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Accent: Wendy's School of Dance
Enjoy a Month of Dance: Choose 45-Minute Classes and Hour-Long Combo Dance Classes
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Teaching proper technique since 1963, this Centerville studio brings a lively, welcoming atmosphere with qualified teachers at the helm of each lesson. Your little dancer can join in on ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, pewee gymnastics, lyrical, pointe, or special combo classes:
• $21 ($42 value) for one month of 45-minute dance classes
• $28 ($56 value) for one month of one-hour combo dance classes
• Classes offered Monday through Thursday -- check the website for details
Accent: Wendy's School of Dance's Website
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Henry Ford used to say that he wanted his workers to have enough money to buy his cars. Our current business leaders seem to have forgotten that simple economic idea. That is why, for their own self-interest, business, and their Republican allies in Congress, should embrace broad unionization.
The sound you just heard is a retinue of CEOs letting out a collective shriek, clutching at their wallets and hearts and making it clear that anyone making this argument has lost their minds (or is perhaps a closet socialist!!!). But, unionization makes sound economic sense and is perhaps the best road out of the longer-term threat to the livelihoods of millions of Americans---and the smartest way to patch corporate bottom lines.
The logic is simple. The severe recession and the economic turmoil we are facing are, at heart, a logical outcome of a three-decade long wage depression. If wages had tracked productivity from the mid-1970s to now, the minimum wage would be over $19-an-hour, not the current $6.55 an hour. President Obama's campaign promise to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011 will still leave that wage at a poverty level, not a living wage.
Without any real increase in wages, consumers in the past 20 years have piled up debt upon debt. According to Demos, Americans overall credit card debt grew from $211 billion to $876 billion between 1989 and 2006. When credit cards were maxed out, they turned to their sole remaining economic lifeline: home equity. Demos estimates that homeowners sucked out $1.2 trillion in home equity, not for mansions and yachts, but for basic living expenses.
So, with credit virtually dried up, how will future consumer spending---which accounts for 70 percent of the economy---be financed? We are now facing perhaps several years, or maybe a decade, in which consumers will have to go through a painful unwinding of the debt morass they have sunken into--not because they were profligate but because they had no choice. I don't disagree that there is an important debate to have about how much we buy and whether we need all the stuff that gets piled up in our homes. But, the fact is, paychecks have been inadequate to cover the basic costs of life and, now, people simply have no money left--as the recent steep decline in consumer spending proves.
What does this have to do with unions? Union median wages are 30 percent higher than non-union wages across the economy, not to mention the better pensions and health care union members enjoy. Higher wages means people have money to spend. In the short-term, opposing unions might have left a few more shekels in the bottom line--partly to finance gargantuan pay, bonuses and pensions for a few executives. But, in the long-term, business shot itself in the foot: highly-paid executives can only buy so many flat screen televisions.
You would think that would be a no-brainer point worth remembering as we approach the anticipated pitched battle in Congress over the Employee Free Choice Act, which is labor's number one legislative priority. The bill would make for more fairer union representation elections and, as important, dramatically speed up the process to reach a first contract once workers choose a union. Candidate Obama pledged to sign the bill if it reached his desk. Inevitably, labor, and its allies, will spend a lot of energy and money, running entirely predictable and uncreative TV ads that speak only to the converted. The campaign will whip up a portrait of soulless, uncaring corporate chieftains fighting the legislation and denying basic workplace rights.
The business community has two choices. It can hang on to its ideological opposition to unions, and trot out the fear-mongering that unionization means saddling consumers with higher prices. It can spend billions of dollars to fight union organizing drives, create a war-like atmosphere at work, and, economically, keep workers (meaning, consumers) on a financial precipice and prevent them from opening up their pocketbooks and buying the products companies sell--while business executives hoard an outsized share of the company's resources for their personal enrichment.
Or, business can channel Henry Ford. I am suggesting a very easy psychological adjustment for corporate leaders: they do not have to travel a moral road to a new enlightenment about fairness and equity, and they can still take part in the country club chatter about the evils of unionism.
But, in the privacy of their offices, business leaders should be dispassionately non-ideological and do a little back-of-the-envelope calculation. Yes, having to deal with a union might mean sacrificing a little control and power and upper management might have a bit of a watchdog looking over its shoulder. Rather than passing costs on to consumers of modest wage increases likely to result from unionization, executives might have to let go of a bit of the large pay and benefits they now take home (in some companies, the pensions of a few executives equal the entire cost of pensions for thousands of employees),
But, a more broadly shared prosperity would likely mean a better bottom line. Put simply, people who make more money will buy cars, electronics, clothes, food and other stuff. And, at the end of the day, that might even make business leaders feel good, not just because they increased profits but simply because they opened the door to a slightly better life for their fellow citizens.
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Hi people, just thought i'd say hello....hello!
I know quite a few of you ofcourse through my Dad; e36nickd, but for the rest of you my name is Narvin, and i have recently acquired a very nicely looked after e36 318is from another forum member. A few of you were there at the time and i just wanted to say that i'm happy to be part of one of the most friendly and fastest growing forums on the net!!!
I have been part of some good meets and had some wicked times as a non-official member...and look forward to some even greater times!!!
As a BMW owner i know the wealth of experience and knowledge the forums have to offer


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- 8 tips for extension cord safety
Check out these extension cord do's and don'ts for National Electrical Safety Month.
- Motorcycle helmets: Safety over style
Did you know that May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month? Motorcyclists are 27 times more likely to die in an accident than occupants of cars, and 6 times more likely to be injured, according to NHTSA.
- Rainy day driving tips
A study on fatal crashes that occurred between 2009 and 2013 found that rain caused more driving fatalities than snow in 39 of the 50 states.


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Themes in Kant's Metaphysics and Ethics
€ 68,49
Lieferbar innert 2 Wochen
Mai 2004
BeschreibungIntended for those interested in Kant's contribution to philosophy, this volume provides an overview of Kant's arguments concerning central issues in metaphysics and ethics. Arthur Melnick argues that the key to all of Kant's arguments is his constructivist theory of space and time. Melnick shows that Kant's arguments for causation and for substance, as well as Kant's refutation of Cartesian skepticism, are far more cogent than usually thought. Further, this theory distinguishes Kant's idealism from phenomenalism, verificationism, and internal realism. For Kant, metaphysics is tied to cognition; thus one must understand his account of cognition in order to fully grasp his metaphysics. Melnick argues that for Kant, thoughts or cognitions are rules for situating oneself with regard to reality-contacting procedures. In accord with this account, Melnick defends both Kant's conception of categories and a robust correspondence theory of truth.
The essays on ethics revolve around the notion of practical reasoning. Melnick contends that Kant is correct that such reasoning cannot be causally determined. This undercuts any compatibilist account of freedom of action as action controllable by practical reasoning. Kant's moral theory is claimed to be a version of social-contract theory. This explains some troublesome aspects in Kant's formulations of his categorical imperative. Melnick claims that such theories, even with Kant's connection of them to autonomy, do not function well as motivational justifications of morality. He offers a different version of a categorical imperative that is supposed to avoid this problem.
Arthur Melnick is Professor of Philosophy at the University ofIllinois, Urbana. A specialist in the philosophy of Kant, Melnick is the author of Kant's Analogies of Experience, Space, Time and Thought in Kant, and Representation of the World: A Naturalized Semantics. He has also published numerous articles and book reviews.
Untertitel: 'Studies in Philosophy & the Hi'. New. Sprache: Englisch.
Verlag: CATHOLIC UNIV OF AMER PR
Erscheinungsdatum: Mai 2004
Seitenanzahl: 286 Seiten
Format: gebunden


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|Meghan Ferris
2013-2014 (Sophomore) ...Rowed in the winning 3V4 boat against No. 1 Ohio State on 3/29.
2012-2013 (Freshman) ...Member of Novice Team in 2012-13.
Prep ...Member of the Friends of Port Rowing Club, coached by Steve Panzik
Personal ...Enrolled in the Ross School of Business...A member of the National Honor Society and Principal's Honor Roll at Schreiber High School.


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Article Preview
MATH INNOVATION AIDS COAST PUPILS; Stockton Project Aimed at 9th-Grade 'Low-Achievers' Described as Promising Practical Problems
By LAWRENCE E. DAVIES Special to The New York Times ();
May 14, 1967,
, Section , Page 86, Column , words
STOCKTON, Calif., May 11-- Flow charts, electric calculating machines and practical arithmetic pioblems posed by business and industry are exciting ninth-grade students here. As "low achievers" in more than one school subject, they had ...
May 14, 1967
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Take any point P inside an equilateral triangle. Draw PA, PB and PC
from P perpendicular to the sides of the triangle where A, B and C
are points on the sides. Prove that PA + PB + PC is a constant.
Triangle ABC is an equilateral triangle with three parallel lines going through the vertices. Calculate the length of the sides of the triangle if the perpendicular distances between the parallel lines are 1 unit and 2 units.
Prove that, given any three parallel lines, an equilateral triangle
always exists with one vertex on each of the three lines.
The centre of the larger circle is at the midpoint of one side
of an equilateral triangle and the circle touches the other two
sides of the triangle. A smaller circle touches the larger circle
and two sides of the triangle. If the small circle has radius 1
unit find the radius of the larger circle.


