text:
J. Wellington Wimpy, the gluttonous, portly, ne'er-do-well moocher in the old Popeye comic strip, gained immortality with his plaint, "I will gladly pay you Tuesday, sir, for a hamburger today."
For Wimpy, of course, Tuesday never came. A lesser-known line was: "I'd like to invite you over to my house for a duck dinner — you bring the ducks."
For however much the health care reform legislation could mean to rural communities, among the most underserved by the nation's medical system, it's much like Wimpy's cadging for burgers: no bucks to back up the promises.
The legislation, embroiled in much wrangling and controversy over its insurance coverage requirements and costs, nonetheless contains a number of scantly publicized provisions that could benefit rural America, according to an analysis by the Center for Rural Affairs, "Health Care Reform, What's In It?"
The law "provides numerous opportunities for rural areas to increase all medical professions, to stabilize their medical delivery systems, and potential to aid the economies of many rural communities, as new and improved medical facilities and more health care professionals … afford more jobs, more income and more economic opportunity," the report notes.
"Access issues are serious health challenges in most of rural America," says Jon Bailey, the center's research director. Most rural communities and many of their citizens suffer from severe shortages of health care providers and work force, as well as "an economically fragile health care delivery system," he notes.
"For rural families, businesses, and communities, there is much to gain from health care reform … and much to lose if government fails to properly implement, or Congress fails to adequately fund, the provisions most crucial to improving rural health care access."
The National Center for Rural Health Works at Oklahoma State University has found that just one full-time rural primary care physician generates, on average, about $1.5 million in revenue and nearly $1 million in payroll, and creates or helps create 23 jobs in the community.
But back to Wimpy and his hamburger today for the promise of payment another day.
"While the access provisions in the law are of great potential benefit to rural America, the key word is 'potential,'" Bailey says. "Many of the provisions … are long-term strategies that will not immediately alleviate rural access challenges. Further, a weakness of the law is that most of its rural access provisions are not funded.
"The law only gives Congress authorization to appropriate funds … and without funding, these provisions are nice words in the federal law books, leaving much of rural America in the same weak health care access spot.
"Like much of the act, the provisions concerning access are a nice start — but rural citizens and policymakers must make sure they go beyond a nice start to truly benefit rural families and communities."
e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Marvel Professional 48 Bottle Right Hinge Single Zone Wine Cellar - Stainless Steel - MP24WSG5RS
Product Info Guide
Recommended Accessories
Key Features
- Dynamic Cooling Technology uses fan-forced air for faster cooling and temperature recovery, and better temperature stability
- Intuit Integrated Controls provide precise temperature management from 34F to 42F and indicate interior temperature removing any guess work
- Tinted, UV-resistant glass door with integrate hinges allows for zero clearance installation
- Two-stage blue interior lighting and solid black interior for a sophisticated look
- Stores up to 48 standard-sized wine bottles on full-extension, ball bearing racks
This Marvel Professional 24-inch single zone wine cooler is an elegant addition to your kitchen or bar while perfectly storing your favorite wines. This is achieved with Dynamic Cooling Technology which uses fan-forced air for faster cooling, faster temperature recovery, and better temperature stability throughout the cabinet. The specially designed full-extension ball bearing smooth-glide wine racks with stainless fronts allow air to flow on all sides for even cooling, and each hosts the trademarked Vibration Neutralization System which protects your wine against harmful vibrations. The Marvel Intuit Integrated Controls confirm the unit is operating properly and provide precise temperature management from 40F to 65F degrees. The controls can be locked to avoid unintentional changes and the display indicates the interior temperature of the unit, not the temperature at which it was set like traditional appliances, to remove any doubt that contents are cooled at the proper level. Audio and visual alarms indicate if the interior temperature falls outside proper storage parameters or if the door is left open for more than 5 minutes. The features continue with the door lock, the soft-close integrated hinges for a zero clearance installation, and the vacation/Sabbath mode which conserves energy when the unit is not in use. The thermal-efficient black cabinet and tinted, UV-resistant dual pane glass door protects items from damaging light. The two-stage, blue LED lighting, stainless toe kick, and stainless full length handle and door frame add a look that will compliment any setting. This unit can hold up to 48 wine bottles on the (5) 8-bottle full racks and the (2) 4-bottle half-depth racks.
Legal disclaimers and warnings
Product packaging, owners' manuals, installation instructions, and/or operating instructions may include more information than what is shown on our website. The content on our site is intended to be used for reference purposes only. Please fully read all included manuals and documentation before installing or using this product. WARNING for California residents: this product may contain chemical(s) known to the state of California to cause birth defects, cancer, or other reproductive harm.
Product Information
- 768388077945
- Model Number
|Number Of Wine Racks
|Rack Type
|Shelf Material
|Door Handle Type
|Straight Towel Bar
|Bottle Capacity
|Humidity Control
|Marvel Professional
|Outdoor Rated
|Total Capacity
|4.5 Cu. Ft.
|Number of Zones
|Door Color
|Stainless Steel
|Cabinet Color
|Exterior Material
|Painted Metal
|Interior Material
|Cooling System
|Cooling Type
|Forced Air
|Refrigerant Type
|Ambient Temperature Range
|55 - 100 Degrees
|Temperature Range
|40 - 65 Degrees
|Control Type
|Defrost Type
|120 Volts
|15 Amps
|Energy Star Compliant
|ADA Compliant
|Sabbath Mode
|Hinge Type
|Right Hinge
|Door Alarm
|Counter Depth
|Counter Depth
|Door Storage
|Front Venting
|Self Closing Door
|Outdoor Certification
|Cutout Width
|Cutout Depth
|Cutout Height
Manufacturer's Downloads
Learning CenterBack to Top
WarrantyBack to Top
AGA Marvel warrants all necessary parts and labor to repair or replace any component which proves to be defective in material or workmanship for three (3) years from date of purchase. For an additional five (5) years, Marvel will supply replacement parts for the hermetically sealed refrigeration system which consists of the compressor, condenser, drier, accumulator, bypass valve, connecting tubing and the evaporator that are proven to be defective due to workmanship or materials. Outdoor use is not covered under the warranty.
Customer Reviews (0)Back to Top
Be the first to write a review about this item.
Questions & Answers (0)Back to Top
Have a question about this item? Ask an expert.
Compare Similar ItemsBack to Top
Proposition 65Back to Top
Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.p65Warnings.ca.gov
Shipping & ReturnsBack to Top
Ship your entire order to your home for free, especially the big stuff! * Continental US only.When Will My Item Arrive?
Once shipped, items usually arrive within 3 to 5 business days. If your item is large it may ship via one of our third-party freight carriers (18-wheeler). If your order has an item that is shipped on a freight carrier, you will be contacted to schedule a curbside delivery time.
Anything under $49. ships at one low price. If your order increases, your shipping stays the same!45 Day No Hassle Returns
Return all new, unused and unassembled items in their original packaging, and we'll give you a full refund minus the cost of the original shipping AND return shipping.No Restocking Fee
Most companies charge a restocking fee. We think that is wrong.
About UsBack to Top
At BBQGuys.com we pride ourselves on being the grilling experts. From expert product reviews to free outdoor kitchen planning services, BBQGuys.com is dedicated to being your go-to resource for all things barbecue. Based in Baton Rouge with over 500,000 happy customers nationwide, we stand by our wide selection of grills, smokers, outdoor kitchen components and grilling accessories. Call us with any questions - we're here to help.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Hay Niki, what challenge are you talking about.
In what door did you find it.
I'm asking because their are lots of hidden surprises in chapter 3, and I don't want to spoil any of them for yu by trying to guess where you're stuck.
#51 2016-04-20 02:04:53
Hay Niki, what challenge are you talking about.
#52 2016-09-15 02:47:22
ok so i removed AAC from my computer and redownloading my stages, this just happends to be one of them... i'm stuck on a level where you have to use knife only to get rid of viruses, i kill a lot of them, but then there's this low rumbling thing to my right that kills me in one hit, which sucks. i'm posting this because this is really, really getting on my nerves. thanks for your help, and i have no idea how you can know which chapter your on.
What is hard is making code that accepts different and sometimes unexpected types of input and still works.
This is what truly takes a large amount of effort on a developer's part.
#53 2016-09-16 10:41:15
Yeah, the chapter thing's a bit of a problem.
In the next update, I'm going to add chapter bumpers.
I'm just trying to figure out how to play a little jingle, then have SAPI speak a message.
It's possible; I think...
Are you in the dark world second visit with only your knife?
If you have the cyberstar, you have to use that to kill the rumbling thing,
It moves slow, so just stay far enough away from it where it can't hit you.
Take pot shots with your cyberstar, and if you need health to continue using it, their's some in the tunnel you came through to get to this point.
If you don't have the cyberstar, you can use your knife, but it's vary tricky.
I hope this helps.
If not, please post here, and I'll see if I can help some more.
#54 2016-09-25 01:42:46
ok. sorry for not checking back for quite a while. yes, i was in the dark world the second time. did you forget to put cyber star in the level? because i cant use it. what i did is i used a knife, got hit, which is unavoidable, then jumped away and kill each thing. each kill costed a life, but i did it. i beet chapter 2, the puzzles really sucked because as you can tell i'm not from america, so it was a pure guesswork.
ok so i killed the things, entered teleporters, solved the puzzles, killed a huge army of enemy's and made shadow bight the dust. then i think i was in pokemon stages? i don't know, anyway, killed all of those things, some are really resistent to knife but go down with 1 or 2 hits of your laser, got to the notes on the walls, activated the ainchent power enhansment which was cool IMO, oh then i made shadow bight the dust, sorry. one question though: why didn't you made player stop when you heard a text of what you, or your shadow wrote? that would make sense, would it? because i had to restart to get the full text because i was jumping and skipped some dialog. just a thought.
now, the reason i'm posting the post in the first place.
chapter 3, castle of lies, really sucks. how? i fall into nothing this with no warning and i didn't expect it coming so i cant know which location is it. please please please, give me a tip on how to avoid this stupid level.
there are 2 paths, does one of them gets you to the castle of trueth if you manage not to fall onto platforms? or both will lead you to the castle of lies.
i think the sub levels are cool, btw. alright, that's it for today.
What is hard is making code that accepts different and sometimes unexpected types of input and still works.
This is what truly takes a large amount of effort on a developer's part.
#55 2016-09-25 18:27:35 (edited by threeblacknoises 2016-09-25 18:32:36)
First of all, an update has gone live in post 1, so please download that.
second, the cyberstar weapon has to be earned in the main game postgame itself.
Complete program files (x86) and the next level after that, and you'll get the cyberstar.
Regarding the text in the pokemon level, I might make the text stop the player.
The answers to the questions are all located in the cheetsheet file you got with the game.
Regarding the path of truth...
You'll always fall onto the path of lies if you try truth and fail.
It's possible to succeed, but not easy.
Within the path of lies, their exists a hidden way back to the path of truth in one of the doors.
I also have an .ogg file of me playing the path of truth and succeeding.
It's in post 1 at the vary end.
You're probably stuck in the castle of lies proper.
The nothingness without warning is not a bug, it's supposed to be their.
Some viruses are supposed to run away from you as you get close to the nothingness.
I'll add the positions of said nothingness in the next update, but for now, you'll have to find them yourself.
#56 2016-10-02 04:45:37 (edited by The Imaginatrix 2016-10-02 12:04:57)
So I just downloaded this huge set of stages last night and checked it out. Is it a thing in custom stages that you can't save the enemies being defeated? And how many levels are in each chapter? And how do I unlock things? Do I have to keep the game running as long as I'm playing to get the special content you're supposed to get in a hub after beating a level? I'm sorry for rambling and if my questions have obvious answers, but I'm already trying to get used to having to play lots of levels one after the other and memorising where the drops are and only having so many lives and if I leave I have to start all over again...
Edit: I made it past the Mario levels, but then there was this place in the first Zelda level where there's a wall, and a delete ray, and another wall, and another delete ray, and a whole pile of viruses and a zip bomb that all conspire to kill me before I can either get past or kill them all, even with my laser. There was nothing I could do to escape that death trap! *cries*
#57 2016-10-02 14:07:15
First of all, thanks for trying my stage.
Regarding the Zelda level...
You have to stay crouched while walking under the walls and delete rays.
Try to kill the viruses by making them come to you.
Take your time and learn how the enemies react and interact to what you do.
The delete rays can be passed, but you'll have to listen to them to figure out how to do it.
Their are checkpoints to help with the difficulty of this part.
regarding the enemies not being saved when you kill them...
Are you referring to the fact that your bits reset after the stage is over?
Aaron did this to prevent people from making stages that allow a player to farm bits and raise their stats unnaturally fast.
Regarding special content...
Their are some special things that happen if you keep playing, but it's mostly your lives that carry over if you can make it through the chapters without restarting.
Their are also lots; and I mean lots; of secrets to be found as well.
Some can even help repeat runs of the stage.
I hope this helps you out.
If you like, I can make a recording of the Zelda level if you're really stuck.
#58 2016-10-03 02:22:24
Nah, I knew about the bits thing from the AAC topic. I can understand that. I'm keeping an eye on the number of overall kills I have so I don't lose the reward for the achievement because I was in a custom stage.
What I was talking about was when you die, the enemies you killed respawn. That doesn't happen in the main game and it makes getting back to where you were easier. In this, if I land in a pit (which is still happening more often than not), or whatever, and die, I'm back at my last checkpoint and have to fend off enemies I've already killed. Repeat this several times as I try to work out how to cross the thing without dying and it starts to get irritating.
#59 2016-10-03 02:37:20
you aint seen nothing. you think that level is bad? oh wait! it gets worse, not in the chapters of the stage, but in the post game, there's a level... oh, i won't spoil it to ya.
spooooiiiilllleeers, whoops, spoilers.
so, this is really pissing me off. did you meant for chapter's 2 and 3 without brake in between? about 5 shots from the virus on the path of lies the ship thing and i'm dead. they attack faster then my knife. please fix this.
i broke my heart when i misst the platform on the path of truth. jump! jump! jump! ooh, music changed! i must be close to the end! aaaaaaaaah! i fall... for about 2 minutes, nooooooooo!
i looked at the cheat sheet to see if there's any other path for the path of truth and there is, it's through the ship which has freeking overpowered viruses.
add this, ASAP!
ability to skip the disclamer blah blah blah blah blah thing. it's really annoying when i restart the levels to attempt path of truth again, so as which chapter are you on messages. i think that's cool, the messages about chapters, but they get annoying when i cant skip them.
1. did you use any other code besides the stage builder itself? if you didn't, how in the world you make players fall from the pit and not lose a life?
2. do i have to do something to unlock the tile creator? if so, what, if not, please explain on how to use it?
3. in super liam, how did you change the sector steps?
i'm really intrested in that. alright, i'm off and please add the skipping ASAP!
What is hard is making code that accepts different and sometimes unexpected types of input and still works.
This is what truly takes a large amount of effort on a developer's part.
#60 2016-10-03 04:22:39 (edited by The Imaginatrix 2016-10-03 04:48:18)
Agree about the disclaimer. Players really only need to hear that once. Then it should be skippable.
... Considering I haven't even done the postgame for the official AAC yet (lack of decent stats. I'm grinding for bits and hoping for an achievement or two that gets me some more) and given how tough some of these levels are, I'm probably gonna take a looooong time to beat this stage. It's great, though! I wish we had blind-friendly versions of all of these games with modern sounds. Mario, Zelda, all of them. (I know about the mario one and have it but this game has awesome sounds and music that must be from more recent games and I love them.)
Edit: The delete rays are too fast! You don't move very fast when ducked so I always get hit by them! I wish you had an invincibility item or at least more health to deal with this...
#61 2016-10-03 13:34:43 (edited by threeblacknoises 2016-10-03 15:57:33)
The viruses respawn because their is a flagyou can set in each stage that tells AAC weather to use normal behavior, or the enemy respawning behavior from rusty software.
Please check your difficulty mod settings.
I've run into the same problem only to find that. oops, my diff mod was set to some ungodly high setting.
Also, try jumping to a virus and start attacking before you land.
I made Remnant to be plaied on the default difficulty setting. Anything higher than 1 or 2 wil make this stage really really hard.
If you're still having the problems with the viruses and delete rays after turning off your dif modd setting then I will add an item to fix this stage.
Tip: check your diff modd with the F key.
I'll add a note to post 1 now, and I'll update the readme to include the same note.
Regarding falling and not losing lives, no I didn't use any other code.
All falling events are vary carefully recorded gameplay.
The sector steps were changed either by adding one tile that sounds like the grates, or by simply adding an additional corrupt sector tile before and after each sector.
I don't think you need to unlock the tile creator, use control M to get to it.
I'll make the disclaimer skippable on chapters 2 and 3.
As for the chapter bumpers, I'm not going to make those skippable, not because I'm a jirk, but because I literally can't.
You see, they're made using a sceen with a BGM that triggers on a timer so SAPI can announce the chapter name.
This makes them unskippable without messing up the effect.
I'll check back soon and look at the feedback.
An update to Remnant will be coming soon.
#62 2016-10-03 15:33:32
I had a dif mod of 6. I'll disable difficulty and play it again.
#63 2016-10-04 13:45:10
Okay, I made it to the second level of Zelda tonight (I held off because I was very close to 100k bits and wanted the reward for that achievement). There are electric barriers with enemies inside them and I can only get some of these enemies because they're in the barriers. There's also this thing with big booming steps trying to kill me, and he does if he gets too close. I'm starting to suspect there's more than one, because they sure seem to move fast and come at me from the same direction I'm fleeing sometimes. Oh, and there are arrows again, and I'm having to run away from other enemies because Big Boomer will get me if I don't. (This is Zelda so it's probably Ganon or one of his minions, but I honestly don't care. He booms and kills me, therefore Big Boomer.)
What do I do? I made it to a cracked wall at one point and my character said something, but then I died... I didn't want to die at that point. I thought I'd made it to the end...
#64 2016-10-04 14:27:05 (edited by threeblacknoises 2016-10-04 20:57:38)
Dood, you were so close, all you had to do was croutch and walk...
I kind of like big boomer as an enemy name, though it's actually a giant statue.
They don't have to much health, so kill them with your laser at a distance.
The things inside the bariors actually make the same sound as the bariors, so they're kind of hard to hear.
Just jump inside the barior and attack as you land.
I'm going to start testing the viruses in the ship and see if I can find the one that's so overpowered.
Edit: I just tested the entire ship level.
No bugs or over-powered viruses.
You must have your dif mod active.
Try disableing it.
You said a virus kills you in 5 hits?
I tested all viruses, and none do that.
The first is a tad strong, but enemies don't respawn in that level due to the new platforms.
even that first one takes something like 25 hits or so to kill you.
I'll have a disclaimer skip hotfix up later tonight.
Edit: Disclaimer hotfix live.
Check post 1.
This will be included in the main download later.
#65 2016-10-05 11:11:03
Well, I made it all the way to the bit where you lose your weapons, and I don't have the Cyberstar yet, 'cause I've heard horror stories about Program Files x86, so I'll have to stop there for now. I made it that far though! I found some of the sections very useful.
This stage ... I have so much love for it. So very much.
#66 2016-10-06 06:07:43
Got the cyberstar, but that enemy is super hard to get! He follows you into the tunnel, and then you can't fire your cyberstar because you're ducked, and if you try to get past him he will almost certainly kill you, and it can take several lives to lure him back out to blast him. And when I went into the tunnel for health all I found was a restore-by-30. Do those items not respawn?
#67 2016-10-06 15:37:58
Unfortunately, they don't respawn because the enemy and item respawn flags are the same one.
Aaron really should have made those two flags separate so health and stuf could respawn.
I'll add a few more of those helth items, and maybe even change them to full health restores instead of by 30.
I can't check what items are where, only that items are their, so thanks for pointing this out.
#68 2016-10-08 07:16:08
Just tried that level again and got one full restore in the tunnel, but since I had to use it because the enemy had come for me and half-crushed me, and then he got a chance to finish the job, it basically went to waste and when I went to find more, there was only the thirty left. I could have sworn I found two full health restores last time but wasted them... I also don't know how close you have to be to an enemy for the cyberstar to do damage, so I've ended up being too close to him and getting killed because I want to make sure he's hit. If I'm going to take damage, I'd darn well better not be sacrificing my health in vain. I miss my laser...
#69 2016-10-08 14:12:12
The cyberstar has the same range as the laser; as far as I can tell.
Their is a full health restore and a restore by 30 in the tunnel.
In the update their is now 3 full restores and an extra life.
I'll have that out soon.
As for the boss, try jumping over it and letting it get all the way to one end, hit it, then jump over and repeat.
Should only take about six hits before it's dead.
#70 2016-10-08 15:50:17
hi. i think, i'm not sure, but i can do at least some form of remnent playthrough today. i'll try to play through chapters 1 and 2, i'm not sure about 3 sinse it sucks.
What is hard is making code that accepts different and sometimes unexpected types of input and still works.
This is what truly takes a large amount of effort on a developer's part.
#71 2016-10-08 17:19:59
amerikranian, pleas disable your difficulty modd before playing.
It just might be your problem with chapter 3.
#72 2016-10-08 17:45:01
i will do recording of chapter 3 without diff mod and you'll see what i'm talking about. also i don't have a cyber star, so you'll see my way of killing that boomber thing
What is hard is making code that accepts different and sometimes unexpected types of input and still works.
This is what truly takes a large amount of effort on a developer's part.
#73 2016-10-08 20:42:45
Hay all, a new update will be live vary vary shortly.
Check post 1 directly below the main download link for the update link, not the hotfix link.
This keeps the disclaimer skip fix for those who don't have it yet, but it also adds some health items to a cirtain stage people are having a problem with.
#74 2016-10-09 02:29:27
ok, playthrough is done, i'll upload it eather today or tomorrow, maybe today.
i hate remnent! this guy... i mean come on dude, no check points and a lots of jump, jump, jump, jump, jump! i made to the part when he said come on, come on or something, then died. ugh! i turned diff mod off and had to restart the game, anyway, chapter 3 is a little better, though castle of lies should have at least 1 check point.
What is hard is making code that accepts different and sometimes unexpected types of input and still works.
This is what truly takes a large amount of effort on a developer's part.
#75 2016-10-09 13:39:00
Can't you start from Chapter 3? You don't have to restart the entire stage...


