text:
I have probably written about this trio before, but I will again ~
just in case!
My Mom got these three Wise Men from the 1968 Sears Wish Book...
(If you are of a *certain age*, you will really enjoy this website...
It's called "Wishbook Web", and you can get to it by clicking here.)
I went through it page-by page..."I had that, and that, and that..."
But, I digress ~
My Mom paid a whopping $4.94 for the Wise Men,
and I, in my 11-year-old sophistication, thought they were about the
gaudiest things I had ever seen.
What was my Mom thinking? That gold, those rhinestones!
Those weird, un-Christmasy colors...(it was 1968, though).
Now I LOVE them, I absolutely do.
(Mama had good taste, after all...)
One of our traditions for today used to be making "Camel Cookies"
with our youngest (a junior in college, now),
using a copper camel-shaped cutter made by his dad...
This year, I'm just going to write about the Camel Cookies.
(If you'd like to read my 2013 post about them, you can find it here.)
Tallulah says she isn't ready to take the Christmas tree down!
Now I have to tell you a little about the rest of my super-busy month!
We live eight hours away (my daughters, six),
and although I have been through the airport there,
I had never actually been to the city...and now I have been twice,
in as many months!
Our last trip, to celebrate my youngest daughter's birthday,
was especially festive with all the decorations everywhere...
"Here there be Dragons..."
We stayed at the historic Drake Hotel this time...
dragons are its logo, and even these handsome beasties were
decked out in red and green...
The florist's delightful window in the hotel...
The huge tree inside the lobby...
really magnificent!
The culinary staff created this replica of The Drake in Gingerbread...
We explored a lot!
If a door was unlocked, it was fair game...
The Gold Coast Room, the morning after a fancy soirée ~
From www.famoushotels.org ~ "In those early days, Chicago's WGN's first
radio broadcasts were aired from atop The Drake, where the fabulous big bands
of that era played in the Gold Coast Room."
We also looked around on the purportedly haunted tenth floor,
but didn't see a soul. (Sorry! ;)
You can read about it here, though...
The view from our room, looking out towards Lake Michigan...
The main destination ~ The Music Box Theatre where
"It's a Wonderful Life" was playing...
I've seen a lot of classic movies "on the big screen"
with my daughters, but the "interactive" audience-participation during this showing
was a different sort of experience...sort of like "Rocky Horror"
except with George Bailey instead of Dr. Frankenfurter!
(Bell-ringing when Clarence was on-screen
*Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings* ~ hissing when
the dastardly Mr. Potter showed up, and general encouragement for George...)
Next time, we'll know what to expect!
We also visited the Museum of Science and Industry...
You know, I didn't think I cared much for LED lights until
I saw this 45-ft. tall delight in the main hall of the museum...
now I have to have a (second) tree with LEDs next Christmas!
Most of the lights were stationary, with just a few twinkling...
Flying-machines overhead...
This was the main reason for the museum visit...
the girls wanted their Fairy-Mom to see Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle...
and it did not disappoint! ("Early-Fairy"...I think that's my style, as well!)
Click here to read more about it...
And then, back home...
I finally got a "Tom & Jerry" eggnog/punch bowl (and cups) on eBay!
I have wanted one since I saw "The Great Mr. Nobody" (1941)...
this set is from 1941 as well, so I thought that was pretty neat!
(They are pretty common, but difficult to find one with the gold trim intact...)
The silver ladle was from my grandparents' 50th anniversary in 1966...
From our local Susie's Bakeshop...yumm!
A couple more family traditions... Daddy's was candy canes...he brought them
over every year, as soon as we got the tree up, to put them on with the grandkids...
My grandpa's was giving out little bags of gold-foil-wrapped coins ~
I remember finding some that my Mom had saved (from Grandpa, her father-in-law),
and asking what they were...when she told me they were chocolate, I couldn't fathom why
she hadn't EATEN them! (They were chocolate!)
So, a nod to both, here in my little display...watched over by my little chalkware
Tomten... (uh, oh...he also has a little bag of COAL there...good thing it's actually
chocolate, as well!)
What family traditions do you all keep?
Wishing all of you a wonderful 2016!


text:
9666 - 3 Pc. Torx Plus Socket Set
9666 - 3 Pc. Torx Plus Socket Set
Item Number: 9666
Brand: CTA Tools
- Includes EP20, EP22, EP24. Individual parts available separately:
- #9659, 9662, 9664.
- Services elliptical-shaped fasteners as found on, Ford Super-Duty, Honda Civics, Nissan Altima & Rogue, and many other applications
- Standard Torx® will not fit these fasteners
- Impact quality
- 1/2" square drive.
Write a requestFirst Name:
Last Name:
Company Name:
Street Address:
Zip code:
Telephone Number:
E-mail Address:
Message: Note: HTML is not translated!
Enter the code in the box below:
Request More Info
Request More Info

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I had postponed my visit to pick up the veggies and provisions and so I had just half an onion, a small piece of coconut and no tomatoes,but a tablespoon of tomato purée . In short, I had almost nothing. So I could not follow the recipe as it appeared, but it still was a good dish. I like the taste of the roasted coconut. Try it with the country cousin of the more popular kabuli channa.
Black channa - 1 cup - should be soaked overnight or atleast for about 6 hours
Onion - 1/2 ( use more if you have!)
Green chilies - 2 sliced
Salt to taste
Pressure cook the channa with the above ingredients. Once you hear the whistle - keep it on simmer for at least about 8 minutes to ensure well cooked channa.
What more do you need:
Tomato purée - 1 tbsp - a little more will be lovely -
( or substitute with a tomato - which can be boiled along with the channa)
Chilie powder - 1 tsp or to taste
Roast till you get a good aroma and grind to a smooth paste with a little water
Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
Coconut - ideally about 1/2 cup - I used about 1/4
Dry red chilies - 2
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Coconut oil ( or any oil) - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - few
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Add the paste to the cooked channa
Check for salt and add more if required.
Add tomato purée and chilie powder.
If required a little coriander powder - optional
Simmer till the mixture is well blended.
Season with coconut oil, mustard and curry leaves.
(What I did not have and will use the next time in the seasoning - shallots and diced coconut pieces)


text:
Each year with Kindergarten we create these clay necklaces. Day one is all about making the medallion and the beads. You can see a student sliding the beads onto a kabob skewer. We use found objects to create textures in the big medallion. This is a step-by-step guided process.
Once the beads have been fired in the kiln, the kids get to paint them with tempera paint. The super special surprise being that once they have painted all the white space on their beads, they get to rub gold paint on the surface. Messy day in art! But oh so fun.
The gold paint takes these beads to whole new level.
Day Three: We assemble our necklaces after a discussion on symmetry. I demonstrate how to lay out the beads and plan a design that's symmetrical. Below are my models.
I tie the necklaces together for the students in a special way to ensure they don't fall off and beads don't scatter as they are walking down the hallway. We use "twisteez" wire for these and they're perfect! I love twisteez. I also lay out trays of plastic beads that they can use for 'spacers'.
Once they finish their necklace, we work on a book page for the Art Book about butterflies and symmetry. In the photo above, you can see hints of that book page. The kids draw a "symmetrical" butterfly, outline in black marker and color with crayons. It's a great thing for early finishers to work on that's on topic and also goes in the art book! Double whammy!


text:
The Modern Antiquarian
Log in
Latest Posts
Browse Sites
The Books
Mynydd Brith
Standing Stone / Menhir
View all content for Mynydd Brith
I head northwest to Llanrosser, where my route runs between the higher ridges of
Cefn Hill
to the west and Vagar Hill to the east. Keeping on for another mile or so, I reach a sign-board on the left, telling me about Cefn Common. Opposite, a bridleway gate leads onto a permissive track running eastwards.
This little track, running along the south side of Mynydd Brith wood, is the way to approach the Mynydd Brith stone. Sadly, as it comes into view, my first thought is "is that it?" I had expected something taller, especially after the lovely
Wern Derys
stone whetting my appetite earlier. But this is a much smaller affair, only about four feet tall. SMR has it down as hesitantly "prehistoric?" and I can see why there is doubt. It has clearly been worked. The angles are very sharp, despite weathering. It has a "W" carved on its top (could be an "M" I suppose) and looks like a boundary stone. Oddly, although it is actually on a parish boundary, the reports I have read suggest that this is coincidental and the stone was not known as a boundary marker. Which seems very unlikely. "Disputed antiquity" I think.
But fear not, because it's still worth coming up to see it, for another reason entirely. Walking further ESE along the track, it emerges onto Vagar Hill near a telecoms mast. And it becomes apparent that, unadvertised at all, Vagar Hill is quietly one of the best viewpoints in Herefordshire. At 433m, it hardly towers above the surrounding countryside – even nearby
Cefn Hill
is higher. But it's situated Just Right. To the south, especially on a day of cloud, sunshine, rain and shadow, the Black Mountains escarpment is spectacular. To the east, the jagged ridge of the Malverns and, inevitably, May Hill (which you seem to be able to see from everywhere). Northwest, the mountains of the Radnor Forest – Great Rhos,
Black Mixen
Bach Hill
, for once not shrouded in mist and cloud. Further NNW, something more prominent, which must be one of the southern North-Walian ranges. North-east, looking down a straight-as-an-arrow enclosure road, are the South Shropshire hills of
Brown Clee
Titterstone Clee
. Magnificent. So, the stone may not be the most exciting, but it's still a very worthwhile trek to come up here.
This post appears as part of the weblog entry
Stone-Spotting in (southwest) Herefordshire – around Dorstone 8 June 2011
Posted by
9th June 2011ce
Edited 9th June 2011ce
Comments (0)
You must be logged in to add a comment
Terms & Conditions
Julian Cope presents Head Heritage
Top of page


