I took my son to work with me last month. It was part of his high school curriculum (a 'see what adults do all day' thing). Now, I work in Cubicle Land in a typical office in a typical bureaucratic organization so what adults do all day at my work might not appear too exciting - the shuffle of paper and gentle tip-tap of the computer keys can seem about as thrilling as dental work to the pubescent psyche of a fourteen year old boy - but, in reality, danger lurks everywhere. Why, there are paper cuts just waiting to happen and you have to be really quick to get to the printer for your document or someone else might pick it up by mistake and then, well, then you have to reprint it or start searching all the other little cubicles for your papers that are nestled in with someone else's document. It can be exhausting. This story does relate to coffee - and I'm getting to that. Now, with all that excitement going on, do you know what my son's favourite part of the whole day was? Not collating, not copying, not even hole-punching the thousand page manuscript I'd saved especially for him. No, it was the coffee room. The coffee room with the nifty machine that makes individual coffee servings in seconds and allows you to combine chocolate and espresso and cream in lascivious amounts and combinations. By 4:30, he could have flown home. I think he was supposed to learn something from the whole experience and I’m sure he did. I’m just not sure his newly acquired skill at making the perfect mocha was the intended goal. So, the lesson here is: ummm, if you want to inspire your children, work in a place with a good coffee room? No, that’s not it. While I contemplate what the lesson was may we present, for your reading pleasure, the following: 1. "Sleeping Beauty Becomes Indignant" by Zoe Landale 2. "Fridge Art," by Arlene Kroeker 3. Recipes from Brad & Tricia Merritt All the Best for 2004! Diane