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Many companies have used activity-based costing (ABC) in onetime profitability studies to help them decide which products or customers to cut or keep. But ABC can be much more than a superior accounting technique that shows how much money individual products are really making or losing. When ABC is woven into critical management systems, it can serve as a powerful tool for continuously rethinking and dramatically improving not only products and services but also processes and market strategies.
To use ABC in that fashion involves managing in a radically different way. And that, of course, means the people in a business—from the CEO to frontline workers—must change radically, too. No wonder so many companies have found activity-based management so much more difficult to implement than they had imagined.
Thousands of companies have adopted or explored the feasibility of adopting ABC. However, we estimate that no more than 10% of them now use activity-based management in a significant number of their operations. The other 90% have given up, or their programs are stagnating or floundering.
The problem is that managers often do not think of activity-based management as a major organizational-change program. It is. Combing the organization to pinpoint all the useful information about the direct and indirect costs of a product or service is a huge undertaking. So is setting up an information system that can track those cost-contributing activities and present them in formats that employees can use.
Educating employees at all levels about the principles and the mechanics of ABC may be the most difficult task of all. Employees must understand thoroughly what the company is trying to achieve through ABC as well as how to use it in their jobs. They must be convinced that ABC can succeed and that it is worth the effort. To win over employees, each company needs a carefully crafted rollout that takes into account its culture and operating idiosyncrasies.
Finally, other management systems need to be overhauled to ensure that employees fully incorporate ABC into their work practices and do not retreat to their old practices in times of stress and selfdoubt. The old accounting system has to be rooted out as quickly as possible. Measurement and incentive systems have to be tied to the ABC numbers. And the daily decision-making process—including which managers are involved in making decisions and how they make them—often must be significantly altered, too. A major reason so few efforts have succeeded is that managers fail to take all those steps. Admittedly, they are difficult steps to take.
Like any major organizational-change program, ABC invariably runs up against employee resistance. Indeed, in the companies we have worked with, employee resistance has been the single biggest obstacle. Such resistance is natural. Managers of a unit—whether a function, a division, or a plant—are understandably nervous about revealing detailed information that could be used to attack their practices or undermine their authority. It would be naïve to expect managers to rejoice at being asked to replace a cost-accounting system they are used to with one that could dramatically change the definitions of success and failure. And after having been downsized, TQMed, and reengineered, managers and nonmanagers alike, not surprisingly, often greet ABC as the latest threat to their jobs.
Employee resistance is the single biggest obstacle to implementing ABC.
Nonetheless, the effort required to weave activity-based thinking into the fabric of a company's way of managing is worth it. When managers adopt activity-based management, they use ABC to find answers to questions such as the following: What should a given product or process cost? What are the non-value-adding activities that contribute to its current cost? If a given distribution channel or market is unprofitable, where can the company reduce costs to make it profitable? If the company eliminates an unprofitable product or customer, how much will it save in costs? If the company lowers the price of a product to increase sales volume, what will the impact on the cost per unit be? And what can the company do during the design and engineering stages of a product to avoid unnecessary costs in the first place?
For many managers, the standard approach for improving a business is to benchmark each function or process against the company they think is the best in that function or process. But activity-based management enables companies to leapfrog the best—to become the company everyone else is copying. Activity-based management makes possible dramatic, rather than incremental, improvements. Consider the benefits reaped by two companies: Chrysler Corporation, a company whose ABC implementation effort we have studied, and Safety-Kleen Corporation, a client that we helped with installing ABC.
Activity-based management helps companies become the one everyone else is copying.
Chrysler estimates that, since it began implementing ABC in 1991, the system has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits by helping simplify product designs and eliminate unproductive, inefficient, or redundant activities. The benefits have been 10 to 20 times greater than the company's investment in the program. At some sites, the savings have been 50 to 100 times the implementation cost.
Since Safety-Kleen, a midsize waste-recycling company, introduced ABC into its organization, also in 1991, it has reaped more than $12.7 million in cost savings, cost avoidance, and increased revenues—more than 14 times its investment in the program. The company, based in Elgin, Illinois, has used ABC to prune product lines, rationalize operations, and expand into new markets. Even more important, ABC has helped Safety-Kleen transform itself from an organization whose individual operations made decisions based on what each one—rightly or wrongly—thought best for itself into an organization whose operations now make day-in, day-out decisions that are best for the whole company.
To illustrate the obstacles that managers are likely to encounter when they try to install ABC and the ways in which they might overcome those hurdles, we will look at Chrysler and Safety-Kleen in detail. The outstanding success of their ABC programs is not the only reason we chose them as models.
Another is that they have more operations using ABC and have integrated ABC into critical management systems to a greater degree than most other companies. More than two-thirds of Chrysler's manufacturing and assembly plants in the United States, all of its Mopar replacement-parts operations, its finance arm, and the company's well-known cross-functional platform teams now use ABC. And plans call for the whole company to use performance measures based on ABC-generated numbers by the year 2000. At Safety-Kleen, the corporate laboratory and 7 of its 11 recycling operations have integrated ABC totally into their financial and performance-measurement systems.
A third reason we focused on Chrysler and Safety-Kleen is to illustrate the range of approaches a company can take. At Chrysler, Robert A. Lutz, the company's president and chief operating officer, decided that he wanted the organization to use ABC and then made sure it did every step of the way. At Safety-Kleen, a middle manager initiated a pilot project at one plant and then used its success to win over executives and other plants' managers.
Although the two companies arrived at the decision to adopt ABC by different paths, both believed that a new approach to cost management was necessary to achieve their long-term strategies. Both understood that, instead of an accounting system designed to control expenditures, they needed a system that would help managers make better decisions about which products or services to offer and how to make and sell them. Both ran into many of the obstacles that other companies have encountered. Unlike many companies, Chrysler and Safety-Kleen recognized that they were not merely changing their accounting systems; they were changing their organizations. That understanding heavily influenced the way they rolled out ABC, and it is why their stories offer valuable lessons for other companies interested in activity-based management.
Turning to ABC
Chrysler, which has $52 billion in revenues and 123,000 employees, 97,000 of those in the United States, turned to ABC to help transform a bureaucratic organization set in its ways. During the 1980s, the automotive giant made enormous strides in improving its operating efficiency, slashing costs, boosting quality, and rejuvenating its product line. Nonetheless, Chrysler ended the decade still playing catch-up to such formidable competitors as the Japanese automakers and Ford Motor Company. Chrysler's financial crisis in the late 1980s, its second in a decade, underscored how much work remained to be done.
Chrysler's leaders were determined to replace the company's hierarchical functional structure with one that was much more flexible, efficient, cross-functional, and process oriented. To that end, they pushed the company to create its platform teams for developing new vehicles and to forge closer links with suppliers and distributors. Encouraged by the teams' initial successes in the late 1980s, they decided to transform the entire company into a process-focused organization.
Lutz, who had championed the platform teams and was the driving force behind the decision to structure the whole company around processes, became the leading advocate for using ABC to help with the transformation. He knew how difficult getting employees to change would be, especially with the auto market beginning to rebound and the company's profits rising. He believed that ABC would buttress the process approach by showing how much each process actually cost and by exposing inefficiencies.
