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Wednesday, October 5, 2016

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Parading Clouds The Agenda And The Horizon

Chris Buckler (CB) interviews Father Gary Donegan (GD) in the studio about being confronted by members of the Greater Ardoyne Residents’ Collective after the contentious Orange Order parade past the Ardoyne shops this past Saturday. The interview featured in The Transcripts.

BBC Radio Ulster
Good Morning Ulster
3 October 2016
(begins time stamp ~ 1:37:32)

CB: Many hope that this weekend marked the end of one of the most contentious parading disputes here in recent years. On Saturday morning, more than three years after restrictions stopped their parade from passing the Ardoyne shops, the three Ligoniel Orange Order lodges marched up the Crumlin Road. That was the result of a deal between Orangemen and the Crumlin Ardoyne Residents’ Association (CARA). But everyone wasn’t happy with the arrangement. During the parade supporters of the Greater Ardoyne Residents’ Collective, that’s GARC, held a protest and they also angrily confronted Father Gary Donegan who was involved in the negotiations.

Audio: Confrontation of Father Donegan.

CB: Well listening to that in studio is Father Gary Donegan. First of all just give me your reaction to being confronted like that because for years you’ve been involved in trying to, I suppose, keep the peace, in simple terms, in Ardoyne.

GD: Yeah, I’m not somebody who’s easily shocked, you know like, but I suppose the nature of it and the strength behind some of the language and it took me back to 2001 during the Holy Cross blockade and you could kind of almost expect that because there was a sectarian element to this but this was from within my own community. So I was kind of taken back by it to some extent. But I’ve never cowered from anything in my life and I certainly wasn’t going to be from them. And the irony was that quite a few of the protagonists, you know, I’ve been involved directly in pastoral situations in their lives and been involved in some very serious situations in their lives so it just seemed strange that – and certainly I suppose my experience is that a cleric, whether they come from the Muslim, Jewish or Christian background, and the sense is that I’ve always advocated the right to protest but it’s always been with a sense of dignity and decorum. And what I witnessed was actually the opposite to that and in fact whatever their point was they actually lost it because you know if they really believed that they needed something to say then I mean, I’ve given them a platform to do that time and time again and the door’s always been open to them. In this case they were actually shouting me down, like in a sense is,  because I was just one person, you know, and I had an opinion so my opinion is as valid as theirs – it mightn’t have been the same, it mightn’t have been – but again the irony was that I’ve always kind of stressed, from whatever side, people do have the right to protest.

CB: We did try to get in touch with GARC, this resident’s group in Ardoyne, they didn’t get back to us. However, I suppose we should set out that they feel that this deal doesn’t represent the best interests of the residents there and they feel that the majority of residents, in their view, are against this whole agreement that allowed the parade to go up the road.

GD: Yeah, and I’ve been at pains to stress that this was never going to be something that everybody was going to accept. I mean you can’t have - the history of that area - you can’t have all that has happened there, the most contentious piece of space that we know, without people of both sides having difficulty with this. But the sense was that this is what the majority of people – and we even had public meetings for people, like you said, and some people were quite vociferous in actually shouting down this agreement and they had their opportunity to actually say that. I mean, we’ve been caught in a deadlock. I personally walked that road for two and a half years and the irony was that some of these people that were in my face the other day – I never seen them up next or near that when I was actually trying to protect young people from getting involved in probably anti-social behaviour which would leave them with criminal records and destroy their lives. So I mean, it’s easy to get up when the cameras are there, when the microphones are there, but the reality was they weren’t there for two and a half years like I was.

CB: Do you understand the rancor? And what did you think of the Orange Order’s parade itself that took place on Saturday?

GD: Well I mean the majority of people in that area find marches in general objectionable, right? And then people who are marching they feel it’s their right to actually march so you’ve got two polarised kind of views in that kind of section. And I mean I fully understand the frustration that is behind all of that. I know the history of the place. I’ve been in the homes. You know, like I mean the largest loss of life of the modern day Troubles, as we euphemistically call them, was lost in that area. I mean I spoke in the UN a couple of years ago and to put it in context it’s an equivalent of fifty thousand people dying in LA or four point two million people dying in America. I mean when you consider what happened on 9/11 and how that’s changed the world even for us to travel nowadays is a chore rather than actually a joy and so you can imagine how disaffected that square mile. Yes, of course I understand that. I mean that’s why, like in a sense, I empathise so much. I mean again, I find it strange that I walked during - and received some horrific insults and hurt - during 2001 and I wasn’t found wanting for the people then and I don’t feel I have been since. But the reality is that: here was my view, it was different to theirs. They could have come to me and said to me, in whatever language they wanted to do – I mean it’s not like as if I’m shrinking violet – I mean they know that – but I just think they crossed the line and the reaction, so far, has been incredible. I mean, I’ve had people from abroad contacting and actually saying – but the story should be about the attempt to build a platform for the future there not about individuals and the reality is that this is just a beginning. I mean it isn’t a resolution. It isn’t a solution. It’s a beginning – it’s a platform. We need to build on that. We need to build community relations.

CB: And on that point, I mean you’re here and you’re criticising people of your own community I suppose and actually there’s been no criticism of the way the Orange Order conducted their parade. It took place, it took a few minutes to go up that stretch of road and it was relatively dignified actually in the way it took place. Do you think this can mark a turning point, therefore, in relationships because you do at least now have these negotiations between that other residents’ group, CARA, and Orangemen?

GD: Yes, because you see a residents’ association shouldn’t just be about parading. It shouldn’t be. Think about it, I mean in that area, combined in both areas, there’s issues around alcohol, drug abuse, there’s issues around suicide, there’s issues around housing, issues around education – that these collectively – these residents’ groups should be actually using their voice to actually champion those particular causes. I mean every time we go to talk about something in Ardoyne or in North Belfast parading clouds the agenda and the horizon. Here’s an opportunity just to break in the horizon to actually to begin to build.

CB: And just finally: There will be people, I suspect, who support GARC listening to this this morning. What would you say to them particularly given the words that were used. And I mean we haven’t talked about the specific insults against you. I mean we’ve heard a little bit of the heckling but I mean some of them were quite strong words used against you.

GD: Yes. And I looked into people’s eyes and I’ve seen you know some of the footage and I think of the likes of my family watching that. They know that I’ve served that area for fifteen years. I’ve put my life on the line. I’ve received death threats from both sides of the community. I mean and I would continue and I would have given my life to that place unfortunately the nature of our rules means that I have to move on at the moment. I’ll be in the area on a daily basis but I’ll living elsewhere in Crossgar. But I mean I love the people there and I mean if it took them venting their spleen at me rather than somebody else then it’s a price to pay but it wasn’t a very pleasant experience.

CB: Father Gary Donegan thank you very much for coming in this morning and talking about that. As I mentioned earlier we did try to contact members of GARC however they didn’t respond to our calls.

(ends time stamp ~ 1:46:00)

DaithiD said...

If the Church was really standing with the marginalised and the oppressed, would they be taking this position with GARC?
Additionally, in media terms, I think the restriction on Ardoyne residents freedom of travel around these parades plays better than claiming offense at them.

Steve R said...

"Well I mean the majority of people in that area find marches in general objectionable, right? And then people who are marching they feel it’s their right to actually march so you’ve got two polarised kind of views in that kind of section. And I mean I fully understand the frustration that is behind all of that. I know the history of the place. I’ve been in the homes."

Just a little bit clarity on this bit, the OO from what I understand, feels the need to walk that route to show solidarity with the Loyalist community in the Glenbryn area. The siege mentality they feel strikes a cord within Loyalism. Before anybody jumps up and down I think the whole things a load of shite.

If GARC or CARA want to get up bloody early to be offended that's their right. I also think there's plenty of fields for the OO and bands to go marching in if they want.

Just saw on the Beeb that now the Orange Order are talking about changing their rules and 'allowing' their members to go into flash...plenty did anyway. But I suppose it's a good thing and to be welcomed.

I suppose they need to feel relevant. Like I said before, if the residents really wanted the OO and the Bands to go away they should just ignore them. They will die a death when they have nothing to fight against.

Niall said...

Not too many in chapels at funerals of ordinary Catholics....if Ronan Kerr had been a member of the general public would Elliot and the other bigots have gone in to the chapel?

Gerard. said...

Steve, I notice you saying if GARC want to get up bloody early to be offended its their right. The whole of Belfast was up early that day. Helicopters and all sorts of police heavy vehicles aren't exactly nice and quiet. The people in that area have a right to object to those who would come from all over to parade through their area, and no priest has a right to set himself up as arbiter of political disputes. To add insult to injury after this priest made a shady deal that he knew would be contentious he cut and run to crossgar leaving behing a set precedent to be used in ot other disputes like Garvaghy road. This priest also claims he was there during Holy Cross school dispute....wasnt that Aiden Troy? Maybe he was in the parish but he certainly couldnt have put his ass out when the media were all over Troy.

This priests actions affect us all. Where next Garvaghy or Springfield road ? As for the moratorium on this parade on July 12, the OO have already signalled they will apply again next year.
That ground was up for sale by the HE was private land, illegally occupied by ne'r do wells intent on trouble. Riff raff. The H.E. ought to have evicted them as they would have been evicted in any right thinking society, not this one though - whose thinking is totally biased against any community in disagreement with the one party state run at Stormont.

