text:
Naxos| Megan Arkenberg
The Ford died with a hiccup and a puff of smoke two miles out of Naxos, Wisconsin. I looked over at Ari in the passenger seat, she looked at me, and we said oh shit pretty much simultaneously.
"Should we…is it worth pushing?" Ari asked, but the question mark got lost some ways before the end. It wasn't worth pushing, even if we had half an idea where to push it. We were royally, magnificently screwed.
"At least we can get it out of the road," Ari said.
Gravelly dust crunched under out feet when we leaped down from the truck. On both sides of the road, fields of knee-high corn stretched to hazy lines of trees on the horizon. The mile marker was the only sign of civilization, government-green and crooked.
We shoved the truck as far from the road as we could, then leaned panting against the driver's side step and wracked our brains for what to do next. Part of it was clear as water; we had to go to Naxos, or spend the night out here in the cornfield. Not much choice, I thought, swatting a mosquito that had taken an interest in the sweaty skin above my breasts. I wasn't sure about Ari, but I wanted to find some air conditioning.
"Come on, sweetheart," I said, climbing into the truck bed. Our luggage was stacked there; Ari's no-nonsense hard-shell suitcase, and the pearly pink duffle bag Dad gave me at graduation—to pack for college, he said, like he thought I was going to hang around obnoxious kids for another four years. I tossed the bag and Ari's suitcase into the road and jumped down after them. "I'm guessing we got a couple hours of daylight left. Maybe we can get dinner before we start worrying about the truck."
"It's only seven," Ari said, checking her pocket watch. She was old-fashioned like that, carrying her father's watch, wearing her hair pulled back like a librarian. "We might even find a mechanic." She chewed her lip a little. "I don't want to stay in Naxos all night if we can help it."
I didn't think we could help it, but I didn't want to get her upset by saying so. "What's wrong with Naxos?"
"Nothing. I don't know." She chewed her lip again, her teeth real white against the brown skin. "I just got a bad feeling, that's all."
"Hey," I said. I tried to smile, but her face said it didn't quite work out. "I got your back, sweetheart."
"Yeah," she said, picking up her suitcase. I shouldered my duffle bag, and we started down the road towards Naxos.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that I didn't trust Thes.
Even if I didn't, now was the wrong time to do something about it. The time to do something about it was while I was sitting on an aluminum folding chair in the Minos High School auditorium, sweating in a borrowed graduation gown, waiting for my name to be called. Trying to figure out if I was doing the right thing, running away with Thes. Trying to figure out if I loved her.
Well, I did love her. But love and trust are two different things, aren't they?
We made it into town about quarter to eight. The sun was a red ball in the west, almost but not quite dim enough to look at, and it made the gray houses and the double-paned shop windows look like they were on fire. Only a few businesses had signs: Frederick and Sons, barbers; Mary Anne's Antiques and Collectables; Sunnyside Grocery; Hammer and Steichen, attorneys-at-law. The lights at the single-pump gas station were mostly dead, except for the neon bull advertizing cigarettes. About a mile down the main road, we found what we were looking for, tucked between a house with a historical plaque on the porch and a mint-green diner.
"Daedalus & Sons," Thes read, shifting her duffle bag dramatically on her shoulder. "Oil change and auto repair."
I didn't want to say anything, but the garage gave me a bad feeling. The light in the windows was jaundice-yellow, and the flaking paint made the walls look like they had some sort of skin disease.
"You still hungry?" I asked. "How about we get burgers or something first?"
Thes rolled her eyes. "What're you afraid of, Ed Gein?" But her stomach grumbled then, right on cue, and we went into the little green diner.
It was nicer than I expected—smooth counters, plush booths, real menus instead of a list hanging over the register. We sat on tall stools up front near the ice cream cooler, and a big waitress with ice-blond hair came by to take our order.
"Give me the biggest burger you've got," Thes said, "and a glass of lemonade."
The waitress looked at her kind of funny, like she thought a girl as long and skinny as Thes couldn't finish a whole burger—or that a girl who talked as rough as Thes wouldn't drink lemonade. She scribbled on her note pad and turned to me. "What'll you have, my dear?"
"The same," I said.
Thes elbowed me in the ribs. "Get a salad, too. You need your vegetables."
"What about you?"
"I had an apple for lunch."
The waitress raised her eyebrows. I sighed and smoothed my hair back from my forehead. "A salad, too," I said.
When the waitress went back to the kitchen, I kicked Thes in the ankle. "What the hell?" I said. "You're not my mother."
"I promised to look out for you," Thes said, crinkling her nose. She ripped the corner off a pink packet of saccharine crystals and poured it into her mouth.
Naxos is what my mama used to call a shit-town: like a shit-house, but bigger and with less to do. That's what she said about the town I was born in, too, but it seems to me she found plenty to do there. Mostly drinking and swearing at the neighbor's cat.
I hadn't seen my mama in almost eight years, but I could imagine her voice just perfectly as I walked into Naxos. Watch out for gas stations that sell cigarettes cheaper than gas, she'd say, wagging her finger like she was teaching a life lesson. Never flirt with men who sit on porches and watch you walk by. Of course by "flirt with" she meant "screw," which was something I didn't do with men of any kind, much less the beer-stinking assholes on the porches of Naxos.
But no matter what my mama said, shit-towns got one big fat advantage; every business in town puts you on first-name basis with the guy or lady in charge.
The diner was called Minnie's Kitchen, and its paint job—mint-green with a pink whatchamacallit at the top—was old-fashioned but recent. That meant Minnie had at least a little cash. I went around back, which is where you need to go if you want to get something done in a shit-town. A fat lady with white-blond hair was leaning against the dumpster, smoking a yellow cigarette.
"You Minnie?" I asked. I said it real sweetly, with just a touch of charm; waitresses don't usually need more than a touch.
She let out a rancid ring of smoke. "Minnie's my aunt," she said. Shit, I thought, but the charm took at the last second and she looked me in the eye. "What can I do for you?"
"I need a job," I said. "A one-or two-night deal."
The waitress nodded. "As long as you're not clumsy…"
"I don't drop dishes, ma'am."
"All right. I can't let you near the cash register, though. And if you make trouble with anybody—"
"No trouble, ma'am. Just table bussing."
She smiled a little and ground out her cigarette. "I can give you twenty bucks for the night."
"Fifty," I said.
"Thirty and a sandwich." Charm only went so far, after all.
"Twenty-five and a sandwich."
"Twenty-five, a sandwich, and all the coffee I can drink."
"Deal," she said, and we shook on it. She gestured to the kitchen door. "Get in there and tell John he can head down to his boyfriend's like he's been wanting to all evening. Then you can wash your hands and throw together a salad."
John had arms that could carry a cow and I felt every muscle in them as he clapped me on the shoulder, but I figured he was just being friendly and didn't start anything I couldn't finish. Before he left, he took off his apron and put it on me, along with a black wire hairnet. Most times the small operations don't bother with that kind of stuff, but whatever.
The waitress—who told me her name was Brit, short not for Britney but for Britomartis—pointed me towards the salad fixings, and when I'd worked out a decent ration of cheap-and-seasonal to grocery-store veggies, she told me to bring it to the customers up front.
Turns out, there were only two of them. One reminded me of a wax bean, tall and skinny and pale, with brown hair and gray eyes and a sprinkling of freckles on the bridge of her nose. The other was this gorgeous black girl, a little on the short side but with eyes like Mata Hari. Her hair was pulled back so it was hard to notice at first, but she had dyed it red sometime recently and the color was just starting to grow out.
"Hey," I said, with my best five-alarm smile. The cute girl didn't seem to notice, but the skinny one's back straightened hard like someone was shoving a stick up her spine. So either she was straight and didn't like me checking her out—not that I liked it either, I was just being polite—or she knew I was checking out her girlfriend and didn't like it. No skin off my nose either way.
"Which of you fine ladies ordered the salad?" I asked.
The wax bean looked at the dark girl real hard, then winced like she'd been kicked in the knee. Which she had been, I realized, as the dark girl bent down to rub her toe.
"The hell!" The wax bean jumped up, her short hair bouncing. "You want me to look after you or not?"
"I can feed myself, thank you very much. Why don't you get the goddamn truck fixed?"
"I guess I should, seeing as that's all I'm good for!"
The dark girl was too smart to rise to the bait. She grabbed the salad from my hands and started shoving it fiercely into her mouth, as the glass door slammed and the wax bean stomped out into the night.
Yeah, since you ask, I was pissed.
Here was Ari, all scared and uneasy like some milky-breathed calf on her stepdad's farm, and I did one thing to show I cared for her, and she bit my head off. Kicked me, actually, which was worse because she knew I would never touch her if I was angry. Ari's stepdad was a hitter, and so was my mom, but not me. Not ever.
And she kicked me in front of a stranger, too. That weird waitress-girl with eight piercings in each ear and a mandala-stud in her nose and her black hair in wraps all the way to her waist. I thought about the way she'd smiled at Ari, a huge narrow-toothed smile, and it made me sick.
Yeah, I know what you're going to say. Jealousy's a bitch.
Daedalus & Sons reminded me of the garage out in Attica where my brother used to work. Big and bright and stinking of men and metal and oil and leather and who knows what else. But the guys in Attica had been real sweethearts, tripping over themselves whenever a lady came in, even when that lady was me.
Mr. Daedalus was a jerk.
"Hey," I called through the doorway, glancing around the half-assembled cars and boxes of tools and tottering towers of crap. "Anyone in here? You guys open?"
"If we were closed," a Cadillac said, "do you think the light would be on?"
There was the rumbling of tiny wheels, and a big bald guy rolled out from under the Cadillac. I felt a stupid flicker of disappointment, because this guy looked mean like Monday morning, and I'd much rather have talked to the car.
"Hey," I said again. "Listen, my truck kind of died two miles down—"
"We ain't a tow service," a minivan said, which turned out to be a slightly smaller bald guy—Mr. & Sons, I guessed. "You get her here, we'll take a look."
"How am I supposed to get it here? The engine is dead!"
Daedalus shrugged and rolled back under the Cadillac. "Not my problem, lady."
"I can pay," I said, turning to & Sons. "I know I don't look like it, but I'm not completely broke. Look, I've got my girlfriend out here in the middle of nowhere. She's never going to forgive me if I get us stranded in Naxos."
"Again," the Cadillac snapped, "not my problem. Come back when you've got a car for me to fix."
Let's just say my rule about not touching when I'm angry doesn't apply to anyone with front-wheel drive.
"Um," the girl with the mandala-stud said. "What's eating her?"
"She thinks she's my mother," I snapped unhelpfully.
The girl reached across the counter and took a carrot stick from the edge of my plate. She plunged it up to her fingertips in the paper cup of blue cheese dressing that I'd set on the side.
"Even my mother didn't think she was my mother," she said, and took a crunching bite out of the carrot. "That's probably why I'm a complete mess. You, on the other hand, seem to have your act together, as Mama used to say."
"Except when I'm shouting at my girlfriend in public."
She waved her fingers dismissively. The nails, I noticed, were painted bright blue. "Trifles," she said. "I ran away from home when I was twelve and haven't been back since. You couldn't screw up that bad if you tried."
"I ran away from my high school graduation with Thes," I said, jerking my head at her empty stool. "That wasn't too bright."
"Did you at least wait to get your diploma?"
I cracked a weak smile and nodded.
"You're not too dumb, then." The rest of the carrot vanished into her mouth. "My name's Di, by the way. It's short for something, but Mama was never sober enough to tell me what."
"Ari," I said. "Short for Ariadne."
"Pretty name," she said. And she shook my hand in both of hers, like a nineteenth-century gentleman. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Ariadne. What brings you to Naxos?"
"Bad luck," I said. She gave me a funny look, part teasing, part genuinely curious. Before I could stop myself, I was spilling the whole story.
I was born in the city—I don't know which, but I remember it being loud and bright, with wide white sidewalks and old-fashioned street lamps that fizzled on after dinner time, block by block. We lived there until it was time for me to go into elementary school, which was also around the time my father died. I never really figured out why we moved out to Minos—whether it was because of school, or my father's death, or something else entirely. I guess I'll never know now.
Minos is where my mother met M. My sister Phae and I were terrified of him from the beginning, he was so huge and white and loud. He had a farm somewhere south of town, and our mother used to go down there on weekends. She never brought Phae and me along.
I don't know if my mother ever officially married M, but she got pregnant when I was in sixth grade. It was just after Phae moved out of the house, and suddenly I was all alone with Mother—and M, when he decided to come over. My mother never said anything, but I knew he hit her sometimes, even when she was pregnant with Aster. She had that look when he was around.
Then there was the bull.
M always talked about the bull. He described it in loving detail to Phae and me, how it stamped around in the barnyard, what it did to the cows and heifers. I hated that bull, and I hated it even more when I saw it. It was just like M, huge and white and loud.
I met Thes in seventh grade, the year they started busing the farm-kids into Minos. Thes had been home-schooled until then, in a family I would come to think of as boringly perfect—mother, father, brother, three cats and a mutt, like some old commercial for breakfast cereal. Later, when she came out, none of them cared that Thes was queer. If I had been smart enough, I would have been jealous of that.
Thes was…a distraction. First as a friend, when we would go biking together or build a fort out of old cornstalks in her yard, and I'd spend every free moment with her instead of walling myself up with my mother and Aster and M. Then, when I finally admitted my feelings for her, as a couple. I loved her obsessively; she was the only thing in my life that existed to please me, to make me happy.
We joked about running away together for months before graduation, but I didn't realize how serious Thes was until I started talking about college.
"You're really thinking about that?" she asked. "I mean, don't you want to do something first? See the world, all that?"
"M doesn't want me to go either," I said.
"I didn't mean it that way." Thes frowned. "Won't you at least give me some thought?"
But in some ways, she made the decision for me. That was the night she destroyed any chance I had of being safe and happy in Minos. That was the night she killed M's bull.
I whistled low between my teeth. "She killed a bull? That skinny little thing?" The wax bean had more brass than I gave her credit for.
Ari smiled, stirring her dressing with a stick of celery. The pale green made her fingernails seem even brighter pink, like the diner's paint job.
"So I get the running away part," I said," but why did you ladies come to a shit-town like Naxos?"
"Our truck," she said. I raised my eyebrows, and she added, "Shuffled off its mortal coil."
"Poor truck," I said. And remembered her parting shot at Thes: Why don't you get the goddamn truck fixed?
That gave me an idea.
I'm not calling it a good idea, because it wasn't. It's just that sometimes, I could do things. Like charming Brit into giving me a job for the night. Only it didn't have to be people; sometimes, I could keep stacks of trays from falling over in busy kitchens, or coax grease out of plates without a lot of scrubbing. And I was wondering—just for curiosity's sake—if it would work on the truck engine.
"Hey," I said, "what do you say to me taking a look at it? I know a thing or two about cars." That was literally true and idiomatically bullshit, but like I said, I was curious. And Ari was also gorgeous like whoa.
"All right," Ari said. "But don't you have to work?"
I peeked through the beaded curtain into the kitchen. Brit was leaning against the door to the walk-in freezer, and the on-duty cook was standing in front of her, whispering something soft and fast. Brit's eyes sparkled, and she kept brushing hair away from her forehead. If I took a deep breath, I caught the smell of burning hamburgers.
"I think we're good for at least a half hour," I said. And thought a healthy bit of charm in Brit's direction, just to be sure.
We left Ari's suitcase and the wax bean's hideous duffle bag behind the counter, and I added my hairnet and apron to the pile. When we stepped out into the parking lot, the summer breeze felt so good in my hair I could've sang. I shook my head back and felt my earrings jingling, and for some reason that made Ari laugh.
"So where are you from?" she asked. We reached the edge of the parking lot, which some anal retentive neighbor had marked off with a chain-link fence. Ari walked with her fingers brushing across it like a little kid.
"All over," I said. "I mean, I was born in the middle of nowhere, in a place…" I caught myself before I said shit-town. "A place a lot like this. But I've been wandering around for eight years, you know? Nothing's tried to become home yet."
She looked at me a little sideways. "Do you want a home?"
"Not especially." I shrugged. "I'd rather see the world."
Ari burst out laughing.
It wasn't a nice laugh, not a pretty you're-so-cute chuckle or a funny giggle or anything like that. Her laugh was flat mean. "Bullshit," she said.
"What is?"
"Seeing the world. If you want to see the world, what are you doing in Naxos?"
I kicked a loose flake of asphalt across the sidewalk. "Naxos is part of the world."
"Sure, but so is Paris. Dublin. Delhi, Beijing, Tokyo. Reykjavik, for goodness' sake. What's in Naxos that isn't there?"
"You," I said.
And yeah, that was the way wrong thing to say. I don't show a blush—got an Indian granddad somewhere to thank for that—but I felt sick-warm all over. I gave the sidewalk a little charm like I had with Brit, but concrete isn't nice like fat waitresses, and it refused to swallow me whole.
"I mean," I said, firm as hot jello, "you're here, and you're supposed to be seeing the world. What about you?"
We had reached what was effectively the edge of town, marked by the dumpster of Mary Anne's Antiques. Ari froze, staring into the black cornfields like she thought they would swallow her up—which they would, given half a chance.
"Thes is the one who wants and adventure," Ari said. You could have bottled her voice and used it to strip paint. "I just came with her."
"For God's sake, why?"
"Because she's my home. The only one I ever had."
We started walking again, both of us with our heads down, watching the reddish road. Soon the lights from the antique shop were little specks behind us, and I took the skinny flashlight from my pocket. Ari breathed a sigh of relief.
"I thought you were going to make us walk the whole way in the dark," she said.
I felt something snap in my head, all the pieces fitting together like toy logs. So that's what her problem was. "What about you?"
"What about me?" she asked warily.
"Why don't you pull out a light? Why does it have to be my problem?"
She started fiddling with her watch chain—nervous habit, I'd bet. "You're making me uncomfortable," she said.
"Yeah, well, high time somebody did."
"You know nothing about me!" she snapped, stepping in front of the flashlight beam. The light glinted off her eyes like a cat's—or a bull's. "Nobody's been treating me like a princess, you know."
"Thes has."
"No, she's been…she's been ordering me around. Treating me like a kid."
I flicked the flashlight back to the path. "It's the same thing," I said. "You like to be taken care of. Thes is dumb enough to think she can take care of you. Except she can't, of course."
"Yes, she can."
I started walking again, betting I'd gotten her mad enough without killing her curiosity. And I must have been right, because she waited just a second before running to catch up with me. "You're just a pair of kids," I said, not looking at her. "How'd you get the money for food and gas in the first place? I'm betting you stole it, same as I did when I was twelve. Well, guess what—out here in the real world, that doesn't work so well. What are you going to do when your cash runs out? Find a job? Good luck at that without a permanent address. Or you can do odd jobs like me, but that only works if you know how to ask, how to beg even, and a princess and her knight in shining armor don't know shit about begging. Still think I don't know anything about you?"
"This was a bad idea," Ari said. "Let's head back to the diner."
"No," I said. "We're going to fix your truck."
Ari stopped walking. I didn't, not even when I heard her footsteps patting back towards Naxos.
I killed the bull on a night in early summer, when I knew Ari's stepdad was up in town getting drunk. It was a warm night, but not hot and damp like it sometimes gets in June, and wherever my head had got to, that place was like ice. I climbed right over the barbed wire fence, grabbing it with both hands, holding the pistol in my teeth. I know I'll have scars on my palms for the rest of my life.
The bull pen was pitch black, even with the night clear and the moon almost full. I heard the bull's heavy breathing and I caught his scent, hot and sour and male. I thought of Ari's stepdad, his huge hands, his beady little eyes. I pulled the trigger.
The heavy breathing stopped, and I ran like hell.
I didn't pay much attention to where I was going after I left Daedalus & Sons. I mean, little town like Naxos, how lost could I get? Go too far in any direction and you hit fields. Fields and fields and fields.
Not like Minos. Minos was a dairy town, and everyone had fences to keep the cows together. You couldn't go far without getting fenced in. It's easy to get lost, tangled up, in dairy country. Sometimes you just have to give up and climb, come no-trespassing signs or barbed wire or angry bulls.
You never have to climb in Naxos. You can start walking and never stop until you reach the wall of trees on the horizon.
See, there was no way in hell I could go back to the diner.
Not for the reason you're thinking. I mean, sure I was still pissed at Ari. But I loved her, and loving people means you can get past being pissed at them. The problem was, I was pissed at myself.
I got your back, I'd told Ari, but that was a load of shit. If I was really looking out for her, I wouldn't get her stranded in Naxos by some piece-of-crap truck. And if I did get her stranded, I'd find some way to fix it.
But I couldn't fix it. Not the truck, not the fact that we were trapped in Naxos worse than we had ever been trapped back home. I was no good at fixing things, only at running away.
When I stopped walking and saw the flickering pink-and-green lights, I realized I'd made a complete circle and was back between the diner and Daedalus & Sons. I took a deep breath and gave myself a good shake. Ari was in there, and I had to take care of her. At least I had to try.
But when I went in and headed for our place by the ice cream cooler, I realized something was wrong.
Our luggage was there, dumped in a pile by the counter. The ice-blond waitress was humming cheerfully as she went at the windows with a pink spray-bottle. But Ari was gone, and so was the girl with the mandala-stud.
I stood for a long time in the doorway, staring at the empty stools, the clean salad plate on the counter. My heartbeat was like something heavy rolling down a long flight of stairs.
Then I took my duffle bag from behind the counter and went back outside.
Two miles goes fast when you're angry, and I was furious. I could hear my own breath like a freight train chugging. The broken-down truck was right where we'd left it, of course, and I don't know why that relieved me so much, but it did.
I climbed up in the driver's seat, planning just to spend the night there and work on fixing the engine in the morning. Reflexively, I put the key in the ignition and turned it. I nearly jumped when the Ford roared to life.
I did jump when someone spoke out of the darkness next to me. "Hello, Thes."
When I got back to the diner, Thes's luggage was gone.
I froze, bending over my suitcase with one hand on the counter. The faux-marble was cool and slightly damp beneath my fingers, and I felt for a moment that my skin had frozen to it like a tongue to a cold flagpole. I blinked rapidly, praying in the back of my head for a flash of pink, a glimpse of haybrown hair.
She couldn't have left, I told myself. She had to fix the truck first. She'd come back here before long, and I'd be waiting for her. I'd stop her—
Stop her from what?
I looked at my hand, pressed against the countertop so hard the fingertips had gone pale. Di's voice was ringing in my ears, matter-of-fact and merciless. You like to be taken care of. Thes is dumb enough to think she can take care of you. Except she can't. And I looked at the place where Thes's duffle bag had been, empty now. Another place Thes had left behind. Another place that wouldn't become home.
I walked slowly around the counter and sat in one of the plush stools. The red clock by the restrooms said 8:30 in flashing numbers. Di and I had only been out a quarter hour. Our burgers probably weren't even cooked yet. Biting my lip, I took a sugar packet from the ceramic cup by the napkins and rolled it between my fingers.
The blond waitress came out from the back a few minutes later. "Where's the other one?" she asked.
"I don't know," I said. "Haven't seen her since she stomped out to find a mechanic."
She looked confused for a second. Then her pale eyebrows twitched. "You're thinking about the tall skinny one," she said. "Yeah, she came in a while ago, grabbed her bag and huffed off without waiting to eat. But where's the other one, the girl with the earrings? She's supposed to be doing dishes."
I grabbed a fistful of my hair, dragging it out of its bun. "Well," I said, "I scared her off too. It's turning out to be one shitty night."
The waitress disappeared and returned a moment later with two hamburgers. "Eat up," she said. "We'll call these on the house, okay? You can help with dishes if the other girl doesn't show up."
"Thanks," I said, swallowing hard. I thought about Di, the hard-eyed look she had when she said, You like to be taken care of. Well, I didn't like it, and I didn't need it. I couldn't need it.
"Thanks," I said again. "I can do that."
Thes jumped halfway out of her skin when the truck started, and fell the rest of the way when I said, "Hello."
"The hell," she said, slamming her head into the roof. I winced sympathetically. "How the hell did you get in here?"
"Door," I said, miming a handle. "Turns out they're pretty useful for this kind of thing."
She stared at me, and I saw all kinds of crazy rolling around behind her eyes, and I remembered what Ari had said about the white bull. However stupid and stringy Thes looked, however reckless she acted, she still had nerves made of steel and brass.
"Why is the engine running?" she asked. "It's supposed to be dead."
"Let's just say I got more from my dad's side than big ears, okay?" To demonstrate, I reached over her until my hand was an inch from the door lock. Come on, baby, I thought, and the lock clicked into place.
Fortunately my reflexes were better than Thes's, and I managed to press her back against the seat before she did something really crazy. "No funny shit," I promised, keeping my grip light. "I just want to talk about Ari."
"You've got some balls, stealing my girlfriend right under my nose—"
"Yeah, yeah, cut the bullshit. She's a lady, not a wallet. And 'stealing' is a bit over-the-top, even for you."
Thes bit her lip, but I felt some of the tension flow out of her shoulders and loosened my grip. "When I got back to the diner," she said, "and I saw the two of you were gone, I thought—"
"Again with the bullshit." I nodded towards the ugly duffle bag she'd flung on the floor in front of me. "Ari didn't take her luggage, Thes. That meant she planned on coming back. What about you?" I caught her chin, made her look me in the eye. "You coming back for her?"
And damn it, I should've known better. Whatever she'd done, whatever she'd tried to do, Thes was only a kid. Her face crinkled like an old valentine, and she started to cry.
"No," I said, "I'm not coming back. I screwed up, okay? I don't know what to do, how to take care of Ari, where to go from here. I'm completely fucking lost."
The girl moved her hand to my shoulder, making tiny circles with her fingertips. It reminded me of the way Dad used to rub my back, and that just made me cry harder.
"It's okay, Thes," the girl said. I didn't know how she knew my name, and right then I didn't much care. "You've still got time. You've got a good home somewhere, a family who loves you. Go back to it for a while."
"What about Ari?"
She kept rubbing my shoulder, little tiny circles within circles. "Ari doesn't need you," she said, not meanly, just like it was the truth. And it was the truth. I knew it all the way down.
Di came back to the diner looking like she'd been dragged by a train. "Hey," she said, leaning against the sink. "I need a coffee."
I smiled and handed her the mug Brit had given me when I'd finished cleaning the windows. Di smiled back, and I noticed for the first time how pretty she was when she wasn't trying.
"Thes is gone," I said.
Di nodded. "She took the truck—which wasn't that hard to fix, by the way. She probably could've gotten it, eventually."
"Probably," I said, looking down at the dishwater.
I almost jumped when I felt her hand on my shoulder. "She's going home," Di said. "You don't need to worry about her. It's time to start worrying about you."
"Yeah," I said. I took a deep breath, like a bull. "How do I start going to college?"
I laughed—a happy laugh, a relieved laugh, a we're-going-to-be-just-fine laugh. Because we were.
"No idea," I said. "But I'm sure we'll figure it out. Now let's cut the chit-chat and show these dishes who's boss."
Ari smiled, then started laughing herself. We were going to be just fine.
Megan Arkenberg began writing in Wisconsin; she now lives and writes in California. Her work has appeared in Asimov's, Strange Horizons, and dozens of other places, and has won the Rhysling Award and the Asimov's Readers' Award. She procrastinates by editing the fantasy e-zine Mirror Dance.
Read her story appearing in our first issue, Hades (April 2013): "Harrowing Emily"


