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Welcome to MichelleKapusta.com! Here you\'ll find insights about my family, my faith, finances, life, recipes and anything else that I feel like talking about. I invite you to join the conversation by commenting and sharing your insight as well. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your stay!--Michelle
Don't let your guard down
Joshua 9…The early days of Joshua's leadership. He had just led the Israelites to victory against Jericho. They had a set-back, someone (1 person) disobeyed God so they lost the next battle against Ai. They took care of that…killed that man. Won the next battle & their covenant with God is renewed. Insert- Gibeonites. They had heard God was on the Israelites side & were afraid for their lives. They took moldy bread & old wine skins & made the Israelites believe they had travelled from a distant country to make a peace treaty. They were in fact from the Promised Land which was in the process of being cleaned out so the Israelites could inhabit it. They knew they would be killed, hence their deception.
Joshua, not knowing any better looks at their moldy bread and tattered clothes and believes them. Easy enough. But here's the kicker, Joshua 9:14 says,
The Israelites examined their food but they did NOT consult the Lord
Joshua made the peace treaty, then learned they were from nearby. They had to uphold the peace treaty because they swore an oath in the name of the Lord. Consequences….they had to fight battles to protect these people, they had to see these people the rest of their lives…had to share the Promised Land & be reminded daily that they made this decision without consulting the Lord.
What happened? Was Joshua on a high from winning battles, did he let his guard down, did he feel tight with God and therefore thought he could do something all by himself? I don't think we can give Joshua too hard of a time…how many times do we make a seemingly easy decision without consulting the Lord? I would say every day. Whether we feel we know better than God or feel this decision is too small to bother God with? We do it all the time. And how many of us see the consequences to those decisions daily?
God cares about every aspect of our lives. He knows all the details, He knows His plan for our lives. Knowing all of that…why wouldn't we consult Him with every decision in life. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Pray without ceasing". This is why…because our days are filled with decisions…many of them mindless, we don't even think about them. How would my life look if I did consult God with everything? Think of the heartaches or disappointments that could have been avoided. Give it a try…the only way to go is up!
Deep Roots
Luke 8 is the parable of the farmer scattering seed. Jesus first talks of where the different seed fell, then explains what it means.
- seed fell on a footpath where it was stepped on and the birds ate it = those who hear the message only to have the devil come and take it away from their hears and prevent them from believing and being saved
- seed fell among rocks, it began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture = those who hear the message and receive it with joy, but since they don't have deep roots, they believe for a while then they fall away when they face temptation
- seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants = those who hear message but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and so they never grow into maturity.
- seed fell on fertile soil, this seed grew and produced a crop 100x = honest, good hearted people who hear God's word, cling to it and patiently produce a huge harvest
Luke 8: 15 says, "And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God's word, cling to it and patiently produce a huge harvest".
Each one of us fall into one of these categories…my thought was about the seed that fell on the rocks. This seed begins to grow, but because there are no deep roots, when temptations come it has nothing to hold it up. How do we get deep roots?
I believe the answer is found in 8:15…."good-hearted people who hear God's Word, CLING TO IT and patiently produce a harvest.
cling1 [kling] Show IPA verb, clung, cling·ing, noun
verb (used without object)
What Did I Tell You?
I feel like I ask my kids this all the time. An example conversation: I say to the kids – Finish your chores and we will go get ice cream.
Riley: Mom, Emery says I'm not getting ice cream.
Me: What did I tell you?
R: If we finished our chores we will go get ice cream.
M: Did you finish your chores?
R: Yes, but Emery said….
M: Is Emery the parent?
R: No.
M: Who is?
R: You are.
M: Why would you listen to Emery when I already told you we would go if you finished your chores?
R: I don't know.
This conversation happens all the time. You would think my kids would understand by now that I am the parent. Whatever I say trumps whatever another kid says. Yet is happens over and over. I feel like this happens with God too. We are so much like the Israelites it's not even funny. Take Numbers 13 for example. What did God say?
1 The LORD now said to Moses,2 "Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes."
I believe this was a test of sorts. God already knew what the land looked like and who lived there. He already knew the battles to be fought and how He was going to win them. I believe He wanted the men to explore the land to see if they trusted Him or not. They went and checked out the land-
27 This was their report to Moses: "We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces.28BUT the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!
Caleb was the only one that believed what God said –
30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. "Let's go at once to take the land," he said. "We can certainly conquer it!"
But the other men who had explored the land did this –
31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. "We can't go up against them! They are stronger than we are!"32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: "The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge.
Imaginary conversation:
God: Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites.
Men: The land is beautiful and bountiful but the people there are powerful and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there.
God: Who's bigger, Me or giants?
Men: You are.
God: What did I tell you?
Men: That you would give us the land.
God: Do you trust Me?
Application: God gives us a promise. We take a step towards that promise and there are huge obstacles – finances, sickness, infertility, job loss, loss of loved one, whatever it may be. We take our eyes off God and forget that He's the One in charge of the world….what He says trumps the bank, trumps the doctor, trumps what other people say. Then we start spreading our bad news….XYZ will never happen because…the doctor said, my employer said, so & so said.
Because of many decisions like this, this generation of Israelites didn't get to see the land -Numbers 14 –
29 You will all drop dead in this wilderness! Because you complained against me, every one of you who is twenty years old or older and was included in the registration will die. 30 You will not enter and occupy the land I swore to give you. The only exceptions will be Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
The only ones from that generation who received God's promise were the ones who believed Him in spite of the obstacles.
What did God tell you? What promise may you be forfeiting because you're listening to the wrong person or not trusting Him through the obstacles?
The Cycle
It's true of all of us. How I wish it wasn't. Paul says it well in Romans 7:18-20
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.t I want to do what is right, but I can't.19 I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
The cycle: follow Jesus, do things my own way, repent; follow Jesus, do things my own way, repent; REPEAT
Why does it have to be so hard to do the right thing…all the time? Romans 7:22-23 sums that up:
22 I love God's law with all my heart.23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
Thanks Adam and Eve.
God's people the Israelites had the same problem. Psalm 78 speaks of their journey.
- v. 4 – we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord
- v. 10 – They did not keep God's covenant and refused to live by his instructions.
- v. 11 – They forgot what He had done
- v. 17 – They kept on sinning against Him
- v. 18 – They stubbornly tested God
- v. 19 – They even spoke against God
- v. 21 – When the Lord heard them, He was furious
- v. 22 – for they did not believe God or trust Him to care for them
- v. 23-29 – God rained down manna, bread from heaven, food of angels, He rained down meat
- v. 32 – But in spite of this, the people kept sinning
- v. 33 – So He ended their lives in failure, their years in terror
- v. 34 – When God began killing then THEY FINALLY SOUGHT HIM. THEY REPENTED AND TOOK GOD SERIOUSLY
- v. 36 – But all they gave Him was lip service; they lied to Him with their tongues
- v. 38 – YET HE WAS MERCIFUL AND FORGAVE THEIR SINS
- V. 41 – Again and again they tested God's patience
- v. 42 – They did not remember
- v. 43-52 – God ravaged the Egyptians & led his people like sheep safely through the wilderness
- v. 56 – They kept testing and rebelling against God Most High
I am so thankful that we have a God Who forgives. Psalm 78: 38-39 says Many times He held back His anger and did not unleash His fury. For He remembered that they were merely mortal. God is quick to forgive and quick to restore…it's us, like the Israelites that are blind to the cycle we are in. Looking at the cycle they were in, it's easy to say how stupid they were…how could you forget all those awesome crazy miracles God did for you; rescue from Egypt, manna & meat from the sky, God fighting battles for them. How could they forget so quickly?
We do the same thing – how quickly we forget the miracle of God's salvation, the provision He provides every day….all the many many blessings we have to be thankful for.
I don't know about you, but if my life were a story that was written down in a book….1,000 years from now, I don't want someone to read it and think "She was so stupid, why did she complain so much, look at how God blessed her, how could she forget so quickly".
How about your story….what would people say? Break out of the cycle.
A Sacrifice that Honors
Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High. Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give Me glory.
But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors Me.
Psalm 50:14-15, 23a
Why does God call giving thanks a sacrifice? Maybe because our tendency is entitlement or selfishness? It's so easy to believe this life is all about me. God knows that. Maybe that's why it's a sacrifice that honors Him.
The first two verses include an "if-then" statement. "If" you 1)Make thankfulness your sacrifice & 2) keep the vows you made to the Most High THEN call on Me when you are in trouble and I will rescue you AND you will give me glory.
This life is about giving God glory.
Thankfulness requires us to humble ourselves, realize/admit we aren't God and give thanks…for what? Everything!
I thank God for abundant life, salvation, provision, protection and so much more. Focus on those things today and give thanks.
But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors Me
Don't Let the devil Fool You
I believe this is true that the older you get, the wiser you get. The longer you walk this earth, day by day making decisions, sometimes the same decisions, seeing results you begin to wise up to how your decisions affect your life. Hopefully you learn from your decisions, good or bad, and begin making changes.
One thing I've realized and put into practice is to recognize the things, words or actions of myself or others that set me off, that make me angry…when I look back, the things I wonder why I let them bother me as much as they did. When I begin to recognize areas that satan likes to attack me, I'm more aware and able to fight back and be victorious.
satan likes to trick you. he's been studying humans for thousands of years. he has his little bag of tricks that he knows will work for you. The key is to identify what these tricks are, be able to recognize them and fight with the only offensive weapon you have- the Bible. But wait- satan knows how to use the Bible too, and he will try to use it to trick us. Don't think he will? he tried to trick Jesus with Scripture, so certainly he will try to trick us.
First, satan challenges who Jesus is, verse 3,"if You are the Son of God". satan will try to confuse you about who you are. You are worthless, you are a nobody, no one cares about you, you're a screw up. Fight back with Scripture…I am fearfully and wonderfully made-Psalm 139, I am a child of God-John 1:12, I have a purpose-Jeremiah 29:11. Memorize verses to be able to fight back when your identity in Christ has been attacked.
Then satan will try to confuse/trick you with Scripture. It's hard to believe, satan knows the Bible. he used it to try to trick Jesus. Read it for yourself in Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus had been fasting 40 days, he was hungry, in a weak vulnerable place (isn't that where satan will try to attack?). satan used Scripture , he says in verse 6, "It is written", then goes on to quote Scripture. he was trying to use Scripture to tempt Jesus to fulfill a physical need. Isn't it true when we want something, there are all kinds of verses we can
use twist to get what we want. This is a good example "May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed." (Psalm 20:4 NIV84) God must want me to have everything I want & He'll help me get it. Right? But no, this is using Scripture for selfish gain. Follow Jesus' example, He fought right back with Scripture. Know your Bible, be able to fight back.
Lastly, satan tempted Jesus with greed & selfish gain. Verse 8-9- I will give you all these kingdoms and all their splendor….if…you will bow down to me. What is satan tempting you with…but to get it you have to disobey God. Are you worshipping your boss to climb the ladder at work, are you worshipping your friends to fit in?
Recognize the ways satan tries to trick you. Be self‑controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8 NIV84). Know your Bible, know the heart of God and use that to fight back.
I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11 NIV84)
It Has Been Redeemed
Those were the words my husband used to describe supper the other night. I have had a love/hate relationship with roasts. I loved when my grandmother or my mom would make a roast, but I hated it when I would make a roast. In the 13 years I have been married I have made a roast probably 4 times – all of them in the crockpot which I have probably used only 9 times since receiving it as a wedding gift 13 years ago. And every time I have made a roast it has been awful! Dry, tasteless and awful!
Recently, I've purchased beef from a somewhat local farmer. When you buy meat from the grocery store, you have no idea where it comes from. Now, when I buy meat, I know where it comes from. The beef I buy comes from a farm in Mt. Gilead which is really close to where our first church which was in Albemarle, NC. This beef is grass-fed and grass-finished. No grain whatsoever, which makes it really really good for you. You can read here about all the benefits of grass-fed meat and all the bad stuff about what you buy in the grocery store.
Anyways, my first purchase of beef came with 2 roasts. You cook grass-fed meat differently and the instructions that came with it said don't do it in a crock-pot because most crock-pots cook too hot, even on low. They said a dutch oven would work best, which I didn't have, so I tried a recipe meant for a dutch oven & put it in a glass dish covered with foil. And….as the pessimist in me suspected, it was awful! So naturally on my next order of beef I asked for fewer roasts and more other cuts…just until I was able to grasp the art of roast cooking. I ended up getting this dutch oven and waited a sufficient amount of time before attempting it again.
That brings us to Thursday. Thursday will go down as a day in history in my cooking skills. I found this recipe and gave it a try and it was….AMAZING! That is when my husband made the statement, "You have redeemed the roast". So…if you've never made a roast before…try this and be amazed!