Henry JoY said...

FFS drop the name calling.
Would you have preferred if they'd stayed outside the door?
Would you be happier if Elliot's behaviour approximated more to your biased perception of him?

As a matter of interest were you there at Kerr's funeral?
If so were you inside or outside the chapel for the funeral of the former GAA man and PSNI officer?

Steve R said...

My point was that if you ignore them, they will go away a lot faster. It takes at least two sides for conflict. If there was no protest against the parade their would be no need for the heavy security presence, and I suspect the OO and Bands would get pretty boring with nothing to march 'against'.

Fair point about the HE though you'd have to be mad to spend more than 30 minutes on Twaddle Avenue!

Steve R said...

One of the reasons for low Catholic numbers in the peelers was the strategy of the Provo's to murder them first. That's why it baffles Unionists why the Catholic community complains of low numbers in the cops after years of assassination of Catholic cops!

I for one hope the numbers of Catholic's in the cops gets to 50%. But you'd have to be a right ballbeg not to honour the memory of ANYONE regardless of what Church they belonged to.

Niall said...

Henry Joy,
The point I'm trying to make is that the attendance at Ronan Kerr's funeral by those bigots who normally would run a mile from a Catholic church was political in that he was a member of Britain's security forces, PSNI, and that was their reason for attending. They certainly were not there to pay their respects as supporters of the GAA!!!!!!
Oh, I wasn't at Kerr's funeral and never will be at any members of the British Security Forces funerals, irrespective what religion they are. That doesn't mean that I have no sympathy or understanding of the families grief....a son is a son after all.
Steve R
God, the same old Unionist siege mentality take on Irish history....When I hear words like that I often wonder if anything is ever going to change within Unionism and soon conclude that it can't. For if it did it wouldn't exist anymore.
Are you going to tell me that the sole reason that Catholics didn't and don't join the peelers is all down to the Provos shooting them?
Nothing to do with the bigotry, sectarianism and racism inherent in a force that was designed to maintain a Protestant British Ulster for a Protestant British people.

Christy Walsh said...

I would agree with Niall.

After all the absence of Catholics in the RUC predates the Provo's. I would point out that not all Catholics are Nationalists.

goot said...

would you go to a psni mans funeral if he died while trying to save your life if you were set upon by a gang of south armagh rockefeller thugs outside a bar. everyone is capable of acts of bravery and humanity, including our enemies.

Steve R said...

Of course not, but that's the way a lot of them still think.

Steve R said...

Is there a problem with the comments? I've posted a few now without any coming up?

AM said...

sorry about that. I was away for a few days and the articles were scheduled for publication in advance, a function that does not work with comments.

frankie said...

Sinn Féin's hypocrisy following attack on Ardoyne priest

Last line from Suzanne Breens piece reads... "From the mid-1990s, I covered protests against Orange parades on the Lower Ormeau. Once, I spoke to a teenager who had been bussed in by Sinn Féin to block a march. His name was Dee Fennell. ".....

Steve R said...

That's alright, thought ye'd been lifted! lol


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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Love. I must still be in love with you because it still gives me pleasure to imagine seeing you.

Some writing reads as though it has it all figured out; in distinction to which, this writing is a figuring-it-out process.

Today’s secret word is bikini.

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Sprouting Grain for Farm Animals (Video)

How to sprout grain for animal feed

Here’s a video that shows our process of sprouting grain:

The reasons we sprout grain are three fold…

First, to increase the nutrients of the grain

  • Neutralizes Phytates
  • Destroys enzyme inhibitors
  • Converts starch to sugar (better for ruminants)
  • Increases enzymes, vitamin levels, amino acids, and fatty acids.

Second, to avoid a feed with genetically modified (GM) crops, corn and soy.

For more information on GM issues in our food system, visit Jeffrey Smith’s article “GMO Cover-Up article,

Third, the alternative to sprouting is cracked or rolled premixed feed in bags or bulk.

Sweet feed, poultry feed, chick starter, etc all have several issues. When grain is ground/cracked it has a determinate shelf life and will quickly go rancid. It can become rancid even before you buy it at the feed store and before it’s turned in to pellets or mixed in a bag.

Also, if you’re buying chick starter it’s almost impossible to find one without antibiotics.

Sprouting grain for animals is the same as sprouting for human consumption in your kitchen. The elements you’ll need to get a seed to sprout is the same in the garden… warmth and moisture. That’s it.

Here’s how we sprout our grain for our chickens and milk cows. There are as many methods to do this as there are people in this world. So if you figure out a better easier way… please let me know!

Step #1 Acquire grain

We recently found a Texas source for organic grain (Coyote Creek Feed Mill in Elgin, TX), but when we can’t get this, we just buy 50 pound bags of whole grain from our local feed store and avoid corn and soy.

The grains we use are…

1.) Milo

2.) Black Sunflower Seeds

3.) Oats

4.) Millet (white or red)

5.) Barley

5.) Whatever other whole grains you want to do

Step #2 Put grains in a 5-gallon bucket, add a bit of salt (we use Sea-90) and fill with water.

Make sure water is above the grain. The grain will soak up a lot of water. Let it soak for about 6-12 hours. NO MORE THAN 12 HOURS. The grain doesn’t like to sprout as well if you soak if for more… and the animals won’t like it as much.

So if you start it in the morning… strain it in the evening. Or if you make it at night, strain it in the morning. You don’t have to be exact about it, but try and not let it go over 12 hours.

Step #3 Strain water

Pour the grains and water mixture, into another 5 gallon bucket that has many slits cut in the bottom. They’re vertical slits cut w/ a saw. The more slits the better, you want them to drain out the water and it gives a bit of oxygen at the bottom to prevent mold.

The water that comes out is great for gardens. It’s full of minerals and nutrients. Most of the time I’m too lazy to take it the 150 feet and pour it on the garden… but sometimes I do. If you don’t use it right away and let it sit around… it was reallllly starting to stink! Ask Andrew, he loves it when I leave it out. If you use it right away, it smells sweet and lovely.

Step #4 Turn grain

EVERY DAY you must pour the grain into a new bucket w/ slits. Reason… you don’t want the grain to mold. Sometimes, I’m lazy and skip a day, but then regret it because it’ll mold a bit. It also depends on the humidity and temperature if you can get away with not flipping them every day. Just flip them every day. They’ll sprout better. During the summer you’ll start to get sprouts by the second or third day. You can let them sprout for as long as you like. They just keep getting better.

We live in Texas… sprouting seeds is dependent on warmth and temperature… so here’s what we do in the winter... We bring the buckets in our barn and put chick brood heat lights over them.

In the summer, before it get’s too hot, they’re out in the sun. Then when the temperature is above 80, we move them under a tree for the shade. Otherwise you’d have to turn them twice a day to prevent mold.

Step #5 Add supplements

To a five gallon bucket full of sprouts we put in a handful of molasses, kelp, D.E, fish meal (for the chickens) and sometimes flax seed and mix.

Recently, we found a source for organic supplement with vitamins and amino acids, called Fertrell’s Nutri-balancer. We have two types, for the cows and one for the chickens. It’s got all the amino acids and vitamins that are missing from our feed mix. However, I’m not a huge fan of it, because just like human synthetic vitamins ( not from a whole food), it comes off a boat from China.

I guarantee you, your animals will LOVE this. I put conventional organic premixed grain or sweet feed out and every time, the animals choose the sprouts. No question, that’s what they’ll finish first. I give them a lot of credit, they’re pretty smart.

We’ve been doing this for about three years and we have the best eggs, chickens and cows we’ve ever seen, so we’ve continued sprouting even though we did find a premixed organic feed that’s easier to manage. We use that as a back up free choice. Our animals only eat it if we don’t get around to putting out the sprouts! 🙂

We use this set up when the temp is below 50 degrees

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To Find Them Any Fresher You Would Have To Grow

  1. how much of the sprouts do you feed your milk cow?

  2. Where do you get your Fish Meal? I am having a hard time locating any. My chickens are slackers on the egg laying and the really need the extra boost of protein!

  3. How much of the sprouted grain do you give your milk cow? We normally do 4 pounds of oats while we milks… I’m wondering if it would be about the same for this?

    • We use those plastic scoops you get at the farm stores… two scoops… I’ve never weighed it 🙂 It’s really all up to you, you’ll use less grain if it’s sprouted. And it’ll digest better… more bang for your buck. It’ll make richer milk too.

  4. What are your proportions on this out of curiousity

  5. Hi, Thanks so much for all your wonderful wisdom! I was just wondering about your supplements. How many parts per grain and seed are you using? Any idea of how much supplement you add to the 5 gallon buckets? Do you do this right before feeding the birds? Blessings to you and your wonderful family!

  6. Thank you for your site! Love all your information and recipes! We have a fly problem bad!! Do you have any help for fly control? I have been trying to sprout my grain in buckets outside but end up with maggots in my sprouts. Maybe put lids on my buckets?

    • Lorrie,
      Yes bucket lids will help but not completely eliminate. We live in Texas and it get’s hot so we drilled little holes in the lid for ventilation and just have the lid floating on top, we don’t get a tight seal. If you’re sprouting for poultry, don’t worry about maggots… think of it as an extra protein bonus, your chickens will thank you for the extra live insect protein. 😉

      Make sure to flip your grain once a day… that’ll help as well.

