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5 Mexican Cocktail Recipes from La Condesa in Austin, Texas
When I think of Mexican cocktails, my mind inevitably zeroes in on tequila and mezcal in standard combinations. It'd be nice to see more variety out there, but that's not always easy to find. Downtown Austin's La Condesa breaks the mold, though, with modern Mexican food paired with a truly inventive cocktail program. "We use fresh ingredients and techniques from the kitchen to develop layered flavors in the glass," explained bar manager Nate Wales. He works closely with chef and owner Rene Ortiz and pastry chef Laura Sawicki (one of Food & Wine's best new pastry chefs) to create concoctions that complement their vibrant dishes.
Freshness is the key here. "It looks like a big juice bar in here before service," described Wales as he pointed to their baskets full of fruit. The team makes infusions, bitters, and salts in house to "create the flavors we're looking for rather than buying commercially produced versions." The tequila program is 100% blue agave only and their mezcal collection showcases rare single village spirits.
Drawing inspiration from his travels and La Condesa's food menu, Wales incorporates lesser known ingredients into the drinks. For an added no sé qué in the Perrito de Sal, he replaces tequila with sotol, a subtly floral, grassy-smelling spirit made from wild agavacea.
While backpacking through Spain, Wales learned to mix red wine and cola for a quick, sweet buzz. Back at home, he reduced this makeshift sangria into a syrup to make the Calimocho Manhattan.
The most impressive (and labor intensive ingredient) is his housemade tepache, an ancient Mayan concoction made by fermenting fresh pineapple juice and ginger, with a perky and slightly funky flavor not unlike kombucha. He first tried it in gelée form on La Condesa's ceviche, but now incorporates it into a spicy margarita.
Check out the slideshow for five of Condesa's signature drinks, along with tips and recipes for mixing them up at home. While Wales simplified the recipes slightly for your home bar, expect to put a little work into creating some housemade ingredients. After all, that's part of the fun.
La Condesa
400 West 2nd Street, Austin, TX 78701 (map) 512-499-0300; lacondesa.com/austin
Go Straight to the Recipes
Alma Blanca »
Calimocho Manhattan »
Perrito de Sal »
Tepache Margarita »
Ahumado Seco »
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Canadian mother Anne Belanger was crestfallen when she saw her 7-year-old son's class photo.
Miles Ambridge sits in his wheelchair, pushed far off to the side of his 22 second-grade classmates at Herbert Spencer Elementary in New Westminster, B.C. With a huge smile lighting up his face, Ambridge leans toward his peers, trying to be a part of the group.
"Look at the angle that he was in," Ambridge's mother told Yahoo News. "He's ostracized. He wants to be part of the gang so much."
Belanger doesn't blame the school for what she sees as an act of discrimination. Instead she thinks the photography company Lifetouch Canada and their staff who positioned the children are at fault. She recognizes that her son's placement wasn't intentional or an act of malice, but she thinks the photographers made an egregious mistake. The Westminster mom was driven to speak up and filed complaints with the company and spoke with local press.
"I'm not on a warpath," Belanger told the Westminster Province. "I just want to bring awareness that this was not acceptable.
"Kids can be cruel but this comes from adults, which is even worse," she added. "Adults should know better."
The image has since gone viral and news sites across the globe have covered the story.
Ambridge was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) at 13 months and ever since he has required help with moving around. SMA is a genetic disease that attacks nerve cells in the spinal cord, leading to a weakening of the muscles. Belanger and her husband Don Ambridge say their son has been nothing but a trooper and is a remarkably happy child.
"For some reason it makes me feel even worse that he's so happy in the picture," Don Ambridge told the Province. "I think it's because he's still innocent . . . He's still naive to how other people can treat him."
Lifetouch qresponded to Belanger's complaints, apologizing to the family and retaking the class photo.
Reactions to the situation have been mixed. While Belanger says she has received messages of sympathy from people all over the world, some commenters on news sites have said the parents are overreacting.
"I am very sorry yet I think the mother is over reacting . . . " Sharon wrote on the Yahoo News site. "The child looks very happy..and that is what really counts."
"That's the spirit Miles!!!" Julena chimed in on Yahoo. "Photographer made a mistake, but mistakes happen. In my opinion, mum made a mistake, too. Miles wanted this picture, he posed for it with his most adorable smile, no matter he was secluded, and she still returned it. Her heart was broken, not his. If your kid is stronger than you and doesn't care about such incidents don't bother him/her with your personal pain and anger. If he is not hurt, don't remind him that he should be hurt by such incidents, because eventually you will convince him, and very soon the happiest kid in the world will turn into a depressive pessimist. Learn from Miles."
No matter, I think the photography companies that take class photos will learn from this situation and in the future I'm sure they'll take more care when they're photographing a class with a student in a wheelchair.

subset: commoncrawl


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Rare-earth selective emitters for high efficiency TPV systems
Rare-earth selective emitters for high efficiency TPV systems address the major limiting factor for the efficiency of TPV cells: the broad emission spectrum from the heat source. Photons with energy smaller than the band gap of semiconductor PV materials cannot be absorbed, while for those with energy much greater than the band gap the excess energy is lost to heat instead of generating electricity. Although there is nothing we can do to change the solar spectrum, for thermal sources of TPV systems we may engineer the thermal emission spectrum by using certain coatings called "selective emitters." Using this approach, the broad blackbody emission spectrum can be condensed to a much narrower band that optimally matches the absorption spectrum of semiconductor TPV cells. In particular, we are investigating rare-earth ceramic selective emitters such as Yb and Er compounds to match the absorption of Si and Ge TPV cells. We are also engineering the microstructures of these compounds to manipulate photons for enhanced selective emitting performance.
Faculty contact: Jifeng Liu


text: EZ Wireless Router with All-in-One Printer Server G Series Wi-Fi Router All-in-One Printer Server: Wirelessly and simultaneously share printing and scanning functions for multiple users Auto-detection and New EZ UI (Easy User Interface): provide a fast and easy way to set up your router. EZ QoS - Powerful and easily-operated BOD (Bandwidth On Demand) streamlines your Gaming/Audio/Video experience. Shop Modal header Readers' Choice, 6 Years Running! (2012-2017) "No brand is more likely to be recommended than ASUS. The company receives excellent marks for their ease of setup and reliability."– PC Magazine >>Learn more. Recommended Excellence Award for Best Router Brand, PC Pro Technology Excellence Awards 2016. EZ MFP The new ASUS wireless router distinguishes itself with the "auto switching" function. It not only enables multiple users to use multifuntion printer wirelessly without a PC or server turned on 24 hours a day, but also rules out the trouble of repeating "disconnecting" and "re-connecting" when users switch. When different users are to use the printer, the router switches automatically, which enables different users to use the printer simultaneously. After plugging in the USB printer into ASUS wireless router and running the ASUS Network Printer Setup program, each user can enjoy easy scanning and easy printing. *For complete printer support list, please click here. QIS(Quick Internet Setup) After buying router and preparing for setup, just connect to the router and QIS will automatically guide users to their browser's default home pages. Manual Free! Step1: Step2: Stpe3: Open your Internet browser(Ex. IE) and QIS will detect connection type automatically. Follow the instructions and enter necessary information Now you can navigate in the Internet as free as can be! Network Map See a quick overview of the whole network and WAN/LAN status Manage your network in minutes Dr. Surf Dr. Surf, your personal wireless doctor, can automatically offer real-time diagnostics. Auto-detect Connection Problems If there is any problem for internet connection, Dr. Surf can auto-detect and provide possible solutions. Ex. Your cable is not connect with the router. EZQos - Bandwidth-On-Demand (BOD) Windows Connect Now(WCN) - Works Perfectly with Windows Vista Wireless LAN Setup Other Features Highlight BroadRange delivers 300% more signal coverage than standard 802.11g 125 High Speed Mode (HSM) provides 135% transfer speed compared to standard 11g product Bridge two WL-520GU to enable total wireless coverage to 2 buildings (houses) or a enormous residential complex. Industry latest security standards (WEP, WPA, WPA2) Note: WL-520gU supports DD-WRT open source code. Check the following website for detail. http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/dd-wrt/hardware.html Keep Up to Date! Remember to always keep your device's firmware up to date so you can benefit from the very latest service and security enhancements — and get exciting new features! Learn more about updating new firmware.


