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"You do it for me." My almost 18-year-old student looked at me, waiting for a reply. He was working on an assignment in civics. I had already helped him look up the answer and pointed to the exact text that he would need to answer the question correctly. All he needed to do was type his answer in the box to complete that portion of his online lesson. "Just type your answer here," I instructed.
"You do it for me." My almost 18-year-old student looked at me, waiting for a reply. He was working on an assignment in civics. I had already helped him look up the answer and pointed to the exact text that he would need to answer the question correctly. All he needed to do was type his answer in the box to complete that portion of his online lesson. "Just type your answer here," I instructed.
"No," he said. "I want you to do if for me. If you type this one answer for me, I won't ask you to do anything else for me the rest of the day."
"This is your work," I answered. "Type your answer here," I repeated, as I pointed to the text box. He crossed his arms and repeated, "You do it for me." I hoped he could read my silent thoughts as well as I could read his.
There was absolutely no chance that I would type the answer in the box. No way. And yet I knew that he would be finished for the day if I didn't do what he asked. It was a silent deadlock, a battle of wills. I was willing to do my part as his teacher. But I drew the line when he refused to type the answer that I had practically given him word for word. Sure enough, he closed his laptop computer. "I'm done," he announced.
And done he was. It was not even noon, and he was finished working for the day. I could have encouraged him, coaxed him, jostled him, even pleaded with him. But I didn't. This was not the first time he had refused to work if I didn't do his work for him. So this time I simply let him make his own choice to "cut off his nose to spite his face," as the old folks say, "to dig his own grave."
Was he just being lazy? Did he, like so many other people, want something for nothing? For the life of me, I couldn't figure it out.
Do people really believe that it's OK to expect someone else to do all the work while they sit idly by and reap the harvest?
I thought about my church and some of our recent struggles. A friend of mine had shared an observation with a group of church members recently. "Have you noticed how it seems like the same small group of people do most of the work in the church? It's the same way in large growing churches, too, though. It's usually a small group who can be depended on to do the bulk of the work of the church."
I thought long and hard about what he said. I agreed that it did seem that way sometimes. But I also thought about the times when I was too busy, too stressed or just too plain tired to take on one extra job myself. Was I lazy when I didn't show up to do the work of the church every time the doors opened?
There will always be lazy people. In fact, the Bible talks at length about laziness and gives sound advice for those who expect something for nothing: Colossians 3:23, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" and 2 Thessalonians 3:10, " For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat."
The truth is, there is always work to be done, always tasks for the members of a church, for the members of a family and for all members of society, for that matter. As members of the body of Christ, Jesus shared with his disciples the story of the vine and the branches in the 15th chapter of John. We all have a job to do in the kingdom and a season in which to do a particular job.
Maybe it is not your season to work in the small group that sets up the tables and chairs for church functions. But if you are the fervent prayer warrior behind the scenes, then you are no doubt bearing the fruit that the Lord has called you to bear.
As for me, my prayer has not changed. Whether I am too tired or too stressed or too busy, I will still ask the Lord to show me exactly where he wants me to be and the job that he expects me to do. I will ask him to bring revival, change lives and to use me for the glory of his kingdom. Then I won't have to worry about what job I am or am not doing.
In fact, a "well done" from the Savior will be good enough for me.
Donna Tobin Smith is pianist and Sunday school teacher at Bethel United Methodist Church in Thomasville.


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subset: commoncrawl


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The flight went well. I brought his buggy which proved to be so useful in Florida and just a couple of small backpacks that I could manage alone. I'd organised a taxi shuttle from the airport and we were met by the driver as soon as we exited French passport control. Only 40 minutes after we'd landed, we were in the hotel and checking in. Fantastic. On booking the hotel I'd requested a room close to the reception and breakfast restaurant if possible. They had delivered. We were staying in what had been the cheapest Disney hotel on site but our room was perfect, with a large double and sturdy bunk beds in the block nearest reception. Duncan loved our cowboy room and claimed the top bunk at once. We settled in then went to buy some drinks (I'd packed a lot of snacks) and he pounced on a stuffed Donald Duck toy. I bought it, he's been on a Donald phase for a while now and I know from before that these toys are useful and important to him. Donald was from then on his companion and protector and a most excellent duck.
The only slot left for breakfast was 7.30 but we managed to drag ourselves awake and to the crowded breakfast hall. I'd asked for and received permission to scarper back to the room with our selection of rolls and croissants. We did the same both mornings and had a much more relaxed time that we'd have managed in the bustling and loud refectory.
Sometime after 9, we took the bus to the parks. It was a bit of a hassle getting the buggy on board but I'm pushy enough and we managed. After picking up Duncan's Easy Access Pass (green card to enable shorter queuing times and use of wheelchair accessible entrances) we were off on our first ride, Buzz Lightyear's Laser Quest. In a short time, we followed up with the Small World, Pinocchio and Pirates of the Caribbean rides. Then Duncan wanted to go "home". It was only 11.30. So we went towards the exit but on passing the Disney Rail Road station, he agreed to my suggestion of a ride and we did a circuit of the park.
Afterwards, he asked to visit the Studio park. We queued for a few minutes for a hug and photo with Sully, then went to watch Crush's Coaster. He asked to go on the bus, meaning the Backlot Tour. This was I think, the highlight of the day. Having seen it before he knew what to expect but was still exhilarated by the fire and thundering water. Very cool.
I was surprised that he asked to go see Stitch Live next as that had been one of the most difficult parts last time. But I complied and it worked out great. He laughed his head off with everyone else.
We went out again at 6 although the parks closed at 7. I'd hoped to buy him food in the place where they show cartoons but it was shut. Duncan wasn't so happy. It was busy and hot. "Too much" he called as he buried his head under Donald. I pushed him out to McDonald's and we queued for ages to buy him food and ice-cream. He ate as we walked home. It was much calmer on that particular path. After another relaxing time in our room (more bath time for the boy) we headed back to the hotel shop for water and he picked out a tiny ceramic bell to buy. It was just his sort of thing. Soon enough he climbed into his bunk and slept.
Next morning we hung around in the room a while later as we wouldn't be able to return once we'd checked out. We still left too early and it was hard at times throughout the day, just keeping going in the heat. The only ride Duncan wanted to go on by then was Phantom Manor so off we went, but it hadn't opened so we watched his beloved Big Thunder Mountain instead. Unfortunately, he still didn't feel even close to being ready to actually ride it. Shame, for I love it!
We wandered through Fantasy Land which was very crowded and in which there were speakers blasting out princess music at every turn. Duncan was fed up! He did agree to go on the Snow White ride and enjoyed it, but vetoed everything else.
He wanted to watch a show in the Studio but it was too late when we got there. We headed to the Rock'n'Roller coaster exit instead to watch for a while. I made the mistake of saying "let's go" when I was ready to leave and he panicked for a while thinking that I wanted him to go on the ride. Oops! Reassured, we left and went to the next show, a Playhouse Disney thing in French. It was nice and he liked it well enough but apart from Mickey and co. the characters were unfamiliar and it was all a bit too babyish.
We returned to ride Phantom Manor and he loved the spookiness. After another go on the Small World boat and a circuit of the park on the train, we settled in the Videopolis for a few cartoons in the cool. By then I was just trying to pass time. Duncan wanted to go back to the hotel and was disappointed that we couldn't get into the room again. But he consented to watch the parade with me so for the first time ever, we went to one of the dedicated viewing spots for disabled customers, showed our green card and waited in the roped off area. It was much better there. Duncan worried a bit about the potential for loud noises and bangs but was assured there would be loud music but no bangs. When the parade passed, we had an excellent view, right by the curb. He enjoyed it and several of the characters approached him and the others in our area to touch hands and ruffle hair. He loved that, otherwise I'd have pulled him back!
So finally all Disney-ed out I pushed him back slowly to the hotel, got our bags and awaited the taxi. It was early and we arrived at the airport 3 hours before the flight was leaving. Those were not such pleasant hours, especially since on passing passport control there is nowhere to sit but a cafe. It's a horrible place to wait.
To kill time, I took Duncan to the loo and he had great enjoyment washing his hands using touch-sensitive taps. We had been the only travellers in the vicinity so I didn't try to attenuate his loud appreciative calls of excitement. There was a loud knock on the door. Thinking someone else needed to use the disabled person's toilet, I called back that we'd be out soon. The person knocking informed me that he was "the police" and that I was to open the door asap. Thankfully I had not commenced my own business. I opened to find 2 large uniformed men looking around. I explained in my finest Franglais that my son is disabled and was excited by the taps. They left us alone.
A while later as I pushed him up and down the bleak hall I had a laugh about it, but not too much in case they decided I wasn't in a fit state to travel. We couldn't get into the seating area for another 30 minutes and the police had just about banged the toilet door down when I needed to use it. Apart from that, the journey home was fine. A baby started screaming 15 minutes before we landed and Duncan screamed a couple of times in sympathy, but thankfully no more than that. He had to visit the toilet twice but there was no-one sitting beside us. He worried when we'd landed and the plane was pulling in beside the terminal building that a crash was imminent, "Pull back! Apply the brakes!" he recommended.
I asked and was allowed to fast-track through passport control, we picked up the car and weary, we headed on the last leg of our journey home.