text:
e-mail: email@example.com
Tel. PL: +48 501 983 321
Tel. DE: +49 176 872 832 68
Amberwood Showroom:
Brunnenstrasse 65
13355 Berlin
Ring Amberwood SILVERMORM
Handmade ring made of a natural amber, exotic wood and drift wood, framed with brushed, matt silver (adjustable ring size - min. size 12, max. size 21).
- amber,
- wood,
- sterling silver
21 mm (diameter)
10 g
Check the Related products and match your Amberwood ring with pair of earrings or necklace.
Due to the uniqueness of the amber, its shape and colour may slightly differ from the one shown on the photo (a difference of max. 10%). The composition of wood and the silver element are identical in colour and proportions.
In some pieces of Amberwood jewellery you can find quite rugged surface. It's not the defect of the piece, it means we use natural Baltic amber with its own unique shape, colour and structure.
Each piece of jewellery is packed in a cardboard box with a soft flocked inner layer.
Ring is packed in a big box: 4,5 cm x 4,5 cm.
Sets of jewellery are packed in a big box: 15,5 cm x 15,5 cm.
Additionally, before posting, the boxes are put in a bubble envelope, that protects the box from crushing.


text:
NORTHRIDGE, Calif - Jessica Wilson scored 17 points to lead six players in double figures and UC Santa Barbara tallied a season-high on the way to a 90-79 victory over Cal State Northridge Saturday afternoon in the Matadome. With the win the Gauchos finish second in the Big West standings and will earn a bye into the semifinal round of next week's conference tournament.
UCSB finishes the 2006-07 regular season with a 17-12 overall record and captured the Big West's second seed with a conference mark of 10-4. CSUN wraps up the year with a 13-15 overall regular season record and 9-5 mark in league play.
The Gauchos produced one of their most balanced scoring attacks of the season as a total of six players finished in double figures. Wilson scored a team-high 23 on 6-for-11 shooting, went 2-of-4 from behind the three-point arc, grabbed seven rebounds, and dished out a game-high four assists.
Chisa Ononiwu finished 8-of-13 from the field for 16 points, to go with six rebounds, three assists, and a career-high four steals. LaShay Fears scored in double figures for the third straight game, tallying 15 on 2-of-5 shooting. She was 9-of-13 at the free-throw line, had five rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Meagan Williams had one of the best performances of her young career, finishing 5-of-9 from the floor for 14 points, just two shy of her career-best. The freshman was 2-of-3 from downtown, led the Gauchos with a career-high eight rebounds, and had two helpers in 23 minutes off the bench. Lastly, Whitney Warren was 4-for-5 and scored 10 points to round out the scoring leaders for the Gauchos.
Ofa Tulikihihifo scored a game-high 23 points on 9-for-19 shooting to lead the Matadors. LaJoyce King scored 13 of her 16 points in the second half and Jamie McCaa and Ashley Blake added 15 apiece.
Santa Barbara came out of the gates firing, took an early lead, and never looked back. After Wilson and McCaa hit back-to-back triples, Wilson scored inside and Ononiwu sank a baseline jumper as the Gauchos hit their first three shots to take an early 7-3 lead. UCSB then used a 13-3 run keyed by eight points from Williams and Warren to build a 20-6 advantage with 12:30 remaining in the first half. The Gaucho lead ballooned to 21 at 33-12 less than four minutes later following an Ononiwu jumper from the free-throw line.
McCaa's second three-point hit pulled the Matadors to within 17, 38-21 with 1:35 left in the period, but Williams responded with a triple of her own and Wilson hit a jumper to give UCSB its biggest lead of the half, 43-21 heading into the locker room.
The Gauchos shot 51.4% from the field in the first half, while the Matadors shot just 25.7% and committed 16 turnovers.
Santa Barbara connected on its first four attempts after intermission and built its biggest lead of the afternoon at 53-28 after Fears sank her second three at the 16:25 mark. Northridge trimmed six points of the Gaucho lead to trail by 19 at 55-36 following a McCaa jumper from the wing with 12:28 remaining. UCSB's lead did not dip below 19 points for the next 10 minutes of play until Blake and McCaa made consecutive threes to bring the Matadors within 14 at 78-64 with 2:42 left to play.
The Gauchos responded, however, as Jenna Green, Fears, and Wilson combined to make seven free-throws and UCSB's lead reached 21 again at 87-66 with 1:31 left on the clock. With the Gaucho starters on the bench, Northridge closed the game on a 13-3 run, but it was too little too late and Santa Barbara held on for the 90-79 win.
UCSB never trailed in the game and tied its high-mark for the season. The Gauchos also scored 90 in a win over UC Davis Feb. 3.
Santa Barbara shot 50% for the game, hitting 30 of its 60 shots from the floor, while CSUN overcame a 9-for-35 start in the first half to shoot 39.4% (26-66) overall. Santa Barbara shot the ball well from deep again, finishing 8-of-17 from three-point territory, 47.1%. The Gauchos won the rebounding battle by a 41-36 margin and allowed just four Northridge offensive rebounds after the Matadors pulled down 12 in the first half.
While the Gauchos held a slim 24-22 advantage in the paint, they turned 24 Matador turnovers into 25 points. CSUN scored 20 points on 25 UCSB miscues.
With the bye into the third day of the Big West tournament, Santa Barbara will have five days off before returning to action Friday, March 9. The Gauchos will play their semifinal opponent at 2:30 p.m. or 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first semifinal, which starts at 12:00 noon.