  7. molly schultz says:
  8. molly schultz says:

    Hi Rashel,

    What a fantastic site. What you are doing is so inspiring! I’ve been reasearching sprouting grains for our livestock and came across this information about sprouting Milo. Apparently it produces a toxic chemical called dhurrin which will kill birds. I know there is a ton of info online, much of it conflicting. I just wanted to pass this on your way so you could read and decide for yourself. We are a homesteading family with 8 kids in Tn and WPF ers as well. THanks for your great site and all the info!
    Molly Schultz

    • Molly,
      Glad you’re enjoying our site. How amazing that you have 8 kids! You must be super-mom!

      We’ve been feeding sprouted milo as one of our 6 grains for three years. We haven’t had any issues with killing birds or sick birds. On the contrary, everyone who visits our farm comments on the health and vitality of our birds. We keep around 30 chickens and 30 to 45 turkeys year round. It’s never been an issue. I looked into milo on the internet and came up with a study out of Texas A&M which fed exclusively sprouted milo to broilers and it didn’t kill or injure the birds. Studies aside, adding sprouted milo to our feed mix has worked well for us and is also an inexpensive grain.

      How awesome that y’all are also WAPf’ers! We owe many thanks to Sally Fallon and the whole foundation for making the information available about traditional eating! It changed our lives.
      Rashel H.

      • molly schultz says:

        I am glad you looked into it! Like I said, I know there is all sorts of conflicting info out there. Your chickens certainly do look healthy.. can’t argue with that,LOL!! And no, I’m not super-mom. Just a fallen sinner saved by grace and walking in the light! Many blessings!

  9. Do you use blackstrap molasses?

  10. Hi Rashel,

    Thanks so much for the video and info. I found you on youtube.
    I’ve been sprouting wheat and BOSS for a few years as a side supplement to their organic soy-free feed. I would like to switch to just sprouts and supplements. How many parts per grain and seed are you using? Also, you had various supplements in your storage bins. Besides kelp, what else are you using? Our chickens free-range in a large pasture with llamas, but all of the grass is now gone. We tried to re-seed last fall and the chickens ate all of the seed. I’ll need to supplement until we can fence another pasture for rotation.

  11. Nancy Sanders says:

    Hi Rashel!

    We are a Christian family, also WPF’ers and are trying to extend our traditional practices to our animals! We’re having a hard time figuring out specific recipes and amounts for sprouted grain…could you help us out?
    –Did you make up your own recipe or get it from someone else?
    –You feed your chickens as much as they want…what is the ballpark amount of your grain mix that they eat each day per bird?
    –Do you increase that amount in the winter?
    –How much grain do your milk cow and cattle get? I assume they also get hay, especially in winter?

    Thanks so much!

  12. we sprouted our grains for our chickens and were partially successful. we had a problem with our corn(did not sprout) and to lesser extent with our field peas. any suggestions? what is the optimum temperature for sprouting. we live in vt and sprouting out doors is out of the question this time of the year. so, we sprouted indoors with the aid of a heat lamp. perhaps there was too much heat.

    thanks~~ ted for roberta

  13. Rashel,
    I am so grateful for all of the time you have taken answering my questions. The grain is in the bucket soaking and, thanks to you, I think I finally have this down. Where do you purchase the vitamin D that you say you add by the handful?

    Thank you again.

    • Rashel Harris says:

      I use fetrells nutrabalancer for poultry. However, I think if you use kelp I’d cover your bases. Especially if your poultry have access to pasture. Chickens will find what they need on their own. When you really new to watch the feed mix is when they’re locked up 24/7.

  14. Oh, Rashel you are probably going to be sorry that I found this your site. . .too m any questions. . .
    What about storing the unused portion of sprouted grain? The buckets are too big for the fridge Hee Hee!

  15. Sorry. . .one more question: how do you know how much to feed when not using ground food?

    • For our poultry then eat until they’re done. Free feed. They have all day access to pastures and where every they want to go and in our experience if you have good breeds they’ll eat what they need and quit. If it’s for horses or cows, I’d portion it otherwise they’ll bloat themselves.

  16. Rashel,
    Could you please tell me after you soak and drain your sprouts for the chickens, do you simply keep alternating the bucket WITHOUT rinsing the sprouts again or do you rinse?

    Thank you so very much for your time.

  17. Do you start your chicks out on whole sprouted grains? Also, how many pounds of grain did each bird need from birth to processing? We are thinking about raising some freedom rangers chicks. I already sprout grain for our family and our cow, goats, and chickens but we would like to raise some broilers on sprouted grain.

    • Yes, the small birds will eat the millet, milo etc small grains well sprouted. I have no idea how much grain they go through from birth to processing. I really dislike freedom rangers, red rangers, cornish cross or any hybrid breed of bird that can’t reproduce well. I explain this more in my post on eating turkey instead of fast growing meat chickens. Check out my archive.

  1. […] Sprouting Grains for Animals (Video) from The Promiseland Farm […]

What are you thoughts?


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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Harper, FitzGerald on Wahl 2/26

Shane Harper checked his cell phone Monday night and noticed an unread message from an old friend.

Before the Adirondack Phantoms winger ever had a chance to welcome Mitch Wahl to the organization, the former Calgary Flames prospect had reached out to Harper, one of his off-season workout buddies.

“He said ‘Hey, I just got traded to Philly,’ ” Harper said Tuesday. “ I said ‘Right on, See you soon.’ ”

Wahl, acquired yesterday in the deal that sent Mike Testwuide to Calgary, is expected to arrive in Glens Falls later Tuesday and join his new team for practice Wednesday at the Glens Falls Recreation Center.

That practice will represent Wahl’s first formal introduction to many of his new teammates, though the center will instantly recognize Harper’s face. The two forwards are Southern California natives who played for the same youth hockey organization, though their birth years divided them between individual teams.

“He played on the California Wave ’90 team,” Harper said. “I was on the ’89 team. We grew up together and he’s a real nice kid. I skate with him in the summers. … He’s just a skilled forward that can help us.”

Wahl, 23, is a former second-round draft pick who has never able to crack the AHL in Calgary’s system, and had spent most of his three-year pro career in the ECHL. He had 59 points in 45 games with Utah this season, and was displaying the skills that made him one of the Western Hockey League’s top scorers in his final season of junior hockey for the Spokane Chiefs, 2009-10. There, he recorded 96 points in 72 games.

“I played against him in Spokane when he played in the WHL and I was in Everett,” Harper said after the Phantoms practiced Tuesday morning. “He did really well on their power play. He has a real good shot.”

Despite that, though, Wahl had played in just six games with Abbotsford this season, and 54 games at the AHL level since turning pro at the end of 2009-10. Though the Heat went through 17 different centers last season – and 48 different skaters – Wahl was in the line-up for just five of the Heat’s games. The Flames loaned him to the Hamilton Bulldogs, a Montreal Canadiens affiliate, and he made 22 appearances there.

Harper has kept in touch with Wahl, one of several professional players in his summer workout group in El Segundo, Calif. Players like Sidney Crosby, Ryan Miller and Matt Duchene have also skated there.

“I think he was trying to get a new change of scenery for a little while now and I think it happened for him, finally,” Harper said of Wahl, who has 15 career AHL points. “It’s just kind of cool that he’s coming here.”

There is a hope that Wahl will be able to spark a Phantoms offense that is scoring just 2.41 goals per game, which ranks 25th in the AHL. They are on pace to finish the season with both the fewest goals scored and the fewest points recorded in the franchise’s history, dating back to the team’s 1996 start in Philadelphia.

“He’s a good, hard-working kid,” said Phantoms winger Zack FitzGerald, who was teammates with Wahl last season in Hamilton. “He plays hard. He’s a good, Philly-style player. It should be good.”

Though disappointed to see Testwuide leave, Harper said the deal may ultimately also be better for him.

The 26-year-old winger had been buried on Adirondack’s fourth line or scratched when healthy. He will begin anew in the Calgary organization, and expressed excitement to the team’s website about the deal.

"I'm super excited to have a new opportunity ahead of me," Testwuide told the Flames website. "The Flyers have a great organization and were great to me. But it's going to be nice to go somewhere new and have a fresh start."

Until next time,

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Billings, MT
For more information contact
Aurora Energy, Inc.

This page provides solar radiation values for VM Solar Collectors and expected gallons of water raised by 60 degrees F. Radiation figures are from the Solar Radiation Data Manual, WBAN NO. 24033.  VM collector (average) efficiency of 70% (based on Florida Solar Energy Center, Solar Collector Test Report No. 97005) is used for this chart.

Latitude: 45.80 N Degrees
Longitude: 108.53 W Degrees
Elevation: 1088 Meters
System Tilt: Latitude
Annual Total BTU's per square meter (10 tubes): 4,351,065 BTU

Please read the Collector Tube Efficiency and System Sizing
sections before using this chart.

