It was a pretty nice week for us at ABG Capital, how was yours? Our Executive Team spent most of the week planning and strategizing ways that they can implement the things they learned from the Leadership summit. They got tons of great information from the summit and now their biggest challenge is sifting through it all to figure out what can work best for their departments and their teams.

Yesterday there was a VM and SAN Technical Demo meeting where members of our staff got together to discuss all things technical. From the name of this meeting, you would think that it would be filled with technical lingo and tutorials that introduced our staff to a whole wealth of technical information. From my perspective as the Communications Specialist, it seemed like this meeting revolved more around this:

Why computers seem female:

• No one but the Creator understands their internal logic.
• The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.
• The message “Bad command or file name” is about as informative as, “If you don’t know why I’m mad at you, then I’m certainly not going to tell you.”
• Even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later retrieval.
• As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories.

As you know, today is Friday and that means another great lunch for the ABG Capital employees. Today is also the day where one of our lunch committees had to prepare the lunch for us. This month’s committee was made up of Heather Halpern, Lowell Smith, Bobby Taylor, and Paul Frye who have decided to whip us up some meatball hoagies!

Today is also the day when we’re taking a half day so we can do some volunteer work at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies. We’ll be cleaning headstones in order to help make everything look nice for their Memorial Day celebrations. I’ll be taking pictures and videos along the way so make sure you’re keeping up with us on Facebook!

I also wanted throw in another Around Town with Jeff post today since he was at an event last night.

WHO: Jeff Tapolci and Ron Eggert

WHAT: The Second Annual Simpson & McCrady, LLC Coktails and Cigars Event

WHERE: Cioppino Cigar Bar

WHEN: Thursday May 16, 2013

Jeff and Ron were invited to this event by Don Balla who is a friend and business associate who they have known for a few years now. Jeff said that this was a great networking event where they got to hang out and socialize with people who have similar interests. Don is a Managing Principal at Simpson & McCrady, LLC in Pittsburgh. He specializes in helping his clients manage their employee benefits programs as well as other things related to that area.  Check out this picture of Jeff and Don from the event!

When we wrote last week, we were telling you about the sound system that was installed that would play the sounds of a shotgun, distressed geese, and coyotes every 10-15 minutes to scare away the ducks. This week, we’re going to tell you how that didn’t work. It wasn’t long before these geese figured out our little charade. They kept coming back and getting closer and closer. Eventually they realized that there was no Elmer Fudd hiding in the bushes waiting for them and they resettled back into their home. After a while, our geese were comfortable with the sounds and they wouldn’t even flinch when it went off. On the other hand, we noticed another group of geese eyeing up the pond. Since they weren’t accustomed to the sounds they would fly off and never be seen again. It was comical to us because we realized that our geese were using those sounds as their own form of a home security system!

These geese are here to stay. They have made this place their home just like we have and they plan on staying here no matter what we throw at them. Whether it’s the good times or the bad times, our office wouldn’t be the same without them. We remember watching them learn to fly and saving them from Fight Clubs gone wrong and then we remember the other things that happen AFTER they grow up. The constant games of chicken between goose and car, running around and chasing them through the parking lot trying to get them to move out of the way, stepping in their crap, and the everlasting screaming battles between us and them.

We live with these geese every day and maybe that’s why we have such a love hate relationship them. You don’t always get along with the person/people you live with, right? That’s the same situation we go through with these geese. It all goes back to seeing those baby geese take their first steps and watching them learn to fly. It makes everything else worth it. Even if you don’t like the cute baby geese, you still might end up with an interesting story that goes something like this, “so I was leaving for work today and you wouldn’t believe what happened with this goose!”

As we bring this post to a close, we want to mention that it is that time of year when the geese are laying eggs. It’s bringing anticipation for the cuteness, but also concern for our legs and umbrellas as we fear the angry mother geese that we might run into. We’ll continue to write and take pictures and videos to keep you updated with the Geese of ABG Capital.

Welcome back to another installment about the Geese of ABG Capital! Last week we had tons of great things to say about our office geese. This week, we want to embark on a whole new journey into the world of the ABG Geese.

Sure these geese get tons of cuteness points as a babies, but that eventually wears off when they hit that inevitable “ugly duckling” phase. When this starts to happen, we notice that they get a little bigger and their feathers don’t look as soft and well kept. This is the point where they become less innocent, and more devious.

We’re not referring to their deviousness as them doing things like plotting to pop the tires on our cars or hit us with paintball guns as we exit the building after a long day. No. The deviousness we’re talking about is more subtle, but packs a powerful punch. We’re talking about goose crap. All over the parking lot and sidewalks. Did you know that a single goose can poop once every 20 minutes? It’s true and believe us we can prove it! We even started contests that would see who could run across the parking lot the fastest without stepping in goose crap. Luckily, our landlords understand this issue and we are so fortunate that they have a maintenance staff who keeps the parking lots and sidewalks clean. If they didn’t, we’d be in a load of trouble. Despite this downside, we accept our geese counterparts because those babies are adorable and entertaining to watch.

Speaking of entertainment, there comes a point sometimes where it gets painstakingly brutal to watch them interact with each other. There are a few key spots where these geese like to fight; an open area where a building might one day sit and right outside our Accounting Managers’ window. These fights basically turn into ‘Fight Club’ for geese and it does gets violent sometimes. There was even a time where some geese pushed a baby goose into the sewer drain! Thankfully, someone was able to get him out of the drain before something bad happened.

This story about the innocence of one baby goose is once again combated with a tale of goose horror. From afar, geese may seem like they are docile creatures, but we have story on top of story about close calls with these geese. Our first story takes us to the time a goose built her nest outside of the front door of our building. When geese lay their eggs, the mother will not leave that nest for any reason. They also become much more hostile when anyone gets close. In our case, we didn’t want anything to do with them or their nest, we just needed to get in the door! Eventually it got to the point where we had to get creative and use shields to block a fierce attack from the mother goose. People would resort to opening umbrellas in front of the charging goose and some would even sacrifice their legs as an effort to hold her back while they got in the door. It wasn’t long before someone alerted the proper authorities to come and relocate the next.

Once this situation was subdued, it was time to rethink whether having geese on the property was a good idea. So, like in many of these other situations, we called upon the help of the landlord and their maintenance staff. They installed a Goosebusters system that would blast the sounds of a shotgun, distressed geese, and coyotes every 10-15 minutes. This tactic was a success! For a little while at least… We did miss the innocence of those baby geese, but it was met with rejoice in the fact that we could freely walk around the parking lot without fear of being attacked or worse, having our SHOES attacked (you know they’re never the same once you step in stuff like that).

You may be thinking that this is the end of our goose story. If you are, you are very wrong… Tune in again next week to see what happens next!