The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free. In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored. You'd like to your lover to think you are flexible and ready for anything! You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic. Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

HT to ALI

Economics in Five Lessons

Jim Ostrowski has written an essay titled "Economics in Five Lessons." highlighting the relationship between economics and the state of Buffalo: "The decline of the Western New York economy over the last 45 years is best explained by economics. Only when the people of this area understand the basic economic principles and political dynamics that explain our decline, will they support the policy changes necessary to revive that economy. This essay will outline the five lessons of economics that we believe are most important for understanding our plight and how to get out of it. "

St Patrick's Day events

there are a few things happening this weekend that hopefully I'll be able to circumvent my currently insane schedule to attend, such as the scheduled appearance by Gerry Adams here in Buffalo: Congressman Brian Higgins would like to invite the public to join him in welcoming Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein, to Buffalo, New York for St. Patrick’s Day, 2006 by attending any of the following public events: Remarks at the Buffalo Irish Center 245 Abbott Road, Buffalo 7:15pm, St. Patrick’s Day, Friday, March 17, 2006 Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Irish Famine Memorial Wilkeson Way, Near the Erie Basin Marina, Buffalo 11:15am, Saturday, March 18, 2006 “Old Neighborhood” St. Patrick’s Day Parade Old First Ward and Valley Neighborhoods, Buffalo Noon, Saturday, March 18, 2006 Congressman Higgins recently made an official trip to Ireland, accompanied by Congressman James T. Walsh (R-25th/NY) and Congressman Tim Murphy (R-18th/PA), and met with Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain, US Ambassador to Ireland James Kenny, US Ambassador to the United Kingdom Robert Tuttle, and the leadership of each major political party involved in the peace process, including Mr. Adams.

Stella Awards

I posted a while back on the Wacky Warning Labels contest,hosted by a Lawsuit Abuse watch group. Well here's the flip-side: the Stella Awards, named for that little old lady who spilled coffee on her lap and sued McD's. Here are the 2005 Runners-Up and Winner: #7: Bob Dougherty. A prankster smeared glue on the toilet seat at the Home Depot store in Louisville, Colo., causing Dougherty to stick to it when he sat down. "This is not Home Depot's fault," he proclaimed, yet the store graciously offered him $2,000 anyway. Dougherty complained that offer is "insulting" and filed suit demanding $3 million. #6: Barbara Connors of Medfield, Mass. Connors was riding in a car driven by her 70-year-old(!) son-in-law when they crashed into the Connecticut River, and Connors sank with the car. Rescue divers arrived within minutes and got her out alive, but Connors suffered brain damage from her near-drowning. Sue the driver? Sure, we guess that's reasonable. But she also sued the brave rescue workers who risked their lives to save hers. #5: Michelle Knepper of Vancouver, Wash. Knepper picked a doctor out of the phone book to do her liposuction, and went ahead with the procedure even though the doctor was only a dermatologist, not a plastic surgeon. After having complications, she complained she never would have chosen that doctor had she known he wasn't Board Certified in the procedure. (She relied on the phonebook listing over asking the doctor, or looking for a certificate on his wall?!) So she sued ...the phone company! She won $1.2 million PLUS $375,000 for her husband for "loss of spousal services and companionship." #4: Rhonda Nichols. She says a wild bird "attacked" her outside a home improvement store in Fairview Heights, Ill., causing head injuries. That's right: OUTSIDE the store. Yet Nichols still held the Lowe's store responsible for "allowing" wild birds to fly around free in the air. She never reported the incident to the store, but still sued for "at least" $100,000 in damages. In January 2006, the case was thrown out of court. #3: Barnard Lorence of Stuart, Fla. Lorence managed to overdraw his own bank account. When the bank charged him a service fee for the overdraft, he filed suit over his "stress and pain" and loss of sleep over the fee. A few hundred thousand bucks, he says, will only amount to a "slap on the wrist", whereas the $2 million he's suing for is more like being "paddled". Kinky! #2: Wanita "Renea" Young of Durango, Colo. Two neighborhood teens baked cookies for their neighbors as an anonymous gesture of good will, but Young got scared when she heard them on her front porch. They apologized, in writing, but Young sued them anyway for causing her distress, demanding $3,000. When she won(!!) $900, she crowed about it in the newspaper and on national TV. Now, she's shocked (shocked!) that everyone in town hates her for her spite, and is afraid she may have to move. But hey: she won. AND THE WINNER of the 2005 Stella Award: Christopher Roller of Burnsville, Minn. Roller is mystified by professional magicians, so he sued David Blaine and David Copperfield to demand they reveal their secrets to him -- or else pay him 10 percent of their lifelong earnings, which he figures amounts to $50 million for Copperfield and $2 million for Blaine. The basis for his suit: Roller claims that the magicians defy the laws of physics, and thus must be using "godly powers" -- and since ROLLER is god (according to him), they're "somehow" stealing that power from him.

