Email Clean Up

Recently I have been working to decrease the amount of email  that hits my inbox. Over the years I have used rules inside of outlook to automatically move messages from some senders to various folders inside of outlook and review them when I have time.

 

Now the problem exist that those folders are becoming over flowing.

Google Reader has helped me greatly to improve my email organization. Many emails that I receive are also available as RSS feeds so I have unsubscribe from the emails and subscribed to the RSS feeds through Google Reader.  Google reader is organizing all my once emails into a nice RSS feed.  An example I read several hundred blogs.  I used to have emails come in whenever new blogs are posted to remind me to read them.  With Google Reader I no longer have to subscribe- they come to my Google reader.

 

Google reader gives you several other tools.  If you have a item that you think others might like to read you can email to them right out of Google Reader. 

 

Google Reader also allows you to create a shared items page of your favorite reads for others to read.  You can read my shared items page at  www.nibby.net/reader.

Using all this new web 2.0 technology I still get the dreaded forward messages from many people. Most of which I always delete.

 

I found http://www.stopforwarding.us/ its a great kind way to encourage people who send you those redundant forwards to stop.

What have you done to help rid yourself of email hell?

Administrative Professional Day

Today is Administrative Professionals Day (April 22, 2009) formerly known as Secretary’s Day.  Who has secretaries now days?   Many times I am asked by a client if they should talk to my “secretary”.  I laugh.  Mainly because I have never had a secretary and have always done my own dictation and letter writing and anything else a *secretary*in a office might do.  

I do have several references to secretaries in my life that bring me a smile of happiness.

First is the secretary that Dolly Parton played in my all time favorite movie 9 to 5. 

This morning Dolly was on the Today Show talking about her new Broadway show 9 to 5.

Wow even this morning while at the gym I had to listen to some 9 to 5 music!  Love that song.

Second when I think of administrative professionals formerly known as secretaries I think of the secretaries that worked a local law firm here in Henderson KY.  They are legal secretaries at Dorsey, King, Gray, Norment & Hopgood.  

Back in 1983 I worked for this firm as their cleaning person while in Junior college.  I later returned after graduation from college and worked for them again and also ended up doing computer work for them.

These ladies are true professionals.  Many of them have had life long careers as secretaries in this firm.  It is often said in this small town about the Dorsey secretaries “might as well be lawyers, cause they know just as much if not more than the lawyers do!”.

These ladies were truly a inspiration to me in my young life and I know they have been for many others too.  I sure wish they would go back to wearing those high heeled shoes!  This firm secretaries are know for being some of the sharpest dressers!   They always  the most beautiful professional attire.  It seems like when we stopped using the word secretary – classy dressing went away too.

The picture above was taken on November 4, 1983.  It was the open house for this law firm new office building.  In the picture is LuAnn Ison Breece, Mary Nell Shewmaker, Kaye Warner (deceased), Myrna Cavanaugh, Charla Denton Smithhart.  Do you know the sisters that are in this picture?

Do you have a special secretary in your life?

Do you know these special ladies?  What stories do you have to tell about them?

Technorati Tags: Secretary,Lawyers,Henderson KY,Legal

OVAL Kitchen Tour- April 24, 2009

One organization in Henderson KY that has been very near and dear to me over the years is Ohio Valley Art League. 

This Saturday (April 24, 2009) OVAL is having the largest fund raiser that they have all year.

The OVAL Kitchen Tour is a event where local homes open up there kitchens for a tour.  This event has been going on for several years and each year gains more acclaim. 

Each homeowner allows ticket holders to see the design of the kitchen and equipment used in the kitchen.

Each home has a celebrity chef making some delectable food item that the participants can taste.   The tickets to the event are a recipe book with all the recipes of the items that are being prepared in all of the homes.  A keepsake for sure!

Several of the homes are within walking distance of my house.

Besides a cooking demonstration going on in the kitchens other things will be going on as well.  The Hazelwood home will feature a herb and flower sale.  The Lane/Shelton home will have a live potter and pottery for sale. A silent auction will be going on at the Wilson home.  April Robinson will be selling her latest art photography book at the Link home and there will be a display of Southern Living Tablescapes at the Stinson house.   The Fidler home will have representatives from the Henderson County Extension office

The website for the event is http://www.ohiovalleyart.org/ktour 

A personal note:

I along with my company Vaughn Insurance will be offering a item at the silent auction.  It is a Sunset Dinner Party & Fireworks on Saturday, July 4, 2009.   This  dinner party of Filets and Firecracker Shrimp and sides will be served on the veranda of my home at 330 North Water St overlooking Sunset Park and the Mighty Ohio River the night of Henderson’s annual Fireworks display. 

Can you imagine having a front row seat for the fireworks and enjoy a nice dinner too? All for a good cause- Ohio Valley Art League.

