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GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm Review
The GE Simon XT Wireless alarm is what is commonly called an "all-in-one" Home Security System. It allows you to protect up to forty different zones, meaning you can use up to forty different wireless transmitters, including a wide selection of Door and Windows transmitters from "micro contacts to standard contacts and even recessed contacts", Motion Detectors, Carbon Monoxide Detectors, Freeze Detectors, Smoke Detectors, Glass Break Detectors, Panic Buttons, and Wireless Key chain Remotes called "Key fobs", the list goes on and on.
There are two different common kits for the GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm Home Security System. The "the Deluxe Kit" or the "Starter Kit". The Starter Kit is just a basic Security System with the core required components, but no sensors.
The Starter Kit includes:
1) – GE Simon XT wireless alarm system main console
1) – Plug in power transformer
1) – Transformer cord with terminals
1) – 24 hour system backup battery
1) – RJ31X telephone jack and cord set
Installation manual, user manual and user DVD
The deluxe kit has everything that the starter kit does, plus includes several sensor and a remote.
The Deluxe Kit includes:
1) – GE Simon XT wireless alarm system main console
1) – Plug in power transformer
1) – Transformer cord with terminals
1) – 24 hour system backup battery
1) – RJ31X telephone jack and cord set
1) – Wireless Pet Immune Motion Sensor (60-807-95r / NX-481
3) – Wireless Door / Window Transmitters (60-670-95R / NX-450
1) – Four button keychain remote (60-659-95R / NX-470)
Installation manual, user manual and user DVD
Unless you are just dead set on using different door / window sensors than those that come in the deluxe kit, such as the recessed type, the Deluxe Kit it is definitely going to save you a lot of money and is probably the way to go.
GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm Review – Impressions
I've been playing with one of these GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm Deluxe Kits for a couple months now and I have to tell you, I am impressed! I normally prefer a hardwired system and have had a preference for DSC ever since the Power Series came out about 12 years ago, but I must say I like this little wireless alarm system! Not only is setup and installation a breeze, I expected that, but this system has some very nice features.
Before I get into the installation and setup portion of this review, I want to discuss features and basic specs. Firstly, the GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm will do everything any other security system will do and then some. It features up to 40 wireless zones and up to two can be hardwired. Wireless range in open air is rated at 500 feet without repeaters. It can be professionally monitored by any central station and includes two way voice capability.
Unique to the GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm, it also has a built in voice dialer that can call you directly if you want to forgo monitoring fees and self monitor. This is a huge positive to many people as it can save you $20 or $30 a month in monitoring service fees. The GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm also features voice prompted menus and you can even call into this system remotely to check status and arm or disarm the system.
Other features include one master code and eight user codes, a chime feature for monitoring opening and closing of doors and windows while in disarmed state and it has a built in siren with the capability to add an external hardwired siren. Also, new to the XT from previous Simon versions is the addition of an LCD display which is very informative and looks great.
So what sets it apart from other systems on the market? The built in voice dialer for self monitoring for one. I don't know of any other system at this writing that has that capability out of the box. Other nice features that many systems don't have out of the box is the voice prompting menus and the ability to remotely call into the system and control it from any touch tone phone. And no dedicated line is needed to do this I might add.
What's missing? Very little really. GE has done an excellent job with the GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm overall and I find it plenty capable for any home or small business that doesn't want or have the ability to use a hardwired system. The only missing thing I can see is X10 home automation support. This is not a security feature, but is an option on most security systems these days. That said though, GE does have plans for adding this feature in the near future. Next up, Installation and setup…
Because it's all wireless installation is really a snap. More important than that however is that programming and setup is a snap too. You can literally install this system start to finish in less than an hour. I find that the manuals are excellent compared to other systems, however if you want to dive right in and skip the wordy manual, see our quickstart programming guide here on our site, courtesy of AlarmSystemStore.com.
GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm Review – Ease of Installation Test
This really is a system that anyone can install and setup. To prove that theory I had my wife try programming it without any help from me. Now, let me preface this by saying that my wife is not technical at all and can barely use her cell phone. It's not because she's dumb, but she just lacks interest in gadgets in general and certainly doesn't care to take the time to read a manual! As such, I gave her a copy of the quick start programming guide and a promise of dinner out as an incentive to peek her interest and to help me evaluate the true easy install and setup claims that are commonly stated for this system.
I did not have her mount any of the sensors because we all know anyone can do that. You can use double sided tape if a drill scares you… My instructions to her were, set one sensor to have a 30 second delay, the other two to be instant and the motion to be as a bypassable motion and of course the remote to work as the buttons indicate. I also told her to change the default master code to a number of my choosing.
So how did she do? Well, better than expected really. From the moment that she picked up the quick start program guide to completion I clocked her at a little over 15 minutes. But did she have it right…. YES, she did! I checked her work and found everything done as it was supposed to be. Conclusion – So easy a caveman can do it… or your wife, LOL.
All in all I really like the new GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm and I can't say that I was a fan of earlier versions of this system. The new XT version is a hit though. I have to say, if I was installing a system in my home today, I would probably go with this system based on it's rich features out of the box more than anything else. The only caveat being that wireless is more expensive than hardwired. That said though, I think I'm done crawling in attics and crawl spaces. To me at this point and age in my life the extra expense of wireless would be worth it.
Many people worry about the reliability of a wireless alarm system, but as a security professional and former installer, I can tell you from experience, don't. Sure wireless 15 years ago was of poor quality and I wouldn't use it then, and that's why UL wouldn't approve it then either, but today's wireless security systems and sensors are a whole different animal than they were then. The data sent back and forth is encrypted and the sensors all send in periodic "health" and status checks to the main console to insure that they are alive and kicking as they should be. I can tamper with a wire nowadays easier than I can an encrypted and supervised wireless signal. The GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm is a fine system and I have no problem in recommending it to friends and family.
**Update: The GE Simon XT Wireless Alarm has been around awhile, this article is pretty dated now we wrote it long ago. However you can still find them for sale on Amazon because they are still just really good solid bullet proof alarms and they are very cheap. Here is a link (We are not affiliates, due to the popularity of this particular article we have been asked so much to provide links we updated it.) to some we found. http://www.amazon.com/80-649-3N-XT-SIMON-WIRELESS-Security-System/dp/B001VSCALW/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top


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Thursday we found more "profit taking" after we hit highs earlier this week. March corn settled 8 cents lower finishing the day at $6.16. January soybeans settled the day at $13.66 which was unchanged on the day. The March Chicago wheat contract settled 14 ½ cents lower at $7.84 ¾ . The grain markets will be open tomorrow until 12pm.
Today would have been the 10th day in a row corn finished higher; we were due for a setback. Weekly exports this morning were considered bearish and are as follows:
Corn 756,600 MT's expected range: 750-1050
Beans 948,200 MT's expected range: 900-1300
Wheat 438,100 MT's expected range: 450-650
Given the weaker than expected exports and overbought status, it wouldn't be surprising to see more "profit taking" tomorrow.
As we approach the end of 2010, I want to note that many commodities have made all time highs this year and the bullish bias is holding right to end of the year. This coincides with the loose monetary policy of the US as well as an ever expanding global population and diet change. China has obviously been the main subject as their growing demand has undoubtedly helped fuel our price rallies, most notably their increase in US soybean demand.
So which events had the most impact in 2010? For one I would have to say the Russian wheat drought really kick-started this rally. This summer the market watched the Russian heat escalate into a true weather concern until wheat's rally forced corn and beans to follow. It wasn't until the USDA's October report which showed a disappointing corn yield that the markets really took off. This summer's hot nights and wet weather were the main factors behind the lower than expected corn yields.
Strong grain prices can also be attributed to increased demand from investors. Funds held all-time record long positions in corn, wheat, and soybeans in 2010. We also traded at all-time record open interest and volume late this year. A lot of this has to do with the sharp increase in ETF money coming into AG markets. This allowed many of the smaller traders to buy corn ETF's who wouldn't normally be market participants.
So where do we go in 2011? Fundamentally these markets remain strong. If the January reports are friendly grains, the acreage battle could keep us strong right into the March 31st planting intentions report. We like staying well protected in case the bullish bias doesn't hold, and we like to remain with our spring call spreads for upside potential.
We are still looking at getting short term put protection on for corn and beans. Implied volatility is very high, so if you are thinking about options please call you broker to discuss strategies.
Markets are expected to be low volume through December 31st as many traders are on vacation. If you are looking to add additional protection, or have any market questions, please don't hesitate to give your broker a call.
Stop Guessing & Start Marketing
Click icon above for a Free Trial of EHedger Premium Research package and to see the AMMO Demo video.
Trading commodity futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and may not be suitable for all investors. The market information contained in this message has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but is not guaranteed as to its accuracy or completeness. Market information may not be consistent with current or future market positions of E Hedger, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, or agents. Recipients assume the risk of reliance on and indemnify and hold E Hedger harmless for any and all losses, costs, or tax consequences incurred as a result of their use of market information.

subset: commoncrawl


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007 is back. This fall, Daniel Craig James returns as James Bond, along with Judi Dench, Albert Finney, and Ralph Fiennes.
Dubbed Skyfall, the movie takes James from overcast England to the glitz and neon of China.
Skyfall hits theaters this fall. The Bond theme starts in your head right now.
BOND PLAYS WORD GAMES & KILLS PEOPLE IN FIRST SKYFALL TEASER! [Twitch]


