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We hired this car to go round northern italy for a couple of weeks in the summer of 2009. When we first saw the car, we didn't know what to expect. It is a reasonably sized compact class car with plenty of space in the back and a reasonable boot that will fit two suitcases, a rucksack, a bag and other small items. The design inside looks modern and consumer-friendly. The dashboard is full of useful gadgets and buttons which will often go amiss among other cars of this class.
Once you get driving, you feel a surprising amount of power under the right foot. Having the words 'Multijet' and 'Sporting' in the name of a car with a 1.9 litre engine would perhaps indicate that this should be the case, but it surprises none-the-less. An extremely smooth clutch is unusual in a car that is so responsive from the standing start and the steering feels solid.
Given the above, together with the relatively cheap insurance class and great looks, this has to be a great car for the younger driver. Its price out of the factory could be cheaper than a second-hand golf and the Fiat is a worthy contender. The number of optional extras you can add and the fact that the car is yours out of the blocks make this an obvious choice for the price-savvy individual who wantsa hatchback with all the extras, be able to insure it and not pay through the nose!
I have only just learnt to drive, and aside from my instructors car I learnt in this. With my instructor's car being a new Ford Fiesta, it was interesting to note the difference between the two - the Fiat is much more powerful and requires a lot more revving! However, my parents said they found it the same when they bought the car. Having said this, once you get accustomed to its sporty power it is a great car to drive. It has 'city drive' on, which is great for town driving and squeezing into parking spots, and it drives very smoothly. A good safety feature is that when driving, the front passengers must belt up or else the car beeps until you do! Having just had experienced a very snowy/icy winter, we found that bad weather is the car's weak point - we live rurally and it wasn't up to the challenge really, but then again few cars are so you can't knock that. An excellent car to drive.
p.s. Word of warning though, we got a letter from Fiat warning about possible faults in the steering wheel in January (following the whole Toyota polava), and advising us to get our car checked out. We did and found that it wasn't a problem on our car but I'm not sure if this will apply to others?
I've had my Grande Punto for 2 years now as my first car, and I can honestly say I couldnt have made a better choice. The car I drive is a 1.2 Active model, so it's cheap fuel consumption - (I average about 54 mpg), cheap car tax and all in all just a comfortable car to drive. All of the controls are easy to use and it has the City button function for lighter steering. It does take its time to get up to 60mph, but with the speed restrictions everywhere this shouldnt be an issue. The interior of the car is comfortable but not too comfortable, the only issue I do have is that the back passenger windows do not open at all. Apart from this I would recommend this to all first time drivers, as you couldnt get more of a reliable and affordable lovely italian car.
i am going to review the fiat grande punto 1.2l active unlike most car reviewers i am not going to quote all the technical specifications as these can be viewed on the fiat website. i am simply going to tell you about my experiences of this car. well to start of with the punto has a brand new look hurrah about time fiat the new look is very streamline and sleek at the front and then at the back the car is quite large and long giving huge legroom in the back seats and a very generous size boot. alot of people are worried about the size of the car as it no longer looks like a small hatchback but after driving this car on a regular basis i can tell you it certainly doesnt feel half as big as it is gliding through tight contry roads and manouvering tight city streets with the fantastic city steering which we have all grown to love this car drives like a dream ( well not quite after all it isnt quite a db9 haha ). another fantastic feature are the floppy windscreen wipers which before this generation of puntos most car users had never seen before iradicating the stiffness and also the squeak of tradtional wiper blades. overall i can say this car is excellent value for money and a pleasure and comfort to drive.
I am going to be writing this review on the Grande Punto 1.4 t-jet.
This car can be bought for about £10k with some upgrades this is very good value for money. This car produces 120bhp and is very quick for a car which is only a insurance group 6. I am 20 years old and it costs only £100 more per year to insure that my old 1.2 and the Grande Punto is about 5 seconds quicker to 60.
The interior is very well made and the car comes very well equipped with features such as Blue and me, Eco drive, Hill holder, Ipod connector , auto winderscreen wipers and much more.
The car is by far the best looking small car around and the newest models are quite reliable I have personally never had a problem but my car has only done 2k miles so time will tell.
Overall I would recommend anyone wanting a quick car but doesn't want to pay silly money running one as I get 44mpg on a averaged drive.
I will be reviewing the Fiat Grande Punto 1.2l Active. This is the only grande punto on dooyoo which is why I am writing it here.
Firstly I want to clarify that I do not know a whole lot about technical specs etc. So I am writing about my experience of the grande punto as the regular driver that doesnt know too much about what makes the inside of a car tick.
I got my Grande Punto in April 2006, only a few months after it was first released in 2005. I was upgrading from a citroen C2. I had placed an order with Hyundai for a Special Edition Getz which had fallen through, thankfully :D for it meant that my brother took me car shopping and as soon as I saw the grande punto I wanted it!!
The first thing that struck me was how beautiful it was for a small, cheap car. Its looks are reminiscent of an alfa romeo, it has sleek curves and the headlights pop out at you when you look at it. It was the biggest supermini car at the time, measuring over four metres, which is quite different from the C2, which my brother used to call a box.
Of course the show room lure you in by displaying one of the top models, with gorgeous leather steering wheels and gear knobs, beautiful trim and sporty dash board. We were sufficiently seduced to call my dad who was on holiday in the Med somewhere and plead to be able to spend a bit more so I could get the Punto. (It was about £1500 more than the getz) My brother than sat down with the dealer and told him we only had a certain amount to spend, which was short of the asking price and that if he sold us the car for the amount we had we would pay for it today. (A bit cheeky lol)
I could only afford the most basic model, but I didnt care at the time, it was beautiful. I got the 3 door, 1.2l Active. 5 speed manual, petrol engine, electonric locking, ABS, metallic paint in chemical grey and CD player. All for around £7000. I was a little disappointed that the basic model doesnt allow you to have blue seats, but the grey and black trim is fine.
The first thing my brother said is that the engine doesnt growl like the roadtest model did. I just gave him a dirty look, I was quite happy with the "growl" of my engine. It was a lovely smooth ride, and it holds the corners well. You can adjust the steering wheel and, raise and lower the drivers seat to ensure you are in the most comfortable driving position possible for you. I do find, though that the seat often lowers itself and you have to pump it back up.
I only usually drive with myself and one other passenger in the car. This is when it performs best. I also only ever half fill the petrol tank. A) because this is a good way to conserve fuel, as it has less weight to carry and B) because a full tank is sufficient weight to alter how well it drives. However with 4-5 passengers the car feels terribly sluggish and slow, accelleration is poor and corners are heavy. I am lucky not to have to have a full car too often as it would completely ruin the driving experience!
The front seats have seat belt warnings, which beap if there is enough weight on the seat for it to think there is a person there with no seat belt. This can get annoying if you have a heavy bag on the front seat, as it will demand you move it or put the seat belt on, but is otherwise a good safety feature. However the back seats have no such thing, which is probably where you would want this feature. As children are more likely to be in the back, removing their seatbelts.
I am quite an impatient driver and I am often able to speed off at lights faster than most of the cars around me, although if they were driven by equally impatient drivers, this may not be the case. It has sufficient pull to keep my happy as a young student, although it is a depressingly low 65bhp (not an impressive figure to tell your friends lol). As I get older I'll want something with a bit more clout. I am sure the sporting version has a much better acceleration rate though.
It has a 5 star N Cap rating, so its the safest it can be, although mine was recalled as they had forgotten to fit a grill that meant it didnt fit the spec to make it 5 star, I got several letters, each stating the same thing, even after I had had it fitted. Naturally i wasnt too pleased that I had to take it back to the dealer after a couple of months for this, but as I didnt have to pay for anything it wasnt too bad. It is also classed as a Green car. It is economical with fuel and I find, even with only half my engine full that I dont have to fill it very often. I think it would cost around £40 to fill up completely with petrol around 86-94p a litre.
It has an extensive dashboard, which seems to go on forever until it hits the windscreen. There is plenty of room in the back of the car, although I've never really sat in it. The seats fold down and up to allow for an impressive boot if you need to move a lot of stuff.
I got rid of the CD player after a year as I wanted to beable to connect my ipod to it. annoyingly though because the car was so new they were unable to get the part that would link the new CD player to the steering wheel controls. This is extremely annoying and I dont know if the situation has been remedied yet. The inbuilt CD player was by no means bad, it was great if you wanted to use CD's but I was tired of constantly having to make car CD's.
My one pet hate with the car is the cup holders. They are too small and not deep enough, aswell as being put in a completely inane place. The main two are situated below the centre console. For cans you have to ram them in. For bottles they are too large and jut out as they cant fit under the console. The bottle then gets in the way of 3rd and 5th gear and also wobbles about all over the place. The glove box is also of insufficient size. I have quite a lot in mine but its not large enough to fit the car manual in, so I have to shove this under the passenger seat.
I have had a couple of problems with the car. I've had to replace the windscreen wipers once in 2 and a half years. The boot refused to open for a while and currently the drivers door wont open from the inside. This is highly dangerous. Fiat say the door mechanism is broken and it needs a new one but for a fairly young car I think this is an unacceptable fault.
My Advice:-
I think this is a great car to drive, but dont get the 1.2 active. Go for the dynamic or better. You then get leather trim and funkier interior, sporty rev dial, Air conditioning, Alloy wheels and a CD player with an aux plug. Its worth the extra money. I also wish I had gone for either metallic black paint or red or orange. My metallic chemical grey is looking a bit lucklustre and boring now. I also dont think this is a great family car, although it does have a great safety rating.
I love my punto, but I want an upgrade. Its fun to drive, nippy and smooth but I want the added extras that make the experience just that little bit better!
Having owned the grande punto sporting for just over a month now i am as happy now as the day i brought it. I purchased a nearly new model with 13000 miles on the clock for a bargain £7950 a hefty discount as the list price brand new is well over £12k. The car being less than 12 months old i still have peace of mind of another 24 months of dealer warranty included.
The car is great to drive, you couldnt really tell you were driving a diesel apart from on idle and start up from the noise as it is very quite even at high revs. The 6 gears really help this on the motorway plodding along at less than 2000 revs on the motorway and getting great fuel consumption at the same time.
On long runs on the motorway ive managed a good 58mpg average and around town and short journeys still managed a decent 38-40 mpg.
insurance is very cheap being only an insurance group 6 is also very handy!
Performance-wise you cant really fault the vehicle, it does pull impressively well in all gears even at very low revs being a turbo-diesel and is very nippy around town and great at overtaking on fast roads and if you need to overtake quickly.
Cornering in the dry is very good even when driven fast although the car does suffer from a lot of understeer when pushed hard in the wet even with the traction control and stabililty function both switched on.
Overall a great car to drive, fast and economical.
The aptly named 130bhp - 130 Mjet Sporting is the top of the range, three door "sporting" model in the latest Fiat Grande Punto line up. Presumably Fiat added the title "Grande" in there to differentiate this from the last, rather less grand, Punto, the most basic model of which is still on sale.
Grande in fact is actually a reference to the somewhat increased size of Fiat's latest super-mini offering. As with all of its' rivals in this sector, this could no longer be regarded as a small car. At 4030mm in length, the Grande Punto is precisely the same length as a new Peugeot 207 (probably its' closest competitor), and larger than a 1970 Austin Maxi, which in its day would have been regarded as a medium size car!
The Fiat Grand Punto is very closely related to the new Vauxhall Corsa, they were co-developed by the same team and whilst having different bodies are almost identical under the skin.