text:
You know the type of sewing project...the ones where they should be easy, but it seems like every little thing goes wrong and every Big 4-ism seems ten times more annoying than it should be? These pajamas were one of Those Projects. Toddler pajamas.
|McCall's 6458
A little historyA few months ago, shortly after purchasing my new-to-me Babylock Evolve serger/coverstitch, I broke one of the two needles that the machine came with because I forgot to re-engage the knife when switching back to serger mode. Doh.
After running to several different local stores trying to find the correct needles for my machine, I ended up at Pacifc Fabrics, a store with a few locations around Seattle and a FANTASTIC selection of nice fabrics. While stopping by to get the needles, one fabric caught my eye. (Even though I wasn't fabric shopping and therefore not looking at fabric. At all. Pacific Fabrics had a nice beefy cotton flannel with a licensed Yo Gabba Gabba print. My daughter loves Yo Gabba Gabba. I had to buy the fabric, right?
I felt even more pressure once I got the fabric home; every time that Eva was in my sewing room, she'd manage to find "her Gabba fabric" (as it became known) and point to and name the different characters on the fabric. "Muno! Toodee!" She'd manage to find it even when I'd shoved it onto a shelve, pull of the fabric, and name characters. At this point, I decided that Gabba pajamas would make a great Christmas present, and I couldn't wait to see her face when she unwrapped her present and found that she could now actually wear her Gabba fabric!
The projectToddler pajamas. What could be easier? Just a pair of elastic waist pants and a shirt with a convertible collar? I even found some really nice piping at Rose City Textiles on our Portland trip, so I decided to use McCall's 8458 for a pattern. Here's the line drawing--it looks like a pretty innocent pattern, doesn't it?
- The first issue that I ran into is that the pants run ridiculously long. I chose the 2T size, figuring that they would be a little big but would then give my daughter more months of wearing. I had to shorten the pant hem by 3 inches once they were complete to make them wearable. (She's 18 months old and just over the 50th percentile in height for her age, to give you reference.)
- The second issue that I ran into is that I stupidly followed McCall's construction order (sort of) for attaching the piped cuff. I have a fairly small free-arm space on my Bernina Activa 230, which allows me to sew into tight places pretty easily. The width of the cuff with the piping was too small to fit over the free arm, and with the added stiffness of the piping, this was a bear to attach. And the McCall's instructions actually wanted you to slip-stitch the inside part of the cuff to the sleeve. On toddler pajamas. I don't think so.
- The third issue is that I had two glasses of wine before deciding to attach the button band to the shirt. When I went to attach the button band to the shirt front, I found that the button band appeared to be about 5/8" too short. So I shortened the button band by 5/8". Doh! The shirt runs nearly as long as the pants, so a pair of scissors and re-hemming the shirt fixed my mistake. (Full disclosure: I am still not sure whether the button band actually runs short or if post-glass-of-wine, I had misaligned the seams.)
I should note that the pattern envelope has the following warning:
"Note: The garments in this pack are not intended for sleep apparel."
I guess that makes it a perfect match for the fabric, which had the warning that it was "not suitable for children's sleepwear". Or maybe I should have taken those to warnings together as an omen?
The resultThankfully, in spite of drafting issues and boneheaded mistakes, the final pajamas turned out cute:
ConclusionNo, I don't think I'd sew these again. If I wanted to make toddler sized piped pajamas, I'd check out the Lazy Day Pajamas from Blank Slate or Sleepover Pajamas from Oliver + S. The only reason that I didn't do that this time was that I was cheap (McCalls were on sale for $1.99 at Hancocks) and lazy (didn't want to tape pages together from a PDF or trace). I think I've learned my lesson here--when there's an option from an established indie, go for the indie over the Big 4 pattern for toddler patterns.
Would I recommend this pattern to others? Eh, there really aren't many piped pajama patterns out there for toddlers, and you can certainly make this one work, but I'm not sure that it's worth the headache just to save a few dollars. Just be forewarned. At least the finished pajamas turned out cute, and my daughter loves them. That's what matters.


text:
PETREA BURCHARD and Boz Books are now at petreaburchard.com
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Wilma's Holiday
"Bring me a lemon coke, child," she said. "Mama needs to rest."
15 comments:
- Kalei's Best Friend said...
Wow! pure bliss!.. she looks so at peace and happy... she definitely has a forever home..
- November 1, 2014 at 5:06 AM
- Petrea Burchard said...
Wilma is naturally vigilant, so finding her at peace is special. And as long as she doesn't take the fence down chasing squirrels, she's staying here!
- November 1, 2014 at 8:02 AM
- altadenahiker said...
- November 1, 2014 at 8:03 AM
- William Kendall said...
She's such a sweetie!
- November 1, 2014 at 8:32 AM
- John Sandel said...
Certain People sit funny.
- November 1, 2014 at 9:20 AM
- BettyS said...
Great photo. Some deep thoughts going on in that head. Or maybe it is just the lemon coke. It took my boys about 14 years to stop barking at TorTs. This year I think Winter rather enjoyed greeting them, in his bucking bull complete with ride-em-cowboy costume.
- November 1, 2014 at 10:15 AM
- Bellis said...
The way she's sitting makes me laugh. Is that a new fence? Perhaps she's thinking, "I can easily knock that down or jump it."
- November 1, 2014 at 12:27 PM
- Petrea Burchard said...
I hope you took pictures, Betty.
Bellis, she always sits like that. She's quirky.
As for the fence, we put it up in the summer to keep her from peeing on the tomatoes. It served its purpose.
- November 1, 2014 at 1:58 PM
- Pasadena Adjacent said...
Love the perspective on this. And the name Wilma is very southern, so lemon coke sounds like the proper choice.
- November 1, 2014 at 6:44 PM
- Petrea Burchard said...
The name came with her, PA. It wouldn't have been our choice. But as far as we could tell, she'd had it for a long time. We thought it fair to let her keep it, so she's Wilma, our sweet, asymmetrical girl.
- November 1, 2014 at 7:31 PM
- TheChieftess said...
She's settling in nicely!
- November 2, 2014 at 2:42 AM
- Petrea Burchard said...
She is, Chieftess. They say it takes about 6 months for a shelter dog to completely adjust, to feel safe and confident. We've had her 4 1/2 months. The longer she's here the more comfortable we all are!
- November 2, 2014 at 6:55 AM
- LOLfromPasa said...
Wilma is gorgeous and she looks right at home. I love her sitting posture...cute.
I have missed you too! Now to catching up :).
- November 2, 2014 at 8:26 AM
- Petrea Burchard said...
She is, Lauren! She's pretty, and she's working hard to be a good girl.
- November 2, 2014 at 9:45 AM
- Ms M said...
How sweet! Good girl, Wilma!
- November 3, 2014 at 8:00 PM


text:
Actress Soo-Ae is leaving her old entertainment agency.
- Written by Katy P.
- Published in Latest Korean News
- Read 1252 times
- font size decrease font size increase font size
Actress Soo-Ae is leaving her old entertainment agency. based on 0 voters.
Soo-Ae was working with Star J Entertainment Agency for 14 years. She is currently playing on the drama 'Ya-Wang', this drama will be the last one with them. She wants to try new things at the new entertainment agency. She hasn't decided where to go yet, so most of the famous entertainment agencies are trying to catch her.


text:
Simple alternative to django-ajax-selects
Project description
This is a simple alternative to django-ajax-selects.
- Maintained against Python 2.7, reported working by users on Python 2.6
- jQuery 1.7+
- Django 1.4+ (at least for autocomplete_light.forms helpers)
- django.contrib.staticfiles or you're on your own
You could subscribe to the mailing list ask questions or just be informed of package updates.
See test_project/README
Project details
Release history Release notifications
Download files
Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.
|Filename, size & hash SHA256 hash help
|File type
|Python version
|Upload date
|django-autocomplete-light-1.1.2.tar.gz (39.4 kB) Copy SHA256 hash SHA256


text:
I am linking up with Latoya Reed of Flying
into First Grade and sharing three things about myself related to my
My name is Tina A. Parker (TAP)
T is for Time and how I never EVER seem to have enough of it. I get up at 6:00am and try to get to school by 6:30 or 6:45. Before school I either have a meeting ( I am also a math coach AND a full time teacher) for leadership or one of the coaching meetings (literacy, math, or PBIS). This school year is more hectic with running around and "putting out fires" than normal so my lunches are either reteaching expectations with students or lunch duty twice a week. The time formally called "prep" time is now PLC or collaboration time so prep now must be done before or after school. After school I need to run and pick up my own children once I get out of school about 4:30 at two different daycares. I race home to make dinner because I may have to coach swimming, take the crew to swimming practice or girl scouts, and even attend the ocasional after school meeting. My husband works odd hours and coaches hockey so many times I am solo on parenting duties on our 3 children ages 7, 3, and 21 months. Once I get the kids fed, baths, homework, reading the younger 2 book after book ( I can't say NO :)), and finally all of them to bed it is 9:00 or 9:30. From there I have to choose if I clean the house that will be ripped apart again in 5 minutes flat or work on my To Do list for creating products for my students. Finally I try to get in bed by 11pm.......
A is for Award. I am anxiously awaiting (Since last July) to find out if I am the national recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science out of the state of Wisconsin. I am one of two teachers from Wisconsin up for the mathematics award. I am invited to attend an award ceremony in Madison, WI April 24 to be honored as a state finalist. I am not one to like all the attention on myself, but I am definitely making an exception for this chapter in my life. Even though it is a great honor to be one of the two state finalists anything short of winning in my mind will be failure (see letter P below).
P is for Perfectionist. I admit it! I am a perfectionist tried and true! I set unbelievable expectations for myself and will not settle for less. This perfectionist trait has led me to many sleepless nights, thinking/believing I can do it all. I would like to admit that I have been working on my endless work hours relating to my teaching job, but I do like the gratification I get from the products I make and use in my classroom :). I am sure all of you can relate- ADMIT IT!!
Have a wonderful rest of the week!


