(This column first appeared on June 19, 2011.) For the past two years, we have bitten the financial bullet in order to buy annual passes to Disneyland for family Christmas gifts. Selecting the handy dandy interest-free monthly installment option, we don't buy the...
(This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on May 24, 2011.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOGix9Ht1Gs&feature=player_embedded My husband and I have a standing breakfast date on Saturday mornings. So I usually try to show a little effort by running a comb...
(This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on April 25, 2011.) I can't fathom there exists an exercise more torturous than running. I've always felt this way. In fact, the only time I ever cheated in school was because of the sport. When I was in third grade, my...
(This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on March 28, 2011.) Last week in the restroom at Costco, I managed to activate the automatic soap dispenser, which efficiently delivered one gallon of foam onto my waiting hands. But, as is typical, despite flailing my...
(This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on February 28, 2011.) By the time you read this column, the 2011 Academy Awards will be history. And while the events that unfold at each Oscar ceremony don't affect most of us personally, there is much we can learn...
(This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on January 17, 2011. I couldn't have been better prepared for our stint on Supermarket Sweep than I was on the morning the cable game show taped in 1991. My teammate, Donna, and I had brushed up on trivia and even...
This column first appeared on RIMOFTHEWORLD.net on December 20, 2010. I have to admit my personal New Year's resolutions for 2011 are the same as they were in 2010—lose weight; save money; be a better wife, mother, daughter, grandmother, neighbor and friend. I long...
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 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 September 13, 2010 and in the Biz Press on September 15, 2010. At 18, I didn't understand the subtleties of the musical How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. So I unsuccessfully lobbied our director to...