The Punto Grande range starts at £7989 for the basic 3 door, 1.2 Active model and tops out with the £12,695 1.9 Mjet 5 door Eleganza. There are currently a choice of two petrol engines, 1.2 and 1.4 litres and 1.3 and 1.9 litre diesel units in no fewer than four states of tune.
The model that I am reviewing here (the 130 Mjet) is the most powerful Punto currently on sale. Surprisingly it also happens to be a diesel. The 130bhp, 1.9 diesel is only available in Sporting trim with a three door body, if you want a 1.9 diesel with a five door body you have no choice but to plump for the luxury Eleganza model which looses 10bhp.
Once again, I am reviewing this car on the basis of a very thorough test drive carried out at the Millbrook Proving Ground as a participant at the Company Car in Action event last summer.
Fiat are very keen to promote this particular range into the fleet market, judging by the numbers of Grande Punto's that I am seeing on the roads in the south east of England, it looks as though they have been very successful at doing just that!
Fiats have never been expensive to either purchase or to run. With a Co2 level of 154 and an insurance group of 6, bearing in mind this cars performance potential, the standing charges i.e. tax and insurance, are going to be affordable.
According to "What Car" the Fiat Grande Punto Sporting will cost you 38.4p per mile overall to run. By comparison a similarly priced, but less powerful, Ford Fiesta 1.6 TDCi Zetec would cost 33.8p per mile.
The headline £12,295 price sticker looks very expensive for a Punto. However this is no Punto like any before, this is an altogether different car, much better looking, much better built and far more sophisticated. Comparing it to class rivals, all of which are similarly priced, or more, expensive - due to its desirability factor - I would say that this new Punto is actually priced at the right level.
That of course is before the Fiat dealer starts throwing the likely discounts at you. Certainly there are substantial savings to be made on one of these through internet broker sites such as broadspeed.com - I found a £1421 saving on a UK supplied Punto 130 Mjet without looking very hard at all. Many Fiat dealers would probably even match such an offer.
THE OPTIONS GAME: 8 / 10 or "How much do I need to spend to make it habitable?"
My advice here is to go VERY easy on the options. The Punto Grande is quite well equipped already, but Fiat are attempting the German "trick" of offering you a long list of optional extras, some of which appear quite tempting.
What you need to remember is that, with the sole exception of metallic paint, any options that you specify on a car like this will depreciate totally. A £600 leather interior (looks like a bargain actually!) is all very nice, but when you come to sell the Punto in three years time, it will not be worth a penny more than the quite adequately trimmed cloth version.
Personally I would go for metallic paint, although this car looks good in bright red anyway, and add the £20 side rubbing strips - useful protection from the supermarket door bangers of society. £245 worth of options is not too bad, especially when the dealer is almost sure to throw them in for free!
DEPRECIATION 7 / 10 - Always the biggest running cost.
Due to hefty discounting of late, Fiat have suffered from above average levels of depreciation. This has also been fuelled by the generation old reputation that Fiats had for fragility and unreliability.
Take no notice incidentally of anyone who, in this day and age, tells you that these cars rust!
As with all manufacturers who launch a new massed produced car, Fiat will tell you that they are not going to "over-supply" the market, i.e. build more of them than can be sold. That may be the case during the first year of production, whilst demand is strong for this attractive new product, however over-supply will inevitably catch up with the Punto at which point second hand values will take a big hit as new cars are slashed in price.
Currently however second hand values are firm on the new Punto Grande - but so they should be, on a car so new, it will only be dealer demonstrators and ex-rental cars that are currently reaching the second hand forecourts.
Of all the new Grande Punto models, this, the top of the range one will under any circumstances take the biggest drop in value.
A 1.9 litre engine is comparatively large in a car this size. However, at over 1200kg in weight, whatever engine drives a Grande Punto, it is never destined to win many fuel economy prizes. However, this 130bhp version of the General Motors (Vauxhall) diesel engine, shared with Alfa, Lancia, and Saab too, gives the Punto a good real world economy to performance ratio.
As far as I know this is the smallest car that this unit appears in, along with its sister car the new Vauxhall Corsa, it is therefore with an overall claimed average consumption of 48.7mpg, the most economical way of driving this very impressive engine.
SERVICE & MAINTENANCE COSTS 7 / 10: are you going to make the dealer rich?
As far as Fiat customers are concerned "dealer" has been a dirty word for many years. Regrettably that seems to continue to be the case. Whilst the cars have improved out of all recognition, by and large the dealer network has not. Assuming that you can find a dealer with whom you are happy, servicing this 1.9 diesel Grande Punto is going to be class competitive in terms of costs.
Let the "fun" begin! You want to know what this car is like to live with and to drive and be driven in .
STYLING 9 /10: A very subjective category here.
I, and presumably the many thousands of eager buyers, think that the new Punto is simply the best looking super-mini that there is. Whilst it avoids treading the "Star Trek" path of the new Honda Civic, the grafting on of a mini-Maserati front by Giugiaro, by the designers, was a masterstroke.
This car has an extraordinarily strong road presence, attractive yet at the same time muscular, but avoiding the aggressiveness of the latest Peugeot models. In a sense it achieves what the original Mini did, by providing a shape that all classes are more than happy to be seen driving.
OVERALL BUILD QUALITY AND FINISH 8 / 10 Does it look as though it was slung together?
Actually touching, sitting in and then driving this particular car, this is the one area that left me more impressed than any other. Granted Fiat had a lot of catching up to do, but in terms of quality this car is a huge leap forward over the last generation Punto. It is now able to compete on level terms with Volkswagens and Skodas, both previously light years ahead in the fit and finish stakes.
In a "blindfolded quality test", no car expert would guess that this was an Italian car, let alone a humble Fiat!
SAFETY 9 /10 If it comes to the worst, how well are you and your family going to come out of it.
Both the Punto and Corsa were designed to embrace the latest and future safety regulations, not only for vehicle occupants, but also now the increasingly stringent pedestrian safety rules. The fact that the Punto looks the way it does, with that much admired softly rounded "Maserati" front, is actually largely thanks to the pedestrian friendly nature of this car.
In short, not only is this one of the very safest cars to travel in, with a 5 star Euro NCAP rating, - if you have the misfortune to be run over, just pray that it is a new Punto Grande that hits you!
From my point of view, as an experienced driver, safety actually has far more to do with dynamic factors. In my opinion, Fiat have always scored highly here, particularly with the smaller cars that traditionally they have been so good at designing. This latest Punto very much continues the tradition, feeling like a much larger and more expensive car in the way it stays rock solid on the road at speed (100mph). One also has a deep sense of confidence in the way it reacts to breaking and steering inputs too.
ERGONOMICS 8 / 10 Before I can start the engine and drive away I need to feel at home in the "working environment". The relationship between the controls and how I, the driver, am able to instinctively operate those controls is, all important. This for me is make or break, before I drive a car, if it does not instinctively "feel" right in this department then I will never like it or ultimately buy it.
More improvements have been made here, in line with the quality upgrades. This is still a noticeably "Italian" interior, in certain ways styled for the sake of it, but all the controls are where you expect to find them.
Importantly for those of us old enough to understand the term "Italian Ape" in relation to the driving position in Italian cars, the evolution of the species is such that it would now appear to be extinct! I was perfectly comfortable and at ease behind the wheel of the Punto Grande. Adding to this are the very comfortable seats, the drivers one even running to an electric lumbar adjustment.
As a side effect of the excellent safety scoring, along with many other cars these days, the Punto does suffer from some blind spots. Not only are the rear pillars quite heavy in design, not helped by the rather narrow rear window, but the MPV like size and rake of the windscreen brings the typical front pillar blind spots too - large enough to hide whole cars behind. In truth this was probably the ONE factor that I found off-putting about this car.
With a super-mini this big on the outside, you have a right to expect it to be spacious inside. In actual fact, the Punto is roomier than it looks, partly thanks to those heavy pillars and the dark fabric trim on "our" car. Up front, the sensation is of driving a much bigger car, there is lots of shoulder room, you have no feeling of sitting on top of your passenger.
There is plenty of space for two in the rear, although there are seat belts and headrests for three, I feel that would be a bit of a squash. A definite advantage of the new Punto's extra size is an increase in boot space, a usefully deep and square area, fold the seats down and you have a small van.
The interior style very much continues the theme from the outside. I was really taken with this, some may see it as over done. The orange stitching and detailing on the seat trim matches the orange on white instruments. The fact that you can also have a bright metallic orange Punto Sporting, as shown at the top of this page, co-ordinates the whole style somehow.
Mrs R and I were particularly enamoured with the very unusual orange material panel on the dashboard, where on other cars you may expect to find fake wood or aluminium look plastic. This novel addition to the interior lifted it out of the ordinary. Incidentally, if you choose the black leather option this material panel is finished in matt silver - very classy!
MATERIALS, FIT & FINISH 8 / 10: Aspreys or Ratners?
Compared to flimsy Fiat interiors of old, this one belongs in a different class altogether. Along with the appealing style, I could find little to fault in terms of material quality here. This was doubly impressive as on the day, this Fiat was a good £8000 less expensive than anything else driven, bar the Alfa 147, which actually had a lot of interior detailing in common with this much newer car.
Our car was equipped with the (£220) optional dual zone climate control. As standard the Sporting Grande Punto comes with the simpler air conditioning system. Fiat have wisely, not overstyled these controls in the central console, they look classy, are intuitive to use and work efficiently.
Time to start it up and to offer you a driving assessment.
NOISE, VIBRATION & HARSHNESS 9 / 10 Silk purse or sow's ear?
My overriding impression is that, for a car of this size and type, it is incredibly refined. I have praised this particular diesel engine in every car that it has been mounted so far. Here in lower tune, I am used to driving it in 150bhp guise, it is even smoother and quieter than it is in the Saab 9-3, Alfa 147, or indeed the Astra Twin Top, all of which were driven on the same day.
There is no vibration or harshness, you really would not be aware that this engine is a diesel unless you knew about it, Fiat attaching a "Sporting" badge to this car is fully justified.
On the other hand, in some senses, it feels so 'grown up' and refined that the Sporting badge could be regarded as a bit of a misnomer.
PERFORMANCE 9 / 10 Sh*t off a shovel or a constipated tortoise?
The Punto Grande Sporting is one of those rare cars which simply does not feel as fast as it actually is. This is a side effect of the overall refinement, also of the fact that this really is a thoroughly well developed super-mini.
As with many diesels, the bald figures, maximum speed 124mph, 0-60mph in 9.5 seconds, do not tell the full story on the road. With over 200lbs ft of torque (that is twisting power, translating into flexibility) and a six speed gearbox to play with, this is an incredibly willing and flexible performer. You are not hacking through the gearbox all the time, this particular Punto is quick and effortless to drive.
The good news continues. The term 'grown up' once more seems the most appropriate here, the refinement of the power plant is matched by the sophisticated chassis. This is a car that the driver can have fun in, throwing it rapidly down a country lane, whilst the passengers enjoy the smooth and quiet ride, in more ways than one, the Punto Grande Sporting proves a deceptive performer!
CONCLUSION - Would I buy one myself and would we want to drive it to Poland in a day?
If I were to buy a super-mini, having driven this one in such extreme conditions, I can think of no substantial reason why I would choose anything else. It is a thoroughly well developed and very likeable car.
Preferably I would take a larger car on that journey to Poland, for purely practical reasons. Having said that though, this version of the Punto is a thoroughly "long legged" little car - quiet and smooth to drive. There is absolutely no reason why it would not take us all the way across Europe with speed and economy matched by few others. I can think of no other car of this size and price in which I would wish to do that journey.
Well who would have thought it as little as five years ago, a Fiat coming up with a really solid all round score like that? Not I, that is for sure!
Putting that score into perspective are the following cars based on identical scoring criteria:
ALFA ROMEO 147 1.9JTD Lusso (5 Dr) - 67.8%
FIAT PUNTO GRANDE SPORTING 130 Mjet - 75.9%
HONDA ACCORD i-CTDi Saloon - 80.0%
HONDA CIVIC 1.8i VTEC SE - 78.2%
HONDA JAZZ 1.4 SE CVT-7 (Automatic) - 74.7%
SAAB 9-3 TiD Vector - 68.2%
VAUXHALL ASTRA TWINTOP 1.9 CDTi DESIGN - 78.8%