text: YKB/540/BB2 - Yale Key Box Organize and secure your keys. Choices of 2 sizes to fit for 20 or 46 keys. Number tags and labels are provided to make it easy to find the right key. Size (Medium) Exterior Dimensions: 300x240x80mm Also available in Small size "YKB/200/BB2" Exterior Dimensions: 200x160x80mm YCB/090/BB2 - Yale Cash Box YKB/200/CB2 - Yale Key Box with Combination Lock


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The highlight last week were several vintage gloves and mitts from the same seller. Some were hard to find models and all were well photographed and described in the ebay listing. My three selections are collector favorites and brought out spirited bidding despite some condition issues.
A mid 20'S Wilson "Black Beauty" model 607 sold for $118. The markings on the face are pretty strong. I didn't think Jared would let this one go unnoticed.
A Reach "King Patent" model sold for $243. A shot inner liner. At least the exterior leather is in fine shape.
A 1920's Spalding Three finger model sold for $284. I think this is an early version of the model TG with a unique sewn web. Normally this would mean a high ticket glove but some damage and deterioration of the leather kept the price relatively low.


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Friday, July 25, 2014 - No comments
Sunday Morning, as Experienced from My Window.
Outside my window, the world is quiet. Sunday morning quiet. Ramazan morning quiet. No tinkling teaspoons or clatter of breakfast cutlery. It's too soon after the pre-dawn sahur meal for those keeping the fast to have woken up, and too early for those sleeping off a Saturday night on the town to have emerged, bleary-eyed, from their beds.
A shirtless young man with a hairy chest and drawstring pajama bottoms greets the day with a stretch and a yawn from his balcony one building over. The only other living things in sight are an orange cat curled up under a car in the parking lot four floors down and the group of seagulls dipping and diving over the cluttered muddle of red-tiled roofs that is Kadıköy. One swoops down to rest on a satellite dish on the building opposite me, then spends a minute weaving his way between the pipe-thin soba chimneys before rejoining his companions in the gray sky over the minarets of the Söğütlüçeşme Mosque.
The soft whoosh of vehicles drifts up from Taşköprü Road behind our building. A nasal-voiced simitçi hawks his sesame pastries in the street below, belying the fact that it's Ramazan. A car honks in the distance, the sound muffled by the forest of apartment buildings between here and Söğütlüçeşme Road a few blocks over. Two short bursts of a ferry horn reverberate from the direction of the docks. Slowly, lazily, this Asian-side suburb of Istanbul is waking up.
The wind blows a patch of dark clouds my way, bringing with them a brief shower of hurried drops, followed by a burst of sunshine and that homey wet cement smell. The vaguely cool breeze - a relief from days of July stickiness - teases the laundry hanging from the bars of a window across the way and the carpets drying on the balcony rails beside it. Curtains billow from open windows here and there, and a red and white Algida ice cream umbrella sways over a picnic table on the balcony two floors down from Shirtless Man's apartment. Up the hill, a huge yellow and blue Fenerbahçe flag tied between two buildings rises and falls on the wind.
A wasp floats in the window, sniffs around a bit, and then drifts out again. A cloud passes overhead, its shadow twin sliding across the beige wall of the building across the parking lot. On the top floor, a wooden wind chime hung from a makeshift balcony roof flutters above an old couch, a washing machine and a set of white wrought iron patio furniture. One building over, a knotted trash bag and a rainbow of clothespins bounce on the line. Below them, an assortment of potted plants soak up the warmth of the emerging sun.
A whoop-whooping sound in the distance grows increasingly louder until a helicopter appears low in the sky on the Moda side of Kadıköy. It slows and lingers over the square by the ferries for a minute before moving out of sight. An odd place for a traffic helicopter to stop, I think to myself. Must be police. It's early in the day, but perhaps not too early for a protest. It is, after all, Sunday.
From far away, another sound replaces the whir of the chopper's blades. An even, measured clanging. A hammer on a construction site, perhaps? Unlikely on a Sunday morning. If I didn't know better, I'd think it were church bells. Could it be? Maybe from the old Catholic church up in Moda? Kadıköy is, after all, a proud little "tolerant" island in the middle of an otherwise predictably conservative sea....
From somewhere much closer by, a garbled voice comes over a loudspeaker. A policeman telling someone to move their car? No, he's talking far too long for that. Is it...yes...it's definitely coming from the Söğütlüçeşme Mosque a block away. But it's not yet time for midday prayers.... The voice in the microphone becomes clearer. Turkish, not Arabic, so it's not a Quran recitation.... A Sunday morning sermon? (Where AM I, anyway??) Yup, he's definitely preaching. But it's not Friday, and it didn't begin with a funeral announcement, so I can't for the life of me figure out why....
(**I later asked a "relative" of mine, who happened to be at the mosque that day, what the deal was. Many people aim to read through - well, mostly listen to - readings through the entire Quran during the month of Ramadan, . Apparently, it was this mosque's turn to host a reading. Not sure where the sermon part fits in...maybe he was explaining the meaning in Turkish?)
I head in to take a shower, and when I emerge, the imam is still preaching. Another fifteen minutes or so and he moves into some sort of chant in Arabic. A long, undulating wail, musical in its quality, dwindles into a low gurgle, followed by a long pause. I don't understand the Arabic, but the emotion in his voice weaves a somber tale. The next line is a soulful proclamation...another pause...a passionate crescendo climaxing in a note that makes me wonder if he'll ever take a breath.
The mournful song gives way to part two of the sermon. Then more chanting. The dirge is punctuated by a set of "Allah'u akbar"s - the only words I understand besides "elhamdullilah" ("praise be to God"). He carries on this way for over two hours, talking - interestingly enough - straight through the call to prayer.
A few buildings away, a woman in a red strapless top steps out onto the fire escape. She faces in the direction of the mosque as she talks on her cell phone. The imam continues his song, unaware of her stare, the melodic recitation filling the air around her, settling heavily on her bare shoulders, and tumbling thickly down to the streets below.


