Happy New Year Everybody!

It's Danielle from the Casual Lifestyle Content Team. I administer an event at our bi-weekly content meetings called Super Awesome Descriptions. The entire team nominates descriptions that are super awesome and I choose the creme de la creme (super awesome description of the week) to read and applaud in the meeting. A description is considered "super awesome" when it informs, romances, excites, and ultimately wows the reader. Yesterday at our first content meeting of 2009 I unveiled the 1st annual Super Awesome Description Award of Excellence awards ceremony. All of the super awesome description of the week winners were presented with a spiffy award to post at their desk or frame and hang above their fireplace! Twelve content coordinators received the award.


Here are some of the super awesome descriptions (prepare yourself for greatness):

http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7464321.html - written by Angela C.
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7423902.html - Amanda W.
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7485405.html - Hannah E.
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7387650.html - Mike F.
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7485977.html - Andrew N.

Here's to more super awesome descriptions in 2009 - happy writing!

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Zappos_satiricd

The casual lifestyle merch and content team had a gingerbread house showdown in the spirit of Zappos core value #3 (create fun and a little weirdness) and #7 (build a positive team and family spirit) last Friday. Four teams participated: size and width, comfort/euro, casual content, and apparel/housewares. Each team had a gingerbread house and could add any item to the creation as long as it was edible. We had until 3 pm to complete our gingerbread houses. I work on the casual content team and our house (a.k.a. the masterpiece) was a three hour labor of love that involved a lot of eating and messy fingers. I have concluded that gingerbread houses are not ideal for consumption as there is a fair amount of spit and elbow grease from the assemblers included in the house. Pics above of the four completed houses (casual content masterpiece included):

Size and width presented their interpretation of a gingerbread house post- earthquake, comfort and euro created A Wizard of Oz house, casual content delivered an original work of art entitled, "The Night the Worms Ate Christmas", and apparel/housewares produced an homage to the trailer park complete with a SunChips "tin roof" and tire pile.
Our comfort business unit judged the houses and delivered their verdict at our category holiday party that evening. And the winners are:

4th place - size and width
3rd place - comfort/euro
2nd place - casual content (ROBBED!)
1st place - apparel/housewares

Obviously I feel my team had the best gingerbread house and I'm sure you do too; however, the shock value of the gingerbread double wide was impossible to defeat. Can't wait until next year!

Happy Holidays,
Danielle T.

In the spirit of Core Value #7, Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit, Casual Lifestyle Content Team invited the Size and Width Merch Team for breakfast and conversation. We had yogurt & granola, pastries, and mini-frittatas. We cleared tables and ate family-style. Here's a pic of Sam H., Rudy R. and Latrira S from the breakfast feast:

We went around the room and talked about one thing in our lives that's new or interesting outside of work. Graham M.'s wife is about to have a baby girl any day, Rudy R. is excited to see Madonna in concert, Nicole S. is picking up the keys to her new house today, and Anji C. is attending a dream analysis lecture on Thursday. Exciting stuff! Yours truly is super-pumped about the upcoming NKOTB concert on October 11th.

I made a batch of mini-frittatas for breakfast that everyone enjoyed. They're a great breakfast to make on the weekend, throw in the fridge, and heat up on your way out the door during the week. Here's the recipe:

Mini-Frittatas

• Ingredients:
• 5 eggs
• shredded cheddar cheese (any cheese will work)
• black pepper
• onion (yellow or red)
• chopped bacon (or turkey bacon)
• canned diced tomatoes

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk 5 eggs, a handful of shredded cheese and diced onion, 4 slices of chopped, cooked bacon, about 1/4 of a can of drained diced tomatoes, and a few dashes of black pepper together in a bowl. Pour the mixture among 12 greased (cooking spray is fine) muffin cups. Bake for 11 minutes or until golden brown. If you choose to remove the bacon, add more onion and tomato to compensate. Enjoy!