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Fiesta Monday

So, Mondays.

They are really no fun.

They are even less fun when your husband/life partner/co-babysitter/nighttime waking dealer-with is going to be out of town for the next 48 hours, and you're looking at a loooong stretch of teething and crying all by your lonesome.

I mean, lonesome minus the almost-one-year-old.

Obviously, it's not the end of the world. I mean, I do get tiny bouts of anxiety thinking about the fact that I'm stuck in the same place for the next two days, since David took our only car, but they are mostly minor.

Anywho, onto more pleasant pastures?

Right now I'm doing some party planning for Kate's first birthday, which meant that I got to whittle away hours at Hobby Lobby and Target this weekend brainstorming and buying cute things. I haven't had a chance to go all out party planning since our wedding, and let's be honest - little girl birthdays are way more fun. I don't want to spoil it all but I bought some gold spray paint, pink pots for centerpieces, and black-and-white striped tablecloths.

Also, I'm working on her monthly photos, and I'm going to print them out here someday soon, whenever I get around to it. For now I'm playing around with collages so there you go (see up above) and my one month free trial of Lightroom. It's a good time waster, that's for sure.

Also also, if you want to print your Instagram photos, the Shutterfly mobile app is having a great deal -- use the code 4X4PRINTS to get 25 free 4x4" prints! (you do obviously have to download the Shutterfly app, and then upload from there but it's totally worth it!) (and no affiliate, just a great deal!)

Let's see, what else is new?

I finally broke down and bought this jean jacket, after borrowing Caitlin's approximately 100 times when we lived together and then jonesing for one ever since we stopped living together. It's everything I've dreamed of and more. I've barely taken it off since I bought it Friday night.

I'm rereading the Harry Potter series after reading a lot of "heavy" materials lately (by heavy, I mean slightly advanced over teen reads). I'm on Prisoner of Azkaban and boy, I forgot how much I love HP. I'm going to make David have a marathon of watching the movies with me once I've finished. If you've got good book recommendations, or great taste (which I'm sure you do) -- follow me on Goodreads! aka the nerdiest social media platform.

I'm also on day 25 of the 30 day shred, which is kicking my butt in a good way. Do I dare start running again outside afterwards? I'm tempted to by all the nice weather we've been having lately, but I'm also not a huge fan of running with our jogging stroller because it makes me even slower than the slow turtle I was without it...thoughts?

Happy Monday, y'all, if there's ever been one.

7QT #34: about a whole lot of nothing!

This has been an uber-quiet week on the bloggo. Sorry if you were checking back day after day (ahem, David) for an update about our seriously-exciting life. No such nonsense here!

But as all good bloggers know, when you don't have anything to write about, write 7 things about nothing! Heeeeere goes.

Bonnie posted a QT post today about all the things she's watching on Netflix, and got me very excited. So here are two takes about've been warned.

Things we are watching now (with hilarious commentary by moi):
The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (like 30 Rock but funnier because Ellie Kemper and theme song)
House (oh wow, they found the cure in the last 5 minutes of the episode AGAIN?)
Bones (gosh dang it just get together already Booth & Brennan! emotional chastity for TV characters is so overrated)
Property Brothers (haven't finished those on Netflix because I don't want to go into HGTV withdrawal)
Arrow (need to finish! need to finish! so much drama and pretty people)

I highly recommend each and every one of those. Like, big-time.

Things I or we are going to start here soon:

Daredevil (blind superhero? yes please)
Broadchurch Season 2 (David Tennant and crime. Love love love)
Call the Midwife (because my parents won't stop bugging me to start watching it)
Horns (Daniel Radcliffe, 'nuff said)
The Bletchley Circle (BBC + codebreaking = heart eye emojis)

What are you watching now? What should be on my list?

I took this really cute picture of David and Kitty this week and put it on Facebook & Instagram but if you didn't get a chance to see it, here it is again:

Gosh, they're just great aren't they?

We bought a new couch and matching chair/ottoman on Craigslist this week!
It's officially the most we've ever spent on a Craigslist purchase, but it was totally worth it. Came from a really nice house in a new neighborhood outside Lincoln, and they're in super great condition. They're an enormous step up in quality from our previous set...which is a story for another day.

David will make me tell the other couch story someday. You'll just have to wait patiently until then.

Current jam: Forgotten by the Punch Brothers. So so so good. I think I've listened to it 100 times in the last week, no exaggeration.

David and I went to see Gregory Alan Isakov at Knickerbockers last night. It was a freaking fantastic show and I can't gush about it enough. It's been a long time since I've been to a real concert so it was like balm to this music-lover's soul.

It was David's first-ever concert and he wasn't a huge fan, mostly because it's not his favorite type of music, but he survived and now I get to drag him to many many more concerts over the years to come! HOOOO-ray - get excited, honey.

Here's a quality blurry selfie of us there waiting for the show to start, displaying our true emotions.

Well, I hear Kate rustling after a...oh good, 35 minute nap (grrrrrr) so I'll bid y'all adieu.
Adieu, adieu, to yeuh and yeuh and yeeuhh!

Til next week, superstars, head to Kelly's for more.

7QT #33: a phone photo dump

These last two weeks have been crazy/fun/engrossing/really tiring. I can hardly believe it's halfway through April already. Like, what. My brain can't even comprehend it enough to add a question mark to that sentence.

Instead of reeling in my inability to comprehend the normal passage of time, let's do a pictorial recap of the last like, 10 days, how about?

The last weekend we did a lot of things including some golfing, with a beautiful sunset thrown in...

And a fancy schmancy fundraising dinner at David's old high school...

For a break from pictures, can I just real quick tell y'all how awesome my experience with Rent the Runway? I used their service to rent the above beautiful black with gold-flower-lace gown.

It was super easy to use -- just pick out your dress, what dates you'd like it, and they even most times can send you two sizes of the same dress if you're not sure which will fit (for no additional cost!). My favorite part of the website is the customer reviews, though, because most customers write really detailed and super-helpful reviews after renting, including pictures of the dress on real women.

If you're curious, this is the dress I ordered, although it took me FOR-EV-ER to pick one (ask David) because there were just too many beautiful options.

And no, I'm not cool/fancy enough to be getting paid to make this recommendation, just thought y'all should know about great things that I like. You're welcome.

On Sunday, we went to the Newman Center's Dedication Mass. I've already written about that plenty, so here are some more pictures in case you haven't seen them.

It's so pretty, guys. You need to go visit it yourself. The pictures just don't do it real justice.

Kate's been eating big people food like there's no tomorrow. It's really really cute even if it does take her half an hour or more to eat a full meal's worth.

The other night she ate chicken, cheese, corn, and grapes -- a lot -- and I was like, where did my little baby go?

And also she crawled on the grass for the first time Wednesday afternoon. Okay, total new parent moment but I got a little nervous when we put her down, I know she'll be fine but what if she's allergic? What if she gets dirty? What if what if what if...

Obviously she was fine and has had no lasting side effects from crawling in some grass.
I know, I'll lighten up. It was mostly mental anyway.

I love me some Whole Foods.
I wish I had a lot more disposable income so I could shop there for everything on my grocery list. For now I'm sticking to the essentials that I can only get there: cheap coconut oil, tea, and pretty flowers I'm going to pot & stick on my desk.

Also filed under: how does one surreptitiously take a photo of their basket of foods while grocery shopping so they can Instagram/blog it later?
and: coconut oil is hella good for keratosis pilaris (seriously, check it out if you haven't's miraculous)

Well, I've run out of interesting pictures to show you. The only other ones from this week on my phone are screenshots of Craigslist couches we're thinking of buying and a photo of some shoes I painted in really poor lighting. So I'll spare you from those two, how about.

Hope you have a fantastic weekend. David and Kate and I are planning on relaxing - we haven't had a weekend at home since, like, the middle of February.

Joining up with Kelly - head there for more Quick Takes!

MY newman center

I'm posting over at Two Catholic Girls today, so head on over there for the full read! A little preview below...

MY Newman Center

This last Sunday, David and I were lucky enough to get to attend the blessing & dedication of the new Newman Center and St. Thomas Aquinas Church at our alma mater, UNL.

If you aren't from around Nebraska, or know me in real life, the Newman Center's where David and I met during our first week of college. I could give you a hundred different reasons I loved our time at Newman during college. Through the community there I met some of my best friends, went to more social events and group things than I ever would have otherwise, and most importantly developed a deep and real love for Christ and His Church because of the people I met there...

Click here for the full post!

10 months

Where did my sweet little baby go?
Kate is officially 10.5 months old (whoops, I'm behind yet again) and I swear she is like 90% toddler at this point. I love it but I'm missing that new-baby-ness.

Weight: 20.5 lbs or more, depending on when you weigh her on our again, mostly inaccurate home scale. She's definitely put on the lbs in the last couple weeks, because my arms get tired more quickly from holding her!

Height: same as before. I think she's going to slow down on the growing a little bit from here on out, which kind of makes me sad, but it's nice for clothes-buying.

Firsts this month: pulling up on furniture & cruising! She loves it and has made us do a lot of rearranging and organizing that I didn't anticipate for awhile yet. It's super adorable though.

Nicknames: nothing new!

Other things to note:
- Kate's definitely developing a bit of an attitude. She's figured out how to angry-screech in order to get us to pay attention to her, and combined with a major pouty face, pretty much has us all wrapped up.
- But on the other hand, she is genuinely really happy most of the time (see above photos). If she's not one, it's the other in the exact opposite direction, which is totes fine.
- She's not in love with car trips anymore. Since last month's 8 hour drive to CO, she will only sleep for a little bit of a car ride and then be VERY upset that she can't participate in the rest of the drive with us, unless someone's sitting in the back with her. So that's suuuuper fun.
- I'm both ready and not ready for her to start walking. She can almost get to standing when she's not holding onto something, and one of these days she will just take off. I'm going to appreciate the break for my arms but not necessarily the extra running we'll probably have to start doing...
- Plans for her 1st birthday are coming along! I'm so much more excited than I probably should be. I don't get a chance to host parties as much as I would like so yeah, I'm stoked.
- Oh, and STILL no teeth. Crazy right?

