Posted 9:47 AM by Bonnie

You Belong in 1965

1965 If you scored... 1950 - 1959: You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in! 1960 - 1969: You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule - oh, and drugs too. 1970 - 1979: Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all! 1980 - 1989: Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day. 1990 - 1999: With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

Posted 9:11 AM by Bonnie

Fire again! Yesterday Keith and I smelled smoke. He turned on his police scanner and heard something about a fire in Willow Run Apartments. That's the complex where we live. I was on the phone with my mother so stepped outside and the apartments across the parking lot from us were ablaze! This was the second time in two years we had seen this. When the heat is so hot from the fire you can feel it across the parking lot you know it's time to go. About that time a fireman came around telling everyone to evacuate. The fire was out of control due to high winds.

We grabbed as many cats as we could, but a few were hiding so we had to leave them. We were lucky the fire didn't spread and they were eventually able to get it under control. But in the meantime eight families are without homes and many lost everything they had. Pictures and news article to follow.

I heard my husband telling someone he was surprised I hadn't grabbed my camera and taken pictures, but at that point my thoughts were not on that but on trying to rescue my cats and hope for the best. We moved our cars and watched from a distance. Our biggest concern was a handicapped man who lived in one of the first floor aparments, but the rescue crew were able to get him out much to everyone's relief. No one was injured, but once again someone being careless has caused a lot of grief for others.

I am hoping the article I scanned comes out good enough to read. We were lucky this time. But it sure brings things home quickly. I am going back to keeping a suitcase packed for each of us in case it ever happens to us. We have to find a better way of rounding up cats, but in an emergency if it were our building I would just open the door and hope the cats would leave and we could find them again later. It was pretty scary to watch and I can only imagine how the poor people who lost their homes and belongings are feeling today. Some probably got no sleep.

I will give credit to the fire department because they did respond swiftly this time and were polite and considerate of the others in the complex. Unlike the fire in 2002 where we were rudely forced back into our apartments and told to stay inside and not allowed to evacuate even though that fire was also out of control. Either this was a different team (I know the fire cheif was a different man this time) or they have learned a lot since then. Also kudos for the quick rescue of all the tenants and also for trying to save as many of their belongings as possible. Over the police scanner I heard them talking about getting the computer and tv out of the handicapped man's apartment. Yes, the upstairs apartments were totally lost and everything in it, but battling the winds we had and lack of fire hydrants they did a great job keeping it from spreading even further.


This is not even the worst the flames got. Hopefully this will not happen again.

Posted 11:37 AM by Bonnie

Charleston: Well, I’ve been back a few days so figured it was time I sat down and wrote a bit about the TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) SRD (State Recognition Days), in Charleston, SC. First let me say Charleston is a fun place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there and wouldn’t want to go back. Well, maybe for the Market Place, but …well… read on….

Friday: Friday was registration day so we left Sumter around 8:00 A.M. There were five of us in Julie and Louise’s van, but we were quite comfortable. After arriving in Charleston we checked into our room and then went out to breakfast at Shoney’s. We set up the banner and name tag for the judging. There was an afternoon get together for songs, and a few recognition events. That evening we did the skits which got changed. There were so many entries it would have taken the entire weekend just to do the skits, so instead they had one person narrate the skit and the judging was on the costumes (cast-a-like). Our theme was The Wizard of TOPS.

Our Banner

Saturday: Went to have breakfast at the hotel…it was buffet and totally awful, but we had no choice since we had to get into the meeting room for the awards for division winners, state royalty, and the circle of light…this is my favorite part. All the ones who have lost their weight and kept it off successfully form a circle of light around the room. Of course, when the divisional winners are announced their stories are read and inevitably some of the people are going to cry. I prepare for this by bringing along a lot of Kleenex. NO, not for me! For everyone around me and I passed out most of what I had with me :-).


Circle of Light

We had a break between and we had the luck of having one of the women who had grown up in Charleston, so we took a walk and went to the Citadel. So we not only got a nice tour but got in some good exercise as well.


That evening we had a dinner (again the food was awful), but the DJ was great and we did a lot of dancing.



Sunday: Left around 10 a.m.? Not sure but had breakfast at Shoney’s then set off to see Charleston. First went to the Market Place. This was an old slave market and has been turned into a flea market type place. A lot of fun stuff but very very very expensive! I did get a few things, but couldn’t afford most of their prices.



We then went to Patriot Park where I got some great pictures and some pictures across the water of Ft. Sumter. Would have liked to go there but it would have taken too long as you take a boat tour there.

Patriot Park

Ft. Sumter

We took a ride throught The Battery and each of us picked out our $5 million dollar home :-). Hey, if you're going to dream, dream big!



Then we went to Fort Moultrie and explored around there. A lot of history there so I got some great pictures. Learned that a Seminole Indian, Oceola, from Florida, had been held hostage there and was buried there. Took some pictures of his grave site.



From there we went to one of the beaches. Now, having grown up in Erie and had Lake Erie and it’s beaches this was a let down. Very small, very dirty, and just not much of a beach area. What they call an entire beach would be one section for us at Lake Erie. But, it was a nice walk and we got some fresh air.



