Note: I’m posting this a few weeks after the event, but dating it back to the actual day I started it!

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This past Friday and Saturday, I attended a networking conference with my co-worker, hosted by the Women’s Business Association. They are based at the Owen School of Business here at Vanderbilt and I received an invitation because I am an alum.

The conference started off with a networking “fair” on Friday night where local and regional women-owned businesses set up booths and answered questions. It seemed like some of the vendors really got the jist of the evening and promoted the fact that they were women-owned businesses. Others just seemed to be advertising their products, which was a bit annoying.

One of the first booths we came to was all natural body products, with burning candles, lotion and many other goodies. I asked a few questions about the products and then my co-worker (a very successful Mary Kay consultant) started asking questions about the business, which is really why we were there in the first place. The woman behind the table seemed uncomfortable that she was asking her these questions, or maybe she just wasn’t ready. Who knows.

On Saturday, the Keynote speaker was Beth Canavan, EVP of Tiffany’s. She was a great speaker and had some interesting things to say about being a mother/wife/woman in the capital business market. However, she comes from a company that embraces family life, flexibility, etc., and I got the impression many women there wanted to know how to deal with the pressure that comes from being a woman in an environment that is not as welcoming. She either missed the point of the questions asked of her, or she couldn’t relate, because most of her answers didn’t really seem to address the questions.

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(added today, 2/29/08)
After the keynote, we were separated into small sessions focusing on women in business (as you might imagine). Some were more interesting than others. I unfortunately had to leave the conference early, but I met some great women who are in similar work environments and made a few good contacts. I hope to do more things like this in the future.

Its posts like this that make me really want to vote on February 5th.

My question is: If I’ve been summoned for Jury Duty to start on February 4th, will they let us out of government business so we can vote?

I love football. And even though the Titans are not in the playoffs anymore, I still enjoy watching the playoff games. However, something inside me just can’t allow myself to sit there doing nothing for 6 hours. But I can’t really do anything productive like clean or do yardwork, cause then I’d miss the games. So, this is how I’ve been keeping my hands busy:

Yes, that’s a jar of tiny folded stars. Although I can’t find much on the history of origami Lucky Stars, I’ve had a great time starting to make them. I picked up a packet of lucky star paper in San Francisco, not really knowing what it was. But I like bright shiny things, so there you go. It looked something like this:

I kinda forgot about the packet till last weekend when I sat down and tried to make one using the instructions on the back, which were mostly in Japanese, and had just a little English. The first few tries were awful and I knew I must be missing something. So, I found this YouTube video of a guy showing how to do it.

Its really pretty easy and you end up with a neat puffy star at the end. The hardest part is the “puffy” part. I smooshed a few of them trying to get the hang of it and some of the shinier papers make it hard to get the hang of it. After folding the first packet, I scoured ebay and found a bunch of pretty papers:

So now I’m keeping myself busy during the games.

I’m sure this hobby isn’t for everyone, but if you like pretty paper and instant gratification, you should give it a try.

While getting gas this morning, I noticed that MAPCO now has a sticker on their pumps that reads “Contains Ethanol”. Now, I know Ethanol is kind of a buzz word these days, but I usually associate it with hybrid vehicles, which mine is not (believe it or not, the Honda Fit is not a hybrid even though it has that “early model hybrid look”). I inquired inside, but the worker didn’t have much information about percentages or the effects it would have on my car.

So, advocating for the average consumer who doesn’t know much about Ethanol, I called Delek US (the distribution company for MAPCO) and spoke with someone about it. Turns out Tennessee is in the works to join up with other states in reducing emissions and using less gas (i.e. foreign oil). By mixing less than 10% Ethanol into the gasoline, they are able to stretch the supply without reducing efficiency.

That was my main concern. I don’t have an “ethanol” car, but apparently that doesn’t really matter if the mixture is that low. The representative I spoke with said that any manufacturers owners manual should state this. The pamphlet they’ve provided to inform the consumer contains half a dozen quotes from such manuals. The worker I spoke with didn’t seem to know about any pamphlets, so the Delek rep offered to follow up.

I might do the same in a week’s time. IMO, consumer education is so important to the success of something new.

So I am responsible for ordering a lot of computer equipment for my department and the numerous clinics nearby. Before the holidays I placed an order with ____ for 16 laptops. Upon my return, said laptops had not arrived. When I emailed our account manager, she shows that they were delivered.

Heart stops.

The tracking information from ___ says they were delivered on 12/27 and signed for by “HOLIDAY CLOSED”. Normally that would just make me think that they tried to deliver, saw we were closed, and will attempt later. Except, I had another shipment from the same company that they attempted to deliver while we were closed and the tracking still says “In progress”, denoting the attempts to deliver to our closed office.

So where are my 16 friggin laptops???