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Its been a little while since I did the Global Design Project and I noticed it was a wedding/ anniversary theme this week.... perfect as we went to a wedding on Friday last week.
I really love weddings and most of our friends are married now so it is lovely when you get to go to one and get all dressed up!
Here is the card I made for them
Here is the card I made for them
I must have been in a rush to take this picture as it was a double slider card with a small pocket in the top for the money (or you could put a voucher). This was the only picture that I took.
Here is a sneak peek of the happy couple on their day -
Hayley and Joe - Image is from Defy Imaging
Don't they look gorgeous?? It was a rustic wedding at Darlington Estate Winery.
My shoes are wrecked from the flooring there but it was a wonderful arvo/ evening to be had by all who were lucky enough to go.
- Stamps: Jar of Love
- Ink: Memento Black, Pool Party, Wild Wasabi, Berry Burst, Pink Pirouette and Versamark
- Card: Foil Specialty DSP, Whisper White and Berry Burst
- Tools: Everyday Jars Framelits with the Bigshot & Gold Embossing powder
- Embellishments: Berry Burst 1/2" finely woven ribbon, Linen thread, Dimensionals, Burlap ribbon and wink of stella
To visit the other projects visit


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What is Gaza Really Like?
Who really knows what goes on in Gaza?
Who is free to tell? How does Hamas manipulate sympathies in the West?
I do not know and I will bet that neither do most people.
But we know that Hamas controls Gaza with force. Hamas will subjugate, torture or murder any dissidents.
Hamas play the Western media's game, portraying a particular image that they wish Westerners to see, but occasionally the façade falls
The BBC's Edward Stourton reports from Gaza [07:39 on the 18th Jan 2010 BBC's Today programme, available here via the BBC player, approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes into the programme].
It is well worth a listen, especially the bit where Stourton reports:
"I am actually in rather an elegant hotel by the sea in Gaza City, you maybe able to hear the waves lapping on the beach, and give or take the odd shortage it just about works…..hundreds of tunnels, and we are told some are big enough to allow entire cars to be smuggled through…..I am in the heart of Gaza City in the shopping area, in front of a shop absolutely stuffed with goods, inside there are clocks, and kettles, and crockery and pretty much anything you could want. Outside there on the pavement piles of fridges, washing machines and microwave ovens…"
It strikes me that Gaza is very much like any city or society, with its rich elements and the poor.
Capitalism with all of its inherent problems, is alive and well in Gaza, but it's not just that.
Clearly, poverty in Gaza is exacerbated by Hamas's actions, the military conflicts, Hamas's excessive spending on weaponry and building up their own internal security forces, to keep them in power.
The money wasted on arms cannot be spent on alleviating the real poverty that exists in Gaza.
But then again, I suspect that Hamas do not really care much about the poor, except when they can be pulled out and shown to the Western media as objects of pity. Hamas has a vested interest in portraying the worst possible picture, but can't be absolved of blame as they have run Gaza since 2006.
On top of that, the Western correspondents in the Middle East are partly to blame, they know full well the divide between rich and poor in Gaza. They know of the elegant hotels, the shops stuffed with goods and tunnels big enough to smuggle a car in, yet without exception we hear next to nothing about them.
I wonder why?
Update 1: See the comments, but in late 2008 Hamas kicked out an Israeli journalist. "But on Sunday, Hamas officials told Amira Hass they would no longer guarantee her security and told her to leave. "
As she says:
"AMIRA HASS: I don't know. They just got tired of me, I guess, because they insisted from the start to follow me, to escort me twenty-four hours a day, which, of course, didn't make my work very easy, but I took it OK. They said there is a—"We want to avoid any—the slightest chance that somebody might hurt you." And then, all of a sudden on Sunday, they told me that the circumstances have changed, and there is more tension in the region, and there are all sorts of information—there is all sorts of information that my life might be in danger. And as a principle, I don't take such, you know, at face value what any security apparatus tells me, whether it is the Israelis, whether Arafat or Hamas. But they left no option. I mean, they were very strict about it. I have some friends in Hamas. They tried very hard to put sense into some people, but it was in vain. "
10 Responses
But read Amnesty's account and Israel has caused the sky to fall in:
Gaza: Blockade 'Suffocating' daily life – new report
Posted: 18 January 2010
Call for lifting of blockade one year on from end of Operation 'Cast Lead'
One year on from the end of Israel's military offensive in Gaza Amnesty has called on Israel to lift its "suffocating" blockade of Gaza, as the organisation released a new briefing on the plight of Palestinians living under the blockade.
In Suffocating: The Gaza Strip under Israeli blockade, Amnesty says that Palestinians are finding it all but impossible to survive never mind rebuild after the devastation of Operation "Cast Lead" (27 December 2008 -18 January 2009).
The organisation is calling on the Israeli authorities to allow fuel, food, building materials and other essential goods into Gaza without restrictions, as well as exports to be allowed out of the territory. In December Amnesty and 15 humanitarian and human rights groups warned that the Israeli authorities had allowed just 41 truckloads of construction materials into Gaza since the end of the offensive. Before the blockade was imposed in 2007, an average of 7,400 truckloads entered Gaza every month. With over 3,500 houses totally destroyed and another 50,000 damaged during the military offensive, Gazans have been unable to rebuild since the conflict.
Meanwhile, one year after Operation "Cast Lead" ended some 20,000 Palestinians are still living in temporary accommodation. Mohammed and Halima Mslih and their four young children, for example, fled their home in the village of Juhor al-Dik, south of Gaza City during the fighting. Their home was later demolished by Israeli army bulldozers. Six months after the ceasefire the family was still living in a flimsy nylon tent that leaked rainwater and they have only recently begun building a simple home. The family fear that continuing Israeli military incursions could destroy what little they have salvaged.
Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Director Malcolm Smart said:
"The blockade is strangling virtually every aspect of life for Gaza's population, more than half of whom are children. The increasing isolation and suffering of the people of Gaza cannot be allowed to continue.
"The Israeli government must comply with a binding legal obligation, as the occupying power, to lift the blockade without further delay. The blockade constitutes collective punishment under international law and must be lifted immediately."
During Operation "Cast Lead" some 1,400 Palestinians were killed and thousands more injured; while 13 Israelis were killed, including three civilians in southern Israel, where dozens more were injured in indiscriminate rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups.
In Gaza, Israeli attacks damaged or destroyed civilian buildings and infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, the water and electricity systems. An estimated 280 of Gaza's 641 schools were damaged and 18 destroyed. Over half of Gaza's population is under the age of 18 and the disruption to their education through the conflict and blockade is having a devastating impact, warned Amnesty.
Hospitals have also been badly affected. Trucks of medical aid provided by the World Health Organisation have repeatedly been refused entry to Gaza without explanation by Israeli officials.
Patients with serious medical conditions that cannot be treated in Gaza are also being prevented or delayed from leaving Gaza by the Israeli authorities. Since the closure of crossings leading into and out of Gaza, patients have been made to apply for permits, which are frequently denied. On 1 November, Samir al-Nadim, a father of three children, died after his exit from Gaza for a heart operation was delayed by 22 days.
Unemployment in Gaza is spiralling as remaining businesses struggle to survive under the blockade. In December the UN reported that unemployment in Gaza stood at over 40%.
Of course you have noticed that Amnesty has not called on Hamas to observe the requirements of the Roadmap Quartet in order to have the situation normalised. To Amnesty all blame lies at Israel's door and the situation is as dire as can be.
"the Western correspondents in the Middle East are partly to blame, they know full well the divide between rich and poor in Gaza. They know of the elegant hotels, the shops stuffed with goods and tunnels big enough to smuggle a car in, yet without exception we hear next to nothing about them."
And they'd sell their grannies on ebay just to get a good story and would never let the facts get in the way of one.
"I doubt a critical journalist would last a week in Gaza, Hamas would see to that."
Even the slavishly-worshipful Amira Hass was kicked out of Gaza. Hamas allows no possessor of opinions other than theirs to remain.
Poor thing, kicked out of Gaza by Hamas and then arrested by Israeli police for being in Gaza without a permit.
This account of life in Gaza, and how the economy works and how Hamas works, is well worth reading:
[…] What is Gaza Really Like? […]

