text:
ASSA is a UNIX/Linux Object-Oriented C++ networking (BSD sockets) library
and application framework based on Adaptive Communication Patterns. ASSA is
designed to improve productivity of writing network-oriented client/server
WWW: http://libassa.sourceforge.net/
make generate-plist
To install the port: cd /usr/ports/devel/libassa/ && make install cleanTo add the package: pkg install libassa
cd /usr/ports/devel/libassa/ && make install clean
pkg install libassa
PKGNAME: libassa
SHA256 (libassa-3.5.1.tar.gz) = c1245a98373f37c0e286b327e2d750fd20278c71f47f2018053b4d799d33172c
SIZE (libassa-3.5.1.tar.gz) = 641255
NOTE: FreshPorts displays only information on required and default dependencies. Optional dependencies are not covered.
No options to configure
libtool pathfix pkgconfig
Number of commits found: 45
Update port
Update libassa to 3.5.0
Cleanup DIST* variables.
When appropriate:
- Try to use DISTVERSION{SUF,PRE}FIX
- Replace PORTNAME-PORTVERSION by DISTNAME
- Convert MASTER_SITES to use macros
- Other light cleanup
With hat: portmgr
Sponsored by: Absolight
Cleanup plist
- Switch to USES=libtool, drop .la files
Approved by: portmgr blanket
Support stage
Fix build with clang
Update maintainer email address
Approved by: bapt@ (co-mentor)
Add NO_STAGE all over the place in preparation for the staging support (cat:
devel part 3)
Convert devel to USES=pkgconfig
This changes almost all the "gnomehack" only USE_GNOME cases to USES= pathfix.
If a port used other USE_GNOME items it was untouched.
The ports that used other USES were fixed by hand.
PR: ports/177081
Reviewed by: bapt
Approved by: portmgr (miwi)
- Trim Makefile headers
- Pass maintainership to submitter
Submitted by: Rodrigo (ros) OSORIO <firstname.lastname@example.com>
new devel/pkgconf added to replace devel/pkg-config. new version of pkg-config
are no more self hosting so we are stuck with 0.25 version while pkgconf provide
the same set of features as 0.27 and a compatible frontend. A symlink to
pkg-config has been added for convenience and compatibility
This also introduces a new macro to use pkgconf in your ports:
it can take the following arguments:
- yes (meaning build only dep)
- build (meaning build only dep)
- run (meaning run only dep)
- both (meaning run and build dep)
From now USE_GNOME= pkgconfig is deprecated in favour of USE_PKGCONFIG
The old gnome macro has been modified to use pkgconf but still the sameway: run
and build dep to avoid large breakage.
While here fix some ports relying on pkg-config but not specifying it, fix some
ports broken because testing wrong .pc files, and fix ports using pkg-config
--version to determine pkg-config version instead of
pkg-config --modversion pkg-config like recommanded by pkg-config
With Hat: portmgr
Exp-runs by: bapt (pointhat-west), beat (pointyhat)
For ports maintained by ports@ where pkgconfig is one of the USE_GNOME deps
convert it to BUILD_DEPENDS. This avoids the problem of the bogus run dep
added by bsd.gnome.mk.
- Return my ports back to the pool. I was unable to make any fixes to
my ports in the past 3 weeks while ports were broken on any 10.x
machines, which means I'm unable to maintain them. So let people know
that there's no available support for them until things are back to
normal (which also means that anyone with spare time will be able
to fix them without getting approval).
Remove USE_GNOME=gnometarget from ports. It has been a empty keyword since
mid 2008.
PR: ports/159624
Submitted by: Ruslan Mahmatkhanov <firstname.lastname@example.com>
-remove MD5
- Switch SourceForge ports to the new File Release System: categories starting
with D
Remove always-false/true conditions based on OSVERSION 500000
- Update to 3.4.2-2 (bugfix release)
- Install assa-genesis manpage (debian)
- Change my email
Now builds on sparc64
- Update to 3.4.2
PR: ports/102936
Submitted by: Stanislav Sedov <ssedov at mbsd.msk.ru> (maintainer)
- Update to 3.4.1
- Replace deprecated variables (INSTALLS_SHLIB)
- Pet portlint(1) for BROKEN msg
- Pass maintainership to submitter
PR: ports/101945
Submitted by: Stanislav Sedov <ssedov at mbsd.msk.ru>
Remove USE_REINPLACE from all categories starting with D
Conversion to a single libtool environment.
Approved by: portmgr (kris)
- Add some SHA256 checksums
Mass-conversion to the USE_AUTOTOOLS New World Order. The code present
in bsd.autotools.mk essentially makes this a no-op given that all the
old variables set a USE_AUTOTOOLS_COMPAT variable, which is parsed in
exactly the same way as USE_AUTOTOOLS itself.
Moreover, USE_AUTOTOOLS has already been extensively tested by the GNOME
team -- all GNOME 2.12.x ports use it.
Preliminary documentation can be found at:
which is in the process of being SGMLized before introduction into the
Porters Handbook.
Light blue touch-paper. Run.
BROKEN on sparc64: Does not build
Mark as BROKEN on 4.x: Compilation fails and passing -fhuge-objects does not
Noticed by: cluster
Upgrade to 3.3.2.
Don't attempt to use libtool before it is installed.
Reported by: kris
Noodlebrain: me
Don't install .la (by copying in system ltmain.sh... again)
Obtained from: vs
Build with included libtool (no more static library), as discussed with vs.
Approved by: clement (mentor, implicit)
No need to copy ${LTMAIN} into wrksrc. Fixes package build.
Approved by: clement (mentor, implicit)
Drop another large wad (several Mb) of static libs
Update to version 3.3.0
PR: ports/79469
Submitted by: Ports Fury
BROKEN on sparc64: Does not build
Approved by: portmgr (self)
- add USE_GCC=3.3 when default gcc is 3.4
BROKEN on 5.x: Does not compile with gcc 3.4.2
take care of $PREFIX/libdata/pkgconfig
Fix build on AMD64
BROKEN on !i386: Does not compile
fix build on -stable
Noticed by: bento via kris
add libassa 3.2.0
An C++ networking library and application framework
Servers and bandwidth provided byNew York Internet, SuperNews, and RootBSD
No vulnerabilities have been reported in the past 14 days
* - modified, not new
All vulnerabilities


text:
Music Monday April 25, 2016: Tim Hicks
It's Music Monday! Each week, I share something that I am currently listening to and think that you might also enjoy. It might be a new release by an artist or band you already know, it could be a tried and true favorite, or it could be something I have just discovered. Stop back each week to check out the featured music!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The results are better at a slightly higher temperature in my opinion. I get a pleasent mix of fruity pear flavour and spices (like clove – yum) and the white tea doesn't get over-cooked and turned bitter. It's a win-win all the way around. :D
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 30 sec


text:
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text:
It was a stark contrast to her performance at last year's show, when the star infamously twerked and danced provocatively on stage.
As Cyrus looked on, the man said: "Thank y'all, my name is Jesse and I am accepting this award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving, lost and scared for their lives right now.
"I know this because I am one of these people.
"Though I may have been invisible to you in the streets, I have a lot of the same dreams that brought many of you here tonight."
The singer's decision was reminiscent of Marlon Brando's 1973 Academy Awards best actor win, when he gave a Native American activist the stage rather than accept his award.
The video for her hit Wrecking Ball earned Cyrus the award.
The most shocking moment of the show at The Forum in Inglewood, California, was Nicki Minaj's rump-shaking during her performance of Anaconda and her wardrobe malfunction when she joined Ariana Grande and Jessie J for Bang, Bang.
Grande kicked off the show with a performance of her hit, Break Free.
The 21-year-old won Best Pop Video for her smash single Problem, but lost Best Female Video to Katy Perry, who won for Dark Horse.
Taylor Swift also performed her new single Shake It Off in shimmery shorts and a crop top.
Lorde won Best Rock Video for Royals and Ed Sheeran won Best Male Video, beating Pharrell, Eminem, John Legend and Sam Smith, who provided one of the highlights of the night with his performance of Stay With Me.
As well as the glitzy performances, the night featured a serious social message.
Rapper-actor Common held a moment of silence for Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a police officer in Missouri, before he presented the award for best hip-hop video.
Beyonce closed the show with a nearly 20-minute medley of her songs.
She was joined on stage by Jay-Z and Blue Ivy, which brought her to tears.
Beyonce sang and danced in a metallic leotard while her husband and daughter watched from their seats and declared: "MTV, welcome to my world."
As she accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award she kissed Blue Ivy and Jay-Z, who called her the "greatest living entertainer."


