Management Training
Sunday, February 18th, 2007
I entered Kroger management training on June 26, 2000. The first week was held primarily at the KMA office on Tri-County Parkway in Cincinnati. There were six of us in this particular training group: Jim Betas, Phil Stebbleton, Geoff Glier, Jeff Bour, Stephanie Johnson, and me. Besides me, Geoff and Jim are the only ones still currently with the company. Each day for the first week I made the long-distance trek from Fairborn to Cincy (which I now do every day) and our group was visited by a parade of employees who worked in the division office, each bombarding us with information. It was like being back in school – with huge binders full of notes and passouts. Read the rest of this entry »
So far the score of racking up trophies in Myrtle Beach condo competitions was this: Briana – 2, Brittney- 1, Brad – 1, Ashleigh – 0. Ashleigh wanted to get a trophy, dammit, and there was nothing that was going to stop her. When there was a trivia contest with a trophy going to the winner announced, she even had my Mom take her to the local library to find the answers to a batch of puzzlers about the city of Myrtle Beach. She nearly swept this contest – only missing a half a point – but some other numbskull had turned in the form with all of the correct answers. 
Amazingly, although I had been an off-and-on, but diehard, KISS fan since the late 1970′s, it wasn’t until Thursday, June 7, 1990 that I first saw them in concert. I had previously met ex-member Ace Frehley three years prior – but that was the extent of my brush with KISS fame. I attended this particular concert, in support of their latest album Hot in the Shade, with Christi at the Dayton Hara Arena. 
Although it would not have been my first choice of places to spend our last full day of the 15th International Sons of the Desert Convention, I did enjoy our day at the Stone Mountain amusement park in Atlanta, Georgia. We had nearly had our fill of long bus rides as we boarded yet another one to transport us from Augusta to Georgia. Also on the down side was the fact that Bob had to depart that afternoon for his trip to South Africa and the Wileys opted not to go on the trip since Jimmy was not feeling up to a day in the hot sun. He had braved most of the convention despite undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma, but understandably sat out this day, and avoided the hot sun. 
Easter fell on April Fools Day in 1985. Thus, less than a week after Great Grandma Murphy’s funeral and again we were having a gathering at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house on Kruss. I don’t have any specific memories of the holiday, but know that we conducted our usual Easter Egg hunt. For many years, someone would always prepare colored hard-boiled eggs and every family member would have one (with our name written on it in white crayon) hidden somewhere in the house of the Easter host. After we ate lunch, we would engage in a hunt to find our own specific egg. Finding others didn’t count. These were always enjoyable affairs that I remember fondly.