Neatniks! Come home, It's Clean!

Call (414) 745-6532

in the greater Milwaukee area

I just wanted to take the time to say, "Thanks." I've noticed that you really haven't been using me too much, and I couldn't be happier. I'm sure its because of all the other important things you have to worry about; work, kids, school, meals, etc. Of course, the house is looking a little unkempt.

Instead of using me, why don't you relax and let the professionals at NeatNiks! clean the house for you? You could go out, relax, or spend more time with the family! Let them use their sponges!

They give free estimates, too! I looked up their number for you. Its (414) 745-6532. Call today! And, thanks again.

Your sponge

But if instead of expanding roads, cities and towns expanded mass transportation, there's a good chance it would have just as big an effect on transit problems while being more sustainable both economically and environmentally.

An example would be the new bus to UBC-Okanagan, which is undoubtedly a good idea. At around $70,000 a year, it's fairly cheap. If you consider that the widening of 25th Avenue took probably 30 to 40 times more than that (I'm guessing, but judging by road works in Armstrong and area I don't think I'm too far off). You could probably throw a whole lot more buses on the road, increasing service levels and, hopefully, increasing riders and decreasing traffic.

Just a thought.

Another Sunday, another day of working with Giselle, Ria and Nadine and another evening of watching the food programmes on cable. News was great today and we managed to pull the newscast together primarily because of Giselle’s uncanny ability to remain unruffled in the face of anything. I swear if civilians heard the bawdy conversations we have while creating a newscast they would probably throw holy water on us. Giselle did an excellent job of reading this evening as usual and I was happy to be able to just behave as the conductor.

I made it home to revel in another evening of watching food programmes. The main event for me this evening was Alton Brown’s Feasting on Waves which, as it turns out, was the final part of his four part series. Before that I watched Challenge on Food Network with some dreadful display of odd cooking in what seems to have been a beef cooking challenge that resulted in a few winners with rather yawnable dishes. At least I managed to grab dinner and have a shower during the programme. This was followed by a difficult time for me when I was confronted with Iron Chef America ( a poor imitation of the Japanese version of the show) running against Anthony Bourdain with his No Reservations. Normally I am glued to Iron Chef America but dammit Jim ...it was Anthony Bourdain and an episode I had never seen before on the Travel Channel with him in New Zealand. I flipped back and forth and then saw that the challengers on Iron Chef chose Bobby Flay and ..well...Bourdain won.

Bourdain was his usual self as he bombed at a culinary speech in New Zealand and proceeded to find the ethos of the country before venturing into his next presentation. I know it was all staged TV ( I work in the medium - after all) but it was well done and there was wild boar involved and Bourdain did the butchering. I think I adore the guy because when i watch him and his sarcastic and cynical ways I see myself and in a world when I often feel I am the last caustic person on the planet  - it comforts me. His insatiable curiosity also strikes a chord with me. Bourdain was happy with his visit to the Antipodes and I was pretty darned happy too. BTW I managed to catch the last minute of Iron Chef and was pleased to see that Flay lost the challenge.

I was going to make this entry a detailed discussion about the last episode of Feasting on Waves but despite my extensive note taking on Scrivener  I feel that would miss the point of the last episode. Yes, he spoke of pelau and had more johnny cakes which, inexplicably, seem ubiquitous in the upper Caribbean but not Trinidad. And , yes, he insists on pronouncing Anguilla as “angweela” as opposed to “angwilla”. He also continued his concentration on the smaller territories ignoring the islands that really dictate the cuisine of the Caribbean but it was a four part series so I can only assume he has a plan for a larger series.