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Neighborhood Distribution Programfont-size
The Neighborhood Distribution Program distributes food to thousands of individuals and families once a month at twelve different sites throughout San Diego County.Distributions take place in our nonprofit partners' parking lots. Ninety percent of the food distributed consists of fresh fruits and vegetables.Distributions are open to everyone. No documentation or ID is required to receive food assistance. There are no income or asset restrictions for this program.
Full list of Neighborhood Distribution Program sites
Download the flier below for a full list of the program's distribution sites and opening times
2017 SDFB and NCFB Neighborhood Distributions (ENGLISH)

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AC Repair Lago Vista, TX
Lago Vista, TX is found in Travis County and is home to around 6,041 people. The town is located on the north shore of Lake Travis, but this water front location doesn't make the town any cooler on those sizzling hot summer days. Throughout late spring and summer, the town sees averages in the mid to upper 90s every year. As a homeowner here, it's important for you to be sure that your AC is working like it should so that you and your family don't have to be stuck in the hot heat.
If you have noticed that your cooling system is not coming on at all, is making strange sounds, isn't cooling all rooms or levels of the home like it should, or is leaking inside or outside of the home, then it is in your best interest to contact a dependable ac repair contractor serving your neighborhood so that you can get the problem taken care of quickly, efficiently, and by a team of trained and knowledgeable professionals. At our HVAC company, we offer reliable services when you need them the most. We show up on time for our scheduled appointments, and we also offer 24/7 emergency AC repair. This will come in handy seeing as most air conditioners don't know what time it is, and they aren't going to wait for "regular business hours" to break down!
When it comes to preventing problems with your air conditioner, one of the best things you can do is to schedule routine AC maintenance each year. You should also prepare your unit for the summer by following these tips listed below:
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Yesterday - Guitar Lesson
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Part 1: Play Through
Part 2: Preview
Part 3: Let's Talk Theory
Part 4: A Look at the Left Hand
Part 5: A Look at the Right Hand
Part 6: Break It Down: Guitar Accompaniment
Part 7: Slow It Down
Part 8: Sing Along
Part 9: Guitar Solo: A Look at the Hands
Part 10: Guitar Solo: Break It Down
Part 11: Guitar Solo: Slow It Down
Part 12: In Conclusion
Charts, TAB, and Guitar Pro Files are only made available to our TARGET Members
The latest project has been Yesterday, where we take a look at both a guitar accompaniment version and a solo guitar arrangement. The accompaniment version is pretty much the way Paul played it and is a simple way to back up the vocal part. The instrumental arrangement is an intermediate-level fingerpicking piece that uses more of an arpeggio style than alternating bass notes.
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Your initial playing of the song is beautiful. I think, forgive me Sir paul, the best version I have ever heard. I am going to put it in my target march 1
written by johnjamesg, February 13, 2014
Thanks for this lesson. It's a beautiful song. I'm learning it today after watching the imagine interview. I haven't looked at the lesson before because I was intimidated by the 6 grading and had decided to tackle it later. I'm learning the accompaniment version which is obviously much easier than a 6. It would be great if you could put multiple gradings on lessons that have more than one version/lesson in them and different gradings. Great lesson. Thank you! Michele
written by michelew, January 19, 2010
Hey Meil et al, Just a brief note to how grateful I am for this site. I signed up for the target program just a short while back and have learned so much already. Thank you.
written by Glenn Tassey, December 22, 2009
Thanks for describing how you do the 'finger roll' technique. I've seen it in a few vids now and was wondering how you got that sound. As you said- maybe a short lesson on it would be good as well? Al
written by AcousticAl, August 03, 2009
Hi, The play-through matches the D tuning shown in the accompaniment, but the slow-it-down section is standard E tuning. Am i missing something? It's not a big deal, but having only one guitar it's a teeny bit of a pain tuning it back and forth. Hmm maybe a capo on the 2nd fret for the slow-it-down segment. --Tim
written by Tim Conama, July 02, 2009
this is a test ... that's how we learn, i'm told
written by Pierre Petit, June 16, 2009
Hi Neil, Thank you for adding a "sing along" segment to the lesson on The Beatles' "Yesterday". It's a great help to see how lyrics coordinate to the playing technique, and I hope you'll do more of this. One (humble) suggestion: Please feel free to HAM IT UP ... it's no news to you that many songs are great because they were sung by unashamed HAMS rather than great singers (hmmm ... why does Alice Cooper come to mind?). Be certain that I really appreciate the quality of this site.
written by cosmicmechanic, June 05, 2009
This is maybe the best solo version for intermediate level guitar players I ever seen on the web. The explanation on the finger positions is very helpful. The implementation of the rolling technique makes this version unique. Thanks for the excelent TAB and the detailed explanation. In my opinion "Yesterday" can be played only as an instrumental version. Easy versions do not work.
written by kirbySfan, June 02, 2009
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text:
Davidson Named MVP Of SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game
By Reno Aces | July 14, 2013 3:01 PM ET
For Immediate Release
July 14, 2013
NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.-Reno Aces third baseman Matt Davidson was named the Most Valuable Player of the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game held at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, on Sunday afternoon.
The slugger blasted a two-run home run off Athletics' right hander Michael Ynoa in the fourth inning to propel the US Team to a 3-2 advantage over the World Team. Team USA tacked on an insurance run in the eighth for a 4-2 win, the squad's fourth-straight Futures Game victory.
Aces shortstop Chris Owings also saw some time in the game, going 0-for-2 but making an excellent over the shoulder catch on a pop out.
Tomorrow, Davidson will participate in the 2013 IGT Home Run Derby, which will be held at Aces Ballpark. The event begins at 7:05 p.m. PT, with gates opening at 5:30 to accommodate large crowds and to provide pre-game entertainment.
Davidson and Owings will be in the starting lineup for the Pacific Coast League squad in the 2013 Dolan Auto Group Triple-A All-Star Game on Wednesday night, with first pitch slated for 6:05 p.m.
Limited tickets are still available for each event, at the Reno Aces Box Office, by phone at (775) 334-7000 or online at RenoAces.com.
For more information, and to purchase tickets for All-Star events or any Aces home game, call (775) 334-4700. For more information, visit www.RenoAces.com/AllStar, follow the club on Twitter (@aceball) or like the team on Facebook.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.View More