text:
wrestling / News
Various News: Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup Update, Nick Bockwinkle Turns 78
December 6, 2012 | Posted by
– The 10th and final Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup will be held December 14th and 15th at The Orpheum in Ybor, FL. Mike Cruz, Shane Strickland, Jonathon Gresham, Lince Dorado, Jay Cruz, Tommy Taylor, Papadon, and Samurai Del Sol are already scheduled to appear.
– Nick Bockwinkel turns 78 years old today.
– There are no classic AWA wrestling shows on ESPN Classic tonight.
Credit: prowrestling.net
More must-read wrestling news:
* Reby Sky gets naked showing off her war wounds on Twitter
* New possible WrestleMania opponent for the Rock discussed
* Why was the AJ/John Cena storyline given a rest on Raw?
* Daniel Bryan: "My dream match is vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania"
* 411's WWE Main Event report


text:
Reinhart takes the ice
All the pre-draft hype and post-draft talk is over. Sam Reinhart was actually in the flesh and on the ice Monday at First Niagara Center.
All eyes were trained on the Buffalo Sabres' most highly touted draft pick in 27 years during the first day of the team's summer development camp, and it was readily obvious why Reinhart was tabbed the No. 2 overall choice two weeks ago in Philadelphia.
These were only drills, not full-scale game action like the team will stage downtown tonight at 7. But Reinhart showed plenty of the slick skating and shifty hands that made him a junior sensation in Canada the last two years.
The draft process is draining on all top picks and Reinhart is no exception. They're most comfortable on the ice doing their thing.
"It was great," Reinhart said of Monday's pair of practice sessions. "It was a thrill to have that all over with and finally come here. It's a lot more comforting knowing all that's over and you can really get down to business, enjoy the week and the first experience at an NHL level. I'm just kind of taking it in stride and enjoying the process.
"It went well. Most of the guys at this stage of their development over the course of summer are trying to get better every day and continuing to work. From yesterday to today to tomorrow we're going to continue to get better and more comfortable on the ice and more familiar with each other."
Winger Brendan Lemieux, the Sabres' second-round pick, ran several 2-on-1 drills with Reinhart and was duly impressed.
"Everyone knows how good he is. What separates him from everybody else is how smart he is," said Lemieux, the son of longtime NHL veteran Claude Lemieux. "That's his strongest asset. He's a really smart kid. Obviously it's exciting for me to be out there with guys like that. That's the kind of caliber I want to be with. I want to surround myself with the best players in the world."
The Sabres were actually on the ice Sunday doing some testing but Monday's sessions were the first time the public and media could spy the prospects showing off their wares.
Having 12 first- or second-round picks on the ice was certainly impressive, and there was no doubt to regular observers that the tempo and intensity was a cut above previous years' summer camps.
"It's a process and the organization seems to be doing the right things to be getting much better as a group," Reinhart said. "It really starts not just on the NHL roster but in these camps as well, developing and getting better each day."
Reinhart said he was happy to be on the ice, another item checked off his to-do list in the wake of signing his first pro contract on Saturday. The three-year deal has a base salary at the entry-level maximum of $925,000 per season.
"It was really exciting and an honor for me to be signed by this organization. I'm really thankful for that," Reinhart said. "At the end of the day, it's one step closer to my ultimate goal. And my goal is to be here and to make an impact. It makes me feel more comfortable and gives me some confidence out there."
Reinhart tried to deflect a question about whether he felt a roster spot was his to lose, given his draft status.
"I wouldn't really put it that way," he said. "In my mind, I'm thinking if I come and play the way I'm capable of playing, I feel confident I can earn a spot and make an impact."
Goaltender Nathan Lieuwen played with Reinhart for parts of two seasons with the Kootenay Ice of the Western Hockey League and said he's noticed plenty of improvement from the 2011-12 season, when Reinhart posted 62 points in 67 games as a 16-year-old.
"Just seeing how much better he is now really encouraging," said Lieuwen, who agreed with Lemieux's take on Reinhart's on-ice acumen. "That's the biggest thing for him. He knows where to be on the ice. He's got such a hockey sense. That'll help him in the long run for sure."
University of Michigan center J.T. Compher, a second-round pick in 2013 back for his second camp with the Sabres, played against Reinhart in a pair of Under-18 World Championships.
He is fired up about being in the same organization.
"I knew what he was about. I was excited when they made that pick," said Compher, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season. "I think he's going to be a great guy for this organization. Very hard-working, humble kid and that's exactly what I've seen from him. Quiet guy but very confident on the ice and makes very smart plays."
Reinhart's first game setting comes in tonight's open scrimmage, where you can expect a few thousand Sabres fans to be scrutinizing every move by their new No. 23.
"Everyone's excited for it," Reinhart said. "It's been talked about quite a bit so we're looking forward to it. It's the one day of the week everybody is really looking to get into."
email firstname.lastname@example.com


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Microsoft Gulf, in partnership with du, today revealed the five projects in the UAE which have qualified for the UAE Country Finals of Microsoft's premier technology competition, Imagine Cup 2012. The projects selected include solutions that tackle challenges like piracy, healthcare and waste management submitted by university students from the UAE. Microsoft's partnership with du presents a special Mobile Development competition for students in the UAE.
Now in its tenth year, Microsoft's Imagine Cup called upon students across the UAE and Gulf to rise to the challenge and "imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today." The competition, supported by du, ASUS and Wamda is open to students between the age of 16 years and 26 years, empowering them to use their creative and technical abilities to make a positive impact on society.
The first place winning team in the Software Design category in the UAE Country Finals on April 23rd 2012 will advance to participate in the Imagine Cup worldwide finals which will be held in Sydney, Australia in July 2012.
"We are impressed with the entries received thus far for the Imagine Cup competition in the UAE," said Samer Abu-Ltaif, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf. "The notion of making the world a better place is at the heart of Imagine Cup and it provides a platform for the brightest young minds across UAE to express their creativity and passion for technology by coming up with new solutions for the challenges we face today in the world. The teams have exhibited tremendous passion and innovation and I wish them the very best for the future. Our focus on Imagine Cup reflects Microsoft's continued commitment in supporting young talent to drive future prosperity in the UAE."
"We are very pleased with the participation seen so far from students in the UAE for Microsoft UAE Imagine Cup in 2012 and are seeing a lot of excitement from young innovators in the UAE," said Hala Badri, Executive Vice President, Brand and Communications, du. "We are keen to keep the momentum going until the time for the UAE finals. Imagine Cup is one of few platforms that provide students a chance to showcase their technology innovation, and we believe this is set to inspire the next generation of leaders in UAE," continued Hala Badri.
For the fourth consecutive year, du is partnering Microsoft Gulf for Imagine Cup, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility efforts to encourage and nurture young entrepreneurs and talent in the UAE.
The five projects shortlisted from the United Arab Emirates are:
Reutilizer: a mobile application and website used by individuals to tackle waste management and biofuels. The website is used by small restaurants to avoid waste and uses a mapping algorithm which groups nearby individuals and stores in order to optimize pickups and make routes more efficient.
Absolute Security: secures any soft or digital product against piracy by using advanced encryption.
Cloud Scrubs: a unified Electronic Medical Record system which offers a common, usable and readable format for EMRs.
Sleep Apnea Monitor (SAM): phone application that aims to diagnose and monitor sleep apnea patients, through utilizing some of the phone's built-in features, in a cost-effective and more comfortable manner.
Sparkka: an application that answers medical queries and dispenses localized medical advice to patients and seekers of medical advice via its rich and easy-to-use interface.
Imagine Cup compliments Microsoft's Unlimited Potential commitment to create social and economic opportunity through programs and products that transform education, foster local innovation and enable jobs and opportunities worldwide.
For more information on Imagine Cup 2012, please visit http://www.imaginecupgulf.com/uae.aspx [2] where you can also register to attend the UAE Country Finals happening on April 23.
[1] https://www.albawaba.com/en/node/355857?nid=417554
[2] http://www.imaginecupgulf.com/uae.aspx
[3] https://www.albawaba.com/du
[4] https://www.albawaba.com/weber-shandwick-public-relations
[5] http://www.albawaba.com


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I tell my kids many things. "Try it, you might like it," is a common one at meal times when noses are turned at the sight of veggies or meat; (my brood only consume pasta, breads, rice and potato chips). Feeling like the hypocrite as I turned up my nose up at a bag of rocky road, I decided to try some. And you know what? I tried it, and golly! This gluten free rocky road with Toblerone and Red Frogs, is so good!
I have never liked rocky road because I don't like the squishiness of marshmallows… (and I wonder where my Mr M gets his squishy food aversions from?!). But this gluten free rocky road with Toblerone and Red Frogs, has Toblerone and Red Frogs!
I remember buying Red Frogs from the school canteen for 5 cents back when I was in school. Or maybe it was 2 cents? Remember when they had those copper 1 cent and 2 cents coins? Anyway, the Red Frogs were the best! Haven't had them in decades (*cough* feeling my age just typing that). The Red Frogs are still yummy!
Add those Red Frogs with some Toblerone and you have a genius rocky road. Genius. So simple and so delicious.
Mr N and M have been nagging me to bake with them. Though this isn't quite baking, they weren't complaining as they got their share of left over chocolate bits from the bowl. They have now added rocky road to their cooking vocabulary of pancakes, brownies, cookies and cupcakes.
Now I'm bracing myself (and my waistline) for more nagging to make rocky road. This is the life of a mum; things they don't tell you about before you have kids.
What about the life of a mum or dad, weren't you told about?
- 200g Toblerone
- 250g Pascal's Pink & White Marshmallows
- 190g Allen's Red Frogs
- 750g Nestle Milk Choc Melts
- Cut up the frogs, marshmallows and toblerone.
- Place the choc melts in a large bowl and melt, by placing the bowl over a pot of hot water.
- Add the frogs, marshmallows and toblerone to the choc melts.
- Lightly fold the mixture and spread it out onto a flat tray, lined with baking paper.
- Place in the fridge and let it set, (will take a few hours).
- Once set, cut into 1 inch square chunks & devour.
Many thanks to my dear friend Lisa, who is generously knocked up a yummy batch of these at her baby shower and shared the recipe with me. Thinking of you and the exciting weeks ahead! xo P
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment; I'd love to hear from you. If you are new here, you might like to receive updates direct to your email. We have many fun ideas to share.