text:
- Home
- District Services
- Conservation
- Xeriscaping
While Cherokee is currently under water restrictions you might be thinking that you can't have a beautiful yard; however, there are several options available to enhance and beautify your property; this issue will focus on the benefits of Xeriscaping.
What is Xeriscaping
Many of you may not know that the term Xeriscaping was created right here in Colorado, that's right, Denver Water fused the Greek word "xeros" (meaning "dry") and landscape to form what we know as Xeriscaping today. Unfortunately, Xeriscaping has received a bad reputation over the years and is perceived as nothing more than a desertification of one's yard. The misconception of "rocks and cactus" has replaced the underlying goal of an overall change in our water management philosophy and the idea of "enlightened conservation." It's important to recognize the true goal of Xeriscaping, which is to understand our environment and to efficiently utilize available resources to create striking, efficient landscapes.
Why Should I Xeriscape
To answer that you must first understand more about Colorado Springs' weather. Colorado Springs' climate is classified as an Alpine Desert and precipitation in this region averages only 14.76 inches per year. Because of this, we use over 50% of residential water to irrigate our lawns. While Cherokee is restricting water due to legal matters, not drought conditions, it shouldn't relegate us to wasting water when it is available. It is important that everyone in the region practice good conservation efforts to preserve our resource.
How Xeriscaping helps
Xeriscaping helps by conserving and extending water supplies. Since watering has been restricted to two days a week, your water-thirsty lawn will be the first to suffer. By selecting drought-resistant grass, plants, trees and shrubs; we reduce our reliance on water to maintain a healthy yard. In fact, not only does Xeriscaping reduce water and maintenance costs up to 60%, but it can also increase property value 15% (Colorado WaterWIse Council). Xeriscaping provides everyone the opportunity to create unique landscapes that take into consideration our resources and environment.
Learning More
This is only a small introduction to Xeriscaping, there are a multitude of resources available if you are interested in learning more. Stop by our office where literature is available for your reference, or check out these websites:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
It was last night just past 4am. I was in bed with my headphones on listening to Analyze Phish.* Yeah sometimes I stay up until 4am. Only God can judge me. I heard a squeal of tires on the street outside. This is a major street, and there is usually a lot of traffic, even late at night. Not usually tires squealing, though. This was loud enough that I heard it even with my headphones on.
*This is a podcast featuring this guy Harris Wittels who is hilarious. The premise of the show is that he loves Phish and tries to convince his friend to like them. The fact that Phish is terrible makes it hilarious. See my earlier post about podcasts for more podcast info.
I got out of bed and took a peek out the window. It was very foggy and I couldn't see much, even though it wasn't really dark. Living in cities, especially high-traffic areas, you learn to adjust to the fact that it never really gets dark at night. Streetlights, security lights, neon signs, etc. The fog made the whole scene a little eerie. I saw a couple cars on the other side of the boulevard. My first thought was that they had been in an accident. Not a correct thought. Turns out they were police cars. People were talking, and I couldn't quite make it out. It took me awhile to figure out what was going on. I realized it was cops when I saw them walking up and down the sidewalk with their flashlights on. Now I could hear a couple words here and there.
"Where is he?"
"Dispatch the suspect's between 26th and 27th…"
Then I got it. I used my detective skills. They were looking for a guy who was apparently on the block. From the way they were looking with their flashlights, they were also scouring the sidewalk. Again, using my detective skills, I deduced that the suspect dropped a gun or some drugs. This is a smart thing to do when running from cops with contraband on your person.
I tried to go back to the podcast. It was almost over and I wanted to go to sleep. Not possible. These cops were loud. I also didn't want to open the blinds and stand at the window staring like some slack-jawed yokel. And it was too foggy to really see anyways. So I just sat in bed waiting to see how it played out. I thought about going outside to see what was up. Obviously I did not. I know better than to walk into the middle of a police action where firearms are likely to be involved.
A minute or two later I heard some banging outside. My apartment's on the second floor, and there's a staircase from the sidewalk to get to the side door. I couldn't tell what was going on exactly, but someone was on the walkway outside the apartment. Talking to my roommate today confirms that it was indeed the suspect, who ran past his room on his way to our backyard.
There was some more commotion outside. There was a woman's voice in the mix now, my roommate says this was our neighbor valiantly assisting the police. Presently the cops sprung into action. They were obviously moving quickly.
"Get down, stop running!"
"Don't make us tase you!"
"We're letting the dog loose in five seconds!"
And some other stupid nonsense including a lot of cursing. Imagine the most clichéd dialog from the most clichéd cop movie. People think of cops as dispassionate and calm and steely, but this was not the case. I think most of the police officers who find themselves chasing down criminals in East Oakland at 4am are very young and very inexperienced and very caught up in their own machismo.
These guys were not fucking around. Apparently the suspect had jumped from our walkway to our neighbor's yard, maybe fifteen feet down, and started running. I didn't get a chance to talk to this suspect, but he didn't have a very good plan. If he had gone to our backyard and jumped the fence, he would have landed in our back neighbor's chicken coop, and could have gone from there further away from the street, and unless there were cops waiting on the next street over, he'd have been home free. Come to think of it, I doubt he had a plan at all.
The cops took him down in the neighbor's yard. I'm not clear on whether he was tased or bitten by the police dog, but he must have been in rough shape because an ambulance showed up soon afterwards. I heard the EMT (or whoever, I didn't look to see who exactly this was) asking him the standard head injury questions. I guess I assume it was an ambulance because I could see the flashers from my room, even with the blinds drawn. I mentioned the cops' machismo earlier. It was even more apparent now. These guys sat around shooting the shit like a football team in the locker room after a game. Loudly. With the ambulance flashers still on. At 4am. In a residential neighborhood. For like 20 minutes. They finally took off around 4:45. I finished listening to people on the internet laugh at Phish lyrics and went to sleep.
I guess they got their guy so good for them. Thinking about it the next day it seems like a scary ordeal. I think that's a reasonable opinion. I'll definitely not be telling my mom about this, for example. To be honest my biggest concern was that my car, parked on the street and surrounded by squad cars, would get fucked up in some major way. I guess I don't picture run afoul of the law in East Oakland getting themselves into hostage situations or whatever.
I wish this had happened during the say so I could have a better story. Oh well. Never a dull moment 'round these parts.