subset: commoncrawl


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No announcement yet.
Steam Machines Prototypes: Intel CPU, NVIDIA GPU
new posts
What they did with Nouveau devs was more a PR stunt to make them look better to Linux "hardcore" users
(...and i'm sure they will give more stuff with time to Nouveau devs...)
The machines will use blobs so what they gave to Nouveau is irrelevant from that direct point...but was a nice PR stunt...
Thats actually a tad stupid from Valve. Maybe.
Could have supported opensource drivers instead, since they were talking about SteamOS being opensource. That would deliver Wayland to you and faster, cheaper development. Cross company cooperation would have been sweet to customer wallet and long term stability.
Its understandable, that they need OpenGL4 now and open drivers still can't deliver it. That is a slap in AMD face, in face of management part who disbelieved in open drivers and instead voted to ignore them, to sleep with m$ or said fglrx is sufficient. All in one, secured inability for them to catch up in terms of features.
Still, could have helped put the stuff together here, Valve, could have managed that. Went stable, yet old and questionable ("f**ck'u", Linus-style) route. Or maybe AMD ties with m$ are just too firm to allow thinking in that direction.. With m$ supporters inside, stuff can get very very unstable quick - ask Elop.
Yet, Nvidia are proprietary lovers. Valve is DRM company. One-two wrong internal suggestions and SteamOS will be open/closed sandwich, just like Android. Running own (closed?) desktop, binary incompatible, with nvidia drivers impossible for Linux and Valve's output/optimizations being held behind the NDA wall. It can all go "just another proprietary console/PC"-way very quick and will cut Linux userbase even further (with Ubuntu userbase filling the most of its ranks first, I think).
Lets just get some popcorn and watch the show, at least we still have AMD/Intel open drivers, whose development is luckily not stagnating even a bit.
Originally posted by pipe13 View PostBut if you want direct OEM-authored open source graphics drivers, stick with Intel.
I'm sure it will also work with regular PCs...nothing so far tells otherwise...and if "real world" reviews about it are good, i will buy one myself.Last edited by brosis; 10-04-2013, 06:01 PM.
Hmm, it seems AMD is trying to improve the catalyst on linux, at least - so it seems they really want a bite from this pie as well.
Anyway, gentleman, calm down - this is a prototype HW - maybe the farthest one could go would be that it is somewhat a reference HW, but all this may change dramatically. If this gets successful we may see all kinds of manufacturers do steam HW. I can imagine something similar to intel NUC with NV GPU onboard, next to a massive passive cooler, for example.
It will sure be interesting if manufacturers manage to price this adequately - console HW has a lot of price optimizations going on.
Another thing - with linux under steam, one can imagine all kinds of weird things - for example a fuse filesystem enabling one to immediately play a game without waiting for it to completely download (game would download and cache locally in the background as one plays).
Originally posted by Ritche Corpus/AMD View PostThere is no counter.
The reason is we are working just as closely with Valve.
I think the difference is one side of that conversation is being more vocal than the other.
If you go to Valve right now and ask them which hardware partners are going to be
the partner of choice, they won?t pick one or the other.
They are going to be agnostic. They mention that it?s an open ecosystem.
do some smart stuff - kill fglrx already and overclock the opensource driver development. IF you trust your own understanding of "open ecosystem". Because in closed source, there will be no agnosticism, ever. You know how maximum profits a.k.a. cartels work, right?
What they did with Nouveau devs was more a PR stunt to make them look better to Linux "hardcore" users
(...and i'm sure they will give more stuff with time to Nouveau devs...)
The machines will use blobs so what they gave to Nouveau is irrelevant from that direct point...but was a nice PR stunt...
Originally posted by alexThunder View PostIs there any device out there able to do this (in general, not linux-specific)? Afaik no. Even if it was, it'd very difficult to utilize (see heterogeneous parallelism). You'd have to find a balanced workload for different devices with different strengths and weaknesses. And now imagine, users could freely combine as many heterogenous devices for rendering, as they wanted - that'd be a pure nightmare for devs. Remember, they're already struggeling to supporting several single-GPU devices (compare the level of optimizations console- and pc-games get) :/
Senior Member
- Sep 2011
- 205
Originally posted by sarmad View PostI don't know if there is any device out there that can do this, but theoretically you have two processors running on the machine and you should be able to give each of them different tasks. For example, use one GPU to render the frame layers, and then pass that over to the other GPU to do post processing while the original GPU works on the next frame. Or, use one GPU as a GPGPU to calculate physics and use the other to do the rendering. I don't see why this can't be achieved.
Letting these hypothetical devices do independet tasks is some other story.
Senior Member
- Apr 2010
- 252
Still very, very worried about GPL violation
The specs are amazing, the use of Linux is amazing. BUT... kernel BLOBs & GPL don't go together well. I hope that this isn't going to be the first real test of "are kernel modules derivative works of the kernel"?
I hope that they have gone through this with a few lawyers when they figure out how to distribute SteamOS. Maybe it could pull the NVidia driver directly from NVidia's website, so technically it is the end user who "decides" to install the BLOB into their kernel.
In more open-source friendly news, I would imagine that the Bridgman and co. aren't going to sit around and let Stream not work nicely on Radeon chips with MESA. Then we purists can be happy too!
Originally posted by alexThunder View PostIt surely can be achieved. It's more a question about how complicated it's going to be. In the case of one GPU doing most of the rendering and the other one just some post-processing, you'd need to very well balance the tasks - they'd need to be completed in (nearly) exactly the same time, otherwise one GPU will bottleneck the other one. If that happens, the theoretical advantage about having two heterogenous GPUs sharing the workload is quickly gone.
Letting these hypothetical devices do independet tasks is some other story.


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From its cameo in "Psycho" to the ill-fated Hotel Monroe, the historic downtown building that once housed Valley National Bank has transformed yet again.
Now inhabiting the high-rise featured in the opening scenes of Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1960 thriller is the Hilton Garden Inn Phoenix Downtown.
The hotel on Central Avenue and Monroe Street opened under its new name on Dec. 18, 2015, after a few years of redesign and development guided by the Minneapolis-based CSM Corp. The company purchased the long-vacant building in 2013 and is now focused on making it the first choice in hotel accommodations for business travelers staying in the downtown Phoenix area.
Before its reincarnation under the Hilton name, it was known as the project-interrupted Hotel Monroe and, interimly, as the Professional Building in the years between its identity as the Valley National Bank and the failed Monroe development.
Picking up where Hotel Monroe's developers left off, CSM partnered with the Hilton hotel brand to recruit architects and historic consultants to preserve the integrity of the iconic building and keep its designs as close as possible to the glamour of its Art Deco influence.
The newly minted Hilton Garden Inn features the building's original marble floors, bronze elevator doors, wrought iron details and a grand lobby with restored columns and marble touches.
Modern features now include complimentary Wi-Fi in the Hilton's 170 guest rooms, granite countertops and three-jet body showers in guest room bathrooms; event space to accommodate up to 200 guests; a restaurant and lobby bar; a round-the-clock pantry for snacks and drinks; and 24-hour business and fitness centers.
The Hilton's prime location in the heart of Phoenix's entertainment, financial and government districts places it in proximity to some of city's most popular landmarks — the Phoenix Convention Center, Chase Field and Talking Stick Resort Arena (formerly US Airways Center) among them.
The 12-story skyscraper has seen many seasons since it opened by the Valley National Bank in 1932. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and remains a distinguishable landmark in the Valley. Alongside the Luhrs Tower and the Orpheum Lofts — both of which were also seen in the movie "Psycho" — the building is one of just a handful of remaining Phoenix structures created in the Art Deco style that became globally popular between 1920 and 1940.
Hilton Garden Inn Phoenix Downtown, 15 E. Monroe Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004 | (602) 343-0006
– Suzanne Wilson, Phoenix.org


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Welcome to Coloradostormchaser.com, the home of extreme storm chaser, Eric Treece. Please feel free to browse images, check out the chaser log, and watch live streams during storms on the plains! All images and video are protected by copyright. Media inquiries should be directed to Doug Kielsing @ 651-238-0258.
Colorado Weather Watch
Visit the Live Stream page for
live chase footage!
Website and all Content Copyright, Colorado Storm Chaser, LLC, 2013


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Thursday, March 28, 2013
Effortless Spring Look
17 comments:
Thanks for following my blog followed back yours right away.ReplyDelete
Rumela thank you so much!! Have a good day love!Delete
- AnonymousMarch 29, 2013 at 4:02 AM
cute pieces, xoxoReplyDelete
what a great spring look!! need to try that from asos too!! :DReplyDelete
happy weekend
Click me for my NEW BLOGReplies
You totally should! It is so fun! have a good day love!Delete
Great pictures!!! Lovely pieces :) Your blog is a pleasure to read :)ReplyDelete
Thanks for your sweet comment on my blog!
I follow you sweety, follower 59 that's me :)
Follow me back would be great!
Maybe we can also like each other Fb page?
I'm waiting for you on my blog ;)
Lots of love sweety, Lima
Aww Lima thank you doll! Thanks for you sweet comment as well :) And thanks so so much for following! I'll go follow you back! And yes, let's like our FB pages.Delete
- AnonymousMarch 30, 2013 at 9:58 AM
I love that last floral jumpsuit!ReplyDelete
Oh my gosh me too! It's gorge! xoDelete
I love the prints for spring. I am inspired.ReplyDeleteReplies
aw so glad I could inspire you!! xoDelete
Loving that look – would so love to put that on and head for the beach right about now.ReplyDelete
Sea and SwankReplies
Me too girl. Me too! xoDelete
Love this collection, I have those sunnies!ReplyDelete
Your blog is great too, going back to check out past posts now!
Would you like to follow each other on bloglovin'??
Oh I just love those sunnies!! I'd love to follow each other love! I'll head on over now! xoDelete
I just love your set! Your beach chic look is amazing! I am so craving some warmer weather!ReplyDelete
Hi sweet reader! Please share a your thoughts, questions, or comments. I love hearing from you! Makes my day!


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I've added Google Friend Connect to my website and blog so that we can all engage in more active and collaborative ways. I hope you'll join our educational community (click on the Join button below) and let's have fun learning together.
Please feel free to invite other educators, preservice teachers, homeschool families, and anyone with an interest in education and technology, too.
All the best,


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Gordon B. Hinckley Quotes About HonestyQuotes about: Honesty
Integrity is at the heart of commerce in the world in which we live. Honesty and integrity comprise the very underpinnings of society.....Indeed, the strength and safety of any organization-including the family-lie in the integrity of its members. Without personal integrity, there can be no confidence. Without confidence, there can be no prospect of permanent success.
Those who are living the principle of honesty know that the Lord does bless them. Theirs is the precious right to hold their heads in the sunlight of truth, unashamed before any man. Brothers and sisters, the Lord requires his people to be honest. May we desire with all our hearts to be honest in all our relationships and in all the things that we do.
Gordon B. Hinckley
- Born: June 23, 1910
- Died: January 27, 2008
- Occupation: Religious Leader
- Cite this Page: Citation


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|Outside living at its best, cool breezy and chilled
Well summer has truly set in here on the island. The bikini's are out (not mine!) and the suncream is on. The kids spend the entire day at the pool and birthday parties have now officially moved to the beach! The best thing about living on this island is that in the summer months, everything moves outside. Most homes have an outside kitchen (next to the pool) where all the entertaining and eating happens, breakfast lunch & supper!
|Alfresco dining in Spain
The easiest way to keep it looking real is to keep your outside area in tone with the original structure of the house. Most Spanish properties have beamed ceilings and here this ceiling covering extends the inside beams outside with reeds over the top to provide shade.
|These green bottles are typically Spanish and are a great way to inject some permanent colour into a neutral background.


