Tonight I picked out and bought tile for the bathroom (Part 39). I also bought vinyl tile for under the stairs and under the washer and dryer (40). Then when I got home, I cleaned the area under the stairs (41), laid out the vinyl tile (42), cut the tiles that needed cutting (43), and then stuck down all of the vinyl tile under the stairs (44).


(And you people said I wouldn't have enough Parts...)

So, we have our first floor! Tomorrow I'll be able to move all of the stuff out of our kitchen and dining room and back into storage under the stairs.

I am so far sucking on my goal to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112, and run 26.2 by New Year's. It's been a busy week, what can I say. I hit the exercise bike at the gym during lunch the other day, and OMG, it kicked my butt, in every sense of the word. Must buy padded shorts. I found it really awkward, since those contraptions aren't built for someone 5'2", no matter how far down you can jack the seat. So I did 4 miles in just under 20 minutes. Which is slower than a lot of people can run.

I gave up my regular workout on Thursday in favor of a 90 minute yoga class, which seems like a completely insane indulgence these days. Something akin to bathing in champagne, or lighting Cubans with $100 bills. Good lord, it was so wonderful. But it just means I'm one more day down on this end of year goal. And at the rate I'm going, the bike portion is going to take a really long time.

Sean O'Brien commented on the Republican Advance for WCAV CBS News in Charlottesville.

Click here to see the video and read a transcript of the story.

Congratulations to Elana & Andy, who had a fantastic wedding out at the historic Clifton Inn recently. Held as the autumn leaves were just peaking and waning, they celebrated with friends and family outside the inn in the garden. Earlier in the day, Andy and some close friends hung out in the inn’s cellar and played poker for a couple of hours, while the inn’s cake decorator put the finishing touches on their wedding cake at the other end of the table. Andy was well on his way to winning, but alas lost his pile of chips to one of his groomsmen at the last minute. No worries, though, as while he was wrapping up his game, Elana was getting ready upstairs, doning a gorgeous Maggie Sottero gown to surprise him when they saw each other prior to the ceremony. They wanted a few minutes alone before the ceremony and have the most time possible to enjoy their visiting friends and family members.

The ceremony, officiated by the wonderful Claire Goodman and decorated by our absolute fave local florists, Pat and Sherry, was thoroughly enjoyable and incorporated a few Jewish elements in a nod to Elana’s faith. After they recessed among their excited friends, they walked into the inn’s main corridor where a beautiful streaming beam of warm evening sunlight was coming through and stopped right in the middle of it to kiss and celebrate their marriage. A perfect moment in perfect light, and thus a photographer’s dream. How’d you guys know? ;-)

Elana’s dad surprised the couple with an ice sculpture featuring the couple’s monogram, just off the dining room where all could see it. It was a “fun” challenge for the inn’s staff to load the 200-pound block without either of them seeing it before the reception. Once cocktail hour out on the main lawn was over as the sun finally set over the Blue Ridge mountains, Elana’s dad offered a gracious welcome to everyone, complete with quite a few inside jokes that elicited a good bit of laughter from everyone. The Jangling Reinharts, one of our favorite local bands, kicked off the evening of dancing and kept everyone on the move. They even played a hora dance to get Elana up and moving, grinning from ear to ear, above everyone’s heads. A special thanks for the evening goes out to Holly at the inn, who quietly and expertly kept things moving smoothly and helped ensure a delicious dinner for everyone. (Seriously, if you haven’t eaten at the Clifton Inn yet, go. It’s a treat.)

Elana & Andy had decided before the wedding to have a nice, relaxing portrait session the day after their wedding, when they wouldn’t have any scheduling concerns or worry too much about getting a bit of dirt on her dress. So the next morning I arrived back at the inn at 8am. They were real troopers, not only because the party went well past midnight, but because it was 43 degrees outside. So off we went down to the lake for some great shots on the pier, and then to finish off by the infinity pool off to the side from the inn, before they went back in to join their families for a brunch before their departure. I was also lucky enough to have the talented Tom Daly around to help with things on the wedding day itself, and it was a pleasure to work with him (thanks, Tom!). Elana & Andy, I had an awesome time with you both both on your wedding day and the portrait session the morning after. Thanks so much for having me out!

Hey guys!

There’s plenty more to talk about, and soon I’ll have some awesome new designs to show you, but Kate’s yelling at me to get ready to go to the bar, so I’ll make this quick!

