Diversification

I signed a quick-lube shop in Sedro Wooley back in June. It had been purchased by a Korean fellow who was a hard bargainer. He told me he would be opening a series of restaurants, and that if I wanted that business I had better write him a good deal for the place in Sedro. I thought it was just a bargaining tool; that he had no intention of opening any restaurants. Regardless, we have a big national program with the oil distributor he uses, so I gave him the national pricing to placate him.

I never thought I'd hear from him again, but he called me on Wednesday to say he bought a restaurant in Shoreline and wanted to start service. He didn't want to sign a new contract so I just added the restaurant to the existing contract. The agreement for the new place has it listed as:

"Trail Road Shell Station & Xpress Lube DBA Old Village Korean Family Restaurant"

Anyway, I thought it was funny.

New Material from a 'Classical' Figure

I'm working on my presentation for my quarterly sales review. I have to present my progress to the GM, Sales Manager, and the entire sales team. It is tradition that we begin our program with an inspirational quote. Last time I quoted Mike Hale, the founder of Hale's Ales: "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." This time I went to the internet for help.

I found a site called Motivationalquotes.com. It's got tons of quotes searchable by the subject and by the quoted person. One section has quotes from famous philosophers. While scanning the list I noticed something peculiar - they have new quotes from Socrates.

The dude drank the hemlock back in 399 B.C.! How new can it be?!

Freedom!

Mrs. Fishpimp left for Africa today. I watched 4 football games this weekend. So far so good! I have two traditions when she travels: 1) I get China Express and a bottle of zinfandel and get loaded on the couch, and 2) I go out and buy myself something nice.

It started when we were engaged in 2000. My little Mazda was stating to fall apart, so I traded it in on a new truck. She was a little ticked off then, but it's paid for now, and since I roll in a company car, it's her every-day-driver. While on other trips I've gone out an bought a new backpack, a new suit, a digital camera, and now one of these babies!

Stairway to...?

We finally finished the staircase project in our front yard last week. What should have been a two weekend project ended up taking the entire summer. But that's why I'm in sales and not construction. While they may not be perfect, it's better than average the average product coming out of the Fishpimp Workshop. I spent today cleaning up the yard - all the construction refuse, shards of flagstone, lumber end & mis-cuts, various shipping remnants, etc. The big plan is starting to come together out there, just in time for football season!!!

On that note, this week was the first in my 30+ years that I have attended both a Seahawks & a Huskies football game in the same week. Both were good fun. For long periods of the Huskies game we watched a product that actually resembled proper "Husky Football". Solid tackling, excellent line play and a strong running game. They even managed to not give the game away in the 4th quarter this time! Go Dawgs!

I'm looking forward to this season more than most in recent memory; Mrs. Fishpimp is going to Africa for 4 weeks in Sept./Oct.. I love my wife, a lot, but she seems to think that allowing me to watch either the Seahawks OR the Huskies on any given weekend is generous on her part. While that might make sense in light of our aggressive home-improvement plan, it's tough. Seriously, only one football game per weekend? It's just not natural!