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To accurately convey the interdependence among all the agents in an ecological system, we may need to break free of standard scientific discourse.
Robert Louis Chianese
The possible advantage to science of this sort of writing is the evocation of the energy of the bird in its static and then kinetic phases, the way the dive flows rapidly from the hovering, and the effects of air on each phase. One can state it, but to evoke and convey it with imitative language adds the dimension of immediacy and emotional excitement, with possible further scrutiny as a consequence.
Excitement is often considered anathema in science writing, because it interjects the science-observer's emotions and values into the work. One should not easily abandon the hard-won objectivity of science, but often this cool, dispassionate stance can cloak more than it reveals. A description of the mating behavior of wigeons by conservation biologist Gwenda Brewer is a case in point.
Brewer carefully avoids anthropomorphic statements about the male's and female's amorous designs on each other. She eschews personal opinion and emotional reaction to this rather elaborate sex ritual, and avoids interpreting what the bird behaviors mean. The two ducks become isolatable, almost mechanical entities, one a "target" of the other. In forcing objectivity and using awkward technical prose with nominalizations and passive tenses cluttered by references, she obscures the very process of foreplay, with the birds seeming curiously uninterested in each other:
Preen-behind-the-wing was typically preceded by dipping the bill in the water and shaking the head, and the tail was often wagged after the display (performed broadside to the target). At close distances, a sharp whir could be heard as the wing was snapped open and the male placed his bill behind or just above the speculum.
Males sometimes Chittered before they performed Preen-behind-the-wing. Turn-the-back-of-the-head (Johnsgard 1965) was seen rarely. Males performed an exaggerated Display Shake (called Introductory Shake by Johnsgard 1965) broadside to the target bird.
Brewer's distanced prose, focused on each duck singularly without noting their inter-reactions, never appreciates that the birds are engaging in the most interactive process of all, nor do we have the sense of how their local watery environment plays a part in it. This leaden, impersonal style lacks ecological vision and language and hence does not provoke one's curiosity to pose the key scientific question, Why do they do that to each other?
By radical contrast, poet Pattiann Rogers in "The Hummingbird: A Seduction" imagines herself a female hummingbird, one with human consciousness, mesmerized, dazzled, and finally seduced by a male in full sexual display (below, right).
These erotic fantasies have as their basis some actual ruby-throat mating behavior, the female sitting still while the male high above dives at her, arcing near her elliptically and flashing his colors. But the poet pushes the imagery and depicts the male's display as a "storm" of sex and procreation, which evokes the near-aggressive quality of his descent but employs radical, fanciful synecdoches—"swirling egg and semen in the air," "sunlit sperm and pollen"—where parts stand for wholes. This makes the cavorting male stand for both the male's and the female's sexual essence together as well as bird sperm and plant pollen. Rogers fuses the sexuality of both birds, the male's actions, and the flowers he is associated with in a shower of color and sexual energy.
Poetic language conveys the interactive process of subject, atmosphere, and associated features, until the bird seems to color the air itself with sexual excitement as Rogers calls him her "breathless / Piece of scarlet sky." Along with the imaginary erotics, we read about and vicariously experience vivid hummingbird mating behavior, a form of knowing that can lead to profound insight for poet and scientist alike.
Science may shun such language as a distortion of its core conceptions, but as these evolve and as ecological models dominate, a more interactive form of expression may need to evolve as well. Explaining how things work in an ecosystem should be easy: An organism exists, acts, and causes something else to change or respond, while the first reacts to being acted on and acts in response to that, and so on to others. What really happens, though, is that many diverse entities interact in multiple, simultaneous, and complex ways.
Visual illustrations can help. In academic texts, the interactivity of an ecosystem is often depicted as a web, or a diagram with multiple vectors pointing forward and backward to various members of a system. Perhaps future scientists could animate their charts to reveal all these effects taking place at once, with everything under the influence of everything else, moving in the form of a mysteriously choreographed ballet. But surely there is a place for more poetical language here as well.
Or, dare I suggest, the whole explanatory program of ecological systems could shift to musical sounds, a polystylism for science! Budding sci-art composers, get on it.
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Ode To Parenthood
Dax Shepard opened up about his late father Dave Robert Shepard Sr. on his blog, and it's sure to have you grabbing for the tissues. Recalling a moment when his pregnant wife-to-be Kristen Bell showed up to see his dad before he passed away, the Parenthood star writes: "At one point, and unbeknownst to both of us, my wife walked into the room. ...It was an amazing, incredible, perfectly timed surprise. She lifted her shirt up and he put his hand on her swollen stomach. He left it there for the better part of an hour. ...He wasn't going to make it to the birth, but that didn't get in the way of him meeting the new baby. ...If I live to be a thousand, I will still be in debt to my wife for giving him that one last thrill."


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We want to thank and congratulate the over 75 employers and 270 participants across Ontario who came together and made the 2016 Disabilities Mentoring Day a great success! Each year more and more businesses and persons with disabilities work together to help bridge the employment gaps that exist in our community. We look forward to 2017 and the opportunities that it will bring. If you would like information about participating in DMD as a community partner/coordinator, or to participate as an employer, please contact Jamie Burton: firstname.lastname@example.com.
Next year's event will be Wed. Oct. 25.
Sponsorship opportunities open January 23, 2017
What is DMD?
Mission: Dolphin Disabilities Mentoring Day utilizes technology to help bridge the talent, communication and knowledge gaps between business, employment and community supports, and persons with disabilities
Goals for Disabilities Mentoring Day:
- To provide mentees access to workplace contacts, environments, skills, & HR process,
- To increase confidence among students and jobseekers with disabilities,
- To enhance internship, co-operative education and employment opportunities for persons with disabilities,
- To dispel employers' fears about hiring people with disabilities and promote disability confidence,
- To give employers an opportunity to benchmark themselves as being accessible to what is a largely untapped pool of talent as well as a massive consumer market.
When is this day held?
Disabilities Mentoring Day will be held on October 25, 2017. The day is always held on the last Wednesday of October.
Want your city to host an event, contact firstname.lastname@example.com
Visit us in the new year for information about registration for 2017.
If you would like information about participating in DMD 2017 as a community partner/coordinator, or to participate as an employer, please contact Jamie Burton: firstname.lastname@example.com.
* Product images featured in banner: (left) eSight Eyewear – (right) Ekso™ by Able Bionics (Photo by Dan Kitwood, Getty Images Europe)


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Raymond 'Ray' E. Blowers
WILTON — Raymond "Ray" Edward Blowers, 61, of Wilton, Minn., formerly of Leader, Minn., died Tuesday, March 8, 2011, at his home.
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Monday, March 14, 2011, at the Cease Family Funeral Home in Bemidji, Minn. Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. Sunday, March 13 and one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Interment will be at the Greenwood Cemetery in Bemidji, Minn.
He was born Jan. 4, 1950, in Waseca, Minn., the son of Robert and Elvira (Evert) Blowers. He was raised and educated in Waseca. He served with the U.S. Army, the 7th Battalion, 13th Artillery in Vietnam from 1969-1971 as a specialist in weaponry and was a sharp shooter. He moved to Leader, Minn., in 1974 where he was a farmer and rancher. He moved to Bemidji in 2005. He loved his bees and cattle and doing everything organically. He enjoyed fishing, gardening, planting and being with his family and friends.
He is survived by his daughters, Melissa Blowers, Melonie Blowers; mother, Elvira B. Blowers; brothers, Robert (Diane) Blowers, Richard (Debbie) Blowers; sisters, JoAnne (Dennis) Harlow, Jacki (Tim) Bouska, Julie (Tim) Jensen; four grandchildren, Haleyrose J. Blowers, Dominic Patterson, Donavin Blowers, Devin Blowers; life partner since the moment they met, Helena Gerhardson; Helena's daughter, Lara Gerhardson.
He was preceded in death by his daughter, Angela Jean Blowers; father, Robert W. Blowers; and brother, Ronald W. Blowers.