Stopped and had dinner and then drove by some of the old Plantations on the way home. Didn’t get any pics there as we did just drive by. There are tours but they would have taken several hours and by this time we were tired. Got home around 10 P.M. Sunday and am still recovering. A lot of steps to climb up and down at Ft. Moultrie and all the walking between the flea market, the downtown area, and the beach…well, I’m just not as young as I used to be :-).

Posted 1:16 PM by Bonnie

Line Dancing Swans: I was on my way to do some grocery shopping today, when I decided before doing anything I needed a walk around Swan Lake. Instead of walking around the popular pretty area I went across the street to the "Black water Hattie" area...

Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp
Where the strange green reptiles crawl
Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees
Like sausage on a smokehouse wall
Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes
An' all of them watching you
Stay off the track to Hattie's Shack in the back of the Black Bayou

For some reason this appeals to me more than the pretty flowery areas... and once there I was glad I had gone but sorry I hadn't planned the stop before leaving home, as I didn't have my camera. I saw beautiful herons, a wood duck with 9 babies, nesting swans, but the best part was two male white swans line dancing :-).

In unison the would lift their right leg and then bounce their heads up and down going honk honk honk honk...honk honk honk... then put the right leg down, lift the left leg and repeat the head bouncing and honking... all the while they were watching a flock of black swans (females I presume) to see if their dance was attracting any attention. It wasn't :-). I had to laugh it was so funny. My digital camera can take short videos and I would have loved to have captured that!

Posted 1:02 PM by Bonnie

It's a gas!

Posted 7:13 AM by Bonnie

No Child Left Behind? Mother Jones News

Sharon Shea-Keneally, principal of Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, Vermont, was shocked when she received a letter in May from military recruiters demanding a list of all her students, including names, addresses, and phone numbers. The school invites recruiters to participate in career days and job fairs, but like most school districts, it keeps student information strictly confidential. "We don't give out a list of names of our kids to anybody," says Shea-Keneally, "not to colleges, churches, employers -- nobody."

But when Shea-Keneally insisted on an explanation, she was in for an even bigger surprise: The recruiters cited the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush's sweeping new education law passed earlier this year. There, buried deep within the law's 670 pages, is a provision requiring public secondary schools to provide military recruiters not only with access to facilities, but also with contact information for every student -- or face a cutoff of all federal aid.

"I was very surprised the requirement was attached to an education law," says Shea-Keneally. "I did not see the link."

The military complained this year that up to 15 percent of the nation's high schools are "problem schools" for recruiters. In 1999, the Pentagon says, recruiters were denied access to schools on 19,228 occasions. Rep. David Vitter, a Republican from Louisiana who sponsored the new recruitment requirement, says such schools "demonstrated an anti-military attitude that I thought was offensive."

To many educators, however, requiring the release of personal information intrudes on the rights of students. "We feel it is a clear departure from the letter and the spirit of the current student privacy laws," says Bruce Hunter, chief lobbyist for the American Association of School Administrators. Until now, schools could share student information only with other educational institutions. "Now other people will want our lists," says Hunter. "It's a slippery slope. I don't want student directories sent to Verizon either, just because they claim that all kids need a cell phone to be safe."

The new law does give students the right to withhold their records. But school officials are given wide leeway in how to implement the law, and some are simply handing over student directories to recruiters without informing anyone -- leaving students without any say in the matter.

"I think the privacy implications of this law are profound," says Jill Wynns, president of the San Francisco Board of Education. "For the federal government to ignore or discount the concerns of the privacy rights of millions of high school students is not a good thing, and it's something we should be concerned about."

Educators point out that the armed services have exceeded their recruitment goals for the past two years in a row, even without access to every school. The new law, they say, undercuts the authority of some local school districts, including San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, that have barred recruiters from schools on the grounds that the military discriminates against gays and lesbians. Officials in both cities now say they will grant recruiters access to their schools and to student information -- but they also plan to inform students of their right to withhold their records.

Some students are already choosing that option. According to Principal Shea-Keneally, 200 students at her school -- one-sixth of the student body -- have asked that their records be withheld.

Recruiters are up-front about their plans to use school lists to aggressively pursue students through mailings, phone calls, and personal visits -- even if parents object. "The only thing that will get us to stop contacting the family is if they call their congressman," says Major Johannes Paraan, head U.S. Army recruiter for Vermont and northeastern New York. "Or maybe if the kid died, we'll take them off our list."

And now for the rest of the story: From USA Today:
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY

Faced with wilting recruitment and ongoing violence in
Iraq, Army and Marine Corps recruiters are turning
their attention to those most likely to oppose them:
parents.

The two branches are shifting from a strategy that
focused first on wooing potential recruits to one
aimed at gaining the trust and attention of their
parents by using grassroots initiatives and
multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns.

The public relations push comes as the Army and
Marines, which absorb the brunt of the casualties in
Iraq, encounter one of their worst periods in
recruitment.