The main purpose of the old cost-accounting system had been to help the finance department monitor operations and value inventory. However, outside of finance, few people believed the old system provided an accurate picture of the company's costs. One of the skeptics was Lutz. During his career at Ford, BMW, and Chrysler, he had often been annoyed when his creative proposals for product designs and manufacturing-process improvements were rejected. Because the companies' financial systems focused on direct costs and relied on arbitrary cost allocations, such as labor-based overhead rates, he felt they were incapable of evaluating his proposals fairly. His frustrations resurfaced during the rollout of the platform teams at Chrysler. Once again, Lutz saw clearly that the company's cost-accounting system could not report costs by process, much less separate value-added from non-value-added activities. When he came across an article about activity-based costing, he said, "This is the system for me."
Few at Chrysler believed the old accounting system gave an accurate picture of the company's costs.
In contrast, Safety-Kleen, a relatively young, fast-growing company, turned to ABC because it had outgrown its accounting system. Safety-Kleen was founded in 1968 in response to companies' crying need to find safe ways to remove and recycle their hazardous wastes. The company started out processing one type of waste—mineral spirits—in one plant in Illinois and needed only a basic cost-accounting system that could provide sufficient information to satisfy internal financial controls and investors. The company's main challenge was how to exploit the vast opportunities in an undeveloped market. It was a marketing-driven company focused on environmental compliance; efficiency of operations was a secondary concern.
By 1991, however, Safety-Kleen had become much bigger and much more complex. The number of hazardous chemicals it handled had grown to more than 100, and the number of product lines had grown to ten, including used motor oil, antifreeze, oil filters, paint, and drycleaning solvents. And its number of plants had grown to 12 in eight states and Puerto Rico, and most of them handled multiple types of waste. (One plant has since been closed.) By the early 1990s, the market had also become more complex. Growth had slowed, competition had increased, and some states had begun imposing taxes of up to 25% on hazardous-waste generators and recyclers.
Safety-Kleen, which currently has 6,600 employees and revenues of $800 million, achieved its rapid growth by encouraging the managers of its facilities to act like entrepreneurs. Plant managers were responsible for deciding how to handle the wastes shipped to their facilities; they could process the material themselves or ship it to another facility or, in some cases, to a third-party processor. But usually, wastes were simply shipped to the nearest Safety-Kleen plant, whether or not it was the one that could process them at the lowest cost. In fact, Safety-Kleen did not know the true costs of its services and products. The main purpose of the cost-accounting numbers was to help the accounting department keep the books, not to help operations do its job.
As the pressure on profits intensified, so did operations' and marketing's animosity toward accounting because they didn't trust its numbers. Operations and marketing began to develop their own numbers to support decisions about capital expenditures, pricing, plant utilization, and process improvements. Top management gradually realized that the company needed to start basing waste-handling decisions on what would generate the most profits for the whole company rather than what would be best for an individual plant. In order to make decisions that way, the company needed much more detailed information about its operational costs, including how much processing, shipping, and handling a given batch of materials would cost at each plant. In short, the company needed a radically new cost-accounting system.
Internal Resistance
When Safety-Kleen and Chrysler first introduced ABC, they both quickly discovered that many employees—from frontline workers to senior managers to entire departments—resisted. Some feared ABC would change the existing power structure. Some felt threatened because they knew ABC would reveal inefficient practices that had been hidden by the traditional cost-accounting systems. Others did not like ABC, simply because it was new. And many managers, especially those who felt ABC was being imposed on their operations, resisted because they knew installing it was a tremendous amount of work. (See the insert "Why Collecting ABC Information Is Such a Big Job.")
Why Collecting ABC Information Is Such a Big Job
The deep skepticism with which Chrysler employees greeted the ABC initiative at some of the first work sites where it was installed was hardly surprising. Chrysler had a long history of flavor-of-the-month performance-improvement programs that never seemed to deliver what they promised and were replaced as soon as a new program came along. The fact that one division had briefly tried a form of ABC in the mid-1980s and had abandoned it after a change in management only fed the skepticism.
As Lutz had anticipated, once the market had rebounded, employees questioned why the company needed to change at all. Furthermore, with all plants operating at full tilt, line and middle managers questioned whether they had the time to collect the necessary data. Many employees also feared that an unspoken motive for introducing ABC was to eliminate jobs. Some of the corporate controller's staff and some operations managers were equally unenthusiastic. The old cost-accounting system had shaped their skills and their way of thinking about costs. They, too, assumed that ABC was just the latest fad and that once it had passed, life would continue relatively unchanged.
The initial resistance at Safety-Kleen was different, partly because a middle manager in accounting was the effort's champion. The notion that ABC might greatly help Safety-Kleen originated with C. James Schulz, the controller of North American operations, who recruited William J. Chaika, the assistant controller of the recycling centers, to undertake a pilot project. Schulz and Chaika's bosses—the corporate controller and the chief financial officer—approved and supported the project, but Chaika was the one who actively championed the effort.
Senior managers had chosen a plant in New Castle, Kentucky, as the pilot because they wanted to use it to enter a new growth market. Before plunging ahead, they wanted to make sure they knew the actual costs of processing materials with new multimillion-dollar equipment at the plant. Chaika assembled a team of three Safety-Kleen regional controllers, one financial analyst, and two consultants from Price Waterhouse to join him in installing an ABC system. When they arrived at the plant, the trouble began. The manager told them to get lost. As far as he was concerned, accounting had no business telling him how to run his plant.
When the accountants arrived at Safety-Kleen's plant in New Castle, Kentucky, the manager told them to get lost.
Chaika also ran into resistance from the vice president of recycle-center operations, to whom all the plant managers reported, and the five marketing vice presidents, who were each responsible for one or more lines of hazardous waste. Operations and marketing agreed that the company needed to change the way it made decisions, but they had different priorities. Marketing wanted information on product costs, and operations wanted information on operating performance. Neither department was happy that the initiative had come out of accounting. In addition, each feared the other would use the numbers to invade its turf. And the five marketing vice presidents were fearful that ABC would change the ground rules for calculating profits and, as a result, might reduce their pay.
After some initial struggles, both Chrysler and Safety-Kleen overcame internal resistance in ways that serve as a model for other companies. First, both companies persuaded critical employees to give ABC a fair shake and, ultimately, to embrace the system. Second, both mounted major programs to educate employees at all levels in the principles and mechanics of ABC. Third, both began with one plant and then rolled out the program throughout their organizations, making sure that local managers were involved and that there were visible successes. Finally, once ABC had been introduced at a facility, they quickly dumped the old accounting system.
Getting Widespread Acceptance
At many companies, top management delegates the implementation of ABC to the accountants. We think that practice is a mistake. At Chrysler, executives got involved from the start, a commitment that continues today. For example, Chrysler's operating committee of senior executives, which Lutz chairs, has taken responsibility for tracking and guiding the ABC program on a regular basis. In addition, Chrysler's officers—its top 32 executives—spend half a day once a year in a workshop in which they receive in-depth briefings on the rollout's progress and deliberate about where the company should install ABC next.
