Green Building
Posted by admin on March 16th, 2010 filed in Home & Garden
These days it is hard to sell a new house if it is not green and energy efficient. This means straying from the traditional building styles in a lot of ways, but it also means producing a higher quality product. While there are a lot of energy saving tips that many people already know about that must be incorporated into green building , there are quite a few that people don’t know about. One of these hidden secrets is the right set of blinds.
One of the first steps you should take is deciding on the right type of blinds for your green building. It sounds silly, but the right shades can save you hundreds in energy bills. You will need to have shades that can keep the heat out of the room on a very sunny day. You will want to make sure that they are thick enough to do the task in your area on the hottest of days. The other requirement in deciding on shades to line the house with is that they have to have an electric timer. The way you make these a green element of the houses is by setting the timer in the summer to lower during the hottest parts of the day to keep the heat out of the house, saving on air conditioning bills, and to raise at the hottest points of the day in the winter to save on heating. The best ones can be set once for raise and lower times throughout the year, and left. Others will have to be reset as the seasons change.
There are a few great suppliers of blinds, and many of them can supply what you need as a builder for a house like this. In order to provide the greatest service to your customers and the best value to the house, consider looking into what sort of programs these blinds companies offer. With something that is complicated like this, you will want there to be someone the residents can call if anything breaks.
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Austin is a Great Funky Town
Posted by admin on March 8th, 2010 filed in Travel
Austin in known for live music, great college drinking places, Tex-Mex cuisine and nice weather. After coming from Newark and all it’s ugliness, Austin was a very nice treat. I knew there were plenty of luxury hotels in Austin, because I went online and did some research before I came here, <a href=’http://www.luxuryaustinhotels.com’>take a look</a> . So, for me not having any reservations, asked my taxi driver at the airport to take me to the best hotel in town! I figured, if they’re the best, then no matter what, they would naturally accommodate; I was right! I had absolutely no problems getting a room.
Newark still left a nasty taste in my mouth, so I decided to get a few wines down me so I could hit Austin with a great attitude of ‘where will I go to get my next drink’ state of mind. So, after I checked in my fabulous hotel, I took a walk. Austin is a really quite a funky town! I bar-hopped for about 3 hours and while I was at each watering hole, I’d ask the locals where the best places (besides where I was; didn’t want to offend), was to eat and drink. I got a different answer every time, I just hope I’ll have time to check them all out tomorrow.
The next day (mind you I didn’t say ‘next morning’, too much of a hang-over), I wandered around aimlessly, just like the night before. But, no matter where one wanders in Austin, there’s always something interesting to see. After walking around building after building and being totally amazed at the architecture, my beer appetite began to growl. I’ve never tried really authentic Texan BBQ, so I decided it was time to check out one of the recommendations from last night, the Ironworks. For only $8, I struggled to get through 2/3 of my meal! The portions served are huge, my dish alone could feed 3 people, but boy was it good! If you’re ever in Austin, I highly recommend having the BBQ pork ribs at <a href=’http://www.ironworksbbq.com/’>Ironworks</a> .
That night, I found a Tex-Mex dinner and proceeded to stuff myself and down some more beers before I took a tour around the University of Texas. Nice campus, but I still felt like doing some more bar hopping so I ended up at another recommended place were there were was a group of men and 2 pianos. These guys were great! They’d play old tunes, tell funny stories and jokes! <a href=’http://www.petesduelingpianobar.com/’>Petes Dueling Piano Bar</a> . I haven’t had that much fun in a long time, I highly recommend this place too!
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Austin is a Great Funky Town
Posted by admin on March 8th, 2010 filed in Travel
Austin in known for live music, great college drinking places, Tex-Mex cuisine and nice weather. After coming from Newark and all it’s ugliness, Austin was a very nice treat. I knew there were plenty of luxury hotels in Austin, because I went online and did some research before I came here, take a look . So, for me not having any reservations, asked my taxi driver at the airport to take me to the best hotel in town! I figured, if they’re the best, then no matter what, they would naturally accommodate; I was right! I had absolutely no problems getting a room.
Newark still left a nasty taste in my mouth, so I decided to get a few wines down me so I could hit Austin with a great attitude of ‘where will I go to get my next drink’ state of mind. So, after I checked in my fabulous hotel, I took a walk. Austin is a really quite a funky town! I bar-hopped for about 3 hours and while I was at each watering hole, I’d ask the locals where the best places (besides where I was; didn’t want to offend), was to eat and drink. I got a different answer every time, I just hope I’ll have time to check them all out tomorrow.
The next day (mind you I didn’t say ‘next morning’, too much of a hang-over), I wandered around aimlessly, just like the night before. But, no matter where one wanders in Austin, there’s always something interesting to see. After walking around building after building and being totally amazed at the architecture, my beer appetite began to growl. I’ve never tried really authentic Texan BBQ, so I decided it was time to check out one of the recommendations from last night, the Ironworks. For only $8, I struggled to get through 2/3 of my meal! The portions served are huge, my dish alone could feed 3 people, but boy was it good! If you’re ever in Austin, I highly recommend having the BBQ pork ribs at Ironworks .
That night, I found a Tex-Mex dinner and proceeded to stuff myself and down some more beers before I took a tour around the University of Texas. Nice campus, but I still felt like doing some more bar hopping so I ended up at another recommended place were there were was a group of men and 2 pianos. These guys were great! They’d play old tunes, tell funny stories and jokes! Petes Dueling Piano Bar . I haven’t had that much fun in a long time, I highly recommend this place too!
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Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale
Posted by admin on February 27th, 2010 filed in Travel
I’ve got to get back to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I went last year with my friends during Spring Break and we had an amazing time. There are some great deals in the Fort Lauderdale luxury hotels during that time and I definitely recommend investigating some of them if you are planning a trip yourself. I wasn’t in charge of the accommodation decisions when we all went though I’m thinking that this year I should definitely check them out. We ended up having a great time, though I really kind of prefer a little more privacy and I know that might sound odd, but six guys to a room is just not me thing. It’s not the gender thing either, of course I’m more comfortable rooming with guys, it’s just, well, enough about that, I’d just like to have my own bed this time around.
