Saturday, February 25, 2012

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New Job!

Yes, I have accepted a new job with a company that sells fasteners and packaging equipment to a wide variety of business's in the USA and even in a number of International companies.

I will start my new job on March 5th, and begin the process of learning their online order systems and also a learning a lot of product knowledge and also the dealer network, that is currently in the area I will service.  I doctored up this map to show what I think will be my area based on conversations with my  soon to be new boss.
Yes it is a large area in NE Minnesota, but it is one I have covered before for Minnesota Farm Bureau, when I first moved to Minnesota back in 1985. I will be calling on lumber yards, manufacturing plants, print companies, cabinet shops, loggers and sawmills, and a host of other types of business's. I will inherit a list of existing clients that generate a substantial amount of business already.

Some great perks with this job are the fact I am selling a tangible item that is used and needs to be replaced frequently depending upon the amount of usage. I will have a company vehicle, a Ram Cargo Van pictured below, which is geared to haul some things for deliveries and also machinery which we also sell like strapping machines, and shrink wrap machines. I also will receive a company phone and laptop, along with a credit card to cover all travel expenses when I am on the road, my headquarters will be a retail and warehouse site in St Cloud, MN and of course home at Coffee Lake and also on the road!
Some things about the company I will be working for is, many of their employees have been with them over 10 years with many over 20, and also some of their sales people make 6 figure salaries on an annual basis. This is a great opportunity and one I am excited to start, and one I am sure I will enjoy as you all know how I enjoy construction related stuff and the challenges it presents.
I look forward to meeting my new sales co-workers and also the wide variety of people I will be meeting in the various towns and cities in NE Minnesota again!  
The last 12 years I have spent working in the print industry have been rewarding and challenging, but this opportunity was exactly what I have looked for over the last 8 months and yesterday
I was offered the position!
We celebrated last night with our good friend Marjorie, as she prepared a nice meal for us and visited about the new job and the recent events in her life, as she lost her brother 3 weeks ago. It is nice to have all the supportive friends and family and to hear their excitement over this new opportunity! Thank You!


Sunday, February 12, 2012

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Projects around the house!

The last 10 days have been busy, as Crystalie was out west visiting Ricki, Grant and Rebekah in Ocean Shores, so to make the time pass being alone I had a few projects that I worked on to surprise Crystalie when she got back.

Above is the start of the sanding process on a new old table we are now using in our kitchen, that was brought to us by Crystalie's dad last summer. You can see the original finish was in tough shape and I decided to sand it down and refinish it.

This table is a little bigger than our old one and also opens up and makes for a really large table.

The sanded top, and below I show the legs sanded also.

Another project here is the walls in our jacuzzi tub area, had some water stains from ice jams a couple of years ago and so it need to be repainted with Kilz Paints. Much fresher looking and the coating of paint brighten the room up even more.

Next was replacing a piece of carpet in our backroom, as Smarkle had gnawed on some of it when she was a puppy, and so I bought a remnant at Menards of an indoor outdoor that would not show the dirt.

In our backroom by the door we have a storage cupboard for coats and stuff and we had an old wood box on the floor for hats and mittens and such, but it seemed we we never used those because they were in the box. So I bought 4 plastic baskets, and fastened them to the wall, at an angle and spaced them apart about 8 inches, and they made perfect bins, and also out of sight when the door is closed.

Back to my table, here it is refinished in a dark walnut stain and a satin varnish applied to it.

Another view of the leaf down and how well it took the dark color.

With one of the sides up, shows you how well the finish turned out.

While Crystalie was gone her Amarillis flower was in full bloom, this was a gift from our friend Marjorie. As you can see it is beautiful, and fortunately, it is still in full bloom and she got to see it and enjoy it!