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This is very nice and works well. As a dark brunette it takes a little extra work to get rid of the white cast on my hair but it can be done.4


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When you get an account statement from your mutual fund or broker, you find out how much you made or lost but not how the fund fared against its peers. How can you tell if it's a gem or a clunker?
Easy: Just look it up on BusinessWeek's Mutual Fund Scoreboard (bwnt.businessweek.com/mutual_fund/). You can find a fund by typing in its name or symbol in the box at the top of the page. Not sure exactly which one you want? Type in the fund family, such as Oakmark.
Now you have six Oakmark stock funds. Moving across the screen, you get a trove of data. The ratings, Overall and Category, come first, then assets, sales charges, expenses, pretax returns, turnover, cash, and the fund's risk level. Note the Oakmark Equity & Income Fund I (OAKBX ): It has a high turnover (suggestive of frequent trading) yet a very low risk profile.
Want to drill down further? Click on the fund's name, and a pop-up box appears. Included are the fund's 10 largest holdings, its best and worst quarters of the last five years, and its aftertax returns. Need more? There's a link to Oakmark's Web site, where you can read fund reports, manager commentaries, and even download investment applications.
The Scoreboard lets you scan the entire fund universe or sort the funds by 50 individual equity and bond fund categories. Select Utilities funds, and you'll get data on 28 utilities funds in the Scoreboard. The initial sort is alphabetical, but by clicking on the headers, such as expense ratio or 10-year return, you can rearrange the layout by whatever criteria you like, such as funds with the lowest expenses or highest returns.
You'll get the hang of it in no time. Once you do, you'll probably want to come back once a month for an update.
By Lauren Young