text:
It might not seem so, but parody is a genre that is really difficult to do well. It helps to have a genuine affection for the genre or subject you're poking fun at--please to see This is Spinal Tap, Shaun of the Dead, or even Broken Lizard's Club Dread. Even then, it's a balancing act. You can go completely over the top a la Airplane! and rely on sight gags and joke-a-minute pacing to keep the audience happy. Or you can go the wry/dry route, something along the lines of Behind the Mask: the Rise of Leslie Vernon, counting on your audience's knowledge of the genre's tropes to sell your sly manipulation of such for your yucks and chuckles. Either approach takes a deft hand and no small amount of skill--get too silly, and you spiral out of control into stupid pop culture references and fart jokes; get too dry, and it's hard to tell if you're joking.
I say all this because even after watching it, I'm not entirely sure whether Tom DeSimone's 1986 Women-in-Prison flick Reform School Girls is really meant to be a parody or not. They certainly tried to sell it as such back in the day--the trailer (link here, and helpfully embedded at the end of the review) wants you to believe it's the laff riot of the season. But DeSimone has his actors play it almost completely straight, which means either he was going to dry route and overdessicated, or else he was making an homage that the marketing suits didn't know what to do with. Or maybe the WiP genre itself travels so close to self-parody anyway, poking fun at it is a sucker's game.
We open with Jenny (Linda Carol), a fresh-faced beauty from the wrong side of the tracks, waiting in the getaway car while her boyfriend tries to rob a warehouse or something. Things go predictably wrong, as the significant other shoots a security guard and goes down in a hail of bullets , leaving Jenny holding the bag as an accessory to armed robbery and murder. But since she's underage--that's what they tell us, anyway, so we just have to go with it--the judge sentences her to reform school instead of prison, until such time as she's old enough to face the world on her own.
She soon finds herself at Pridemore Juvenile Facilities, in the company of a ragtag group of innocents and ne'er-do-wells of the sort you'll expect if you've ever seen a WiP flick before. Jenny is quickly befriended by tough-talking Bronx chick Nicky (Laurie Schwartz, doing a pretty good impression of Jo from Facts of Life), who has been in before and agrees to show Jenny the ropes. Also along for the ride is timid runaway Lisa (Sherri Stoner) who wound up here after her brother was killed by their foster parents, who were also sexually abusing Lisa. How this translated into a reform school term for the girl I wasn't exactly sure, but the important thing is that they get incarcerated together, and that's exactly what happens.
As I'm sure always happens in a state-run reform school entrusted with the rehabilitation of minors who have strayed off the straight and narrow, the girls are immediately stripped and forced to take a group shower, then told by a sadistic matron, "You're going to be inspected inside and out, so GET IT CLEAN!" After they towel off the girls are sprayed down with DDT--presumably for delousing purposes--and then introduced to Matron Edna, played with over-the-top, predatory-lesbian sadism by Pat Ast. Edna munches chocolates and informs the girls of the favors the can expect if they "play nice," then confiscates Lisa's squeak-toy/rag doll, the only possession of her deceased brother's that she has left. Just so there's no question who the bad guy is here.
Jenny, Lisa, and Nicky are then escorted down to Dorm 14, their new home. You can tell this is the baddest block in the whole damn jail by the blaring rock music and the clouds of cigarette smoke and cheap perfume that greet the girls at the door. They walk in to find the entire population clad in Frederick's of Hollywood lingerie, a sure sign that these are the Bad Bad Girls, the ones who likely rule the school. Baddest of the bad is Charlie Chambliss, played by punk rock legend and Grammy Nominee Wendy O. Williams. Constantly lifting weights and strutting around in her thong bikini, Charlie quickly sets her sights on Jenny and Lisa as perfect additions to her gang of lesbian miscreants. Jenny stands up for her timid friend, however, setting up the expected rivalry between them.
Also on hand is requisite bleeding-heart psychologist Dr. Norton (Charlotte McGinnis), who is new to the school and wants to make a difference in all these young ladies' lives. Of course this runs directly counter to the school's mission statement as defined by Warden Sutter (80s softcore legend and sometime sexy werewolf Sybil Danning), who has a predilection for Nazi SS gear and spends her free time reading misogynistic scripture over the loudspeakers by way of bedtime stories for her charges.
It would be easy to point out the ridiculous particulars of the movie's set-up so far, and use them to bolster the argument for parody. The "reform school" is a prison in all but name, complete with armed guards, license-plate manufacture, and plantation-style work details straight out of Cool Hand Luke. Of course none of the girls look anywhere NEAR juvie age, least of all Williams, who could easily pass for a lifer. The lingerie that all the girls wear in their dorms (and Williams wears even while on work detail, which for her involves sunbathing and pouring iced tea for Edna) is definitely NOT prison issue. And Danning's Warden could only be more Nazi-ish if they dressed her in Dyan Thorne's Ilsa outfit, complete with swastikas. So they're obviously taking the mick, right?
Jess Franco WiP opus, 99 Women, you'll see that with the possible exception of calling the place a reform school, none of the elements detailed above are really that far outside the norm. Vicar fantasy girlfriend Rosalba Neri wears her stockings and garter belts throughout her incarceration, even while working outdoors; the warden reads books about the Third Reich and speaks with a clear German accent, despite (or perhaps because of) the setting in Argentina. And I don't think anyone would accuse Franco of not being serious about his women-in-prison flicks.
The plot plays out pretty much by-the-numbers as well. There are catfights, gang rivalries, solitary confinement, a failed escape attempt on Jenny's part (she uses her feminine wiles to seduce the work truck driver into helping her escape, only to be betrayed by him at the gate once he's got what he wanted--typical man, no?), tragic deaths, and a kangaroo committee meeting in which Dr. Norman is made to look a fool for bringing up all her crazy allegations of abuse. And of course there's the climactic uprising in which Jenny leads the prisoners in revolt against their sadistic keepers. WiP 101, with not even standard deviation.
Also arguing against the parody idea is the tone of the piece. Though there are certain borderline-comedic elements (the DDT spray-down, the constant hard rock interludes, Edna's parasol and bikini tea-service in the fields, etc.), there's an overall bleakness to the flick that never really goes away. A large part of this is due to Wendy O. Williams' fierce performance as Charlie Chambliss. Of all the girls in lockdown she's the one actress who seems legitimately dangerous (and was, in fact), and her gruff, no-nonsense line delivery never betrays anything but the utmost seriousness. The scene where she and her gang trap Lisa in the bathroom (taking advantage of Jenny's having been sent to solitary confinement) and brand her with a red-hot coat hanger is damn near chilling in its sadism. Add to that the dark gloominess of the prison itself, the feeling that the bad guys will always win and there's no escape--it has a cumulative downer effect that overcomes any claim to levity.
The final battle between the revolting prisoners and the sadistic staff could also be read either way, but whatever your interpretation it's completely off the rails. Joining forces against an unhinged Matron Edna, Charlie and Jenny lead the girls in an all-out riot. Guards are murdered, girls are shot, and Charlie strips down to her leather warrior woman stage gear, steals a bus, and sends it careening into the guard tower where Edna is picking off prisoners with a rifle. The tower goes up in flames, Edna catches fire and plunges like a comet to her death, and presumably the state finds a more qualified, less Nazi-ish staff to replace them for the happy ending.
If the acting isn't meant to be parody here, it's pretty bad. Apart from the aforementioned strong performance by Williams (who's clearly pretty much playing herself) and Carol as Jenny, the rest of the cast do little to acquit themselves (HA!). Pat Ast chews the scenery a little too much as the sadistic matron, and her "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" eeevil laugh gets old less than halfway through. Danning, while striking to look at, is simply terrible as an actress, apparently reading her lines off cue cards for many of her scenes. And the rest of the girls give music video-level performances, only without quite so much polish. However, it is worth mentioning that Sherri Stoner, who plays doomed innocent Lisa, later achieved geeky fame as the voice of Slappy Squirrel in TV's Animaniacs. Which is pretty dang cool, imo. ;)
So how to rate? Well, If it's not meant to be a parody, the flick does hit all the requisite plot points and thematic notes of a WiP film from the 70s. However, it does so without the commitment of its forebears--there's little sex (even the shower nudity seems reticent), little torture/whipping (Lisa's branding being the main exception), and a reluctance to "go there" that would not have been present a decade earlier. The climax is a worthy battle, but too little too late, really.
And if it *is* meant to be a parody--it's really just not that funny. Which is a problem, clearly.
Reform School Girls, and Wendy O. Williams is something to see in action, so I can't really hate the flick. But I didn't love it either, and maybe its split personality is why. Anyway, I settle in on an average 1.5 thumbs rating. Worth seeing if you're a Plasmatics fan, or if there's nothing else on and you dig the loud music. Otherwise, I hear The Big Bird Cage is pretty good...
The Trailer for Reform School Girls (1986):
Misrepresentative? You make the call!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Reform School Girls (1986): or, So Young, So Bad, So What!
Posted by The Vicar of VHS at 1:54 PM
Labels: '80s, 1-2 Thumbs, Prison
3 comments:
- Tenebrous Kate said...
Your thoughts on this movie mirror my own, Vicar. I love the late and MUCH-lamented Wendy O. Williams in an entirely inappropriate and unladylike manner and she gives off sparks every time she's on-screen here--makes me wish the movie had gone MORE in one direction or the other, into depraved BDSM darkness or insane parody, and given her more to work with. I *like* WiP flicks, and this has all the right ingredients, which makes its ultimate failure to gel all the more disappointing.
And yeah--"Big Bird Cage" fucking RULES. Make no mistake, dude.
- September 14, 2009 at 4:39 PM
- Al Bruno III said...
You called it right on this one, the tone is all over the place and I found very little entertainment.
But I will admit to you that I never much liked WIP flicks... I'm not sure why really because I do like shower scenes...
- September 16, 2009 at 8:16 PM
- Cinema Du Meep said...
This movie always makes me feel so oozily good inside. Thank you!
- September 27, 2009 at 9:34 AM


text:
JUDr. Miroslav Jansta
Chief of Czech Basketball Federation
Ing. Stanislav Křiváček
Executive of Organising Committee
"On behalf of the organising committee and the Czech Basketball Federation we would like to thank you for the successful cooperation with your company in organising the XVI Basketball World Championship for Women.
We are pleased to state that response to the organisation of the world championship has been very positive from the participating teams, the FIBA and especially fans and the general public. Exciting matches with a marvellous atmosphere were enjoyed by record crowds, and, thanks above all to the excellence performance by the Czech team, the entire country was gradually gripped by basketball fever. Thanks to the great number of broadcasts by foreign television stations the Czech Republic truly became the centre of world basketball for two weeks.
The fine organisation of the entire event enhanced by the silver medal finish by the Czech team contributed to the final outstanding impression of the tournament, one that has left an indelible mark in the history of Czech sports.
Thank you once again."


text:
For the past 21 years, BITEC has been distributing GRACO
products in the United Arab Emirates. When GRACO introduced the new generation
of NXT airless sprayers in a market where The King® ruled for as long
as it did, some eyebrows were raised.
This soon turned into an air of optimism and excitement once the BITEC
sales teams attended GRACO's NXT launch held earlier last year in
Dubai. The Managing Director of BITEC, Mr. Ron Moor, exclaims: "My
lads have been selling GRACO Kings® for the past 20 years, and have
been competing favourably against traders importing GRACO King® copies
from The Far East. When we saw GRACO's new revolutionary airless sprayer
design, we immediately knew that this product would be a champion. The
NXT airless sprayers are affordable and offer an assortment of features
and benefits, which will make contractors think twice before purchasing
counterfeit airless sprayers."
BITEC has also been awarded for the third year running with GRACO's prestigious
million-dollar achievement award for annual purchases with GRACO surpassing
one million dollars.
BITEC's sales engineer Sunil Kavya was determined to be the first in
his team to sell a NXT airless sprayer. When Sunil's customer Mechanical
Engineering Services had to purchase additional airless sprayers for a
project, Sunil promptly introduced Mechanical Engineering to GRACO's new
NXT airless sprayer.
Mechanical Engineering Services are a contractor, currently coating manhole
covers with an epoxy topcoat. "We have been purchasing the GRACO
King® for a long time" said Mr. Karanbir Singh, Managing Director
of Mechanical Engineering. "The King® has always served us well
as a reliable and robust product. When Sunil presented the new GRACO NXT
features to us, we were keen to try it out by purchasing some units from
Mr. Singh noted the following exceptional benefits of DataTrak for his
Other features of the new NXT sprayers that stood out for Mechanical Engineering
Services and BITEC's sales engineers were the integrated air control valves
and pressure gauge. With the now obsolete King® units, the unit air
regulator controls were located behind the unit. The NXT air controls
are located conveniently in the front of the unit.
Due to the high air humidity in Dubai during May and October, Mr. Singh
has opted to take advantage of the optional upgradeable moisture separator,
which can be fitted on the new NXT air controls. "This will greatly
reduce air motor wear and tear," exclaimed Sunil Kavya.
The manhole covers being painted forms part of the billion
dollar building projects currently undertaken in Dubai. The NXT X60 was
selected for this application, applying Hempel Paints product Hempadur
3553, a 97% solvent free epoxy paint.
Source: GRACO


