... and forever ... Kari-Baby, Schlumo is a tomcat ;-)
I'm sorry for the bad light, but after I switched on some more lamps the show was over...
Went to the country today. We drove to the country town of Gatton about 45 minutes from our home in Brisbane, and had lunch at their new "cultural" centre. Knowing the local "culture" a little bit too well, I was somewhat concerned about what we were going to experience, but I need not have feared at all. It was very well done, and though relatively newly opened, and obvious that there is still work to do on the landscaping etc, it was equal to any other "cultural" center we have experienced within Australia.
Many years ago, back in the early 1970s, a very forwarded thinking gentleman from the local agricualtural college lobbied very, very hard for a lake to be created in a swampy area just outside the town. The local people thought he was a "mad bastard" in the Aussie vernacular, but he kept at it and eventually won the local council over. Now look at it! The birds have such a haven and many of the locals take their daily walks around the lake. The centre was built in 2009 and houses the library, an art gallery that displays local artists and a truck museum. The town of Gatton is the hub of a rich agricultural area "the salad bowl of the Lockey Valley" and so the trucking industry is a major employer for the town.
So, the center not only has a trucking museum, but on a slight rise next to the lake they have created a monument that lists the names of all the local drivers that have died - too many in accidents, but also as part of the cycle of life. Families pay a small amount to have the name of their loved one inscribed.
There is a lovely sandstone carving outside the cultural centre that commemorates the agricultural pioneers of the district.
and next door to the centre is the local historical village :
Not far away, on the other side of the historical village, a terrible murder was committed at the end of the 19th century. Three members of the Murphy family - two sisters and a brother- were murdered on their way home from a local dance. Their murder was never solved and to this day all the locals have theories about who killed them - irish family vendetta: a jilted lover; incestuous relationship; vargrant who diappeared into the night? I guess now, no one will ever know for sure.
Lights on the Hill - song lyrics by Slim Dusty
It's a long straight road and the engine is deep
I can't help thinkin' of a good night's sleep
And the long long roads of my li-ife were a callin' me
These rough old hands are a-glued to the wheel
My eyes full of sand from the way they feel
And the lights comin' over the hi-ill are a-blindin' me
It's a long tough haul from a-way down south
A man's gotta find a little bread for his mouth
And a home for a girl as swee-eet as my honey can be
So it's down through the gears, she's a-startin' to pull
The gauge on the tank is a-showin' they're full
And the lights comin' over the hi-ill are a-blindin' me
There's rain on the road and I can feel the load start a-shiftin'
I-i-in a dance
Too late, I see the post and I haven't got a ghost of a chance
Ah-hah-hah-no
The windscreen wipers are a-beatin' in time
The song they sing is a part of my mind
And I can't believe it's a-really happenin' to me
Oh, but I'm over the edge and down the mountain side
I know they'll tell about the night I died
In the rain when the lights on the hi-ill were a-blindin' me
Hey!
There's rain on the road and I can feel the load start a-shiftin'
I-i-in a dance
Too late, I see the post and I haven't got a ghost of a chance
Ah-hah-hah-no
The windscreen wipers are a-beatin' in time
The song they sing is a part of my mind
And I can't believe it's a-really happenin' to me
Oh, but I'm over the edge and down the mountain side
I know they'll tell about the night I died
In the rain when the lights on the hi-ill were a-blindin' me
In the rain when the lights on t
]]>An Ideal Omega-3 Sufficiency Index: The foundation for lowering high blood fats is DHA sufficiency. Blood fats in droplets are called triglycerides [1]. DHA is the most effective omega-3 for lowering high triglycerides [2]. DHA is also the most efficient omega-3 dosing method. As a fat, DHA is the longest , most un-saturated, most abundant omega-3 in our body, eyes, heart, brain and organs [1,2].
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What was the worst thing that happened to you in 2009? The best?
2009 was a year of lows for our family.
The year started well with our pregnant dog Hera delivering five puppies on Jan 27th. This was her second pregnancy and for the first time had a little girl. Her first litter in 2006 was five little boys! My breeder friend Jane, could not believe that out of ten puppies only the very last one was a girl. After Hera had deliver her 9th boy, Conrad told her the statistical chances of having ten out of ten pups be all boys. That apparently changed her mind and surprise, Princess was born.
Princess was spoiled from the day she arrived and repaid us by being the first to escape all confinement. At about four weeks, she climbed out of the puppy play pen at 5 AM and made her way across the hall, the kitchen and dining area and into the master bedroom to announce her hunger. . . loudly. Princess became Prissy Lady when adopted by her new Mom Jean and continues to rule her new house hold.
We had made arrangements to wholesale the puppies to my friend Jane who is a professional breeder with a long standing clientele. We decided to try to sell some of them locally and were somewhat successful with four of the five pups being sold by the age of 10 weeks. Younger pups sell better and so Conrad took Brownie back to Michigan and Jane. I kept Pixel with me and had planned to sell him to a friend only, or maybe keep him. Conrad wanted to sell him, thinking three dogs was too many. We only have two laps.