text:
LETTER: Susan Mahoney Clear Choice in Local District Court Judicial Race
An Open Letter to B-Town Blog:
By W. Tracy Codd, Burien Attorney
Now that the voting ballots are in the mail and in most of our mailboxes, B-Town Blog readers should take note: There is one clear choice for Position #2 in the King County District Court, Southwest Electoral District judicial race – Susan Mahoney.
Assistant Des Moines City Attorney, Judge Pro Tem and former Prosecutor, Susan Mahoney has the background and experience in and out of the courtroom needed to serve the citizens of Southwest King County as District Court Judge.Susan received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in 1985 and her JD from Seattle University's School of Law in 1991, the same year she was admitted to the Washington State Bar. Since that time, Susan worked as Deputy King County Prosecuting Attorney where she handled all types of criminal cases from misdemeanors to Class A felonies and eventually opened up her own law office in 2001. The Law Office of Susan L. Mahoney has specialized in personal injury, family law, criminal defense and municipal court contract prosecution. Susan served as a municipal prosecutor for the Cities of Des Moines, Normandy Park, and Milton. She has also been called upon to serve as a special prosecutor handling conflict situations on sensitive cases for the King County Prosecutor's Office, the City of Kent and the City of Federal Way. In 2001, Susan was appointed Judge Pro Tem in King County District Court. She has also been appointed as a Judge Pro Tem serving Kent, Lakewood, Federal Way, and Black Diamond Municipal Courts. Serving as a Judge Pro Tem has given Susan the opportunity to bring her knowledge and experience to the bench. Her professional demeanor and courtroom abilities have earned her the respect of those who have appeared before her, as well as those who work with her in and out of the courtroom. In January of 2008, Susan was appointed to serve as the Assistant City Attorney for Des Moines where she serves as the City's legal advisor and in-house counsel for all municipal departments. That work includes overseeing Municipal Court Prosecution and code enforcement; advising the Des Moines Police Department on criminal and civil risk management issues; and working with the Municipal Court on developing and implementing policies and procedures. Throughout her career, Susan has cared passionately about the justice system and the people she has been honored to serve. She has taken a particular interest in cases involving domestic violence and impaired driving and sees these as some of the most serious cases handled at the District Court level. She has earned the reputation as a tough, but fair-minded prosecutor and Judge Pro Tem. A mom and active South County community member, Susan will bring a dedicated level of commitment to South County residents and a balanced approach and professional temperament to the District Court.
Ms. Mahoney's opponent, Judith Eiler, has been in the headline news recently and was disciplined this year by the State of Washington Judicial Conduct Commission for her courtroom demeanor.
Susan Mahoney has received a great number of endorsements from local attorneys, prosecutors and public defenders. This is evidence of her long track record of fairness and professionalism.
Ms. Mahoney has received a number of prominent endorsements from both sides of the political aisle, including the following:
Martin Luther King County Labor Council
Citizens for Judicial Excellence
King County Democrats
King County Young Democrats
King County Police Officer's Guild
AFSME Local 21 – District Court Clerk and Probation Officers Union
11th District Democrats
30th District Democrats
30th District Republicans
33rd District Democrats
34th District Democrats
Judge Ann Harper, King County District Court
Judge Veronica Alicea-Galvan, Des Moines Municipal Court
Judge Tim Jenkins, Sumner Municipal Court and Federal Way Attorney
Judge David Larson, Federal Way Municipal Court
Judge Rebecca Roberston, Federal Way Municipal Court
Judge Steven Rosen, Black Diamond Municipal Court
Judge Paul Codd, Des Moines and SeaTac Municipal Courts (retired)
For a full list of Ms. Mahoney's endorsements, readers of the Burien Blog can find out more about Susan Mahoney at www.mahoneyforjudge.com.
As the above attests, there is one clear choice for Position #2 in the King County District Court, Southwest Electoral District judicial race – Susan Mahoney.
W. Tracy Codd is a Burien Attorney with a practice which emphasizes criminal defense and personal injury law.
Mr. Codd, a B-Town Blog Advertiser, is a Member of the Committee to Elect Susan Mahoney for Judge.


text:
New Boots!
Merrell Tetra Strap
I know I have never done a post like this before, but my friend Erin over at Home With the Boys is doing "31 Days of All Things Women" this month.
She knew I was boot shopping and asked to see.
What beter way to show than to share!
Those of you who know me, I hardly ever get "new" things, if you haven't noticed I am bit of a thrift shopper.
Every once in a while, I do have a hard time finding exactly what I want, and when that happens I can buy new, because I have saved so much buying thrift on everything else.
When I buy new, I have a list of criteria.
1. I have to like them enough or be able to use them for more than one year, so they can't be something that easily will go out of style, and if they do, tough I will still have to wear them.
2. They have to quality so that they can last for YEARS. I have bought two pairs of NEW brown winter shoes since I have been married. May is our 10 year anniversary. Yes so each pair I used for around 4.5 years.
3. They have to be comfortable. I mean, if I spend all that money and then not wear them because they give me shin splints or blisters, I will be so upset.
So when I found myself boot shopping this year it gave me a little anxiety. I had a long list of things I wanted. I did end up with a bit of trial and error to get to this list, two pairs bought and returned to the store, and a desperate email to a Sioux Falls Style Expert but finally came up with my must have features.
Light brown: I have to be able to wear them with black, or brown. Lighter shades you can do that.
No/no heal: I am tall enough already and I don't need shin splints and tendon problems from switching from a heel to an athletic shoe. Yes that happens.
Can wear in snow, waterproof: I live in a snow region, not a snow dusting region, we are talking 10 inches of snow, snow region. Fancy pretty boots don't always cut it.
Non Skid Sole: There is no way I can chase a 2 year old around on ice with slick hard soled boots.
Nice enough to wear to Church with a knit dress: Well for me to wear to church anyway my standards might be different than others.
Correct Calf Size: Able to put skinny jeans inside the boot top and able to wear other jeans outside. the boot. I have soccer player calves.
COMFY: Something that feels nice enough that you are not in a rush to get them off when you walk in the door because your feet are tired.
Well I shopped the entire mall here and found nothing that fit my list.
I started my online search and came up with a few options.
On my list there was only one boot I could even locate in my city, which I find to be pretty ridiculous.
Hello people in this city wear boots too!!!
Here was my list:
Still have not had the chance to try them on which I will when I have that chance, but it was a little more than I wanted to spend.
I had no opportunity to try this one on either. I liked everything about it but couldn't bring myself to want the fluffy lambs wool looking lining, mainly because my calves are big enough already.
I was also worried about them even being able to fit my calf after reading the reviews.
They looked close to what I wanted but then again a bit too on the snow boot looking side.
and last on the list the winner.....
These were what I ended up with and with a coupon from a friend I was able to get a good deal.
I had never ordered shoes online before but I was desperate.
It was not as bad as I thought it would be, but I had to do my research.
Upon reading the reviews some said these were huge in the calf, and actually some said they were too small so I figured they would be great for me which they were.
I really suggest you watch the video that zappos has on the Merrels It does a nice job explaining all the nice extras it has.
I liked how it looked more narrow at the ankle, I do have larger calves but my ankles are not large and when I tried on boots at the mall when I found one to fit my calf, my heel would slip because the ankle was so large on them.
I like the straps around the ankles as well. It makes it look more like a fashion boot than a snow boot.
If I could change 3 things about this boot they would be.
1. I wish it was a shiny leather instead of a suede that shows even if I rub my hand on it. We will have to see how this holds up to weather, but I assume that since they are waterproof that they have accounted for that somewhat.
2. I wish it had a top mid seem in a way so that it looks a little more exciting when most of the boot is covered with jeans.
3. If I have to choose a third, maybe have an option where they can automatically change to a darker color when you want them to be. But... Since that is imaginary I guess I will have to live with a book that only stays one color.
I realized that you have to let one or two things go in order to find something that fits most of your list. You can search forever and not find the "Perfect" boot.
But these come pertty close for me.


text:
Munro foot valves are made of high quality of PVC and offer full port accessibility - no obstructions in the flow path. Stainless steel metal parts in the foot valve spring provide long lasting user life.
What is a foot valve?
A foot valve is a check valve used on the bottom of the suction pipe to retain the water in the pump when it is not in operation.