Contact Thermo Technologies


text:
Saturday, June 25, 2011

Hey all you Twihards out there!! Are you all ready for the second Twilight swap???  I know I am!! So for this swap we are going to use ANY scene, quote, or character from New Moon!!  For more details and to sign up for this swap visit!!   The tags from the first movie are starting to come in and wow are they awesome!! Some of them are like little works of amazing art!! i will be doing another giveaway for the particpants of this swap also!!  Check it out visit!!

Kimi's Ustream Class

Hi everyone!! For those of you that missed Kimi's ustream class it was awesom go check it out.  She is and Kimibee09 uniquescrappiness on ustream!  The little suitcase matchbox was super duper cute!! Watch for a swap on Minialbumscraps to open sometime in the 1st week of july!!

500 Members!! Woohoo

WOW Canyou believe it Minialbumscraps has passed the 500 member mark!?!?! Wow how amazing is that! Not only has the site grown tremebdously, but things are running so smoothly and so wonderfully!!  The swaps are going great, the rules are being enforced without any issues.  Actually most people LOVE the rules and that I enforce them; the only people that dont like the rules are swippers and flakers!!  We have had only 1 flaker out of all of the swaps combined over the passed 6 weeks!!  Amazing! I remember being in other swaps and having a minimum of one person flake PER SWAP lol!! Not at MAS!! I couldnt ask for better!! The members are so awesome and welcoming!! I have an exciting giveaway that we are going to do more info to come....

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Have you ever been burned by a swap partner?  Have you ever sent something out and waited 3 or more MONTHS to get your swapped items back?  Have you ever been burned by a swapper only to see them sigining up for other swaps?  Well I have the solution for you!!

About 2 months ago the opportunity arose for me to take over as the owner and administrator of (aka MAS).  Well, one of the first things I did was to post VERY strict swapping rules, and not only have I posted them but I have also ENFORCED them.  The rules are as follows:
If you are in a one on one swap (a swap that you have a partner) and you partner sends you something and you send nothing in return you are PERMENANTLY done swapping at MAS!  I understand you may have been sick but not for 6 weeks! and yes maybe something came up but not for the whole swap period!  The rules are strictly enforced.  If you take from a swapper and you dont give back then I will delete your thieving butt from the site, period! no negotiations, no discussions, you are just DONE.  There are far to many other sites with lax rules that don't protect their members so flakers and swippers please stay there!

Being late: If you do have an emergency or issue that prevents you from shipping on time we understand that.  I strongly believe in FAMILY FIRST.  I completely understand that life does happen.  We do require communication however.  So as long as you let me know that you have a problem we can work something out.  Now here is the issue with this, while I understand life happens sometimes it seems that some people have the worst luck ever and "life" happens to them swap after swap.  This is a no go at MAS.  If you are late once you must ship your next 3 swaps EARLY.  If you can not get your swaps in by the deadline I will NOT hold the swap up for you I will write return to sender on the package and send it back, and you will again be PERMENANTLY removed from swapping!

Another question that I have been asked is why are all the swaps sent to me, and ONLY hosted by administration at the site?  The sites are hosted only by administration so that the rules can be upheld and enforced.  This also gaurantees a level of professionalism and fairness by the hosts.  I have been flaked on TWO times elsewhere by the host!! That will NEVER happen at MAS!!.  This is also one of the reasons all of the swaps come to me.  Swaps come to me so that I can check you postmarked dates, and to be sure they arrived on time and also to ensure that I know where your projects are and how they are handled.  Also this is done so the swaps are mailed back in a timely manner.  And the final reason for all the swaps coming to me is that Kimi my administrator lives in Australia and its far to expensive to pay for shipping there and back it would just be silly!!

So if you are saying "well geez I was going to go to MAS but I wanted to host the blah blah swap"  i can meet you halfway and do this"  while I cannot let non administration host if you message me the swap you want up and the details I will post it for you!  I will give you credit and post all your rules and details.  The only difference is the swaps are going to be mailed to me.

Now because of these rules and tactics I can do somethign that NO OTHER Ning site offers:  I will personally PROMISE each and EVERY member of MAS that if they particpate in a swap at MAS they will NOT EVER walk away empty handed!  the stringent rules seriously limits the number of flakers, and if someone flakes they will never swap at MAS again so it hardly ever happens.  If you would be on the wrong side of a bad swap I will make sure that your swap is angeled so that you get what was due to you!  This is how I can promise you that you will NEVER walk away from MAS empty handed!!

Now some of you are saying well if you remove someone from the site you wont have as many memebers.  While that may be true i feel like this I would rather have 50 AWESOME & GREAT swappers than 500 so-so swappers, flakers, and swippers!!

I know you are probably saying WOW!! I know right!! I think it is silly to suspend someone from swapping for a month or two, and even sillier to say sorry can't help you its done at your own risk.  Well I can help it and I am!  SO if you are fed up with waiting for late swaps and even more fed up with having your crafts stolen stop by MINIALBUMSCRAPS.NING.COM and check out all the awesome swaps, the great people that actually CHAT in our chat, and post a little something in the forum!!  Oh yeah and there is also a GREAT STORE WITH REALLY LOW prices available ONLY to memebers of MAS!! Thanks!! I hope to see you there!

I hope to see all of you GOOD swappers
Having such stringent rules at MAS allows me to

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Design Team Call!!

Hi everyone again I am back with EXCITING news!! is looking for a design team!!  Oh yes you heard me right I said DESIGN TEAM CALL!!  So heres the deets:
  •  make TWO (2) original projects and post a video or post detailed pictures.
  • One project can be ANYTHING you want!  Alter something, make a layout, card, tag, an ATC, do whatever you would like anyway you would like.
  • Project number 2(two) needs to be a mini album.  You can make any type or style of mini you want.  The only requirement for the mini is that it is smaller than 8x8!  Let yourcreativity run wild and make your mini out of whatever you want!
  • You will need to post either a video or photos of you entries.  If you post a video please go to my youtube: lisachasecaleigh and post a video response.  If you are posting pictures please post clear detailed pics that include design team call or something similar in the title info so that we know its your entry.
  • Entries Must be posred on or before August 10th!
  • Entries will be voted on by members and then the final selections will be done by Kimi, Bev, and I!
  • Design team members will be providing at least two projects a month - these do not have to be huge projects and may be soemthign as small and simple as a tag or some ATC's
  • Some months I will be giving a theme or a specific project to create and some months you will have creative freedom!
  • I will be giving products away at certain times to design team members.  This will be for you to use on the projects that you are making.  Some times I may give away a package of something small and some times I will be giving entire mini kits!!
  • Design team members will be on for a six(6) month time period
  • Design team members will have the opportunity to do ustream and/or tutorials on youtube
Good luck to everyone please ask me if you have ANY questions!  Do your best work and bring your "A game"!  I can not wait to see what you all create!!

Hugs, Lisa

Sunday, June 5, 2011

~~Exciting News~~

Hi everyone I know that it has been a little while but I can explain!!  I have been hard at work on my ning site, opening a new store!! Oh yes my scrappy friends you have heard me right!  Right now I am still getting things in so that they are here when you order them!  I have a TON of Tim Holtz goodies!  I also am waiting for my shipment of Graphic 45's new WIZARD OF OZ paper pads in 12 x 12 and 8x8!! I also have some Curtain Call pads and Once Upon a Springtime pads coming!! (plus little goodies too!!)  I am so excited to be able to offer these to you !! The 12x12 Oz pads are $16.00 and the 8x8 Oz pads are $8.99!!  I can combine shipping of course and will ONLY charge you shipping NEVER a handling fee!! Check it out !! These prices are a great deal!! I also have the vagabond on sale for $199.00!! Yeppers you heard me right!! so check it out ! These prices are a benefit to the members of my ning site so check it out !! Sign up look the site over talk to other members post some pictures to inspire!! Check it out!!


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Friday, September 18, 2015

Newbies in Cleveland :)

I have to go back and read my old posts to see where I last left off! It's amazing how our lives have changed in just over a month! I can't remember the past 24 hours, let alone the past 2 weeks, but here it goes!...

Our house in AL is *SOLD*. The official closing date is not until 10/22, but the inspection period went well and it should be smooth sailing until then.

Last weekend, Ross & I made the first trek up to Ohio with his car and Dakota. We're currently living out of a hotel in Cleveland until our rental house lease begins (Oct. 1st). It's been the first time in weeks(!!) that I've had enough time to just sit and watch tv. Hotel living really ain't that bad and we'll be out of here in no time :)

Ross started his job at Alcoa this week. It's been all training and meeting people this week, so not much to report other than he'll have his hands full once he gets in the swing of things! The environment will challenge him in his career but he's so good at what he does, I'm confident he'll do great. And if he doesn't, well heck...we'll just move again! :)  #kiddingnotkidding

Our movers are scheduled to come pack up our house on 10/1 & 10/2, so I'll fly back down to B'ham for the week to oversee that, see my coworkers one last time in the office before completely working remotely, and make the final trek up to OH moving my vehicle this time (Ross will meet me down there to help with the drive). This will be our FINAL farewell to Alabama and the life we made there these past few years. It's always bittersweet to see your house left empty as you drive away but it's hopefully for the better!

