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It was almost exactly four years ago that Mitt Romney watched up close as John McCain agonized over how he should respond to America's spiraling financial crisis. What McCain ultimately chose to do, six weeks before the election, was to suspend his campaign and return to Washington to meet with President Bush and Congressional leaders. But that strategic gamble — which now takes its place in the annals of political misfires — came as a result of a somber meeting earlier that day with his economic team at a Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The attendees included several of the candidate's big donors in the finance industry, a few political advisers and Romney.
"It was an unrelentingly bleak discussion, with the financial guys talking about the world as we know it ending," recalls Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was McCain's senior economic adviser at the time. Another McCain senior staff member, who, like many people I spoke with, would speak only under the condition of anonymity, told me: "At the time, there wasn't a person on the political team who understood what a credit-default swap was or toxic mortgages or subprime bundling. At one point I asked, 'What do you mean by economic collapse?' And one of them answered, 'It means you won't be able to get a 20-dollar bill out of an A.T.M.' Right after the meeting I called my wife and said, 'Get $30,000 in cash out of the bank today.' It was terrifying and surreal."
Romney had been an informal adviser, fund-raiser and campaign surrogate for McCain since dropping out of the G.O.P. race seven months earlier. Well before the meltdown of the markets that summer, the former Massachusetts governor and Bain Capital C.E.O. had emphasized his vast experience in the private sector. As he told one campaign audience in Sarasota, Fla., in January 2008: "I will not need briefings on how the economy works. I know how it works. I've been there."
That day in the Hilton conference room, however, Romney did not distinguish himself as McCain struggled to decide what course he should recommend in Washington. Holtz-Eakin recalls "nothing specifically" that Romney had to offer. The other McCain senior staff member is more emphatic: "The reality is he didn't take command. He wasn't a Marshall-type figure who conveyed an understanding of both business and politics. But the truth is, no one else had any clue what to do, either." Then he added, "There wasn't a single person in the room, including Romney, who had any specific policy recommendation."Continue reading the main story
Four years later, Mitt Romney's unsteady campaign performance has yet to convince voters that he is a "Marshall-type figure" who can, in his own distinct way, fill the office of the presidency. Only recently has Romney begun to detail the policies he would pursue if elected, as if they were hatched from a few late-night strategy sessions after a string of bad news days rather than from the candidate's core philosophy. The fact that Romney is in charge of his own widely criticized campaign doesn't appear to be especially reassuring to the electorate — and even so, his campaign tactics reveal only what he would do in order to win, not what he'll do once he has won.
Romney faces an incumbent with his own leadership issues, though Obama has the benefit of surrogates who are deft at ascribing fittingly presidential characteristics to him. One morning in June, I sat in the Chicago mayor's office of Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, watching as he emptied a grab bag of leadership adjectives: "competitive," "disciplined," "resolute." Emanuel then bolted out of his chair, saying, "This'll give you a sense of his mind." He led me into a hallway where the walls were festooned with images from the Oval Office. Pointing, the mayor said: "This is literally his first day as president, 9:30 in the morning. There's nothing on his desk, obviously — first day. This," he then gestured to another framed photograph, "is me coming back after I'm mayor-elect, sometime in early 2011. You see anything on that desk?"
I didn't. Obama's desk still looked nearly vacant. Emanuel whirled to the other wall and directed my attention to a much earlier photo, featuring himself and another familiar face, seated behind the same desk, which in this shot was ornamented by a riot of Victorian clutter. "Clinton," he grinned. "Look at the desk. Now mind you, he's got everything arranged. Books are stacked, folders are over here, the coins soldiers gave him here, the pens — he loved pens — here. Incredibly creative mind." And then pointing back to Obama's spartan desk: "Incredibly disciplined mind. Both incredible presidents. But their desks, in my view, say something."
What Mitt Romney's old desks tell us about his ineffable powers of leadership is hard to divine, but through private conversations with Romney's senior strategists over the years, it's clear that they are as genuinely admiring of their candidate's biography as they are inept at selling it to the outside world. Bob White, who worked with Romney at Bain Capital, led his 1994 Senate campaign and later assisted him at the Winter Olympics and in every campaign since, said to me: "The totality of Mitt's experiences — starting up a business, taking all that he learned from Bain and applying it to the Olympics where the situation was dire and then moving on to another broken situation in Massachusetts and fixing that as well — uniquely qualifies him for the challenges of the presidency. Time and time again, Mitt has stepped forward."
You almost never hear Romney staff members cast their candidate in such a manner. Maybe it's because White's distillation calls to mind a lifelong technocrat who does whatever works rather than a conservative leader who sticks to "what's right." But it's especially rare to hear the candidate or his operation refer to the period of his life when he actually did wrestle daily with both what works and what's right on behalf of his constituents — the four years by which we can best judge what kind of president Mitt Romney might be. Drawing conclusions from his single term as Massachusetts's chief executive is, obviously, a feat of extrapolation, because the issues that he faced as well as the powers that he wielded hardly measure up to those of the Oval Office. Still, those four years are telling, even more than the campaign's decision not to talk about them.
To the newly elected governor of Massachusetts in January 2003, the commonwealth was a deeply flawed business model requiring sweeping remedies. He went about enacting them in the dispassionate manner of a C.E.O. Romney coaxed three non-Republicans out of the private sector and into cabinet-level positions. In addressing the state's $3 billion deficit, "Mitt was opposed to an across-the-board cut, so we had to go through the state budget line by line, and that took an incredible amount of time and focus," recalls his senior adviser and former chief of staff, Beth Myers. Another former Romney administration official told me that the governor's methodology for analyzing the budget — "What's your product line, what are you trying to achieve, whether you're cost-effective in certain areas and whether you're setting your prices right"— was deliberately Bain-like. Having informed Grover Norquist that he would not be signing a no-taxes pledge, the governor made creative use of various revenue streams — including raising registry deed fees that had stayed the same for decades and closing corporate tax loopholes that existed only to benefit a handful of firms.
Romney's budget was clever but uncontroversial; the need to address the deficit was universally acknowledged, and Democrats had no appetite for increasing income taxes after having already done so the previous year. As the Massachusetts House minority leader Brad Jones told me, "The Democratic Legislature quite frankly didn't have to do anything he wanted and could have done whatever it wanted and overridden his vetoes with ease and impunity." Closing the deficit, in any event, was the easy part. In Romney's appraisal of the state's financial paradigm, much bolder moves than simple short-term reductions and increases were required. The C.E.O. relished such scenarios: his writings, his marathon policy meetings and his heritage as the son of George Romney, the American Motors Corporation chairman, revealed a fondness for unorthodox ideas.
And so the chief executive sought a complete reorganization of the state's executive branch. He commissioned Bain to map out a dramatic restructuring of the 29 state-university campuses. He proposed a major reduction in the number of lawyer and press-secretary positions in state government, closing or merging several courts and doing away with the state's Turnpike Authority. In a move that would be reprised years later in Wisconsin and Ohio, his administration took dead aim at public-employee pensions. "First thing we did," a senior official recalls, "was sit down with all the unions, including the state police, and say: 'We have new rules: you guys aren't getting any more money than the revenue growth we're achieving at the state level. Now go home and think about that.' Next thing we said was, 'All these chummy negotiations are over — here's a list of what we want.' And they looked at the list like we were from Mars."
But for the most part, the only unconventional ideas that Romney managed to enact were those that he could ratify unilaterally. "He made significant consolidations in those agencies he directly oversaw, like housing, environment and transportation," says Kerry Healey, his former lieutenant governor. "But higher education is buffeted with various boards and commissions, so we were reduced to working around the edges to achieve our goals. And something like making changes in the pension system, there would have needed to have been a lot of consensus built around it." Romney's failure to muster such a consensus had little to do with his party affiliation: other Republican governors in Massachusetts, like Frank Sargent and William Weld, long profited from excellent relations with their Democratic counterparts in the State Legislature. But what Sargent and Weld had that the Bain C.E.O. lacked was experience in forming political alliances and reaching compromises. "For better or for worse, he hadn't been a creature of the Legislature, and neither was his lieutenant governor," says Brad Jones, the minority leader. "Maybe that's a good thing on the campaign trail, but it makes governing a challenge when you don't have the relationships."
Several of Romney's initiatives, like higher-education reform — which would have entailed tuition hikes and severe budget cuts for some schools — were deeply unpopular. Building grass-roots support was not part of Romney's world experience, and he made almost no effort to enlist the public in his crusade. "Obviously change is difficult, and for a governor or president, bringing about change is a very different art form from the private sector," Michael Widmer, president of the conservative-leaning watchdog group Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, told me. "Romney put forward some very positive reforms. But as it turned out, he never really followed up on them in any meaningful way." Instead of working with the Democrats on Beacon Hill, Romney decided to recruit a host of Republican challengers to unseat them in 2004. The tactic backfired. "He ended up losing three seats and a lot of good will in the bargain," Widmer said.
Later in his term, the governor would show more adroitness at rallying the public to pressure lawmakers. In 2005 Romney introduced a bill that would become known as Melanie's Law — named for Melanie Powell, a 13-year-old girl who was killed by a repeat-offense drunken driver — that imposed strict sentences on those who were convicted of drunken driving multiple times. When a few state representatives who were trial lawyers tried to dilute the bill, he responded with a barnstorming tour that shamed Democrats into restoring nearly all the original language, which Romney then signed into law in October. The next month, Romney successfully fought back against legislators seeking to pass a retroactive capital-gains tax, by inviting about a dozen nonwealthy citizens to a news conference to describe how the new tax bill would upend their lives. "Melanie's Law and the capital-gains tax are perfect examples of how a governor can succeed," the former Democratic House speaker Tom Finneran says. "I'll give the governor credit for growth. I think he learned as he went along that being governor wasn't like a Bain takeover of a troubled company."
In a sense, however, that's exactly what being governor was like for Romney. He came in, reimagined the business model, improved the numbers, profited handsomely from the experience and subsequently moved on.
In 2007, I asked Romney when he began to think about running for president. "It was probably, oh, back when I was with Senator [Bob] Bennett of Utah after the Olympics, when I was governor a couple of years, sometime in 2004," he replied. "He just said to me: 'You know, you don't have to decide if you want to be president. But you do have to decide if you want the option to become president.' " (Bennett confirmed that he conveyed this in a memo just after George W. Bush's re-election in 2004.)
And so during the final two years of his term, Governor Romney's balance sheet included a new and weighty set of considerations. When the needs of his state coincided with the needs of his national political profile, Romney showed a willingness to accommodate his political adversaries that had not been apparent during the first two years of his governorship. This was particularly evident during the effort to pass a universal health care initiative in Massachusetts in 2005-6. "It's largely true that in his last two years he focused on two things: the beginning of his run for the presidency and health reform, which was to be his signature achievement and one for which he deserves a significant amount of the credit," Widmer told me. With noticeable amusement, David Bowen, a senior staff member for Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who played a key role in the effort, added, "Everyone thought at the time that Romney's success in forging a bipartisan compromise on health care was actually a thing that he would ultimately run on, not run away from."
To get the legislation passed, Romney partnered with Kennedy, his former political opponent in the 1994 Senate race. Together they met with Bush's Health and Human Services secretary, Tommy Thompson, during his last day in office in January 2005 and persuaded him to renew a $385 million Medicaid-funding waiver that was crucial to financing the legislation — and then accompanied Thompson to a going-away party in the building, where Romney and Kennedy performed an "Odd Couple" skit that brought down the house. "I must say, I was favorably impressed with Romney in the meeting," another Kennedy staff member recalls. "I'd seen him in the [1994] Senate debates, and he seemed plastic and about an inch deep — where in this small meeting he was witty and engaging and working to make it happen."
Romney became the most vocal proponent of the so-called individual mandate (requiring nearly all residents to purchase insurance on a sliding scale of affordability), which Kennedy and progressive groups initially resisted but later warmed to, without heavy-handed pressure on the governor's part. When a legislative deadlock between the state's two top Democrats, Senate President Robert Travaglini and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, in February and March of 2006 threatened to sunder progress, Romney staged unannounced (yet well-publicized) visits to their homes but otherwise left it to Kennedy's more experienced hands to produce a détente between the two leaders.
Once a deal was imminent, the Romney administration staged a photogenic bill-signing ceremony in Faneuil Hall with Senator Kennedy, who flew in from Washington, at the governor's behest. Recalls a longtime associate of Speaker DiMasi, "There was a sense we had that the event would wind up in a Romney-for-president campaign commercial."
But the political spreadsheet that directed Mitt Romney to favor one landmark initiative could also dissuade him from favoring another. Among the more remarkable features of Romney's early governorship was his determination to be not only a pro-environment executive but also a leader in the field. To oversee a broad portfolio of issues affecting the environment, Romney appointed Doug Foy, a lifelong environmentalist who had often sued the state in his capacity as C.E.O. of the Conservation Law Foundation. On May 6, 2004, Romney and Foy held a news conference to announce the release of a detailed climate-change action plan. In the plan's cover letter, the governor argued forcefully that meeting the challenges of global warming made good business sense. Rather than demand definitive proof of the human contribution to climate change, the state should pursue a "no regrets" policy — one in which, Romney wrote, "we can also lead the nation in new energy technologies." According to one of a half-dozen environmental officials with whom I spoke (and all of whom insisted on anonymity so they could speak candidly about their experiences), the governor sat through more than 20 hours of briefings on the climate-change plan: "We went through about 80 measures. He left almost everything in, and the things he took out weren't because they were ideologically off-base but because they weren't well thought out."