SEIBEI is on Facebook now! You can become our “fan” on Facebook, and it’ll be your own little place to make suggestions, get coupons, and also help promote SEIBEI! So, be my fan, because MySpace is kind of lame anyway.

I went to an interesting discussion today. It was led by the Franco-Israeli writer Sylvain Cypel, who was talking about his recent book Walled: Israeli Society at an Impasse. I...

Around 3 o’clock this afternoon, the UVA Corner’s mid-afternoon scene was enlivened by an anti-coal protest organized by members of the Student Environmental Action. About fifteen University of Virginia students wore yellow surgical masks and held up cardboard signs painted with slogans like, “Bank of America funds dirty coal,” “Bank of America killing communities,” “coal kills,” “no coal is clean coal,” “death to coal,” and, “coal sucks.” The students chanted, “no more coal,” as they marched past Bank of America towards Mellow Mushroom and back again. They also passed out fliers detailing Bank of America’s alleged part in financing coal-fired power plants and coal companies. The local branch declined to comment and efforts to reach the bank’s headquarters were unsuccessful.

These guys rock. The ability to explain something in such a clear, concise, easily understandable way is admirable brilliance. I could have used this video on Wednesday when I gave a brief presentation on real estate blogs.

It’s funny that they posted the Blogs in Plain English video so long after they explained RSS. I think I’ll try to use both next month on a panel I’ll be sitting on.

Hat tip: Ben

Technorati Tags: blog

(more…)

The dots on this easel-pad represent the preferences of attendees. The other three options received one or two dots each

Members of the public who attended a second information session on three proposed routes for the Eastern Connector overwhelmingly told the consultant to return to the drawing board to come up with other alternatives for the region’s problems with traffic congestion. The overwhelming majority of attendees who voted for an option selected the no-build alternative, which includes widening Route 250 to six lanes through the Pantops area.

Podcast produced by Charlottesville Tomorrow * Player by Odeo

Listen using player above or download the podcast:  Download 20071129-EC-Public.MP3

Over seventy-five people attended the event, which featured a presentation from Lewis Grimm of PBS&J as well as a series of break-out sessions designed to give feedback on the three routes. During his presentation, Grimm wanted to make sure the audience knew that the concepts on display are preliminary.

“We’re not talking about getting ready to go to build anything next Tuesday,” he told the crowd. “We’re still in the mode of looking for as much input as we can possibly obtain, because it’s you the community that really needs to support whatever recommendations are done.”

The scope and purpose of the study, which uses the traffic forecast model prepared by the Metropolitan Planning Organization in its UnJAM 2025 plan, is to develop a series of alternatives for a potential  new connection east of Route 20 and US 29 somewhere between Rio Road and Proffit Road.  Grimm told the audience that the study assumes that the population of the area is going to grow substantially in the next few decades.

“Between the year 2000 and the 2030, the projections are for about a 40 percent increase just in population,  and that’s going to generate a significant increase in [traffic] demand  in this particular region,” Grimm said.

Alternative zero assumes that other projects listed in the UnJAM 2025 get built, including the Meadowcreek Parkway, and Hillsdale Drive Extended. UnJAM also assumes improvements will be made at the intersection of U.S. 29 and the Route 250 Bypass.

Lewis Grimm addresses the crowd

But Grimm said there are no projects in the UnJAM plan to address how to get from the Pantops area to US 29.  As a result, roads in the area are expected to have failing levels of service during peak travel times.  Grimm added that the kind of road being proposed as an Eastern Connector is a two-lane collector road.

“Not major roadways, not regional facilities, but two-lane roadways to build a better system of streets and highways in the Charlottesville area, not big major roads,” Grimm said. He added that any road would also feature bike paths and sidewalks.

PUBLIC OPPOSITION

After hearing Grimm detail the three alternatives, members of the public were vocal in their opposition. 

Charts provided by PBS&J listing the relative merits and costs of each alternative

Many were concerned that none of the three alternatives would make a significant difference in reducing travel time, despite the large price tag. This analysis was based on a hypothetical trip from Hollymead to Pantop. Under the no-build, that would take 37.8 minutes in 2025, compared with 37.4 minutes for Alternative #1 (Proffit Road relocated), 36.8 minutes for Alternative #2 (Polo Grounds Road Connector), and 35.9 minutes for Alternative #3 (Rio Road to Route 20 via Pen Park).

