Category Archives: social media

Please Don’t Waste My Time

Earlier this week, I received a message via Linkedin from a recruiter. All in caps:

LAURI,

VERY INTERESTED IN TALKING WITH YOU.
CALL ME AT 918.XXX.XXXX PLEASE.

Okay, so it seemed urgent and I called her back. She had no idea who I was. I read the message she sent me back to her and then she wondered if I was looking for work. I told her I could be if the right opportunity came up. She wanted to meet with me immediately but I told her we were heading to Dallas. She wanted to know when we’d be back and I told her Thursday night. Could I meet then? No, we have a prior engagement and Friday I spend with the glambaby. So we arranged to meet at 10:00 a.m. this morning.

I got ready, did my hair (which takes a considerable amount of time), put on make up, got dressed in something more than the shorts I’d otherwise be wearing today and went to meet her at Starbucks, a place she chose.

I waited and waited and waited some more. David told me that after 15 minutes, I could leave, that it was long enough and I did. I gave her 20 minutes since I arrived 5 minutes early.

So I wonder. Why on earth did she waste my time like that after she was in such a hurry to meet with me?

I will no longer consider doing business with her. I’m not working for a reason. It’s so funny because she told me that they package candidates so they can get the best opportunity. “Because you just don’t know what companies are doing these days.” Um, yes I do and it looks like you have just done it to me!

I started being concerned, even before I left this a.m., that what she wanted to offer me was a multi level marketing situation. There are a lot of jobs I would entertain but two I absolutely will not is anything in multi level marketing or insurance sales.

I was prepared to turn her down if that were her plan. I do think I’d like a job but I’ve turned down everything that’s been offered to me in the past couple of years because I want what I want and not something else. I don’t need to work, I want to.

Here’s something I know. I am going to be a good “get” for the company I let hire me. I am well spoken, well read, and well traveled. I’ve worked for myself and I’ve worked for others and I am very, very good at what I do. No matter what it is. I have the added benefit of being efficient and quick and I don’t make mistakes by going faster than others. I just get more work done.

Before I throw my considerable influence behind an employer, I’m going to make sure that the employer is worthy of it.

I’m annoyed that this woman wasted my time on the Memorial Day weekend but it’s just given me a heads up that I really need to get more info before I take my Saturday morning and waste it on something I wouldn’t want to do anyway.

Respect goes two ways. I promise not to waste your time but please don’t waste mine.

#CoffeeCON 2014

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Last year, in May (yes, MAY!) I drove through a snow storm to get to CoffeeCON 2013 in the suburbs of Chicago. It was an awesome event where I was able to meet four twitter friends in real life (IRL) and have some fabu coffee. I also took classes and learned a lot about coffee. And got sick. Really, really sick.

You see, with all that coffee there, I was like a kid in a candy store and I had ODd by around 11 a.m. I was hoping to go back this year and was absolutely thrilled to be invited as a media guest.

This year, I knew I would pace myself so I could fully enjoy the day and the coffee. And the visiting, of course. CoffeeCON 2014 was held at the Zhou B Arts Center in Chicago. It’s on the same street, a few blocks down, from the park formerly known as Comiskey.

It’s such a cool old building which I loved almost as much as the coffee. I have this fascination and love of doors and had to take a photo of one to complete my day.

This year, I was not too sick to try the Kopi Luwak coffee from Indonesia. If you aren’t familiar with that, in a nutshell, civets (a catlike animal) eat the coffee berries and they are processed after elimination. Sounds gross but the story behind why they originally did this is very interesting.

I found the coffee to have an interesting, sort of nutty taste. The little coffee cracker cookies they had at their table were delicious!

It was fun to go around and talk to the vendors and sample their coffee. I absolutely got goosebumps when I tasted Rustico from Counter Culture and I had to take that one home. Their website describes the coffee as having a kaleidoscope of flavors and it truly does.

I also got a Sowden Oskar pot which I haven’t tried yet but plan to this a.m. In the Sowden class, the man said it was simply the easiest way to make a good cup of coffee. I’m looking forward to that. The thing that struck me even more, though, and made me choose it over the Aeropress (which I’m sure I will get one of these days) is that it is like French press coffee, which I love, but the filter is so fine, less particulates are left in the coffee when it’s poured. I’m hoping this will help it to be coffee that David enjoys better, too.

The winner of the contest I held last week was Dwana, a long time twitter friend of mine. I was so happy I would get a chance to meet her. Our first reaction to each other, IRL, was “OMG you’re tall, too!”. 🙂

My only regret for the day was that we didn’t take a photo together but I did make my CoffeeCON movie staring Dwana and the Aeropress.