A sentimental subtext underlay his conservationist outlook: his father's company had produced one of the world's first fuel-efficient cars. And when discussing the global dimensions of climate change, the governor displayed a level of humaneness that fellow congregants in his Mormon church often saw but that his current presidential campaign has been at pains to highlight. Two environmental officials recall him saying: "I think the impacts of this are going to be large. We in the Western world may have the money to work our way out of the problem. But what are poor people in Bangladesh going to do?"
At the same time, bucking conservative orthodoxy carried obvious risks, as Romney knew better than anyone. After all, George Romney's proclamation in 1967 that he had been given a "brainwashing" by the military on the progress of the Vietnam War effectively ended his quest for the presidency. "Being right early is not good in politics," Romney would quote his chastened father as saying — and in turn signaling that the son would not repeat the mistake.
"Have you seen the movie 'Animal House'?" one of Governor Romney's environmental officials asked me. "You remember that character who has the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, both telling him what to do? Watching Romney, my sense was that he was always inclined to do the right thing on environmental issues. But then there was the devil on the other side. You could almost see it. It was palpable. Clearly, in retrospect, he was weighing what was right for Massachusetts with how it would play nationally."
Fully a year before unveiling his climate-change plan, Romney agreed to participate in the creation of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI (pronounced "reggie"), a consortium of nine Northeastern states invited by Gov. George E. Pataki of New York to formulate the nation's first comprehensive cap-and-trade, greenhouse-gas-reduction policy. In a July 21, 2003, letter to Pataki, Romney wrote that "now is the time to take action toward climate protection." He noted that his administration "has a target of reducing greenhouse gases" and added that "I believe that our joint work to create a flexible market-based regional cap-and-trade system could serve as an effective approach to meeting those goals." The concept appealed to Romney's penchant for cutting-edge solutions. One of Romney's top officials told me that if the states had been able to finalize an agreement during the first year and a half of Romney's term, "there's no question he would have signed. No doubt about it."
But Romney's desire to be bold on climate change wasn't shared by fellow Republicans. Already the Bush administration had backed out of the Kyoto Treaty. In late 2004 and early 2005, the governor began to give speeches to Republican audiences in the conservative early-primary states Iowa and South Carolina. Following these travels, Romney's chief of staff, Beth Myers, who assisted in Romney's bid for governor in 2002, made her presence felt in the RGGI negotiations. As the guardian of Romney's political ambitions, she remained in frequent contact throughout 2004 and 2005 with operatives who formed a Romney political-action committee to raise money for a presidential campaign, according to someone involved in the communications. Later, Myers would become the manager of that campaign. Myers "hated climate-change from Day 1," says one top environmental official who frequently discussed the issue with her. "It didn't fit her political equation." She contacted the other RGGI states and conveyed to them that the governor now had concerns. Romney was insisting on a hard cap. Though there was an economic logic to the idea, introducing a hard cap would have by definition placed a regulation on an otherwise free market. The demand "came out of nowhere," recalls one of Pataki's senior officials. "There'd been no talk about an allowance cap for the first two years since the conversation started. It looked like a bait and switch. We watched Beth install her own cronies in the negotiations. It wasn't lost on us that Doug Foy was dealing with some major internal strife."
Foy could see that his boss was struggling to reconcile his predisposition toward RGGI with other considerations. Foy succeeded in persuading the other RGGI states to agree to a nonrigid cap that would come into play if prices went too high. But while his Office of Commonwealth Development was extracting cost offsets in an effort to make RGGI more palatable for Romney, the governor's Office of Economic Development began to work with the defense contractor Raytheon and other businesses to oppose it. Both sides met in Romney's office in December 2005. Though the setting was a Bain-like unemotional inquisition, the ex-C.E.O. seemed only selectively interested in the data. "He kept saying, in effect, 'Yeah, but you can't guarantee the prices won't go higher,' " recalls one of the people with knowledge of the meeting. And Renee Fry, who represented the businesses seeking to jettison RGGI, says, "As we were leaving, he said, 'I've got to think about how this is going to affect jobs.' " Romney's desire to lead the nation on climate change had vanished from the discussion.
On Dec. 14, 2005, Romney publicly announced two things: that Massachusetts was withdrawing from RGGI and that he would not be seeking a second term as governor. Romney's successor, Deval Patrick, reversed Romney's decision shortly after taking office in January 2007, and Massachusetts has been a RGGI member ever since. Romney's economic concerns turned out to be unwarranted. "I think the Massachusetts business climate is very strong — it would be hard to find any damage that was done by RGGI," says David Tuerck of the conservative Beacon Hill Institute, which opposed RGGI. In fact, according to a 50-page independent analysis done by four energy experts, RGGI has led to more rather than fewer jobs and an overall net economic benefit.
When I contacted him, Doug Foy chose to put a positive spin on Romney's climate-change odyssey. "I told him that we were eventually going to land RGGI — he knew that for a long time — but he never said, 'You should stop,' " he told me. "Even though he never signed it, he allowed it to go on."
Like RGGI, embryonic-stem-cell research was the kind of breakthrough concept to which Romney was instinctively drawn. The governor learned in the fall of 2004 that the Massachusetts Legislature would be considering a bill the following spring that would permit the cloning of embryos in lab research seeking a cure for diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. As one Romney senior strategist told me, "I think the governor was predisposed to be in favor of stem cells." But all that changed, Romney would later claim, on the day in November 2004 that he met with two Harvard researchers and thereafter decided not only to oppose embryonic cloning but also to reverse his long-stated support for a woman's right to have an abortion.
The meeting took place at the governor's request. Romney along with Beth Myers and Peter Flaherty, a senior adviser who would later serve as the presidential candidate's liaison to social conservatives, met with Dr. Douglas Melton, co-director of Harvard's Stem Cell Institute, and another Harvard representative. An internationally recognized pioneer in the field who briefed President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on the subject, Melton has said that having a diabetic child animated his desire to seek a cure through stem-cell research. For nearly a half-hour, Melton explained to Romney and his staff how an embryonic stem cell is derived from a recently fertilized inner cell mass. Melton's institute obtained such material, he told them, from in-vitro-fertilization clinics, where some 400,000 surplus ova sit in freezers, typically to remain indefinitely or to be discarded.
Acquiring these frozen embryos was anything but a casual process, both Harvard guests went on to explain. Each donor would undergo two rounds of informed consent over a period of a month, while Harvard itself insisted upon two separate rounds of ethical review — a painstaking process that at times frustrated the scientific community. Only a few of the 400,000 surplus embryos ended up being donated to the institute, where they were treated with particular care, like nothing else in the Harvard laboratories.
Romney asked questions throughout the presentation. When Melton began to describe the process of somatic-cell nuclear transfer — in which a cell from a patient with, say, Parkinson's disease, is transferred into a denucleated egg so as to clone a new "defective" embryonic-stem-cell line that can be studied — the governor interjected, "Well that, then, is human life."
What happened after that is disputed. A year and a half later, in June 2006, Romney would tell the journalist Judy Woodruff that the Harvard team displayed a flip attitude at the meeting that completely altered his thinking. "I sat down with a researcher, and he said, 'Look, you don't have to think about this stem-cell research as a moral issue, because we kill the embryos after 14 days,' " Romney recounted, explaining to Woodruff why he decided to change his position on abortion. "And that struck me as he said that. And I thought, Is that the extent to which we've cheapened life . . . that we think about killing embryos without batting an eye? And I recognized that I could no longer stand in the posture of saying, Look, I'm personally opposed, but I'm not gonna change the law. I needed to make it very clear that in my view, we are wrong to accept abortion, other than in cases of rape and incest."
Romney repeated this story almost verbatim in a National Review profile published in December 2006, adding, "After the meeting I looked over at Beth Myers, my chief of staff, and we both had exactly the same reaction — it just hit us hard just how much the sanctity of life had been cheapened by virtue of the Roe v. Wade mentality." Peter Flaherty recalls that the governor "suddenly seemed affected by it at the time — in body language, and saying something like, 'This is clearly a serious issue.' "
But the Harvard participants do not recollect Romney showing any concern. On the contrary, they remember Romney saying that he was proud to be governor of a state where such important work was going on. Their first inkling that Romney felt so strongly about what he remembers being said came more than a year later, when he began publicly explaining his new stance on abortion.
Furthermore, Melton vehemently denies that he used the language Romney quoted. "I did not use the word 'kill,' " he told me recently. "I've never used the word 'kill' in relation to this in any conversation with anyone, from elementary-school students to scientists in my laboratory to political leaders with whom I have met to discuss our work. And I wouldn't use the word, because it is not descriptive in any way of the science we do."
The Boston Globe columnist Gareth Cook, who won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on stem-cell research, has spent time with both Melton and Romney discussing the subject. "Doug Melton is an incredibly careful person — he was not at all cavalier about this," Cook says. "Melton has always talked about this the way a lot of biologists do — that it's not possible to answer the question of what constitutes a human life that should be afforded protections. It's a continuum, and to say that there's a point where life is breathed into something isn't knowable in a scientific way, since you could argue that a skin cell or a sperm cell has the potential to be a human life. He never would have said 'kill.' That's not how he thought about it."
The meeting ended cordially, with Romney telling the two visitors from Harvard that he would like to stay in touch, though in fact they never communicated again after that day. What happened instead was that Flaherty contacted William Hurlbut, a Stanford bioethicist whose largely untested theory involving altered nuclear transfer — which uses cells that can't produce a living being rather than embryonic stem cells — had been the subject of a recent Globe article by Cook. Hurlbut, a strong believer in legally protecting the human status of embryos, agreed to fly to Boston and meet with the governor. Excited by Hurlbut's PowerPoint presentation, Romney exclaimed, according to one aide, "Why isn't everybody buying into this?" ("What Hurlbut was floating was just a concept," Cook says. "Obviously I wouldn't have written about it if it were completely impossible or biologically absurd. It's just that nobody's going to do it, because it's just too hard.") Then Flaherty arranged for a third meeting — this time with the Rev. Tad Pacholczyk, a Catholic bioethicist and, like Hurlbut, a passionate believer in the human integrity of the embryo.
After these discussions, Flaherty says, "Mitt wanted to make sure that people had a window into his analysis," to explain where he stood. In early 2005, Romney's staff offered an exclusive interview with the governor to a New York Times reporter. The resulting article in The Times, on Feb. 9, disclosed that Romney would oppose the Legislature's embryonic-cloning bill on the grounds that "there is an ethical boundary that should not be crossed." Twelve days later, in a speech to Republicans in Spartanburg, S.C., the Massachusetts governor declared, to great applause, "Science must respect the sanctity of human life." Two weeks after that, Romney wrote an op-ed in The Globe in which he declared, "Once cloning occurs, a human life is set in motion." Finally, in a May 23, 2005, USA Today article that highlighted the presidential hopeful's peculiar status as a Massachusetts Republican, Romney acknowledged to a reporter that "I'm in a different place" from his previous commitment not to challenge Roe v. Wade. His evolution on abortion was complete.
But as with his decision to withdraw from RGGI rather than seek to undermine it, Romney's ultimate position on embryonic-stem-cell research seemed to send mixed signals. His amendments to the stem-cell bill would have banned embryonic cloning on the grounds that an embryo constituted human life while at the same time continuing to permit the creation, freezing and eventual destruction of hundreds of thousands of human embryos in I.V.F. clinics, as well as Harvard's acquisition of those embryos for noncloning research. (The Legislature discarded his amendments and passed the bill permitting embryonic cloning, later overriding Romney's veto.) And rather than simply side against Harvard's research on moral grounds, Romney seemed equally determined to show that he had found a better solution than the one offered by the Stem Cell Institute, maintaining in his Globe editorial that "the greatest successes in stem-cell research to date" came from Hurlbut's "promising approach."
"He displayed an interesting combination of principle and pragmatism," Hurlbut recalls. "Though maybe it's giving me too much credit for the change in his opinion about abortion."
"Romneys are, by nature, an adventurous breed," Mitt Romney proclaimed with no apparent irony in his 2004 book "Turnaround." Today that assertion is hard to square with the author's stiff persona and his risk-averse path to the presidency. But Romney's appetite for boldness marks his governorship, as does his sudden loss of that appetite; and even when policy risk-taking gave way to presidential ambition, perhaps it could be said that Romney was ahead of his time: years before the emergence of the Tea Party, he could see where the Republican Party was headed, and with an audacious turn to the right the Massachusetts governor was there waiting for it.
Should a president-elect Mitt Romney arrive in Washington with the apolitical C.E.O. orientation that he brought to the Massachusetts Statehouse in 2003 — and with nothing in his record to suggest that he, any more than Obama, can change a political culture "from the inside" — he will almost certainly encounter the same headwinds from the conservative flank of his party that seemed to blow him off course during his term as governor. After four years of Obama, the G.O.P. natives on Capitol Hill are restless. Their dutiful but fidgety optimism was bluntly expressed in a conversation I had with Rep. Raúl Labrador of Idaho, a freshman, an outspoken Tea Party star and, like Romney, a Mormon. "Everything in Romney's background tells me he knows how to go into an organization that's not working and make it work," Labrador told me.
But to Labrador, a Romney presidency could "make it work" only by pursuing a resolutely rightward course. He warned: "If Romney comes in here and feels like he has to capitulate and govern from the middle of the road, not only will it be disheartening: I predict that you will see the conservatives in the House rise up. We've been pretty quiet — everybody claims we've been rambunctious, but we've been pretty quiet. I think you'll see something different."Continue reading the main story