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Here's a dish that uses up both zucchini and yellow squash. It's in the recipe family of caponata and pepperonata. This version, though, doesn't have either eggplant or peppers in it, although feel free to add them if you have them! I ate this every summer growing up, as well as the other two dishes mentioned, and it is very tasty. It's good either hot, cold, or at room temperature. I prefer it as a hot ragu over my gorgonzola polenta with an extra drizzle of olive oil , although it's very tasty just as a side dish or with pasta or rice. Personally, I think it pairs best with either fish or chicken. It reheats very well, and is actually quite tasty as a brunch topper for fried eggs. Don't wince! It's really quite groovy over fried eggs! I dare you to try it! Double dare!
Olive Oil
2 small zucchini, sliced thin
1 small yellow squash, sliced thin
½ onion sliced into either slivers or half rounds
1 garlic clove, sliced paper thin (or you could mince or chop it) *(See Note)
4 fresh "meaty" variety tomatoes diced (or 1 can diced tom's)
¼ cup pitted green olives, rough chopped in large pieces (I used Spanish pimento stuffed ones because that's what I had; calamata's could be used, too)
1 Tsp of capers (optional)
Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
Freshly grated pecorino romano or parmesan cheese.
Heat a very large sauté pan over high heat. Add the olive oil, swirl to coat the pan. Quickly toss in the zucchini and yellow squash and sauté, adjust your burner heat as necessary to keep veggies from burning. When the squash are lightly browned, remove from pan. Add a touch more oil to the pan, and quickly sauté the onions and garlic* (see note). As soon as they are translucent, return the squash to the pan, add the tomatoes, and stir to combine. Turn the heat to med-low, and cook until the tomatoes are soft and the mixture has thickened (about 10 minutes). Stir in the olives and capers. Season with Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper. Garnish with cheese once you've plated the veggies. Also, drizzle with add'l olive oil if desired. (I desired!)
Also, for my gluten free comrades, this dish is gluten free all the way!
*NOTE: I always salt my garlic after I've sliced, minced, or chopped it. It keeps it from burning. We'll have to ask


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Hot pink is a difficult color to pin down. While it is certainly pink, it is also somewhat neutral, making it a great color choice that both men and women can enjoy. The trick to creating a great hot pink wedding is to make sure that this color is not allowed to run rampant. For example, think about choosing classic black and white for your dominant wedding colors. Then, add bold punches of hot pink throughout the reception area. A black and white cake that includes hot pink scrolling will be a sure hit. Similarly, hot pink place cards and monogrammed items will look dreamy.
In fact, with black and white as your base colors, nearly any shade of hot pink will look perfect…but let's talk about those hot pink shades for a moment. There are actually a few shades of hot pink for your wedding, but you want all of the hues to match. While hot pink can be a lovely color for any wedding day, it must be used properly. Pink doesn't have to be the dominant wedding color, but it should be the one stationery color that you choose in order to tie everything together with perfection.
For wording visit: Bridal Shower Invitation Wording IdeasHot Pink Problems
Once you have settled on the color of hot pink, it is time to choose matching invitations and save-the-dates. Since you will be sending out these notices prior to anything else, you may want to use your wedding stationery as a hue guideline for the rest of the affair.
In order to avoid the possibility that your colors may clash, try to purchase all of your items from the same supplier. Then, once you have your main items, you can bring an object or two to your baker and florist. This way, the hot pink that you have chosen will match your cake, bouquet, and all other items.
Another thing that many brides fret over is the color of those bridesmaids' dresses. Hot pink dresses can be found, though you may have to special order the ones that you like. Again, make sure that all of your girls get their dresses from the same store or merchant…otherwise, they are bound to clash.Hot Pink Invites
Choosing hot pink invitations is really important when you are trying to coordinate a wedding of this color. You want your invitations to help your color scheme flow from the start. Therefore, make sure to choose wedding invitations, Thank You cards, and save-the-dates that reflect the exact color you want.
If you make your wedding stationery your very first wedding purchase, you can be sure that the rest of your wedding will match perfectly. Hot pink is a great idea for the bride that wants to add zing and sass to her wedding.