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If only "Giselle" had just one act, the second act. Because in that case the Royal New Zealand Ballet's calling card -- here at the Music Center in its U.S. debut -- would leave an extravagantly moving impression.
There it was, this moonlit scene with the Wilis: jilted be-veiled brides in their white nether world, sweet sorrow in the air, gossamer skirts floating as they stepped in hushed, nun-like unison. And there was the queen of their spiritual kingdom, Myrtha, danced with magical definition by Abigail Boyle, imperiously resolute in her condemnation of all the past faltering swains.
Not only that, but Gillian Murphy staked her most credible effort as Giselle here in Wilidom, where her famously steely technique took the doomed innocent beyond human, but also showed the character as a powerful supplicant, begging Myrtha for the life of her lover Albrecht, danced by the high-skilled though self-conscious Qi Huan.
And here, bringing equal impact to the performance, was the extraordinarily artful conducting of Nigel Gaynor, who charged his sizeable orchestra with hitting the dramatic heights in Adolphe Adam's beloved score.
But it's the first act, in the land of the living, where class breakdown between peasants and royalty must pass the bright-lit test of characterization. For all her carefully grafted-on vulnerabilities, though, Murphy remains a pragmatist in her body's manner, not the charmingly fey, terminally naïve thing that is Giselle. Her mad scene lacked the delusional fever pitch of such a creature. And the Kobborg/Stiefel choreographic changes did not help here or elsewhere.
Surely no one could blame Murphy for wanting to inhabit this role, which stands as the Hamlet of the ballet. Also, the well-known ABT dancer now doubles as principal guest artist with the New Zealanders, since her husband Ethan Stiefel took on the post of company director.
Overall this a perfectly decent regional troupe made of well-trained Pacific Rimmers. But not quite at the level of the Los Angeles Ballet.
From another mentality altogether, a contemporary British one, came Wayne McGregor Random Dance to UCLA's Royce Hall. His work, "FAR," is the very model of high-tech and extended boundaries, its idea taken from Ray Porter's "Flesh in the Age of Reason," a treatise on the mechanisms of thought and emotion.
Now you can forget all this and just know that the eminent choreographer has created a feast full of explicated mystery, spoken in an unknowable language. What materializes onstage is a mapping out of the myriad ways bodies can twist and undulate and juxtapose their limbs, torsos, necks and shoulders.
So at first we're watching not humans in their usual expressive modes, but other forms of animated life sparked by dancers who are superb specimens. They move in non-continuous spasms dictated by an electronic score (fade-ins-fade-outs, amplified piano with vocals, mingled sounds) and set against a backboard of blinking lights.The totality is entirely engrossing, a spectacular piece of theater.
Also contemporary: Jacaranda. And not for the first time at this outpost of modernism, was there a packed house (or should I say church?) at Santa Monica's First Presbyterian -- even though no vestige of mainstream music showed up on the program, only what could be identified as outlier soundscapes.
No matter. It was the big names from the past -- composers Stockhausen and Xenakis, those original avant-gardists of the '60s -- who drew the hordes: oldsters with backpacks, elegant arty types, college students and even some unlikely middlebrow greyheads.
Call it a gathering of the enlightened, an enclave of enthusiasts -- all of them game for whatever challenges that artistic director Patrick Scott might dream up in his passion for new music.
To start off the "old" new music there was Timothy Loo, who showed us the extreme difficulty Xenakis imposed on any cellist attempting his solo "Nomos Alpha" -- an arduous series of alternating mystical whispers, purrings, agitatos, tappings and slurs. His brow glistened with sweat. His string-fingering hand wore a white glove to protect it. He also imbued these various sounds with an immediate, human presence-- along with beyond-the-call virtuosity.
And then there was Stockhausen's "Stimmung," which brought VOXNOVA, the amplified vocal sextet from its native Italy for a U.S. debut. Sitting in a darkened circle, with only the green reflection of their music stands for light, the singers induced the audience's familiar head-bobbing during especially hypnotic passages, their voices blending like elastic bands and issuing an occasional auctioneer yell, along with recited lines of poetry.
No such experimental diversions materialized, though, when the St. Lawrence String Quartet dropped by at Beverly Hills' Wallis Theater for an evening of Haydn, Beethoven and multi-faceted Korngold -- the latter well-known in Hollywood for his many film scores, as first violinist Geoff Nuttall entertainingly pointed out, but a composer unfairly consigned to movie music.
It was good to hear chamber music in this acoustically attractive hall, especially given the St. Lawrence's invigorated, alert readings. But violist Lesley Robertson looked like a somewhat inert exile on the wide stage, positioned at what seemed like a far distance from the others. And somehow the push-pull, close interactions we hear in other quartets were hard to find here, one factor being that Nuttall's physical playing -- with his knee bouncing in the air along with a whole range of energetically expressive body movements, contrasted strongly with the other three musicians.
So too did the Ballets Jazz Montréal showcase wide contrasts a few nights earlier at the Wallis. This versatile company featured a lovely, if adynamic, duet choreographed by Benjamin Millepied (remember him, late of New York City Ballet and the film "Black Swan"? He just took the chief post at Paris Ballet after the big to-do of heading the brand new L.A. Dance Project downtown). In total contrast was Barak Marshall's "Harry," narrative musings on war, death and love -- all those pictorial things he illustrates so passionately with his dancers.