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BENISE-EN FUEGO! Kicks Off Fitz's Jazz at The McCallum Series, 11/2
Armed with his Spanish guitar and an amazing world-class band of musicians, Benise - En Fuego! will kick off the Fitz's Jazz Cafe Series at The McCallum Theatre on Friday, November 2 at 8:00 pm.
Benise is also the creative force behind the Emmy Award Winning electrifying multi-cultural World Music and Dance Productions, "The Spanish Guitar" and "Nights of Fire!" In 2010, Benise performed on the #1 rated show in the United States, "Dancing with the Stars" and toured the US covering 40 major markets. Airing nationally on PBS in 2007, "Nights of Fire!" was an unprecedented and spectacular journey of music and dance through Spanish Flamenco, Cuban Salsa, African Rhythms, Argentinean Tango, and Brazilian Samba. Backed by a stage full of musicians, an orchestra, and 12 elaborately choreographed dancers, "Nights of Fire!" captured world music at its best.
"The Spanish Guitar" is Benise's second PBS special, filmed over 3 years and across 10 countries. It's an epic tale that integrates live performance with footage of Benise in his voyage around the globe - the cobblestone streets of old Havana, an Arabian desert, the romantic canals of Venice, the oldest bullring in Spain, a quaint Paris café, and the sacred temples of India. Benise's "The Spanish Guitar" takes us to worlds both faraway and deeply personal, and reminds us that hope can be the healing thread in all of our lives.
Just as his fiery melodies and high-energy rhythms weave a stunning tapestry of emotions, Benise has always charted his own distinctive path. Since receiving his first guitar at the age of eleven, he practiced relentlessly, completely self- taught, mastering a variety of different styles that would become his unique sound. He began composing original works with powerfully emotional arrangements that are both wild and refined, producing a sound that is as edgy and exotic as it is romantic and sensual. "I'm always inspired by places I've traveled," saysBenise, "so I'll try to capture the essence and beauty of the different places in my melodies. It's truly like painting on air, creating colors and lush soundscapes that take people (and me) away to a safe place with no prejudice and no boundaries."
Leaving his family and friends to move 1,500 hundred miles away from home to Los Angeles with nothing more than his guitar, Benise held in his heart the encouragement from his parents to "work hard and have faith." After being turned down by almost every club in Los Angeles, Benise started performing on the streets. It was not uncommon for Benise to put on over 250 shows a year, sometimes playing 2 to 3 events in a single day.


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As the Queen's eldest granddaughter and 13th in line to the throne she could have led a life of pomp and privilege before marrying some wealthy foreign prince or a millionaire magnate.
But when Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips MBE walks down the aisle after tying the knot in Edinburgh today she will be plain Mrs Mike Tindall – housewife, horsewoman and homebody.
And that's just how this fiercely independent young woman has always wanted it to be. For Zara, 30, is the reluctant princess who ripped up the rule book of her ancestors and snubbed her nose at stuffy protocol.
At 17 she flaunted her tongue piercing at her uncle Charlie's 50th birthday party.
Two years later she hired a waiter in a leather thong to serve drinks to pals as they giggled over sex toys at an Ann Summers party.
And the whole nation knew when her first serious relationship fell apart because Zara was seen brawling in the street, punching and kicking her man.
Zara's marriage to a burly, broken-nosed rugby player known as The Fridge couldn't be more different than that other royal wedding three months ago. But friends have revealed it has brought just as much joy to her adoring gran, proud mum and other relations – who respect and admire her determination to remain the renegade royal.
"Zara and Mike are both really laid back about the wedding," revealed Mike's elder brother Ian. "He's not the kind of guy to get nervous and nor is she. Mike's been telling everyone he is just looking forward to Zara being his wife. They are very low-key and just into their sport and stuff."
Ian revealed how down-to-earth Zara made it easy for his family to get over their first daunting meeting with her mother, the Princess Royal.
On Boxing Day last year just after Zara and Mike announced their engagement Ian, his social worker mum Linda and dad Phil, a former bank worker, were invited for dinner at the couple's home in Cheltenham, Gloucs. "It was the first time I'd met Princess Anne properly," Ian recalls.
"I'd met Zara's brother Peter a few times and I know him quite well. But that evening brought home just how normal Zara's family are. They've always been very kind and nice and pleasant whenever I've met them.
"It helps because the royals are really involved with rugby and sport so there's a natural common ground there."
And what also helps is Princess Anne is happy when her daughter is happy – and it's clear Mike makes Zara very happy. She has been dating the 6ft 2ins World Cup winner for seven years.
Mike has described himself as the "ice" to Zara's "fire", and told how their lives are filled with training schedules for his rugby and her horse eventing and quiet evenings snuggling in front of the sofa.In fact Zara had to be persuaded to go and treat herself to pre-wedding spa treatment this week at the £450-a-night Calcot Manor hotel.
But flashes of her naughtier side were revealed at her Portugal hen do in June where she donned a pink tutu and downed shots with pals including Natalie Pinkham and Sky Sports presenters Kirsty Gallacher and Di Dougherty.
Zara first hit headlines in August 1998 when she swaggered down the Highgrove garden path at uncle Prince Charles' early 50th birthday party to show off her tongue piercing.
The £35 silver stud the 17-year-old had pierced through her tongue at the tattoo parlour near Gordonstoun boarding school in the Scottish Highlands shocked the world – and especially the royals.It sent out the message loud and clear that Zara was not afraid to rock the royal boat.
A source said: "It was pretty embarrassing for the family and they weren't exactly happy about it but there was nothing anyone could do.
"It was the first time a royal had done anything like this and they just hoped she would grow out of it, eventually decide to take the stud out and it would be forgotten."
But Zara was still defiantly sporting it a few days later when she attended the Queen Mother's 98th birthday party at Clarence House.
However while the older royals were bemused and embarrassed by her rebellious streak, Zara's behaviour delighted her cousins, William and Harry, and paved the way for their own carefree behaviour as they grew up.
"All the younger royals adore Zara," a source said. "Her down to earth style clearly sprang from her mother's decision not to give her children the royal title HRH at birth
"But she was the first to really tear up the rule book and not be afraid to have fun and make friends with who she wants without worrying about protocol.
"When you are a royal you are in this bubble and they were all kind of growing up together and figuring things out as they went along. Because of that there's a huge empathy between Zara and William and Harry. Plus, they make each other laugh."
There was plenty of laughter in the summer of 2000 when Zara and 25 friends employed the services of a waiter in a leather g-string to parade around her father Captain Mark Phillips's living room when he was away.
"The young women browsed racy lingerie from the Ann Summers sex shop catalogue, while helping themselves to smoked salmon and champagne.
Zara, who friends describe as "flirtatious" and "sexy" had a whale of a time.
But the feisty royal has had her share of heartache too. Her first long-term relationship was with jockey Richard Johnson – and their tumultuous three-year love affair hit headlines for all the wrong reasons.
After a spate of on-off boyfriends at school and while backpacking on her gap year in Australia, Zara settled down with Johnson towards the end of 2000.
He may have got her to get rid of her tongue stud after describing it as "disgusting" and telling her it "spoiled kissing" but he did nothing to quash Zara's hot-headed streak. Their fiery relationship came to a head during a ferocious bust-up in January 2001 outside the house of their friend, jockey Warren Marston.
In the village of Bourton-on-the-Water witnesses claimed screaming Zara and Richard punched and kicked each other in the street. Zara was reportedly thrown on the floor during the brawl which prompted worried neighbours to call the police.
It was a horrific moment in the doomed relationship which friends later explained by saying "all they had in common was horses and sex". Just a few months after the spat Zara and Johnson moved into a £400,000 home together and invited Hello magazine in to have a look – for a cool £125,000. In typical independent Zara style, she didn't care a jot that flaunting their live-in relationship for profit over 13 glossy pages might not sit well with the royals.
The interview exposed the early cracks in the relationship, with Johnson admitting he was "too tired" to be romantic, and they eventually went their separate ways.
Johnson later cashed in with tell-all book Out of the Shadows.Heartbroken Zara found more time to focus on her first love – horse riding. She put all her energies into becoming a top sportswoman and eventing champion.
And then along came Mike Tindall.The 16st Gloucester and England player first caught her eye on November 22, 2003, the night England beat Australia to win the World Cup in Sydney.
And Zara's equestrian career has hit new highs since meeting her rugby man. When she became world eventing champion in 2006 he was her loudest cheerleader, and when she picked up her MBE from the Queen in 2007 he was there again, proudly holding her hand. And he's spectacularly unfazed, disinterested even, in her royal roots.
"He's genuinely the most laid-back, kind and down-to-earth guy you could ever meet," a friend said. "He loves Zara for who she is, not what she is." His mum Linda said this week Mike would love her just the same if she was a Tesco checkout girl.
Their wedding today in Edinburgh's cosy Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile will be a lot more low key than William and Kate's wedding, and that suits them just fine. "Obviously Mike's hoping everything goes to plan," says brother Ian, who is an usher at the ceremony. "It should do as it's been very well organised."
But while Mike's as cool as a cucumber, perhaps the same isn't true of his best man, rugby player Iain Balshaw, who will be making his speech in front of the Queen and Prince Charles at the Holyrood House reception. "I don't envy him," Ian says. "Having to wait all day to make a speech is nerve-racking."
Best man speech aside, Zara's special day will be anything but sedate and formal. For although the tearaway teen may be a distant memory, Zara stubbornly stands by her mantra: "I am not a princess".
So whatever the rule book says about royal weddings, Zara will do just what she wants on her big day.