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Definition of verdigris
1a : a green or greenish-blue poisonous pigment resulting from the action of acetic acid on copper and consisting of one or more basic copper acetatesb : normal copper acetate Cu(C2H3O2)2·H2O
2 : a green or bluish deposit especially of copper carbonates formed on copper, brass, or bronze surfaces
verdigris was our Word of the Day on 03/26/2015. Hear the podcast!
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Did You Know?
Green of Greece - that is the literal translation of "vert de Grece," the Anglo-French phrase from which the modern word verdigris descends. A coating of verdigris forms naturally on copper and copper alloys such as brass and bronze when those metals are exposed to air. (It can also be produced artificially.) The word verdigris has been associated with statuary and architecture, ancient and modern, since it was first used in the 14th century. Some American English speakers may find that they know it best from the greenish blue coating that covers the copper of the Statue of Liberty.
Origin and Etymology of verdigris
Middle English vertegrese, borrowed from Anglo-French verdegrece, vert de Grece, literally, "green of Greece" ◆The current form reflects French vert-de-gris, with the final syllable assimilated to gris "gray."
First Known Use: 14th century
Definition of Verdigris
river 351 miles (565 kilometers) long in southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma flowing into the Arkansas River
Medical Dictionary
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That's a lot of dribble about hair, but what I really want to say is how much I love being a mom. Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there. You don't have to tell your kids how much you love it, if you'd rather make them feel guilty for all of the sacrifice. "Oh, I never sleep." "No, you take the last cinnamon roll dear. I don't want it." "Oh, I'd love a new pair of shoes or a new purse or a trip to Europe, but you know, kids are so expensive". Go for it. These things may all be true, but really, it's the best job ever.
Category Archives: Thankful Thoughts
Wordless Wednesday
Playing Hooky
Last weekend, Maya asked if she could miss school on her birthday. My first reaction was, No, go to school. Then I thought about it and realized, who cares if she misses a day of school to celebrate her birthday? I mean, if a teacher is absent, they just show a movie in class, so if they can waste her time (once in awhile…not ragging on her school…it's a good school, with very dedicated teachers), then so can I. Anyway, it seemed like SUCH a good idea, that Ted and I decided to take the day off as well. So we took a vacation day from work, and went into San Francisco for the day. What a good idea that was!
We started out with lunch at a sentimental favorite of Ted's. He remembers going to Alioto's (on the wharf) with his father, and really liking their crab spaghetti. Turns out that a Tuesday at 11:30 in March is a great time to visit Fisherman's Wharf. When we lived in the City, we pretty much avoided the Wharf like a plague. Far too touristy, far too crowded, everything mediocre and over priced. But on the first really gorgeous day of spring, playing hooky from work and school, it's actually a pretty nice place to be. The restaurant doesn't have crab spaghetti anymore, but they did have a 'fruits de mer' pasta that filled in just fine for him. Maya and I had a big pancake breakfast, so we weren't as hungry. I opted for a crab cake appetizer, which was lovely and just the right amount of food. The sauce was really good, as was the sourdough bread, so I pretty much licked the platter clean. Maya had the very SF dish, clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Mmmm. San Francisco sourdough is the best, bar none.
Anyway, after lunch, we walked over to Pier 33 and boarded a ferry to Alcatraz. I've lived in California for most of my life, spent several years as a concierge in San Francisco, and I had never been before. Again, too touristy for the natives. But I found that if I thought of it as California history, instead of a tourist attraction, it didn't feel so cheesy. And did I mention that it was a GORGEOUS day? San Francisco is such a beautiful city, and on a bright sunny day following week after week of gray rain and clouds, it sparkles like a jewel from the vantage point of a ferry boat. The Rock itself was a mixture of interesting history, a sad reflection of what cruelty humans are capable of, and again, beautiful views. I learned a few things, such as that the lighthouse on Alcatraz island was the first on the west coast, constructed in 1854, at the height of the gold rush and California's boom period. It later became a military fortification, then a military prison, then the Federal prison for which it became famous. It was retired in 1963, and has operated since then as a national park.
Ted has been before, probably most recently in the late 80s, and back then you were guided through the prison by a park ranger. Nowadays they start you off with a lecture about the decaying buildings and the importance of staying out of areas that are sectioned off (and yeah, you could fall to your death if you're being stupid), then you go inside and watch a brief Discovery Channel video about the history of the U.S. occupation of the island. Then you pick up some headphones and begin an audio tour, narrated by former guards and prisoners. It's depressing to see what people can be reduced to, life in a tiny cage like that. But while it made me sad to think of life on The Rock, the beauty of the outside surroundings, and the fact that I wasn't cooped up at work made it much more palatable.
Overall, it was a truly lovely day. And kind of like a field trip more than skipping class. I think we should maybe play hooky for Ted's birthday next month. Hmmmm.
What's new, pussycat?
(famous black cat image, which I found here)
I'm sorry, little blog, for neglecting you so. It's not that I don't care about you, it's just that I don't care about you as much as I used to. Harsh? Indeed. And I've noticed that many of my friends' blogs are similarly neglected. Not sure what to do about it, but one option might be to, perhaps, come visit once in awhile, write here, and make more of an effort to go visit my blog friends. Sigh. So, aside from pancakes I made weeks ago, what's new around here? Let's see…
Today is St. Nicholas Day. St. Nicholas was known for (amongst other things) secret gift giving, thus being the predecessor of our Santa Claus. And no, he didn't live at the North Pole. He lived in what is now Turkey. We celebrate by having some Stollen (meant to represent the Baby Jesus, of all things), though we get the more Dutch version, filled with almond paste. Also, dried fruit. Ted says that dried fruit is a work of the devil, and I can't imagine that Baby Jesus wants anything to do with Satan, can you? We'll see what happens there. I wonder what Baby Jesus might think of the Dutch celebration, with Sinterklaus being followed around by his slaves, who might take naughty children away to Spain.
My birthday is at the end of this month, on New Year's Eve. Cherry and I went out for an early celebration on Saturday. She took me to the best crab restaurant around, Thanh Long, which makes an amazing roast dungeness crab, and some mean garlic noodles. It's a special treat kind of place, because the crab is quite expensive, and also because there's enough butter and oil in the crab to clog up your arteries for good, and that's without the garlic noodles, which come in a close second. Finish it off with a deep fried banana with rich vanilla ice cream, and yeah, you might want to have salad for a few days after that. Not that I'm going to. We're having steak tonight, ala Ina Garten, with Provencal butter. YUM.
My friend Aimee over at Greeblemonkey has got me hooked on Florence + The Machine, specifically their song "The Dog Days are Over". One inexpensive and hopefully thoughtful gift I like to give my friends for Christmas is a 'mix tape' type CD, and this is definitely going to be included. I'm wondering about the rest of the album. Anyone know if it's good? Any other songs you're into right now that I might want to consider including?
Time for a Genevieve update? She's doing well. She has a bump on the inside of her eyelid that should be removed, but we're very hesitant to have it done, because she'd have to go under for the procedure. And the thing is, she's been reacting differently to medications this last year than she did in the past. A pro-biotic she was on for a bit had her totally strung out, pacing the house all night long. An antibiotic she had been on several times before with no issues suddenly had her vomiting. Her vet says she doesn't want to put her under if we can avoid it, and we're in agreement. So who knows how that will turn out. But she's been enjoying the cool winter weather, and while she doesn't want to go for long walks, once in awhile she'll start galloping, which is never wise if you're blind. But on the leash, we let her run a bit, and she seems to really like it.
V-Grrrl mentioned on Facebook how in love she is with SmartWool socks, and everyone who commented on her post said 'gosh they're expensive, but I love them so much I'm asking for them for Christmas', so I bought some for gifts. Anyone else in love with SmartWool? Anyone tried the REI brand, and know if they're comparable? They looked like they were the same quality of merino wool, but maybe not padded.
Last but certainly not least, today is Richard's birthday. Wish we lived closer so we could go to dinner with him and Kathy tonight, but since I'm in California, and he's in Alaska, it's unlikely. Bummer. Happy Birthday, Richard…I miss you. We're having steak in your honor. And because we like steak.
Meals on Wheels
Back when my mom had her own consulting business in the mid-80s, my Grandma was her book keeper and admin assistant. My grandpa was 20 years older than my Grandma, and so he was home. For awhile, he took advantage of the local Meals on Wheels organization, of their kind volunteers, of the money donated by different organizations and the city government, though I know he paid for the meals as well. A few years later, I met my father, who it turns out was (and still is) a volunteer for Meals on Wheels. They are an amazing organization, enabling seniors to stay in their homes when they might otherwise need to go to some kind of assisted living. Think about our basic needs. Air. Water. Food. Shelter. Clothing. Medical care. Not always in that order. Air and water are mostly safe and provided for most people these days, but when you're old and not as mobile as you used to be, getting yourself fed something more healthy than a TV dinner (as they used to be called) or a bowl of cereal can become difficult.
So when I was unemployed and found myself with an excess of time on my hands, it was easy to think of what organization to contact. My grandpa, my dad, both connected to this organization in their own way. Also, it's a job that takes almost zero training. You go and give the organization your driving information, proof of insurance and drivers license. Someone takes you on a dry run, introduces you to the people on your route. That's it. So I felt like if I got a job and couldn't volunteer any more, it wouldn't be such a hardship to the organization. So I signed up. And you know what? Once I got past the first two or three weeks of feeling lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood, I discovered that I really, really liked it. I found that Thursday was my favorite day of the week. I liked getting out of the house (sometimes difficult when you're unemployed). I liked feeling needed. I liked the cheerful faces of the people on my route, who remembered my name and were always glad to see me. I found myself enjoying driving around and listening to music and spending a couple of hours in the mild California weather. So when I was rehired by my old employer, I asked if I could keep my route, if I could take a long lunch one day a week to do this thing. If it were a busy day, I would work late, and if it interfered with meetings or whatever, I would call and ask for a substitute driver. And thankfully, my boss said yes, no problem. So I continue to go, every Thursday, bringing lunch and a little conversation to the people on my route. Enjoying their company and thankful for them, for their grace and kindness.
Today is a benefit at our local Meals-On-Wheels, called Bay Area Dine Out, where select restaurants have agreed to donate a minimum of 10% of the day's proceeds to the local Meals-on-Wheels organizations. The participating counties are: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Solano. If you're local, please consider checking out the participating restaurants tonight, and thank them for their generosity in donating to such a wonderful cause. If you're not local, perhaps consider finding out if your local chapter has a similar fundraiser, or maybe just send them a small donation. Any amount helps. Really.
One Wedding, Three Babies, and a Funeral
(artwork by Amanda Dagg, found here)
Keep beckoning to me,
From behind that closed door,
The maiden, the mother, and the crone that's grown old.
I hear your voice,
coming out of that hole.
I listen to you,
and I want some more.
I listen to you,
and I want some more.
She will always carry on.
Something is lost, something is found.
They will keep on speaking her name,
Some things changed, some stay the same.
~The Pretenders, Hymn to Her
That whole 'circle of life' thing is much on my mind these last few days. On Friday, I heard from my dear friend Janet that her father had died. He fought a long and courageous battle with cancer. Cancer won. Janet once told me that it didn't seem fair that we, who both have young parents, should be going through this so soon. I agree wholeheartedly. When I first met Janet, we were going to school at the Junior College in my hometown, and she was living with her dad in a neighboring town. She seemed so worldly to me, having tested out of high school to model in San Francisco and London, after several years of ballet. She was now ready to settle down and do the school thing. I used to love to go to her house after school, watch dumb TV, and have grilled cheese sandwiches. Sometimes we'd go to our friend Katie's house, because Katie had a pool. Janet's dad would come home in the evening, and Janet would cook dinner. If I didn't have to work that evening, I was always welcome to stay. She went on to Berkeley, I went on to SFState, and we vetted each others boyfriends, etc. Her father was a kind and fairly quiet man, but always very strong and opinionated, always there for his daughters. I will always remember the look of love in his eyes when he shooed me and the other bridesmaids out of the room so he could have a private word with his daughter before he walked her down the aisle. She and her sister, and her step mom, will miss him terribly. He was a good man. I'll go and pay my respects to him on Thursday at his funeral, and be there with my friend.
The day after I heard about Janet's father, we went to Half Moon Bay to attend a wedding for some much younger friends, Ramzi and Katrina. I think they're 27ish, which is the age Ted and I were when we married, 17 years ago. (I'll give you a second while you add up and figure out my age. Done? Yes, I'm 44.) It was a lovely ceremony, though I did forget to turn off my phone, which rang right in the middle. Ooops. Ramzi is this tall, kinda goofy, laid back guy. He's so mellow, just wants to relax and have a good time. He recently graduated with his Master's Degree, and was hired as a school counselor in a neighboring town. A wonderful job for a man with a big heart. Katrina is a bundle of energy. She could not contain her joy or her energy during the ceremony, and looked like she was about to jump out of her skin. She's always like that. She had a big happy smile on her face, and was bouncing up and down, sort of like maybe she had to go to the bathroom. It was a wonderful wedding, and a fun reception, though seeing all those young-uns doing their mid-20s dances made me miss my own friends from that time, and how we used to go out dancing and having fun. They're all far away now, and besides, we're at a different stage in our lives. The idea of leaving a reception before it ended back then would have been insane. Free booze? Dancing all night? Partying with your friends? What could be better? But we didn't drink much, enjoyed a dance or two, and then came home to sleep in our own bed.
And the babies, the most joyous part of the circle of life. Cherry had her baby 3 1/2 months ago, and she's growing so quickly, smiling and laughing and doing all of those terribly cute things that babies do. Oddly enough, it doesn't make me want to have another baby. Just makes me want to hold Cherry's baby, and look at old video of when Maya was a baby, and hold her tight now when she'll let me. Tracy is now a mom, though separated from her babies by a few thousand miles, but only for a few more weeks. She and her husband are adopting two beautiful brothers from Ethiopia, one who will be 2 at the end of September, and one who is just a few weeks old than Cherry's baby girl. Both Cherry and Tracy have wanted to be mothers for so long now, and it didn't come easily to either of them. I'm SO thrilled that their dreams are coming true. I love my Maya so much, I cannot imagine the hurt of wanting a baby and not being able to have one. So now that they're both moms, and Cherry is enjoying her time home with baby before work starts again, and Tracy is getting her house and her life ready for when they bring the boys home, I feel that they are blessed.
Having these three events so close together really brings home the beauty and the pain of life. Tracy's father died just a week before my mom. Dorothy got married within 6 weeks of that. Then our blog friend Chrissy had her baby a few months later, which was scary because she was so premature, but it all turned out well and her baby is going on 2, and is healthy and strong and independent as can be. I remember when my mom died, we had two gatherings. My cousin brought her new baby to one of them, and holding her was a balm for my broken heart. It's hard to cry when you're holding a laughing, healthy, beautiful baby in your arms. My sister brought her new baby to the second gathering, and again, it was somehow comforting to have him to hold. I think it's something about them not understanding the pain you're going through at all, they just want to be held and fed and loved, and for some reason, it makes it easier to set your own pain aside for a few minutes.
I think I've lost control of this post. I don't know how to end it, or what it is that I'm really trying to say. Except that my heart goes out to all of these friends, for so many reasons. In pain, in love, and in joy.
What are you thankful for?
This morning I was looking at the local paper, and I saw where a 2 year old boy had been mauled to death by 3 of the family's 5 pit bulls. The tragedy that has hit that family has hit them hard, and I would assume they are now a family in crisis. The dogs (all 5) have been put to sleep. The grandfather, who owned the dogs, is in jail. My heart goes out to this family at such a horrific time. And I'm thankful that, at least so far, nothing that horrible has happened to me and my immediate family. Which got me to thinking about the different kinds of thankfulness. There is this kind, where I read about the boy who was mauled, or the woman who was raped recently about 2 or 3 blocks from here, or the woman who was hit and killed by a drunk driver last weekend, on the road that I walk several days a week. And I'm thankful that this kind of crisis has not hit us. This is the kind of thankful that makes you want to protect and defend the life you're leading, hold your loved ones close, and shut out the ugliness of the world.
