Sometimes you think of people when you least expect it.  Rue Porter passed away a month ago and today I experience a flashback of the plumbing training he passed along to me.  For the last 2 weekends my intentions were to replace a cracked toilet in the master bathroom, but batch processing failures at my employer and lots of overtime had prevented the chore be accomplished until today. 

I went to the good ole’ Home Depot with the family and set out to select our new toilet.  Fortunately, for us this weekend was the big Bathroom Savings event.  There was a choice of about 40 different commodes and I could see a glazed look in my wife’s eyes.  Suddenly, I remembered the words of Rue… you can’t go wrong with American Standard. This narrowed our selection down to two models.  We ended up going with one with the biggest flush capacity.  With the industry’s largest flush valve and trapway, we are going to have a very fast and powerful flush…I can’t wait until the kids stress test out the flushing capabilities…ability to flush 200 sheets of toilet paper is what American Standard touts.

In my category scheme, this post falls under Management.

At many stages in my professional career I have had exceptional mentors, but I've never had one ride to work with me on a daily basis.  For the past month the podcasts of the web site, www.manager-tools.com have provided insight into several management tools that I previously did not command.  I, definitely, don't rely on *just* podcasts to direct me and my team, but I do like the thoughts and discussions that this particular podcast has stimulated in my work place.

One of the tools that I have implemented in both my personal and professional life is the introduction tool that was released a couple of months ago, and has really pushed me to develop new relationships.  Plain and simple, I don't know how any one can afford to not subscribe to this podcast.

(BTW, I'm an avid Zune fan, too... the wireless synch is what sold me)