Non-celebrity unicouples Dena and Joe McDonald and Darren and Jane Freidinger were spotted cavorting about Normal's hot spots Friday night, with children mysteriously absent.
Attempting to avoid paparazzi, the Freidingers arrived separately at McDonaldland Ranch. He entered sporting his trademark Caterpillar corporate work combination and resurfaced in plain white T-shirt and shorts of unknown designer. She wore the stylish flip-flops and classy His Ranch top typifying "The Jane" look popularized by her fans.
Doe and Dane were whisked to the cozy Jesse's Grille, famous for its lack of patrons, apparently seeking a quiet adults-only dining experience. With prices worthy of its Mariott hotel restaurant status, the establishment named for local legend Jesse Fell has successfully laid low beneath the B-N celebrity scene. To protect its "nobody eats here" culture and 1-to-1 waiter-to-customer ratio, some sources suggest that it goes so far as to plant its own dowdy reviews on the Web, such as:
"Not very good: Its a corporate hotel restaurant with no heart.
The decor is innovative and adventurous, in a totally bland and corporate kind of way. It reminds me of what they say about carpet patterns in casinos. This is the kind of place that your old and out-of-touch aunt will think is 'neat' or 'far out' or 'funky', but those comments will be drowned out by the yawns of everybody else. They have astroturf patches of grass as some kind of zen-inspired decoration. The joint has no character, just a mishmash of contemporary ugliness that a committee at Marriott was apparently able to reach consensus on."
Dena delighted in lime green quesadillas, with Joe and Jane engaging the Mariott burger, and Darren trying a dish involving the word "skirt" that was reminiscent of steak.
Controversy erupted in the parking garage as a minivan driven by two women blocked their exit at the gate. After a heated exchange in which Joe frisked the driver for a hidden camera and she claimed to "speak little English," a tender humanitarian moment followed when he helped her discover that her garage ticket was unreadable by the pay station machine, and called maintenance to solve their problem.
Duameda's children then escorted their spouses to a hopping Starplex Cinema, where they were engulfed by unaware fans in the ticket lines, and unhounded in the restrooms.
Claiming seats in the furthest upper corner of the theater, they were seen riveted to the edge of their seats by Brangelina's latter half's performance in the action thriller "Salt." The high-profile tiff between Jolie and J-Mac flared up again upon her blatantly ad libbed line "I hate math" in the early scenes.
After clown-carring it home in the trusty red Saturn, roars of delight were heard from within the condo, with some earwitnesses reporting disjointed phrases of pirate lingo. Shortly thereafter Dane breezed into the summer evening air for the trip home, smelling faintly of fresh-baked strawberry shortcake.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Hidden Blog Gains Obscure Award
Hidden Blog received the Beloved Fake News Award by the Emancipated Parental Association on Friday.
The announcement was released from the EPA's national headquarters in Woodford County Illinois. Because EPA membership fluctuates wildly on a daily basis depending on the availability of sitters, it was unclear at press time exactly how recipients were chosen, how many candidates were eligible, or whether the EPA will exist in the morning.
In addition to the "Beloved" honor bestowed upon its fake news reporting, it also earned trophies for "Disinterested" in the category of sports-related stuff and "Eh" for its abundance of celebrity quotes.
"Fabrication is the thread of the American fabric we wear from birth," wrote LeBron Obama, neither celebrity nor sports enthusiast. "American pride has depended upon phony stories since the days of the supposed ride of Paul Revere. And Hidden Blog continues that spirit of patriotism today, in a fashion both fiercely local and passionately self-centered."
A formal award ceremony is scheduled for Friday evening, as long as it's over by 10ish, unless there's an emergency at home beforehand.
None of the blog's nine followers were reached for comment.
The announcement was released from the EPA's national headquarters in Woodford County Illinois. Because EPA membership fluctuates wildly on a daily basis depending on the availability of sitters, it was unclear at press time exactly how recipients were chosen, how many candidates were eligible, or whether the EPA will exist in the morning.
In addition to the "Beloved" honor bestowed upon its fake news reporting, it also earned trophies for "Disinterested" in the category of sports-related stuff and "Eh" for its abundance of celebrity quotes.