My views on the the series after seeing the final episode are actually quite basic. I am happy I have seen another side of Alton Brown. A less perfect and much more interesting side that...dare I say it...makes him more human. I saw our region force Alton to relax and just be himself which I guess is what we are best at doing. We break people down and force them to realize we are ultimately about being human and that involves the fun of learning we are not perfect and that life is really about a little bit of this and little bit of that and damn the exact measurements. Caribbean culture, built on African, Indian, European, Chinese, Arabic and heaven knows what else is about just doing what feels right. That is what I love about living here. Then Alton, the most uptight person on the Food Network made the ultimate announcement in his last episode. He said that in the Caribbean ( in local food places) we cook food with love and that is very different from cooking it “lovingly”. Ding ding ding Alton....you got it. That is what we are about as a people and a region and most observers miss it but you didn’t. So I now have a new respect for Alton who was always struck me as a soulless but very knowledgeable food expert. He clearly has soul and after seeing him barefoot in a kitchen and seeing him taste  a dish by sucking it out of his hand ( I always thought that was normal) he is now fully OK with me. I love the line he said in the BVI regarding a great coconut fish chowder passed down to the cook by his grandmother which he described as “drinking  his history out of a cup”.

Ironically, living in the Caribbean I now see that one of my best friends Bruce, who is also a travel writer but times 100, is facing Hurricane Kyle in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. How odd that I am safe in the Southern Caribbean and he is now dealing with one of our most infamous exports - bad weather.

Posted by Viola

To True!

"Choose freedom. Choose freedom from the human jungle. That
is all you need to do in order to start. Your very choice is
an expression of affection for the true and the happy...
Now step forward with a conscious endeavor to understand
human life in order to change your life."

1500 Ways to Escape the Human Jungle, p. 7

Go to the Bookstore link at www.anewlife.org

                       While we were all under fire from banks collapsing and pigs flying around with lipstick, three major events took place last week.  

                        Sunday, September 14, 2008, North Korea opposes verification of nuke facilities. Here we go again.  Someone needs to buy President Kim Jon-il a clue. He just went back on his word, again ! If Kim Jon-Il wants to feed his nation, he needs to stop playing games. See the article here.      

                        On Thursday, September 18, 2008, the US Embassy in Yemen was attacked by terrorist and 19 people were killed. Authorities arrested at least 25 militants with suspected links to Al Qaeda in connection with the deadly attack on the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital. See the entire article at Fox News. It's evident to me that Yemen is a very hostile place. The USS Cole was bombed there.  

                        On Friday, September, 19, 2008, the Russian Navy test fired an Inter Continental Ballistic Missile. The keyword here is “Inter Continental” meaning it flies over and across continents.  The missile was launched from a Russian submarine in the White Sea.  The missile flew 4200 miles and splashed down (unarmed) on target. For a reference point, from  the Empire State Building to Studio City Center in Los Angeles it is 2450 air miles.  As reported by Bloomberg news.   

                        So who are you going to call ? Ghostbusters ?   I don’t think so.

                        This is a job for a man with experience, knowledge, diplomacy and is not in the habit of flip-flopping.

This man I am writing about is Sean Sullivan.  Sean has experience in every one of these issues.

Joe Courtney does not !  Joe cannot make these decisions. Joe is no “Rob Simmons” and Joe is no “Sean Sullivan”. 

                       Joe Courtney does a great job as an Attorney from Conn.  As witnessed by the hundreds of donations he received, by Connecticut Attorneys,  when he went after “Rob Simmons” in 2006.

                      Wrong Company.  Joe even had Union members supporting him at the Enfield, Ct Debate 2006. When I arrived, the Union people were holding up Billboard type signs on school property.  Several of the Union members walked around pulling “Rob Simmons” signs out of the ground, tearing them apart and throwing around. Not  gentleman like people but bullies.  

Maybe you could email Joe and ask him about the debates. comments@joecourtney.com .

Ask Joe why he refused to debate Sean Sullivan in Sept 2008. Joe WILL ONLY agree to 5 debates.

Ask Joe why he refuses to do 12 debates in 2008 but HAD to have 12 debates against “Rob Simmons”  in 2006.

Ask Joe WHY HE REFUSES TO DEBATE IN HIS OWN HOME TOWN OF VERNON, CT ?  

                    Maybe Joe does not know what to do.   

Let’s put  Sean Sullivan in Congress  working alongside John McCain and Sarah Palin.   

