Max and Jen Cruising The Paradise On Their 17th Anniversary!

Pre-cruise - Saturday & Sunday, February 27th & 28th: We headed out from home in Ol' Blue bright and early Saturday, February 27th at 5:30am, and discovered quite a bit of snow in Flagstaff, AZ on the way. We encountered heavy rain and heavy Northbound traffic coming into the LA Basin by late afternoon on Saturday, February 27th, but we made it to our hotel by 6:30pm. We met up with Dave and Barbee from Cruise Critic (they reside in Nevada), on Sunday night, February 28th, at the hotel. They had the room next to ours. Well, guess it's finally Monday morning, March 1st, and we're leaving the hotel headed for the pier. Here we enter the Long Beach Cruise Terminal facility next to the Queen Mary Hotel. What a wonderful facility and a beautiful location. Wow, we made it and found a great parking space at the the Long Beach Cruise Terminal! We went to the Queen Mary Hotel for early check in for the cruise, which was nice. Cruise Day 1 - Monday, March 1st: There is our Fun Ship Paradise just waiting for us on Monday morning, March 1st! There we are, just waiting to board our Paradise. Time schedules and patience, dontcha' know! I guess folks have to get off first... We were in Group 1 for boarding, the first to board the ship following VIP passengers. The embarkation process and the terminal itself was excellent and well organized, and it took less than 45 minutes from start to finish in clearing security and boarding the ship. We were on board by about 12:00pm. Ahh, finally on Midship Lido Deck 10, and look, there's Chris and Marlene! And then we were joined by Julie and Sage! Afterwards, I accompanied my lovely ladies, Jen and Marlene, to the Paris Restaurant Buffet on Aft Lido Deck 10, where Marlene ordered a Reuben sandwich with double meat and cheese, but, she got single meat and cheese with no sauerkraut, while I ordered the same sandwich based on her recommendation, I got triple meat, cheese and sauerkraut. Uh, Marlene looked for a way to trip me on the way to our table so she could take my sandwich. We met up with Linda and Chuck at their table, and no, Marlene never got her hands on my sandwich (nanner-nanner)! Well, let's head back to the Starboard Exterior Patio on Aft Lido Deck 10 for our 2:30pm meet & greet. There's Charlie, Julie, Pua, Sage, Chuck and Linda. Here is Sage, Chuck & Linda, Jen talking with Dave P., Lisa, Chris, Tom and Wolfie. Wow, such a great gathering of Funville and Cruise Critic friends! We had so much fun visiting, laughing and enjoying life! For the meet & greet, Pua and Charlie made everyone in the entire Funville and Cruise Critic group Hawaiian Leis, made of assorted candies and a little bottle of soap bubbles to use for our sail away, so we all wore those with the wonderful Mardi Gras bead necklaces that Linda and Chuck brought for everyone. We all looked so colorful and happy with the nice Leis and Mardi Gras beads, and as we all walked around the ship later that evening, many other passengers would comment about them, from 'Wow, those are so cool! Where did you get those?' to 'You folks are with that fun group from Lido deck meet & greet aren't you?' Thank you so much, Pua & Charlie and Linda & Chuck, Jen and I love our Leis and Mardi Gras bead necklaces!! Here's Marlene toasting to such wonderful friends! After our 2:30pm meet & greet, several of us cruisers met up on Aft Veranda Deck 11 for the ship's sail away from the pier, but as it was cold, dark and windy at that point, we took no photos and headed below deck with our adult beverages to do our own thing in various locations of the ship. Aww, Pua and Charlie sent chocolate covered strawberries and fudge nuggets to our stateroom! Thanks you guys!! Here's our stateroom (E67) right off the Paradise Atrium! Pua and Charlie decorated our door with wonderful hand-made magnets to accompany our Monkeyhead Wasters Club Door Magnet. We all joined together in the Elation Dining Room for our first 'five star' dinner. Unfortunately, I was too busy yacking and stuffing food down my gullet to take pictures. I had shrimp cocktail, Caesar Salad, the flat iron steak, loaded baked potatoe. Jen had exactly the same meal as I did. We were just too full and engulfed in fine conversation to order desert, so, better luck next time! Ya' know, we're tired now, so I think we'll put our towel animal and ourselves to bed and see everyone tomorrow! Oh, 'Papas & Beer' in Ensenada is still two cruise days away! Next stop: Catalina Island... (you will just have to wait for the rest of the story...nanner-nanner!) STAY TUNED!!