We were introduced to the iCup machine by iCoffee. I enjoyed the presentation we were given. The iCup will take a K-cup and turn it into a good tasting cup of coffee by steaming and aerating the grounds, extracting the Co2 before dispensing the coffee. It also plays a little Mozart!

Although I’m not a Keurig user, I’ve had coffee from one a couple of times and found it to be bitter. The coffee we tried from this machine was much tastier. A real improvement!

Of course I can’t forget about the fun coffee roasters outside. I know I talked about the heat gun lady and popcorn popper guy all year and they were there again.

The popcorn popper roaster had a new addition this year: a Weber grill. Ingenious!

One of the ladies outside gave me my own little packet of green coffee beans. I’ve decided that I will make Beauty Pageant Roast by using my blow dryer and curling iron. 😉

Once again, I had a great time at CoffeeCON. Well, I actually had a better time than last year since I paced myself. Thank you, again, to Kevin Sinnott for inviting me.

There are other CoffeeCON events planned for this year in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Check the website for further information and Carpe Java! 🙂

Special Sauce

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I was reading Gini Dietrich’s new book and in it she says that even if you give someone your recipe, they will never be able to make it like you do. She was using a cooking analogy for why it’s okay to let people know how you do your business but it’s really true.

I am known all over the world for My Cookies (a.k.a. Lauri’s Cookies). I give the recipe out freely and it’s a really precise recipe. And, yet, I still get people asking if I left something out or changed it so no one could make them like I do. The answer to that is no. Because you will never be able to make them like I do so I don’t have to. 🙂

Back when we lived in Clearwater, the Tampa Tribune interviewed me. I gave them the recipe for my cookies and for my Kahlua Fudge Poundcake (which is extremely photogenic, by the way). Being a Rottmayer in the day of phone books, it was hard to hide and when my cookie recipe didn’t turn out, my phone rang off the hook with people wanting to know why. I give pretty detailed instructions so I couldn’t give them an answer. I could only ask, “Did you follow the recipe exactly?”

In the facebook group for Gini’s book, I left this info about the cookies to confirm what Gini had written. This had Gini and others ask for the recipe. A quick search of my blog showed that I have NEVER put this recipe here. I couldn’t believe it. So here it is.

My Cookies (a.k.a. Lauri's Cookies)

2014-03-05 14:37:36

Yields 3

My famous cookie recipe

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Save Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup Butter; (I mean the real stuff. Land O'Lakes unsalted preferred)
½ cup Light brown sugar (C&H)
½ cup Sugar (C&H)
1½ tsp Pure vanilla extract; (NOT imitation)
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1 Egg
1.5 cups Gold Medal flour
2½ cup Old fashioned Quaker Oats; (not the quick sawdust stuff)
6 ounces Semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer Guittard)

Instructions

Melt butter in microwave. Stir in sugars, vanilla and soda and mix well.
Mix in egg. Add flour until smooth. Add oats and chocolate chips.
Drop by scoops onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350* for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on rack until the next sheet comes out of the oven, then remove to rack or platter.
Makes approximately 3½ dozen awesome cookies

By Lauri Rottmayer

Lauri Rottmayer https://www.rottitude.com/

Please let me know if you try them. If it doesn’t work out for you, please don’t call. 😉

Girl Scout Cookie Tweetup

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Yay! It’s that awesome time of year and this year, I was able to actually find some Girl Scout cookies without having to have them shipped to me like last year.

On Saturday, we met up with Cheryl, Ingrid and Madison for a Girl Scout Cookie tweet up at The Phoenix.

Before Ingrid and Madison got there, I was able to sneak in the Elvis scone that my vacation belly yelled “Get in me!” to. 🙂

The scone was delicious. Kind of scone-y and muffin-y all at once. It had peanut butter, banana and bacon. Yum!

Madison, came wearing a crown, which of course I think every girl needs.

We talked about the hashtags to use while tweeting about the Girl Scout cookies.

And I snagged our favorites.

We got to check out Cheryl’s Google Glass which was cool.

I was a Brownie and a Girl Scout back in the day. Mostly, I was in it because that’s where my friends were and I could wear a cool uniform on the days we had meetings. I never really participated like it’s meant to be participated in.

When I was working for KJRH in 2009, I covered the Girl Scout end of the year banquet and I was so impressed with what today’s Girl Scouts is about. Girls are learning leadership, financial planning, and community involvement. I’ve been volunteering with the PR Stars with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma and I’m so impressed with how smart, well spoken and confident these girls are. It’s definitely not the Girl Scouts as I remember them.

It was a great time as always. I just love those girls and any tweetup involving cookies is a good tweetup. 🙂