Quantum Newsprint hosted by Bill Sjoblom

Mushrooms! You Just Never Know What People Want to Talk About...

In writing this blog for almost three years now, I am still often surprised by what subjects engage people.  I recently wrote about mushroom hunting and got several comments:

Wesley from Tampa:

Well I had never been mushroom hunting until this past weekend. When I went to visit my Dad in St. Louis MO for Easter he offered to take me out to the woods to find one of the tastiest mushrooms. They are called morel mushrooms. They only grow during a certain times in spring. They have a sponge like texture. I was looking up prices and found about 8oz of dried morel mushrooms sells for $99. Should have picked more while I was in the woods. Maybe next year...

Darlene from Daytona Beach:

I used to go mushroom hunting with my dad when I was a little girl. I could never pick out which mushroom was the good from the poisonous ones though. Somehow my dad always could.

Chris from Seattle:

I guess I better find out more about these mushrooms. I have some kind of mushroom growing in my yard. Maybe I will get lucky.

Kimberly from Pittsburgh:

Mushroom hunting is a tradition with my better half and me. Every spring we drive a 90 minutes away to the deep woods and spend the day hiking the mountains looking for Morel mushrooms. There maybe one here and there or if you are lucky you will run into a patch of them. While I myself hate mushrooms the adventure of just walking through the woods and looking for a needle in the haystack is fun. My boyfriend loves them. To purchase the mushrooms they cost about $35.00 lb. We definetly wish they came up more times in the year than just early spring. This year due to the unusual weather they came up a little over a month early. If you enjoy the outdoors I recommend trying hunting for mushrooms!

And finally Mark from the office sent me some pictures:

Every now and then one of your blogs hits home...I like taking pics of mushrooms when I hike.

Are You a Mushroom Hunter?

Ok, so I must admit up front that I have never gone hunting for mushrooms.  But the idea is kind of intriguing to me. Did you know that the Matsutake mushroom sells for as much as $600 a pound?  Unfortunately it is found only in the Pacific Northwest and even there it is rare.

If you are a mushroom hunter or know someone who is...tell us about it! 

For the rest of us walking in the woods -- here is a picture of Matsutake mushrooms.  Ya never know, right?  Then again, it looks like a lot like other mushrooms.

Self Improvement

Over the past few months when people come into the office for a workshop or training, I have tried to carve out a little time to get to know people a little better.  I have shared some of those with  you and will continue to do so.

One of the things that I was happily surprised by was that so many of the folks I talked to were going to school at night or actively involved somehow in furthering their education and learning.  Stephanie (Providence), Zada (San Jose), Matt (Valparaiso) all are going to school at night. 

For the past 5 weeks I have been taking a class at my church titled "What Guys Need to Know" which was basically a class for guys interested in improving their marriage.  It gave me a small taste of what it must be like for some of you that go to school at night. 

I am interested?  If you are going to school or taking a class and working for QS I would like to hear from you.  What are you studying?  How do you juggle your work and classes?  Please share your story!

25 for 5

Last week I had the opportunity to get to know five of our folks who attended the Audit Supervisor Development Group (ASDG) in Columbus.  I asked each of them 25 questions and it was so interesting to hear about their lives, what they did before QS and a little about the way they think.  We will be producing a newsletter soon with more details, but here is a sneak peak! 

Ted works in our Pensacola division but he is originally from Massachusetts.  He is a die hard Boston (Red Sox and Patriots) and if he could witness any event past, present or future it would be the 2004 American League Playoffs Game 4 - when the Red Sox who lost the first three games to the Yankees, came from behind in extra innings to win.  They went on to win the World Series.  (Did I get all that right, Ted?)

Stephanie works with our team in Providence and is going to school to get her BS in Criminal Justice.  For those of you who think you work long hours, Stephanie works all day and then attends class from 5:45pm to 10:40pm four nights a week.  Now that is dedication and determination!  She has eighteen more months to finish up her degree.

Zada (pronounced Zaaada, not Zayda) is one of the most remarkable people I have met in some time.  She grew up in Bosnia in the midst of the war that took place from 1992 to 1995.  She came to the US when she was eleven.  The one person who has had the biggest influence on her life is her dad who has sacrificed and endured so much so that her family can have peace and a future.  Zada works with our team in San Jose, CA.