Then there is the more cheerful kind of thankfulness. Like walking this morning, when I saw a deer bound across six lanes of semi-heavy morning traffic, and make it safely to the other side. I was thankful for that, because of course I don't want to see a deer get hit by a car or truck, and I also shudder to think of what a big deer (200 lbs?) would do to the front of a car, and certainly killing a deer on your way to work is a crappy way to start your day. Like enjoying the fact that the fog has come in enough to keep the nights bearable, and we haven't had any horrid heat waves yet this summer. In fact, it's the coolest summer we've had in several decades, which is mostly OK by me, because I get grumpy when it goes above 100. It'll happen. But so far, I'm thankful for the cool weather we've been having. I'm thankful for my health, and that of my family. I do not take this lightly or flippantly. I know too many people who live with chronic conditions to do that. And I know that no one's health lasts forever, so I am extra thankful to have mine now. I'm thankful for the beauty that is the world, for wonderful paintings, interesting music, movies, trees, birds, my dog. This is the kind of thankful that makes you want to smile at the beauty of the world because you're feeling good, and you want to share that.
So there are two kinds of thankful here…thankful for what is, and thankful for what isn't. Thankful for what we share, and thankful that some of the misfortune of others has not been shared upon us. Thankful for the gifts we have been given, and for that which has not been taken away.
I don't know…I feel like I'm skirting the edge of something that I want to say. I wish there were only the good to be thankful for, and not the lack of bad in one's own life, which certainly means that someone else is having a hard time of it.
Soundtrack to Love…
For several years after we first married, I would find my thoughts drifting back to July of 1993…"last year right now, we were driving to the pier to pick up the discounted wine for our wedding reception…" or "2 years ago now we were on the plane to London to start our honeymoon…" That sort of thing. Well, as the years pass, I find my thoughts going back to specific days less and less, but for some reason today I was thinking about 17 years ago, when we took the train from Amsterdam to Paris, for the last part of our Honeymoon.
We bought coach tickets, but decided while underway that we would prefer to travel first class, which you can do by paying the difference while on the train. The only bummer is that you have to pay the difference each time you enter a country. So we had to pay the difference first in Holland, then when we passed into Belgium, then again when we passed the border into France. Which was fine with us, but there was another couple in our cabin, and one of them wanted us to get the upgrade for free, because we were on our honeymoon. It was a gay couple, probably as old then as we are now (aka, they looked old), and one of them was kind of grumpy and probably had hoped for peace and quiet the whole trip, so he could read his Dick Francis mystery in peace. The other one was charmed that we were on our honeymoon, and seemed happy to have someone to chat with during the journey, since his partner had his nose in his book the whole way. So the happy one kept trying to get the various conductors to give us the upgrade for free. "But…they're on their Honeymoon", he'd smile…no one cared, and we paid full price. Ah well. It was a lovely way to travel, and we enjoyed ourselves. Though first class meant a less crowded car to ride in, not anything fancy like tablecloths or champagne or anything like that.
We arrived in Paris at Gare du Nord, on the night before Bastille Day. It seems that Bastille Day in France (in Paris at least) is celebrated on both the 13th and 14th, so we arrived to people setting off firecrackers, which sounded a lot like gunshots to me. Because, you know, I've never heard a real gunshot, at least not that I can remember. Just TV. So with the firecrackers and everyone speaking French and me not understanding a word of it, and the train ticket machine not working and all, I was completely overwhelmed. Not to mention that I stayed with the bags while Ted went to try to figure out the ticket situation, and some creepy guy was giving me the eye and I was starting to wonder if I might be abducted and Ted would come back to find just our bags sitting there. No worries, Ted came back, we got a cab, and found our hotel. With our room just across from a little bar, where people were drinking mightily to celebrate Bastille Day (we were just a few blocks away from the Bastille, actually), so we were kept up by the sound of partying and bottles being dropped into a dumpster. On the 14th, we slept through the parade, but did see some huge aircraft flying low over the city, which looked to my untrained eyes to be circa WWII. We spent several days in Paris, had amazing food, went to museums, walked all over the place, and really enjoyed ourselves.
All of which brings me to the soundtrack for today, The Moderns. The Moderns was a basically forgettable movie (at least, I've forgotten it) which takes place in 1926 Paris, which has a wonderful, romantic soundtrack. Some of it is original music by Mark Isham, and the rest is vintage music from the period. Love it. I haven't listened to it for quite awhile, but it's been popping up in my mind a lot these last few days, perhaps because of the time of year. The soundtrack is mostly, if not completely, in French, and always takes me back to Paris, as well as to our wedding reception, where we listened to The Moderns as our dinner background music. It's a wonderful soundtrack, and really sets the mood for a romantic dinner. I highly recommend it.
Happy Independence Day!
Get your patriotic groove on, folks, and remember that the flag that flies above us flies for us all, and was born from blood, sweat, and tears…we're all in this together, much as it sometimes does not feel that way.
Mistaken Identity
My dear friend Cherry is having her baby today…as we speak, she's going in to O.R. for her c-section, and I'm expecting a call and can hardly contain myself! Breath, J, breath.
OK, but of course Cherry having her baby reminded me of when I had my baby, lo these many years ago. I wanted what any new mom wants right then…my mom. So we planned for my mom to fly from Juneau, Alaska (where she was living), to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (where we were living). At this sad point, I hadn't seen my mom in about 3 years. A few weeks after Ted and I were married in '93, my mom moved to Alaska. The following summer, Ted and I moved to Pennsylvania. Money was tight, flights that far are expensive, blah blah blah. Anyway, the cheapest flight she could find was a red-eye, and when you fly from Juneau, you make several stops anyway…minimum of Seattle, often Anchorage and a smaller airport or two, plus the whole crossing the country thing. So when we went to pick her up at the airport, I expected her to be TIRED. (Remember when you could go to the gate to meet family and friends off of flights? We were waiting for her to appear from that little door, the portal between flight and solid ground.) What I didn't expect was for her to look as tired as she did. Or for her to be so tired that she didn't recognize me. As I rushed over to give her a big hug, I was horrified to realize that I was approaching the WRONG 50-something, 275 lb, redhead, who used a cane. I mean, really. How many 50-something, 275 lb, redheads, who use a cane do you expect to find on one flight? I only expected one. There were two. What a relief to realize that even though almost 3 years had passed since I had last seen her, she hadn't changed THAT much.
Then, of course, her bright cheery face appeared from that little door, and she lit up at the sight of us, and gave us BIG hugs, and was thrilled to see me so pregnant and know that she was going to be there when her grand-daughter was born. And yes, she was tired. Maya didn't arrive for almost a week after that, though, so she was well rested. 🙂
Happy 14th Birthday, Maya!
Maya is 14 today, so obviously this picture is an oldie but a goodie. I have been thinking about the difference between those times when she was a preschooler, and these times, getting ready for high school next year. Sometimes I miss those times, because she was so sweet and said some pretty funny things sometimes, and if only I had had a blog then….but these times are wonderful and special as well. Watching her grow from a little girl into a teen, not too long from now into a woman…it's amazing. Seeing the things she's interested in, that I never was. Seeing the things she doesn't really care about, that I did. And those things that we both love…our shared interests. It's a wonderful experience, having a child, watching them grow from a helpless infant into an independent adult. It takes a long time, a lot of work, a lot of bruises and heartbreaks. I'm so glad that the three of us are on this journey together. Thank you, Maya, for being such a wonderful kid.
Happy Birthday sweetheart. Remember, you can be whatever you want to be in this world (astronaut, cheerleader, both…). You are smart, funny, talented, enthusiastic, and you have a kind and loving heart. You're the best daughter a mama could possibly want to have. Above all, I hope that you know that no matter what, we've got your back.
Half Life
I know, you've seen this picture before. I do like it, though, and gosh, we're so young way back then, huh? I was thinking the other day that this is our 22nd year together. Our first date was December 12, 1987. Then I realized, I'm turning 44 in a few weeks…which means, I've been together with Ted for longer than we were apart. More simply put, he and I have been together for over half of my life thus far. How can that be? How can I be that old? Kinda strange. But when I look in the mirror, and see that I'm not that fresh faced, wrinkle free girl anymore, I guess it's not so shocking.
The wonderful part is that I sometimes feel like that was just yesterday. And other times, it seems like we've been on this long journey together, and here we are, on this path going forward…and still in love with each other, still enjoying each other's company, still wanting to see each other, talk to each other, spend time with each other. For over half of my life now. Wow.
Little did I know, on that date in December, that this would be the man I fell in love with, lived with, married, moved across the country and home again with, had a baby with, raised a child with. The man I'm looking forward to growing old with. That this would be the man I would turn to in times of joy and sorrow, for support and celebration both. All I knew was that he was very handsome, funny, and genuinely nice. I feel so blessed to have spent this half-life together sweetheart. Thank you for loving me.
My plan for today's blog was to make a Thursday 13, and list 13 things for which I am thankful. Family, friends, our health, having a job, good elections, etc. etc.
As so often happens, though, life got in the way. Let me tell you what happened.
Ted and I use WordPress to maintain our blogs. Ted's really good about updating his blog to the most current version of WordPress, but often the update comes with a small hand full of problems. There will be something new that he has to tweak, and it takes time, and blah blah blah. Me? I'm more the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of person. My blog works perfectly well, I can do everything I want to do, everything's fine, so no, I won't make changes that might turn out to be a pain in the neck.
My lackadaisical attitude bit me in the butt on Tuesday. Seems that some asshat hackers got in and infected a ton of WordPress blogs. You guessed it, the ones that were on older versions. Sigh. So, while I was out with Maya looking for a dress and shoes for Maya to wear for Thanksgiving and a funeral on Saturday, Ted spent hours on the phone with tech support working to get my blog fixed. Then he had to go onto WordPress user boards Wednesday morning to figure out why I couldn't log in anymore.
So, today, I am thankful to Ted and his persiverance and dedication, his willingness to spend hours trying to (and succeeding) fix my blog. Thus far, the only thing that went wrong is that the fonts didn't line up or something, and there are weird 'Â' symbols throughout all of my old posts. Strange, huh? I have over a thousand posts, so I haven't decided yet if I'm going to fix them or not.
Thank you, Ted, my personal IT guru. You're the best husband, ever.
My plan today is to make some turkey and yams, eat, relax, have a lovely time with family, and hopefully have a nap. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
The writing prompt for this week's Sunday Scribblings is Grateful. I'm thinking of writing of things I'm thankful for on Thanksgiving, so at first I thought that this might be redundant. Then I decided that instead of writing about all of the things for which I am thankful, I would write about my mom, and how grateful I am that I had the time that I had with her.
I am grateful for those early years, living in the Bay Area as a small child. My mom was working and going to school and raising two small children. Money was very tight, but she never let that be a big deal to us. We would have picnics, sometimes on campus at Berkeley, sometimes in our front yard. We had a lot of joy and laughs. She worked very hard, but never let us doubt that we were special and the center of her world.
I am grateful for the experience of living in Alaska as a child. I was very young, so I don't have a lot of memories of our time on the Homestead. But the memories that I do have are good ones. I remember the sled dog team we had, playing with the dogs and having fun. I remember going berry picking in the summer…blueberries and cranberries especially. The best blueberries in the world, I think, are wild blueberries found outside of Fairbanks. Maybe the ones in Maine are that good, or Canada, but I've never had them, so I don't know. I remember time spent with the Alaskan branch of our family, and lots of fun and laughter. I am grateful for the hard work my mom put in during that time (during her whole life, actually, no one could ever accuse her of not working twice as hard as anyone else). I wasn't really aware of it at the time, but she worked at a local Montessori and she worked at KFC at the same time, since Montessori teaching doesn't pay very well. She worked hard around the little homestead. With no running water, and having to bring in the coal for our little pot-bellied stove, it wasn't your average household. For a single mom with two young children, it was a lot of work on the shoulders of one person.
I am grateful for the example she provided, doing whatever was necessary for Richard and I. When he was having trouble in school, she put us both in private school (on her waitress/teacher salary), so that he might learn to love school. We both went, because she didn't want him to feel singled out. When the private school turned out to not be the best, she home schooled us. We worked on projects that were far beyond what we might have had in standard school. I still remember my geography report on Peru, studying their imports and exports, etc. When I desperately needed braces, she got them for me. With no insurance and as a single mom, this meant that none of us went to the regular dentist for the 5 years that I had braces. (Another reason I want state health care…it's stupid for kids to go without medical/dental care, just because their 2-job-working single mom is too busy paying for the braces).
I am grateful for the responsibilities that she gave us when we were a bit older, such as cleaning house, cooking dinner for the family, shopping for our own school clothes. I did not like cleaning house, don't get me wrong, but I never doubted that I was a contributing member of the household, and it was nice to know that I could help my hard-working mom in some way.
I am grateful that while our house was probably the worst of all our friends' houses (we were poor, lived in a crappy rental duplex in a bad neighborhood, with mostly (all?) hand me down furniture), ours was the house that our friends wanted to come to. My mom was the one that my friends came to, to talk about their problems and dreams. And she always had time for them, to listen and be there. I kind of took that for granted growing up, but my friends have told me since how much she meant to them, how much her advice and caring helped.
I am grateful that, when I was 21, she realized the mistake she had made in not having Richard and my fathers around. I didn't realize for a long time how difficult it was for her to reach out to them, to try to bring them back into our lives. She told me once that it was the hardest thing she had ever done, she had so many fears and worries about it. And yet, she did it anyway, because it was what was best for us. I am grateful that she reached out to my father, and because of that, I have a wonderful relationship with him, with my step-mom, and with my sisters.
I am grateful for the stories and letters she wrote to Maya, first in the mail, then on her blog, because they not only gave Maya a glimpse into the life of her grandmother, who she saw at best once a year due to mom living in Alaska and us in California, they also made me feel more connected as well.
I am grateful for our years of Sunday evening phone calls. For thinking before I called, "Gosh, I don't know if I have anything to really say this week…" and yet finding that we would talk for 2 or 3 hours, every time.
I am grateful for the unconditional love and support that she never failed to give to us. For the wonderful example of how to live your beliefs and morals, how to be a caring, loving person, and how to let your children know that you are on their side.
I am grateful to have had such a wonderful mother. I'm grateful for every day of the life she had here. And I am grateful for the memories I cherish.
Banyan Tree
Have you ever seen something that made you realize that the world doesn't always work the way that you think it does? Often it's a matter of nature…an animal or a plant that is so different than what you might expect to see, that it makes you stop in your tracks and think. While in Hawaii, I was struck by this very strange looking tree…turns out it's an Indian Banyan Tree, which originates in India. The branches of the Banyan tree fan out over a large canopy, much like an Oak tree. One problem with Oak trees is that when the branches grow long and cover a large space, they can lose strength and easily break.
The Banyan tree has developed in such a way that it has what are called 'aerial roots'. I had never heard of aerial roots before, but they pretty much made me realize that I don't really know the world as well as I thought I did. The Banyan produces roots, which are fairly thin and dangly, from its branches. They reach slowly down toward the ground, and if they find a hospitable environment, they take up there, dig in deep, strengthen the tree, and grow strong and solid. I didn't know that trees could put down roots from the branch, and have them attach themselves into the ground. It's incredible to look at, isn't it?
The first time I saw a Banyan tree was the last time we were in Hawaii, in 2005. I noticed the aerial roots hanging down, but I thought they were some kind of moss or something. Having never been to the deep south, they looked like I imagined the Spanish Moss that I've read about so many times might look. Of course, they're completely the wrong texture for that, even in the just dangly stage, but I didn't really think that much about it then. Now, I think they're amazing.
Simply amazing. And beautiful, too.