"Fabrication is the thread of the American fabric we wear from birth," wrote LeBron Obama, neither celebrity nor sports enthusiast. "American pride has depended upon phony stories since the days of the supposed ride of Paul Revere. And Hidden Blog continues that spirit of patriotism today, in a fashion both fiercely local and passionately self-centered."
A formal award ceremony is scheduled for Friday evening, as long as it's over by 10ish, unless there's an emergency at home beforehand.
None of the blog's nine followers were reached for comment.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
How The Earth Is Alive
This fascinating story is from Yahoo! News. It reminds me of the natural antibodies most of us are born with that fight off infection and heal disease. Guess what? God equipped the earth similarly, in this case with oil-eating microbes to cleanse the toxins of mankind!
Where is all the oil? Nearly two weeks after BP finally capped the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, the oil slicks that once spread across thousands of miles of the Gulf of Mexico have largely disappeared. Nor has much oil washed up on the sandy beaches and marshes along the Louisiana coast. And the small cleanup army in the Gulf has only managed to skim up a tiny fraction of the millions of gallons of oil spilled in the 100 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig went up in flames.
So where did the oil go? "Some of the oil evaporates," explains Edward Bouwer, professor of environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University. That’s especially true for the more toxic components of oil, which tend to be very volatile, he says. Jeffrey W. Short, a scientist with the environmental group Oceana, told the New York Times that as much as 40 percent of the oil might have evaporated when it reached the surface. High winds from two recent storms may have speeded the evaporation process.
Although there were more than 4,000 boats involved in the skimming operations, those cleanup crews may have only picked up a small percentage of the oil so far. That’s not unusual; in previous oil spills, crews could only scoop up a small amount of oil. "It’s very unusual to get more than 1 or 2 percent," says Cornell University ecologist Richard Howarth, who worked on the Exxon Valdez spill. Skimming operations will continue in the Gulf for several weeks.
Some of the oil has sunk into the sediments on the ocean floor. Researchers say that’s where the spill could do the most damage. But according to a report in Wednesday’s New York Times, "federal scientists [have determined] the oil [is] primarily sitting in the water column and not on the sea floor."
Perhaps the most important cause of the oil’s disappearance, some researchers suspect, is that the oil has been devoured by microbes. The lesson from past spills is that the lion’s share of the cleanup work is done by nature in the form of oil-eating bacteria and fungi. The microbes break down the hydrocarbons in oil to use as fuel to grow and reproduce. A bit of oil in the water is like a feeding frenzy, causing microbial populations to grow exponentially.
Typically, there are enough microbes in the ocean to consume half of any oil spilled in a month or two, says Howarth. Such microbes have been found in every ocean of the world sampled, from the Arctic to Antarctica. But there are reasons to think that the process may occur more quickly in the Gulf than in other oceans.
Microbes grow faster in the warmer water of the Gulf than they do in, say, the cool waters off Alaska, where the Exxon Valdez spill occurred. Moreover, the Gulf is hardly pristine. Even before humans started drilling for oil in the Gulf — and spilling lots of it — oil naturally seeped into the water. As a result, the Gulf evolved a rich collection of petroleum-loving microbes, ready to pounce on any new spill. The microbes are clever and tough, observes Samantha Joye, microbial geochemist at the University of Georgia. Joye has shown that oxygen levels in parts of the Gulf contaminated with oil have dropped. Since microbes need oxygen to eat the petroleum, that’s evidence that the microbes are hard at work.
The controversial dispersant used to break up the oil as it gushed from the deep-sea well may have helped the microbes do their work. Microbes can more easily consume small drops of oil than big ones. And there is evidence the microbes like to munch on the dispersant as well.
It is still far too early to know how much damage the spill has done — and may still be doing — to the environment. Tar balls continue to wash up on beaches. And the risk of a leak remains, until the well is permanently capped sometime in the next few weeks.
Where is all the oil? Nearly two weeks after BP finally capped the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, the oil slicks that once spread across thousands of miles of the Gulf of Mexico have largely disappeared. Nor has much oil washed up on the sandy beaches and marshes along the Louisiana coast. And the small cleanup army in the Gulf has only managed to skim up a tiny fraction of the millions of gallons of oil spilled in the 100 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig went up in flames.