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So Christmas is over for another year, your clothes are a little tighter, your wallet much lighter - and now thoughts turn to disposing of the tree.
Eight million real Christmas trees are bought every year in the UK, the equivalent of all the trees in London, but after the lights are switched off and the tinsel has come down, many end up discarded on the streets.
The government has released this official advice on what to do with your old Christmas tree once the decorations are put back in the attic.
Households generate nearly a third more waste over the festive season than any other time of the year – with the Local Government Association estimating it costs the taxpayer nearly £100 for every 40 Christmas trees sent to landfill.
So whether it's re-planting, having it recycled to be chipped for paths or burning it on a bonfire, Mr Jones called on local people to think about the afterlife of their tree and follow one of his 5 practical tips.
Local Government Minister Marcus Jones said: "When the festive season comes to an end and the clean-up operation begins we should make sure we're all doing our bit for the environment.
Nobody wants to spend January dodging old trees littering the streets. Reusing or recycling your Christmas tree is not only good for the planet it means your local council doesn't have to waste money on landfill.
Many councils offer special Christmas treecycling services"
Real Christmas trees can be better for the environment if recycled properly than an artificial tree which can take centuries to decompose in a landfill.
In fact, it's better for the environment to burn your Christmas tree than it is to throw it in the bin. According to the Carbon Trust, a real Christmas tree that ends up in a landfill decomposes and produces methane gas which is 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
However burning a Christmas tree just releases the carbon dioxide it stored when it was growing.
This year the UK has recycled 43.9% of all rubbish.
But for Christmas trees, Mr Jones offered 5 practical tips:
1. Replant your tree in a garden to give it a new lease of life - adding bird feeders will also provide a new shelter for wildlife.
2. Drop your tree off at a recycling centre where it can be chipped for walk paths or turned into soil.
3. Check out your local council's website to see if there's a special collection service.
4. Find an organisation or a charity that offers a treecyling service where it could be used to make effective barriers against floods.
5. Safely cut up and burn your Christmas tree on a bonfire or a fireplace.
These are among the top tips by organisations including the Carbon Trust as well as several councils and charities that offer collection services.
According to the Carbon Trust, it can take up to ten uses of an artificial Christmas tree to see the same benefits of using a real Christmas tree.
In addition, a new voluntary framework developed by the Waste Resources Action Plan (WRAP) helps councils to keep their recycling schemes straightforward and easy to follow.
The new framework, developed by the Waste Resources Action Plan (WRAP), is a voluntary approach which requires local decisions, tailored to the characteristics of the area and the community to which the services are provided.


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Baig: Latest BlackBerry upheaval is final nail
NEW YORK — The news this morning that BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins was out, and that the company was abandoning its plans to go private hits like the final nail in the coffin. The $1 billion investment that Fairfax Financial Holdings and others are making hardly gives anyone a sense of confidence that BlackBerry is going to somehow going to revive itself, certainly not in any meaningful way. Investors apparently concur, with already beleaguered shares plunging more than 16% as I write these words.
Back in January when BlackBerry introduced the Z10 smartphone, the company's first to run the BlackBerry 10 operating system that the former Research In Motion had pinned its hopes on, I had hope for BlackBerry too. I wrote at the time that the phone was "very much good enough to keep BlackBerry in the game," even as I expressed pessimism that BlackBerry would ever return to the glory days.
NEWS:BlackBerry drops sales bid; Heins out as CEO
Well, BlackBerry might have stayed in the game a little bit longer. Heck, the Q10 device with the kind of physical keyboard BlackBerry loyalists were enamored with on earlier generation handsets was still a few months away. But the company lost that game badly, slaughtered by Apple's iOS, Google's Android, even Microsoft's Windows Phone.
FIRST TAKE:BlackBerry deal, no stunner, still perplexes
As an unscientific measure of these things, I was recently given the BlackBerry Z30 to try out, the company's latest handset. It has a 5-inch display, runs the 10.2 upgrade to the BlackBerry OS, and boasts long battery life. In other words it has all the appearances of a solid phone.
But where new BlackBerrys were once highly coveted by reviewers (and others) and I added it to the list of products that I would consider reviewing, it hardly jumped to the top of that list, especially in this crowded pre-holiday season. Does anyone really care more about the BlackBerry Z30 these days then, say, the Google Nexus 5 or the iPad Air?
In an email I received this morning, tech analyst Jeff Kagan summed it up succinctly: "Right now there are no real answers for BlackBerry. That is a very uncomfortable place to be for investors, customers, workers and partners."
Sadly, I cannot disagree.
Follow Ed Baig on Twitter: @edbaig.


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Kansas coach Weis makes Cozart starting QB
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Sophomore quarterback Montell Cozart has won the starting job at Kansas, beating out Jake Heaps and T.J. Millweard after a strong spring game.
Cozart was 6 of 10 for 58 yards while running for 70 yards and two touchdowns in leading his blue team to a 20-10 victory over the white team last Saturday.
Heaps, who lost the starting job to Cozart last season, was just 3 of 9 for 41 yards. Millweard, a transfer from UCLA, was 2 of 8 for 16 yards.
Weis opened the quarterback competition in spring practice, and it was expected to continue into the fall. Instead, he said in a brief statement Thursday that Cozart earned the job.
The Jayhawks open their season Sept. 6 against Southeast Missouri State.


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Canned/Preserved Food in India - New Study Released
New Food research report from Euromonitor International is now available from Fast Market Research
Boston, MA -- (SBWire) -- 03/27/2014 --Canned/preserved fruit is set to record 19% growth in value sales while canned/preserved vegetables is likely to grow by 15% in 2013, making these two categories the leading performers within canned/preserved food during the year. Awareness of these products among consumers is high as these were the first two canned/preserved food products launched in India. Furthermore, availability of canned/preserved fruit and vegetables in stores is higher compared to other canned/preserved foods.
Euromonitor International's Canned/Preserved Food in India report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data 2009-2013, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new product developments, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2018 illustrate how the market is set to change.
View Full Report Details and Table of Contents
Product coverage: Canned/Preserved Beans, Canned/Preserved Fish/Seafood, Canned/Preserved Fruit, Canned/Preserved Meat and Meat Products, Canned/Preserved Pasta, Canned/Preserved Ready Meals, Canned/Preserved Soup, Canned/Preserved Tomatoes, Canned/Preserved Vegetables, Other Canned/Preserved Food.
Data coverage: market sizes (historic and forecasts), company shares, brand shares and distribution data.
Reasons to Get This Report
- Get a detailed picture of the Canned/Preserved Food market;
- Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change;
- Understand the competitive environment, the market's major players and leading brands;
- Use five-year forecasts to assess how the market is predicted to develop.
About Fast Market Research
Fast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget. For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at http://www.fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156.
Browse all Food research reports at Fast Market Research
You may also be interested in these related reports:
- Global Food and Beverage Survey 2013-2014 - Market Trends, Buyer Spend and Procurement Strategies in the Global Food and Beverage Industry
- Canned Food: Global Industry Guide
- Frozen Food: Global Industry Guide
- Food Emulsifiers Market - Global Trends & Forecast To 2018
- Frozen Food - BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Industry Guide
- Food Texture Market by Functionalities, Applications & Geography - Global Trends & Forecasts to 2018
- The UK Foodservice Industry Survey 2013-2014 - Organic Trends and Menu Labelling
- Packaged Food in Brazil
- Food Encapsulation Market - Global Trends & Forecasts to 2018
- Packaged Food in Italy
Media Relations Contact
Bill Thompson
Director of Marketing
View this press release online at: http://rwire.com/481111


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When eggs are on sale for $.88/dozen for the Easter holiday and you score a LARGE loaf of pre-sliced French bread for less than $1, you just can't pass up making a stuffed French toast dish! And with milk on sale for $1/half gallon and cream cheese recently marked down. Plus, there have been some great fruit sales lately…so we'll add some $.25 apples to this meal!
A "simple"-y delicious meal!
Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast
Yield – 4 servings
Preparation Time – 10 minutes (+refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight)
Cooking Time – 30 minutes
- 10 eggs ($.73)
- 1 cup milk ($.12)
- 1/8 cup favorite syrup ($.25)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ($.03)
- About 12 thin slices of French bread ($.50)
- 2 "spotty" bananas ($.40)
- 4 oz cream cheese ($.50)
- 4 granny smith apples ($1)
- Syrup ($.50)
**Use rice bread and rice milk for the dish if you are GFCF. And omit cream cheese…will taste great with just the bananas!
- In large bowl, whisk eggs and milk. Whisk in syrup and cinnamon.
- In KitchenAid or using hand mixer, blend bananas and cream cheese until smooth and creamy. (I had frozen some cream cheese a few weeks ago. It doesn't thaw out into its original creamy texture, so I thought this would be a good meal for "thawed cream cheese." I used brown spotty bananas that were really ripe. Gave it a nice flavor!)
- In 8×8 baking dish, pour about 1/2 cup of egg mixture into the bottom of the dish, just enough to cover the bottom. Place bread on top of egg mixture to cover as much of the dish as possible.
- Spread banana/cream cheese over the top of the bread. Cover with a more bread slices.
- Pour the remaining egg/milk mixture over the top of the bread and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, but all day or overnight would be ideal!
- Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes.
- Slice apples or other favorite fruit.
- Serve Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast with syrup and sliced apples.
Cost $4.03


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Welcome to the Graduate Program in Neuroscience
The Graduate Program in Neuroscience (GPN) was instituted in 2006 to provide interdisciplinary training to PhD students in neuroscience laboratories throughout the UIC campus. As of July 2016, the GPN has awarded PhD degrees to 26 students. GPN students train in laboratories representing numerous departments in the UIC Colleges of Medicine, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Applied Health Sciences, Engineering, Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Nursing. In addition, students in many Departmental PhD Programs may obtain a "Concentration in Neuroscience" with their Departmental PhD degree. Over 75 faculty members participate in the GPN PhD training program and represent research in three broad areas: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, Systems Neuroscience, and Human/Therapeutic Neuroscience. All GPN students receive course instruction in Foundations of Neuroscience, Neuroanatomy, Cell Biology, and electives appropriate for their area of research concentration.
GPN students receive a guaranteed stipend with full tuition and fee waivers. Our students have received National awards, including individual fellowships from the National Institutes of Health (F30 and F31 NRSA awards), American Heart Association, and Foundation for Physical Therapy as well as UIC awards such as the University Fellowship, Abraham Lincoln Fellowship, Dean's Scholar Fellowship, and Outstanding Thesis Award.
The UIC campus is located just west of the Chicago downtown area. UIC prides itself in welcoming students from every ethnic and racial group, religion, gender, sexual orientation, physical condition, and age. UIC and the Graduate Program in Neuroscience support a wide variety of events, programs and support groups celebrating and furthering diversity for everyone.


