Corporate Jargon

The other day at work I saw a comic strip posted on someone's bulletin board. It was titled, "The Adventures of Action Item". Here is the title panel:

The entire strip can be found here. Unfortunately, there are no other episodes of Action Item. Neil McAllister hasn't pursued it further yet, but doesn't dismiss the possibility. There is more in McAllister's web page about how this all happened.

10 years ago

February 20, 1998. Sam would have been 27 years old by now. Although I don't talk about it a lot, I miss him greatly.

I was just reading through the eulogy that Kathleen read at Sam's funeral. I sometimes forget that Sam was 6 feet 4 inches tall , and 211 pounds. I liked the qualities of service, humor and honesty that we chose to focus on in the eulogy. We included a letter that we discovered in the computer that he was writing to Grandmother & Grandfather Keller where he talks about using their Christmas gift money to pay his back tithing. He wrote,

While not quite as fun as buying a video game, or slowly frittering the money away on movies and fast food, I think it is ultimately more rewarding and definitly a whole lot more important. It is, actually, spending money on those unimportant things which got me into the predicament that required me to use your money to pay tithing. (the predicament being not budgeting my money, and not paying tithing as soon as I got the money it was to be paid on) Thanks for the money, it was a life saver.

Sam goes on to talk about grades, and school classes, and enjoying Church basketball, and not being all that excited about graduation. I wish I had an electronic copy and I would post it here.

After the funeral I put together a large loose-leaf binder with a number of things in it. The eulogy is in there, along with many, many sympathy cards and remembrances. One of the cards I remember most often was from GR's mother, Diane. She wrote, among other things:

I know it probably sounds trite right now, but the passage of time does help. Not because you forget but because the good memories get stronger.

Thanks, Sam, for the good memories that keep getting stronger.

love,
Dad

Seen on the wall at Great Harvest Bread Company

Last weekend Mutti & I were visiting Kathleen & company and after a visit to the library we went to see "baker Bob" to get some cinnamon rolls, which turned out to be the above named store. A small magazine clipping on the wall listed the 10 best foods--foods high in nutrition--according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest:

1. Sweet potato
2. Wholegrain breads
3. Broccoli
4. Strawberries
5. Beans
6. Cantaloupe
7. Spinach, kale, collards
8. Oranges
9. Oatmeal
10. Low-fat/skim milk

Of course, Great Harvest would have been pleased about the positioning of wholegrain breads in this list. What struck me about it, however, is that it describes many of the mainstays of my parent's diet, and having visited them just 2 weeks ago, this was still fresh on my mind.

Interestingly, the CSPI web site currently has a somewhat different list (included is a list of the 10 worst foods that "you should never eat"). The current list of 10 best foods deletes strawberries, beans, and cantaloupe; substitutes wholegrain crispbreads (like Wasa) for wholegrain bread; brown rice for oatmeal; and adds grape tomatoes, wild salmon, butternut squash; and expands oranges to include all citrus.

Once again, the grape tomatoes and salmon remind me of my parent's diet.

"Nibble, nibble, like a mouse..."

At Christmas time Mutti made gingerbread walls and roofs for us to make houses out of and decorate. We had fun making them and giving them away. Several remained at our house, and after their time had passed, we wondered what would happen if we put them out on the patio.


Yes, our old friends who no longer have our big house to nibble on, found something else to sink their teeth into. They liked the gingerbread better than the hard candies, and a few days later...