text:
Just in time for Father's Day …
… it's my privilege to post a review, and a very strong recommendation, to watch the movie 'Courageous'.
Courageous is a terrific movie filled to the brim with truths in it's moving, insightful, & heartfelt script. It will tug at your metaphysical heartstrings, and make you really reconsider if you are doing all you can as a man in serving your family.
It is very much the case that not all males are men; a man is created from the crucible of living for far more than a paycheck. He is molded by his culture/society, his local community, his friends, his pastor/spiritual leader, and his family unit. Some men run from their multi-pronged duties, some blame shift, some never mature … and then, there are some that fight back the 'FLD' (Five Laws of Decline), and serve their families with honour, with courage, with character, and with a determination to never quit on them.
This latter group is what we see emerge as the movie eventually reaches its plateaus of raw emotion & decision point(s). Without spoilers, the four lead characters each have to come face to face with situations which test their faith (or lack thereof), and put them square in the middle of a moral battlefield. Will each of them make the right decision(s)? Will they buckle under pressure? Will they put the lure of lesser things ahead of the greatness and glory of God?
This movie earns an A+ from this reviewer for multiple reasons – it rings like a tuning fork in the quiet room, for starters. It also is very real; we know these characters don't exist in real life, yet you can surely see them in the faces & voices of your neighbors. Additionally, the movie doesn't shy away from tackling difficult issues that may be considered "off limits" by those who don't understand that one should have thick skin & a soft heart, rather than the reverse.
Who would've thought that an independent studio could cobble together the funds to put out such a quality film, one may ask? These folks in Georgia did. This movie doesn't cut corners and it shows in the high level of acting skill, scenery, and quality of script-writing.
As we celebrate Father's Day in our land, this is the best way I could show support for all the men in my life who are fathers (and for those who read this blog whom I don't know!): put up a review of a movie which is a must-see (and must own) to sharpen their saw ( Habit 7 ) and use this movie as a sterling example of what a father should be.
All best!


