Saying Goodbye.

Tomorrow at 1pm many of us in Dallas will say our formal goodbye to our colleague, Ron Hagood. Ron was a friend to many and that will be even more difficult. Then, there’s his family and I am positive their sadness is immense. I truly appreciated Ron and knew he was a trusted colleague. I … Continue reading »

Ussery cares about Irving Cares

When Fran Ussery came back from her meeting with the folks at Irving Cares she was pumped up. She came into my office and asked me to help her create a company-wide challenge to gather non-perishable food items for distribution within our community. What we came up with is a campaign called Ussery cares about … Continue reading »

Strange Impressions ~

My neighbor must have thought I’d lost my mind this morning. As she came out of her backdoor, there I was, on my patio puttering around wearing a navy blue skirt with a pink striped long-sleeved button down shirt and my bright pink flip-flops. What she didn’t know was that earlier that morning I had … Continue reading »

Mama Always Said:

If you don’t have anything nice to say…shut your mouth. This is really good advice and more people should take it. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’ve made mistakes, said something out of line or gossipy to the wrong person. It has, and always will come back to haunt you. It’s true, really, better to … Continue reading »

Chump Change?

Tyler’s first mission trip was to Mexico and boy was he excited about his upcoming adventure. For months prior to them leaving we attended all the parent meetings, where we talked about where they would be and their safety. We talked about what they should bring and more importantly what they shouldn’t bring on the … Continue reading »

Let’s Consider Being Thankful

Since mid-June I’ve had a new CSR; his name is Larry. Although Larry is trained as an estimator, he was hired at Ussery as a Customer Service Representative. If you’re in the loop of printing gossip, there are some changes happening at Ussery and Larry will again be an estimator. Here’s a snippet of an … Continue reading »

My Last…

Earlier last week I wrote about my first CCN job. Aren’t firsts always fun, exciting and loaded with anticipation? This morning I was a bit sad because this is the first time in twenty years that I haven’t gotten a child ready for school. John Lucas has been grown and gone for so long now … Continue reading »

Updates ~

It’s time for some updates, partly because I miss Ty and want to share what is going on in his world. http://printstories.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/its-time-time-for-a-change/ We heard from Ty briefly about a week ago. He did say that he had been to the hospital for a bacterial infection. They put him on an IV for 4 hours and … Continue reading »

Girls Who Print…

Mary Beth Smith started Girls Who Print as a group on LinkedIn. This community has now grown to over 1100 connections, mostly women, but some men (we’re not an exclusive bunch.) Since Mary Beth is a Dallasite, the very first get-together is scheduled here in Dallas for Tuesday, June 29th. Yippee! Since I’m a Dallasite … Continue reading »

Don Clampitt ~

Tomorrow night, Don Clampitt, Chairman and CEO of Clampitt Paper Company will find out if he has been chosen as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year. We will be present tomorrow night at the Sheraton Dallas to watch as the winner is selected from the 38 finalists. Good luck to you friend. Don … Continue reading »

Mr. FRISKE

In this particular case, Mr. FRISKE isn’t my dad, he’s somebody I found on LinkedIn. Certainly, I’m not the first person who has searched for people in our social media networks who have the same last name. Out of the few Friskes who were local, Bobby Friske and I had something else in common besides … Continue reading »

It’s time…time for a change.

Cuz I’m tired of the same ole same. (I love this song Jerry Jeff Walker sings) I’m not tired of the same ole same, but I have change in my life anyway. Our youngest son just graduated from high school, and instead of heading off this fall to college like most of his peers, he … Continue reading »

Updates~

I’m not sure how many people are wondering about Bella. http://printstories.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/rescue-me/ Bella is fantastic. No, we didn’t find her owners, but one of our lead pressman, Moses and his wife have a new dog. Thank you Moses! Fran, Morgan and I knew beyond a doubt that if somebody kept Bella more than one day she … Continue reading »

Survivors…Are You READY?

It’s pretty obvious that I’m a huge Survivor fan. I got hooked watching the very last show of the very first Survivor. I was captivated watching and listening to the jury that was made up of players that had been voted off earlier in the show ask questions and/or criticize how the finalists had played … Continue reading »

Rescue me…

Morgan, a coworker at Ussery saw a stray dog in the industrial area where we’re located and made a brave decision to intervene. She stopped and brought the dog into the office. She was smelly but recently spayed…no tags, but her nails were groomed (the dog, not Morgan.) What contradictions. I would have bet money … Continue reading »

It’s less about you…

Take a moment and think back to the time somebody was rude or cruel to you. Sadly, that may have happened just a moment ago, yesterday or last week. Aggressiveness in driving, short tempers on the telephone and adolescent-type behavior can come at you at anytime. It’s still not pleasant, fair or justified; but knowing … Continue reading »

The impact of a note card…

I received two note cards in the mail last week. One was thanking me for a birthday lunch and the other was just to say hi and that my friend missed seeing me. Wow. I miss my friend too. The fact that Lisa and Olivia took time out of their busy days….and ALL of us … Continue reading »

The Power

People have power, whether they are empowered by their title of owner, manager or simply by group strength. I just reread Jack London’s South of the Slot. It’s a terrific short story about a man who for a time lives on both sides of the slot, which is just a metaphor for class division. He … Continue reading »

W is for What a Weasel!

This post isn’t about a carnivorous mammal, but for all the sneaky people I’ve encountered over the years. Thankfully there haven’t been that many, but there are a few who stood out from the rest. My favorite is the coworker who just thought this little lady wouldn’t go head to head with him. I had … Continue reading »

O is for oleo

Why am I writing about oleo? This story goes all the way back to when I was a freshman in High School…yea, WAY back. I don’t recall the class and I don’t recall any of the classmates, that is, except Bruce Krueger. Our test was to look at and taste two items, one was butter and … Continue reading »