Some of you may remember, that I sort of accidentally sold Pixel, to some very nice people from New Jersey. I was depressed for a week until I got a call from Larry saying there was a problem with Pixey. Larry's brother was a canine genetics professor at a major university and had put Pixel through some very serious tests looking for genetic problems that occur with Shih Tzus. He found that Pixel had a condition call Juvenile Renal Displaysia. This condition is usually fatal and gave Pixey a prognosis of a very short life span. We were all devastated. I give my puppy parents a one year guarantee against genetic defects, so there was no question, that we would take Pixey back and love him and keep him comfortable as long as possible.
Larry flew Pixel back to Raleigh and met us at the airport. I felt terrible for Lydia, Larry, and most of all my Pixel. My magical little boy was doomed to a short life. We consulted with our Vet and found that there was not much that could be done. Our biggest hope was that he would remain small and not outgrow his existing kidney function.
Pixey fit back into the family and even Lenny, who had been in a snit since the birth of the puppies, grew to accept his new little brother was here to stay. Today Pixey is 11 months old and just a little over 5 pounds. We have had his kidneys tested twice since, and while some of his readings are at the high end of normal, all are in the normal range. He shows no signs of the kidney issue other than drinking a lot of water, frequent urination, and is a bright and happy little dog that we love dearly.
Financial devastation was the phrase for 2009. In April we had to assume the total cost of our retirement health care when the bankruptcy judge and allowed Delphi to renege on the promise of health care for salary retirees with over 30 years of service. My husband and I both retired from Delphi. I had worked for GM for 26 years and my husband 23 years before the Delphi spin off in 1999. We were promised that all benefits would continue under the new company and health care in retirement and pensions were safe. . . as long as we worked a minimum of 30 years. I worked 34 and my husband 32 when we were offered early retirement packages due to down sizing and plant closings. Union workers lost vision and dental coverage while the Delphi salary retirees (who had already been paying about 20% of our health care costs) now had to assume 100%. This was not in the plan.
A couple of months later GM was in trouble and the Automotive Task Force was formed. A deal was brokered that dumped all of the Delphi pensions on the PBGC where based on age, our pensions could now be cut up to 70% in some cases. They also brokered a deal where GM made up for the pension short fall for UAW retirees ONLY! They also sold many of the Delphi assets for pennys on the dollar back to GM without fully funding the salary retirement plan. This was and remains an unequal and unpresented decision in a bankruptcy case.
The DSRA (Delphi Salary Retirement Association) was formed. Legal action is still pending to reverse or mitigate these decisions. The DSRA found a new group to admisistrate our health care trust and found more affordable health care in a nation wide plan. VEBA accounts were established and the health care costs were reduced. By offering the health care plan to the union retirees within Delphi the group size was increased from 15,000 salary retirees to over a hundered thousand, sigificantly reducing the cost of coverage to all. It's still expensive, but only about half of what we faced in April. With my history of breast cancer, we had no choice but to go with whatever group coverage was made available.
The future is not certain and we still are hopeful that DSRA legal action may be sucessful. Unfair decisions that effected different groups of retirees, differently, may still be overturned or mitigated to some extent. We remain hopeful that 2010 is a much better year than 2009. We planned carefully for our retirement and saved much of our income. Many people did not. They face much more dim prospects than we but, if the legal decisions stand, we could all face the prospects of poverty. . . in what are suposed to be our Golden Years. We are all very bitter about the treatment we have recieved after devoting 30+ years to Delphi and GM. I'm really glad 2009 is almost over.
No, we won't be buying a new GM car in 2010!
You can read more about the DSRA situation in the Washington Times:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/24/nonunion-auto-retirees-cry-foul-over-deal/
]]>
Artefacts are a major portion of an American-Indian reservation's economy. Annually, thousands of tourists visit reservations and most will not leave without purchasing at least one memento of the traditional Indian culture.
One enterprising Indian was able to outsell his competitors in the sale of wooden dolls by selling them at only a fraction of the cost others had to charge. On examination of his dolls they found that where traditionally hard wood was used, this Indian would use cheap pine on which he glued thin pieces of fine mahogany, thus being able to produce the dolls at only a fraction of the cost.
While he claimed his dolls were still authentic, his competitors complained that it was only a cheap Sioux Veneer.
]]>Pour la paix sur la planète Terre :
Il faisait froid dehors, il neigeait, le soleil se levait et sur les vitres se gravaient des messages universels d'amour et de Paix autour de la nativité: Joyeux Noël, Paix et Amour à tous les peuples du Monde.
Quite the entertaining piece in this Sunday's Boston Globe, about the early origins of Christmas and its eventual taming over the years. Sounds like it was quite the wild time in the good old days, complete with drunkeness and debauchery:'
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/12/20/christmas_was_a_riot/
It's been more than a half year since last time I logged on.
...I don't know what to write.
Maybe starting with disappointment of the year....that is, da bears...
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, da bears is so embarrassing and unbelievably disappointing.
They broke my heart completely so I don't feel anything anymore when they lose the game.
Name Chicago losers for the year!
Chicago Cubs
White sox
Chicago Bears
and soon Bulls's gonna join them....
Go Blackhawks!!!!
I started to watch Ice Hockey from this season. Blackhawks plays with all their hearts! Sooooooooo exciting!
]]>Cold enough for ya?