subset: commoncrawl


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Jenna Sternberg is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Brain and Spine Institute. Follow Jenna on Twitter @allneuro.
Tag Archives: Neuroscience
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Actually, scent is much more carefully associated with memory than any one of our other senses. Selecting the proper of scented candles for your house can lend a festive, holiday feeling to some room, turn your bed room right into a soothing sanctuary, and excite your senses each morning which means you start your entire day refreshed and alert. Want to know more about intelligent candles? Visit our website and check out the best collection of candles online.
Most fall under certainly one of four groups: Florals, Baked Goods or Kitchen Scents, Outdoors, and Plants or Fruits/Nuts. There's also some scented candles that fall under a unique category that's sometimes known as the Occasions category.
Floral are typically the most popular. Included in this are traditional scents like roses, mixed bouquets and a few of the newer, fresher scents like water lilies and freesia. These wonderful scents are romantic and natural, evoking the scent of the full, wealthy armful of flowers right out the garden. Some scents is going to be more potent and much more effective than the others. Gardenias, for example, really are a wealthy, sensual scent which makes them well suited for your bed room. If you prefer a fresher scent, search for floral scented candles which are referred to as "eco-friendly," or include scent notes like moss and lemongrass.
It named after baked goods or kitchen staples are heart-warming and comforting. You will find scents like cinnamon buns, sugar cookies as well as coffee. These wealthy, heady scents will whisk you to childhood recollections of using your grandmother's kitchen and provide anybody who smells them a feeling of safety and comfort. These homey scents induce such a feeling of well-finding yourself in people who some realtors light kitchen scented candles in houses every time they hold a wide open house. If you want a great, old-fashioned scent, kitchen scented candles are a good choice. They are inviting fragrances you are able to light inside your family area, kitchen or dining area whenever during the day.
Outdoors vary wildly from soothing to stimulating. These could capture the scent of bracing sea air or even the some exotic fragrances of the China marketplace. These bankruptcies are not usually pure, single note fragrances. Many of them will feature several various kinds of plant fragrances along with other more elusive notes such as the scent of outdoors or even the salty tang of ocean water. Outside scented candles with watery notes are often invigorating and fresh. You may even find outside candles which make you consider the awesome, shadowy allure of forests. These can include scents like balsam, fir and pine.
Scented candles concentrating on fruits or nuts are often invigorating. Citrus scents are specifically a terrific stimulate the senses and provide you with a fast pick-me-up. Grapefruit, lemon, and orange are zesty, eye-opening scents which are equally in your own home in almost any room of your property. Search for scents like watermelon, cantaloupe and blueberry if you value scented candles that help remind you of warm summer time days. For more information on soy candles los angeles, visit our website today!
Today's scented candles offer many sophisticated blends that capture an elusive mixture of scents that induce a mood. For example, you might find holiday candles that capture a mysterious combination of brighten tree, sugar cookies, freshly fallen snow and also the eucalyptus and poinsettias inside a live wreath. You might be unable to identify every individual scent but close your vision and inhale you will be taken away through the scent of Christmas!


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location: United Skates of America – 75 New Road, Rumford, RI 02916
cost: Price varies depending on activity. Check website for details and coupons.
good for: Ages 5 and up
Realizing that a home birthday party for third grade boys was a horrible idea destined to end in wrestling and flying plasticware, I insisted my son have his ninth birthday party elsewhere. He decided quickly–roller skating and laser tag at United Skates of America (USA) in Rumford. I confess that it wasn't my first choice, but he made a great selection.
Two aspects of the experience sold it for me: the kids were active the entire time with several distractions to choose from, and USA handled the entire thing. All I did was bring the cake and try to keep an eye on everyone.
United Skates of America offers several different birthday party packages that include combinations of roller skating, laser tag, and rock climbing. We chose the roller skating and laser tag party at a cost of $15.99 per child. This included roller skates (additional charge for roller blades), one game of laser tag, ten video game tokens, one slice of pizza, and drinks for each child. For an additional charge, USA would have provided the cake, and we chose to order an extra pizza. USA offers only fountain sodas and pink lemonade. We served pink lemonade but requested additional pitchers of water for our thirsty skaters.
USA assigns a staff member to your party. When we arrived, she provided me a written schedule detailing the times when the kids would be called in from skating for pizza, cake, and laser tag. She took our cake into the back to keep it safe and brought it back out at the scheduled time with a knife to cut it and a lighter for the candles. She even led us in "Happy Birthday."
Helpful Hints:
- Inquire which party time slots are likely to be least crowded. My kids have attended USA parties on busy party days when the schedule flowed less well. This makes it harder to transition the kids between events. We had our party 12-2:30 p.m. on a Sunday in early March–still peak time for lousy weather and an indoor party–but it was not at all overcrowded and quite pleasant.
- Be advised that you cannot bring in outside food, except a cake. You may choose to serve hot dogs instead of pizza, but the selection applies to all guests.
- Check the USA website for coupons.
- Request that parents who are dropping off their children stick around long enough to get their child into his skates.
- If your child is a guest and you're a child of the 80s, tell the front desk you are with the party, rent skates for $6 (additional charge for roller blades), and join the fun.
- If you have a beginning skater, rent a skate trainer (like a walker on wheels) for $5. USA offers them in two heights. Rent one as soon as you arrive and don't let it out of your sight, because it can be a hot commodity.
- Do not hand out the video game tokens at the beginning. Save them for when the kids tire of skating or are transitioning between events. The tokens don't last long, and you will be asked for more.
- If you plan to corral children as the host and also supervise any younger children, be sure to bring an additional adult or babysitter with you. I hired a sitter to skate with my six-year-old while I managed the party, and it made the event a breeze.
If you need a birthday party venue, consider United Skates of America where the entertainment, food, and service for an active, fun-filled party are all part of the package.


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Jonna Brusseau
Help Sasha Bay(Be) alright. No one should ever have to endure being pawed by a co-worker or threatened but sadly it is common place for so many of us ladies in the restaurant industry. My friend Sasha has just quit her job because of such harassment. While it may take time for the court case to come about we can all pitch in together and help make life easier for her and her son. I am asking for help to cover a months rent and some extras so she can Bay alright and focus on finding a job that treats her with respect. It literally takes 30 seconds to donate 1$ and you don't need to register with the website to do it. Lets put some good juju out there and help someone the way we would want to be helped! #Lauraine'sspreadthelovebirthdayweekchallenge
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Your support is so important to them. Every pound raised will give these young heroes back their childhood and ensure that they have the education that every child deserves.
Advocate toolkit
To support you in your efforts to help child carers, we have created a few simple tools that you can click and download to assist you in your advocacy efforts.
Printable Information
Display with pride in your classroom, community centre or workplace.
Please set your printer to double sided and fold to a small handy leaflet to give to colleagues, friends and family members.
Information about the campaign that you can refer to, or share with others.
Social Media Tools
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Campaign support
Templates that you can edit and send to your networks to tell them about your involvement in the campaign.


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By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. Hebrews 13:11
As believers we know when God is involved in the details things do not happen by chance. There are no accidents with God. I remember someone saying to me "There are no coincidences, only God-incidences."
Of all the citizens of Jericho whom God could have chosen to save from destruction, he chose to save a prostitute? Rahab was a sinner among sinners. And yet the Lord showed mercy to her.
It was no accident that the spies chose Rahab's house for a place to stay as they observed the situation inside the city walls. Her home was located in the backside of the wall providing them with an escape route if needed but God saw what was truly in Rahab's heart. The Spirit of God was at work in her house long before the spies showed up because she chose to side with them and not with her own people.
Ephesians 2:8-for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.
"By faith" Rahab and her family were not killed, because she trusted in the one true God. She believed in God and knew what he was capable of. She turned from the Canaanite's god and believed Yahweh was God alone.
She demonstrated her faith by how she treated the spies. She hid them and lied to protect them. She hoped they would treat her with the same kindness by sparing her family. She wanted a token of faith from the spies that they would keep their word to her. The spies responded,
"We offer our own lives as a guarantee for your safety," the men agreed. "If you don't betray us, we will keep our promise and be kind to you when the Lord gives us the land." (Joshua 2:14).
Because she trusted the God for whom they served she believed their words.
Rahab agrees (verse 21) and she sends the spies on their way to hide in the hills for three days and at the right time, ties the scarlet cord from her window. God rewarded Rahab by giving more than she asked including her as one of the ancestors of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).
None of us has slipped so far from God that the Holy Spirit cannot reach us or use us.
Has he called you into obedience? And because of your past you have said. "No, God. Not me. You don't know what I've done." It's no accident God has chosen you. God wants to take you out of the darkness and bring you into the light. Step out in faith. Once He fixes your story He will use your story as an example to someone who is going through the same situation. He has more in store for us than we can ever imagine.
Give your life to God. He can do more with it than you can.


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Trust is the real alternative to jealousy.
When possessiveness is gone, it is replaced by an empowering feeling of trust.
Wake up this quality in your relationship and choose to trust your partner whenever you can.
Trust means that you open space in your partner's life rather than limiting her.
You give her power, energy and validation as a human being.
Trust is one of the key foundation qualities in your relationship.
It is one you can invite and consciously develop by choosing for it whenever you can.
Trust empowers your relationship.
Tell her you trust her.
This creates a unifying bond between the two of you.


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Helping my daughter with her homework has made me nostalgic for pencils. Yes, nostalgic. I didn't recall the last time I had used one. I'm always typing or tapping and when I do write something down I grab a pen from the drawer full of pens (how does that always happen?! why do we have so many pens? – because I don't remember ever buying any!). But as soon as I heard the lead push across the paper I remembered how much I used to love drawing and writing with pencils. I even had a cute little pencil case. I was obsessed with my handwriting – didn't like it – so I would sit down and trace over writing samples I thought looked nice . Over and over again. And now my love for pencils and handwriting things has returned. Of course, I'll never give up the pen but the pencil's forgiveness for mistakes is hard to beat.
Princess Bride pastel pencil set by The Carbon Crusader
Anchorman engraved pencils from Earmark
The Paris Collection by Amanda Catherine Designs
Always Sunny pencils (LOVE THEM!) from Pop Culture Pencils