Lutz also decided that finance alone should not control the emerging ABC system. Instead, he gave joint responsibility for the system to James D. Donlon III, the controller, and James P. Holden, the vice president who is in charge of continuous improvement and the move to process management. The project team that has spearheaded the implementation program reports to both executives. In addition, both Lutz and Robert J. Eaton, Chrysler chairman and CEO, became vocal advocates of ABC throughout the company. At work site after work site, both have preached that a process-based structure using ABC could make Chrysler the most agile, lowest-cost automaker in North America by 1996 and in the world by 2000.
Safety-Kleen used a different approach to gain employee acceptance. First, Chaika pacified the manager of the New Castle plant by promising that if he didn't agree that ABC helped him make better decisions by the end of the pilot project, he could abandon it. Within three months, everyone could see that ABC would help the plant cut costs significantly. (In the first year, ABC helped the plant identify a hefty $3.5 million in potential annual cost savings.) Equally important, the ABC numbers were extremely helpful in figuring out the amount of new materials that the plant needed to process in order to be competitive and profitable. The plant's manager was sold.
After seeing what ABC could do, plant managers clamored to get on board.
Chaika then orchestrated special meetings with operations and marketing and with senior executives, a group that included the vice president of recycle-center operations and the five marketing vice presidents. Chaika and his team went over the plant's 150-page cost book in great detail, showing how costs had been allocated to different processes and how the cost of each product had been derived. No one could argue with the numbers. Everyone realized that such numbers would help them make better decisions, which would quickly generate higher profits.
Chaika did not have to woo the managers of the other plants. After seeing the difference ABC was making at New Castle, they clamored to get on board.
Training the Workforce
No company that we know of has invested the time and effort that Chrysler has in educating employees about ABC. More than 18,000 Chrysler employees have attended one of the company's formal ABC training courses. Many union officials and suppliers' employees have taken the courses, too. From the outset, the courses have had two main purposes: to explain why ABC is necessary and to instruct employees in how to set it up and use it. Chrysler created three groups of courses.
The courses in the first group, which introduce the basic concepts of ABC, are for employees at a wide range of levels—from top management down to some hourly workers. The half-day courses explain what ABC is, how it differs from the traditional cost-accounting system, and what Chrysler hopes to get out of it. The message, reinforced with examples, is that ABC's purpose is to help employees make better decisions, not to get them to work harder or to eliminate their jobs.
The courses in the second group are for managers who will have responsibility for implementing ABC at their work sites. The two-day courses make heavy use of case studies and cover the practical application of ABC information in making decisions. For example, a computerized simulation lets people tackle realistic business problems, such as whether the company should start manufacturing a part that it now buys from a supplier. The computer program first uses traditional financial information, which allocates many costs arbitrarily, and then ABC information. Most participants figure out the best solution when they use the ABC numbers. In contrast, the answers—and the outcomes—vary widely when they use the numbers from the old accounting system. "Those with good intuition do well, while those without good intuition go bankrupt," says David E. Meador, the Chrysler manager who heads the company's ABC implementation team.
The courses in the third group, which last three to five days, are highly technical and specialized. Their purpose is to teach employees such as industrial engineers, controllers, and investment analysts how to set up and use an ABC-based system—in other words, the skills needed to collect the data, build the models, set up the computer systems, and analyze the information.
Safety-Kleen never offered formal classroom training in ABC. Instead, it put employees through a three-month, intensive, on-the-job training program—an approach that makes sense for many smaller companies. After the first-day fiasco at New Castle, Chaika realized that he could not impose ABC on a plant. Every aspect—from collecting the data, to designing the system, to training the workforce to interpret and use the data—had to be done in partnership with the plant's management. So, at New Castle and later at other plants, the implementation team first spent two days explaining to the plant's managers all the steps involved in installing ABC, emphasizing that the process would be a joint effort. The team also stressed that the main reason for installing ABC was to help managers expand the business, not shrink it, and it pointed to how ABC had led to hiring, not firing, at the first plants.
After the data had been collected and the system had been designed at a particular plant, the team and the plant's managers made a top-ten list of ways they thought that efficiency could be improved. The team then helped the plant's personnel analyze the projects, in the process teaching them how to use ABC and showing how it could help them make better decisions. For example, the Safety-Kleen plant in Linden, New Jersey, analyzed the company's practice of temporarily storing used motor oil at hazardous-waste-processing centers before shipping it to its oil-recycling plant in East Chicago, Indiana. When Safety-Kleen entered the market for recycling motor oil, it used available tank capacity at hazardous-waste centers in order to reduce transportation costs. Using small trucks, the centers collected the oil from service stations within a 150-mile radius. Once a center had enough to fill a big tanker truck, it loaded the oil again and transported it 10 to 25 miles to a rail yard, where it was shipped to East Chicago. Because Safety-Kleen had tank capacity available at its centers, managers considered it a free resource. But an ABC-based analysis showed that the cost of using it certainly was not free. First, the company had not calculated the costs of testing each batch of oil in the truck, unloading it, testing it again in the tank, reloading it into a larger truck, and retesting it in that truck. Second, the company had not considered the cost of unnecessary paperwork: Although oil is not a hazardous material, the company had to document its handling as if it were in order to comply with regulations for hazardous-waste centers. Once the company tallied all of those costs and charged them to the oil-recycling business, the practice quickly stopped. The small trucks began taking the oil directly to the rail yard.
At every plant, the team stayed until the staff had put at least two or three improvements in place.
At every plant where ABC was implemented, the team stayed until the staff was able to put at least two or three items on its top-ten list into action. It made sure that the benefits were quantified—both to drive home to the plant's employees the difference that ABC had made and to win over people at other plants. In instance after instance, plant managers said that ABC helped them make decisions that they previously had had a gut feeling were right but had been reluctant to make without hard data. ABC, they said, gave them the data they needed.
The Rollout
Chrysler's managers, like Safety-Kleen's, realized fairly quickly that they had to take great care to make sure that employees felt involved in ABC's introduction and saw proof that it really worked. Chrysler's first step was to expose top-level managers to the concept in a series of seminars. Then, in 1991, Chrysler launched a pilot project at its high-volume stamping plant in Warren, Michigan. Chrysler's managers chose Warren because it looked like a sure win. The plant had a progressive manager, and company executives believed that its product mix could be improved. Over time, the plant had been pressed into making some low-volume parts, and executives had strong hunches that their true costs were much higher than the traditional cost-accounting system indicated.
The pilot was extremely successful. The ABC numbers showed that the actual costs of some low-volume parts were as much as 30 times the stated costs, which made clear that the company would be much better off outsourcing those parts and making more high-volume parts. In addition, the pilot helped uncover pockets of waste and inefficiency, which plant managers attacked immediately. Finally, it helped the plant redesign both its products and processes so that it could make parts for the company's next minivan model much more efficiently.