text:
Ethiopia: Expansion of the Electric Power Service in Jijjiga and Degehabur Towns
(HornTrade) - Ethiopia and OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) signed a loan agreement amounting to 20 million USD.
According to a press release the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent to WIC, the agreement was signed in Vienna, Austria on 6 July 2010.
The fund will be utilized to expand electric power service in Jijjiga and Degehabur towns.
Counselor and Charge' de Affairs of Ethiopian Embassy in Vienna, Lulit Zewdie, said on the occasion that Ethiopia has a long history of development cooperation with the OFID.
Director-General of OFID, Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, signed the agreement on behalf of the OFID.
Source: waltainfo.com


text:
After couple of years in gambling industry you begin to put items of puzzle together to have a dilemna.
After seeing a dilemna, you start out taking a look at whole online sports gambling industry in another angle.
Simple truth is that 98 percent of internet punters are constantly losing money with internet gambling, therefore this explains why bookies are therefore generous giving a deposit bonuses as much as $500 to entice players that are new. Bookies aren't as powerful as they have been so much richer afterward bettors BUT as they have been utilizing gaming tools which help them for making the appropriate decisions.
I am talking about if you feel that additionally bettors ' are currently FIFA55 combined in gambling forums (where they exchange sports gambling advice from allover the planet ), subsequently bettors ought to begin earning cash and conquer their own bookies.Yet, average bettors ' are losing money daily.
You need to learn how your opponent believes and perhaps more importantly – what exactly does he need to conquer always.
In the event that it's possible to obtain usage of the gambling tools and advice which bookies have, you then are able to overcome your bookie in their or her own game. Let us look at only a portion of what's at the arsenal of applications which online sportsbooks utilize.
Bookies are combined in syndicates where each bookie, which can be such gambling syndicate, get chances from additional bookie.
In this manner they compare, even if you will find gaps in gambling chances they have and exchange info why strange dropped. In the event you receive admittance to European or European Asian chances comparison solutions, then you'd note that notably using Asian bookies, they've the exact same on the web gambling lines and odds.
Allow me to simply give you an estimate of the purchase price that such services bill.
Price to get a monthly usage of such gambling odds contrast that online bookies utilize are out of 200 euro (approximately $300) upto 5,000 euro (approximately $7,500) and sometimes much greater. For ordinary bettor which bet generally around $200 that really is much too much capital to cover.
But fortunately for them you can find likewise free chances comparison sites which track less bookies and they reveal strange drops with waits up to ten minutes. You can find a fantastic free gambling toolwhich saves you a great deal of time in hunting all on your own personal, which on the web bookie gets got the most effective odd on a gambling selection that you would like to bet.
Two ) Where's your amount of money application.
This really is some thing which no internet bookie will disclose. But average bettor comes with a direct means of calling on what precisely the wiseguys or people using precious info, are gambling. This very simple tool is discovered on Betfair.
For people that have no idea very well what a Betfair is, allow me to simply mention it is the greatest gaming market where players gamble against eachother. Since Betfair just takes charge of the bettor that acquired cash, but they actually welcome ace bettors.
Largest benefit for bettors to utilize Betfair is they don't really get limited should they triumph always. But, the further you win and cover commission to Betfair, the more greater Betfair points you obtain along with in different selection of things you obtain that this fee reduced from 5 percent upto low as 2 per cent.
Additionally when many internet bookies block a match as a result of rumors to become mended, Betfair do not obstruct it only induce they're earning profits from commission for each bet that's traded in their own gambling exchange stage.
Which usually means that on matches at which online bookies lose the maximum (if mend advice was correct), on such matches Betfair gets the most money given that they bill standard 5 percent commission on earned stakes.
Now you are aware exactly what Betfair is and exactly what advantages would be for bettors to truly have account in Betfair, today you'll know the reason why this tool is indeed helpful.
Betfair instrument Where's the Currency? Reaches base left on the site.
By clicking that connection, you find a popup window at which you are able to select to locate that which matches have the maximum number of cash coordinated and unmatched for just about any game they feature to exchange.
Like I mentioned earlier – ace gamblers have been welcomed and so they bet enormous and matches are not removed – even when rumors should be repaired. Therefore you shouldn't hesitate to watch over a thousand dollar set on a team that you don't ever heard previously.