text:
In what is billed as possibly the largest study of its kind ever, a team led by psychiatrist Katherine Wisner approached over 17,000 women during their maternity hospitalization. The investigator team succeeded in screening over 10,000 for depression and in providing diagnostic interviews to 973 of those who screened positive.
Early release of the report of the study at JAMA Psychiatry generated considerable media coverage, from bloggers to NPR radio and CBS news.
It turned out that 14 percent of the women were at an increased risk of postpartum depression, which is consistent with what other studies have found. But in Sit's [Dorothy Sit, M.D., one of the study investigators], home visits for further evaluation revealed that in many cases, the symptoms were very serious.
"We discovered 20 percent had suicidal thoughts — these are thoughts of death, thoughts of wanting to die, not wanting to wake up, just escape," Sit says. "In fact, some patients with very severe symptoms had made the decision to take their lives."
Sit believes that all pregnant women and new moms should be screened for depression ideally at home so they can get diagnosed and receive treatment sooner, but even a clinical questionnaire may help. Lead author Dr. Katherine L. Wisner, a professor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, agreed. She added…that suicide makes up 20 percent of postpartum deaths, and is the second most common cause of death in postpartum women.
"Most of these women would not have been screened and therefore would not have been identified as seriously at risk," Wisner explained to UPI. "We believe screening will save lives."
June Horowitz, Professor of Nursing at Boston College and a postpartum depression researcher but who was not involved in the study, chimed in with CBS News:
"I think we still in this country really do not recognize mental health issues, we still have that Puritan, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps, be-tough attitude," she said.
"It should be the gold standard that everyone gets screened for postpartum depression," she added.
Yet, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology is still withholding a full endorsement of routine screening, saying that more evidence is needed before a recommendation can be made. How could that be?
The abstract of the JAMA psychiatry article is available here. Unfortunately the article itself is not open access, but if you email the lead author at email@example.com with the message…
Dear Professor Wisner: I would very much appreciate a PDF of Onset Timing, Thoughts of Self-harm, and Diagnoses in Postpartum Women…, which appeared in JAMA Psychiatry. Thank you in advance.
…I'm sure she would be pleased to send you the PDF.
The article reports a large, well resourced, NIMH funded study, but I am going to argue that it has serious limitations. Strong claims are made about the value of routinely screening pregnant and postpartum women for depression, the risk of suicide that screening would reveal among these women, the presence of unrecognized and untreated bipolar disorder, and the potential for saving lives with screening.
While the authors did an impressively effective job of packaging the research, getting it published in a high impact journal, and publicizing it in the media, the take away message was simplistic and misleading.
I know, these criticisms are rather harsh. If you have accessed this article through a University library website or successfully obtained a PDF from the lead author, you can read it ahead of time or you can read it as you follow along, and decide for yourself.
As with the last blog post, this study also needs to be situated in the context of the American healthcare system.
Many low income women in the United States have only inadequate insurance or none at all. They immediately qualify for Medicaid when they are found to be pregnant, but this insurance is canceled six weeks after delivery of their infant. Even having Medicaid is not a guaranteed access to depression care, because many psychiatrists and psychologists refuse to accept Medicaid because of what they consider too low reimbursement for services. But when their Medicaid eligibility is canceled, care for depression that low income women had been getting while pregnant would have to shift to community mental health centers. As is immediately apparent when someone enters a waiting room of a community mental health center, they serve mainly the severely mentally ill and dual diagnosis patients with substance abuse and severe mental illness. The waiting rooms of such settings can be frightening places for a new mother, particularly one who does not have a babysitter and must bring her infant with her.
As many as half of all low income women do not show up for their well baby visit and so are lost from the medical system. Many American women, both low income and otherwise, concentrate on medical care for their infant rather than themselves, and so pediatric care becomes the only possible site for identifying mothers' postpartum depression. Unfortunately, pediatricians are not comfortable diagnosing and treating adult depression. These facts need to be taken into account when discussing proposals for screening and treating postpartum depression that include getting women into treatment quickly. It just won't happen without a radical redesign of the system..
The study was conducted at an urban obstetrical hospital in Pittsburgh. Women who delivered a live infant were visited by a nurse or social worker on the ward who gave them information about the screening study. Those who agreed to participate were then screened by telephone for six weeks postpartum.
Screening was done with the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale.
The 10 item scale is the one most commonly used for such purposes, but is hardly ideal. From item to item, the scoring key varies and reverses in ways that can be very confusing to patients and to clinic staff trying to score the instrument. You can see it here. Try to imagine filling it out in a visit as a pregnant woman in a busy obstetric clinic waiting room and decide whether you could keep track of the reversing of item content and flipping of scoring keys, without being alerted to them.
The EPDS was constructed in British colloquial English, and a quaint item 6, "Things are getting on top of me" confuses American women. When we were using it in a screening project at a Medicaid clinic, a woman muttered aloud in the waiting room, "Damn, that's how I got here!" in response to item 6. Although there is poor validation of cut points for the EPDS, scores of 10 or 13 and higher are commonly used to determine positive screens and therefore the need for further evaluation.
Determination of self-harm in this study-or what was later called "suicidal thoughts" in the media-was entirely based on responses to item 10 of the EDPS, "The thought of harming myself as occurred to me," With a timeframe of the past 7 days, the 4 response options being yes, quite often; sometimes; hardly ever; and never.
All women who screen positive were offered a psychiatric evaluation at their homes, and if they declined, they were offered a shorter telephone assessment of whether they had major depressive disorder. Those who opted for the home interview received the complete Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), but those opted for the telephone assessment received only the portion of the SCID focusing on major depression.
Of the 17601 women approached, 17426 were eligible and agreed to telephone screening. The investigators were able to contact and screen 10,000 of them. Of the 1396 women who screened positive, 826 accepted a home interview and 147 accepted the telephone screen for major depression.
This is an ambitious study, but lots of women are lost from it, from the initial request for them to consent to participation in the study, and at each step forward. Let's do some simple calculations. The investigators succeeded in screening 10,000/17426 or 57% of the eligible women they approached. They were then able to do diagnostic interviews in the homes of 826/1396 or 59% of the women screening positive. So, a rough estimate is that results of were obtained from (.57) x (.59) = 34% of the women eligible for an extensive interview, and it is on the basis of these interviews that the strongest claims are made.
This is a low proportion of recruiting and retaining pregnant and postpartum women, certainly lower than what my colleagues and I have obtained in other studies, and could bias results. Busy new mothers may not be interested in getting an extensive psychiatric interview at home. The investigators offered $40 which undoubtedly increased participation, but may have biased the final sample toward women who needed the money. And you can also see in the method section that the screening was part of recruitment for a randomized trial for management of depression. If women have adequate insurance, they would be less motivated to sign up for screening leading them to a clinical trial in which they may not get the treatment they prefer. On the other hand, low income, uninsured women may be attracted to the possibility of getting treatment they could otherwise not afford. So, a there is a further bias of oversampling low income women seeking the possibility of free care that they could not otherwise obtain.
Consistent with this criticism, the article indicates that the women who accepted a home visit had higher mean EPDS scores. They were younger, less educated, and more likely to be African American, on Medicaid or uninsured, and single.
Among the women receiving the more extensive diagnostic interview at home, the most common primary diagnosis was unipolar depressive disorder (566 women, 68.5%) with 514 (90.8%) having major depressive disorder. Most women with unipolar depression also had a comorbid anxiety disorder.
A "striking" 187 women (22.6%) were found to have a bipolar disorder.
Note that these percentages are calculated using the biased sample of women who completed a home interview, who, in turn, are a biased sample of those who scored positive on the questionnaire, who, in turn, are a biased sample of those approached in the waiting room. If the authors had provided simple estimates of the prevalence of psychiatric disorder they found in the waiting room, these estimates could be evaluated by direct comparisons with the existing literature, but unfortunately these numbers were not provided.
Overall, 98% of the women who scored above the cut point of 10 had a psychiatric disorder.
Having conducted this kind of research, I find this result astonishing and inconsistent with the rest of the literature. A low cut point of 10 on the EPDS is sometimes set so that no depression will be missed, but that comes at the cost of having to interview a lot of women who don't turn out to be depressed. Most will not be. Technically, the issue is one of sacrificing specificity for sensitivity.
Those of us who are concerned about such things keep emphasizing to clinicians that a score on a questionnaire is no substitute for a careful interviewing of patients to see if they are actually depressed. We do not want to encourage overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Yet, if we take these results at face, clinician should be able to assume that most of the women who score above even this low threshold have a psychiatric disorder.
Then there is the issue of such a high proportion of women above this modest cut point being found to have a bipolar disorder. There is not a lot of literature concerning identifying postpartum women with bipolar disorder using this particular questionnaire, but I think many postpartum depression researchers like myself would find this figure so out of the range of expectations as to cause doubts about the validity of the study.
Picking up on the potential bias that I noted, many low income pregnant women are not married and often have conflictful relationships with the biological father, whom they do not necessarily live with, certainly by the time they have delivered their baby. When interviewers lack cultural sensitivity, these intermittent periods of irritability, outright , and emotional upset that might be interpreted as hypomanic episodes. Any substance abuse by the women or even the biological fathers can further complicate making diagnosis of a bipolar disorder in the women: women's episodes of anger and conflict associated with their own or the father's substance abuse might be misconstrued as a hypomanic episode. Certainly, there is evidence that insufficiently trained and supervised interviewers misdiagnose bipolar disorder and, in general, that the diagnosis is being made too casually in the community. Many persons reporting having been diagnosed are not even at risk for bipolar disorder.
There may be an additional bias of attaching a psychiatric label to normal phenomena in doing psychiatric interviews with new mothers. I am sure you have heard of the common and normal experience of postpartum blues. But what is less known that in the first five days after giving birth, about 15% of women experience a fleeting period in which their mood is elevated. They may feel particularly good and talk a lot. These women typically do not experience impairment in the social functioning or as a mother. If you examine the criteria for hypomanic episode, you can see that these criteria might be stretched to include a lot of these women, because they only need to meet four of the nine vague criteria. Yet it is not at all clear that these women should be considered as having a psychiatric disorder, and there are no evidence-based treatments or even an established need for treatment. Nonetheless, it's conceivable that overzealous interviewers would classify them as having hypomanic episode and therefore bipolar 2 disorder. Making statements to the media counting these patients as having bipolar disorder is misleading.
Yet, the authors' interpretation dismisses that possibility of bias and turns a weakness of the EPDS into a strength:
This figure is likely to be an underestimate of bipolar disorder episode frequency because the EPDS does not screen specifically for the hypomanic/manic phase of the disorder. The postpartum period carries the highest lifetime risk for first-onset and recurrent episodes of bipolar disorder.
They go on to highlight the importance of their finding
Recognition of bipolar disorder is the most important prerequisite for adequate treatment. Many patients receive treatment for comorbid psychiatric disorders, but lack of recognition of the underlying bipolar disorder results in few receiving appropriate treatment. Half of women with "treatment-resistant" PPD actually have bipolar disorder…Treatment of the depressed phase of bipolar disorder with a mood stabilizer and an antidepressant does not confer benefit beyond treatment with a mood stabilizer alone. Given the critical importance of birth as a life event for families, detection and treatment of bipolar disorder among childbearing women has major public health significance.
I find the claims made in the direct quotes from the investigator team to the media concerning self harm, or, as it is described there, suicidality, even more controversial, and so I will quote results as directly described in the article:
In the sample of 10 000 women who underwent screening, 319 (3.2%) had thoughts of self-harm, including 8 who endorsed "yes, quite often"; 65, "sometimes"; and 246, "hardly ever."
Note that of the 10,000 women, few had thoughts of self harm and only 8 endorsed quite often. And, contrary to the way these results are presented in the media, this is not a question about suicidality, but about self harm. We actually get quite similar results with the EPDS item 10 in an ongoing study of women drawn from obstetric waiting rooms, but we give a very different interpretation. This item is notoriously nonspecific and only very weakly related to attempted or completed suicide. Think of it: it covers non-suicidal, fleeting thoughts like a woman feeling like she wants to bang her head on the wall or pinch or hit herself in frustration. Endorsing this item with other than a response of "never" is not strongly related to mental health or well being because most endorsements are not strong endorsements. Comparisons between answers to item 10 and what is said in an interview find that only a response of "yes, quite often" is related to suicidality and so only 8/10,000 of this sample is at risk.
This investigator team actually had much higher-quality data available from the SCID, which poses more specific questions about suicide and allows interviewers to explain the questions and probe patient responses. I'm quite confident that if the investigators had reported their own findings, they would be much less impressive, even if more accurate.
If we accepted at face what the investigators say in the article and are quoted as saying in the media.
We would conclude that women who are pregnant and who have just delivered a baby should be routinely screened for depression. Most having even modest elevations on the screening questionnaire have a psychiatric disorder. A considerable portion of those with elevated score are suicidal and suicide, we are told, is one of the leading cause of deaths in this time of women's lives. So, when doing screening, a mental health professional should be nearby to deal with the prevalent "suicidality." While routine screening could lead to effective treatment and saving lives, there is a danger because many of these women who screen positive because they actually have bipolar disorder, and so been given antidepressant could trigger a manic episode. So, we should have a psychiatrist readily available to determine whether they are suffering from a bipolar disorder.
Contrast with what is available in the literature.
Readers who uncritically accept what is available in the article and the media coverage might be surprised to find in the existing literature:
- Depression may be no more common during pregnancy and in the immediate postpartum than for women of similar age who are not childbearing.
- Pregnancy and the period after a live birth are particularly low risk times for suicide, which is not cost-effective to screen for in general medical settings, anyway.
- Reviews of the literature and evidence-based recommendations from some professional and government organizations consistently conclude that routine screening of pregnant and postpartum women for depression is not yet supported by the literature.
- Some states mandate and reward clinical settings for routinely screening pregnant and postpartum women, but the evidence is that mandating screening does not improve depression outcomes.
- Screening of pregnant and postpartum women is unlikely to lead to improvement in depression scores because of difficulties in linking women with affordable, accessible, and acceptable care. Both women and their care providers have reservations about the safety of antidepressants for the developing fetus and breast-fed infant.
- While psychotherapy may be appealing to some women, most cannot find time just after having a baby. There are substantial challenges in getting them to regular scheduled psychotherapy appointments, even when psychotherapy is affordable and accessible.
Conflict of interest in the promotion of treatment of pregnant and postpartum women with antidepressants and mood stabilizers
Considerable concern has been expressed that what professionals tell pregnant women about medication for depression and other mood disorders is tainted by substantial and sometimes undeclared conflicts of interest. Many prominent investigators receive funding for serving as advisors to pharmaceutical industry and giving talks to clinicians concerning the safety and efficacy of antidepressants. An article from on the bias in the published literature from the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute specifically mentions Dr. Wisner's ties to Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly.
The conflict of interest disclosure for this article indicates that Dr. Wisner participates in the advisory board for Eli Lilly and that Dr. Wisniewski is a consultant with a number of pharmaceutical companies. You decide if this appearance of a conflict of interest might have influenced recommendations for screening with the need for a psychiatrist present and that is likely lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment with antidepressants and mood stabilizers.