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Cheating Military Wife
My husband was assigned to Korea last spring. My friends husband is stationed there also. She told me that her husband saw mine with a Korean girl going into a hotel. At first I was mad then I decided two could play the game. He would be gone a year and I would be very lonely. I started looking around and decided our lawn boy by of two years was a prize, a 6 ft 2in high school athlete who graduated in May and very good looking and muscular, and very black as well. I invited him in for ice tea and we sat on the couch. I said to him, "If I was not married and a few years younger I would be after you for sure". He looked at me and said, "Don't let hat hold you back", and we looked into each other eyes and without a word into an embrace and kissing like a couple of high school kids on prom night. Needless to say we were soon in my bed having hot mind blowing s**. My husband is good but this kid may be better, anyway It felt good. We have been doing it since that initial time about twice a week. Now I am trying to plan for when my husband gets home, how I can have both of them,,,,so hot thinking of it. I know it is cheating but my husband started it and I need s** also. Now that I have started with my lover, I don't want to stop having him.
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What happens when he is away stops when he gets back. if it doesn't you will lose everything because you wrote it down. think - cause and effect
Sounds like you were just looking for an excuse to get some D***.
Once he finds out (and he will). Trust will be your worst nightmare. He will divorce you. Secrets & Lies will be what ultimately will bring all your future relationships down. I feel bad for you...next time be more careful in choosing for love and not l***.
U dirty s*** how do u know ur friends husband wasn't lying
Good Point, however I have never known them to be vindictive, or less than truthful.
That black d*** got you coming back for more eh? lol
I do not blame you one bit. Go for it honey. He will not miss what he is not getting.
Okay its great to have s** with lovers more than husband type


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The Dallas Business Journal released its "Tracking Dallas's Wealthiest Zip Codes" article. As no surprise, while wealth still resides in the core of Dallas, wealth is showing a distinct migration to northern suburbs. The top 5 zip codes in the November 13th article were: 76034 Colleyville; 75225 University Park; 76092 Southlake; 75022 Flower Mound; 75205 Highland Park. Number 8 on the list was Argyle 76226; Coppell #11 75019; 75028 in Flower Mound was #15; and Lewisville 75077 was #17.
Gaylord Texan is already hard at work on its annual Lone Star Christmas extravaganza featuring a 2 million pound hand-carved ICE! attraction. The theme for this year's Nov. 12-Jan. 3 exhibit is Christmas Around the World. The ice for ICE! is created using a special "recipe", and it arrives in approximately 36 truckloads over a 3-week period… 2 trucks a day for 15 days. The master carvers who are from the city of Harbin in Northeast China, near Siberia, take shifts working inside a 9-degree freezer to transform the 2 million pounds of ice.
Almost 20 years after buying the land, Dallas Cowboy's owner Jerry Jones has quietly started construction on his $1 billion Gates of Prosper development. The project will be a 300,000-square-foot shopping center on the property located just north of Frisco. It is slated to be a 93-acre retail center, with a Walmart store included in the project. The Jones project in Prosper also includes the 979-acre Villages of Star Trail, an 1,850-home community. The first phase of the Star Trail community will include about 300 homesites, and will begin construction in early 2016.
U.S. homebuilders have not felt this good about their business in a decade. Sentiment jumped 3 points in October to a level of 64 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Anything above 50 is considered positive sentiment. The index stood at 54 last October, but has held in the 60s since June of this year. When homebuilders feel confident, it is trackable to an increase in housing starts – which are desperately needed in our area.
An Austin homebuilder, Scott Felder Homes, is making inroads in the booming North Texas housing market. Scott Felder Homes has tied up land for eight Dallas-Fort Worth developments with more than 500 houses. The builder's first houses in the area are expected to be ready next year. While most of Felder's new neighborhoods are for traditional single-family homes, the builder will start construction soon on a 127-home project in Plano's $2 billion Legacy West development. The high-density contemporary houses will occupy a site between Toyota Motor and Liberty Mutual Insurance's new Plano campuses. The two- and three-story detached houses have different architectural styles and will be constructed around a small park. The 2,000- to 3,000-square-foot houses will start around $500,000. Along with the Legacy West project, Felder Homes has purchased building locations in Highland Village, Celina, Prosper and Frisco.
Cinemark's Nextgen 53,000 square foot theatre is open in Roanoke, featuring 14 screens, and 2,500 parking spaces. It is located at the intersection of Hwy. 170 and Hwy. 114. The theater features all leather luxury lounge chairs and a cafeteria style concessions area with expanded food choices.


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Drop Shipping India
Searching for best drop shipping companies in India, Seasonsway.com is the right choice for you to get instant access to thousands of name-brand products at wholesale prices that you can sell on other Market places like Amazon,Flipkart,Snapdeal,eBay, Face book even into your own website, your own shop or buy them for yourself. Best thing about drop-shipping is the products you sell are shipped directly to your customers without buying inventory or with hassle free shipping, you just order the product s for your customer we will dispatch the product on your behalf!
Why buy Drop shipping wholesale goods from us? Drop ship Wholesale Supplier in India
First drop shipping company in India, Seasonsway.com supply more than thousands of high-quality merchandise and famous brand name products i.e. Reebok, Lotto, MTV, Puma, all at wholesale prices. Most of our products have small minimum order requirements, so you can shop retail products at wholesale prices! Wholesalers can shop big and get even larger discounts! Browse our huge range of products now and see for yourself.
How to Be A Certified Seller in Seasonsway.com ?
Do you want to be a certified drop shipper in Seasonsway.com? You can join us by passing these easy steps:
1 Step- Send an Email to firstname.lastname@example.com and give us a detailed description about your business. We need to understand how you plan to run your online business, and our drop shipping service is only for customers who really sell items.
2 Step- After approval we will set your Seasonsway account to the member type "drop shipper" in our system .You can enjoy attractive discount for any of your future drop shipping order.
3 Step- When your Total Sales reach 3 lakh our system will automatically set you as Premium Drop shipper , you are eligible for further Discounts.
Actual mean for Drop shipping:
Drop shipping is a service where products are shipped directly to end customers .Resellers can advertise products from seasonsway.com catalogue and entrust us to ship them directly to their customers.Seasonsway.com takes responsibility for delivery. Seasonsway drop shipping in India allows you to make a profit on the difference between the wholesale and the retail price, without having to deal with product purchasing, stock management or logistics.Seasonsway.com drop shipping India makes it possible for resellers to advertise a wide range of goods, featured in seasonsway.com site online product catalogue, website.
Looking for drop shipping services, drop shipping wholesalers, drop shipping to India ,drop shipping websites, drop shipping clothing drop shippers India, drop shipping sites, drops hipping vendors, drop shipping clothing vendors, drop shipping shoes wholesalers ,drop shipping shoes suppliers your search ends at seasonsway.com, with over 10,000 products online, we have huge collection of Apparels, Clothing, Footwear from renowned brands. Shop on our online website, store for men clothing from leading brands -Raymond, Reid & Taylor, Grasim, Levis, Pepe, Fruit & Loom, Pull & Bear, Jack & Jones, United colors of Bentton & Women clothing from brands - Levis, Allen Solly, Aneri, Arrow Woman, Biba, Calvin Klein Women, Espirit, Fab India, Marks and Spencer's, along with Kid's clothing, Dresses from Gini & Jony, Lilliput , Barbie, Accessorize ; top footwear brands India for all - Puma, Nike, Reebok, Adidias , Woodland, Lotto it is all here waiting for you at Seasonsway,at the click of your mouse.
Seasonsway.com is simply one of the best drop shipping websites in India. We provide quality, one of the best drop shipping services in India to our customers. Despite lacking some of the whistles and bells of other sites, you get a massive range of products.
Kindly register for drop shipping by clicking on the link given below:


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Discover beautiful venues for a perfect Italian wedding in Bologna
Thinking of getting married in Bologna? With gorgeous weather, easy access from the UK, and stunning historical and countryside surroundings, all you need is the perfect Bologna wedding venue.
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With its terracotta buildings, impressive history, great food and rolling hills, Bologna is a brilliant choice for couples
looking for an Italian wedding destination.
Arguably Italy's culinary capital, you can expect some of the best food you've ever tasted all around Bologna. Situated in the Emilia-Romagna region,
it's the home of parma ham, balsamic vinegar and parmesan. Foodies will love the abundance of cured meats, cheese, butter, cream and truffles used in so much
of the food here, so you can be sure your guests will enjoy your celebration surrounded by some of Europe's finest fare!
Bologna is the perfect choice for couples looking for impressive architecture and historical buildings as the backdrop to their big day, too. Europe's
oldest university town, the majestic Piazza Maggiore is the city's main square, situated alongside the Piazza del Nettuno and next to the towering Basilica
of San Petronio (the fifth largest church in the world). The Neptune Fountain is situated at the center of Piazza del Nettuno and would be a great setting for
some romantic wedding photos, and both squares are surrounded by gorgeous churches, palaces and museums. With its 17th and 18th century architecture, the
university quarter is a truly photogenic part of the city!
Bologna is easy to access from the UK for you and your wedding guests. Ryanair, easyJet and British Airways run daily direct flights to Bologna, and once
you arrive the Guglielmo Marconi Airport is just 7km from the city. If you fancy a minimoon after your Bologna wedding it's worth knowing that Rome,
Milan and Florence city are easily accessible by train, bus or car.
The weather in Bologna is yet another reason why it's a great Italian wedding destination. High season is May to September, when the temperature is
above 25°C - making it the perfect climate for an outdoor Italian wedding.
More About Getting Married in Bologna...


