August 5th, 2011. Today is the end of our two month long ping pong tournament. After a grueling fight to the finish, our very own Jeff Meadows prevailed!

I started our first table tennis tournament here at Living Direct, Inc. and right off the bat, our employees placed a huge interest in it. With sixteen players signing up, I knew I had my work cut out. I wanted this to be perfect.
I setup the matches to include a double elimination scheme and allowed everyone to play at their own leisure. The competitors could check the scores daily and see who they were to compete with next.

Originally, I had purchased a custom made trophy with the engravings [Living Direct –Ping Pong Tournament 1st Place] but that wasn’t enough. Thanks to the company, a brand new APPLE IPAD 2 was donated, and that quickly gave everybody a new game face to display.

Players battled one by one - before, after and even during work. Matches were intense lasting 20-30 minutes sometimes. The games were very unpredictable and exciting to say the least.

Sadly, THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.

Congratulations Jeff Meadows!

Located in Austin is Dell's Children's Hospital.

Dell's Children's Hospital

We organized an activity of making handmade Valentine’s cards and goodie bags for children who are long term patients.  It was  a lot of fun for the people who participated here but we hope it also helped to brighten up their  Valentine's Day.

We received an overwhelming amount of donations, goodies and volunteering to make handmade cards.  A craft station was set up in our break room a.k.a “our Ping Pong Lounge,” where employees could come freely and make cards during lunches and breaks.

We were reliving Kindergarten all over again; there was construction paper, scrapbooking scissors/stencils, glitter pens and even stickers!  It was a blast. Many were caught grinning from ear to ear and some people got really into it.  We were just glad so many people wanted to help and donate time not just money.

Here are some funny lines from the cards made:

"You are an Island of Awesome in an Ocean of Love"

"Hoppy Valentine's Day" - Bunny Card

"Have a Magical Valentine's Day" - Unicorn Card

"Have a Roarin' Day!" - Lion Card

"Hope you have a Berry Happy Valentine's Day, you are Pearfect" - Strawberry and Pear Couple in Love Card

Our volunteers ranged all the way from our Call Center to Marketing to Purchasing to Executives.  We even got a surprise guest contributor: the daughter of the owner of Living Direct.  Not only did our volunteers contribute their efforts but they ended up putting so much time and creativity into them that they gave Hallmark a run for their money.  Our goal was 50 cards/goodie bags; we not only met but exceeded our goal.

A delivery was made on Valentines Day by the Philanthropic Committee, it will be remembered as one of our favorite and most rewarding events!  Next year - 100 cards!

This is a guest post from Carly Pringle, Online Channel Marketing Analyst, and Linda Kiefer, Import Product Manager. Carly and Linda, along with Kelly Wilson, Accounts Payable, make up the Philanthropic Committee and help organize all of our charity initiatives, big and small.

Check out all of the costumes in this presentation:

Which costume do you think should have won the contest?

Some background info:

Carly hails from The Queen City (Cincinnati, OH) and is a Bengals fan by jus soli. In recent years, the team has made some new fans amongst our University of Texas Longhorn faithful due to the huge influx of former Horns on the roster.

Living Direct doesn’t know much about Carly’s husband, but based solely on the fact that he loves the I heart Twins kegerator.com T-shirt, we approve.

To celebrate Carly’s upcoming nuptials, some of the marketing department decorated her cube. Christine and kathyphantastic upcycled some incorrect-sized coffee filters into flowers and intern Joanna brought in balloons.

Kathyphantastic also crafted a personalized banner celebrating Carly and her beau, Raymond.

Co-workers pooled funds to get Carly and Raymond a gift card to help pay for newlywed expenses.

In her honor, Living Direct threw an Ice Cream Bridal Shower. We had some detectives find out her favorite flavor, which, for the record is cookie dough.

Key ICLCs (Ice Cream Logistics Coordinators) surreptitiously brought in ice cream, waffle cones, syrups and sprinkles. These same ice creamologists were able to use this opportunity to showcase the EdgeStar FP630 Portable Fridge / Freezer. Our half gallons of Blue Bell ice cream were kept in a perfectly deep freeze until the exact moment we were ready to shower Carly with sprinkles.

Most of Living Direct celebrated with ice cream sundaes.

