Cheating on Dunkin Donuts

Yesterday I made an early morning run to Wal-Mart to buy a replacement coffee maker before work. Although I love my French press, I decided it was time to go back to a programmable coffee maker that can wake me up with fresh brewed coffee before I ever get in to the kitchen.  Having secured my purchase in the back seat, I decided to go through the drive thru at Dunkin Donuts for an early morning coffee treat on my way to work. The cheery person at the window handed over my coffee and as she was wishing me a great day, she happened to look into the backseat where the coffee maker was stored. She glanced from the coffee maker and back to me. Our eyes met and I felt like I was caught doing something really wrong! Like somehow I had betrayed this wonderful woman who just made a great cup of coffee for me! I wanted to explain to her that in my defense, I bought the Dunkin Donuts brand coffee to make in my coffee maker but I realized there was no talking my way out of this one. Better to just admit I was a Dunkin Donuts cheater and drive away!  :)

Keep on smiling!

I'm a Life Long Bookworm And I Love Old Photos

This is me. And it is a classic. Even at a very young age, I had already mastered the look. "Ummm no.. I have no interest in playing hide and seek with you, you silly boys that claim to be my brothers. Can't you see I'm in the middle of a very good book?"

Truth be told, if you look closely at the photo, I believe the book might be upside down. I am most certain one of my brother's was probably pointing this out and making fun of me which brought on the icy stare of the little sister... Fear the little sister! They found that out later, I'm sure! :)

Their teasing, however, not diminish my life long love of reading. Eventually I almost always had the book right side up and read everything I could get my hands on! From all the books in the church Sunday School rooms to ordering books by mail from the public library when I was a kid living on a farm in the country. They were delivered and returned through the USPS for free! I read every Nancy Drew book and every Hardy Boys book that was available.

Going back to the photo though... I'd like to note that my Mom should totally get credit for inventing the Princess Leia hair style almost a decade BEFORE Star Wars came out in the theaters.  And I mean the ORIGINAL Star Wars!  Few people know where the idea came from.  Until now....

Also of note.... for those that know me.... You can already see that my feet had grown disproportionately large, relative to the rest of my body! Ha ha!! You'd think I would have better balance, all things considered!  Just one of those things that makes me unique!

I am enjoying finding these old photos. They make me smile. Although the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the photos could be better, I am thankful to have these memories preserved! 

Keep on smiling!

The Grand Romantic Gesture

I was pretty late getting home from work last night. I came into the house and found candles lit everywhere - all through the house. It was beautiful and so romantic!

And I thought to myself, “Wow, who are you and what have you done with my husband?” But seriously, the glass is half full and life is full of unexpected surprises so I decided to just roll with it. Carpe diem! So…. with my best come hither smile, I said, “Wow! I love all the candles!”

And my husband looked at me with those hazel blue eyes of his and said, “Oh yeah, it really, really stunk in here when I got home. It was awful. I think it was something in the garbage. I don’t know what but it was really bad. So I took out the garbage and then lit all the candles to get the stink out.”

Ohhh yeah…. that sounds more like my husband. I guess I let my imagination run away with me… :) 

Silver lining! The house smells great now! And I choose to find it romantic that he went through all the work of making sure the stink was gone before I got home! 

Keep on smiling!

Diversity in the Workplace

I am a lifetime HR professional.  It is what I have always done.  Over the years, there have been ever increasing discussions around diversity.

When people think of diversity, generally they think of ethnic diversity, followed closely by gender diversity.

But diversity is so much more than differences in ethnic background or differences in gender!

My administrative assistant is less than half my age.  Let’s call her Peg.

Peg: I’m puttin’ on my boots tonight and going to a Luke Bryan concert!

Kari: Sounds like fun! We have tickets to see Bob Seger next week!

Peg: Oh! The dad from Full House?

Let’s not forget to honor the little things that make us all different and diverse!  And let’s not forget to have a sense of humor!

Keep on smiling!

Bob Saget

Bob Seger

Oh, To Be Young!!

Today we were in line to check out at a store in the mall. The young sales associate asked the woman in front of us, "Are you Colby's Mom?" Before the woman could answer she went on to tell about how she knew him from working somewhere else and how they have been out "clubbing" together a few times.