So where did the oil go? "Some of the oil evaporates," explains Edward Bouwer, professor of environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University. That’s especially true for the more toxic components of oil, which tend to be very volatile, he says. Jeffrey W. Short, a scientist with the environmental group Oceana, told the New York Times that as much as 40 percent of the oil might have evaporated when it reached the surface. High winds from two recent storms may have speeded the evaporation process.
Although there were more than 4,000 boats involved in the skimming operations, those cleanup crews may have only picked up a small percentage of the oil so far. That’s not unusual; in previous oil spills, crews could only scoop up a small amount of oil. "It’s very unusual to get more than 1 or 2 percent," says Cornell University ecologist Richard Howarth, who worked on the Exxon Valdez spill. Skimming operations will continue in the Gulf for several weeks.
Some of the oil has sunk into the sediments on the ocean floor. Researchers say that’s where the spill could do the most damage. But according to a report in Wednesday’s New York Times, "federal scientists [have determined] the oil [is] primarily sitting in the water column and not on the sea floor."
Perhaps the most important cause of the oil’s disappearance, some researchers suspect, is that the oil has been devoured by microbes. The lesson from past spills is that the lion’s share of the cleanup work is done by nature in the form of oil-eating bacteria and fungi. The microbes break down the hydrocarbons in oil to use as fuel to grow and reproduce. A bit of oil in the water is like a feeding frenzy, causing microbial populations to grow exponentially.
Typically, there are enough microbes in the ocean to consume half of any oil spilled in a month or two, says Howarth. Such microbes have been found in every ocean of the world sampled, from the Arctic to Antarctica. But there are reasons to think that the process may occur more quickly in the Gulf than in other oceans.
Microbes grow faster in the warmer water of the Gulf than they do in, say, the cool waters off Alaska, where the Exxon Valdez spill occurred. Moreover, the Gulf is hardly pristine. Even before humans started drilling for oil in the Gulf — and spilling lots of it — oil naturally seeped into the water. As a result, the Gulf evolved a rich collection of petroleum-loving microbes, ready to pounce on any new spill. The microbes are clever and tough, observes Samantha Joye, microbial geochemist at the University of Georgia. Joye has shown that oxygen levels in parts of the Gulf contaminated with oil have dropped. Since microbes need oxygen to eat the petroleum, that’s evidence that the microbes are hard at work.
The controversial dispersant used to break up the oil as it gushed from the deep-sea well may have helped the microbes do their work. Microbes can more easily consume small drops of oil than big ones. And there is evidence the microbes like to munch on the dispersant as well.
It is still far too early to know how much damage the spill has done — and may still be doing — to the environment. Tar balls continue to wash up on beaches. And the risk of a leak remains, until the well is permanently capped sometime in the next few weeks.
The Ryne Sandberg Game - 6/23/84
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXAfAy1v96I&feature=related
Gen X and older Cub fans know where they were when Sandberg did his thing in this one!
Gen X and older Cub fans know where they were when Sandberg did his thing in this one!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Smoke, But No Fire
"Without long-range goals, daily frustrations begin to look like the whole oceanfront. If you have specific long-range goals, daily frustrations will look like pebbles on the beach of life." - Zig Ziglar
Someone was out smoking cigarettes by the pool today. There's a long string of undocumented complaints similar to it. Stressful? Yes. Conquerable? Yes. We'll document it. Things will happen. In the long run, the behaviors will be anchored with consequences and wear to a halt. Meanwhile, we'll keep walking down the beach.
Someone was out smoking cigarettes by the pool today. There's a long string of undocumented complaints similar to it. Stressful? Yes. Conquerable? Yes. We'll document it. Things will happen. In the long run, the behaviors will be anchored with consequences and wear to a halt. Meanwhile, we'll keep walking down the beach.
Money For Noting
A study was done of people who habitually set goals, and those who didn't. On average, those who did earned twice as much.
You get what you focus on. If that's nothing in particular, there you go...
You get what you focus on. If that's nothing in particular, there you go...
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