Forecasting Diet Coke Consumption at the B-School

Last year, after we moved into the new building, the new cafeteria management people had a lot of difficulty with their demand planning ... especially when it came to the diet coke. We were always running out. This year they have improved their forecast and ordering levels and I have only noticed a handful of out of stock situations. I took this picture during Fall A finals week. What I love about this picture is that they increased the facings from the normal 3-4 to 11. This speaks volumes about the consumption patterns and the positive correlation between stress, time pressure and diet coke.

Now if only they could get the whole restocking thing right. There's lots of warm diet coke going around. Not that I mind. I'm not temperature sensitive.

LDS Education Conference

At the end of October I went to the LDS Education Conference which is held in Boston every other year. Basically, I wanted to see friends I don't have the opportunity to see very often because I live in the Midwest and they live on the East Coast. And let's face it, when you live in New York, Boston or DC you don't think 'Ann Arbor, that's where I'd like to spend my vacation' even if one of the coolest people to walk the face of the earth happens to be living in Ann Arbor. It just doesn't happen.

Now, while the conference was interesting and inspiring, my favorite part of the weekend was the time I spent with my family on Friday. My friend Dan and I flew into Boston around noon and went to Wagamama (tasty) with my mom and sister, Julie. Afterward we went to Modern Pastry because the people who know prefer it over Mike's. It's just better. They fill the cannolis after you order them. That's all I got to say about that.

Next up was a trip to the Museum of Science to see the Harry Potter exhibit. Those of you who know me well know how much I LOVE Harry Potter. I have lost track of the number of times I have read the books. I've been to 4 midnight book releases. Deep and abiding people, deep and abiding. The exhibit was a collection of props and costumes from the movies and was a heck of a lot of fun.

After the museum we met up with my dad and went to dinner at the Union Oyster House. It is the oldest restaurant in the US and in my opinion not as tasty as Wagamama. After dinner we may have gone back to Modern Pastry for round two but I can neither confirm nor deny these rumors.

To cap off a lovely afternoon and evening of magic and food we went to the Garden and watched the Celtics destroy the Bulls. What a day.

As for the conference, it was all about missionary work and innovation. Elder Ballard was there for bits of it. That's about all I have to say about that. There was also a masquerade ball at the Harvard Club. Between the conference and party there were a series of events that made me want to sit down on the sidewalk and cry but we don't need to go into that here. Like I said, Friday was the best part. I had never been to one of these big, multi city YSA conferences and I don't think I will ever go again but I am sure to go back to Boston to hang out with my family. Live and learn.

Cupcakes and sadness

I walked out of the business school a couple of weeks ago and saw this.

I was struck by the image and it made me think ... ' is there anything sadder than upside down cupcakes on the sidewalk?' Ok, yes, that is a little over the top but you know what I mean. Right?

Oddly enough, I walked by again a few hours later and one of them was gone. Not both ... just one.

Street Performer

When I think about street performers images of busy city centers and subways come to mind (particularly the L and the underground portion of the red line). You know what does not come to mind. This guy. He was rocking out outside the Big House during the most recent home game ... you know, that one where Michigan beat IU. Yep, that one.

He was really good and there was just something about his performance and music that bring a smile to my face. As I was walking away a news crew was coming up to film and interview him. I hope he is at the next home game. I think I want a CD. I wonder if he is on iTunes.

Shout-OFF! (and taking YouTube love to the next level)

I have long been a fan of the YouTube. It is a great time waster and there are a few gems out there. Like the wedding entrance dance that went so viral last summer it was shown on World News Tonight and all the babies dancing like Beyonce. Yup. Good times. But until recently I have only been a watcher, not a contributor. All that changed at the beginning of this semester.

Every year SCJ hosts a little competition we like to call "Shout-OFF!". Shout. OFF! Get it, get it. Yeah, well, maybe not. Anyway. Shout-OFF! is a competition between the six MBA1 sections. The challenge is to come up with two choreographed cheers (note Cheer is not made by SCJ ... it is made by P&G). Each section performs their first cheer in the middle of the U of M campus at 5pm on the first Thursday of classes. It turns into quite a spectacle. Based on those performances, two sections are chosen to face off in the final round.