Naval Commander Sean Sullivan vs Attorney Joe Courtney. Who do you trust ?

Carl Slicer, cslicer, blog editor, www.VernonGop.com 

(10577) "All great change begins at the dinner table"- Ronald Reagan 

I spent much of this weekend touring around the Los Angeles River with Urban Photo Adventures. They're a start-up business headed by a pair of savvy Hollywood location scouts named Mark Indig and Ken Haber. Urban Photo Adventures is organizing a series of special 2-day Los Angeles River photography tours. Their first full-fledged tour will take place on Saturday/Sunday November 8th and 9th 2008. Conflict of interest note: Urban Photo Adventures are indeed paying me to docent portions of their river tours, so I do have a small financial stake in what I am promoting on this blog entry.

The Urban Photo Adventures tour is a bit different than tours I've led in the past. It includes background on history and revitalization efforts, but it's a bit less focused on the most natural areas, and more on photogenic gritty urban parts of the river, and the neighborhoods around them. Think L.A. Conservancy's Cruising Industrial Los Angeles plus some of FoLAR's River Revitalization Tours added to the mix. Usually when I lead a tour, we move along relatively quickly from site to site. Urban Photo Adventures' photo tour gives plenty of time for photographers to explore and capture each site. These extended tours run two full weekend days from 8am-6pm each day.

The past weekend's dry run went well - Mark and Ken have done a lot of scouting to find excellent unusual and hidden spots. They even showed me a couple nooks and crannies in places that I had never seen before - including some off-the-beaten-track locations at the ports. One of these included a great gaggle of urban sea lions relaxing on a low industrial wharf. It's just the kind of natural/unnatural juxtaposition that is found in many spots along the L.A. River. Some other photo tour sites include: Sepulveda Dam, Devil's Gate Dam, downtown historic bridges, the soft-bottomed scenic Glendale Narrows and Lower Arroyo Seco, and neglected rail- and graffiti-strewn areas on and near the river. The photo tour includes a brief wine tasting at the San Antonio Winery (the last of the remaining wineries that once were prevalent in downtown Los Angeles, wineries that grew grapes watered via zanjas from the river) and a 45-minute boat ride at the Los Angeles Harbor (at the mouth of the L.A. River and the Dominguez Channel.) The port views there are monumental and spectacular -huge cranes, tankers, pelicans, sea lions, and the longest bridge in the city.

I was struck today in seeing many of the most concrete parts of the river looking rather green. Over the course of the dry season, sediment settles in places on top of the concrete river bed. Plants begin to grow in these shallow sandbars. The plants attract insects; the insects attract birds. In the "exclusively industrial" city of Vernon, the stretch of the river near the Soto Street Bridge was teeming with dozens of swallows swooping and curving through the air. I like to think of it as instant nature - just add earth and water. Unfortunately a lof of these sandbars will wash out during the rainy season... but they'll be back.

I've interspersed various example photos Ken and Mark have taken at river tour sites. Larger versions and many more photos are viewable at their website gallery.

If you're interested in photography and in checking out some of the hidden faces of the mighty Los Angeles River, consider signing up for a tour. Full tour information is available at Urban Photo Adventures website.

From the Los Angeles Times:

A Metro Blue Line train collided with a Metro bus in downtown Los Angeles this morning, causing minor injuries to 13 people, authorities said.

Blue Line riders can expect 20-minute delays, Upaldo said. The intersection is blocked off as authorities investigate how the collision occurred, Humphrey said.

The Blue Line travels from downtown Los Angeles to downtown Long Beach, serving many South L.A. areas, such as Compton, Vernon and Florence-Firestone. It is the longest line in the Metro system and the second busiest light rail line in the United States, averaging more than 70,000 weekday boardings, according to Metro Rail.

The Blue Jays lead the MLB in ERA with 3.55 and complete games (13). Ace Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett have been carrying the work load combining to pitch 437.1 innings and a combined 412 strikeouts. Unfortunately, their records have not really shown that with Halladay being 18-11 and Burnett 18-10. Still, the long innings these two pitch have helped to craft a very young bullpen still getting the hang of things. The only big name in the 'pen is B.J. Ryan and has converted 30/34 save opportunities with 57 K - a solid season coming off Tommy John surgery. So, if you have pitching, you should be able to win games, right?