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Welcome to Watch List, where we identify five things on TV to watch while you stay at home and ask your kid how their first day of school was. They'll say fine, and then you'll prod them for specifics, and then they'll fail to elaborate, and then you'll get all huffy and be like I JUST WANT TO GET TO KNOW YOU BETTER! Then they'll take off and eat dinner in their room. Ah, youth. LET'S GO!
ONE NIGHT IN VEGAS – 8:00PM (ESPN) ESPN's 30 For 30 documentary series continues with this look at the night of Tupac Shakur's murder. Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas the night of a Mike Tyson/Bruce Seldon fight, and this documentary explores the relationship between the rapper and the fighter, along with the events leading up to Shakur's tragic demise. Oddly enough, Shakur has been more successful in death since that night since Tyson has been in life. ANTICIPATION: HIGH!
WIPEOUT – 8:00PM (ABC) What's that? Thought the passage of Labor Day meant you got all new high quality programming from the main broadcast networks? Afraid not, kiddo. No, it's still the summer dead zone as far as ABC and the rest are concerned. They can't possibly give you good scripted programming more than five months a year! No one can be that original! Anyway, here's a new episode of Wipeout featuring people being hit by "big moving balls". No word on if that means they have to run between Jack Nicholson's legs. ANTICIPATION: FALLING IN MUD!
MY TRIP TO AL QAEDA – 9:00PM (HBO) Documentarian Alex Gibery splices 9/11 documentary footage with author Lawrence Wright's one-man play based on his book about the origins and growth of the notorious terrorist collective. I'm told there will not be any musical numbers. ANTICIPATION: SHOOTY!
NIGHTLINEPRIME: SECRETS OF YOUR MIND – WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO – 10:00PM (ABC) For this installment of ABC's exploration of the human mind (cue wave effect), Martin Bashir looks into the biology of overeating and meets with people who are trying to combat it, with techniques that include brain surgery. That's right. Brain surgery to prevent overeating. And now you know just how powerful a Cheeto can be, much less an entire bag. ANTICIPATION: CUTTING!
THE DAILY SHOW – 11:00PM (Comedy Central) Apparently, this is one of the three nights a year where Jon Stewart and his staff are NOT on vacation. Seriously, even Letterman works more than these people do. Anyway, tonight's new episode features an interview with Tim Gunn. Gotta love the Gunn. He's always so dapper! And he didn't write a book about politics. Bless his little heart. ANTICIPATION: WORKING!


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a couple more shots from veggie times.
um, how much are you looking forward to this weekend?
if there wasn't such a stigma put on drinking at 8:30 in the morning, i would splash some vodka over my morning grapefruit juice.
it's been that kind of week.
goodbye week, and good riddance.
Friday, May 22, 2009
a couple more
Posted by jen gotch at 8:40 AM
7 comments:
- glam.spoon said...
nobody's watching, darling. vodka and grapefruit sounds lovely.
- May 22, 2009 at 9:59 AM
- awalk said...
I really like the shot on the right with the lemons. Just enough light and color...prefect.
I like coming here from time to time to look at things!
- May 22, 2009 at 10:29 AM
- vanessa joie said...
TGIF! I won't tell if you need a little Vod-ie.
- May 22, 2009 at 11:29 AM
- Laura said...
i feel you. hope your weekend is relaxing, sounds like you need it!
- May 22, 2009 at 2:05 PM
- Suzanne said...
oh that DOES sound delicious. i don't know why "mimosas" are acceptable in the morning but a gin & tonic is not. doesn't sound fair to me!
p.s. love that lemon shot.
- May 22, 2009 at 4:13 PM
ditto!!!! blame it on mercury!!
- May 22, 2009 at 11:43 PM
I love all that you post... such an inspiration .x
- May 25, 2009 at 2:49 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Know your tenant's credit history
With TransUnion SmartMove's renter credit report
With TransUnion SmartMove, you can run tenant credit reports in minutes. As a property owner or landlord, you'll be able to make better decisions for your rental property online and within in minutes.
TransUnion SmartMove offers a tenant screening report for landlords like you that want to know more about their applicant's credit history. You'll have fast access to the same data that's used by large property management companies with TransUnion SmartMove's comprehensive leasing recommendations. If you want a comprehensive background on your renters, SmartMove will show you the whole picture in an easy to read format.
Doesn't impact the tenant's credit score
A credit check from SmartMove is different than most resident screening services. A review of a SmartMove report results in a soft-inquiry on the applicant's credit history, which has no effect on their overall credit score. Rental applicants can also be confident in the safety and security of their personal information throughout the process thanks to TransUnion's experienced team. TransUnion SmartMove is the clear choice for helping you make the right decisions for your rental property.
Since the rental applicant initiates the release of their personal information, the result will be a soft-inquiry that won't affect the applicant's credit score. As an added bonus to your potential tenants, our credit reports are formatted for tenant screening.
Easy-to-read format
SmartMove makes it easy for landlords to quickly identify important information about a potential applicant. You'll get the information you need to make an informed leasing decision by getting the context behind the score.
Available 24/7 online
Since the entire TransUnion SmartMove tenant screening process is completely online, it's accessible whenever it's most convenient for you. We also provide mobile optimized reports, so that you can access the information you need wherever you are.
Provided by a trusted company
Renter credit reports are provided by TransUnion, a company with more than 40 years of experience in the consumer reporting industry.


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The Walking Wounded Lyrics
I'm weak like a one armed boxer
Throwing punch after punch after punch
I give in
I'm so dumb and surprised when they duck
A scared pair of walking soldiers
We're all wounded anyway in our respective ways
Scientists they couldn't fix me
I'm so tired of getting out of bed
But who would want to die as a cowardly little child?
When our time is up will we be ashamed or proud?
You stretch the truth like a crooked salesman telling lie after lie, but where's the line?
You burn bridges and break down the dams
Let's take this train for one last stop
I know it's not the end but it can't be that far


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City of Lansing Parking
The City of Lansing maintains parking ramps within walking distance of Lansing Community College. Use the following information to learn more about City of Lansing Parking both near the college, and in the entire downtown area!
By clicking on the image below you will be directed to the Downtown Parking information page for the City of Lansing.
Police, Public Safety and Parking
Gannon Bldg, Room 2110
Phone: (517) 483-1798
Additional contact information »


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Brandon Kregel has a pair of triples this year (photo Erik Williams).
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – After having its two-game win streak snapped, the Harvard baseball team returns to action with its Ivy League openers this weekend, traveling to Columbia Saturday and Penn Sunday for a pair of doubleheaders to kick off Ancient Eight play.
Join the Conversation
Follow @HarvardCrimson, the official Twitter handle of Harvard Athletics, for all the latest news and notes on your favorite Crimson student-athletes and teams. To receive updates from the baseball team, follow @HarvardBaseball. Use the hashtag #GoCrimson to see what fans are saying about Crimson athletics.
Scouting Harvard
Harvard (3-15) has won two of its last three games entering Ivy League play, but it dropped its most recent contest, falling to Holy Cross, 9-4, Wednesday afternoon in the 2013 home opener for the Crimson. Brandon Kregel leads the team in runs (seven), doubles (five) and triples (two) and Mike Martin paces the squad in batting average (.353), stolen bases (two) and on-base percentage (.488) through the first 18 games on the season. Freshman DJ Link has a team-best eight RBI on 15 hits, while sophomore Ethan Ferreira has walked 15 times for a .411 on-base percentage.
On the bump, reigning Ivy League co-Rookie of the Week Sean Poppen anchors the staff. The 6-3 righty is 1-1 with a 3.92 ERA. He has fanned nine batters in a team-high 20.2 innings on the bump. Sophomore reliever Matt Timoney has a staff-high 11 strikeouts in just 12.2 innings on the mound, while junior Sam Dodge has made four starts.
New Skip
Bill Decker comes to Harvard from Trinity (Conn.), where he went 529-231 (.696) during the last 22 seasons. A four-time New England Coach of the Year, Decker was one of the most decorated head coaches in the Division III ranks. His best season came in 2008, when he led Trinity to an undefeated regular season en route to a 45-1 record and the Division III national title. Decker was named the 2008 ABCA National Coach of the Year after leading the Bantams to a Division III record 44 straight wins. He takes over the Crimson from the late Joe Walsh, who tragically passed away after the conclusion of the 2012 season.
Scouting Columbia
Like the Crimson, the Lions had their winning streak snapped on Wednesday, dropping a 4-0 decision to Manhattan to snap Columbia's five-game unbeaten span. Alex Baron has been the driving force for an offense that averages 3.7 runs per game. He has three home runs and 10 RBI in 19 games, while Nick Ferraresi has driven in a team-high 12 runs and homered twice. The Lions also like to run on the bases, successfully stealing 24 of 27 bags thus far. Jordan Serena tops the team with a perfect 9-for-9 mark on the base paths.
The Lions have a staff earned-run average of 4.21, and they are led on the mound by Adam Cline and David Speer. Cline is 1-2 with a 1.99 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 22.2 innings on the hill, while Speer is also 1-2 with 21 strikeouts and a 2.88 ERA in 25 innings over four starts.
Series History
Harvard leads the all-time series, which dates back to 1886, 85-55-1. The two teams split their meeting last year with the Crimson taking game one, 6-2, while the Lions won the second, 10-1.
Scouting Penn
Penn enters the weekend on a tear, winning six of its last seven contests. The Quakers took four of five games from Lafayette in the last seven days after winning two of their first three games at Meiklejohn Stadium the week prior. The Quakers like to use their speed on the bases, swiping 43 of 49 bags successfully, while also belting 10 triples in their first 20 games on the season. Michael Vallardo ranks third on the team in batting average with a .352 mark, but he has a team high 12 doubles and 21 runs batted in. Ryan Dietrich is batting .459 to top the squad, which is hitting a collective .294 and averaging 5.25 runs per contest.
On the mound, the Quakers have a collective 4.01 ERA, but their starting pitchers have done a fine job in the early going. Dan Gautieri has a 3-0 record and 1.73 ERA in 26 innings over the course of four starts, Jeff McGarry is 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA in 25.2 frames, and Connor Cuff is 3-1 with a 3.91 ERA in 23 innings.
Series History
Harvard holds a 113-64-1 advantage in the all-time meetings, but Penn has won the last four games in the series, including both contests last year.
Up Next
The Crimson makes the short trip to Boston College for a midweek meeting with the Eagles at 3 p.m.


