In the morning and unbeknownst to me, Amy had gone to the supermarket to get a few things for lunch; and while she was shopping, she got a few basics (e.g., milk for the guys).  She did not know that I was putting together a Homeruns order, else I do not believe that she would have purchased some of the items that she brought home.  I was wondering if I would be able to order enough items to make it to the $60 level for free shipping (actually, I can always make it to that level, however, it is a question of whether I would be buying items for the current week or for use beyond the current week).

As it turns out, we had no problem exceeding $60 in our Homeruns order (our final order amount was just past $70), even though Amy had purchased about $60 worth of groceries earlier in the day at the Star Market.  Every item that we purchased was needed for the coming week.  A few items were almost left out of the order.  Before moving into the process for transmitting the order, I always like to ask Amy -- he can be taught -- if there is anything else that she wants to order before I finalize the process.  I tend to ask her this question -- in a pleasant tone at most times :-) -- about three times in the form "is that it?...anything else?...are you sure?"  Typically, she adds something else to the order and by the third time that I ask these questions, she says "that's it."  This was the case last night.

I went to a car auction yesterday with Joe Shaker, Founder and Chairman of CarDay.com.  The entire experience was fascinating.  All types of people were present and I found it amazing how many cars were to be auctioned off in one day -- my guess is on the order of thousands.  I'm going to take my students to this car auction some time because this is a reality that should be observed by any student of marketing.  CarDay.com has some very good people on its executive management team and I would watch for them to make a good run at improving the used car buying and selling process.
 

Luis Castillo RBI Watch (Through August 11, 2000)

Number of Hits......Batting Average......Number of RBI......Runs Scored
......129.......................357............................9........................73

Luis did manage to get a hit in four at-bats (a leadoff single to left field in the first inning) and no one was on base for any of his at-bats (i.e., other than hitting a homerun, there was no possibility of his getting an rbi).  Alas, the Marlins lost 3-0 to the San Diego Padres.