Rachel from the Pittsburgh division (actually the Altoona branch of the Pittsburgh division) worked for Wendy's for 6.5 years before joining QS.  She told me that our work is so much easier (and more interesting) than her job as shift supervisor at Wendy's.  The love of her life is her two year old son, Logan.

Emily (middle name Grace) works with Jessica in Jackson, MS.  They have been friends for long time and also worked together at Mazzio Pizza.  The thing she likes the least about c-stores is when the manager does not treat the auditors with respect.  On her first day of work the store was cancelled after they arrived!

I plan to interview more of our newer team members over the coming weeks.  Let me know if you like this feature?

Super Couponing Anyone?

I have recently been reading more about super couponing.  There is even a reality show about it - TLC's "Extreme Couponing"!  What is super-couponing?  At it's basic level it is combining coupons with store sales to get product crazy cheap, free or even sometimes getting money back! 

Now I will admit right up front that I don't know much about it, but I came across an site The Coupon High that each week provides an tip sheet for how to combine coupons with the sales at specific grocery stores like Giant Eagle.  It tells you where to find the coupons (many are available on line) and how to evaluate the final price for each combination.  I quickly found out that there is a whole new lingo that super couponers use, such as FAR (free after rebate) and BOGO (buy one get one free). 

So I tried it one weekend recently.  I did get sort of a "buzz" at the checkout as the cashier kept scanning my coupons and my total grocery bill kept going down and down.  But I also found out that it takes A LOT of work and planning - and I barely scratched the surface.  The real pros go to multiple stores to pick up the best deals at each location and they beg, borrow or steal coupons (yes, I recently read an article "Extreme Couponing Spurs Rise in Newspaper Thefts").

I am curious...is anyone a super couponer out there?  Or maybe you used to be but gave it up?  I would be interested to hear from you!

Guest Blog: Rachell Bernhardt - Loco for Local!

Are you into the local food movement in your area?  It’s something that really seems to be taking off in Columbus.  One of my favorite ways to eat local is by going to the farmer’s market every week.  I get a lot of great veggies from my CSA and I often pick up fruit for making jam. 

  

Ready to head home with a flat of strawberries

Another way, I eat local is fresh eggs from my backyard.  I can’t get much more local than that.  I have four chickens in my suburban backyard.  If you are like a few of my neighbors, you may be asking why I would do that.  There’s a number of reasons – fresh eggs right out my backdoor is one of them, teaching my three year old daughter some responsibility is another, plus the girls are just fun!

  

Big B, Toffee and Huevo pecking around in the backyard

Surprisingly enough, this is not the first post on this blog to mention chickens.  You may remember the Giant Yellow Chicken that came to visit Bill on his birthday last year.

In addition to the chickens in our backyard we also have a garden.  Nothing beats a fresh, summer tomato right off the vine with a little salt and pepper or on a BLT.  It’s always fun to head out back with Stella after work to see what’s ready to harvest.      

  
Backyard bounty

It’s easier to eat local here in Ohio during the summer when fresh produce is abundant.  It’s tougher in the winter months but I still get the flavor of summer with the jams and other produce I put up during the year.

 Homemade cherry jam

What do you enjoy eating local?  Do you have a garden?  Do you can or make jam?  Send me one of your favorite recipes to rbernhardt@quantum-services.com  I love trying new things in the kitchen.  Maybe Bill can even share it here on his blog. 

Foodspotting

I heard about an interesting website Foodspotting where you take photos of your favorite dishes at restaurants and post them.  There are more than 600,000 photos of food from around the world.  When I put in Westerville, Ohio (where I live) I found some intriguing dishes:  Lobster Mac n Cheese at Bel Lago (which is a place I have been but have not tried this dish) and PiZookie at BJ's Restaurant and Brew House.  The PiZookie is a desert described as "half triple chocolate and half peanut butter".  It looks like ice cream sitting on top of a big cookie. 

 

 
By the way, only dishes you like and recommendd may be posted on Foodspotting, so it's not a site to trash the restaurant if you get a bad meal or service.