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SPOKANE, Wash. – A neighbor looking into a disabled car in north Spokane noticed a tube with a fuse on the end and called police.
A bomb squad detonated the explosive Tuesday afternoon with a boom that sounded through the neighborhood near NorthTown Mall.
The man who called police told KXLY said it was a cardboard tube, packed with something and wrapped with match heads on the outside.
The Spokesman-Review reports police contacted the owner of the car as part of their investigation. The car had been left by the side of the road Monday with a flat tire.


text:
First up ... the coloring Pages.
Some from a Dr Who Colouring Book ... others from off the Net.
And one here nicely colored so you can see what can be done with these humble pages.
And now ... Dr Who Paper Dolls! With TOM/Doc First and Formost:
And ... the rest of the "splendid chap ... all of them.":
That is ... I'll put up the rest of the docs as soon as I find those old files.
If you have any drawings you would like to add to this collection, or want on-site credit with your drawing, or wish a LINK added to your drawing,
please email me at:
pattie anne
And finally, attempts were made to find the artists represented here, and get permission first,
but if for some reason you want your drawing deleted from these pages, please just email me,
and I will promly do so.


text:
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While the outdoor pools are open seasonally, we also have cabin rentals with indoor pool access for swimming year round! Aunt Bug's indoor pool cabin rentals offer fun and luxury all year long! You can skip the beach this year and come to the mountains instead!
Your family will LOVE this amenity! Call our office toll-free or book online today!
Availability is limited.


text:
Cad Drawings
Budget $250-750 AUD
We need a basic drawing made of a relocatable truck wash down bay that can be used as a sales tool to explain how it works to a customer.
Initially it will be a simple model without a huge amount of detail - mainly pictorial, but as the job progresses we will need more detail added to it.
You will have only hand drawn sketches to work off for a start and then will build up from there.
70 freelancers are bidding on average $424 for this job
Hello! Interested in your offer, I can get to work immediately. Write me please and we can discuss all details. I will be glad to cooperate. Best regards
Hello, I have more than 6 years of experience in 3D design, CAD engineering works and 3D photorealistic visualisation (Using software : Solidworks, 3Ds max (corona), the Keyshot). I'm familiar with real manufacturi More
Hello! I am interested. Please provide more info (your sketches) concerning the project for better estimation of time and costs. Hope to hear from you. Best regards!
We are professions artist team, we have more than 8 years experience, are looking for interesting projects. We are looking for long term relations and reliable clients to work with them. https://vimeo.com/182860481
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text: Can any one help? thanks -----Yong Sheng Gong/China/IBM wrote: ----- To: Eric Blake <eblake redhat com> From: Yong Sheng Gong/China/IBM Date: 06/17/2012 11:11AM Cc: libvir-list redhat com Subject: Re: [libvirt] ask for help to explain the network about tap Hi Eric, Thanks for the reply. I have a new question. I found I cannot ping the VM with predefined tap device in domain xml from other host(means the machine other than the hyper visor is running on): <interface type='ethernet'> <mac address='f6:19:e0:6c:84:c3'/> <script path=''/> <target dev='tap10'/> <alias name='net0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/> </interface> But I can ping the VM with libvirtd defined tap device in domain xml from other host: <interface type='bridge'> <mac address='52:54:00:e4:2e:c1'/> <source bridge='br200'/> <target dev='vnet0'/> <model type='virtio'/> <alias name='net0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/> </interface> [root robinlinux ~]# brctl show bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces br100 8000.0021cc6d4440 no eth0 br200 8000.0021cc6d4443 no eth0.1000 gw200 tap10 vnet0 And I can ping both of VMs from local host. What does libvirtd do to allow the bridge to forward the packet to the tap device attached by target VM? As far as I know all the packets destined to the bridge's ports from outside will be consumed by bridge itself, not xmit to particular port. Thanks Yong Sheng Gong -----Eric Blake <eblake redhat com> wrote: ----- To: Yong Sheng Gong/China/IBM IBMCN From: Eric Blake <eblake redhat com> Date: 06/15/2012 12:36PM Cc: libvir-list redhat com Subject: Re: [libvirt] ask for help to explain the network about tap On 06/14/2012 08:49 PM, Yong Sheng Gong wrote: > > Hi, > I don't know who helps qemu-kvm to create and open the tap file and when if I define an interface of a kvm vm like: > <interface type='bridge'> > <mac address='52:54:00:e4:2e:c1'/> > <source bridge='br200'/> > <model type='virtio'/> > <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/> > </interface> > > The qemu-kvm process's command line will be: <snip> > > Note the -netdev tap,fd=24 That's libvirtd that opened the tap file, and passed it by inheritance to the new qemu process. Unfortunately, this means that you can't recreate the same qemu process without also opening the tap device yourself the same way that libvirtd would do it. But this approach of fd passing is essential to security, since libvirtd intentionally removes capabilities that prevent qemu from opening the tap itself, so libvirtd must pass in the fd pre-opened. Did you have specific questions about which functions in libvirt source code open the tap device? Also, note that libvirtd will issue an audit log event for every tapfd that it opens and gives to qemu. The fd number is unpredictable, but the fact that an fd was opened as backed by a tap device is pretty easy to follow in the audit logs. -- Eric Blake eblake redhat com +1-919-301-3266 Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org [attachment "signature.asc" removed by Yong Sheng Gong/China/IBM]


text:
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And start dating


text:
Nobel watchers hoping to find out who will win the 2005 literature prize will have to wait at least a week.
With the other Nobel Prize announcements already in full swing, many expected the Swedish Academy to confirm the date on Tuesday. Instead, it kept silent, suggesting the coveted award will be announced Oct. 13.
By tradition, the 18-member group that makes up the 219-year-old institution, announces on a Tuesday that it will name the winner the following Thursday at 7 a.m. EDT.
It's also led to speculation that academy members may be locked in fierce debate as to who should take home this year's prize, which includes a $1.3 million prize, a gold medal and a diploma, along with a guaranteed boost in sales.
This year's awards, which began Monday and conclude Oct. 10, will likely have a one-day break — Thursday — with no prize being announced.
Anna Tillgren, of Bonniers Publishing house, said the academy's silence likely meant the prize would be announced on Oct. 13, "but you never know what they are up to."
Yom Kippur falls on Oct. 13, but that would not affect any announcement.
The academy had no comment. Since 1901, when it awarded its first prize to France's Sully Prudhomme, the academy has not handed out an award seven times. Those years were 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940-43.
Ahead of the academy's likely announcement next week, several authors, including Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates have been touted by Nobel watchers, along with Margaret Atwood of Canada and Nuruddin Farah of Somalia.
Other perennials include Peruvian-born Mario Vargas Llosa. Europeans have won the literature prize in nine of the past 10 years, so the experts think the academy may look elsewhere this year.
Last year, the prize went to Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek. In 2003, it went to South African writer J.M. Coetzee.
Other names bandied about as winners, or at least strong favorites for the 2005 prize, include Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said, known as Adonis; Korean poet Ko Un; and Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer.
Since the prize was first handed out in 1901, only 10 women have won.
The Nobels began Monday with Australians Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren winning the prize for medicine for proving, partly by accident, that bacteria and not stress was the main cause of painful ulcers of the stomach and intestine.
On Tuesday, Americans John L. Hall and Roy J. Glauber and German Theodor W. Haensch won the 2005 Nobel Prize in physics for their work in advancing the precision of optic technology, which could improve communication worldwide and help spacecraft navigate more accurately to the stars.
The chemistry winner will be announced Oct. 5 and the economics prize winner Oct. 10.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Oct. 7 in Oslo, Norway.