text:
Project Planning
Icon has decades of experience in project planning and management. Our commitment to simplicity makes it easy, and we work together with unity and dedication. From concept to completion, our craftsmen will create a strong foundation for your branding program.
Project Implementation
We get it done. It's that simple. Your vision is our mission, and we deliver results. Our manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and construction services are ready for action, and we have a truly iconic brand craftsmen waiting to help with your project.
Project Tracking
We manage complexity with transparency. We offer a responsive web portal called Icon Connect, where you can access detailed reports and project updates in a simple, mobile-friendly dashboard. View your orders, photographs, location surveys, and engineering documentation all in one place. We stand by our work with continual communication, peace of mind, and craftsman quality for every project.
Project Performance
Your brand is on display for the world. Icon is continuously monitoring the efficacy of our service to our clients. We have a number of indices and processes for gathering feedback on performance. The most important is knowing what our clients think. Every step of the planning and implementation process affects the final impact.


text:
At least 58 per cent of them are fakes, the courts say. But it's almost impossible to get rid of them even when we know.
After they arrive and tell their lie about being persecuted for being left-handed in Switzerland -- or whatever the refugee lie of the month happens to be -- they usually apply for welfare and settle down to wait for their first hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Average wait, with local taxpayers picking up half the tab for the welfare on their property taxes (the rest comes out of your provincial taxes): 19 months.
If the IRB rules that no, being left-handed in Switzerland -- or homosexual in Mexico, or Roma in Hungary, or any of the other real recent claims used to attain refugee status in Canada -- does not constitute refugee status, they can apply for leave to appeal to the Federal Court.
Average wait for a court date: four to six months.
If a risk assessment is required they wait another nine to 24 months. They can also return to federal court for another go, waiting yet another four to six months.
On welfare. For most of the world's poor, "that's pretty attractive," Kenney points out.
If the courts still say no to our Swiss claimant the alleged refugee can appeal for admittance to Canada under Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds, which takes at least six more months.If they lose that they get another crack at federal court, waiting four to six more months.
"That's how you get to five years before you exhaust all the appeals," Kenney said Friday during a trip to Windsor to sell Canadians on the Harper government's plan to fix the mess.
"By that time," Kenney says of the claimant -- many of whom are real refugees, by the way, who Canada actually wants to stay -- "they may have been integrated into Canadian society, gotten married and found a job. Removal becomes very difficult."
I said it before and I'll say it again. Everyone in the world knows that if you're going to make an asylum claim Canada is the place to do it.
The question is how did it get to be such a mess? Oh, right, lawyers. How silly of me to forget. They ruin everything they get their hands on.
We need to keep in mind the opportunity costs Canadian taxpayers incur entertaining these "self-selecting immigrants". The billions of dollars wasted on these unscrupulous men and women playing the Canadian public for suckers so they can get quick and easy entry into shopping mall Canada could have been spent on more beneficial ventures like health care, education, and job training.


text: Since its start in 1975, Diesel Engine & Heavy Equipment has been offering a wide variety of quality services to maintain heavy equipment such as truck, trailers, wreckers and more. Please take a look at all of the services we offer, but are not limited to, and do not hesitate to contact us. We will be glad to assist you.


text:
So, it begins.
Winter break is upon us.
The children are home, without structure, without friends and without any respite for us, the parents. This means that we have to provide them with structure, entertainment, love and as much patience as we can muster (which for me, isn't much).
Here are a few ideas that might help you keep some of your sanity during winter break.
Christmas movies:
Keep your Netflix arsenal locked and loaded. If things get too crazy, throw on a seasonal flick! Some of my favorites include The Santa Clause, Elf, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frosty The Snowman, The Grinch and Home Alone.
Kids love coloring and it's ok, you can admit it, you love coloring too! I know I do! It's totally relaxing and it's something that you can do with your kids. Try printing out some coloring sheets, like these, and maybe get yourself a coloring book like this.
Play outside:
Do you want to build a snowman or catch some Pokemon down the block? Seriously, if the weather is nice enough, play outside. Snowball fights, snowmen, walks, Pokemon Go, bike rides, swimming (if you live in FLORIDA!!!), check out Christmas lights or if the weather sucks, make your own snow!
Drink a lot of coffee:
Seriously, drink a ton of coffee! Caffeine is your friend. Do not be afraid of it during Christmas break. Give your kids some hot chocolate too!
Get crafty:
Give your kids some shit to do! Make some playdoh, bust out a new game or give them a craft to do! Anything that will allow you a moment or two of peace.
Remember, a couple of weeks can seem long, but you'll make it through. Remember to take breaks when you can, accept help when it is offered, dinner from a box or can is completely acceptable and screen-time doesn't count during school breaks. *wink wink*
How will you keep some of your sanity during winter break?


text:
It's hard for one not to be cynical and merely view Peeples as an "urban" rip-off of Meet the Parents. That film, now 13 years old (yeesh), took the tired story of the nervous boyfriend meeting his girlfriend's parents for the first time and spun it into gold, thanks to a talented cast playing to their strengths and bringing their A games. Even if Peeples wanted to take that approach with basically the same storyline, would the audience be as invested in Craig Robinson (The Office) and David Alan Grier (In Living Color) as they were for Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro?
Peeples revolves around Wade Walker (Robinson), an aspiring psychologist who has been dating Grace (Kerry Washington) for a year and still hasn't met her family. When she leaves to visit the family at their house in the Hamptons, Wade decides to follow behind her and surprise everyone by asking her father, Judge Peeples (Grier), for Grace's hand in marriage. Upon arriving, he finds that Grace has not mentioned him or their relationship. Wade spends the rest of the film attempting to gain the approval of the family, hijinks and misunderstandings be damned.
The biggest strength and flaw of the film was the casting of Robinson in the role of the hapless Wade. Robinson, despite cutting an imposing figure, has always appeared to be a lovable lunk of a guy; if you are the father of a daughter that has had multiple questionable relationships in the past, you would feel like she had finally found a nice fella to settle down with. Hence, one of the reasons the adversarial tone between Wade and the Judge seems so whackadoo. This isn't Ben Stiller fumbling, mumbling, bumbling and stumbling all over your house; this is a dude that anyone would be happy to bring into your family.
The only way that screenwriter and first-time director Tina Gordon Chism (Drumline) can amp up the tension is by following Parents almost scene by scene. Father doesn't take potential son-in-law's career seriously? Check. Does the nice guy hear a conversation that he misinterprets for something much more sinister involving the dad? Of course. Is there a youngest child going wild unbeknownst to his parents? Mmm-hmm. Is there a final fight between everyone involved where the daughter will side with her father's wild allegations, despite being the only one there to actually know the suitor long enough to have a reasonable suspicion that he may be a thief or drug addict? Well now you're just taking all of the fun out of this.
Much could, and probably will, be said about the fact that the only true innovation that the film has going for it is its predominantly black cast. Honestly, the film doesn't even touch on that concept more than a couple of times, like when Wade addresses a family picture as the "chocolate Kennedys". Why does no one in the film ask what it's like to be one of the few black families in the lily white Hamptons? When a subplot is introduced over a family member hiding her homosexuality, why isn't her reasoning behind that thought process explored? One of the many scenes involving bicycle riding could have been excised to give one of these more serious concepts room to grow, but Chism chose to go the more lackadaisical route.Peeples, despite advertising producer Tyler Perry's name all over the advertising, isn't the worst thing you will see this year in theaters. No one is involved in a highly unlikely abusive relationship, and an AIDS scare isn't shoehorned in at the last minute for a ham-fisted moral. All in all, it isn't really bad as much as forgettable, and I mean that literally; I could definitely see members of the audience running across this on TBS a couple of years from now and trying to remember if they have seen this film or not. No, in the end the film is simply buried beneath comparisons to its earlier, better inspiration, talented case be damned.