How does this relate to YouTube you may ask. Well, this year I stopped by to watch the MBA1s make fools of themselves and happened to record the final performances. Which I will now be sharing with you (and the world) by way of YouTube. It occurs to me that these clips may not have the same impact on people who are not familiar with Ross or b-school. I hope this is not the case, but I acknowledge the potential. Please bear in mind that the performers contained in these videos are the future business leaders of the world. If any of them become well known during their career I hope that someone pulls up these clips. Because this is exactly the kind of thing that could come back to haunt you.

In the spirit of full disclosure. I participated in this event last year. I haven't seen video of it and I hope I never do.

Watermelon Yogurt

Did you know that there are seasonal yogurt flavors? I knew about they existed in the world of ice cream but recently I saw watermelon flavored yogurt. I guess it is a summer thing. I like watermelon but couldn't imagine how it would translate to yogurt so I bought one. The color was fantastic and while I'm sure it was created using some kind of dye it really was a feast for the eyes. In the end I quite liked it. Though, I must admit, I nearly spit out the first bite. At first it tasted disgustingly like a mushy watermelon jolly rancher. Gross. But I was hungry so I powered through and decided that should Dannon do the flavor again next summer I'll buy at least one container.

Vessels

This summer, while in Panama, I had a conversation about souvenirs with a girl who's mother collects spoons. I guess she is sort of known for it and now whenever anyone who knows her travels they bring her back a spoon. This got me thinking. Is there something I collect, something I go back to over and over. Something I buy everywhere I go. At the time I couldn't think of anything but after further consideration it dawned on me. I collect vessels.

These three are what I picked up in my various travels this summer. The fish vase is from a pottery studio in Hatteras, NC. The basket is from Panama. The blue glass is from Bar Harbor, ME. I have them from all over the world and people do in fact bring me vessels as souvenirs when they travel. So, in conclusion, if you're going anywhere bring me back a vessel. I like them.

Summer = Beach (In Theory)

I lived with my parents this summer while interning in Rhode Island. They live about seven minutes from the beach and the first and only time I went to that beach this summer was on the day I left to drive back to Ann Arbor. What was I thinking?! I could have spent every weekend at the beach. The reality of my summer was that it rained like every day and was unnaturally cool... not at all pleasant for beach going. But the day I stopped by Nantasket Beach was beautiful.

To make up for my beachless summer I took a trip to Panama (in the name of full disclosure this trip was planned long before the beachlessness) where I went to what is, without a doubt, the best beach town I have ever been to. The town was called Bocas del Toro. It was sunny, hot, humid, and the water was like a giant warm bathtub. I went surfing, got sunburned, lounged in the water and ate at ocean side restaurants. Brilliant!

Two days after I returned to the US I got back on a plane to spend a week in Hatteras, NC with a group of friends. We rented a house on the beach and went swimming every day, multiple times a day. We managed to get lots of perfect beach days sandwiched in between two hurricanes / tropical storms.

Now I am back in Ann Arbor where I will be staying ... for at least a few weeks.

Down East

This summer to celebrate my dad's 60^th birthday the family headed up to Bar Harbor, ME to check out the town and Acadia National Park. It pretty much rained the whole time I was there but I still had a heck of a lot of fun.

We went up to Acadia to check out thunder hole and I climbed out on the rocks to watch the waves. There was such a sense of joy watching the water splash and I have to say, if I were water I would travel as far as I had to to have the opportunity to crash into a rocky coastline and jump up into the air.

We also went kayaking… one of my favorite activities. We saw starfish, sea urchins, seals and an eagle.

But quite possibly my favorite activity was a biplane tour of Mt Desert Island that I took with Abi.

Blight

For all those who have followed the saga of the upside-down hanging tomato plant thing. I would just like to say that, despite my best efforts, the only tomato to be ripe before I returned to Ann Arbor appeared to have fallen victim to the blight plaguing many tomato plants this year. Other that the quality of the tomato plants I used, I feel like the Topsy Turvy was a success and definitely something I would repeat in the future. The plants were not destroyed by critters and in my book that is a win.

Turtle Crossing

This sign is on a street near my parents' house.

I have seen many turtles crossing the street this summer but never by the sign. So, my question is – when does the turtle outreach and education program start?