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Russia's Population Growing for First Time Since 1995
The growth is modest, but Putin and other Russian officials are welcoming what they hope will be a continuing demographic trend.
"His spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the total anticipated population growth in 2009 was only about 20,000 - but he said this was a "symbolic" amount.
Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said the first month of population growth in 15 years came in August this year, when the birth rate increased by 1,000.
Figures published in November said Russia's population stood at 141.9 million."


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Northeast District Fall Leadership
NE District SkillsUSA Fall Leadership Conference
Who: Secondary SkillsUSA members (great for officers, or students you see leadership in)
Date: October 31, 2014
Cost: $10 per student and advisor (covers the cost of lunch and supplies). Limit of 6 students per instructor.
Dress Code: Jeans and T-shirt
Time: 8:30am - 2:00pm
Where: Tulsa Tech Owasso Campus conference Center – 10800 North 140th East Avenue, Owasso, OK 74055
8:30 – 9:00 Registration
9:00 – 10:00 Opening Ceremonies
10:00 – 10:15 Break time (students can get signed off for Statesman requirements)
10:20 – 12:20 Leadership Sessions* (will either be small group sessions or large group format)
12:30 – 1:00 Lunch (students can get signed off for Statesman requirements)
1:10 – 2:10 Closing Ceremonies (may run later, please be advised)
2:15 Adjournment (may run later, please be advised)
*We hope that you will be able to join us for this fantastic day for your students (and you). It is a great opportunity for the students to learn what it takes to be a leader and work together as a team with new people in a new setting.*
Michelle Storey email@example.com or
If you have a district officer as a student please ask them to read over and memorize their part for opening & closing ceremonies.


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Find your number on the back of your card.
03.24.11 | This past Tuesday, some employees from the TFS Rockland office spent the afternoon with 15 high school students who are part of the STEP Inspire career exploration program. While enjoying an after school snack of sandwiches and wraps from TD's Deli, the STEP group listened to presentations from a handful of Tedeschi Food Shops employees.
Larry Lister - Store Automation Manager, Nina Ruiz-Holmes - Store Services Support, Greg Donoghue - Vice President of Human Resources, Doug Ward - Loss Prevention Supervisor, Jan Demoranville - Human Resources Manager, Peter Tedeschi - President & CEO, and Erin McGarry - Marketing Communication Specialist shared their education and work histories, day-to-day job duties, and career goals. The friendly group of students asked thought-provoking, inspired questions about college class selection, career direction, and handling everyday challenges and stresses. Following the discussion, Greg gave students a tour of the TFS office. Unfortuntely, the TFS test kitchen wasn't open with samples that day!
It was wonderful to spend the afternoon with intelligent, driven students who were eager to listen, learn, and inquire. Tedeschi's is honored to be able to participate in the STEP Inspire program. Can't wait to meet with the next group of STEP students!


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The Alabama Shakes floored us with their recent Morning Becomes Eclectic live session. They played a bunch of new songs from their upcoming release, Boys & Girls, as well as a track that didn't even make it on the album. But we can offer this special live version to you as Today's Top Tune. It's called "Heavy Chevy."
Ariana Morgenstern


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§38-6-8. Sale of perishable property or property expensive to keep.
Notwithstanding such forthcoming bond as is mentioned in the preceding section be given, if such property be expensive to keep or perishable, the court in which proceedings in the case under section four of this article are pending or may be had, or the judge thereof in vacation, may, before a decision of the rights of the parties under such proceedings, on the application of such claimant or of the surety in such suspending or forthcoming bond, after reasonable notice of the intended application has been given by such claimant or the surety to the other parties in the case, order a sale of the property, or any part thereof, on such terms as the court or judge may deem advisable; and the court shall apply the proceeds according to such rights when determined.


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Sensitive and Restricted Patient Health Information
Request to Change Consent Form
Patient Education Consent Brochure
Notify Policy
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People, Prints and Process
Twenty-Five years at Caversham
- Main Exhibition Room
- Opens Thursday 09 February at 18h00
- Closes Sunday 08 April at 17h00
Twenty-five is a number with a history and a future. It invites us to review two and a half decades, interpret the past, examine the present and plan a future.
The Caversham Press, founded in 1985 by Malcolm Christian in KwaZulu-Natal, has a memorable history. This is being celebrated in an exhibition of over 100 works by more than 70 artists.
'People, Prints and Process – Twenty-Five years at Caversham' tells a remarkable story about the processes of human interaction and empowerment generated through collaborative work underpinned by exacting design and printing processes (etching, lithography, screen-print, linocut). The journey undertaken by Malcolm Christian was guided by his belief in human creativity, and summed up in the word 'masabelaneni' (let us share). Christian has shared his technical expertise and inventiveness with the artists who have visited Caversham. In 1985 most of them were formally trained artists; now they are largely black artists and students from KwaZulu-Natal who experience the joy of learning new visual communication skills from a dedicated teacher in the tranquil studios of rural Caversham.
- Wednesday 15 February from 14h30 - 15h30
Malcolm Christian will conduct a walkabout of the exhibition and explain the achievements of the centre in the last twenty-five years. The walkabout will allow the public to engage with him on the new role the centre has taken on through its outreach programmes such as 'Masabelaneni' (let us share) and 'Gabisa-Indlela' which was initiated by the late Gabisile Nkosi and Vulindlela Nyoni, former printmaking lecturer at the Centre for Visual Art at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Early in 2011 artists from this programme took part in an international prints exhibition in the USA.
Artists in Residence Programme
- Wednesday 15 February from 10h00 - 16h00
Monotype printing
- Thursday 16 February from 10h00 - 16h00
Lino printing: Interpreting a work on the exhibition
- Friday 17 February from 10h00 - 16h00
Lino printing: Edition making
The artists from Caversham Press will conduct interactive workshops with not more than 10 participants. They will demonstrate various printmaking techniques and processes based on works on the exhibition. Participants have to bring with them protective clothes such as aprons, or an old T-shirt. Rubber or latex gloves are recommended. Printmaking materials will be provided.
Booking is essential. Contact Thulani or Pinky at 033 392 2801


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"I was stunned when Eric Cantor lost his primary election," Labrador said in a statement today.
But in a primary election against much-poorer opponents, they work.
She left politics earlier this year after losing a primary election in Kadima to former Army chief Shaul Mofaz.
"The media is still in denial that there are more than two people in the Republican primary election," Cain says.
Paul was indiscriminate about the media requests he approved after his primary election.
The Legislature met Jan. 13, 1919, after thousands of women had voted at the primary election.
The primary election is conducted in the same manner as any other election.
A primary election for officers for the new government was held on July 30th, and on August 27th, the election took place.
In the primary election of June 1916 and again in the fall the league was successful.
As a rule, none but the members of the party holding it can vote in a primary election.