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Getting Goofy (and a little Dopey) at Walt Disney World
It was approximately a year ago when a friend had the brilliant idea of meeting at Walt Disney World for marathon weekend. I had known AnnMarie online for 1.5 years at this point, but we had not met in person. It didn't take long to discover that we had a lot in common and she quickly became my fitness soul mate. Naturally when she suggested doing the Goofy Challenge (both the Half Marathon and the Full Marathon), I threw in that we should do the 5K as well. I mean, what's an extra 5K? So I signed up for my races and got to training.
I took Jeff Galloway as my online coach. He uses the run-walk-run method and I quickly realized how beneficial it was (for me at least) as opposed to just straight running. Some of what he told me to do sounded crazy. He wanted me to use a 15:45 ratio for my second half marathon. My hip had been bothering me on my long runs, so I did. Fifteen seconds of running followed by 45 seconds of walking. I couldn't believe I finished 30 seconds off my PR and I had no issues with my hip or legs afterwards. As training progressed and my long runs got longer, I had issues with my hands swelling. He told me to raise my hands when I walked and twist them like I was screwing in a light bulb. I understood the reasoning behind it, but I couldn't seem to put it in practice. So I dealt with a lot of swollen hands and fingers.
My husband, Brandon, was very supportive at the beginning. I guess he started getting worried that I was trying to get my body to do something it wasn't ready for. He began to throw around the idea of not racing the half and just focusing on the full marathon. I hadn't done a full marathon yet so I knew it was going to be a challenge. I took his comments as fuel for my desire to accomplish this. If nothing else, I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of dropping a race or getting a DNF.
I arrived in Orlando on Tuesday, January 8. I was exhausted from having to be at the airport so early. I finally got to meet AnnMarie in person, which was the highlight of my day. We went to the hotel to unpack and then we were off to dinner. We had decided that the best strategy was to save our legs as much as possible so we didn't do as much park hopping as originally planned. On Wednesday we went to Hollywood Studios where I got to be a pirate princess and we both auditioned for American Idol. AnnMarie kept insisting that we go to Fantasmic and I'm glad she did. It was pretty amazing.
Thursday we went to the Expo at ESPN Wide World of Sports. This was by far the largest event I've ever been to. Up to this point the largest race I participated in was the Subaru Triathlon in Banff. I could not get over the number of people that were milling around. Christine, one of AnnMarie's friends and now one of mine, was holding a place for us in line to sign up for the Dumbo Double Dare at Disney Land. The line was moving so slowly I actually went to the KT Tape booth, which also had a slow moving line, to get my leg taped. I made it back to the runDisney line with about 10 seconds to spare. I'm so thankful that we signed up at the expo. They opened registration to the public on January 22 and the Dumbo sold out in the first hour. We then got our race packages and then went to grab a bite to eat.
Friday morning came super early. We were up and out the door by 5:00am. The 5K race started at 6:30am. Once again my mind could not believe the number of people that my eyes kept trying to tell me were there. There were 9,999 people running this race with me. It was crazy – there was a stage with an emcee, music, and of course Mickey and his crew. People were so creative in their costumes. I saw one lady in a full-blown Cinderella costume – not the running skirt and tank top, but complete gown. I felt sorry for her… it was quite hot and humid already. My corral finally starts and we run around Epcot. Disney definitely provides a lot of entertainment along the courses. We had a great fun run. I could not get over how much I was sweating. At this point I started to worry about the heat and humidity for the next two races.
After the race we ate breakfast with a few princesses and then headed back to the expo. Time for some retail therapy! I needed a new hydration belt and iFitness was onsite. I was concerned about running the races in a new belt that I hadn't trained with, but I'm so glad I got one. The belt felt extremely comfortable and had enough room for everything. Visiting the runDisney booth was a bit of a let down. They were almost out of all the Goofy Challenge stuff. They had one style of shirt and some coffee mugs left. I grabbed a Goofy shirt and got Zachary a "My Mom ran the Walt Disney World Marathon" shirt. I purchased a marathon shirt for myself as well – after all, I was looking at completing my first full marathon. I was finally able to meet Jeff Galloway. This was a definite highlight. I expressed my concerns about finishing the Goofy. My nervousness was steadily escalating and I wished with all my might that I could do the Dumbo before the Goofy. I knew how much better I would feel knowing that I had one back-to-back race in my pocket. Jeff put his arm on my shoulder and spoke in one of the most reassuring voices I've ever heard. I instantly felt better. If Jeff believed in me that much, it was hard not to believe in myself. He invited us to stop by his corral before the races to visit and relax.
I was in for a system shock when it was time to get up Saturday morning. My mind had been racing the night before and it was so hard to get to sleep. The last time I looked at the clock it was 11:26pm. The alarm went off at 2:55am. I got up and just went through the motions of getting dressed. Christine was at our door at 3:25am and we went to get on the bus. The bus dropped us off, but there was still a way to go to get to the start. We stopped at Jeff Galloway's area and got a quick word with him before making our way to the corrals. I'm not sure what had happened, but getting to the corrals took forever. I understand why they use the term "corral"… I felt like I was just one of the livestock being herded down the path. When the group did move, it went so slow. Everyone was supposed to be in his or her corral by 5am. That did not happen for us, nor did it happen for the thousand or so people behind us. The nice thing about the traffic jam was that it significantly shortened the wait time in our corral. At 6:30am corral G got the signal to start. It was hard to hold back at the start when everyone was speeding around you. If you slowed down too much you were likely to get ran over. Once we got out of the congestion we slowed down to a walk. Our plan was to walk as much as we could during the half.
I will say that Disney does a fantastic job of distracting you from the pain and agony and insanity by providing a lot of on course entertainment. There were characters along the way where you could stop and get pictures made, DJ booths playing music, huge kites, high school marching bands, and even Jack Sparrow's ship! I was following my fitness soul mate's lead and soaking up the sights, but soon found that I couldn't walk fast enough. She has a longer stride than I do and I found myself over striding to keep up. This resulted in a lovely shin splint that barked louder and louder as the race went on. It wasn't too far into the race I told her to go without me. Once on my own, my mind was racing and the nervous feeling I had quickly escalated to fear. I went and got myself a shin splint the day before I was to do my first full marathon. Tears trailed down my cheeks as I thought about the very real possibility that I wasn't going to be able to finish the Goofy.
It was around Mile 5 that the Galloway pace group caught up with me (after I had spent time in line for the bathroom). I fell in with them and my spirits lifted quickly. The pace leader, Jill, did a fantastic job as a motivator, medical aide, and tour guide. She was doing a 20:40 ratio (20 seconds running: 40 seconds walking), which was the ratio I used most often in my training. I felt so much more at home doing this ratio and the miles started to fly by a little faster. I've never had the chance to run with a partner or a group. Running groups in Calgary meet in the evenings when I am chauffeuring the boys to wherever they need to be. I loved running with them. I loved the connection that we gained as we pounded the pavement. Around Mile 8 I mentioned to Jill that I have issues with my hands swelling. What do you think she suggested? You got it… Raise my hands and screw in light bulbs. I finally followed this advice and what do you know – it worked. I should have listened to Jeff sooner. At Mile 11, Jill had issues with her calf muscle and Jessie and I took over as pace leaders. We proudly brought our group in strong. My shin was still hollering at me, but the sight of the giant golf ball in Epcot helped me push the pain from my mind. My favorite part of the race was the gospel choir at Mile 12. Hearing them sing brought tears to my eyes and it gave me the boost I needed to forget about my shin. I finished the half marathon in 3:34:55. I thought it was 3:30, but I realized that my Garmin timer stopped when I was waiting in the potty line – too bad the official WDW timer didn't stop as well. I'm totally ok with the time; this race was all about finishing and taking it slow rather than getting a PR.
After the half marathon I got cleaned up, jumped in an ice bath, put on compression sleeves, and headed to Animal Kingdom to eat lunch with AnnMarie and Christine. Donald was so excited to see our medals. I would have to say that's one of the coolest things about a Disney race – sporting the medal at the parks. I informed Mickey and Goofy that I would be acquiring their medals the next day. We didn't stay long and spent most of the evening at the hotel. I was trying to prep my mind, body, and soul for what was going to happen the next day.
Once again the alarm clock buzzed at some ungodly hour. It's safe to say I was a walking advertisement for KT Tape. I also had my compression sleeves on to help with the shin splint. This made me a little nervous (I've never run in my sleeves before), but a gazillion people do it so surely it will be ok. I got to meet with Jeff again in his corral. I expressed my fears of not finishing yet again. In my mind there was so much stacked against me – physical and mental fatigue, heat, humidity, and a distance that has never been completed. He told me to take little sips of water and when the sun got up, start dumping water on my head. I'll admit, it was odd to hear him say, "small sips of water" when everyone else was screaming, "Hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate!" because of the heat we will be facing. After a reassuring hug, I left Jeff and headed to my corral.
The herd seemed to move a little easier and there wasn't the stop/start/stop action of the day before. I knew that I wasn't going to stop and get my picture made with characters along the course, so I happily jumped in line to get my picture made with Fairy Godmother. I asked her to grant me wings so that my feet could fly to finish line. She laughed and said that she couldn't do that, but she would grant me the strength to believe in myself and in my ability to finish. I would have rather had the wings…
After waiting for an hour, corral G finally got the go ahead to start. I had gone 1.5 miles and got lightheaded. Panic was my first thought, but I decided that maybe I should eat something. I had back-to-back training so everything had to be ok. After downing some Honey Stingers, I felt better and kept plugging away. At Mile 3, fear gripped me. The light-headedness was back with a vengeance. I've never passed out before so I wasn't sure how much vertigo occurs before you hit the pavement. So many thoughts ran through my mind: "What's going on with me?" "It's only mile 3, this isn't right." "Am I going to pass out if I keep going?" "Should I pull out of the race now?" "What will Brandon say if I drop out?" Taking deep breaths helped – with the nerves at least – and I decided to roll down my compression sleeves. I felt a little better and decided to keep going. The only thing I remember of Mile 4 was the broken record playing through my head. "I will not let Brandon have the satisfaction of knowing that I should have dropped a race." "I will finish this and prove to him that I can do this." "I refuse to let him 'win'." Let me be clear. I know that my husband loves me and did not want to see me fail. I know that he was only concerned about my wellbeing. I know that dropping out of the race would not equal a "win" for him. However, I also know that idea the broken record playing in my mind was conveying is what got me through that mile. It wasn't my confidence that I would do this. It wasn't the belief that I was ready. It was my stubbornness. I did not want Brandon to be able to say, "I told you so" when it was all over (not that he would). I didn't even want to give him the chance to think it. At Mile 6 I felt great and felt like I was finally ready to do this.
The first 8 miles were the same as the half marathon, so I got to run by the same ship, enter the Magic Kingdom again, and run through the castle once again. It was about this time the 7:00 pace group caught up with me and I fell in line with them. I had already started doing the "light bulb dance" in an effort to keep my hands from swelling too much. It was also around this time I started dumping water on my head. Water got in my eyes and I was trying to continue running while wiping the water away. My left contact shifted and I could feel it. While keeping up with my pace group, I tried to maneuver it back into position. No luck. I should have just stopped to take it out, but I hoped that it would work itself back into place. It wasn't until after I got back to the hotel, I realized that the contact had gotten ripped. Joy – I got to deal with conjunctivitis. But I'm getting ahead of myself…
After leaving Magic Kingdom, the course went around the speedway. I loved this part. They had various cars out on the track (from NASCAR style stock cars to classic mustangs). As I went around the track my thoughts turned to my mom, a huge NASCAR fan, and I smiled. She would have loved it – ok, maybe not the running part. Once off the speedway, I made the long trek to Animal Kingdom. You could tell we arrived simply by the smell. I had to laugh at my fellow runners that turned up their noses. It was quite a sight to see people trying to show their disgust while forcing their body to keep going. Disney had a few animals out to greet us as we entered the gate, which this biologist appreciated.
The heat and the humidity were pretty bad – but even worse was the smack down the sun gave me whenever the shade disappeared. There were a few clouds here and there, but it was pretty much bright sunshine the whole way. Every water stop meant more water dumped on my head in an effort to cool down. Thankfully the shin splint that plagued me during the half has kept quiet. I just had to contend with the screaming from my feet. It's around Mile 17 and all I can focus on is the pain with every step. The course wound through ESPN Wide World of Sports for what seemed like forever. At one point we ran around a track and the moans and sighs of relief could be heard for miles. The course also took us around the infield of Champion Stadium ballpark, spring training home of the Atlanta Braves.
This was the 20th anniversary of the full marathon so there was a surprise planned at Mile 20. Huge puppets lined both sides of the street and Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto were there having a party. I kept on plugging away with the pace group. I kept dumping water on my head. I could feel some chafing on my sides from my wet bra strap, but the choice was to either die from the heat or get a little chafed. Only two more parks left – Hollywood Studios and then Epcot. The course went through the back lot at Hollywood Studios and we got to run through the costume design tunnel. The tunnel caused a bottleneck for three reasons: 1. It was slightly narrower, 2. It was pitch black and if you tripped and fell you might not get up, and 3. They had the fans blowing. I think I could have stayed in the tunnel for the rest of the day, but there was a race I had to finish. Finally after hours and hours of constantly pounding the pavement in the hot sun, I see it. I see the giant golf ball. Whoever designed the course played a little trick on us. I could see the big golf ball, but for the longest time, it wasn't getting any bigger. The course went around the lagoon and through the world showcase first.
Mile 24 was my magical mile – the mile when it finally hit me that I was going to finish. As this realization was sinking in, tears welled up in my eyes. I can't believe that someone like me, who has always been the polar opposite of an "athlete", was going to finish a full marathon. We won't even mention that this is after a 5K and a half marathon… I kept running my intervals with tears running down my face. A couple of girls I was running with asked if I was ok – they knew of my shin splint. I turned to them with the biggest smile on my face. They smiled at me and in that moment there was a deep connection with them. It's hard to explain. We had been running together for 16 miles and had shared idle chitchat. But this was something else. We were connected as runners. We accomplished something we didn't think was possible and to share that with others is an experience that cannot be explained by words.
The golf ball is getting bigger and bigger now. I round the corner at Mile 26 and there's the gospel choir again. The finish line is up ahead! I can see it. It's not a mirage or a figment of my imagination. It's there. It's real. There were times throughout the day that I thought I wouldn't reach this point. As I crossed the line, I was overcome by so many thoughts and emotions. I wondered how my friends fared. I thought how proud my family would be of me. I thought of how proud I was of myself. I felt strong and empowered, yet weak and humbled at the same time. I did it. I completed 42.4 miles in three days. I found myself in a daze as my thoughts ricocheted around my mind, and once again was herded along with the rest of the livestock. I got my marathon medal, briefly visited with those that crossed the line with me, and grabbed my post race snack and drink. I headed to the Goofy tent to get my Goofy medal and ordered my "I Did It!" shirts for the marathon and the Goofy. I tried to keep moving and dreaded getting on the bus.
While sitting on the bus and waiting for all the weary souls to get on, I realized that I never hit "The Wall". Did I get tired? Yes. Did I get hot? Yes. Did I want to quit? You betcha'. But I never got to the point that I couldn't go on. I never felt like I had to push through something to keep going. I know that the only reason for this was that I took things slow. I got back to the hotel and immediately jumped in an ice bath. I removed all the KT tape and got cleaned up. Remember the chafing I mentioned? Turned out to be much worse than I thought. Wet clothes combined with seven hours of constant moving left a chafed ring around my body. It hurt to sleep or have anything touch it for about a week after the race. After getting dressed I noticed the freaky tan lines on my legs left by the KT tape – talk about sexy… I gingerly sat down at the computer and logged onto Facebook. Much to my surprise there the following status from my husband: "So proud of my wife, who in the past 3 days has run a 5k, a half marathon, and a full marathon". He had signed up for email updates of my progress through the race and already knew I had finished. I sat there at my computer and let the tears flow. He's not one to post a lot on Facebook, so to see this status took me by surprise. To know that he was so proud of me meant so much.
After the previous mornings, Monday felt like a blissful lazy day. AnnMarie and I spent the day at Magic Kingdom and Epcot. I loved being able to walk around with my Goofy medal on. Everywhere you looked, there were medals. It made it easy to strike up a conversation while waiting in line. You started by saying "Congratulations" and ended up discussing how the race went, how hot it was, your favorite Disney distraction, etc.… As we made our way around the parks, it was obvious who had been in the race. There was a distinctive "marathon waddle" that numerous people exhibited. As the enormity of what I had accomplished sank in, it dawned on me that I was physically doing better than a lot of people. My legs didn't bother me too much. I was a little stiff, but really the only thing that gave me trouble was the chafed skin. The key was that I wasn't dead like I had imagined myself to be.
Tuesday morning I left Florida to make my way back to Calgary. Numerous people on my flight from Orlando to Houston had been in the marathon. They still had the waddle going on and many of them wore the medal. As I made my way back across the country, I had time to reflect on what I had accomplished and what I learned.
I really enjoyed the Disney races. All the on course entertainment made the miles less torturous than they could have been. I wish that I would have stopped for more character pictures, but I was too afraid of being swept. I did stop once on the course and got my picture made with the Disney Villains. Maybe at the Dumbo Double Dare I'll be able to stop a few more times. One of the things I learned was that I don't push myself enough when I'm training on my own. I had watched my pace gradually decrease until I joined the pace group. Then my pace quickened. This means that in future training, I need to be harder on myself. I learned that I could be in the heat and not die; I just had to take it slow. Training in subfreezing temperatures and low humidity didn't really prepare me for the race environment. I was told that the heat index was 102°F around 1:00pm – yes, I was still out there at this time. There were approximately 4,500 people that DNF'd the race. Some people had to leave because they decided to do this on a whim and didn't put the time in to train. Majority of the ones that had to leave the race, had to do so because of the heat/humidity. I believe that following Jeff's advice, as well my desire to prove my husband wrong helped me accomplish what I once thought impossible. Note to self: When in doubt, trust your training and trust your coach.
As I sat in the airplane seat trying to will my ankles to stop swelling, I thought about all the people that got up just as early as I did, but not to run the race. They watched it and cheered everyone on. Once again the power of an encouraging word overwhelmed me. There were so many spectators along the course (both in and outside of the parks) with cowbells and signs and silly outfits. Some had their chairs and picnic blankets laid out. Others had their RV's parked on the side of the road. To come running up a hill from an underpass and hearing and seeing all of these people cheering… It brings tears to my eyes just reliving those moments in my mind. So many times complete strangers hollered and yelled my name: "You can do it, Dawn!" "You got this, Dawn!" "Dawn, you are amazing!" The first time someone used my name I almost stopped. I was trying to figure out how I knew them. They were yelling someone else's name and it clicked – they read my name on my bib.
My favorite story from the marathon doesn't even involve me. I was on the bus after the race and three older ladies got on. One sat next to me (in the first seat), one sat a few rows back, and the third sat in the jump seat next to the driver. I asked the lady next to me if everything was ok. This was her story.
"The three of us were walking the marathon. Sarah started feeling ill and we stopped at a medical tent. She kept telling us to go, but we wouldn't leave her. The medics decided that she had low blood sugar, so once she got something to eat and drink she was feeling much better. Once again she told us to go. Anne and I told her that we started this together and we would end it together. The medic cleared her to leave the tent, but she was still weak. They let us take a wheelchair. Thank goodness Anne was with us – usually she's much farther ahead because she's pretty fast. Anne was running and pushing the wheelchair and I was the one having the asthma attack – I'm a walker, not a runner. We crossed the finish line together."
Tears pooled in my eyes as I listened to her story – something about the marathon must have had my emotions in overdrive. I was so happy for them and in awe of what they accomplished.
The three ladies I met on the bus were good friends and had known each other for years. But there's a camaraderie that exists among runners regardless if you are seeing each other for the first time in the start corral or grew up together. There were 65,000 people there for the three races. I met some, but 99.983% of them I would never be able to pick out of a crowd. Yet I saw them around the parks wearing their medals or I've read posts online from people who were there. I feel a kinship with these people I've never met. It's like the secret ingredient for an instant friendship… "Oh, you were at Walt Disney World for the race? Me too!"
I'm incredibly proud of my accomplishment. I finished the 5K, the half marathon, and my very first full marathon. I have an automatic PR for the full and it was so slow, that surely I can only get better from here. There have been a few occasions when I think about how fast other people were and how fast I wasn't. I'll admit, that I would feel like my accomplishment was less than theirs simply because it took me so long. But then I look at my medals. I think about how much harder it is (for some people) to be out in the heat for seven hours as opposed to running it faster and getting off the course sooner. I had made my own "Dopey" medal. At this point in time, Disney does not recognize the Dopey people that run all three races. Even though it's not "official", it still marks a huge accomplishment for this tortoise. My husband travels to San Francisco for work every week. He was telling me about a guy he works with that also did the Goofy (although I think he finished as the sun was rising) and I realized I earned the exact same medal he did. This makes me smile.
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3 Responses to "Getting Goofy (and a little Dopey) at Walt Disney World"
You can do anything you set your mind to. Proud of you and your efforts. Love you
[…] has more of an effect on me than temperature, but when they are both high, it takes a miracle (and a lot of water over the head) to finish. The racing gods took pity on me (or Libby has super powers and can control the […]


