Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/15/2016
 As the Vice President of marketing for Gramm Publications, I
have an extremely busy life. Between having the responsibility for the monthly
publication of six national magazines and managing a family, which consists of
my husband, Dan, and two wonderful Children-Jason, 9 and Sydney, 7 quality time
with my children is precious time. Dan and I try our best to balance our family
lives with our professional lives, but it is hard especially since Dan’s job
requires him to travel out of the country weeks at a time. Thank goodness for
our live in au pair, Nancy, who has been with our family now for the past four
years.
“Nancy, are the kids dressed and ready to go?” I asked on my
cell phone as I hailed a taxi on 42nd Street and Madison Avenue just
outside my office building. “I should be home in about twenty minutes, that is
if the rush hour traffic lets me.”
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/14/2016
 “Be careful out there,” my supervisor, Freddy, told us
before we departed from our service truck to dig a trench the length of 44th
Street between Lexington and Second Avenue in Manhattan. “Not only do you have
to deal with the traffic, but the forecast for today is a high of 94 degrees
with 90 percent humidity,” he added. “Drink plenty of fluids. Stay hydrated.”
“If I wanted to hit you I would have hit you,” the taxi
driver called back to me after I yelled out at him for coming to close to me with
his taxi while I was jack-hammering my way down 44th Street. By 11
AM I had had it with the day. Between having to watch out for the traffic,
dipping up the street for the past three hours and putting up with the heat of
the day had taken its toll on me. Suddenly, without notice, our office administrator,
Maxine, came walking towards the crew holding what appeared to be a tray of
containers.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/13/2016
 Many people the world over awake to a committed, consistent
coffee ritual. But what happens to your acquired coffee taste when you leave
the confines of your home? Inconsistency prevails. Such is the case with almost
all of us. On your drive to work you stop at your local coffee house to pick up
a container of coffee, which is consistent with what you have ordered day in
and day out for years, yet it is different from the coffee you prepared when
you first awoke. It’s now mid to late morning and you go to your office kitchen
where you prepare yet again another cup of coffee which is now different from
the coffee you had when you awoke and the coffee you paid $4.75 for at the
coffee house. Life does not have to be this way. It’s time for you to rethink
your morning coffee ritual to inject consistency.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/12/2016
 When I created Sippity gourmet hot chocolate mix I created
it out of passion, passion for the joy I received while I watched my children
enjoy a nice, warm mug of hot chocolate after they had come in from playing in
the snow on a cold winters day. That was how it started, with one
flavor-chocolate. Since then I added Sippity chocolate marshmallow gourmet hot
chocolate mix to the Sippity product range because as my children began to grow
from 5-8 year olds to 9-12 year olds they wanted something different while
still retaining the chocolate flavor they came to enjoy.
As my children, and now their friends, grew in age to become
young teenagers they wanted a “more sophisticated” flavor of hot chocolate. To satisfy
their demand I created two seasonal Sippity gourmet hot chocolate mix flavors-pumpkin
spice for the fall and chocolate peppermint for the winter. Needless to say, my
children and their friends enjoyed each of the two new seasonal flavors so much
that it seemed every day when my kids got off the school bus more and more of
their friends got off with them.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/11/2016
 "So what do you guys what to do tomorrow?” I asked a group
of my 17-year-old girl friends as we were sitting around my bedroom talking
about guys and drinking iced hot chocolate from the Sippity hot cocoa mix my
Mom had bought yesterday at the supermarket.
“We could go to Balboa,” Cindy suggested referring to Balboa
Park in San Diego. “I heard they are having an exhibit on native American
pottery.”
“No, that’s too boring,” Aimee replied after she had taken a
sip from the container of iced hot chocolate she was holding. “Why don’t we go
to Pacific Beach. There’s always hot guys there.”
“Yeah, that could work,” Jessie injected, “but there’s never
anywhere decent to eat at PB,” referring to Pacific Beach.