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Restoration work to make a section of Idaho's Salmon River better for salmon and steelhead is about to get underway. It's also the focus of a nationwide campaign dedicated to conservation.
Anne Castle, an Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Interior visited central Idaho a few days ago. Because of the Halstead Fire, she didn't get to visit the Yankee Fork Rehabilitation Project near Stanley. It's an area where dredge mining destroyed salmon and steelhead habitat in the late 1800's.
The goal is to restore river flow, making it better habitat for juvenile chinook salmon. And for adult salmon returning from the ocean each year.
Castle did see a nearby stream that was restored for fish more than twenty years ago.
Castle: "If there is a before and after picture. Bear Valley Creek is the after picture. And now we see a more vibrant channel. A channel with natural meanders..the kind of habitat that the anadromous fish are looking for."
The Yankee Fork Rehabilitation Project is one of fifty the U.S. Government is focused on. One for each state. It's called America's Great Outdoors Initiative.
The other restoration projects here in the Northwest are focused on the Elwha River in Washington and the Sandy River in Oregon.
Copyright 2012 Boise State Public Radio


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Live Commentary
Thank you for following Goal's LIVE commentary of Chelse vs. Everton. I'm Ben Cullimore and it's been a pleasure to describe all of the action to you. Have a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing you all again next season in August. It's surely going to be a fantastic one!
Chelsea finish the season in third with 75 points, two ahead of Arsenal in fourth and three ahead of Tottenham, who have to settle for fifth after a battle for Champions League football which went right to the wire. Meanwhile, Everton finish in sixth after an impressive final season in charge for David Moyes, who leaves The Toffees after 11 years to take over Sir Alex Ferguson's place at Manchester United.
There we are, Chelsea have secured a third place finish and Champions League football for next season thanks to goals from Mata and Torres. Everton were arguably the better of the two sides in the first half but the Blues upped the tempo when they returned after the break and end the season with a deserved three points which see them finish as the highest finishing London club.
90' + 3'FT: Chelsea 2-1 Everton
90' + 2'Heintinga is presented with what should be Everton's last chance of the game after Fellaini knocked on Baines' cross into his path but he scuffs his attempted half-volley well over the crossbar.
90' + 1'Fellaini turns and fires from the edge of the box but his effort clears both Cech and the crossbar. Everton look as if they're all out of ideas and Chelsea are in full control.
90'Three minutes of added time will be played.
89'SubstitutionOscar Paulo Ferreira
88'34-year-old fan favourite Ferreira has come on to replace Oscar for the last few minutes of the game and his name rings around Stamford Bridge as he enters the field of play.
85'What a save by Cech! Baines crosses into Jelavic in the heart of the goalmouth and he directs a bullet header at the Czech goalkeeper but his reflexes are phenomenal and he parries the ball away.
83'Yellow Card David Luiz
83'SubstitutionJuan Mata César Azpilicueta
82'Jelavic just hasn't got his shooting boots on today, it seems! He's set up with another wonderful chance to score, this time on the left hand side of the box, but fires low and straight at Cech.
79'Everton have been noticeably more relaxed in the last 10 minutes or so and it's cost them dearly. Chelsea are now constantly applying pressure on their defence and look as if they might be able to grab a third goal as we enter the final 10 minutes of the match.
76'Assist Victor Moses
76'Goal Fernando Torres
Goal! Torres finally gets the goal he's been craving after a wonderful attacking movement from Chelsea. Oscar whips in a cross to Moses on the edge of the six-yard box and the Nigerian sets up Torres with a header down into his feet. The Spaniard then half-volleys the ball with great power past an outstretched Howard. 2-1!
74'Jelavic has a perfect chance and somehow he misses it! Poor defending in the middle of the box allows him to break away from Luiz before Baines sets up the Croatian with a great pass across goal. He slides in to make contact but mistimes it and is only able to flick the ball wide of the goal.
72'The pace has slowed down slightly recently, although Chelsea still look determined to score the goal that will guarantee them a third place finish. If they can then hold onto their lead, that is...
70'Yellow Card John Heitinga
70'Chance for Jelavic as Fellaini heads the ball from the left hand side of the penalty area towards him in the centre, and he himself meets the ball with his head, but his effort is tame and Cech is able to get down low to save it with ease.
68'Ivanovic takes the ball off the newly-introduced Jelavic and powers forward before unleashing a powerful shot that bounces just wide of the far post.
67'SubstitutionVictor Anichebe John Heitinga
66'SubstitutionSteven Naismith Nikica Jelavic
66'SubstitutionDemba Ba Victor Moses
66'Ake has been very impressive so far and steals the ball away to start a Chelsea counterattack that eventually ends with Ba on the edge of the penalty area. He turns and passes across the deck to Mata in front of goal but the Spaniard is outnumbered and is unable to get a shot away.
63'Cahill's involved in a fine piece of defending yet again. Fellaini finds himself with the ball on the left hand side of the Chelsea penalty area but the England international slides in to dispossess the Belgian and send the ball out for a corner.
61'An attempted pass from youngster Ake goes astray and allows Everton to attack but Cahill cuts out the danger and sends the ball up the pitch.
59'Much better play from Chelsea in this opening quarter of an hour; they've upped the tempo of their attacking play significantly and are making the Everton defence sweat.
57'Yellow Card Marouane Fellaini
57'Free kick for Chelsea in a dangerous position after Fellaini clips Oscar to bring the Brazilian tumbling down. Luiz, Mata and Lampard all eye up the shot from 25-yards out before the Brazilian steps up and fires into the bottom of the wall. It somehow finds its way through, however, and pinballs around the penalty area before Everton are able to clear to safety.
54'Poor defending from Everton gifts Ba with the opportunity to shoot from the edge of the box but Distin remains calm and throws his body in front of the effort to deflect it out for a corner. Heroic defending once again from the Frenchman.
52'A screamer of a shot from Ivanovic from close to the penalty spot but he lifts his head when contact is made with the ball and his shot rises over the bar. What an opportunity for the Serbian to put his side ahead!
50'Chelsea have a corner but it's lost by Lampard, allowing Pienaar to break away for Everton. He slows the play down and it eventually ends up with Fellaini who shoots from distance but it's straight at Cech.
47'Fellaini slips and allows Oscar to embark on a counterattacking run down the middle of the pitch. With no one around him and Distin bearing down on him, the Brazilian elects to shoot from distance but it trickles wide of the Everton goal.
46'And we're off again!
The teams are back out onto the pitch and ready to go. This is sure to be a thrilling second half!
Here's what our man at Stamford Bridge, Josh Clarke, has to say on the first 45 minutes: "Non-stop incident here at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea and Everton finish the first half at 1-1. After Juan Mata's opener Everton seized control, drawing level when Steven Naismith plundered David Luiz before missing a host of decent opportunities. Rafa Benitez and David Moyes will both be keen to sign off with a win and this one could swing either way after the break."
However, Chelsea have played some truly beautiful football in the first half and look dangerous up front on the break, with both Torres and Ba looking determined to end their seasons with a goal. If the hosts are able to up the intensity when they return, they too could see themselves 2-1 up early on in the second half.
The referee brings an end to an action-packed first half. The main surprise is surely that we've only seen the ball hit the back of the net twice during the opening 45 minutes! Both sides have had plenty of chances in front of goal but with Chelsea's defence looking slightly nervous and Everton's attackers in fine form, the visitors look the most likely of the two to go ahead after the restart.
45'HT: Chelsea 1-1 Everton
43'Lampard almost makes it 204 goals for Chelsea after being set up with a fantastic opportunity in front of goal but his shot clears the bar.
41'Wonderful attacking movement again from Everton! Pienaar passes the ball to Anichebe just inside the box and receives the ball again before firing a shot at Cech. His effort takes a deflection off Luiz but the Czech goalkeeper is able to parry the ball away.
38'Pienaar has the opportunity to put Everton 2-1 up with a shot from the edge of the area after being set up by Naismith but his effort curls just inches over the bar.
36'Shouts for a penalty from the Chelsea fans after Oscar is unable to get to Mata's crossed ball as a result of Baines blocking the Brazilian, but referee Anthony Taylor shakes his head and points for a goal kick instead.
34'Yellow Card Fernando Torres
34'Chelsea then immediately play some lovely football of their own as they string together a multitude of beautiful passes before Mata fires in towards Howard in the hope of doubling his goal tally. The American saves and the ball is cleared up the pitch but Everton's counterattack is stopped when Torres fouls Coleman from behind to earn himself a yellow card.
32'Lovely football from Everton! Gibson is involved again and sends in a wonderful chipped ball towards Mirallas at the back post. Unfortunately for the visitors, the Belgian's first touch is poor and the ball bounces into the arms of Cech.
30'Oscar sets up Luiz on the right flank and the Brazilian whips the ball into the box. It's cleared by the Everton defence but only as far as Lampard who lays the ball off to Ake behind him. The teenager then sends a rocket shot towards Howard but it clears the bar by a few feet.
27'Mata fires in a free kick from the right wing but there's a lack of blue shirts in the Everton box. It poses no real threat to the visitors who are able to clear comfortably.
24'Fellaini loses the ball in the middle of the pitch and allows Torres to be set up with a deft through-ball, but he's up against Distin as they both race towards the Everton goal and the Frenchman - unsurprisingly - out-muscles his opponent and plays the ball safely back to Howard for him to clear up the field.
23'We're just over halfway through the first half and it doesn't look as if either side are going to slow down the pace of the game anytime soon. What a start we've had!
21'Gibson, clearly confident of his abilities, fires in a fourth long-range attempt towards Cech but this one is significantly more tame than the others and is collected by the Chelsea shot-stopper with ease.
19'Torres has moved into the centre of the field after starting on the right and immediately is presented a good chance. Ivavonic whips in a great cross from the right wing and finds the Spaniard in the middle of the box, but he's unable to get any sort of clean contact on the ball and it fails to trouble Howard.
17'What a chance for Gibson! He fires in towards the far end of the goal and it bounces off the woodwork onto the head of Cech and back onto the post before finally bouncing away from danger.
16'The visitors are keeping a high amount of pressure applied on a nervy Chelsea defence as they search for a goal to put them ahead.
14'Assist Victor Anichebe
14'Goal Steven Naismith
GOAL! Everton deservedly equalise and Naismith ends his run of 20 games without a goal to make it 1-1. Anichebe uses his strength to fight of Cahill and Cole before slipping the ball to his team-mate just inside the penalty area and he calmly places his shot past a fast-approaching Cech. 1-1!
12'Another chance for Everton as they up the pressure another notch. Gibson finds himself with the ball in space 20-yards out but his shot goes wildly wide.
10'Everton fight back straight from the restart and almost create an equaliser when Coleman picks out Naismith in the middle of the Chelsea box after a period of good attacking play, but the Scotsman lifts his shot over the bar.
7'Goal Juan Mata
GOAL! Chelsea counterattack down the right hand flank and Ba shoots from the edge of the box. Howard spills a tame effort from the Senegalese striker and Mata, the club's Player of the Year and Player's Player of the Year, is there to poke the ball into the back of the net. 1-0!
6'Everton break away down the centre of the field through Gibson who looks to set up Mirallas on the edge of the box but Ivanovic cuts out the pass at the last minute. The visitors pick up the ball again and embark on another attack but Cahill clears the danger at the last moment.
4'Great chance for Chelsea! A mix-up at the back allows an Everton pass to go astray and into the feet of Ba in the box, but he loses his footing and scuffs his shot wide.
2'Chelsea have dominated possession in the early moments as they look to secure the victory that will guarantee them a third-place finish.
1'And we're off!
Interesting to see that Rafa Benitez uses his last game in charge to start both Torres and Ba, with the Spaniard starting behind the Senegalese striker on the right alongside Mata and Oscar. 18-year-old Nathan Ake is handed his first Premier League start, while 17-year-old substitute Andreas Christensen is involved with the first team for the first time.
Everton: Howard, Coleman, Baines, Jagielka, Distin, Gibson, Fellaini, Pienaar, Mirallas, Naismith, Anichebe. Subs: Mucha, Hibbert, Heitinga, Oviedo, Jelavic, Barkley, Duffy
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Cole, Ake, Lampard, Torres, Mata, Oscar, Ba. Subs: Turnbull, Azpilicueta, Ferreira, Christensen, Marin, Benayoun, Moses
First, let's look at how the two sides line up for their final games of what has been a truly gripping 2012/13 season.
Good afternoon and welcome to Goal's LIVE commentary of Chelsea vs. Everton. My name is Ben Cullimore and I'll be keeping you up to date with all of the action from Stamford Bridge.