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Saturday, July 19, 2008
happy birthday to hope!0 comments Posted by hope leilani <3 at 12:21 AM
its my birthday! i cant believe im actually 13 now. an official teenager. i celebrated my birthday early but i went out to lunch today too. im so happy! no presents yet but thanks to my mom who paid for my trip to guam :) ... im wishing for money : ) hehehehe...
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Happy Birthday To Meee :D0 comments Posted by hope leilani <3 at 3:58 AM
my birthday cake
me and my cake :)
me and nannieyay! i'm finally going to be 13! I celebrated my birthday early at home. It was really fun. A pizza party. My face was really sunburnt. lol...
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Hey, Wassup0 comments Posted by hope leilani <3 at 9:59 PM
mann i miss my brother tony. i realized how much we need him at the house, lol
i hope he's having a fun time though.
he's never been gone longer than two weeks.
Also, my auntie emma is gone :'(
I really miss her
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Above we have some US planes: the grey-blue is a Douglas Dauntless, the grey and green is a Republic P-47, the green and brown is a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, and the blue and white one is a Grumman Wildcat.
Take note that three of these kits (the Dauntelss, Wildcat and Warhawk) had the same decal sheet.
Apart from that, they're pretty nice and easy to build. The camo schemes are a bit random, I made these several years ago and I didn't have as much knowledge about camouflages as now.I especially like the Dauntless, don't know why. The P-40 is very interesting too, it has bags of possibilities for different versions and colour schemes.
Then we have the other allied planes: two Bell P-39 Airacobra and a Hawker Typhoon.
The Typhoon (the grey and green one) has been painted in its original british scheme; the two P-39 had US decals, but I decided to hand-paint different markings: the darker one has had italian markings for the Co-Belligerent Italian Air Force, the lighter one has received soviet markings over its former US roundels.
Considering that the P-39's most important user was the Soviet Union, and that the americans didn't like it much, it was a lame choice to provide it with US decals...
Speaking of the kits, they are simple but nice,apart from the decals - which I'm sure will be replaced by better ones once they're re-released.
Clearly they're not meant as display models, and shouldn't be considered as such - but I'm sure some experienced modellers can turn them into show winners with some effort.
But this range has a huge gap: it includes british, american, japanese and german planes, and that's ok, but it doesn't include any french, italian or, even worse, soviet aircraft.
I know I have a soft spot for soviet airplanes, but considering the huge importance of the soviet air forces during ww2, it was quite a lame choice.
Luckily, Zvezda has released some 1/144 ww2 russian kits in the last few years, and hopefully will release some others in the future.
I hope that Revell will expand this great Micro Wings collection with soviet, italian and french kits, and, why not, with some 1/144 bombers too.
And speaking of soviet stuff, below my current work in progress, a 1/72 Su-27 from Italeri - a simple and tidy kit it seems.