Two-thirds of the way into the rollout at Warren, the results were already so impressive that Lutz decided to introduce ABC at six more plants. He assigned Donlon, the controller, the job of getting the effort under way. Donlon handpicked 6 young, aggressive employees to be on the initial ABC implementation team. All came from the finance department. But as the rollout began to pick up steam over the next year, the team's full-time staff was increased to 20. To reinforce the message that the motive for installing ABC was to help the managers run their operations better, the team's membership also was broadened to include people from manufacturing, engineering, and information systems. The team's composition certainly helped the ABC program achieve the high level of acceptance that it has won throughout the company.
Chrysler refined the introduction process into a science and methodically rolled out ABC into all areas of the company in order to emphasize that it was for everyone, not just manufacturing. The entire rollout at a work site takes 6 to 15 months, depending on the size of the facility. First, an advance group conducts 12 weeks of training to pave the way for the actual installation of ABC. During that period, everyone at the work site takes one or more of the courses the company offers, and managers widely distribute videos and newsletter articles on what is to come. They also encourage the people who will be responsible for setting up and using the ABC system to attend sessions aimed at making them receptive to new ideas. Next, two other groups arrive on the scene to implement the ABC system and to give the operation's managers and professionals hands-on training in using its information and maintaining and updating the system. The first group oversees the efforts to collect data and build the ABC computer model. The second helps with the technical work required to link the ABC model with the general ledger, the manufacturing-planning system, and other support systems. Both groups work closely with the managers of the operation—to tap their knowledge and to instill in them a sense of ownership of both the rollout and the new ABC system.
Chrysler methodically rolled out ABC into all areas of the company to show it was for everyone, not just manufacturing.
Chrysler's managers also realized that they had to show, rather than merely tell, employees that ABC would help them make better decisions. For example, ABC helped Chrysler tackle a longstanding problem: how to determine the optimal number of wiring harnesses—the wiring packages used for a vehicle's electrical systems—that it should design and produce for a new minivan. The alternatives ranged from one to nine. If the company produced only one, that harness would have to contain wires for all the possible options. On the other hand, if the company produced nine harnesses, each one tailored to a particular type of van, it would waste less material but would incur greater costs and make the design and production processes more complex. Because design engineers were measured by how well they kept down the materials costs for each vehicle, they voted for nine. Because manufacturing plant managers were rewarded for minimizing inventory and labor, they wanted to produce only one. But the ABC team showed that making two harnesses would strike the best balance between minimizing waste and maximizing productivity. Once they saw the ABC numbers, neither the design engineers nor the manufacturing managers could dispute that conclusion.
After Safety-Kleen had installed the ABC pilot at its New Castle plant, operations and marketing executives took a strategic approach to selecting the next plants. The goal was to use the rollout to get an overview of the relative costs and profitability of each recycling process and line of business. If the decision between two plants utilizing the same process was a toss-up, they chose the plant whose manager seemed more enthusiastic.
Safety-Kleen tried to strike a balance between maximizing the speed of the rollout and minimizing the number of people on the implementation teams. To that end, the company limited the number of work sites at which ABC was being introduced at any one time to two and staggered the two efforts. A core team of three people—the regional controller, an accounting analyst, and, until the company felt it had mastered the process, a Price Water-house consultant—oversaw each introduction from the beginning to the end. Five others—analysts who assisted with process mapping, data collection, and activity costing—performed their tasks and then left. A typical implementation took three months at the plant and a week to tie in the plant's new ABC system to corporate headquarters.
Because of the plant-by-plant approach, the corporate accounting department was not able to convert to ABC all at once. Only after all the targeted plants had been converted could the controller's staff streamline and automate its own closing process. The result: Even though ABC requires more data collection, reporting, and analysis than the traditional accounting system did, closing the books each month now takes no longer than before.
Within 15 months of the pilot's launch, operations, marketing, and accounting executives had begun to use ABC information to make strategic decisions. And within 18 months of the launch, Safety-Kleen's five largest plants had adopted it.
Final Integration
The final hurdle in implementing ABC is integrating it into the organization's financial systems and performance measures. Many companies have tried to implement ABC as a shadow or secondary system. But ABC won't take root if its numbers are not integrated into the company's mainstream financial-reporting system. When the ABC data are not kept up to date, can't be reconciled with the financial reports, or are not distributed widely as the official numbers, managers often retreat to the old numbers. "If two sets of numbers exist, one set will ultimately dominate," says Donlon, the controller at Chrysler, which tried using ABC as a shadow system at some of its first sites.
Most companies develop stand-alone ABC models, which they install on off-line personal computers. Those models often can't be integrated into the official financial results, are difficult to maintain, and usually do not follow generally accepted accounting principles, which means they cannot be used for external financial reporting. As a result, they quickly become obsolete.
Precisely because maintaining one set of numbers is difficult enough, let alone two, Safety-Kleen's management decided that as soon as an ABC system had been introduced into a work site, it should become the sole source of financial-reporting numbers. In the recycling centers, the company installed a new data-collection system that could update the ABC numbers each month. It also built automatic links between its corporate general ledger and the ABC system to ensure that the numbers reconciled in both systems every month.
Safety-Kleen now uses ABC numbers to develop its annual budget and to make strategic decisions about closing plants and adding and cutting product lines. Safety-Kleen also has adopted ABC-based performance measures, which involved a fundamental rethinking of the old system. As Safety-Kleen rolled out ABC, its top-level managers realized that some of the old performance measures were not motivating plant managers to make decisions that were best for the company as a whole. For example, plant managers were still rewarded based on how they performed against an operating budget set at the beginning of each year, which did not take into account processing efficiency or unit costs. The measures were changed to reward managers for reducing the unit costs of the materials processed at their plants.
When used in a onetime analysis of products' costs, ABC can make a big difference. But it is a onetime big difference. After a company has integrated ABC into all of its mainstream financial systems, and ABC numbers have become the yardsticks of performance, the system dramatically changes the way an organization's people think. Then, the average quality of the decisions made day in and day out will be vastly higher than before. When that happens, you can bet that the company's performance will show it.


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Wednesday Writing Prompts-The Grass Is Always Greener
This week's prompt is based on the saying-
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
Does you character utter these words?
Does someone else say them to your character?
Is the character thinking of moving someplace else?
Maybe your character is envious about the neighbor having a better looking garden?
Lots you can do with this saying so…
Have fun and happy writing.

subset: commoncrawl


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Bernhardt nominated to lead Interior
President Donald Trump has nominated Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to take the position as the department's secretary. The nomination comes less than two months after Ryan Zinke stepped down from the position in January. Bernhardt has been acting Interior secretary since Zinke's departure.