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Home > News & Events > Wayland Press Release Archives > 2005 News Releases > April 2005 > Graduates urged to overcome challenges
Graduates urged to overcome challenges
PLAINVIEW – Borrowing from comedian David Letterman's tradition, Dr. Travis Hart shared his Top 10 list of important lessons with the graduating class of Wayland Baptist University during his commencement address Saturday in Harral Auditorium.
Pastor of Plainview's First Baptist Church and a member of the WBU board of trustees, Hart urged graduates to remember key life lessons as they head into their futures. His list included the following:
10. You cannot tell the direction of a train by looking at the tracks. Don't forget your past, and don't neglect your future.
9. Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate. Guard your relationships.
8. One-seventh of your life is lived on Monday. There will be difficulties in life.
7. Never wrestle with a pig. You'll both be dirty and the pig will like it.
"In life, you will have the choice of walking the low road or walking the high road," Hart said. "Choose the high road every time."
6. Don't lose your sense of person. Ask "Who am I?" at various times in your life.
5. Don't lose your sense of place. The past and future are key, but it is also important to know where you are now.
4. Laughter is a life raft in a sea of troubled waters. Laugh at yourself at least as much as you laugh at others.
3. Every choice in life has a consequence. Good choices have good consequences, and bad choices have bad consequences.
2. Keep learning. Stay teachable.
"I have a friend who brags that he has not read a book since graduating college," Hart shared. "I pity my friend."
The No. 1 lesson Hart shared was for students to remember that they are created for God and not for themselves.
In her student address, Hale Center native Rosa Maria Padilla shared of overcoming challenges to earn her degree, becoming the first in her family to do so.
"By taking up the challenge of attending college, I am forever changing my family tree," Padilla said. "I leave Wayland a better person today, as I know most of my fellow graduates leave better people."
In one of the biggest graduating classes in recent years, 118 students received diplomas during the afternoon ceremony, with 26 graduating with honors. Thirteen students received graduate degrees, while the remaining 105 earned baccalaureate degrees in various fields.
Five students were honored as Highest Ranking Graduates, tied with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Billy Boone of Abilene, Jason Morgan of Plainview, Kevin Schaub of Pampa, Lucy Runner Thompson of American Falls, Idaho, and Tyler Topper of Plainview received plaques and special recognition for their academic achievement. Boone is a theatre and religion major who has been involved in 12 plays during his four years at Wayland. Morgan, an economics and finance major, has been involved in Students in Free Enterprise, while Schaub, a religion and English major, has been involved in Baptist Student Ministries and the Student Union Board. Thompson, a religious education and English major, has been involved in Ministerial Fellowship and the honors program. An economics and finance major, Topper has been involved in SIFE and in student government, serving as Student Body President this past year.
The following students received degrees during the ceremony, listed by degree and with specialization or major:
Master of Arts in Religion: Shelley Kim Watts Pond of Tulia; Santos Rodriguez of Plainview, and Debbie Ann Wiley of Plainview.
Master of Business Administration: Priscilla Edwards of Barbados, Human Resources Management; Robert Gibson of Plainview, Management; Jonathan Morgan of Plainview, Human Resources Management.
Master of Education: Alissa Carter of Plainview, Educational Administration; Jace Daily of Tulia, Secondary Education; Leah Dayton of Plainview, Educational Administration; Lori Franklin of Plainview, Instructional Technology; James Garrett of Arlington, Educational Administration; Paige Parker-Johnson of Matador, Elementary Education; Vickie Lynn Young of Plainview, Educational Administration.
Bachelor of Arts: Brad Andrews of Plainview, criminal justice; Billy Boone of Abilene, theatre/religion; Kyle Bueermann of Tahoka, religious education; Brandon Burrows of Amarillo, religious education/religion; Josh Caballero of Floydada, composite religion; Jennifer Combs of Portales, N.M., political science; Christopher Cox of Canadian, criminal justice; Josh Davis of Bledsoe, English/religious education; LeAudra Franklin of Lubbock, religion/religious education; Jennifer Garza of Olton, criminal justice; Adam Gibbs of Canyon, religion/English; Santos Guerrero of Olton, art; Paul Hamilton of Slaton, religion/religious education/history/English; Beth Henson of Lucas, religious education; Cenia Kila of Mililani, Hawaii, criminal justice; Whitney Lafferty of Cameron, criminal justice; Lara Manley of Plainview, art; Curtis Morales of Anton, art/English; Rae Odom of Dimmitt, political science; Emily Oshel of Alva, Okla., political science/criminal justice; Jennifer Parrish of Albuquerque, N.M., art; Byron Potter of Dalhart, history; Fernando Rincon, Jr. of El Paso, criminal justice; Matthew Rusher of Ordway, Colo., criminal justice; Kevin Schaub of Pampa, religion/English; Sarah Scott of Amarillo, music; Doug Shelton of Albuquerque, N.M., religious education; Landon Sims of Henrietta, history; Jennifer Sullivan of Plainview, psychology; Jonathan Sullivan of Farwell, religion; Christopher Thompson of Emory, religion; Lucy Runner Thompson of American Falls, Idaho, religious education/English; Cecilia Villa of Plainview, social studies; Donna Webb of Floydada, art education; Angie Wilson of Hobbs, N.M., psychology; Lucinda Ybarra of Plainview, criminal justice; and Josh York of Amarillo, religion.
Bachelor of Business Administration: Kayla Andersen of Lovington, N.M., accounting; Bryan Anderson of Anchorage, Alaska, management/marketing; Jerry Askins of Lubbock, accounting; Nathan Carson of Sweetwater, economics/finance; Lucio Castro of Lamesa, accounting; Lesli Hart of Plainview, accounting; Daniel Hayden of Fort Worth, business administration; Heather Hurt of Irving, accounting; Peggy Magallan of Hale Center, business administration; Isaias Martinez, Jr. of Plainview, international management; Kimberly McCasland of Van Horn, accounting; Angela Miller of Lubbock, management information systems/mathematics; Jason Morgan of Plainview, economics/finance; Rosa Padilla of Lockney, management/marketing; Diana Peck of Westminster, Colo., health care administration; Ragan Spradling of Amarillo, management/marketing; and Tyler Topper of Plainview, economics/finance.
Bachelor of Music: Bridget Hancock of Booker, music education; Candice Lasiter of Roswell, N.M., church music/music education.
Bachelor of Science: Amy Boerner of Hobbs, N.M., biology; Jennifer Brigman of Eula, physical education/business administration; Michelle Bueermann of Springer, N.M., biology; Jacob Burke of Amarillo, psychology; Marci Chasteen of Midland, psychology; Steven Coleman of Crosbyton, physical education; Justin Everett of Lafayette, Colo., biology; Micah Garvey of Anna, chemistry/English; Stephanie Gollihar-Jones of Lubbock, mathematics/business administration; Christopher Gonce of Fort Worth, mathematics/psychology; Cassandra Hill of Smyer, biology; April Jackson-Chancler of Canadian, composite science; Carl Leake III of North Pole, Alaska, psychology/religion; Sean McVey of Clayton, N.M., mathematics; Clayton Shipley of Littlefield, physical education; Robert Sistrunk of Plainview, physical education; Steven Smallwood of Rotan, biology; Sally Stanford of Wolfforth, physical education; Chad Tibbits of Plainview, biology; Billie Turner of El Paso, mathematics; Joe Michael Waller of Fort Stockton, psychology.
Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies: Erika Bryant of Plainview, elementary education; Jennifer Doherty of Georgetown, elementary education; Amanda Gonzales of Houston, social studies; Sara Gowman of Plainview, elementary education; Kelli Howard of Midland, mathematics; Lindsey King of Amarillo, elementary education; Meg Mansdoerfer of Albuquerque, N.M., elementary education; Elisabeth McReynolds of San Antonio, elementary education; Christen Parker of Vigo Park, elementary education; Deborah Smith of Petersburg, science; Jill Stout of Sudan, elementary education; Malissa Trotter of Portales, N.M., mathematics; Jennifer Vacek-Castaneda of Knox City, elementary education; Sandra Valderaz of Hart, mathematics.
Bachelor of Science in Occupational Education: Melanie Coleman of Plainview, human services; Geneva Escobar of Plainview, human services; Michelle Glotfelty of Waynesville, Mo., occupational education; Lisa Johnson of Clovis, N.M., management; Miho Komatsu of Yamagata, Japan, occupational education; Karen Mansell of Plainview, business administration; AnnaBell Mirelez of Plainview, occupational education; Elizabeth Pena of Plainview, human services; MaAntonia Rodriguez of Plainview, occupational education; Steven Rothschild of Amarillo, human services; Charlotte Schumacher of Plainview, business administration; Nenad Stojanovic of Serbia, occupational education; Craig Williams of Plainview, business administration; and Elizabeth Wyatt of Plainview, occupational education.