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Work began Oct. 14 to repair the northeast side of the 770-foot trestle across Curlew Lake on the Ferry County Rail Trail.
Stotts Construction of Curlew is doing the preparation work, and decking and railings will be installed by Grant Tolton of Republic. Ferry County Rail Trail Partners Vice President Keith Bell will assist.
The trestle decking will connect the 28-mile rail trail that runs from the Republic School to Danville near the Canadian border.
"We are all very excited for the progress," Ferry County Rail Trail Partners President Bob Whittaker said. "This new postcard-perfect feature will really put the Ferry County Rail Trail on the tourism map, as well as connect our local communities with a safe bicycle/pedestrian path."
The trestle decking project is the first phase of the trail's long-term development.
"The project is the culmination of several years of a collaborative effort between the Ferry County commissioners, their advisory board – the Rail Corridor Committee – and our local citizens group, Ferry County Rail Trail Partners," Bell said.
The Federal Highway Administration Transportation Enhancement Program grant is supporting the project.
"This groundbreaking is another positive milestone for this trail," Whittaker said. "It sure feels like it took forever to get to this point, but remember, we did not get the non-motorized designation until after a county-wide vote in November 2009."
The project has gotten three major grants, a planning grant from the National Parks Rivers and Trails Assistance Program and two $100,000 state development grants.
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It's not as if Larry Broderick flatly ignored what his heart was telling him about the kind of start-up he should try. Not at all. There just happened to be a few factors -- OK, so there were 34 -- that came before "gut feel" on the list of criteria he had devised to help him evaluate his options.
But Broderick will be the first to point out that even though you had to read almost the entire 37-item list before you got to it, he had scratched two tiny stars next to #35, signaling its elevated importance in his mind. About half a dozen other criteria merited one star apiece, among them "location of business," "price stability of products," and "exit-ability."
Furthermore, Broderick insists that he wouldn't have gone through with any deal that he didn't intuitively feel right about. Well, probably not. "If I had come across a business that was really attractive and my gut feel was not to feel right or to feel nervous, I don't know if I could have done it," says Broderick, now CEO of the SteelWorks Corp., based in Denver.
That said, Broderick didn't invent such a list for himself because he was worried that the left side of his brain would get the better of him during his 18-month hunt for a business to start or acquire. He was just trying to guard against a certain overpowering emotion. "I think it's a huge mistake to love a business," he says. "When a business gets to be like one of your children, you can't be objective and you make a lot of bad decisions."
Yes, he's serious. And he's not the only company builder who rejects the let's-do-hunch mentality. "I think this whole idea of 'I have a gut about this, and it's going to work' is a bunch of hocus-pocus," declares M. Frances Sponer, a Las Vegas-based entrepreneur who has founded 16 companies. "But that's what people do when they are starting companies. They just keep talking about it, and pretty soon they fall in love with it."
But wait. Isn't that, as the song says, the way you've always heard it should be? Budding entrepreneur falls in love with idea and naïvely embraces misguided assumptions about the cost, the time, and the customers needed to turn said idea into a viable enterprise. Entrepreneur then unearths the fortitude to repeatedly change those assumptions until aforementioned entity thrives. It's the proverbial roller-coaster trip, with only one force that's powerful enough to keep the rider strapped in for those 90-mile-an-hour drops: passion.
"I think it's a huge mistake to love a business. When a business gets to be like one of your children, you can't be objective and you make a lot of bad decisions."
In fact, nobody's disputing that someone needs to have more than lukewarm feelings to risk a mortgage or spend down a savings account for the honor of possibly losing a house or a nest egg in the ensuing endeavor. But especially now, when unparalleled technologies and unprecedented sums of money have converged to create the opportunity for more and more people to follow their passion (hey, who says it's too late to start the best Web site devoted to selling baby gear?), there's a case to be made that such passion needs tempering. Badly. "When there's a ton and a half of money around, you can be passionate and charge off, and you'll have investors who will follow you," says Jack Derby, president of Derby Management, a Boston coaching and consulting firm. "But now that the air is out of the balloon and the market has corrected itself, passion alone doesn't get you there. There has to be a baseline amount of excitement, but then you need to build on that."
The tool for doing so? A comprehensive (read exhaustive) list of criteria that fledgling entrepreneurs can use to analyze start-up opportunities as they present themselves. The method, which takes various forms, may sound a bit detached. But those who've come to use it are absolutely unequivocal in their enthusiasm for the results it produces. If starting a business is like choosing a lifetime partner, they argue, then the risk is that you'll end up marrying for love -- and nobody can afford to do that more than once (well, nobody besides Larry King). "If your goal is to be profitable and grow, then you need to give up your allegiances," says Joel Nichols, CEO of Apollo Design Technology Inc., a maker of specialized lighting products for the entertainment industry, which he founded after following his own list of 12 criteria. "You've got to filter out your biases. Absolutely."
No self-respecting entrepreneur ever aspires to be the guy. In the parlance of venture capitalists, that's the disciplined person who comes into a young company and, unencumbered by any of the entrepreneur's emotional baggage, makes the necessary but hard moves. (The label, needless to say, is genderless -- one of the foremost examples of the breed is Meg Whitman, who succeeded eBay's founder as president and CEO in 1998.)
Typically, it's that person who -- far removed from the passion of the entrepreneur -- instinctively reduces a business to a series of checklists, sometimes for its own good. But in the current environment, in which investors are bringing their own newly rigorous criteria to bear, it makes more sense than ever for a nascent company builder to take at least some of the fun out of starting a business -- before someone else does. For entrepreneurs "it comes down to channeling their passion," says Derby. "They've got to start thinking about management focus and team-building focus and investment focus. They've got to want to get it right."
Not surprisingly, the impulse to get it right comes from the experience of having gotten it wrong. "You can make a spreadsheet say anything you want it to," admits Sponer, who, at 53, is president and CEO of Ascentra, a $16-million family of health-care companies she either founded or cofounded. One of her earliest efforts, a company that set out to provide health care for prison inmates, never broke out of the start-up phase because its prospective customers weren't actually interested in its central proposition: saving them money. "I fell in love with it, and I talked myself into it," Sponer says. "I wasn't being analytical."
Not long after that, in 1990, she opened a sleep-disorder clinic that turned into a small nightmare. Even when the four-room center was fully operational, she discovered, after-tax profits amounted to an unacceptable 8%. Sponer says she got "bad information" from equipment vendors about the level of reimbursement. "We were so early in the market, the insurance companies hadn't determined what they were going to pay," she says. "I was naïve."
From such naïveté, however, rose Sponer's clarity about her goals in building a company. "Why do you start a business? It's to make money," she says. That sense of purpose clearly comes across in what she titles "Francie's Criteria for New Ventures," a checklist she employs to analyze each potential endeavor in terms of its profit-making potential. "I don't look at my company as a part of me," she says. "I look at it as a vehicle for me to use to meet my goal of making a profit."
If Sponer's list forces her to remain focused on profits, Nichols's 12 criteria served to remind him of just what he didn't want to get into back in the early 1990s, when he was looking to start a company: a horse-and-buggy operation. That may sound like a metaphor for a slow-growing (or no-growing) company, but in Nichols's case it was more than that. He and his wife, Keersten, actually made a business out of giving tourists carriage rides around downtown Fort Wayne, Ind. "It took five years before it sank in that we were never going to build this thing to be big enough to put our kids through college or anything like that," says Nichols, now 37.
After selling the business, "I really said, 'Let's take our time and do it right this time," recalls Nichols, who had worked nights at a local steel mill while he and his wife ran the buggy business on the side. Many of the criteria he applied -- he wanted a business in a growing market with no geographic restrictions and unlimited growth potential -- sprang from his awareness that "the profit-making potential of one horse, one driver, and one buggy isn't even that much under a perfect scenario."
The criteria you end up applying when launching a start-up, it seems, have as much to do with your previous business as they do with your next business.
If the last venture was a reasonable success, then the reason for the next one is that much clearer: to create wealth (as opposed to just making money) or maybe to leave a lasting mark on an industry (as opposed to just being a boss). These days it's not that uncommon for even first-time entrepreneurs, their heads stuffed with stories about glamorous start-ups, to adopt the yardstick formerly reserved for entrepreneurial veterans: What I'm after, they'll say, is a billion-dollar valuation. And they usually need it to happen before final exams distract them.
So, contradictory as it sounds, such entrepreneurs create paperwork for themselves -- an inventory of criteria that serves as a bulwark between themselves and their dangerous, if natural, inclinations. Given what Broderick had been through, it wasn't at all surprising that he felt the need to draw up, and continually consult, the nearly 40 criteria that he had written down on a piece of blank ledger paper. Before he founded SteelWorks, his most recent venture had served only to underline the stink in gut instinct. "It wasn't as if I had gone out as a success in the previous business," he confesses. "I really didn't want to rely on my intuition anymore."
In 1980, Broderick went into the industry his family had worked in since about 1900: wholesale lumber. The company he founded, Rivendell Forest Products, rose to peak sales of about $135 million before it crashed to the ground in 1991. A victim of declining housing starts and dropping lumber prices, the company ended up on the wrong side of its banking covenants. "We figured we'd better liquidate it before the market sank even lower," says Broderick, who was then 45. "It was horrible. I was determined I was going to bite the bullet and go into a new industry, and one with a better economic model than the stupid one I'd had to work in."
"I don't look at my company as part of me," says business founder Frances Sponer. "I look at it as a vehicle for me to use to meet my goal of making a profit."
The absence of stupidity was far from his sole criterion, of course. With help from members of his CEO peer group, he drew up a checklist. For every business he considered, he placed plus signs or minus signs next to the items. He listed the characteristics under five broad categories. The first one, "Specific Business," encompassed the most items -- 17 -- from location (as a divorced father of three, he wanted to stay in Colorado) to geographic market (he'd learned through experience that "the larger the scope, the more insulated a company is") to customer type ("You don't want to be selling to a lot of mom-and-pops," he says). By the time he decided to start SteelWorks -- a maker of metal shapes sold to do-it-yourselfers through home centers, hardware stores, and lumberyards -- he'd carefully assessed the condition of the two companies whose assets he ended up acquiring. He'd ranked such areas as sources of supply (neutral), existing relationships with customers and vendors (a minus), and price stability of raw materials (a plus). (For a complete list of Broderick's criteria, see "Broderick's List," below.)
Says Joel Nichols, the former buggy driver: "The list is important because it forces you to take the first step. We were more aggressive in saying 'These are our criteria' than we were in looking for a business. Once we had the criteria, it was like walking through the woods and looking for a nice tree. We weren't walking and measuring every tree and comparing it to our criteria." Indeed, Nichols's checklist, a much shorter variation on Broderick's, prodded him to think about how closely the company under consideration matched what he knew he was after.
Granted, Nichols's criteria were more than slightly idiosyncratic. Aside from looking for a venture with low start-up costs (how does $2,500 sound?) and few competitors, he and his wife also wanted to work "relatively normal business hours," Nichols says. If that sounds like an impossibility for any fledgling business owner, rest assured that Nichols usually spends part of Saturday in the office. But it's nothing like the buggy business, where "if there's a family event happening on a Friday or Saturday night, you know you're not going to be there." He also wanted to start a manufacturing business, claiming to "personally enjoy the challenges of manufacturing" -- though, until he started the business, his only related experience had been as a lathe operator in the steel mill. "It takes a more determined and focused person, with a better skill set, to go into manufacturing," he claims. But the product he made couldn't be a commodity, as spelled out in one of his criteria. Maintaining a high-level service component, he says, "creates one more barrier for people who want to compete with me."
Of course, to find a business that came close to meeting his guidelines -- which he did, thanks to a friend who showed him the product he ended up making -- Nichols had to venture far beyond his expertise. In other words, he ended up exactly where he wanted to be. "Long term, I believe everybody learns how to make money, so the more I run my business, the more I learn about it," Nichols says of his $3.2-million company, which ranked #166 on last year's Inc. 500. "So, assuming the margins are there, I would rather go into a business I don't know anything about."
Not Sponer. Her list of items, under five broad categories, includes very strict parameters regarding whether each item should be rated as a "pro" or a "con." "I use the criteria to keep myself grounded," explains Sponer. "You don't want it to be like one of those surveys in Ladies' Home Journal that asks 'Are you psychotic?' You have to stick with objective criteria, or you get way off into all those touchy-feely things." Indeed, there's nothing remotely squishy about the six-page checklist that Sponer first began developing in 1986. "Gross margins," for instance, have to be at least 40% and durable -- as opposed to less than 20% and fragile -- to earn a positive rating. "Attainable market share" has to be 20% and local. "Time to breakeven"? No more than two years. "Maybe someday I'll be so secure, it won't matter to me," she says. "But I'm not interested in building a monolith. I just want to make money."
Sponer even has a section devoted to what she calls "fatal-flaw issues." They include such factors as a very small market for the product (which can only be positive if there's a "current window of opportunity in our target area"), overpowering competition, and a high cost of entry. Sponer doesn't simply check off a column in each of the categories; she actually ranks each venture on a 1-to-10 scale (the higher the number, the worse the outcome is) in each category. However, she claims that the final score matters less than the process she undertakes to reach it. "I'm forced to get down to reality and think," she says.
And thinking -- as opposed to feeling -- is what the start-up-by-the-numbers system is all about. Even for a venture she hasn't yet started, Sponer is already considering her exit. It's her favorite criterion, in fact. "Because I know why I got into this," she adds proudly. Broderick, too, knows why he ended up forming the SteelWorks Corp., which grew to sales of $25 million last year. "Once in a while, someone will ask me how I got into this, but they usually don't want that much detail," he says. "If they persist, I get into the guts of it but not before warning them that it's going to take awhile."
Joshua Hyatt is a senior editor at Inc.
Broderick's List
Larry Broderick knew that he wanted to run his own company. To guide him, he drew up an exhaustive list of criteria
Among the many criteria Larry Broderick used to help him decide what kind of business to start, one mattered far more than the rest: Is this the sort of enterprise that will rip my heart out?
Not that Broderick, who spent about 18 months searching for an opportunity that suited him, actually listed that quality among the 37 characteristics he ranked. But his underlying reason for so carefully evaluating each potential venture stemmed from his experience with a wholesale-lumber company he had previously founded -- and ultimately liquidated, in the face of steeply dropping housing starts. "I was not a neophyte in terms of business," he says. "I knew some things about business that I did not like and I did not want to get into again."
In other words, he knew just the kind of business model to avoid: high risk, low margin. Once his lumber company had failed, "the risks associated with that business model became crystal clear to me," Broderick says. "I knew there were much better models out there."
His determination to find such models is plainly reflected in the criteria he developed. "I was very nervous about going into a new industry," says Broderick, now CEO of the SteelWorks Corp., a Denver-based maker of metal shapes. "But I was on guard not to let my emotions get in the way." After coming up with the list, he analyzed opportunities by placing up to two plus signs or two minus signs next to each characteristic. Then he added them all up.
Fewer than half a dozen of the criteria grew out of personal concerns about compatibility, such as location of business and type of business. Many of the criteria, which he divided into five categories, reinforced his resolve to find an industry in which profit margins were ample but competitors weren't. Such businesses, he reasoned, were bound to be less vulnerable than the one he had worked in, in which "the margin for error is very, very minimal."
1. Specific business
Broderick's biggest category, Specific Business, included market (local, state, regional, national, and international), among 16 others. Having had his previous company wiped out by a market downturn, he was convinced that "the broader the scope, the more insulated a business is." He evaluated sources of supply (type, quantity, and quality) and customers (type, quantity, and quality) from the perspective of not wanting thousands of supply sources and customers, but definitely wanting more than a few. "The more solid and sizable they are, the better," he says, speaking about customers. For nature of products (repeat customers, one-time sales, and consumable), he knew he wanted "a steady flow of business," he says. "In lumber, there's no loyalty. It's all price."
Nor did he want to worry -- as much as he had in his lumber business, anyway -- about the price stability of products (raw materials), another criterion. Understandably, "I was interested in avoiding an industry where the value of my inventory could drop 50% over three months," he says. He also wanted to avoid the high costs of human inventory, which is why he included capital-intensive/labor-intensive among the criteria. "I'd rather run a business with fewer people, because of all the issues associated with employees," he notes. He weighed hiring union versus nonunion employees because he definitely wanted the latter. "We wanted as much control over our destiny as possible," he says. Wanting that freedom of movement also prompted him to include environmental concerns ("They can bankrupt you," he warns) and regulatory environment in that section.
Given the amount of capital he figured he'd be able to borrow, Broderick fully expected to be engineering a turnaround if he bought a company -- or created one from assets he bought. (He eventually formed SteelWorks after acquiring the assets of two companies.) To measure the magnitude of the challenge he'd be taking on, he included among the criteria existing relationships with customers/vendors (after all, "we would have to convince them to stay with us," he notes), quality of personnel at target (at the companies whose assets he ended up buying, "the people were weak"), and available personnel to bring to target. "It was important that I have key people I could bring in," he says. "I knew I could get my key management people from the lumber company back if I could get this deal done." That's because he knew that those people -- his chief financial officer, his VP of operations, and his VP of sales and marketing (who also happened to be his brother) -- would be reasonably comfortable with any company that got a high score on his list of criteria. Among those considerations, a key one was the basic nature of the company: Was it high, medium, or low tech? "We wanted to get into a low-tech product that had good margins, because the learning curve would be too long if we were making computer chips or fiber-optic cable or software," he says.
He wanted low tech but not slow growth. So he also considered where the target is in the business cycle (start-up, emerging, mature, or in decline) as well as the state of the overall industry. Was it declining or growing or growing fast? "Everybody thought this one was mature, but we thought it was just emerging," he says.
2. Competition
Of course, a growing industry is bound to attract others. In his second category of criteria, Competition, Broderick evaluated his rivals from three perspectives. Profile of competitors focused his thinking on whether "there were a number of very strong independent operators who would be very hard to unseat." His conclusion: there weren't. Nor was there too much mom-and-pop competition in the industry, which he considered a plus. "In lumber the small wholesalers were tough to compete with because all they had to do was make a living," he recalls. And given the size of the niche, which he estimated at around $40 million, large vendors weren't likely to cut out distributors like SteelWorks. The one remaining question in this section -- Will vendors go direct to consumers? -- was designed to address a phenomenon he'd had to fight in the wholesale-lumber trade.
3. Financial
The 11 items that made up Broderick's next category, Financial, enabled him to make a fairly straightforward diagnosis of the venture's fiscal health: Margins, is target profitable?, Float (how fast would he have to pay vendors, as compared with the terms he'd have to extend to customers?), seasonality, industry stability (cyclicality), cost of target (cash versus terms), size of target, control considerations (minority shareholders?), minimum rate of return on investment, cash flow (how much can be taken out of the business while still keeping it viable and prosperous and the banks happy?), and exit-ability.
4. Potential
Potential, his next category, helped him assess how he might grow the business. The three items in this section included growth potential (existing customer base versus total market), efficiency of target (cost-cutting potential), and computerization of target (room for improvement in hardware and software). "If anything, we underestimated the growth potential, the margin potential, and the efficiency potential" of his business, concedes Broderick. "But going into this, you couldn't make the kinds of projections that we've turned out to deliver and be taken seriously by anyone."
5. General
Broderick's research, however incomplete, was taken seriously by his fellow CEOs. He knew because he included adviser opinions among his three criteria in a section labeled General. The others? Personal experience/expertise and gut feel. "Right from the start, this felt like something I could be excited about and successful at," he says. After pausing, he adds, "But I like to think that didn't influence how I filled out the criteria."
Please e-mail your comments to firstname.lastname@example.com.
The Rationalist: The Death of Gut Instinct
The Copycat: The Next Starbucks
The Spin-Off: Hiding in Plain Sight
The Soloist: Balancing Act
The Idealist: Into the Frying Pan
The Zealot: Mission Critical
The Pro: The Rules
The Accidental Entrepreneur: Field of Dreams


