★ May 14, 2012 ★

Good evening ... yes I moved blogging to evenings. I rearranged EVERYTHING, so far so good ... I like the new schedule. I'm a lot calmer, I'm not racing around all the time ... I don't do as much in a day, but it's SO much more laid back than it was. The old schedule was a breakneck speed city schedule. Now I have a much more laid back country schedule. :) Mother's Day was great! Pete & I went out to our traditional Mother's Day Breakfast & Kyle & Pete bought me a rifle case. Today, as I said, was nice & calm. No stress at all & I even got to use my brand new cast iron skillet for the 1st time. I've never used one before & I made the most AMAZING beef, onion, & pepper stir-fry. O-M-G it was GOOD! LCFD business meeting tomorrow.

1 of the fundamental rules for the behavior of any man who has the faintest pretension to being a gentleman, is that never by word or gesture must he compromise a woman.

BeFunky Photo Editor:

★★★ iPhone 3GS support comes with this version! ★★★
BeFunky, the popular online photo editing app is now on your iPhone.
It's fast and easy to use with 25 high quality photo effects, powerful editing tools and marvelous photo frames.
100% FREE, No Registration Required, without Ads, No limitations, No forcing to share. Just save back to your phone or share through Facebook, Flickr; completely the way you want.
You can manipulate photos from your existing library or take a new shot using the camera on your iPhone.
Real-time preview thumbs for each effect are displayed instantly, so you can quickly decide which effect fits better on your photo.
BeFunky is the ultimate tool to edit photos, apply effects, add frames, save back to your phone and share on social networks.
Features:
25 Effects: LomoArt, HolgaArt, Cross Process, Gritty HDR, Retro, Vintage, Sepia, Pinhole, B&W, Old Photo, Warming Filter, Cooling Filter, OrtonArt, Vibrance, Tilt Shift, Grunge, Cyanotype, Violet, Sketch.
Marvelous Photo Frames: Vignette, Filmstrip, Basic Border, Rounded Corners, Instant, Halftone, Grunge, Postage and more.
Editing: Crop, Rotate, Adjust Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Hue and Sharpness.
Real-time preview thumbs: Instantly see what an effect will look like on your photo.
Saving & Sharing: Save to your camera roll, share on Facebook, Flickr and BeFunky Gallery.

DaimlerChrysler sells most of Chrysler for $7.4 billion (2007):

On this day in 2007, the European-American carmaker DaimlerChrysler, created in 1998 in a $36 billion merger, announces that it is selling 80.1 percent of the Chrysler group to the U.S. private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.

Cerberus paid $7.4 billion in the deal, mostly in the form of investments in Chrysler; Daimler AG, as it was soon renamed, retained a 19.9 percent stake in the new company, known as Chrysler LLC. The sale marked the end of a troubled nine-year transatlantic relationship between Daimler-Benz, the German maker of the world-famous luxury automobile brand Mercedes-Benz, and the Chrysler Corporation, America's third-largest car company. Though the much-buzzed-about merger, concluded in May 1998, had been touted as a pairing of equals, it was soon clear that it in fact amounted to a takeover by the German company. The end of Chrysler's independence was a surprising twist after its near collapse in the 1970s and stunning comeback in the 1980s under the leadership of the former Ford executive Lee Iacocca.

The savings opportunity and marketing magic predicted for the DaimlerChrysler merger failed to materialize, however. Chrysler's profits were up and down over the next several years, despite high expectations based on the past performance of its minivans and Jeeps. In 2006, according to The New York Times, Chrysler posted a $1.5 billion loss, despite the highly publicized release of 10 new models that year. The following February, DaimlerChrysler announced it was considering selling or restructuring the Chrysler division, including a proposed layoff of some 16 percent of its work force. Though it was reported at the time that General Motors Corp. had talked with DaimlerChrysler about acquiring the company, Cerberus was the eventual winner with its $7.4 billion bid.

Cerberus appointed Robert Nardelli, the former chief executive at Home Depot, as the CEO of Chrysler LLC, only days after the deal was concluded. By September 2008, Chrysler's sales were down almost 33 percent amidst a growing global economic crisis that hit the auto industry especially hard. Both Chrysler and General Motors asked the federal government for loans to avoid bankruptcy. In mid-December 2008, Chrysler announced it was halting production at all 30 of its plants to reduce its inventory in line with the decrease in consumer demand. The following spring, Chrysler filed for federal bankruptcy protection; the company will enter into a partnership with the Italian automaker Fiat.

George Lucas born. George created Star Wars & then turned to the Dark Side in order to create the prequels. (1944)

Ick! Scale! All over your houseplants! But spraying insecticidal soap isn't working! What to do, what to do?