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Hi there!
It's been a while since I last posted :-)
To compensate I am back today with some BIG NEWS for the craft industry!
There is a new baby in town and it's called 49andMarket.
As you can already guess I will be part of their Design Team and I am
so happy to be able to inspire you with 49andMarket products.
Products are high quality and a blast to work with!
Look at some of the debate release....amazing, right!?
The "Flower Fairies" collection is designed by talented Janene Meyerowitz
and it is truly fabulous! Love it!
The stamps are designed by very talented Gabrielle Pollacco!
Please make sure you check & follow us on:
Can't wait to share what I created :-)
... till then I'll leave you with this sneak peek ;-)
Have a great day!


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- Details
- Published: 18 April 2013 18 April 2013
The Story
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk took him through A Land More Kind Than Home, down to The Cove where the Sea Changes, and A Million Suns Shine Shine Shine on its Fathomless waves, holding him in Thrall. His Descent led Down Bohicket Road towards his Permanent Camp overlooking The Accidental City, its buildings climbing the far slope to Stand Up That Mountain in the distance. It's just a piece of Stray Decorum, he thought walking through the streets, dodging Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons as it swatted at the Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, who no longer lived in the old apartment building on the corner but had left the critters to flutter about, nonetheless. He wandered past My Bookstore and walked into the Back in the Day Bakery, where a class on Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking was underway (you could tell by the smell of fried chicken). He thought, "I'm hungry," as he and my sister and Pete all gathered Around the Southern Table, laden with heaping platters of ole Fred Thompson's Southern Sides. Billy Lynn turned to my sister and said "I just want to Chomp on 34 Pieces of You." And she smiled. "Wouldn't that make me Three Times Lucky," she said. I knew then I was Losing My Sister to him.
(Columbia, SC) April 17, 2013 -- Southern Indie Booksellers have spoken! Members of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance have selected this year's finalists for the 2013 SIBA Book Awards. There are twenty-five books on the list, representing booksellers' favorite hand sells of the year in fiction, nonfiction, children's, young adult, poetry and cooking.
2013 SIBA Book Award Finalists:
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash (William Morrow & Company)
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain (Ecco Press)
The Cove by Ron Rash (Ecco Press)
Sea Change by Karen White (New American LIbrary)
Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer (St. Martins Press)
Stray Decorum by George Singleton (Dzanc Books)
Descent by Kathryn Stripling Byer (Louisiana State University Press)
Permanent Camp by George Ellison (History Press)
Thrall by Natasha Trethewey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell (Harvard University Press)
Down Bohicket Road: An Artist S Journey. Paintings and Sketches by Mary Whyte. with Excerpts from Alfreda S World by Mary Whyte (University of South Carolina Press)
Losing My Sister by Judy Goldman (John F. Blair Publisher)
My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop by Ron Rice (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers)
Stand Up That Mountain by Jay Erskine Leutze (Scribner Book Company)
The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook by Cheryl Day & Griffith Day (Artisan)
Fred Thompson's Southern Sides: 250 Dishes That Really Make the Plate by Fred Thompson (University of North Carolina Press)
Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart (Gibbs Smith Publishers)
Around the Southern Table: Coming Home to Comforting Meals and Treasured Memories by Rebecca Lang (Oxmoor House)
Chomp by Carl Hiaasen (Alfred Knopf Books for Young Readers)
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin and James Dean (HarperCollins)
Young Adult
34 Pieces of You by Carmen Rodrigues (Simon Pulse)
A Million Suns by Beth Revis (Razorbill)
Fathomless by Jackson Pearce (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (Dial Books for Young Readers)
Finalists will be judged by a juried panel of SIBA booksellers, and winners will be announced on July 4, "Independents Day." More information about the SIBA Book Awards can be found at sibaweb.com/siba-book-award.


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Dear Answer Angel:
I'm a little embarrassed to ask this question. I've been using the same deodorant since I was in high school, and it has always "done the job." Now, many decades later, it isn't working. I was in a crowd the other day, and I started thinking someone near me had not taken a shower after a workout or something. And then I realized that I was the guilty party. The product I'm talking about is the "regular" red label Ban roll-on. When that changed to a green container, I stuck with the roll-on "regular" with a red label. But lately, I've been having not-so-good results. Did I change, or did the deodorant?
— Not So Fresh Anymore
Dear Not So Fresh:
Your favorite Ban roll-on
changed. I asked the company and learned that it did make "relatively minor" changes in the formula. But that might not be the cause of your problem. It could be you. Ban research leader Erica Palmer says, "We are learning that as people age, they may need to switch products to compensate for physical changes in body chemistry." Palmer suggests you switch from roll-on to solid. Roll-on is gentler but "not as effective in controlling odor and wetness" as the solid, she says.
You didn't ask, but others have inquired how to remove the inevitable white deodorant streaks on your sweaters and shirts that you notice just as you're racing out the door. Easy and cheap: Rub the area with dry pantyhose (or knee-highs) or a dry Mr. Clean Eraser household cleaning pad.
Dear Angel:
I have been struggling for years on my quest for a raincoat that's stylish
has a hood. All the stylish raincoats/trench coats I find lack a hood. I carry an umbrella with me on rainy days, but I would still like a hood to protect me from the humidity, not just the water. Are there any affordable waterproof, stylish raincoats/trench coats out there with a hood, or am I asking for too much?
— Mary B.
Dear Mary:
In fashion (as in life), you can never ask for too much! The perfect coat — with a hood — is out there. But it will require some searching. I like to touch, feel and try on, so online shopping isn't my favorite. But it's the way to go when you're looking for something really specific, such as your perfect coat. An online search for "hooded trench coat" (or leopard rain boot or whatever esoterica is on your wish list) will turn up a ton of options. In your case, I found a high-end lemon sorbet-colored taffeta Burberry for (gulp) $1,295 (
) and a cute Marc New York in black jersey knit with a hidden hood, $255 at
). Also: Gallery makes cute, colorful coats with detachable hoods, including one in bright spring green for $118 at
. Happy hunting.
Dear Answer Angel:
Can you settle this dispute with my wife? We were in a restaurant, and the people at the next table were having a lively discussion about a movie we were about to see. We actually had just purchased the tickets — for a ridiculous $11 apiece, I might add. I asked them in a pleasant way if they'd change the subject because we were about to see the film and wanted to be surprised. They seemed OK with that. But my wife wasn't. She was mortified and says I was out of line. I say I was just protecting my investment.
— Spoiler Alert
Dear S.A.:
I'm on your side. As long as you were nice about it, you're fine. And, because your dining neighbors
stop talking about the movie, they, too, must have been OK with your request. Whether the issue is free upgrades on your cell-phone contract, honoring an expired discount coupon or a change of topic at the adjacent table, I say it never hurts to ask — politely.
Dear Answer Angel:
I found the perfect jacket at a consignment store. The sleeves had been altered by the previous owner and it fit me perfectly. It's clear that whoever consigned it is exactly my size. Is it possible to find more clothes from whoever my body double is? How?
— No more tailoring bills
Dear No More:
Yes! Many consignment stores — such as the national chain Second Time Around (
) — have computer software that can track all the clothes in the store from that same seller. Even without a computer program, managers of consignment stores often know their sellers so well that if you ask (preferably keep tags and receipts with identifying numbers), they can locate all the clothes in their shop from that person.
Woof. Reacting to my advice to people complaining that their best friends' dogs leave them covered with hair, several e-mailers raved thusly: "Buy your friends a Furminator. Best dog comb ever.… It is amazing." (furminator.com)
Shop, drop, ask for help
Yearning for a friend (only better) to tell you what to choose, where to look, how to get good value? Relax, now you've got an angel on your shoulder. Send questions large and small to
Tattered, precious clothes: Can't bear to throw out your beat-up, beloved favorites? Those jeans? A baseball cap? A shredded sweater? Tell me your stories. Even send a photo! E-mail me at