Final Intern Moments

I have completed my summer internship! It went by so fast and I accomplished so much. Linden Place now has a seriously awesome business plan (hopefully a new website is not far behind) and the historic sites in the great state of RI (why is every state a "great state" or are there some states that aren't great?) have training materials on how to create their own business plans and collaborate.

The best part about this summer though, was the team PRI assembled to work on the project. Each of them interesting and accomplished women in their chosen field and wonderful people to work with. On our last day we went out to lunch, got some ice cream and went shoe shopping. Do last days get any better?

Birthday Fun

For my birthday this year my family went to the MFA to see an exhibit called Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice. I was great! They arranged the paintings by subject so that you could compare the three masters side by side and really see how they would compete with each other. I took a museum audio tour for the first time and was glad I did. It made me wonder what I've missed in all the museums I've been to throughout my 29 years because I didn't buy the extra audio tour.

After the MFA we went to Chipotle for a birthday burrito. I know, it was my birthday and I could have chosen anything … I just really enjoy Chipotle.

And then came the best part. The cake. In my mind there are only 2 kinds of cake worth eating – Rainbow Chip and German Chocolate. This year I couldn't decide which one I wanted so …

A new cake has been created and I loved every bite.

Beheading!

This is the face of a killer, a lethal assassin.

There is no escape.

He always gets his man.

This one lasted less than four days.

This year’s winner for best flag display

Every year the 4^th of July brings out over the top patriotic displays. This is a house down the street from my parents' house. My question, did they commission a flag to fit the front of their house or was this a lucky find?

Uh, what the ... ?

This is what I had for lunch today. When it came I didn't know what to make of it. I had ordered the "5 cheese on wheat, warm, no veggies". I suppose that this was a literal interpretation of what I said. There were a variety of cheeses between two pieces of wheat bread and the whole thing looked like it had been placed in a microwave and warmed up. I'm not saying it was bad … it just wasn't the grilled cheese like creation I was expecting.

Pebble in the Sky

With the excruciating commute to Rhode Island every day, I have once again taken up listening to books on tape to make those 3-4 hours a day more tolerable. This week I "read" Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov. I loved it. This is not really a surprise. I have loved every Asimov book I have ever read and I have read many of them. The Foundation series were some of the first science fiction books I ever read and because of their brilliant introduction into the genre I have been a fan ever since. Books, movies, television series … I love them all. Star Trek is one of the only shows I remember watching with any regularity growing up and even now, if I am channel surfing and notice any of its iterations I stop and watch. Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those people that know all the workings of the Enterprise or can speak Klingon but I am a fan. Always have been, always will be. My love of science fiction is perhaps why I harbored the dream of becoming an astronaut until the age of 19 when I realized that, while I was good at math, I was not skilled enough to get through my aerodynamics classes. It was a sad, dream crushing day. Though all that dreaming was not without its benefits … I had the opportunity to intern at the National Air and Space Museum and go into their archives and see the collection that is not on display to the public, I have flown a plane, and I have met Gene Cernan (the last man on the moon). Alas, I ramble. The purpose of this post was to tell you of my adventure in the Hingham Public Library and my excitement that they had the first book of Asimov's Galactic Empire series on CD. Brilliant! It turned the commute into a little slice of science fiction heaven this week. I'm headed back to the library to find something new for next week … what will it be, oh what will it be? A side note on the library experience: I wish that they would organize their audiobook collection by genre and then by author within that genre. It would be easier to navigate. Just sayin'.

Mystic, CT

Oh yeah, that's right, I did it. I went to Mystic … just for the pizza. And it was dang good. The restaurant has been converted into shrine to the movie (it runs on a continuous loop) and they sell the "slice of heaven" t-shirts and a variety of other souvenirs. My co-worker Sarah and I had a meeting in Westerly, RI and when we were done we decided to take advantage of our proximity to this famous pizza joint.

After the pizza we went to investigate the ice cream offering. What we found was delicious and homemade.

Totally worth it.

Bristol, RI

My focus for this business planning project that I have embarked on this summer is a grand old house in Bristol, RI named Linden Place. The house is beautiful. I mean, check out these stairs! It was built in 1810 for the DeWolf family, was involved in the triangle trade and was home to the great aunt of Drew Barrymore. Now it is a historic house museum, summer camp and event space. As part of the project I spent the day in Bristol going to all the museums and public spaces in the town to scope out the competition.