Well, let's look at fielding, which was a problem for the Jays last year. After bringing in a slew of NL players in the offseason, the Jays are 6th in fielding percentage at .986. The defense is good, the pitching is fantastic. And the have a great offense already don't they? With Rios and Wells? Not exactly...

Here is the struggle for Toronto: Offense. You can't win games if you can't get runs. Halladay doesn't get you 5 runs for throwing a complete game, so the offense has needed to step up. Unfortunately, it has a little too late. Toronto is batting .265 on the season, good for 14th in the majors. A big problem has been missing ad that is a big bat in the lineup. Without Frank Thomas to protect young Rios and Wells, there have only been 117 homers hit out by Jays players: 25th in MLB.

Let's focus a little bit more specifically on the offense. Believe it or not, there is not one Blue Jay that has 20 HR. The closest is Alex Rios with 17. Pitiful. Unacceptable in this day and age of the long ball. GM Ricciardi MUST address this in the offseason. If it means giving up a young pitcher or two, do it. You have got to manufacture runs. Keep in mind though, the Blue Jays have been bitte by the injury bug a lot this year, which they have the last two years. Only 3 players have played over 106 games (Overbay, Rios, Scutaro). Rios has been the money man for the Jays though, leaving me wondering if the Rios for Lincecum deal would have went through in the offseason if the Jays could do anything offensively. Rios has hit the most home runs, hits, doubles, and stolen bases. He can't do everything though. He has got to have help. OF Vernon Wells just has never been the same since that huge deal a couple years ago.

There has been hope though! The last 30 days, the Jays are 4th in batting average, 4th in hits and the top 10 for most hitting categories in the MLB. They can do it. As much as I hate saying wait until next year, Jays fans, we are going to have to. Ricciardi will lose the big Burnett salary and hopefully can bring in some serious hitters, while keeping the main core of pitching together (Halladay, Marcum, McGowan, Litsch). Perhaps maybe bringing in a good arm or two for the bullpen. Maybe the slogan next year will be "Not the Rays, it's the Jays!" Boston continues to get old, and the Yankees are a complete mess. It could very well be the Rays and Jays becoming the new Boston and New York. Now, wouldn't that be something?

-Ray

"Every kid and their grandma wants to be a pro snowboarder, but I’m not sure everyone wants it for the right reasons." - Jess Kimura

That's just one of the many opinions Jess Kimura expresses in her Who's Next interview with Snowboard Canada's Scott Birke. The 23-year-old shredder from Vernon, B.C., has stuck to her roots and continues shredding at her local mountain, Silver Star. Perhaps staying close to home is what has shaped her perspective on the current state of snowboarding.

Read all about those perspectives here.

Rome SDS, Volcolm, Electric, ThirtyTwo, Nixon, Etnies, Celtek

Background

British Columbia hockey was alive and well by the time that the West Coast Hockey League folded in 1926. B.C.’s first junior hockey championships were scheduled the following season, when the Vancouver Terminals beat Salmon Arm. The next year, when the Mowat Cup was introduced, there were nine eligible teams from the Kootenays, Okanagan, Prince George, Victoria and Vancouver.

Talent was evenly distributed, and Fernie won the first cup, Nelson the second and Vancouver the third and fourth.

There were thirteen junior teams by the 1930-31 season, and Trail won the fifth and sixth cups.

The Okanagan Junior “A” Hockey League was formed the 1961-62 season, with the Kelowna Buckaroos, Vernon Canadians, Kamloops Rockets and the Penticton Vees competing. The Kootenay Junior “B” Hockey League was started the 1969-70 season.

**********************************************************

The B.C. Junior Hockey League was formed the year before NHL expansion, and included teams from Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon, Penticton, New Westminster and Victoria.

Fewer teams were included to maintain a higher standard. Additional junior teams were relegated to B circuits.