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The following highlights are drawn directly from the summary prepared by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Background and Summary
The legislation gives final approval to the U.S. agreement with India on peaceful nuclear cooperation. In the Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006, (hereafter referred to as the "Hyde Act") (P.L. 109-401), Congress set certain terms and conditions for the agreement, in order to permit the President to submit the agreement under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. The Senate approved the Hyde Act by a vote of 85-12 on November 16, 2006 (the conference report was approved by voice vote on December 9, 2006). Under the Hyde Act and the Atomic Energy Act, the agreement cannot enter into force unless Congress approves the agreement.
The Hyde Act required the President to make several determinations to Congress in submitting the agreement. These included the following determinations:

subset: commoncrawl


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2008 Real Estate Assessment Change Notices Mailed
Fairfax County Office of Public Affairs
12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 551
Fairfax, VA 22035-0065
Contact: Merni Fitzgerald, Director of Public Affairs
703-324-3187, TTY 711, Fax 703-324-2010
Media Pager: 703-324-NEWS (6397)
Feb. 25, 2008
2008 Real Estate Assessment Change Notices Mailed
The Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration (DTA) begins mailing 351,598 real estate assessment notices to County taxpayers today. The notices will be sent to all property owners of taxable parcels in the County. Of the 351,598 taxable parcels in the County, 331,308 had some value change. The remaining taxable parcels have no change in their 2008 real estate assessment.
The assessed value of properties may change for a variety of reasons. Among these are appreciation and value declines (i.e., equalization changes); and, structural changes (additions, remodeling), rezonings, and land divisions (i.e., growth). A combination of these factors can apply to the same property.
The majority of residential properties experienced a decrease or no change in value. The overall equalization change for residential properties is -3.38%. Commercial properties show an overall equalization increase of 7.00%. This is primarily the net result of value increases in industrial properties of 14.08%, and low rise offices of 9.16% and retail of 7.76%. The percentage of the real estate assessment base attributable to commercial and industrial property in FY 2009 increased to 21.06% (in addition, multi-family rental apartments contribute another 4.1% of the County's real estate tax base).
Overall, of the 331,308 properties that have a 2008 assessment change, 13,331 are due to growth (i.e., new construction, rezoning, etc.), 291,716 properties changed solely due to equalization, and 26,261 have some adjustment between land and building values but no change to the overall property value.
Main Book Assessments of taxable real estate in Fairfax County for 2008 total approximately $229.7 billion. This is an increase of approximately $1.17 billion, or 0.51% over the 2007 assessment base, and is made up of the following components:
Residential Properties:
- Equalization: -$5.97 B // -3.38%
- Growth: $1.37B // 0.77 %
- Total: -$4.60B // -2.61%
Non-Residential Properties:
- Equalization: $3.64 B // 7.00%
- Growth: $2.13 B // 4.11 %
- Total: $5.77 B // 11.11%
- Equalization: -$2.33 B // -1.02%
- Growth: $3.50B // 1.53 %
- Total: $1.17B // 0.51%
It is important to note that these percentages represent the cumulative amount to the overall tax base and are not necessarily indicative of specific change to any particular, individual properties. Individual assessment changes may vary considerably. For residential property, for example, a key factor in determining the need to change is the relationship of assessments to the selling prices within neighborhoods.
Based on equalization changes, the mean assessed value (i.e., on average, County-wide) of most single family-detached homes for 2008 is $617,541, down -3.12%. This group of properties makes up 71.2% of the residential equalization property value in the County.
Additionally, based on equalization changes, townhouse/duplex properties have a 2008 County-wide assessment average of $386,182, a decrease from 2007 of approximately -4.96%; and, the mean assessed value for condominiums is down -4.54% to $281,562.
As noted in the FY 2009 Advertised Budget Plan, the mean assessed value for 2008 of all improved residential property is approximately $524,076. For added reference, a map shows varying pockets of equalization for residential property (PDF) (vacant land as well as improved properties) throughout the County. Again, averages are not necessarily indicative of individual properties and neighborhoods.
Inquiries concerning any assessment should be directed to the Department of Tax Administration (DTA) at 703-222-8234; or, citizens may contact the Tax Department through DTA's homepage. Again this year, citizens can obtain a list of residential sales within each assessment neighborhood from the DTA web site. This is a continuing customer service initiative intended to help citizens review their assessment for 2008. Citizens are encouraged to call DTA at 703-222-8234 to discuss their assessment questions with appraisal staff.
Property owners are encouraged to review their assessment notice upon receipt. Administrative appeals can be filed with DTA if citizens believe their assessment is not equitable in comparison with similar properties or if they believe their assessment exceeds fair market value. Appeals may be made in writing to the Real Estate Division of DTA. Appeal applications can be obtained by calling DTA; or, can be downloaded directly from DTA's homepage. DTA requests that appeal applications be filed by April 4, 2008.
Real Estate appeals can also be filed with the Board of Equalization (BOE). Under State law, the BOE is separate from the Department of Tax Administration and consists of nine taxpayers appointed by the Board of Supervisors. The BOE conducts formal hearings and takes sworn testimony. By law, all appeals to the BOE must be filed and postmarked by June 2, 2008 (since June 1 falls on a Sunday this year). BOE appeal forms are also available on the BOE website, or by calling the BOE office at 703-324-4891.
Property owners are encouraged to contact DTA concerning assessment disputes; however, property owners may appeal directly to the BOE or to the Circuit Court of Fairfax County.