Meanwhile, there are a ton of things to do in that great Florida beach town. In fact, you might be tempted, as I was, to spend your entire days at the beaches. They are full of people and everyone is having a great time. And while this alone could make a great vacation, there are so many other things to do in the city I prefer to get out and explore a little. Oh, I’ll be going with fewer people this time to so it’s less likely to be crazy.
One of the things I’d like to do this time is check out more of the live music scene. I play the guitar a little bit myself and almost always try and experience as much of any city’s music scene as what I possibly can. I heard that the Culture Room was really cool and had some pretty incredibly concerts but that was just one of the places I didn’t make it too last year and want to be sure and check out this time. I also want to check out some of the art and galleries that are supposed to exist along Las Olas Boulevard. I was able to get a glimpse of this area as we sort of passed through it but if you can believe it my friends were in too much of a hurry to get back to the beach and we didn’t stop. We were only there because someone had heard there was a great seafood place and one of my friends wanted to check it out. Yeah, I intend to have a lot of fun again this year, though I definitely want to do a lot more while I’m there.
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Online VS Offline Marketing
Posted by admin on February 25th, 2010 filed in Marketing
Offline marketing tools are the time tested strategies. Even in an ever growing Internet based society, television ads and billboards are still viable means of advertising. However, it may be difficult to track just how successful these campaigns are, difficult to track the results. Marketing companies must make educated guesses on how well a particular campaign or a specific ad has done and educated guesses on where to go from there. This affects all businesses, from restaurants to property management firms , to beauty salons. One of the wonderful aspects of online marketing is that it can be tracked exactly, as the feedback regarding the efforts are immediately available. Budgets, venues and strategies can be change quickly giving any advertising department the opportunity to in the most efficient and effective way. This allows those restaurants the flexibility to change their ads before it becomes too late, before customers start showing up expecting the same deals or the same kind of menu that was online the night before. It allows a company like TransGlobe , a property management company which specializes in finding appropriate matches between renters and rental properties, to track their audiences. It allows them the opportunity to notice that one of their target audiences is the college students throughout the country of Canada and they can create special websites designed just for those students. And it allows enhancement of tracking, so that the smaller beauty salon on the corner does not need to wait a month to find out whether their ads or their websites have worked to bring in customers. Small businesses especially need to have this kind of immediate response in order to stay in business. So while the newspaper and magazine ads are still viable forms of advertising and marketing, there is nothing that can compare to online marketing nor to the knowledge companies can gain immediately, about the response to and the effects of their advertising campaigns.
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Afro-Cuban Tampa
Posted by admin on February 23rd, 2010 filed in Art and Culture, Travel
Tampa is one of the most interesting and unusual places in the country, if not the world. There is a great diversity here culturally, and it makes for a very lively city. Lots of exciting events happen all year round, and there’s something for every visitor of every age. With the bay, and rivers, and their intriguing histories, there’s also something here for visitors who like to investigate origins. There is also a very vibrant Afro-Cuban culture here, which has as strong a presence as the native cultures. Coming to Tampa to visit, work, or have a vacation, the hotels here are delightfully hospitable, making a great time in a great city even better.
It’s fascinating to see how the city changes culturally over time. Even in less than a lifetime, it’s becoming a very different place, and there are many more opportunities to see live entertainment, enjoy a night on the town with dinner and a club, or even enjoy the local museums and galleries. Here, too, one might notice that there is a strong Cuban influence in places. It’s certainly one of the predominant themes in visual art, and there’s no question that it’s here in the music. Afro-Cuban rhythms are some of the most potent rhythms in the world, and it’s an infectious sound that’s hard not to love.
Understanding the history of Cubans in Tampa can be very eye-opening for visitors and even for the residents. It’s long and complex, and tells part of a long story of African diaspora, and cultural migrations that have deep roots in the centuries before ours. The stories of slavery, religious persecutions, along with many different forms of oppression all go into the mix, and they’re all at the source of how things came to be, and how they are today.
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Next Day Blinds For All Your Window Treatment Needs
Posted by admin on February 21st, 2010 filed in Home & Garden
As little girls there are two things that we dream about as we grow up; the first one is the wedding and the second is our first home. Since I already had the wedding of my dreams, I was anxiously anticipating buying our first home. Even though it took a little time, we were finally able to take advantage of the slumping housing market. In August we were able to move into our very own home . With no one to answer to or ask permission, the real fun could begin. Because my grandpa is an artist, deciding on paint colors and painting each room was the easy part. We used as much of our old furniture as we could, partially because it was still in good condition and also because it cut down on costs. The one area that I really deliberated on was the windows. When we bought the house it had plain white vertical blinds . Although they were in good condition, they weren’t very exciting. So I decided to go online and look for some new ideas. That was where I found Next Day Blinds . Their website is full of ideas and suggestions. You can even request a free sample online if you find a style that you really like. They offer a variety of blinds, shades, and shutters. What really won me over was the page entitled Next Day Blinds Awards . They have won numerous customer service awards with Angie’s List as well as the Better Business Bureau. Having decided on a style that I liked, I made an appointment for them to come out to the house. Their workers were not only knowledgeable about the product but also extremely professional. We placed our order and in no time at all we received a call saying our new blinds were ready and when did we want them to come and install them. I have never been more pleased. Not only do our windows look great, but our experience with Next Day Blinds definitely makes me want to come back.
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Jumbo Seafood Restaurant in Singapore
Posted by admin on February 18th, 2010 filed in Food, Travel
Whenever I used to hear of or think about Singapore I always thought culturally dynamic island nation. However, this was when I knew certain elements of Singapore and had studied some of the cultural traditions such as Cantonese Opera, I had never before been there. After last month I might still think of the cultural dynamics though hands down I will also be thinking of fabulous food in the great restaurants in Singapore. And that is extremely exciting to me because I’m a selective eater and I absolutely love it when I find restaurants that I think are great.