“I know,” I added with enthusiasm. “Why don’t we go to lunch
at the Del and then the Beach after lunch,” I suggested.
“That sounds like a plan,” Jessie stated. “We can pretend we
are rich kids from Del Mar. We can all dress up in sun dresses and sandals,
wear floppy hats and sun glasses and have lunch at the 1500 Ocean Restaurant,” she
suggested referring to 1500 Ocean Restaurant in the hotel Del Coronado.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/10/2016
 For the past three summers I have played second base on our
company’s softball team, Young’s Electrical. As a result of finishing first last
year in the silver league our team has been moved up to the gold league, which
is the most competitive league in the Cleveland City softball program. To date our
record is 9-2 and we are two games out of first place. Tonight we are playing
the first place team, TCR Bookkeeping. If we can win we will be only 1 game out
of first place at the halfway mark of the season.
“Are you almost ready,” I stated to Wayne,” my co-worker and
first basemen on our softball team referring to the fact that I was anxious to
leave work and head on over to the softball field. “This is our biggest game of
the season so far and I don’t want to be late,” I added.
“I just have to call Park Place Café and order fifteen containers
of iced Kemosabe flavored gourmet coffee.”
“What’s that for?”
“The team. I thought I would treat them to some delicious
cold iced flavored gourmet coffee before the game starts.
“That’s really nice of you, Wayne.”
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/9/2016
 What says summer more than a tall glass of Sippity iced chocolate
raspberry hot chocolate with a few fresh cut pieces of raspberry resting atop
whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon and accompanied with two cinnamon sticks?
Nothing, particularly if you’re a cowboy and this is what is waiting for you
after you just completed washing the horses on a hazy, hot summers day. Such
was the case today when my wife, Amber, left this frosty glass of iced
raspberry hot chocolate for me on the porch table outside our kitchen before
she left to go to the feed supply store in McAlester a small town located ten
minutes west of from our farm in Wilburton, which is about ninety miles south
of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/8/2016
 Last week my wife of 52 years was extremely angry at me for
not taking my work boots off after I had been in the garage working on my car
and tracked in “some” dirt and oil. She was so angry that at the end of her
yelling at me she told me to “Go fly a kite”. Well this got me to thinking that
I have never flown a kite with my nine-year-old grandson, Bart. Later that day
I called my son and asked him if I could take Bart kite flying one-day next
week. He agreed.
One week later at breakfast my wife asked me what my plans were
for the day. I told her I was going kite flying with our grandson, Brad. “That’s
a rather unusual thing to do,” she stated as she picked up her cup of Sippity
hot chocolate.
“Well, you told me last week to ‘Go fly a kite’ so that’s
what I’m doing today,” I stated.
“Jack, you didn’t have to take me so literally.”
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/7/2016
 If you are like most people, today, two days after the end
of the 4th of July weekend, you are feeling sluggish. The last thing
you want to do today is go to work. Unfortunately, unless you won the lottery,
we all must work. On days like this I make myself a cup of Kemosabe french vanilla
gourmet flavored coffee, sit quietly and “talk to myself”. Having the proper
state of mind when you go to work is extremely important as it motivates you.
Once I have motivated myself, I shower, shave, get dressed and am on my way to
work.
“Boy, Bob, your certainly have a lot of energy this morning,”
my co-worker, Larry, started to me when I met him in the conference room to go
over our fall marketing campaign. “I wish I had your energy,” he added.
“Actually, Larry, I’m probably more tired than you
realize. Last weekend I took my son out on a three day four-wheeling adventure.
While we had a great time we didn’t get home until 2 AM on Tuesday morning.
Compound that with the pressure to finalize the story boards for the fall
campaign and it has been a challenging week so far.”
“So where is your energy coming from?”