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OK hear me out
I just thought of this and I dont think this is even a good a idea, but an interesting one.
wait for it.....
wait for it.......
ok ready???
Darko for Ron
Hear is how I see it. Whether you like it or not we ARE out of title contention w/o him. We will get a very young player w/ a lot of upside. He will have an opportunity to play here immediatly
It gives detroit another title this year bar none. But it also gives us a chance to take a chance on a player w/ way more upside than we would be able to under any other circumstances.
This is probably the most talent we will be able to get w/ ron.
High risk high reward payoff this could be similar to JO at portland...just stuck behind a glut of great players.


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When I first made this Easy Baked Pesto Chicken back in 2010, I'm not sure I ever imagined it would become one of the most popular recipes on the blog. But now it's been pinned 625K+ times and the recipe has been viewed 2.5 Million times! So when I decided recently I wanted to update the photos I decided I would keep the original photo below close to the top of the post so people would recognize it.
If you don't have any basil growing, you can certainly make this ultra-easy main dish with purchased basil pesto, which is what the recipe in the book called for. If you have more fresh basil, or more basil pesto left in your jar after you make this, look after the recipe for some other ideas using pesto.
And here's a fun little story about this recipe. Late last year I started working out with a fantastic trainer named Wendy. Then one time when I showed up at the gym she told me she had gone to get the recipe for her kids' favorite chicken dish, and it turned out to be a recipe from my blog! So just in case you're wondering if this can be kid-friendly, Wendy says her kids love Pesto Chicken and gobble it up for dinner. (She serves it with pasta for the kids, but I'd serve with Cauliflower Rice for a tasty low-carb meal.)
If you want to skip the photos below and watch a video instead, here is a video of how to make this recipe. See more recipe videos on My You Tube Channel.
Cover the dish with foil and then bake at 375F/190C for 25-30 minutes, or just until the chicken is barely cooked through. (Don't cook too long at this stage, or the chicken will be overcooked when the cheese is melted and browned.)
Easy Baked Pesto Chicken
(Makes 4 servings, recipe adapted slightly from The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook.)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and fresh ground black pepper for seasoning chicken
1/2 cup basil pesto (I used my homemade Basil Pesto with Lemon, but you can use purchased basil pesto.)
2 oz. (1/2 cup) grated low-fat mozzarella cheese (or more if you like it cheesy!)
Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Trim all visible fat and tendons from chicken pieces, then cut each chicken breast lengthwise into 2 or 3 pieces. (I cut the larger ones into 3 strips and the smaller ones into 2 strips.)
When chicken is barely cooked through, remove foil and sprinkle chicken with 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese. Put dish back into the oven without foil and cook 5 minutes more, just until cheese is melted. (If your broiler is separate from the oven, start preheating it when you take the chicken out.) After I melted the cheese for 5 minutes I switched my oven to broil and broiled for 5 minutes more, just long enough to get the cheese lightly browned.
Serve hot. There will be some flavorful juice in the bottom of the dish when this is done, so you may want to serve with rice, Cauliflower Rice, or quinoa to soak up the juice.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Nutritional Information?
More Recipe Ideas Using Basil Pesto:
Basil Pesto with Lemon and Ten Ideas for Using Basil Pesto from Kalyn's Kitchen
5 Easy Ways to Use Basil Pesto from Kitchen Gadget Girl Cooks
Foil-Baked Salmon with Basil Pesto from Kalyn's Kitchen
Pesto Yogurt Dip ~ Melanie Makes


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BrotherDave wrote:Where is the shoulder pause exactly? (in that Rico video) I don't see any pause. *confused* It just looks like the shoulder leads the throw in a continuous motion.
look @ 0:16 he is at reach back then he turns the torso and the arm moves from the right pec before the shoulder comes around. That I think is what is meant by shoulder "pause". The whole throwing motion should be continuous and fluid but everything has an order of operations.


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NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Brell, MD
Formerly, Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Hematology and Oncology
Department of Medicine
School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University
Joanna M. Brell received her MD at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Texas. She completed an Internal Medicine Residency and a Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Hematology.
Dr. Brell is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Case School of Medicine and a medical oncologist with the Ireland Cancer Center at University Hosptials. In addition to her clinical responsibilities, Dr. Brell serves on several hospital committees including the Ireland Cancer Center Developmental Therapeutics Program, the Clinical Practice Committee, and the Clinical Trials Development and Review Committee.
Dr. Brell is also a volunteer physician for Care Alliance, Inc. Medical Clinic at the City Mission, in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2003 she was recognized as the Care Alliance Volunteer of the Year.


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We're welcoming 2014 with a snow storm!
A snowy day ahead, as the system that is overhead will take all of the day to push out and then change to lake effect. When it's all said and done greater Cleveland could see 4-6"of new snow, farther east 5-6" the Canton area around 2-4".
Friday afternoon we get a little reprieve and get a little sun/cloud mix. This clearing will take us into Saturday and is short lived as the next snow storm will move in Saturday night and Sunday. Monday morning commute could be tricky because this system carries a lot of moisture so it has the potential to leave us with more inches of new snow. [View the 7-day forecast HERE]
Like 19 Action News on Facebook for the latest news, weather, sports and giveaways.
Copyright 2014 WOIO. All rights reserved.