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WOODSTOCK – The layout of the Square makes it easy for shoppers to navigate the vendors selling their home-grown and homemade goods at the twice-weekly Woodstock Farmers Market.
It's not so easy for farmers who wish to sell at multiple markets to navigate the patchwork quilt of regulations that vary from health department to health department. Rules regarding how goods are made, how they're transported and how they're stored and displayed vary, sometimes wildly, among the more than 100 county and municipal health departments in Illinois.
Want to sell home-grown Brussels sprouts? In one county, you can cut them from the stalk. In another, you may need a more stringent permit because cutting them off makes them processed food.
But vendors are optimistic that a new law will eliminate the problem by introducing one set of common-sense rules for farmers markets statewide.
House Bill 5657, which Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law earlier this month, will by year's end create statewide farmers market regulations for local health departments to enforce.
RELATED: Area Farmers Markets in McHenry County
State Rep. Mike Tryon, R-Crystal Lake, drafted the legislation to make it easier for farmers market vendors to operate, given markets' growing popularity and steadily rising consumer interest in locally-grown food. An increasing number of farmers markets, including Woodstock's, are accepting government assistance cards in an effort to promote healthy eating among low-income families.
"You're starting to see a re-emergence of farmers' markets because restaurants and consumers are wanting fresh fruits and vegetables. One of the problems has been, if you talk to vendors, they go from one county to another and you run into different ordinances and different codes," Tryon said.
Michele Aavang, who now sells her locally-raised beef exclusively at the Woodstock market, recalled the differing regulations when she started Willow Lea Stock Farm more than a decade ago. Acquiring the needed permits was simple in Cook and Lake counties, but the McHenry County Department of Health at first attempted to require her to have a commercial kitchen, which she said made no sense because she was not cooking anything and was using a USDA-licensed butcher.
Aavang, president of the McHenry County Farm Bureau and a McHenry County Board member, said she hopes the state guidelines streamline things while preserving food safety and quality.
"I'm optimistic, let's put it that way. I think it's well-intentioned, and hope it will be done well," Aavang said. "Everyone is for safety. We just want it to be common-sense."
The new law also will create a statewide certificate to offer samples – many vendors will not do so because of the highly variable differences among jurisdictions. It also will cap at $25 the permit fee required for "cottage food" operations, meaning nonhazardous foods, typically baked goods, made in home kitchens.
One aspect that vendors at the Woodstock market like is a requirement that all vendors selling unprocessed produce have a label listing the address where the produce was grown or purchased from.
The Woodstock market is strictly a producer-only market, meaning that only vendors who grow and make their own goods are allowed to participate. Market Manager Keith Johnson inspects vendors' facilities personally to make sure – as Brook Farm co-owner Sonja Brook put it, if you're selling beef, Johnson had better see cows on your farm.
Tryon said the labeling requirement is meant to crack down on vendors who dishonestly sell out-of-state produce, and in some cases buy produce at a supermarket and sell it at a markup as locally-grown.
"To me, if you're reselling, you're not supporting local agriculture," Johnson said.
To Rich Brook, who with his wife grows vegetables and flowers and makes homemade popcorn at his rural Harvard farm, the Woodstock market and the McHenry County Health Department have set a high bar that he hopes stays high with state regulations.
"I don't think we should compromise on these rules to make it more convenient for some vendors who don't want to make the effort," he said.
Tryon acknowledges the potential for over-regulation, given that he and his fellow Republicans routinely blame bureaucracy and red tape along with taxes for stymieing Illinois business.
In a related incident, a recent bill meant to exempt small cottage food enterprises from permit requirements after a downstate health department shut down an 11-year-old girl's cupcake business was almost amended in the Illinois Senate to require hundreds of dollars in permits and an 8-hour safety course. The requirements were dropped and Quinn subsequently signed what came to be known as the "cupcake bill" into law.
But Johnson, who is a member of the board of the Illinois Farmers Market Association, said he thinks logic will prevail over attempts at regulatory overkill.
"I don't think that's going to happen. This was a bill designed to help producers, not hinder," Johnson said.
Illinois has the third largest number of farmers markets in the U.S. at 375, according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
On the Net
You can read the text of House Bill 5657 at www.ilga.gov.
You can learn more about the Woodstock Farmers Market at www.woodstockfarmersmarket.org. It is open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays through October.


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There are probably any number of ways to make a kiln carving pattern, but I'm fond of the way I do it, so that's the one I use.
Step 1
Determine final pattern size. I like to keep things under 6″ x 6″ (15 cm x 15 cm) for flat glass. For bottle glass, I try to keep things within 4.5″ (11.4 cm) wide because that's how wide a regular wine bottle is when you melt it flat. The patterns can be printed at different % for larger or smaller projects.


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Paris Fashion Week – S/S 10
October 10, 2009by Samantha Tagged Abbey LeeDree HemingwayIekeliene StangeModels StyleParis Fashion Week Comments (0)
Welcome to HOY Fashion, a website dedicated to street fashion in the UK, since 2006. Hoy fashion was founded in liverpool by photographers Samantha Toro Paz and Sophie Christian. Hoy fashion sets out to capture the individual styles and trends around the UK and the rest of Europe. If you have any questions or want further information, contact us at email@example.com
website design, website hosting and website maintenance by igoo website design liverpool


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de Buyer Mineral "B" Fry Pan
Easy, hassle-free returns online and in-store for eligible items.Learn More
Earn 2x Rewards4 That's 10% back in rewards when you use your Williams Sonoma Credit Card at Williams Sonoma 11/6 - 11/13.Apply Now Learn More
- Summary
With its classic French shape, this fry pan excels for searing, browning and grilling as well as cooking omelettes and sautéing vegetables. Made of 99% iron with no chemicals or coatings added, this pan has an organic beeswax finish for a naturally stick-resistant surface.
- Made of 99% iron, a natural mineral material.
- Organic beeswax finish—denoted by a "B" in the pan's center—protects pan against oxidation, helps in the seasoning process and improves nonstick quality.
- With use, the pan darkens and develops a naturally nonstick surface, and the "B" in the center will disappear.
- Allows high-heat searing to seal in food flavors, juices and nutrients.
- Safe for use on all heat sources including induction.
- Triple-riveted steel handle.
- Made in France.
- Dimensions & More Info
- 10" fry pan: 10"diam.; 4 lb.
- 12" fry pan: 12"diam.; 5 lb. 12 oz.
- Made in France.
- Use & Care
- Ideal for use on any type of cooktop, including induction.
- Oven and broiler safe.
- Hand wash only. Use hot water, and just a few drops of gentle soap if necessary. Do not soak pan.
- Remove any residue with a nonabrasive scouring pad.
- After washing, dry pan and lightly season: Add a few drops of cooking oil to pan and wipe with a paper towel, leaving a thin layer of oil on pan before storing.
- Season pan before first use: Place potato peelings in the pan with about 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil for 15 minutes. Drain the mixture, then rinse the pan. Cover the pan bottom with a coating of frying oil and dry it for a few minutes. Discard oil and wipe the pan with a paper towel.
- Shipping
Shipping Information
UPS can deliver most in-stock items within 3–5 business days. UPS is unable to deliver to P.O. boxes.
Shipping Rates
The shipping rate varies depending on your order total and shipping destination. View Shipping Options and Charges.
Next Day Delivery
For an additional charge of $26 per address, we can expedite delivery to most destinations. This service is not available for some oversize items, items shipped directly from the supplier (including perishable and custom-manufactured items), out-of-stock items and items to be shipped outside the contiguous 48 states.
Orders received by 9:00 p.m. ET Monday through Thursday will arrive the next business day; orders placed Friday through Sunday will arrive on the following Tuesday.
Return Policy
At Williams Sonoma, we take great pride in the quality and craftsmanship of our products. Attention to design, materials, safety and construction are our priority. Upon receipt, please inspect your purchase and notify us of any damage; we will arrange for a prompt replacement.
If within 30 days, you are dissatisfied for any reason, you may return your purchase for a refund of the merchandise value. An original receipt or gift receipt is required for all returns and exchanges. Returns with a gift receipt will be refunded in the form of a Merchandise Credit for the amount indicated on the gift receipt. Returns with original receipt will be refunded in the original form of payment, cash and check refunds over $100 will be issued as a company check (may take 14 business days from time of request).
For all cutlery returns (knife sets, single knives, cutting boards, knife sharpeners and knife storage), please contact us at 888.922.4108 to initiate the return.
We cannot accept returns on monogrammed, personalized, special-order items, custom upholstery, food, items shipped direct from the vendor or on items damaged through normal wear and tear. Final sale items ending in .97 or .99 cannot be returned.
Made to Order and Final Sale Furniture items are non-returnable and cannot be cancelled once the order is placed.
For returns of items purchased from your Williams Sonoma Gift Registry, we will gladly provide a refund or exchange for the merchandise within 90 days of your event or within 90 days of purchase, whichever date is later. View Full Returns Policy.
- More about de Buyer
The de Buyer family has been making cookware in the French town of Val-d'Ajol since 1830. The family-owned company originally crafted pots and cauldrons for cooking over a live fire using iron ore extracted from the region. Pairing modern technology with a timeless attention to quality, De Buyer still creates cookware in the classic French shapes and materials traditionally used in professional kitchens. In addition to copper and iron collections, the company also offers stainless-steel and nonstick lines to meet the needs of today's home cooks.
- Price Match Guarantee
Williams Sonoma Price Match Guarantee
At Williams Sonoma, we're committed to bringing you the best quality at the best prices.
If you find a lower price on any of our products, we'll match it—guaranteed. Click here for details.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Atremin from Best pan ever I bought this and the crepe pan. They are marvelous once seasoned. I can cook anything without it sticking. So much better than a non-stick pan!Date published: 2019-08-23Rated 2 out of 5 by djmalo from Careful with the handle Wondered to myself how the silicone coating on the handle worked. It doesn't. Typically a carbon steel skillet can go from stovetop to oven. The handle coating on DeBuyer mineral b skillets will melt in temps above 400f. A shame because the pan holds a season better and resists warping in heat better than matfer black steel skillets...Date published: 2017-05-04Rated 5 out of 5 by JeffU from Why use nonstick? I bought this pan after Cook's Illustrated reviewed carbon steel pans and extolled their many virtues. After removing the protective beeswax coating it was easy to season initially with flaxseed oil. (Check out some of the many videos online; just about any reasonable technique will work.) Use the pan much like a grilling surface: preheat it throughly, oil the food (you can also put oil/butter/etc. in the pan just before cooking), put food in the pan and cook until it easily releases. Then it will slide around like it's on a skating rink. Flip, etc. I just did this with salmon fillets this evening. They had a beuatiful bronze exterior and were a perfect 130F in the middle. Cleanup consisted of wiping the pan out with paper towels and a taking few scrapes with a nylon pad.Date published: 2016-11-14Rated 5 out of 5 by YumYummy from Wonderful if you like cast iron I love this pan! I recently renewed my interest in cast iron & the carbon steel pan is similar & requires the same level of care. I don't mind the extra care when it cooks so well, I find myself reaching for it instead of my trusted cast iron skillet. It is seasoning up right nicelly, heats evenly and will be as good as "nonstick" when the seasoning is complete. It has washed up very nicely with very little scrubbing. Would buy again!Date published: 2016-02-29Rated 5 out of 5 by bbosw from A real classic I have the 8" 10" & 12". love them all! They are a joy to use. I am a real "cookware nut" and I get so much pleasure out of using these pans that I leave pans costing four times as much on the shelf. It is not "dishwasher safe", but if kept seasoned, requires no more effort to clean than you give the "nonstick" before you put them in the dishwasher--a quick rinse and wipe dry.Date published: 2014-09-25Rated 5 out of 5 by CastIronMaiden from perfection i love this pan. got the BIG MAMA 12" and did a wonderful fried rice the other day - never been able to get wok results in my other pans. I also love the design - functional yet ergonomically good for me (been the same design for centuries..guess somebody must have been thinking even then). I treat it like cast iron with seasoning, but it's lighter than cast iron. I reach for this pan first now! Never going to be the shiniest, flashiest, newest fad out there pan... but it is definitely a favorite.Date published: 2013-08-31Rated 5 out of 5 by Exuma from Why did I wait so long? I've spent far too many years buying cheap cookware that I'm lucky to get 6 months decent use. When I consider all the pans I've thrown away, I could have bought one amazing set by now! This pan was worth every penny. I seasoned the pan as directed and my fried eggs slid out better than my "nonstick" pans. I'll buy the smaller size when they go on sale again.Date published: 2013-06-12Rated 5 out of 5 by ChoppyChoppy from One Year Later and Still Love it My Gorgeous wife purchased the large Mineral B Fry pan for me a year ago. I later went back and purchased the smaller fry pan and the small Country pan. I love them all. They go from stovetop to the oven, are quite non-stick when you properly care for them and absolutely are my favs to cook with. You need to treat them like you would a cast iron item, clean, dry and oil them, but the small effort is worth it. My go to pans!!!! Plus, they were not made in China!Date published: 2012-12-09


