After daddy monopolized the details on Old Main and I guess mostly on Starbucks, too; we needed a project where everyone was allowed to have artistic freedom. You can tell which parts were started and finished by certain builders if you look closely.

So when one is a temperamental blogger, it becomes a bigger and bigger deal of what will be worth blogging about… because I know thousands of readers are sitting on edge waiting for the next post. I think one of my regular readers, Jennifer Aniston, is especially anxious!

So it’s been 100+ degrees or atleast felt like it for a few sunny, beautiful days. Tonight’s overcast soccer game found North Little Rock by surprise. I saw lots of shorts and t-shirts from people who didn’t get the memo that it was going to cool off all day. Being my mother’s child, I slipped into my long underwear before the game to make up for the fact that I’ve already boxed up all my sweaters and coats.

One family brought their family’s kit of snuggies! I don’t watch many commercials, but have somehow seen this silly long infomercial of all kinds of people wrapping up in this huge blanket with sleeves. Wilson has also seen the commercial somehow and is convinced that it would be a wonderful thing if our entire family could have a full set of matching snuggies. They are of course buy-one-get-one-free and all that stuff.

When his teammate pointed out that she would be warm during halftime by saying, “we have snuggies,” Wilson noticed for the first time the girl’s mother and sisters wrapped up in their blankets with sleeves. He said, “You do have snuggies! ….that means you have a booklight!” Whitney and I fell out as we remembered just like Wilson that the offer did indeed come with a free booklight if you ordered right now! The child has mad skills. They are however different from the other kids. But I love him for it.

So is the snuggie worth ending the drought? Perhaps since I didn’t video the scene I should recreate it out of legos! What do you think?

So at the end of October, I got to go to New Orleans with managers of Starbucks in retail locations across North America. When I got there, Whitney asked how many were there. I’ve never been good at numbers so I asked a peer next to me who reminded me of this year’s theme that was printed on the T-shirt I was wearing: “The Power of 10,000.” …There were about 10,000 people there. The theme revolved around not only going to New Orleans and pouring money into their economy by using their restaurants, hotels, and even hiring street performers and high school bands to perform at different times; but each person during one day of the event volunteered somewhere in the city. We painted homes, did light construction, planted trees, and all sorts of projects all over the city. I worked in a park that had to lay off most of its staff and had not been maintained very well. My favorite project I heard about was painting sheets of plywood that were combined to create huge murals on trailer buildings that were being used as temporary elemenatary schools. The mural can later be used on the actual facilities.

During the conference, we also got to experience some amazing things and hear about future initiatives that Starbucks is doing. The one that has made the most news is Starbucks partnership with (Product) RED and creation of Starbucks Shared Planet, which include several initiatives. Our goal has always been to buy coffee responsibly, but Starbucks is doubling its Fair Trade purchases to 40 million pounds of coffee in 2009 making Starbucks the largest purchaser of Fair Trade coffee in the world. Also, Starbucks is committing to 1 million volunteer hours in the communities where Starbucks has stores. So I am being challenged in how to get my employees better connected in the city of North Little Rock. This is something I want to do anyway, and I’m thrilled that my company not only supports me, but will require this of me as a leader in my store.

So I know if you take all the good things a company does and read it off of the company’s website it can make any company look okay, so the most exciting part of the conference was when they announced our involvement with (Product) RED, they also introduced Bono to talk more about this. My assumption is that Bono cannot really be hired on as a public speaker for any price, but his obligations are going to more about that amount of impact they will have. I think if the most popular philinthropist of today agrees with the direction of the company I work for, it solidifies a lot for me, too.

So I’m pumped. So you should go get a drink from the Holiday Trio at your local Starbucks, especially if you live in North Little Rock. AND on December 1, World Aids Day, any drink you purchase at a Starbucks store will contribute $.05 to (Product)RED! Plus we have a few cool (Product)RED aprons!

These things feel a lot like chain letters….

1. I am super cynical. I hate toys, weddings, TV, sports, people, Christmas, children, and lists like this. I don’t really hate them all, but I’m very negative and cynical in talking about things. Loads of fun to be around! Contrary to my sweet wife who loves all these things. In fact she likes lists like this so much, she’s done this exact tagging thing twice!