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{ personal: }
I just inherited my sister's shoes. We three sisters referred to each other as hippie, stylish and punk. To refer to me exclusively as stylish in not quite accurate, both my sisters have always been incredibly stylish in their own way. Frederique is The Punk. Ingrid was The Hippie. She was a beautiful, tree-hugging, animal-rescuing, plant-loving woman who's face lit up every time she saw one of us sisters. She died a few weeks ago and all her clothes, shoes and accessories are in my spare bedroom for sorting. I believe I've met my match, this woman had a lot of clothes and shoes.
Before she died, I told her I wanted her shoes. I didn't ask, I pulled the sister card and put it a direct request. I wasn't leaving anything up to chance. We have the same feet. I wanted to have her with me all the time, her death has been my biggest heartbreak to date and it's comforting to carry her spirit with me when I can't call her up whenever I feel like it any more.
But let's talk shoes because that woman seriously loved shoes. I call them hippie shoes and in doing so I've practically guaranteed my other sister won't want anything to do with them. I'm a little sneaky that way, although, they really are hippie shoes and that's what makes them so appealing to me. I love shoes, too. They don't, however, love me back. Except hers. Of course they do. She would be pleased to know they're keeping my feet happy.
{ deets: }
Aqua cashmere cardigan/Bloomingdale's, sky blue tank top/thrifted, multi-colored pattern skirt/Target, layered yellow bead necklace/thrifted, red shoes/gifted, red cuff watch/The Clymb.


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|2183 Atlantic Highway
2183 Atlantic Highway Lincolnville, ME 04849
Baths: 3; ½ Baths: 1
Camden Real Estate Company
(207) 236-6171
When I came to Maine I was awed by its natural beauty first, and then by the diversity of the people I met here.
I've spent my whole life around houses, my father was an architect and practiced until he was 88 and my mother was an artist. Growing up they always encouraged us to look at things in a different light. That's why when I look at a property, I see it as it is, and as something else, all at the same time. This is vision, it's the way I run my whole business, there's always more than one way to see things and you can get new ideas from every situation.
I have built Camden Real Estate on a higher level of service. I look at real estate in a different way than most people do. I want to know you and what you're about, so then I have a better understanding of what your aim is in the sale or purchase of a property.
I'm about welcoming new people to this great area, keeping people happy, working with friends, and making Camden Real Estate the best place to work.
One of our core values at Camden Real Estate is enjoyment, not just having a good time, but about enjoying what you do, where you work, and the people you interact with on a daily basis. I'm committed to doing what I can to support local organizations that keep this area beautiful and diverse.
I've raised two children in Camden as a single father. I live in Hope with my wife Robin at Home Place Farm. Robin is a gardener, costume designer and we maintain 25 acres of organic blueberry fields. In my free time I like working in stained glass, or walking the hills with Robin, but our greatest joy comes from our three children, four granddaughters and grandson.


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Divine spell casters and healers, Clerics have a broad range of spells at their command. They excel at curing ailments and healing allies but also have the ability to blast enemies with their divine power.
Solo Ability: Very Good.
Important stats:
Wisdom is the most important stat for clerics. High wisdom makes a cleric's spells more difficult for enemies to resist and gives him or her more spell points.
Charisma is important for clerics who want to be able to use divine abilities like turning more often.
Notable abilities: Turn Undead.
Clerics use divine magic and gain all of their spells as they level up. They don't have to inscribe new spells like wizards or pick a subset like favored souls. Clerics also have a special ability called Turning. They can use this to attack undead or assist allies.
Unlike wizards and sorcerers, clerics have powerful healing spells and can wear armor and use shields, granting them better protection than other casters.
When clerics are at taverns or rest shrines, they can switch to different spells to better address the challenges of their current quest. Favored souls and sorcerers cannot do this.


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"Dear readers: I am currently attempting a combination balayage/ombre on my hair. I am not a professional. I am, however, impulsive. This is either genius or moronic."
Basically I wanted my hair done by tomorrow. And no one could get me an appointment. So clearly, the best idea was to just go ahead and do it myself.
Caution to the wind!
No looking back!
I don't know if it was the providence of God... divine intervention... whatever... but it's completely invisible.
I don't know what happened. I put the stuff in my hair... I waited (longer than) the appropriate amount of time... and yet, I sit here (four hours later) with hair that is exactly the same as it was before.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't super disappointed. Even if it *is* for the best. Anyway, today's post didn't turn out quite right, either. It was going to be an adorable tank top (which I will attempt again next week) and is instead this cropped top. I seriously underestimated the width of my hips, which is kind of entertaining. John gave me a bunch of his too-big button downs to play with, so I can try, try again! Besides- I see some good use for this cropped tube. Wouldn't it be adorable over a solid bathing suit with a head scarf + big earrings? I would have loved to show you that version, but we're all aware by now that I'm not going to model any bathing suits for the world wide web, mmmkay? This was a relatively simple project, though, so tune in,
(1) Start it. Cut around the arm holes and chop the top off at the shoulders, flip inside out.
So there you have it. So far this week all of my projects have bombed! Monday's glitter vase, Tuesday's T-shirt + dye job and then today's tank. But they also all turned into something completely cool in a different way- so I consider this week successful so far! I have a great project for tomorrow. I'm hoping it turns out the way it's supposed to.
I hope you have a fantastic day and as always, thanks for reading.


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In adopting HIPAA, Congress determined that this federal law takes precedence over contrary state law unless state law is more stringent than federal law or unless a specific exception applies.
The Alaska State Comparative Health Law Matrix is intended to be a quick reference source for preemption analysis. It is a side by side comparison of the federal HIPAA Privacy Rule and Alaska statutes and regulations dealing with confidentiality of health care information. This analysis is primarily designed to aid the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services with its health care information confidentiality and disclosure requirements. It may not be helpful for other health care organizations because of that perspective.
The DHSS legal contact is:
Elizabeth Hickerson, Assistant Attorney GeneralOffice of the Attorney General1031 W. Fourth Avenue, Suite 200Anchorage, AK 99501


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With close to 5000 events on the UK motor sport calendar there's lots of spectacular action on show throughout the country. You can track down events by date, discipline and/or proximity.
This search engine is driven by the MSA website. If you notice any inaccuracies or problems with this facility please email [email protected]


