And suddenly I was put in the position to hire someone.

And I knew exactly who it wouldn’t be.

My office has a position for a part-time worker this summer. And I have to choose. Acquaintances dropped hints. Friends outright asked. People I barely knew assumed I would offer it to them.

By Jan Wesner Childs

You’ve heard the rumors: The death of Tricare is imminent and retirement pay is on the chopping block.

The buzzards have been circling ever since Jan. 29 when the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission released 15 recommendations to revamp military pay and benefits.

Since then, lawmakers have weighed in during Congressional hearings, advocacy groups have shared their opinions – good and bad - and the rest of us have tried to figure out what this means for our futures.

By Tiffany Shedd

February may be the shortest month of the year, but with all the winter weather we’ve gotten, it seems to be lasting forever. I thought that we weren’t going to have much of a winter, because last winter we started getting snow in early November.

This year, our first significant snow fall didn’t arrive until two weeks ago, and we have had snow pretty consistently every three to four days since then. It’s snowing right now.

The babysitter cancelled. So the two toddlers headed to work to me, which today was at a school out on an island, across a long bridge and very far from much of anything.

We were locked out of the building, the wind was whipping, papers were blowing. Toddler number one had to pee. Toddler number two blew out her diaper, bad. Toddler number one peed her pants.

The event ran late - two hours late. The toddlers screamed, cried, ranted, raved.