Applause broke out in the auditorium after Grimm mentioned that a participant of the first information session had suggested that the parameters of the study be widened to as far north as Ruckersville and as far east as Shadwell.

“I’d be more than happy to do that, but it’s not in my current scope of work or budget,” Grimm said.
Clara Belle Wheeler, who owns a large property along Route 20 within the study area, suggested that the current scope is not wide enough.

“You talk about making significant improvements, and yet by your own study you’re going to reduce the traffic time by only two minutes [using the Pen Park route,]” Wheeler said. “I don’t think that’s cost-effective.”  Wheeler also generated applause when she demanded that Pen Park not be turned into a road.  Grimm told her to make sure that she and other opponents submit written comments to ensure their feedback is taken into consideration.

Another woman asked about the possibility of a bypass for U.S. 29 around Charlottesville. She said that would accomplish many of the same goals as the location study.  Grimm said that a bypass alternative has been selected, right of way had been purchased, but he was not hired to study such a road.  He later mentioned that such a project could approach a billion dollars, if a route from I-64 to Ruckersville were undertaken.

“Whether  or not that project is going to advance is not up to me, but if there’s enough support from the community for a project of that nature, all of your local elected officials, all of your state elected officials, clearly need to hear that,” he said.

Another man stood up and asked if the cost estimates for the projects included court costs, hinting at a possible law suit if the Pen Park route ends up as the selected alternative. Another person asked if increased public transportation was considered as an option for relieving congestion.  Grimm said that the federal government will not allow the MPO to model that possibility in its traffic demand forecasts.

“The [Charlottesville] urban area is kind of right at that marginal size of whether or not the federal government will support a mode choice model,” Grimm said. He also pointed out that a $50 million capital investment would also require ongoing funding to maintain and operate the expanded facilities. “If the local government wants to do it, it has been done in other parts of the country, and it can be done here.”

Sarah Hendley has organized a committee to preserve Pen Park, and says that she has collected well over 1,600 signatures from people who do not want the park to be used for a road. 

“I am struck by the emphasis placed on building the road through Pen Park in spite of federal laws and restrictions on building a road through a park… when there are feasible and prudent alternatives,” Hendley said.   “Why spend millions of dollars to ruin our best park and save two minutes of driving time?”

Attendees were asked to add comments to maps of the three options during the workshop portion of the event

After the presentation, members of the audience were instructed to sit at one of several tables to participate in workshops to critique the alternatives. When they were finished, facilitators reported back their findings to the main group. County Senior Planner Judy Wiegand reported that the group she oversaw wanted to see a connection between northern U.S. 29 and Interstate 64, and that none of the proposed alternatives should go forward.  The next group concluded that none of the three solved a local traffic problem, and suggested an origin and destination study be conducted.  The other groups echoed the same result – that none of the alternatives helped solve any traffic problems.

Grimm acknowledged that he knew that any of the alternatives as proposed would not solve all of the region’s traffic woes.

“This is an issue where we’re looking to help define a better system for the Charlottesville area,” he said. Responding to audience complaints that the projections of spending $50 million to reduce traffic time by 2 minutes, Grimm said that was a policy decision that would ultimately be left to local leaders.  He said more study would be needed if the public wanted more details of who uses our area’s roads.

“The questions we’ve raised tonight have really pointed out the very large-scale regional issues that are involved,” Grimm said.

County transportation planner Juandiego Wade said about sixty people attended the first information session. Grimm said that many people at that meeting wanted to know why the study area was so limited, and that new alternatives may very well be drawn up from that meeting.

Charlottesville City Councilor Dave Norris sits on the MPO Policy Board, but is not a member of the Eastern Connector Steering Committee.  He suggested a new approach may need to be taken.

“Part of the problem is that we haven’t looked at this whole issue regionally to the extent that is really necessary, and we’ve sort of been approaching transportation on a somewhat piecemeal basis, “ Norris said.  “The broader conversation needs to be about the system as a whole.”

The Eastern Connector Location Study Steering Committee will consider public input at their next meeting on December 14.