text:
Discovery sues Deadliest Catch duo
A breach-of-contract lawsuit was filed last week in Maryland Circuit Court, according to The Hollywood Reporter. According to the lawsuit, the Hillstrands were scheduled to film a one-time special called Hillstranded.
The duo was coming off five seasons of the popular Deadliest Catch show and the special was set to document the team's various adventures in Alaska, unrelated to their jobs as crab fisherman. Two weeks of principal photography was shot in June, but more work remained on the project. Discovery claims the show would have earned significant ratings and that it has suffered substantial losses as a result.
"The Hillstrand Defendants determined that they would reverse course, dishonor their promises, and refuse to render the services necessary to complete 'Hillstranded,'" reads the complaint.
The Hillstrands' lawyer compared the lawsuit to "extortion," claiming it might force his clients to sell their boats and fire their crews. He also complained about the network's well-paid top executive.
"The recent actions of Discovery Communications are an astonishing and shameful instance of arrogance and greed run amok," attorney Jeff Cohen said in a statement. "While CEO David Zaslav reaps a $33.9 million bonanza in a single day in January 2010, his company attempts to bankrupt hardworking fishermen. Three million dollars is exponentially greater than any compensation ever paid to the 'Deadliest Catch' captains, and yet this is the figure Discovery is trying to extort from these men."
"Isn't there enough unemployment in America without forcing hard-working sea captains to declare bankruptcy, sell their boats and fire their crews?," he asked.


text:
An epidural anesthesia may be presented as a substitute for the natural opiates (endorphins) a woman is supposed to release when giving birth. The need for epidurals is a symptom of an inappropriate hormonal balance. It is therefore highly dependent on environmental factors. It is related to the degree of privacy.
While the effects of an epidural on maternal behaviour are easily demonstrated at an individual level among non-human mammals (e.g. ewes don't take care of their lambs after such an intervention), it is difficult to demonstrate specific short-term and long-term effects among humans. In our species the effects of a disturbed hormonal balance are attenuated by the influence of the cultural milieu. For obvious reasons randomised controlled studies are not feasible. We have to rely on anecdotes and observations by practitioners.
The most convincing hard data we have at our disposal are related to foetal position during labour. A prospective study of 1562 women has evaluated changes in foetal position during labour by using serial ultrasound examinations. A strong association of epidural with foetal occiput posterior position was clearly demonstrated.(1) One of the main effects on statistics has been an increased rate of c-sections.


text:
Apartments near Santana Row in Campbell
About Our Neighborhood
In addition to offering a spacious and comfortable living space, Newport Apartments, near Santana Row in Campbell, are within easy walking distance to restaurants, coffee shops, parks, medical centers, and public transit. Within a mile, Safeway and Cinelux Plaza Theatre are a nice walk or a short drive away. A little further you'll find Santana Row, Silicon Valley's premiere shopping destination, with its upscale stores, restaurants, and entertainment opportunities.
A mile away from Newport Apartments, eighty-acre Los Gatos Creek Park and Trail offers an urban park featuring trails, picnic areas, and six percolation ponds with stocked fish, casting areas, and water fowl viewing. Other nearby parks include John D. Morgan Park, San Tomas Park, and Houge Park. Vasona Lake County Park is just a short ten-minute drive and offers forty-five acres of lawn, picnic areas, paddle boats, row boats, fishing, a Youth Science Institute and the Viola Anderson Native Plant Trail.
Nearby schools include Capri Elementary School, Village Elementary School, Canyon Heights Academy, Campbell Middle School, Farnham Charter School, St. Lucy Parrish School, Camden Community Day High School, and Centro Armonia School. Kaiser Permanente Medical Center-Campbell is a convenient five-minute walk.
Walk to:
- Running and biking trails
- Los Gatos Creek Park
- Local Schools
A short drive to:
- Vasona Park
- Grocery
- VTA light rail station
- Two farmers markets
- Cinelux Theater
- Campbell Heritage Theatre for Performing Arts
- Downtown Campbell, Los Gatos and Santana Row for shops and restaurants
- Top Silicon Valley technology companies (such as Cisco, Netflix, Yahoo, Apple)
Easy Access to:
- Highway 17
- Highway 880
- Highway 85
- Highway 280


text:
Out-of-Control Multiculturalism at Berkeley High School
Berkeley High School (BHS) might drop its science labs from its curriculum.
The reason? Too many white kids -- or not enough non-white kids, depending on your perspective -- were taking these classes. According to an article in the East Bay Express, whacking the labs is intended to address BHS's "dismal racial achievement gap." The decision to make this change by the School Governance Council was "virtually unanimous."
BHS science teachers were said to be "horrified" by the proposal. One pleaded, vainly, that the labs had a good share of non-whites: "17.5 percent African American and 13.9 percent Latino."
This breakdown of students proves the lamentable "gap" spoken of by Berkeley commandants isn't in enrollment, but in grades. The white kids are doing better in excess of what is acceptable -- or the non-white kids are doing worse, depending on your perspective -- such that the heart-warming state of equality is absent.
If equality of outcome with respect to grades is BHS's goal, then eliminating the lab courses does ensure that all students will be equally poor in science. And when the administrators bring their report cards home, the paperwork will show an increase in "equality."
The only problem with this pedagogical prestidigitation, like with all magic tricks, is that it can only be used once, or maybe twice. Resort to it too often, and the audience will see the rabbit up your sleeve.
But if BHS could get it away with it again, the next thing to go would be the other science and then the math classes, courses which are nothing better than inequality factories.
You might think that axing all those courses would leave a big whole in kids' days, but do not despair, because there are plenty of alternatives in BHS's books.
Like the required "History of the Americas" course, where emphasis is on "the formation of students' own opinions of events." This is a sister course to "Globalization," where the kids "shall draft a more effective decision-making mechanism of world government," mainly by re-creating the "process[es] within the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council."
These subjects are merely preliminary to "Politics and Power" ("students largely run this course") and "Contemporary La Raza History," which "covers the spectrum of experiences of our Raza." By which, presumably, they do not necessary mean my Raza, but a specific other Raza.
Seats will rarely remain empty in "Popular Culture in 20th Century America":
This course examines "texts" as diverse as mural paintings, street theater, rap music, women's art, immigrant stories, and MTV to analyze their role in shaping American society. Popular Culture is designed to teach students skills in critically examining the historical role of popular culture in defining racial issues, the regulation of sexuality, and consumer society. It also explores popular forms of resistance to the dominant culture.
If no room is left in the "Eco-Literacy and Social Justice Seminar," kids might opt for the fall-back "Social Justice Seminar," where the question "What can I do to bring about social change for a more just society?" is answered.
"World Literature," offered by the School -- yes, they have a whole school for this -- for Social Justice and Ecology, "builds on the skills and knowledge acquired in the Freshperson [sic] Seminar." This course "pushes students to become thoughtful, creative, empathic, and deeply analytical members of a global society."
The Newcomer Program for English Learners offers "Literature of Diversity." Sports requirements can be met with "Funk Aerobic Exercise" and "Ultimate Frisbee."
BHS will surely keep all offerings from its African American Department. There, students can open their minds with "African American Journalism" or "Advanced African American Journalism." From their course descriptions, these appear to be identical in substance with non-African American Journalism courses (which BHS also offers). Just as the course "African American Economics" doesn't differ from non-African American Economics.
Anyway, African American Journalism probably fills up fast, so students should also consider "Black Gold, Black Soul, Black Dynamite," a class devoted to the "exciting study of the black speechmakers in African American history."
"Black Psychology" -- whose major objective "is to impart a clear knowledge of what African-Centered thought is" -- could be that easy "A" a lot of kids seek because it "is not a lecture course." Major "emphasis is on classroom discussion." What is cooler than sitting around and grieving?
Boys ("pre-men"?) will be particularly interested in "Black Male/Female Relationships," where razor-sharp discussions of "black male emasculation" and the "the matriarchal syndrome" can be found. It's not as frightening as it sounds -- the practical side of the class covers "pimp psychology."
Finally, "Kiswahili," which has about 5 million world-wide speakers, can be taken in place of the more usual French or Spanish.
You would be forgiven if you forgot that these are Berkeley High School courses, and not offerings from Berkeley "Leftist Bias? What Bias?" University. The good news is that for students graduating from BHS, the transition from high school to university will be seamless.
They won't need to take a lab-based science course there, either.


text:
Editors' Picks 2013: The Best Food & Drink in Westchester
Westchester Magazine's editorial staff picks the county's best spots for fine dining, wine, food, and more.
(page 37 of 56)
Nibble | Crispy Eggplant Chips at Polpettina
102 Fisher Ave, Eastchester
(914) 961-0061; polpettina.com
For those eggplant naysayers—which previously included us—rejoice! The eggplant at this locally sourced gem of a restaurant is like nothing you've ever experienced. What look like potato chips are actually ultra-thin slices of eggplant, lightly floured, then flash-fried and sprinkled with sea salt and drizzled with wildflower honey from an Upstate Farms in Buffalo.


text:
Her brand new site promises to be streamlined and functional much like her clothing with unique brand content for the VB customer that can be shared instantly on all social media platforms.
"My new website has been in the making for a very long time, said Beckham in a statement. It was so important that the concept, tone and look of it were true to me and my aesthetic and that the shopping experience was the very best that it could be for my customer.
The current Victoria Beckham website is a look book of all of her collections, spanning from her first collection in 2009 to today. Having worked closely with King & Partners on the design, and editor Isaac Lock on the editorial content, you can bet this will be a stylish, sophisticated affair.
The site will be ever evolving featuring never seen before insights into my world through the medium of film, she further explained. I'm incredibly excited with what I have created and the unique access to the brand I am now able to offer.