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To register your Windows computer, you are required to have one of the following versions Windows:
Windows Vista, Service Pack 2
Windows 7, Service Pack 1
Windows 8
- Windows 10
In addition, you must have antivirus software installed with the latest virus definitions. Antivirus software is pre-installed on all college owned devices, and for students who do not have antivirus software, IT provides Symantec Endpoint. Windows 10 comes with Windows Defender which is another good option.
To register your Windows device following the instructions below:
Make sure your device is connected to the network via hill spot wireless or the Ethernet jack in your room or office, then open an internet browser.
The registration page should open and walk you through the registration process. Select START >> to proceed.
Enter your Stonehill username and password in the fields under "User Registration". Then, select the Download button.
If your browser prompts you to remember the password, choose either yes or no, your preference.
Next a pop-up will appear that asks if you want to run or save the file. Choose Run.
The Bradford Persistent Agent Setup Wizard will start. Click Next, and the agent will install.
Once the agent has installed, login using your Stonehill username and password.
It takes a minute to reset the network setting on your computer. You can close this window, then be patient for a moment. After a minute you will get a popup letting you know the install has completed. Click Finish, and you are done!
If you received a failure message, you will be redirected to a Windows remediation page with a list of required changes.


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What if You had to Sell Your Aviano Home in 30 days or Less.
What if your life depended on it? I know, it doesn't, but play along with me for a moment. Imagine that you would stand to lose everything if you didn't get it done in 30 days or less.
For some of us the shoe kind of fits and for others timing doesn't really matter. There are some who say "I don't really need to sell" or "I'm not desperate" or "I'm not going to give this house away, and I want top dollar". We'll come back to you at the end of the post, and for now we are going to focus on the seller who really needs to get this sale behind her. Maybe she has been transfered to another state, or maybe there is a job loss and the house can no longer be afforded. Whatever the case, we will take a quick look at some ideas that will help you reach your goal to sell your Aviano home in 30 days or less.
3 Sure-fire Supercharger ideas to help you Sell Your Aviano Home in 30 days or Less:
- Use the Desert Ridge Homesellers Ready For Market Checklist. 80% of the homes on the market are only a few steps away from being able to fetch top dollar FAST.
- Take advantage of ALL of today's marketing tools available to you. Download our free copy of Keys to Marketing Homes in Today's Turbulent Market to find out how.
- Selling a house is hard work, but it isn't rocket science. Avoid the most common mistakes and you'll be that much further ahead of the game. Grab your copy of Common Desert Ridge Home Seller Mistakes
If you would like to have a private conversation with me about your current situation I would be happy to oblige. Feel free to contact me by phone at 480-442-1344 or via email and I will be happy to help you. If you would like to sell your Aviano home feel free to download our free marketing resources.
Need more Desert Ridge Real estate info? Check out PhoenixDesertRidge.com and connect with me on twitter where I actively post Desert Ridge Real Estate info all the time.


