03-05-10 Raisins are a reason to party

7:30 I headed over to Iron Bird Cafe. I had a press release to write for next Tuesday's two meetings for the downtown plans (http://www.fresnodowntownplans.com/ ). I had a really good bagel with lox, cream cheese, onions and capers. The coffe was great and Rene Newlove (http://www.facebook.com/solitairesrogue ) greeted my with a frinedly "good morning.

Kiel Famellos-Schmidt rode his bike to the cafe on his way to the office, so we had a chance to catch up for a bit. (http://www.spaciodesignstudio.com/bio-kiel.php ).

8:30 I had a meeting with Donald Dejonge http://www.donalddejonge.com/ who is my new New York Life Insurance Agent. He's a a graduate of the Fresno State Entrepreneurship program. My agent had moved and my account fell to Donald. I'm glad he's on the job, he was very helpful.


My 10:00 meeting was a no show. I like an occasional no show, especially on Fridays. I hope that you are well no show.


10:30 I did my formal (on casual Friday even) annual employee review of Elliott Balch. We had our forms, we signed the correct copies, we're off to the races on this offical process now.


12:00 Elliott, Donna Gavello ( http://www.revfest.org/ ) and I had lunch with Gary Schulz, President of the Raisin Administrative Committee http://www.raisins.org/ for lunch at Georges in the Galleria. they'll be moving into Civic Center in late April.


We met to begin planning a Raisin Day Festival. http://www.fresnocounty150.org/images/es06.jpg f Farm Aid chooses Fresno for a location, we'd probably combine the two activities. The concert would be in Chukchansi Park and the Festival would be out on Fulton. If Farm Aid doesn't come to Fresno this year, we'd hold the festival in the Fall.


1:30 I met with Eddie Clement from the Carpenters Union. Eddie is a huge downtown fan. He was in the revfest last year, he comes to the Downtown Revitalization Update Meetings (DRUM), he advocates to the other trade unions about downtown. Eddie was specifically interested in sharing some of the work that they are doing on making buildings more energy efficient and are intereted in getting more involved in hisotirci home renovation.


4:00 I met with Lon Martin from the Public Utilities Department. We were discussing downtown water needs and options. Downtown is facing some issues with older wells that will need to be rebuilt or replaced.


5:30 I headed back to Iron Bird Cafe for Creative Fresno's Creative Blender and Cynthia Cooper's birthday party. It was a fun event with many good friends attending. I had a coffee, mocha, strawberry iced drink that was fantastic.