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|From Beth: Lisa from The Domestic Diva has an extensive collection of posts in her Sewing Room Organizational Challenge series. She's a busy mom and the creative designer and founder of the Downtown Joey label for boys, but Lisa still makes time for a good Spring Clean of her sewing room. Today Lisa helps you Arrange, Brighten & Create with her condensed tips, and we also have a free PDF Spring Clean checklist for you to download so you can get right to work!
From Lisa:
ABCs of Spring Cleaning for your Sewing Room
Have you ever walked into your sewing room and just walked back out? Is the clutter stifling your creativity and messing with your sewing mojo? Not to worry! With these simple steps, you can make your sewing space a place where you'll look forward to spending time each day.
First things first! Let's get everything in order. Time to put away all your recent sewing supply purchases and the dozens of sewing projects you've been working on since the last Ice Age. Get rid of stuff you won't use in the next 2 years (unless of course, it's vintage fabric). Then we'll arrange our sewing room for maximum creativity.
- Clear off your cutting table or main work area. By doing this, you'll have a large surface to sort everything.
- Raise height of your cutting table with bed risers.
- Stash away your Fabrics.
- Sort Out Threads and Bobbins.
- Organize Needles, Pins and Stabilizers.
- Tame your Laces, Trims and Ribbons.
- Categorize your Patterns, Embroidery Designs, Magazines and Books.
- End the Notions Commotion.
- Sort unfinished sewing projects into individual baskets and store on a shelf.
- Update family's measurements and post on your bulletin board.
- Rearrange your sewing room.
Now that everything has a place, it's time to do the actual Spring cleaning and maintenance. Grab yourself some window cleaner, some paper towels, a vacuum and a mop. Now get moving…
- Thoroughly clean your sewing machine.
- Have your sewing machine serviced by a professional.
- Change your sewing machine and serger needles.
- Oil sewing machines if necessary.
- Remove residue from embroidery hoops.
- Sharpen scissors.
- Replace rotary cutter blades.
- Clean your Cutting Mat.
- Wipe down sewing tables.
- Vacuum and mop floors in your sewing room.
- Clean your iron.
- Wash your ironing board cover.
- Donate your fabric scraps to a quilter or charity.
Now that your sewing room is sparkling clean, how about digging into some sewing and craft projects? Make your sewing room the envy of your fellow seamstresses. Here are some ideas to liven up your clean sewing room:
- Put a fresh coat of paint on the walls of your sewing room.
- Add some additional lighting to brighten your work area.
- Sew a new ironing board cover.
- Sew an ironing board caddy.
- Sew new curtains for your sewing room.
- Sew a new pincushion.
- Sew a craft apron.
- Make some fabric magnets and a magnetic board for your sewing room.
- Create some Modge Podge letters for your walls.
- Sew a sewing machine and/or serger cover.
- Sew a sewing tool organizer.
- Recover your sewing chair.
- Make a Wall Pocket for your sewing room.
- Create decorative jar lids for your jars of buttons.
- Sew fabric buckets for fat quarters.
- Sew trim boxes for laces, trims and ribbons.
- Make fabric covered boxes or fabric lined baskets for pattern storage.
Once your sewing room is back in order, it is important to remember to spend just 5 minutes at the end of the day putting away things away. To motivate you, set a cooking timer. When you go into your sewing room the next day, you'll be able to get right to work and find everything you need for your next sewing project. Happy Sewing!
Comment to win prizes from Fiskars/Gingher. This week you can win Softouch Scissors and a 12-in-1 Sewing Multi-Tool. We're also giving away four $20 gift certificates to Sew,Mama,Sew!
» Sewing + Quilting Tips » Spring Clean Your Sewing Room
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114 Responses to Spring Clean Your Sewing Room
I wish I had a sewing room to spring clean! These tips are great.
Thank you for the list. I have already made a crochet hook roll and I am working on a craft apron. So much more to do.
What great spring cleaning and organizational ideas. I especially like the Clip It Up Organizers for fat quarters.
Times a'wastin! I'm off to get it together!
Thanks for the push…
Love it! Thanks so much for all the super ideas! I never knew my iron needed cleaning! Learn something new everyday! THANKS!
I translated it in french … if anyone is interested !?
thanks Beth and the Sew Mama Sew team! Glad my tips could help motivate everyone!
With friendship,
these are fabulous tips that i need to do immediately! especially the cleaning of the sewing machine!
i have on a spring cleaning kick this week and my sewing space is next in line 🙂 thanks!
Fantastic list! I can practically envision this space being, well, so much more the opposite of what it is currently- by using your tips! Thanks so much for sharing that, I need to do something with my space before my sewing maching decides to run away! LOL
Thanks for the list and all the great tips for spring cleaning. It helped me get inspired.
I wish I had a sewing room to spring clean! These tips are great.
It is always great to have the motivation in a List form that I can post and check-off daily, weekly or seasonally. I often think about accomplishing things around the House but get side-tracked or just forgetful. Lists keep me on target. We can all put on some cheerful music and think of others doing the save thing along with you. Thanks and happy Spring Cleaning everyone!
I was just trying to get inspired to clean my sewing room this morning! No joke! Perfect, now I have the inspiration and the checklist. I'm off to do a little (ok a lot) of cleaning!!!
This was just the inspiration I needed to get started! Thanks!
I'm at that point where I do walk in, then turn around and walk out. How did you know? Thanks for the encouragement to get in there and get organized!
Thank you, for your awesome links. I am drooling over your beautiful tatted ribbon. I desperately need to clean out some of my stuff. I will be coming back to refer to this often.
I'm spring cleaning right now. It gives the new year a fresh start.
I only wish that I had a sewing room to brighten….
I get the kitchen table!
Have you been peaking in at my sewing room – How did you know that I needed a little nudging?
What a fabulous (and timely) post! I've bookmarked it and will be back (several times, I'm sure)!
This I need to do! Thanks!
Very useful list- THANK YOU! Now if only I had the time to do it…. 🙂
These are great ideas. I can always get more done when my space is clean and organized – and bright and cheerful! Also, taking the time to get your machine serviced is always a good thing. In fact, I just might have to do that myself now that you've reminded me!
This is the most wonderful post with the greatest collection of information and links and projects! Wow…I just love everything here!!!
I just finished moving my sewing room into the smaller room. It was a 10 day ordeal. It is very organized, new paint and clean carpets. Its always worth it when you finish. I recyled a lot of paper. I also put aside a lot of fabric for charity. You know the fabric that's been on the shelf for the last 15 year. Believe me, if you haven't cut into it yet, you won't. I plan to donate to Providence. They make quilts for terminal patients. Now i just need someone to carry the box down the stairs….. Have fun with your spring cleaning. Theres nothing better than working in a clean and organized room to help with your creativity.
Motivating list! Especially with the beautiful Spring weather. I'm ready to open all the windows and doors and get organized.
This is great!! I am in the process of rearranging my sewing room and I'm going to be using a whole bunch of these ideas! Thank you for putting the list together.
Got some great organizing ideas from this. thanks.
Thanks for all the great ideas. I will need to put my sewing space on my spring cleaning list.
Since I just started sewing, I'm not sure my tiny stash of fabric needs to be reorganized, but I really should clean my machine!
THese tips and ideas were so helpful. I want to redo my sewing room and find the task very overwhelming. I"ve been 'thinking' about it for over 2 years! Well, today is the day to at least paint the walls; so I moved most of the clutter out and left only the big pieces Ican't move by myself. (hubby has no interest in helping much…but I will really need to BEG to get shelving in so I can organize properly). I have a vision of what I want it to look like, but don't know if that's how it will actually turn out….
Would that I had a sewing room to spring clean! 🙂 That's a great list, I really need to get my sissors sharpened.
What a thorough list! Thanks for the tips!
Another great post! I read through the list. I noticed in one category it said to clean your cutting mat. Mine is just a mess. I had cut a lot of fleece several months ago and can't get it off. Just how do we clean our cutting mats? Do we use soap and water? I never read anythign about how to clean it when I purchased it.
Thank you for posting this!
It is inspirational, and helpful all at once.
I just put spring cleaning my sewing room on my weekend to do list!
Cleaning never sounded so fun!!! Thanks! Libby
Perfect timing for this checklist. I need to convert my studio into a guest room for the upcoming visit from my mom. This list will come in handy for the process. Thanks for posting the list!
you are so right.
thanks for all of the hidden tutorials, too!
Wow! Great ideas, now if only I can get myself motivated to do them all!
Some really uselful ideas! Thank you!
thanks for the great list – i will use it to 'autumn clean' my sewing area – it's in desperate need for a tidy up as we're in the middle of school holidays and my daughter has decided to teach her friends to sew……oh my……they have made a mess! but at least they've had fun.
thanks again
These are great ideas! Wish I had my own sewing room (due to apartment constraints, I sew on the dining room table), but these tips are still extremely handy even if one is limited to just a sewing cupboard.
What a great post!!! I have been doing spring cleaning in my own way, but this will help me out so much! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the lists! Yes, I need major maintenance with my sewing room indeed.
Thanks for all these wonderful ideas, I need to get cracking on some of them this weekend. I have sew many ideas but not enough organization to keep it all straight.
Lots of great ideas! Thanks for the push!
Thanks for posting this. I need to clean my craft area as it starting to spread out over the house.
Ahhh. Spring cleaning. I really should get on that. 🙂
Great to have a list to start with – first the sewing machine and then the sewing room. I'll get right to it.
Great tips and perfect timing! We had a professional organizer talk at our monthly guild meeting last night and all this information goes along with what she was saying!
haha–love it—just did all of this just this last week–yippee!!! All done
that is a great list! I am so excited to do it and have a clean sewing area 🙂
Great guide. Now, Lisa, when are you coming to do out my sewing room??
Where is D thru Z? I need all the help I can get!
Thank you for a list! Practical and fun ideas, too. I know I am lucky to have a dedicated room, but it is such an overwhelming mess, that I sew in the kitchen! Having someone else make the plan helps to motivate me.
Oh my, what an exceptional post! Organizing my sewing room is my hobby. I also dabble in actual sewing. I had tear in my eye just reading about the wonderful options of storing ribbon. I'm totally laminating this list.
what an inspirational list. If I were going to be home this week, I might have to jump on that. but I will be home eventually, so . . .
So did this 2 weeks ago when the clutter was keeping me from even walking through. Turns out all it took was about 2 hours and I was ready to roll again….first project was fixing something sitting on the repair pile for way too long.
Great Check list!! There are things on there that are very inspiring. I think my room is going to have a make over!!
Have a great week, Tina Kay
Oh, I needed this list! LOL
maybe i will have to make a sewing space in the basement, so i have to clean it. 🙂 or i could just start with my sewing bins…eeek. this is a timely post!
Thanks for the prompting … really need to get in and sort, tidy, clean and rediscover exactly what is in my sewing area. Grin!
You got it! Clutter kills our mojo, in every room, not just the sewing room! Thanks for the encouragement.
I know I NEED to clean… but do I ever really WANT to? Hmmm… well, at least this list makes it seem feasible. Just a couple of steps, right? ABC.
This list is great! I just started sewing and there are some awesome ideas for starting out organized. I'll definitely be making some of the organizing tools! Thanks so much!!!
Being very new to sewing, I really needed this. I have tons of patterns that have been handed down from both of my grandmothers and great aunts. I have found they fit perfectly in the long woven baskets from the dollar tree! I love finding a good deal!
This is such a great list. Better get started, my area looks like a bomb exploded.
Are you a mind reader??? I came into my sewing room at 5:15 this morning frantically looking for something. Couldn't find it. Wasn't where it should have been. Then I realized I have such a mess I will never find it until I get some cleaning/organizing done. While I was at work today in the back of my mind I was thinking about where to start. Planing. Making a mental list. Couldn't wait to get home to get started even though I wasn't exactly sure where that would be. But first things first. I have to check my email and blogs before I do anything else. Your post today couldn't have come at a better time!!! I know right where to start. Better get busy!!! Thanks for your help!!!!
I am still excited from yesterday about the tips to clean my sewing machine. I have so many other great projects on my list, but I think my excitement is going to make that my #1 tonight after the kids go to bed.
My sewing area is a complete disaster! I really want to clean it up but have felt totally overwhelmed. Thank you for giving me a step by step list. It will really help me keep on track and get it done. Hooray! I feel like I can really look forward to a clean creative space now!
The pdf is so pretty! Thank you, there are a few things on this list that I haven't thought to do in a good long while.
Just the motivation I need!!! Thanks so much!
I so need to do this but it will have to wait until I get the queen sized quilt done for my sisters wedding. Then look out here I come sewing room!
OOO I've been wanting a new sewing machine cover. Maybe I should jsut make my own. I worry about it fitting tightly enough though– wrinkles on your cover lead to wrinkles in whatever you're ironing.
Wow! This is great! I started my clean-up last week-end, but I see from this list I could do a few more things. Here's a tip for threads and bobbins: I recently bought a June Tailor thread organizer, which I love, but I really wanted to keep each bobbin together with its corresponding thread. So, after discovering that the dowels could easily be pulled out of the organizer, I bought some dowelling the same size, cut it into longer lengths and popped the new dowels in. Now my bobbins easily fit on top of the thread in the organizer.
Happy spring cleaning everyone!
Okay, no excuses, guess I gotta do some spring cleaning! thanks for the motivation! and the great ideas for some new fun things to create.
Great list to keep on hand for any time of the year!
This really is going to help me get back on track! I started doing this in January as a New Year's resolution and never finished!
Great List! I definitely need to do this and I think a list like this is a great way to keep me on task instead of getting sidetracked when I start cleaning. Thank you!
This is great! I have my work cut out for me. But when I'm done with this list, I'll love my sewing area.
Thanks for all of the info…a must do to add to the list!
I was already thinking along these lines! Now I really am going to get started. I am going to set a deadline for painting and new curtains so my space will be pretty and tidy!
I'm ready for spring — but my sewing room is not! Thanks for the nudge. (Oh, and I'm ready to win something, too. Keeping my fingers crossed this week. . . . )
i think this will really help me get my spring cleaning finished this weekend.
I know what I'll be doing this week now. Thanks, I could really use this advice!
These are all such great ideas – thanks.
I wish I had a sewing room…I'd clean it from top to bottom! Instead I'll just sort out my projects and supplies, then make a plan for what projects I'm going to do this spring.
Great instructions!! My sewing/scrapbook room definitely needs some TLC!
I love the organizational ideas! All of my fabric is stuffed into clear storage drawers, and my notions/threads/anything else are just wedged in there as well. I appreciate all of these suggestions and look forward to implementing some of them very soon.
great inspiration! thanks for the printable list also 🙂
Oh to HAVE an entire room devoted to sewing…sigh.
I so need to do this! I need to compress all of my sewing and craft supplies to the point everything is portable, since we are making the office/craft/sewing room into our daughter's room. I, too, smell a weekend project. Or several.
Such great ideas, I wish I had the time do do them all.
I would love to do every single on of these things! But it may have to be summer cleaning for me.
Great ideas. I'm going to link to this too! Thanks
Wow what a list! I've been sewing so much lately and have scraps and bits all over my work table, I think this is good time to get cleaning!
Oh I needed this! I so need to clean my area and get in the mood!! Thank you!
Yes, I'm bad about putting everything away at the end of crafting time. I'm going in to start now (because I feel guilty about not cleaning up.)
I am so in need of a craft corner cleaning, hopefully I'll be able to do it soon!
It's perfect!
So many useful ideas! Thanks!
This was exactly the project I undertook over the past weekend! For those of us not blessed with a dedicated sewing room or area, a tip: Organize all your sewing tools in an inexpensive tacklebox. I can' tell you how many times I've taken a trip across town to buy a tool I already owned just because I couldn't remember which box/drawer/basket I put it in after the last use. Also, I save all those tiny ziplock bags that come with articles of clothing and contain replacement buttons. I find that putting small items such as bobbins, hooks, snaps, and trims into these tiny clear bags helps prevent tangling and chaos. Now if only SMS had a checklist to clean the rest of my house this spring…
Is this timely or what? My sewing room is such a disaster area I didn't even know where to begin tidying.
No excuses now!
Great list… I love the last part best!
My sewing room looks like WW3 hit. These tips are just what I need to get me started. Thanks.
I like the idea of spending 5 minutes tidying up at the end of a sewing day. I do my best to keep my workspace clean because I share the space with my husband and since he works from home, it's important every thing's tidy as much as possible. Thanks for the post.
Lots of good tips, and a great list to check off. Thanks!
Great timing! I've been pulling out heaps of fabrics from the last 10 years(sometimes wondering why I even liked some of it/Tastes change quickly and there's always something new to buy!) and sorting and folding to get organized and destashed! It may take all Spring and Summer to do….but I'm going to get CONTROL!
As my sewing room is my bedroom and is currently totally covered in fabric and notions and pattern pieces and come-what-may, this is something I definently need to work on.
I love that you added some ideas for creating in the spring too!
Great list! Wish I had a larger sewing room!
What fantastic tips! Thanks for sharing!
I would love to do all this stuff but alas I don't have a sewing room….I have a sewing mini corner. So I have decided I will make my sewing machine and drawers as squeaky clean as possible. I do like the ideas of creating new bins and the ironing board caddy.
Oh, you SO got me on this one! Creativity-stifling clutter and all. I see a weekend project ahead.
What a great list!! and perfect timing, too. I am just about to clean and re-arrange my sewing room. Thank you so much!!
« Spring Clean your Sewing Machine Spring Sewing ~ Quilted Garden Tote »