 The woman confirmed that yes, she was Colby's Mom.

 

The sales associate said, "I thought so! I saw you two together once and teased him that his Mom looked so young that she really looked more like his sister!"

 

Of course you can imagine that this woman looked really happy with that statement!

 

And the then the sales associate said, "Yeah, but I was really just joking; just giving him a hard time."
 

Ouch..
 

Reminds me of the time a hair stylist told me that she loved my hair style. And then followed up with, "When I get old, maybe I'll be brave enough to try that hairstyle too."
 

Double ouch!

 

But here's the deal. I still took the hairstyle comment as a compliment and the woman in line at the store really did look too young to have a son that was old enough to go out "clubbing"!  So it's all good!

Keep on smiling! 

Nothing Says Love Like....

Last week I went Valentine’s Day shopping for my husband. I never know what to get him but I thought I would give it a valiant effort so I went to Gander Mountain.

My husband enjoys hunting. He’s not a crazy hunter that goes all the time. But he does participate in many seasons like turkey hunting, bow hunting, gun hunting and muzzle loader season.  And he has all the toys that go along with hunting.

So Gander Mountain seemed like a good place to go. Well actually, I was really close to Gander Mountain so it seemed efficient too!

I wandered through the clothing section, wondering if I could find something that seemed like a good gift. I couldn’t. So I decided to wander over to the camping section. Not because he likes camping per se. Just because it looked interesting.

On the way to the camping area of the store I wandered through an off shoot of the hunting department and something caught my eye.

One of the things my husband uses is Scent Lok clothing. He has special detergent to wash the Scent Lok clothing that takes any smells out and then he stores them in and a Scent Lok bag once they are washed. After all, no one wants to smell like a human when they are hunting!

And right there in the aisle, it jumped out at me. Dryer sheets that remove human scent. Wow! I didn’t even know they made scent sucking dryer sheets and I know he doesn’t have any!

So then I started looking at the other products and this one jumped out at me.

Scent Killer Liquid Clothing Wash for high efficiency washers. Read the label. “Autumn Formula – Washes Away Odors and Adds a Light Scent of Leaves and Dirt”.

 Sooooooo, you use this detergent to purposely smell like dirt. Nice.

Anyway, I found a gift for my husband!! A 6-pack of scent killer products from Bone Collector.

Because nothing says “I Love You” like products that make you smell like acorns, dirt, rotting leaves or simply smelling like nothing at all.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!  I hope there is a moment today that uniquely says “I Love You” to you.

 
Keep on smiling!

Sealed With A Kiss

We have instant messaging capability at work, to communicate within the company. Today a fellow HR Manager asked me a question via IM. My response to him included information on the 401(k) plan. So I typed in 401(k) in the response and when I hit send, a funny thing happened. Big red kissy lips came up on the screen. Whaaaaat? There it was staring at me. 401 and then a big pair of red lips.

(In case you haven't figured this out yet, I'm not always wise to the ways of this newfangled technology.)

I quickly typed in, “Wow, I don’t know how that happened?” No response.

Then it hit me. The (k) must turn into the big red kissy lips. 

So, just me being me, I typed one line with just (k) on it and when I hit send, there were the lips again. (Brilliant, right?)  I quickly typed an IM that said the k in parentheses must be producing the big kissy lips. This whole time, my peer is not responding. I am starting to panic.

I typed, “Truly didn’t mean to harass you! I had no idea that would happen!!” 

He finally responded with, “OMG, I am laughing too hard to type!” 

Whew!!  

What am I thankful for today?  That I work with people who have a great sense of humor!

Keep on smiling!

A Better Way to Award Financial Aid

Thursday is my flexible work day in 2012. Technically it is my day off but I haven’t had a Thursday yet that I haven’t actually worked at least a few hours for my employer. Since they are generous enough to supply me with an iPhone and a laptop, the connection is always there. Nonetheless, I love my Thursdays. They become a marathon session of knocking things off the To Do list. I LOVE checking things off the To Do List.  Sometimes I add a few items in that I have already accomplished in the day, just to check them off. Hee Hee.