XOXO, girlie.

daybook || 4-9-15

eating: Easter candy. Too much of it. Really, I should stop while I'm...ahead?

drinking: Jillian's detox water. Probably the "spiciest" tea I've had - and it comes from dandelions? weirdsauce

listening: to this song and this one on repeat, on my fancy headphones I just found in my drawer again. They make music sound so much better!! weird

taking: weird selfies on Photobooth and breaks to stretch my legs

doing: Jillian's 30 day shred. I just passed level 1 and level 2 is on deck for today, wish me luck!

reading: just finished Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch which was super weird and engrossing for the beginning and middle, and then the end was disappointing. I hate that. I just started the HP series again to soothe my brain from book anger.

seeing: Kate climb up and over and get into everything that was previously safe from her grasp. Babyproofing is a struggle, y'all.

watching: Bones and House, both on Netflix, obviously.

craving: all the Starbucks drinks, all the darn time

making: a blanket very very slowly for some pregnant friends, and plans to do home renovations very soon-ly

planning: my birthday wish-list. I'm about 5 years old when it comes to birthdays

playing: patty-cake with Kate (funniest thing EVER to her)

grateful: for the rain we're having - it's like day 4 of 10 around here for cloudy/misty/rainy days, and I love it

wasting: time finding new blogs to read (like this and this)

feeling: accomplished with work things, but very far behind on the important house/life things like laundry and vacuuming and being tidy

smelling: beautiful spring smells, mostly growing green grass

wearing: lots of leggings & tees, and also going to wear this dress for a fancy fundraiser we're going to this weekend for David's high school (eep!)

loving: my beautiful life - for real, I've been noticing how blessed I am recently and I love it

Life lately {Easter edition}

So, I've been pretty bad about memory-keeping lately.

I've been bringing my camera to plenty of things we've done, but then not taking it out to, you know, actually take pictures. Umm, that's kind of against the point.

So, in crappy iPhone photos, here's what we've been doing lately:
(also, most all these are repeat from Instagram. Sorry not sorry.)

A play date with our beautiful friends' little daughter Jacqueline. Kate's 7 months older and 200% bossier/more assertive than she, so it was, ahem, a little disheartening to realize our little sweet baby becomes a bit of a bully when she's around other babies.

I'm hoping it's a trait that she'll grow out of.
Either that or we've got some fun parenting ahead of us.

We went to a Husker baseball game even though the night we went it was like 23° outside. Brrrrr.

Huskers vs. Texas, and Huskers that kind of made it worth it. But still, I'd rather go back when it's like, above at least 50°. Kate spent most of the time wrapped inside David's coat all cozy, happy to be outside, so that was definitely a bonus.

We went golfing on Holy Saturday in Columbus, and it was beeeeautiful. A little chilly to start but then warmed up really nicely - enough that I felt justified wearing shorts in 50° weather to warm up and get some sun on my pale-pale-pale legs.

Although, I'll be honest - I didn't do a whole lot of golfing. I'm not the greatest so I spent the majority of the time just enjoying the outdoors and pushing Kate around in our stroller...until it broke on hole #6 and she went home with Grandma. But it was more than nice to just be outside for a long period of time! I loved it.

I'll be honest with you all: I'm pretty disappointed because this is the only picture I got from Easter.

We went to the Easter Vigil Mass in Norfolk, to see David's cousin's girlfriend enter the Church...and it started at 8:30. PM. Did I realize that when we agreed to go? No. Do I intensely regret wearing platform wedges? Yes. Did Kate sleep in the Ergo the whole time? Umm, big fat NO. (She slept for about an hour and a half, total.) Did I think the Mass was going to be over 3 hours long? Also, no.

Was it beautiful and worth it? Yes.
But next time I'm gonna wear flats. Or make David wear the baby.

Anywho, we were driving back to Lincoln after the Mass so we were in a bit of a hurry, since it's a 2.5 hour drive from Norfolk to Lincoln. If you did that math, that means we got home at 2:30 a.m. Amid all that hurrying and standing-in-the-vestibule-because-Kate-was-crying, I didn't get a picture of us in our Easter finery.

I will try to have us get a family picture together soon (it's been too long!) and Kate will need to be wearing the dress she wore for Easter because holy adorable.

I snapped the above photo of Kate opening her basket from the Easter bunny (ahem, for the second time) -- it included The Tale of Peter Rabbit, egg-shaped crayons, a pull-toy lion, a swim-diaper, a sippy cup with straw, and baby cookies. She enjoyed pulling things out of the basket and then kind of lost interest. Oh well!

David spent most of the day Easter feeling crappy, so we were super low key all day. It was nice and relaxing, and beautiful outside, and I got to eat candy. So all in all a lovely time.

Hope your Easter was as filled with joy as ours.


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Want to feel really bad about slacking on your Golden Goose Sale New Year's gym resolutions? Watch this video of Michelle Obama doing push-ups on Ellen. (Mrs. O)

Missed this weekend's downsizing of Occupy D.C.? Here's a photo recap. Golden Goose Womens Shoes (DCist)

In case Golden Goose Sneakers you didn't get enough of Tom Brady last night, The Glossarie has a Patriots-inspired beauty roundup for ya. (The Glossarie)

Two amazing outfits with one (equally amazing) $76 skirt. Golden Goose Sneakers Sale We dig. (Capitol Hill Style)

Fly introduces us to Aussie brand Gorman, and now we're obsessed. Golden Goose Mens Shoes Obsessed! (Fly)

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Moore Golf and Athletic Club

Address: 920 SW 19th St., Moore, 73160

Par/Yardage: 72/6132 whites, 6789 blues

Course Rating: 72.4; Slope: 117

Architect: Lyndy Lindsey

Year Opened: 1999

Director of Golf: Jason Beauchamp (GM)

Superintendent: Jeremy McPherson

Amenities: pro shop, golf carts, weight room, tennis courts, grill, pools

Practice Facilities: driving range, putting green

Phone Number: 405-790-0264

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Featured Post

I Am... Mama and Writer

First Mama.  Then Writer.  Though, of late, the latter has consumed a great deal of time as I work to get things in order to potentially be ...

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Saturday Soliloquy 52: Pregnancy Series, My Fourth

This pregnancy was good.  I was not as active.  We lived in a different part of Florida in a house we'd bought a mortgage for.  I got preggie almost immediately after we moved in.  I think I had my first miscarriage, but it was so soon after conception that I don't "officially" count it because I couldn't have gotten a positive on the pregnancy test at that point.  So, that was my first 'slip'.
I didn't really get out to walk.  And didn't get very active.  I probably ate too much chocolate and other sweets.  I'd done that with the other children, too... to some extent.  But this time, for whatever reason, I gained weight like crazy.  40 pounds, to be exact.  Because of that, and a couple other details, I just knew I was preggie with a boy.  I didn't tell Jessie because I didn't want him to be totally let down if I was wrong.  I knew for sure I was right when Karen (our midwife again) told me to let Daddy check for parts.  Jessie cried like a baby again when he realized he had a boy.
For the full story (a three part series in itself, check it out HERE).
I readily remember that when Karen, our midwife, arrived, I was 7cm dilated.  I was very happy to hear that.  Everyone was sure our baby would be born very quickly.  He was not.
It took about 21.5 hours for him to make his entrance into the world.  He was also very high... not engaged the way Karen wanted him to be.  But I still pushed him out quickly.
In only two pushes, to be exact!  My fastest to that point.  He was a blue-chord-around-the-neck-baby, but not as limp as Kat when she was born.  Karen put oxygen in front of his nose and he pinked right up.
Once again, I felt the same miraculous heart expansion and capacity-to-love-growth that happens at each birth.  It is just amazing!  Jmy was another 10 pound 4 ounce baby!  He was NOT as fluffy as Tea, though.  He was just solid.  And has remained solid ever since (now five years old!).
Jmy was born in Mama and Daddy's bedroom, on our Kingsdown bed that I bought for $800 from a lady who had horrible allergies in Virginia, in Daddy's "castle" house in Florida.  I remember lying down diagonally and Karen, being sorta wedged in between the wall and me on the bed.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Saturday Soliloquy 51: Pregnancy Series, My Third

This time around, I held my tummy in and tooks walks with my older two almost every day.  I was determined that I would not have the difficulty pushing that I had with Kat's delivery.  Thankfully I did what needed to be done and it was much better when it came to pushing.
This pregnancy was my first in Florida.  It was easier for me to get out of the house because of where we lived.  I took Ria to ballet (with Kat along, of course).  Kat would watch and wish to join in... she did most of the exercises in the waiting room, at the door, while watching Ria.  I also took the girls to story time regularly.  I also met with a dear friend of mine pretty regularly to hang out because her Victoria is the same age as mine.
Karen was my midwife.  She was quite good and good for me.
When I was 2 weeks "overdue," Karen was worried and I suggested homeopathics.  She gave them to me and I started them.  Immediately went into labor.  Labor lasted 3 long, painful days.  It was not pleasant.  I should've trusted my body and baby more.
Finally at 10cm dilated and able to push.  I think she was worried because Tea was not engaged as much as she expected or wanted to see.  She gave me the go-ahead to push and I did.  Within five minutes Tea was born.  Holding my tummy in and walking had definitely made a difference!
Again, we didn't know what we were having.  I was pretty sure she was a girl because, again, I'd dropped 7 pounds during the pregnancy.  I was just as happy to see that I was right as I was with each other birth (when I'd been wrong).
Tea was perfect.  Crazy-full head of black hair that looked almost like a wig on my first ten pound four ounce baby.  She was short, too... so she had ROLLS!  Absolutely adorable rolls!  Her cheeks were so chubbs that when she was laid on her side, the cheek that was up in the air drooped over her mouth!  She definitely had Micheline Man arms and legs from birth! When she was born we needed to stimulate her a little bit, Karen held the oxygen close to her, but she definitely was not blue or limp.
Tea was born in our living room, on our brown couch which was given to us by my friend Heather in Florida.