text: Why Syria Is More Important Than You Think Condoleezza Rice: The Mideast 'as we know it' is at stake By John Johnson, Newser Staff Posted Nov 24, 2012 1:50 PM CST 18 comments Comments A rebel fighter prepares to fire a homemade rocket toward a Syrian air force compound on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras) (Newser) – Syria isn't just another domino in the Arab Spring revolution, and its civil war presents far more than a humanitarian crisis for the world, writes Condoleezza Rice in the Washington Post. What's happening there jeopardizes the entire "Middle East as we know it," she argues. If Bashar al-Assad hangs on with the help of Iran, expect other states to "fly apart" in sectarian violence of the Sunni-Shiite variety that won't recognize the artificial borders set up in misguided fashion by Britain and France decades ago. "Syria is the linchpin," she writes. The US is working toward meaningless diplomatic measures when it should instead recognize, and then arm, a rebel government. Risks? Of course, "but the breakdown of the Middle East state system is a graver risk," says Rice. "Iran will win, our allies will lose, and for decades the region's misery and violence will make today's chaos look tame." Click to read the full column, in which Rice likens Iran's strategy to that of Karl Marx. (Read more Syria stories.) My Take on This Story Report a story error Show results without voting | 21% Annoying 12% Hilarious 40% Intriguing 3% Depressing 13% Brilliant 12% Scary


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Learn More – Emily's U-Pick Patches
Experience the satisfaction of picking your fruits at their peak level of ripeness straight from the field. Emily's u-pick strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and pumpkin patches are abundant in selection and flavor. The fall season also allows visitors the opportunity to pick that "perfect" pumpkin too. Visitors need to check in with an Emily's Team member before proceeding so that appropriate instructions and harvest updates can be provided.
A u-pick experience cannot be duplicated! Don't forget to bring your camera.
Strawberries –
- Select plump, fully firm, red berries
- One cup of strawberries contains only 43 calories.
- Unripe berries will not ripen once picked.
- U-pick strawberries are much healthier than store-bought. Consumer reports says store bought strawberries have so many pesticide and fungicide residues on they, that they don't recommend you eat them!
- It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to pick a quart, if the berries are reasonably plentiful
- You can easily freeze berries that you cannot use right away – just wash, cut the hulls off and pop them into a ziplock bag, removing as much air as possible.
Tips on How to Pick Strawberries
- Grasp the stem just above the berry between the forefinger and the thumbnail and pull with a slight twisting motion.
- With the stem broken about one-half inch from the berry, allow it to roll into the palm of your hand.
- Repeat these operations using both hands until each holds 3 or 4 berries.
- Carefully place – don't throw – the fruit into your containers. Repeat the picking process with both hands.
- Don't overfill your containers or try to pack the berries down.
Blackberries –
- Black Raspberries, also known as "black caps" are a very healthy food; packed with anthocyanins!
- The USDA says 1 cup of blackberries has about 62 calories.
- 1 cup of blackberries, not packed down weighs about 140 grams.
- Select plump, firm, fully black berries. Unripe berries will not ripen once picked.
- You can easily freeze berries that you can not use right away – just wash, cut the hulls off and pop them into a ziplock bag, removing as much air as possible. Those vacuum food sealers REALLY do a good job!
Tips on How to Pick Blackberries
A ripe blackberry is deep black with a plump, full feel. It will pull free from the plant with only a slight tug. If the berry is red or purple, it's not ripe yet.
Pick only the berries that are fully black. Reach in between the stems to grab for hidden berries ready for harvest. Bend down and look up into the plant and you'll find loads of berries that other people missed.
Avoid placing the picked berries in the sunlight any longer than necessary. It is better to put them in the shade of a tree or shed than in the car trunk or on the car seat. Cool them as soon as possible after picking. Blackberries may be kept fresh in the refrigerator for up to a week, depending upon the initial quality of the berry. After a few days in storage, however, the fruit loses its bright color and fresh flavor and tends to shrivel.
Emily's U-Pick Pumpkin Patch is filled with unique plantings of pumpkins that vary in shape, color, and size! Visitors take a short walk from the market to the patch and have an opportunity to find their way through a free milo maze during their adventure! U-Pick pumpkins are weighed and the price is calculated at .50lb. Wagons are available for pickers!


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Audrina Patridge & Ryan Cabrera Couple Up?
Audrina Patridge hides in the back of friend Evan Ross' car with singer Ryan Cabrera in West Hollywood on Wednesday (January 20).
The 24-year-old Hills hottie and Ryan, 27, went to L.A. nightclub Wonderland to celebrate Ray-J's birthday and were apparently very affectionate with each other!
"They never left each other's side," an eyewitness told People. "They were flirting all night and sipping from each other's drinks."
Ryan and Audrina also spent time together in New York City over the weekend when they caught a performance of Rock of Ages together on Sunday night.