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Bob Capuano
Save Date: 09/26/03
Activity: Work
September 26, 2003 is a day that I will never forget. I went into work a little late that Friday after my wife and I picked her friend up at the airport in Philadelphia. Little did we know at that time that Jeri would be spending her entire week's vacation in the waiting area at the hospital. I was standing in my paralegal's doorway when I turned to go into my office. That is the last thing I remember until waking up in the ER a couple of hours later. I just blacked out with no warning.
I was later told that an associate attorney started CPR while my staff called 911. The police officers arrived within two minutes and fortunately had an AED with them. The second shock restored my heart rhythm. It was the first save for both of these officers. The EMT's arrived in about ten minutes, stabilized me and transported me to the nearest ER. That is where I woke up feeling pain in my left ankle. Before they put me on the helicopter to the hospital in Philadelphia, the x-rays showed a fracture just above the ankle from my fall when I passed out. All I could think of was that fracture and the fact that I couldn't play golf for a while.
On Monday, September 29, 2003 at approximately 1:00 pm (the exact time that I was scheduled to tee off in a charity golf tournament), my surgeon was implanting an ICD (internal defibrillator) in my chest. It is hard to conceive of such an amazing device, that is so small yet has the power to save a life over and over. My ICD fired four times in the first year. I remember each date because that is four more times that I would have died if not for the technology we now have. It sure does make every new day just a little bit more special for me.
In September 2004, just days after the last time that my ICD fired off, I met dozens of other survivors of Sudden Cardiac Arrest at the second Washington, D.C. conference. I was overwhelmed by their stories, along with those of the Ambassadors Christy Stone and Deputy Chief Johnston. At that time I promised myself that I would tell my story and do whatever I can to make sure that these life saving technological devices are more widely made available. I can think of no better reason than "because so many more can survive".
In the News
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Hear the voice of an angel—operatic sensation Angel Blue and a visit from Santa! There's no better way to kick off your holidays.
Our Gift Guide team has some great gift ideas for you Chocolate Lovers for 2011
Lumixyl Brightening System - Erasing Sun Damage Without the Use of Lasers or Needles
Adult gifts for the special one in your life
The beautiful, Mission Revival style courtyard and suites are a great addition to any getaway
The Moonridge Animal Park is first and foremost a rescue facility. It was established in 1959 due to forest fires that devastated the natural ecosystem of the San Bernardino Mountains. Injured animals are brought there for rehabilitation and a second chance at life in the wild.
Black Bear Cottages offers a number of unique and excellent accomidations for any trip up to Big Bear. The nicely decorated cottages come with luxury mattresses and full thick towels. Best of all, there is no extra charge to borrow DVDs, for fireplace logs, for coffee, they even have Sony PS2s for your enjoyment!
This warm, inviting lodge nestled between the ski slopes and the lake offers a crystal clear swimming pool (seasonal), sand volleyball court, basketball court, horseshoe pit, theme kiddy play yard and smores at the barbeque (weekends, weather permitting).
Big Bear Mountain offers a considerable number of summer activities to help escape the June Gloom. There's smooth jazz concerts, scenic sky chair rides, beautiful hiking trails and any number of wonderful outdoor activities.
Water levels at Big Bear Lake have increased fifteen feet due to recent winter storms and is now brim full. When the quality of water is up, the fish grow faster and just do better; it's going to be a great year for fishing at Big Bear Lake.
The Fountain Theatre is the ideal setting to host Forever Flamenco, one of the most intense flamenco performances currently running in Los Angeles
The wardrobe is gone... the White Witch is dead... and Aslan has been missing for over 1,000 years
Anyone who hasn't lived in the same house their entire life knows that moving STINKS. Packing, sweating, hauling, sweating, unpacking, more sweating...oh, when will it end?
The succulent selection of tapas, salads and entrees at Azu will satisfy any appetite. For those with room left, there is a gourmet select of gelato and desserts
Starving Students aren't starving anymore because of their professional and expedient service.
Located in the heart of San Francisco, The Stinking Rose is a must for any connoisseur of garlic.
Historic and rustic, this knotty-pine restaurant has been serving fine steaks, prime rib, seafood, and lobster since 1947. Inside, the dark, nautical decor and fire-warmed bar are just right on blustery winter nights.
Open Season plays very much like a Looney Tunes cartoon with Bugs and Daffy trying to escape Elmer Fudd, although its hard to say if Boog or Elliot is Bugs or Daffy as their roles keep interchanging. While their nemesis, Shaw is an over-the-top hunter convinced that the animals are involved in a conspiracy to overthrow humans.
The Studio City Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with CBS Studio Center and Children of the Night, held the 2006 4th of July Fireworks Festival at the CBS Studio Center, Studio City.
The CE-IV is a great small, portable MP3 player. This is lighter than the average MP3 player on the market today. This unit comes with a radio tuner, an available SD memory card slot allows even more storage and noise canceling earbuds.
Evergreen International is the perfect equilibrium of small town charm and big city glamour.
From the producer of the worldwide blockbuster hits The Fast and The Furious and its sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, comes the latest installment of the adrenaline-inducing series built on speed The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
AGEIA™ Technologies, Inc., the pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, today announced that Mystic Game Development is integrating AGEIA PhysX technology with its real-time character animation system EMotion FX 3.
The three-day extravaganza drew a larger audience that is directly attributed to a virtual lineup of whos who in the entertainment industry...
This Moroccan-theme jewel situated in the midst of the trendy Melrose strip provides an atmosphere that takes you away from your everyday reality.
In the era of castles and gallant knights, kings would gather the nobility for fanciful feasts and tournaments of valor in celebration of important events. Those days still exist inside Excalibur during its "Tournament of Kings" dinner show.
Cirque du Soleil presents Mystere, a vibrant kaleidoscope of powerful athleticism, high-energy acrobatics and inspiring imagery directed by Franco Dragone.
KÃ, the latest creation from Cirque du Soleil, premiered in February 2005, in the unprecedented performance space, the KÃ Theatre at MGM Grand.