One of the places I went was Blithewold. This mansion is ok as far as mansions go … a little dark if you must know. But the grounds, oh the grounds! They are AMAZING. There are intricate gardens, old stone walls and a great lawn sloping down to the bay. The house is known for its gardens and as a wedding venue and while I was there I could imagine what it would be like to be married there. It would be beautiful. It would also be way fun to stage a massive croquet game on the lawn.

Honestly, I can't believe that this is my job.

Progress

The garden is progressing beautifully.

The peas are ready to harvest.

And the tomato plants are HUGE and have their first flowers.

Mmmmmmm … tasty.

A second blog?!

Part of me thinks that this is a really bad idea but, ignoring that train of thought, the group of interns I am working with this summer is chronicling our adventures on a project blog. Don't get me wrong, the project blog concept is great. I love that we can update the world on our progress and the things we are thinking about and all of our stakeholders can feel as in or as out of the loop as they want to be. I just don't think that I should be responsible for a second blog when I can barely get my act together to maintain this one! Thus far we have not signed any of our posts but I wonder if people will be able to tell that it is me. You'll have to let me know if my signature style of nonlinear thought comes through.

BTW ... we are currently in the middle of our "followers drive". It is like a fund drive but with no money involved. We are just trying to get as many followers as we can. So, I'd really appreciate it if the 2.4 people out there that read what I write here would go over there and, well, you know ... become a "follower."

What some might call work

The internship has begun. I spent the last week driving around the state of Rhode Island touring historic house museums, meeting with Executive Directors, Boards, scholars and volunteers and I have to admit that I just don't get it. I also don't think that I can adequately describe what it is that I don't get but I have come to the conclusion that we are a nation of hoarders. I'm not sure that this is healthy. Maybe group therapy is needed. I should call Oprah ... this seems to be right up her alley. While I freely admit that I have too much stuff, my accumulation has more to do with laziness than emotional attachment. In fact, you could take it all (with the exception of my couch) and I wouldn't miss a beat. The whole time I was driving home to survey the damage after the Fall Break Fire all I could think was "please, anything but the couch." I really love my couch. But that is beside the point. The people I have surrounded myself with for the summer abhor the idea that any building anywhere would ever be torn down regardless of whether or not said building is of architectural or historical significance. I love modern architecture and converted spaces. Give me steel, glass and concrete! Give me a warehouse that has been sitting empty for decades and convert it into useful space! But please, please, please don't "save" another building only to turn it into a historic house museum that is only open to the public for six hours a week or by appointment. Buildings were meant to be used. I guess what it boils down to is that I am a creator not a saver.

On the upside, this is my office. 

This is going to be an interesting summer.

You know you want one

I saw this infomercial like a million times and when I was given a Mother's Day gift at church I decided that there really was nothing to be done but take the plunge and purchase. Luckily they had a whole pallet of them at the local as seen on tv warehouse otherwise known as Bed Bath and Beyond (clearly this fits into the "beyond" category). I know you all are just dying to know the object of my most recent infomercial obsession. Here it goes … I am now the proud owner of not one but two Topsy Turvy tomato planters! 

They remind me of my 6^th grade science fair project where I studied the effect of light on tomato plants and observed the lengths to which the plants would go to find the light. It was a really cool project. The plants are growing at an alarming rate (this picture is about a week old and they have already quadrupled in size). I hypothesize that this is due to the upsidedownness and the use of copious amounts of miracle grow.

Endings and Beginnings

I am what some might term limbo. I am no longer an MBA1. That's right, I successfully completed MAP (though I don't have the grade yet ... but then again we don't really do grades ... more on that some other time). The project came to a good conclusion. I am pleased with the final product and with the process in general and am toying with a new career path because of it. And no, I am not talking about low end kitchen cabinetry. We'll see where it goes after this summer and after some serious reflection and a feasibility study. There is much to ponder when it comes to career choice. This is really the last time I will be making this kind of choice unless I decide to throw something similar into a midlife crisis though I won't know about that until it happens and it is about 20 years away so there really is no point in thinking about it in detail now, especially since I have more pressing career choices to consider. But, where was I? Oh, yes, MAP. It is a heady thing to have a CEO clap for you. Just sayin'.  