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In Oak Cliff Today, the Kids Were Putting a Fresh Coat of Paint on Bishop Arts

Nick Rallo​For all the talk of Oak Cliff becoming "the city's new leading edge," there's still much work to be done. Jason and Andrea Roberts -- organizers of the Oak Cliff Art Crawl, as well as Bike Friendly Oak Cliff and Photopl.us -- look around even the Bishop Arts District and see much work to be done: razor wire in need of trimming, trash in need of clearing and graffiti in need of erasing. And so, on this perfect Saturday, while St.Paddy's merrymakers paraded up and down Greenville Avenue -- and we'll have photos and more from that in the morning -- the couple and other like-minded Cliffdwellers took their protest and paintbrushes to the streets. Children from four Dallas Independent School District elementary schools sprawled beneath the empty Kavala Grill -- whose ancient-looking marquee says, "Changing Concept Soon" -- to decorate 24"-by-24" black wood panels. The kids' artwork will be tiled together into a huge mural and put up behind ABC Party on Davis Street in Oak Cliff. The goal is to soften the environment, Roberts said -- to make the arts district more inviting. Rosemont Primary School art teacher Stacy Cianciulli said the goal was to "involve the children of the neighborhood, to give them ownership and abate graffiti." For the full court press, professional (non-kid) muralists are prepping another wall near 422 W. Davis The scene was simple fun: One student, dripping paint all over her canvas, said, "I wouldn't exist without art"; another was coating his wood panel with the haste of someone on a deadline; and still another was dipping her whole hand in green. "I like painting because you can express yourself," a younger student said. "It lets me get dirty." True: There is paint all over the streets in Oak Cliff tonight. Check out more photos from the Art Crawl in our slide show here.

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We've Come a Long Way, Baby...

Spotted an interesting story over at NPR last night about the WASPs, the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II, whose primary role was to ferry freshly minted warbirds from the factories where they were made to the airbases where they would be dispatched overseas. The idea was to free up male pilots from mundane flying duties so they were available for combat missions. My Loyal Readers know that I'm fascinated by the aviation exploits of that era, so naturally I've heard of the WASPs, but I confess I really didn't know much about them until today. They have a pretty awesome story, and I advise all of you to click that link and "read more about it," as the old TV PSAs used to say. I've been reading more about it all day during my odd moments of free time, and I'm frankly amazed no one has made a big feature film about these ladies yet. Incredible anecdotes abound. But perhaps the most striking detail I've gleaned from various articles about them is the casual sexism these women confronted nearly every step of the way. We take women in the military more or less for granted these days. There have been female support pilots flying cargo and tanker planes as long as I can remember, and women fighter pilots for least a decade now (in the U.S. services, anyway -- other nations had women flying combat long before we did). But in 1942, there was a debate over whether women could even physically handle a warplane. (To be fair, this concern wasn't without warrant. The big bombers, in particular, demanded a lot of upper-body strength to operate; I've read that the joke used to be that you could always tell a B-24 captain because of his overdeveloped left arm, acquired through wrestling with his controls during 12-hour -- or longer -- missions.) The military didn't want to expend any extra resources training women pilots from scratch, so basic piloting licenses had to be earned on the ladies' own dime, before they signed up. (By contrast, male recruits could come into the AAF without ever having touched an airplane.) Their parachutes weren't even properly fitted to their bodies, because they were designed for male pilots. And for the 38 WASPs who died in service to their country, there were no funds to ship their bodies back to their families and no flags for their coffins, because they were technically civilian volunteers. The WASPs would be classified as such until the mid-1970s, ineligible for veteran benefits and unrecognized by history until that time. But in spite of all this crap -- or maybe because of it, because they had something to prove -- the WASPs prevailed. They mastered every type of U.S. aircraft used during the war, from light trainers to high-speed fighters to the lumbering bombers I love. When male test pilots complained that the new B-29 Superfortress was a deathtrap because of various developmental problems, a pair of WASPs demonstrated that it could be flown safely, and repeatedly. (It was likely male egos, as much as anything, that led to the disbanding of the WASPs in 1944... the menfolk figured the war would be ending soon, and they didn't want the competition for aviation jobs.) Do you get the idea that I admire the hell out of these women? Well, you're right. I am inspired by stories of people who are constantly told they can't do something, for whatever reason, and who then proceed to excel at it, usually to the utter consternation of those who put them down. And my antennae always go up when I get wind of some chapter of history that's been largely neglected. This morning, these awesome ladies finally got their due, as they were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor our government can bestow. Of the 1,100 women who served as WASPs, only about 300 are still alive, and roughly two-thirds of them were present at the award ceremony, along with family members of all the others. living and dead, who couldn't make it. It's about damn time. Incidentally, if you like that picture up there at the top -- one of the most famous WASP-related images, I believe -- check out a related NPR article for some gorgeous and rare color photos, all shot by one of the WASPs named Lillian Yonally. This one of a PT-19 at sunrise is breathtaking...