Today I checked a big one off the list by finishing up the FAFSA which, in case you’re not into this stage of your life, is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Basically, it is an online application where you divulge all of your financial information and educational background to the government in hopes of your student being awarded grants or work study or subsidized loans. The next step is for the government to almost immediately tell you that you make too much money to get any of these things. :)

Our daughter is a senior this year and has already been admitted to the college of her choice. :) But we spent the last 12 months touring campuses both large and small.

And I have come up with a better way of identifying which students should receive financial aid. It is very simple. The amount of the financial aid awarded should be based on the size of the diamond ring the mother is wearing. The larger the diamond ring, the lower the amount of financial aid awarded.  Because c’mon!! If you can afford a diamond the size of hard boiled egg, you can afford to pay your child’s tuition!!  In fact, you could take a loan out against that ring and pay for at least a year or two!!

Seriously! The larger the campus, the larger the diamonds seemed to be!

In case that method doesn’t work, I have a back-up plan. Financial aid should be based on the shoes worn by the mother. If you are going on a campus preview day which involves a walking tour of the campus (and it always does), and you are wearing 4 inch high, Christian Louboutin stilettos, your child does not need financial aid! Seriously, he/she doesn’t! 

The women who came in sensible casual, walking, hiking or running shoes; line up, toes to the line and now let’s take a look at those diamonds!

Seriously, it’s been a lot of fun. I’m happy to be part of this soon to be new adventure of our daughter’s!

Keep on smiling!

Dogs Are Smart

My dog, Truman, woke me up at 3:40 this morning. Why? I’ve blogged about this before. Because he knew what time it was and was afraid we had overslept. Normally, by 3:40 my husband has showered, dressed for work and is packing his lunch. And by 3:40, I’m in the shower, getting ready for my day too. But today is Saturday. And the last person to go to bed (not me) forgot to shut the bedroom door. So at 3:40 AM our big brown alarm clock was in the door, softly whining, “Get up! You are going to be late!” So I got up and let me tell you, he was very proud of himself. I checked to make sure he had water and didn’t need to go outside, patted him on the head and went back to sleep (shutting the door behind me).

When I woke up a couple hours later, everything was quiet, just like a Saturday morning should be.

I recently read an article that talked about dogs being able to read facial expressions and pick up on moods. I don’t think this is groundbreaking research for anyone who owns a dog. I wonder how much money they spent doing this research and I wonder if there had been a government grant involved. But mostly I just thought about my own dog.

My husband doesn’t believe our dog is not very smart. I completely disagree. He’s a genius. First of all, let’s look at the obvious. The dog sleeps all day, is always assured food and water without doing any type of work, and humans not only clean up all the hair he leaves behind, they also clean up his poop.

He knows how to manipulate people too. Big time. When I’m home or my daughter’s home, or we’re home together, Truman peacefully lounges around. As long as he has food and water and goes outside once in a while, he’s perfectly content. 

When my husband is home, it’s a different story. Truman whines. Why? Because he knows he will get all kinds of attention from my husband. He will get extra food, extra treats, extra belly rubs, back massages and a thousand walks a day if he really wanted to push it. Just by whining. I’m telling you, this dog is a genius.  

I don’t believe Truman whines because he actually needs to go for a walk. I think he whines because he believes my husband is the one who needs to go for a walk. And Truman is the one who is in charge of getting him out there.

My husband loves to watch sports and he loves to analyze Ebay. He could probably spend hours and hours, uninterrupted, sitting on the couch with his laptop on his lap, watching TV and searching Ebay and be really happy! And there are much worse things, right?

I believe Truman’s whining is not, “I need to go outside!” I think his whining is, “C’mon buddy. Time to get off the couch and go out and get some fresh air! Follow me and I’ll show you the way. And as a reward to you for getting some exercise and breathing some fresh air, I promise I will randomly poop in someone’s yard for you. That way you can go home and say, ‘See, he needed to poop. That’s why he was whining.’ It will totally look like YOU are doing ME a favor.