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Frightened deer jumping off Highway 21 bridge to their deaths
BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) - Frightened deer are jumping to their deaths off a 100-plus foot bridge in southwestern Idaho.
Wildlife officials say the deer are jumping to their deaths off the High Bridge - formally known as Mores Creek Bridge on Highway 21 east of Boise.
"I've seen it myself and some of our staff have seen it too," said Evin Oneale, big game manager for the Idaho Fish and Game Department.
Wildlife experts say it happens at the High Bridge over Lucky Peak Reservoir on Highway 21 when roaming deer crossing the bridge are panicked by oncoming automobiles.
"The first thing a deer is going to do is try and get away," Oneale said. "They jump over what they think is just into the barrow pit, but it's a 120-foot fall to the river below."
Highway 21 cuts through a mule deer winter range area. From the beginning, its co-existence with wildlife has been a tricky relationship as dangerous collisions between vehicles and deer are frequent.
In January 2004, more than 100 elk died when they fell through the ice and drowned trying to find a way around the man-made obstacle.
iN 2010, Fish and Game and the Idaho Department of Transportation built an underpass for animals that leads them under Highway 21.
Fish and Game says the underpass is successfully funneling animals to a safe crossing but as colder weather brings more deer to lower elevations, motorists are urged to slow down crossing this bridge where a deer's instinctive leap could lead to its death.


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Celebrate this Mothers' Day with the family. From Mothers' Day High Teas to Walkathons, you'll find it on Kidspot. Browse Kidspot Weekend for this year's top Mothers' Day events. Relax and enjoy your Mothers' Day with these great ideas for things to do on your special day!
- Mother''s Day events
- WA - Perth
Unfortunately there are no results matching your search criteria at this time. Please try again or email us and we'll look for an event in your area.


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If your local group is doing more than one event in a series, you do not need to complete a separate form for each event--you can indicate the last day of the event as the date, and list the date spectrum in the title (ex: "Latin America Solidarity Conference April 4-11" and event date = April 11).
Note: Events that support political candidates' campaigns will NOT be posted to the WPC Calendar, as the Washington Peace Center is a 501(c)3 organization and cannot endorse or work for ANY candidates. However, demonstrations planned at candidate events that focus on the issues and educating the public about our message are fine to post!


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Sometime pages that ranked high in Google did not do so well in Yahoo! But beware – some of the keyword-rich sites on Yahoo!
Although there is no doubt that the algorithms of the two search engines are different, since both are constantly changing, none of them is made publicly available by its authors and the details about how each of the algorithms function are obtained by speculation based on probe-trial tests for particular keywords, it is not possible to say for certain what exactly is different. Back in the dawn of the internet, a nice visual representation was positioned of the differences in between Yahoo! & Google. This is not a factor of exceptional importance. If this happens, a major difference between Yahoo!Slurp that a new page has appeared, thus inviting it to spider it, if it is not already in the Yahoo! There were times, when the SEO community was inclined to think that the algorithm of Yahoo! You may want to try the Search Engine Spider Simulator and check what of your pages is spiderable. When Yahoo! Of all the differences between Yahoo! Web toolbar that collects anonymous statistics about which sites users browse, thus way getting an aggregated value (from 0 to 10) of how popular a given site is. When Google arrived, its indisputably precise search results made it the preferred search engine. Search index. The higher the value, the more popular a site is and the more valuable the backlinks from it are. URLs with "catwalk" will also be displayed in Yahoo! Another major player on the market is MSN, which means that SEO professionals cannot afford to optimize only for Google but need to take into account the specifics of the other two engines (Yahoo! However, Google is not the only search engine and it is estimated that about 20-25% or searches are conducted on Yahoo!2004, it had an icon that showed the Web Rank of the page that is currently open in the browser. If you have the keyword in these two places, then you can expect a top 10 place in Yahoo! Algorithm – Differences With Google Like all search engines, Yahoo!
URL, and the headings. Optimizing for three search engines at the same time is not an easy task. Google it's just the opposite), a site, which has the keyword in the category it is listed under, stands a better chance to be in the beginning of the search results. Later this feature has been removed but still there are tools on the Web that allow to check the WebRank of a particular page. Google will be eliminated because as of today Google places more importance on factors such as backlinks, while Yahoo! Web, indexes them in its database and later performs various mathematical operations to produce the pages with the search results. Google. What is more, having in mind the frequency with which algorithms are changed, it is not possible to react to every slight change, even if algorithms' details were known officially. Also, it matters if the keyword in the title and in the URL is in a basic form or if it is a derivative – e. But beware – a title and an URL cannot be unlimited and technically you can place no more than 3 or 4 keywords there. For instance, this tool allows to check the WebRanks of a whole bunch of pages at a time. The higher the density, the higher the positioning with Yahoo! Google, the way keywords in the title and in the URL are treated is the most important. But knowing some basic differences between the two does help to get better ranking. Since Yahoo! With new major changes in the Google algorithm under way (the so-called "BigDaddy" Infrastructure expected to be fully launched in March-April 2006) it's hard to tell if the same SEO tactics will be hot on Google in two months' time. Google) till these changes are reflected in the search results. The practical value of WebRank as a measure of success is often discussed in SEO communities and the general opinion is that this is not the most relevant metrics. One of the supposed changes is the decrease in weight of links. But the major difference is keyword density. Slurp might be even more active than Googlebot because occasionally there are more pages in the Yahoo! Another alleged difference between Yahoo!100 results, while URLs with "cat" only are quite near to the top. However, one of the benefits of WebRank is that it alerts Yahoo! WebRank Following Google's example, Yahoo! For Yahoo! Google is the sandbox (putting the sites "on hold" for some time till they appear in search results).7-8%), you risk to be banned by Google!
Google's sandbox is deeper, so if you have made recent changes to your site, you might have to wait a month or two (shorter for Yahoo!Slurp (the Yahoo! Google, so if you attempt to score well on Yahoo! Google gives the Yahoo vs Google tool. Although WebRank and positioning in the search results are not directly correlated, there is a dependency between them – sites with high WebRank tend to position higher than comparable sites with lower WebRank and the WebRanks of the top 20-30 results for a given keyword are most often above 00 on average. The attempt to optimize a site to appeal to both search engines usually lead to being kicked out of the top of both of them. With Google this is not that important. Slurp is not different from the other bots and if your page misses important elements of the SEO mix that make it not spiderable, then it hardly makes a difference which algorithm will be used because you will never get to a top position.
For more information about SEO go to here SEO Services Delhi


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It's hard not to notice a bright purple Lamborghini with orange trim. So the driver of this £350,000 supercar was asking for trouble when he went for a spin without a front numberplate.
Police spotted the infringement and impounded the vehicle after its 24-year-old owner – thought to be a member of the Qatari royal family – was unable to produce evidence that he had a driving licence or insurance.
Crowds gathered as the 220mph Aventador was towed away in London's Knightsbridge.