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST:

• 00:56 - Lewis Grimm of PBS&J provides an overview of the project
• 10:10 -  Grimm introduces the alternatives
• 23:53 - Grimm answers a question about computer modeling that went into the project
• 27:04 - Comments from Clara Belle Wheeler, who owns property in the study area
• 31:56 - Grimm answers a question about the possibility of a bypass around Charlottesville
• 34:46 - A man asks about more details about the possibility of route improvements on U.S. 250 through Pantops
• 36:10 - Another man questions Grimm's figure of two minutes of time savings time using #Alternative 3
• 38:02 - Pen Park activist Sarah Hendley addresses the crowd
• 40:34 - The breakout groups report back their thoughts on the three alternatives
  

Sean Tubbs

Eric Schlosser (he of Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness fame) has a great op-ed in the NYT today about the horrid conditions facing the migrant workers who provide you with those oh-so-awesome (meaning, really bland and flavorless) beafsteak tomatoes during the winter.

Migrant farm laborers have long been among America’s most impoverished workers. Perhaps 80 percent of the migrants in Florida are illegal immigrants and thus especially vulnerable to abuse. During the past decade, the United States Justice Department has prosecuted half a dozen cases of slavery among farm workers in Florida. Migrants have been driven into debt, forced to work for nothing and kept in chained trailers at night. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers — a farm worker alliance based in Immokalee, Fla. — has done a heroic job improving the lives of migrants in the state, investigating slavery cases and negotiating the penny-per-pound surcharge with fast food chains.

Florida’s tomato industry may be one of the most effective cartels in the U.S. today, for example, they’ve successfully used their clout to prevent marketing of more flavorful — if less comely — varietals. So it’s a shame, if predictable, that they allow themselves to be browbeaten by the scions of robber-baron capitalism. Consider:

Telling Burger King to pay an extra penny for tomatoes and provide a decent wage to migrant workers would hardly bankrupt the company. Indeed, it would cost Burger King only $250,000 a year. At Goldman Sachs, that sort of money shouldn’t be too hard to find. In 2006, the bonuses of the top 12 Goldman Sachs executives exceeded $200 million — more than twice as much money as all of the roughly 10,000 tomato pickers in southern Florida earned that year.

Knowing what misers the Florida growers and their buyers are, do you really need your mid-winter tomato?

The city’s asked for $24 million.

If you’re taking requests:

Yes, please do repair our “aging sewer system.” I want it to be shiny and new. Eww.

The mall. I do wear heels, and the uneven bricks of the mall do chew them up. I can see the point of not re-bricking– we’ll keep pump-ing (pun intended) money into the local economy with new heel purchases. But seriously, think of the children. They could trip on the uneven bricks.

More signs pointing to the downtown mall? Sure. Can they have moving parts though, like a Disney ride? “It’s A Small World After All” is kind of a fitting theme.

I have been working quite a bit with video lately. Some of it in Utterz, some in other places. I like the format for certain applications. It does, however, have certain limitations.Knowing this, I am going to give video-blogging a try here at RealEstaetZebra.com. Just as in this post, what I am going to to is post the videos, but also include text-posts. The video can be cool, but some things require the explanation and detail that is best achieved through the written word.

I had hoped to be able to to this through Utterz, but unfortunately, the video posts from Utterz can’t be edited to include text without messing up the formatting of the blog. So, I will be uploading to YouTube, and then posting here. If you want to see all of my video posts, you can head over to the Real Estate Zebra YouTube channel.

I’m not sure exactly how this is going to develop, but it will most certainly be interesting to follow along. As always, your comments and input are welcome.

Technorati Tags: real estate, realtor, video, utterz

My initial plans got waylaid! I didn't pull out the checksumming code first, because the code wasn't at all as I remembered it. Instead, I began writing code to handle the more abstract problem of accepting two sets of rows, finding the differences, and doing something with them. I'm ending up with a little more complicated system than I thought I would. However, it's also significantly simpler in some ways. Instead of just passing references to subroutines to use as callbacks, I'm object-ifying the entire synchronization concept...

In roughly 45 minutes, I'll be "flicking the switch" (which is really typing "-1" five times) to turn on decisions for spring transfer applicants. Good luck to all!

THEY ARE THIEVES FOR STEALING OUR IDEA! [NYT]

Actually, it’s pretty cool that C-Ville gets compared with the likes of Brooklyn, Portland, Copenhagen, Paris and Lyon.

The New York Times blogger, Jake Mooney, used to work in Charlottesville. Does anyone know where?