Songs

As soon as the temp approaches 50F I'm doing the coffee outside in the morning thing and listening to the birds .Some I can easily identify like the very vocal Chickadees but some aren't so easy. If you don't know the difference between a Great Crested Flycatcher and a Tufted Titmouse, check out this site of bird calls in NY State.

Strinnenia~ Slavic Spring Holiday

in honor of the birds I'm once again hearing outside early in the morning... once upon a time people thought the birds brought the Spring with them... Clay images of larks were made, their heads smeared with honey and stuck with tinsel. They were carried around the village amidst the singing of vesnjanki, invocations to Spring. Birds were thought to bring the Spring with them upon their return. Children were given pastries shaped like birds to toss into the air while saying "The rooks have come.". Sometimes the pastries were tied to poles in the garden. The baking of these pastries was to ensure that the birds would return. "Oh little bee, Ardent bee! Fly out beyond the sea. Get out the keys, the golden keys. Lock up winter, cold winter"

Am I way out of the loop or is everyone having conversations like this with their 9 year old kids a la Madonna: The pop diva, considered by some to be an icon in the gay community, tells the magazine her 9-year-old daughter likes to guess who is gay: "Oh, and the other thing she likes to do when we go out, she says, 'Mom, do you want me to point out who the gay men are?' And I say, 'Okay, but I think I already know.'"

pretty

Is there a room in your home that looks like this?

If so, Jen wants to have a word with you.

Since it's National Cereal Day, it's a good time to plug my current favorite, Wegman's Fitness crunch. Way better tasting, less expensive and easier-to-digest than Kashi GoLean Crunch and it's loaded up Kashi-style with 9 grams each fiber and protein.Gooood.

New blog

Looks like the Buffalo Police Department is getting in on the Blog Action these days... UPDATE 3/7/06: advice to blog:make people register or at least use initials. The blog is a mess with the anonymous posting which is unfortunate because it has the potential to bring forth some needed dialogue.

Barbie in the Buff...

The 716 brings Barbie to life~ WNY style.

What next?

Imagine filling your bathtub and watching 41 percent of the water leak onto your bathroom floor. That's what happens every day beneath the streets of Buffalo, according to a first-of-a-kind study that examines leaks in the aging water system. The city pumps 29.6 billion gallons of water each year. But nearly 12 billion gallons goes down the proverbial drain. Most of the water is lost through leaks and bursts in the city's 900-mile maze of pipes... Another jolting discovery is that Buffalo only collects revenue for 46 percent of the water it pumps … Another 600 million gallons is stolen by water pirates who tamper with meters and take extreme measures to restore service after water has been turned off for nonpayment. This same water system has raised rates for metered customers by 64 percent in the past four years and increased flat-rate bills by 55 percent. Read the rest here

It's not pretty anymore.

I'm so over it. So very very over it.

“Remember that you are dust,and to dust you shall return.”

Q. Do I have to leave the ashes on my forehead all day?
A small question I've had as a kid and never really heard a definitive answer to. I searched around and came up with the~~ Catholic view:Go with your family to receive ashes at Mass today. Leave them on your forehead as a witness to your faith. Episcopalian view : No. Some choose to wipe the ashes off immediately after the service remembering that Jesus said to “not make a show of your religion” and to “wash you face” (Matthew 6:1, 17). Others choose to leave it on as a sign of mortality and penitence.

From the Patronage Blog today: I spent 10 min in a line yesterday while the Buffalo Police checked registrations of vehicles on Elmwood Avenue. All I was trying to do was go lunch with my wife. I understand the need to do a job and I have always been a supporter of all forms of public safety but enough is enough. If this was the way it should have always been done why was it not being done? This writer will stay in the suburbs from now on... Alex-Cheektowaga

which will it be?

It's feeling pretty lion-ish out there at the moment.