but definitely one of the crazier wake up calls we’ve ever had.

So onto a different topic we shall discuss what’s going on with me (Allen). I’ve been with the big HD box for 18mths and I enjoy it but I’m looking for something different in the company. So just like everyone else out there I’m trying to get promoted. A promotion would mean leaving my position at the Pro Desk and taking a supervisor position in a department. When management thinks your ready and you show  interest you get a shot to try and take the next open spot available. Here in lies the problem depending on what type of store you have and what kind of people were hired in before you and placed in supervisor position determines availability for such position. Wow that sounded complicated and I hope it makes since.  Because some stores promote followers for their supervisors while others promote leaders.  The nickname for the department head/supervisor is “department headache”.  But to bring the story back basically you never really know how long it will be until there will be a new department supervisor opening due to the fact that for some people that’s as far as they want to go in the company, so some stay there forever.  So I was told 3 wks ago that a position was opening and they wanted me to interview for it, so naturally I applied. Sometimes interviews are a mere formality because reality is that if they are promoting from within the store, management already knows who they want, it’s just a process they have to follow. Since they came to me and told me to apply i’m taking that as a positive sign that it will be me. So while they were attempting to put me in the “qualified pool” for this job a glitch came up that would not allow them to place me in the pool. So 7 IT calls later I’m now back in the game and on the list for this position. The funny thing is that they tell you when you apply you should be willing to go to any department and run any crew so they won’t tell me what department i’m actually applying for. Needless to say I’m not concerned with that because I’m a pretty “jack of all trades” kind of guy and feel comfortable in any department. So now we are three weeks in I still haven’t interviewed but I still have faith it will all work out. Mainly because they kept nagging me to call the IT people to get the problem fixed so they can start the process.  So i’m waiting and it’s something that i’ve learned to deal with at the company from the beginning. When I first interviewed after moving to Dallas I did my 3 interviews and was expecting a “yes I did” or “no I didn’t” call and it never came. So for the first time I started calling them saying “hey look did I get the job or not?”, as you can imagine I got the job. As always thanks for reading.