This is exactly the case with a place called Jumbo, a seafood restaurant with amazing food. And I’m not the only one that thinks so. I visited Singapore with my family and we all ate there, which by the way is a great way to experience their food. We had a family style dinner and it included delicious black pepper crab. I can’t even describe to you have great these were, it’s simply a palate sensation that you have to experience to understand. Oh, I can describe how quickly they disappeared from the plate and how quite my family was during the dinner. And we’re a talkative group. We have a lot of great family conversations during dinner but everyone was busy enjoying their food and we just didn’t get a chance to talk.
We also had the Cereal Prawns and something called a Japanese Beancurd Treasure Bag. We ordered those because they sounded interesting, which they were and they too were delicious though I don’t know exactly what all was in it. We had one other bean curd dish, oh yeah the Deep Fried Beancurd Special. This too was great and I think it had some seafood mixed in with it. It was served with a really good sweet sauce. The only other thing we shared was the Prosperity Chicken. This, well everything we had was incredible and made a nice compliment to the other food, which was primarily seafood based.
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How to Become a Lawyer in Orange County
Posted by admin on February 16th, 2010 filed in Legal
There are a few things you need to know before you can become part of any of the law offices in Orange County. The way to becoming a lawyer is different from state to state, and there are a few requirements you will have to meet before you can become licensed to practice law in California.. You will first have to attend an undergraduate school, getting at very least your associate’s degree. When you pick out what your degree is going to be, it is often best to major in something that shows you can articulate a point, arguing a side on a given issue, and be able to debate this against an opposing point of view. You should also be able to show with your degree that you can write clearly, concisely and with a logic anyone can follow. You should be able to explain yourself to a third grader without sounding like you are talking down to him. The final thing you should be able to show at the end of this degree is that you can read large amounts of material and retain all of it. Often times, people who are interested in becoming lawyers will first major in English or Math.
Once you have been accepted into a State Bar-accredited or American Bar Association -approved law school, you will have to registrar with the state bar within ninety days. This will let them know your intentions and will let you complete you next step. If you want to get into a law office without going to law school, you will have to study law under a judge for four years. At this point you will still have to register with the state bar. At the end of your first year you will have to Pass the First-Year Law Students Examination. This shouldn’t be too hard, but will give you a wake up call if you are not retaining your lessons. When you graduate, you will have to prove you have moral character. What they are looking for is that you respect the law and the rights of others, you are fiscally responsible, you display candor and honesty, and finally you must have been trustworthy in any professions you had before. Now is when they give you a real run for your money, and you must pass the bar exam. To join the ranks of orange county lawyers you then must pass the Multi-state Professional Responsibility exam, the California Bar test and take the lawyers oath. That is how you become a lawyer.
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There are Great Men in New York
Posted by admin on February 14th, 2010 filed in Travel
It was a miracle I arrived at JFK on-time, considering all the snow New York’s has received, and reports about airports closing down due to weather. The trains have been delayed with all the increased security measures put in place due to the Christmas bomber. Plus, I was worried if they’d even let me into New York with all the recent countries I’ve visited, but everything went smoothly and I walked out of the airport and the sun was shining even though it was freezing.
I caught the air train and then the subway to my hotel located in the East Village, I was surprise at how easy it was to find the right hotel at the right price, but I was lucky enough to stumble upon this website, which helped me pick the perfect hotel. About 15 minutes later, I was having my first beer at this pub called McSorleys, apparently it’s the oldest pub in New York. It was there I met this great looking Brazilian man, who I chatted up for most of the night.
The next morning, I was up pretty early considering I didn’t get to bed until 4am! I guess I was still on UK time, so I took full advantage of that and went to see the Empire State Building. I heard I needed to get there early to avoid the crowds, which was true, I got to walk right in and took the lifts, which I had to pay for, and went straight to the top. What a spectacular view, but it was bitter cold, so I didn’t stay long. Then I paid to visit the New York Public Library, and to the USS Intrepid, which is an aircraft carrier turned into a museum.
I ended up wandering around Harlem, and I felt out of place, everyone kept looking at me like I was crazy. I headed back to my hotel because jet-lag was finally kicking in. I think I slept straight through to the next morning, almost 12 hours of sleep!
I wanted to check out the Lower East Side. I noticed that all the bars I’d drop into wouldn’t serve me unless I had ID. I know I look a young 30, but still, I am in my thirties and still getting carded. I didn’t bring my ID with me, so that stopped me from getting into a lot of clubs and bars. I eventually got into one bar and that’s where I met a new chum, Brad from Iowa. He was a writer studying in New York. He asked me if I would like to join him at this other bar called Mehanatas, which is a Bulgarian bar, I said sure. We had a great time and I even stole a kiss from him before he took me to my hotel. I do hope to see him one more time before I head back to the UK.
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Indie Triple in Lafayette
Posted by admin on February 10th, 2010 filed in Art and Culture, Travel
The center of Cajun culture, Lafayette is a wonderful place to go to get your head spun back on right. It’s a lush and mysterious setting, and also an extremely lively local urban culture. There are always plenty of concerts and art events, and the fascinating blend of cultures and languages here are very pleasing to the seasoned globetrotter. For seasoning, however, the place will melt your ideas of food into something entirely new, as Cajun food is some of the most incredible flavors anywhere in the world. Be on guard for gout, however, and use a little sense, but so much as to prevent you from having a good time here. The music is very good here, and I’m guessing that one concert in particular will fill the hotels in Lafayette, if anyone has any sense.
I understand that the economy is making it very difficult for people to get to see the shows they want. We’ll probably be seeing many different techniques used to draw larger crowds again, the same kinds of cons and acts of common sense that always crop up in times of crisis. One of the most sensible of these, however, is stacking the bill. One band used to draw people, and still does, occasionally, but if you have two bands that are both really great, then you’re in for something more lively. Add another to the mix, and it should be one of the great concerts of the year. That’s exactly what’s up at The Spanish Moon in Baton Rouge in February.