We'll move into our rental house the first weekend of October. Of course, our furniture and belongings will not arrive for another 3-10 business days, but that's expected. Let's hope it's not more than 10 days (movers love to make promises that never keep!). We'll be sleeping on an air mattress until they arrive with our bed. I'll make sure to play up the pregnancy sympathy card while they are packing up the truck :)

Here's a pic of our rental house that I stole from the internet...
557 Glen Park Dr, Bay Village, OH

The house *feels* like a rental but I'm sure once I give it a thorough cleaning and get our stuff unpacked, it will feel like home! It's been vacant a few months so it needs some TLC.

It's the cutest house in an adorable neighborhood with sidewalks and tree-lined streets... I've always envied these cute neighborhoods and thought now would be the time to try one out since we're only renting! It's in the town of Bay Village, OH. Go ahead... google it. I'll wait :)  Do you see how close Lake Erie is?!?! I'm picturing strolls around the neighborhood, waving to neighbors, watching the sunset on Lake Erie, etc. I guess maybe after the dead of winter!...

So now that we're *finally* in the downswing of our chaotic lives, I'm able to focus on Baby Girl. I'm 29 weeks today and feeling good! She's moving a lot more now and I love it! I'm also giving into every dessert temptation I come in contact with, so watch out!!

This weekend, Ross & I have NO plans. I repeat.... NO plans! I don't even know what to do with that. Ross celebrated his 30th birthday on 9/7 while we were camping over Labor Day weekend with our friends in N.C. but we barely got to celebrate with everything going on and I completely failed as a wife to get him a cool, memorable gift (aside from one little item I bought at the last minute), so we're hoping to get out this weekend and just have fun!

Next weekend is mine & Ross' baby shower in Pittsburgh! I'm so excited to see all of our family & friends.... but really, what I'm most excited about?! The 2-hour drive to go home!! (as opposed to an 8-hour trek spent flying & on layovers). Yeah, it's dumb... but 2 hours thrills me! :) And I'm sure the shower will be great as well! haha

So that's it for today :) See most of you next weekend!!

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Before & Afters! (Part 2)

Welcome back! Let's move on to the rest of the house :) I'll warn that a lot of these are just 'After' pics. For whatever reason, we failed to get some before shots of the hideous pink walls we painted over.

Moving on from the kitchen, we have what we use as our Den:

As you can see, we never got around to this redoing this room. This (and one other) room still have popcorn ceilings. I eventually wanted to paint the wood paneling white, but then again, it felt so home-y as-is :) I'm curious what the next homeowner's will do with it. The carpet in this room probably also needs to be replaced, but again, that is for the next homeowners to decide.

Stepping into the hallway, we have the main hall bathroom:
In this bathroom, we removed a very ornate/flowery wallpaper and painted the walls beige (the same beige used in the hallway and spare bedrooms). I also added the frosted window decals so that we didn't need window treatments and still had privacy. Lastly, we installed a new toilet back when we moved in and recently, needed to have a plumber fix the bath/shower fixture (new rough-in for handles and showerhead). I also painted the doors and trim white and gave them new hardware.

Eventually, I would have replaced the flooring and maybe re-purposed the vanity (or at least given it a new top). And replaced that light!!! haha But again, we ran out of time.

Moving on to the Master Bedroom:

It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do!! As well as smooth ceilings, freshly painted white trim, and freshly painted white doors with new hardware. When all is said and done, I repainted 20 interior doors (!!!) in this house from their outdated yellowish white paint to a crisp clean white that matched the new white paint we used on the trim. We also updated all the hardware (hinges & doorknobs) that I bought in bulk online. The white doors made the whole house feel more updated and clean. And I LOVE dark hardware on white doors :)

You can ignore the ugly handy-down dressers... ONE day I will buy us new furniture. *sigh* The fabric headboard I made myself. And lastly, we took down the window treatments and put up white wood blinds that I found at IKEA (they were surprisingly the only ones that would fit the size of our windows).

Attached to our bedroom is a Master Bathroom (though there's nothing Master about it!):
When we moved in, I immediately removed the wallpaper, painted the walls gray, put the frosted decal on the window (not shown) and installed a new medicine cabinet.

Moving on to the 2 spare bedrooms across the hallway from our bedroom.

Here is the guest bedroom:

And another spare bedroom:
In each of these rooms, the walls were pepto-bismol pink and the walls were dirty and filled with nail holes. It took a lot of prep work to get them ready to paint.

Again, we had to scrape popcorn ceilings in both of these rooms, painted the ceiling white, painted walls the same beige, painted the trim, installed window treatments, and also tackled painting the doors white. What a difference!

Finally, we have a room upstairs where the previous homeowners converted some attic space into a 4th bedroom and 3rd bath:

This room we tackled a week before listing the house! We've never used the bathroom (it's tiny!) and Ross just used this room for storage. It was the same pepto-bismol pink as the other spare rooms and just felt dirty up there. It has walk-in attic access which was really nice.

Don't you just love the avocado green bathroom?! (it looks much better now that the attached bedroom is not pink, ha!)

So we spent a week (on crunch time!) prepping and painting the bedroom & bathroom beige, painting trim white, and painting the remaining interior doors white. This room also remains with popcorn ceilings. There was no way to tackle that in a week before wanting to list the house with all the other last-minute projects we had going on.

So that's it!! This house was mostly cosmetic updates. Sure, we would've tackled a bathroom or two down the road and maybe the kitchen, but in the short-term, it wasn't worth our effort or money. We made some major improvements as well which helped the value of the house (replaced the furnace, updated the breaker box, etc.).

With this house, we became pros at:
  • scraping popcorn ceilings (FYI, it's a LOT of work, scrapping, skim-coating, sanding, painting, etc.)
  • painting interior doors (with no brush marks showing :)
  • updating electrical (only Ross)
  • installing crown molding and baseboards
  • installing plank walls (only me!)
  • and other numerous projects.

When all is said and done, we'd probably do it all over again. The payoff to us is a house that we can be proud of and bringing a house back up-to-date! We also love tackling a project! What will be next?!

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Before & Afters! (Part 1)

I'm so excited to have put together some 'Before' and 'Afters' of our house! I didn't have all the before's, but enough that I can look back on these fondly and remember all the blood, sweat and tears that went into every room.

We will have owned this house for 2 years (in Oct. '15) and have accepted an offer on it this week! I'm actually more sad to see it go than I thought I would be, b/c I never loved it. It was't my mid-century style and never could be, but it still had good bones and cleaned up really nicely. The house had a frenzy of showings when it hit the market last week and got a total of 3 offers (one offer which eventually walked, one offer was wayyy too low, and the perfect 3rd offer which we accepted yesterday!).

Here we go!

Welcome to our home:
None of the curb appeal was changed. Just properly maintained :) And Ross got the sidewalk light working again. (We got a LOT of things working again *big disgruntled sigh to previous homeowners*)

Again, just properly maintained, nothing changed.  This backyard is why I love older homes... I can't put a price on mature landscaping and private backyards!

Walking inside, here is the foyer. Such a small space, but one of my favorite 'Afters.'
The flooring is just peel-and-stick vinyl. I have a feature plank wall behind the mirror which really gives the space some visual interest in person :) The chandelier was from World Market ($99!! compared to the expensive PB version). And lastly, since all of the walls are painted a clean white, I painted the door black to make it *pop*. I have a new obsession with black interior doors :)

This is the view you get walking in from the entryway:

The walls were repainted a warm gray, popcorn ceilings scraped smooth and painted white, trim painted, decor added and *boom* what a difference! :)

Next up, the dining room:

Again, we painted the walls gray, ceilings smoothed, trim painted, new light fixture. Oh, and we removed the chair rail wainscoting and had a lot of wall patching to do b/c of that. The chandelier I got on clearance for $50 from Lowe's becuase they switched out their display lighting. *Score!*

Also, all of my window treatments are super cheap. Rods from Walmart and white curtains from IKEA, hemmed to length. I love my frugality :) But also how crisp and clean they look.

Let's move into the Kitchen:
This was one of our biggest undertakings. If I could've completely demo'd the kitchen, I would have (b/c honestly, the cabinets are original (from the 70's) and in bad shape, the previous owners put new faces on them to only make them look good. The inside of my cabinets are avocado green and in rough shape!).

First off, we removed the door leading to the garage on that wall in the right of the picture (behind chandelier) and moved the garage access to the mudroom, where it belongs. Just by closing off the door, the kitchen felt 1000x more home-y. No longer was I looking into the window-pane door to the junk in our garage! I then decided to also plank that wall to give it some visual interest since it's painted white (I'm obsessed with neutral paint right now but using textures instead to give the rooms some interest). Also, a HUGE update was changing out the florescent light to 3 new recessed lights (on a dimmer switch!). It gave the kitchen such a different feeling and WARMTH! I am obsessed with the recessed lighting! Props to Ross for becoming a self-taught electrician these past few years! And with the help of one of his more experienced friends who helped us wire up the 4-way switch.

Another view of the kitchen and the eat-in kitchen area. The clean white walls made such an improvement. We removed more outdated and dirty wainscoting and chair-rail in the kitchen. There was also a LOT of wall-patching to be done when it came down. That's sort of how the plank wall came to be about... I chose to cover up the ugly wall instead :)

Ross & I also finished the crown moulding in the kitchen (a feat I'm really proud of us for. Cutting all those angles was quite the learning curve, but now we're pros!). Ross also finished putting up new baseboards and quarter round. All of those finishing touches really brought the kitchen up to the 21st-century without breaking the bank!

