The Edge of Empty

Did you know that the Dairy Queen Blizzard turned 25 last year?  I remember when the Blizzard was introduced which makes me officially...old.  Anyway, there was no Dairy Queen in the town where I grew up but there was one where my great grandfather lived.  Do you remember when a trip longer than 15 minutes lasted fuh evah?  When I was little, the 65 minute drive to my great grandfather's small town felt like an eternity.  Maybe it felt so long  because  I was hoping for that extremely rare occurrence of a stop at the Dairy Queen.  My parents were teachers  and the budget was always tight, but occasionally we would stop at DQ and we could get a small cone.  We never got to choose--it was always just that small vanilla cone, but it was a treat nonetheless. Once I was able to drive and had a job, those stops at DQ were almost mandatory when I ventured on my own to my grandparents house.  I probably tried something different each time--a Peanut Buster Parfait, this time, a Mr. Misty,

Ferrets are curious creatures who love to "steal" household items.  With a two year old child, you can generally distract them from whatever trouble they might be plotting something that is grabbing their attention.  Ferrets are different--they cannot be distracted if they are truly focused on something.  They will fight for all they are worth for whatever trinket or treasure they are coveting.  Even if we carry our ferret out of the room and offer something else, he will come charging back for his chosen treasure as soon as we put him down.  We have learned to zip purses and backpacks securely because he will work at a zipper until he gets in if there is any gap at all.  Believe me, it is no fun to go on a search for your car keys when you are already running late for work. Here, our ferret is shown with his attention fixed on his next acquisition.

I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Washington DC during National Police Week .  While there, the Hubster ran the Police Week 5K and we visited the Law Enforcement Officers Memoria l.  The memorial is a sobering reminder that so many have given all in the pursuit of public safety.  Unfortunately, it was raining so the pictures aren't great, but the rain seemed fitting--almost as if angels were mourning with those gathered there.  The memorial itself is surrounded by a beautiful park setting with trees and seasonal flowers and is composed of two curved marble walls engraved with the names of the more than 19,000 officers who have died. Each of the memorial walls is flanked by a lion protecting its cubs and keeping silent vigil. Seal embedded in center of the memorial plaza It seems that every day a new name is added to the list that will be inscribed just before Police Week begins.  The park and memorial are beautiful and worth a stop if you visit DC.    Al

My parents recently moved to be closer to my sister and her family.  My niece has already claimed a room in their house as her own. I know how exciting that can be because I too had a room at my grandparents house.   I am pretty sure that my cousins were all jealous of me and still have a bit of resentment, but I don't care.  The summers that I spent at my grandparents are some of the best memories that I have and I wouldn't trade them for anything.  Besides, my cousins were several years younger than me so the room could have been claimed by somebody else once I had gone off to college.  To my knowledge, only one of my cousins ever stayed the summer with my grandparents so it remained my room until the house was no longer their home.    I hope that my niece creates as many wonderful memories of the time she spends at my parents house as I have of the time I spent with my grandparents.  I also thought she needed to make that claim official so I spent a little time in the craft

My son graduates from high school this week.  The thought terrifies me.  Not because he is my baby and will be going off to school soon.  I will worry about that next month.  Right now,  I am terrified because my parents are coming to attend the graduation and my house is not ready for company--much less my mother.   Now, you will never walk in my house and wish that you were as good a housekeeper as me.  In fact, I am sure that many people walk in and get an ego boost when they see that they do much better.  I do try to control the chaos that having two teenage boys, a husband, and a ferret brings to a house,  but lets face it, I am not the most dedicated housekeeper in the world.  In fact, I am a FlyLady flunkie.   This weekend as I was desperately trying to knock back the clutter, I fantasized about booking a hotel room for my parents.  Of course, that wouldn't really solve the problem since they would still at some point show up on my front porch.  I have decided to just do th

Our HR department presents some great courses for us.  At times, they bring in special presenters from around the country and if those speakers are invited to return, you can bet that the class received rave reviews and is probably worth attending.  I recently went to one of these encore presentations and I know now why it was brought back. The name of the class was The GO System and it was a fabulous course.  Our facilitator was Susan Kousek and she was super.  Mind you, there was nothing new and earth-shattering in the class--many of the principles that were discussed have been around for some time.  However, the time was right for me to hear the ideas and incorporate them into my work. I was so inspired by what I heard that I stopped at the office supply store on the way back to the office to buy the materials that I needed to put the principles into practice immediately.  I have been using the system faithfully ever since and it is truly making a difference. As great as the earl