text:
WASHINGTON — More than 50 years after his plane was downed in the Soviet Union, Francis Gary Powers was posthumously awarded the military's third-highest decoration on Friday.
Mr. Powers, the U-2 spy plane pilot whose story captured national attention during the cold war, was awarded a Silver Star from the Air Force in a ceremony at the Pentagon.
After his plane was downed in 1960, Mr. Powers was subjected to 107 days of interrogation, followed by a public trial in Moscow. He was imprisoned for more than two years thereafter.
When Mr. Powers returned to the United States in 1962, he was derided by some for being alive at all. His capture had heightened tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, and there was widespread speculation that he had caved under pressure from his captors. In The New York Times shortly after his release, Mr. Powers was described as "commonplace"; he was, in the words of one journalist, "not a superhero but a normal unsophisticated young man" who was an "extremely cooperative witness for the Russians."
On Thursday, Mr. Powers's daughter, Dee Powers, recalled that a teacher of hers once "told the entire class that my father should have killed himself."Continue reading the main story
"That was very traumatic for me," Ms. Powers said. "And I went home that afternoon and I told my mom that someone had said that Daddy should have killed himself. And of course, my mother was up in arms over that. But that's what they knew then. And things — it took a long time for that to change."
The second draft of history, as reflected in the Air Force citation accompanying Mr. Powers's Silver Star, reads a bit differently. Mr. Powers "was interrogated, harassed, and endured unmentionable hardships on a continuous basis by numerous top Soviet Secret Police interrogating teams," the citation reads, while "resisting all Soviet efforts through cajolery, trickery and threats of death." He exhibited "indomitable spirit, exceptional loyalty, and continuous heroic actions."
The fuzzy bits of Mr. Powers's story were clarified only in 1998, when the Central Intelligence Agency declassified many of the details of its cold war-era U-2 spy plane program. In 2000, Mr. Powers was posthumously awarded a P.O.W. Medal, a Distinguished Flying Cross and a C.I.A. Director's Medal.
Within Mr. Powers's lifetime, though, he received far more criticism than appreciation. Affected by the public ire directed at him, Mr. Powers moved to California and took a job flying a traffic helicopter for a Los Angeles radio station.
On Aug. 1, 1977, the helicopter he was piloting ran out of fuel and crashed near a Little League field in Encino, Calif. Mr. Powers, who was 47, did not survive.
Now, with the Silver Star, members of Mr. Powers's family say they have at last found a sense of resolution.
"It's never too late to set the record straight," his son, Francis Gary Powers Jr., told reporters on Thursday. "Even if it takes 50 years, it's something that the family members and the loved ones of these military personnel who go through these type of situations — it goes to help put closure to it, to find closure."Continue reading the main story


text:
InformationWeek is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC
This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them.Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Amazon CloudFront CDN: Goodbye 404 Messages Amazon's content delivery network CloudFront lets subscribers redirect visitors to desired content while avoiding dreaded 404 error messages.
Obamacare: The Rise Of Private Health Insurance Exchanges Tuesday's launch of state and federal health insurance marketplaces is also prompting new interest in private exchanges as legal landscape changes.
Do Cities Need Texting Zones? New York state is planning pull-over texting "zones" on some of its highways to reduce driving accidents. Should cities follow suit?
GetInsured Wants To Be Cloud Provider To State Exchanges Website provides cloud back-end for New Mexico health insurance exchange and software for California insurance marketplace, with hopes to expand.
Millennials Reshape Companies' Social Media Policies Nearly two-thirds of Gen Y workers use a personal device or application for work purposes, says study. Does your company policy address this major shift?
Cloud Collaboration Gets Boxed Into Security Box Notes application employs all the same security layers that have made Box the go-to cloud-based sharing service among enterprises.
Hadoop's Second Generation Offers More To Enterprises The first Hadoop tools weren't easy to deploy or manage. But the second-wave tools deliver great advances in usability.
IBM's SDN Push Has Big Rivals IBM's SDN for Virtual Environments and IBM Programmable Network Controller puts it in competition with Cisco, VMware, Juniper and HP.
Dysfunctional Congress Hurts Government IT Government IT budgeting was hard enough even before government shutdowns, says this former government CIO. What can be done to combat the dynamic with Congress?
Google Web Designer Offered As Free Download Web designers and marketers now have a free tool for creating animated online content, for ads or otherwise.
Feds Warm Up To LinkedIn Government IT managers have been cautious about using LinkedIn, but odds are activity will soon rise due to federal travel restrictions and greater comfort with the platform.
Microsoft Expands Power BI, Translation For Office Microsoft Office is becoming adept not only at creating data but also manipulating and analyzing it, thanks to several new features.
Oracle OpenWorld: 5 Rants And Raves Oracle OpenWorld delivered big news and a consistent message. It also repackaged old news, bashed big data tools and avoided license cost and complexity issues.
BlackBerry: BBM For Android, iOS Coming BlackBerry insists botched roll-out doesn't mean the app has been nixed. It may be dead on arrival anyway.
HP's Building An SDN App Store HP's looking to foster an SDN ecosystem and take the smartphone model into enterprise software-defined networking with a developers' kit and an app store. But is this an idea ahead of its time?
iPhone 5c's Plastic Case Saves Apple $42 Plastic iPhone 5c is significantly less costly to build than the aluminum iPhone 5s, says UBS.
Big Data, 'Breaking Bad' And Orange Juice MailChimp's chief data scientist has a unique way of explaining data science to the masses. If you know a little Excel, you're ready to learn.
IBM Boosts Big Data Portfolio With Daeja Acquisition Daeja's imaging tech allows IBM's enterprise content management customers to view and annotate unstructured data on mobile devices, says Big Blue.
Government Shutdown: What Are IT Systems Risks? If the looming government shutdown comes to pass, Federal IT faces security, budget, and workflow risks.
Healthcare Apps Could Be Doctor's Best Friend Consumer health apps and gadgets could help improve patient care and reduce physicians' workloads. It's time for the healthcare industry to change a system that rewards disease.
5 IT Resume Blunders To Avoid Your resume can do as much harm as good when you're hunting for a new IT job.
Big Data Holdouts Risk Getting Swamped Emerging software tools make analytics feasible -- and cost-effective -- for most companies. Now, staying on the shore may be riskier than just diving in.
Cerner, Intermountain Partner On EHRs Healthcare IT vendor and Intermountain to collaborate on activity-based costing, expected to help accountable care organizations measure cost of care.
Is Apple iOS 7 Making Users Sick? Some users blame the new mobile operating system's background parallax effect and app transition animations for feelings of nausea.
Do You Need Mobile Middleware? Major software vendors seem to think you do -- and they might be right. Just don't expect mature platforms.
Google Says TGIF To Problem-Plagued Week Serious email delays and messaging glitches riddled Google's 15th anniversary week.
Microsoft Creating New Office Touch Apps In addition to a touchscreen version of Office, Microsoft is prepping Office Reader, a new touch multimedia tool for the Web, Office documents, PDFs and interactive e-books.
SAM Saves Cash, Not Just Compliance Woes Software asset management doesn't just make sure you're compliant with your software licenses. Smart use of SAM can also save money.
Give Us Your Loyalty (& Your Data, Of Course) Retailers really use loyalty programs to gather your data, not increase sales.
Visualizing The Urban Future With Analytics New data visualization tools, now emerging for urban planning, are giving community members a way to view change before it happens.
Skytree Offers Second Opinion On Your Analytics Data Skytree's new service connects customers with live data scientists for more accurate and reliable data analysis.
The Next Billion-Dollar IT Wunderkind Tech's next big star will improve information value, information delivery or maybe both.
Apple iPhone 5s: My First Week From iOS 7 to battery life, here's what I have noticed while getting to know Apple's iPhone 5s.
HTML5 Offers 'Road to Awesome' Before you head down the iOS or Android native-app mobile development path, consider Amazon's choice regarding HTML5.
iOS7 Adoption Estimated To Be 60% Apple fans are adopting iOS 7 at enough of a clip to jam up Web traffic.
Google Hummingbird Update, Explained Google search algorithm improvements will help it understand complicated queries and provide better answers.
Oracle On The Ground: Customers Speak Oracle OpenWorld attendees discuss the products they're implementing, from Fusion software to hardware appliances.
What Google's Calico Means For Healthcare Here are three reasons Google's health venture matters, both to the industry and to our quality of life.
The Truth About Oracle's Virtualized 12c Database Oracle says 12c, introduced at OpenWorld, is "virtualized" -- but you must look closely at what that actually means.
Microsoft Surface Mini Rumors Grow Microsoft may soon expand its tablet and smartphone lineup with a "Surface Mini" and several new Lumia devices.
Will EHRs Ever Help Small Practices? So far, evidence suggests that health IT benefits mostly hospitals and practices with deep pockets. That could change if small practices get more EHR training.
Tech Glitches Trip Obamacare Exchange Launches Several state health insurance exchanges say their websites might not be 100% functional on Oct. 1 launch date because of bugs that incorrectly calculate policy prices, among other problems.
Google Offers Shoppers Same-Day Delivery Google Shopping Express joins a growing list of services for shoppers who demand instant gratification.
IBM Debuts Educational Network For Pediatricians, Nurses Cloud-based social learning network designed with Boston Children's Hospital aims to bring best practices in medical care to healthcare providers anywhere in the world.
ERP Is A People Problem If there's an enterprise resource planning project in your future, beware the foot draggers and sandbaggers
In-Q-Tel Invests In 2 Cloud Technologies U.S. intelligence community investment group partners with cloud firms Socrata and AppThwack to make government information more accessible.
Healthcare CIOs Need Personalized Medicine Personalized healthcare is making drugs more effective, saving lives and promising much more.
State Insurance Exchanges: Hospital IT's Next Challenge As state insurance exchanges take hold, hospital IT departments must figure out how to keep up with patients' insurance eligibility, health status and benefits in fluid environment.
Robots Taking All Our Jobs? Ridiculous Neo-Luddite idea that automation causes high unemployment rates has been disproved throughout history.
CIOs & Health: Too Sick To Hire? What sort of health problems can companies accept and manage in a CIO or other employee, and which are insurmountable?


text:
Kneading and Folding video- Español
Hey everybody. This is the same kneading and folding video as before, but with Spanish subtitles for the commentary, thanks to fellow FreshLoafian, Joe Martello. I have an Italian and German version in the works, and am looking for someone to transcribe it in French. If you're interested, I can send you the English version in Word, then you can put the matching French sentences underneath the English. Thanks.


text:
No new offshore drilling!
Twenty-seven years ago, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck a reef and dumped 11 million gallons of oil off Alaska's coast, spreading more than 1,300 miles and killing hundreds of thousands of wildlife. Today, the Obama administration has plans that would allow new drilling in the Arctic and the Gulf, risking our climate and communities. Tell President Obama: No new drilling!
Photo Courtesy of Alaska Resources Library and Information Services / www.arlis.org


text:
Read By Myself Manga Online
You are following Manga series By Myself at hotmangahere.com. Let's begin with the first chapter if you have never read it before. Maybe By Myself is your favorite manga, So find and enjoy the next chapter of By Myself now. In my huge list of manga, you also can find some new and hot manga to have some relaxing time. Manga Comic is very popular. So please share the new and excellent manga comic to your friends or anyone who loves them. Surely they will be happy and thank you alot. Finally, Enjoy your time reading manga here. Love you all.


text:
Product Details
- high end
- heavy-duty wallpaper with paper top-layer and non-woven backing
- length 10m x width 48.7cm
- colourfast and washable with a soft cloth
- price per roll £175
- Country of Origin: The Netherlands
Product description
Daniel Rozensztroch, Artistic director of Merci has been obsessed for many years with everyday, ordinary objects and has not only collected a vast number; he has written several books about them in a series called "Everyday Things" as well as staging exhibitions.
- no wallpapering table necessary, glue is applied to wall
Questions about the Obsession Wallpaper Roll DRO-01 By Daniel Rozensztroch
Do you have a question about this product?
If your question isn't answered below, drop us an email using the form on the left. We'll respond to you personally by email and may also post the answer here to help others.
We're here to help! Fire away.