Moving on....

This is our pantry, that leads into the mudroom, and leads out to the newly installed door to the garage. I'm obsessed with our pantry. It's huge!! It was the old washer/dryer location that we converted into shelving, with the same vinyl flooring from the entryway. I also love the hardware I installed on the bi-fold doors, they reflect nicely off of the black photo frames in that hallway. I sadly put a LOT of obsessive thought into these tiny details :/ But pretty hardware makes this girl happy :)

In the photos above, the wall on the right of the pic was actually the first plank wall I decided to do about a year ago when Ross was out-of-town one weekend. I didn't tell him what I was up to but it was fun playing with his miter saw and nailgun :) He wasn't sure if he liked it at first, but over time, is really happy with it. And I am absolutely obsessed (hence the 2 additional plank walls down the road)! I also get a lot of compliments on it so it's makes me blush and love them even more :)

Next up...

 Ok, I lied about the kitchen... the mudroom was DEFINITELY the biggest under-taking.  We hired out a plumber back when we bought the house to move the washer/dryer connection from our pantry to this new location. We had no clue what the purpose of this room was previously, but to us, it made sense to turn it into a mudroom/laundry room. This is also where we installed a new (fire-rated) door to the garage. I came up with the layout, w/ a lot of pinterest inspiration! I needed to make sure I made good use of every inch of space in this tiny room and I think I succeeded! I love this room! The cabinet was from and we built around it. Ross made me the built-in bench. I just love how the room serves so many functional purposes!! We also hired an electrician when we bought the house to update the breaker box, a much needed update to this house and well worth it.

That's it for today! The post is already too long, so stay tuned for 'Part 2' of the Before & Afters!


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Kentucky Derby 2001

As far as a useful betting opinion goes, I don't think I have anything to say about this year's Derby. Point Given is a reasonable
favorite, but at 9-5 from post 17 against several horses who have a 5-10% chance to run 2 or better he certainly doesn't like
any value to me. As for those with the 5-10% chance to run, they are listed at 15-1 or less and don't appear to be of any value
either. Unless PG is 3-1 or one of the other "real" contenders is 30-1 or better, I can't see any play that would interest me. Here
is the rundown in reverse order (within each grouping):

Horses who are slow going in and don't look likely to jump up:

Talk is Money: slow horse trying for 3rd effort in a month. very likely to regress, candidate to finish last.

Startac: forward move three back was at TUP without live ground or hand times and therefore can't be relied on. subsequent
efforts are weak and give no reason to expect better on Sat.

Arctic Boy: pair of 8s look like end of the line jump up at least for the short term. no reason to expect better in the Derby.

A P Valentine: positive is ability shown at 2, negative is the flat line and fractionally worse numbers at 3. win at Hia looks much
better than it was and A P will be one of the biggest underlays off his 2yo rep and his trainer's record in the Derby.

Fifty Stars: the only positive horse in this grouping is unfortunately too slow going in to be much of a threat. nice solid forging line that could easily produce a move to the 6"-7" range, but that doesn't figure to threaten even for an underneath position in the
exotics. i'd look for him somewhere down the line.

Horses off peak effort that are much more likely than not to bounce:

Keats: only two weeks rest off jump up move in last. even the trainer's best four leaf clover is not likely to forstall significant
backward reaction in Derby.

Jamaican Rum: nice development line although has already moved 8 point from 2yo level. very likely to regress at least a couple of points from top in last which probably moves him out of contention. a two point backward move in Derby and five weeks rest to the Belmont might make him interesting there.

Songandaprayer: made the forward move in last off strong condition line only to run into the "wind". On 3 weeks would expect a significant reaction to 5 or worse, although 4-6 weeks from now he might well be a live play to come back to the 2" since he did show ability at 2yo that indicates that his 2" top is probably not a knockout number.

Millenium Wind: very lightly raced off a six point jump up in last. with only 3 weeks would expect a substantial bounce is much more likely than not. maybe 5-10% to repeat and another 10% to go back ~2 points, but these %s don't translate to positive value at 6-1.

Congaree: even more lightly raced off 4 point jump up in last. my feeling has always been that if you bet against every horse who
improves 2 or more points to a number under 2, you'll end up way ahead. the BB magic notwithstanding I'd play for a
bounce--although 2-4 points backward doesn't put him out of the picture particularly for the exotics. As 5-1 2nd choice he's
neither a play against nor of positive value to me.

Horse who might be coming back to prior top effort:

Invisible Ink: has a seductive looking line that I lean to reading negatively. Even with 2 1/2 months and only one intervening
effort he was unable to get back to his 4+ top in the BG. his 2yo efforts lean to the read that the 4+ top was more likely than
not to be an end of the line development at least for the short term and I don't think that anything he has done since contradicts
that read. Horses often hang on 2-4 points off their top for a while without that indicating anything positive. on 3 weeks off what
I would read as an effort I'd expect a backward reaction in the Derby.

Horses off top efforts that are hard to read:

Thunder Blitz: has nice 4 weeks rest from top effort in last. very hard to gauge 2yo form as all races on grass or in the slop. still he seems to have developed a long way. 3 point move in last was off a nice 1/4 point move and I think it figures to set him back at least in the short run. as a healthy looking 3yo with nice timing I'd give him ~20% to pair up, but that number doesn't figure to be good enough to win and even the 30-1 ml doesn't seem sufficient odds to finish on top, but he seems to be sufficient value to consider using in exotics.

Dollar Bill: nice overall line although he has moved almost 6 points from his 2yo top. strong positive indication that he came right back to his top and I'd give him 10-20% to move forward and another 10-20% to repeat. at his 10-1 ml I'd rate him a little better than TB--not much value on top, but a definite use in the exotics.

Espress Tour: another lightly raced horse off substantial forward move in last. has nice 6 weeks rest since his ~4 top in Dubai
and certainly has a decent shot to repeat that effort and some chance to go forward. difficulty is evaluating which was he is going off only one race at 3. his 2yo pattern is encouraging, but it's a hard read as to how far he figures to develop. at 15-1 ml from a good post he might be marginal value in the win pool although there are too many question marks for me to jump in. at the very least a definite use in the exotics.

Horses off "0-2" patterns:

Balto Star: two 6 point jumpups led to 1 top in next to last. only a 2 point reaction in last might look like an encouraging sign,
but I would read it the other way. two big efforts is even more likely to have knocked him out and I would play him for a bigger
backward move in the Derby. at 8-1 ml I'd lean to making him a play against.

Monarchos: much more solid line than BS, although shares the negative of weak 2yo numbers. while there is no reason to view
him as forward moving, he hasn't really done anything wrong yet. Has nice 8 weeks from his top at GP and certainly has a
decent shot to run in the 2-5 range. from post 16 at 6-1 ml doesn't look like any value on top, but he's another that I think must
be used in exotics.

Only horse left:

Point Given: best level and pattern at 2 and a solid pair up of 2 point forward move at 3. nice four weeks into race gives very
decent shot for a forward move in Derby. only negatives to me are the 17 post and 9-5 ml odds. I wouldn't take the short price
to win, but I can't see making a play that doesn't feature PG in a major way.

As I said at the beginning, value seems to be in short supply in this year's Derby. The favorite is strong and the main contenders
for use in exotics are mostly short also. We can always hope for some juicy overlay on the undercard! Good luck to all.

Len Friedman


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Sunday, October 16, 2011

DIY Burlap Runner

{No Sew Burlap Runner}
I love the look of burlap, especially in the fall! I currently don't own a sewing machine {this would explain why all my curtains still haven't been hemmed}, but after seeing a burlap runner at Pottery Barn with frayed edges, I figured we'd give this DIY a go. I picked up several yards from JoAnn's, cut to length and width, then removed about 5-7 strands from all 4 sides {photo top right}. I made two ~ one for our coffee table and one for our outdoor patio. This project took all of 20 minutes to make both!

  1. I can't wait to try this! Great inspiration, and not to mention, they both look amazing :) Thanks!

  2. Just found this on pinterest and I have a question...have you tried washing them and have they unraveled more in the wash? I am wanting to make a table runner and would also like to make placemats, but thinking that I should throw a stitch around the sides (just inside of the raveled edges to prevent unraveling more than I want). Would love your thoughts!


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Published:May 23rd, 2011 10:13 EST
Why are a Few Acres More Important Than The Galaxies of The Mind?

Why are a Few Acres More Important Than The Galaxies of The Mind?

By Djelloul (Del) Marbrook (Editor/Mentor)

Meditations from a book fair

The rain abated for the annual Hudson, New York, book fair, and there in the grand Opera House were hundreds of beautiful volumes and journals of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and excitements, incitements and enticements that can`t be categorized. They were not only objects of art, often exquisitely designed and produced, but they were gemstone caches of the mind, adventures awaiting us. And yet the emphasis, as always in Hudson, was on buying antiques and food, food for the belly, not the mind.

One has to peel away one`s sadness to treat the intellectual abscess: why have we failed to create a culture that values a stunning volume of thoughts and images more than an old bottle? Is there a clue in this to our failure to prepare our children for the century that is already upon them, the clue being that we value objects more than the life of the mind, forgetting in our obsession with things that thoughts are themselves things?