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NWEA Research: Our Partnerships
The Northwest Evaluation Association ™ (NWEA™) Research department is driven by the belief that rigorous research can help create a better, more responsive educational system that helps all kids learn. We work with top scientists and emerging scholars from universities across the country to design and execute research studies intended to:
- improve measurement of student learning
- inform teaching and learning practices
- advocate for policies that benefit students and teachers
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University of Connecticut
Project SPARK (Supporting and Promoting Advanced Readiness in Kids) is an approach to increase the representation of diverse student groups in gifted programs. Over the next five years, University of Connecticut researchers will assess the project's influence in promoting both achievement and identification for gifted programming, specifically focusing on historically underrepresented students.
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Sonic 3 - Ice Cap
Credits & Info
- Uploaded
- May 12, 2006 | 9:29 PM EDT
- File Info
- Song
- 4 min 7 sec
- Score
- 3.73 / 5.00
Related Content
Licensing Terms
Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.
- Score:
- Rated 3.73 / 5 stars
- Plays & Downloads:
- 8,412 Plays | 2,115 Downloads
- Share Links:
- Genres:
- Electronic - Video Game
- None
Author Comments
Rated 5 / 5 stars
Why can't Sega make music like this for their games?
Why can't someone hire you as a music director for a game or something?
Why can't I stop listening to your music?
How is it possible you never made me disappointed with music?
How 10% or how ever much of the Earth and Mars not know there is such good music like this in the universe?
Why can't I stop asking questions?
And when does this review end?-------------"IT ENDS AT THE FACE!"
Yeah you don't know HOW MUCH I've wanted to sign with SEGA. I did at one point talk to Ted Poley about it who directed me to Jun Senoue, who apparently is in charge of that. But that was it. Emailed Senoue and never heard from him since, even when I stayed persistant about it. Gave up after about 2 months
Rated 5 / 5 stars
sorry but i'm too tired to write a long review :D
i can picture myself in the winter outside with this song in the backround
who want's to go out and build a snowman with me :D
Fun times. I would love to snowboard down the mountain with Ice Cap playing somewhere lol
Rated 5 / 5 stars
*nods head to sick ass music*
wont lie. I've downloaded most of your stuff friend. you do the Free World proud. PEACE and much love from a boy serving in iraq!
It's an honor writing music to true heroes. Glad you like my music, and good luck!
Rated 5 / 5 stars
I actually like this version better.
It has a dance/techno feeling, but you've also captured that winter sound which Is a blend that I think captures Ice Cap Zone perfectly. Overall great job.
Thanks so much! It's funny cause the first instrument you hear is called "Winter Nights".
You should check out my newer remix. I kinda added a snowfall feeling to it, or tried to. lol Thanks again
Rated 5 / 5 stars
Oh my win
This is one hell of a tune, my man. Just... OMG. THIS F***ING ROCKS!!!
HAHAHA Thanks dude!


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The Truckee Hotel
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TripAdvisor Reviews The Truckee Hotel
Travel Blogs from Truckee
June 3rd and 4th - Truckee, CA
June 3rd – Day 30
We were such bad parents yesterday,
completely unable to find Indian butter chicken for Hannah's birthday.
But after some help from Google, we found a place in Reno that did an
Indian buffet for lunch. $8.95 a person and Kaitlin was only $3.99,
really yum, very spicy and Hannah was in her happy place.
From Reno we went into Truckee. Deb
Wilson had mentioned a chiropractor who was local and a ...
... bought two tubes a few weeks ago with plans to float but had never actually got on the river. Coop and Mike each had a tube for the Spoons. After a quick stop at the store for some beer and ice we were ready to go. As we blew up the tubes in the lot the storm clouds rolled in. We were not going to let the potential of rain ruin our day, plus Truckee's track record with rain pointed to there being none. Unfortunately the clouds never parted ...
Truckee Style
... where ever we settle down my plan was to find a job in a kitchen that was willing to take someone with no formal kitchen experience. Kaitlyn really wanted to find a job at a coffee shop or a brewery, again she would have to find one willing to take someone with no experience. Luckily for both of us, we did just that. After walking in to drop off a resume at the 2nd place I visited, I was offered the job within 10 min. and was also able to pick ...
The adventures of Charlie Flo and Freedom Train
... on hikes.
It took us just 10 minutes to start realizing what we had forgotten, Charlie Flo forgot his rain jacket, and we both found ourselves, light and lighter less in the woods. Wow, brain ****. We had no way to see at night, now way of lighting our stove and a safety hazard. A great way to start. We decided to walk along the dirt road that we were paralleling and hope someone would drive by who we could bum a lighter off of. We got lucky, dinner was saved, a pick up drove by that ...
Getting to Lake Tahoe
ok so after a final night of sleeping along a roadway Shima and I were off to Lake Tahoe. Most of our family was there and had arrived the day before. We had about 365 miles to go...most of it thru the central valley of CA which is nice and flat...but then we had to head into the mtns...and that scared me. I keep worrying about my Jeep...breaking down 2 times on the road in the middle of nowhere in the last week was enough for me. I know ...


text:
1G Road Racing Weaknesses
Posted by neoviper, Feb 28, 2008
Road Course & Autocross - Autocross, Road Race, and Open Track Event discussions. Preparation, technique, tips, and stories from the events. Tell us about your last event.
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Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
irony porn(o) ss12 by han dongwoo
Korean designer Han Dongwoo / 한동우 presented his latest Irony Porn(o) collection last week during Seoul Fashion Week, breaking an extended hiatus from the catwalk after his FW10/11 collection in April 2010 when I had a chance to walk in his show. From the images I've seen of this collection, Han has continued presenting a tailored look with a twist once more using a simple palette of black, grey & white. He pushed the boundaries of menswear by extending collared shirts into long dresses and taking a three piece suit and transforming the trousers into baggy harem pants. The pinstripes added a classy feel and styled with wide brimmed hats, this collection looked all sorts of cool.
Irony Porn(o) designer Han Dongwoo.
chadchad on AWEH.tv
Huge thanks to Dann Gaymer from AWEH for writing such a nice article & interviewing me about life & work in Seoul & London. AWEH is a website that combines elements of blogs, magazines, galleries, play lists, live venues & more in an effort to forgo labels and spread things that make you think, make you smile and make you feel inspired. Check out the intro to the interview below.
For the rest of the interview, click HERE.
shabba dabba da presents lost boys halloween
Posted by thexoxokids at 1:12 PM No comments:
Labels: buster bennett, charli xcx dj, dalston, efes, Erol Sabadosh, halloween, harry james, long x dj, lost boys, nsfa, rave, shabba dabba da, the coolness, the dirty toyz, twisted dance
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Baymont Inn & Suites Indianapolis Northeast
Select your stay dates to check availability
Baymont Inn & Suites Indianapolis Northeast
About the hotel
Property Location
Located in Indianapolis (East Indianapolis), Baymont Inn & Suites Indianapolis Northeast is close to The Fort Golf Resort and Fort Harrison State Park. This hotel is within close proximity of Fort Benjamin Harrison Golf Course and Post Road Recreation Center.
Make yourself at home in one of the 64 air-conditioned rooms featuring microwaves. Complimentary wireless Internet access is available to keep you connected. Bathrooms with shower/tub combinations are provided. Conveniences include safes and coffee/tea makers, and housekeeping is provided daily.
Enjoy a range of recreational amenities, including a nightclub, an indoor pool, and a fitness center. Additional features at this hotel include complimentary wireless Internet access and a television in a common area.
A complimentary continental breakfast is included.
Business, Other Amenities
Featured amenities include a business center, express check-in, and express check-out. Planning an event in Indianapolis? This hotel has 302 square feet (28 square meters) of space consisting of conference space and a meeting room. Free self parking is available onsite.
Hotel Facilities
- Nightclub
- In-room accessibility
- RV, bus, truck parking (surcharge)
- Free WiFi
- Conference space size (feet) - 302
- Accessible bathroom
- Total number of rooms - 64
- Free self parking
- Express check-out
- Elevator/lift
- 24-hour front desk
- Express check-in
- Number of floors - 3
- Smoke-free property
- Conference space size (meters) - 28
- Television in common areas
- Business center
- Roll-in shower
- Free breakfast
- One meeting room
- Fitness facilities
- Computer station
- Conference space
- Indoor pool
Room Facilities
- Air conditioning
- Shower/tub combination
- In-room safe
- Coffee/tea maker
- Free local calls
- Private bathroom
- Free cribs/infant beds
- Television
- Rollaway/extra beds (free)
- Iron/ironing board
- Free WiFi
- Microwave
- Daily housekeeping
Hotel Policy
The following fees and deposits are charged by the property at time of service, check-in, or check-out.
- Pet fee: USD 20.00 per pet, per night
The above list may not be comprehensive. Fees and deposits may not include tax and are subject to change.Show all hotel policy Show less hotel policy