text:
In-game Minecraft CPU now available for download
You wanted a blocky, slow computer in your Minecraft. And here it is.
After movies emerging of people having created working CPUs and ALUs in Minecraft, Joystiq's reporting that anyone can now download a CPU and take a gander at its block-based innards. Get the save file here.
The download includes a text file which tells you how to operate the machine with its various lever. Handy.
Do it. Why not?


text:
Law School Admissions / Totally clueless about law as a career, please enlighten« on: May 15, 2005, 12:17:36 AM »
Well, perhaps not totally clueless, but just about. I've always been interested in law, and planned to go to law school after undergrad. However, with no career advisor and a plethora of information online, I'm quite confused about the requirements for becoming a lawyer. Do I take the JD program first, then a SJD or LLM? Or could I directly go to LLM? And I'm assuming that I need a SJD or LLM degree in order to be lawyer, correct? Is it standard education time to have four years undergrad, three years grad? Or do lawyers usually receive more? Please help clear the fog. Thanks.


text:
Hi guys, my name is Brandy and welcome to my very own site! Come inside and get to know me better! Experience exculsive pictures and videos of me that you will find nowhere else! I going to school to be a fashion designer and I thought having my own site would be a perfect way to meet people and might help with my future career plans. Plus, there's nothing like the rush of knowing someone's watching you strip, masturbate, or get it on with another girl!
W My first lesbian experience was in high school. I had two different girls I'd mess around with, but once they found out about each other, they cut me off! So since then, it's been nothing but men. Until Lightspeed, that is. ;) Come on in and chat for a bit! I'm new to the porn scene, but I think I'm catching on pretty quick! Love to hear any pointers you've got!
Love ya bunches, Brandy
Sign up for Brandy site now and take advantage of Lightspeed's newest money-saving offer! Buy several sites in one membership and save big! This is the first time offered on the web for as little as $4 per site! Plus keep your favorites and replace the rest once every month! Over 30 of Lightspeed's most popular sites to choose from in this incredible offer! Join now!
STEP #1: Select your membership info
Pick a Username:
Pick a Password:
Your E-mail:
STEP #2: Select number of sites
View all available sites
30 days full access to premium sites
30 days full access to any 10 premium sites + "Best of Lightspeed"
Try 10 sites (This Site + 9 Bonus Sites) for 3 days - rebills at $34.95 monthly
STEP #3: Select a payment method below:
Credit Card
(monthly subscription renews after a month)
Online Check
(monthly subscription renews after a month)
(1 month access - no renewal billed to your phone )
LS University
Tori Stone
Faith Lightspeed
Tawnee Stone
Nikki Grinds
Stacy Bride
Courtney Lightspeed
Gigi Lightspeed
Lacey White
Dana Lightspeed
Erica Lightspeed
Jordan Capri
Mandy Lightspeed
Dirty Aly
Ashley Lightspeed
Terry Lightspeed
Angel Woods
Brandy Didder
Cum Filled Panties
Taylor Little
Heather Lightspeed
Britney Lightspeed
Ronni Tuscadero
Sweet Devon
XXX Raimi
Rachel 18
LS Sorority
Little Troublemaker
U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement


text:
|Register | Login
Technical Problem With This Chapter?
Author: St Margarets
Story: Potter's Pride
Part: Potter's Pride
Rating: Teens
Setting: Pre-DH
Status: Completed
Reviews: 32
Words: 5,456
Updated: July 18, 2007, 7:16pm
Potter's Pride
The half-timbered, Tudor house Harry and Ginny bought from the estate of Great-Aunt Muriel was set in spacious grounds surrounded by an enchanted forest. Great-Aunt Muriel had decorated the house with artificial spider webs and lots of black, but Ron's remodel had uncovered all sorts of beautiful features such as oak woodwork, numerous mullioned windows, and leaves and flowers carved into the window frames.
Ginny loved the light-filled rooms, Harry loved the level lawn that was perfect for a Quidditch Pitch, and Hedwig and Demi loved the forest that was full of good hunting. All of these features were unexpected pleasures, but for Ginny, the best surprise was the lion-head newel post guarding the main staircase. It purred when she tickled it behind its ears, and its shaggy mane reminded her of Harry's hair. When she saw it, she felt like the house belonged to them – or maybe they belonged to the house. Either way, she knew what they should name it.
"Potter's Pride," she told Harry triumphantly.
"I'm proud of the house, too," Harry said. "But don't you think that sounds – er – arrogant?"
"I'm thinking of pride as a group of lions," Ginny countered. "We're a group of lions since we have a lion-head newel post and we're both Gryffindors." She didn't mention that they were both Leos since Harry thought astrology was stupid.
"Not much of a group – yet." He smiled. They had just found out that in nine months they would have one more Potter to add to the pride.
When Ron heard the name, he brought them two ancient stone lions from a castle that was being demolished. They placed them by the front door as sentinels, but they weren't very good guards since their stone joints were crumbling and they couldn't run very fast. They could roar, though, and lazily wrestle with each other.
Unfortunately, they had the bad habit of roaring through the night. Fred and George thought they might be bored so they brought them games to play. It turned out that the lions liked Gobstones and draughts, but they couldn't play cards since – as Hermione pointed out – they didn't have thumbs.
The lions were quiet this afternoon whilst the baby napped, but the Gobstones exploding against the front door were getting on her nerves. Ginny shoved a batch of scones into the oven and went out to scold them.
"David is sleeping," she said crossly. "He was up all night with a fever and so was I. That's why I'm not at the meeting with Harry and Hermione. Remember? Today's the day the Potter Foundation will try to convince St. Mungo's to use the Apparating Ambulances I charmed."
The right lion, always the most sensitive, hung his head and whimpered.
Ginny moderated her tone. "Sorry. I know you're just playing, but I'm a little on edge."
The left lion gently butted her hip with his head in way of an apology and Ginny patted him fondly.
Their lions, which started out as talking points, had became beloved members of the household after they roared for help the day Ginny went into labor during her first pregnancy. By the time Harry found her on her knees next to a bucket of soapy water, it had been too late to take her to St. Mungo's.
Harry had cursed the fact that there were no Apparition Ambulances in Britain, and then had wondered out loud why she thought mopping the floor was more important than getting to St. Mungo's. Ginny, who was just as scared as he was, yelled back that the first magic she was going to do after the baby was born was to hex him. Then she was overcome by another wave of pain, and Harry remembered his training.
In a little under an hour they had their baby – a boy who looked like Harry, and who turned out to be as outgoing and stubborn and mischievous as Ginny. They named him Brian.
"You lot remember how badly I needed an ambulance when Brian was born." Her voice caught. "And then with David…"
The right lion roared softly at the memory.
She sighed, trying to forget that terrible day. "I should have worked harder on Apparition Charms when I could finally do magic after Brian was born," she said, guilt still gnawing at her. "But the two years between Brian and getting pregnant again just flew by."
"Scones are done," screeched the baking tray from the kitchen.
Ginny cringed. If anything would wake David, it would be that nails-on-a-blackboard voice from the baking tray. As she took the scones out of the oven, her thoughts drifted to that November day when she, Hermione and Brian had visited Diagon Alley.
The weather had been sunny and cold – perfect for shopping. Hermione wanted undyed wool for her latest knitting project and Brian wanted a lollipop. Ginny just wanted to sit down because her ankles were swollen and she was tired. She was looking forward to a cup of tea at the Leaky Cauldron, and was half-listening to Hermione talking about the price of wool when she felt Brian's hand slip out of hers. Startled, she caught a glimpse of Brian's dark head and a strange woman pulling him along. Not stopping to think that she was seven months pregnant and shouldn't do magic, Ginny hexed the witch from twenty feet away.
When Ginny woke up at St. Mungo's, she was told that she and Harry had another boy – David. He was very small and fragile, but perfectly formed and wonderfully alert. He was going to be fine. Ginny was going to be fine. The stranger was a depressed witch who couldn't have babies of her own, but she had been stopped. So Brian was fine, too.
Harry kept saying that over and over again. He had almost lost all three of them, but everyone was fine – except maybe Harry.
"Mama, mama, ma," David called from his cot.
Ginny hurried into the nursery and saw her youngest trying to hurl himself over the rails. "No, no, no," she said as calmly as she could. "David will fall."
David smiled in greeting, not looking at all guilty.
"You're feeling better!" she exclaimed happily as she touched his forehead. No fever.
"Behtah," he repeated after her.
"Right, better." Ginny giggled and rubbed her nose against his, delighted that David was trying out a two-syllable word. It had worried her that David was behind Brian in learning to talk.
Mum thought it was because Brian bossily talked for his little brother. Fleur thought there must be something physically wrong since David was born premature. Fred thought that David pretty much got what he wanted, so he didn't need to speak up. "When the soup's cold, he'll talk," George added.
Brian did do everything for David, Ginny reflected as she quickly changed him into a clean nappy. But Brian was at The Burrow today, so he couldn't run to Ginny and tell her when "the baby's awake."
"You're not a baby anymore are you?" Ginny said, lifting him out of the cot. "Davey's almost two years old." She put him on the floor and watched him toddle over to the plush lion that was trapped underneath Brian's stuffed kangaroo. His dark hair was adorably rumpled. When he retrieved his toy, his green eyes glowed with satisfaction. "Behtah," he explained, looking at Ginny.
"Yes, lion is better now that you rescued him."
Or maybe David was just a lot like Harry. He didn't talk all that much, but when he did, he usually had something to say.
"You're like your daddy, aren't you?"
"He's gone to St. Mungo's with Aunt Hermione. He'll be back in time for dinner."
Luckily, Hermione had been there for Harry when he needed her most. During that month when Ginny and David were in the hospital, she had convinced him that he wasn't helpless in keeping his family safe, since he had the wherewithal to start the permanent charitable foundation they had discussed so often in the past. The magical world needed things like Apparating Ambulances and mental health clinics. Harry's vast treasure could help with those sorts of projects.
And today, finally, one of those projects was ready.
She let David navigate the stairs instead of carrying him down. For once, she wasn't in a hurry. The washing was caught up and Brian was at The Burrow, so she didn't have to worry about him. It was truly amazing what mischief a five-year-old – without a sibling to tattle on him – could get into with her back turned. Thank goodness she had the lions, and Demi and Hedwig to watch over him.
David sat on each step with his lion clutched to his chest. Ginny noticed that there was dust on the sides of each oak tread. She sighed. When Ron came up with a self-cleaning house, she was going to buy it.
David looked at her several times as he slowly slid from one step to the next. Ginny laughed at his confusion. "Mummy's usually in a hurry," she said. "But not today. Today Mummy is on tenterhooks, so I'm not going to do anything but take care of you."
He didn't say anything, of course, but he smiled sunnily that his mum was paying so much attention to him.
They eventually made it into the kitchen. She popped David into his seat for a snack and peered into the cupboards. It was time to think about dinner again. Before she could decide between Spaghetti Bolognese or sausages and mash, flames erupted in the fireplace and Ron unfolded himself on their hearth.
"Won!" David crowed from his high chair.
"Hey, Davey," Ron said, staggering to his feet. "You're feeling better."
Ron looked at Ginny, startled. "He's talking."
"I know!" She giggled. "He just woke up from his nap and started talking."
"Won!" David repeated.
Ron grinned. "I reckon he'll get my name right one of these days."
"I suppose so," Ginny said sweetly. "He's already past Won-Won, since that's baby talk."
Ron scowled at her. "Cute. Listen, I just talked to Hermione and everything is going well. But Harry was called out of the meeting for an emergency. Something about a train accident."
"Okay." She automatically revised dinner plans. Now it would have to be a casserole or something she could reheat. "Did she say anything else?"
Ron grinned. "She reminded me that two weeks ago at this time we were getting married, and that the next day at this time we were –"
"I don't want to hear about the honeymoon," Ginny said sharply.
Ron laughed.
"Hon-e-moon!" David cried with delight. He had discovered a new skill and he was going to use it.
"Cup of tea?" Ginny asked, lifting the kettle.
"Yeah, that would be brilliant." Ron sat at the table next to David's chair. "Do you have something else to eat besides…?" He looked askance at the broken scone on David's tray. "Pulp?"
"Pup," David repeated, squishing the pile of crumbs with a chubby hand.
"Scones," Ginny said, making sure the plate nudged Ron's temple before it settled on the table. "I hope they're to your liking," she added sarcastically.
"They're not as hard as the plate," Ron replied after he took a big bite.
"Thanks." Ginny smirked and joined him at the table with the teapot. "So why aren't you working? I thought after two weeks away you'd be slave-driving your crew."
"Tomorrow I slave-drive." He poured out two cups of tea. "Today I've been going 'round doing estimates."
"Anything interesting?"
He laughed. "Remember Hermione's first flat?"
"I never saw it, but I heard it was a nightmare."
"The new owners want to remodel the building and do it right this time." He shook his head and took a gulp of tea. "I told them that it would easier to Vanish it all and start from scratch."
"I would think it would be fairly difficult to Vanish a building in the middle of London without the Muggles noticing."
Ron shrugged. "Not if you wanted to spend the money on sixth months of Mirage Charms, but –"
"But no one wants to do that," Ginny finished for him. "It's mind-boggling how cheap people become when it comes to the Muggles. That's why we've had such trouble convincing St. Mungo's about the Apparating Ambulances. If they take them, they won't have an excuse to ignore Muggle casualties."
"Mug. Mug," David said.
She wrinkled her nose at him. "Right. Muggles."
"Not after today," Ron said. "Harry took the ambulance to a Muggle train accident."
Ginny was shocked. "Really? A Muggle train accident? You didn't tell me that!"
"Mug! Mug!" David smeared the crumbs all over his tray.
"I thought I did." Ron reached for another scone.
Ginny shelved her dinner plans. Whenever Harry dealt with Muggles, there was always extra paperwork. And this time he had taken unauthorized magical transportation. She sighed and decided not to worry about it. If Hermione had her way at the meeting, then the ambulance would be authorized for use by the end of the day. "So how was Shangri-la?" she asked as she pulled David out of his high chair.
"Shang la?" David said as she wiped his face and hands.
"Perfect weather – believe it or not," Ron answered reaching for his nephew. David dove into Ron's shirt pocket as soon as he as he was on Ron's lap. Ron always had interesting things like nails or string or hardware in his pockets from his job as a builder. David pulled out a pencil and some folded bits of paper. "Nothing exciting today, Davey. Uncle Ron had to play with boring numbers."
David concentrated on the exacting job of putting the papers and pencil back into Ron's pocket. "Numbahs."
"Did Hermione get the hero's welcome in Shangri-la this time around?" Ginny asked.
"Of course. Doesn't every liberator?"
"Heroes aren't always well loved," she replied, thinking of everything Harry had been through before and after defeating Voldemort.
"Well, Hermione still is. The government gave us a beautiful place to stay next to this isolated lake. It was just the two of us and a pair of phoenixes further up the mountain for an entire week." Ron smiled.
"It sounds wonderful." It really did. She would love to have Harry all to herself for an entire week.
"Yeah." He was blushing a little and Ginny didn't know why. Ron and Hermione had lived together for years before getting married, so their honeymoon couldn't have been the revelation that hers and Harry's had been. "The wedding was brilliant, too," Ron continued. "It meant a lot that we could get married here, since this was the first house we worked on together."
Now it was Ginny's turn to blush since Ron so rarely praised anything. "Well, it could have been fancier if you two had given us more time. When you announce in the middle of August that you want to get married in the middle of September, it makes it difficult to get exactly what you want."
"I got exactly what I wanted," Ron said quietly, as David slid off his lap.
Ron was watching David rummage through a basket of toys, so Ginny couldn't see his eyes, but something in his voice told her just how deeply felt that statement was.
"Yeah." She could feel herself tearing up, so she decided to lighten the conversation. "And Mum got what she wanted, too."
Ron laughed. "We're finally respectable."
"And now she can brag about you at her Witches and Stitches group."
"She already has," he said smugly. "Half the estimates I did today were from her friends."
"With this family, you'll never need to advertise."
Ron smiled and then abruptly changed the subject. "So when are you going to New Zealand?"
"We're taking a Portkey Passage on Boxing Day," she answered as David started repeating 'Zea lan – Zea lan – Zea lan.' "We have to be here for Father Christmas to find Brian and David – but we want to arrive before Hezzie and Kenny's wedding on New Year's Eve."