It’s going to be worth the hour drive. This show is featuring indie rock greats Eisley, from East Texas, along with two local bands, Norcio and Cohen and the Ghost. All of these bands are extraordinary talents, and play some of the coolest sounds anywhere. That they’re local, however, makes it even more worth the visit. If you’re from here, it’s a chance to touch roots and the future of the roots at the same time. If you’re visiting, this will probably make you wish to move here.
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Imaginations Can Run Wild in San Antonio
Posted by admin on February 8th, 2010 filed in Travel
After driving pretty much all day long, one can start seeing things. For example, as we were entering San Antonio, there was this old beat-up pickup truck driving alongside of us. The driver had about a hundred papers, envelopes and receipts stuffed into his sun visor. I was sitting in the back seat with Ann and asked her what on earth could he possibly be keeping all stuffed up in his sun visor and Ann looked over to the truck and asked me why on earth would anyone be keeping a dead bird in their visor? I told her to look again, and after she did, she looked over to me and we both began to crack-up. Our husbands up front weren’t paying any attention to us crazy laughing women.
It was a long drive from Pecos to San Antonio, and the landscape changed dramatically. Pecos was full of scrub grass, oil wells and flat land, but as we approached San Antonio, we passed by hills and buttes. Very different. It was the occasional cactus that kept us from thinking we were in New Hampshire. When we reached near downtown San Antonio, we pulled the car into a shopping mall and piggy-backed off a coffee shops Wi-Fi and searched on the Internet for a decent hotel we could book on line. We found this site that listed the best hotels in San Antonio: http://www.bestsanantoniohotels.com, and found one within our price range and had rooms available that day.
We didn’t get to go out for dinner until 9pm! That’s why when we finally got through half our meal, we couldn’t figure out it the Davy Crockett figure standing in the balcony of the Mexican restaurant we were at was a real man or not! I’m serious, that’s how loopy we were and we had no alcohol in us to boot! What was great about that night at the restaurant though, was we got to witness a man propose to his girlfriend. That wasn’t imaginary.
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Family Attends the Musical Wicked in New York
Posted by admin on February 3rd, 2010 filed in Art and Culture, People, Travel
“I want to see Avenue Q,” “I want to see Wicked!” “I want to see Hamlet!” “Hamlet isn’t even playing anymore, stupid.” And so it went for about a week before the Miller family finally left for their summer vacation in New York. They were going to spend a week in the city and then visit relatives upstate for about four days. Their children were extremely excited about the trip and for reasons unknown to their parents, have no background in the theatre and actually very little interest in local productions, all three of their children were obsessed with seeing a Broadway show. All they heard in the weeks prior to their trip was “Broadway this, and Broadway that.” Somehow in the course of the previous month each of their children had decided to become either a Broadway actor, a director or a major musical composer. Carl even started calling himself C. Lo Web in honor of his hero Andrew Lloyd Webber. His parents assumed that C. Lo had chosen his favorite composer based on the one show they had taken their children to see, which perhaps obviously was Cats.
In the week prior to their trip, in addition to learning that their children had Broadway celebrity careers in their future, the Millers also learned that it was in their best interest to keep family vacation plans a secret until it was time to pack and go. However, being a rather close family, the Millers didn’t want to spoil their children’s fun and went along with their dreams and ideas. They agreed that they could see one Broadway show while they were on vacation in the city, but they would have to agree on which one it was. After a bit of deliberation it was C. Lo that got to make the final vote and he opted for Wicked. This was a bit of a relief to his parents as they were slightly concerned about some of the subject matter in Avenue Q.
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NY Philanthropics
Posted by admin on February 1st, 2010 filed in Travel
One of the reasons why NY has always been such an attractive place for visitors is because there is an energy here that is really catchy. It’s a lot like the pop songs of Rihanna, where it seems only loud but still simple, at first. But then the layers start to reveal themselves, and when you start to turn your ear to these subtler sounds, her voice has already started to grab you. There’s something that’s absolutely haunting about it, and it’s extremely sweet, but there is also a whole lot of pain in it. It’s a very peculiar sensation, but it’s also one that keeps bringing people to New York every year.
In Manhattan, business hotels are a very popular choice for accommodations, and it’s easy to see why. The combination of style and convenience is precisely right for travelers who are on the go, and they way they cater to those who have very tight schedules is also particularly well suited to New York. There are many different kinds of work you can do while you’re here, and not all of it is for personal gain. There are many different philanthropic organizations in the city that devote huge amounts of time, energy, and resources toward very good causes.
One of these causes is Rihanna’s Believe foundation, which is in place to help terminally ill children. This is an excellent cause, and demonstrates a commitment to making the world a better place, by giving the last moments of a child’s life a little more sweetness. They are currently taking part in the effort to help Haiti after the recent earthquake. One of her very special cases, a little girl named Jasmine Anema, was in the spotlight during a lot of 2009, and they had lots of interactions with each other. Unfortunately, she did not survive her recent transplant, and passed away on January 28, 2010.
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The Prado Museum of Madrid Through the Eyes of a Child
Posted by admin on January 28th, 2010 filed in Travel
For anyone walking into the Prado Museum for the first time, this can be a bit of an overwhelming experience, as the Prado is known to be the largest gallery of art in the world. Although the museum houses drawings, rare coins and sculptures, it is the collection of paintings housed here that has gained the museum fame on a worldwide level. The curators manage almost nine thousand paintings, only showing about two thousand at a time due to lack of wall space.
Many art lovers will joke, saying that the paintings kept in storage at the Prado, are better than the works hanging in the galleries of some of the finest museums in the rest of the world. I traveled to the Prado in Madrid with my grandmother when I was just a little girl, and it was there I decided once and for all, at the tender age of seven, that I would too, become a painter. I was not overwhelmed, as I do believe children have a way of feeling normal when the adults are in overwhelming situations, I was in a colorful and heavenly world, and I wanted to make sure that I lived in that kind of world for the rest of my life. My grandmother was an experienced traveler, skilled in the ways of finding great deals on airline tickets, and rates on rooms, such as these. She made it her life’s mission to see the world, and she always took me along with her on that mission.