Bernhardt was confirmed as Deputy Interior Secretary in July 2017. He also served at Interior from 2001 to 2009 in various roles. Bernhardt was unanimously confirmed by the Senate as the department's solicitor in 2006, having previously served as deputy solicitor. He has also served the department as the deputy chief of staff and as the director of Congressional and legislative affairs. Between his stints at Interior, Bernhardt chaired the natural resources department at the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP. He also recently served on the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Soon after his nomination was announced on Twitter, Bernhardt moved to begin building his staff at Interior with two new appointments. He appointed William Werkheiser as science advisor to the secretary. Werkheiser has been in the secretary's office on temporary detail from the U.S. Geological Survey, where he was responsible for all aspects of water science programs in the USGS as the associate director for water. He has worked in the federal government for 30 years, much of it with USGS.
Bernhardt also announced that Alan Mikkelsen, who is currently Interior's senior advisor for water and Western resource issues, will expand his portfolio to include all the Interior Department's water policy issues.
Conservation groups have reacted to the nomination with mixed reviews. Ducks Unlimited applauded the nomination, highlighting Bernhardt's expertise on legal matters with the department. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers adopted a more cautious tone. In their press release, they called on Bernhardt to "utilize the best available science to guide decisions that strike a balance between resource development and conservation." Bernhardt's 2017 nomination for deputy secretary drew opposition from a coalition of 150 environmental organizations.
His nomination for secretary will go to the Senate for confirmation.


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"It's only Thursday morning, is there something that you would like to tell me about your situation that might impact the timeline, otherwise we don't expect to have a decision until next week." That's a real reply from a hiring manager to someone who followed up after her interview, but BEFORE the earliest date by which she was told the company would make their decision. Ouch!
A story of following up too often and too soon
The job seeker had a good interview and was lucky enough to be given a tentative timeline by the hiring manager. But, as so many of you can understand, each day she waited seemed like forever. So she decided to try to push for some feedback on her own timeline. When she didn't get any response to her call, she emailed the company. And the response she got was the one above. Now she was worried that she hurt her chances by seeming too eager.
Besides risking being annoying, she also risked showing that she didn't listen even when informed of the process, and that can be a big turn off to a prospective employer. Is this what she'll be like as an employee? Still, to be fair, if you are by far the employer's top choice, one small eager-beaver move probably won't lose you the job.
But it could, especially if you keep at it … and that's a good enough reason to think carefully about the style and frequency of your post-interview contact.
A side note: While waiting for a response, you should consider applying for additional jobs. It's not a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to a job search. Get expert help with writing resumes for other job applications using our Resume Builder, which offers professionally written text suggestions for all sections of a resume.
Browse popular templates and create a professional resume that stands out.
What it feels like from the employer's side
I know how long each day you wait seems. It's kind of like dog years. One day feels like many days and a week feels like forever. But from the employer's side, the first week can fly by. So can the next week. And the one after that. In most cases, people involved in the hiring process have a lot more to do than just think about how long a job candidate is waiting. They pretty much assume you know that it's a process that has more steps to it than just interviewing one person and getting back to them right away. The employer has to get through ALL the interviews and decide if they have enough good candidates to choose from.
Even if they feel good about one of them (aka YOU), sometimes they may look for more resumes to satisfy internal policies or simply make sure they've done a good search. More time. And after that, they have to coordinate schedules for the second round of interviews if needed. More time.
If the final round of interviews are complete, there are more discussions and then possibly background/reference checks, sign-offs and an official package to put together. And throughout all this, you may or may not hear from them. (Sorry.)
But if you are a candidate they feel good about, rest assured that they have NOT forgotten you!
How patience can do more than you think
What you don't want to be remembered for is being the person who keeps calling and emailing to try to get them to move along. It shows that you don't understand or respect how busy they may be, how full their inboxes get, and that they are moving as quickly as their process and schedules allow. It really is their call. Don't try to push them to meet your timetable – and then be angry at them if they won't.
Look … I know it's easy for me to say "be patient", and that it's not easy for someone waiting to hear back after an interview to do that. BUT, I'd like you to think of it as a chance to practice something that will serve you well in your career.
As people move up in the ranks, the one thing that helps them succeed is learning how to wait for what they set in motion to happen, especially when other people are involved. So you could think about every day you wait as succeeding in something that will help make you stronger in the long run.
But what if they think I'm not doing enough?
One of my readers wrote to ask: "Should I follow up with HR or be patient a few more days? I have got the impression that they're pretty deliberate, but I still want to be assertive too." He's not the only one to wonder whether NOT following up aggressively will hurt them. I addressed this in my last post:
"Employers know how hard jobs are to come by and assume you're interested. You convey that best in the interview by your attitude, enthusiasm, listening carefully, and answering questions as best you can.
After the interview, by all means send a thank you note, even though that too is not mandatory. Just keep it short and polite. Maybe mention something discussed in the interview that stood out for you. And if you don't hear anything back in a couple of weeks (although the process can take far longer), by all means send a short follow-up note.
But you don't NEED to do any of this for them to think you are interested."
Some final thoughts
I know I've written about this a lot lately. It's because so many of the comments I get are about the pain of waiting and not knowing what to do – or not do. You can twist your brain into a knot trying to figure out what an employer does or doesn't want from you. And the truth is, there is no one right answer.
But I can assure you that a bit of patience will serve you well during this process. It can go on far longer than you or the employer wishes. And if you try too hard or too soon or too often to show THEM the right way and push for an exact timeline or decision, you are only showing them that you might not be the person who can handle a job where delays and frustrations can happen all the time.
So by all means follow up in a way that makes sense for the job and shows you've thought about the employer's side as well as your own. But try not to sit and seethe if you don't hear back as soon as you'd wish. It's often the norm. Use the time instead to keep looking, just in case. Plus it's always nice to have two jobs to choose from!


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Bellaire is launching its yearly Christmas tree recycling today (Monday, Dec. 28) — a dropoff which will last through Jan. 15.
Residents can deposit their stripped, unflocked trees in the marked collection area — in the parking lot at the corner of Baldwin Avenue and Edith Street in the most southeastern portion of the city.
All ornaments, tinsel, stands and lights must be removed.
Trees left curbside in residential areas will be picked up with household trash and land filled.
For more information, contact Bellaire Public Works, 713-662-8170.


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Economic Analysis: GDP - December 2017
Flat December pushes overall growth down slightly for the year
1. December
The Canadian economy ended 2017 on a flat note, as weakness in manufacturing, construction and wholesale/retail trade kept overall GDP effectively unchanged from November. All told, the Canadian economy grew by less than 0.1 per cent to close the year, equivalent to an annualized increase of less than 0.9 per cent.
December's GDP numbers are consistent with an overall slowing growth trend since last spring. With the singular exception of November, recent Canadian GDP growth has been tepid compared to the first half of the year. Quarterly and annual figures for the Canadian economy will be discussed further below.
The good news is that at the industry level, the weakness was limited to the three sectors mentioned above. In fact, nine of the fifteen major industrial categories recorded solid GDP growth in December. Leading the way were utilities, and energy and mining, both of which expanded by about 0.6 per cent compared to November. There were also notable gains in finance and real estate industries, and in education.