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Beds Onsale - Discovering the Right Place for Your Appropriate Mattress
Beds Onsale - Discovering the Right Place for Your Appropriate Mattress
Welcome to my blog
In this blog I will be posting short stories, and videos about my life.
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Beds Onsale - Discovering the Right Place for Your Appropriate Mattress
Obtaining the right beds for sale is extremely hard to do, nevertheless, everybody may concur that it's very rewarding. Understanding where you can visit a good bed at the best value is very important, particularly inside the fiscal state that we reside in today. There are many locations that you can convert to, to locate a good mattress purchase, which report can find to steer you within the right way. Do remember that you will have to do some level of exploring and research, and you will also have to exercise endurance in order to find the perfect mattresses on sale. There is to begin searching for beds on sale a great spot at the local stores. As a way to make means for new investment, these merchants are always hoping to get rid of old stock, therefore from time they'll promote beds at a very good price's previous stock. They will also more than likely have manufacturer mattresses, in addition to mattresses which can be reliable and trusted at great discount rates. The weekend will be the best moment to see, as that is once they are inclined to set the beds available for sale. For those who have a store near you that is a part of a huge cycle they may actually be online, providing you the option of purchasing your mattress online. However, visiting the store as you could have the ability before getting it to test the item is definitely encouraged.
As various outlets online are often having mattresses on sale, you can even scan the internet. However, make every effort to ensure the web site is genuine and you'll have to be careful. Moreover, check to determine the looking at method on the website is just a safe one. Watching the http inside the address bar can does the check. When the site is protected whenever you push the purchase button it will change to https from http. You need to also keep in mind that any beds on-sale online should be sent for you in you spending more income, and this will result. Another solution is always to examine the wholesales or factories. They're one of the best spots to acquire a great bed for a great price even though the factories will barely have beds on-sale. All of the beds they provide will soon be properly charged to accommodate any budget. The only drop is the fact that the mattresses in most cases could have the brand of the retailer, so then this program won't be best foryou if you are specifically searching for a brand. Wholesales have their beds coming in at great prices, and also could have sales from time to time. There is also of exploring the type, the choice
Trumbull, Connecticut, United States


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Epilepsy Channel
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Neurontin and Weight Gain
Several side effects are possible with Neurontin, and weight gain has been reported. It appears more frequently in children than in adults and can often be combated by eating heart-healthy foods and exercising regularly. However, if you experience a rapid weight gain, you should report this to your healthcare provider, as it may be a sign of a serious medical condition.
Does Neurontin Cause Weight Gain?Neurontin® (gabapentin) is a prescription medication approved to treat certain epileptic seizures. It is also approved to treat postherpetic neuralgia, a type of nerve pain that follows a shingles infection. Weight gain is one of the possible Neurontin side effects. This data comes from clinical trials where the drug was extensively studied and side effects were documented.
Understanding Clinical Trials
Before medications are approved in the United States, they must go through several clinical studies, where thousands of people are given a particular medicine and compared to a group of people not given the medicine (they are given a "sugar pill," or placebo, instead).
In these studies, side effects are always carefully documented. This way, it is possible to see what side effects occur, how often they appear, and how they compare to the group not taking the medicine.
In studies, up to 3.4 percent of children taking Neurontin for controlling seizures experienced weight gain, compared to just 0.8 percent of a similar group of children not taking the drug. However, weight gain in children is generally not unusual or unhealthy.
This is also a possible side effect in adults, although it is less common. In adults, up to 2.9 percent of people taking Neurontin experienced weight gain, compared to just 1.6 percent of adults not taking it.
Neurontin Medication Information
Written by/reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD; Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD


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Joudy Group InternationalInternational Trade Shows Services
Joudy Group International is professionally managed company since 2003. specializes in promoting trade events and orgnaizing trade shows. with over 15 years of experience in the internatioal exhibition service industry , Our success over the past years has allowed us to establish an extensive and a reliable network of a lot of business sector professionals.
We're bringing buyers and sellers together in dedicated marketplaces..
Operating in a variety of trade shows sectors with more than 40 exhibitions per annum, JOUDY group provide opportunities to Visitors and Exhibitors to target regional & International market. we are playing our role in leading manufacturers and exporters to new markets..
Our Serviceswe cater all your needs under one roof
We provide you with customized solutions and services before, during and after a trade fair. We can also organize your trade fair participation by delivering a wide range of services from A to Z.
- Organize trade shows
- Organize B2B meetings
- Organize trade delegations
- Events promotion Campaigns
- Business travel & Accommodation services
- Reception & Shuttle Service
- Trade Shows representation
- Visas consulting and service
- Stand design and construction


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Morning ladies!
Dog had us up early, H earlier than I I'm watching Love It or List It. And gearing up to spray paint the old metal mailbox we have on our porch its just decorative, but I started my fall decor already so I want to get it painted to I can string lights on it this year.
I cleaned yesterday, so none of that today. But I went to Michaels (bad idea) I'm making quite a few projects including Grandbaby's 1st Birthday onsie.


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- 1. This Manufacturing warranty is provided by EziDry Pte Ltd
- 2. Entitles the original purchaser to FREE LABOUR AND REPLACEMENT OF PARTS for a period of 2 years. Ezidry Clotheslines or one of its duly appointed authorized service agents will during normal business hours repair or replace any part which in the opinion of the manufacturer is defective due to faulty material or workmanship provided that the appliance has been used for the purpose in which it was designed namely a clothesline or airer and operated in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. If same has been used for commercial purposes, the period of warranty is 1 year only.
- 3. The purchaser will be responsible for paying any transport charges, and damages and loss incurred in connection with the transportation of this appliance to and from Ezi Dry clotheslines Pty Ltd or its accredited service agents' premises.
- 4. This warranty does not apply to any clothesline which has been:-
a) subject to misuse, neglect, accident or alteration by any person
b) damaged or destroyed by fire, flood, Act of God or other inevitable accident
c) hired to any person or persons
d) used with anything other than Ezidry Clotheslines genuine spare parts.
- 5. Your proof of the date of purchase must be produced before free service is provided.
Special Offer
Evolve Today.
Pay Later.
With PayPal® Credit® you can bring home EziDry today with No Payments and No Interest for 6 months*


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Senior Project Fresh/Market Fresh
The Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) awards grants to states to provide low-income seniors with $20 coupons that can be exchanged for Michigan grown, fresh produce at approved farmers markets, roadside stands, and community supported agriculture programs. Fresh, unprocessed Michigan grown fruits, vegetables, cut herbs and unprocessed honey can be purchased with SFMNP coupons each year. Program Eligibility:
- Seniors age 60 and older
- Live in Alpena County
- 2017 Income Limits: $22,311 (single household); $30,044 (2 persons)
Coupon booklets are distributed beginning in July until they run out. For more information call 356-3585 x 21.


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Man sentenced, accused of providing material support to terrorists
U.S. attorneys say Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan sentenced to 25 years in prison
MIAMI – A 77-year-old man was sentenced on Friday to 25 years in prison for allegedly providing material support to terrorists, including the Pakistani Taliban.
According to public records, defendant Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 77, was the Imam at the Miami Masjid in Miami.
Authorities said the indictment did not allege that the masjid participated in the Khan's scheme.
Khan was convicted by a jury on March 4 after two months of trial, on charges of conspiring to provide, and providing, material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap persons overseas, and conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically the Pakistani Taliban.
"The sentence today demonstrates that no matter who you are or what your motive may be, financing terrorism will not be tolerated by our criminal justice system, and will be punished severely," said U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer. "Today's sentence sends a powerful message to anyone who thinks they have a reason to support terrorism: You cannot use the freedoms of this country to support terrorism. It will not be tolerated. You will be brought to justice."
U.S. attorneys said the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik?e Taliban Pakistan, Tehrik?I?Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban, and Tehreek?e?Taliban, is a Pakistan-based terrorist organization formed in or around Dec. 2007 by an alliance of radical Islamist militants.
On Sept. 1, 2010, attorneys said the United States Department of State formally designated the Pakistani Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
"Terrorists in Pakistan have lost a reliable source of funding and the man responsible for that funding, Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, is now paying the price for his actions," said Xanthie Mangum, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Miami. "Terrorism remains the FBI's top priority."
According to the evidence at trial, Khan, with the help of persons in South Florida and Pakistan, sent money and other material support to Pakistani Taliban contacts and sympathizers overseas.
Attorneys said according to the evidence, Khan sought to aid the Pakistani Taliban's fight against the Pakistani government and its perceived allies, including the U.S., by supporting acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere, in order to displace the lawful government of Pakistan and to establish Sharia.
Khan transferred money from the U.S. to Pakistani Taliban supporters in Pakistan, primarily using bank accounts and wire transfer services in the United States and Pakistan, attorneys said.
Attorneys said Khan also solicited and collected money in the U.S., taking great care to conceal his activities.
Copyright 2013 by Local10.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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The North Judson-San Pierre High School Choral Department has tickets available for this year's Madrigal dinner on Friday and Saturday, December 3rd and 4th, at 7:00 p.m. CT and Sunday, December 5th, at 1:00 p.m. CT. All performances will take place at the Grand Central Station restaurant in North Judson.
This is the 20th year for the Madrigal dinner. For tickets, call Choir Director, Donna Ness, at (574) 896-2158 or (574) 896-5041.