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Are you interested in becoming a wholesale partner or would like to receive more information on custom dancewear pieces? Please fill out the wholesale request form on the right and we will get back to you as soon as possible. You may also call us to request information at 800-992-6629.
Shine everyday in this versatile, basic high-neck Metallic/Spandex tank leotard that comes in a wide array of solid colors. Perfect for practice or competition, gymnastics or dance, each leotard comes with a matching scrunchie.
80% Nylon/20% Spandex.
Available in sizes: (adult) S,M,L,XL
Suggested fitting for this item:
This information is shown as a guide only and not a guarantee.


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Matt Wallace needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 258 designs submitted by 62 freelance designers.
Race Against Time - Haiti
An number of capable, experienced and internationally-focused individuals, groups, non-profits and networks have joined together to form the International Disaster Response Network (IDRN) to better collaborate and coordinate response efforts.
Since January 12th, IDRN partners have been working diligently to maximize efforts in Haiti. Through our efforts, we have received many volunteers, offers and solid support. However, getting people and supplies TO those people hurting the most continues to be a huge problem. Where the IDRN efforts are in Haiti, it is becoming increasing desperate & a true RACE AGAINST TIME. It's not an uncommon problem, however the current Haiti situation is particularly bad.
In the midst of this, a small coffee shop in the Colorado town of Windsor is hosting a big event this coming Sunday, Jan 31. This coffee shop was a rallying point when that town survived its own tornado disaster in the recent past. With many of the IDRN members based out of Colorado, this event is receiving significant statewide media coverage.
The hope and belief is that the RACE AGAINST TIME idea can be used as a recurring fundraising mechanism for the IDRN and provide small groups/businesses with a way to help engage in disaster response support.
We need a LOGO for the site that's being stood up in the next 24 hrs.
If you want to help, HELP US with designing a logo! Pls!
The target audience would be people who would potentially join in fundraising efforts to support disaster response initiatives - especially those as significant as Haiti.
We would anticipate that the approach that is being modeled in the small coffee shop could be replicated in many other small hip, community centered coffee shops... and could bleed over to any small establishment or group wanting to help raise money.
We need something that'll be FLYER/POSTER friendly... when raising awareness... T-SHIRT friendly... But remember this isn't a HAPPY or CUTE topic, so we want something people-centric, strong and bold, but not flippant, silly or too light-hearted.
"Urgent" is a good work - which speaks to the title since it quite literally is a race against time.
Time/clock references are not off limits, but don't feel overly compelled to include that in designs.
We need something that is not-USA centric, as we would help to see this eventually be of interest to people outside of the United States - so, in other words, keep the international nature of the IDRN in mind. We have helped coordinate many international teams in responses... even though the immediate need is US-focused.
When people host these grassroot events, the logo and website will need a strong logo.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
Matrix:Vendor-Gadget Labs
From AlsaProject
Return to main soundcard matrix page
Soundcard List for Gadget Labs
|Driver & Docs
|Tags, Notes
| [Unknown]
On 1 December 2000, Gadget Labs ceased trading and put some of its software in the public domain, with the announcement: "We regret to announce that Gadget Labs is no longer in business. We sincerely appreciate the support from customers during the last 3 years, and we regret that we didn't meet with enough success to be able to continue to deliver our products and service. This web site includes technical information and software drivers that are being placed in the public domain. Please note that usage of the information and drivers contained here is at the user's sole discretion, responsibility, and risk."
Custom Search


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Selecting your vehicle's make, model, and year allows us to display only parts and items specific to your car's model and year.
Part# PW70941
Mfg# 70941
Be the First to Review
OPGI Price: $34.99
Part Type: (P) High Performance, designed to improve performance
Years: 1938-1993
Sold As: SET
2018 Fleetwood Catalog Pages: 157, 210
These installation tools are designed to make installation of Powerbraid much easier. The tools are available in a convenient set that covers 1/8"-1/4", 1/2" and 3/4" sizes, while the 1" size is sold separately.


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Olympic Swimmer Proposes to Girlfriend From Medal Stand
With Valentine's Day around the corner love is in the air. And in the water.
Two-time Olympic gold medal swimmer Matt Grevers proved that after winning the 100 meter breaststroke Saturday at the Missouri Grand Prix.
When he went to the medal stand to accept his medallion, it was his girlfriend, fellow Olympic swimmer Annie Chandler, who presented it to him. (They are much more lax about the medal ceremony in Grand Prix events than they are in the actual Olympic games, it seems.)
Then, right after Chandler put the medal around Grevers' neck, Grevers dropped to one knee and presented her with a much more important piece of jewelry -- a diamond engagement ring. (Check out the video below.)
According to Grevers, his plan to propose would only work if he finished in one of the top three places, so he was swimming with extra motivation. Chandler, who emphatically said yes as the crowd cheered, had to swim in a 200 meter breast stroke heat right after accepting the proposal. She won the race, although she admitted her mind was still spinning when she did. "That was one of the most thoughtless 200 breaststrokes I've ever swam," she said afterward.
This is the second time this past week an athlete has made news by proposing at a sporting event, with New York Giants' linebacker Greg Jones doing the same last Sunday at the Super Bowl. So it's starting to look like dropping down to one knee to propose is really the new Tebowing.
[via NBC New York]


text: I have never seen weather this warm in March! And I seriously doubt that I ever will again. Some corn has been planted near Van Wert, Ohio, and I have heard some corn is being planted in southern Illinois. I have seen many farmers go by pulling wagons of seed beans. Our fields are almost a swamp because it rains about every other day. I am going to start working on tractor air conditioners, making sure they are charged up. The long-range forecast that I have heard calls for three more months of above-average temperatures.