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Birth of our GrA boy

The super quick synopsis if you're really not super interested follows.

Active labor: 4-4.5 hours

Transfer: to hospital somewhere around midnight

GrA born: 2:23am by c-section

I was in a room with him less than an hour after he was taken out.

About 5 hours later, I was rolled away for emergency surgery.

In ICU for just over 24 hours.

Back home my mid-day Sunday, April 3rd.

Staples out, Friday, April 8th.

Gardening by Thursday, April 25th.

If you want more details, click HERE for *the rest of the story*.

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Saturday Soliloquy 50: Pregnancy Series, My Second

I was no longer working as a teacher during this pregnancy.  I was way more sedentary.  I did not hold my tummy in really at all.  I still dropped 7 pounds during the pregnancy, but it definitely was not really apparent.
Kristi was my midwife.  She was, technically, not able to be fully legal yet in Virginia.  So, although she did attend my birth, we did not attach her name to the paperwork for a birth certificate.  That complicated the process of getting Kat's birth certificate.
My pregnancy with Kat went well.  I was tired and lonely a lot... not entirely used to being a Mama to one and worried about how I would add another.  Worried about whether I could love a second as much as the first... silly things like that.  I was probably still experiencing some aspects of the post-partum depression I had after Ria's birth.
I was two weeks "over due" with Kat when Kristi asked if I would be willing to use homeopathic remedies to try to get labor started.  I was willing because I could tell she was very concerned.
The homeopathic remedies did start labor, but it was a long and drawn out labor because it was not natural.  It was more natural and tolerable than Pitocin, but still not my body's starting the process itself... or the baby starting it... or the both of them working together.  It was unnatural.  I wish I'd been more courageous and trusted my body and my baby more.
I was in labor for 2 days to give birth to Kat.
Pushing took a long time this go-round.  I'm sure that's because my abdominal muscles were really unfit.  I may have pushed as long as 40 minutes.  I can't remember for sure.  Compared to the 11 minutes with Ria (which includes the time it took me to move from the floor to the bed), the time it took to push Kat out was long and arduous.
When she was born, we did not know what we were having.  We thought we wanted a boy.  I saw that we had another girl and I was ecstatic!  I couldn't have been happier with our second adorable black-haired, 9 pound 8 ounce baby girl!  She was born a blue baby and very limp because her cord was partially prolapsed when she began crowning and it was wrapped around her neck a couple times.  Her unresponsiveness was worrisome. Kristi pushed the cord back where it should've been before I finished pushing Kat out.  One baby was out, Kristi described how and I performed the kiss of life.  I breathed life into Kat.  She pinked up very well after that.
I learned very quickly (immediately?) that each child grows its parents hearts... it's as if, immediately upon birth, my heart is so much bigger that I have exactly as much love for the second as I had for the first.  It's amazing!
Kat was born in our living room, right in front of our couch, in our little trailer in a trailer park Virginia.

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Saturday Soliloquy 49: Pregnancy Series, My First

I was working as a teacher.  My first year in that job.  I was worried what my peers and boss would think of me being preggie, so I held my tummy in all the time.  I was a size 18 when I began my Ria pregnancy.  I dropped 7 pounds during the pregnancy.  I did need to wear maternity shirts and pants by the end, but not by much.
This pregnancy was wonderful.  I felt so pretty and happy.  It was really wonderful. Except for the stress of my work.  That was pretty rough.
And then there was the ultrasound.  It suggested that our baby's heart might be turned wrong and other parts of her underdeveloped.  We "had to" have another ultrasound.  We were trying to get accepted into a midwife attended and run birthing clinic in the hospital.  We were not accepted.  Not because of the heart thing, that turned out to be nothing.  There was no problem.  There was no problem with her at all.
Probably good that we weren't.  Laurie MacPherson-Smith was our midwife - upon recommendation from Claudia Shafer, our birth-class instructor.  She was good.  Not as good as I would wish... apparently she'd had too many babies born in a certain way... so when it looked like Ria might be born in that way, she had me change my position which was more painful than anything prior to it... and I had a very painful labor to birth Ria.
Jessie didn't review the birth class information.  He didn't do what he was supposed to do to help me.  I felt very much on my own... because I had a wrong expectation that my husband would do certain things.  He could've, but it didn't happen that way.
Neither of us had any way of knowing how completely and utterly I would "lose" my ability to stand up for myself whilst in labor.  It's amazing how different... how much sweeter I am in labor than any other time in my life... how much weaker and unable to speak for myself.  At least, that's how I was for the first five.  I hope I will be differnt for the next since I've been doing SO much work to become a new woman in ways imperceptible to most folks.
Jessie was present for much of the labor and for the birth.  He did the best he could under the circumstances.
The day before Ria was born, we had a visit with our midwife.  She swiped my cirvix.  She did not discuss that with me before she did it.  If she said anything about it, she didn't help me understand it fully.  As a result, she broke my waters.  I know she did, but Ria's head blocked them from coming out until much later.
I went home and promptly worked my butt off.  That last shot of energy was spent on cleaning.  I didn't realize fully that I was in labor.  I hoped so, but didn't know KNOW know.
She felt like she had to do something because I was, according to the way of figuring out when a baby is "due," nine days "late."  It still upsets me that she started my labor in that way.  It's because of this unnatural start that I ended up in so much pain at the very end.
When I laid down to sleep around midnight, waters came gushing out.  The contractions became horribly painful immediately thereafter.  I'm pretty sure I mistook Ria moving after contractions for contractions.  It was all a ball of pain to my mind.
I was probably way more dilated at home, but the drive to the hospital, though short, was excruciatingly painful.  When they checked me there, I was only 3cm.  I was so upset.  I tried all kinds of things: bouncy ball, walking (though not much), kneeling, showering.  It was all just horribly painful.  I was fearful.
A little bit before 1pm (I think), I was ready to push.  My midwife told me to squat down and push with the next contraction, while holding on to some handles under the bed.  I did.  Apparently, Ria crowned with that one push. Pushing was blissfully wonderful.  It was a relief and a release from the torturous pain of the laboring process.  Because of the crowning, Laurie told me to get up on the bed.  This is the moment that I needed my Mom or Jessie to step in and tell them that I would NOT move, that I was good where I was, and the baby would be born right there.  Neither of them did so.
That move was horribly painful.  Probably more painful than anything before it.
I labored for 22.5 hours to give birth to Ria.
After moving onto the bed and getting into position there, I pushed another two or three times and had Ria out.  I was extatic.  It was glorious to hold my baby.  I'd previously thought I wanted a boy.  I looked.  I had a girl and could not have been happier to have her!
Our sweet, black-haired 8 pound 4 ounce baby girl!  She didn't cry when she was born.  The nurse tried to rub her into crying.  But I wouldn't let her.  I knew Ria was fine.  I knew she didn't need to cry.
She had such a very serious expression on her face from the start.  She didn't smile at me until she was nearly 3 months old... even though she smiled at her Daddy and her Mimi!
Ria was born in a hospital in Virginia.

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© 2008-2016 Tori Gollihugh All Rights Reserved


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Surgery Residents Bring Other MDs to Work for a Day

5:00 am: Arrive at hospital.

Peds and Psych are borderline comatose still. Medicine seems confused to find that the hospital lights work this early in the day.

Anesthesia is saying that he’s already hungry.

Radiology is running late.

5-6 am: Print lists and write down all of the vitals and labs. Preround.

ED is intrigued to discover that you have to look at numbers and patients yourself and don’t just have a nurse to call you with the ‘red numbers’.

Psych asks, “How can you tell what her mood is if the entire assessment is just pushing on her belly?”

6 am: Start rounding on patients with the team.

Anesthesia wants to take a break and asks where the free smoked salmon and breakfast buffet are.

6-7:15 am: Round on patients. Write all orders. Finish all notes. Tee-up discharges and drop off scripts.

Peds and Medicine are shocked that you can use the computers to write notes and put in orders at the same time.

Radiology starts complaining of a headache from looking at so many moving 3D images. When told that that’s what patients look like in real life, she mutters that ‘it’s too bright in here’ and excuses herself.

7:15-7:30 am: Sign in patients for the OR.

Anesthesia is really concerned that he’s going to miss out on brunch.

7:30 am – 7 pm: Operate while also juggling all consults, floor issues and discharging patients.

Peds starts whimpering during the middle of the second operation. He later says that he felt overwhelmed by everyone’s ‘mean tone’.

Anesthesia falls asleep and almost falls onto the patient.

OB/GYN wonders why you don’t hub the veress needle upon entry and later seems confused when you make a point of finding fascia and closing it.

Medicine wonders when you can cap on consults after you get your 6th consult of the day.

ED asks in the middle of a Whipple at 5 pm who you’re going to sign out to since the shift is over?

7 pm or when ORs are done: PM round on the floor patients again. Place new orders, follow-up on labs/tests/findings and update patient’s families.

Anesthesia, Medicine, Peds and ED start… Oh who am I kidding, everyone’s disappeared by now.


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+ Welcome to SelGomez-News's Photogallery
Welcome to your most updated photo gallery for Selena Gomez. We update fans with the latest and best pictures. You can come here for your daily dose of everything Selena Gomez and check out our different categories in the gallery, from events to photoshoots, you will find everything you need. Thank you for visiting and come again.
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Living my Parisian dreams 😭

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Smalltalk Languages

Organisation Type: Private Company

Tel: 0141 642 9330

Email: [email protected]

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Average Review: (from 3 reviews)

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Course_thumb Teaching French to Young Learners Course

Smalltalk Languages(from 3 reviews)

This course is aimed at nursery/primary staff who are currently introducing French into their early years/primary curriculum or intend to do so. Suitable for both complete beginners and people with prior knowledge of the language, the main focus of the course will be on language learning and practical methodology.

£110.00 (no VAT on this item)
(Duration: 1 day)


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Oh what to write? Oh what to write? I cannot think, of a thing to create verbally. Oh the dread writer's clog up.