Three years later, Vancouver and Chilliwack joined the league in 1970, and the BCJHL was divided into Coast and Okanagan divisions.

The league’s first major problem arose when some owners wanted to split from the B.C. Amateur Hockey Association (Only three of eight attended the Association’s annual meeting.). These owners wanted over-age players, and didn’t want Memorial Cup playdowns interfering with their lengthy seasons. The Association compromised, allowing the owners to have four over-age players. The teams had to compete in Tier Two Provincial playdowns, however, and were told to discontinue any affiliation with prairie teams. A second problem resulted when some prairie teams started signing B.C. players without proper releases.

Nanaimo and Bellingham next joined the BCJHL, and New West, Vancouver and Victoria left for the WCHL the following season.

In August, 1972 the rival Pacific International Junior “A” Hockey League was formed. It consisted of six teams, expanded to eight, and became the Pacific Junior Hockey League two years later, when Seattle and Portland left. The league folded the 1980-81 season, and several of the Pacific teams joined the BCJHL.

With teams coming and going, the BCJHL formed two different divisions. The interior teams were Kelowna, Merritt, Penticton and Vernon, and the coast teams were Bellingham, Chilliwack, Langley and Nanaimo.

Some of the BCJHL’s best players starred during the early and mid-eighties.

Ray Ferraro of Penticton, Dan Hodgson of Cowichan Valley, and Craig Redmond of Abbotsford led the league in scoring. And during the 1983-84 season, Brett Hull of Penticton set a league record with 105 goals and 188 points.

Other NHLers, who once played in the BCHL include: Boston's Chuck Kobasew (Penticton Panthers), the Rangers' Scott Gomez (South Surrey Eagles), St. Louis' Paul Kariya (Penticton), and Montreal's Carey Price (Quesnel Millionaires).

The B.C. Hockey League has expanded into three divisions and developed into Canada’s best Junior A circuit. Three lower mainland teams and Powell River have been grouped with four island teams to form the Coastal Conference.

The eight Interior Conference teams range from Prince George, through the Cariboo plateau, and Okanagan valley to the Kootenays.

The winner of the BCHL playoffs is awarded the Fred Page Cup, and continues on to play for the Doyle Cup against the champion of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. The winner of the Doyle Cup then competes in the Junior "A" National Championship for the Royal Bank Cup (formerly called the Centennial Cup).

Over the past two decades, the Vernon Lakers (later called the Vipers), won the Royal Bank Cup in 1990, 1991, 1996 and 1999. The Kelowna Spartans won it in 1993, the South Surrey Eagles in 1998 and the Burnaby Express in 2006.

It's great for the B.C. Hockey League, because four other provinces/areas have been giving them a run for their money.

The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League won the Royal Bank Cup in 2003, 2008 (both times Humboldt Broncos), and in 2005 (Weyburn Red Wings). The Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League won the Cup in 2004 and 2007 (Aurora Tigers twice) and the Maritimes Junior “A” Hockey League twice in 1997 (Summerside Western Capitals) and in 2002 (Halifax Exports). And two Alberta teams, the Fort McMurray Oil Barons, and Camrose Kodiaks won the Royal Bank Cup in 2000 and 2001.

**************************************************************************

This article was first written for the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame.

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - "I kill for God. I listen to God," a man accused of a northwest Washington shooting rampage said Friday at a hearing where six charges of first-degree murder and four of first-degree assault were filed against him.

Isaac Zamora made the chilling comment twice at the brief hearing in Skagit County District Court while investigators wrapped up their work at eight crime scenes. The 28-year-old is being held on $5 million bail in the wake of Tuesday's rampage, which left six people dead and four injured.

District Court Judge Warren Gilbert read each charge and the penalties, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. That doesn't mean the death penalty is off the table, according to the Skagit County prosecutor.

"Do you talk about it? Sure you talk about it," Prosecutor Rich Weyrich told the Skagit Valley Herald. "Where it goes, it's way too early to decide that."