text:
Hot off the presses. Sulaimon is a Terp.
My mind is reeling that Duke Blue Devil is now a Terp. I'm not sure how to feel.
On one hand, the Terps have a completely loaded roster and could be ranked as high as preseason #1. On the other hand, he was kicked off Duke's team for a reason and I'm not sure we need to a potential p [...] Read More »
It's the news that Terp fans have been waiting for. Diamond Stone, the 6'10" 250lb 5-star center tweeted to the world this evening that he was taking his talents to College Park MD next year. Unbelievable!
I need verification, but this may be the first time in program history that Maryland has netted McDonald's All-Americans in back-t [...] Read More »
The Maryland Terrapins haven't been to the Sweet 16 since 2003. Exalted names like Drew Nicholas and Steve Blake were involved. Today, the Terps can end the drought and reestablish the program on the national stage.
In the way, stands West Virginia. The Mountaineers have slogged through the Big 12 conference which has been tabbed the best [...] Read More »
Man, that Valpo game was incredibly frustrating to watch. I'm not going to lie. I avoided public places because I knew this game would be close and I didn't want to have a conniption fit in public. As it was, I destroyed a water bottle and may or may not have beaten a pillow on my couch to a bloody pulp. Yes. I'm a grown man. It's [...] Read More »
Happy NCAA Tournament, everyone!
It's good to be back after a 4 year hiatus. By now, we've all had the opportunity to get over the fact that the Selection Committee completely screwed Maryland with our seeding and draw. It's water under the bridge.
I've come to peace with it. I actually think a potential matchup against Kent [...] Read More »
I don't even know where to start. The Terps got served one of the most unfair seeding in recent history. A team with a 2-0 record against the Big 12, including a win against the conference champion, got seeded behind three Big 12 teams.
If only that were the only insult. The Terps got shipped in Kentucky's side of the dr [...] Read More »
It was a great night at the United Center. The Terps didn't trail after the score was 13-10 Indiana early in the first half. In what has become this team's signature, the Terps kept Indiana at arms length but were never able to pull away until the final minute.
Ken Pomeroy and the other basketball quants call this Terps team the luc [...] Read More »
For the first time since I was a junior in college, I will get to see the Maryland Terrapins play in their conference tournament. The Terps check in as a #2 seed but I expect the matchup to be much more difficult than the standard 2/7 fare.
Unfortunately, Maryland does not matchup well with Indiana. IU's guards are quicker than Maryl [...] Read More »
Both #9 Kansas and #8 Wichita State lost yesterday. That means Maryland could be a top 8 team heading into the Big Ten Tournament if they can take care of business in Lincoln tonight.
Maryland has won 6 in a row. Nebraska has lost 7 in a row. On paper, the Terps should roll. We know that won't happen. Maryland has t [...] Read More »
Privacy Policy


text:
Not Just Another Purim Basket
Mishloach Manot is the traditional gift giving of two or more different type foods to at least two people. We perform this Mitzvah for many reasons – most significantly to ensure there is sufficient food for the Purim feast and to increase love and friendship between Jews, thereby dismissing Haman's accusations that there is strife and dissention. Purim is an ideal opportunity to repair broken relationships by sending packages to people with whom we've had ill feelings. Traditionally, however, Purim packages are sent to family, friends, neighbors, and business associates.
From soups to nutty
Mishloach Manot is given in many different forms. Home baked goods, candy platters, fruit, and lots and lots of wine bottles are just some of the things traded between friends and family. At times, you may find things have gone from the simple baskets our mothers used to hand out to elaborately themed towers of very expensive confections.
Last year, I received a huge wicker horse stuffed with everything pink and green. Impressive surely, but where someone finds a pink wrapped bottle of beer I have still to find out. The Mishloach Manot we appreciated the most was the sweetly presented deli lunch box that had a small hero sandwich, a package of chips and a can of cola. It really hit the spot after a day of running errands with no time to prepare lunch.
Get your basket back to basics
Here are a couple entertaining, classy, and easy on the pocket Mishloach Manot ideas:
- Gourmet soup basket – This year, when you make soup for your Purim or Shabbos meal, make a bigger pot! Then send out small containers of your delicious soup with a homemade "private label" along with some fantastic, fresh Italian or French bakery bread. Place everything into a simple wicker basket or even a large brown paper bag, tie a raffia ribbon around everything and viola! – a classic French style gift.
- Don't have time to make soup from scratch? Try any one of Manischewitz new gourmet soup packages for the same homemade taste without all the work.
- Cupcakes take the cake – These sweet little confections, all the rage in cafes and bakeries, are the perfect gift idea. Put four of them in a white bakery box with a simple ribbon and add an inexpensive bottle of wine. Just like that, you have a memorable and very in-style Purim gift.
For the best tasting cupcakes you've ever made, top them off with a delicious Dairy Free Chocolate or Vanilla Creamy Frosting. See our Sarah Lasry recipe section for more variations.
There are many ways you can express your Purim joy and fulfill the Mitzvah of Mishloach Manot this year without having to stress out. Remember to keep things simple and easy and think about what you would most appreciate to receive and give accordingly – Not just another Purim basket for you this year!


text:
Women's / Girl's Volleyball
Holy Trinity nabs second straight field hockey title Louisville
Holy Trinity outlasted St. Aloysius 5-0 in the CSSA Seventh and Eighth Grade Field Hockey City Championship Thursday night. It was the second straight city title for the seventh and eighth grade team. For many seventh graders at Holy Trinity, it was their third straight city title as they cap... +Read More


text:
céad míle fáilte
The Black Jack Kehoe Division 4, Delaware County website of The Ancient Order of Hibernians.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians in America is an Irish Catholic organization whose purpose is to promote friendship, unity, and Christian charity. Our mission is to assist the people of Ireland in establishing a free and united Ireland while lending aid to the sick, aged, blind, and infirmed in our community by participation in Catholic Action activities.
Roots of the Ancient Order of Hibernians stem from Ireland in the Defenders and the Ribbonmen, Catholic agrarian movements of the 18th and 19th centuries but its largest membership is now in the United States, where it was founded in New York City May 4, 1836 at St. James Church located near the old Five Points neighborhood.