Today I have writer's congest. When I at hand my sentiment to judge of thing to write, perchance something clever, or witty, or funny, I get nought - nada, zero, goose egg. When I close set my opinion and force out my mentality for an idea, I see a big, black, bereft of outer space in my brainpower. It's resembling looking at a tv peak near no see in your mind's eye. I sense at hand is an boom it is so bare. Hellooooo? Hellooooo? Hellooooo?

As I sit here open at my information processing system silver screen hoping that something, anything, will pop into my pave the way and offer me a glint of inspiration, I get uneasy. What if I am out of ideas? What if I never have another conception again? What if any coincidence of anyone a popular author is departed as I am out of ideas? I stipulation ideas!

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I once made a declare to myself that I would scribble a teeny something both day, no excuses allowed. Well, unless thing happened and I couldn't get to a computer because I was in a car declination and couldn't use my keeping or something, but other than than that, no excuses. Write, write, and keep in touch quite a lot of more than. So, in conformity next to my promise, this is what I came up next to. Writing around having nada to be in contact. Move finished Shakespeare.

This happens to a certain extent regularly and the one state of affairs I have intellectual is that it is pro tem. I essential still myself that concept will come up when I tiniest wish them and that I will never really run out of design. I a short time ago entail to proceeds a interval and come through rear at a then circumstance and all will be fabulous. That is the article near writer's block, it comes and goes. So, for now I deduce I will go proceeds a recreation and go hindmost tardy with new planning and get subsidise to words.

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An Introduction to SEO Practices for Beginners

Good for you - You're using Google to find my "how to SEO" blog, which has been SEO optimized specifically for YOU to find it. Yesh. You. That's the way this works you see? Google is used to fetch websites which it believes will be useful for what you're searching for, and is pretty damn accurate don't you think? It's like you're here by destiny.

My name is Michael Fox. I'm an entrepreneur (thank God for spellcheck) and SEO (search engine optimizer).

I'm going to teach you everything I've learned through the past several years of the internet and I kicking each others ass. Many resources are not newbie friendly, but I plan on doing exactly that for you. I'm going to assume you know jack shit about SEO and business/brand building.

So, what's my story and why do you care?

In 2007 I had just finished LASA HS in Austin, TX and I was equipped with a magnet diploma and a full ride scholarship to the University of Washington and a Presidential scholarship to Arizona State. At first I wanted to study particle physics and work at CERN (birthplace of the world wide web), but even though it was a hobby of mine to study physics, I knew it would be boring as fuck and wouldn't make me millions. <- True I was a greedy 17 year old

So I decided NOT to go to college and instead start my own musical instrument business selling custom built guitars. No, I had no idea how to build them or how to sell them - I didn't even have startup cash; I just knew I wanted to be in business more than Kanye West wants to publicly slam Taylor Swift all the time, and... that's a lot!

I didn't know what the hell I was doing, nor did I even have a website until years later -- and I made every single SEO mistake you possibly could.

I now help manage several companies with their SEO needs including kratom vendor Soul Speciosa, female oriented racing gear company Ride Like a Girl Racing. and several more (don't want to spam, yo).  I also founded the used panties company American Foxies - more deets on that later.

This is a "how to" SEO blog for beginners. Later, we'll talk about more advanced SEO, brand building and ecommerce building.


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How To Transform Your Phone With Themer

Most Android users will already be very familiar with launchers. These apps replace the home screen and app drawer on your phone and present the simplest way of customising a device or of removing (or at least hiding) a manufacturer’s custom skin. A brand new launcher, Themer, takes the customisation angle to its logical, and beautiful, extreme. Themer comes packed with stylish home screen replacements that transform the look of a phone into any number of styles.

Themer removes much of Android’s widget support, but provides the key services such as weather, image galleries and RSS feeds. At the time of writing, Themer was still in beta, and you need to sign up at for a registration code. It will, in due course, be released for free in the Play store.

  • Customise Your Themer Experience

There are many settings that you can adjust to tailor your theme to best suit how you use your phone. Here’s our guide to the key settings…

  • Browse Themes

Swipe the sidebar open and select Browse Themes to view the latest and most popular themes in the app. Tap one for a preview, and swipe left and right to see all its panes. Hit Apply to make it your home screen.

  • Settings

Back in the sidebar, choose Settings>Themer. Here you can choose your default apps for web, gallery, weather and so on, as well as picking RSS feeds (including being able to import feeds directly from Feedly).

  • Get Advanced

Under Advanced Settings you can take greater control over your theme, including selecting the number of home screen panels and whether to show the dock. Be aware that the effect can differ between themes.

  • Status Bar

The status bar is hidden on many themes, but a swipe downwards will reveal it. Another swipe will then open the notification shade just as it does on any Android device. A swipe upwards will hide the status bar again.

  • Add Panels

Long press on the home screen and you can add extra panels. They won’t match the theme on the other panels, but can be used to install important widgets. To add a widget go to the app drawer, select Widgets and drag them in as normal.

  • Find A Theme

Themer’s themes are radically different to your stock Android experience, or indeed any other phone. You will need to take your time to experiment with several in order to find one you are happy with.

  • Crucial Info

All themes include the core elements that most users will need. This includes weather information and music controls. Third-party apps, such as Spotify, are supported. Some themes also include RSS feeds with regularly updated news headlines.

  • Gesture Friendly

Themer fully supports a range of customisable gestures. Go to Settings>Themer and you can set up controls for one and two-finger swipes, plus a handy double-tap gesture. These are excellent options for power users in particular.


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Compare » Position » Secretary » PersonCareer

PersonCareer of Secretary

many results
Provinceorstates in PersonCareer PersonCareer
country city person organization company provinceorstate position careertype status
Keosauqua Duane Barker Iowa Secretary political current
Jersey S. PENNINGTON Jersey Secretary political current
  1. Add row

    Choose an object to add to the table view. Autocompletion is available.

  2. Add column

    You can add new criteria. Use autocompletion if you are unsure what to type in.

  3. Moving table entry

    You can change the rank of table entries using the marked drag handle.

  4. Remove object

    Clicking x removes the corresponding object.


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PFB’s Guide to Travel

Traveling is something that people have to do on a daily basis. Some people travel across state lines. Some people probably go to the store. Others might go to Russia. Wherever you’re travels take you, you’ll definitely have to eat something some of the time. And for that reason, I present PFB’s Guide to Travel.

First off, eat all the food. Vacation time is NOT a time to torture yourself with self-imposed “health rules.” Vacations lower people’s risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and pregnancy. You’re already doing your body a favor, so why do a double negative and eat healthy too?

Second, avoid horrible nasty awful fast food. When you travel, your fellow travel mates will probably want to eat at questionable fast food restaurants in order to save “time/money.” While choosing a fast food joint, remember that eating is meant for enjoyment and not simply to “cure hunger.” As such, you must make sure that the fast food you eat is more food than fast food. Below is a list of fast food that I approve of (note that some of these establishments can only be found in certain geologic locations):

  • Carl’s Junior’s
  • Subway’s
  • A&W’s
  • In-N-Out’s
  • JCW’s
  • Chipotle’s
  • Krispy Kreme’s

    Third, eat as much as possible. If you’re visiting someone, part of being a good guest is eating as much of the host’s food as possible. A nice way to say, “Thank you, I appreciate your love/attention/presence/food,” is to eat everything available to you to eat. If that means you have to eat two bowls of cereal, an egg sandwich, a Pop-Tart, and eight pancakes for breakfast; a sloppy joe, chips, veggies, and dip for lunch; steak, taters, corn, beans, and ice cream for dinner; followed by an all-you-can-eat buffet, then so be it. If, by the end of your vacation, you don’t feel like this, you’re doing something wrong:

    Next time you travel, keep these things in mind. It’ll help you make friends, enemies, and everyone else along the way. And don’t forget the number one rule of vacasheaux: Do not distrupt!

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• Years and Years Tickets & Dates

Years and Years

Years & Years are an electronica trio founded in London, and they consist of frontman and keyboardist Olly Alexander, bass guitarist Mikey Goldsworthy and synthesizer player Emre Turkmen.
The band’s music has been described as a mixture of electro pop, R&B and 1990s’ house, with Flying Lotus, Diplo, Jai Paul and Radiohead being among their core influences.
The band formed back in 2010 after Goldsworthy moved from Australia to London where he soon met Turkmen online. Shortly after Alexander joined the band as lead vocalist after Goldsworthy heard him singing in the shower. Back then the band were a five piece which included Noel Leeman and Olivier Subria but the pair both left the band in 2013.

‘I Wish I Knew’ was the band's first single which was released in July 2012 under the Good Bait label, but in 2013 the group signed to French label Kitsune Records as a three piece where they released their second single ‘Traps’ in September of that year. Following on in February 2014 the band released their fourth single ‘Real’ whose video stared former Misfits actor Nathan Stewart- Jarrett.
It wasn’t until the band signed to Polydor Records in 2014 that the three piece started gaining momentum and the recognition they had worked hard to get. The band’s EP reached number 1 on the Itunes UK Singles Electronic Chart and in December 2014 their fifth single ‘Desire’ peaked at number 22 in the UK Singles Chart.

With the help of BBC Radio 1 and in particular Zane Lowe who chose ‘King’ as his Hottest Record of the Day in January 2015 the band’s sixth single hit the number 1 spot in the UK Singles Chart when it came out in April of the same year.
In January 2015 Years & Years won the highly prestigious BBC Sound of 2015 award, and they were nominated for the Critics Choice Award at the Brit Awards. The band's next single ‘Shine’ went on to reach number two in the UK Singles Chart, while their debut album ‘Communion’ entered the UK Album Chart’s at number one when it was released on 10th July 2015. With such successful tracks the band went on to play to packed tents at 2015’s Reading and Leeds’ Festival and a near enough sold out a UK tour across October and November of the same year as everyone rushes to catch the next big thing!