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That changed about 3 a.m. Tuesday. Surveillance video from the restaurant shows men throw a rock through the front window as they bust into the restaurant. They spent 1 minute and 45 seconds tearing out the cash registers.
The video captured at least two of the suspects' faces. There were three of them in all. They bailed out of the restaurant, dragging the registers and a TV down Mack Avenue.
The good people who work at National showed up three hours later. They couldn't believe what had happened.
"It's unfortunate this thing has to happen, you know, to such a good place," said owner Billy Douveas. "It just looked like a whole disaster area. The first thing I did was I looked and I saw that the registers were missing. I looked over and saw the window was busted and the TV was missing."
Douveas and the rest of his team are putting out a plea for help catching the crooks.
"We hope to catch the thieves that broke into our nice establishment here," the owner said.
Copyright 2012 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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My sweet friend Lisa made me this darling Crow Monogram sign-
{I love having awesome friends!}
It looks so cute on my front door!
Lisa said she got the idea in the October 2008 Country Living Magazine, but here is how to make it if you'd like to try your hand at it:
1. Paint your board white.
2. If you are talented like Lisa, you can free-hand your images on contact paper, but if you're like me, you should print them out and trace them.
3. Cut out your image from the contact paper and stick it to the board.
4. Paint the whole board black (paint right over the contact paper).
5. Peel the contact paper off before the paint is dry.
6. Finish with some clear, non-yellowing sealer.
And you're done!
Thanks again Lisa- you are awesome!
(This post originally published in 2009 and was updated in 2012.)