text:
May 18, 1973
Dallas, TX US
Memorial Auditorium (Dallas)
includes: Rock and Roll, Celebration Day, (Bring It On Home intro) Black Dog, Over the Hills and Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, The Song Remains the Same, Rain Song, Dazed and Confused (incl. San Francisco), Stairway to Heaven.
Newspaper report:
Zeppelin Record -- Led Zeppelin, well on their way to the most successful rock tour in history, showed once again that they are the most popular group since the Beatles. In Dallas May 18, Led Zeppelin drew 10,000 fans to Memorial Hall and then came back the very next night with a standing-room-only concert in Ft. Worth that drew 13,500. With back-to-back dates in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, Led Zeppelin has set yet another record by selling out both arenas on successive nights. (May 1973)
Submit your personal review of a particular show you attended, updates, corrections, etc., which will be considered for addition to the official online archive.
You may also contact the webmaster at: firstname.lastname@example.com
Submit your personal review of a particular show you attended, updates, corrections, etc., which will be considered for addition to the official online archive.You may also contact the webmaster at: email@example.com
Concert description
This is all that exists from this show. A mixed performance rushed and tense for the most part as Jones is playing with fractured ribs! "John Paul Jones has got two fractured ribs and he's still managing to stand. I think that's fantastic! That's not really fun at all ... we thought he'd got the clap." The first three numbers are very rushed and sloppy and also Celebration Day is plugged with problems with monitors but Since I've Been Loving You is outstanding and Dazed And Confused is rather loose but very exciting and energetic.


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At the turn of the last century, John Henry Hainsworth, fresh off a boat from Manchester, began a small but profitable piano company. Using skills first taught to him in the old country, he and his three sons began creating pianos of astounding quality, taking the country by storm, and playing a nascent role in the coming Jazz age.
Many claim Al Jolson's earliest recording were all accompanied by the strident keys of an original Hainsworth.
What happened next is a point of significant speculation in the business world. Although official business documents from the 30s are now a rare find, there are still some clues that tell us about the subsequent years. Norman Mailer's well researched, but critically drubbed biography, "Hainsworth Its Weight In Gold", recounts the company's shift to the Internet. However, those looking for clues were given a gift in the fall of 2003. It occurred at a building demolition site at Queen St. and Carlaw Ave. The remains of an early ad from HAINSWORTH.COM showed how serious the venture had become. Using state of the art fibre and paint dating technology, historians place the date of the ad in or around 1934. They also point to the fact that the ad itself had the date 1934 in it. (it has since been removed due to high lead levels)
The Fifties brought "The HAINSWORTH.COM Variety Hour". Originally hosted by Steve Allen, its glory days hit in the late 50s when permanent host James "Jimmy Boy" Lerner brought his own brand of wit and personality to the broadcast. Eclectic guests included Groucho Marx, The North Korean Military Acrobatic Squad, and occasional cameo appearances by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose 1956 appearance became the stuff of pop culture legend when he uttered the now famous catch phrase, "Just nuke me, Jimmy Boy!" The show finished its successful run in 1959, when it was replaced on Saturday evenings by "Gunsmoke."
Recently declassified files reveal HAINSWORTH.COM was extensively involved in espionage for the allies during the Cold War. In 1957, Hainsworth.com president Edwin Hainsworth was approached by REDACTED to look into REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED. Not long after, REDACTED REDACTED became involved. Clearly, the government of REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED. Although not present at the REDACTED REDACTED they were very aware of the use of REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED.
He never recovered.
Andy Warhol was so enthralled with HAINSWORTH.COM that he insisted on doing a series of paintings that became the template for his now classic pop art style. In 1961, Campbell's Soup president Michael Jenkins went to a party/showing at Warhol's Chelsea loft, which featured a 20 foot, three canvas work, "Hainsworth.com #12″ Jenkins was reportedly so taken by the piece, he immediately commissioned Warhol to work on a re-branding campaign for Campbell's. Unfortunately he also got so drunk, he tripped over Warhol's feet and landed face-first in the artist's lap. "I said I'd do it, Mike, but I appreciate the extra effort to convince me."
The 1980s saw films with a HAINSWORTH.COM theme were becoming a genre unto themselves. In 1980 alone, "Ordinary Hainsworth", and "The Hainsworth Syndrome" were released to critical acclaim and a raft of Oscar nominations. The high water mark however, was the eponymous blockbuster, "HAINSWORTH.COM", released in November of 1984. It dominated the Christmas movie season, besting the other hit of the season, Beverly Hills Cop by raking in a then unheard of 12 million dollars in its opening weekend.
President Ronald Reagan called on HAINSWORTH.COM's cold war espionage experienceto help undermine the communists in East Germany. East German Chancellor E. Honecker wrote in 1986: "Insidious and constant attacks of a non military nature by such questionable and easily duped entities such as Hainsworth.com, and this new company, Haliburton, will not go unanswered."
The last decade of the millennium was not good to HAINSWORTH.COM. Years of excess came to an abrupt end, and the company entered a period of steep decline and extensive soul searching. The reasons for the fall were numerous, but largely involved interim president Steve Hainsworth Jr. making unwise and heavy investments in an enterprise known as "phone ouija." This proved costly.
The height of the dot com boom however brought HAINSWORTH.COM to a new wave of popularity. With high profile internet site sprouting from all corners of the world, people finally began to understand what this whole "interweb" thing was about. When the bubble burst a year later, the company, having a long history of riding out tough times, hunkered down and waited.


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THE weekend media reported that ''senior government figures were very happy with the sale of their surplus'' and were finally getting ''cut through'' without distractions. Of course, that was before the fiasco over Labor's hand-picked Speaker, Peter Slipper, blew up.
How the government imagines it is getting ''cut through'' over something that has not been announced - let alone delivered - is a mystery. There is no poll showing any sign of improving support. But government statements such as these illustrate how delusional things are becoming in Canberra.
The government thinks it is doing an excellent job and making the right decisions. It is just that bad luck always intervenes to muck things up, and distractions occur that prevent people from seeing how good it really is. If only it could get clear air to explain itself and put a proper spin on things, its popularity would rise to the level it truly deserves.
In truth, the government is incompetent. Its real problem is not its image - its problem is the substance. It isn't that it failed to sell the carbon tax well, but rather that it decided to introduce a carbon tax in the first place after promising there would be no carbon tax. It isn't that the public is ungrateful for all those insulation batts and new school halls, but rather that the public can see how money has been thrown away on wasteful projects, and does not believe, along with every sane analyst, that this saved Australia from financial collapse.
The more it hears the government claim that it ''saved'' Australia with new spending, the less it believes the government. The gulf between reality and spin is badly undermining its credibility.
Now the government bemoans that the public is ''distracted'' by the Slipper affair. The distraction arises from another very deliberate and conscious government decision - the decision to take someone under a cloud in his own party and elevate him to the highest parliamentary position as part of a ''cunning plan'' to neutralise his vote. What tarnished Labor is the decision - not the presentation.
However, I will say one thing for Slipper: at least he appears to think he is innocent of financial impropriety. He is going to give an explanation for his conduct and answer the questions of investigators, which is more than you can say for Labor's Craig Thomson. Thomson says there is an explanation as to how his credit card got used to pay for prostitutes. It's just that he refuses to give it and refuses to co-operate with the police who want to know what the reason is. Is this an image problem for Julia Gillard? No, it is a substance problem. She could support a full exposure of what is, by all accounts, corrupt behaviour by someone in the Health Services Union or she could give her full support to Thomson. She has chosen to do the latter.
I suggest a new tactic for the government when it comes to selling this year's budget: to level with the public and tell the facts rather than weave the spin.
This would involve admitting it was costly and unnecessary to ramp up spending by 36 per cent in the last four budgets. It would mean admitting that if a budget surplus takes pressure off interest rates now (as the government is claiming), then more careful budget policy would have helped over the last four years when we returned budget deficits of $27 billion, $55 billion, $48 billion and $37 billion - in total $167 billion. And, further, it would mean admitting the 2012-13 budget would not be a surplus at all if the government included its spending on the national broadband network (up to $43 billion), which it has taken off the budget.
Most of all, it would mean that the government would stop all this nonsense that its problems are the result of bad karma and misfortune. In a major speech last week, Prime Minister Gillard, seeking to explain why the forthcoming budget surplus will be so weak, wailed that ''the rivers of gold that flowed into Peter Costello's coffers don't exist any more''. I have news for her - they never did. There were no rivers of gold that could compare with the rivers of iron ore and black coal that are now pumping the Australian economy. Gillard's latest forecast for the coming financial year is that receipts will total $375 billion - $100 billion more than the last full financial year of the Coalition government. Over five years this is an increase of 37 per cent. The problem is that Commonwealth spending has risen even faster.
This government has tried more spin cycles than would be safe for an average washing machine. It needs to change approach. It should try a rinse cycle to get rid of the accumulated grime - and disinfectant to spruce up the end result.
Peter Costello was federal treasurer from 1996 to 2007.