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NBC has just ordered a full season (nine more episodes) of the new comedy Kath & Kim, starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair.
As we told you when the show first premiered, Kath & Kim is a remake of a popular Australian sitcom of the same name, and the creators of the original Australian production (Gina Riley and Jane Turner) are producers of the U.S. version.
Despite more than a few negative reviews (The San Francisco Chronicle called it "a contender for worst remake ever"), the show has benefited from an excellent time slot, following the NBC hit My Name is Earl and leading into popular shows The Office and 30 Rock.
As a loyal Molly Shannon fan, I am happy to see her continue her well-deserved turn on primetime television. It's been depressing to see her immense talent relegated to tiny roles in movies like Talladega Nights or one-off television appearances (Pushing Daisies, 30 Rock). I will watch her in just about anything, which is exactly why I try to watch Kath and Kim.
I try.
Unlike the naysayers who object to the U.S. remake being a sad shadow of the Australian Kath & Kim's former glory, I came to the show without any of those expectations. I'd never seen the original, and even if I had, I'd be open to the possibility that the remake could be just as good or better. (I can't sit through a whole episode of the original British version of The Office, but the U.S. incarnation is one of my all-time favorite programs.)
Still, I can't bring myself to enjoy Kath and Kim. Molly Shannon is, as always, great. Her character is funny, endearing and unintentionally kooky. John Michael Higgins (Best in Show), who plays her love interest, very nearly steals the show out from under her. I root for his character and his little sandwich shop, and he and Shannon make a perfectly goofy couple.
As for the rest of the show, I just don't get it. Selma Blair, as Kath's self-absorbed and immature daughter, seems to be playing dumb instead of living it. And all of the press about how much weight she gained for the role (20 pounds) is somewhat distracting. I watch her character's "constant" eating and think, "She still looks skinny to me!" While Shannon and Higgins make magic together in all of their scenes, Shannon and Blair's interactions feel like an off-key duet.
Maybe it's just me, and maybe I'll grow to love the show now that there will be additional episodes to (hopefully) enjoy. But the fact that Australian television canceled the U.S. Kath & Kim after only two episodes doesn't bode well for its future here.
And even if Kath & Kim doesn't get a second season, let's hope that Shannon keeps her primetime comeback momentum. Television without Molly Shannon is a sad and boring thing indeed. Don't get me started, don't even get me started!


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Local busker Ryan Comer covers Wilco's "She's a Jar" (from 1999's Summerteeth) on a Lexington Ave. corner in downtown Asheville.
Subscribe to Busk Break on YouTube and "like" us on Facebook.
Special thanks to Zen Sutherland, Kelly Christianson, Jason Sharp, Dave Baker and the many anonymous donors to the Better Busk Break project, which helped raise money for a camera upgrade!


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After seeing a partial clip of an amateur musical act, Paul Feig, Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo guess whether the video ends in an attack or someone leaving the band.
© 2020 Comedy Partners. All Rights Reserved. Comedy Central and all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of comedy partners.


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To call SuicideGirls.com a "porn site" would be a disservice to both Suicide Girls and porn sites in general. I say this because while softcore porn is certainly a huge part of Suicide Girls, it is not by any means the only part. Indeed, the site represents much more of an attitude of feminine powered counter culture than any regular porn site could ever muster. In addition to stunningly beautiful, and tattooed, women, SuicideGirls.com also is jam packed with celebrity interviews, movie and music reviews, and razor sharp, intelligent blog posts. And at $4/month (if you sign up for a year), it's also one of the most reasonably priced erotic membership sites around. All that being said, is it worth signing up for a membership? Before answering that, allow me to go more into detail about what the website offers.
I've mentioned that the girls who are featured on Suicide Girls are some highly attractive bad asses. To back that statement, allow me to present you with a few sample pictures, taken directly from the site, as proof. Take a look…
Not bad, eh? And if you agree that these pictures are impressive, keep in mind that Suicide Girls boasts on of the largest online inventories of softcore porn pictures of any online site, with close to two million (Yes. 2 MILLION.) pictures and more added everyday. Many of the pictures are taken by professional photographers and feature professional models. However, a huge percentage of them are actually submitted by the girls themselves, done so as part of the application process to become an official Suicide Girls. Members of the site get to review these pictures and vote on who makes the cut.
But Suicide Girls is more than just a huge collection of pictures. The site also features a "News" section that is regularly updated with some really hard-hitting and well written blog posts. Here's an excerpt from one of the more recent blog posts to appear over on the site…
" I recently got out of an abusive relationship and I feel like I still can't escape it. I moved three states away when everything disintegrated. He broke up with me via text message, in the same apartment, no less. We had lived together for two and a half years, and he was my life. Things got rocky towards the end, but as I was sexually abused and made to feel like my feelings weren't valid, I came to accept that this was my path.
It's been four months now. As soon as I moved away it was like a lightbulb came on and I realized that I was one of "those people" who deny and deny the abuse to themselves. It took distance and a broken heart to realize what I had wasn't a relationship. I don't know what it was, but it was not a relationship.
I'm glad to say I'm now in a wonderful, healthy relationship with a great guy. He loves me for who I am, and he knows about how my ex treated me and understands my trust issues and reservations. I am head over heels in love with him, and have been focusing all my energy on myself, firstly, and secondly, our relationship. I wasn't giving my ex a second thought, until tonight…"
My only real complaint with the site is that I wish it featured more blog posts. While the ones that are featured on the site are really great and all, I just feel that with all the talent that's a part of Suicide Girls that an opportunity is being missed to deliver one of the very best blogs on the Internet. While members can establish blogs of their own, and many do, I just wish that more attention was paid to their "News" section and that it was more heavily stocked with content. And while they're at it, maybe consider renaming that section to something like, "Blogs" and, in addition to the featured blogs, maybe also provide easy links to some of the better member blogs, as well.
And while we're on the subject of things I think could use some improvement, let's talk about their integration of social media. Or, really, lack thereof. The Suicide Girls brand, in my opinion, is one that is custom made for social media. Beautiful, inteligent, bad ass women who aren't afraid to share everything about themselves? Yes, please! However, while Suicide Girls does have an official Twitter (@SuicideGirls), Facebook, Youtube, and Tumblr, you wouldn't know it from visiting their site. The link to its Facebook page is buried in small print all the way at the bottom of their page and the most prominent social media profile of theirs that is featured is to the Suicide Girls Myspace page. I think that if they were to better integrate all of their other social media stuff into the site, SuicideGirls.com would be taken to a whole new level of interactivity and relevance.
Overall, SuicideGirls.com is a really, really great website. The site is packed with all sorts of great content that's of a quality that most other Internet destinations simply can't compete with. The user-generated content goes a long way towards generating an authentic "culture" and attitude, perhaps the most infectious thing about Suicide Girls. Are there some things that could be done better? Absolutely. However, all things considered, the Suicide Girls website is one of the very best membership sites around and well worth the four bucks a month that it costs to access all of the content. Highly recommended.
[schema type="review" url="https://suicidegirls.com/" name="Suicide Girls" description="What some people think makes us strange, or weird, or fucked up, we think is what makes us beautiful. THIS IS OUR IDEA OF BEAUTY REDEFINED." rev_name="Suicide Girls – A Porn Review" rev_body="SuicideGirls.com is a unique, high-quality softcore porn site that also provides lots of other great content, including really intelligent blog posts, articles, and video." author="Dan C." pubdate="2011-09-15″ user_review="4″ min_review="1″ max_review="5″ ]


text:
Hey Vita fans! It's list time, so let's get a look at February 2017's PlayStation Store top downloads for both North America and Europe.
Another month is defined by older games, as both North American and European lists are completely comprised of previously released titles; Adventure Time taking #1 in North America due to its excessively cheap price, and Minecraft taking #1 in Europe due to… it being Minecraft. 😛
Anyways, check 'em all out for yourself – though don't expect anything new!
North America
PSVita Top 10
- Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom
- Tales of Hearts R
- Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster
- Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z
- Darkest Dungeon
- Touch My Katamari
- Severed
- Need for Speed Most Wanted
- Minecraft
- Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed
PSVita Top 10
- Minecraft (9)
- J-Stars Victory VS+ (RE)
- Assassin's Creed III Liberation (RE)
- Persona 4 Golden (1)
- Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed (RE)
- Rayman Legends (RE)
- Street Fighter X Tekken (RE)
- Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (RE)
- Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment (RE)
- Need for Speed: Most Wanted (RE)
See any odd showings or stand-outs in the bunch? Got something to say about a game that should/shouldn't have made it onto one of the lists?
Sound off in the comments below!


text:
Alix Gaisford St Lawrence is working at Proof this July, getting a taste of STEM PR before heading back to Exeter University to finish her degree. This week she blogs about her first week at Proof, and what it was like to pitch her first ever press release.
I am lucky that a company like Proof agreed to employ the one millennial with more enthusiasm for tech than actual knowledge, but I'm grateful they did. I have quickly discovered that just as Proof looks to inform the wider public about new STEM ideas, they have begun to do the same for me. My first story to pitch was about four young engineers who had won the Royal Academy of Engineering 1851 Royal Commission Enterprise Fellowship, innovators my age with infinitely more entrepreneurial talent than I could imagine. With the help of the team who have patiently explained these innovations, I have now a basic understanding of how a mouldable fabric can be used to control electronics on 3D plains, something which even last week would have confused me to my very core.
The challenge now is to convince a journalist that these innovations are as cool as I think they are whilst maintaining a professional tone. As a loud and brash woman, the confidence was not the issue but rather the ability. Things do become more complicated when you are talking to people who do not necessarily want to be talked to. In order to prepare myself for this feat of determination I attempted to talk to commuters on the central line, this was much scarier than any journalist could possibly be. I was, however, incredibly lucky to have a lovely journalist as my first pitch and therefore nothing to worry about. I am currently waiting on tenterhooks to see the fruits of my labour, an article about incredible tech that will perhaps interest others as much as it did me.
The team here at Proof is so well equipped with a variety of arts and science graduates, the amalgamation of interests and skills is to Proof's credit. This can be seen from my desk surrounded by people who now have personal relationships with both the clients they represent and the journalists they pitch to. From my brief time here it seems to be a passion for the components that make up a successful pitch. Proof is fortunate in that their clients are at the forefront of innovation and therefore their work and opinions are of interest to anyone with a curious nature.
I look forward to developing my pitching over the summer. Shadowing the team and listening to them expertly explain an innovation in a succinct manner in a matter of seconds has made me eager to hone the same skills myself. In a city where time is a commodity it is both in and out of the office that efficiency in communication is of use. Being thrown in the (supervised) deep end is not something many interns get to experience; most of my peers have become glorified office baristas. Being allowed and trusted to represent Proof in my first week has been an extraordinary opportunity to learn as I go.
If you have any questions about my blog please email me at email@example.com