We had many experiences on our trip to Madrid, but the Prado was by far one of the few I remember every detail of, now so many years later. The names of the artists became characters in my brain, as when I would later have “tea parties” the collection of dolls around my table would be called,Velázquez, Goya, Raphael, and Picasso. Picasso always received the most cookies, and to this day remains to be one of my favorite masters of all time. I have not made it back to the Prado Museum as an adult, but I am looking forward to the day when I can walk through the halls once again, with the eyes of a child, filled with love and filled with wonder.
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Hot Tubbing our way through Florida
Posted by admin on January 26th, 2010 filed in Travel
In mid December, Jerry and I vacationed in Naples, Florida. The weather wasn’t too hot, but it was still warm enough and the days were clear and the sun was shinning. We spent a good part of our two days here, at one of the better Florida resort hotels, in the hot tub reading our books; it was so nice and relaxing. It was a great way to spend the day in our opinion. Naples is an affluent community located on the southwest coast of Florida. It has miles of great beaches and great restaurants. It was a wonderful place to spend two relaxing days at, but the town does close down at 9pm! We found that out the hard way. We were in search of a package store, but there was nothing open.
We did manage to fit in a driving trip to Sanibel Islands and stop for lunch at Bert’s Bar and Grill in Matlacha. We sat on the outside deck drinking a beer and eating some of the best bar food ever served. We headed on to Darling National Wildlife Preserve and watched the cranes feeding in the marshes. We then headed to Pine Island, which we felt we went through a time-warp. The island is a throw-back to the 70’s. We drove back to our resort to once again spend time in the marvelous hot-tub.
The next morning, we checked out and made our way to Everglades City. That’s where we went on a jet boat ride! The boat was a flat-bottom boat with high open seating. We sped through the mangroves and raced after some wildlife; it was great fun. After our most environmentally unfriendly boat tour, we drove to Chokoloskee Island and had lunch at the Havana Cafe. We got to meet the owner who was extremely friendly and we complimented his cuisine; that’s when he asked us if we were staying the night, because he’d invite us over to his home and let us use his hot-tub that apparently, has a great view over the water. How could we say no?
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Weekend Glider Tour in Colorado
Posted by admin on January 20th, 2010 filed in Travel
Beth and Jerry had wanted to take a short vacation and get away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a while. It wasn’t even a full vacation they needed, they just wanted some time to themselves and to be out in nature for even a weekend. One day Jerry decided they shouldn’t have to wait until the time was right because it never was and that very evening he came home and showed his wife the weekend reservations he had made at one of the hotels Colorado. They were going away the following weekend, and no one could tell them otherwise.
It was too early in the season to expect to do any skiing, so Jerry decided to reserve a room in a resort that was near their favorite stretch of the San Miguel River near Telluride. He also wanted to surprise Beth with a special glider tour on their second day there. This is something she had said she always wanted to do but just never got around to it. And Jerry was serious about changing his life perspective from regretting things he had done to living life to its fullest and only regretting what he didn’t do. That didn’t mean he was not taking responsibility for himself, he just had too many dreams and desires to continually put them off until next year. He did not want to find himself on his deathbed thinking he wished he had done this or that, and he was beginning this new philosophy of life on this trip.
They arrived at the quiet little inn and instantly both Beth and Jerry relaxed with the breeze that blew threw their thoughts. They put there bags down and immediately headed out for a nice hike around the area. This was exactly what they needed and the next day Beth was eager to pack a picnic and rent a canoe. Jerry had to come up with something quick as they had glider reservations in a couple of hours. So, he decided he had to confess he had a surprise. Beth had no idea what was in store, but went along with what Jerry asked of her. When she finally found herself in the air, she really felt she could never be more free. That’s when Jerry suggested they finally learn to sky dive this summer.
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Civil Rights King in Georgia
Posted by admin on January 19th, 2010 filed in Travel
If you are planning a trip to Georgia, you may want to consider Atlanta. It is a large city and maybe you are concerned about getting the tranquillity you need but it is filled with fascinating American history. There are plenty of elegant hotels around Georgia and hopefully you can see a few cities and towns. Make a stop in Atlanta. Atlanta is the home of Coca Cola Corporation and to CNN News who spends its day getting the facts out to you. This is also were the home and work of Martin Luther King Jr. began. Here is were you will be able to tour the home were Martin Luther King Jr. was born, on Auburn Avenue. It is this home and the surrounding neighborhood that feed so much influence into the man who cared about so many people and developed is dream.
Once you have seen M.L.K.’s home and early life neighborhood you can take your interest to The King Center were you can see so many speeches and appearances that he made in the name of love. It was a scary time to be such a visionary for such a controversial cause and his life did end early because of his quest but his mission was his life. He is the author of the I Had a Dream speech that raised the hopes of millions of people across the country. He was also the youngest person to have been granted the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to ending racial segregation in a non violent way. Years after his death he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Congressional Gold Medal. Every year celebrating his birthday in December, there is a national holiday to remember such a powerful loving man.
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The Tubes in L.A.
Posted by admin on January 14th, 2010 filed in Travel
Los Angeles is an interesting place wherever you happen to be in this huge sprawling city. There are some areas that have a lot more charm than others, of course, and some that have a lot more character, and knowing the difference can be rather important, especially if it’s 3 a.m., and you’re wondering if you should stop and ask for directions. It’s definitely a driving town, and it’s good to have transportation. Some of the public transportation is better left to those with experience, or a little bit of solid street sense, but there are certainly ways to get around here without a car. You can also go to www.losangelescheaphotel.com to find the hotel in the neighborhood where you’ll be hanging out, and then you won’t have to worry about getting there, because you’ll already be there.
It’s a very lively place, and continues to attract some of the most beautiful and brightest talents from all corners of the globe. For a few decades, people have called it the New Rome, because of its ability to attract, as well as for its extreme decadence. We seem to live in more careful times, however, and a lot of the hedonism that Hollywood is famous for seems to have given way to the peer pressure of health consciousness that has always had a stake in the city’s world view. You can certainly find corners of mischief, however, and you can also find traces of its more colorful history. You might find locals who remember seeing Tom Waits when he was first starting out, or people who remember seeing the Tubes when they were in their prime.