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At a glance
Leisure Break Venues
The hotel has a range of leisure facilities and treatments but is not a specialised spa.
Spa & Leisure
Country House Hotels and 4 Star Hotels.
The hotels are all in inspiring locations from vibrant city and town centres, spectacular coastal resorts to countryside retreats. Each hotel is unique and reflects the characteristics of the locations. Whether it's through the local cuisine or range of facilities, every hotel retains and excels four star quality and service.
Voucher Purchased can be redeemed at the following locations*:
The Blackpool Imperial Hotel
The Marine Hotel
The Palace Hotel
Billesley Manor Hotel
Cheltenham Park Hotel
Walton Hall
Walton Hotel
Daventry Court Hotel
The Oxford Hotel
The Carlton Hotel
Basingstoke Country Hotel
Redworth Hall Hotel
Shrigley Hall Hotel Golf and Country Club
Combe Grove Manor Hotel
The Stirling Highland Hotel
The Majestic Hotel
The Torquay Imperial Hotel
The Lygon Arms
For further details on individual clubs please visit www.spabreaks.com/categories/barcelo-hotels
*Days available may vary


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A precocious big sister is unimpressed by her baby brother in this slice-of-life picture book on sibling dynamics.
Russo's cheery gouache paintings depict a world of anthropomorphic bears in which the unnamed narrator rattles off her own accomplishments, comparing baby Peter unfavorably to herself. Doting parents and a Francophone grandmother shower love on both cubs, and Grandma even teaches her French. She uses her bilingual vocabulary to order apple pie à la mode and later to convey her dismay when chicken pox prevent her from attending a birthday party: "Quel dommage!" She expresses this same sentiment when ruefully recalling how she'd wished for a baby sister, not a brother, but by book's end, Peter turns 1, and his big sister imagines all of the things he'll be able to do as he gets older. While lacking in drama and not breaking much ground in the well-worn new-baby arena, it is refreshing to see a title that stretches the emotional range of the older sibling in such stories. This little girl is not wracked with jealousy; she's just a little disappointed and unimpressed by her brother since he's "just a baby."
For families who are just as happy to do without sturm und drang in their new-baby books, this is just the ticket. (Picture book. 4-6)


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Substantial shareholdings exemption: the substantial shareholding requirement - effect of repurchase agreement and stock lending arrangements
Paragraph 12 Schedule 7AC TCGA 1992 deals with the effect of a sale with repurchase agreement on whether the substantial shareholding requirement is met.
If a company that holds shares in another company
- transfers them to a third party under an agreement that requires the first company (or a person connected with the company) to buy them back,
- such that the disposal is disregarded for the purposes of chargeable gains by virtue of section 263A TCGA 1992 (agreements for sale and repurchase of securities)
that company is treated as continuing to be the owner of the shares and as being entitled to any rights to distributable profits or assets in a winding up attached to them. The counterparty to the agreement is treated as not holding the shares, and not being entitled to any rights attached to the shares. So it is only the company that originally held the shares, and will repurchase them, that can meet the substantial shareholding requirement by virtue of the shares that are the subject of the agreement.
Paragraph 13 Schedule 7AC TCGA 1992 deals in a similar manner with stock lending arrangements. If a company transfers shares
- other than by way of sale with a requirement that they will be transferred back other than by way of sale
- such that the disposal is disregarded for the purposes of chargeable gains by virtue of section 263B TCGA 1992 (stock lending arrangements)
only the company, and not the other party to the agreement, is treated as the owner of the shares and entitled to the rights attached to the shares.
However, this approach ends if the company that originally owned the shares, or any other company in its group, becomes the actual owner of the shares during the period of a repurchase agreement or stock lending arrangements. CG53006 explains what is a group for the purposes of the substantial shareholdings legislation.


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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)
|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Also known as: Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (EU)
This game has hidden development-related text.
This game has a notes page
A four-player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beat-'em-up? Come on, kids were all over this.
- 1 Unused Music
- 2 Level List
- 3 Unused Dialogue
- 4 Removed Power-Ups
- 5 Unused Foreground Graphics
- 6 Unused Object Graphics
- 7 Hidden Graphics
- 8 Regional Differences
Unused Music
A short track that according to the album Konami Special Music "Senryoubako" Heisei Sannenban (catalog number KICA-9005~8) seems to have been an early title screen theme from before Konami obtained the rights for the TMNT theme song.[1]
Level List
Appears in memory at 0x003436. Note that Stages 9, A, and B are levels that were cut from the game. Interestingly, the Elevator and Rooftop stage concepts were reused in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project.
|Level Name
|Level Name
|Level Name
|Traffic Stage
|Steel Frame Stage
|Rooftop Stage
Unused Dialogue
All of the dialogue balloons in the game are stored as tiles, making it easy to find unused bits.
Turtle Dialogue
The Turtles were supposed to be a lot chattier. Some of this text appears to be related to multiplayer.
Boss Dialogue
Unused boss (and Turtle) dialogue. The first balloon would come from Granitor the Stone Warrior, as he's the only boss that can scorch the Turtles. The second set could be from either Granitor or General Traag.
While this line of dialogue is said by Splinter at the end of Stage 4, it doesn't appear in the standard dialogue balloon.
Removed Power-Ups
There are three unused pizza box sub-types that would give different power-ups. There's no code in the game to actually give the player these bonuses, though, so each pizza gives the energy bonus regardless of pizza box type.
To change the first object onscreen to an unused pizza box type, change the following memory addresses:
- 623C2 to 26
- 623C3 to 00 for Speedy, 01 for Whirly, and 03 for Zappy.
- 623C4 to 00
- 623C5 to 00
Dialogue balloons for these bonuses. These are probably placeholders, and would presumably be replaced with dialogue more in line with what the Turtles would actually say.
Zappy seems to be the most complete out of all of the power-ups. The player would be able to pick up a laser gun and fire lasers at enemies. It would have been interesting to have a projectile weapon in this game, but the possibility for that is gone now.
Change memory address 62045 to 01 to set Player 1's weapon to the laser gun. It seems that the coding for this weapon was never finished; it doesn't actually fire a projectile, and the laser gun emits no sound effects.
A frame of the Turtles drop-kicking with the laser gun in hand is in the graphics ROM, but it's not implemented. The developers might have run out of time before finishing this power-up.
A sound clip for Speedy is in the game, but that seems to be the extent of that power-up's presence in the ROM. Whirly doesn't even get that much, though based on the name, it's plausible that the idea was reused in the sequel for the "bomb" pizza that causes your character to whirl around like a top, dealing massive damage.
Unused Foreground Graphics
A superabundance of sequestered scenery.
Scene 1
A smoldering apartment room with what appears to be a model plane, a small table, and a box of toys.
Scene 2
Large windows appear in the game, though they are never in a broken state like this. It's feasible that Foot Soldiers would have appeared out of the windows, breaking them in the process.
This is a bit more curious. These tiles show a broken version of the streets and sidewalks in the Downtown section, which seem to lead down into an abyss.
Some graffiti tiles that were abandoned from an earlier version of the stage.
Scene 3
Two different building designs that should have appeared in the hoverboard portion of the stage.
Scene 4
These graphics would have appeared on Background Layer 2, meaning that these tiles would appear in front of the object graphics. There's a crane, an assembly line machine, and steel supports.
There are a good number of unused tiles in the style of the rust-colored metal walls in the latter part of stage 4.
It's possible that the rusty metal tiles would have been used in their own stage, possibly the cut Elevator stage, and were shuffled into Stage 4 when that level was eliminated.
There are three versions of the Konami logo in the game's data. The smallest version of the logo is not used.
An old font and dialogue balloon are present early in the first Graphics ROM. Note that this is stored in a different place than Splinter's dialogue in Stage 4, which uses a different copy of the dialogue balloon and is not font-based.
Unfortunately, only half of the old font remains in the ROM. The other half was replaced by a small Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles logo.
Even more unfortunately, that small logo isn't used either! Way to go, jerks.
A sad version of the Turtle player icon with a single tear on his cheek. Presumably replaced by the animated crying Turtle graphic.
Character Designer "Moriyama 25" and Animation Designer "K. Yamashita" put their names in the middle of the downtown tileset.
These filler tiles saying "Down Town 改造" ("Down Town kaizō"), or "Down Town Remodelling", are also found in the downtown tileset.
Unused Object Graphics
An exuberance of esoteric entities.
Some of these objects have been coded and have object IDs. Follow these instructions to alter the first on-screen object to the unused object:
- Set 623C2 to "XX", where "XX" is the given Object ID.
- Set 623C3, 623C4, and 623C5 to 00.
An odd animation of the Turtles trying to regain balance.
A frame with the Turtles tied up and sitting on the floor. In the game, the Turtles are always on their feet when they're tied up.
Scene 1
Object ID: 3C
It's a lamp. This would have been used in April's apartment.
Object ID: 3D
A flipped chair that would be placed near April's desk.
Scene 2
No Object ID
Early (and very much off-model) graphics of April O'Neil's appearance in the Downtown level.
Object ID: 24
An alligator (It's not a crocodile; its teeth aren't visible when its mouth is closed) that would have appeared in the sewers. It slowly moves to the left, occasionally opening its mouth. It can't harm the Turtles in any way; like the mice that appear in the sewers, it was most likely designed to liven the place up a bit.
The palette is probably incorrect, but it's the closest matching palette found in the sewer area.
A parking lot ticket machine. CHELONIAN CHALLENGE: Where in the stage would this object appear?
Hint: Not in the sewers.
No Object ID
An older, smaller version of the heart graphic used when April kisses one of the Turtles.
Scene 3
|Flying (Used)
|Rolling (Unused)
No Object ID
The tires that the Foot Soldiers throw in this stage were supposed to either bounce along the ground or just roll. In the actual game, they simply fly through the air.
No Object ID
The back of a trailer truck. Foot Soldiers could have come out of this object during the hoverboard sequence. In the final game, the Foot Soldiers spawn off-screen.
No Object ID
This small angel might have circled around the turtle's head when a life was lost.
Some unknown spinning object. This might be related to the Whirly or Speedy powerups, or it might be something completely unrelated.
Hidden Graphics
These graphics are used, but they're not visible during play.
Scene 1
The Statue of Liberty picture, mirror, vent, and upper bookshelf are obscured by a layer of smoke in the game.
Scene 2
The "CHECKS CASHED" text, orange "Electoric" sign, and skyline are hidden above the top of the screen.
Scene 4
The Max Headroom text at the top of the elevator entrance is out of view in normal play.
Scene 5
Long hexagonal lights and a computer are present in Shredder's room, but are never seen.
Regional Differences
Title Screen
Keeping with the standard franchise name change, the European arcade game's title is Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. The title screen music wasn't changed, nor were the weapons that the Turtles use, making this change rather pointless.
The Japanese version has a subtitle (Super Turtle Ninja) not seen in other versions. The copyright date was also changed from 1989 to 1990 to reflect its later release in the region.
Scoring Change
The Japanese versions fix an exploit in the scoring system. In all other versions of the game, the throwing weapons used by the Foot Soldiers give a point when destroyed. The player can rack up a lot of points by standing a short distance away from a Foot Soldier and destroying every projectile that comes their way. In the Japanese versions of the game, projectiles no longer give points.
- Games developed by Konami
- Games published by Konami
- Arcade games
- Games released in 1989
- Games with hidden development-related text
- Games with unused graphics
- Games with unused items
- Games with unused music
- Games with unused sounds
- Games with unused text
- Games with regional differences
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series
Games > Games by content > Games with hidden development-related text
Games > Games by content > Games with regional differences
Games > Games by content > Games with unused graphics
Games > Games by content > Games with unused items
Games > Games by content > Games with unused music
Games > Games by content > Games with unused sounds
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Games > Games by developer > Games developed by Konami
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|Throngs of people in the March for Life surging toward the Supreme Court.
I participated on Friday, January 27th in the 44th annual March for Life in Washington, DC. This year's March, commemorating the infamous 1973 Supreme Court abortion decisions that imposed abortion on demand in the United States and the nearly sixty million abortions occurring since then, took place in the wake of the inauguration of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence into office. The March received the blessing and strong support of Pope Francis.
Instead of the Obama Administration's hostility to the cause of life and the even more ominous potential of a Hillary Clinton Administration, marchers came to DC in an environment of new hope and with determination to see real progress toward the protection of human lives in the womb. Still, it was important for the people to come and both encourage and hold accountable our new leaders, and to be a witness to the nation and the world. And come we did, with estimates of up to ~600,000 participants.
I started the day at an 8 AM Mass at St. Patrick's Church, offered by Cardinal Dolan of NY and packed with student groups and others from distant states. Then it was over to join the Family Research Council's ProLifeCon social media conference, featuring some key leaders and other amazing people in the prolife movement.
From there, after a quick McDonald's lunch, I headed to the March for Life Rally at the Washington Monument area. The crowds around there were so large, I stayed outside the security perimeter and listened to the start of the proceedings, highlighted by Vice President Mike Pence's declaration of the Trump Administration's support for the prolife cause. I then made my way several blocks east along to Constitution Ave. to be at the front of the March to take some good pictures.
After joining some other photographers near the top of Capitol Hill for a while to capture the huge oncoming March, and then spending even more time in front of the Supreme Court, I went around the block back to Constitution Ave. and found the March was still surging strong. As our new President would say, this was really "Yuuuge!!" To end this awesome day, I joined friends and other marchers in celebration at DC's famous Irish pub, The Dubliner.
|Huge crowd at the Washington Monument for the rally.
| VP Mike Pence pledged the Administration's support for the cause of life.
|Here comes the Pro-Life Generation! (Students for Life of America).
|Good to have some badass feminists on the side of life!
|Approaching the Capitol: Nonviolent healthcare definitely does not include abortion.
|The powerful presence of those involved in abortion who are silent no more.
|Signs that succinctly state the case for protecting life.
|A couple of powerful signs that couldn't say it any more clearly.
|May the Supreme Court turn to the Constitution and protect life.
|The many marchers continued to surge for ~2 hours.