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Ugg Suede boots
Style No. W5854-CHESTN
In 1978, a young Australian surfer founded the UGG brand on the shores of Southern California. His Aussie roots forged a strong love for sheepskin and he was convinced the world would one day share this love. By the mid 80's, the UGG brand became a symbol of relaxed southern California culture, gaining momentum through surf shops up and down the california coast. The brand is now worn across the world, in both hot and cold conditions.


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Today is the first Friday of the month, and the release of the closely watch US employment data, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today's release at 13:30pm (London) will be the employment situation for December 2014. On Wednesday the ADP National Employment report printed an increase of +241,000 jobs in December, which is in line with the drop of the moving average of jobless claims. The December Non-Manufacturing ISM Indexdipped by 0.7 points to 56.0 from Novembers 5…Continue Reading →
The Bank of England MPC has just announced (12.00pm London) that they have as expected left interest rates and asset purchases unchanged. The MPC has concluded their two day meeting, 7 and 8 January 2015. Current base interest rate: 0.5% Asset purchases (QE): £375bn The minutes for today's MPC meeting will be released on Wednesday 21 2015. Traders will be eager to see if there has been a change in the committees voting split (previously 7 -2) and to disseminate…Continue Reading →
UK Markit/CIPS UK Services PMI disappoints at 55.8 vs (Previous 58.6). The pace of growth stuttered in the service sector in December. The data adds to the confusion over the health of the economy, and adds weight to the view of that a rate rise in 2015 is diminishing. GBPUSD In the FX market Sterling traded lower following the release of the PMI data, trading to a new session low of 1.5187. (Session high 1.52735) Full data release…Continue Reading →
The fears of a Greek exit from the Eurozone, remerged over the weekend for the first time since its height in mid-2012. In early Asian trading, EURUSD gapped lower on the open trading to a 9 year low of 1.1870 (Straticator DMA) on the offer. Greece has implemented a number of austerity measures since the financial crisis, in an attempt to appease the ECB and the IMF. The economy teetered on the brink of collapse, and was saved by an IMF bailout. The country has begun to recover, with u…Continue Reading →
The final trading session of 2014 is upon us; the year finishes with record highs for US indices, and a bear market in Oil. As the year ends, there has been resurgence in instability in Libya, a near collapse of the Russian Ruble and heightened tensions from North Korea. These are individual views, and shouldn't be taken as investment advice; Abshire-Smith provides execution only trading. Trading leveraged products such as FX and CFDs, is a high risk and you may lose more than yo…Continue Reading →
The Holiday trading hours is correct according to the information that we have from exchanges and liquidity providers. However due to reasons beyond our control these trading hours could differ slightly. MetaTrader 4 and VertexFX 10 trading hours: Please contact us if you have any questions or need further assistance. From all of the Abshire-Smith team, thank you for trading with us in 2014, and we look forward to being your broker in 2015.…Continue Reading →
The Russian Ruble's recent moves have hit the financial headlines, after wild swings, interest rate increases and market intervention. The value of the Ruble has moved dramatically this week, being deemed "untradeable" by some analysts. USDRUB trade to 80 Rubles to the US Dollar on Tuesday, currently the pair is trading around 62 Rubles to the USD. The rapid depreciation was meant to be curbed by a bold move by the central bank, a 650bps increase in interest rates, ho…Continue Reading →
The price of Oil has collapsed since the start of the year, with concerns of the global recovery being derailed. Oil producing nations, who rely on the black gold for revenue, are in risk of having to cut expenditure following the commodity rollercoaster. US Oil (WTI Crude) has traded below $60 for the first time in 5 years on Thursday and there is a concern that there could be further to fall. Countries that are expected to suffer are net exporters of Oil, and rely primarily on govern…Continue Reading →
The Swiss National Bank has reaffirmed their commitment to the minimum exchange rate of CHF 1.20 per Euro. "Consequently, the SNB will continue to enforce the minimum exchange rate with the utmost determination. It is prepared to buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities for this purpose." There had been concern that a referendum (Save Our Swiss Gold) would leave the SNB unable to maintain the floor. The initiative was rejected by the Swiss people, which initially…Continue Reading →
Production data released by the Office for National Statistics missed analysts' expectations. Manufacturing output had its lowest drop in 5-months, though it was pulled down by a fall in the production of computers. The ONS announced that manufacturing output was the only one of the four components of the Index of Production to fall. GBP Sterling was offered following the disappointing figures, trading down to print 1.5641. Cable has been trending in a choppy channel since…Continue Reading →
On Wednesday Chancellor George Osborne, was the main headline as he unveiled his Autumn Statement, and the reform of stamp duty on properties. As traders digested the announcements in Parliament cable was relatively unchanged. The figures on the deficit outlook were the most interesting Today Bank of England MPC concludes their two day policy meeting, and will announce at noon (London) if they have voted to change interest rates or asset purchases (QE). The consensus is for the majorit…Continue Reading →
At 12:30pm (London) Chancellor George Osborne will unveil his Autumn Statement at the House of Commons. This is one of the current coalition government's few major announcements prior to next year's general election, and an attempt to sway voters. This is a fiscal announcement rather than a monetary policy; which is overseen by the Bank of England. Osborne is under pressure as the current government announced a range of austerity measures during its term in parliament, on t…Continue Reading →
The yellow metal, black gold, call them what you want; commodities have seen significant moves of over 6% in a single trading session in the last few days. The steep declines, and rallies in both Gold and Oil have seen significant volumes traded over the US public holiday, Thanksgiving. Crude Oil US (WTI) and UK (Brent) crude have been trending lower since the start of 2014, down over 30% YTD, trading at a four year low. The move is a gift for airlines and Oil purchasers, but is…Continue Reading →