And so my first year as an MBA student has come to a close. I packed up what I would need for the summer and made the trek to my parents' house where I will be living this summer while I work in Rhode Island. I have never really lived in my parents' house on the south shore of Boston. They moved here while I was in college and so I have never really had a room. There is a room that I use whenever I come home and my mom uses it as a sewing room for the other 360 days a year so I suppose for the purpose of this discussion we can call it "my room". In making the shift from sewing room to bedroom we emptied out one of the closets and shoved in with all the fabric and projects that I am sure my mom will do someday were a few boxes of my things. Among this random collection of childhood memories (including presidential fitness awards, science fair reports in which my teacher deemed me a 'careful and thoughtful young scientist' for my expert use of organization, procedure and diagrams, newspaper clippings of my rhythmic gymnastics teammate when she made the Olympic team and of a mock Democratic Convention that my grade school held when I was in 6^th grade) I found this list entitled "When I am 32". I don't know when I wrote it but if I had to guess I would say I was 11 or so and at that point in my life this is how I saw my future:

• When I am 32 I will be married
  
• When I am 32 I will have 2 children
  
• When I am 32 I will wake up at 6:00 am
  
• When I am 32 I will coach rhythmic gymnastics
  
• When I am 32 I might be an artist
  
• When I am 32 I might be working at a vet
  
• When I am 32 I will have 5 dogs
  
• When I am 32 I will be having fun 

I am now only three years away from when I am to have accomplished all of these things and know that some of them like being a gymnastics coach, working at a vet and having five dogs are never going to happen. Not when I'm 32, not ever. Other things are possibilities, like being married though for the having two kids to happen by the time I am 32 I would need to get married yesterday. So maybe not the two kids thing. As for the rest of it I am totally there. The art I practice is business (I realize that most people don't think of business as art but then again most people don't know the truth about financial statements and how you can make them say whatever you want them to say), I do wake up at 6:00 am and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, and most importantly I am having fun. So much fun. 

Most recently this fun has taken the form of an afternoon at Fenway with my dad. The Red Sox lost but there is something about sitting in an old ballpark with your dad on a warm afternoon that can't help but make you happy. Even if you do manage to get mustard on your shirt.

Memories and Influences

I passed these yellow flowers yesterday and was astonished at the memories that one little bush could bring into my mind.

This is a forsythia bush. It is one of the things that indicates, for me, that spring is finally here but the memories that flooded my mind were not of spring, they were of winter. One snow storm in particular. I think I must have been in 8th grade or so. Living in DC meant that we didn't get much snow and having a Headmaster from Chicago meant that we rarely got the day off even when the snow did manage to accumulate. The only recipe that would get us the day off was multiple inches of snow followed by a significant amount of ice. This is exactly what happened during the storm that I remembered yesterday. I went over to my best friend's house to spend the day sledding. The reason that that particular day, sledding, Jessica Ohly's house and these bushes are tied in my memory is that it was the day I truly came to understand the power friction has in slowing objects down. Ice is a relatively frictionless surface and forsythia bushes are very easy to get tangled up in when you sled into them. It took me several minutes to get out of the bushes at the bottom of the hill in her yard. I was careful to avoid them after that.

Having remembered that sledding experience / physics lesson, I quickly moved on to other memories of my friend Jessica. The first time we met ... she was my assigned friend as I transitioned to my new school. We went putt putt golfing and I fell down the stairs. I still have the scars. Playing monopoly for hours on end and making up rules to have the game end more quickly. The time we had chocolate mouse for dessert and I spent most of the night in the bathroom throwing up. I haven't had chocolate mouse since. Sitting in her dining room trying to come up with creative ways to photograph eggs for a photography assignment. But more than anything I remember her house and her furniture. The house was secluded in a mature forest and was made almost entirely out of glass. There were even full sized trees growing inside. And her parents had collected the most amazing furniture over time. They had both an Eames lounge chair and a Marcel Breuer Wassily chair and I'm pretty sure I remember them having some Barcelona chairs. I remember sitting in these chairs for hours and hours and thinking that they were more comfortable than any chair had the right to be. This was, of course, before I knew exactly what I was sitting on. Looking back, her house and furniture had an enormous impact on my personal style. Unconsciously I have been trying to recreate that look my entire life and I think that when I finally buy or build my own house the influence of the first house I truly loved will be everywhere.

