I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if home delivery of the mail was cut down to only a couple of days a week, or even eliminated completely in favor of people having to pick up their mail in a central location like cluster mailboxes at the intersections of their roads, or like commercial mailboxes in a post office or a general store, like in the old days when the post office was just delivering mail by pony express. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we would revert back to ponies, just that the mail delivery would end at the posts office and people would have to come get it from there.

This honor student, who happened to be the vice-president of his class, bought a bag of Skittles candy from a classmate in school.  This was a violation of the district-wide wellness policy implemented in 2003!  Somebody apparently did not like this poor kid, and turned him in to the “authorities” for buying contraband candy.

This poor kid got suspended from school, was barred from attending an honors dinner, and was stripped of his title of class vice-president!

All because he wanted to “taste the rainbow!”

I think the punishment is a little bit harsh for this crime, don’t you?

Their biggest competitor was a company called “New England Music” and the competition was fierce! This was back in the 70′s, way before the Internet existed, so the biggest media for advertising back then was the newspaper, radio, and television. The advertising budget was very limited, however, so much of the marketing was “word of mouth.” But we had a lot of fun with local promotions, sponsoring events and contests. Not long after my husband and I married, he changed his career path and we lost touch with John. We heard that he died in a terrible automobile accident and the business closed up. That was very sad news to hear.

Today I was talking about my blogging with a lady at work; she suggested that I apply for a copy-writing job with a local catalog sales company. She told me that she used to work part time for them, helping them to write their catalog entries. I was intrigued with the idea, but it brought back memories of a “Jerry Seinfeld Show” where Elaine was working for a catalog company, helping to write their ads. Just the thought of doing something like Elaine did made me laugh!

The good news is that there are now ways to make events like this a bit easier, thanks to the Internet. My sister has all ready sent me the link to the Online Event Management company that she has heard so much about from people that she works with that have had to organize large events in the past. Eventish.com advertises that they make event management, marketing and ticketing easy and affordable, so I am going to take some time over the weekend and check them out to see what they are all about and see if I think if using something like this would be the way to go.

If anyone out there has any suggestions, I’d love to hear from you by leaving a comment or by shooting me an email at the email address provided in the “About Me” section of this blog. A year sounds like a long time, but the clock is ticking and will continue to do so whether I’m ready or not!

From what I understand they are planning on demolishing the old wooden and metal playground pieces and replace them with the new rubberized versions that are so popular these days. They are even going to pay for the new rubber mulch that is being manufactured for playgrounds and landscaping and even being used for equestrian areas, which I think is pretty darn cool. I found an interesting website for a company Rubberecycle that manufactures this safe and environmental friendly product. It seems that they were the ones that provided the White House with their playground that was built right on the White House lawn for their two daughters and their few selected friends to play on while President Obama is in office.

It is pretty interesting info to read and learn about. Anything that makes today’s kids safer is all right by me and the fact that they are using old scrape tires to make this new fangled product that is keeping up with the hot GREEN issue that is all the rage these days!

It will be interesting to watch and see the progress that they make down the street. I hope that it doesn’t take too long to do because I’d rather see these neighborhood kids playing there than running the streets. I’m sure I’m not alone there!

Well, the staff was upset about his presentation and called the police. I think that the guy earned that ticket, don’t you?

So is it just me? Or does the fact that Arkansas has experienced all three of these natural disasters, plus some recent earthquake clusters AND the unexplained death of thousands of blackbirds in three cities mean anything?

My heart goes out to the good people of Arkansas. I hope they find some peace from all this bad weather soon.

Although I am not comfortable celebrating the death of another human being, I do not believe that Bin Laden was a person who would ever stop of his own accord and I do not believe that he would ever be able to be rehabilitated. So, I accept the news of death with relief – not joy.

The mother was being interviewed and said that the boy has not had problems like this at home, that the problems are in school when they transition from a free time (like recess) to a structed time, like studying.  Maybe the reason that the child never has this problem at home is because there is more leeway for him to transition from one to the other.  Times like these make me glad that my kids are all grown up!

The Japanese government is asking some people who live close to the power plants to evacuate and they are dispensing doses of iodine to help avoid radiation poisoning.

This whole series of events is horrifying to me. I feel such tremendous sorrow and helplessness for the people of Japan.

When evacuating a country in crisis, you don’t have the luxury of time to get estimates and negotiate with several companies that specialize in International Moving. In fact, I imagine time is very precious and getting packed along with trying to find food and transportation is a huge challenge.

I can’t imagine ever being in the position of having to evacuate my home. The stress of packing just what I can carry and having to make quick decisions about what to take and what I should leave would be very hard for me. I have only moved a few times in my life, and always had several weeks to pack and handle the move. But with the prospect of making a quick escape and dealing with Overseas Moving would be completely overwhelming. I hope everyone who wants to come home is able to find a way to get themselves and their belongings back to the U.S.A.