text: Stephen Gran <firstname.lastname@example.com> writes: > This one time, at band camp, Thomas Bushnell BSG said: >> Stephen Gran <email@example.com> writes: >> >> > ndiswrapper is a piece of free software. It does not need non-free >> > tools to build, and it will execute as a standalone app without any >> > drivers. The fact that most people use it to enable non-free >> > drivers to work is largely irrelevant - most people use wine and >> > various other emulators for similar purposes. >> > >> > We have historically allowed all of these in main because we have >> > defined the criteria for main in the SC and the DFSG. Repeatedly >> > over the past year or two, several people have been trying to >> > incrementally rewrite the foundation documents by stealth through a >> > slow process of arguing for new interpretations of what these >> > documents meant. I see this entire thread as yet one more attempt >> > at this incremental revisionist work, and it is worrisome. >> >> If you are arguing that people are acting in bad faith, then please >> take the argument elsewhere. I find far more worrisome this attitude >> that other developers are lying. I trust my fellow developers to be >> honest with me; if you do not, please do not infect threads with such >> suspicions. > > I said neither that anyone was lying, nor that they were acting in > bad faith. I think that they are working for something they believe > in and that they are going about it poorly. You used the word "stealth" and "revisionist". These are not contributions to an attitude of openness and trust. > We have a procedure for > changing what the foundation documents say, and it is not by filing > bugs or appealing to the tech ctte. The tech-ctte is there to address technical disputes. > If people want the SC to say "We > will never make the system require the use of a non-free component, > and additionally we will not include in our main distribution software > that is mostly used for running non-free code", I think they should just > say so, rather than trying to advance that agenda in round about manner. Once more, the SC does not address the main/contrib distinction at all, as far as I can tell. Thomas


text:
Helping to heal the psyche critical part of recovery
Sept. 24, 2001
KALAMAZOO -- Unlike most natural disasters, the most immediate need for victims and families of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., isn't finding shelter and food, it's finding emotional and psychological support.
Dr. Kenneth E. Reid, WMU professor of social work and a mental health specialist with the American Red Cross, is on call with that disaster relief agency to work at either disaster site by providing mental health services for victims, their families and the volunteers. A veteran of disasters around the globe, including hurricanes, tornadoes and floods, Reid says that "even the disaster workers are not prepared" for the devastation they are encountering.
"Just in the last year, the Red Cross started training its volunteers on how to deal with disasters caused by weapons of mass destruction, so it's a whole different experience for everybody," he says. "We aren't dealing with the mass care of getting food and housing to victims, we are dealing with profound loss. For the victims' families, there's a lot of hurting and grief and questions that will go on forever. For the volunteers who are there digging in the debris and finding body tissue, it will be overwhelming. They all need to talk and deal with the disaster in order to go on."
Because the recovery and clean-up phase of the disaster is certain to be a protracted, agonizing process, Reid says the victims, families and volunteers will need support long after the world's attention has changed and the television crews have packed up and left.
"Right now we're in the heroic phase," he says. "The disasters are still very much in the media and there's a lot of attention on them, but eventually the attention will shift to other places and the heroic phase will go into business as usual -- except for the victims. They'll still live with it everyday."
Media contact: Mark Schwerin, 616 387-8400, firstname.lastname@example.com
Office of University Relations


text:
If you've been following along with the adventures of DC State Fair, the competitions, the events, and the rescheduling because of Mother Nature's temperamental behavior, you now have a chance to dig in your hands even more!
The three DC State Fair co-founders' two-year board terms have now ended, which means there are spots available on the Board of Directors. If you have nonprofit management experience, a community development and engagement background, or just a passion to bring agricultural, culinary, and arts education to the community to develop and encourage neighborly showcasing of talent and competition, then we want you to apply!
This is strictly a volunteer opportunity–there are no paid positions within DC State Fair! But something that the new board may be looking at are grants to allow the hire of a full-time Executive Director in the next couple of years–with the launch of the Statehood DC campaign today, it seems like a great time to have a bigger and better DC State Fair!
Board Member
DC State Fair
Volunteer Opportunity
About DC State Fair
DC State Fair as a concept is about two years old. Officially incorporated as a nonprofit in October 2010, the organization started as three DC food and garden bloggers' dream, and became a success through the tireless supporting efforts of other bloggers, friends, volunteers, sponsors, and community members who stepped up to compete in the Fair's inaugural contests in August 2010.
The 2011 DC State Fair event, rescheduled to a late date because of Hurricane Irene, was a success as well, if a cold and wet one. To grow the organization, reach more of the DC community, and let DC State Fair expand into a true State Fair experience, the organization is seeking applications for Board of Directors members.
We need Board members who can bring this fledgling organization to the next level and make DC State Fair a truly community-driven and community-supporting endeavor. Nonprofit management, community engagement, and the legal and financial aspects of running small nonprofit organizations are highly desirable qualities in candidates.
Board Responsibilities
Direct the efforts of the various committees and their efforts for the organization (Volunteer, Contests, Events, Community Outreach, Development Committees and Subcommittees [Board members are encouraged to participate in committee operations but do not necessarily need to act as committee chairs]); liaise with DC-based and other local organizations and businesses that complement and/or support the DC State Fair mission; ensure stable financial and legal standing; offer programming and events throughout the year, in addition to the main State Fair event, possibly in collaboration with organizations that align with DC State Fair's mission.
No personal financial contributions are necessary or expected to be on the Board of Directors of DC State Fair. But, of course, they will not be turned down.
Time Commitment
Semiregular meetings (determined by the Board) and intermittent committee/volunteer management duties depending on chosen role within the Board. May, June, July, and August will likely require more attention and time than other months. Actual time commitment may vary depending on how committees and the Board are organized.
Term of Office
Board members serve two-year terms, with overlapping terms (three members will finish their first year as the other two finish their second).
To apply, please e-mail your resume, a letter of intent, and one or two supporting documents (if you'd like) to firstname.lastname@example.com. Please apply by Friday, December 9.


text:
Sibel Edmonds and 911
Sibel Edmonds case: The real culprits of 911
As we approach another 911 anniversary, it's time we learnt:
1) Who are these mid and high-level al-Qaida operatives?
2) What role did they play in planning 911?
3) What operational support did they provide?
4) Why they are still roaming free today?
5) Why did the US authorities continually exclude key participants from the official narrative?


text:
Leyla and her husband Arif have long fought for human rights and the rights of ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan and the couple are internationally recognised human rights defenders. They were arrested on July 30, 2014 on charges of "treason", "large-scale fraud", "forgery", "tax evasion", and "illegal business" in an effort to silence their human rights activities. On August 13, 2015, after a flawed trial, Leyla and Arif Yunus were sentenced to 8.5 and 7 years in jail respectively. On November 12, Arif Yunusov was conditionally released by the Baku Grave Crimes Court due to health conditions. Yesterday, the Baku Grave Crimes Court also commuted his sentence to a probation for 5 years.
FIDH has fought a tireless campaign, notably through the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, to secure their release alongside a series of advocacy actions in international fora such as the European Union, the United Nations and the Council of Europe, initiating a series of resolutions calling for their unconditional release.
Despite their release, they still face charges of treason and their legal situation remains unchanged. FIDH will continue to campaign until all charges are dropped against both Leyla and Arif Yunus and their full rights restored.
FIDH also calls for the unconditional release of all other human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in Azerbaijan, such as Khadija Ismailova, Intigam Aliyev, Rasul Jafarov, Anar Mammadli, Hilal Mammadov and Rauf Mirqadirov.
For background information, see our dedictated section on Azerbaijan and Azerbaidjan: Leyla Yunus released on probation!


