Interesting Sign

I saw this sign over at Granite Run. I'm not sure if I want to stop in for a haircut, or not.

Jody's Graduation

Here are 50 photos of Jody's graduation. It's a lot of photos to watch!

Sharon's new haircut

Sharon got a new haircut today, and I LOVE IT!

Click here to reload the slideshow!

Oops! Kid got the camera!

Click here to reload the slideshow.

Lightning

My dad took these photos of lightning this evening when a thunderstorm blew through Leola. Click on the photo to see the rest.



I still like my way of linking to the entire slide show better.

Robin Nest

We have a Robin's nest in the Holly tree in front of our door. Here are some photos of it.



Or go here to see the slide show in the usual way I distribute them.

Jogging

This morning while I was out jogging, my Dad happened to drive by on an errand. He pulled over and took these photos of me coming up the hill past an Amish schoolhouse and farm. This is on Eby Chickies Road, near the back side of the limestone quarry. Chestnut Hill or Ironville Hill is in the distance.



I told my dad about a dark circle I noticed in a nearby field, and he told me these are called "Red Knobs," and farmers don't like them because they are a sign of unproductive land.

FOOTNOTE: I went back the following day to take a photo of the "Red Knob," but it was gone! Perhaps they only show up in freshly plowed fields.

Isaac's Trike Team

Every year the United Way sponsors a trike race in Downtown Lancaster to increase awareness of the annual campaign. Our team was the best looking by far, this year! Here is a slide show of the festivities. I couldn't make it, so I turned my camera over to Debra Miller, and she did a fantastic job!

Coming of Age

Coming of Age celebration at church!

My little patio project

This first picture was the beginning of the project today. Last weekend dug out the dirt and installed about 80% of the gravel.

Today, I tried to cut a paver with my circular saw (to save money), but realized that was impossible. So the first thing I did was go to JB Hostetter to rent a wet saw.

Next, I loaded my wheelbarrow with gravel, and discovered the tire was flat, and all our bicycle tire pumps were broken. So I had to dump the wheelbarrow and haul it to Turkey Hill to inflate the tire.

Some projects just take a while to get going!

Halfway through I felt pretty good about how it was going. I also unzipped 2 rows of old pavers against the pool on the angled edge, and re-leveled them. I don't mind a little unevenness overall, but I hate when the pavers aren't flush with the pool!


This is the final product. It still needs the special sand that acts like grout, and a bunch of the pavers need to be pounded down and leveled. I know my patio is quite wavy, but I try to convince myself that that just adds to the charm and makes it look old. Luckily, Sharon doesn't care about the unevenness at all!

I'm curious to see what happens to the red bud tree.

Friday email 5/18/2007

This was my Friday email to the company. I need to get back in the habit of getting these out!

On Fri, 2007-05-18 at 16:54 -0400, Alan Jacobs wrote:

Good Afternoon! We had a nice little week here in the office.

The design for the updated menu looks cool. If you get in the office some day, stop by Steve's workstation and watch him work. He's usually grousing about the latest design challenge that's been thrown his way ("How am I supposed to get all that in there and make it look right?"), but he always ends up making it look great in the end

New menu covers for everyone have been ordered for the July menu. They are similar to the ones we have now, but they have heavy vinyl stitched to all the edges, and metal corners. We have been testing them in Centerville and Granite Run.

David has been up to his eyeballs working on menu stuff and iControl. We will eventually have training materials for iControl, and roll this new database out company wide. You'll like it; it's powerful, and helps you look at the details of your sales in many different ways.

This past weekend Isaac's had a decal on a drag racing car owned by Andy Anderson who works in South York! I wrote about it in my blog at http://thesandwichboard.blogspot.com/2007/05/isaacs-car.html .

The nearly final draft of April's income statement came out, and I'm pleased and proud to tell you that we are continuing to beat our monthly projections! We were aiming for a profit of about $xx, but came in better than that at about $xx. (Sorry, proprietary info!) Gas is almost $3 per gallon, but we continue to cruise. Our exciting profitability will allow us to continue to invest in our employees and our stores. Expect more!

Plans for Centerville's renovations in June are heating up. This is the only store we are planning to close during renovations, because the subfloor of the kitchen is deteriorated and has completely failed in many areas. It all needs to be ripped out and replaced. (All the other stores will be night work.) Attached to this email is a photo of a planning session we had this morning on site. We think we will be closed for about nine days, June 11 thru 18. Greg's in charge of all the construction! If you need some of their employees during this week, call Jen.

My weekend will be taken up by building a new 10x14 section of pavers on my patio. The problem is, the pile of gravel, sand, and two skids of pavers, are all in my driveway - the furthest spot away from where they need to go on the other side of the house. My back hurts already just thinking of all those wheelbarrow trips!

That's about it. Give me a reply, and let me know what's going on in you life and store.

Family Photos

Here are my latest batch of family photos. Click here to watch the slide show, or click here to go to my albums.

My weekend

Here is my job for the weekend. One 10x14 patio. Some assembly required.

Andy's Car!

This past weekend Isaac's had a decal on a car that raced in Reading. This was part of Speed Network's "Pinks" racing series. Can you Isaac's wee-itty-bitty decal in the back quarter panel? Doubleclick on the photo to get a better view.

The driver is Andy Anderson from South York. This was his email after the race:

Alan,

Good Friday morning to you! Pinks went very well off the track. The car was the focus of video cameras from the Pinks TV crew as well as local news media. All eyes were on the car wherever it went. On track we ran well, but did not fall into the 16 car bracket that they chose to put on their show. They picked that number out of 365 possibilities, so I knew going in that it was no guarantee. The car does not have any kind of name, though most people car it the Nitro Fish car, or as one little girl put it, "the car with the monster on the side that goes GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" (picture that interaction and tell me you aren't laughing)
Andy

Memorial Day 5k!

I'm planning to kick off my memorial day with a 5k run up in Camp Hill. It's a fun little suburban race that I've been doing for the past few years. One of Isaac's Managers, Dorrie Courigan (Hershey), organizes this run. It's a fun little face through the tree lined streets of Camp Hill. This year, Isaac's is paying the entry fee for any employees who run the race, and for every employee who beats me, I will increase Isaac's contribution by $25 to the community service fund supported by the race.

Click here for an application for anyone interested in running this little race.