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I like people who can wear a chip on their shoulder like a badge of honor. Your grievances and grudges are what make you interesting. Why not own them?
So it's not especially a stretch to say that it's easy for me to love Greg Fitzsimmon's first hour long special, Life on Stage. An award-winning writer, producer and stand-up comedian, his comedy unabashedly explores social and familial constructs. While seemingly provocative, Fitzsimmons is playfully clever in his approach to unearthing the absolute absurdity that is so often prevalent in modern American life.
You can catch him in Philadelphia November 8 and 9 at Helium Comedy Club. WitOut caught up with Fitzsimmon to talk about Life on Stage, podcasting and the past year (sort of) on the road.
WitOut: You're out in LA now, right?
Greg Fitzsimmons: Right. I've been working in New York. I took the weekend off to come home for Halloween and Trick or Treat with the kids.
WitOut: How was Halloween?
Fitzsimmons: Great. It was very cute. We did trick or treating on one side of the neighborhood, changed costumes and then did the other side. My son is 13 so he's off with his boys. You know, a real teenage party. I think that was his first one.
WitOut: I'm sure they just sat around and did their homework.
Fitzsimmons: They're really on the edge. I don't think they're doing anything that wrong yet but they're definitely thinking about it. They're ready for it. They're only in the planning stages.
WitOut: You've been all over the place this past year. How is tour?
Fitzsimmons: It's not so much a tour as it is going out to places on the weekends, in between working on the show. This past year, I've definitely been on the road a lot doing shows to promote the special. But it's been a lot of TV stuff. I was executive producer on another show earlier this fall and then just banging out these podcasts twice a week and a radio show once a week. It's pretty exhausting. I haven't had a moment.
WitOut: What show are you currently working on?
Fitzsimmons: I created a comedy talk show pilot for FX with this guy Josh Topaulski, who has a website called The Verge. It's kind of a Daily Show format.
WitOut: How did podcasting make its way into your mix?
Fitzsimmons: Well, I was doing the radio show for just an hour. I was getting these really great guests and all of the sudden, the hour would go by so fast. So, my producer said that we could do another hour and put it out as a podcast. We did that for awhile and people eventually wanted more than one a week. I was on the road a lot of weekends so I started doing [podcasts] from the green room in clubs and now I pretty much just record interviews with people during the week. I'll try to bank a few and then put those out.
This past week, I sat down with Colin Quinn and at the end I said to him, "How often do you and I get to sit down and talk, uninterrupted for two hours?" It's very rare. It's great. I think it started out casually–and it still feels casual– it doesn't feel like a job. Now there is all of this advertising coming in, which is really just found money.
WitOut: It seems like you have you hands in a lot of different things. You have stand-up, podcasting and radio. You have your book [Dear Mrs. Fitzsimmons: Tales of Redemption from an Irish Mailbox]. Does it feel different from when you were doing just stand-up?
Fitzsimmons: No. When I started doing stand-up, my Father was really supportive of me. He said, you know, just make sure you write. Write a lot. I think that he knew that it was going to be a tough business and that writing was something that I could always–I wouldn't say fall back on, but something that I could do in conjunction with stand-up. I've always been focused on it.
I've always been doing something else. After I did stand-up for a couple of years, I moved to New York and did a two year acting program. So I did that and went out on the road on the weekends. Then I moved to LA and auditioned for acting stuff. I never had any luck but I did it a lot for awhile.
There have always been different directions that I was going in. When my son was born, I started writing for TV so that I could be around more. That's been twelve years or so in between writing, doing stand-up and hosting stuff on TV.
On a good day it feels like, yeah, you have your hands in a lot of things. On a bad day you feel like you're being pulled in too many directions. In this business, it's a pretty good way to keep your sanity–to be able to not have all of your eggs in one basket.
WitOut: A lot of your new special deals with parenting, social class and race. Your kids go to school in LA and so you're definitely surrounded by a lot of that. Can you speak to us about where that material comes from?
Fitzsimmons: I grew in New York and my Dad was a radio guy. He was very liberal. Very outspoken. Our family's identity is very, I think, Kennedy Democrats. And I grew up in a place that was very economically and racially diverse.
My kids are in a Spanish Immersion program at a public school in LA. My wife grew up in the city in New York. We try to replicate something that has that same kind of diversity and we've been really luck with that. They've got a school that has very committed parents and the kids are great. At the same time–not to put down private schools–your kid can get a false sense of feeling like they're the greatest fucking thing that has ever been born. I want my kids to feel like pieces of garbage that have to work their way out of it for the rest of their lives. That's the drive they need.
A lot of my material comes out of guilt. I think I feel a certain white guilt with how fortunate I've been. Stand up, to me, is about [exploring] what are you thinking about, what makes you uncomfortable or angry, what is it that you can't wrap your head around. For me, social class seems to be one that is just illogical. It's the fabric of every society.
WitOut: What about the book? Is it a product of that guilt or is a way for you to kind of wear your mistakes on your armor?
Fitzsimmons: I was an English major in college and I had been writing my whole life. I wanted to write a book since I was five years old. I finally felt like I had lived enough to warrant writing a book about my life. It feel like there are two very different sides of my life and I wanted to explore that earlier part of my life. I wanted to show how it affected the second half.
I grew up very rebellious. The first half of my life, there was a lot of drinking and drugs, fighting and womanizing. It was very different from what my life is today. I just wanted to have fun and go down that road. It ended up being much more deeply about my relationship with my father.
My intention was probably much lighter than what the actual process ended up being.
WitOut: We know that you had a complicated relationship with your Father. Does talking about it so publicly affect that?
Fitzsimmons: He actually died 20 year ago. In a weird way, you still have a relationship with the [deceased] person. I think about him a lot. I think my kids feel his presence in a way. It didn't end on good terms, really, and that's sad.
WitOut: Does talking about it help your reconcile with that?
Fitzsimmons: I guess. On some levels, it is. I wish that I could I was that mature and that it was all reconciled. I'm still like a little baby. I definitely have more understanding [of him] now as a parent.
WitOut: You're coming to Philly on this week. Are you looking forward to coming over here?
Fitzsimmons: (Laughs) Oh my god. Your voice just went up an octave when you asked that.
Yeah! I love Philadelphia! I think Philadelphia is great. It's one of the few cities that I really enjoy getting up and walking around. The crowds are awesome. They're really down to earth. There is that Italian-Irish thing there, which is always kind of rowdy and blue collar. It's fun.
Colleen T. Reese is a contributor to Geekadelphia and Schmitten Kitten. You can follow her on twitter @CollTReese.
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[…] By Colleen T. Reese, on November 5th, 2013 Originally appeared on WitOut […]


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Outstanding Exposure? Rave reviews prove elusive
Northern Exposure is one of my favorite restaurants in Charlottesville: I like the food, the West Main Street location, and the gorgeous mural by Eli Frantzen. I also like the giant, black-and-white pictures of New York City landmarks. Clearly, owner Robert Weitzner wanted to infuse the restaurant with the flavor of Manhattan.
But has he gone too far? An investigation into his advertising claims suggests that he may have.
For some time now, ads for Northern Exposure have included this alleged rave, purportedly from the New York Times: "An outstanding experience."
But when did the review run? I faxed that question to Weitzner on September 18, and although I repeated the request during a phone call to his assistant, no documentation ever arrived.
I faxed my question again earlier this month, along with a request for verification of another rave for the restaurant, this supposedly from the Toledo Blade: "A gem."
Still no reply. Online searches in both newspapers' archives failed to turn up any mention of Northern Exposure– although in both cases, the restaurant has been in operation longer than the online archives, so it's conceivable that such review exists. If so, why not show?
Weitzner's reticence is in marked contrast to most restaurateurs' eagerness to display the full text of favorable reviews. Take the C&O, for instance, where excerpts from a number of its reviews are mounted on an inside wall. In the C&O's case, the rave from the New York Times– penned by Craig Claiborne, no less– was not only genuine, but the basis for a chapter (or at least a footnote) in Charlottesville literary history.
The story begins in March 1976, when co-founders Sandy McAdams and Philip Stafford transformed the long-neglected space across from the old C&O depot into an oasis of elegance. A month or so later, Claiborne– the legendary food writer and critic– arrived in Charlottesville. Stafford thinks Claiborne may have been headed for the rare books collection at UVA, where he hoped to research some aspect of Jefferson's cuisine.
He also planned to visit the literary duo of Peter and Eleanor Taylor, whom he knew through their mutual friend Jean Stafford. (Stafford had been married to Robert Lowell, Peter Taylor's roommate at Kenyon College.) "I was terrified," Eleanor Taylor recalls, "of any possibility of cooking for him," so the two men struck out on their own.
Taylor knew that his friend Claudine Cowan was helping to train the C&O's new chef, so they headed downtown. The restaurant hadn't yet been granted its liquor license, however, and, because they wanted a drink, the two promptly left.
"There goes the chance of a lifetime," Stafford remembers thinking, "vanished in 10 seconds." Not so: They came back and had dinner, and the rest is history.
"It was our first review," McAdams said, "and it led to all the others"– which, at last count, stood at 19 and included Bon Appetit and Food and Wine.
When McAdams and Stafford told me about their near-magical visit from Claiborne, it was obvious that they were describing a memory they cherished, and rightly so: They earned that review, and all the reviews that followed. Did Bob Weitzner earn his alleged mention in the Times– or, for that matter, the blurb from the Blade?
If the quotes are genuine, Weitzner ought to be willing to prove it. If not, he should remove them from his ads. I like many things about Northern Exposure– but I never like being deceived.
Do you have a consumer problem or question? Email the Fearless Consumer, write her at 100 Second Street NW, 22902, or call 295-8700 ext. 406.