I doubt I will make much use of this site but I am wondering what your favorite kooky sites are? 

Roanoke Field Visit Uncovers a Future Star?

I just returned from a quick field visit to Roanoke and wanted to share with you a few interesting things I discovered.  First of all, we have recently started with a brand new crew in Roanoke.  We have five people and the "old-timer" is Brittany who has worked for QS for 4 months.  Brittany actually lives about an hour south of Roanoke and covers our clients in the Danville and Martinsville area.

We held a short division meeting on Tuesday night and went over the 7 C's.  I had a little contest to see who could write them down correctly first and Jimmy won $20.  Jimmy loves to work out at the gym and will often go work out at 5am before he goes to his first audit for the day! 

Carrie has been with QS for two months and is a fast learner.  She is a great communicator and gets along well with all the store managers.  Melanie is the newest person - she has been on the team for three weeks.  I visited with her in her first Sheetz / scanning audit and she said scanning was a lot harder than retail audits!

At dinner I sat next to Rick and he told me about his 14 year old son who is quite the athlete.  He plays baseball, basketball and football.  As a freshman this year he started for his high school varsity football team.  He has already gotten a "letter of interest" from the UCONN football program!  Check out a highlight film of his first varsity start - ten carries for 135 yards - Dom Dunnaville #4 Freshman First Start.  Good stuff!

And I can't finish this blog without a call out to Shawn from Daytona Beach who spent about two months in Roanoke training.  Everyone I talked to complimented the work that Shawn did.  Awesome job, Shawn...you really made a huge difference in Roanoke.  Thank you!

Do You ETSY?

 

A couple of weeks ago my wife gave me a printout of three different pieces of handmade jewelry and suggested that "if I was looking for a Mother's Day gift...".  Well, being the genius that I am (not) I figured I should check it out.  It was from a site called ETSY.  I found it to be a bit confusing until I figured out it was a bunch of independent craftsmen offering handmade products for sale.  It is in a sense, an on line flea market.

Then this week I read an article in Inc. Magazine titled "Can Rob Kalin Scale Etsy?"  I found out that ETSY has 400,000 independent craftsmen (mostly women, by the way) and that one of the requirements is that everything they sell must be handmade - by the seller personally.  For the vast majority of the sellers, this is more of a hobby than a business.  The total sales on the site were $314 million in 2010 but that works out to be only $785 per seller after commissions.  Fewer than 1,000 sellers make more than $30,000 a year.

It's an interesting article from a business viewpoint.  I know I am usually behind the curve on things like this, anyone else use this site?  Does anyone sell anything on ETSY?  I would love to hear about your story!

Oh, by the way, don't tell Lindsay that I bought her the necklace for Mother's Day!

The Artful Dodger?

 
Last weekend our own Rachell Bernhardt was quoted in an article in our local paper, The Columbus Dispatch.  The article was titled "Artful Dodging" and examined the issue of what to do with all that artwork that your preschool and elementary kids produce. 

One of the more interesting quotes from the article:

"Rachell Bernhardt, for the most part is a chucker.  Much of the artwork from her three year old daughter, Stella, doesn't even make it into the house.  'I'm not this Chinese mother,' said the Northwest Side resident, referring to the hyper-strict and critical parenting style championed in the book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.  'I don't say, this is awful, and throw it out.  So we talk about it, and I say it's nice and then I throw it out,' she said.  'You can't possibly keep it all.'"

"When Stella brought home what Bernhardt described as a 'brown and green craft / clay / egg thing for Christmas, Bernhardt displayed it on her Facebook page with the description: 'hideous'.  She soon realized that she had struck a nerve.  'Some people quickly responded.  They said, 'I can't believe you said that about your daughter's art.'"

Personally, Kai has become quite prolific at producing artwork and is constantly wanting to display his art.  We don't really have a system to keep any of it, so I am motivated to adopt some of the strategies the article suggested. 

How about you?  If your children are grown now, do you wish you had kept more of their art or do you have boxes of it stored away never to be appreciated?  If your children are in the art producing age bracket, how do you handle it?