This is how this works - You copy down the questions that get sent out on Tuesday - From This Side of the Pond - copy the questions onto your blog and answer them on your blog.   Then you come back here on Wednesday after you have published to add your link to the linky party. 

Thanks to Joyce,  for being the brains behind this link party and for forgiving me for misspelling her name every week. 

1. What does productivity look like to you? 

I had to get some help on this - so I read the article :

The ten traits of highly productive people 

that I thought were interesting:

1. They know what’s important

2. They plan their day

3. They’re able to get back on track faster

4. They know their priorities and protect them

5. They problem-solve

6. They arm themselves with the right tools.

7. They have a laser-like focus

8. They’re well organized

9. They’re disciplined

10. They keep learning

2. What was your fondest (or one of your fondest) memory of High School? 

I hated high school. I do have some fond memories of cutting classes and going to the beach. I had some really good friends that I enjoyed and I had an on-and-off-again semi-steady boyfriend. For the most part, I have conveniently put that 4-year event of high school out of my mind for my own mental well-being. 

3. What did you do the summer after High School? 

I was supposed to go to a nursing program in San Francisco at St Marys.  Instead, I took an unexpected U-Turn and was offered a job at California Dental Service in San Francisco. I graduated on a Friday the 16th of June and started my first day on the job, Monday, June 19. I told my parents it would be for just 3 months - then, I decided just 9 months longer - after that, I stayed. I loved working in the city - making all new friends and living the life. I used CDS as a springboard into the dental field - I trained to be a dental assistant. Back then, many Dentists trained their own dental assistants. I decided I couldn't stand people's mouths so I worked insurance and the back office. 

I did not have a summer at all - It was work work work until the next following summer when I earned my first paid vacation. 

4. June 14th is National Strawberry Shortcake Day...are you a fan, and if so will you celebrate? How do you make yours? Have you been strawberry picking? If so what do you do with all those berries? 

I love strawberries - They are my favorite berry. 

I don't celebrate the day - I didn't even know about it.  

My special recipe for serving up Strawberries is simple - I just wash them, slice them and add a little sugar - then buy store-bought shortcake or I'll make an angel food cake and then some store-bought whipped cream from a can (Redi-Whip - my favorite) and Ta-dah! 

I have never been strawberry picking - seems like backbreaking work. We do have a small strawberry Farm just around the corner from us - but they just farm and have a stand. They do all their own picking. 

FYI

90% of all strawberries grown come from the Golden State. Several miles down the road are several greenhouses that start the strawberry plants that farms in the Salinas Valley grow. For major production of strawberries, Redding is too HOT for these delicate berries. All our strawberries are grown in the spring and are done by summer. My sister used to live in Watsonville - surrounded by strawberry farms. I saw how hard those farm workers work - God bless them for that. 

5. What's something you always splurge on? 

We enjoy going out to dinner and patronizing new local restaurants. My husband even got a part-time job for those date-night splurges which he is quitting at the end of June. So now our date nights and dinner splurges will take more thought and planning, which is fine. It's not like we need to go out to eat, all the time. 

We do, enjoy splurging on our animals by way of new collars, and toys - I like to do adventurous things on occasion, and we will splurge on something like that. I want to take a balloon ride over the wine country. But I think that will be next summer. 

Can't you tell, we don't have grandchildren? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Speaking of my animals - I am writing this on Tuesday which is usually when I pre-schedule the Hodgepodge post for Wednesday. 

Laydee, our black lab has been limping; favoring her front paw, which is what we thought. Then we felt between her toes and it felt like a lump. So today we took her to the vet. I'm happy to report, it was not what I was fearing - an interdigital furuncle which Labradors are famous for. It's most likely arthritis and the lump was a bone - all good and the source of the pain was not the front paw, but her shoulder. I told my husband, she has sympathy pains for both of us, with our bad shoulders. She's on an anti-inflammatory for 2 weeks and then we go back. She is ten years old this year. 

Thank God for pet insurance which I am a huge advocate of. (a monthly splurge of close to $250 for both the dog and the cat and as they get older, it keeps going up) We can now afford to comfortably treat them and not have to be that concerned about the cost. I'd have more animals but can't afford any more pet insurance premiums. 

While there in the waiting room, a woman and her son came in, with a box and there was a blanket over the box. They brought in a Kitten that had been run over - was barely alive and was crying. The kitten did not belong to them - they found it on the road. What a special person, who took the time, to comfort this dying kitten. She was late for work but she did it anyway. 

OM Goodness, it tore me up. It looked like the kitten had a cracked skull and it was then determined that the kitten would have to be humanely put down. It has upset me all day. My sweet husband went over and asked the woman if he could pray for the kitten - he laid his hands on that sweet little kitten and prayed that God would either heal him or take him out of the pain he was in. 

I fell in love with my husband all over again. 

Like always, this was fun.

Until next week, 

Debby