text: Hi all, So I wanted to be a chef since I remember myself. In primary school I would bribe all my teachers with chocolate cake muwahahaha. In junior high cooking made me the center of female attention, not that I intentionally looked for it, but still nice I always wanted to own a restaurant it could be even a very small one as long as its mine and as long as I can prepare delicious food. Cooking and eating are the most important things in my life and I'm always very happy when I can eat something that tastes great, that is the reason why I want to own a restaurant. I want people to be as happy as me when they take a bite of my food, oh god, that would be the best feeling, even if I only had 1 customer, if it's a happy customer, I'm happy. Ok, I'm drifting away from the point... So, I did go to some short few days cooking courses and attend this sunday cooking school for kids and now I want to pursue my dream with all my might. I'd like to ask you all to help me choosing the correct way to approach this. First of all, there are no cooking courses offered in my country, the only cooking course in a community college is 3 years and you end up working in a pickle factory aaaaaand there's no such thing as internship in my country as well, so you can't just go to a restaurant and ask to help them out, they will freak out and kill you. So its a no no. I heard somethings about the HRC Academy in Bulgaria, its a 2 years program with 2 paid internships and reasonable tuition fees, but there are rumors that it's very bad. My budget is very veeeeery tight so I can't possible afford FERRANDI no way in hell! and I heard that you can study in France for free! lies! or is it? I was considering cordon blue paris/london I dont want to apply for the full program, what if I dont like it. But I was wondering if I only got the basic certificate and left, could I possibly get a job in a kitchen? does that basic certificate course has a meaning or is it just nothing at all!? Anyways I would like to hear your suggestions where could i obtain a cooking degree in europe and not pay 3242523 for tuition. Thanks in advance Shinoh


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Sector Consultation The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association partnered with Vineland to host a research strategy workshop in November 2014 with the goal of defining the top five research priorities for each crop group. Grower organizations were invited to nominate two representatives to participate on their behalf and a number of researchers from relevant fields were invited to ...
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Raptr users who are ranked "hardcore" and above in specific RTS titles are eligible to snag a code for End of Nations. The code grants three days of beta access, a special skin and an experience boost.
Gamers can begin redeeming the reward on Oct. 2, 2012 on Raptr.com, and are highly encouraged to join Raptr today, as all rewards are offered on a rolling first come, first served basis.
Gamers can learn about and view available Raptr Rewards at http://raptr.com/rewards.
Eligibility to redeem rewards is based on games played and ranks earned on Raptr; ranks are determined by time played and achievements unlocked.
Find out more on the End of Nations Raptr page.


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I drew the battered end of a piece of driftwood early one Sunday morning in a fresh, clean ocean breeze as a one-foot swell hypnotically broke metronomically on the shingle. From one perpective, a drawing is an artifact of what one was actually able to see. RSD
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
1 comments:
Stanley said...
well done Dent... I think I saw this piece during my last visit... down by the water wasn't it?
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Classic Tropical Cocktail Recipes
Tropical cocktail recipes usually bring to mind colorful alcoholic concoctions (typically made with rum) blended with sugary fruity mixers and topped with bold (gaudy?) slices of fruit and/or bright umbrellas.
While there is nothing wrong with a creative "in-your-face" tropical cocktail, there is a way to add a touch of elegance without losing the fun! And no matter what you put your cocktail in or garnish it with, using high quality, fresh ingredients will elevate it to elite staus every time.
Read below to see how to upgrade one of the most famous tropical cocktails of all time, the Pina Colada.
The Pina Colada
The Basic Pina Colada Recipe is as follows:
- Chill a Hurricane glass (either place in the freezer ahead of time or fill with ice and water, swirl for several seconds, then dump out and shake out excess water.)
In a blender, combine:
- 2 ounces light rum
- 2 ounces pineapple juice
- 2 ounces Coco Lopez (coconut cream)
- Crushed ice for blender (add enough so the liquid is not above or below the level of the ice. There should be some movement but not too much. The ice should be crowded.
Blend the ingredients until you have a fine slushy consistency with no ice chunks.
Garnish with a cocktail umbrella and a slice of pineapple.
The basic is good, but we can make it better.
Upgraded Pina Colada:
Start by rimming a chilled Hurricane glass with a mixture of coconut cream and coarse salt. Go very easy on the coconut cream to avoid having it drip down the sides of the glass. Why salt and not sugar? The drink already has plenty of sweetness, the salt adds a nice contrast.
Use the best rum you can afford. Always avoid cheap spirits. High quality spirits make better drinks and are less likely to cause hangovers.
Also, consider adding an extra layer of flavor by pouring in:
- 3/4 ounce Meyer's dark rum or an aged (anejo) rum
Next, instead of using 2 ounces of coconut cream, substitute one ounce with fresh coconut milk.
To finish, forget about that giant spear of pineapple and shave some fresh coconut on the top of the finished drink. If you must add pineapple, spear a couple of fresh chunks on a toothpick and lay them across the rim.
So the upgraded pina colada would look like this:
Rim a Hurricane glass with coconut cream and coarse salt.
- 1 1/2-2 ounces of fine white rum
- 1/2-3/4 ounce Myer's dark or anejo rum
- 1 ounce coconut cream
- 1 ounce fresh coconut milk
- 2 ounces fresh pineapple juice
- Crushed ice
- Fresh coconut and pineapple for garnish.
Blend until smooth and pour carefully into the coconut cream and salt rimmed glass.
Top with shaved coconut and pineapple if you wish.
Feel free to add cocktail umbrellas or any other creative props you can think of. Just be sure not to overdecorate the glass.
Hurricane Cocktail Upgrade
To upgrade another popular tropical cocktail, the Hurricane, follow this recipe to the letter:
- 2 ounces light rum. Bacardi is always a reasonably priced choice, but try 10 Cane or Rogue artisan rums for smoother, more complex flavors.
- 1 ounce dark rum. Myer's is the traditional go-to rum, but it's flavor can quickly overpower a drink or the imbiber. Try substituting Appleton Estate instead. It has a strong nose and flavor, is dark amber in color, and blends smoothly with a clean white rum.
- 2 ounces passion fruit juice. Unless you have plenty of time and quite a few passion fruits lying around, it's best to buy this premade. Look for fresh, low or no sugar juice in health food stores, or try Jumex or Kern's nectars. In a pinch, use an off-the shelf passionfruit juice blend.
- 1 ounce orange juice. Definitely get the fresh squeezed. It's a totally different experience.
- Juice of half a lime, about 1 tablespoon. Make sure your limes are thin skinned and juicy!
- 1/2 ounce simple syrup
- 1/2 ounce fresh pomegranate juice. (This is easier than you think and tastes better than grenadine. Select dark pink, not red fruits, cut them in half, remove seeds. Place in blender with enough water to move the seeds. Strain the juice and leave rest behind.)
- Fresh fruits for garnish, or save a few pomegranate seeds to sprinkle on top.
Fill a shaker and your hurricane glass with ice. Pour all ingredients into the shaker, cover and shake well. Strain the mixture into the hurricane glass and garnish with your choice of colorful fruits and/or pomegranate seeds. Don't forget a straw!
Tropical Cocktail Ingredients
Tropical cocktails made with high quaity, fresh ingredients are always better. Don't assume you are getting the best If you are at a bar or restaurant, be sure to ask for specific ingredients.
Always tell the server or bartender which spirit you want, and don't be afraid to ask what mixers are used in the drink. Many restaurants and bars dispense juices out of a gun that retrieves it from a box, and the taste difference is palpable.
If you know of a bar that makes their juices fresh, you have found a true treasure. Fresh juices are better for you and tend to be less sweet, creating a more complex cocktail.
Tropical cocktails do not have to be gaudy and sweet to be in this category. Avoid the extra sugar and let the fresh flavors ring through. And ok, maybe drinking it out of a coconut with a giant cocktail umbrella isn't so bad after all.