text:
Will Urijah Faber return to his title-winning ways this weekend against Dominick Cruz? What's the story with Rick Story? Is Nate Marquardt truly done fighting in the Octagon? Is Ryan Couture overrated? Can this GWI top last week's dismal display in the "Comments" section?
Keyboard warrrrriors….come out to plaaaay-yay!
Welcome to Grappling with Issues, our site's regular weekly feature highlighting insight and opinion from myself and resident workhorse Jeremy Lambert whose "Walk Out" and "After Party" event-breakdowns can be regularly found on Five Ounces. As always, just because we staffers get the fancy set-up, please don't hesitate to offer your own take on the topics in the "Comments" section below.
Based on the performances at "Bellator 46" who would you pick as the frontrunner to win the "Summer Series" featherweight tournament?
Lambert: If I'm going just based on this past Saturday's fights, I'd have to say Pat Curran. I think he fought the toughest competition and turned in the best performance. That said, I'm still picking Marlon Sandro to win the tournament because I feel that he's the most complete fighter in the tournament. He was the only fighter not to record a finish in the first round but it was also his US debut and it is common knowledge fighters who spend the majority of their careers overseas always struggle in their US debuts. Plus, Genair da Silva didn't seem too interested in fighting Sandro in the later stages of their bout. Assuming that that was the worst version of Sandro we're going to see, I still like him to win the tournament.
Conlan: I agree with Lambert's take on Curran in terms of the 23-year old having faced the stiffest competition at Bellator 46 and dominating the action from start to finish. However, Curran drew Ronnie Mann in the semi-finals who could easily put a halt to his advancement in the tournament considering his knowledge of submissions, gassed-up motor, and combination of heart/chin. As such, I'm going with Sandro as the frontrunner since he is well-rounded enough to hang with any of the remaining opponents no matter where the action takes place and, as I said in relation to Curran, he's also not facing Mann in the next round so that in itself gives me more cause for confidence.
True/False – Ryan Couture will eventually exit Strikeforce with a winning record.
Lambert: TRUE. I have no reason to write off Couture just because he lost to Matt Ricehouse, a good prospect in his own right. He's still an improving fighter who has a lot to learn in the sport and he'll continue to get better as long as he keeps working hard, which I have no doubt that he'll do. He's not going to face great competition until he proves that he's ready and by the time that happens, I see Couture leaving Strikeforce. I'm not say that he'll jump to the UFC at the first chance he gets but I do have a sneaky feeling that when lightweights get the call for The Ultimate Fighter, we're going to see Couture on the show.
Conlan: FALSE. I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Couture who I still see a solid prospect, but in reality he's 28 and not some kid fresh out of college with a pedigree plus five good years left to polish his overall game. He was outclassed by a kid four years younger than him who had twice his pro fights. That in itself says a lot to me about his future in MMA unless he turns the corner at some point in the next year or two.
Also, bear in mind being 2-2 (or worse) and having the freedom to grow as a competitor outside of Strikeforce's spotlight might not necessarily be a bad thing. Other than Kimbo Slice and Amir Sadollah I'm not sure any other fighters with a complete lack of experience have dealt with the kinds of pressure put on Couture this early in his career based purely on his last name. Letting him develop his skills away from the public eye in a small organization could be the very thing "Natural Light" needs to refocus purely on his own development as a fighter rather than as a co-headlining "future star" on a Showtime broadcast. It would also probably allow him to increase his in-ring activity instead of waiting for slots on Strikeforce Challengers events to surface.
Does Rick Story deserve a free pass on his loss to Charlie Brenneman given the outside circumstances surrounding their UFC Live 4 match-up?
Lambert: This really depends on your interpretation of "free pass." I don't really hold it against Story that he lost but not because of the outside circumstance, but because he didn't really take any damage. He just got put on his back and couldn't get up. I don't think the fact that his opponent got switched last day and he was taking a step down in competition was the reason he lost though. I think coming back so quickly after the Thiago Alves, a fight where he suffered a ton of damage, played into the loss more than anything. That said, Story knew what he was getting himself into when he took the fight on short notice and if he suffered a mental letdown when he went from the main event against Nate Marquardt to the co-main event against Charlie Brenneman then that's on him.
Conlan: No, because I have a hard time believing he would have been able to fend off Marquardt's grappling if Brenneman handled him with such ease on the ground. I agree the main issue Story experienced was not related to the change in opponent or a lack of ability on his part but rather the exceptionally brief turnaround time between his all-out war with Alves and this past weekend.
Also, while I'll preempt this by openly admitting I have no experience managing fighters and am not aware of a multitude of "behind the scenes" factors, it seems on the surface it would have been a smart move on the part of Story's management to see Marquardt's withdrawal as manna from heaven and ducked off the card. Instead, they traded in six fight winning streak in the deepest division out there for the price of a potential win over a fighter few had heard of before Sunday night. Hindsight is 20/20 but in this situation a bit of foresight was not too much to ask for no matter how much Story might have pleaded his case to compete.
Will Dominick Cruz avenge his loss to Urijah Faber this weekend?
Conlan: Though I'm not a fan of picking results due to my great respect for the inherently unpredictable nature of fighting, GWI-duty calls and as such I'll go on record as saying I think Cruz will once again fall short against Faber when the two meet in Vegas at UFC 132.
Though he's certainly improved since their first encounter in 2007, so has Faber who has looked very sharp since dropping to 135 pounds. Cruz's performances have been solid since losing to Faber but not overly impressive with six decisions in the eight fights (and one of those being a Doctor's Stoppage due to Brian Bowles breaking his hand in their bout). The UFC bantamweight champ has also fought Faber's protégé, Joseph Benavidez, twice and was nearly outpointed the second time so Team Alpha Male already has him well-scouted with a good gameplan in place.
I don't see Cruz finishing Faber, nor do I see him out-grappling "The California Kid", so from that perspective I feel as though a new champ will be crowned at UFC 132. However, I won't mind being wrong if so, and more than anything I'm simply excited about seeing their rivalry culminate in what should certainly be an exciting main event come Saturday night.
Lambert: Full disclosure, I love getting Bren to pick fights because I know he likes to remain objective but I enjoy getting him on record and open to ridicule like I am every week when I make my fight picks. SO HA!
I've been back and forth on this fight ever since it was announced and I did quite possibly my longest breakdown of the fight for this weeks Walk Out but I finally made a decision and I say no, Cruz wil not avenge his loss this weekend. While Cruz has become the toughest puzzle in MMA in recent bouts given all his movement on the feet, I think Faber will be able to solve the Cruzbix Cube (0% chance this catches on). For the longer breakdown though, you'll have to stay tuned for Friday's Walk Out.
Besides the main event, which fight at UFC 132 are you most looking forward to?
Conlan: When it comes to topics like these I usually try to highlight a lesser-hyped bout in hopes of turning some eyes towards a preliminary, but potential-laden, pairing. However, in the case of UFC 132 I have to go with Chris Leben vs. Wanderlei Silva. There's something to be said about a good, ol' fashioned brawl and there's no doubt both middleweights are coming to bang on Saturday night. Silva and Leben are well-known for their fearlessness in the ring and love of striking so fans are essentially guaranteed a highlight reel knockout in the bout, plus from a purely division perspective the win will mean a lot to for either man. In summary, their UFC 132 meeting may not be pretty but damn should it be fun!
Lambert: While Leben vs. Silva should bring fireworks, I'm particularly excited for Carlos Condit vs. Dong Hyun Kim. Kim is technically undefeated (and I still think he beat Karo Parisyan, even though it was ruled a loss before it was ruled a no contest) and has really flown under the radar in the welterweight division. Now he gets his chance against a top guy like Condit, and I'm interested to see how he does. Then there's Condit, who never has a boring fight and is on the cusp of getting a title shot if he can beat Kim. It's a big fight for the welterweight division and because it involves Condit, I think it will be exciting.
Do you believe Dana White when he says, "Nate Marquardt will never fight in the UFC again"?
Conlan: Yes and no. I believe the UFC's head honcho fully intended to blacklist "Nate the Great" when he said as much over the weekend. After all, if White was simply told Marquardt's tests had shown a high level of testosterone without any of the additional facts, why wouldn't he want to unload a freshly positive fighter with past PED issues on his record?
However, now that more light has been shed on the subject by Marquardt it seems he may not quite be the villain he's been portrayed as and as such could very well make a return to the Octagon in the future. He was told to take testosterone by a licensed physician, revealed the condition to his bosses, received clearance from the New Jersey athletic commission to fight there earlier this year, and had been in contact with Pennsylvania officials in anticipation of his scheduled bout at UFC Live 4. Marquardt did nothing worse than Chael Sonnen who is still employed by Zuffa and was even almost featured as a coach on the newest season of the Ultimate Fighter. Plainly put, a permanent ban from the UFC doesn't make sense considering the facts and how high-quality a competitor he is, but God bless White for his genuine passion about the product even if he occasionally jumps the gun in responding to matters.
Lambert: Of course not. I think Dana is great but any time he says a fighter will, "never fight in the UFC again," I just can't believe him. Even before more details came out about Marquardt, I still figured there would be a chance that he'd be back. Remember when Tito Ortiz would, "never fight in the UFC again?" and Dana brought him back not once, but twice? Or how about Karo Parisyan?
I think it was a huge overreaction by Dana to flat out fire Nate when he didn't have all the details. And if all the details are now out, which I'm still not 100% sure that they are, I guarantee you Dana will bring back Nate after hearing his side of the story.


text:
SEO KEYWORD RESEARCH Amazon Suggest Keyword Tool Dominator Amazon (and Competitor) Categories
CHAPTER 1 KEYWORD RESEARCH If you want to run an effective ecommerce SEO campaign, make sure to kick things off with keyword research. Why? Because keyword research informs every other SEO-related task you do on your website (for example, without keywords, it's impossible for you to optimize your product and category pages). Believe it or


text:
- 2kg beef brisket, bones removed and rolled with string
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 carrot, sliced into 4mm slices
- 1/2 tsp liquid smoke
- freshly ground salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 10g butter
- Heat the sous-vide to 68 degrees Celsius.
- Cut the brisket in half (unless you have very large ziplock bags) and each piece in a bag that you've rolled over the top on (to prevent the upper edge getting contaminated).
- Split the carrot, liquid smoke and bay leaves between the two bags. Season with a bit of salt and pepper.
- Seal the bags with the submersion method and place in the sous-vide for 36 hours. You'll probably need to place a plate on-top to make sure it stays fully submerged.
- Remove from the sous-vide and remove the brisket from the bags. Save the cooking liquid to make a pan sauce (just add to the cooking pan after browning the meat and reduce it down) or gravy.
- Pat the meat dry with some kitchen towel.
- Heat the oil in a large, deep pan, over a high heat. Once it is hot, add the meat and butter. Sear all the sides of the meat until they have a nice dark colour, using a blow torch on the top of the meat while the bottom browns will speed this up.
- Slice and serve with suitable accompaniments.
Serves 5 to 6 people.


text:
Steve Stevens - The Superman of sales
How did the name Steve Stevens come to be? Find out the history behind the name and why Steve compares himself to Superman.
"Money Talks" is a glimpse into a rarely seen side of gambling and Las Vegas. Wednesdays at 10p ET/PT on CNBC .


text:
So these are photos that a great friend of mine, Gaby Ponce, took for me 4 weeks ago when I was 7 weeks out from my contest date. It was a great experience and Madonna's Vogue song plays through my head every time I look through these. Also, I had to post some of the photos that my boyfriend, Brendan, and I took. He's been such a great rock for me, and always seems to (deflated balloon sound here) my head when he thinks I need to come down to Earth a bit. That being said, why should I deflate when all I want to do is DREAM BIG!
Keep striking the pose!