He writes:

Maybe it’s the color yellow or maybe it’s the spirit of sharing, but when I heard about the program my first thought was of Charlottesville, Va., where I worked as a reporter several years ago.

Charlottesville, for a brief time, had a similar program, but with bikes: Volunteers painted old bikes yellow, fixed them up, left them at a few hubs around town, and let people take it from there, riding the bikes and, it was hoped, leaving them for others when they were done.

Anyway, check the article. It’s a good read. Too bad we don’t have yellow bikes. But how else can we top the Yellow free, shared stuff…

Wigs

Hover Craft

Poofy Jackets (for cold days)

I’m out… help!

Look at the photo above.

What do you see?

No, it's not a poster accompanying today's opening of "Awake," a new film starring Jessica Alba and Hayden Christensen, which revolves around a patient who finds himself awake — and paralyzed, unable to communicate the fact to his surgeons — during an operation.

Already the Amercan Society of Anesthesiologists has tried — and failed — to defuse the film's message that such things do happen.

Watch for lots more people opting to have local anesthesia in the near future.

But I digress.

The picture up top is of Madeline Gallagher, an emphysema patient — in real life, not a movie — after doctors at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital removed 30% of each of her lungs.

It accompanied Denise Grady's story in yesterday's New York Times.

The caption in the Times slide show accompanying the article read, "Mrs. Gallagher in the operating room after surgery as the medical team begins to clean up."

When I happened on the photo as I read the paper, I nearly fell off my chair — who's watching the patient?

Besides the Times photographer, Damon Winter.

I mean, it looks for all the world like everyone in the OR is off doing her or his own thing while Mrs. Gallagher lies there unconscious amidst the mess.

I'm reminded of some of the anesthesia residents I used to teach, back in the day.

They had a habit of turning their backs on the patient at critical moments in a case, to chart something or check the anesthesia machine or whatever.

I would gently but firmly place a hand on each their shoulders and rotate them so that they were squarely facing the surgical field.

Sometimes I would have to do it repeatedly during a case.

As I oftimes remarked, "The patient only moves when you're not looking."

To be told by the surgeon or nurse that a patient is moving is not good anesthesia technique.

Tell you one thing: you won't see this photo in an ad for the hospital.

The movie, well, that's another thing entirely.

Perhaps it's time to update Otto von Bismarck's oft-quoted observation, "Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made.", to include surgical procedures.

Since weekends are most conducive to photo-taking, by Friday I think I'll typically be low on material. So I have declared Fridays to be LINKTASTIC! Here are some fun blog posts you should click over to.

(Arg, I ended a sentence in a preposition.)

• I love curry. And sweet potatoes. YUM!!
  
• Beautiful local photo in this post.
• Is this street legal? who cares.
  
• Hey, I think I'm a slash! (Not GNR related)
  
• Hello to my new friends at CASPCA! Look at this gorgeous girl.
• Fellow Etsian's blog that I find really intriguing.
• Another Etsian blog - wonderful design, tons of eye candy here.
• Will the USB device insanity never end?
  

Happy weekend, everyone.

Between 95.1 and Pandora’s classic Christmas station, I’m in a winter wonderland. What’s your favorite holiday song (and singer, if applicable)?

I’m a “Little Drummer Boy.” Perry, Bing, Frank, Dean, whoever sings it.

Columbus Lab, a small group within UVA’s Chemistry Department, has just entered into an agreement with Category 4. We will be creating a small website for Linda Columbus’ team which will include an installation of MediaWiki. We are excited to have the opportunity to turn this site into a professional and informational extension of the department.

Category 4 is pleased to announce our latest partnership with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Ivy, VA. We will be creating a flexible site for them using Wordpress and adding a few cool features like a mailing list, podcasting capability, and image galleries. St. Paul’s Church wants a website that is modern, professional, and polished…good thing those are 3 of Cat4’s favorite adjectives.

I have hated US News school rankings for some time for a lot of reasons. These include: the rankings purport to supply objective measurement for a fundamentally subjective set of metrics (both in valuation and weight in each category), they distort young people's value system by rank ordering a bunch of elite schools that are basically perfect substitutes when compared with the eductional experiences that 99% of Americans are getting, and they have negative endogenous effects by encouraging schools to stimulate applications and then only accept those that they expect will matriculate in order to get acceptance rate down and matriculation rate up, and through schools' non-stop fundraising campaigns that are partly driven by a desire to move up in US News rankings.