Along with that little triumph, the bending over to clean up after me will help keep your back stretched out and it’s a great way to re-use those plastic bags you keep bringing home from the grocery store. And by the way, your secret is safe with me. I know, that even though you complain loudly, you really enjoy me taking you for a walk. And I have also heard you say that if it wasn’t for you having to take me on so many walks (wink, wink) you’d probably weigh 300 pounds. So let me just say; you’re welcome. I’m there for you buddy!!”

Yes, Truman is incredible, caring and a genius!

What I can’t explain is why such a genius dog will sniff at bird poop, goose poop, road kill and any other gross thing along the road. Hmmmm. I guess we’re not supposed to understand everything. People probably didn’t completely understand Einstein either.

Keep on smiling!

Keeping New Year's Resolutions - The Final Frontier - #1

These are the voyages of A Very Kari Life. Its 1-year mission: to explore strange new worlds of healthy living, to seek out new life and new habits, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Captain’s Log – Day 3: So far so good. My dinner menu has been made, my shopping list devised and I’m sticking to it!

Day 2 of drinking a cup of coffee on the way to work AND day 2 of bringing my lunch to work. Success.

Too bad it’s still dark outside when I go to work and already dark outside when I come home from work or I could swing by the State Park during my travels and get in some exercise. Except that it’s really TOO COLD to do that today!

Alas, water has eluded me this morning. But the day is young.

"Mr. Spock, the women on your planet are logical. That's the only planet in the galaxy that can make that claim." -- Kirk

Live long and prosper!

Keep on smiling!

Prepping for the New Year's Resolution

I am not one to set New Year’s Resolutions. Mostly because they get such a bad rap! They are rarely successful and people ditch them before February begins. I have to believe that some of that is true! Have you ever worked out at a gym in January? It’s chaos! The regulars will tell you to hang in there because come February, most of the people you see won’t show up anymore and you can get on any machine you want. How sad!

I found some interesting tidbits about New Year’s Resolutions through my research. Did you know that New Year’s Resolutions can be traced as far back as Babylonian times? It is said that Julius Caesar started the tradition of making resolutions on January 1st as a way to honor the Roman mythical god Janus, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past year and forward to the New Year. According to history, Romans mostly made morality-based resolutions, such as seeking forgiveness from their enemies.

I’m not sure how successful the Ancient Babylonians were but the success rate of keeping resolutions in modern times is indeed dismal. I have read research that states an average overall success rate of anywhere from 8% to 25%.

Even so, there is some positive news. One expert believes, “The fact that people keep making resolutions even when they don’t always follow through ultimately means that they have hope and a certain level of belief in their ability to change and be more of who they really want to be.” Faith, hope and perhaps a little insanity, right?

Another positive reality is that there are ways to increase your chances of being successful with your New Year’s Resolutions. Let me share the expertise that I gained via my best friend, Google!

People who have kept their resolutions have followed some or all of the following best practices:

1. Break your goal into smaller steps.  Losing 50 pounds is a big deal but striving for a 4 pound weight loss in a month or replacing one meal a day with a salad, seems a lot more achievable and a lot less discouraging! Running a marathon is a big deal but walking 30 minutes a day 5 days a week seems almost manageable to get the ball rolling!
2. Reward yourself when you reach one of your smaller milestones. Something small but motivating! Eating an entire pizza might not be a good reward choice if your goal is weight loss but buying a book, getting a pedicure or a massage, or scheduling time to take a walk with a friend might be a good idea!
3. Tell your friends about your goals! There’s nothing like peer pressure to keep you on the right track. Marathon Running 101 tells you that you should commit to a race and then tell EVERYONE! So on that rainy Monday morning when you don’t feel like getting out of bed to run, you can think about all those people who are going to ask you how you are coming along with your training and you don’t want to be forced to say…. Uhhhhhh, I gave up. :)
4. Focus on the benefits of success.  Losing weight or exercising consistently is something to do but what will it get you? What’s in it for you? Clothes fitting better? Being able to walk up a flight of stairs without being winded? Sleeping better? Better stress management? A feeling of accomplishment? Whatever the goal is, take some time to write down all the positive things associated with your success! Focus on those when the going gets tough.
5. Keep a diary of your progress. This is a big one with weight loss, eating healthy or managing your spending but it can be successfully used for any goal. Trying to better balance your work and home life? Simply start tracking how many hours you are at work and how many hours you spend working on work stuff at home. It might surprise you enough to shock you into making a change!