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7 Tips to Help You Move Anything
During a practice run before the XDL Championship Series in Indianapolis, pro rider Aaron Colton pulls a 270 stoppie, which involves spinning the bike 180 degrees on the front tire and then completing the last 90 degrees in the air.
While riding a wheelie at 30 mph, Aaron Colton guns the gas. His motorcycle leaps off its back tire and into the air, a 400-pound blur of black metal and orange plastic. Both tires slam to the ground, and with the bike still moving forward, Colton taps the front brake, snapping the bike's rear tire in the air while he keeps the bike balanced and rolling fast on the front tire—too fast. He's almost out of pavement. Colton quickly drops the back end and clamps down hard on both brakes. The bike shimmies sideways, sliding to a stop right before crashing into a barrier.
And that, my friends, is a wheelie-bunny-hop-into-stoppie, one of the most dangerous trick combinations in sportbike stunt riding. Only a handful of riders in the world can land it. "I ran a little too fast and hard," Colton says afterward, sweat streaming down his cheeks. "Even to me, what we're doing out here is pretty mind-blowing."
XDL veteran Chris "Teach" McNeil, a Latin teacher at a middle school in Maine, practices a stoppie (foreground) while fellow stunter Aaron Colton sits on his gas tank and does a Special K wheelie. The stoppie, itself a dangerous stunt, is the launching point for a host of new aerial tricks. Coasting on their front wheel, riders squeeze the front brake, which compresses the fork, effectively turning it into a loaded spring. With enough speed and force, bikes can leap up to 2 feet in the air.
Colton is competing in the XDL Championship Series, a two-day event on a closed-off street in downtown Indianapolis. Indy is the last of five XDL competitions held each season. Hundreds of fans have paid $20 to $35 to bake in the summer heat and watch a dozen of the world's best stunt riders. They've come to witness such tricks as the highchair wheelie, in which competitors leap onto the motorcycle's front fairing or handlebars while simultaneously twisting the throttle to pop the front wheel into the air, and the switchback elevator, where riders jump from a seated position to stand on the tank—while spinning 180 degrees to face backward.
Colton, of Shakopee, Minn., is considered one of the burgeoning sport's stars. At 20, he has already won an XDL Championship Series and has his own action-figure doll and branded line of motorcycle merchandise. "X Games is mainstream, and stunt riding can become that," he says.
10 Extreme Alternative Motorcycles... and One That Flies


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Break out your eyeliner, your guyliner, and your white jeans! Trannyshack, San Francisco's biggest drag club night, presents a tribute to Depeche Mode and Siouxsie Sioux on Friday, August 16th at the DNA Lounge! Be dazzled by performances by Heklina, Fauxnique, Raya Light, Lady Bear, Suppositori Spelling, and more! Plus do some spooky dancing of your own with the very special guest DJ Le Perv (Dark Room).
Get your tickets now!


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NEW YORK — From value-added items such as stuffed mushrooms and soup kits, to new packaging for lemons and guacamole kits, exhibitors at the New York Produce Show and Conference focused on convenience and innovation Nov. 8 at the Hilton New York.
Managing Editor Fred Wilkinson and Sections Editor Dan Galbraith gathered the following news items on the expo floor.
Albert's Organics
Albert's Organics, Bridgeport, N.J., has begun direct imports of colored bell peppers.
Red, yellow and orange peppers grown in Israeli greenhouses will be available November through August, said Sue Tamm, director of new business development.
Albert's will supply the peppers nationwide individually and will offer color combinations in two- or three-packs, she said.
Columbia Marketing
Columbia Marketing International, Wenatchee, Wash., showed off new shipping and display boxes for its Grapples, as well as four-pack tube bags it launched last year.
"Maybe the best thing about them is that some retailers tell us they can offer them for $1 less than they could Grapples in other (clamshell) packaging," said Bob Mast, vice president of marketing.
New Grapple boxes feature a monkey character on a high-graphic display format.
Also new for CMI at the show: a 2-pound pear bag featuring smaller-sized pears called the Petite Park Place Pears line; and a self-contained, two-box Orchard Fresh shipper.
Dulcich & Sons
Jakov P. Dulcich & Sons, Delano, Calif., is taking its seasonal marketing and packaging approach on grapes to a new level this Christmas.
Following up on the successful Harvest Hobgoblin retail promotion before Halloween, Nick Dulcich, co-owner and sales manager, said he is excited about the Pretty Lady grapes Christmas season launch of high-graphic, holiday-themed packs, bins, danglers and posters.
Earth Source Trading
Ephrata, Pa.-based Earth Source Trading Inc. is testing cape gooseberries in its product lineup.
Sourced from Colombia and available year-round, the berries will be sold at retail in 5-ounce plastic containers with lids, said Christine Runkle, saleswoman.
Cape gooseberries are high in vitamins A and C as well as B complexes, she said, and have a sweet-tart taste with notes of citrus.
Fresh Cut Produce
Many times, fresh produce companies expand foodservice business to the retail scene, but Newark, N.J.-based Fresh Cut Produce is finding success using the opposite strategy, said vice president Harold Miller.
The company did well with retail first and is beginning to branch out into foodservice, offering kosher packs of such offerings as celery roots, leeks, stir-fry medleys, butternut squash, yams, bok choy and a capri blend.
"Our turnaround time for an order is like two hours on our product, and we can cut to order," Miller said.
Greenline Foods
High-end, microwaveable, value-added green bean side kits from Perrysburg, Ohio-based Greenline Foods Inc. should start shipping in January, said Rob Haley, Eastern regional sales manager.
The kits, with suggested retail price of $3.99-4.99, include the company's premium, fresh-cut green beans paired with flavorings and either nuts or cheese.
The new sides are Classic Almondine, Asian Tamari and Garlic Parmesan.
"We want to become the No. 1 supplier of warm, fresh side dishes, and this plays into that goal," said Haley, who said the company is also coming out with snow peas, snap peas and julienne carrots.
Interrupcion Fair Trade
New York-based Interrupcion Fair Trade has a new logo for its packaging.
The new design features the catch phrase Taste Me Do Good, said Michela Calabrese, stakeholder director.
The new wording aims to let consumers know that the products they are purchasing help fund education, health care and other social welfare projects in production areas in Latin America, she said.
Interrupcion imports conventional and organic items, including blueberries, apples and bananas.
Mastronardi Produce
Kingsville, Ontario-based Mastronardi Produce/Sunset launched three products at the expo, including a Fresh Tomato Soup Kit designed to include everything a consumer needs to create tomato soup for four in 20 minutes.
"These will start shipping next week and they include 2 pounds of tomatoes, spices and croutons specially formulated to not get soggy," said Paul Mastronardi, president.
The company also introduced its Delano tomato, billed as a full-flavored tomato-on-the-vine ideal for use in salads, sandwiches and sauces.
The 1.1-pound trays of Delano tomatoes began shipping in early November, Mastronardi said.
They are packed in flow-wrapped, compostable trays and feature year-round availability.
Also new at the show: Mastronardi's non-GMO project One Sweet Pepper packs, which contain several multi-colored peppers featuring packaging with quick-response codes that provide consumers with detailed information on the specific peppers in the package.
Mission Produce
Oxnard, Calif.-based Mission Produce now has 1-kilogram club packs of green asparagus.
Packed in bags made from breathable film, the large-size asparagus stalks are protected from handling in the display aisle, said David Austin, director of marketing.
Mission has been selling the packs at Wegman's stores for about two months now, Austin said, and they retail for $5.99-6.99.
Onofrio's Fresh Cut
A late October launch of Harvest Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms, an extension of the company's top-selling line, emerged as the big topic of discussion at the show booth of New Haven, Conn.-based Onofrio's Fresh Cut.
"What's unique is that butternut squash is the main ingredient in the stuffing, and it also includes cranberries and brown sugar," said Jody Russo, president of Wood River Services Inc., East Greenwich, R.I., which handles marketing for Onofrio's Fresh Cut.
"It almost seems like something you'd traditionally stuff a turkey with."
The mushrooms are in test-marketing now exclusively at Boston-area retail chain Market Basket, "and they think it's going to be a No. 1 seller" for this holiday season, Russo said.
Procacci Bros.
Procacci Bros., Philadelphia, introduced a tray-packed guacamole kit.
The kit includes all the components to make guacamole: a lime, some garlic, a tomato, a jalapeño and two avocados, said Frank Schafhauser, salesman.
Procacci also is entering the floral market with a full line of floral products for retail, said Jim Gandolfo, floral specialist.
Pure Hot House Foods
Pure Hot House Foods Inc., Leamington, Ontario, displayed its new triple-washed kabob packs that use greenhouse peppers, greenhouse grape tomatoes and mushrooms with skewers included.
The company also displayed its just-trademarked Juno Bites snacking tomatoes that feature a high-brix profile of 9 and are available through the winter, said Ken Paglione, salesman.
Renaissance Food Group
Renaissance Food Group LLC in late October launched party trays and salad toppers, said Phil Fendyan, vice president of sales and marketing for the Rancho Cordova, Calif.-based company.
The new Salad Essentials toppers are Southwest, Mediterranean, Apple Crunch and Vegetable Delight.
Rockhedge Herb Farms
Rockhedge Herb Farms, Pleasant Valley, N.Y., now offers its complete lineup of fresh herbs in three-quarter-ounce plastic cups with lids.
The cups allow retailers more efficient use of shelf space and better product display, said John Alva, global supply chain manager.
Greenhouse tomato grower Savoura, Portneuf, Quebec, began replicating its Canadian operation in the Queretaro region of Mexico in August, with 5 acres of production, along with a new distribution center in McAllen, Texas, said Robert Boudreau, director of business development for North America.
Sun Glo
Sun Glo of Idaho Inc., Sugar City, Idaho, is including a microwave steamer bag with its bagged russet potatoes.
A label on the bulk bag includes a detachable Kwik-Lok tag for closure as well as a QR code that provides recipe ideas, said Mary Sedberry, saleswoman.
Sunkist Growers, Sherman Oaks, Calif., showed off new lemon packaging at the expo.
The citrus marketer is offering 1-pound stand-up handle bags filled with meyer lemons, said Leland Wong, director of marketing.
Available year-round, meyer lemons are sweeter than traditional lemons, Wong said.
Sunkist also has new options in its navel orange gift box offerings.
New 10-pound boxes have graphics themed for events — namely tail-gating, auto racing and soccer, Wong said.
The boxes retail for about the same price as a 5-pound clementine box, he said.
Supreme Cuts
Supreme Cuts LLC, Mahwah, N.J., is offering a new line of fresh-cut vegetables for retail and foodservice.
Chunks of butternut squash, rutabaga and sweet potato are available in 20-ounce plastic packs with lids for retail, said Merle Axelrod, president.
Also available is an autumn medley of the fresh-cut vegetables in a 20-ounce pack, Axelrod said.
The packs ship to retailers six to a box, she said, and are sold to foodservice customers packed in two 5-pound plastic bags, she said.
Tanimura & Antle
Tanimura & Antle Inc. has a new player in its lineup of Artisan lettuces.
The Salinas, Calif.-based grower-shipper-marketer is adding boston lettuce to its Artisan product line, said Brian Antle, harvest manager.
The heads of boston lettuce are field-packed in clamshell containers, Antle said, and will be distributed nationwide at retail.
The packs offer benefits to retailers and consumers, he said.
Because the product stays fresher, fewer of the outer leaves have to be cut away, which means less shrink for grocers and more product for the consumer to enjoy, Antle said.
To-Jo Mushrooms
To-Jo Mushrooms Inc. has a new offering for consumers in a hurry to enjoy their mushrooms.
The Avondale, Pa.-based marketer is rolling out 7-ounce microwaveable packs labelled Traditional Mushroom Saute, said Paul Frederic, senior vice president of sales and marketing.
The packs feature sliced white button mushrooms with a seasoned pad of butter that are ready to eat in four minutes, he said.
The packs retail for about $2.50 each, he said.
World Variety Produce
Los Angeles-based World Variety Produce Inc. — marketer of Melissa's brand products — is retailing a utensil to help consumers enjoy their Sweet Young Coconuts.
Priced around $3, the Sweet Young Coconut Punch tool quickly and easily makes a whole in the husk so consumers can enjoy the water inside, said Bill Schneider, director of marketing.
Also new under the Melissa's brand is the Super Hot Chile Mix, which includes a habanero, a yellow seven pot, a moruga scorpion pepper and a black chocolate pepper, Schneider said.
The Melissa's brand now includes 16-ounce tubs of tomatillo salsa, he said. A merchandising box for shallots also was new.