text:
Something wonderful is on the way. Serve Swiss chard baked and rolled up with your favorite meat, cheese and tomato favorites. Or, keep it vegan and vegetarian with seared tofu, acorn squash and barley. Whatever combination you like, this technique for baking rolls will be fun, flavorful and creative. Venture beyond the realm of stir-fry or boiling and turn these beautiful, rainbow colored chards into dinner-fantastic. I've made several varieties over the years, but this one is my favorite. I'm demonstrating how to make them at the cooking class I'm teaching at the UpTown Farmers Market in Phoenix this Saturday.
First start the rice, followed by the meat, sauce and cheese. BTW: I make my own ricotta cheese. It is surprisingly quick and simple to make and cost only one gallon of milk. Taste homemade ricotta just once and you'll want to make it for yourself.
Boil 2 C water in a pot with fitted lid. If you have stock, use 1C stock and 1C water. Add 1C rice to boiling water and reduce to simmer. When water calms down, place lid on top and cook for 15-20 min.
½ LB ground chuck hamburger meat
½ LB ground turkey
½ small red onion
1TB oil
1TB fennel seed
1TB dried oregano
1TB apple cider vinegar
1tsp red pepper flake
1tsp white or black pepper
2tsp coarse salt
½ tsp sugar
Heat oil and sauté onion for about 15 minutes, lightly salt and add sugar while sautéing. Add meats, spices and chard stems trimmed from the bottom. Cook for about 30 minutes on med-low heat.
Select ABOUT 10-12 leaves that are not tattered or that have large holes in the center. Keep and dice Swiss chard stems into the meat mixture)
1 (28 oz.) can of peeled plum tomatoes or 4 cups of fresh diced
1tsp dried basil or 5-6 large leaves of fresh
1 large garlic clove
1TB oil
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp sugar
Bring tomatoes to boil and reduce to simmer. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 30 min. Puree tomato sauce with potato masher or large fork. You can use a blender, but the results may be inconsistent and too watery for the rolls.
I like making my own. Simmer 1 gal of whole milk to 190 temperature – stirring often so as not to scorch the bottom. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp citric acid. Stir well and let sit until curds form. Skim curds and place them into a cheese cloth lined colander. Wrap tight and drain off excess hot water. Done!
Rainbow chard has the mildest flavor of the chard varieties. Fresh picked is always the sweetest. Choose leaves that are flat and similar in size, with the least tattered edges or holes. Submerged each leaf in boiling water for 10-12 seconds and lay them to drain and cool in a colander. No need to shock them with cold water.
Preheat the oven to 350. Cover the bottom of your baking dish with half the tomato sauce. Arrange the filling ingredients on the counter and lay a single cooled Swiss chard leaf out flat. TRIM about 1/3 of the rib stem away from leaf bottom and bring the edges back together. Trim enough out so that the leaf is pliable. Place about 1TB each of the cheese, rice and meat filling onto the center. Use more or less filling depending on the size of your leaf. Bring the sides in – and roll from the bottom to the top, placing the it seam side down into the baking dish. When finished, top the rolls with the remaining tomato sauce and bake uncovered for about 20 minutes.


text:
|Perl Monk, Perl Meditation
comment on
|( #3333=superdoc: print w/replies, xml )
|Need Help??
One question and one suggestion.
The question: Why would I use a Treap and what benefits (and costs) would result as compared to using a normal hash for that (those) same applications?
The Suggestion: If you get around to modifying the interface to take a single custom comparator rather than the two as now (which I think makes a lot of sense), then you might also consider making the standard alpha comparator (cmp) a settable option in place of the default numeric comparator. That is to say, have a new()/tie() time option that can be set to indicate that the caller wants an alpha-sort order used rather than a numeric and then use cmp rather than <=> internally to the module rather than requiring the user to supply a comparator function that does this.
The main reason is that callbacks can be expensive. The best demonstration of this is the GRT. Even though performing a numeric sort using a GRT requires stringifying the numeric (part of the) values to be sorted, into numerically orderable strings (ie. fixed width with leading zeros), this pre-sort overhead is more than compensated for by performance gained by avoiding the need to callback into user code for the comparisons during the sort. I think that the overhead of an if or trinary conditional in the module code to determine which operator to use when inserting and/or balancing (is that the right term with a Treap?) would be easily offset by the benefit of not invoking a callback for the common cases of a 'trivial comparator', ie. numeric or alpha.
As an aside. I've long wished that perl had a numeric sort option built in (would one extra built-in called sortn be any great burden?), so that many cases where sorting numerically currently requires the overhead of a trivial callback or user block, or resorting to the GRT (or tyes recently posted variation on the theme) would become unnecessary.
Examine what is said, not who speaks."Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." -Richard Buckminster Fuller
If I understand your problem, I can solve it! Of course, the same can be said for you.
In reply to Re: Algorithm::Treap
by BrowserUk


text:
To George Washington from Henry Lee, September 1780
c.September 1780
I have engaged two persons to undertake the accomplishment [of] your Excellency's wishes. In my negotiation I have said little or nothing concerning your Excellency as I presumed it would operate disagreeably, should the issue prove disastrous.
the cheif of the two persons is a sergeant in my cavalry. To him I have promised promotion, the other is an inhabitant of Newark; I have had experience of his fidelity, & his connexions with the enemy render him with his personal qualifications very fit for the business—To this man I have engaged one hund. guineas, five hundd acres of land & three negroes. I gave him the promise of negroes because he is engaged in aiding me to destroy the refugees at Bergen point: success there, puts it in my power to reward him according to compact. If nothing is done, he is to receive an additional sum of money. The outlines of the scheme which I have recommended are, that the sergeant should join Gen. Arnold as a deserter from us, should engage in his corps now raising, & should contrive to insinuate himself into some menial or military birth about the Genls person—that a correspondence should be kept up with the man in Newark, by the latters visiting the former every two days. When the favorable moment arrives they should seize the prize in the night, gag him; & bring him across to Bergen woods.
If your Excellency approves of what is done, the sergeant will desert from us tomorrow—a few guineas will be necessary for him. I have advised that no third person be admitted into the vertuous conspiracy, as two appear to me adequate to the execution of it.
the sergeant is a very promising youth of uncommon taciturnity & invincible perseverance. His connexions and his service in the army from the beginning of the war assure me that he will be faithful. I have instructed him not to return till he receives direction from me, but to continue his attempts, however unfavorable the prospect may appear at first. I have excited his thirst for fame by impressing on his mind the virtue & glory of the act.
I subjoin Sir for your Excellencys information my last account from New York. the fleets which sailed from sandy hook on monday last are under convoy of two 74s & four row galleys. the Sandwich & one 74 lay at New York. It is not certain, but very probable, that Gen. Clinton is gone with the fleet. Virginia pilots were taken on board. the embarkation consists of the British Grenadiers & Light Infantry. the 49, the 82, & another regt two companys [provincials] & 70 horse the Cork fleet arrived on sunday; they report in newyork that five thousand five hund. men came with this fleet from England that part have gone to Carolina, the other part were arrived at New York. the fleet have some troops on board, chiefly Hessians. one of my informants counted the number of ships & says there were but 70 sail. of [ ] the number of troops must be very inconsiderable. the cheif part of the army lays at White stone on Long island. the 54 regt at Poules hook; one hessian [regt] & [ ] at the watering place on Staten isld the 23 at the flags staff, Senicois rangers at Richmond. I have the honor to be sir most respectfully—your Excys ob. sert
Henry Lee Junr
DLC: Papers of George Washington.


text:
How can a Domino server index an IIS Web server?
To index non-Domino files, you must have a drive mapping to those files (if they are not on the Domain Search server) on the Domain Search server so that they appear as local files to the server. This will let Domain Search index HTML files and the like. You need to tell the Domain Search the drive path via the "Add Drive System" button.
Dig Deeper on Lotus Domino Server 5
Related Q&A from Michael Lazar
JavaScript error encountered when opening Lotus Notes email
Learn why you may be encountering a JavaScript error messages when opening HTML-formatted email messages in Lotus Notes. Continue Reading
Track incoming and outgoing Lotus Notes email messages
Learn how to easily keep track of the numbers of incoming and outgoing Lotus Notes email messages to and from your Domino server each day. Continue Reading
Repair Lotus Domino server 'Cannot write or create file' error
Discover what steps you can take if your Lotus Domino server runs out of disk space and you have issues sending and receiving Lotus Notes email ... Continue Reading
Have a question for an expert?
Please add a title for your question
Get answers from a TechTarget expert on whatever's puzzling you.
Meet all of our Domino experts
View all Domino questions and answers


text:
Google Nexus One Coming to Sprint
With this announcement, the Nexus One should quickly become the most-powerful Android phone available for every carrier although Sprint, unfortunately, did not indicate when the Nexus One would be available. A Verizon Wireless version of the Nexus One is expected to arrive in a matter of weeks. On Sprint, the Nexus One will join the Samsung Moment and the HTC Hero to make up the Android line for the carrier.
"Sprint customers already have the option of two amazing Android devices with Samsung Moment and HTC Hero," said Fared Adib, Sprint's vice president of product development, in a statement. "It is a natural fit for us to add Nexus One to the list of choices available for Sprint customers who want the best value in wireless with the best in Android."
This is not the first time a smartphone has been sold for every U.S. wireless carrier. Previously, the HTC Touch Pro2 and several lines of the BlackBerry Curve were sold by every major carrier. But Google's strategy of selling unsubsidized phones directly from the Internet definitely sets the Nexus One apart from those phones, which were each branded and customized by the individual carriers.
In January, Android product manager Erick Tseng said the company wanted the Google store to be a place where consumers could choose a phone and select from a range of carriers and service plans. With the Google Nexus One coming to Sprint and Verizon in the near future, it looks as if their plans are slowly coming to fruition.