So it is understandable that I am not as happy as some of my old classmates that US News just declared that my high school is the "best" high school in the country. How did they arrive at this all-knowing result? I looked at their methodology, and they first compared a high school's standardized test scores in math and reading to the state's averages, and then filtered by looking at black, hispanic, and low income's scores compared to statewide result for blacks, hispanics, and low income. Then they compared AP scores and such with statewide averages. What a surprise that TJ (my high school) - a school where admission is solely determined based on how well one does on an admissions test - comes out on top. So basically US News just declared that the school with the greatest differential between its test scores and state averages is a high school that happens to grant admissions solely on the differentiation between successful applicants and their peers in the region whose scores are not high enough. Thanks US News for this amazing epiphany!

The greatest gall is the section where US News explains why they do this. They say it's to "promote accountability". I wish they'd just admit the real reason that it's to sell magazines.

Still, the Wall Street Journal determined today that TJ is not very good compared to elite New England private schools at placing their graduates from the "best" high school into the "best" colleges. Only the WSJ's methodology is also miserable, though at least their article had a point. It seems that the WSJ was trying to do an article advising parents on what school they should send their children to in order to place them in a brand name elite university, which the WSJ implicitly posited was the point of picking a high school for a child. The WSJ defined brand name elite university as a school that had a 25/75th percentile SAT in the 1350/1450 range. But this goal failed because most of these elite schools inexplicably refused to release data on where their students went to high school. Instead of scrapping the study, the WSJ decided to come out with a flawed study anyways, which once we take out the tiny liberal arts schools is basically just Harvard, Princeton, Chicago, Hopkins, and MIT. So it's really not that much of a surprise that elite New England private schools are the top schools at placing their students in elite New England private colleges.

I have a few conclusions. First, US News rankings are terrible for many different reasons: poor methodology, the inculcation of poor values among our youth, and their terrible endogenous effects on applications processes and school administration. Second, when a newspaper wants to do a story but finds itself unable to based on third party actions, the newspaper should scrap the story rather than running a flawed article.

Third, I think the college application process is silly. My high school admitted students based on a day of test-taking, and factored in few other variables. We ended up with a diverse, intelligent, ambitious, successful student body that has gone on to tremendous achievements. Self-important college admissions committees though purport to have found a better system, asking for essays that have usually either been written or heavily vetted by parents/private school faculty/college coaches, lists of extracurricular activities that are of little probative value as to a candidate's ability to succeed in college, teacher recommendations that say more about the teacher than about the student, and transcripts that vary widely based on course selection and school.

Instead, I would recommend that colleges just focus on objective standardized measurements like the SAT (though I would expand the SAT beyond vocabulary, algebra, and geometry to include high level math, biology, chemistry, physics, U.S. and world history, and basics in the social sciences), AP tests, and SAT II. My main problem is that college admissions basically want to take a holistic measurement of a human being at an age where they are still developing and changing rapidly, and they still have not been exposed to most academic subjects or their career. I understand that this lengthy process helps justify their jobs, but it is no excuse to maintain a fundamentally flawed admissions system.

Tired of being in a bad mood.
Thought the toddlers had zapped it out of me yesterday, but today Asplundh showed up and stoked the coals. Giving it some thought, this is a Fresh Bad Mood, cause the toddlers and yoga and wine really did the trick yesterday. Who can be grouchy when met with all that sweetness and light and snuggle potential at the school gate?

I digress.
We have a lovely willow tree in the front yard. It's not without A Sordid History itself, but we continue to care for and love it.

Last year, the first year it was trimmed for the power lines, I thought to try and have a thoughtful conversation with the hired saws responsible for trimming branches. That didn't work out so well. I was left with a butchered tree, and about the polar opposite effect that I was lead to believe would occur. Gone, poof.

So this time, I felt better prepared. But no. Another hack job. After expressing my Extreme Disapproval and retreating hastily and unkindly inside, I thought better of it, collected myself and went back to dole out a bit of constructive criticism.
CC, as in "when you said "trim" that lead me to believe you are not taking FEET off the top of the tree. Or cutting off major limbs. It makes me think the tree is getting a little hair cut, as in "trimming" the branches that are actually touching the powerlines. CC as in, "Maybe when you speak to people, you should be Very Clear about the end result; i.e. "We plan to take at least 4' off your tree and leave a gaping hole that you will be able to see every morning this winter from your cozy living room." "Maybe you ought to stay out here and supervise us, because we are not professional arborists and don't really care that you have to look at this every day. We have a job to do and it does not call for thoughtfulness or beauty."