All event dates for Years and Years are listed below. Current availability and prices will be displayed from all our providers. Some high demand events may have sold-out, we therefore also compare prices from reseller and ticket exchange sites. Please note these prices may be higher than the original face value Years and Years ticket.

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Japanese Beauty Guru Chizu Saeki’s 5 Tips for Perfect Skin

Posted on Jan 30 2017 - 4:54pm by GJ Staff

73-year-old Chizu Saeki, the beauty guru from Japan became famous thanks to her method of skin hydration called “lotion-mask”. In short, Chizu suggested that women not just wipe the face with a lotion, but apply it as a mask tool, allowing to get the best out of this cosmetic product. We do not doubt its effectiveness, as the internet is loaded with positive reviews on the method. Here some skin care tip from the Japanese guru.

Meet your face

The first step to a beautiful skin is getting familiar with your face. There are three main ways to check out your face: seeing, touching, and asking. Do this on a daily basis. First, study your face in the mirror for sagging and warping. If you, for example, noticed that your right eye area is lower than the left one, it means that the right side of the face sags. Make the “tired” muscles fit. Everything is simple: chew on the tired side. Remember that symmetry is one of the main components of beauty.

Make the mirror your ally

Do not pay too much attention to the beauties of glossy magazines, and it is better to pay more attention to your reflection in the mirror. Remember that a beautiful woman who knows her advantages and is in harmony with herself. Everyone has features and characteristics that we do not really like about us. But, who knows, maybe what you consider a disadvantage, others see as an accomplishment. Do not worry about each and every speck or wrinkle, because they form your identity.

Get rid of excess cosmetics

Start a thorough audit of the shelf with your cosmetics and leave those products that are really suitable for your skin. Remember that the cost of cosmetic products is rarely related to its efficacy. The simplest lotion or facial scrub can be twice as effective as the expensive branded products if you learn how to use it properly. If we talk about a must have, your cosmetics range should include: means for removing make-up; facial scrub; lotion with a minimum alcohol content (depending on your skin, it can be moisturizing or brightening; serum, cream for the skin around the eyes; emulsion or face cream, according to your age, as well as sunscreen products.

Before buying any cosmetic product, think about what exactly you need it for, and use it wisely, putting the soul in every move.

Be your own cosmetologist

You can take care of yourself better than any professional cosmetician – you just learn how to do it right. Unleash your hands. Move the hands and fingers actively. If you warm up the cosmetic product in your hands, it will be better penetrated into the skin and its effectiveness will be doubled. Clutch your hands to the face, and you will make the cosmetics and the warmth of your body work together, which will make the skin smoother.

Once you learn how to achieve the ideal state of your skin in a natural way, you realize that you do not need all these expensive cosmetic procedures.

Make your skin a “fasting day”

Let your skin have a rest at least once a week, abandoning all cosmetics: both decorative and care products. This is like a hunger strike for the skin; its essence is to enhance the skin’s natural ability to recovery.

Russian ladies looking for marriage are really excited about these tips. This is actually how they make their skin look perfect.

Photo credit : femeide10.ro


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Don't Miss

Sasikala relatives list at jayalalitha funeral

By on December 13, 2016

Sasikala relatives list at Jayalalitha funeral: It has been exactly a month since Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha was laid to rest.  The entire state of people used to refer her as their own Amma.  Though she did not give birth to any, she was treated like own mother by one and all in Tamil Nadu.  In TN, whatever Jayalalitha says people follow it blindly.  She ruled the hearts of the people in the state with her immense love and dedication towards her work.

Taking the advantage of her good heart, ‘Chinnamma’ Sesikala has slowly climbed the success ladder.  What Amma has to do? When should she sleep? What decision to make? Everything fell under the control of Sesikala Natrajal.

This is something that everyone is well aware of, but there is something more than what meets the eye.  Sasikala relatives list at jayalalitha funeral. Sasikala has somehow managed to get control over Jayalalitha’s life and she herself got into the control of her brother’s wife Ilavarasi.

This news has been recently revealed by news daily in Tamil Nadu. Sasikala relatives list at Jayalalitha funeral. One of the TN channel has released a video that depicts how Sasikala and her family are dominating Jayalalitha and her life.

When Jayalalitha’ dead body was kept in Rajaji hall, she was surrounded by many people among which 17 members were Sesikala relatives.  Two of those 17 members are doctors themselves.  As Sasikala relatives have surrounded Jaya’s body, none of Jaya’s own relatives were able to see her body to pay last respects.

The video released shows the 17 members of Sasikala family.

  1. Doctor Venkatesh (Sasikala brother’s son)
  2. Dinakar (Sasikala sister’s son)
  3. Sasikala
  4. Baskar (Doctor Venkatesh’s uncle)
  5. Ilavarasi (Sasikala brother’s wife)
  6. Vivek (Sasikala brother’s wife son)
  7. Karthikeyan (Ilavarasi son-in-law)
  8. Priya (Ilavarasi daughter)
  9. Jai Anand (Sasikala brother Dhinkar’s son)
  10. Vikram (Sasikala brother Dhinkar’s son-in-law)
  11. Baskaran (Sasikala sister’s son)
  12. Madan (Ilavarasi brother Vaduganathan’s son)
  13. Rajarajan (Ilavarasi son-in-law)
  14. Doctor Sasikumar (Sasikala brother’s son-in-law)
  15. Divakaran (Sasikala’s brother)
  16. Mahadevan (Sasikala brother’s son)
  17. Natarajan (Sasikala’s husband)

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Topic: problem booting gparted-live cd on mac mini snow leopard

OK, I have a mac mini running snow leopard. I copied my old hard drive to a new SSD drive but now I am not able using Disk Utility to resize the drive to reflect its new larger capacity. I get the "Mediakit" error message so many others have seen.

In researching this I learn that many have solved this problem by inserting a gparted-live cd and booting from that disk. OK, so I download and burn a gparted-live cd. I put the cd in my mac mini and restart holding down the "c" key to reboot from the gparted-live cd.   A window comes up with a "1." on the first line and a "2." on the second line followed by some text. It's a dead window. Typing keys do not show up on the screen.

If someone else has done this successfully, what are the "very specific steps" one must follow to create and use a gparted-live cd to fix this specific issue with resizing partitions on a mac, in this case a mac mini running snow leopard.

Thank you very much!

Re: problem booting gparted-live cd on mac mini snow leopard

If you wish to grow the size of an HFS/+ partition then you may need to look elsewhere.  The free software tools available for HFS/+ file systems support shrinking, but not growing.  See GParted Features, specifically the section for HFS and HFS+.

If you you do not wish to grow HFS/+ then which exact version of GParted Live are you trying to boot?
Did you remember to burn the .iso file to CD-R as an image (e.g., not data)?


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Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter Celebration: Spring Table-scape & Menu

Over the weekend, we were blessed by having our son, daughter-in-law, their two munchkins, and a nephew as house-guests.

 Yesterday for dinner, they were joined by a great grandfather, two great grandmothers, and a great aunt.  Getting ready for the party is always fun for me.  I enjoy cleaning the house, planning menus, purchasing the groceries, and making flower arrangements.  But, the flower arranging is my favorite preparation.
purple tulips and purple grape hyacinths (Muscaris amenicum)
I began by soaking the oasis in water with flower-perservative.  Then I cut two dozen purple tulips stems into seven inch lengths.  Next, I gathered several dozen of the tiny grape hyacinths from my garden, cutting them in five inch lengths.  I spaced the tulips in the oasis.  Then I filled in with the smaller flowers, and finally I added the tulip leaves.  The green and purple color scheme is one of my favorites.

My Easter menu was easy and could be used all spring and summer.  I began by serving crackers and cheese and a pear nectar with sparkling pear juice as an appetizer.

At the table I first passed the whole wheat dinner rolls and the citrus and strawberry salad.  A short cut that eliminated the time consuming and tedious chore of segmenting the grapefruit was using canned but drained pink and white grapefruit sections. I also added a can of drained crushed pineapple.  Finally, I mixed in a pint of frozen (but defrosted) sweetened strawberries in their juice.
The main course was a honey baked, spiral-cut ham, green beans, carrots, and scalloped potatoes. My shortcut for the scalloped potatoes is to use the packaged sliced potatoes sold for making home fries. The recipe is on the back of the package.
Dessert was simple--a purchased coconut cake topped with a scoop of pina colada sorbet.

The most memorable moments of the weekend were watching a three-year-old and a one-year-old hunt Easter eggs.

Too quickly, the weekend was over and they had to drive away.

Happy memories linger.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Coloring Walls to tell a Story

My daughter and her husband are closing on their stone cottage next week, so Anna has been picking paint colors. Currently, every room in the home is painted an off-white, builders-grade paint. However, to help each room reflect her unique perspective, Anna is coloring the walls.

The off-white living room as staged in the real estate ad.
Over the weekend, we took paint samples to view in each room.  In each unique lighting environment, we compared the colors to transportable furnishings (a drapery panel, a throw pillow, and honed marble tiles) to be used in the room.  What an important step!  In some rooms, what looked to be a certain color on the paint chip appeared entirely different in the space!

Anna will be using a new line of paint from Benjamin Moore called Color Story.

These are "full spectrum" paints which means each color is formulated from many different pigments not including black or gray which dulls color.  Whereas most paint colors use a few pigments in their formula, "full spectrum" paints use between eight and fifteen pigments. The resulting vibrancy is readily apparent.

Actually, artists have been mixing pigments without black or gray for centuries, but it is fairly new to commercial paint companies.

As far as I know, Donald Kaufman is the pioneer in the field of architectural paint coloration.  Back in 1976, he and his wife, Taffy Dahl, began developing their "full spectrum" formulas.  To determine the colors, they collaborated with the best architects and designers and travelled all over the world visiting museums, cathedrals, stores, hotels, grand homes, and modest houses.  Today, their luminescent (over one hundred) paint colors are available through Pratt & Lambert distributors and cost between $85 and $100 a gallon.

Customers can purchase sample cards of Donald Kaufman paint through: Paint samples are available for purchase by calling Eagle Paint & Wallpaper at 1-800-237-6918.