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Clean Cut
Menachem Mazuz began his term as attorney general by closing a case against one prime minister and ended it by indicting another. In an interview with Haaretz, he explains the reasoning behind his decisions, First of two parts.
"I was definitely an opposition figure to those who preceded me. I thought there were two aspects in which the system of criminal enforcement was not working properly. On the one hand, the work procedures were not sufficiently organized or methodical, with the result that the system was not effective. On the other hand, I thought that in certain cases, criminal law had been stretched beyond its rightful place."
Examples, please.
"Raful. Raful [former chief of staff Rafael Eitan] was placed on trial for making use of information that infringed on the protection of privacy. I thought it was absolutely not germane to file an indictment in a case of that kind. I also thought it was wrong to file an indictment in the case of Yaakov Neeman [the present justice minister]. I believed that criminal law must not be stretched beyond its natural dimensions."
In other words, you took office determined that there would be no more Raful-like indictments - no indictments against public figures that the court would just dismiss.
"We are not convictions contractors. Acquittals are a possibility. For example, I think the indictment against [former Jewish Agency chairman] Simcha Dinitz was fully justified, and I think his acquittal was scandalous. The judgment handed down in the Dinitz case was puzzling. But I said in the past and I say again now, that in the past 20 years every acquittal caused far more damage than five convictions. Especially acquittals that resonated, in an early stage of the process and in a determined court atmosphere. I was critical of the approach that held that if there was any doubt, the court should be the one to decide. That is not why criminal law came into being. There is no justification for suddenly adopting stringent criteria just because the case involves a public figure.?"
There was opposition in another sense as well. You objected not only to the hyperactivity of the state prosecution, but also to the judicial activism of the Supreme Court.
"I thought that in certain areas the court was penetrating the sphere of other systems without justification and without usefulness. In a conversation I had with the justice minister, Tommy Lapid, ahead of my appointment, I spoke to him about Gibbon?s 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.' I said that Gibbon's principal insight was that Rome fell when it overstretched its boundaries and penetrated places and spheres in which it lacked effective control. It's the same with the judicial system. Anyone who wants a strong judicial system has to focus on the spheres which are without doubt within its legitimate and recognized boundaries. As soon as the system invades other territories, it loses its legitimacy, is unable to impose its authority and begins to disintegrate."
Your fear is actually of judicial manipulation. Can you give some examples?
"In my opinion, it is definitely not the role of the judicial system to decide how the state should defend itself. In my view, the question of whether to invest half a billion shekels to protect homes in Sderot is not a judicial question and does not require a judicial decision. I also think that the court's tendency to deal with petitions concerning prosecution decisions is problematic. In the past, the court said it would not turn itself into a meta-legal adviser and would not decide in place of the attorney general or the state prosecutor or the district prosecutor. That is also the approach followed in most countries. The court's entry into those spheres creates a problematic and dangerous bias, because it encourages the prosecution to file indictments, even in cases where doubt exists. It also creates a conflict of interest in the court?s role, because what the Supreme Court says is liable to influence the Magistrate's Court or the District Court that will hear the case.
Accordingly, you enter the attorney general?s office as a reformer, almost a revolutionary. You are severely critical of the behavior of the state prosecution and of the mode of operation of the Supreme Court.
"And I am also critical of the excessive, almost symbiotic closeness between those two systems. I think it's necessary to rearrange the relations between them on the basis of a clear separation. I find it unacceptable for the court to intervene in the work we do. Our role is to present to the court our position and the court's role is to decide. Not to make comments to the state prosecution that will cause it to change its position in advance."
So with this worldview you come to the first issue of principle on which you have to decide: the Greek island case. Even though the state prosecutor, Edna Arbel, had already drafted an indictment against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, you close the case. A public furor erupts. People say you are corrupt, or spineless.
"The affair of the Greek island is a dark episode: a series of cases built on the basis of very extensive wiretapping of [the businessman] David Appel from the end of 1998 until the beginning of 2001. The investigation against Sharon in this context occurs in three stages. One police investigation concludes in the middle of 2002 with a clear recommendation to close the case due to lack of evidence. Two additional investigations, which concluded toward the end of 2003, also did not produce evidence for an indictment. The police did not submit an orderly recommendation in writing, but their position was definite and unequivocal: none of the investigations - neither the first, the second nor the third - produced an evidentiary foundation for filing an indictment. That was the basis on which discussions were held in the State Prosecutor?s Office under the state prosecutor at the time [Edna Arbel, now a Supreme Court justice] in the second half of 2003.
"A lengthy and detailed opinion was drawn up whose conclusion was that the case should be closed because there was insufficient evidence against Ariel Sharon and [his son] Gilad Sharon. A copy of that opinion was forwarded to me. At my request, when I took office, a notation was appended to it stating that in the meantime more discussions had been held on the subject with the state prosecutor in which the recommendation had been reexamined. On March 28, 2004, I received an additional, shorter opinion of which the bottom line was a recommendation to indict Ariel Sharon and Gilad Sharon. A draft indictment was appended to the new opinion.
"When I received the second opinion, I raised a question: How did the opinion come to be changed within two-three months on the basis of the same evidence? Without any new evidence having come to light? When both opinions were rendered in the wake of discussions with the participation of the same people and headed by the same state prosecutor? It was unclear to me what the reason for the change was. The more so, because we know of quite a few cases in which the police recommend going to trial, but the state prosecution reaches the conclusion that there is not enough evidence - but I don?t recall an opposite case.
"The second opinion rendered by the State Prosecutor's Office seemed to me completely wrongheaded. Accordingly, I decided to examine the case from the start, anew. Because I did not want to rely on myself only, I set up a professional team of very experienced people in the state prosecution who had not been involved in the case. On the eve of the Passover break in 2004, each of them received a package of the evidence and the opinions. Upon their return to work, they all expressed a uniform first impression: there is no case. But I did not make do with that. For months I held a series of lengthy meetings with the team. Even after 13 or 14 meetings, there was full agreement among the team. The evidence in the Greek island case did not even come close to establishing a sufficient basis for an indictment. There was insufficient evidence to file an indictment."
The prime minister?s son receives more than half a million dollars for surfing the Web - if that isn?t bribery, what is?
"During most of the period under examination Ariel Sharon was not prime minister, but a member of the opposition. Gilad Sharon's employment was not fictitious: he worked intensively and full time as project manager. Others also received very high salaries in that megalomaniac project."
But we all read explicitly in the newspaper Sharon?s incriminating statement: The island is in our hands.
"That was a selective, manipulative and misleading report. When you listen to the entire conversation, you discover that Sharon did not have a clue about the Greek island or about what Gilad was doing and how much he was getting. In fact, precisely that conversation is salient evidence for the defense. To establish a charge of bribery, it needed to be shown that Sharon was aware that Gilad was receiving money intended for him [Ariel Sharon]. Despite the vast scale of the wiretapping, no evidence of that was found, and the conversation you mentioned actually points in the opposite direction. A further difficulty was that Gilad threatened to sue Appel in court and was in correspondence with him through lawyers. That is behavior inconsistent with a bribery context."
So what you are saying is that even now, five and half years later, you have no regrets about your decision in the Greek island case.
"I have absolutely no regrets about that decision. I consider it one of the important decisions I made. Maybe the most important. I think we would have collapsed in court with that case. And a collapse in an indictment against a prime minister has far-reaching implications. It was not an easy decision. I knew I was acting contrary to a public perception that an indictment was unavoidable. But that is precisely why the decision was so important. It was a decision against the current. I do not want to think what would have happened if a different attorney general had flinched from making that decision for fear of criticism and fear of taking responsibility for something that was far from simple."
But you were roundly assailed. People wanted your head.
"People said at the time that Mazuz must go, that after a decision like that there was no way he could continue in office. I told myself that maybe they were right but that I will do the job even if that will be the price. I have to do what I believe in. The weeks after the decision about the Greek island were not an easy time. But I am cut out for sangfroid. I have a character of self-control. I have the ability to repress. I am able to guide myself not on the basis of feelings and anger but by means of a process of rational thought. So the next morning, I resumed the regular work routine."
And then, two months later, you make a decision that is perceived as going in the opposite direction. You launch a criminal investigation against Tzachi Hanegbi for doing what politicians have always done here: making political appointments. Wasn?t there something unfair about that decision? Something arbitrary?
"We decided to do it for a number of reasons. First, the political appointments [in ministries] were never legitimate. Nine state comptroller reports and nine Supreme Court decisions found them to be unacceptable. It was made clear to the politicians that there was something improper here. Second, we did not invent the law. Even 30 or 40 years ago, political appointments were a criminal offense. Third, according to an opinion by Justice Berenson, it is justified to draw the line at a certain point and say that the limits have been overstepped.
"But what very much reinforced our decision was the fact that the Hanegbi case was very flagrant. It involved 90 appointments in a small ministry within a short period. Most of the appointments were at a junior level where there is no justification for a political appointment. So it was clear that this was pure political payment that has no justification and no ideology behind it. Tzachi Hanegbi himself connected the appointments directly to the phenomenon of concrete election bribery. He told the Likud central committee: I appointed 90 in a small ministry, so imagine how many I will appoint if you vote for me [in the primary] and I get a big ministry. [This] showed that Hanegbi had purely irrelevant, political considerations aimed at promoting personal interests. That is why I thought it was justified to make a strategic decision in this case. To raise the bar in the struggle against an untenable phenomenon, and for the first time bring the criminal instrument into play against it."
Later on you dealt with three more affairs involving appointments: the Tax Authority, former Shas minister Shlomo Benizri and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"Yes, and in retrospect it is even more apparent to me that there was no choice but to change the rules of the game. To undo the Gordian knot of such appointments with one swift slice of the sword. Why? Because the cases of [political] appointments that came after Hanegbi were far more serious.
"Whereas with Hanegbi the core of the corruption lay in the appointment itself, with Benizri the appointment was only the first step. After the forward unit was sent to seize the key position, the second stage began, in which the appointee was called upon to issue biased tenders or give licenses to people who were not entitled to them, in return for a bribe. Benizri appointed the head of the Employment Service and afterward demanded that the head of the Employment Service issue permits to Mr. Sela, who had given him a bribe. In other words, you have here the corruption of the system itself.
"In regard to the affair of Olmert?s appointments, overall, I can say that this is like the Hanegbi case, but more serious. A long series of appointments and benefits of various kinds to cronies in order to advance political interests and enhance the player?s status in the political constellation. This affair is graver than the Hanegbi case, because in the relevant period Olmert constituted about half the government. He was minister of commerce, industry and employment, minister of communications, in charge of the Israel Lands Administration and in charge of the Broadcasting Authority. Some of the appointments were also to positions more significant than the junior positions in the Tzachi Hanegbi case. Nearly 200 instances were examined; not all them reached the finish line, but it?s still a hefty number of cases. It?s a huge case from the point of view of the amount of material. It does not raise new or innovative [legal] questions, but it involves a great deal of plodding work. You also have to remember that Olmert did what he did after Tzachi Hanegbi and after Hanegbi was already involved in a criminal proceeding."