Of course, no offense is meant to Fee Waybill or any of the other members of the band. They still play out, and the innovation in the music is as high as it ever was. But there was a period in the early to mid 1970s, after the musicians from Arizona in a group called the Beans moved to California and started doing some of the most outrageous rock and roll shows in history. In those days, Kenny Ortega, who later went on to work with Michael Jackson, High School Musical, and a host of others, was the choreographer of the shows. They were highly stylized, and bordered on a kind of theatre that was more Artaud than Brecht, and even in those days was regarded as sublime and strange all at once. Those days might be gone, but there’s a new generation here that seems like they could do something interesting if things get desperate enough.
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Wimbledon History
Posted by admin on January 8th, 2010 filed in Sports
Croquet is actually responsible for tennis. At least at Wimbledon, anyway. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club held its sporting events at the grounds at Wimbledon, and after major Walter Wingfield brought the sport of lawn tennis tennis on the lawn to England in the late 1800s, the club renamed itself with a moniker to include tennis. With this new names change came other changes too, such as the club creating the first championship for tennis. With the new championship came new rules too. Funnily enough, these rules are the same one we play by today; very few changes have been made to them over the years. The Marylebone Cricket Club made the rules.
The year this championship occurred was in 1877. It was only men’s singles that were played, though back then they were “gentle”men’s signals. With the likes of John McEnroe who some say have disgraced tennis permanently, perhaps it makes sense that we have dropped the gentle part. The people who showed up number in the hundreds (two hundred) and had to pay just a shilling to see the last match.
Other changes occurred throughout the years, including the club taking out croquet from its title with the increasing success of tennis, which years later, made a comeback to the name.
Women were allowed to play rather early on. In 1884 to be precise. The first ever winner of the women’s singles (of course, back then since the men were gentle, the women were actually ladies, so it was really ladies singles) was Maud Watson with her great tennis scores.
Wimbledon is just one of the many places tennis stars stop to make their name or rank themselves higher up, earning them a better standing in their sport. The Australian Open is another tournament where several young stars have made their names throughout the years. Though the Australian Open Tennis Championship has hardly ever waned in popularity, Wimbledon had a little bit of trouble bringing in the crowds during the 1890s, but since then it has been a consistent premiere spot for tennis.
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Young Theatre Director in New York
Posted by admin on December 29th, 2009 filed in Theatre, Travel
One of the first things Mike could remember wanting to do with his life was direct theatre plays. He was too young to realize what it was he was actually interested in doing when he tried to take over his preschool production of Pinocchio. However, by the time he was old enough to be in the 5th grade production of the Jungle Book, Mike thought he wanted to be in the position of the instructor and was more concerned with how he was working than with playing the part of Kaa The Snake. He enjoyed this production, as he did all the others though he always knew he wanted to determine how things occurred onstage rather than being in the show.
He directed his first production in high school as part of the annual one act play festival. His instructor noticed his strong knack for staging and he also seemed to have a good sense of communication with the actors. He began working closely with Mike and when it was time to apply to college his instructor was there to help him. Mike wanted to go to New York but regardless of where he ended up studying he knew that as soon as he was finished with school he would move to New York and try and to begin working there.
He had first visited the Big Apple when he was twelve and his parents took him there for a family vacation. The stayed for a week in a New York cheap hotel and wanted to introduce their son to the Broadway stage. They saw a production of Cats and also Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. That was the first time Mike had heard of or seen an Albee production, and while the subject matter was mature, his parents felt that Mike was emotionally mature enough to see it and supported his theatrical ambitions so they felt that would be a good show for him to see. And it definitely was. Albee became one of Mike’s favorite playwrights and from that moment he had a strong ambition to direct his work.
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Mount Vernon and The Baltimore Art Scene
Posted by admin on December 23rd, 2009 filed in Food, Travel
In the city of Baltimore, Maryland the art scene is alive and well. The artistic hub for the city is in the neighborhood of Mount Vernon. Here you will find an array of museums and galleries wherein the collections vary from ancient artifacts to contemporary works by the artists of today. The Walters Art Museum places their emphasis in ancient pieces of art in a collection that includes work from Rome, Egypt, and Greece as well as those from Medieval Europe. The collection reflects almost fifty centuries of the endeavor towards artistic expression. In one of the sections of the museum there are artifacts and priceless pieces such as Faberge Eggs and Tiffany Brooches, as well as suit of armor, maces and swords.
Postmodern art is found just around the corner at the Contemporary Museum. This museum exhibits works of multi-media, works that may challenge the mind, but are also pleasing and interesting to the eye. There are some pieces that are part of the permanent collection, as well as many displays and projects the museum sets up around the city. Starting a tour of the city’s innovative and cutting edge work at the Contemporary Museum is a great way to find out whether they currently have work in other parts of the city and where to find that work.
“First Thursday” is an event that happens on the first Thursday each month. Many cities have similar once a month art walks. The galleries on Charles Street host the night. They stay open a bit longer, there are often musicians on the streets, and food and wine provided by a local Baltimore Restaurant. The Baltimore Museum of Art takes part, by offering free admission to the public, and the Enoch Pratt Library usually provides live entertainment. This is a great time to get to know the different galleries and different local artists working in the city.
Each year in the month of July, the city sponsors a three day art festival, ArtScape. The festival spans four blocks around the College of Fine at the Maryland Institute and every aspect of art is celebrated, from the poet to the painter, to the actor and the musician. Many cities have begun to sponsor such events, and to support the arts over the last year or so. When the economy forced certain programs to be cut, this did not go unnoticed, and the arts are being reborn in various cities around the country, and most definitely in the city of Baltimore.