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A week or so before leaving for Seattle, I had breakfast with Marian, Brandon, Robin, Emily, and Kate* at Paul's. After breakfast we headed up a couple of blocks to the ABC comic and book emporium on Granville, which is a treasure trove of the sort of weird old adventure books I love. Every time I go there, I have to grab a chair from somewhere in the store and drag it back to the travel/adventure section, get up on it, and pull deteriorating paperbacks from stacks of books wedged between two tall bookshelves. The books are awesome, lots of vintage gems about mountain-climbing and traversing oceans in small sailboats, and being frozen into the arctic ice for multiple starving winters, and all that fun stuff. I always have better luck picking through unknown authors within this particular genre of rousing outdoor hi-jinx than I do with novels. I'm more picky when it comes to fiction, I guess.
So anyway, I got all excited about five or six books – one of which, about the first winter ascent of Denali, is now disintegrating page by page as I read it, which is irritating because it was clearly overpriced by not being, you know, free – and decided that the first book I'd read would be this one: Report from Engine Co. 82 by Dennis Smith. Now apparently this book is still in print and has about a hundred positive reviews on Amazon and so on, and the new editions look like this:
Okay fine, but the book's apparent longevity does slightly annoy me. See, when I saw it I imagined it as this glorious Nixon-era treasure that nobody else my age would ever come across without my heroic intervention. Not only is it book about real-life fire fighting, which promises, you know, excitement, a smattering of morbidity and… um, actual heroic intervention, the cover of my copy looked like this:
Evocative, no? Look at that nonchalant pose on the back of that fire truck. That carefully placed helmet, the author's cocky leer so at odds with the prominently displayed wedding ring.
Basically, I saw this cover (actually it's the back cover but I saw this side first) and thought "this guy is the last guy on earth I would recommend to write a hard-hitting expose on pre-9-11 firefighting in the South Bronx, and therefore this will be HILARIOUS."
And it is occasionally hilarious, don't get me wrong, but I guess he actually knew what he was talking about, because the book is like a classic of firefighting literature now and I looked up Dennis Smith's Wikipedia page and that is a thing that does actually exist. Then I went to his website and saw what he looks like today:
Boner kill! I mean, or possibly not? Silver fox! Whatever, I don't even know anymore. You can bet, as I did, that this guy was all over September 11th 2001, and I don't mean that in a disparaging way.* I mean he did write a lot about it, yes. Though come to think of it, that's probably distinctly un-hilarious, so let's go back to his earlier days of fighting fires. And lighting them. In ladies pants.
So yeah, when Dennis (I call him Dennis) wrote RfECo.82, the United States was still in its nutty phase where people didn't know yet that presidents are generally creepy. All sorts of antics were going down. The South Bronx was apparently filled with tenements built out of matches or something, because they burned to the ground constantly. Where there is now a trendy bistro specializing in pork, there was once a flaming building filled with poor people who had this thing about seriously hating firefighters because firefighters are The Man.
This was before firefighters were universally loved and had calenders that featured them greasy and shirtless, holding a dalmatian puppy in each hand and mouthing the words "I will always protect you". In my mind. In fact, from reading RfECo.89, I sort of got the feeling Dennis Smith might have single-handedly changed the entire world's perception of firefighters from "pig white motherfuckers" (a bunch of local kids chant this at Dennis and company throughout the book) to hunky multicultural rescuers you tend not to throw bricks at. That's another thing people did when Nixon was president: throw bricks at firefighter's heads, often when the firefighters were still doing that crazy-ass suicidal thing where they hung on to the back of the truck as it sped willy-nilly through the fiery, fiery streets.
Actually, early in the book you find out that one fireman was recently preforming this hang-on-for-your-life routine (anybody know why they did that in the first place?) and he lost his grip and hit the road going however-many miles per hour and bled out before help got there. What's worse, the fire engine was racing to a false alarm at the time.
Oh yeah, so here's the first instance of 1970's Dennis being somewhat kooky. It turns out that the person who pulled the false alarm that led indirectly to the freak accident that led to the fireman dying on the street was a nine-year-old boy. In Dennis Smith's own words:
"I do not advocate cutting off the child's hand, but I do think he should have been institutionalized for year."
Wait, Dennis, what? Surely by "institutionalized" you don't mean…
"Anyone [he continues] found guilty of pulling a false alarm should be sent to jail for a year. Or, if under sixteen, to a reform school."
Hmm. Bit harsh. I mean, kid was nine, it's not like he threw a brick, and a South Bronx reform school in the 1970's? Talk about school of hard knocks. You are going to turn that little boy into a hardened false-alarm-pulling, firefighter-hating machine. If he lives.
So anyway, Dennis fights a lot of fires, a lot of which are giant piles of garbage that kids or adults light on fire for fun, and more of which are those tenements built of matches I mentioned earlier, in which people die horrible deaths because the exits are chained up against burglars or because, in one case, a guy who hired a bunch of teenage arsonists to do their thing just waited until they'd covered the building with gas before tossing in a match and locking the door. It's pretty much Gangs of New York-style mayhem without Daniel Day-Lewis and his facial hair around to make it entertaining.
Wow. This is getting long. Okay, here's some more weird outdated stuff I found interesting:
Fact! This was back when firefighters only wore masks while fighting fires some of the time, like for example when they felt like running back to the truck to put one on, or when their supervisor was all "yep, looks like your face is burning off, better grab a mask." It seems this wacky disregard for safety and oxygen led to the eventual death (by emphysema or throat cancer) of thousands of hardworking Nixon-era firefighters. Which isn't in my old edition of the book because, you know, hindsight. So that's depressing. I don't know why, if they had the masks, they didn't wear the masks all the time? Not that I'm blaming them, but just, man. Seriously. Wear some masks, guys.
Also fact! Almost all firefighters back then were chain smokers. During one dangerous escapade, a couple of firemen and Dennis are trapped on the floor above a fire, which is a very bad place to be, and the fire is all around them and their sudden crispy death seems eminent, when one wiseacre sticks a cigarette in his mouth and says "anyone got a match?" Yeah that was a big hit back at the firehouse, once they all got out alive. At one point Dennis talks about how he maybe should quit smoking for his health, but he's going into all these burning chemical factories and whatnot without a mask anyway, so why bother? Hard to argue with that kind of logic.
But the weirdest scene in the whole book is this really out-of-place monologue in which Dennis pervs out over a Puerto Rican girl on the Lexington Avenue subway. Dennis is married and everything with three kids, no big deal, but he describes with bizarre and, (let's face it), fucking creepy intensity how "the smoothness of her olive skin, the perfect symmetry of her lips, and the brightness of her dark brown eyes excited me beyond control."
He continues: Her synthetic fur car coat is opened, showing a soft blue pleated skirt, which sits above the middle of her thigh. Tucked tightly into her skirt is a white nylon blouse, her full rounded breasts pushing against it. The muscles in her legs slope gently, and the underside of her thighs sit flat on the hard plastic seat. Her whole body moves in small, graceful motions as the train starts and stops at the stations.
New paragraph: Thank God that she has not been victimized by the Seventh Avenue mid-calf skirt. [Man, haven't the police caught that skirt yet?] But even if she were, if her legs were completely covered, if I couldn't see the shadowed triangle where her skirt falls over her thighs, if the nuances of movement were hidden beneath the modern style as she crosses and uncrosses her legs, even then, I would still have her face to look at…
Getting uncomfortable yet? Oh, don't worry, he's aware: She is made uneasy by my staring, and pretends to read all the advertisements plastered all over the car. She is probably wishing she had a book, a newspaper, or anything to focus her eyes on. I've taken possession of her beautiful face, and if I had a pencil and paper I could sketch her perfectly, even though I know nothing about drawing. Her eyes meet mine occasionally, but she turns quickly away, making a little movement with her lips. I can see as she turns, the soft, almost invisible down at the side of her cheek reflected in the light. How I would light to run the back of my fingers over it in an easy up and down way.
Right? Creepy right? But he's not purely a lech: I am trying now to look at her in a different way. She is a human being, I say to myself, with friends, perhaps and husband she loves dearly…
Etc, it goes on like this while he tries to imagine her knowing "a lot about something, and enough about everthing, to make her interesting in ways other than sexual" until the train starts up again, "generating in my body a return to passionate perception. Stop it Stop it."
Anyone else getting a heavy serial killer vibe from old Dennis? Now the best part:
Go sit next to her and say, "Hello, my name is Dennis, and I've been trying not to look at you in a dehumanizing, symbolic way, but as real person, with feelings and intelligence, opinions and a point of view. I don't care about the tightly tucked blouse, or the shadowed triangle. I want to know what you think, and why you think it. Do you think Spiro Agnew will be President? Will cybernetics ruin us? How are you handling future-shock? Are you a Consciousness III person?
Aren't those questions fucking GREAT? I love it that they're almost complete nonsense to me. I vaguely remembered Spiro Agnew as Nixon's V.P. only because I was obsessed with Nixon for a couple of years in my late teens. But let's see.
Will cybernetics ruin us?
Tough call. Let me just check-in with Wikipedia to get my exact definition straight… alright, okay. Will the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems, um, ruin us.? Still tricky. Let's see. When I think of cybernetics, I think of things like artificial eyes and all of that T2-type shit, generally, so um, yeah. Yes. I think it's safe to say that cybernetics have/has replaced us, and are/is using us as their cattle batteries, yes. Oh, right, and it's almost impossible to make any money in publishing or the entertainment industry lately because of the dang internet but you don't have to worry about that, Dennis, you're going to be a National Best-Seller.
How are you handling future-shock?
Well, lately, you know, I've been doing some blogging. No really though, what the hell was going on when Nixon was president that was leaving people in future-shock? Electric typewriters? I'm sure they'll be saying the same thing about us one day, ho ho ho, but yeah. I still love that question. So sensitive. So now.
Are you a Consciousness III person?
What's that, like a communist? A stoner? I really did try to understand this concept, and the closest I came was this random musing online. It isn't as interesting as it sounds, and it never sounded very interesting. But still, very sexy question. No doubt. What's your sign?
The weird thing is that this detailed passage about the terrorized Puerto Rican commuter is by far the most lyrical or descriptive Dennis ever gets about anything in the whole book. There is an unfortunate incident [SPOILERS YOU GUYS] later on in which a baby is discovered burned to death in a hallway and Dennis' description of the obviously traumatizing event (I mean he put it at the end of the book for a reason) is literally just another fireman saying to him "it's a baby." So why so much about the "shadowed triangle" on the subway for gods sake? Perhaps he was afraid his chain-smoking chums would call him queer for writing a book and wanted to prove otherwise. Who can say.
This book isn't the hotbed of comedic inspiration I hoped it would be, but it does make me feel like a great citizen for not constantly setting people and buildings on fire, or pulling fire alarms when I haven't set anything on fire, or throwing bricks and full garbage cans at firefighters even as they try to resuscitate me with their poisonous smoke-tarred mouths!
Also, I'm never riding on the subway ever again.
*I mention this not because it has anything to do with this overlong post, but because it makes me seem popular and Emily and Kate are really cool and I want to show off that I hung out with them, okay?
**nor do I mean that in a hinting-at-conspiracy sort of way. Yo crazy people! Stop looking to me for protection and leadership! Thank you!