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Made or put up a bird feeder
Grew some vegetables
Made a model of an animal
Drew a picture of my favourite creature
Planted a tree
Took some photographs of wildlife
Helped with the recycling
Made a minibeast home
Encouraged my family to buy local food
Wrote to my MP
Wrote a story about a wild creature
Grew flowers for bees and butterflies
Went for a walk in a wild place
Made a collage out of natural objects
Visited a nature reserve
Visited a nature reserve
Did some composting
Did some leaf rubbings
Did some leaf rubbings
Wrote a poem about nature
Go moth watching
Built a nest for a bumblebee
Click the 'Add to my spotting sheet' button on any wildlife item page. Login or register to start creating your own spotting sheets.
Where are YOU on the watcher's top 5 list


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Family Vacation Baseball Sideshow in DC (7/22/12)
In mid-July, we took a family vacation to the Outer Bank in North Carolina. Lo-and-behold, as we drove home on July 22, 2012, Nationals Park was right on our way and the Nats were playing a day game against the Braves. The original plan was for the whole family to go to the game, but then Colleen decided to go shopping (for hours-and-hours-and-hours) instead of coming to the game with us.
So, under mildly threatening skies, Colleen dropped me and the boys off at Nationals Park right as the gates opened. As we walked to the CF gates, Tim added a Nationals Park picture to his fire hydrant photos collection…
…and then posed for a photo with a Marine who (I think) was participating in a toys for tots collection effort. That photo scored us some points in the MyGameBalls.com photo scavenger hunt!
We headed into the ballpark and down into the LF seats above the visitors bullpen and discovered that the field was not set up for BP…
…and some birds were relaxing in the seats waiting for the game.
A couple Nats were playing catch in RF. See that red arrow in the picture above? We decided to head up there because it was completely empty up in the 200-level (compared to maybe 20-30 people hanging out in the field level in RF).
When we arrived, I took this picture of the boys…
…and Kellan made that hilarious face.
Tim looked around and was all like…
…, "Where's Mateo?"
As you may recall, our last game was also at Nationals Park and we met up with MyGameBalls.com member and MLBlogger, Mateo Fischer, at that game. So Tim just figured we'd always see Mateo at Nationals games from now on. But Mateo was nowhere to be found.
But Tom Grozelanny (who was wearing Lance Nix's old glove) was there:
I had no clue that this guy was Gorzelanny at the time (actually, Mateo identified him for me after the game). When Gorzelanny and his partner walked out to RF to play catch, we waved at them from our seats in the second row and Gorzelanny gave us a big wave of his own.
When Gorzelanny finished playing catch, he got the ball back from his partner and attempted to throw it to us. But he completely missed the upper deck. He then went back to the bag of baseballs and grabbed a second ball. On his second attempt, he intentionally tossed the ball five rows over our heads. Since no one else was nearby, we had no problem finding the ball as it trickled back down toward the front row.
Interestingly, Tim, Kellan and I got a ball in exactly the same, two-attempts, second attempt launched over our heads method last September in just about this exact same location. And guess who the two attempt making player was that time? The one and the same, Tom Gorzelanny!
Thanks, Tom!
After getting the ball from Gorzelanny, he headed over to LF. Tommy Hanson was playing long toss at the time…
…and we headed over to the first row by the LF foul pole. In that picture above, an usher yell is about to yell at Tim from the field for leaning over the railing to touch the foul pole. Booo!
The Braves were on an odd schedule on this day. The pitchers never came out as a big group to warm up along the LF line. Instead, one pitcher would come out at a time and play catch in LF, about half way between 3B and the outfield wall. Until 12:05, we couldn't get into the infield so there was no action anywhere near us.
When they finally opened the rest of the stadium, he headed in and watched Johnny Venters warm up with Alan Butts:
As you can see, they had a bunch of baseballs sitting in the outfield for the pitchers to use to warm up, and several of them were Dodger Stadium commemorative baseballs!
But the weird, one-guy at a time method worked against all fans hoping to get a toss up. We only watched two sets up pitchers warm up before we left the 3B line. But every single Braves pitcher dropped his warm up baseball back in the pile *for the next guy* before heading back into the dugout. I looked back about 10 minutes before the game started and that same group of baseballs was still sitting there. Not of one of them was missing.
Anyway, while we wanted to get one of those Dodger baseballs, we decided to leave the field level after Chad Durbin and his partner finished playing catch (they had followed Venters). We headed off in search of pizza. Amazing, we walked all the way around the stadium and somehow missed the pizza place, which was right at the beginning of our walk. So we ended up getting our standard (and delicious) Nationals Park nachos:
We ate the nachos in the shady seats by the RF foul pole. In that picture of Tim, he is questioning why he would put the cap back on his bottle of water after drinking some water. He just couldn't fathom why a cap should be reapplied to the top of a water bottle once opened. Sometimes (well, often times), Tim likes to inject fictitious drama into otherwise mundane of situations.
After eating, it was getting close to game time. But we headed back toward CF to check out the kids play area. Unfortunately, there was a line at the play area. We'd have to wait to get in. So we decided to come back later. Instead, he headed over to the MASN booth and got some funny pictures:
The MASN booth was also handing out free posters, which doubled nicely as bats. We took the bats to a little shady nook behind the Red Porch and the boys took a whole bunch of practice hacks with their posters:
We had great seats for the game in section 135, row P (seats 1-2):
And, ever better, they were free!
Even with the great seats, we didn't stay put too long. Tim had dippin' dots (in a cup, no helmet option!) and Kellan had a twist soft serve ice cream helmet.
While they ate their ice cold refreshments, I watched the Nats push four runs across the plate in the bottom of the first inning:
The biggest blow of the first inning was a 2-run homerun by Ryan Zimmerman. The first also featured singles by Steve Lombardozzi, Mike Morse, and Roger Bernadina, and a double by Danny Espinosa.
Last Nats game we attended, rookie phenom Bryce Harper played CF. At this game, he shifted over to RF:
You may notice something cool if you enlarge that last picture. In that picture, you can tell that Harper jams two fingers into her glove's pinky hole and doesn't use the index finger hole. He's certainly not unique in that, but it is a cool little nuance of the game that I've never captured on "film" before.
In the bottom of the first I tried to get a picture of Chipper Jones getting a hit. He got the hit. But a fan below us stood up and blocked my view right when Chipper made contact. So I had to settled for this much less historic and satisfying picture of Brian McCann not getting a hit:
And then it was time to check the situation at the kids' play area. This time, it was all clear. Tim got right in and went to the playing. Kellan is only two and isn't allowed (by the Nationals) to go up into the play area yet. So he had to settle for throwing one of our cloth baseballs…
…off the walls of the net room below the big slide.
After our round of playing ended, we headed back to that little shady nook where the boys ended up playing catch against the wall for a bit:
Tim was doing some great catching. His catching has improved about 450% over the past six months. I credit it to going through his first season of T-ball where he finally got to see how much fun it is to play defense. Before T-ball, all Tim ever wanted to do was hit and hit and hit and hit, and hit some more. Now he loves to play catch. I love it.
As we headed back toward the RF foul pole, we were met by an alarming scene. I couldn't get my camera out in time to get a head on look, but…
…as we approached the escalator and stairs up to the second deck, a big group of about 20 cops, stadium security, and medics were walking down the stairs and the medics were carrying a fan strapped to a board. I have no clue what happened. But it was pretty crazy to see.