They followed the cut from last year, which is what I spend a while telling them was the wrong approach, how further topping the tree wouldn't help it grow away from the power lines, and in fact, it still need time to recover from what their conspirators did last year. We had a Professional Opinion and everything - So please, that there? No Touchy.
I would have grabbed my coffee and not learned the same lesson yet another way. I am peeved and sheepish and let down because I felt I was proactive and polite and being heard. I learned from History Y'all! I was not doomed to repeat it!!

Afterwards, all I could hear was, "I agree m'am, that does look bad".

And they did clean up their mess. That, I will give them.

*sigh* Then I was back in the basement sewing. It's kinda hard to sew adorable and lovely baby blankets after that upset. Stop by the market and see which ones are full of *hate*. He he. Kidding. But just in case, the Smoking One better cook dinner. Just to be safe.

By David Swanson

Cal Thomas, in his November 30th column, fears “America’s destruction,” citing two dangers in passing and focusing on a third. The two that I fear (global warming and nuclear war) are not mentioned. Rather, Thomas fears that our military (although by far the largest the planet has ever seen) is too small. He fears that the dollar will be abandoned by foreign governments (hence, perhaps, the need for an even larger military?). And he fears that immigrants are, in Pat Buchanan’s words “swamping the ethno-cultural core of the country.” Thomas is afraid for the future of the United States’ “heritage, language, and, yes, faith.” He tells a horrifying tale of immigrants moving into a Maryland county and failing to earn or inherit as much money as other people.

Reading some lament recently on an Apple fanboy website about how the measly two USB ports make it difficult to work efficiently, it occurred to me to mention my great kludge, which I've had for years now.

Long story short: You plug the Dr. Bott T3Hub into a USB port on your Mac laptop and all of a sudden you've got 4 — not 2 — ports.

Above and below, exclusive unretouched photos of mine in use.

From the Dr. Bott website:

T3Hub USB 2.0

Technical Specifications:

• 480, 12 and 1.5 Mbps transfer rate available on all 3 connectors

• Compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 specs

• Bus error recognition and correction

• 3 USB Type A ports for USB devices

• Active devices indicated via LED

• Plug-and-play compatible


Features:

• T3Hub 2.0 is platform-independent — Mac OS (both 9 and X flavors), Win98/ME, Win2k/XP and Linux are all supported

• T3Hub Aluminum fits the MacBook Pro and the PowerBook G4 Aluminum series

• Includes a separate USB extension cable to reduce strain on built-in USB ports

• T3Hub 2.0 can be installed without turning your computer off

• T3Hub 2.0 is compatible with all USB devices

• T3Hub White fits the iBook

....................

Below, Dr. Bott's photo of the device.

Not nearly as interesting as my pics, in my humble opinion.

But then — who asked me?

$19.99.

The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes (1880-1958) The wind was a torrent of darkness upon the gusty trees, The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, The road was a ribbon of moonlight looping the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding-- Riding--riding-- The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door. He'd a French cocked hat on his forehead, and a bunch of lace at his chin

The AP reports a Regent University law student who was suspended for posting an unflattering photo of school founder Pat Robertson on the Internet sued the university and Robertson yesterday.

Adam M. Key, 23, claims in the federal lawsuit that Regent officials violated his free-speech and due-process rights for expressing his "Christian religious and political opinions" when it suspended him in October. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Texas, where Key lives.

The AP reports that an Ohio high school that canceled an upcoming performance of a play over complaints that the original title of the Agatha Christie novel on which it is based is racially offensive has decided the show will go on, with some changes.

Maybe it's like the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, being featured here.

Not once but twice, most recently just three weeks ago.

Anyhow, the fierce banker was just tossed over the side yesterday by Morgan Stanley.

Not to worry too much about her landing: I'd estimate her total severance package after 25 years with the firm to be in the range of $100 million to $200 million after you add in all the compensation (deferred and otherwise), stock options and God only knows what else this clever woman negotiated to ease her passage on down the road.

Cry for Argentina if you like but don't waste your tears on Ms. Cruz.