Among their initiatives:

• Four new "influencer" TV ads by the Army, aimed at
moms, dads, coaches and ministers. The ads air this
month.

• A decision to pair Army recruiters with Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans on visits to the homes of
potential recruits. The idea: Tell parents "the Army
story," says Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Pamela Hart.

• A nine-minute video, "Parents Speak," in which
parents of Marines say the Corps has been good for
their children.

• A direct-mail campaign by the Marines to parents of
high school juniors and seniors. The Marines highlight
the benefits of joining and ask for an opportunity to
talk to the students' parents about a military career.

Studies for the Army show parents are the top
obstacles to recruiting. "Opposition to ... military
service is increasing significantly among both moms
and dads," says a study of 1,200 potential recruits by
the firm Millward Brown.

Another look at potential recruits, by GfK Custom
Research, found that the biggest influences in
candidates' decisions to join were mothers, named by
81% of respondents, followed by fathers, at 70%.

"Reach the parents with the Army's new message,
particularly moms," the study urges.

Both branches are trying to convince parents their
children will be instilled with integrity and job
skills and that service in Iraq is not a death
sentence.

Still, recruitment numbers sag. In February, the Army
missed its recruiting goal for the first time in
nearly five years. The Army missed its March goal by
32%.

Posted 10:28 PM by Bonnie

Greetings from BDI and Monday morning *mwahs*! Put on your dancing shoes and your thinking caps and let's Mambo the Monday blues away!

01. Dreams come true ... you've won a contest! The prize? You get to spend the day with your favorite artist sightseeing in a city on their world tour. You also get to sit on stage and have them sing a song to you. Who is the artist? What is the dream city you'd like to sightsee with them? What song would you like to sit on stage and have them sing to you?

The artist: Meatloaf
The city: NYC
The song: Two Out of Three Aint Bad.

02. You are having a fantasy dinner party. It is strictly a dinner party - none of the artists will perform. The party can be small and intimate or a huge bash. Which musicians, composers, songwriters, etc. (living or dead) would be on your guest list? With you at the head of the table, what is the seating arrangement?

Mozart on my left, Joan Baez on my right, and the rest of the table... Bob Dylan, Carly Simon, Tom Wait, John Prine, Joni Mitchell, and Meatloaf (the singer not as the main course :-)).

03. Think of the three most important people in your life ... list them, dedicate a song to each of them (title and artist) and reveal why you're dedicating that particular song to them.

First and foremost my husband Keith and the song to him would be Saved The Best for Last.

If I would have known baby what I know now
I would have saved my love for you , and only you
But since I didn't know then what I know now, there's one thing that I know
I'm glad I saved the best for last

Second is difficult because it would be hard to choose between my two sisters, so I choose both :-) and their song(s) would be...

Bridge Over Troubled Waters...Simon and Garfunkel

I’m on your side. when times get rough
And friends just can’t be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

and

Forever Young ...Bob Dylan

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

Three is my best friend of over 40 years Rick Foster and the song to him would be Best of Friends by Joan Baez

We may not always be the best of lovers
But if you leave it to me I think I can see
We'll always be the best of friends

And one day when I am old and on the porch
With knittings around my knees you hear me say
Excuse me please,but aren't you the one
And wasn't it fun way back when

04. Spring has sprung! It's said that spring is the time when a young man's (or young woman's) fancy turns to love. List at least three of your all time favorite songs (include the artist name) in which the theme is love -- whether it be passionate love, unrequited love, love lost, etc.

Love is Just a Four Lettered Word - Joan Baez
Loving Her Was Easier - Kris Kristofferson
Love Minus Zero - Bob Dylan

Posted 10:31 PM by Bonnie

BDI's Monday Music Mambo - Week 44

Week 1 Revisited

Name 5 songs including their artists that describe your personality.

Song 1. A Little Bit Insane - Orange Blue

Song 2. Forever Young - Bob Dylan

Song 3. You've got a Friend - James Taylor

Song 4. Don't Mess With Me - Whitesnake

Song 5. Funny Lady - Barbara Streisand

Posted 6:16 PM by Bonnie

The votes are in: The list for names for the new cat thus far are:

Toomany (as in one cat too many :-). thanks Vic, i got a chuckle out of that one.
Frisky - submitted by Madeline
Nubi - submitted by Priscilla (short for Nubian)
Boo or
Mephisto - submitted by Bernie or Julie (I forgot which)
Gir - also submitted by Vic
Ebony - submitted by Kathy
Black Bart - submitted by Rick M.
Napper - submitted by Napper aka Brian
Peek-a-Boo submitted by Helen

a last minute entry from Mark -
not to good with names
my small ones like
midnite
blackie
but as i looked at the pictureof the kitten the word 'daweezall' popped in there


We are going between Nubi and Mephisto. We both liked Nubi then Mephisto was suggested and Keith liked that one. He is also considering Delia or is it Dehlia from one of the Omen movies. She is a particularly bad cat so that may fit her best. I'll let you know when the final vote is in... Keith's is the only one that counts since it's his kitten but we enjoyed having the list to choose from.