2. Cheese and Peanut Butter. A regular snack growing up was saltines, peanut butter and a slice of cheddar. What might be more weird is that I thought this was an all American snack until college when I would frequently go buy a box of saltines, a tub of peanut butter and a block of cheddar. My other weird food quirk is that I can’t think of a single dish that wouldn’t be better with onions or nuts and a few magical dishes that could use both, like sweet potatoes! And if you add onions, it probably would be even better dipped in ranch. In case you are wondering, I would add a pecan to each of my cheese, peanut butter and saltine sandwiches.

3. Over half of my clothes are black. Solid black shirts, pullovers, sweaters, etc. I work at Starbucks. I wear this “half” of my clothes at least 5 days out of the week, so it makes sense, but it is still weird.

4. I rarely finish a project all the way through to completion. It’s not that weird, but it explains 5-7

5.

6.

7.

This week, Wilson started Kindergarten. As their little lives are flying past, I am forced to determine the worth of my time. I have spent more time with my two sons than I have in a while. I am teaching them how to hide, seek and chase appropriately. I also am practicing patience as I play card or board games with them. I love games, but I really have no interest in distractions or sideshows.

I come by this honestly. My mom would always do a few dishes, switch laundry loads, or any other number of tasks when it wasn’t her deal in the nightly game of spades, hearts, tripoly, etc. We all had our cards dealt and sorted and were waiting on Mom to return. One night, when it was Mom’s deal, as she was dealing, Dad slipped out of the room and suddenly we heard the vacuum cleaner in the other room. Creative expression of frustration.

So, Wilson and Campbell, focus on the game, know when it’s your turn, don’t make a thoughtless play, and quit dancing; and this will be the most fun game ever!

Another trait that I am certain I got from my dad is the inability to throw a game. My wife’s pleading to “let them win” falls on deaf ears. They can win when they get good enough to win! And this has made quite a scheming Campbell at Hide-n-seek and quite a frustrated Wilson. They like the kind with the base. Wilson became especially frustrated when Campbell was able to hide quietly around the corner and tag me. After a few rounds of never tagging me, Wilson began to stake out the base. He finally tagged me when he got tired of waiting and came and found me reading my book on my bed. He caught me by surprise and he won! I am very sure that the victory was so much sweeter because I hadn’t let him.

Why let someone win when you know their friends, cousins, or Aunt Anna never will. Speaking of Aunt Anna, if anyone wants to help me practice my Set skills this week before Anna gets here, let me know.

Other potential titles for this post were:

“Freaking out with Facebook“

“30 years old: quarter-life-crisis, #2″

So, I turned 30 this past spring, and besides hightailing it Kenya and buying a half-million dollar sailboat, the birthday came and went pretty quietly. It’s the little things that happen afterwards that make you feel old. No longer being able to audition for American Idol. Working alongside people born after 1990. Doing surveys where you check your age: 18-29, 30-59, 60+. Really?! I’m in the same category as my parents. Speaking of parents, I was referred to as “Craig’s brother” this week. It’s understandable as my parents both still look they are in their 30’s, but it’s giving me a complex.

And I’ve discovered there is no age limit to facebook, so I signed up to help me keep in touch with friends in Kenya. Turns out I’m the last one to get on facebook. I’ve reconnected with people from high school, college, my small group from Fayetteville, old work friends, and even people I see everyday that just can’t get enough of me!

Whitney and I have reconnected with people who are now

• working with Peace Corps in El Salvador
• the one responsible for the little applications all over your facebook
• living blocks away from us without realizing it
• getting married or got married (even though last time we saw them they were 18 )
• pregnant or had some kids
• having 1,491 friends (it’s a very defining statement when it tells you how many friends you have)
• voting for Twitch
• Starbucks Manager of the Quarter

It’s all been pretty enlightening. By the way, I didn’t really buy a boat or have a crisis.

Tomorrow night, Monday, August 4, 6:30pm, the team that went to Kenya with me will be getting together to share pictures and stories from our trip. This will be at our home in North Little Rock. Anyone is welcome to come and listen to what we brought home. If you need directions, please email me at loibners@hotmail.com. We very much appreciate the support and prayers we had while we were preparing and gone on this journey. I am excited to continue to see the things that will come from this trip in my life and the people around me and the others on the team. Please continue to pray for Kenya Relief and the people who are serving and being impacted in Kenya.

P.S. if you want to see some great pictures now, become Andrew Calaway’s friend on Facebook and look at his albums. They are incredible! Also incredible are the pictures at the bottom of Andrew Dorsey’s blog.