"Are you really taking the owls? Pigwidgeon is going to miss his best mate."
"Well, Demi and Hedwig don't get to see their children too often –"
"So Harry's paying a Portkey Passage for two birds as well as two kids?" he asked with a shake of his head. "Now that's Potter's pride."
"Famous people have to have an entourage." She giggled.
Ron raised an eyebrow. "I believe you're the famous one in New Zealand?"
"Harry loves it," she said with a laugh. "No one fusses over him."
Ron nodded and then abruptly changed the subject. "So do you still want us to house-sit?"
"Yes, I don't think it's a good idea to leave a house empty for six weeks in the middle of winter. And the lions will get lonely."
He nodded. "Brilliant. I'm planning on expanding and finishing our house during that time, and it would be good if Hermione didn't have to live in the mess."
Ginny's eyes widened. Ron and Hermione had bought what could be charitably called a hovel several years ago and they had done just enough to make one floor livable. But now…
There was a flush on Ron's cheek that told her that this was important, but he wasn't meeting her eyes. She frowned. First the quick wedding and now expanding and finishing their house… Then she gasped as it came to her. "Ron! Hermione's pregnant!"
Ron shifted uncomfortably – Ron was never very good with secrets. "You said it, I didn't."
"Um." He looked at her. "February – early March."
"Happy Birthday, Ron!" Ginny crowed.
He started to smile. "Yeah." He laughed. "Yeah. I still can't quite believe it."
"Hermione's feeling okay – right?"
"Yeah. She's fine. Everything checked out okay."
But –" Now she was a little worried. "Hermione always said she didn't want to get married or have a baby until she was thirty like her mother. I think she's early by a few years."
"Oh, Hermione's all right with it," Ron assured her. "She's finally decided that she doesn't have to do everything like her mother did to be… What the hell is that word?"
Ginny shrugged.
Then Ron grinned. "Self–actualized. That's it. Hermione's decided to be self-actualized in her own way."
Like many of Hermione's statements, Ginny didn't know how to reply to this one.
He looked over at David who was stacking wooden blocks. "I think I'm more worried about her than she is." He glanced at Ginny. "You didn't have the easiest time."
"Hermione wasn't injured in a Quidditch accident." She patted his hand. "She can do magic to help herself if no one else is around. And Harry's team will have the Apparating Ambulance by then."
He nodded, not looking entirely convinced.
"You have loads of time to worry, Ron. You might as well relax and enjoy your life right now."
"I know." He sighed. "I always worry when things are going too smoothly."
Ginny laughed. "Now that's magical thinking. Do you really think the universe only doles out so much happiness and then something bad has to happen?"
"Pretty much. Yeah."
She shook her head. "Have another scone, Mr. Gloom and Doom."
Once Ron left, Ginny cursed herself for not asking him to pop over to The Burrow and collect Brian.
It was almost impossible to use the Floo with two children in hand, and Harry didn't like to Side-along Apparate when the children were awake since they wriggled and could easily cause a Splinching accident.
"Brian can spend the night here," Mum told her through the Floo. "I'm keeping Philippe tonight, so he'll have company."
Brian hero-worshiped his older cousin who was allowed to fly on a real broom in the orchard and could speak a 'whole other language.'
"Thanks, Mum. But David's missing Brian already and –"
Mom smirked at her through the flames and Ginny knew what she was thinking. Ginny was missing Brian, too. "If Harry isn't here by the time your father gets home from the Ministry, I'll bring him over myself."
"Thanks, Mum."
"Although, your father is probably with Harry if it's a Muggle train accident." She shrugged. "If the worst comes to the worst, I call Percy or Fred or George to bring him home before bed."
"Thanks, Mum."
David was now tired of the kitchen. They put on their jackets and went outside. There was a spectacular sunset casting an orange glow over the pine forest. After petting the lions, David made a beeline toward his training broom. If David was behind in talking, he was well ahead of his peers in flying. Before he could walk he had managed to crawl onto Brian's training broom and make it go. Once he experienced flying, Ginny knew there was no way she could ever distract him with something else, so she charmed a smaller broom just for him. Mum had just about had kittens when she saw him fly for the first time.
She watched him hover a foot off the ground with a critical eye. His knees were bent at the wrong angle. Not only had he started talking this week, he had grown, too. She would have to lower the magical running board.
"Fly to Mummy," she called from her perch on the front step.
David turned smartly and flew as fast as the broom would go, which meant his hair was barely ruffled by the faint breeze he created.
She took out her wand and concentrated on the magic.
"Ticks." David giggled.
"Does the magic tickle?" she laughed.
There was a small pop. Harry was standing on the front path, carrying Brian, who was asleep with his head on Harry's shoulder.
"Daddy home!" David shrieked from the broom. "Byan!"
Harry's eyes widened. "He's talking."
"He just woke up from his nap and started to talk."
"Was the soup cold?" Harry asked, smiling at David.
David stared at him with wide green eyes. "Zoup cold," he agreed.
Brian stirred at the noise and turned a grumpy, sleepy face to see what was going on. "Byan!" David called.
Brian rubbed his face in Harry's shoulder and then turned to watch David on the broom.
"How long did Brian sleep?" Ginny asked. She really hoped it wasn't too long; otherwise he'd be awake half the night.
"About ten minutes," Harry answered to her relief. "He fell asleep as I was telling your mum how we got approval for the ambulances and –"
"We got approval?" She squealed so loudly that both boys turned and stared at her.
"Hermione was going to tell you through the Floo."
"We've been outside." She clasped her hands together. Finally. Finally. "That's wonderful. Was it difficult to convince everyone?"
"Not really –"
Brian was finally awake and wiggling to get down. "Mummy! I got to ride Philippe's broom."
"You're interrupting, Brian," Ginny said, absently kissing him on the forehead. "You can tell me about it when you're in the bath."
"Byan!" David called again from his slow-moving broom.
"David missed you today," Ginny told him.
"Does he still have a fever?" Brian demanded suspiciously.
"No, darling. He's better. Go play whilst I talk to Daddy."
Brian obediently trotted off to David, grabbing his advanced training broom along the way. David might not be as much fun as Philippe, but he was a good audience. And Brian enjoyed the adulation.
Harry sat next to her on the steps. "It's getting dark, we should bring them in."
"I'm hoping the fresh air will help them sleep. David had a long nap."
"Did you sleep?"
"Yes," she sighed, flicking her wand at the outside torches so that now their entire front garden was illuminated. "I didn't get a thing done today except I baked a batch of scones and I had Ron to tea."
"After being up half the night, I'd say that's enough." He smiled as David aligned his broom with his brother's. "And Davey's feeling better, that's all that matters."
"Mum fed you?"
"Yup." He took her hand. "Ginny, the ambulance was brilliant. The expanding sides let us treat five Muggles at once. We took care of everyone, the Obliviators were able to do their work in the other ambulance –"
"You used both ambulances?"
"In for a penny, in for a pound."
He laughed. "Sorry. Muggle saying. It made sense to take both. Anyway, the Muggles came and fixed the train. The passengers re-boarded, complaining about delays, never the wiser they had been injured. Everyone was happy. I met the Muggle Prime Minister again."
"Oh?" she said, watching Brian showing off to David on his broom. "What's he like?"
"Hard to say," Harry replied. "He seems to have less teeth than the last time I saw him."
"Less teeth?" She laughed, and turned to look at him. "Did you count them?"
"He wasn't smiling as much – maybe that's it."
"Well, the Muggles are in some kind of war, right?"
Harry sighed. "Yeah. That's why I'm glad we can finally do the kind of Search and Rescue I trained for. We're allowed to help Muggles now." He smiled at her. "All thanks to you."
She blushed. "I wish I had done it earlier," she said wistfully. They had never really talked about the accidental magic she had done before David was born. She knew Harry didn't blame her for losing her head and protecting Brian – but it had been terribly hard on him.
"Ginny, an ambulance wouldn't have made that much of a difference."
"I know." She sighed. "I still feel guilty, though."
"You shouldn't. You did what any mama lion would do."
At hearing the word 'lion,' the right lion turned his head and purred, but the 'mama' reminded her of Hermione. "Did you have a chance to talk to Hermione?"
"I wanted to, but I had to leave early. She said she had something she wanted to tell me."
"Did you notice anything different about her?"
He frowned. "She looked happy…" Then his eyes widened. "She's pregnant?"
"Yes!" Ginny exclaimed with a giggle. "That's why the rush for the wedding! Is she showing already?"
"Well – er – no." He looked over at the boys who were still out of earshot. "She just looked a little bigger in the chest area."
"Harry." She giggled. "Since when do you notice Hermione's breasts?"
"Since they've doubled in size," he retorted. "It's hard not to."
She laughed at his indignation.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you." He squeezed her hand. "When the meeting started, the chairman of the board called Hermione, 'Mrs. Potter.'"
Ginny could feel the heat rise in her face. "Typical." Ever since the Potter Foundation has been established, it was often assumed that Hermione was married to Harry.
"Do you know what she said?" Harry asked.
Ginny frowned. "'I'm Hermione Granger?'"
"No, she said. 'I'm Hermione Weasley.'"
"Yes." Harry laughed. "She took Ron's name."
"I can't believe it." Ginny couldn't help but smile. Hermione had always gone to great lengths to establish herself as Ron's girlfriend and business partner. She was a Granger and not a Weasley. "Oh, Ron must be so happy."
"I thought you said he came for tea? Didn't he seem happy?"
"He did." She turned to Harry eagerly. "He said he got everything he wanted. It was so sweet the way he said it."
"Well, he did."
"No, I mean – he sounded very… sure about Hermione. And if she took his name…"
"What difference does it make if she took his name?" Harry frowned. "She married him. She going to have his child – I'd say that's going the distance."
"I don't know." Ginny struggled to explain. "I mean Ron and Hermione have been together forever, but they always bicker and…"
"They bicker because they can't leave each other alone."
"I suppose," she said dubiously. It wasn't the kind of relationship she wanted, but it seemed to work for Ron and Hermione. She sighed happily, remembering the gratitude and contentment in Ron's voice. "I'm just glad for Ron, that's all. It's like she's telling the world he's good enough for her."
"Of course he's good enough for her! I've always thought that."
"I have, too," Ginny said quickly. "But I don't think Ron has."
Harry stared at her a minute. "Yeah. You're probably right. That sounds like Ron."
"But he's happy now." Then she giggled as she remembered what Ron had said at teatime. "And he's nervous about being happy."
"I'm sure he is."
"Do you think that way?" She put her hand on his knee. "That you can only be so happy and then something bad has to happen?"
"Well, no." He paused. "But happiness is…"
He sighed and watched Brian go into a small dive as David clapped his hands. "If someone asked me at seventeen what my happiest moment was – I would have said when I defeated Voldemort."
"And when you were nineteen?" she prompted, knowing what he was going to say.
He smiled into her eyes, knowing what he was expected to say. "Our wedding."
"Don't you mean our wedding night?"
He laughed. "I'm including that." He covered her hand. "But then we had Brian."
She gulped. "And David."
"And worries in between."
It was true. They had experienced some awful things – life-and-death events that seemed even more risky to their happiness than that long-ago war with Voldemort. And yet, miraculously, they were all healthy and together still.
David was tired. He climbed off his broom and toddled to Harry.
"What would you say if I asked you what your happiest moment was at this age?" Ginny asked as Harry picked him up. "Forget seventeen. What about at twenty-six?"
David snuggled into his father's lap. Harry looked at Brian who was pretending to catch an imaginary Snitch by lurching forward on his slow broom. He smiled. "He's going to be an amazing Quidditch player."
Ginny followed his gaze. Brian looked like Harry, but he had the stockier Prewett build. She could almost see the teenager he was going to be and her heart lurched at the thought.
She understood what Harry was trying to tell her – he was happy now and he could see what was going to make him even happier in the future.
She sighed and put her head on his shoulder. Harry put his free arm around her waist and drew her closer. She could tell he was breathing in the scent of her hair by the way his lips brushed the top of her head.
"Was the meeting boring?" Harry always had interesting daydreams about her during meetings.
"All meetings are boring." He provocatively traced a path from her waist to her hip.
"Think the boys are getting tired?" she whispered, turning to face him. David's eyes were droopy.
He gave her a lingering kiss. "They'll sleep like Bowtruckles on a log."
That kiss was promising. She shivered in anticipation.
After a few moments, David fell asleep. They called the Brian in, and Ginny doused the torches. In the pale moonlight, she could just make out Brian saying goodnight to the lions and Harry rising to his feet to carry David inside.
David stirred. "Bettah," he said without opening his eyes.
Ginny giggled. "You know, he's been saying that all day. I don't think he knows what 'better' means."
Harry looked over the top of his son's head at Ginny and smiled. "I do."
While I had trouble thinking about what to include for Ron's portion of the epilogue, I didn't have that problem for H/G. See my story The Quick-Quotes Quill for a glimpse of Brian and David and their third child, Sera. I like the idea of H/G having their own trio of two boys and one girl. I picked the name 'Brian' as a tribute to Dumbledore, 'David' because JKR named her son David, and Seraphenia because it means 'fiery angel' (and H/G seem to have a history of liking outrageous names).
Of course, I'm expecting an even better happy ending for Harry from JKR! In less than a week we'll know. Until then, I hope this vision of Harry's happiness will ease the anxiety of the wait.
Thanks to Sherry for the beta, and Parakletos, Girlyswot and TDU for the Brit-picks. And thanks again to all of you who have read and reviewed my stories these past three years. It's been a wonderful experience that just keeps getting better.
Help keep Phoenixsong Running - Donate