One study found that people who planned a series of smaller goals (#1) had an average success rate of 35%, while those who followed all five of the above strategies had a 50% chance of success.

A 50/50 chance sounds a lot better than an 8% chance!

Despite the low success rates, and the risk of ridicule, I’ve really been thinking about it this year. It seems like if I don’t take the time to sit down, look around, put some thought into it and plan out what I want to change and how I’m going to change it, it simply isn’t going to happen.

In the words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Stay tuned for my ACTUAL New Year’s Resolutions! Coming soon to a blog near you!

Keep on smiling!

You Tell 'Em!!

Christmas Gifts - Consumer Testing - Gift #1

This year, as I do every year, I received some awesome and at times off-the-wall Christmas gifts. I’ll be conducting my own consumer tests with some of them and reporting back over the next few blogs.

First up? The All Over Moisture Gel Booties!

This was a great gift idea for me and here is why. One of my New Year’s Resolutions (yes, I’m finally going to create some) is going to be that I resolve to take better care of my feet. I have a little bubbling foot spa and have received many nice gifts such as lotions and soaking salts because I have a real and well known desire to take better care of my poor feet! Painful joints and a foot surgery should be enough motivation for me but I don’t do a very good job of it. This will change in 2012! So the All Over Moisture Gel Booties are terrific!

Tonight I settled down and slathered my feet with Ms. Pedicure Moisture-Rich Heel Cream. Smells minty!! Then I took the All Over Moisture Gel Booties out of their package. First of all, they really ARE gel booties! The inside is all squishy and it gave me a little shiver as I was pulling them on. But they feel great! So the plan is to slip them on, write a little, read a little and then take them off and drift off into pleasant dreams with perfectly moisturized feet.

I am one of those unique people who actually read the directions on the back of packages so the first order of business was to read about these booties. One sentence alarmed me. “Remove the booties at least 3-4 hours daily (within a 24 hour period) to allow skin to breathe.”  Yikes! Are there really people out there who would wear these nonstop for days at a time?? Ewwww! I mean they feel great and all but I can tell that there is no moisture wicking properties and no breathable qualities. They are made to hold the moisture in! So to keep them on for 20-21 hours in a day? Whew!! Even the minty fresh, rich moisture heel cream wouldn’t be enough to make that a pretty proposition!

You have to believe that someone out there must have tried it and developed some funky skin situation which prompted the company to put that little tidbit of advice on the back of the package. Geez.

I have had my booties on for a little over an hour. An hour is the minimum time recommended to wear the booties for best results. As I’m taking them off, I can definitely tell that my feet are more than a bit warm from the cozy, gel-filled, non-breathable environment. But the good news is they feel really, really soft!!  I can’t wait to see what they feel like in the morning. Hopefully still soft!  I’ll be ready for sandal weather in no time! Based on the climate where we live, I have PLENTY of time to get ready!

More fun to report later!

Keep on smiling!

I'd Like to Give A Shout Out to the Inventor of the Crockpot!

I'd like to give a shout out to the inventor of the Crockpot! What a truly remarkable invention! Simply throw any type of meat and veggies into it in the morning before you go to work, turn it on and when you get home from work and open that door, your kitchen smells like your own private chef has been toiling away all day preparing a wonderful meal for you!

Notice I said turn it on as part of the directions. It's an important step. Once I threw in meat and veggies early in the morning and forgot to turn it on. It does not have the same effect. I came home to a kitchen without wonderful smells and a vessel full of room temperature, raw meat and veggies. Not what I was going for...

And now they make crockpots with lid locks so you can batten down the hatches and travel with the crockpot without spilling its contents! This came in especially handy yesterday. My Mom provided the place for Christmas dinner and I brought all the food. Along for the ride came a huge crockpot with a huge roast and a big (but not huge) crockpot with a turkey breast. They were nestled in appropriately sized boxes for stability but it was nice to know that if for some reason they should tip, veggies and meat and onion soup mix and cream of mushroom soup and chicken broth would not spew forth and cover all of the Christmas gifts that were also packed strategically in the back of our car. That would NOT be a Christmas miracle!