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Reflective Metalized Film 25ft x 4.5ft 2 Mil Case of 6 Rolls
This highly reflective film transforms any area into a growing space. It can be placed on walls, ceilings and even floors while minimizing wasted grow light.
Reflective Metalized Film 25' x 4.5' 2 Mil Case of 6 Rolls
- Maximizes lighting potential of any lighting setup
- 2 mil thickness provides added strength, espeically good for use on floors or table tops
- Reflects excess light back onto plants, almost completely eliminates wasted light on covered surfaces
- Effectively conforms around walls, corners and tables
- Easy to cut and fit into windows, onto walls, ceilings and even floors
- Light is reflected back to be used by plants and to warm their pots
- Mirror-like efficiency allows one lighting source to accomplish more than ever
This film is designed to be highly reflective and to maximize lighting fixture potential. Any light that would otherwise be wasted is reflected off from surfaces covered by this film back onto plants.
This film increases efficiency of bulbs and helps one lighting source to grow more plants. The flexible material has a mirror-like efficiency that can be put on walls, in windows, on ceilings and even on the floor to minimize wasted light.
This versatile film can even be used to cover objects in a grow room that would otherwise block light or that wouldn't be reflective. The film comes on a sturdy roll and doesn't stick or bind up. This film transforms any space into a highly-reflective growing zone.
Unit Ship Weight: 16 lbs


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Moderator: Silverdream
Tzan wrote:Semaj Nagirrac wrote:Well, I took some land without checking if it was owned by a faction or not. I'm not going to be banned, am I? I can destroy everything if need be.
That's what Hitler said,
in 1938.
Warhead wrote:my head burns with War.
Silverdream wrote:I decided that Americans were too corrupted to be considered Aryan.
But yeah, you're right about everything else.
Tzan wrote:Quantumsurfer wrote:I generally agree with TzanWarhead wrote:I agree with QuantumSmurfer.
I agree with Warhead.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests


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"Hardest" Logic Puzzle You've Found?
So, on this site I hit "refresh" until I get to a puzzle that has a <30% success rate. I'm pretty sure I've done all of them and the challenge is gone. . .so, I was wondering if any of you know of any other logic sites that may present harder challenges? Maybe 6x6 or larger grids or clues that require more 'logical pathways' to be examined? If so, please share.
The 'hardest' puzzle I've found is here: http://www.puzzlersparadise.com/onli...Deliveries.htm
But surely there are more?
You have probably seen this one already, but since it is a classic:
The Einstein Logic Puzzle
There are 5 houses each with a different color. Their owners, each with a unique heritage, drinks a certain type of beverage, smokes a certain brand of cigarette, and keeps a certain variety of pet. None of the owners have the same variety of pet, smoke the same brand of cigarette or drink the same beverage.
The Brit lives in the red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.
Looking from in front, the green house is just to the left of the white house.
The green house's owner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Malls raises birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the center house drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the leftmost house.
The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
The man who keeps a horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The owner who smokes Bluemasters also drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.
Who owns the pet fish?
Thank you for that puzzle - it was fun. I ended up doing a 5x6 grid to keep track of stuff. While not necessarily 'harder' than the puzzles here and at puzzles.com, it was refreshing and the added twist was exactly what I was looking for.
Hopefully the powers at this website come up with a new logic engine that will add a fresh, different logic path or two the mix.
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Credit to Forbes for pressing Nintendo of America's president, Reggie Fils-Aime, on the take-it-anywhere capabilities of the Wii U's touch-screen controller.
In an interview, Forbes' David M. Ewalt asked Fils-Aime whether it was possible to watch streaming video on the controller. "The messaging comes right from the console. So the programming would need to originate off the console," Fils-Aime said. Pressed on the point, Ewalt asked Fils-Aime if it was possible to watch Netflix-streamed content with the controller.
"Theoretically, that's possible," Fils-Aime said. Now, this does not make the Wii U controller into a go-anywhere device independent of the system. Whatever content it's showing, "It's got to be powered through the console," Fils-Aime said.
The takeaway: If it comes from the console, it can go to that controller, and if Nintendo isn't touting the ability to watch Netflix content on it, it's only because they haven't crossed Ts and dotted Is on that agreement yet.
What Is Nintendo Planning With The Wii U? Reggie Fils-Aime Explains It All [Forbes.com via RipTen]


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Toyota enters the full-size market with a new V-8 pickup made in America. Toyota is building an all-new, full-size pickup truck that the company claims will haul more, tow more and set a new standard for handling and ride comfort.The Tundra's 4.7-liter engine will be the first double-overhead cam, 32-valve V-8 offered in its category and the first V-8 engine to be classified by the EPA as a low-emission vehicle. It will deliver about 245 hp and 315 lbs. ft. of torque.
This powerful V-8 engine will provide the strength to haul a maximum load of 1 ton and pull a maximum of 7,200 lbs.
The pickup also will be offered with a 3.4-liter, double-overhead cam, 24-valve V-6 engine.
Both the V-6 and V-8 models will be available with 2- or 4-wd with a four-speed automatic transmission. The V-6 also will be offered with a five-speed manual transmission.
Toyota says that the Tundra will have an all-new chassis that is larger, stronger and more rigid than that of its T100.
A comfortable ride. According to Toyota spokesperson Joe Tetherow, the Tundra will have "a great suspension for a more car-like ride."
Buyers can choose a two-door regular cab with an 8-ft. bed or a four-door access cab with a 61/2-ft. bed. The pickup will have an overall length of 2171/2 in. and will be about 75 in. wide, with a wheelbase of about 128 in.
The access cab features a large entry area. According to Toyota, the Tundra will be the only four-door pickup to have an exterior handle on each door, providing easier operation from the outside than the doorjamb mechanism commonly used for rear doors.
Tundra can be ordered with either a 60/40 split-bench front seat or dual-controlled captain's chairs. Standard features will include two 12v power outlets, driver-and passenger-side air bags with a passenger air bag cutoff switch, sun visors with pullout extensions, solar energy-absorbing glass and an all-new sound system.
Born in the USA. The pickup will arrive in dealerships in the United States and Canada in early June of this year and will be announced as a model-year 2000 truck. It is being built exclusively at Toyota's new $1.2 billion facility near Princeton, IN. The 2-million-sq.-ft. plant has the capacity to produce 100,000 pickups/yr., and it eventually will employ approximately 2,300 people.Toyota will also produce a new full-size sport utility vehicle, based on the Tundra, at the new plant. The new SUV won't be introduced until 2001.
Price of the Tundra has not yet been determined, but Tetherow claims that "it will be very competitive with the price of other trucks in Tundra's category." For more information, contact Toyota Motor Sales, Dept. FIN, 19001 S. Western Ave., Torrance, CA 90509, 800/468-69682.


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Naruto Shippuden: Legends: Akatsuki Rising is an adventure game. The game was developed and published by Namco Bandai games.
The first 3D action adventure game based on the Naruto Shippuden series comes to the handheld console.
Mature, faster and stronger ninja come alive as you give them the strategy, power and skill to battle off the fierce Akatsuki ninja while in lush environments.
With multiple modes and streamlined controls, experience the next installment of the Naruto Shippuden game series and watch a new and exciting chapter unfold.


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Photo tour: New England children's museums
Photo tour: New England children's museums
THE DISCOVERY MUSEUMS Children can view themselves in infrared to learn about clothing and body-heat insulation and how it relates to energy-saving at home. 177 Main St. (Route 27), Acton. Science museum: Tue-Fri 1-4:30 p.m., Sat-Sun 10 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Children's museum: Tue-Sun 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Free-$10.50. 978-264-4200, www.discoverymuseums.org
BOSTON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM Hands-on exhibits engage children in the world around them, from environmental issues to a construction site. Through January, visit Building Brainstorm in the Global Gallery, featuring exhibits about architecture and design. 308 Congress St., Boston. Sat-Thu 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Fri 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Free-$12. 617-426-6500, www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org
HARVARD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Get up close and personal with one of the world's only mounted Kronosauruses, a marine reptile stretching 42 feet. Daily 9 a.m.-5 p.m. $6-$9. 26 Oxford St., Cambridge. 617-495-3045, www.hmnh.harvard.edu
CAPE COD CHILDREN'S MUSEUM A current exhibit teaches about Bernoulli's Method of finding roots in mathematics. Tue-Thu 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Fri-Sat 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun noon-5 p.m. Free-$7. 577 Great Neck Road South, Mashpee. 508-539-8788, www.capecodchildrensmuseum.org
THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM IN EASTON Equipped with a rocket ship and command center, one of the exhibits allows children to seem to blast into space and receive a commemorative badge. Tue-Fri 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat-Sun noon-5 p.m. Free-$7. 9 Sullivan Ave., North Easton. 508-230-3789, www.childrensmuseumineaston.org
PAUL REVERE HOUSE Children can try on traditional clothing from the Revere family, with staff assistance. Beginning Nov. 1, daily 9:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m. $1-$3.50 19 North Square, Boston. 617-523-2338, www.paulreverehouse.org
USS CONSTITUTION MUSEUM Lay the deck and add the planking yourself as you construct a miniature USS Constitution. Beginning Nov. 1, daily 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Free. Building 22, Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston. 617-426-1812, www.ussconstitutionmuseum.org
HIGGINS ARMORY MUSEUM The Castle Quest interactive gallery is where you can try your hand in a virtual joust. Jousting weapons are displayed, as are many historical armaments and outfits. Tue-Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sun noon-4 p.m. Free-$10. 100 Barber Ave., Worcester. 508-853-6015, www.higgins.org
FULLER CRAFT MUSEUM Two whimsical creations by Leo Sewell, an artist who works with found objects ranging from tennis rackets to plastic toys, are on display: "Duck'' and "The Seated Lady.'' 455 Oak St., Brockton. Tue-Sun 9 a.m.- 5 p.m., Wed 5-9 p.m. Free-$8. 508-588-6000, www.fullercraft.org
CONNECTICUT CHILDREN'S MUSEUMThe words of the beloved classic "Goodnight Moon'' fill large magnets, in different languages and Braille, so children can assemble them across a large magnetic wall. Fri-Sat noon-5 p.m. $7.50. 22 Wall St., New Haven. 203-562-5437, www.childrensbuilding.org
IMAGINE NATION MUSEUMA newly renovated Greenscape offers an interactive exhibit featuring live animals and exotic plants in a Southwestern habitat. Children can even throw on a pair of cowboy boots and ride on a saddle. Wed-Fri 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun noon-5 p.m. Free-$7. One Pleasant St., Bristol, Conn. 860-314-1400, www.imaginenation.org
MAPLE GROVE FARMS OF VERMONTLearn about how farmers used to gather sap and boil it down and about modern sugaring in the Sugar House Museum. Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat-Sun 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Free. 1052 Portland St., St. Johnsbury, Vt. 802-748-5141, www.maplegrove.com
THE MAINE DISCOVERY MUSEUM Kids can play at Messy Art, a program allowing them to build artistic skills while they design with sparkle, puffy, day-glow, scented, and washable paints. Tue-Sat 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun noon- 5 p.m. $7.50. 74 Main St., Bangor. 207-262-7200, www.mainediscoverymuseum.org
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM AND THEATRE OF MAINE Visit "What About Whales?'' an exhibit in which Istar, a life-size inflatable whale, is lowered so that you can climb inside and learn all about how the mammal functions in her natural environment. Tue-Sat 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun noon-5 p.m. Free-$9. 142 Free St., Portland, Maine. 207-828-1234, www.kitetails.org
THE COASTAL CHILDREN'S MUSEUMKids and parents are encouraged to visit together, seeing various interactive exhibits while learning about the natural world around them. Wed-Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sun 1-4 p.m. $5. Sharp's Point South, 75 Mechanic St., Rockland, Maine. 207-596-0300, www.coastalchildrensmuseum.org
PROVIDENCE CHILDREN'S MUSEUMIn "Water Ways,'' children explore fluid dynamics - how water moves - by watching it, touching it, and redirecting it. They can tumble boats and balls down the waterfall, build mazes to channel the flow, and construct fountain systems. Tue-Sun 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Free-$8.50. 100 South St., Providence. 401-273-5437, www.childrenmuseum.org
THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF NEW HAMPSHIRE Play paleontologist for the day in the Dinosaur Dig with your own goggles as you unearth Triceratops fossil replicas and compare them with other dinosaur fossils. Tue-Sat 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun noon-5 p.m. Free-$9. 6 Washington St., Dover, N.H. 603-742-2002, www.childrens-museum.org