And the Tax Authority?
"I see the Tax Authority affair as one of the most serious cases we dealt with. Maybe the most serious of them all. If this affair had not been uncovered and brought to a halt, we would have arrived at a phenomenon like the Mafia in the United States; when the Mafia buys a key figure in the judicial system, in the governmental system and in the legislative system and harnesses them in the service of its activity."
Aren't you exaggerating? All in all, we are talking about the familiar Israeli system of cronyism, a kind of upgraded protection.
"We got onto this affair by chance and with a little luck. From wiretapping in a different case, we discovered that the head of the Tax Authority felt he owed his appointment to people with political interests who felt they had bought the head of the Tax Authority. You have to understand that the head of the Tax Authority holds one of the strongest and most sensitive positions in the Israeli establishment. He oversees a body that produces hundreds of billions of shekels. And what we see is that gradually the top echelon of the Tax Authority begins to be painted in red, with each bit of red being an appointee who came from one of the people in the case. [Olmert's former office manager] Shula Zaken?s brother has business interests. It's important for him to have his man in the Customs Authority in Ashdod because he imports merchandise through the port there. And it's important to have someone in the tax assessor?s office in Tel Aviv, because that's where his tax returns are filed. So he and his friends say shamelessly to [former Tax Authority head] Jackie Matza: We want this done here and we want you to appoint that guy there. And within a short time they succeed.
"So, if the affair had not been caught in time we would have quickly reached a situation in which the entire senior level of the Tax Authority is packed with people who owe their appointment to people with vested interests outside the system. And afterward these people trade with their power. Because if you possess such huge power you will not exploit it only for yourself - you will leverage it. You will offer your services to others in return for a commission. Of all the affairs I am familiar with, both historically and during my term, this is the closest we have come to a hostile takeover by vested interests of one of the most sensitive public systems. That is why I consider it the most serious case of all. Here the disease penetrated deep into the body and became cancerous."
What you are saying is that in terms of the rule of law in Israel, the moment of the Tax Authority was the most threatening moment of all.
"It was a threatening moment. I remember that the first time it absolutely threw me for a loop. The thought that vested interests were taking control of the Tax Authority was harrowing. Because that's almost the end of the road. And it happened so easily. So you stop and ask yourself: Just a minute, if it happened here, maybe it happened in other places, too. After all, I never imagined that we were capable of reaching that situation.
"But there was another hard moment. The story of Haim Ramon is complex or strange in many aspects. On the one hand, it is ostensibly a small, marginal event according to normative and criminal criteria. On the other hand, this ostensibly small and specific and marginal event exposed us to a public reaction that was surprising in its intensity. Through that event I saw how it is possible to harness entire systems to engage in some sort of delegitimization of the law enforcement system, in part by means of blatantly lying claims. So you see that if you thought that the system is perched on legs with strong foundations, in reality it is not so. There are forces that can destabilize it."
By your leave, let's divide the matter into two. First the Ramon affair itself. Don?t you think it is unwarranted to place a cabinet minister on trial for a kiss? Don't you think this was a salient case in which the response should have been left to the public's normative criteria rather than to the penal code?
"From the start, the event itself, in terms of a professional analysis, was an offense. It also had a more serious context. These were not two kids, a male and female soldier. On the one side was a cabinet minister, on the other a female soldier, a state employee, who was in a government facility. Not to mention the time and the place. In other words, this was an act which in terms of its components was certainly a criminal offense. When a complaint is lodged against a minister who forces himself on a soldier in a government office, it is not something we can ignore.
"The story could have been [explained as] a mistake. It could have been argued that it was not a comedy of errors, but a tragedy of errors. Mr. Ramon could have said: It was a mistake of comprehension on my part, maybe because of the generation gap, but I understood that she started up with me. So I admit the mistake, apologize to her and thereby defuse the event. If Ramon had done that, he would have negated the criminality of the event. What would have remained was a matter for the public to judge. But Ramon did not say he had made a mistake. He claimed the woman was lying. So we were confronted with two accounts: either Ramon was lying or the soldier was lying. And in that situation, I am not aware of any reasonable possibility [of disregarding] this story. In the end, the court decided in the most unmistakable manner that it believed the complainant and not Ramon, and Ramon was convicted.
"In the scale of justice this is seemingly the simplest and most minor of all the public cases I dealt with. But this particular case generated the most serious assault from the systemic point of view: on the police, on the state prosecution, in the courts. It exposed a great many forces that harbor a great deal of hostility and resentment toward the entire judicial system, and it was frightening in the sense that we felt a bit insecure at the systemic level. So you say to yourself, if an event like this can generate opposition on this scale, it means that the Israeli society is far less firm than we thought. The basic values of the rule of law, respect for the law and enforcement of the law are not sufficiently entrenched and rooted here.
"The most frightening moment came on the eve of the trial. I remember that we sat in this very office and tried to think what would happen should Ramon be acquitted. It wasn"t a case in which we could tell ourselves an acquittal was inconceivable. It was a case of sexual offense, of one version of events against another, in which an acquittal would be a result acceptable to the public. Israel is not Soviet Russia or North Korea, in which those who launch the investigation also decide its outcome. Convictions and acquittals are part of the judicial process. But because of the raging furor it was clear to us that an acquittal might prove destructive to the system. As it was, there was an atmosphere of self-defense, of siege. Some sort of hidden, unnamed hand was at work here, elements at war with the rule of law. People with ties to Ramon also worked in one way or another and succeeded in mobilizing very large forces. The result was a campaign of delegitimization in its most straightforward sense. There were attacks on the judges in the case. There were attacks on our prosecutors. At the height of the events, I was concerned that the campaign might adversely affect the system?s ability."
With regard to Olmert, it is alleged that you persecuted a serving prime minister and in the end unseated him.
"There is no more baseless contention than that. I can say that with the exception of one marginal episode, which did not make the headlines, not one of the things we latched onto turned out to be without foundation. In each subject it emerged that the suspicions were real. Some of them led eventually to an indictment, while in others the findings we were able to arrive at were not at a level to justify an indictment. But none of the cases of management and behavior merit a prize for proper quality of government.
"Take, for example, a case that in the end was closed: the Bank Leumi case. I did not deal with it. But when you read the opinion rendered by the state prosecutor, it is quite clear that there was improper behavior there. The final decision was that the improper behavior is not criminal behavior, but there were things to examine. And the decision proved that our system does not hurry to label every case of improper behavior criminal."
The true crushing blow against Olmert was the deposition by U.S. businessman Morris Talansky. The allegation is that there was no professional justification for deposing him, that it was an aberrant procedure with the aim of vilifying the prime minister publicly.
" will start from the end. After giving his testimony and returning to the United States, Mr. Talansky refused to return to Israel for a long time, almost a year. Objectively, it was proved that our apprehension was justified and was in fact realized. It is hard to think of a more blatant case that justifies prior testimony. That is routine practice in the case of a key witness who is a foreign resident. Moreover, he is not a young man, he is a suspect and he says of himself that he was a close friend of Olmert', so he has a clear interest not to come back here, not to incriminate and not to testify against Olmert. It is not by chance that three judges in District Court and three justices of the Supreme Court rejected the allegations against the deposition.
"nd as for the vilifications: We asked for the evidence to be given behind closed doors. We did not want any sort of public effect; we wanted quiet. The allegations against us in this entire matter are groundless from A to Z."
Meni Mazuz, you unseated a prime minister.
"he decision to bring a halt to Olmert'sterm of office was not mine. Nor did it necessarily follow directly from my decision. In the High Court of Justice petition, I said that under Israeli law a prime minister does not have to resign in consequence of a decision to launch an investigation [against him]. Olmert' decision to step down was rooted in the political arena, at the political level and in the prevailing political relationships. All I did was to make the obligatory decisions within my purview."
Still, you started your term as attorney general by closing a case against a prime minister and ended it by filing a harsh indictment against a prime minister.
"any years ago, when I was living in Washington, I saw on television a prosecutor emerging from the courtroom and addressing the television cameras, beaming with pleasure. He said: We succeeded in convicting that man and he will never see the light of day in his life. I found that very grating. It continues to grate me even now. I think we have to deal with the matters at hand without joyfulness. We are not headhunters.
" do not ignore the fact that there may be a certain symbolic import in this closing of the circle. But the timing was not arranged by anyone. What was truly important to me when I dealt with a president and a prime minister and cabinet ministers and rabbis and judges, was to be color-blind. That means neutralizing yourself when deciding whether or not to indict. On the operating table, the patient is usually covered with a sheet in which only an opening is made, so that the surgeon can ignore the context. The face is erased, the body is erased and he deals only with the tissue of flesh. That is how I behaved in the Olmert case and in the other cases involving public figures. I told myself that my task is not to decide whether it is good for Israel that he is prime minister, but to decide professionally according to the rules of work. That?s all. I very much believe in the work process. In the end, that is your only anchor, even with yourself. It is the anchor that guarantees that you were not influenced by one thing or another but stuck to a rigid professional work process. Without shortcuts, without going easy, without biases. I believe that that is how I behaved. Accordingly, I believe that in the Olmert affairs, too, I arrived at the right results, results which differed from one other in each separate affair."
Avigdor Lieberman has been under investigation for more then a decade without even one indictment. Isn' he just being harassed by the system?
"I losed the previous case against him, not because it was not serious, but because the investigation did not produce enough evidence. The case that is now pending dates from mid-2006. The investigation has been conducted with appropriate speed, with the exception of a few setbacks caused by people under investigation. There were also delays due to the fact that part of the investigation is being conducted abroad. I will put it this way: The case is dealing with considerable suspicions regarding meaningful acts over the past decade, and there is a clear public interest in completing the investigation. A decision in this matter is expected shortly. W
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Senior Men's Division: Empanger wins seventh Resorters title
Hoisting a trophy at the end of Resorters week has become more than routine for Chaska's Jon Empanger - it's become expected.
Like he has six times in the past, Empanger delivered again in 2010 with his second straight Senior Division championship. It's the fourth straight Resorters title for the Island View Golf Club member after taking Executive Division championships in 2007 and 2008.
His win over Becker's Greg Mattson in this year's Senior final did not come easy. It took all 18 holes to decide it as the two went into the 18th all even before Empanger scored a par victory to wrap up the match.
That put the finishing touches on what was a back-and-forth round. Neither player led by more than one hole throughout the day. Empanger struck first with a par win on No. 4. Mattson answered right back with a par and a birdie on Nos. 5 and 6 to take a 1-up lead.
It's a lead that lasted until the 9th. Empanger made the turn with a par win in his back pocket to even things up.
The drama only intensified once they hit the back nine. The two players had an answer for every hole the other took. Mattson struck first with a win on 11 before a birdie on 12 for Empanger evened things up again. Two holes later, Empanger struck with another birdie win only to be followed with a Mattson birdie on the 15th.
Empanger proved to be a little steadier down the stretch. He took another lead with a par on the 16th, but Mattson wasn't finished. His birdie on the par 3, 17th set up an intense 18th hole. Empanger knows how to close out titles in this tournament, though. He did it again when he made par after Mattson opened the door with a bogey.
Another year, another title for the perennial champ.
Jon Empanger def. Greg Mattson, 1-up