As a side note, this would not be appropriate for air travel. Just in case you were thinking about it.

Have you seen the variety of crockpots out there? They even make multiple crockpots with three or four crockpots all in one! I was intrigued. But with the exception of very infrequent, large gatherings, I couldn't envision using four crockpots at once very often. But they look really cool. And the colors! You can get crockpots in virtually every color of the rainbow in addition to patterns and even camo! Yes, I spend some time in the crockpot aisle.

I'd also like to give a shout out the Reynolds company for inventing Slow Cooker Liners. No more messy clean up! I am trusting you, Reynolds company. Trusting that you have run exhaustive tests to determine beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your product is safe and will not taint our cooking!!

Thank you Hamilton Beech, Oster, Crockpot and all the other makers of crockpots and slow cookers for making me seem more talented than I really am when it comes to cooking! And thank you Reynolds for making the clean up a breeze!

Keep on smiling!

 

Buddy the Elf and Mrs. Butterworth

It’s almost Christmas time and one of my all-time favorite movies (with the exception of Forrest Gump) is Elf. What do Buddy the Elf and Forrest Gump have in common? The purest hearts of any characters out there in the movie world and of course, the best quotes.

Thinking of Elf makes me think of a recent conversation with my daughter about maple syrup.

Why? Because of a classic Buddy the Elf, line. “We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.”

Here is the syrup story.

My daughter is in an AP Environmental Science class. I am quite sure the teacher is trying to create a squad of vegans because it seems like they have learned a lot about how modern farming is very cruel to animals. 

One of their assignments was to eat a different diet for a week and write a paper about it. My daughter chose a quasi-vegan diet. To follow this diet, she could not eat meat (obviously) or dairy products but she could eat eggs.  That’s why I call it quasi-vegan.  My own term, thank you very much.

Being the excellent student that she is, she went full tilt into being a quasi-vegan. She researched vegan products, found recipes and made a grocery list to get started. And off to the store we went.

One of the items on the list was maple syrup.

Me: We can check this one off the list. We have maple syrup at home.

Her: We do?
Me: Yep. We have Mrs. Butterworth’s at home.
Her: Is that really maple syrup?
Me: Of course it is. It probably has some preservatives in it but it’s still maple syrup.

Even as I said it, somewhere deep inside me a little voice started growing louder. Maybe it’s not really maple syrup.

But hey, let me practice time travel and jump way back to my childhood. Come with me, won’t you?

My very best childhood friend, Nancy, also grew up on a farm. Not only was it a dairy farm, they also processed maple syrup. It was always fun to go on a class trip to their farm to see how they made the maple syrup. We got to trudge through the snow and look at all those trees with their pails hanging off from them and those big vats of syrup being made. It was super cool. Good times.

And on another note, do you know what the very best part of traveling back and forth to Canada is? The maple candy you can buy in the gift shops at the Toronto airport. (That was a completely random thought.)

But back to the story.  Maybe Mrs. Butterworth’s is not really maple syrup. Could it be? So I walked over to the shelf, turned over the bottle and here is what it said.

Ingredients: High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, salt, cellulose gum, molasses, potassium sorbate (preservative), sodium hexametaphosphate, citric acid, caramel color, natural and artificial flavors.

Wow. Not a speck of maple syrup to be found. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing any hexametaphosphate at Nancy’s farm.

All these years I have been content to think that the Mrs. Butterworth’s on my toast, french toast and pancakes was maple syrup. Not even close. Had I read the label more closely, I may have noticed that Mrs. Butterworth does not try to pass herself off as pure maple syrup either. Only as syrup. Complete truth in advertising.

Somewhat reluctantly I told my daughter that she was right. Mrs. Butterworth’s was not real maple syrup. Just syrup. So I bought a tiny, costly bottle of pure maple syrup for her to use in her recipe and left the store a little deflated.

The cold hard truth has exposed the hoodwinking nature of yet another childhood hero of mine. I suppose this means the bottle doesn’t really talk either, right?

I still love you Mrs. Butterworth!! You’re syrupy sweet goodness is unmatched, even if you aren’t really maple syrup!

Keep on smiling!