text: Year-to-date, we've been able to grow Allergan's total sales by 9.5% year-over-year in local currencies, despite challenges in the global economy. Benefiting from our global footprint, our international sales in the first half grew double digits in many businesses namely: Ophthalmic pharmaceuticals, BOTOX, dermal fillers and breast aesthetics. In fact, all of our consumer-facing businesses performed rather well so far this year.Regarding operating performance we generated in Q2, non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $1.07, marking an increase of 11.5% over the prior year and $0.01 over the top end of the range of expectations provided at our last earnings call. Year-to-date, non-GAAP diluted EPS has increased 11.6% versus 2011. In the first half of the year, we have also continued to invest in the long-term success of Allergan, investing $457 million or 11.4% more on R&D on a non-GAAP basis. For a reconciliation to GAAP numbers, please consult our press release. Now commenting on the performance of the individual businesses. Ophthalmic pharmaceutical sales increased in Q2 versus the prior year at a slightly lower rate than normal, at 6.5% in local currencies and 1.9% in dollars, and with year-to-date growth at 9.1% to local currencies and 5.9% in dollars. The year-to-date growth in local currencies is more in line with the historical performance for this business. The Q2 growth rate was dampened by the U.S., which I'll comment further, while international sales grew in local currencies year-over-year, 11.0%, and year-to-date, 12.2%, with double-digit growth in all the 3 -- in all the x U.S. operating regions: Europe, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Canada. The IMS Global report for the first quarter of 2012, the last period for which data is available, shows Allergan growing in-market at 8% and outperforming Alcon, Novartis when one excludes the retina segment. Compared to the first quarter of 2011, the IMS reports shows Allergan gaining share strongly in glaucoma and in retina on a small base, as well as an uptick in share in artificial tears, driven by the recent launches of OPTIVE Advanced marketed as OPTIVE Plus outside the U.S.


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Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige" has hit the screen hard enough in its debut to become the no. 1 movie on weekend box office ended October 22, 2006.
The magician's show has proven to be a great success that really charms the audience.
Opening at $14.8 million, Christopher Nolan's film adaptation of the tale of two Victorian age stage magicians "The Prestige" has satisfyingly bested all of its competitors to take down the weekend box office's no. 1 slot of October 20-22, 2006, forcing mob flick "The Departed" to once more become the runner-up in its third spin on the chart.
Still, this latest outing of Martin Scorsese keeps scoring high as it delightfully adds up another $13.7 million into its pocket to raise its total sum to $77.1 million so far, in turn preventing another new release "Flags of Our Fathers" to strive higher than the third position on the list for the war saga only managed to draw a handful of $10.2 million in its debut.
On number four, here comes "Open Season" with $8 million followed by 20th Century Fox's family drama "Flicka" and last week's champ "The Grudge 2" which both scored $7.7 million. Seating on the seventh spot is "Man of the Year" that this time made its way to collect $7 million and so, brings a ten-day total of $ 22.5 million.
The rest positions up to number ten lined up in order are Sofia Coppola's historical drama "Marie Antoinette" with $5.3 million, The 20th Century Fox's "The Marine" with $ 3.795 million and New Line Cinema's horror flick "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" with $3.779 million.


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While New Orleans Saints management prepares itself for the Jimmy Graham situation, free agency and the draft, there are other personnel matters on the table, including the team's considerable depth at the running position. With Darren Sproles expected to remain a big part of the Saints' backfield and younger backs Mark Ingram and Khiry Robinson ready to take on an increased role, would the team release its leader rusher in 2013, Pierre Thomas, this offseason?
With Thomas preparing to enter the final year of his contract, it's at least a possibility for the team.


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English county Hampshire has signed Australia Twenty20 captain George Bailey as an overseas player for next season. Bailey will join county ranks for the first time in a move that will enable the right-hander to play in English conditions during Australia's Ashes tour.
The 30-year-old is not currently part of Australia's Test team, meaning he should be available for the majority of the season when not on limited-overs duty. ''I've heard a lot of good reports about Hampshire as a county and am really looking forward to playing there next year,'' Bailey said.


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Despite the season my team (Manchester United) have had, it would be hard to find any football fan who would argue that FC Barcelona have not been the best football team in the world this season. Last season too come to think about it. Those fortunate to have seen the frighteningly young 22-year old Argentine Lionel Messi single-handedly tear apart one of the best teams Britain has to offer last week in the Champions League, will I'm sure agree.
Yet besides the fantastic fast-flowing football, behind the famous burgundy and blue shirts, behind the global stardom, there is another side to the club that makes it truly unique, and means it lives upto its motto of 'More than a Club' (Més que un club) – it's commitment to charitable causes. Did you know that since it's formation in 1899 the club have never carried any form of sponsorship on their shirts? Well until 2006 that was indeed the case. But that year, the club announced it had reached a five-year partnership deal with the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, who work to protect children's rights, their survival, their development and their protection.
The alliance with UNICEF
The announcement was historic. Each year for five years, the club committed itself to donating €1.5 million (0.7% of its ordinary income, equal to the UN International Aid Target) to help fund projects aimed at combating HIV and AIDS in Africa and Latin America – a total that will reach €7.5million next season.
FC Barcelona also agreed to contribute €500,000 in publicity assets to promote the partnership each year, reminding football fans everywhere of the importance of putting children first, and if that wasn't enough, the club broke with the 107-year old tradition and agreed to feature the UNICEF logo prominently on its 2006-2007 shirt. While the agreement at the time was only for one year, the club still carries the logo earning the club the distinction of being the first sports team to use its uniforms to advocate for a cause, rather than advertise a commercial sponsor.
The move was made when the club assessed its financial position back in 2003. Thanks to the team's continued success on the pitch the decision was made that they did not need to consider commercial sponsorship and so as detailed in an open letter to fans in 2006, the "debate led us to agree to a different objective that would make FC Barcelona 'more than a club' in the world. The conclusion was that we had to put our greatest asset, our shirt, at the service of this ambitious project."
Those are the words of Joan Laporta, the club's incumbent president, who sought and pioneered this partnership. "There has always been the Barça that plays every Sunday and every Wednesday, and the Barça that beats every day in the hearts of its people," the 2006 letter reads, "the Barça of Sunday and Wednesday is already a global club. Now, we want to globalise the Barça that cares for its people, we want to globalise the Barça of civilian duty, solidarity and humanitarianism."
The first beneficiaries in the partnership with UNICEF to make a contribution to the Millennium Development Goals were the children affected by the HIV/aids epidemic in Swaziland. In this southern African country, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in pregnant women is often as high as 45%, so there being a huge risk of it being passed on to their children.
On a later trip to the country, Mr Laporta visited some of the 23 community support centres that had been built with money donated by the club, which provide integral aid to 1,000 children at risk, especially orphans in rural areas. Toilets and drinking water fountains had been installed into many of the country's schools and the UNICEF reported back that over 15,000 women had been tested for AIDs and 80% of those detected as HIV positive received treatment. More than 2,000 children had begun receiving adequate treatment to prevent infections.
"We are aware of the responsibilities that this decision bestows upon us", Mr Laporta said. "To be more than a club in the world is something we all have to do together, and we have to do it on a daily basis. The players, the managers, the directors, the employees, the members, the supporters clubs and fans, everyone is in this together." "But we are convinced that we have the capacity to do it. Because we believe that with this project we can make FC Barcelona's universal sentiment a reality."
But is this about to change?
Mr Laporta is due to leave his post as club president on June 30th this year to pursue a career in Spanish politics. His successor will be announced following an election held before then, but one of the candidates, Sandro Rosell, has already angered the supporters by revealing that he would consider selling shirt sponsorship if elected.
"Everything depends on the club's finances", he told the press. "First you have to see how the club is economically and subsequently make decisions. If you do not know the numbers, you cannot give a very honest view." Mr Rosell wants to ensure the club is in a solid position financially, but since the club is performing well on the pitch, and the latest 2010 Deloitte Football Money League report rates Barcelona as the second most revenue-generating football club in the world, any potential future president should have little to worry about on that front.
UNICEF, on the other hand, perhaps have.FC Barcelona has attracted itself a fan base estimated at more than 60 million people worldwide, so the charitable organisation has benefited massively from the exposure. Ann Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director, speaking in 2006 at the announcement of the new partnership declared that "this partnership will help push open a door of hope to thousands of children."
"Barcelona shows us that sport can be a powerful, positive force for children", she said, "for UNICEF this is a priceless donation."
The partnership deal clearly benefits both sides, and I fully expect such an arrangement to continue for the considerable future. Even if Mr Rosell does indeed get elected as the club's next president, the partnership will live on – after all, the aforementioned Lionel Messi received the prestigious honour of being named the latest UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador only last month.
Both off the pitch, and on the pitch, FC Barcelona are showing the world just how it can be done. 'Més que un club'? You can certainly say that again.
UPDATE (14/06/10): The aforementioned Sandro Rosell has today been elected as the club's new president. Mr Rosell, who is a former Barca vice-president, won more than 60% of the vote in a ballot of Barca's club members. So what does this now mean for club's partnership with UNICEF...?