unplugged

Ok. Confession time. I like information. No, I love it. Crave it. I spend so much time on the computer, listening to NPR, watching the news, listening to music, and on and on and on. Really there are very few hours of the day where I am not plugged in to some form of electronic media and to be perfectly honest it is usually multiple forms at the same time. In fact, it is really just when I am asleep and walking from one thing to the next that I am 'unplugged'. Then again, if the walk is longer than five minutes I usually have my headphones in. There is just so much out there. There is always more to know, to experience. But, every now and then, I get overwhelmed and totally shut it all down. I stay home, turn on nothing aside from lights, and sit or read books I've read before. I don't answer the phone or read emails. I cut myself off completely. It is a very interesting feeling. Very peaceful. I lose track of time and because I live alone, speak to no one. I did this over the weekend and now that I am getting back into life I am shocked at how much I missed in just a short span of time. I have tons of email and about 40 blog posts in my reader queue not to mention all the shows in my hulu queue. Sigh. I guess it is time to catch up and dive in. The pool of information awaits.

Extreme Carpooling (MAP Weeks 2 & 3)

For the last two weeks I and my MAP team have been traveling around Ohio, learning about cabinets, touring manufacturing and distribution facilities and getting a move on on figuring out who wants what we're selling. 

Driving

Basically, because I have the biggest car and don't mind driving long distances, I am the team driver. I have lost track of the number of hours / miles we have driven in the past two weeks but let me tell you, it has been intense. Usually I am the only one who is awake but Sang Hee and I have had some long and lovely conversations and I now know a lot more about South Korea than I did before MAP. While we are working at MRCG headquarters we are staying in a Residence Inn about 45 minutes away. This is because HQ is in Middlefield, OH ... 4th largest Amish community in the US! ... which means there isn't a whole lot to do and there are only two restaurants worth going to but there were several enjoyable and unique roadsigns. 

The commute really isn't that bad. There is never any traffic (except that one time when the GPS misdirected me and it took us two hours to get back to the hotel ... after that I decided to go GPSless, it worked out much better) and we have dedicated time to talk as a full team, brainstorm and give feedback on what everyone is working on. We also take advantage of the adapter that makes it possible to plug my computer into the car and draft many of our team documents during the longer road trips.

Cabinetry

I have been a fan of cabinets for as long as I can remember. One of the reasons I picked this project is because we are working for the same company that makes Kraftmaid (I'm hoping there's a future discount there but I wouldn't bet on it). There is something about beautiful kitchens that makes my heart go pitter patter. When I own a home, I'm going to have one seriously sweet kitchen. Due to my fondness for cabinetry I already knew most of what we have been told about the product we are working with. In fact, on our first plant tour, I was told that I wasn't allowed to answer any more questions because it wasn't fun if he didn't get to share any information about the product.

Plant Tours

Over the past two weeks we have toured millions of square feet of manufacturing space. That's right people I said MILLIONS. And we have done it all at "plant speed" which is just a touch slower than "missionary speed" which meant that I was the only person on my team that could keep up with the guys showing us around. I was told that, had I been interviewing for a position, I would have passed the crucial laziness test with flying colors. As many of you know, I like myself a good plant tour every now and then. Ever since college where I had an internship at Subaru and would go out on the catwalks just to watch the cars zip around the factory I've been hooked. I never pass up the opportunity to see how something is made.

Who wants what we're selling?

Who the heck knows?? But seriously, we are making some progress on this front. We hammered out some initial estimates of the size of the opportunity for MRCG last week. Now we just need to figure out the characteristics of the people that fall into that group. We should probably also work on understanding what motivates them ... I'll have to think about that one some more. We've put in a lot of long hours and expect to put in many many more before we're good and finished. Guess what that means. Diet Coke!!! It also means palling around with a rooster (no terrorists here) but you don't really want to know about that. No, don't even try to get it out of me. It won't work and no I don't have photographic evidence. I said NO!

Monsters in Lake Erie

On Thursday MRCG let us use their box at the Q to watch a minor league hockey game. It was super fun to unwind and enjoy some downtime with some of the people we are working with on the project. They are great people and I am so glad that I have the opportunity to know and work with them. (MAP team = 4 people in the middle)