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Murray’s Swift Rank Recovery, and Inner Games
Posted by admin on December 21st, 2009 filed in Sports
There are many different ways of looking at the metaphors in tennis in order to find some common threads to the world at large. There are lots of good reasons to think of tennis in a larger framework, because it’s this kind of microcosm and macrocosm thinking that connects worlds together. Since the renaissance, we’ve understood that inner wisdom is not only a reflection on the exterior world, but it also depends on it to grow in depth. So, we can look at tennis the way mystics have looked at archery, in order to find those secret correspondences that might unlock some fascinating clues to the world right now.
It would be impossible to cover everything, or even to make a start, at understanding tennis, in a few short sentences, or even an entire book. This is only to suggest, and to illustrate, how it’s possible to find meaning in small things. We can take, for example, Andy Murray, and his swift rank recovery in the eyes of the world, and make some interesting connections. His billing at the Dubai game was a fantastic example of how the game of tennis has implications that do play out on an international scale.
Of course, the majority of the game, like any game, is interior. It’s something that is played out in the mind of the player. In the cases of superstars, like Murray, the trick here, and one that we are always forgetting, is that it does not play out for spectators in the same way as it does for the one who is moving the racket on the court. Interestingly, this is where things start to take a turn. The player has to be able to step out of the way, to move their ego aside, so that the game can be won. Any player can speak to this idea of selflessness, where they are no longer playing the game, but letting the game play through them. It’s a splendid lesson that will, no doubt, continue to unfold as this remarkable career continues to rank well on all of our lists.
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Portable Hot Tubs and Consumer Popularity
Posted by admin on December 20th, 2009 filed in Home & Garden
Portable hot tubs and home spa systems are becoming more popular and common in today’s market. They are extremely diverse in styles and features and are a great choice for many consumers who are currently considering a purchase. There are many reasons for this popular attraction to the portable models and some of them have to do with temporary housing arrangements such as rental properties and others relate to potential changes in backyard designs and a need for mobility on the part of the tub. Whatever the individual reason the portable spas on today’s market are popular with consumers.
When some consumers first learn about the portable options they are concerned that these hot tubs may not be as solid in construction or offer the same amount of features and or accessories. This is extremely misleading and the same consumer is frequently surprised to find the durable nature of these tubs and the lifelong expectation of service. They are also pleased to find out that some of their favorite features are also available for these models. It is not surprising when one considers that fact the most of the accessories are not model dependent but can be used in any of the spas or hot tubs.
The most popular features and accessories for any model or style of home spa or hot tub are dynamic lighting fixtures and quality sound systems. Drink and snack trays or caddies are also popular and so are safety rails and staircases. These are all features and accessories that are easily used in the portable hot tubs as well as are most of the others. When a portable model seems like it may be in the best interest of the individual or family who is considering the purchase the potential benefits involved and the fact that they loose nothing in quality or options makes the decision all the more easier.
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Warm in the Winter with a Wood Burning Fireplace
Posted by admin on December 20th, 2009 filed in Food, Home & Garden
With winter just around the corner in some cities, and coming on strong in others, it is time to consider the ways in which to keep warm. For some people this means an update in their wardrobe. Chunky snow boots and great scarves become the fashion. Another way to stay warm, is to heat up the body, by doing even simple tasks such as cleaning the house, vacuuming is a menial task that will raise the body temperature.
Hot tea and coffee, hot soup…all of these add to the further increase in your internal temperature. But say you would like to relax with a great book or an old black and white Christmas movie? This is when the ever popular–throughout history–wood fireplace comes into play. Curling up on the fireplace with blankets and big slippers will only get you so far. Not only will the warm glow of the heat the room, but especially during the holidays, a warm fire will heat the heart and the spirit.
And during the winter months, gas heaters and electricity bills can sky rocket, and a wood burning stove will help ease that pain. Not only is the heat provided much more consistent and evenly dispersed, firewood is not expensive and will burn long into the night. Some choose to add cast iron inserts, which will increase the heat as it is stored in the iron long after the embers have ceased to glow. So put on the thermals, grab the blanket and fix some hot tea. Once the fire is raging, and the stockings are hanging from the mantle, and…Jimmy Stewart is doing his thing in “It’s a Wonderful Life“, the snow outside will become beautiful, not treacherous. And the warmth inside will become the holiday preface or backdrop, for the holidays that are about to come about.
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Colder Climes and Hotter Wood Inserts
Posted by admin on December 15th, 2009 filed in Home & Garden
When we moved to the Northeast and its colder climes, my wife decided we needed a wood burning insert for our new home and new fireplace, so I took the plunge and purchased one, unsure of how it might change the efficiency with which we heated the home. I’m writing this now because, after a year of burning wood in the insert, I want to tell people exactly how well these things work! I have a three story house, with about 2000 square feet. This little insert works wonders, keeping the ground floor in the mid-seventies, and the second floor, where we sleep, at about seventy degrees. It’s a little cooler on the third floor, but we use that generally for crafts work. For the most part, even when the temperature outside dove down to the low twenties, the house was quite warm, and our other source of heat, the oil boiler, didn’t come on at all.
There’s a number of fireplace inserts, wood, gas or pellet, but I preferred the wood, but I understand most of them work equally well. They’re not only efficient, but they lower the pollutants in the air. When I’m outside, I can see the black smoke from my next-door neighbor’s chimney, while my chimney barely has any smoke at all. At least, it’s hard to notice. During the day, I keep the insert firebox at about 350 to 400 degrees, controlling the temperature in the house with the speed of the fan. At night, I use larger pieces of wood, and keep the insert at 400 degrees, damped down the whole way. In the morning, the downstairs might be sixty-four or sixty-eight degrees, with enough coals left to start up the fire pretty quick.
I find the fan quiet and remarkably efficient. Everyone who comes over comments on how warm the place is, astonished at the lasting time for a few sticks of wood. We’ve been completely happy with this new addition to our fireplace. I’m not sure why we waited so long!
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Following the Road to Rome
Posted by admin on December 14th, 2009 filed in Travel, history
All roads lead to a Rome hotel, but what will you find once you get there? Clearly, of all the world’s cities, Rome has a complex and intricate past, practically bursting with history; here’s a city that has lasted thousands of years, whose influence spread out over the entire known world, whose life ebbed and flowed with the lives of emperors and popes. Where to start? A trip to the Coliseum? A visit to the city-state Vatican City? Where does the road lead once you’re inside Rome itself?