Why has it not occurred to us that books are bargain-priced collectibles far more valuable than a chipped crock or a rusty wheel? Is the answer that we go to Hudson because it`s a known destination for antiques and by God that`s what we`re going to buy? Or is it because in all cases everywhere a book cannot compete in our minds with yet another doodad or gewgaw? Is it because books deteriorate at a faster rate than the contents of an antique shop? Doesn`t that depend on how highly we prize the book? Some books have survived for centuries. Is it because the contents of a book are secreted in our mind, whereas we want something to show for our money?

No matter the skill of a glassblower, he cannot have entertained all that poets entertain in their minds. Why is a great poem or a great book of poems not worth the price of his vase? Is it because our culture has not reassured us about the worth of the poetry and fiction and therefore we must fall back on our devices? If that is the reason, then it must be a facet of a culture that values its best thoughts less than its best gimcracks, a culture that regards its best thoughts as disposables but its hard-body products as collectibles.

Up and down Warren Street, Hudson`s fascinating main line, I walked, taking in my fellow strollers, their purchases, the antiques, the food emporiums, and I did not find a single item "not even a 96-acre estate with grand vistas described on a realtor`s window "worth what was practically being given away in the Hudson Opera House, books for $4, literary journals for $2.

We`re a gaming culture. Wall Street, after all, is a great casino. So why are we not betting on our artists and writers? Or our scientists, for that matter? Why would a gaming culture choose a colored medicine bottle over its poetry and fables and inquiries? Is this what investment advisors call conservative investing or is it philistinism?

And why have I not entertained these thoughts before? Why has it taken me so long to be sad about something that now seems so obvious and squalid?

I picked up The Open Face Sandwich, a literary annual based in Austin and New York City. It is not only an exciting work of art in itself "its production values are superb "but it is publishing the kind of work that doesn`t fit into even our more arcane pigeonholes. Its call for submissions gaily suggests absurdities, misinformation, pornography, libel, personal correspondence. " There is nothing in Warren Street`s antiquaries "forgive me, brave entrepreneurs of Hudson "worth Open Face Sandwich`s endeavor to stir interest in the notoriously unpublished novels of Hortense Caruthers (search for her at your peril) who said she wrote for the unborn:

My dear, I am dead. I speak to you now, not from the grave but from the light that enters the famished socket of your eye. "

Here is a living endeavor full of fun, curiosity and elegance, all ingeniously packaged as a true collectible. Nothing on the street like it. All it requires is a culture to yearn for it as much as it does its next pizza or fake Greek urn.

And there at another table was upstreet, number six, a refined literary review published in the nearby Berkshires by Ledgetop Publishing, full of poetry, stories and essays. It represents a half-seen renaissance in American culture. There have never before been so many esthetically rewarding journals produced by a society that might be called War and Prison Inc. "in the midst of political chaos and rabid greed, beauty and intellectual inquiry of the highest order are flourishing.

It all came down to a personal decision. I knew the book fair was underway. My strategy was to park and look for garden planters as I approached the Opera House. I found what I was looking for and decided to come back and buy two planters after strolling through the book fair. But at the fair I bought books instead of the lovely planters. My mind needed another excellent thought, another well wrought image more than my garden needed a cement pot.

Djelloul Marbrook is a retired newspaperman. His second book of poems, Brushstrokes and Glances, will be published by Deerbrook Editions on December 20, 2010. His first book of poems, Far From Algiers, won the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize from Kent State University in 2007 and was published in 2008. It won the International Book Award in 2010. His novella, Artemisia`s Wolf, will be published by Prakash Books of India in December. His novella, Saraceno, was recently published as an e-book. His story, Artists Hill, adapted from the second novel of an unpublished trilogy, won the Literal LattÃ© first prize in fiction in 2008. The pioneering e-book publisher, Online Originals (UK), published his novella, Alice MIller`s Room, in 1999.

Del`s book, Far From Algiers:

New review of Far from Algiers:

Artists Hill, Literal LattÃ©`s fiction first prize:

His blog:

His mother`s art:

His aunt`s art:


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Sunday, July 10, 2016

Atticus said he was having so much fun going whitewater rafting that he wasn't scared to death -he was having "fun to death". He is a dare devil and likes to push the limit when skiing, biking, rafting...hoping there never is a "fun to death". However-we do need to work on our figures of speech.

She packed her clothes for this trip all by herself😊

Fishing and playing in the water we just went rafting on!!

Friday, July 01, 2016


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Monday, March 12, 2007

I finished this cute little "dolly" for Gracie the other day and I'm so glad she likes it!

She calles her other dolls "babies" but for some reason she calls this one her dolly. She has to sleep with it and loves the idea that we have to be quite if we are near her because she is {always} sleeping. I am so glad when my children enjoy the things that I make for them.

1 comment:

Jen Bird said...

What a beautiful doll!! I can't believe you made that. :-) You inspire me!! Love ya! Jen


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It looks like we’ll be seeing two of the Sekai Project visual novels in the next three months.

First up is news on Fault Milestone One, which is in the final stages of porting – and the point where it’s time to add new features and update assets. As such, we’ve got a look at how the speech, narration, thought, and StP – Adia Travel Scenes have turned out below.

This interface overhaul has been paired with an original score composed by Brazilian musician Luiza Carvalho so far, though they’re clearly not done tweaking. Look for more information on Fault Milestone One very soon, as it’s headed to Vitas sometime in the first quarter of the year.

Additionally, Root Double: Before Crime After Days Xtend Edition has been revealed as currently in the quality assurance phase – destined to release sometime in Q1 2017 as well.

Are you looking forward to these titles finally making their way into your hands? Let us know your thoughts below!

  • About time!

    • sundave76

      My thoughts exactly. Probably have to wait another two years for the Grisaia and World End Economica ports though.


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St Patrick’s Day: It’s A Long Way to The Tipperary But Our Heart’s Right There

P1010677The Tipperary is the oldest Irish pub in London. Steeped in Irish heritage, it has been a haven for Wild Geese for hundreds of years and a remarkable taste of home. And now we’ve flocked behind the bar! Yes, The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey is now served in London’s oldest Irish pub, just in time for St Patrick’s Day!

The Tipperary was first built in 1300, on the side of a monastery where the monks brewed ale.

In 1605 it was transformed into ‘The Boar’s Head’. It’s stood the test of time, surviving the Great Fire of London having been built of stone and brick, rather then wood.

It came under Irish ownership in around 1700, becoming the first Irish pub outside of Ireland. It was fitted out in traditional Irish style, including a clock by Thomas Tompion.

Following the First World War, the printers returning from the war had the pub named ‘The Tipperary’, inspired by the war song, ‘It’s A Long Way’, and the name remains today.

Today The Tipperary is run by Steve Rowlands, who has a huge passion for fine spirits. The interior retains the original Irish character and behind the bar now sits The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey Collection. It’s a great place to enjoy The Wild Geese this St Patrick’s Day!

The owner of The Tipperary Steve Rowlands with The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey Collection.

Stay Untamed with The Wild Geese Classic Blend, Now Available in the Times Whisky Club

Stay Untamed and give your St Patrick’s Day celebrations a Wild twist! Our Classic Blend is featured on The Whisky Club from The Times and The Sunday Times!

The Times Whisky Club is well known for selecting the best products on the market. You can read the full review of The Classic Blend below.

Nose: A light, berry, sweetness at first. Oak develops followed by barley malt, digestive biscuits and vanilla.

Palate: A cool and refreshingly sweet early palate. Giving way to a richer sweetness with undertones of manuka honey, aniseed and a slight citric tang.

Finish: There is a refreshingly sharp oak present at the very end, preceded by more cream vanilla.

Overall: A delightful Irish blend that is a superb example of a sweet and vanilla rich whiskey.

New Cocktail: The Irish Apple

irishappleOur friends at London’s renowned Nightjar have created the Irish Apple cocktail. Bursting with flavour, this is a long and refreshing drink.

2 parts The Wild Geese Classic Blend
1 part apple and rhubarb juice
3 parts dry cider
1/2 part Kamms & Sons

Mix the Classic Blend, dry cider and apple & rhubarb juice by ‘rolling’ them in a cocktail shaker. Pour into a high ball glass and float a large ice ball on top. Add the Kamms & Sons to crete a bitter-sweet taste and garnish with a crab apple and apple blossom. Drizzle fresh caramel over the garnish for the final touch.

Wild Geese Sets New Flight Record

Thw Wild Geese Miniatures 2013

The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey Miniatures has been announced as the only miniatures set to be available on all British Airways long haul flights. It will be available to passengers from October 2013.

British Airways have an on-going commitment to provide the best inflight experience, and only select the most highly desirable products for its very limited inflight portfolio.

As one of the last independent Irish Whiskeys, The Wild Geese offers an internationally acclaimed alternative to other leading spirits.

The Wild Geese is recognised as the only Super Premium Collection of Irish Whiskeys and has been voted ‘Best Irish Whiskey’ three times. The Wild Geese Miniature set features 50cl bottles of the Rare Irish, Limited Edition and Single Malt Irish Whiskeys.