The next "full spectrum" colorist I became aware of is clothing designer turned interior designer, C. J. Volk who started manufacturing her paints in 2001.

Volk's passion for vibrant, non-muted saturated colors led her to develop a palette using many pigments.  Citron, Volk's company, is located in Tuscon, Arizona, but customers can purchase the nearly one hundred colors, retailing from $55 a gallon, from her web site:

Just this winter, Benjamin Moore launched their "full spectrum" line.  These paints are environmentally friendly and were tested by the company to be "versatile with a number of architectural styles and lighting environments."

Anna chose to use the Benjamin Moore Color Stories "full spectrum" product for several reasons.  First, Benjamin Moore has piloted their Color Story line in a couple of New England locations and in the Washington, DC area. For Anna, the Chevy Chase location of Monarch Home Decorating Center was a convenient place to pick up the Color Story paint samples.

Furthermore, the $68 a gallon price, although a bit higher than the Citron paints, was offset by the elimination of shipping and availability of free samples. Finally, the Benjamin Moore Color Story line has two hundred colors to choose from, more than double Donald Kaufman or Citron paints.

As each of the stone cottage rooms begins to tell their own color story, I will post pictures!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The Promise of Springtime

In the past couple of weeks a groove has been worn in my mind by a Christian hit tune from over thirty years ago; the song by Bill & Gloria Gaither is called:  "Thank God for the Promise of Springtime".
Maybe the unseasonably bleak weather, together with some frightening medical news, pushed my mind's replay button on the words:
"Though the earth seemed bleak and barren
And the seeds lay brown and dead,
Yet the promise of life throbbed within them,
And I knew spring was just ahead.
Thank God for the promise of springtime,
Once again my heart will sing;
There's a brand new day that is dawning,
Thank God for the promise of spring."
Two weeks ago our daughter and her husband went for a prenatal exam.  The ultra-sonographer and then the perineatologist saw that their 10-week-old baby had a relatively large cystic hygroma.  In the early weeks of pregnancy such a finding indicates very high odds of chromosomal abnormalities which may be incompatible with life.  With heavy hearts we have waited nearly two weeks for a repeat sonogram.  Meanwhile, Rachel and Curt prayed and processed the news.
Here are Rachel's own words after the first exam:
"Curt, Will and I wanted to share with you that we are expecting baby #2.  I am sharing the news with you all now, so that you can please be in prayer for our baby.  We had our first ultrasound this week and got to hear the baby's heart beat.  However, the ultrasound revealed extra fluid on the baby's neck.  My OB recommended that I see the perinatalogist and receive genetic testing.  We went the next day to the perinatologist...who said that the baby has a cystic hygroma...

I know that through suffering we come to know Christ in a more intimate way, and for that I am thankful...But I must say, that humanly we are sad, dissappointed, fearful, while at the same time, grateful that we can trust the Lord in ALL circumstances.

We are reminded of Romans 8:31 'What then are we to say about these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  He who did not whithold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?' And verses 37-39:  'No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinved that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

God also reminded me...that he 'uses the weak things of the world to shame the wise and the lowly things of the world He will lift up.'  God, our Father, is our ultimate example of loving the weak and helpless.  And at this time when we are feeling weak, we know that He is the one who makes us strong.  And if we have a weak and helpless baby, He will be sufficient in his or her weakness. "

More than a week later, over the weekend, Rachel wrote:
"I just wanted to give you all a little update about how we are doing.

Emotionally, I am actually doing really well.  God has really done quite a work in my heart.  The first few days after our appointment were really hard for me ... full of fear, sadness, dissappointment, anger, and sorrow. I am sure it doesn't help to have the raging hormones of a pregnant woman and having come off of several weeks of feeling really sick!!!

But I just kept going to the Lord with my raw emotions...He met me there and has really drawn me into such an inimate relationship with Him.  It's incredible how God's Word becomes so much more real and active in my life, when my faith has been forced to be put into practice.
It has been a journey, but I have come to realize that it's impossible to fear, when God has promised to give us 'every good and perfect gift from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows' James 1:17. When I truly believe His Words and promises I have no fear... (Now I have the sonogram laying out in the kitchen, and I can look at it without anxiety and thank the Lord for this precious little life).

What a wonder...this life inside me has taught me more about grace, prayer, joy and thankfulness in suffering, faith, trust/surrender, and intimacy with Christ in the few weeks of its life than all the previous days of my life!

Finally, I've reflected on this:  'Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed… Without weakening in his faith… Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised' (Rom 4).

I just know that God is able to heal this baby if He so chooses, but if that is not His will, He is still good and His plan is still perfect for our family. Anyway, it is such a freeing thing to be completely surrendered and without fear."

Then after their appointment, Rachel said:

"Curt and I are just about speechless and in awe of God's answers to our prayers. When the perinatalogist did the ultrasound he said the extra fluid had gone away and the area that had a really significant amount of fluid was completely gone.  It was simply amazing site to behold...because only about two weeks ago the ultrasound looked so different.  We could see our baby moving his/her hands, fingers, legs, and it's cute little nose and profile...It was just incredible.

The doctor is very happy with these results.  However, he also said that whenever they find a cystic hygroma early in pregnancy, like they did with our baby, (even if it clears up and goes away, like it has) there is still always an increased risk of chromosomal/genetic problems. (So, I had blood work taken today that will hopefully give us even more reassuring news. I should get it back in about 10 days).

So we are very, very, very thankful for these results today!  We just want to give the Lord praise for his answers to our prayers.  Thank you all for being so faithful in your prayers for us and for standing by us through these difficult weeks."

Today, Rachel got the results of her blood tests. Here is her latest, and hopefully last e-mail update (until the announcement of baby Peteresen #2's arrival.  She writes:

"I just wanted to let you all know that I received my first trimester prenatal screening (which uses the mom's age, baby's ultrasound measurements (including the measurement of the extra fluid they saw early on), and results of a blood test to determine our baby's risk for having chromosomal problems.

Basically, because my blood results were so good our chances actually decreased drastically after this test of having a baby with chromosomal problems...The nurse who shared the results said they were "fantastic" and "extremely reassuring".  We won't need to do an amniocentesis, and we believe and trust that God has totally healed our baby."
Praising our Lord and Savior,

From our daughter's journal, you can understand our journey.  It is with spilling-over joy that we thank God for the promise of springtime.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Living is Giving

In the last few weeks the Westminster Presbyterian Church congregation has undertaken a heart-stretching design project, outfitting an apartment for a refugee family.  Those who have helped in the renovation have verified the truth of Christ's upside-down kingdom:  It is in giving that we receive.

The family of six (including two parents, two younger children, an older expectant teenager and her young child) are being resettled in Lancaster County from a refugee camp on the border of Thailand.

Originally, from Burma (Myanmar) which is southwest of China, the family came from the Karenn State, one of the poorest areas in the country and the focus of civil war.

According to a Vision Beyond Borders worker, Patrick Klein, "More than 500,000 people have been killed in Burma (Myanmar) in the last thirty years.  More than 3,300 villages have been burned to the ground by the Burmese military, and thousands of children have lost parents...About one million Burmese refugees have fled across the border to Thailand...Even refugee camps in Thailand are not safe from Burmese soldiers.  They frequently cross the shallow river separating Thailand and Burma to poison water supplies and kill or kidnap refugees."

Klein said the genocide is an ethnic cleansing, but also has a specifically anti-Christian agenda.

A Burmese official boldly stated recently, "Soon there will be no Christians in this nation.  You will only be able to see a Karenn person in a picture in a museum."

Facing such persecution and genocide, it is no wonder Karenni refugees are waiting for visas to emigrate from Myanmar and immigrate to the United States.

A number of caring Westminster church members have embraced our Karenni refugee family. Elder Jim O'Conner together with his wife, Connie, initiated the effort with Church World Service, a non-profit organization that resettles approximately 300 immigrants every year in Central Pennsylvania.
Jim and Connie O'Connor
The resettlement effort has been coordinated by a new church member, Janet Reedy.  Janet has paired the coming family's needs with volunteers, as well as linked the congregation with relatives of the immigrants who are already settled in Lancaster.
Janet Reedy
Builder, Pete Alecxih, Jr., had his crew renovate an apartment in Lancaster city for housing.  They gutted the kitchen, repaired damaged walls, retrofitted the bathroom, installed new windows, and resurfaced floors in a matter of a couple of weeks!  Now the family will be Pete's tenants.
Pete Alecxih, Jr.
 Elsa Martin gathered furniture and linens,
Elsa Martin
while her husband, Gary, spruced up the yard for the family.

Other members scrubbed, painted, and furnished the apartment. For example, the apartment received a wonderful leather sofa, some occasional chairs, and a great circular table from David Teply's firm.  Others donated a kitchen table, chairs and hutch, beds and dressers, linens, pots and pans, glassware and dishes.  Grace Hagey organized donations of food staples. In short, the Karenni family have been provided with everything they need from car seats to toothpaste!

Below are the before and after pictures of the apartment.
Living room before
Living room before
Living room after
Living room after
kitchen before
kitchen before
Diane LaBelle and Grace Hagey organize the refurbished kitchen with Janet Reedy.
kitchen after
bathroom  before
bathroom after
master bedroom before
master bedroom after
upstairs children's room before
upstairs children's room after
small upstairs bedroom before
Small upstairs bedroom after

What a difference paint, new floors, windows, cabinets, fixtures, curtains, and repurposed furnishings make.  The depressing place has become an inviting home.

However, setting up the apartment is just the first step; assimilating this family will be a major undertaking for the next months.  Bob Hivner and Kim Melton have volunteered to help them learn how to manage their finances. Heather Cunningham will make sure their health needs are met, and Ellen Hivner will help the family learn English as a second language.

With love and patience, it is hopeful that the family will be mostly independent within a year. How rewarding will that be?

Actually, our reward was seeing the family enjoying their new home.

With so many participants, no one was overwhelmed.  To a person, the helpers enjoyed the extreme make-over.

