(This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on January 31, 2011.) We used to spend Saturday mornings at the Denver Suds-n-Duds, where I played with miniature bottles of Borax and tiny boxes of Tide while my mom fumbled with quarters and battled the ramshackle...
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on January 3, 2011. My favorite day of the week in Mrs. Stanley's first grade was Friday because that's when we got to do Show and Tell. Since we had three dogs, a turtle and several fish, and because I loved having an...
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on November 22, 2010 and in the Biz Press on November 24, 2010. When I was in sixth grade, Mr. Khouri called my parents for a conference because, although I was excelling in Honors' English, I was failing math. Since he...
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on November 8, 2010 and in the Biz Press on November 10, 2010. I don't think I've ever seen a more depressing movie than Pay it Forward. Spoiler Alert: Although the premise of doing things for the sole purpose of making...
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on October 12, 2010 and in the Biz Press on October 14, 2010. I'm sick. So I should have spent the weekend in bed. But instead of resting and downing chicken noodle soup, I thought it would be a much better idea to stand...
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on September 27, 2010 and in the Biz Press on September 30, 2010. For reasons I will never be able to explain, in seventh grade, I joined the girls' basketball team. I was just 5' 2" and about as athletic as an armchair....
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on August 30, 2010 and on the Business Press on September 1, 2010 and the Press Enterprise on September 4, 2010. It was a bonehead move for my counselors at Summer Fun Day Camp to take a van full of impressionable seven...
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on August 16, 2010 and in the Biz Press on August 18, 2010. After borrowing my sister-in-law's mobile phone in 1988, I was convinced that cell phone technology would never gain much of a following. As attractive and...
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on August 1, 2010, in the Press Enterprise on August 7, 2010 and in the Business Press on August 16, 2010. The first time I saw my photograph in a newspaper, I was mortified. I was eight years old. My brownie troop...
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on March 29, 2010 and in the Biz Press on April 17, 2010. Several years ago, we stayed at an international hotel chain in Northern California. When we arrived, we were surprised that there were no pillows in our room....
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on Monday, March 8, 2010. A stray Labrador Retriever we found sitting quietly in front of the dog pound, Maggie was beautiful, loyal, intelligent and, unfortunately, quite destructive. She met me at the door when I came...
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on February 28, 2010 While I was growing up, my best friend, Lori, and I used to play in the woods near her home in a small rural suburb of Denver. We would leave her house in the morning and stay out all day, trying to...