text:
Alright, man. You may not want to hear this. You may not want to believe it. But enough is enough: I think I speak for all of us when I say that your goatee makes you look like an evil submarine captain. There, now it's out in the open. You know that it's true. The first step is admitting it.
No, it's not an unusually specific analogy. Just imagine an evil submarine captain. Not a fat one—a fat, evil submarine captain would have a scar and an eye-patch. I'm talking about a tall, lanky guy. Are you imagining him? Yeah? I bet he has a goatee. Your goatee. Because it's you. You're looking in a mirror. And it's actually not a mirror. It's a porthole.
Shocking, I know, but we're all here for you, and we're going to get through this together.
Why did you grow that thing in the first place? Thought it would make you look cool? Well you're wrong. There's nothing cool about submarines, except maybe for bathyspheres, but that's all.
I liked the old you. Sure, you kind of looked like a kooky bus driver, but there's nothing wrong with that! It's just who you are. I bet that this whole evil submarine captain thing is just a phase, and soon you'll get over it.
But I really can't wait any longer. This phase has gone on long enough, and that's why I've gathered all of your friends and family to talk with you today. Just shave it off. Please. For the sake of our friendship. Seriously, remember when we ran into each other at the coffee shop yesterday? You said, "What's up?" but honestly, all I heard was "I am armed with a dozen nuclear-tipped warheads, and I will fire on major cities around the globe unless my demands are met." Also, I refused to give you a ride home because I was worried you might hijack my car and drive it off a pier.
I can't even watch funny movies with you anymore, man. It's your laugh. Maybe I'd be able to tolerate it if it just sounded evil. But it's worse than that: there's a sort of echo to it that I never noticed before, and I always feel like I can hear heavy machinery and salvage equipment whirring in the background. You may be sitting in the chair right next to me, but you sound like you're sunk hundreds of feet beneath the waves, just like that damn goatee is sinking our friendship.
You think we can just talk on the phone? Wrong. I know that goatee is there. I can hear it in your voice. And suddenly our small talk about the football game on TV turns into a coded negotiation for the safe release of the sailors being held hostage in your living room. Come on, let those men go. Some of them have wives and kids. How many families must your goatee destroy before you get rid of it?
The old you would never do something like that. But then, I guess you've changed. You think I don't know that you hang out at the docks every night? I've been following you, dude. But I don't even have to do that to realize what you've become. I know that you've been taking baths instead of showers. I hear you whistling sea shanties while walking down the street. You've even stopped eating "hoagies," and started eating "subs." It freaks me out.
I think I've made my points clear. I'm sorry if this seems like a lot to handle, but we needed to do this before you got worse—if we waited any longer, you might have grown out your sideburns too, and well... then we're into maniacal-zeppelin-pilot territory. There's no turning back from that.
But at this stage, there's still hope of recovery. In fact, I signed you up for a special support program. Don't be afraid: they're not going to ask you to shave the entire goatee off at once. You can start by getting rid of the beard part, and then the mustache will just make you look like a regular old submarine captain. But you can't stop there. You need to have willpower. When it comes to removing a goatee, if you fall off the wagon, there's no hope of getting back on.
Because in this case, the wagon is actually a submarine, and if you fall off then you're going to be eaten by a shark.


text:
Norwich City's Jacob Murphy joins Southend United
- From the section Southend
Southend United have signed Norwich City winger Jacob Murphy on loan until the end of the season.
The 19-year-old, who has made one senior appearance for the Canaries, played seven times during a spell at League One Swindon earlier this season.
He won the FA Youth Cup last season with Norwich alongside twin brother Josh, who has featured in seven Premier League games this term.
Fellow Canaries youngster Jamar Loza is also on loan at Southend.
Shrimpers boss Phil Brown said: "I'm delighted we've been able to bring in Jacob. He is highly rated by Norwich City and has got that pace we can utilise between now and the end of the season."


text:
About Us
David R. Webb Builder, Inc. has something different to offer - A successful track record merged with the intimacy of a family business, an appreciation of each homeowner as a person, not just a number on a spreadsheet , and a belief in achieving the highest level of quality, value and customer satisfaction in every home, for every customer.
In business since 1975, Webb Builders has proven itself to be a leader in the home improvement, new home construction, and the insurance restoration industry in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.
Our staff has developed solid relationships by emphasizing integrity with suppliers, craftsmen and homeowners alike. We have instilled this in our estimators as well as our in-field crews. Our attention to detail and quality is possible because Dave, his estimators, and his construction team are totally involved in every detail of the building process, from design consultation to construction finish. Our company management is on the job daily to ensure the best quality in each step of the project. Neither Dave nor his estimators are ever more than a phone call or an email away. With our close personal attention to detail, plus the use of only quality products in every phase of construction, you can be assured that every aspect of the building process is under his watchful eye.
Our commitment to quality, value, integrity and customer satisfaction shows in each and every project. Good, old-fashioned honesty, integrity, craftsmanship, and hard work assure you of the best service available. Our customers have made Webb Builders what we are today, by believing in us and continually referring family and friends.
You can rest easy knowing that when you deal with Webb Builders, you are dealing with the best. We are eager to work with you to help turn the home of your dreams into a reality.
Call Us Today!
Ohio - 419/ 882-0180 or Michigan - 734/ 856-6711


text:
Shareholders have a big plan for Apple.
They want it to buy electric car company Tesla.
At Apple's shareholder meeting, one shareholder told CEO Tim Cook, "I'd like to see you guys buy Tesla," according to FT reporter Tim Bradshaw.
Cook's response: "We don't really have a relationship with Tesla. I'd love Tesla to pick up CarPlay. Was that a good way to avoid the question?"
Then a second shareholder said to Cook: "I think there is something about you two companies."
Cook's response: "Let me think if there's another way to do a non-answer."
It seems like these are just two individual shareholders who don't have significant sway over what Apple would or would not do. Still, it's interesting to see them speaking up like this.
Apple is reportedly in early stages of developing its own electric car. It has hired a number of employees from Tesla to work on the car.
It's unclear if anything will come of Apple's work.
But, if Apple is interested in developing a car, then it should explore the possibility of buying Tesla. Tesla's market cap is $US24.3 billion. Apple has $US178 billion in cash. It could buy Tesla seven times, and still have money left over.
Tesla already makes a great electric car. It's led by a visionary in Elon Musk. Adding Musk to Apple would be worth a few billion on its own.
In 2014, there were reports of Tesla and Apple meeting. Perhaps Apple was interested in buying Tesla, and Tesla turned Apple down. Maybe they were just saying hi.
The two companies are similar in that they make high-end, disruptive products that they control from top to bottom. The Model S is the iPhone of cars, so it would make sense for Apple to buy Tesla.
But, the companies have slightly different visions when it comes to pricing and distribution. Cook has repeatedly said he is interested in making the "best" products, not the "most" products. As a result, the iPhone remains a product that costs twice as much as an average Android phone. Apple is willing to give up on market share for profits.
Musk has said that he wants to lower the price of Tesla's cars to make them affordable for everyone in the world. He has a missionary purpose to his company. He wants to kill gasoline cars and all the pollution and other negative impact that comes with them. Perhaps if he threw in with Apple he might not be able to make that happen since Apple tends to pursue high prices.
Or, maybe Musk is having too much fun running his own company. It's hard to be the Next Steve Jobs if you sell your company to Steve Jobs' old company.
NOW WATCH: 7 Reasons Why The New Tesla Is Such A Big Deal
Business Insider Emails & Alerts
Site highlights each day to your inbox.
Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.


text:
Ranking Data and Statistics
Ranked / in UK
0 Students
0 Overseas Students
Under- graduates
Post- graduates
No EU data
0% Student Satisfaction
Degree Completion
Facilities Spend / Student
Academic Services Spend / Student
We collate data from some of the world's leading ranking and league table sites. Combined with relevant data students have consistently asked for we're confident you'll choose the best university and course for your academic career.Pick a course
Highest Ranking Subjects at University of St Andrews
Click on a field of study below to view courses at University of St Andrews
Request more information
We can simply provide advice or put you in touch with your chosen university/college. Our service is FREE with no obligation.
- Free advice from one of our team
- No obligation to proceed
- UK based - we have relationships with UK universities & colleges
Request more information
Further Information
University of St AndrewsSpecialism
- Both the Department of Psychology and English Literature research rated at 4* by the REF 2014, showing world-leading significance
- Ranked one of the top five places to study History of Art in the UK
University of St Andrews Accomodation
Accommodation is a mix of historical and modern buildings, all located within walking distance from the campus.
Located in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland, St Andrews can be easily reached from a number of nearby cities via public transport, road and private transfers.
International visitors have a choice of airport to fly into, all of which have good links with the town.
Visit the university accommodation website for details on housing fees.
University Accomodation3240 Bedrooms
University Accomodation in the City
University of St Andrews History
Founded in the fifteenth century, St Andrews is Scotland's first university. Teaching began in 1410 and the University was formally constituted by the issue of a papal bull in 1413.
With over 600 years of academic excellence, St Andrews has established itself as a world leader in academia attracting international scholars the world over. Some of the great minds to study at the university include Rudyard Kipling (1759) and Benjamin Franklin (1922).
Other notable alumni are HRH Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and HRH Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
University of St Andrews Living Costs
University of St Andrews Key Facts
- Ranked 3rd in the Guardian University Guide 2016-17
- Highly respected overseas with a 30% international student community
- 90% achieving either first or upper second class honours degree
Please select a campus from the drop down below:


text:
She's still alive and working, but not many people remember Régine Zylberberg anymore. Forty years ago, everyone, especially the "glitterati," knew her as Régine, owner of a chain of the coolest and most expensive discotheques in the world.
How did she get it off the ground?
When she started in Paris, in 1957, she didn't let customers in for three months after it opened. The lights were on every night and the music played but the door was locked and a sign said "Disco Full."
The party people couldn't resist and soon Régine's was where you'd find people like Bridget Bardot.
I think of Régine whenever the idea of doing something unique pops up. Keeping customers away for three months qualifies as unique.
Unique beats same old, same old.
My friend Dwain Jeworski thinks the same way. He lives in Chilliwack, BC but he does business all over North America and Asia. He sees how "unique" works almost every day of his working life.
The other night on the phone, he was grumbling about a new shopping centre (it's spelled centre in Canada) planned for his area. "It'll be just another shopping centre," he said.
I asked what he'd like to see. "Something extraordinary," he said. "Something unique. Something that would be a destination attraction that would draw crowds, like Downtown Container Park in Las Vegas."
Talk about unique! Container Park has revitalized downtown Las Vegas. It's an urban shopping center made of shipping containers stacked on top of each other. Great idea. It's jammed with shoppers.
It got me thinking about what it takes to be unique.
Not a lot, really. Think about restaurants. Rao's on 114th Street in New York's East Harlem, for example. It's small, out of the way and you can't reserve a table for months at a time.
Here in South Florida, we have a small chain called Pollo Tropical that specializes in citrus-marinated grilled chicken. It's delicious and inexpensive and when Emilian, my assistant comes back from there, he tells there's always a huge lineup.
If you've never been in an Apple Store, it's worth a trip. It bustles with geeks on both sides of the counter, a Genius Bar and, on the day I was there, 50+ employees in green T-shirts for Earth Day. What a place.
And what a company. Just as investors were wondering about the stock, CEO Tim Cook announced an impending 7-1 split. (Maybe
Apple's one of a kind. Unique.
What can we do different, changing, weird, better for our clients?
Since so very few companies take time to do anything like these little things, I guess I'm somewhat unique. And it really makes a difference. Big things, little things both work. Try a few to see if they give you some new energy and get your phone ringing a bit more next month.
Visit my website for a free download of my business success plan.
Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas below. Thanks.


text:
last week i let you all know about the upcoming commodore 64 emulator for pocket pc devices. there was quite a bit of interest, and i wanted to let you know that pocket c64 is now available for trial and purchase for us$6.95. i am in the process of installing it myself and don't have any experience with it yet. in other pda gaming news, the excellent software creators at astraware have released gts racing challenge for palm devices at us$17.95. this is a car racing game that looks rather nice and should be very playable on today's palm processors. the hi-res version is still in the works and will be free to registered owners. i just downloaded it to try it out and have been impressed with many of astraware's games. insaniquarium is awesome, and as soon as i can stop my wife from stealing my cli� to play the game i will put my review together for you all.
user comments 72 comment(s)
|first post (9:35am est wed feb 19 2003)
yeah!! – by yeah
|(sob…sob…) (12:32pm est wed feb 19 2003)
why did i sell you faithful commodore 64? why did i sell you and turn to the dark side? the 386 i bought is long gone…and yet the memory of the commodore remains…
rosebud… – by snik
|i adore my 64, my commodore 64… (4:14pm est wed feb 19 2003)
remember that tv jingle? i fell in love with this thing – much better graphics and sound then the apple ii and ibm-pc models that existed at the time it came out – and about a 3rd of the cost. 1st computer that i heard 'digitized' speech in a game. try as they might – commodore couldn't kill this thing (they kept trying to introduce newer similar systems like the c16, plus4 with incompatible os's) – it sold more then any other model of computer in world history. geek communities still develop software for this thing (somebody actually did a doom type clone a few yrs back!). and software like geos (a mouse / windows type os gui) kept it going – all this on a platform that is over 20 yrs old!!! god i feel nostalgic….
– by scottc
|geos (11:23pm est wed feb 19 2003)
yeah, i remember geos. it was actually more stable than windows xp.
– by nick
|nick (11:25pm est wed feb 19 2003)
btw, i should quit using the nick "nick." i've seen at least one other nick who likes to use "nick."
– by nick
|how do i get my c64 on xp? (5:09pm est sun nov 16 2003)
how do i get my commadore 64 games on my xp from commadore .com , do i download pocket c64? – by diana
|active sync (5:11pm est sun nov 16 2003)
do i need active sync? – by diana miles
|i *heart* my c-64 (10:10am est sat may 15 2004)
what's up you crazy c-64'ers!?
after a small ammount of looking, and massive ammounts of coffee, i have found the following..
you can hook up the following to your 64.
hard drive – ide!
yes, the commodore one "reconfigureable computer" great idea!
well kids, that's about all for old unky jim.
have fun, dont forget to pass out!
–jim – by boolean12
|and yes, geos is stabler than xp. (10:12am est sat may 15 2004)
and yes, geos is stabler than xp. just a bit less multi-threading… haha
ok, return to your drunken like state of randomness..
–jim – by boolean12


text:
Made of 80% recycled ABC plastic Yakima Skybox Carbonite Cargo Box is protected from the environment. This implies that it's the best rooftop cargo box. Apart from this it's very spacious and uniquely designed to perfectly fit into your car. Therefore if you are looking for a cargo box for sale you should consider it Below are some of the features which make Yakima Skybox Carbonite Cargo Box be the best cargo box.
It has super latch security. This ensures that the rid is securely attached to the base hence making sure your cargo is safe. This is due to the fact that it can't be easily lost. It's also fitted with mounting hardware's which also ensures that it's safely fitted to your car. Also enhancing the security of Yakima Skybox Carbonite Cargo Box are SKS lock cores which are fitted on its either side to ensure your gears are securely locked into the cargo box.
It has an aerodynamic design which hence it doesn't affect the speed of your car thus it enhances the efficiency of the fuel. Apart from being durable due to its internal stiffeners, its finishing supplements your car as stated earlier this cargo box is made of 80% ABC plastic hence it's strong, light and yet spacious enough to accommodate lots of your gears.
Dual side opening
This means it can be opened from either side. Therefore it's easy to load or offload your gears. Unlike other cargo boxes, you can access your gears from either the passages or the drivers' side. The carbonite textured lid with stiffeners either side, make it easy to open and close your cargo box also have SKS lock cores. These locks ensure that your gear is safely locked into the box.
Pros of the products
• It can be open from either side hence it's easy to load or offload your cargo.
• Its unique design allows it to be properly installed into your car and saves you fuel since it reduces drag.
• It's available in various sizes.
• It's affordable.
Customer reviews and scores
There are about 375 cargo box reviews in amazon.com.79% of this reviews have rated the product 5, 11% have rated it 4 while 10% have rated the product below 3.This implies that most of the customers are satisfied with this product. Some of the features that customers were happy about were the size of the cargo box, its easiness to install and fit it on your car. The dual side opening lid stiffeners is another feature that the customers were happy with This because they allowed easy access to the cargo i.e. from either the drivers or passages. Finally its design due to the fact that it doesn't affect a cars speed and its lightweight since it's made of 80% ABC recycled plastic.
Cons of the products
Like any other products, this product has some challenges. One of the main complaints about this product is the mounting system, but on the brighter side, it comes with Yakima round or square crossbar which enhances its stability when properly installed. The lid has also posed a challenge because sometimes they get lose and hence the reinforcement with stiffeners. Despite these challenges, it's important to note that it's the best rooftop cargo box.
Although Yakima Skybox Carbonite Cargo Box has some challenges it's currently the best rooftop cargo box. This is due to the fact that it can be easily installed, has a unique aerodynamic design, dual opening carbonite textured lid stiffeners which are fitted with SKS lock core. This feature enhances the security of your gears and allows easy access.


text:
Monday, May 18, 2009
My 360|Flex Presentation
7 comments:
- harley said...
scanned through the presentation. very good.
I am looking into how to work .net through the flex api right now.. but more important would be to access arcserver objects for say doing a network trace.
any direction would be great.
- May 19, 2009 at 4:50 PM
- ThunderHead said...
Version 1.2 (to be released next week) will have N/A support plus Virtual Earth support, bug fixes and performance enhancements.
- May 20, 2009 at 9:57 AM
- randy.troppmann said...
I was there and it was a fantastic presentation!
- May 21, 2009 at 9:07 PM
- ThunderHead said...
Glad you like it and thanks for attending.
- May 22, 2009 at 4:58 AM
- phile13 said...
Attended the presentation and thought it was great. I really liked the part about using sprites to speed things up. I wanted to play around with that a little more, but could not find as much as I thought/hoped was in the presentation. I guess I was wondering if you have any code samples for this?
- May 26, 2009 at 4:11 PM
- ThunderHead said...
Glad you liked the presentation - check out http://thunderheadxpler.blogspot.com/2009/05/street-path-finding-in-as3.html - all the source code is there :-)
- May 26, 2009 at 4:58 PM
we provide a power leveling and free wow gold wow power leveling
- July 14, 2009 at 11:18 PM


text:
Transfer a misallocated credit
Request the transfer of a misallocated credit within a payroll account, or from a payroll account to an excise tax, excise duty, excise tax on insurance premiums, air travellers security charge, softwood lumber products export charge, corporation and/or GST/HST account(s) to correct a misallocated payment. These financial transaction requests are processed manually, and each request is promptly forwarded to the appropriate tax centre for action.
Report a problem or mistake on this page
- Date modified:


text:
This paper sheds light upon the political legacies of two leaders, Terence O'Neill (1914-1990) and Junius Richard Jayewardene (1906-1996). O'Neill's premiership (1963-1969) led to unprecedented developments in Northern Ireland and Jayewardene's presidency (1978-1989) led to a tremendous socioeconomic and political transformation in Sri Lanka. Examining their economic reform agendas and overall impact on the rise of ethno-national conflict in their respective societies, this paper reflects upon the feasibility of a combination of market reform and infrastructure development, an assimilationist outlook (in the case of O'Neill), limited decentralisation and constitutional reform (in the case of Jayewardene) in managing ethno-national divisions in deeply-divided societies.
Read more here.