Zamora was not required to enter a plea Friday. The charges filed in District Court allow Zamora to be held in custody for 30 days. He will later be formally charged in county Superior Court.

A hearing has been set for Oct. 3.

Killing spree
The affidavit for probable cause, which details in support of the charges, remains sealed for 10 more days while the investigation continues.

The attacks began near Zamora's mother's home near the tiny town of Alger, 70 miles north of Seattle, and continued on Interstate 5. After a high-speed police pursuit, Zamora surrendered at a sheriff's office in Mount Vernon, about 20 miles south of Alger.

Among the dead was Skagit County Deputy Sheriff Anne Jackson, who had gone to check on Zamora after his mother called authorities.

Also killed were a man shot at the same location as Jackson; two male construction workers shot nearby; a 48-year-old woman found a few houses away; and a 64-year-old motorist killed along I-5 near a rest stop, authorities said. Two people were wounded near Alger — one by stabbing — and two were wounded on the freeway, including a state trooper.

Zamora, who has a long record of run-ins with the law, had been admitted several times to hospitals for mental health treatment and attempted suicide several times, his friends and family said.

Original

I blog this evening after I called Toronto to speak to my folks only to learn from my brother that they were on a tour of the Eastern Provinces. I vaguely recollect them indicating they would be going on a trip but I was a bit shocked that I had missed their departure. This job of mine makes time warp into a blur of homicides and interviews. My dismay at the trip is predicated by a minor childhood trauma . I was in my early teens and my parents decided to move house without informing me of the development. Imagine my puzzlement when i came home from school to discover an abandoned house? And people wonder why I am slightly neurotic. 

In any case, my brother rebuffed me for not updating my blog. I was surprised that he seems to read it on a regular basis but I now feel sufficiently guilty to fling together an entry. 

My brother and I have a quirky relationship that has had a few ups and downs over the ..ahem..decades. I will be the first to admit that, as the older sibling, I may have been a tad ungentlemanly over the years and done things to him that might, in retrospect ( and the eyes of the UN) amount to cruel and unusual punishment. I recall an episode involving me locking him in a steamer trunk atop an armoire that might possibly qualify me for prison time. Nonetheless, despite our widely different lives and personalities we got closer as we got older and, though the love was always there, we now have something approaching a healthy bond. The fact he is now twice my size may possibly also account for the detente but I like to think it is just the grinning face of death awaiting us just a few corners away.

My other thoughts are revolving around the fact I should make more of an effort to insist on having regular off-days. For the last several months there have been far too many times when I have gone over 10 days without a day off. Working weekends doesn’t help but I will henceforth insist on having at least one  (or preferably two) days off every week. I don’t see why I should be the only person working abnormally long weeks. 

Hallelujah!  Let there be light!  And internet and tv and air conditioning, for that matter!

Yep, Honeywine is back in business!  Unfortunately, some of our neighbors were not so lucky.  An elderly couple down the road had a tree come down on one end of their trailer (lest you think this place is a trailer park…there are only 3 here including mine and theirs, and we're all spaced over 1000 feet apart...I have a theory that tornados are attracted to trailers when they are spaced closely together because of the creation of magnetic fields...I know that when the next door neighbors had a trailer next door to mine we had several tornado close calls!).  They weren’t hurt, but they are both retired and the husband isn’t in great health.  I don’t know how they are going to afford to rebuild.  Their trailer is newer than mine by about a decade, but it is much smaller (theirs is a 12’x65’ and mine is a 14’x80’).  So, they don’t even have the options that we had when a tree came down on one bedroom during Hurricane Rita (we debated about not rebuilding the room and just ripping it off and having a porch there…good thing we rebuilt it or Ginger wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep!).  We are lucky that we were on the edge of the worst of Gustav.