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Im not doing a tremendous amount of public speaking this year and concentrating on more professional matters, however im pleased to say that on Friday 5th December i will be presenting a day long pre-con on Query Processing and internals at SQL Saturday 467 in Southampton.
We will be spending the whole day looking at the optimizer and picking apart its internals to show how it generates a plan from your given sql. This will cover a wide range of topics, starting from execution plan basics and working ourselves through to demonstrating internals with undocumented traceflags.
Other precons are available if this doesn't float your boat. Full details, pricing and hotel discount codes are available from
Its been a fair few years since I started blogging on SQLBlogCasts and the time has now come to find a new home.
From now on (along with a few others of the UK SQL Server community) I shall be blogging on dataidol.com. My page will be at http://dataidol.com/davebally , please update any feeds etc and I hope to see you there.
Occasionally in forums and on client sites I see conditional subqueries in statements. This is where the developer has decided that it is only necessary to process some data under a certain condition. By way of example, something like this :
Create Procedure GetOrder @SalesOrderId integer,
@CountDetails tinyint
Select SOH.salesorderid ,
case when @CountDetails = 1 then
(Select count(*)
from Sales.SalesOrderDetail SOD
where SOH.SalesOrderID = SOD.SalesOrderID) end
from sales.SalesOrderHeader SOH
where SalesOrderID = @SalesOrderID
The count of details are only required when @CountDetails = 1.
If you where to execute the above stored procedure, in the execution plan you would see the 'Pass Through' specified on the nested loop operator thusly:
As you can see, or at least visualise, this specifies that the code branch is only executed upon the condition of @CountDetails = 1.
This bears out nicely when running the procedure with 'SET STATISTICS IO ON', firstly 'EXEC GetOrder 43663,1', ie specifying that we wish to 'count details'
Table 'SalesOrderDetail'. Scan count 1, logical reads 3, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
Table 'SalesOrderHeader'. Scan count 0, logical reads 3, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
and secondly 'EXEC GetOrder 43663,0' , dont 'count details'.
Table 'SalesOrderDetail'. Scan count 0, logical reads 0, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
Table 'SalesOrderHeader'. Scan count 0, logical reads 3, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
So the pass through has done its job and when not required that data is not read, quite a good cost saving. However, is this method always a good idea ?. Well no, im afraid not. The pass through requires a nested loop join to operate even when a hash or merge would be more optimal.
Consider this stored procedure
Create Procedure GetAllOrders @CountDetails tinyint
Select SOH.salesorderid ,
case when @CountDetails =1
then (Select count(*)
from Sales.SalesOrderDetail SOD
where SOH.SalesOrderID = SOD.SalesOrderID) end
from sales.SalesOrderHeader SOH
Option(maxdop 1)
Now let us execute with 'EXEC GetAllOrders 1'. As Ive stated, in the the plan we will see a nested loop operator joining SalesOrderHeader and SalesOrderDetail, the nested loop is required to process a 'pass through'.
As we need all rows to logically satisfy our query, a hash would have been more optimal.
Lets compare the IO between the above and a statement that does a hash join
First the procedure:
Table 'SalesOrderDetail'. Scan count 31465, logical reads 95887, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
Table 'SalesOrderHeader'. Scan count 1, logical reads 57, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
and now for the statement :
Select SOH.salesorderid , (Select count(*)
from Sales.SalesOrderDetail SOD
where SOH.SalesOrderID = SOD.SalesOrderID)
from sales.SalesOrderHeader SOH
Table 'Worktable'. Scan count 0, logical reads 0, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
Table 'SalesOrderDetail'. Scan count 1, logical reads 1246, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
Table 'SalesOrderHeader'. Scan count 1, logical reads 57, physical reads 0, read-ahead reads 0, lob logical reads 0, lob physical reads 0, lob read-ahead reads 0.
That is a massive cost difference and one that certainly should be avoided.
if it were me, in this case my stored procedure would now be :
Create Procedure GetAllOrders @CountDetails tinyint
if(@CountDetails = 0) begin
Select SOH.salesorderid ,
0 as CountDetails
from sales.SalesOrderHeader SOH
end else begin
Select SOH.salesorderid , (Select count(*)
from Sales.SalesOrderDetail SOD
where SOH.SalesOrderID = SOD.SalesOrderID)
from sales.SalesOrderHeader SOH
So be careful with your pass throughs and make sure that you are not inappropriately looping due to them.
On the weekend of the 9th March 2013, the second SQL Saturday in the UK occurred. A massive thank you must go to all the sponsors of the event, FusionIO, Confio, Nexus, Purple Frog, Redgate, Idera and Big Bang Data. Additionally big congratulations to Jonathan and Annette Allan, Thomas Rushton and Mark Price-Mayer for putting on such a great event, everyone had a whale of a time.
At the event, I was honoured to present my first pre-con with my co-presenter Dave Morrison and I think our style and material complement each other well. Together, we looked at many aspects of TSQL and Internals and received some great feedback from the attendees who, hopefully, will be able to look at their systems and working practices with much more knowledge about SQL Server than previously.
If you attended the pre-con then the slides and examples from the day are available from here. These are password protected so you will only be able to gain access if you attended, sorry.
If this sounds like the sort of thing that you could also benefit from, I am also delivering a two day course in London on the 19th and 20th of March looking at Advanced TSQL. More details on this course and full itinerary can be found here.
In addition to the pre-con I also delivered a new presentation of "Estimation, Statistics and Oh My!". This was also well received and I got some very positive feedback. If you attended this session the slides are available from here.
It was great to catch up with friends and #SQLFamily from home and abroad, and am now looking forward to SQLBits where I shall be again presenting, see you there
Time does fly, and happy birthday SQL Lunch UK.
It has been a year since the first SQLLunch UK, and over the year there have been 21 Lunchs with a total of 537 attendees. OK, some of those will be the same people but in 'conference speak' each registration counts, but in any case i'm delighted by the success and looking forward to repeating this over the coming year. The first few presented some interesting technical challenges, those have been licked and now with the scaling out to Cardiff we have a few more but nothing that is insurmountable.
To 'celebrate' this occasion it is only fitting that Patrick LeBlanc (b|t) will be presenting a session for us on the 26th of Feb. Full details will be on SQL Server FAQ soon, so hope to see you in either London or Cardiff.
A massive thank-you to the Attendees for coming along twice a month for a pint and SQL knowledge and an even bigger one to all of the speakers many of who have stayed up late (12:30am in New Zealand ) or up early (4:30am in Seattle) , your efforts are very much appreciated.
As ive stated in the past, i'm presently part of a team on an ALM project for a major UK based online retailer. The aim of this project is to have fully automated app and database code and schema deployment, through development, UAT and finally live.
Most parts of this equation we have pretty much got licked, SSDT is used to generate diff scripts, a custom powershell script copies SSIS packages and install relevant sql agent jobs. One major missing part though was SSRS deployments.
Bingling around there are a few options, RS.EXE is a vbscript language for the job, custom MSBUILD tasks, or RSS scripter. None of these felt quite right to me, or as intuitive and extensible as I personally like things to be.
In a previous life I have written a few jobs for emailing SSRS reports directly, so was quite aware that SSRS does has a feature rich WSDL layer underneath it. However, since at that time my language of choice was C/C++ the WSDL was a PITA to work with and didn't really enjoy the experience. Now using powershell though they work like a dream and can easily be exploited.
Apologies in advance for the overuse of the word "simple" from here on, but it really is simple. I will call out the important parameters but wont spend a lot of time describing each one.
So, to the details. The WSDL we will be using is ReportService2010, this can be found at the url …
naturally replacing YOURHOST and YOURINSTANCE with your host server and instance
The class ReportingService2010 is documented here.
Connecting to it and creating the service in powershell is simple:
$ReportServerUri = "http://server/ReportServer_INSTANCE//ReportService2010.asmx?wsdl"
$global:proxy = New-WebServiceProxy -Uri $ReportServerUri -UseDefaultCredential ;
Notice that extra credentials can be supplied here, to keep things simple im going to use default.
The first thing that we would like to do would be to create a menu structure:
$type = $Proxy.GetType().Namespace
$datatype = ($type + '.Property')
$property =New-Object ($datatype);
$property.Name = "NewFolder"
$property.Value = "NewFolder"
$numproperties = 1
$properties = New-Object ($datatype + '[]')$numproperties
$properties[0] = $property;
$newFolder = $proxy.CreateFolder("NewFolder", "/", $properties);
Things to note in this code : The name of the object type created in the New-Object command is the full namespace of the wsdl. The CreateFolder function creates a folder called NewFolder in the root directory. Check the full documentation for other properties that can be added.
Finding the children of a menu node is equally simple:
$Children =$proxy.ListChildren("/",$false)
Nice, our menu structure is now defined, lets do something useful: Lets add an RDL file, here comes the tricky part. No not really, its simple
$stream = Get-Content 'MyAwesomeReport.rdl' -Encoding byte
$warnings =@();
$proxy.CreateCatalogItem("Report","My Awesome Report","/",$true,$stream,$null,[ref]$warnings)
Here "My Awesome Report" is the name of the report and "/" is the path to create it.
Creating a datasource is equally as simple, we have a few more bits of data to set up but nothing to taxing:
$Name = "MyDSN"
$Parent = "/"
$ConnectString = "data source=(local);initial catalog=AdventureWorks"
$type = $Proxy.GetType().Namespace
$DSDdatatype = ($type + '.DataSourceDefinition')
$DSD = new-object ($DSDdatatype)
if($DSD -eq $null){
Write-Error Failed to create data source definition object
$CredentialDataType = ($type + '.CredentialRetrievalEnum')
$Cred = new-object ($CredentialDataType)
# $CredEnum = ($CredentialDataType).Integrated
$Cred.value__=2 ## .Integrated
$DSD.CredentialRetrieval =$Cred
$DSD.ConnectString = $ConnectString
$DSD.Enabled = $true
$DSD.EnabledSpecified = $false
$DSD.Extension = "SQL"
$DSD.ImpersonateUserSpecified = $false
$DSD.Prompt = $null
$DSD.WindowsCredentials = $false
$newDSD = $proxy.CreateDataSource($Name,$Parent,$true,$DSD,$null)
This is one part I havent worked out yet though, the securitytype is a enum and I cant find the correct way to use that. Anyone care to help me here ?, i'm no powershell guru.
So, by now we can build a menu structure, add datasources and reports all with a few simple lines of powershell code.
But, in the real world, we dont just want anyone to be able to run any report, so lets add some security on. This is simple :
$type = $Proxy.GetType().Namespace
$datatype = ($type + '.Policy')
$NewPolicies = @();
$NewPolicy = New-Object ($datatype);
$NewPolicy.GroupUserName = "MYDOMAIN\MYUSER";
$type = $Proxy.GetType().Namespace
$datatype = ($type + '.Role')
$NewRole = New-Object ($datatype);
$NewRole.Name = "Content Manager"
$NewPolicies += $NewPolicy
$datatype = ($type + '.Policy')
$NewPolicy = New-Object ($datatype);
$NewPolicy.GroupUserName = "MYDOMAIN\MYGroup";
$type = $Proxy.GetType().Namespace
$datatype = ($type + '.Role')
$NewRole = New-Object ($datatype);
$NewRole.Name = "Browser"
$NewPolicies += $NewPolicy
$proxy.SetPolicies("/My Report",$NewPolicies)
Hope that you have found this post useful, and now you can proceed with automated deployments of SSRS projects. To my mind this post covers 90% of the work that you will need to do and you now have a good lead on the remainder, Oh, and did I mention, its simple.
This post has be part of #TSQL2sDay, hosted by Wayne Sheffield (b|t)
If you are anything like me, by know you will have a few thousand digital images spread across multiple directories and heaven knows how many of those are duplicates!
Here's a little powershell script I use to try and keep them in order, it recursively scans a directory (hardcoded to D:\photodrop) and interrogates any .jpg file for its taken date and time and moves the file to an appropriately named folder /CCYY/MM/DD.
Naturally, I cannot be held responsible if your precious memories get lost by using this script ;)
Let me know how you get on…
[reflection.assembly]::loadfile( "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Drawing.dll")
function CreatePath ($folderPath){
$Path1 = $folderpath.Split("\") $BuildPath = "" for($x=0;$x -lt $Path1.count;$x+=1){ $BuildPath = $BuildPath += $Path1[$x] +"\" if($objFSO.FolderExists($BuildPath) -eq $FALSE){ $objFSO.CreateFolder($BuildPath) | Out-Null } }
function MakeString { $s="" ; $x = $args[0] for ($i=0 ; $i -le $args[0].value.length; $i ++) { $s = $s+ [char]$args[0].value[$i] } return $s } $objFSO = New-Object -ComObject Scripting.FileSystemObject $LastFilePath="" foreach($File in Get-ChildItem -Path D:\PhotoDrop -Filter *.jpg -Recurse ){ $ImgBlob = New-Object -TypeName system.drawing.bitmap -ArgumentList $File.FullName $Date="" $Date = MakeString($ImgBlob.GetPropertyItem(36867)) $ImgBlob.Dispose() try { $Dir = $Date.Substring(0,10) $Dir = $Dir.Replace(":","\") $folderPath = "D:\Photos\"+$Dir #check to see if it is missing if($LastFilePath -ne $folderPath){ CreatePath $folderPath $LastFilePath = $folderPath } $NewFileName = $folderPath+"\"+$File.Name if($objFSO.FileExists($NewFileName) -eq $FALSE){ $File.MoveTo($NewFileName) } } catch{ $err=$Error[0] $err
} }
As you may be aware, I have been running a lunch time user group 'SQLLunch UK' having stolen drawn inspiration from Patrick Leblanc (t|b) 's SQLLunch webcasts. These however are not traditional webcasts, as although we use remote speakers, to watch you have to get away from your desk for lunch and come down to the venue. I know that many people would like to watch from their desk but there are many webcasts and I think that this formula does offer something different.
We have been London based since inception and now the opportunity has arisen to scale it out to another location. Steph Locke, who run the Cardiff user group, has accepted the challenge and will now be holding SQLLunch's in Cardiff at the Buffalo Bar 11 Windsor Place, Cardiff CF10 3BY. Having now had a fair bit of experience, im hopeful that there wont be to many extra technical challenges presented by two venues.
Our first SQLLunch with this format is on the 22nd of Jan with Conor Cunningham (b) of Microsoft.
Signup for both the London and Cardiff events is at www.sqlserverfaq.com
Hope to see you there
Late in December, one the long awaited portions of functionality inside SSDT was released to an eager public, that being unit testing. There has been a lot of noise generated about sql unit testing as a concept recently and hopefully you have decided that that is now the way to go. Bill Gibson of Microsoft has blogged at quick beginners guide to SSDT unit testing here.
This is not a post about unit testing per se or the operation of SSDT unit testing, but what you need to do to run the same unit tests across multiple environments. Even the smallest shop will have multiple SQL servers that you will wish to run tests against (DEV, UAT, integration etc) and if you use SSDT for more than 5 minutes you will discover that there is no easy way to aim the tests at these servers.
Jamie Thomson(b|t) has previously blogged about this inside datadude (SSDTs' predecessor) and what a pain it can be. Well, it is still a pain and the supported route is still via this method and it does work in SSDT. I will say two things though, firstly the config override file has HAS to be called machinename.sqlunittest.config or username.sqlunittest.config nothing else will do, and secondly the file is very sensitive to formatting. I had a single leading whitespace in mine, which meant that the file couldn't be processed correctly ! Also note that the element naming has changed to SQLUnitTesting_VS2010 ( im not running VS2012 to see if it is still the same there)
As I say, this does work, but is not very clear and quite limiting in scope. I can only have effectively one override file and what if i have a centralised CI build server I wish to run our tests from against multiple environments ? Well, without more confusing workarounds (that I can think of but haven't tried) you cant.
So, do we have any other options ?
Our friends in the application development world have faced and solved this problem, though I don't believe their problems are exactly analogous, but this is probably the simplest route to solve it. Using a VS plugin called Slow Cheetah the app.config file can be transformed at build time to support multiple environments. Each build configuration (Debug / Release) can have a transform for app.config, after installing the plugin and R-Clicking on the app.config, you should see an 'Add Transform' option.
After selecting that, for each of your build configurations (you can always add more) you will see an app.buildname.config file.
The transform to be added to files is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!-- For more information on using transformations
see the web.comfig examples at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=214134. -->
<configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform">
<ExecutionContext Provider="System.Data.SqlClient" ConnectionString="Data Source=Server;Initial Catalog=DataBase;Integrated Security=True;Pooling=False" CommandTimeout="30"
xdt:Transform="Replace" />
<PrivilegedContext Provider="System.Data.SqlClient" ConnectionString="Data Source=Server;Initial Catalog=DataBase;Integrated Security=True;Pooling=False" CommandTimeout="30"
When you now build and run your tests Slow Cheetah will apply the transforms to app.config and you will connect to the specified server. Slow Cheetah includes a 'Preview Transform' option to aid with development so you don't have to guess To me this seems like a much more preferable route that the mstest overriding method.
This is all well and good, but what if you want even more control.
Disclaimer: I have not tried this any more that detailing it here, I cannot vouch for long term (or even short term) stability. You are on your own if it all goes wrong.
There is a method by which you can specify exactly which instance/ database to use. You can programmatically override the connection. If, in Visual Studio, you select 'View Code' on one of your C# unit test modules, you will see a member called TestInitialize. Inside this member we can close the existing connection and open one to the server we really wish to test against like so:
public void TestInitialize()
base.ExecutionContext.Connection = new System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection("Data Source=Server;Initial Catalog=Database;Integrated Security=True;Pooling=False");
Obviously I have hardcoded the connection string here, but you could have it read from an environment variable or topology file or somewhere else.
Have fun with any of these methods and any one should get you closer to the goal of more reliable code.
Do you know of a more user friendly and workable solution ? I'd love to hear it.
As I'm sure I must have mentioned in the past, I'm presently involved in a large ALM project at a client. Part of this project is using Sql Server Data Tools (SSDT) to aid the developer experience and to establish the schema under source control as "The Truth".
SSDT, has the ability to compare a schema under development to a schema on a server to produce diff scripts and therefore enabling automated deployments, this is done using SQLPackage.exe . A big part of this is naturally establishing trust in the software ie SSDT. We have to be 110% confident that the scripts produced are the right scripts. Recently though, we had a spurious change appear that took some explaining.
A stored procedure was appearing in a diff script that apparently had no changes, when comparing the project to the schema inside SSDT rather that SQLPackage.exe, I could indeed see that a change had been detected though what that change was, wasn't immediately apparent. Here is a similar "non-change" :
The developer has tidied up the formatting of the statement ever-so slightly but we have the "IgnoreWhiteSpace" setting enabled. This change should have been ignored and indeed testing proved that when you change tabs to spaces or add spaces etc ( ie whitespace changes) then the change would be ignored, so something else was happening.
Loading up a hexeditor and comparing the two I spied another difference that had been overlooked, the comment had a TAB changed to spaces. But as I had ignore white spacing enabled therefore shouldn't have been seen. Testing that this was the culprit was simple enough by turning on the "IgnoreComments" option, and sure enough, no change.
This ,to me, appears to be a bug, whitespacing is not ignored in comments when the "IgnoreWhiteSpace" option is set. For us using "IgnoreComments" is not an option, so we had to live with this change being made to unify the production schema with source control (The Truth).
I did raise a connect item here : https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/774098/ssdt-whitespace-in-a-comment-is-not-ignored-when-using-the-ignorewhitespace-option
but this was closed as "By Design", not sure I agree with that assessment but what can you do, eh ?
Hope that this at least saves someone some head scratching on the same issue.