However, those gains were countered by declines in trade, manufacturing and construction. Retail trade GDP fell by about 0.8 per cent, while wholesale activity and manufacturing dropped by about 0.7 per cent each. For its part, construction GDP fell by 0.3 per cent. In fact, were it not for those declines, the Canadian economy would have grown by a healthy 0.36 per cent in December.
Looking at the manufacturing sector more closely, the drop in value-added output in December was not only widespread, but an abrupt reversal after an exceptionally strong November. Led by a return to normal production levels in the auto sector, manufacturing GDP had spiked by nearly 2.1 per cent in November - equivalent to an annual increase of more than 27 per cent. The good news for manufacturing is that the increase in November was so large that the decline of 0.7 per cent the next month was small by comparison; manufacturing GDP in December was still well above October levels.
Within manufacturing, seven of the eleven major industries were down to end the year. Chemicals industries led the way in that regard, posting a decline of 2.2 per cent compared to November. That drop was heavily concentrated in pharmaceuticals production, where value added output plunged by more than seven per cent in a single month. There were also steep declines in primary metals, machinery and motor vehicles production to end the year.
On the positive side, Canada's forestry sector continues to defy the challenges from US trade actions, as both paper and wood products producers once again made solid gains in December. Plastics and rubber producers have also enjoyed strong growth in recent months.
2. 2017 Year-End
The release of December's GDP numbers also means that quarterly and year-end figures for the Canadian economy are also available. GDP growth for the final quarter of 2017 came in at about 1.7 per cent, while third-quarter growth - which was initially estimated to also be 1.7 per cent - was revised down to 1.5 per cent.
As a result of the downward revision to third-quarter GDP numbers, annual GDP growth for 2017 came in lower than projected by CME - 3.0 per cent compared to our initial forecast of 3.4 per cent. Those numbers could still change in the next three months as additional revisions are made. Even so, annual growth of 3.0 per cent remains a strong performance for the Canadian economy - its best showing since 2011.
It is also worth noting that Statistics Canada produces several different calculations for GDP growth. Monthly GDP numbers are based on industrial production, whereas the most widely-referenced figures represent GDP calculated on the basis of expenditures (or also revenues). On an industry basis, annual GDP was up by 3.3 per cent compared to 2016.
Although fourth-quarter GDP growth was unspectacular at 1.7 per cent, the good news is that growth was weighed down by a significant decline in inventories rather than in actual spending or investment. GDP in inventories fell by more than 18 per cent in Q4, dampening the impact of solid increases in every other expenditure category.
The best news came in business investment which has finally begun to turn around after nearly two years of steady decline following the collapse in oil prices. Business investment rose by 2.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2017, driving it to its highest level since the spring of 2015. Exports also posted strong gains (0.7 per cent), while household spending continued to make steady increases (0.5 per cent).
It was also a good year for manufacturing in 2017. Annual GDP in manufacturing was up 3.3 per cent compared to 2016 - its fastest pace of growth since 2011 when the sector was still recovering from the impact of the financial crisis.
The runaway growth leader within manufacturing was the machinery sector where value-added output soared by more than 18 per cent. There were also strong gains in petroleum refining (7.7 per cent) and in plastics and rubber product output (7.3 per cent). On the negative side, transportation equipment industries had a rough year in 2017. Motor vehicles and parts GDP fell by 3.4 per cent, while aerospace activity was down by 6.0 per cent.


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O'Donaghue's Irish Pub is situated in a 200 year old sandstone building built by John T. Williston in 1824.
The John T. Williston House is an 1824 2-story stone residential structure located on Water Street in the City of Miramichi.
Sightings of shadows in the basement where the washrooms are have been reported. The second level has the most activity with lights turning themselves on and off, articles moving, loud noises, foot steps and an eerie apparition in the upstairs window after closing time.
(Submitted by Stephen L)
If you've had a paranormal experience here, or have any additional information about this location, please let us know!
Rate this Haunted Place
What do you think? Is this place really haunted? Voice your opinion here! Click "thumbs up" if you think its haunted, or "thumbs down" if you think its all just a tall tale.
Geographic Information
- Address:
- 1696 Water St
Miramichi, NB
Get Directions »
- 47.0291236, -65.47076659999999
- Region:
- Northumberland County
- Nearest Towns:
- Chatham, NB (1.8 mi.)
Loggieville, NB (4.9 mi.)
South Nelson, NB (4.9 mi.)
Newcastle, NB (5.5 mi.)
Junction Derby, NB (8.2 mi.)
Beaver Brook Station, NB (8.6 mi.)
Barnaby, NB (10.3 mi.)
Barnaby River, NB (10.3 mi.)
Millerton, NB (11.8 mi.)
Whitney, NB (13.1 mi.)
Please note: It is your responsibility to acquire appropriate permissions before investigating any location listed on this site. Private property should be respected at all times, as should all posted signs concerning trespassing, hours of operation and other local regulations. Many "ghost hunters" have been arrested because they failed to contact property owners and/or local authorities ahead of time.
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Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.


text: When you take to the water, you want to do so in the safest and most comfortable sailing clothing available. P&B stocks the widest array of sailing and dinghy clothing to be found anywhere, including garments produced by some of the world's leading sailing brands. Whether you're after sailing jackets to keep you warm, spray tops to shield you from the elements or quality life jackets to keep you safe, we have everything you need to kit yourself out from head to toe.


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Photo-luminescent or glow-in-the-dark tape as they are popularly known, are very useful during emergency situations emergency involving blackout or smoke-laden conditions because the tape is immediately visible, providing a safe, illuminated evacuation path without needing any extra power source. This gives it an edge over other measures that require alternative or extra power to function properly – the tape is a hassle-free way to steer everyone to safety.
- The tape sticks quickly and conveniently to all non-oily surfaces including walls, handrails, columns, around door frames, and along stairways and baseboards. Basically, they can be utilized in any location.
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- They are constructed from a flexible laminated film that is coated with permanent acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive and backed by poly-coated release liner.
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Looking for safe, easy to install, long-lasting Photo-luminescent tape? Contact us now @ (65) 6848 4867 or simply email us @ email@example.com to request for a quotation.


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What if I Fail Life in the UK Test – Retake Options
If you take a life in the UK exam, you will have the results as soon as the test session is done. The test manager will announce whether you pass or you fail. The passing mark is approximately 75%. If you pass the exam, the test manager will hand you the pass notification letter. The letter includes information about the test date, the test manager, test centre location as well as a special ID number. When you successfully finished the application for the citizenship or the indefinite leave to remain, you must attach the pass notification letter given to you by your test manager and submit them to a Home Office. This Home Office will retain the details received from test centers in a given period. Nevertheless, you must be able to send your application immediately after taking the test.
Pass notification letter for the life in UK exam is very essential. You must be able to place it in a certain area where you can remember and keep it until you decide to apply for a citizenship or a settlement of indefinite leave to remain. Once you misplaced or lost the letter, a request for a replacement will not be accepted and the last thing that you can do is to pay and have a retake of the life in the UK exam.