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Rise in women seeking 'designer vagina'
DOCTORS and women's groups are concerned at the increasing number girls and women - some as young as 12 - requesting cosmetic genital surgery.
One Melbourne gynaecologist said the social pressure on women to be ''normal'' started early, with school-aged girls often coming in with their mothers seeking help.
Dr Sonia Grover said young girls were concerned with looking different and often requested labiaplasties, a procedure to change the size and shape of the external coverings of the vagina. ''These requests come from lack of understanding of what is considered normal and this found across all ages groups of both men and women,'' she said.
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists vice president Ajay Rane said the trend was informed by a culture based on being physically perfect.
''The promotion of the 'designer vagina' and other genital myths often pressure the most vulnerable in our community to seek unnecessary surgery,'' Professor Rane said.
''It is greatly concerning that more of these women are seeking to alter their genitals for purely cosmetic reasons.''
According to Medicare, the number of Australian women seeking genital surgery has more than doubled in a decade. To help combat this problem Women's Health Victoria will launch an education campaign in the new year urging women to make informed decisions.
In a presentation to the First National Sexual and Reproductive Health Conference in Melbourne on Tuesday, Women's Health Victoria executive director Rita Butera argued that media images of altered female genitalia were causing some women to have unrealistic ideals of what is normal.
''There is this cultural ideal that a woman's vagina needs to be small, neat, discreet and tucked away.'' Ms Butera said. ''But in reality there is a natural diversity in female genitalia which we wish to make women more aware of.''
According to figures from Medicare, the number of women undergoing vulvoplasty or labiaplasty in Australia has increased from 640 women in 2001 to more than 1500 women in 2011 - an increase of 140 per cent.
This significant jump in the number of women seeking these procedures, which peaks in those aged from 35 to 44, may not reflect the whole picture as many seek genital cosmetic surgery through the private health system.
While surgery may be necessary for clinical conditions, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists strongly discourages cosmetic procedures due to their inherent risks.
''The labia, vulva and clitoris are highly sensitive organs and any form of surgery in this area runs a high risk of hemorrhage, disfigurement, infection, scarring or an inability to have satisfactory sexual intercourse,'' Professor Rane said.
''This along with the potential for gross psychological trauma after the surgery means no surgery should be done without an enormous amount of counselling.''


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Award-winning design studio ODM Watches (Original, Dynamic and Minimalist) radically re-imagines the watch face by moving buttons to the center and positioning dual displays on the top and bottom of the case's sides, lending a bold new look along with better functionality. The reconfigured design makes a big improvement on tiny side-mounted buttons that are tough to use, and the two displays make it easier to read the time from any angle—even while driving.
Made from matte plastic in white, red, lime green or black, the water-resistant timepieces are a limited edition and feature UK designer Michael Young's signature engraved (along with a serial number) on the back.
The O.D.M. Reverse makes an affordably on-trend accessory choice for a playful Spring look.
ODM Reverse Digital Red
Red illumination
Red illumination
The other Reverse collection from Young features a domed mystery dial watch with hands exposed only on the sides of the watch and a light activated by just tapping the top of the dome! Available here--> ODM REVERSE MYSTERY DIAL COLLECTION.
And finally, very unusual and stylish new models created by designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac for the ODM "JCDC" UFO Bloc collection. It's a colorful collection of watches - 4 red yellow blue green color portholed digital displays light up one by one with sound!
See the entire ODM Bloc collection--> ODM BLOC COLLECTION.
| Watchismo Shop | Watchismo Blog | Contact Us | Facebook |


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Weekly Game Balls: Week 12
Some say we shouldn't celebrate the Cowboys winning ways just yet. Some people think its too soon to start playing playoff parties. Personally, I don't really care. I am proud of the Cowboys and despite their past December history, I believe we are headed to the playoffs. Their destiny lies in their own hands, and here are a couple of guys who helped earn the victory this past week.
Austin is currently leading the team in touchdowns and receiving yards. His 824 receiving yards puts him 13th in the league. He is well on his way to a 1000+ yard season.
On Thanksgiving, Miles totaled 145 yards on 7 receptions and one touchdown.
Lets hope he can keep it up through the rough month of December!
Go "Smiles"!
This week's defensive/special teams game ball goes to Anthony Spencer.
Spencer has come very close to getting a game ball several times already this season, but his outstanding performance on Thanksgiving day left him standing tall above the rest.
Spencer had 6 tackles, 2 assists and 2 sacks. The Raiders game plan had them double-teaming DeMarcus Ware leaving Spencer room to roam and attack.
Keep on sackin' Spencer!
Way to go to Austin and Spencer!
Honorable Mention: Jason Witten (5 receptions, 107 yards), Felix Jones (7 carries, 68 yards, 1 TD), Keith Brooking (6 tackles, 3 assists)


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How freaking dare you put Sexy Chino and Bo..bo...Cooper...bo bo bo Cooper...on the same level as Aj! But, in all seriousness, maybe 90% is a little high since all those guys fall into that. I'm just saying he's not the super dooper rocking I want to see him every month kind of guy any more. If I was PWG though, I'd fly him in every chance I get, he draws.SoCalAndy wrote:Yeah dude. AJ Styles isn't on the level of Comedian Killer, Sexy Sonny Samson, The Young Bucks, XTREME LOCO, Sexy Chino, Crayz, and Bo Cooper with a broken hip.
I'm going to go pop in my Best of Aj in NWA Wildside now, I need my weekly fix of Air Paris/Aj Styles/Onix(whatever happened to that guy?)
PS: Remember that time Comedian Killer was at PWG? He looked so out of place.


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For people who don't want any government interference, the family that owns Walmart certainly relies pretty heavily on the feds.
About 80 percent of the people who work for Walmart are eligible for food stamps. All told, these hard-working people get $1 billion in government assistance, and the Walton family walks away with billions in profits.
Walmart employees make an average of $8.81 an hour, according to IBISWorld, an independent market research group. In most parts of the country, living wage is almost double that. A living wage is what it takes to pay rent on modest living space, buy groceries, own a car and pay utilities. There is no cable TV calculated into living wage, no meals out, no evenings at the movies, no smart phone with unlimited data.
This wage adds up to annual pay of $15,576, based upon Walmart's full-time status of 34 hours per week. That wage, if you're a single parent with three kids, is well below the federal poverty level of about $22,000 for a family of four.
Walmart employs 1 percent of the US population, but its payroll doesn't come close to 1 percent of total wages paid in the country.
According to a paper by the Center for Labor Research and Education at University of California Berkeley, if Walmart started paying a $12 per hour, its workers who now make less than $9 per hour could each earn $3,250 to $6,500 more per year before taxes. If Walmart were to pass this cost directly to shoppers, the average consumer would need to pay only 46 cents more per shopping trip, or $12.50 per year.
Last week, Walmart announced that it would stop offering health insurance to new employees who work less than 30 hours per week. And you can bet most new employees will work less than 30 hours per week.
The company cited the costs of the Affordable Care Act, even though the law isn't fully implemented for another year.
It's just another excuse to screw the workers and keep them in poverty.
Walmart can afford to pay a better wage and more benefits. Compare it to Costco, where the average employee earns about $17 an hour and has health coverage. No, the CEO won't be able to make more than 1,200 times what the average employee makes. Big deal.
A living wage would allow people the dignity of making their own decisions about their spending instead of having to rely on the government agencies that subsidize their food, rent and health care costs.
Walmart typically goes into markets and undercuts the prices of local merchants, driving many of them out of business. It keeps wages low, and with few other options for retail jobs in many communities, its employees have to stay on.
Sure the prices at Walmart are low — they're subsidized by all of us taxpayers.