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Oh yeah, the sight of (gasp) hair turns men into sex-crazed animals!
(Jakarta Globe) — In Indonesia's only province ruled by strict Islamic law, the sight of the "morals police" prompts women to quickly adjust their headscarves and male and female companions to move apart.
In Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island, it is the job of the 1,000-strong Wilayatul Hisbah, or Islamic police, to enforce Shariah laws that mandate public modesty for women, and forbid unmarried couples from socializing.
In the capital Banda Aceh last week, a woman peeled away from her husband, reached for a scarf and quickly wrapped it around her head as a patrol approached; a petrified couple hopped on a motorcycle and fled.
But another pair hiding behind a large rock on the beach were not so lucky.
"Are you married?" roared a burly officer, wearing a khaki uniform and sporting a thick moustache, as he approached the cringing couple who shook their heads.
"This is unacceptable in Aceh, we have Shariah laws here. Go along now, go home," he said, after examining their identity cards. […]
Extreme views are rife in the province where there are no cinemas, music concerts are few, and billboards depict females in headscarves.
"Women who don't wear headscarves are inviting men to touch their breasts," said 47-year-old teacher Tarmizi Mohammad.
"I think we should enforce Shariah laws further and stone adulterers and chop off the hands of thieves," he added.


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Conquer clutter!
What do you see when you look around your home? I see a landscape of failure. There are piles of paper. Piled on the piles are more piles. Books and DVDs have escaped the shelves and are now in, well, piles. I tell myself I will sort through them one day. Unfortunately, I have not had that extra day in years. I have twin 4-year-old boys whose toys have overflowed into every room in the house. And despite having renovated the upstairs of my three-bedroom apartment two years ago, I have not yet hung a single painting. The new wallpaper is already, inexplicably, peeling. I was very clever to have the contractors create a laundry room. Had I been cleverer, I'd have purchased a washer and dryer to go in it. And my clothing...well, it's very nice. Or at least I think it is. Much of it is gathering dog hair at the bottom of my closet, where it lies crumpled in balls.
I cannot even start to talk about my kitchen without crying. My supply of kitchen gadgets is unparalleled. And I keep buying them on the theory that perhaps if I own not one but three food processors, I will one day actually puree something.
This mess is one reason my husband and I still maintain separate apartments after more than a decade together. He loves me, but he can't live with me. I can't say that I blame him. I don't particularly want to live with me either.
Fortunately, SELF gave me a unique opportunity: Expose your messy life to our readers, and we will organize you. Or rather, we'll send several organizers with different areas of expertise to your home, free of charge. What I really wanted to do was spend a week at Canyon Ranch and come back to find my place looking like a spread out of Architectural Digest. That's not exactly what happened. My editors actually wanted me to work through my order issues myself, the bastards.
So I did, in hopes of finding that sense of calm I imagine other people feel when they walk into their home. I also wanted to spend less time running around looking for things and more time enjoying my husband and my boys, and perhaps even find a bit of myself I'd lost under all those piles.
Get-organized strategy #1
Tackle piles one by one
Cindy Glovinsky, a psychotherapist in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and author of One Thing at a Time: 100 Simple Ways to Live Clutter-Free Every Day (St. Martin's Press), sets out to help me answer a crucial question: Why do I choose to live this way? The two of us talk on the phone about my background, and I tell her I've never been an organized person, a fact I used to be smug about. Tidiness, I believed, was for dorks. People who chased dust motes lacked creativity and vitality, qualities we chaotic slobbolas had in abundance. But the 25-year-old free spirit who doesn't give a whit about domesticity begins to look a bit peculiar by the time she's 35. By 45, she's busy saving string and collecting stray cats. At this point in my life—44, with two kids and a golden retriever in a relatively cramped New York City apartment—I realized I was one step away from cat collecting; next, I'd move on to parrots, the pet for truly insane people. I feared that in my old age, my pecked-upon corpse would be discovered rotting beneath a pile of credit card receipts I'd been meaning to file one day.
Glovinsky informs me that two factors keep most of us from getting clutter out of our life: shame and the paralysis that results from it. The truth is, although I laugh about the state of my apartment, it also embarrasses me. In my heart I believe that anyone who sees it will immediately brand me as either incompetent ("Doesn't she know how to hang up a painting?") or unsuccessful ("Poor thing—she must not have had enough money to finish the renovation!"). This contributes to my problem, according to Glovinsky: "We become passive when we're feeling anxious," she explains. "It's like the things in our house have a mind of their own and go where they want to go." That's exactly how I feel about my peeling wallpaper, which I sometimes imagine glaring at me accusingly, silently screaming, Fix me already, you idiot!
To counter that passivity, she asks me to go to the messiest place in my house and say, "OK, I'm in charge!" "The idea is to realize that you own your clutter; it doesn't own you," she says. Next, Glovinsky has me identify my biggest organizing roadblock. Lack of time, I tell her. Because I'm the main breadwinner in my family, whenever I'm doing something that's not making money, I get nervous. "The irony is that you waste time because you can't find anything," she points out. (How does she know I can't get out of the house without the help of my son Henry? He wears pull-ups at night, but he was born with a house-key tracking system. I think he can smell metal.)
Glovinsky suggests I find homes for much-used items—a hook for those elusive keys; a basket near the door for my wallet, cell phone, sunglasses and BlackBerry. She also comes to a comforting conclusion: "From what you're saying, there are many tasks in your house that will take an hour or less to do—like hanging pictures or gluing down wallpaper. For an hour of your life, you'll make your place feel more homey." (An hour? Please. It would take me an hour just to find the hammer, nails or glue.) She tells me to create little pockets of order instead of constantly fretting about overhauling the entire house. "Clean one shelf of one cupboard—anything you can accomplish in a half hour or less. Then pat yourself on the back and say, 'Great, I did this.' You get a momentum going."
Not that Glovinsky doesn't cut me a break here and there. In some parts of my household, like the boys' bedroom, she gives me permission to be a slob. After all, there's a certain amount of working-mother-with-small-children clutter I need to accept, even embrace, at least for the next few years. "Organization is a feeling," Glovinsky says. "If you feel organized, you are. It's not about what anyone else thinks. It's all about the level of organization that makes you happy."
Noting my aversion to throwing out clothing, no matter how outdated, she advises, "Make a ceremony out of saying good-bye. Take a picture of it. Or keep a scrap of the fabric! You shouldn't have to get rid of your memories entirely." This sounds demented until I remember a certain rain slicker I keep hidden in one drawer. Only it's not the whole slicker; it's a single sleeve I scissored off the slicker. See, I was on a camping trip, the slicker got caught in the campfire and...oh, forget it. But it was a great trip. I needed that sleeve in my life.
When we get off the phone, I test her one-task-at-a-time theory and do something I've been meaning to do for a year: clean out my 24 purses. In addition to discovering $300 in loose bills and change, I solve a mystery: Despite buying tampons in bulk, I never have any in the house. Now I understand. Every one of my pocketbooks is like a tampon farm. Once I empty them, I have enough Tampax to last until menopause.
Get-organized strategy #2
Put everything in its place
It was fascinating having Glovinsky psychoanalyze me over the phone, but what I was really craving was some hands-on help. Enter Paula Jhung, a brisk blonde from San Diego who's in town to promote her book Cleaning and the Meaning of Life (HCI Publishing). Her mission: to help me do big-picture organizing by telling me where to put things. After completing some preliminary poking around, she gently proposes, "If you kept your dishes in your kitchen rather than in your bedroom, you might be more likely to use them." It's been so long since I've had any company over, I'd completely forgotten that I'd stored my good set of china in a bedroom cabinet.
Jhung goes through my house room by room, methodically mapping out what should go where and what I need to buy to make organization possible. I hate to shop, so I've never bought little storage necessities such as shelving and, um, furniture. Jhung has me list the items I need to make my apartment more livable. Lamps! Hooks on the back of doors! Sturdier bookshelves in my office, where I need them, instead of in the living room, where they are currently the repository for videos and toys. Also on the items-to-buy list: an entertainment center for storing the TV, the CD player and the videos now occupying my bookshelves.
Eyeing the dozens of hanging utensils in my kitchen, she decides, "You've got to put those in drawers because it probably makes you feel guilty when you see them there and you're not using them." I look around and realize I own a cherry pitter. I've never made anything with cherries. But might I not whip up something exotic like a blancmange one day? Jhung gazes at me sympathetically. "Do you have any idea what a blancmange is?"
Then on to my bedroom, which essentially looks like a glassed-in diorama at the Museum of Natural History. See, I'd walled off some space for a bedroom and made one of those walls glass, to let the light in. What I'd neglected to do, for two years, was get a curtain to cover that glass wall when my husband and I wanted privacy, which meant my kids could theoretically peek in from the hallway. At one point, I put up a curtain, but the fabric was so sheer, it was virtually see-through. So then the bedroom became a porn diorama; all my husband and I needed was to pipe in the thumping bass techno music to complete the effect. So I ordered a different curtain, paid for it, then never got around to having it installed.
After our tour, Jhung gives me my marching orders. "As soon as I leave, call the closet people. And make sure you put up your curtains," she adds cheerfully. "The boys are getting older." Suddenly, organizing is not merely a point of pride but a matter of making sure my children don't end up on an analyst's couch, reliving that first horrific Freudian moment of seeing Mommy and Daddy doing it through the glass wall.
I call California Closets. I call the curtain guy. One night, I decide to unsnarl and polish all my jewelry. Another, I clean out a single desk drawer. I discover checkbooks for accounts long closed and floppy disks for a type of computer drive that no longer exists. I toss a startling amount of outdated computer equipment. I clean under my desk and discover I own...a typewriter. This isn't organizing; it's archaeology.
Get-organized strategy #3
When in doubt, throw it out
Lisa Zaslow, the head of Gotham Organizers in New York City, breezes into my apartment looking slim, chic and mysteriously sweat-free on a sweltering July day with 95 percent humidity. She looks around my place quickly and says, "Oh! This isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be." She sounds a bit disappointed.
Zaslow is a hands-on organizer. She is here to help me throw out and neaten my crap. I love this. We start with the simple stuff—sorting through my motley collection of linens. She asks me why I have queen-sized sheets and comforters and no queen-sized beds. "Well, we used to have a queen-sized bed, and I've kept these for the beds I'll have in my country house," I explain.
"Do you have a country house?" she asks.
"No," I reply, a little defensively. "But I might get one. And then we could get queen-sized beds again."
"Do you plan to get one in the next six months to a year?" she asks. "If not, these linens are old and they should go." I try to distract her by showing her my two new California Closets. I had them installed a week ago. The unfortunate thing about California Closets is they don't come with little arms that will put away your stuff for you. That's why Zaslow is here. She is going to help me with one of the tasks I dread most: throwing out and organizing my clothing.
Some purging is surprisingly easy. I finally acknowledge that the backs on many of my shoes, which the dog has chewed off, will not miraculously grow back. I get rid of six or seven saliva-stained pairs. But I didn't anticipate the toe-curling horror of having a well-dressed stranger, even a kind one, bear witness to my fashion decisions. Somewhat harder was hearing this piece of advice: "If your dresses have shoulder pads, this may no longer be the decade to wear them," Zaslow tells me, holding up a dress I'd worn to meet my future mother-in-law. Not the mother-in-law I have now. I've been married 13 years, and this dress was to meet the mother of some other guy I'd been engaged to. Worse, since I've been engaged three times, I can't remember which one.
"And you know, you're not that old, so you really don't have to dress like Maude," Zaslow points out cheerfully, displaying several loose, flowing, ankle-length jackets. With shoulder pads. "Have you lost a lot of weight recently?" she asks, holding up what appear to be clown pants. I have not. It's that I tend to cover up. When I was pregnant with twins, I didn't buy a single piece of maternity clothing. In fact, it was probably the first time a lot of my clothes fit me. Zaslow is not the only person to hint that muumuus do not make a person look thinner. But for some reason she is the first to make me believe it.
"Oh, look—here's something for singing in the choir," she says, clutching a shapeless navy-blue duster.
"That was my wedding dress," I say.
"Oh," she says. "So I suppose you don't want to...well, let's just put it back here." Zaslow also suggests I get rid of the plastic coverings and cheap wire hangers from the dry cleaner and transfer all the canned and paper goods from my clothing closet to my pantry. (I buy in bulk, because you never know when you'll need two dozen rolls of paper towels.) Suddenly, I have a shocking amount of room, into which she puts my remaining clothing, organized by color and type—skirts, pants, jackets.
When Zaslow leaves, I realize my blood pressure is probably lower than it has been in a while. With less stuff around, mocking me, I feel calmer and more centered. And the whole process has taken only two hours.
Still, there is one decluttering issue I couldn't share with Zaslow but feel I must confront. I'm not sentimental about many things, but the ones I am attached to.... Let's just say I've kept every one of the diaphragms I've had since college. There are about two dozen of them, nestled together in a file cabinet like wee Frisbees. I know it's vaguely disgusting that I've held on to them, but they are memories writ in rubber. Good times.
I carry them to the door of my apartment building's incinerator. Then I take them back to their hiding place. I do this six times before I let them tumble into the bowels of the furnace. Panicked, I consider running down and gathering them up again. I don't. Instead, I sit down and have a glass of wine.
Life after organization
So here's the part where I trumpet my triumph over clutter and messiness. I am a changed person! I am holding cunning dinner parties where tipsy, sated, well-lit people (because I've finally bought the right lamps) stop talking to admire my California Closets!
Not exactly. Not yet. I still haven't hung up my pictures, and though I've called and nagged, my bedroom curtain hasn't been installed. So I've decided never to have sex again. (Joking!)
But this I can say: Organization truly is a state of mind, and even taking small steps makes a big difference. I can now wear necklaces that have been snarled for years. I can reach into my closet without debating whether the stains on a turtleneck are obvious because that turtleneck is gone. (Some of those turtlenecks were cowl-necks. My closet had become the place old cowl-necks come to die.) I've made a good start at throwing away stuff, which for me is a major hurdle. There is still much to do. But my husband came and stayed with me three nights in a row, and didn't shout once because he tripped over a shoe or toy. And yesterday, when I was rushing out the door, I began searching wildly for my keys...and then quickly found them. (Key hooks. Who knew?) The only downside: My son Henry, key finder extraordinaire, seems a bit sad. Since the introduction of that key hook, he's going to have to find himself another job.
Photo Credit: Stephanie Rausser