View original story : photos+our+other Feed : Simple Tricks and Nonsense

Omnilux Clear-U: Acne Treatment Without Side Effects

Acne still continues to ruin childhoods, damage teenage self-esteem, and hurt plenty of adult images. Medical treatments continue to have trouble dealing with it, and some of the more common ones (such as Accutane) have side effects that can be serious. Natural treatments would be great, and diet seems to play a role, but about the only things that appear to have a positive effect are zinc, tea tree oil, and possible glycolic acid. What is one to do? The “Omnilux Clear-U” offers an interesting at-home solution, though one that is effective over time. FDA approved, their site still mentions that the device is only available to physicians, though it is now approved for sale to consumers. Intended for targeted treatment of “Mild to Moderate Acne Vulgaris”, they helpfully link to the clinical study offering a fairly concise look at benefits. While we don’t have any stunning before-and-after photos to show, Omnilux does. We should also point out that they recommend a 12-week course of treatment, and state that best results may be seen a few weeks afterward. Our test subject only used the Clear-U for a couple of treatments before noticing a positive difference. Happily, the device seems to work, for most people. Apparently, the bacteria Propionibacterium acnes plays a role, producing nasty chemicals that happen to be sensitive to light at specific wavelengths. The Omnilux Clear-U produces those forms of red and blue light, killing the bacteria, with no heat, UVA or UVB light, and no skin damage. The bacteria are resilient though, so you actually need to hold the light in place for 20 minutes at a time- and the device isn’t that large. The major downside: folks suffering from widespread breakouts will not find the Clear-U particularly easy to use, as it would take far too long to cover broad areas. Also, we did have trouble remembering to alternate from red to blue light- it can be hard to keep track of which to use, though you can simply leave the switch positioned one way or the other. The only side effect is some redness of the skin at first, which is great. And we liked the easy portability. Some skincare packs are included as well, for both preparation and aftercare. At more than $150, we hope that the price falls a bit, but it’s certainly inexpensive compared to some alternatives. And while it’s always hard to put a price on appearance, make sure that you consider your time as well, and can muster the dedication for regular treatments to ensure the best results.

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Share Your Photos Of St. Patrick's Day Fun

Join the "live wire" -- it's an easy way to talk about the river flooding and share information with our news team and other Channel 4 Action News viewers.

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Photo of the Day: Chevrolet Malibu Headlight

Today’s photo comes from wickedryoki. Be sure to look at all of wickedryoki’s photos and our other albums. And if you would like to recommend your favorite photo with a GM car or truck in it, put it up on Flickr and tag it with “gmfyi.”

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Photo of the Day: 1956 Chevrolet Corvette

Today’s photo comes from sjb4photos. Be sure to look at all of sjb4photos’ photos and our other albums. And if you would like to recommend your favorite photo with a GM car or truck in it, put it up on Flickr and tag it with “gmfyi.”

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Zoner Photo Studio 12 Professional - 51% off Today Only

On Monday 15 Mar EST you can get Zoner Photo Studio 12 Professional at a reduced price. Our price: $49.99 List price: $99.99 You save: 51% Please note: the prices listed to the right are for non-VAT countries only. For VAT-applicable countries the discounted price will be slightly more -- $59.49 (down from $118.99). As your collection of digital photos continues to grow, you need photo management software that will grow with it. Nothing is more tedious than having to port over thousands of digital images into a new software application, just because your old app no longer provides adequate power and processing. With Zoner Photo Studio 12 Professional, you'll never need another photo application! Zoner Photo Studio 12 Professional is the ultimate tool to let you organize and browse your photo collection, while enabling you to improve the quality of your photos and flex your creative muscle with a variety of effects and editing functions. Plus, whether you're using a camera, a scanner, or taking screen shots, getting photos into your application has never been easier! With the ability to support images in the RAW format and in 48-bit color, there's nothing that Zoner Photo Studio 12 Professional can't handle! You'll be pleasantly surprised at the features in Zoner Photo Studio 12 Professional. What other software gives you the option of creating HDR images, panoramas, AND 3D photos? Plus, with Zoner Photo Studio 12 Professional's batch processing, you'll be able to save time by applying edits and effects to multiple images at one time. Extend your photos into beautiful and artistic applications such as calendars, contact lists, and more, and show them off to your friends, family, and the world by creating stunning slideshows on DVD, in web galleries, and in PDF files! Download Now More Details, and Get The Discount

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Bring Your Human and Canine Friends & Join us at Chapin Park on Saturday, 3/13!