What if I Fail Life in the UK Test – Retake Procedure
Unfortunately If you failed the exam, the test manager will inform you as soon as you complete the test. You must not apply for naturalization as British citizen or indefinite leave to remain if you were not able to obtain a passing mark for the test. Even if you did not pass this time, you can take another test, though you will have to wait for one week to be able to have a retake of the life in the UK exam. If you want to increase your chances of passing, you must carefully read and review the second edition of the "Life in the United Kingdom" handbook. One good means to prepare for the exam is by answering practice questions on several approved websites. You must be able to review it thoroughly, until you are fully confident to answer or take the real life in the UK exam.
When you are ready for the retake, of course you need to book again for a test schedule at your chosen test centre. When you figure out that the reason you did not pass the exam is your English communication skills, then you may want to attend a combined English Language and citizenship sessions that can be found on local education colleges. You must take this option if you want to pass the Life in UK exam.
Being a British citizen can be a very challenging stage in one's life. Settling in UK is one of the greatest achievements that you can be proud of. No pain, no gain. The splendor of becoming a British citizen is worth all the tedious process you undergo in taking a life in the UK exam.
UK immigration rules are becoming more and more complicated by the day. Stop delaying ! Take the Life in the UK exam now and take control of your future.
Life in the UK test secrets revealed here at Life in the UK test and Life in the UK exam
What if I Fail Life in the UK Test – information Disclaimer
This article details about What if I Fail Life in the UK Test and how to Prepare Retake for Citizenship Test with best Study Resources. This page is NOT the official Life in the UK Test (Hopefully this fact is fairly evident).
Every effort has been made to make these Free information (about What if I Fail Life in the UK Test) on this site as complete and as accurate as possible, so that your experience will be thoroughly enjoyable, but NO warranty or fitness is implied.
If you haven't PASSED Your UK Citizenship test yet,
Please take the Time NOW to visit Life in the UK Test Questions for FREE practice Questions.
For details about Booking the Citizenship Test visit Life in the UK Test Booking


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I just wanted to show everyone just how easy making your own baby food really is.This is a normal size batch for me...for now. You can store frozen baby food for up to 3 months, but I'd rather make smaller batches so Fletch can try a variety of things for now. One medium sweet potato will fill one ice cube tray with a little extra. Whatever does not fit in the ice cube tray, I place in a Tupperware container in the fridge and use that up first. You can keep food in the fridge for 3 days. The best way to cook the veggies is to bake or steam. (Side note: I just ruined my steamer pot and I am waiting on a new silicone steamer insert so I can steam some veggies...PSA - Never leave your steaming food unattended!) Once you've cooked the veggies, you cut them into one inch pieces or smaller and place them in a food processor/blender/immersion blender and puree. You can use the water that you used to steam the veggies (you only need a few tablespoons) or you can use breast milk or tap water. Once you've pureed the veggies, you spoon them into the ice cube trays and freeze. Once they are frozen into veggie cubes, you can pop them out and put them in a zip-lock bag and label them. I try to put the date I made them to get in the habit, even though he will definitely finish all of them within three months. Once I start making bigger batches, it will come in handy. Making meat is not much different. I season and bake the chicken or turkey cutlets. Once they are cooked, I let them cool before putting them in the food processor. You process them until they are chopped into very fine pieces, then you add the liquid. You freeze the meat the same way. Each veggie or meat cube is about one ounce.
When it comes time to feed Fletch, I pull out three cubes to defrost. I like to mix and match and make all kinds of weird combinations. Fletch does not seem to mind the least. It takes about a minute in the microwave to soften and warm it up. If it gets too hot, I add some cold applesauce to cool it off. Applesauce is one of those important staples to keep in the fridge. Some people make their own, but I just buy the big jars of natural applesauce that has nothing added to it. Most of the veggies I make for Fletch are veggies that were already on our menu anyway. It is incredibly cheap. One bag of frozen veggies is less than a dollar and it produces way more baby food than you could get in a jar for the same price.
If anyone out there needs some helpful tips on getting started, feel free to email me and I'd love to help you get started.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
We're a Google Family
Image via WikipediaWe're a hardcore Google Family. All Google applications are free and there is an online app for everything. Check out the list of available apps. You don't have to download software. All Google apps are available online, or to use the parlance of our time, "in the cloud".
We have four Gmail addresses between us -me, Jennifer, Fletch and a family email. Yes even Fletch has his own email address. I wanted to make sure he didn't get some crazy email address like fletchos4987 when he's old enough to use the computer, so we registered a Gmail address early. If you want to email him his email address is fletchshock at gmail dot com. Don't expect a prompt response or it to make any sense. He's a baby for God's sake! Do look for him to post to this blog in the near future. :)
We use Google Calendar to schedule our lives and for reminders. I have a personal calendar, Jenn has a personal and school schedule calendar, we have a family calendar and a bills calendar to keep track of when our bills are due. There are also cool public calendars like sports teams schedules (I subscribe to the Redskins calendar of course), moon phases, holidays and a calendar that will pull all your contacts birthdays and anniversaries. I don't think we could live without it.
We use Google Reader to follow our favorite blogs. It's handy if you follow lots of blogs that span multiple interests. You can use tags like 'personal', 'sports', 'finance' or 'hobbies' to organize your blogs into categories. My favorite blogs are personal (friends and family blogs), the Redskins, personal finance, music, life hacks, beard blogs (there are many), blogs about the movie The Big Lebowski, and Google blogs. Jenn's favorite blogs are family and friends, crafts, The People of Walmart, Cake Wrecks and Awkward Family Photos.
We use Google Docs to create and share our online documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It's like an online version of Microsoft Office. You can create documents or scan and upload. It's compatible with MS Office, Open Office and PDF document formats. Docs has many advantages. It's free and doesn't take up any space on your hard drive. It's green in that you can upload all your important documents and store them in the cloud reducing clutter and improving organization. You can share documents with anyone who has an email address. You can collaborate simultaneously on the same document will all the doc owners. Jennifer's family sends out an annual holiday gift list email. It was hard to maintain among 10 adults and numerous kids. Jennifer turned the gift list into a Google Docs spreadsheet, shared it with everybody and viola! - problem solved. Everyone had access and could make updates without worrying if the they were editing the latest draft.
Our blogs are written and hosted by Blogger, Google's blog application. It's not as robust as Wordpress, but it suits our needs.
We use Google Sites to build and host our our family website, chronic and shock dot com.
Google Maps has replaced MapQuest as the map and directions website of choice. Before we got a GPS, we used Maps to get directions.
You can get Google products on your cellphone with Google Mobile. I can read my email, check my calendar, read blogs, find or create a document, make a call, send a text and get directions on my phone. You never have to leave home without Google apps.
The newest addition to our Google family is Google Voice. It gives you one phone number that can ring all your phones. It also transcribes your voicemail messages and sends you an email when you've got a new message. It links to your Gmail contact list. You can also send text messages from the website or email. I recently transitioned to a Google Voice number. Now when people call me, my cell phone, work phone and Jenn's phone all ring. The flexibility is amazing. You can have different settings per contact. If my mom calls, I can have it ring all my phones. If work calls, I can have it just ring my work phone. If you didn't receive the email with my new number the send me an email and I'll be happy to give it to you.