text:
Brooklyn Sudano
5 Star DayHD
IMDb: 5.8
97 min
Four People. One Horoscope. Infinite Possibilities. Jake Gibson's (Cam Gigandet) horoscope forecasts a perfect FIVE STAR DAY the morning of his birthday, but what's foretold ...
Country: USA
Actors: Cam Gigandet, Guy Herbert, Will Yun Lee, Derek Shipp, Brooklyn Sudano, Julianna Guill, Max Hartman, Peter Mackenzie, Parisa Fakhri, Chris J. Johnson, Tad Hilgenbrink, Nick Chinlund, Jena Malone, Elodie James, Mark Achilles White
Alone in the Dark IIHD
IMDb: 3.4
87 min
When the night falls, and the creatures of the dark are crawling out of the shadows, there is only one man who stands between us ...
Country: Germany
Actors: Rick Yune, Rachel Specter, Lance Henriksen, Bill Moseley, Ralf Moeller, Danny Trejo, Zack Ward, Natassia Malthe, Jason Connery, Michael Paré, P.J. Soles, Brooklyn Sudano, Allison Lange, Peter Looney, Lisette Bross
Taken - S02Eps16
IMDb: 6.6
41 min
The series follows a former Green Beret, Bryan Mills, as he deals with a personal tragedy that shakes his world. As he fights to overcome ...
Actors: Clive Standen, Jennifer Beals, Gaius Charles, Brooklyn Sudano, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Michael Irby, Jose Pablo Cantillo, James Landry Hébert, Jennifer Marsala, Simu Liu, Matthew Bennett