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The prospect of the end coming so soon got me to thinking about what I've done with my life. My list of major accomplishments include: serving the Lord through this blogging ministry; shooting a man in Reno; seeing my Frito pie recipe published in a book; and making love to both Phyllis Schlafly and her pony. What more could a patriot want out of life?
Still there's one thing I haven't done: I haven't had a homosexual experience. Sure, I'm a veteran of many Spartan style wrestling matches and God's cursed me with more than my share of public restroom and locker room little-soldier-in-my-mouth accidents, but they aren't quite what I'd consider to be a genuine homosexual experience. I want that.
And I want to share that experience with someone like me, a warm, but rugged and, perhaps, clumsy patriot, someone like Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX). Unfortunately, he hasn't responded to my tweet inviting him to have a homosexual experience with me. I'm getting a little worried about it, because we need to get it done early, before the world ends, so I can go to Seattle to seek redemption and God's forgiveness from that guy who spanks men for money.
That's where you can help me. Tweet Rep. Gohmert, and plead with him to spend his final few hours on Earth engaging in a variety of homosexual acts with me. And hey, I'll need to give him something, you know, one of those presents you give on a date, something like a cactus or a box of 5.56mm NATO ammunition so if you have a few extra bucks, please hit the PayPal link above this post.


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Just doing some house cleaning here in this forum and wanted to repost this as an FYI for everyone new who might not be aware of how the game day forum works.
Please keep all threads/posts in this forum on topic. This forum is here to discuss games before, during and after they have been played. Mainly though to talk about the game, LIVE as it happens. This forum gets pretty rowdy and crazy on gameday so bring your Steeler pride and join us!


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cfnerd needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 61 designs submitted by 16 freelance designers.
I want a creative, nerd themed logo to use to brand my new site. I am open to color choices and designs.
Movie Nerd - http://movienerd.net/
I watch so many movies that I decided to create a website and just blog my movie reviews. If I am investing as much time as I am watching movies, I might as well spend a little bit more time and blog about the movie I just watched.
I bought a domain and put up a WordPress site. Now I need to get a logo to brand the site. I am open on colors. I like Greens and Blues, but I am open to anything creative. I see a character/cartoon type logo. Professional, but a nerd character doing something movie related. Open on font ideas, too. But, the logo needs to be flexible.
- Character type logo
- Flexible
- Pinks or Purples
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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I'm Dr. Mike Sartorius... a Clarkston personal trainer and weight loss expert.
Look, if you are unsatisfied with your current body and health, and have come to the realization that it is time to do something about it. Then you found the right place.
LOL... Okay, I am lying, I don't own a Ferrari, but if I did you would get that too.
Are you wondering how I can make such a bold guarantee?
For one I know exactly what it is like to be someone who is overweight. I use to have the same struggles and inner self conflicts with my appearance that got in the way of my own fitness success just like you... But I found a way to get control of my health and I want to teach you the same tactics that I learned in 5 very long miserable years, that you can learn in only months...
Are you skeptical about what I have to offer?
Don't worry; there are no trainers that work here who feel your time is their time to bore you with their own personal lives;
OR, to hold a clipboard and read from a generic routine,
EVEN BETTER, admire themselves in the mirror when they should be concerned with your form.
I am always on the lookout to tone, sculpt and melt unwanted pounds of your waistline.
AT VIP Fitness,
WE do not mess around... OUR GOAL is to get you fit with CUTTING EDGE workouts that have been proven by science to make you lose fat and get toned as FAST and as SAFELY as possible.
If you're like most people who want to lose fat and get into shape you probably feel like you don't have the time or motivation to get to your fitness goals on your own... I completely understand... hey I'm super busy too... Trust me, if you noticed that in my before picture I was there too...
Anyway, here's what I've done to make this all possible for you...
I've created highly effective 30 to 60 minute workout routines...
The workouts are short, fast-paced and fun and they'll have you looking better and feeling better in no time.
You'll Be Shaping Up in Less Time than It Takes to Watch Your Favorite TV Program
We know not everyone is the same, so our fitness and fat loss solutions are specific to YOUR goals, YOUR body type and YOUR life.
Here's what you get with our Rapid Results Program:
Weekly Personal Training Sessions - You'll receive trainer-supervised workouts on a weekly basis that'll constantly drive you towards your ideal body as FAST as possible. (In week two of your training we're going to put you on an exercise that's gonna fire up every single muscle in your body so you can start seeing toned muscle all over within just a few weeks.)
Motivation - Your trainer will motivate you every single time you come in for a workout so reaching your fitness goals will be EASY (Without this external motivation, it is EXTREMELY difficult for most people to get into shape.)
Guidance - During your workouts we'll practically guide you by the hand through the entire process (All you have to do is show up and you get one of the most fat-melting and muscle-toning workouts available anywhere, practically on auto-pilot.)
Instruction - We will show you EXACTLY how to do every exercise SAFE and correctly (you won't be one of the countless people wasting their time using ineffective and dangerous exercise form.)
Support - We will give you mental, physical and emotional support which is CRUCIAL in making consistent progress (When most people start an exercise program on their own they quit within 60 days... we're here to make sure this DOESN'T happen to YOU.)
Accountability - We'll MAKE SURE you show up to your workouts, which makes getting into shape practically inevitable (Getting to the gym is half the battle.)
Nutritional Instruction - You'll discover which foods to eat and which foods to stay away from like a mugger in a dark alley (It's probably NOT the foods you think...in fact, if you're like most people, you probably had one of these "foods to avoid at all costs" within the last 19 hours without even knowing it.)
Fun Workouts - If you don't enjoy something you probably won't stick with it... so we make SURE you have a damn good time during your workouts (You're actually gonna LOOK FORWARD to working out for once!)
Push you when you need it - Let face it, everybody has days where they're not feeling 100%, even the best of us. That's why we're here to lift you up, cheer you on and give you a kick in the BUTT when you need it. (We're here to make sure you ALWAYS rise to the occasion and maximize every single workout... this just isn't possible without a trainer.)
P.S. - Remember, we fuse cutting edge science with "old-school" hardcore exercise techniques that are fun and deliver unsurpassable results for people with "average" or "less than average" genetics. When it comes to being out of shape, I've been there, so we take a radically more effective approach than the "can't relate" trainers who've ALWAYS been in good shape and think that what works for them must work for everyone.
P.P.S - We'll tone up your entire body. As you can see from all the success stories we've helped countless people get the body they want and can do the same for you. Once you start training with us you're going to be absolutely hooked... in fact, you may never want to go home. Call your friends and family and tell them about the strange "workout cult" you've joined.
P.P.P.S. - What you need to do right now is call (248) 232-8914 and apply for a trial workout. We'll spend a few minutes on the phone with you to see if you're a good fit for what we do. There is absolutely NO COST, NO RISK and NO OBLIGATION on your part to start the program... if you don't like the trial workout, you never pay a dime... guaranteed. But remember, because of all the remarkable results we've been getting for our clients the demand for our services has grown so high that we only have 7 slots left before our prices go up, and those spots are gonna fill up quickly... so be sure to call right now.
(Sometimes we're all busy training clients and we have to let our receptionist answer the call, if this happens what she'll do is schedule a short phone appointment for you with one of our fitness experts, it's that easy.)


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NTAP Pty Ltd
Contact Details
6-7/55 Pruen Road
Berrimah NT 0828
+61 8 8984 4585
+61 8 8984 3794
Company Profile
NTAP is a specialist manufacturer, fabricator and installer of piping and thermoplastic solutions to the Northern Australian region. NTAP provides the complete life-cycle approach to servicing it's customers; from the design through to the manufacture/ fabrication, supply and installation of thermoplastic products and materials and iH2O pre-insulated mechanical piping, including pre-insulated fittings, for chilled water applications. NTAP is certified to the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Assurance Standard and is the manufacturer of iH2O Pre-Insulated pipe and Pre-Insulated fittings, offering a JIT stock system. NTAP is one of the largest stockists of rigid plastic sheet (including CTS and CNC Routed shapes), engineering plastics, HDPE pipe, HDPE pipe fittings and valves, Victaulic Pipe Joining solutions and Geomembrane HDPE liner. NTAP employs 25 full time staff and has expanded its operations to now occupy 2500m2 of office, workshops and warehouse facilities in Berrimah, NT.
Products and Services
Supply and installation of a range of thermoplastic lining solutions
Manufacture and installation of iH2O Pre-insulated pipe
HDPE Fabrication such as Tanks,Launders, Pipe spooling,pontoons
UHMW-PE & Fender solutions
Rigid plastic sheets


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Code: LP-MD-E-VINE
Brand: Leonie Pujol
- Product Details
The Entwined Dies range from Leonie Pujol is a fabulous concept where crafters can mix different dies from the same 'family' together to produce beautiful results. For each style there is a base die that you can either use on its own or combined with any of the overlay dies from the set. You simply wrap the overlay die around the base die to create the entwined effect. Mix and match colours, textures and materials for gorgeous results with real depth.
- Delivery & Returns
Shipping costs will vary according to the value of your order. If you're from the UK, you will pay no more than £3.95. However, if your order value exceeds £20 then standard delivery is FREE!
You can upgrade to a courier delivery should you wish. Click here for the full shipping information. If you are not happy with your purchase and wish to return an item or items, please click here to see our full returns policy. Please note, we cannot refund or exchange digital purchases.
If you are a Loyalty Club Member, priority dispatch and shipping discounts are available. Click here to join our Loyalty Club - it's absolutely FREE and there are loads of other exciting benefits for members!!