In reality, volunteers were mirroring their Lord "who though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor."  Think about it; Christ became a refugee for us.  Luke 9:58 says, "The foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head."  He left heaven's palaces and came to a "world of woe".  Why?  So that we who are poor might become rich.

What a privilege to follow his example.  Furthermore, those who helped received more than we gave.  We gave time and received the friendship of others.  We gave supplies, but had our hearts filled. To paraphrase Christ's words: Those who give are more blessed than those who receive.

Our reward:  a happy six-year-old little girl holding her new doll and claiming this bed as her own!


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Our statement on Arts Council England report ‘Equality, Diversity and the Creative Case’.

By Graeae Team, December, 16 2016

On 12 December 2016, Arts Council England launched a report entitled ‘Equality, Diversity and the Creative Case’, highlighting the current state of diversity across the cultural sector workforces across 2015 – 16. The full report can be downloaded by clicking here.

Our full statement on this report can be found below:

‘It’s refreshing to see disability mentioned as a key focus, as so often it is left out of discussions around equality and diversity. 4% of the NPO workforce identifying as disabled is shockingly low compared with the 19% of the population and whilst we’d agree that definitions and willingness to self-identify are factors, the report doesn’t go nearly far enough in looking at the reasons this figure is so far behind.  Although it is shockingly low, we are sadly not surprised.

It’s great to see Access to Work mentioned as a contributing factor, but the report does not go far enough. If you don’t earn more than £5824 per year as a freelance artist you are not eligible to the scheme. If the costs of your access goes above £41,400 then you are essentially capped. Other huge factors like PIP, ILF, ESA and other crucial support streams are complex and have started to become barriers to participation to the arts either as a worker or audience members.

It’s hugely encouraging to see accessible performances on the increase. There is still work to be done in instilling confidence in venues, theatres and theatre companies to recognise the value of accessible performances which can not only help to bring in a D/deaf and disabled audience, but also contribute to the artistic and aesthetic vision.

We look forward to seeing the ‘Disabled People and the Arts and Cultural Sector Workforce’ report in the new year, which hopefully will give a thorough and dynamic overview into the current challenges and successes for D/deaf and disabled people.’

Jenny Sealey, Artistic Director and CEO, Graeae Theatre Company

An article was published in The Stage on Friday 16 December 2016, which can be read by clicking here.

For further enquiries regarding this, please email press@graeae.org or call 020 7613 6900.


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British cyber-jihadi who stored data on 'USB cufflinks' admits terror crimes

Remigio Civitarese
Marzo 21, 2017

A 34-year-old man in the United Kingdom who used a James Bond-style USB cufflink to store extremist data in pursuit of Islamic State's campaign of terrorism today admitted five charges against him.

Samata Ullah, from Cardiff, admitted being a member of Isis and to charges of terrorist training, preparing terrorist acts and possessing articles for terrorist purposes.

At the time of his arrest in September a year ago, Ullah was found in possession of a USB cufflink loaded with a Linux operation system to hide a hoard of extremist data, Press Association reported.

British counter terrorism police had tracked him down after being passed intelligence from authorities in Kenya who had arrested another man.

The court also heard how, from December 2015, Ullah had provided instructional videos on how to secure sensitive data and remain anonymous online by using Tor and PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption. When he was arrested one of the devices held extremist data and a blog.

However, he denied a charge of directing terrorism between December 2015 and September past year contrary to section 56 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

During a hearing at the Old Bailey on Monday (20 March), Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said the crown had accepted the pleas after referring them to the attorney general.

He also admitted having a book entitled Guided Missiles Fundamentals AFM 52-31 and an electronic version of Advances in Missile Guidance, Control and Estimation for terrorist purposes.

Mr Altman said a hi-tech report dealt with the defendant's desire to copy his blog onto a platform in a "format that meant it could not be closed down or deleted by the authorities".

Commander Dean Haydon, the Met's Counter Terrorism Command (SO15), said: "Just because Ullah's activity was in the virtual world, we never underestimated how unsafe his activity was".

Ullah, who has since been diagnosed with autism, is due to be sentenced on 28 April.

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Home | Recent Tastings | Wine Touring | Cellars | What's New

by Tom Hill

A self-admitted wine geek, Tom lives in Northern New Mexico and works as a computational physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory doing numerical neutron transport & large scale code development. He has been tasting wines since 1971, participates locally with a couple of large tasting groups in his area, and is practically a fixture at most California wine festivals, such as the Hospice du Rhône, Rhône Rangers, and ZAP. Other interests: Tom is heavily into competitive sport fencing (foil & epee), biking, cooking, basketball, skiing, backpacking, mountain climbing.

Some Virginia Viognier - November 8, 2006

We tasted last week (11/08/06) Some Virginia Viognier:
Compliments of Boyce Brannock (BEB)

  1. HortonVnyds Sparkling Viognier VA Methode Champenoise (12.5%; 20% Chard; Cllrd: 1998,
    Degorged: 2001) NV
    : Pale yellow color w/ small/tiny bubbles; fragrant light peach/V slight smokey/ toasty/yeasty/chocolate mousse very attractive/interesting nose; off-dry light peach/V light smokey/yeasty flavor; med.long off-dry toasty/pungent light peach/V finish; has low-key but very attractive V character w/ interesting toasty component; very nice-drinking sparkler.

  2. WindfallWnry AP Asian Pear Wine WashState (11%) 2005: Very pale yellow color; attractive ripe/ pear fragrant bit toasty nose, very soft/flabby off-dry light fragrant/pear textured flavor; short very ripe pear/lush bit watery soft/underacid finish; very pleasant nose but whacko on the palate from lack of acidity; pleasant pear wine and not overly sweet.

  3. Horton OrangeCnty VA Viognier (13.5%; www.HVWine.com) Dennis&Sharon Horton; Gordonsville, VA 2005: Light yellow color; some dusty/earthy slight smokey/reduced/pungent bit metallic/SO2 nose that clears to fragrant/pear/V slight minerally nose; tart lush/rich ripe pear/V
    slight minerally/earthy attractive V flavor; med.short lush slight minerally attractive pear/V finish; very attractive nose but seems a bit dilute on the palate.

  4. Horton OrangeCnty VA Viognier (13.5%) Dennis&Sharon Horton; Gordonsville, VA 2001: Med.gold color; some aged/V/smokey pleasant/low-key/pear/V slight pungent/toasty bit complex nose; soft light/low-key pear/V/canned pear syrup bit underacit/dilute flavor; soft light pear/V slight smokey/ pungent finish; pleasant enough nose and still clinging to life, but probably has seen its best yrs already.

  5. ChesterGapCllrs VA Viognier Reserve (14.5%; www.ChesterGapCellars.com) FortRoyal VA 2005: Light yellow color; very attractive/floral strong spicy/peachy/V very fragrant/perfumed nose; rather soft/fat/lush light pear/V/peachy slight minerally flavor; med.short light pear/peach/V slight earthy/minerally finish; very attractive perfumed nose but doesn't quite deliver on the palate; pleasant/attractive V.

  6. MichaelShaps Monticello Viognier KingFamilyVnyd (13%; www.MichaelShapsWines.com) KingFamilyVnyds, Crozet VA 2005: Light gold color; lovely pear/peach/V somewhat earthy/ minerally/WashStateViognier-like nose; tart bit lean/dilute pleasant pear/peach/V slight minerally flavor; med.short tart light minerally/earthy light peach/pear/V bit watery finish; another very pleasant V nose but doesn't deliver the intensity on the palate.

  7. BarboursvilleVnyds VA Viognier Reserve (13%; www.BarboursvilleWine.com) Barboursville VA 2005: Med.gold color; lovely fragrant/perfumed spicy/V/peach/pear/floral slight minerally lovely nose; soft very spicy/floral/V/peach/pear slight minerally/pungent flavor; long soft very spicy light minerally strong peach/pear/V/floral finish; very lovely aromatic nose and the first to deliver on the palate; would like a bit more acidity.

  8. Valhalla Viognier NorthFork of Roanoke VA (13.7%; www.ValhallaWines.com) Roanoke VA 2005: Med.dark gold color; slightly reduced/pungent very ripe/overripe/peachy/pear/V bit rotted
    pear slight toasty/oak nose; soft/fat/underacid rather pungent/toasty/oak low-key floral/
    overripe peach/V flavor; med.long overripe/peach/V slight smokey/pungent/toasty/oak finish;
    smells & tastes of overripe/late harvest Viognier; interesting rendition of Viognier.

  9. Th.Jefferson Viognier VA (13.5%; www.JeffersonVineyards.com) Charlottesville VA 2005: Med. yellow color; very attractive/fragrant floral/V/peachy/spicy slight mineral nose; soft/fat
    light floral/pear/peach/V very pleasant low-key flavor; med.short attractive/light floral/peach/ V finish; lovely aromatic nose but needs a bit more acidity.

  10. KeswickVnyds Monticello Viognier (13.5%; www.KeswickVineyards.com; RS: 2.25%) Al&Cindy Schronberg, Keswick VA 2005: Med.light yellow color; beautiful/intense floral/aromatic/
    perfumed ripe pear/peach/classic V nose; off-dry very ripe lush/floral intense ripe peach/pear/
    V slight minerally flavor; very long soft ripe pear/peach/V off-dry finish; great intensity of classic V character.

  11. WhiteHallVnyds Monticello Viognier (13%; www.WhiteHallVineyards.com) WhiteHall VA 2005: Light gold color; some fragrant/floral bit earthy pear/peach/V somewhat simple nose; soft/fat light floral/pear/peach/V bit dilute/low-key flavor; med.short soft/fat/lush light pear/peach/floral
    finish; attractive nose but doesn't deliver the promises on the palate.

  12. RappahannockCllrs VA Viognier (13.9%; www.RappahannockCellars.com) Huntly VA 2005: Med. light gold color; clean/pure/classic very intense ripe/peacr/peach/V slight volatile/ripe/
    aromatic/perfumed very floral nose; soft/lush ripe/pear/peach/V some spicy/minerally loads of V fruit flavor; very long ripe/pear/peach/floral intense/ripe soft/lush slight mineral finish; best VA V yet of the tasting; amazingly good and not just for VA Viognier.