You can take walking tours of the Roman Coliseum or Colosseum, once known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, the largest amphitheater the Roman Empire ever constructed. It only took about eight to ten years to complete, beginning in 70 to 72 AD and finished in 80 AD, under the auspices of two emperors, Vespasian and Titus. The Colossem could fit about fifty thousand people and, in addition to the gladiatorial games that the movie Gladiator showed, it was also a place for animals hunts, and re-enactments of celebrated battles, both on land and sea, and served as a theater. Over the centuries, the building was repurposed for entertainment, for religious orders, for a fortress, and even a Christian shrine. It’s a spot where five hundred thousand people lost their lives, along with approximately a million wild animals in the Coliseum games. Today, in the 21st century, the remains are still impressive, despite earthquakes and people stealing the stones.
Vatican City became a sovereign city-state inside Rome in 1929. Known officially as the State of the Vatican City, it’s total population is about 800 people, and therefore is also known as the world’s smallest country (not to be confused with the Holy See, which may be dated back to early Christianity, a couple of thousand years). The area contains St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine chapel, and the Apostolic Palace, and a number of museums.
These two places are a good start. Then, once you’ve taken a look at Rome, then what? If all roads lead to Rome, then where do the roads head once you’ve been to this historic city? The only way to find out is to start walking, taking the same path that led you here.
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Tooling Around Hong Kong
Posted by admin on December 1st, 2009 filed in Travel
After we checked in around 10am, we decided to have breakfast in one of the Hong Kong restaurants. We ordered the typical Hong Kong breakfast, which is nai cha and some breads and tarts. The meal was lovely. According to our waiter, Hong Kong people never really cook at home anymore, they just go down the street and go to a restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
After breakfast, we went to walk on Goldfish street and looked at the very beautiful displays of vividly colorful ocean life; fishes of every color and size, clams and jellyfish, live coral and other creatures. It was actually like diving into the deep ocean. We walked back to the ladies market, which at noon time was still not fully opened and we found the same thing with the Temple Street Market. We made a note to not shop at the ‘night’ markets in the day and to always bargain.
We made our way down Nathan Road. We were still not hungry enough for lunch, so we just grabbed a dessert at Hui Lau Shan. This was our second visit to Hui Lau Shan, our first time, everything we put in our mouth was delicious, especially the mango dessert, but this time around, we were shocked, the dessert, which we just had a few days ago, was now half the size of what we were served the first time.
After our disappointment, we decided to ride the MTR to Hong Kong Island to see the Times Square Mall, we didn’t stay long, I guess we were all shopped out from the previous days. So, finally, we headed back to our hotel and on to the ferry. It was 5pm, so we decided to have an early dinner and go up to our hotel for some much needed rest.
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Harnessing Fire and the Wood Fireplaces
Posted by admin on December 1st, 2009 filed in Home & Garden, history
Harnessing the power of fire is one of humankind’s oldest achievements, as early humans discovered it could cook animals and plants, could help clear forests in order to plant fields, even to treat stones to make tools and to heat clay to make ceramics, allowing for bowls and utensils, and so on. The use of fire first developed in the Early Stone Age, also known as the Lower Paleolithic. The earliest use we know of to date is that fire began in Israel, at a site known as Gesher Benot Ya’aqov — seven hundred and ninety thousand years ago. Of course, there’s controversy of the exact date, and there are other sites as well, including the Zhoukoudian, which is also from the Lower oPaleolithic age, in China, and it dates to around four hundred thousand years ago, while another site in Israel, Qesem Cave, contains examples of the controlled use of fire somewhere between two hundred and four hundred thousand years ago.
While these examples are of the use of fire, they weren’t examples of a fireplace. And the first wood fireplaces were made by simply taking a collection of stones and using them to contain the the fire. If the fire-users built the fire in the same place again and again, the ashes themselves made a kind of hearth. Examples of these sites are from the Middle Paleolithic period (some two hundred thousand to forty thousand years ago) in caves in South Africa and Israel (the Klasies River Caves in South Africa were in use around one hundred and twenty-five years ago, for instance).
Evidence of these hearths are found as well in the Upper Paleolithic age (forty thousand to twenty thousand years). During this time, kilns for making pottery also came into being, found in the Klisoura Cave in Greece, some thirty-two thousand to thirty-four thousand years ago.
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Cotton Mills and Early History of Huntsville
Posted by admin on December 1st, 2009 filed in Travel
Huntsville, Alabama sits along the Tennessee River in the north central part of the state. The Brindlee Mountain can be seen to the south across the river. The population is around 177,000 residents. A little bit of unusual trivia, Huntsville is in Madison County. Huntsville is also in Limestone County. Seems it started out in Madison County but grew, spread and spilled over into Limestone County. Back in 1805 John Hunt settled the area but did not properly register it and Leroy Pope acquired it. When it became incorporated in 1811 it became Twickenham. Don’t you really have to wonder where some of these names come from? Anyway, after the War of 1812, Twickenham became Huntsville after John Hunt and has been since. The city considers 1805 its birth year since that is when Hunt settled here, not the incorporation year
Cotton mills, munitions and the railroad have all had major influences on this city over the years. Growth has been fairly rapid, economic factors solid. After the Civil War, with the abundance of cotton, textile mills sprang up and they created their own little communities for their workers. Everything was within walking distance of the mills, their shops, schools and churches. Over the years, Huntsville has developed a major space technology with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the US Space and Rocket Center and has become known as the Rocket City.
When visiting, be sure and check out the space museums and exhibits. This is an interesting city with much to see and do. First, you need a place to stay. Hotels Huntsville offers are very comfortable and pleasant. The amenities are abundant, the staff friendly and accommodating. There are fabulous restaurants, exciting nightclubs, the Historic Districts, unique shopping and numerous festivals and sporting activities. Just like the space program, your visit here could be out of this world.