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The Step-By-Step Scoop
Sure, you can build any engine to produce big power, but when you opt for smaller cubes, you have to work so much harder to do the job. Bolting on a blower, a turbo, or nitrous will make your small small-block really hustle, but if you want to pound out power without power adders, big cubes are the way to go.
Recently we wanted to undertake a hefty project: Build a bulletproof, big-cube small-block Chevy that would spit out 600 hp while sipping pump gasoline. No, we're not talking that 100-octane pump stuff, we're talking the 92-octane juice that you can buy at your local Mi-T-Mart gas station. Moreover, the engine had to be tough enough to be driven on the streets without breaking, backfiring, or belching coolant at every stoplight. True, such an engine isn't intended for cross-country long hauls, but it should be able to be regularly punished each weekend.
Building this mill obviously involves using top-quality parts that will likely bruise your wallet, but even so, we'll use parts that an average schmoe can get from a mail-order outfit or from a local speed shop. We skipped using 18-degree cylinder heads, rods made from unobtainium, and handfabbed induction parts borrowed from a Winston Cup car. Rather, we opted for traditional wares, such as 23-degree aluminum heads, steel rods, and a lumpy roller cam. Did the parts team up to deliver the tons o' torque? Well, ummm, maybe. OK, here's the deal: We're lame. We thrashed to get this story done and, at the last minute, ran out of time to finish the dyno test. Still, we're confident that the 600-hp-on-pump-gas claim is realistic, and as a guarantee, if the engine barely squeaks out 500 hp, we'll eat the story. That's right, we might have to enjoy a lunch consisting of five pages' worth of engine edit. But for now follow along as we show how E.T. Automotive bolted together our mighty Mouse.


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It turns out this presidential election wasn't so much about race after all, but about something bigger, more fundamental and harder to ignore. And there's a lesson here for shellshocked Republicans, still wondering how things went so wrong:
It's time to drop that "Take our country back" stuff and take your party back instead.
Barack Obama's romp took many by surprise. Even as Obama votes piled up on Tuesday night, political operative Dick Morris, who has worked both sides of the aisle, kept predicting a Mitt Romney landslide.
It's hard to argue with the demographic dimensions of Obama's victory. He won in almost every category of voters except senior citizens and white men.
That's led to lots of head-banging for GOP pundits: Romney might have won, they say, if he had eased up on illegal immigration and found a running mate who could attract Latinos or draw votes in swing states.


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The usual injury report could wait this week. Instead, New York Jets coach Rex Ryan started his Friday news conference by aggressively addressing the New York Daily News report that he wanted out of New York if offensive changes aren't made to his staff.
Rex called the report "garbage" and "untrue."
"This is the only team that I want to coach. Period," Ryan said. "Anybody that knows me knows that I'm telling you the truth."
Ryan called out the Daily News' reporting and repeatedly made the same point about his future.
"I'm proud to be a Jet," Ryan said. "Sometimes I'm proud to be a Jet more than others. This season has been a rough one. But this is my team. I want to be the Jets' head coach for the next 15 years. This is the job I've always wanted, and that's it."
Ryan said he never would put an ultimatum on Jets owner Woody Johnson regarding terms of his future employment. Ryan said he spoke with Johnson the moment he saw the story.
"I was disappointed and mad as a hornet," Ryan said. And later: "I spoke to the reporter, and he elected not to put my response in."
Either Ryan put together an acting performance worthy of an Oscar on Friday or he doesn't want to be coaching anywhere else. That doesn't mean Ryan isn't planning to make the offensive changes mentioned in the report.
Asked to address offensive coordinator Tony Sparano's future, Ryan deflected the question. Ryan said he hadn't spoken to Sparano about the issue, although he did address the team as a whole.
The drama is just starting in New York heading into the offseason, but Ryan should be the one leading this circus once again.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.


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Who's Your Monkey?
Bobby Stork, a beer guzzling widower, runs into his old friend Mark Van Houten, an out of work doctor who has resorted to making crystal meth to pay the bills. Bobby discusses Mark's problem with their mutual friends Laith Rukkab, an uptight guy who's packed on a few pounds but somehow lucked into landing a pretty girlfriend and Hutto, a soon-to-be father and the most together out of the four. The friends decide to give Mark the throwing stars they played with as kids to bring him back to reality. Laith is outraged when he finds out Mark has been selling crystal meth to Reed, a drug dealer involved in animal porn. On their way to drop off the throwing stars at Mark's house, Laith and Bobby pass by Reed's car, filled to the brim with his "actors." Laith frees the animals, but loses a throwing star in the process. The break-in and loss of his animals sends Reed into a fit of rage. Upon arriving at Mark's house, Reed sees a throwing star at and thinks that he's found the person who broke into his car and turns violent. In an act of both desperation and self-defense Mark kills Reed with a throwing star. Bobby, Laith and Hutto come to Mark's rescue and the group's childhood friendship is rekindled. After numerous road blocks, the foursome eventually finds a way to dispose of the body and in the process each man learns something about himself.
Scott Grimes, Jason London, Scott Michael Campbell, David DeLuise, Kevin Durand, Siena Goines, Ali Hillis, Wayne Knight, Pippi, Kimberly McVicar
Todd Breau, Thomas Fink, Hall Risk, Randolf L. Turrow, Warren Skeels, Brenda Kolb, Ali Hillis


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Up to 45% OFF Everything Sitewide! Ends Feb 25.
Bali Essentials 2" Privacy Faux Wood BlindsON SALE
Average Rating:
Change Sizes to Update Price
$40.07 - $45.79
$59.80 -
$68.34 (
Off )
PRESIDENT'S DAY SAVINGS EVENT! Up to 40% off Bali blinds and shades. Sale ends Feb 25.
Free Shipping & Delivery: Typically made in 5 Working Days
PerfectFit™ Guarantee - Learn More
Available Colors & Samples
+ Add Free Sample
Wood Grains
+ Add Free Sample
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Options & Upgrades
Description & FeaturesFor a more economic alternative, the Bali 2" Essentials Privacy Faux Wood blinds offer a simple choice when making a decision for your desired faux wood look. These blinds come standard with the NoHoles option by Bali to improve privacy and light control as well as a 2 1/2" Bali standard valance.
- Great for high moisture areas such as bathrooms with slats that are guaranteed not to warp, crack, or sag!
- Includes a standard 2 1/2" Bali valance or upgrade to a 3 1/2" decorative valance.
- Noholes routless slats are standard and provide tighter slat closer and greater light control.
- Steel headrail and box brackets provide superior durability.
- New printed woodgrain slats for look of real wood.
- Backed by Bali Limited-Lifetime Warranty.
Detailed Specifications
The following information insures a proper fit for installation of your new window covering treatments. Mounting requirements below are for standard options. Mounting requirements may vary based on the selected options.
Specifications may vary based on the selected color and upgrades.
The following methods can be safely used to clean your new window covering treatments.
|Inside Mount Minimum Depth
|1 3/4 "
|Outside Mount Flat Surface Height
|1 1/2 "
|Inside Flush Mount Minimum Depth
|2 1/4 "
|Inside Mount Width Deductions
|1/2 "
|Standard Controls
|Minimum Width
|13 "
|Minimum Height
|18 "
|Maximum Width
|71 1/2 "
|Maximum Height
|78 "
|Hand-Held Vacuuming
|Compressed Air
|Bath tub Cleaning/Water Immersion
|Ultrasonic Cleaning
|Injection/Extraction Cleaning
Measure & Installation
Measuring Tips
- All of Blindsaver.com's window fashions are custom fabricated according to the dimensions given on your order.
- Measurements must be exact to ensure a proper fit. For this reason measure to the nearest 1/8".
- Always measure the exact window intended for the blind. Every window in your home is a unique opening and may differ in exact measurements.
- For accurate measurements always use a 3/4" or 1" steel tape measure.
- To eliminate mistakes first measure the width and write it down then measure the height and write it down.
- Do not take any deductions for mounting clearance on inside mounts. Deductions will be taken by the manufacturers at the factory.
- Please read the rest of our measuring guides and download our measuring worksheet. Links can be found below.
Inside Mount Video
Outside Mount Video
Printable Measuring Guides and WorksheetInside Mount + Worksheet
Outside Mount + Worksheet
Worksheet Only


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Glenn Studebaker's telephone has been ringing off the hook in recent weeks. Most of the calls to the University of Arkansas entomologist have been about an infestation of corn leaf aphids on newly emerged corn.
"This is the first time in a long time we've seen such high numbers of corn leaf aphids in early corn. They have been prevalent across the whole Delta of eastern Arkansas. We've seen huge numbers in some fields," said Studebaker, who is with the Cooperative Extension Service. He's stationed at the Northeast Research and Extension Center in Mississippi County.
"I've looked at some fields that have newly emerged corn, and they don't seem to have the aphid problem. It seems to be the earlier-planted crop that had the problem. The aphids were mostly in no-till fields that had a lot of grass, and I'm thinking they moved off the grass after farmers applied herbicides and the grass began dying."
Jeremy Ross, coordinator of Extension's corn verification program, estimated the size of the Arkansas corn crop at 350,000 to 400,000 acres.
"A few weeks ago," he said, "the corn was only 1 to 1.5 inches, and aphids were covering the plants in some areas of the state."
Studebaker said the problem looked much worse than it was. Corn leaf aphids aren't known to cause too many problems in corn even in high numbers. As a result, no threshold level has been established for treating corn leaf aphids in early corn, he said.
"I've been telling farmers not to treat if the plants aren't losing leaves or plants aren't dying from heavy aphid populations."
He said a few weeks ago, early-planted corn wasn't growing well and the plants were yellowish. Farmers were concerned that the crop was in danger from the huge number of aphids present. However, Studebaker believes cold night temperatures were stressing the crop causing the yellowing problem.
"I didn't see any fields I would recommend spraying. The farmers I got to hold off spraying were happy the next week when it turned warmer and the corn began taking off and growing."
Ross said favorable rain and warmer temperatures will help the crop outgrow aphids.
Despite the lack of problems posed by corn leaf aphids, Studebaker noted that the insect isn't always innocuous. He said they feed on plants and can kill them if the plants are drought-stressed. The insect is also believed to help spread viruses.
Meanwhile, Ross said, corn farmers need to apply post-emergence herbicides to the crop within the next couple of weeks. He said it's especially important to make the applications because recent rains will spur weeds to sprout.
Also, over the next couple of weeks, farmers need to apply side-dress nitrogen when the crop has reached the five-leaf stage.
As soon as these operations have been completed, Ross said, farmers need to lay their irrigation tubing and make sure their wells are operational.
Lamar James is an Extension communications specialist with the University of Arkansas.