text:
Patrik Alienus
Experienced Online Marketing Manager and Web developer
Married, three kids, condo, founder of Onlinebyrån and a long relationship with open source.
Om mig
Results are the driving force
I always let well defined, set-in-stone goals steer my To-do list.
Besides my own business Onlinebyrån, I have dipped my fingers into several other little projects here and there.
Three kids, several Open Source projects, my own business. Yes, I'm efficient. I have to be.
Technical Expertise
HTML/HTML5, CSS3, LESS, SASS & WordPress. Some PHP and Javascript
Vad jag gör
Websites that sell
All the attention in the world isn't worth much if your website isn't selling your product or service. My goal is to always build websites that generate solid revenue.
Online strategy
A well thought-through strategy when you're attacking your online marketing is key. Attention is hard currency online, and I'm pretty good at creating a platform for that.
Inbound Marketing
I create online marketing that let you engage your potential customers instead of blatantly shout your message into the world and hope for the best.
Lead generation
Leads are key in any business, but knowing what is a lead and what's a mere inquiry, is not always so straight-forward when it comes to online. I make it a strong point to know the difference.
Have a look at my portfolio to see a small (!) taste of what I've created recently.
WordPress is the CMS I've chosen to specialize in. It's user-friendly, Open Source and very good security. The fact that almost everyone have seen it before, adds to the appeal.
Being in the field of online marketing, It's pretty much a given that I'm an expert at both HTML5 and CSS3, but it's here just for the keywords :-)
Portfolio & Erfarenhet
Ett axplock


text:
AMIMON'S WHDI Receives HDCP Certification
AMIMON Inc., today announced that its Wireless High-definition Interface (WHDI™) solution has been approved for use with digital content protected by the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection specification.
Santa Clara, Calif. - December 20, 2007 - AMIMON Inc., an emerging leader in semiconductor technology for wireless transmission of high -definition (HD) video, today announced that its Wireless High -definition Interface (WHDI™) solution has been approved for use with digital content protected by the High -bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) specification. Digital Content Protection (DCP LLC), licensor of the HDCP content protection technology specification, has granted AMIMON's WHDI solution authorization as an Approved Retransmission Technology (ART).
AMIMON's WHDI chipset enables new wireless HDTV applications such as wireless HDTVs, wireless multimedia projectors, and wireless HD video accessories ("wireless for HDMI" dongles), offering consumers new and simpler options to connect HD sources to displays throughout the home.
"Wireless transmission technologies must meet stringent requirements to become a certified Approved Retransmission Technology," said Stephen Balogh, president of Digital Content Protection LLC. AMIMON's WHDI solution meets the HDCP Approved Retransmission Technology Objective Criteria for HDCP content protection, and will offer consumers a wireless choice for connecting CE devices throughout the home."
"WHDI chipsets have been available for several months, and have been demonstrated to reliably deliver high -quality HD video throughout the home," said Noam Geri, AMIMON's vice president of marketing and business development. "The HDCP ART approval ensures that the WHDI products that will be offered to consumers by several original equipment manufacturers in 2008 meet the stringent security requirements of the content industry."
AMIMON will demonstrate its WHDI technology at the 2008 International CES event, which runs January 7 -10, 2008 in Las Vegas. To coordinate a demonstration at AMIMON's hospitality suite (Hilton Suite No. 23117), e -mail email@example.com.
Also, the Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase at CES will feature AMIMON's WHDI chipset in the Sands Expo and Convention Center, Innovations Plus, Booth No. 70621.
About WHDI
WHDI video -modem technology enables wireless transmission in the 5GHz unlicensed band of uncompressed HD video streams with equivalent video data rates of up to 3 Gbps (including 1080p) using 40 MHz of bandwidth. Video data rates of up to 1.5 Gbps (including 1080i and 720p) can be delivered using 20 MHz of bandwidth. WHDI has been demonstrated at ranges of up to 100 feet through walls, and has a latency of less than one millisecond.
About AMIMON
AMIMON is a fabless semiconductor company pioneering wireless uncompressed high -definition video for universal connectivity among CE video devices. AMIMON's uncompressed Wireless High -definition Interface (WHDI) allows flat -panel televisions and multimedia projectors to wirelessly interface to all HDTV video sources at a quality equivalent to that achieved with wired interfaces such as component video, DVI and HDMI™.
The company is headquartered in Herzlia, Israel, with offices in Santa Clara, Calif., USA, Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea. More information is available at www.AMIMON.com.
WHDI is a trademark of AMIMON, Ltd. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are those of their respective holders.
Joseph R. Kilmer
The Hoffman Agency for AMIMON
(408) 975 -3032


text:
The Latest D-Link News
Product and Solution Information, Press Releases, Announcements
|D-Link Targets Education Sector
|Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 02:02:00 PM
Delivers High Value, Green Networking Products that Meet Education IT Needs. D-Link, the end-to-end computer networking solutions provider for consumer and business, has developed customized solutions to meet the needs of the education sector, including the next-generation networking and connectivity products required by today's students and staff, plus ongoing service, at no extra cost.
D-Link's value proposition to educational institutions includes:
* A tailor-made pricing program - to help this sector make the most of scarce resources.
* "Green" products - environmentally friendly manufacturing practices, RoHS compliance, and switches that include D-Link Green technology. D-Link Green switches conserve energy and save money without any loss of performance by automatically detecting link status and network cable length, then adjusting power accordingly.
* Products ideally suited to the education environment - D-Link's line of network products, for instance, provide educators and students with fast, reliable data flow between servers and computers. In Washington, Mo. the St. Frances Borgia High School updated its Wi-Fi network with D-Link® wireless switches and access points to boost coverage and deliver improved wireless reliability, manageability and security.
* Superior service - next business day replacement on defective products, free unlimited 1-800 local technical support, free product training, free network assessments, free firmware upgrades on all business-class products, sales, engineering, technical & RMA support, plus a warehouse facility for immediate delivery. Additionally, all D-Link xStack® managed switches carry a lifetime hardware warranty.


text:
My Teen Choice Awards Favorites
Selena Gomez
Dsquared2 frock and cream Herve Leger heels
Lea Michele
Versace dress, Stephen Webster jewels and matching Versace heels.
Taylor Swift
Maria Lucia Hohan gown. She accessorizes with Lorraine Schwartzjewels, Prada shoes and an Edie Parker clutch
Victoria Justice
Gomez-Gracia dress. She accessorizes with a Lauren Merkin clutch and Shutz shoes
Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner


text:
About Me
- Granmargaret
- Sydney, NSW, Australia
Welcome to my blog
Sunday, 30 August 2015
Gecko Galz Facebook challenge - colours of the sea
Precoloured images from Gecko Galz By the Shore 1 & 2 collage sheets
Sentiment from Ginger's House blog
Bubbles, fish birds and brad from Digital Scrapbooking Studio.
I would also like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafty Girlz challenge 5 - anything goes with the twist lazy days.
Crafty Hazelnut's monthly pattern paper challenge - anything goes with pattern paper.
Creatalicious challenge 78 - summer fun at the beach
Inspiration Destination 48 - anything goes
The Crafty Addicts challenge 1 - anything goes or summer fun.
7 comments:
Lovely card, the children look as if they are having such fun. Great background. Hugs Jennifer xxReplyDelete
These images are really cute and you have made a beautiful card with themReplyDelete
nice cardReplyDelete
have a nice day
Thank you for joining us at Crafty hazelnuts !ReplyDelete
Good Luck and hope to see you again.
Fiki DT member
Fab card, love the images! Thanks so much for joining us over at The Crafty Addicts Challenge...Good Luck!!ReplyDelete
Krafty Hugs Donna DT xx
Great card! Thanks for joining us at Creatalicous Challenges.ReplyDelete
Mieko xx
A lovely card!ReplyDelete
Thank you soo much for taking part in our "summer fun at the beach" challenge over at Creatalicious & good luck in the draw.
Hope to see you again in our new challenge as well…
(DT Penny's Paper Crafty Challenges)
(DT-Coordinator Creatalicious Challenges)
(DT Come and Get It)
(DT Crafty Friends)
(DT Tuesday Throwdown)
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I read them all and really appreciate your thoughtfulness.
I have had to put comment moderation onto my blog as I had some spam messages. I will approve messages as soon as possible.
Anonymous messages are not allowed on this blog.


text:
The wonderful house we swapped with a German family in the East near the Baltic Sea came with a boat house and a small craft that didn't need a license. Engines over 5 hp on Germany lakes etc. do.
My son and his friend, strapping young lads that they are, had taken the rowing boat out to begin with but hubby felt lazy and privileged to have a "motor boat' at his disposal .
On our last night, a beautiful warm evening, he got it started and cleaned it from cobwebs. Normally, I'm not particularly seaworthy but this I could do, I thought hopping into the vessel.
We went along the little canal that connected to the adjacent lake where we had done a lot of constitutional walks, passing all these cute little vacation or weekend houses; datschas - I presume they were called in the 'olden days'. Owners were out on their porches barbecuing, having a beer or just sitting out enjoying the balmy evening. My friendly greetings and "Guten Appetit!" mostly went unanswered; instead we got stares.
My family had commented on the fact before that the locals seemed to be rather reserved, looking away or looking at us outright suspiciously. Hubby had his theories about them being former communists who had lived in a supervised state where neighbors spied on each other and were naturally suspicious. Could that be the case almost a generation after the fall of the Iron Curtain? I wonder. The difference in behavior to other parts of Germany that I am familiar with was striking, however.
So here we were put-putting along. At a tight spot in the canal we had to slow down from our snail space to make rooms for 2 canoeists. The engine died."Not to worry, there is a second battery. I just have to switch over to that one." To be on the safe side we decided not to continue our journey to the lake with only one battery and turn around instead. But the second battery never started. The canoeists enquired if we had paddles. I hadn't yet spotted them, but gracefully there was a pair on the floor of our boat.
(View from our boathouse onto canal)
(View from our boathouse onto canal)
So paddling it was, back past the houses and people we had just passed. Their behavior and demeanor had miraculously changed. Some got up form their seats to throw a funny remark, "Machine kaputt?" or "Need a push?" Others interrupted their meal to get a good view of the spectacle. All of a sudden we encountered a lot of smiles and laughter. We are not practiced paddlers…
One older guy, alone on his deck, pointed what looked like an antique pistol at us, "Money or your life". He was probably just lonely or thought he was funny. I started to get peeved. Why had nobody bothered to engage with us before? There is something about Schadenfreude that we Germans are verifiably good at. The self-proclaimed pirate invited us to join him. "I'll throw a couple of bratwurst on the Barbie for when you return" not realizing that we were on our way back already and wouldn't paddle by again. Maybe he's still standing there, waiting.
It was either that the batteries had not fully charged or the connections had come loose. We made it back through the sweat of our own hands. The behavior of our neighbors there remains a mystery, however. To do the people form Meck Pomm justice, our exchange partners, some of their friends and neighbor who we met were totally friendly; some even stepped out of their way to give us a helping hand. It remains a mystery until I get some enlightening comments from people in the know.