text: Girls' skinny zip sweatpant in indigo Item C0183 Color: INDIGO DARK Size: All sizes are US sizes. 10 12 Size Charts Quantity: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Prices do not include taxes. Add to Bag Wishlist Add to Bag Add To Wishlist share: size & fit Product Details Comfy enough for the couch, sturdy enough for the playground and cute enough for the classroom—these are the sweatpants she'll wear every day (if you let her). Cotton. Elastic waistband with tacked functional drawstring. Slant pockets. Machine wash. Import. Since this item is indigo dyed, it's prone to crocking, or color transfer, so wear (and wash) it with dark colors until it's worn in. Item C0183.


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What is the TuneLab Logo?
Posted in Blog
We've had several different logos for tunelab over the years, and usually they've been pretty self-explanatory. This time around, people have asked more than a few times what exactly it is, so we thought we'd do a quick write-up on it.
For this logo, we wanted not only…


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Aerotech's Sensor Fusion 3u DAQ Device
Sensor Fusion is a 3U DAQ device integrated with the Automation 3200 motion controller for precise time alignment of motion and data acquisition functions. Data collection is synchronized across all cards, so there is never a need to align data after collection. Setup, data recording and data playback can be done through .NET, C, LabView, MatLab or AeroBasic programming languages.


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Kale is the supreme king of the leafies and the ruler of this prevention-rocks salad. Serve it solo, with your favorite cooked grain, or wrapped in nori or a gluten-free tortilla. Crown your kale creation by adding chopped fresh herbs or your choice of diced vegetables. If you want to be fancy, serve the salad wrapped in a cucumber slice.
To see more from Kris Carr, check out kriscarr.com!
In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Massage and mix with your hands to "wilt" the kale and cream the avocado (this should only take a minute or two), and serve.
Note from Chad: Many of my recipes have been influenced by cultural experiences, twists on favorite childhood meals, or newly discovered ingredients. Few dishes have proven to be as timeless and beloved as this kale salad.


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Apartment Amber 3 - Heart of Krakow Kazimierz
Size30 m²
Floor No.
- Family/child friendly
- Internet/WiFi
- Kitchen
- Towels
- Baby cot
Accommodation summary
|Dietla, 31-054 Kraków, Poland
|Property type
|Property ID
|Acceptance rate
|Response time
|A few hours
|Calendar updated
The flat consists of a room, a kitchnette and a bathroom (the first level) and an open space mezzanine. In the room there is a big comfortable convertible sofa bed (140x200), on the mezzanine - a marriage bed.
In the kitchenette: dishes and cutlery, one-part sink, kettle, two-burner electric cooker, fridge, iron, ironing board, vacuum cleaner
In the bathroom: toilet, wash basin, shower, hair dryer, towels
In the room: radio, tv set, bed sheets
House rulesExtra charge for arrivals after 22:00 - 70PLN
|Price for > 2 guests
|16 NZ$ per guest/night extra
|Maximum nights
|6 months
|Check-in after
|Check-in before
|On arrangement
|Check-out before
|Cancellation Policy
Reviews of this property
Ok host, Robert switched on the heating after some time (when it had 5°C outside). The flat is quiet and nice and well located. Some things like the shower head do not work, the toilet paper was very little and the bed linen was very small. The host wants you to take off all your waste, but in the courtyard there is no open waste container. Over all a good place to stay, if you take such little things into your preparations.
Perfecta localización. No le doy el diez por ser cuarto sin ascensor. Por lo demás inmejorable la casa
I had a nice holiday in Cracow.
The apartment is located between Kazimierz and Stare Miasto.
Everything in walking distance.
Drawback: 4th floor – under the roof.
Apartment is pretty clean and quiet (not always).
WIFI works okay (though it could be a little faster).
TV offers only Polish stations.
But there is a very strong fan. Wash your clothes – they will be dry within hours.
Robert offers some service: Pick-up from airport (90 PLN), organization of sighteseeing-trips...
If I come back to Cracow I will try to rent this apartment again.
Have a nice stay.
simple, clean, quiet, perfectly located between old town and kazimier
only shower handle should be repared
Le point positif est que l'appartement est fonctionnel, lumineux, calme et à 8 minutes du Wawel et 15 minutes du Ryneck..
Les points négatifs, c'est qu'il est situé au 4eme étage sans ascenseur (non précisé dans le descriptif), et qu'internet ne fonctionnait pas lors de mon séjour.
Ayant signalé le problème au propriétaire, je n'ai eu aucune aide de sa part. D'ailleurs, je n'ai jamais vu "Robert" !
Very centrally located on the Old Town and the Jewish Quarter. Despite heavy traffic street, very quiet, as in the backyard.
Sehr zentral an der Altstadt und dem jüdisches Viertel. Trotz stark befahrener Straße, sehr leise, da im hinterhof.
Thanks for the great holiday!
Danke für den schönen Urlaub!
Reviews for this host's other properties
Habitacion limpia y buen estado, anfitrion responde rapido.
Muy amable y atento Robert. El apartamento bastante céntrico y muy bien. La única pega es que no hay ascensor y es un cuarto.
Fast communication, tidy Apartment, well located.
- Quality assured accommodation
- Every host is verified by telephone
- Secure payment via SSL encryption


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Nice to "meet" you all and join these forums, I hope to learn a lot from you all in the time following and maybe I can even spread some knowledge of my own (i hope).
In late September my hair fell out, (gorgeous dreadlocks I had nurtured for almost 4 years) but I thought it was due to stress from a crappy job and bullying at school.
Early October, I had woken up with a locked elbow that stayed locked for days my mom urged me to get bloodwork done and even though I thought she was trippin I did. My old physician had been transferred and a slightly rude, sassy, skeptical but (admittedly) smart doctor ordered the work. These tests showed the positive/high ANA and i was referred to a rheumy.
Throughout October, my symptoms become more obvious so I investigate what ANA's imply and lupus appears to be the culprit. All my friends are skeptical, because I do have a reputation as a drama queen. But I can feel myself getting sicker, the pain, stiffness, memory fog, water retention, fatigue, locking joints start showing up.
Late November, was the soonest I could see my rheumy for an eval/treat and she ordered more bloodwork but started off with a diagnosis of UCTD and started me on plaquenil (2, 200mg tablets daily).
December 17th, I call in and get a call the same day from rheumy confirming Lupus. She says it's active, needs to be monitored closely but has not affected my kidneys (proved by my awesome urine :hehe.
I joined this site to learn more about the illness that's going to stick with me for life.
I can't be ignorant because I want a lot out of life and that's never going to change.
I have a right to be happy and no excuse to let anything stand in the way of my completing my education, advancing that education, getting a job, helping the family that raised me and starting a family of my own.
It's on Lupus, Oh...it's on.
-Chillin, stress-killin and fulfillin.