We ended up walking all the way around to the team store behind home plate. But we had to leave the team store quickly because I Ryan Zimmerman came up to bat. It was the bottom of the fourth inning. And, oh by the way, Zimmerman had hit his second homerun of the day an inning earlier to give the Nationals a 6-0 lead. I didn't want to miss it Zimmerman blasted his third homerun of the day.
He didn't:
Nope. He lined out to Jason Heyward to end the fourth inning.
I just ran over to the standing room area in the concourse behind the 3B field level seats to watch Zimmerman. When Zimmerman lined out, we turned around to head back to the team store and guess what we noticed? The pizza place we had walked right by without noticing it earlier in the day.
So we grabbed a couple slices of pepperoni and headed back to our new favorite "nook" at Nationals Park to eat our pizza in the shade. But turns out the Presidents had just raced and they were posing for pictures in our precious nook! So we wandered a bit further toward RF and enjoyed our pizza at one of the picnic tables in the concourse:
After eating our pizza, we headed over to the RF foul pole. Kellan has only been to a few Nationals games, but at every one so far Jim Lett has tossed us a warm up baseball between innings at the RF Nationals' bullpen. We'd stopped by the bullpen earlier in the game with no luck. I figured we would give it another shot.
We hung out a bit in the SRO area just behind the field level seats. Shortly after arriving, Bryce Harper hit a weak grounder up the middle for his only hit of the day…
…and Zimmerman again failed to hit his third homerun of the game.
We ended up hanging out by the foul pole for about 2.5 innings. The first inning, Jim Lett tossed both warm up balls into the seats in foul territory.
We had a great view of both Bryce Harper…
…and Jason Heyward from our standing room spot behind the Nationals bullpen.
We were only going to make one more attempt before heading back to the play area. The second time we headed down, Jim Lett passed along his warm-up position to one of the Nats relievers. He threw one warm up ball into foul territory and kept the other.
But it wasn't a fruitless attempt. While the reliever was warming up Harper, I noticed that a stray baseball was sitting on the ground right below me and the boys. I also noticed Nelson Robledo hanging out down in the bullpen. I called out, "Hey, Nelson." When he turned around, I pointed at the baseball and gave him a "could you toss it up to us, please" look. He pointed at the reliever (who I really think was Drew Storen) and gave me a "he'll toss you one of the warm up balls" look.
When Storen (we'll call him Storen, I really think it was) pocketed the second warm up ball, I called out to Nelson again and pointed at that stray ball again with a "how about now" look. And he gave me a "hmm…yeah, I got you, man, but not until next inning" look.
And that's exactly what happened.
Oh, I forgot to mention, shortly before this inter-action with Robledo, Kellan fell fast asleep in my arms. It was well past his normal nap time.
We hung out for one more inning in the SRO area. Tim did some birding with the camera on my phone. We both tried to get a picture of Harper catching this fly ball…
…and only Tim succeeded.
I got Harper grounding weakly again:
He reached first one a throwing error.
Before the start of the next inning, which must have been the eighth inning, Nelson looked for us and then…
…tossed us a baseball from the back of the bullpen. Kellan was still asleep at the time. I'm not sure why, but the second I squeeze that baseball in my glove, Kellan's eyes popped open and he was wide awake.
I shouted out a, "Thanks, Nelson!" (hmm…maybe that is what woke him up…), and Kellan immediately reached out and grabbed the baseball out of my glove while calling out, "Baseball!"
I think it was a nice way for him to wake up from his nap.
We headed back again to our nook to play catch a little more:
A line was already forming in the CF-LF concourse for post-game Kids Run The Bases.
By the way, the Nationals were pounding the Braves 9-2.
Rather than wasting time standing in that line while the game was still on. No, instead of getting in line, after playing a little catch, we headed here:
We wanted to make a post-game umpire ball attempt and we found some great seats just about 10-11 rows behind the Braves dugout.
We watched Craig Stammen polish off the Braves and…
…then watched home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez unload all of his baseballs to kids in the diamond club seats behind home plate.
No problem there. Tommy Hanson gave Tim some post game love in the form of this uniquely mis-stamped baseball:
Thanks, Tommy!
Finally, it was time to hop into the still long kids run the bases line:
As we walked toward the field through the Nationals bullpen, we got a behind the scenes look at the view Robledo had when he tossed us that baseball and hour earlier:
Tim and Kellan locked hands and then headed down the warning track…
…towards Kellan's first kids run the bases experience.
When we reached the track behind first base, the boys were off to the races:
I thought Tim was going to run with Kellan, but the thrill of Major League base paths got to Tim and he turned on his afterburners. By the time Kellan was 10-15 feet out onto the field…
…Tim was already to second base (behind Teddy and all of those Nats employees).
When Tim was cruising past the short stop hole…
…, Kellan slammed on the breaks and stopped half way between first and second.
I followed Tim with my camera and caught him giving Abe Lincoln a high speed high five as he approached home plate:
I then looked back to the right side of the infield and Kellan was still standing in the same spot. One of the gals working the infield for the Nats scooped up Kellan and ran him around the bases:
It was pretty funny. She set him down a bit before home plate and tried to coax him into running the rest of the way. But he was having none of it. I think he was enjoying the ride. So she scooped him up again and they crossed home plate together.
When she set him down at home plate, he ran off toward the warning track at full speed with a big huge smile across his face. So, despite getting a little overwhelming getting out on that big field all alone, he seemed to enjoy his first kids-get-carried-around-the-bases experience.
Before heading out, I took several odd pictures of the boys, and this was the best one:
As we left the field, there were some Nats employees handing out freeze pops. The boys loved them:
Moments after leaving the stadium, Colleen scooped us up in our car and we finished our trip home from vacation. Tim nailed it while we were walking in the concourse and he told me, "This is a great way to end a vacation!"
2012 C&S Fan Stats
|15/13 Games (Tim/Kellan)
|18/17 Teams – Tim – Mariners, Rockies, Phillies, Mets, Marlins, Athletics, Orioles, Nationals, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Twins, Cubs, Cardinals, Royals, Red Sox, Rays, Pirates, Braves; Kellan – Mariners, Rockies, Marlins, Nationals, Athletics, Orioles, Mets, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Twins, Cubs, Cardinals, Royals, Red Sox, Rays, Pirates, Braves
|22 Ice Cream Helmet(s) – Phillies 2, Orioles 1, Mets 2, Twins 2, Cardinals 3, Royals 2, Rockies 3, Red Sox 2, Pirates 3, Nationals 2
|1 Ice Cream Glove! – Nationals
|81 Baseballs – Mariners 9, Marlins 4, Mets 8, Nationals 4, Phillies 5, Umpires 6, Orioles 6, Athletics 1, Diamondbacks 4, Blue Jays 1, Twins 1, Cubs 7, Cardinals 1, Royals 6, Red Sox 6, Rays 6, Pirates 3, Rockies 2, Braves 1
|11 Commemorative Baseball(s) – Marlins Park, Mets 50th Anniversary 2, Camden Yards 3, Dodger Stadium 4, Fenway Park 1
|10/9 Stadiums – Tim – Citizens Bank Park, Nationals Park, Camden Yards, Citi Field, Target Field, Busch Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Coors Field, Fenway Park, PNC Park; Kellan – Nationals Park, Camden Yards, Citi Field, Target Field, Busch Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Coors Field, Fenway Park, PNC Park4/1 Mascots Photos – Tim – Sluggerrr, Teddy Roosevelt, Abe Lincoln, George Washington; Kellan – Fredbird
|3/1 Player Photos – Tim – Ricky Bones, Willie Bloomquist, Jeremy Guthrie; Kellan – Willie Bloomquist
|2 Batting Gloves – Ronnie Deck
|5 Autographs – Willie Bloomquist 2, Tim Byrdak, Brian Roberts, Munenori Kawasaki


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Tractor Transfer Lift
PME Tractor transfer lift for wheelchair user access This personal lift was custom designed by PME to allow the owner of this tractor to continue work on his property
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