Peter's method of celebration involved refraining from the frozen treats and instead posing with this skillet. To each his own, really.

Congratulations Carly, Living Direct wishes you and Raymond the best.

Carly Ochocinco Brown Pringle and her husband will reside in Austin, Texas with their dog and kegerators.

*Note: Only “Ochocinco” is not (yet) a part of her legal name. One thing we did learn about Carly’s new husband is that his (and now her) last name is Pringle. Yes, like the chip.

Living Direct's annual baseball outing took place this week at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock and it could not have a been a more perfect evening for the event; the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the hamburgers were deliciously greasy and the beer was cold. Year after year the outing provides employees with a casual forum to get to know their co-workers from other departments within the company. Employees and their families congregated in the Texas Party Suite, enjoying the opportunity to meet one another's spouses, rugrats and friends. Once the sun set and temperatures subsided, it was out to the box seats to cheer on the Round Rock Express team to their 11-7 victory over the Sacramento River Cats. The game was much more exciting than anticipated, and although our accountant Kelly was almost nailed by a line drive, we all escaped unscathed and only slightly tipsy.  Then again, I left before the chugging contests started (see evidence below).

All in all, it was an evening of camaraderie that many employees of other companies are not lucky enough to experience. Thanks to all for coming out and a special thanks to Rick for making the event possible.

Living Direct Tote Bag & Cards

We wanted a genuine way to show our customers that we appreciate them. We didn't want to be gimmicky or cheesy and send out generic printed notes typed up in a font that looks like handwriting. While some customers might think a note like that is nice, it doesn't show any sincerity or any real thought behind the action. Instead, we wanted our notes to be from real people in our company expressing their authentic sentiments.

Every employee at Living Direct, including the CEO and other executives, received 100 notecards on which to write their thanks to our customers. A few templates were provided to give an idea of what should be written, but many chose to write their own original messages. Some of the standouts included the phrase "paragon of a perfect customer" and a pen drawing of Van Gogh's "Starry Night." We hope that our obvious enthusiasm and creativity made at least one customer's day.

The feedback from this project was great. We received emails from customers that wanted to thank us for our thank you note, which was both funny and very nice to hear. Many customer service representatives also reported receiving phone calls from customers who were touched by the cards.

Unfortunately, not every order was able to be sent with a card or a tote bag, but we tried. If you didn't receive a card with your order, whether placed during Customer Appreciation Month or any other time, then please enjoy this note from Cynthia in Customer Service. We appreciate our customers year round and hope to continue proving this through our excellent service and products.

Thank You Card from Cynthia

For those unfamiliar with the Double Down, it is a true American celebration of gluttony consisting of two pieces of fried chicken surrounding tasty strips of bacon and the finest processed cheese.   If you really want to show your national pride, be sure to wash it down with a Diet Coke!

Future possible Thursday’s may involve the Elvis Double Down, the Krispy Kreme Burger ,  the Happy Meal Pizza and, of course, Meat Cake.

Our Oath:

He which hath no stomach to this sandwich,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for a salad put into his purse;
We would not dine in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to dine with us.
This day is called the feast of Double Down.
He that outlives this day, and goes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Col. Sanders.

Let the feast begin!

The Result:

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Coming to work day after day can get monotonous in any office, if you let it. So we do our best to shake things up from time to time at Living Direct. Back in November, or Movember as we were calling it, the weather was finally getting chilly enough here in Texas for people to start wearing jackets and coats.

On one Thursday, blazers began appearing.

And on that day it was declared the following Thursday would be known as Blazer Thurzday. And everyone, men and women, would be asked to participate by donning a blazer. As part of the festivities, we held a “Blaze-In” during the lunch hour at a nearby restaurant.

And it even included a guest appearance by one of the office little ones.

More recently, we held "Tie Friday." While most offices like to keep Fridays casual, we've always preferred to be a little more unique. Some kept to their usual Friday attire and simply added a tie, while others dressed to the nines. Many of the ties were actually provided by  the ladies of the office and had been screenprinted with designs.

Also, check out the bandages on our arms. Tie Friday also happened to be the day of our blood drive. We were able to reach our goal of 2 gallons! So it was a very successful day, indeed.