The Collection celebrates the brave men and women who have left Ireland and found success abroad, coming to be known as ‘The Wild Geese’. When the leader of the Irish rebellion, Patrick Sarsfield, and his followers left Ireland in 1691, they took the name ‘The Wild Geese’ in the hope and belief that they would one day return. Today over 70 million Wild Geese are still making a positive impact on the global community. Many have settled far from home, and this new listing is a testament to the brand story.

The Perfect Mix: Nightjar and The Wild Geese

Screen shot 2013-10-15 at 15.56.44

The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey is now available at London’s Nightjar, which has recently been recognised as one of the world’s best bars. Nightjar moved up a place from last year’s competition to win second place, proving to be the perfect place to enjoy The Wild Geese.

Our friends at Nightjar have been enjoying The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey, using it to create bespoke cocktails, which we’ll be sharing on our Facebook page.

Nightjar’s co-owner, Edmund Weil, describes the bar as having ‘old school glamour, surprising cocktails, live music, top service and a very special atmosphere in a space which is never overcrowded’.

Nightjar narrowly missed out on first place, which went to the Langham Hotel’s Artesian bar, which serves The Wild Geese Rum.

Wild Geese To Be Honoured At Tip O’Neill Award 2013

Screen shot 2013-09-18 at 17.56.24

We’re very proud to be returning to the Tip O’Neill Award as sponsors.

The award has been established to commemorate the life and achievements of US Speaker Tip O’Neill and celebrate the achievements of members of the diaspora who exceed expectations in the their chosen field. Much like Tip O’Neill did.

O’Neill fought for the Irish diaspora in the United States, by encouraging migration to the country, where Irish people could enjoy the same opportunities that he had experienced – to be the best that you can be. He served as Speaker of the US House of Representatives for ten years.
This year’s recipient is Brian Schweitzer, who served as Governor of Montana in the USA from 2005 – 2013. He is being recognised for his work in this role. As Governor, Me Schweitzer holds one of the highest approval ratings in US politics.
This Award proves that Wild Geese are still making an impact in all corners of the world and we’re very happy to be a part of this gathering. The Governor will be presented with a bottle of The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey.

The Gathering: The Connaught Telegraph Features The Wild Geese!

We’re really pleased to see The Connaught Telegraph picked up our support of co. mayo’s flagship Gathering celebration!

Travel Retail’s Wild Geese: Alan Brennan

The Moodie Report Issue 90 - The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey - 22 August 2013Click here to read issue 90 of The Moodie Report e-zine.

Classic Blend Recognised as Top Independent Irish Whiskey

Classic 70cl WWWe’re very proud to announce that The Wild Geese Classic Blend has been recognised as one of the top independent Irish Whiskeys on the market in Ireland’s Sunday Business Post.

Columnist and drinks expert Tomás Clancy saluted the Classic Blend with a score of 90, and a ‘very good quality’ rating.

Berries, fresh oak and a hint of spice.

Taste & Finish:
Light, sweet, fruity taste, balanced and smooth. The grain comes through gently and it ends with a tingle of honey and citrus fruit. The finish is clean.

The Wild Geese Classic Blend is ideal for a wide range of cocktails but is also great on it’s own.

Travel Retail’s Wild Geese: Garrett Coogan

The Moodie Report Issue 89 - The Wild Geese Irish Whiskey - 8 August 2013Click here to read issue 89 of The Moodie Report e-zine.


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Friday, November 5, 2010

GODS OF BASEBALL: Andre Ethier of the Los Angeles Dodgers, MLB

We should help ESPN look for deserving models in their next Naked issue. Who do we want to see get naked? Try Andre, the outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

celebrating straight boy Andre:

Beautiful- Eminem

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PAC Free Workout

Download as iCal file
Thursday, July 25, 2013by Courtney

Come to the Premier Athletic Club located at the old YMCA for a free cardio workout. The workouts are suitable for all ages and easily modified. They are every Thursday from 7-8pm and every Saturday from 10-11am. Bring a friend and a waterbottle to join the fun.


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Friday, April 13, 2012

Use SnoopyLogger to audit Linux

When it comes to security you better audit what is going on in your linux box. This is not intended to be a recipe for success on securing Linux boxes, you will be secure only if you are stronger than your enemies and that translates to "Do not stop here" when it comes to learning. We live in a world of "knowledge war".

So let us call it the poor sysadmin weapons as they are free like in beer and simple enough to install and use. The acct package is the first to have. Between others you have the lastcomm command available. But as you might have noticed it does not give you the whole command including parameters and options. SnoopyLogger to the rescue. I have tested all this in Ubuntu BTW.

Here is a recipe for you to install and check the power of this tiny C Open Source code.

You can install all this in your servers following the instructions from

At this point you can review any command inspecting the proper log file. In Ubuntu:
tail -f  /var/log/auth.log
Note that acct and snoopy logger are different packages/programs. While you can use the acct package to look into the history of commands with commands like 'lastcomm -f /var/log/account/pacct' or point to a previous rotated pacct file you do not get the full command including parameters.

When it comes to security I also recommend using Logwatch

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

RDP with Dual Monitor from OSX

From time to time you need to support a MAC user that needs remote connection to existing Windows servers. The below procedure applies with little differences to Linux users as well. The open source project called rdesktop is a simple and yet powerful command line tool to open a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)

Arguable dual monitors are supported except for the fact that when you maximize a MS program window you get it spread across the two screens. So if you are happy with manual resizing you should definitely give it a try.
  1. Download and install Xquartz
  2. Open XCode and make sure to agree to install additional components.
  3. From Terminal run:
    xcode-select --install
  4. Download the gzipped distribution for rdesktop/
  5. Uncompress it
  6. Open Applications/Utilities/
  7. Type the below classical commands. You will be prompted for your password when you run the third command
    sudo make install
  8. Run the command to connect to your windows server. It will prompt you for your Windows user password and then it will open the Remote Windows Desktop across your both monitors.
    rdesktop -f -d myWindowsDomain -u myWindowsUserName -p -
    Alternatively you can create a command which you can double click. Just create a file named with the below content:
    /usr/local/bin/rdesktop -f -d myWindowsDomain -u myUser myComputer.fqdn &
    exit 0
    Then and make it executable:
    chmod +x
    Note that once the script exits the terminal screen will remain there unless you have configured your Terminal to close after an exit command is issued (Terminal Menu/Preferences/Settings/Shell/When the shell exists:Close the window)

    You could also use Applications/Automator option "Run Shell Script" and save the result as which you can then have in your dock as a handy icon to quickly access your remote server.
To be honest I have documented all this just because there are still people using an extended monitor in addition to their small screen MACs or just two monitors instead of their MAC but with huge monitors in the market I guess this is not needed for many MAC users out there.


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Masha Gessen

Women, as the recent Pussy Riot trial shows, may well turn out to be the bravehearts who trigger a new Russian revolution.

But while the three female rockstars may become the global face of the anti-Putin protests that have started to build up across Russia since December 2011, it is another woman – arguably one of the most brilliant writers you’ve never heard of – who in her own way is leading the movement from the front: by unmasking the man who came from nowhere to rule the largest country in the world.

In one fundamental way, Masha Gessen, journalist and author, is like her most celebrated subject, Vladimir Putin: she arrives out of nowhere and makes an impact you’re not likely to forget in a hurry. Ironic, given that she is vehemently against everything he stands for.

Gessen, author of six previous books about Russia, shot into the limelight earlier this year when she released The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, unarguably the most definitive, well-researched biography of Russia’s ambitious President. Her investigative journalism antecedents are evident in the tapping of previously inaccessible sources to document how Putin “seized control of media, sent political rivals and critics into exile or to the grave and smashed the country’s fragile electoral system, concentrating power in the hands of his cronies.”

That sentence alone also speaks volumes about Gessen’s courage in documenting previously unknown data about the ruthless leader – famously known to stamp out dissent by whatever means it takes.

But then courage is the backbone of Masha’s life story – her parents emigrated to the US when she was an adolescent but she returned to Russia 10 years later to make a career in journalism; she failed her first year as a high school student in the US because her spoken English was so poor yet went on to be a Nieman Fellow of Journalism at Harvard University; she came out as lesbian and became an open campaigner for lesbian and gay rights, later marrying her partner in the US; in 2006 she discovered she had an 87% genetic predisposition to breast cancer and 40-50% to ovarian cancer and faced the harrowing choice of a preventative double mastectomy and ovariectomy, a process documented in Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene.

Today Masha writes for Russian media, as well as the biggest names in international journalism, from the New York Times to The Guardian, the International Herald Tribune, Vanity Fair, Granta and Slate, among others. Her work is sweepingly wide yet consistently brilliant; in 2009, she wrote a surprise bestseller in Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century, a biography of Grigori Perelman, the brilliant and eccentric young Russian mathematician who solved the famous Poincare Conjecture in 2006. The book called on yet another aspect of Masha’s genius – her prodigious understanding and knowledge of mathematics to create what a New York Times review called ‘something rare: an accessible book about an unreachable man’.

That could well be the title of a book on her own life.

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Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Model Thinspo

5. Break it into action steps. If your resolution is a large project, like organizing your home from top to bottom, it would be wise to break it down into baby steps. Maybe step 1 is mapping out the project - what items do I need to complete this task in its entirety? Order, shop, borrow, find all those items as your step 2 and then... get it done!

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