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Two nights ago I was able to trace off all the pattern pieces for the Christening outfit and start cutting out the pattern pieces. Today I finished the cutting and am ready to start the sewing. Hopefully, my snap tape will arrive soon because the actual sewing of this is very easy.
In other news, I did take a trip to Walmart and picked up McCall's 5893:


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I wanted to start off with something you don't see everyday, dessert in a crockpot. When I'd tell someone about creating a dessert in the crockpot, they'd give me that strange look like I was crazy, or ask, "isn't that more suitable for pot roast?"
I wanted to try it, who cares about pot roast for dessert?
I pulled up my pinterest and searched for a crockpot dessert and I came across a cookie/brownie combination where you create the two ingredients seperately then layer them in the crockpot together; set it on high for a few hours; then serve. I was slightly nervous about putting so much sugar without much liquid right into the crockpot. Luckily for me, I found those wonderful liners in Target where after you cook everything right into the bag (in the pot), there's practically no clean-up. The result was a hit!
"Heaven in a Crockpot"
1 box fudge brownie mix
1 pouch chocolate chip cookie mix
1/2 cup butter (salted), melted
4 eggs
ice cream (optional)
The ingredients needed for this glorious adventure!
I mixed up the Betty Crocker mix with1/4 cup melted butter and 2 eggs.
I then mixed up the remaining 1/4 cup butter with 2 eggs.
The consistency was a little weird compared to what I'm used to when making the box mixes but it's understandable. My husband loves this part!
Layer in the mixes, alternating a few scoops of each until each mix is completely in. (Note: see the crockpot liner?)
Cover and put on high for 2-3 hours. I usually go in between to the less time side, since anticipation typically gets to me (and the hubby too).
Once completed (you'll know, it'll smell heavenly), I served it warm with a scoop of ice cream and drizzles of chocolate sauce and caramel.
We both loved it! I'm SUPER happy I used the liner since clean-up might require a decently given soak.
-crock on!
Here's the page I got the initial recipe from:


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Do you have all kinds of photos on your computer, phone, or online? Great news! Blurb is offering discounts to my readers! 25% to 30% off your orders (of $75 or more)... Read on for details!
Photobooks are a great way to print those digital photos that you have just taking up space on your computer or phone. Rather than printing photos, and putting them in albums yourself, you have it all combined into one easy album! You pick the size, theme, even the layout of the pages! Total customization! Blurb is offering 25% off purchases of $75 or more with the promo code MARCHSAVINGS so use this link and hop over and create your blurb book! (Ends March 27th, so get those books started!)
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text: Our proactive international strategy has resulted in an increase in exports to more than 11 countries worldwide. The N. N. IMPEX portfolio of high quality products has proved to be very attractive to international buyers as all our goods can be adapted to suit specific markets anywhere in the world. Our team with a wealth of language skills who are ready to instantly react to customer requirements.


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Disclaimer: On occasions we may have used a recipe image of a similar nature for illustrative purposes only.
Serves: 2
Preparation Time: 10 Minutes
Tools: Non-Stop Centrifugal Juicer
1 cucumber, washed
4 apples, washed and quartered
4 mint leaves
2 sticks celery, washed
ice cubes, to serve
2 sprigs of mint, to garnish
1 Using the Continuous Juice Extractor, juice the cucumber, then the apples and mint leaves and finally the celery sticks.
2 Stir to blend the ingredients then pour into 2 glasses, add a couple of ice cubes to each, garnish with sprigs of mint and serve.
Kenwood Limited 1 Kenwood Business ParkNew Lane, HavantPO9 2NHUnited Kingdom
© Copyright 2019 Kenwood Limited


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This self contained home is the most centrally located property for view and local amenities in Lady Barron, but should you wish to explore all of what Flinders Island has to offer than simply hire a car and explore. We are only a short walk from the tavern and local supermarket. With everything on the doorstep, where else could you want to stay?
With views stretching across Franklin Sound and the many picturesque islands you may be tempted to charter a boat and explore the islands and try a spot of offshore fishing. Another day could be spent navigating the coastal walking track or climbing Vinegar Hill to see the spectacular sea, mountain and island views.
For versatile, affordable accommodation in the heart of Lady Barron, Flinders Island, we are located to please. Bring your family, your friends, your pets and enjoy the serenity of this wonderful island destination. Island View Retreat, a place to unwind, relax and soak up the spectacular views that are on offer.
3 Bedrooms- Sleeps up to 10 guests
Full kitchen including microwave
Flat screen TV
Gas BBQ
Linen & Towels Supplied
Wood Fire
Washing Machine
Off Street Parking
Fully Fenced
Pet Friendly
(minimum 2 night stay)
This comfortable family orientated three bedroom home offers possibly the most amazing views Lady Barron has to offer from your front door step. It is located within a few minutes walk to all areas this location has to offer including the local Tavern, to enjoy a drink with the locals or a meal, and the General store for any shopping requirements. If a spot of fishing or a swim on one of the many local beaches is desired these are all within walking distance.
The property is fully self contained and offers a large open plan lounge and kitchen with a wood heater and large television. Of the three bedrooms, one offers a King size bed, the other a double bed, and lastly two single beds. The lounge also includes a pull out double sofa bed and there are a five trundle beds which can also be utilised for extra guests. The bathroom offers a walk in shower and corner bath suitable for children. All linen is provided and sleeping bags are available when the trundle beds are needed.
For those balmy evenings and to enjoy the beautiful sunsets over the surrounding islands, a portable gas BBQ and table are provided for your use. Pets are welcome and the property is fully fenced to ensure privacy and security.
I had the most relaxing and stress free time staying in your cottage. Only a 3 minute walk to the pub for an awesome meal and some bevies, and a 5 minute walk to the wharf for fishing. Breathtaking views over breakfast. Just a half hour drive to most parts of the island.
Thanks so much, I can't wait to come back.
Short walking distance to the Tavern and Lady Barron shop, wonderful sea views, very comfortable accommodation. Beds are very comfy.
The best place to stay when experiencing Flinders Island.
It's a home away from home with great kitchen facilities, a beautiful wood heater, comfortable beds and awesome views from the lounge and dining. A great location close to the local shop, beach and pub. After a huge day of sightseeing it felt like coming home!
You may be wondering how to get to Flinders Island. Visit our useful links page for flight and ferry providers.


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Marketing Leaders, are you sitting down? If not take a seat and consider these facts about Best In Class Demand Generation programs! According to a just released Aberdeen Group report entitled "Marketing Lead Management, From the Top of the Funnel to the Top Line" Best-In-Class companies are blowing the Industry Average and Laggard companies out… Continue reading
Posted in Lead Lifecycle Management, Sales Leaders Blog
Content Marketing Best Practices "If you're new to implementing content marketing as a productive complement to your paid, earned and shared media efforts, check out the basics below on starting out, measuring success and where content marketing may be headed." READ MORE… Source: TopRank Online Marketing Blog
Posted in Sales Leaders Blog, Strategic Marketing
B2B Demand Generation "Email is still an invaluable asset to marketers; however, only 30% of B2B marketers are using email marketing as their primary lead generation tactic, according to a study by Pardot. Rather, in today's marketing environment, email appears to be more effective for nurturing prospects than lead generation, the study reports." READ MORE… Source: Marketing Profs
Posted in Prospecting & Qualifying, Sales Leaders Blog
B2B Sales Strategy "I wonder what customers are thinking sometimes. Why is it that a lot of the time as soon we begin talking, they immediately try to shut us down? It can't be anything we've said, because we haven't even had time to say anything yet! Yet they seem so skeptical and unyielding. Maybe… Continue reading
Posted in Prospecting & Qualifying, Sales Leaders Blog
Marketing Strategy "I've written before about how B2B marketing is going through an essential transformation. Historically, our focus has been on events, PR, and collateral. Now our CEOs and board are demanding that we're directly driving revenue growth. This requires a whole new set of skills and activities across marketing and sales teams: content marketing,… Continue reading
Posted in Sales Leaders Blog, Strategic Marketing
Driven by the "new normal" of customer acquisition and revenue growth requirements, many B2B marketing organizations are seeking to transform themselves through process improvements and the application business intelligence. For example, companies that have implemented and mastered the use of lead management tools are quickly outpacing their competitors by a significant margin and are proving… Continue reading
Posted in Lead Lifecycle Management, Sales Leaders Blog
B2B Sale Account Planning "What should be keeping this customer up at night? That is the single most important question sellers must know about their best accounts – arguably all accounts – but most certainly their most promising." READ MORE… Source: Corporate Executive Board's Sales Practice – The Sales Challenger Blog
Posted in Sales Growth & Strategies, Sales Leaders Blog
Creating Winning Sales Teams "In our experience, companies that have winning sales forces start with excellent managers. Most sales organizations focus considerable energy to build a team of excellent salespeople, yet regrettably, they focus too little attention on building the management team, which is truly "the force behind the sales force." Consider the following evidence."… Continue reading
Making Sure Your Sales Prospects Can Find You Online "Google used to think if you linked to someone on the Internet they must have valuable content. Now Google seems to believe that if you promote content with social media it is more indicative of relevant content and less likely to be faked. The bottom line… Continue reading
In 2011 Forrester CEO George Colony wrote a blog post titled, CEOs Want Better Sales Forces. He said the chief executives he talked to gave their sales teams a 'C-', citing the following reasons for their low grade. Four Problems CEOs Have With Their Sales Teams 1) "Speed." The sales force is always 12 to… Continue reading
Posted in Sales Change Management, Sales Leaders Blog