The Alexandria/Pineville area is like a war zone from what we were hearing on the radio (according to the Weather Channel, Jigger, La. took over 20 inches of rain…I have never heard of Jigger…it must be as small as LaCamp where I live!).  Most of Rapides Parish and even a fair amount of the city of Alexandria were without power yesterday.  There was a shanty town of tents being thrown up to accommodate the power workers.  The sewage pumps were not in service.  There’s substantial flooding.  Power lines are still down in that area (I posted yesterday from Brian’s house in Simpson, and Tina and I had to cross downed power lines to get there…but on our way back, there was a crew and 6 trucks repairing it…they got there before they got to us and it took about 5 hours in total to do just those 2 repairs).  It’s pretty bad there, and there’s nearly no news coming out even though the newspaper and at least one television and one radio station were running.  I am saddened and somewhat shocked that there are absolutely no major networks covering the situation despite the fact that much of Louisiana has been declared a disaster area.  Yes, I know there’s a Republican convention going on, but maybe we could take some time away from debating what the nominees are wearing (I’m lookin’ at you Kathy Lee and Diane Sawyer) to cover people living in their own filth and wondering how they are going to get help. 

On an even more gut-wrenching note, M. had a pretty rough day yesterday.  Without getting into too many details, a young man in their group has suffered a serious psychosis.  A higher ranking officer noticed the illness before it was too late, thankfully.  M. walked the young man through Tulane hospital’s psychiatric process (he was under heavy sedation when M. left him…hopefully, he will get all the help he needs), and I think it was the first time M. had seen mental illness up close.  I don’t know if it’s changed him in any way, but I know it’s left him wondering how so many of his fellow soldiers manage to hold on to reality when their world is in constant danger.  I’m glad that he will have something else to worry about today as he installs an antennae system for the New Orleans Police Department.

That’s the final update for us concerning Gustav (if you head over to CNN's IReport.com, under Gustav, you can see a pic of main street Magnolia, MS where my Dad lives though...I'd post it here, but the dial-up would take forever to find it and this post wouldn't be finished until tomorrow!).  Thank goodness.  Today, I’m continuing cleaning up the house especially the remaining fridge that has defrosted leaving chunks of ice laying around (if only I had waited until now to defrost the other one!).  And, catching up with all of you!  :)  I am so glad to be able to get back to blogging again!  :)

                           An article in the Journal Inquirer appeared yesterday. An article about the short comings of Mr Joe Courtney, our US Congressman .

 And I quote" Over the past two years U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney has failed to address the major problems impacting our people. With the price of gasoline rising, energy has become the No. 1 issue. It is a national and economic security concern, yet Courtney refuses to take any positive action."

It continues to say " He opposes drilling for domestic oil and he is nowhere to be found with respect to leading a movement to increase our use of nuclear power, a clean alternative to fossil fuels. " 

He continues to say... "Having served on a nuclear submarine, Sullivan understands that power source and he knows it must be a component of our energy policy. He also advocates developing America’s oil supply. Sullivan’s plan moves us towards energy independence. Courtney’s plan moves us towards OPEC."

You can see the entire JI article by clicking on this link.

Reference links: www.anwr.org    See why only 8% of the ANWR reserve is being considered for oil exploration.  

Please vote your responsiblity in November.

Carl Slicer. blog editor, www.VernonGop.com, "Who do you trust ?"  

9919

So close to the subway you can feel the 7 rumbling under you every 20 minutes... Cool atmosphere, nice people - pleasant girls, no pompous dudes. When we first walked in we found old dudes with Irish caps, 40 year old sports guys, and mid-twenties with nice Irish girls.

Bartenders/staff were very inviting, pleasing to the eyes and ears.

My friend said his PJ Burger was spectacular - it must have been... It must have been the mozzarella stuck to the burger with mushrooms and loads of bacon on top. Wings looked awesome, so i had to get an order even though I came in full. They were done well, although didn't taste quite as good as they looked. Honestly, it would be hard to live up to that appearance...

Great prices, good food, easygoing clientele - found it because Dominie's Hoak is barren of have television - and we were there just to watch the pats/colts game. Glad we did. I'll be back.

The Marvelous Vernon is releasing their new album "In Japan Enormous We Are" tonight at The Outland Ballroom with Gilius Thunderhead and another act we'll find out who when we get there.