It happens all the time. You're at a party and need to make introductions. You reach out for a handshake and then .... nothing. Damn! You've drawn a blank and totally forgetten their name. Here's how to make sure that never happens again.

Don't feel bad. We're all guilty of this at one point or another. It's never too early or too late to use helpful tricks to boost your memory. Here's where Mnemonics comes in handy.

Mnemonics is a system for memorizing and recalling facts. In her book "I Before E (Except after C)," author Judy Parkinson gathered tricks, rhymes and riddles for remembering anything from names to rules of grammar and spelling, to science, math and music.

Examples from the book include how to remember the difference from "dessert" and "desert." Parkinson says to remember that the double s stands for "sweet stuff." One thing our mom always taught us was that you want two desserts -- hence the two s's.

Simple things like this that can turn out to be very useful in everyday situations ... and can help your kids too.