text:
Maurevel had spent a part of the day
in the King's armory; but when it was time for
the hunters to return from the chase Catharine sent
him into her oratory with the guards who had joined
Charles IX., informed by his nurse
on his arrival that a man had spent part of the day
in his room, was at first very angry that a stranger
had been admitted into his apartments. But his
nurse described the man, saying that he was the same
one she herself had been ordered to admit one evening,
and the King realized that it was Maurevel. Then
remembering the order his mother had wrung from him
that morning, he understood everything.
"Oh, ho!" murmured Charles,
"the same day on which he has saved my life.
The time is badly chosen."
He started to go to his mother, but
one thought deterred him.
"By Heaven! If I mention
this to her it will result in a never-ending discussion.
Better for us to act by ourselves.
"Nurse," said he, "lock
every door, and say to Queen Elizabeth that I
am suffering somewhat from the fall I have had, and
that I shall sleep alone to-night."
The nurse obeyed, and as it was not
yet time for the execution of his plan, Charles sat
himself down to compose poetry. It was this occupation
which made the time pass most quickly for the King.
Nine o'clock struck before he thought it was
more than seven. He counted the strokes of the
clock one by one, and at the last he rose.
"The devil!" said he,
"it is just time." Taking his hat
and cloak, he left his room by a secret door he had
had made in the wall, the existence of which even
Catharine herself was ignorant.
Charles went directly to Henry's
apartments. On leaving the Duc d'Alençon,
the latter had gone to his room to change his clothes
and had left again at once.
"He probably has decided to
take supper with Margot," said the King.
"He was very pleasant with her to-day, at least
so it seemed to me."
He went to the queen's apartments.
Marguerite had brought back with her the Duchesse
de Nevers, Coconnas, and La Mole, and was having a
supper of preserves and pastry with them.
Charles knocked at the hall door,
which was opened by Gillonne. But at sight of
the King she was so frightened that she scarcely had
sufficient presence of mind to courtesy, and instead
of running to inform her mistress of the august visit
she was to have, she let Charles enter without other
warning than the cry that had escaped her. The
King crossed the antechamber, and guided by the bursts
of laughter advanced towards the dining-room.
"Poor Henriot!" said he,
"he is enjoying himself without a thought of
"It is I," said he, raising
the portière and showing a smiling face.
Marguerite gave a terrible cry.
Smiling as he was, his face appeared to her like the
face of Medusa. Seated opposite the door, she
had recognized him at once. The two men turned
their backs to the King.
"Your Majesty!" cried the queen, rising
in terror.
The three other guests felt their
heads begin to swim; Coconnas alone retained his self-possession.
He rose also, but with such tactful clumsiness that
in doing so he upset the table, and with it the glass,
plate, and candles. Instantly there was complete
darkness and the silence of death.
"Run," said Coconnas to La Mole; "quick!
La Mole did not wait to be told twice.
Springing to the side of the wall, he began groping
with his hands for the sleeping-room, that he might
hide in the cabinet that opened out of it and which
he knew so well. But as he stepped across the
threshold he ran against a man who had just entered
by the secret corridor.
"What does all this mean?"
asked Charles, in the darkness, in a tone which was
beginning to betray a formidable accent of impatience.
"Am I such a mar-joy that the sight of me causes
all this confusion? Come, Henriot! Henriot!
where are you? Answer me."
"We are saved!" murmured
Marguerite, seizing a hand which she took for that
of La Mole. "The King thinks my husband
is one of our guests."
"And I shall let him think so,
madame, you may be sure," said Henry, answering
the queen in the same tone.
"Great God!" cried Marguerite,
hastily dropping the hand she held, which was that
of the King of Navarre.
"Silence!" said Henry.
"In the name of a thousand devils!
why are you whispering in this way?" cried Charles.
"Henry, answer me; where are you?"
"Here, sire," said the King of Navarre.
"The devil!" said Coconnas,
who was holding the Duchesse de Nevers in a corner,
"the plot thickens."
"In that case we are doubly lost," said
Coconnas, brave to the point of rashness,
had reflected that the candles would have to be lighted
sooner or later, and thinking the sooner the better,
he dropped the hand of Madame de Nevers, picked up
a taper from the midst of the débris, and going
to a brazier blew on a piece of coal, with which he
at once made a light. The chamber was again illuminated.
Charles IX. glanced around inquiringly.
Henry was by the side of his wife,
the Duchesse de Nevers was alone in a corner,
while Coconnas stood in the centre of the room, candle-stick
in hand, lighting up the whole scene.
"Excuse me, brother,"
said Marguerite, "we were not expecting you."
"So, as you may have perceived,
your Majesty filled us with strange terror,"
said Henriette.
"For my part," said Henry,
who had surmised everything, "I think the fear
was so real that in rising I overturned the table."
Coconnas glanced at the King of Navarre
as much as to say:
"Good! Here is a man who understands at
"What a frightful hubbub!"
repeated Charles IX. "Your supper is ruined,
Henriot; come with me and you shall finish it elsewhere;
I will carry you off this evening."
"What, sire!" said Henry,
"your Majesty will do me the honor?"
"Yes, my Majesty will do you
the honor of taking you away from the Louvre.
Lend him to me, Margot, I will bring him back to you
to-morrow morning."
"Ah, brother," said Marguerite,
"you do not need my permission for that; you
are master."
"Sire," said Henry, "I
will get another cloak from my room, and will return
"You do not need it, Henriot;
the cloak you have is all right."
"But, sire," began the Béarnais.
"In the name of a thousand devils,
I tell you not to go to your rooms! Do you not
hear what I say? Come along!"
"Yes, yes, go!" said Marguerite,
suddenly pressing her husband's arm; for a singular
look from Charles had convinced her that something
unusual was going on.
"Here I am, sire," said Henry.
Charles looked at Coconnas, who was
still carrying out his office of torch-bearer by lighting
the other candles.
"Who is this gentleman?"
asked the King of Henry, eyeing the Piedmontese from
head to foot. "Is he Monsieur de la Mole?"
"Who has told him of La Mole?"
asked Marguerite in a low tone.
"No, sire," replied Henry,
"Monsieur de la Mole is not here, I regret to
say. Otherwise I should have the honor of presenting
him to your Majesty at the same time as Monsieur de
Coconnas, his friend. They are perfectly inseparable,
and both are in the suite of Monsieur d'Alençon."
"Ah! ah! our famous marksman!"
said Charles. "Good!" Then frowning:
"Is not this Monsieur de la Mole a Huguenot?"
he asked.
"He is converted, sire, and I will answer for
him as for myself."
"When you answer for any one,
Henriot, after what you did to-day, I have no further
right to doubt him. But I should have liked to
see this Monsieur de la Mole. However, I can
meet him another time."
Giving a last glance about the room,
Charles embraced Marguerite, took hold of the arm
of the King of Navarre, and led him off.
At the gate of the Louvre Henry wanted
to speak to some one.
"Come, come! pass out quickly,
Henriot," said Charles. "When I tell
you that the air of the Louvre is not good for you
this evening, the devil! you must believe me!"
"Ventre saint gris!"
murmured Henry; "and what will De Mouy do all
alone in my room? I trust the air which is not
good for me may be no worse for him!"
"Ah!" exclaimed the King,
when Henry and he had crossed the drawbridge, "does
it suit you, Henry, to have the gentlemen of Monsieur
d'Alençon courting your wife?"
"How so, sire?"
"Truly, is not this Monsieur de Coconnas making
eyes at Margot?"
"Who told you that?"
"Well," said the King, "I heard
"A mere joke, sire; Monsieur
de Coconnas does make eyes at some one, but it is
at Madame de Nevers."
"Ah, bah."
"I can answer to your Majesty for what I tell
Charles burst into laughter.
"Well," said he, "let
the Duc de Guise come to me again with his gossip,
and I will gently pull his mustache by telling him
of the exploits of his sister-in-law. But after
all," said the King, thinking better of it,
"I do not know whether it was Monsieur de Coconnas
or Monsieur de la Mole he referred to."
"Neither the one more than the
other, sire, and I can answer to you for the feelings
of my wife."
"Good, Henriot, good!"
said the King. "I like you better now than
the way you were before. On my honor, you are
such a good fellow that I shall end by being unable
to get along without you."
As he spoke the King gave a peculiar
whistle, whereupon four gentlemen who were waiting
for him at the end of the Rue de Beauvais joined him.
The whole party set out towards the middle of the city.
Ten o'clock struck.
"Well!" said Marguerite,
after the King and Henry had left, "shall we
go back to table?"
"Mercy, no!" cried the
duchess, "I have been too badly frightened.
Long live the little house in the Rue Cloche Percée!
No one can enter that without regularly besieging
it, and our good men have the right to use their swords
there. But what are you looking for under the
furniture and in the closets, Monsieur de Coconnas?"
"I am trying to find my friend
La Mole," said the Piedmontese.
"Look in my room, monsieur,"
said Marguerite, "there is a certain closet"
"Very well," said Coconnas, "I will
go there."
He entered the room.
"Well!" said a voice from the darkness;
"where are we?"
"Oh! by Heaven! we have reached the dessert."
"And the King of Navarre?"
"He has seen nothing. He
is a perfect husband, and I wish my wife had one like
him. But I fear she never will, even if she marries
"And King Charles?"
"Ah! the King. That is another thing.
He has taken off the husband."
"It is as I tell you. Furthermore,
he honored me by looking askance at me when he discovered
that I belonged to Monsieur d'Alençon, and cross
when he found out that I was your friend."
"You think, then, that he has heard me spoken
"I fear that he has heard nothing
very good of you. But that is not the point.
I believe these ladies have a pilgrimage to make to
the Rue de Roi de Sicile, and that we are to take
them there."
"Why, that is impossible! You know that
very well."
"How impossible?"
"We are on duty at his royal highness's."
"By Heavens, that is so; I always
forget that we are ranked, and that from the gentlemen
we once were we have had the honor to pass into valets."
Thereupon the two friends went and
told the queen and the duchess the necessity of their
being present at least when Monsieur lé Duc
"Very well," said Madame de Nevers, "we
will go by ourselves."
"Might we know where you are going?" asked
"Oh! you are too curious!" said the duchess.
"Quære et invenies."
The young men bowed and went at once to Monsieur d'Alençon.
The duke seemed to be waiting for them in his cabinet.
"Ah! ah!" said he, "you are very
late, gentlemen."
"It is scarcely ten o'clock, monseigneur,"
said Coconnas.
The duke drew out his watch.
"That is true," said he.
"And yet every one has gone to sleep in the
"Yes, monsieur, but we are here
at your orders. Must we admit into the chamber
of your highness the gentlemen who are with the King
until he retires?"
"On the contrary, go into the
small reception-room and dismiss every one."
The young men obeyed, carried out
the order, which surprised no one, because of the
well-known character of the duke, and returned to him.
"Monseigneur," said Coconnas,
"your highness will probably either go to bed
or work, will you not?"
"No, gentlemen; you may have
leave of absence until to-morrow."
"Well, well," whispered
Coconnas into La Mole's ear, "the court
is going to stay up all night, apparently. It
will be devilishly pleasant. Let us have our
share of it."
And both young men descended the stairs
four steps at a time, took their cloaks and their
night swords, and hastily left the Louvre after the
two ladies, whom they overtook at the corner of the
Rue du Coq Saint Honoré.
Meanwhile the Duc d'Alençon,
with open eyes and ears, locked himself in his room
to await the unexpected events he had been promised.