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image credit: downtown home and garden
Jun15
smart cookie.
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image credit: downtown home and garden
Category Archives: Life
Jun14
the other side of the world.
kinders dig to the other side of the world and find water.
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“if there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”
-loren eiseley
Jun13
flashdance.
35 years ago ‘flashdance’ was released
and it emerged again recently
in honor of international dance day
i loved this movie
had the shoes, the ripped up sweatshirt, the perm
though my dancing style
was a bit different
from this welder by day/dancer by night
and i didn’t live in a cool loft
or have an eccentric dog
or ride my bike to work
or look at all alike
but other than that
we were like sisters.
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Take your passion and make it happen! #InternationalDanceDay
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“let us read and let us dance –
two amusements that will never do any harm to the world. “
-voltaire
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image credit: paramount pictures, jennifer beals
Jun12
dollar for dollar.
when one local dollar tree store closed
my favorite enthusiastic manager
moved to the new location
and judging by my recent visit
he has not lost one bit
of his dollar store fervor and expertise.
this was a conversation between bob (the manager) and evelyn (my cashier) as i was checking out:
E: “bob, you’re really good at remembering all of the balloon numbers to ring up and knowing each one of them without looking.”
B: “well, i’ve been doing it a long time. once in a while a number will change or a new shape will come in, like a unicorn, but it’s part of my job to keep up with it.”
E: “when i worked at the grocery store, i knew all the prices for the cucumbers, the peppers and tomatoes. the easy ones”
B: “some are trickier, like avocados, and for some of those things you only see sometimes it’s harder to remember the all the plu’s.”
E: “it’s really a skill, bob. to be able to do that.”
customer john interrupts:
J: “hey bob – so this is where you’ve got up to – how are you liking the change?”
B: “hey, john. good to see you. it’s great. every day is great. i’m so lucky to be here.”
and how lucky is dollar tree to have bob as a manager?
a man who truly loves his job
takes pride in all of it
is always smiling and helpful
knows exactly where every item in the store is located
and who happily learns the number for the new unicorn balloon.
Jun11
max.
the kindhearted and quiet and hardworking kid
who comes and goes
without much of a pattern
asking if i’ll hire him
to shovel my snow and mow my lawn
now has a name – ‘max’
and his legend is growing and spreading
he came once when i wasn’t home
and my neighbor paid him to do my lawn
in return for the help i’d given her in the past
and the next time he was over mowing
max suddenly stopped his mower
because he found a baby squirrel
who had fallen from the nest in the tree
and was sitting motionless and scared
we tried to pick the squirrel up
but he feebly ran away
into my neighbor’s yard
who then came out to help
and we all took him to my other neighbor’s house
who loves the squirrels
and said that he didn’t look good
put him in his backyard and see if he would play
then brought him back
and laid him down below my tree
the squirrel soon passed away
and we buried him in the garden
and now, after meeting him
my other neighbor has given max a job as well
and as more and more
of his generous and hard-working sprit is revealed
his business and his reputation as a decent human being
both continue to grow.
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“as much as we need a prosperous economy,
we also need a prosperity of kindness and decency.”
-caroline kennedy
Jun10
rainbow.
“two bubbles found they had rainbows on their curves.
they flickered out saying:
“It was worth being a bubble, just to have held that rainbow thirty seconds.”
-carl sandburg
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image credits: thaths, flickr, mental floss
Jun9
open doors.
one kinder opens the door for another after making sure it is safe for him to go
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the bittersweet feelings of being part of our multi-age class
most of the children don’t see themselves as being
different ages or stages
and may not yet see
that some will be moving on
to the higher grades
where they will have the chance to grow
in ways they have yet to imagine
and some will stay with us
for one more year
where they will have the chance
to be the leaders and teachers
to the new little ones joining our class
what we all know without any doubt
is that we are one
we will always keep an open door for all of them
to safely come and go as they need
and as some leave and as some stay
our journeys continue another day.
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“if I look back when I begin to leave, will they remember me?”
― adam young, owl city
Jun8
funoodler.
the funoodler,
a food-safe reloadable hot gun that can doodle, draw and design with cheese
For a limited time, the laughing squid store is featuring a great deal on this gem.The Fondoodler is a super simple, food-safe reloadable hot gun that melts most types of string, shredded, block or sheet-style cheese in a cylindrical canister, just like a hot glue gun. This product is available for only $17 – an 43% discount on its original retail price of $30.
FEATURES
- It’s a hot glue gun for cheese
- Load it up with pretty much any kind of cheese and splorch away
- In our tests, Velveeta got too liquidy to work very well, so we recommend just using real cheese
- Contrary to the repeated protestations of the Cheetos mascot, being cheesy turns out to be very easy indeed
- The perfect implement for writing entries in your dairy
SPECIFICATIONS
- Model: Fond 1 as in: “if you can “fond” 1 for less, buy it!”
- Condition: New
- Gets cheese-meltingly hot in 3 minutes
- All the convenience of Easy Cheese but maybe less gross? Jury is out on that one
- Make your own Leaning Tower of Cheeza
- Use it with American, Jack, Cheddar, whatever you like
- String cheese is already the perfect size but shredded, block, or even sheet cheese also works
- Use it for mortar in your cracker house. It’s Craft Cheese!
- Dishwasher safe
- Not for use with chocolate or marshmallows (though if you want to put some chocolate chips or tiny marshmallows in there we can’t stop you)
- Power: 120V, 60Hz, .8A
Fondoodler: a hot glue gun, but for cheese. A scientific breakthrough to transform the way we live, the way we think, and the way we put cheese on stuff.
“the poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”
- -gilbert k. chesterton
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credits: laughingsquid.com,lori dorn,
Jun7
gangsters.
our 5th grade boys
milling around
excited and nervous and happy
decided they were going to do their ‘gangster walk’
on the way in to their graduation ceremony
in their suits and ties
jackets thrown over shoulders
and i had to smile
when i heard them
strutting by
singing ‘sweet caroline’
at the top of their lungs
i’m betting neil diamond would take it as a compliment
and when they went inside
they recited their kind words
sang school songs
watched as pictures of their younger days
flashed upon the screen
and finally ended with a beautiful candlelighting
i’m proud of these gangsters
as i’ve known some of them since they were 3
before they even knew what letter ‘gangster’ started with.
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“any distraction tends to get in the way of being an effective gangster.”
-terence winter
Jun6
end/beginning.
kids from school days long since past
happy that this day was last.
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“the biggest happiness is when at the end of the year
you feel better than at the beginning. “
-henry david thoreau
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image credit: ann arbor news, ann arbor public library vintage collection
I didn't have my glasses on.... 