  13. RappahannockCllrs VA Reserve Viognier (13.9%) Huntly VA 2005: Med.gold color; beautiful/
    intense/floral/perfumed/fragrant classic pear/peach/V slight Condrieu/minerally some complex
    nose; rich/lush/balanced intense ripe pear/peach/classic V loads of pure V fruit mouthfilling
    flavor w/ good acidity; very long/lingering intense/lush ripe pear/peach/V slight Condrieu/
    minerally slight pungent/oak finish; as good as V gets in the USofA I think.

  14. Garretson CentralCoast Viognier The Chumbra (15.2%) 2003: Med.dark gold color; very old/waxy/nutty orange peel/honeyed/mead-like overripe caramel/apple nose; very soft/fat some alcoholic overripe/rotted pear/peach syrup/mead-like flavor; med.long very overripe/rotted pear bit
    caramel/mead-like bit alcoholic finish; not unpleasant but a bit too overripe and has not stood the test of (a short) time well. This was much/much better on its release. Sonny's mystery wine.

And the ol' BloodyPulpit:

1. This was a case of Viogniers that was sent to me for us to try by Boyce Brannock (BEB),
shilling a bit for the hometown industry. A very generous gesture methinks. Thanks, Boyce.
2. I have, of course, followed VA Viogniers from the very start, when Dennis Horton showed
his first Viognier at Hospices du Rhone some yrs ago. I was quite impressed w/ some of those
first ones, some less so. But, at their best, Dennis' Viogniers were as good as could be found
anywhere. But since Horton has not been at the last few HdRs, I've not had an opportunity
to try them. I was aware, vaguely, that there were a bunch of other Viognier producers in
VA, but, of course, not had any opportunity to try any of them; they don't get out of VA to
any of my usual haunts.

So I was most eager to try this assemblage of Viogniers, not really knowing what to expect.
My expectations were rather low, I must admit. I was expecting some funky white wines; maybe some w/ true Viognier character, some a bit over-oaked, some that showed strange VA terroir in them, perhaps. When I tasted wines from new regions in the past, I've often struggled to place them in their context.

So....I must admit I was pleasantly surprised, as was most of the people in my group, with
the quality of these Viogniers. Not hardly any outliers at all. They all spoke very distinctly of Viognier; they all had remarkable varietal character. They were, in fact, seriously good Viogniers by any standard. Certainly not Condrieu, but most were as good as any you find from California on the average. At their best, they were really world-class Viogniers.

To generalize a bit more. Nearly all the noses shouted of that pear/peach Viognier varietal character. But I found some to not deliver on the palate what their noses promised. Some seemed to be rather on the soft side, a bit underacid. The texture seemed a bit out of wack; like the wines were too high in pH. Or they tasted like grapes that were harvested in late Aug/early Sept when the sugars were correct, but they'd not had enough hang time to
develop physiological maturity. They reminded me some of many Calif Grenache Blancs or
Lodi Viognier on the palate.

But, all in all, that was a relatively minor flaw and, at their best, they had the acidity and balance to be very good drinking. Perhaps VA should be hanging their white hat on Viognier rather than Chard I would guess (not that I have any experience with VA Chards yet). I'll be in Richmond in early Dec for a NorthAmericaCup and am hoping to broaden my exposure to VA whilst I'm there.
3. Horton: This sparkling wine was the first I ever done see'd from Viognier. Pleasantly
surprised at how good it was. Reminded me more of a Viognier perfumed Prosecco than anything.
3. AsianPear wine: I served this as a mystery wine because I often get pear-like aromas out of Viognier. Most of my tasters guessed it to be Viognier from the nose, but they realized
something was seriously out of whack on the palate.
4. Valhalla: This wine id touted on their WebSite as resembling French Condrieu. Well...yes and no. It totally lacks any of the minerality that makes Condrieu so special. It smell & tasted
of Viognier that had been left on the vine very long and may have had some mold infection.
It did remind me some of the Texier Condrieu Vernon 2002 which was a very bizarre rendition
of Condrieu that I've ever had. That wine had a fraction left on the vines after heavy rains
that had a bit of a rot problem. The Valhalla was not an unpleasant wine, just not very typical
of Viognier and certainly not Condrieu.
5. Keswick: Since this wine was known to have residual sugar, I served it last. I was expecting it to be soft/flabby and rather sweet (at 2.25% RS). It was not and carried the RS very well I thought. It had great intensity and plenty of ripe, but not overripe or late harvest
character. Seriously good Viognier by any standards.
6. RappahannockCellars: I was particularly interested in trying these two Viogniers. Owner/
winemaker is John Delmare, who hails from the SantaCruzMtns in Calif. He ran a property near
and dear to my heart, the old Congress Springs property formerly run by Dan Gehrs. Now known as Savannah-Channel. Not sure why anyone would leave the beautiful SantaCruzMtns, but those things often defy rationale.

Well.....both of these Viogniers were as good as any Viognier I've had from Calif or
WashState. They were easily my two favorites of the night, closely followed by the Keswick.
They even showed a bit of Condrieu minerality I thought. They reminded me a lot of the
Harlequin Viognier, my gold-standard for USofA Viognier. They are, particularly the Reserve,
as good as Viognier gets here and worth tracking down.

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Saturday, July 17, 2010

Blogathon 13: Hellblazer: Rake at the Gates of Hell

[Discussed in this post: Hellblazer: Rake at the Gates of Hell (#78-83).]

It all comes down to this. While there's still the two "Heartland" stories after this, this is really the end of Garth Ennis's Hellblazer run (oh, and the Son of Man arc he did years later...). Ennis weaves together two stories about men who put into action a course of events that consume all of those around them. We'll start with George, the brother of Dez, who you'll remember was killed in "Fear and Loathing" when kidnapped alongside John by the British Movement. Here, George is arrested by the police and, in the process, they push his mom down the stairs. He responds by shooting one of the cops and fleeing. This begins a whole riot in that neighbourhood, pitting the black population that's sick of being shit on against the cops out for blood after one of their own was killed. George is hidden by a group of friends who slowly but surely get picked off as the story progresses. In the end, George manages to get away. He's a mini-Constantine in that respect: causes the shitstorm and everyone around him pays the price, but he walks away.

John's story is much more complex with two big parts. The first has him running across an ex who is addicted to drugs and being pimped out. Being the sort of guy who can't resist a damsel in distress, he intervenes with the help of Chas, getting his new girlfriend and others involved in trying to take care of this dumb, stupid woman who is so broken and dependent on her pimp that she doesn't actually want his 'help.' I like how, before getting to the First of the Fallen, we see John just sticking his nose in where it doesn't belong -- in an understandable way. He wants to be the hero and doesn't think things through. He just sees a problem and has to solve it. He's given a good bitching out later by his (pretty much ex-by-this-point) girlfriend after the pimp tracks them down and nearly kills some people, working over the ex. John has a chauvanist streak that Ennis would carry on to Jesse Custer -- got to be a man and protect the little ladies from the big bad world.

At the same time, the First of the Fallen has been approached by someone in Hell with a plan to get John. Someone with good motivation to want him gotten: Astrid, the little girl that John condemned to Hell in Newcastle. She gives him some ideas, like how the triumverate leadership in Hell existed only because he believed it did. He was the First of the Fallen... how could the other two be his brothers and equals? So he steamrolls over them and heads to Earth where he neutralises the angel heart and kills Nigel, Header, and Rick the Vic.

John goes on the run, hiding out in the basement of a church where he talks to a priest. It's a discussion of faith, John confronting a man who believes even though John knows the truth (or some of it). Eventually, John decides to come out and who does he run into? Kit. Ennis spends an issue on the two of them together, talking and falling into familiar habits, including hurting one another. They wind up in bed, but it's more a proper goodbye than anything else. She's thankfully out of the picture when the First of the Fallen shows up, ready to finally do away with John.

First, John gets his lung cancer back. Then, he hears the First of the Fallen's confession, which is how he came to fall. He was the first creation of God's and loved God, loved being his confidant... until God wanted to create humanity and the First of the Fallen told him he thought that freewill was a bad idea that would backfire. That's when it began to go south because of God's reaction -- how dare he disagree with Him? Later, the First of the Fallen finally comes face to face with God again... finding him in a corner of eternity, dropping and clutching at his genitals. Freewill was an act of a madman, someone so deluded and stupid to think that freewill would be a good thing. Why would a loving God curse mankind with such pain? Because he's a fucking loon. That's when the First of the Fallen fell. John tells him what he really is: God's conscience that God expelled when it became a nuisance. It all comes a head when the First of the Fallen wonders what John is and gets his answer in a masterful two pages of snatches of dialogue beginning with "You're a man who inspires the maximum amount of loyalty for the minimum of effort, d'you know that?" John is a man with friends...

Except where are they, the First of the Fallen wonders? That's when Astrid appears, freaking John out. He looks absolutely fucked. You know the book doesn't end, that he somehow survives, but Ennis has built this SO well. John Constantine looks absolutely forever and ever fucked. Except Astrid isn't Astrid... she's Ellie and she's just stabbed the First of the Fallen through with a blade. John wakes up to find that Ellie has pulled out his cancer.

The story ends with John meeting with the ex of his who was the addict/prostitute. She lost an eye, but she's better. He puts her on a bus and she thanks him. He made things worse, but they got better because of him, too.

Ennis wraps up the story he began in "Dangerous Habits" by dispatching the First of the Fallen in a clever manner, but also kills off much of the supporting cast he introduced. John wins, but his friends pay the price. They're sacrificed so he can walk away scot free.

What stands out in this story most of all about Steve Dillon's art is how he draws the First of the Fallen when he reaches Earth: this massive, long-haired bodybuilder type that also just looks like a fucking douchebag. Sounds about right me.

We'll say goodbye to the Ennis/Dillon team in 30 minutes with the two "Heartland" stories...

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