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/6/2016
 Being the mother of two boys, Jason-11 and Tyler-9, summer
time is always a challenge to find activities to keep the boys occupied. Now
halfway thought their summer vacation I was fresh out of ideas. Shortly after 8
AM I decided to make myself a mug of Sippity Lite chocolate marshmallow sugar
free hot chocolate and think quietly, before the boys woke up, of additional
summer activities. I found that a mug of Sippity Lite sugar free hot chocolate
in the morning is quite enjoyable and a great way to start the day.
During the next half-hour I had come up with a list of fun
things to do while I enjoyed my sugar free hot chocolate. In reviewing the list,
the realization that each cost money severally curtailed the possibilities.
Somewhat dejected, and not knowing what I was going to do with the boys today,
I finished my sugar free hot chocolate and began my day’s activities, which
always starts with doing the wash.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/5/2016
 People often ask me why am I successful. Why there are a
number of factors, two of which are hard work and being consistently organized,
perhaps the one factor above all is getting yourself in the proper frame of
mind on Sunday night. Usually sometime around 8 PM every Sunday night I make
myself a cup of Kemosabe gourmet flavored caffeine free coffee and go into my
home office and prioritize my work load for the coming week. I found that the
two hours it takes to review the various projects and meetings that the week
ahead will bring enables me to be in the proper state of mind when I walk into
the office on Monday morning.
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/4/2016
 Today, like any other day started off with my wife making
herself coffee and Sippity chocolate flavored hot chocolate for me. However
today wasn’t like all the other days. Today was the Fourth of July. Our family
was coming over for our traditional July 4th barbeque.
“I’ll meet you on the patio,” I stated to my wife as I
brought two bowls of fruit out to the patio.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” she replied. “Your hot
chocolate isn’t ready yet.
“A few minutes late Jill emerge on the patio holding her cup
of coffee in her right hand and my cup of hot chocolate in her left hand.
After she had taken her seat and we exchanged small talk for
a few minutes we turned our attention to planning the day’s events.
“What time is everyone coming?” I asked, after I had taken a
sip of hot chocolate from my cup referring to our two sons and our daughter and
their families.
“I told everyone to come around 11 AM, this way they could
all enjoy the pool for an hour or so before we had lunch.”
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/2/2016
 All of us have had dreams, which when we awake we dwell
about. Last night I had such a dream. I dreamt that I was on a business trip in
London with about seven of my business colleagues and staying at the Mayfair
Hotel. On the day of our traveling back to the United States we all agreed to
meet at the Sky High pub in terminal four at London’s Heathrow’s airport. I was
third to arrive around 8 AM for our 11:10 AM flight. After I exchanged small
talk with my two colleagues I took a single serve packet of Kemosabe gluten
free coffee from my jacket pocket and made myself a cup of coffee from the
pitcher of hot water the waitress had left on the table for my colleagues to
prepare their tea. “Do you always travel with your own coffee?” Bill asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “I’m on a strict gluten intolerant diet
and since I can’t trust restaurants to have gluten free coffee I bring my own.”
“Very well, then,” Bill replied, as he watched me empty the
packet of gluten free coffee into the coffee cup. “That makes sense.”
Posted by Southwest Beverages on 7/1/2016
 Today our nine-year-old son, Carson, is competing in his
first fourth of July box car derby contest. For the past month I helped Carson
build his car, which he painted his favorite colors green with yellow trim. He
put the number 22 on the car after the date in the month he was born. When I
say I helped Carson build his car, I didn’t actually assemble the car for him I
instructed him on how to use my tools and measure and cut various pieces of
wood.
“I’ll back the truck up into the driveway,” I called out to
Carson as I placed the container of iced chocolate cinnamon flavored hot
chocolate I was drinking into the cup holder in the trucks console, referring
to my Ford F-150 truck which I wanted to position at such an angle that we
could roll Carson’s box car into the bay of the truck. “Easy does it,” I stated
to Carson as we began to push his box car up the two ramps, which I had
suspended from the tail gate of the truck so we could push his car into the bay
of my truck.
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