Alternative dates for this dinner party auction item are available and subject to hosts availability.  The dinner party must be redeemed by 8/15/2009. 

The party is for six guests.  Two additional guest may be invited with a extra donation to OVAL based on the winning bid amount. An example of this would be if winning bid is $600 then to add two additional guest you would need to make an additional $200 contribution to OVAL.  Sounds great doesn’t it?

Do you need tickets for OVAL Kitchen tour?  If you mention to me that you have seen this blog I will give you a discount!   If you buy insurance from me—better yet—I will give you a ticket!  You can’t beat that!

What is your favorite home on this years OVAL Kitchen Tour?

Read the Gleaner News Paper Article about the tour by Donna Stinnett.

City Museum in St Louis Missouri

Where do you take two kids on spring break that is *not* Florida?  

City Museum in St Louis is a very unique place.  The eclectic collection of attractions mainly for children was opened in 1997.

We enjoyed the adventure immensely.  The entire museum if composed of recycled elements of buildings.   Everything from fuselages of old planes, old busses, anything that might have served its useful  life was reclaimed and reused in this one of a kind exhibit.

The City Museum website touts that there is over 600,000 square feet of exhibit space.  Many of the exhibits are active where kids can crawl, climb, jump, paint, walk, run to experience them.

It is a far cry from a Disney attraction. Disney wants to queue participants, tell them what to see, make them sit in a specific place and time the entire experience.  Let’s just say Disney and theme parks in general are very programmed and do not allow you to experience in a free form environment.  City  Museum is very free form.  You experience what you want when you want it.  There are no directional signs it is free form kids entertainment.

We found this to be a quite rewarding place to visit. City Museum in present times now because we are all being taught/told that we need to reuse and conserve because of the US current economic situation.

Below is a short video of our experience.

What would Walt Disney think of City Museum?  

River & Kally Visit City Museum from Nibby Priest on Vimeo.

Easter 2009

What a wonderful Easter weekend we had.  Probably my most favorite holiday of the year is Good Friday.  This is one holiday that there are no expectations, no gifts to buy, no hurrying to get from place to place.  Just a pure day of relaxation and refreshment preparing for the triumphant reminder of the risen Lord on Easter Sunday.

This year was unique that we didn’t have a Easter Egg hunt for the kids.  They went to the other grandmothers house for Easter.

The adults enjoyed a “kid free” Easter lunch.

Saturday morning I started the prep for the Sunday meal.  Lots of  unique items went into this menu. 

The Spice Carrot Cake contained spices that Mary could have taken to the tomb.

The vegetable dish was a sauté of Snow Peas, Jicama and Morels.   Morels are a reminder to me of the beautiful spring and how they pop up from the ground so quickly reminds me of Christ rising from the dead.  One thing to remember about morels, if you find them growing somewhere and you harvest them, don’t tell others where you found them.  They are like gold.    Morels have a sweet nutty flavor.  Sherry Wine enhances that flavor.

See Slideshow below of the days food and event.

Did you hear about the Easter Bunny being inside my fridge when I opened it up Sunday morning?  I asked him what he was doing in there and he said, “Isn’t this a Westinghouse?”.

Happy Easter 2009.

Email Bomb!

We just returned from a few days of adventure and relaxation and just plain ole doing something different with my niece and nephew River & Sister Kally in St Louis Missouri.

We did several things all of were quite different and somewhat ordinary. 

We laughed a lot, played games, talked listened to music.  All good.

Constantly I am working because of my *choice* to have technological gadgets (e.g. iPhone) and make myself totally connected.  I realized what a impact that has on my ability to disconnect.   Having and being a part of a small business has its perks, but many times you pay the cost in other areas of your life.

I constantly checked my iPhone for the latest email messages.  Several came and really didn’t realize how many came in till I consciously decided not to look at it every time I heard the chime of a new email in the box.   I felt the need to constantly check my twitter feed and my Facebook notifications.

Many times when I looked at my email they were another “bomb email” from the office and it put a damper on my mood and ability to communicate with the people that I was with.

So I few times I felt this was a negative in my ability to have a good time on vacation.

Do you think it is important when you go on vacation to turn off your email and other means to be connected?

“I just wanted to look like the Town Tramp . . .”

Tonight 60 Minutes did a nice interview with my iconic hero Dolly Parton. 

Watch that video below:

Watch CBS Videos Online

I have never seen her tear up on TV.  Notice that she never let her mascara run.  I never have heard the “pig” story either.  That story is somewhat strange, but leave it to Dolly.

What do we have to learn from people like Dolly Parton?

By the way her funky pink rocker at the Cracker Barrel stores are not selling well.  The Henderson KY Store Still has number 16 of 1350.

This is a picture of me sitting in this rocking chair.  No, I am not going to buy it!