Off to Cancun ....

After a grueling week of flying across the country for market research, I am now packing once again - but this time for a leisurely vacation in Cancun - hooray!

Here's a pic from the last time I was in Cancun. In the pic are my cousin Kim (now an accountant and mother of two), me (fabulous market research extraordinaire), and Kristen (now two - going on three science degrees richer) - times have certainly changed!

Will post fabulous pictures of my new adventure upon my return!

I stand corrected.....

For all of you who read the post about how Adolph and Diane met, I would like to say that this was "my" interpretation of how they met, but reality in fact was somewhat different. Here's the real scoop straight from Diane....

First off Adolph didn't need a date for an awards specific dinner, he needed a date for two Christmas parties for Esso. He had just been transferred to Winnipeg and he had not met anyone. Diane's girlfriend Sheryl (not Carol) set up the blind date. To meet each other before the parties, they went to a movie which Diane had already seen but didn't tell him. After the movie, they went to the Pizza Hut to talk and have pizza, before the Esso party. Now the reason I only ever heard about one party was that Diane only owned one party dress and didn't want to buy a second for a blind-date; she only accepted an invitation to one of the parties because clearly she couldn't wear the same dress twice!

And that's the facts!

Marketing is funny that way

This week I will be galavanting across America to do some market research with physicians. I always love going to do market research - it's like CSI without the crime scenes and many more snacks. Basically, we spend all day behind a one-way mirror watching physicians answer various questions, all the while munching on the never-ending snacks that magically appear throughout the day. Usually I'm the moderator (i.e. I'm in the fishbowl conducting the interview with the physician), which helps me from indulging in too many snacks, but for this wave of research I'm only moderating on Tuesday; which means three full days of having to restrain myself in the backroom from the snack temptations. We'll see how that goes ... I'm anticipating ... poorly!

It's funny though seeing all the thought that gets put in to new products. We have a team of people traveling across the US to ask physicians what they think of a new logo, a new color scheme, a new magazine ad, etc. The physicians get paid scads of money for their time - and often roll their eyes at us when we ask for the upteenth time "what else does this remind you of". But what's even funnier is how much importance gets put into the comments of these somewhat disengaged physicians who have come to talk about our logos, messages, ads, etc. Major corporate decisions are made, and brands that will be around for the next 20 years will forever be labeled with this specific mark because some physician said it captured his attention. But I love it - I find it fascinating to see other people's minds work; it's amazing to see how many different opinions come from looking at the exact same thing.

For a little market research humour you have to checkout the Diamond Shreddies campaign - it's truly hillarious. Here are a couple good ones!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOuC5jjTZOI

My favorite part of this one is when he asks her to rate it on a scale of amoeba to kangaroo - this is especially funny if you've seen my recent discussion guide (which you most likely haven't since it is confidential!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBayzdlsMQQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi20ImJHsWQ&feature=related

Postcard #2

Postcard #2 comes from my mom and will undoubtedly be the winner for the least traveled postcard. Again, you will note that the theoretical "first" card with the instructions for Dad has not yet arrived from its long trek from Boston.

Now, how does Mom know Dad ... let us warp back in time ....

Adolph had an upcoming ESSO event where he was receiving an award, and for the big gala, he was interested in bringing a date. So Adolph reached out to a friend at ESSO who had a sister who was a high school teacher who ultimately knew of some single women that might be interested in joining him.

[cut to high school, it is the end of the day] Diane had just finished a long day of grueling parent teacher interviews when her friend Carole approached her about going on a blind date. Her response was "Why not? I deserve a little fun!"

And so Diane was signed up to go on a blind date with Adolph for coffee in order to meet prior to the ESSO gala. Apparently the date was a little rough around the edges; but something must have clicked because Diane agreed to join him for his big event. At the event, Diane who was in her late twenties at the time was shocked when Adolph was called up on to the stage to accept an award for 25 years of ESSO service! His dashing good looks had clearly not revealed his true age! But ultimately chemistry won them over, and they have lived happily ever after. [curtain]

Postcard #1 Tahiti

This was the postcard that kicked off the postcard celebration - unfortunately, the postcard with the actual instructions to my dad didn't arrive until Postcard #4; so there was some mild confusion on the part of my father in the begining. I suppose that's what happens when you send out the instructions to everyone before actually mailing the initiation postcard. Although rather than place the blame on myself, I would prefer to blame the slowness of the US postal system. And although this postcard is from Tahiti, it was actually mailed from Winnipeg, so it travelled pretty quickly!

This card was from Marion and Richard Mantay - they go way back with my parents. Mom met Marion back in Sunday school, and they have been great friends ever since. Once they were each married and had kids, we even went on family vacations together (although not so extravagant as Tahiti). I remember many a summer at the campgrounds of Falcon Lake with the Mantays. Another especially vivid memory is of my dad trying to teach the Mantays how to make traditional Ukranian easter eggs. We brought our kit over to their house and spent painstaking hours applying the wax to the eggs. Dad's eggs always turned out to be the best. He had the steadiest hands and the most patience - which are the key ingredients to a good Ukranian egg (well that and the egg).

Family Fotos

This weekend we were up at the farm and it was all about family (well specifically the Morrow-Donald family). And so it seems somewhat appropriate that we also received our disk of family photos that we had professional taken at Christmas time. So in my narcissistic way, here are some of my favs from the session ....

Includes: Hillary Taylor, Warren Taylor, Heather Morrow, Roger Morrow, Eric Morrow, Carolyn Morrow

This is our nice happy-family-on-the-porch shot; a good pic of everyone!


This one is our "Sears family photo" version. Everyone looks great in it, but it kinda looks like Eric is stalking the rest of the family (moreso in the black and white version)


This one here is what we would look like if we were a gang of supermodels in the process of seriously judging your outfit (and disapproving of it!)


And this is my absolute favorite - which is going on my desk at work. We like to think of it as the cover of our album if we were a band (and by the way it would be a pretty terrible band, because with the exception of the Hillary and Roger, the Morrows are pretty tone-deaf ... I suppose not everyone has to sing though). The title of our first album would be "Fields of Hay" (and if you're not familiar with the Morrows, this is an apt title as they are hobby-hay-farmers .... yes, growing hay can be a hobby.)


Hope you enjoyed the pics!

My new hobby....

So I realize that on day 2 of my "word of the day" theme concept, I have already chosen to abbandon the theme, but it is because today I am too excited to talk about "words of the day". Today, I start my new hobby - competitive ballroom dancing!

Now I've had a few responses to this new hobby of mine already:
N from California said - "Of course, YOU would have to make it COMPETITIVE!"
M from Winnipeg said - "What about Eric? What's he going to do?"

And basically it comes down to this. Eric has no interest in competitive ballroom dance, let alone just regular ballroom dance - so rather than cajole him into it, and then have to beg and plead and whine to get him to actually attend class, I decided to circumvent that by signing up on my own. But how does one do ballroom dance on their own, you ask? Well.... if you happen to sign up for COMPETITIVE ballroom dance, you can join their Pro-Am (Professionals with Amateurs) program, where you compete with your teacher. So it all works out nicely. Eric doesn't have to dance. And I have a nice goal-oriented hobby. :-)

Tonight ... East Coast Swing. Tomorrow Rrrrrhuumba!