Pretzels, treats and reflections during a staycation (7 Quick Takes)

~1~

I took this past week off from work for a sort of staycation with my boys. One of them had band camp for the first few days, so we couldn’t do anything too outlandish. But we agreed to set aside Thursday as a day of fun. I took our boys roller skating and treated them to soft pretzels from the Pennsylvania Dutch Market in Cockeysville.

We hadn’t been there in a while, and the pretzels were even better than I remembered. Nearly 20 years ago, when I worked for McDaniel College, the Pennsylvania Dutch Market was located not far from that campus in Westminster. Now and then, my wonderful boss there used to bring soft pretzels and fresh lemonade from the market back to the office. That was an important lesson for me about surprising your employees with treats, and it’s one I’ve incorporated into my own professional life.

~2~

Halfway through my staycation, I received a jury summons in the mail. I always say that you should never end a vacation without knowing when you’re taking your next day off, so here we go. But it made me laugh because jury duty is not a day off at all.

My next day off, actually, will be my birthday, which is the day before I have jury duty. I doubt that the courts considered that when sending me the summons, but I’m happy not to go to court on my birthday.

~3~

My neighbor Kathy celebrated her birthday this week. Kathy made my birthday so special last summer, filling a backpack with cards and gifts for me to open as we walked on our evening walk through the neighborhood.

I decided to make a board game for her by doctoring a Candy Land for her and designating it as the “Evening Walk Edition.” I put our faces on the game pieces and changed the names of the locations on the map to reflect our nighttime walks.

We started walking together during the pandemic, back when we both had more time in the evenings. There were some wonderful things to come out of COVID and walking with Kathy is high on my list.

~4~

Rising gas prices are daunting, and the way grocery costs are going up is crazy, too. But I thought I was navigating that just fine until I heard that dollar drinks are disappearing from McDonald’s.

Here we are beginning the hottest, sweatiest—and best, in my opinion—part of the summer. On these warm, wonderful summer days, there is nothing like a cold fountain drink from a drive-through, so you can stay in your air-conditioned car while a kind employee fills a cup of frosty liquid just for you.

You might be thinking this isn’t exactly the apocalypse, but then…

~5~

…I have to share that there are now blueberry-muffin-flavored KitKats. I like to look at something like this and marvel at the creativity God gives someone to inspire them to dream up such an extraordinary item. But then I think of how glorious an ordinary KitKat is. And I wonder whether that person might have used those talents in another way to benefit humanity. That could still happen.

Blueberry-muffin KitKats might be exceptional. But I think I’ll let someone else enjoy mine. I’ll save my pennies for a more-than-a-dollar drink on a hot summer day.

~6~

We have had the cutest little bunnies growing up in our yard.

The other day I looked outside, and it looked like one of the babies was guarding our house.

Who needs a dog to protect the house when you can have a skittish little baby bunny?

I mean, look how cute and sweet this little one is.

~7~

When we started the adoption process, one of the social workers told us there was only one guarantee: “The paperwork never ends.” I think of that whenever I am working on school forms.

This week as I was working on some of the latest forms, I came to a blank page that said, “This page was intentionally left blank.”

Is it blank, though? Is this like the sound of one hand clapping? Or is it more like a jumbo shrimp? Life is full of questions.

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