Kansas Big Dogs Park Play Dates and Events Kansas BIG Dog Lovers: Come out and play with the BIG Dogs! We'll back out to play on Saturday, March27th at Chapin Park at 1 pm. Like all of our play dates, all sizes and all ages are welcome.* (Please see the "About us" tab for info on basic rules and guidelines) In addition to general expectations for responsible pet owners, we ask that if your dog is new to dog park play dates, please keep your dog on leash at first if you are unsure of how they will react in such an environment - we are more than willing to help with doggie introductions, just find Tim or another BDHP volunteer! For those of you who are new, the dog park is separated into two sections, one for large dogs and the other for smaller dogs under 25 pounds. The smaller dog area is 3 acres, and are for dogs over 25 pounds is 7 acres. The group is growing very quickly, so if you can't get there at 1pm, some of us will still be there an hour or two later. We are pretty easy to spot at the park since there are so many of us with large dogs. Chapin will be our only venue until another free park opens. Note: If you click on the map link for Chapin, it will send you to Washington right in the middle of the city, which is miles from the actual park. The dog park at Chapin is on MacArthur and it wraps around the drive-in. Tim Irwin, you lead Meetup.com Group organizer, will be attending with his Gentle Giant(s) - please write Tim if you have any questions. Please invite your friends to join our Meetup group - the more, the merrier! Please feel free to bring your camera, take and post photos to the Meetup group after the event and post ideas for future meetups. We're looking forward to seeing you at the dog park! ~ Tim and all your two-and-four-legged friends at Big Dogs Huge Paws ** Don't forget to check out our Meetup Group Sponsors - BigBreedDog.com and Loving Threads both offer great products and special discounts for Meetup.com group members! ** Make Time To Read a Book this month! Learn more about the available books, author Sheila Boneham, Ph.D. and this wonderful benefit for BDHP at http://www.bigdogshug... ** Big Dogs Huge Paws adoption and volunteer info: www.bigdogshugepaws.com ** Wichita, KS 67201 - USA Saturday, March 27 at 1:00 PM Attending: 2 Details: http://www.meetup.com/Kansas-Big-Dogs-Huge-Paws/calendar/12860559/

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Bring Your Human and Canine Friends & Join us at Chapin Park on Sunday, 3/21!

Kansas Big Dogs Park Play Dates and Events Kansas BIG Dog Lovers: Come out and play with the BIG Dogs! We'll back out to play on Sunday, March21st at Chapin Park at 1 pm. Like all of our play dates, all sizes and all ages are welcome.* (Please see the "About us" tab for info on basic rules and guidelines) In addition to general expectations for responsible pet owners, we ask that if your dog is new to dog park play dates, please keep your dog on leash at first if you are unsure of how they will react in such an environment - we are more than willing to help with doggie introductions, just find Tim or another BDHP volunteer! For those of you who are new, the dog park is separated into two sections, one for large dogs and the other for smaller dogs under 25 pounds. The smaller dog area is 3 acres, and are for dogs over 25 pounds is 7 acres. The group is growing very quickly, so if you can't get there at 1pm, some of us will still be there an hour or two later. We are pretty easy to spot at the park since there are so many of us with large dogs. Chapin will be our only venue until another free park opens. Note: If you click on the map link for Chapin, it will send you to Washington right in the middle of the city, which is miles from the actual park. The dog park at Chapin is on MacArthur and it wraps around the drive-in. Tim Irwin, you lead Meetup.com Group organizer, will be attending with his Gentle Giant(s) - please write Tim if you have any questions. Please invite your friends to join our Meetup group - the more, the merrier! Please feel free to bring your camera, take and post photos to the Meetup group after the event and post ideas for future meetups. We're looking forward to seeing you at the dog park! ~ Tim and all your two-and-four-legged friends at Big Dogs Huge Paws ** Don't forget to check out our Meetup Group Sponsors - BigBreedDog.com and Loving Threads both offer great products and special discounts for Meetup.com group members! ** Make Time To Read a Book this month! Learn more about the available books, author Sheila Boneham, Ph.D. and this wonderful benefit for BDHP at http://www.bigdogshug... ** Big Dogs Huge Paws adoption and volunteer info: www.bigdogshugepaws.com ** Wichita, KS 67201 - USA Sunday, March 21 at 1:00 PM Attending: 2 Details: http://www.meetup.com/Kansas-Big-Dogs-Huge-Paws/calendar/12860524/

View original story : photos+our+other Feed : Great Dane upcoming events