I don't own any gold, & I'm not buying any gold. The returns are horrible - only about 4% over the last 50 years - & the volatility is all over the place. Next to gold, the stock market looks like a cake walk!

In military speak, what is an aerodynamic personnel decelerator?

Is there any reason why you can't grow tulips or other bulbs in tubs on your porch?

As long as you choose hardy bulbs, the tubs are large enough (or well-enough insulated) so the soil in them doesn't repeatedly freeze & thaw over the winter, & you have a method for supplying good drainage, whiskey barrels should work as containers for spring-flowering bulbs. But you might need to worry about rodent damage; mice & voles are clever sleuths where sources of food are concerned.

To foil them, use tight-mesh metal screening. Nail 1 piece to the bottom of the tub & place another over the top, weighted down with bricks or rocks. Remove the top screen in early spring as soon as you see the 1st green shoots.

Lotion, make-up, & soap don't last forever. Most of these items last 6 - 24 months. Contact the manufacturer to determine the life of a product. With a permanent marker write on the product the date you opened it so you can remember how long you've had the product. Once the product is past its prime, throw it away.

Mother's Day was conceived in 1908 when Anna Jarvis organized celebrations in Grafton, W.V., & Philadelphia, Pa. The U.S. holiday's official birth year is 1914 when Congress designated the 2nd Sunday in May to honor moms.

OTC nondrowsy allergy medicine:

Stop the sneezing & itchy eyes - & still be able to drive!

Raid is set for MOVE headquarters (1985):

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, police begin evacuating people from their Osage Avenue homes in order to prepare for an operation against MOVE, a radical cult group that had assembled a large arsenal. By the end of the confrontation, 11 people were dead and 61 homes had been burned down.

The roots of the 1985 incident date back to 1978 when a confrontation between MOVE and the police left Officer James Ramp dead. Several innocent MOVE members were convicted of murder, enraging other members. Leader John Africa began a counterattack on Christmas Eve, 1983. At the MOVE headquarters at 6221 Osage Avenue, members set up several loudspeakers and began shouting profanities at their neighbors. Even more ominously, MOVE began assembling a cache of weapons and building bunkers in their row house.

Everything came to a head in May 1985 when Mayor W. Wilson Goode ordered police to raid the MOVE headquarters. Authorities soon realized that there was very little they could do to remove MOVE members from their entrenched position. At about 5:30 p.m. on May 13, a small bomb was dropped on the roof of the building in an attempt to destroy their bunker. This proved disastrous, as the roof was covered with tar and gas, and a blistering fire broke out.

It took the fire department an hour to begin extinguishing the fire. By this time, it was raging out of control. In the ensuing chaos, six adults and five children inside the MOVE home were killed. By the time the fire had been contained, nearly an entire block of homes in Philadelphia had burned down.

Much like the Waco, Texas, raid of the Branch Davidians eight years later, the government came under heavy criticism for their harsh handling of the confrontation. In 1986, a jury awarded $1.5 million to three survivors of the MOVE raid.

Saturday Morning with Sid & Marty Krofft:

Men and women who grew up on Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970s will feel like kids again with this charming collection of animated features that welcomed an entire generation every weekend. Sid & Marty Krofft's show infused fantasy and whimsy into a time slot some may feel was devoid of creativity. But in Krofft land, kids found humor and hours of music. The collection features H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, The Bugaloos and more.

Soporific:

1a: Causing or tending to cause sleep. b: Tending to dull awareness or alertness. 2: Of, relating to, or marked by sleepiness or lethargy.

The soporific effects of the stuffy classroom & the lecturer's droning voice left more than 1 student fighting to stay awake.

"It's said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific.' I've never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I'm not a rabbit."So says the narrator in Beatrix Potter's The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. In her story, the children of Benjamin Bunny are very nearly done in by Mr. McGregor because they eat soporific lettuces that put them into a deep sleep. Their close call can help you recall the history of "soporific." That term traces to the Latin noun sopor, which means "deep sleep." (That root is related to somnus, the Latin word for sleep & the name of the Toman god of sleep.) French speakers used sopor as the basis of soporifique, which was probably the model for the English "soporific."

Strawberry shortcake is an absolute necessity when you're under stress - like when you break a fingernail.

What sports venue was the first to sell its naming rights?

Sportsman’s Park, home of baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals, which became Busch Stadium in 1954.

Which star is the brightest, 2nd brightest, & 3rd brightest?

A. Canopus

B. Sirius

C. Alpha Centauri

Who was the first cartoon character to be featured posing sexily on the cover of Playboy magazine?

Marge Simpson, of TV’s The Simpsons, in November 2009. Inside the magazine, the Springfield mother of three was seen in near-nudity in a three-page pictorial spread.