One Google app we don't use is Picasa, the photo website. We use Flickr instead. No particular reason. Flickr is just the more popular of the two.
Enough with the Google advertisement. I'm not a paid spokesperson. But I don't mind singing the praises of a forward thinking, creative company that has applications to make our life organized and easier. Just call us a digital family. We live in the cloud.
Brought to you by groovesocket at 1/30/2010 11:38:00 AM No comments:
Labels: digital family, Google, Google Sites, Website
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Feeding Fletch
While I was pregnant and trying to make a decision about all of the various options of how to take care of baby (diapering, sleeping, vaccinations, etc), I thought I had ruled out homemade baby food. That is until I read about how easy it actually is from a mom who considers herself to be pretty lazy (thank you Amalah). Not only is it easy, it is cheaper than buying all those little jars of food. Another benefit is knowing exactly what is going into Fletch's belly. Have you seen the color of some of those jarred veggies? I can't even find those colors in nature. Once Fletch was born, I had a few months to gear up for the process. I purchased a new food processor and some ice cube trays with lids. I found a wonderful online resource Wholesome Baby Food that has everything you need to know about making your own baby food. Initially Fletch started with rice cereal. Considering it only cost $2 for a box, I splurged on that menu item. We realized quickly that Fletch was not a fan of rice cereal. That is when I switched to oatmeal. I didn't get much more enthusiasm for oatmeal. One night I decided to try something else. I pulled out the frozen peas, steamed and pureed them and was ready to experiment. Fletch was very happy to see something new in his bowl and enthusiastically finished all of his peas. That was my jumping off point into the realm of homemade baby food. Since then we have tried other veggies, fruits and even yogurt. I was reading a blog that mentioned an article about avoiding creating a picky eater. There was a list provided of different food groups. In order to avoid creating a picky eater, it is suggested to have your baby try one thing from each group before they turn one. I found the article very interesting and I believe it will not be very hard to accomplish. I do not want to raise a picky eater addicted to macaroni and chicken nuggets. I may be a little optimistic, but here is the list I will be working on until June 28th. Of course, I will be following the normal guidelines as to when certain foods should be introduced. I'm not going destroy my son's digestive tract for my own selfish reasons. Maybe through this process, even I will try some foods that I have been apprehensive towards. I've tried everything I have fed Fletch so far, but I may have to pass on the mushrooms and beets. Those that have been struck through are those that we have already accomplished. Wish us luck!
Woody trees
Cruciferous vegetables
Heath plants
black beans peas
cucumber pumpkin squash
sunflower seeds
sesame seeds
Rosy plants
apple apricot
white potatoes
avocado cinnamon
swiss chard
True grasses
oats brown rice
sweet potato
Woody trees
Cruciferous vegetables
Heath plants
sunflower seeds
sesame seeds
Rosy plants
swiss chard
True grasses
Brought to you by Mrs Chronic-Shock at 1/27/2010 09:31:00 PM No comments:
Labels: feeding, homemade, solid food
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Our Little Spurs Fan
Every year I get tickets to see the Spurs play the Wizards here in DC. They only come once a year, and it is usually in February during the "Rodeo Road Trip." This year they came a little early. We took Fletch with us because being so close to the holidays it was far fetched to find a babysitter. We were a little nervous having him out a little late, but he did extremely well and did not get fussy until the last two minutes. Since the Spurs were kicking booty, we headed out a little early. Unfortunately the Spurs gear that Deanne sent Fletch was too big for him to wear to the game, but it may fit for next year's game. Fletch helped Mama cheer on her team and apparently is a good luck charm.
Brought to you by Mrs Chronic-Shock at 1/06/2010 08:55:00 PM No comments:
Labels: basketball, spurs
Ba Ba Ba
Here is a video of Fletch's cute babbling.
Brought to you by Mrs Chronic-Shock at 1/06/2010 08:50:00 PM No comments:
Labels: talking
Friday, January 1, 2010
What a way to start the year!
Look who's sitting up!Yep! He has been trying and trying and finally has something to show for it. Fletch has been sitting up with assistance for over a month, so it was bound to happen any day. This is Fletch's way of saying Happy New Year Mom and Dad! His 6-month appointment was on the 30th. He has grown 2 inches and is now 28" tall. Our little butterball is 18.9 pounds. According to Dr. Cross, he is doing amazing. We were even given the go-ahead to add some meat to his diet. Fletch tried some chicken today with his sweet potatoes and peas and had no complaints. Here's to a happy and healthy new year for our baby boy!
Brought to you by Mrs Chronic-Shock at 1/01/2010 03:20:00 PM No comments:
Labels: sitting up
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CIAS Craft Cider Work Featured in Grow Magazine
CIAS is working with Wisconsin cider businesses to assess and address the needs and challenges of the state's burgeoning cider industry. Together we have been working to help rediscover and rebuild some of the cider knowledge that was lost in the past, including information about which trees grow well in the state and what their apples taste like in cider form. Read about it in the Fall 2018 issue of Grow Magazine.


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Motcombs Restaurant & Bar
Refurbishment of the kitchen and restaurant and the restoration of mahogany raised and fielded panelled bar.
The restaurant kitchen served an excellent French/Continental 'a la carte' menu to 150 cover for lunch and dinner from only 98 sq ft of kitchen space.
Philip Lawless first became famous as the manager of the well-known Scotts Restaurant in Mount Street, also a client of Lewis & Horning, in Feb 1982 he bought Motcombs and transformed it from a small cafe' into a successful restaurant and bar.
Motcombs was recently refurbished by others, having expanded the restaurant into the two adjoining premises.
However, when Lewis & Horning were engaged to refurbish the original premises in the early eighties, the kitchen and dining room were relatively small given the number of covers achieved.
Because of the precision and finesse of the chef and the determination of the owner, Philip Lawless they did not compromise on the excellence of the food and service despite the limited space.
Having little storage, all the food was delivered and temporarily stored on the dining tables closest to the kitchen in the mornings. The food was then prepared and progressed into the kitchen for cooking, freeing the tables so they may be laid ready for the arrival of the customers at lunch time.
The task was to completely refurbish the kitchen retaining the existing cookers in the same area but finely tuning the layout and installing new services, ventilation, refrigeration and surface finishes, all strictly within the stringent health and safety regulations enforced within London restaurant industry.
The project had to be completed within the four day Easter Holiday, assuring the restaurants resumed turnover on the Tuesday evening re-opening.


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The MediaCenter now supports Aperture, the iPhoto application for professional photographers.Unfortunately the xml file, which manages the media data, does not contain the movies added to albums or projects. And also some other parts do not work as good as with iPhoto.Bild-Kino is now offered by the MediaCenter – please note that it is only available in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.And some providers are adapted – mainly for the nessViewer extension, which now offers new playlists at XTra.
nessViewer 2.7.1 available (Aperture, Bild-Kino)
Keywords: Aperture, Bild-Kino, MediaCenter