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text:
The Petraeus Affair: A Who's Who
(CNN) — Here's a glance at the major players in the scandal stemming from an affair between Gen. David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell:
Gen. David Petraeus
Petraeus, 60, resigned November 9 as head of the CIA and admitted having an extra-marital affair. His mistress was later identified as his biographer, Paula Broadwell. The retired four-star general formerly oversaw coalition forces in Iraq as well as U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. He and his wife Holly, married 38 years, have two grown children.
Paula Broadwell
Broadwell, 40, is a West Point graduate raising two children with her husband Scott in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her affair with Petraeus led to his resignation. She got to know him while working on a Ph.D. dissertation about him. Alleged "jealous" e-mails she wrote anonymously to another woman, Jill Kelley, brought the affair to light, a government source told CNN.
Jill Kelley
Kelley, 37, allegedly received "jealous" e-mails from Broadwell, which the FBI investigated, a government source told CNN. The probe brought the affair between Broadwell and Petraeus to light. Kelley and her husband Scott, who live in Tampa, say they've been friends with the Petraeus family for more than five years. Kelley, an unpaid liaison at MacDill Air Force Base, is known in Washington's social circuit.
Gen. John Allen
Gen. John Allen, 58, U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is under investigation for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to Kelley. He denies wrongdoing, according to a senior defense official. Kelley had complained about anonymous e-mails she received, which were found to be from Broadwell. The FBI probe of those e-mails led to the discovery of Broadwell's affair with Petraeus.
Mystery shirtless FBI agent
Also in the mix is an FBI agent whom Kelley approached about the anonymous e-mails she had received. The agent had previously sent shirtless photos of himself to Kelley, a U.S. official told CNN. The agent, who has not been identified, passed on the information to others to investigate, the source said. The e-mails were determined to be from Broadwell.
Holly Petraeus
Holly Petraeus, 60, has been married for 38 years to retired Gen. David Petraeus, and has two children with him. In the wake of his admitted affair with Broadwell, she has become the latest scorned wife caught up in a public scandal. Holly Petraeus has long carved out her own mission helping others, with a special focus on financial issues facing military families.
By CNN's Josh Levs
™ & © 2012 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.


text:
Unemployment amongst over 50s is rising in the North West, but HRH The Prince of Wales' charity, The Prince's Initiative, is tackling the problem by bringing its successful self-employment course to Liverpool.
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