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Michael Jackson's death and President Obama's health plan were good news for "Nightline." The ABC late-night news show was Nielsen's top-rated program in the 11:35 p.m. time slot for the week of June 22, beating NBC's "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" and CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman."
The June 24 broadcast featured a health-care conversation with the president, and the June 25-26 shows were dedicated to Michael Jackson.
It is the first time "Nightline" has out-rated both the CBS and NBC late-night talk shows since last November.
Karl Malden tribute
The Turner Classic Movies channel will pay tribute to the late Karl Malden July 10. The cable channel will air "On the Waterfront" at 5 p.m., "A Streetcar Named Desire" airs at 7 p.m., and "Birdman of Alcatraz" at 9:15 p.m. Malden earned an Academy Award nomination for "Waterfront," and he took home a supporting-actor Oscar for "Streetcar."
Changed memorial
The time for Sunday's memorial for local radio personality Gary Cocker has been changed to 3 p.m. The Celebration of Life for Cocker (real name Helmut Kerling), who died last week of cancer, will be held at St. David's Episcopal Church, 5050 Milton St., Bay Park. For more on Cocker, including tributes from his many colleagues in the local radio scene, check out SDradio.net, not SDradio.com as previously reported.
Holmes can dance
She sings! She dances! Katie Holmes will help "So You Think You Can Dance" celebrate its 100th episode by performing a song-and-dance tribute to Judy Garland on the July 23 episode of Fox's dance-competition show. Holmes will be dancing to "Get Happy" from the musical "Summer Stock." Tyce Diorio provided the choreography.
Holmes' number will also be the official kick-off for the Dizzy Feet Foundation, which will provide dance scholarships and assistance to underserved kids. The foundation was co-founded by Holmes, director/choreographer Adam Shankman, "Dancing With the Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inaba and "So You Think You Can Dance" executive producer Nigel Lythgoe.


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Google is going to factor HTTPS when ranking websites in search results which it hopes will encourage more site owners to switch to HTTPS from HTTP, according to a blog post by the search giant on Wednesday.
According to Google Webmaster trends analysts, Google has been running tests over the past few months evaluating whether sites use encrypted connections as a signal in its search ranking algorithms.
After seeing success during the testing period, Google is starting to use HTTPS as a "very lightweight" ranking signal. It carries less weight than other signals such as high-quality content, for example.
Google will be sharing best practices over the next few weeks to help website owners find the right type of security certificate. SEO experts have been critical of Google's announcement on Twitter, arguing that HTTPS should not be a factor in website ranking.
Securing websites with SSL certificates is certainly nothing new and there are still lots of challenges. Encryption has become a bigger concern as hackers continue to leverage weak passwords to take control of major systems and encryption technology has become easier to implement for the regular user. In June, Google announced that it was developing a tool for email that encrypts messages as they leave the sender's browser.
Recently, Google launched Project Shield, a DDoS protection hosting service for vulnerable websites as part of its larger commitment in making the web more secure.
For hosting providers, the opportunity could be a marketing one. If Google is suggesting SSL certificates as something that will improve website rankings, web hosts could capitalize on this demand and educate their customers about the value of website security.


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The holidays are over and me & the crew (that's the baby, still waiting for the husband to make his return) are back in Norway where autumn hasn't surprisingly autumn hit yet with full force and we are enjoying bit of sunshine and mild temperatures. I'm finding it hard to shake off the holiday mode and frankly, I haven't even been trying. Hence this and the next week are mainly going to be all about beach, sunshine and Portugal. Doesn't sound too bad now does it?!
When we finally decided on Portugal as our holiday destination, I started a feverish search for a suitable location, preferably two, where we could surf and soak up the sun. For some reason this kind of research lies on my shoulders in our family while my husband just checks in every once in a while with a distant "have you found something yet?" remark.
Well I did find something.
Two surfy, beachy towns of which the first, Ericeira, was conveniently located within one hour's bus journey from Lisbon. The second, Praia de Barra located close to Aveiro, was only 40 minutes by train from Porto. And if you didn't guess it yet, we did spend some time in the two cities in between tuning our surfing skills.
But for now, back to the beach.
Surfing Holidays in Ericeira
On approaching Ericeira it looked like any other touristy over developed coastal town, found especially on the Spanish side of the border. But then we ventured into the town and got momentarily lost (the place is not very big, hence you should not get lost for too long) in the older part of the town and I could not contain myself. Everything was charmingly picturesque. The houses, street signs, pavements, intense sunsets. I ended up constantly trailing far behind with my camera, while the two more impatient members of our family marched on in the quest of finding food and drinks.
But the beauty of the village came with the drawback of the numerous beaches being protected by high cliffs with steep steps leading to the beach and sea. Which for us meant that every beach day was bit of a mission with the baby and pram, surf boards, picnic lunches and other beach essentials.
Would I go back? Probably not with the baby, and especially not without a rental car. If the surf is not happening right there and then at your "home" beach, you do have to walk around or get a ride to another beach. And with the baby and pram and rest of the kit this was not so easy. But for party, YES. Ericeira is definitely a surfing spot where you can party all night long if you want to, not that I could do that anymore, I think. Yes, I admit it. I am a lightweight these days!
Praia de Barra
Praia de Barra was a different kind of fish altogether. Long sandy beach filled with colourful beach umbrellas and wind shields. Families on beach holidays eating ice creams. And if the surf was not happening right there and then, you had to only move a little to south or north without getting off the water.
The town itself lacked charm for sure. But you can't beat a rental property right by the beach. I mean 20 meters from it. Right after quick breakfast I would hurry barefooted across the sandy beach for a morning surf kayaking session, surf to my heart's content and then join the rest of the family for a fresh cup of tea before it was my husband's turn to hit the water. And this was repeated again in the evening, this time with a surfboard.
The town's breakwater with its smooth surface was perfect for bit of off-the water boarding practise. And it also served as the place to enjoy evening sunsets and check out the surfers who were catching the last waves before the darkness of the night.
Despite the lack of cozy cafes and amazing little restaurants, Praia de Barra is somewhere I could go back to. Although with Portugal's long coastline, I think we still have the perfect spot to discover. Combination of Ericeira's old fishing village charm and Praia de Barra's accessibility to the beach is something that I will be looking for on our next trip over to the southwest corner of Europe. But until then, I think it's time to think about digging the skis and snowboards from the storage and get ready for the winter!
Related posts:


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LAHS annual all-family alumni day set Oct. 13
The eighth annual "All Alumni Family Day" for anyone who has attended Lehighton Area High School will be held Oct. 13 at the Lehighton Orioles Lodge.
Monroe Berger, coordinator of the event, said the rules for attending are anyone who has attended L.A.H.S. or has been associated with the school, or is a spouse, and/or kids are invited.
Berger will provide musical entertainment (DJ and KJ) from noon until 8 p.m.
There will be a grill available for grilling your own food, and individuals should bring their own food and beverage.
Notebooks will used to enter your suggestions as well as your name, address, e-mail, and information about you and how to stay in contact.
Committees also are being organized.
If you are planning to attend, e mail Berger at email@example.com.


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The best thing to do would be to learn exactly what leads to bricks and avoid it in the first place. On your old wii did you have bootmii installed as boot2? If you did the disc light would flash twice quickly when you powered on. If you did there might be hope for that one. On your new wii you're getting, do not upgrade to 4.2, and yes install preloader.
Also be aware that your new wii will more than likely have the new chipset that will prevent loading from backed up DVDs.


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Monday in the 6th week of Easter
Saint for the day: St. Matthias, Apostle (1st Century)
Scripture readings for today's liturgy:
Acts 1:15-17, 20-26
Psalm 113
John 15:9-17
"As the father loves me, so I also love you. REMAIN IN MY LOVE!
These opening words of today's Gospel must be important since we just heard this same Gospel passage yesterday! This wouldn't necessarily happen in the other two years of the Sunday Cycle of scripture passages.
In all of these days between Easter and Pentecost we more than get our share of "love me as I love the father and the father loves me…" Yet this is the very core of our relationship with God, Jesus and The Spirit. And God must have known that we would need to hear this over and over in order for us to really absorb it into the fabric of our lives. And the last part of that quote above is key to our on-going relationship with God/Jesus: REMAIN!
In today's fast-moving society we need to slow down enough to remain with Jesus. Right at the beginning days of Eastertide we heard that familiar Gospel account of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and their chance encounter with Jesus: "Stay with us for it is getting towards evening." It was in their "remaining with Him" that he revealed and opened their minds to understand all that He was about. And the "remaining" was in the context of the breaking of the bread!
This should give us a clue that the Eucharist is key to our living with Jesus. It's in and through the Eucharist that we come to understand the Scriptures. I know that some of the recent changes to the wording of the Mass have left some people confused yet if we look at the phrase that we say right before receiving the Eucharist we might see the importance of this change: we used to say, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come to me but only say the world and I shall be healed." That has been changed. Now we are saying, "Lord I am not worthy that you should come under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed." In Psalm 27 the Lord promises to draw us deep into his Tent and set us up high upon a rock. Being physically healed is a good thing but it's not enough if our soul is also not healed. Take some time to think about this thought of remaining in His Love as He Heals our Souls. Amen!
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