TSWLTH?

our 'city council', the outgoing one..just had an election in oct but this is from the outgoing council cuz some of them were re-elected, argh. oh yea, somewhere months ago or last yr, someone there decided we needed a new city logo. for yrs now auckland has been 'Auckland, city of sails'. from what i understand we've the highest per capita boat ownership of any city in the world, makes sense we're an island in the south pacific, lol. that loga had a pix of our local landmark island in the harbour here plus a few sail boats. everyone loved it as it was, so we all thot... now we've got a blue triangle ribbon thing with the words, Auckland City Council. looks too much like another logo for an independent tv stations here. also looks too much like the triangle recycling logo. now it doesnt reflect the entire area, inclusive of all 4 citys that surround the natural harbours here. all that cost the auckland city only taxpayers heaps and did we hear about it before it showed up? nope, not a clue, nuttin. they also ordered and paid for the new banners to replace the 'city of sails' before they'd even got the new trademark confirmed. now the citizens are gobsmacked, triangle tv has filed a complaint with whoever they do that with, the banners have been replaced right up to the 'auckland int'l airport' which is not in auckland city at all but services all 4 citys naturally.

apparently the person who started and finished this was re-elected and now is having issues with the new mayor over the unnecessary, stupid waste of taxpayers money. not one person i'm aware of had read about or heard about this before it happened tho the person in council said there was community consultation. i'm still trying to work out how/where/when they consulted the community as they are supposed to on an issue like this. also trying to figure out how long its gonna take for the new mayor/council (sure some are the same people) are going to return us to 'Auckland, City of Sails'. grrrrrrrrrrrrr, idiots in office here too. gobsmacked in the south pacific, jeanne

"Taria" wrote...

Howdy!

I'm not disagreeing w/ you, Connie. As I said, I don't shop at wallyworld, NEVER.

...might be better to put their food in the dumpster:

R/Sandy--doing my part to keep the independent quilt shops in business ;-)

Howdy!

The local quilt shops don't get this "incentive"; they pay their taxes. When independently owned businesses can't compete, they usually have to close; wally will happily beat them to a pulp, not even stopping to say "oops" as they drive away...to the bank.

R/Sandy

One of the places I have discovered recently is

Their fabrics are ALWAYS 30% off & if you sign up with them, you'll get emails periodically with even deeper discounts. They just had their fall fabrics at 40% off - yeah - right after I just bought 4 yards of a fall fabric at my LQS for full price. Oh well - I do support my LQS more than anywhere else, but it's hard to pass up a bargain:)

I've purchased from them too, Pauline. Maybe you should take a road trip up this way, spend the night here, and we could make the trip to Portland together.

We have JoAnn's at the Mall, and a mile or so past there the LQS. Either one is an all day walk to get there and back, so it is a planned special trip to go. There is another LQS over the state line and about 20 minutes of up and down hills away. I've not been there, but they sound very nice on the phone. This is why I was the goddess of mail order even before the internet. Our JoAnn's is very unimpressive to me. It's a lucky day when I can find dressmakers carbon in a type I want, the selection of notions at this particular store is just awful. I don't even bother looking anymore when it comes to anything the slightest bit uncommon. I have so grown to hate shopping for garment fabric there that I often don't bother even looking anymore. Some of it just repels me, other of it I just don't get. I mean why would I want to pay two or three times as much for an imitation fabric than for the real one when it isn't any easier to sew, or care for? In fact sometimes it is more difficult. Just so I can buy it there? I don't think so!

I think the stores vary a lot more than they like to think back at franchise headquarters.

NightMst

On Sun, 04 Nov 2007 10:02:23 -0500, IMS wrote:

Yep, that is what they are doing here.

They challenged their initial assessment about 10 years ago, and settled at around $6 million. Now they have taken the whole plaza they were in and turned it into a supercenter, built shops in the parking lot to house some of the buisnesses they pushed out of the plaza, all this right next door to the mall, and they got a $3.5 million new construction tax break for doing it. Now they are screaming because the assessment went up to $11.5 million and they want it dropped back to 6?

I hope like hell it actually goes to court.

NightMist

Oh, I didn't think you were ... but I did think that I probably got a bit preachy. The whole thing just really torqued me off something awful!

A lot of people do shop there pretty much exclusively. Our area's average income is somewhere $30K/year - mostly those in the "hospitality industry" (AKA housekeeping staff at hotels, waitresses, etc) - and the prices around here just don't reflect that. Milk is $4 a gallon (is it that bad everywhere else?? I hope not!!), for instance. A meal at a NON fast food place averages 'bout $15-20 per person (NOT kiddin'). And then we have our snowbirds that come in and try to harass our local shops from givin' out a "Local's discount" (a measley 10-20% off that might enable a waitress to eat at a decent restaraunt once a month or so).

If you look around, you'll see the evidence of a seriously diverse economy ... H3's and Porsches sittin' next to 20 year old cars held together with bubblegum and a prayer (in the school parkin' lots). $1 million dollar houses next door to houses with tar paper roofs. One kid at middle school carrying a Prada bag (not kiddin' - I've seen this several times!!) next to a kid carryin' their books in a grocery plastic sack.

Or is that common?? I've only lived in a few areas, none of which were like this (VA, MD, DC, DE, and Germany).

But yep, poor ol' Sam would be rollin' in his grave. I don't think he saw this comin' - and I never thought it was his intent to poison, upset, or insult anyone.

Oh believe me, me, too!! :)

Nightmist - If you are looking for specialized notions, you might try checking

I finally got to the store a few months ago & they have an amazing selection of notions - mostly upper end, but they have middle of the road & less than middle of the road as well. They even care some antique sewing related items. It's a fun store to browse thru, but if you're looking for something special, they likely will have it. NAYY, just wanted to share.

Him and Walt Disney. We were involved with the class action suit some years ago. Eisner really was a terrible thing for that company IMO. WHo would have thunk it that you buy Disney stock to help teach kids about finance and they learn about lawsuits? Go figure. TAria

Enhhhh ... maybe not so much WD. My SIL worked as a character at DW about 40 years ago (a li'l less or a li'l more) and she's got some horror stories about how WD ran the place (if any of the park visitors even caught of glimpse of those working "behind the scenes" you got FIRED on the spot). Even met him a time or two (as "employee of the month") and said he was a racist, sexist a**hole. Me, I don't know - I grew up so much farther east that Florida seemed like a fantasy land. Fact is, anything below the Mason Dixon was some exotic spot!!

What happened?? I mean, what was the lawsuit about?? Or is this something that I should have heard of, but as usual, wasn't watchin' the news (as I often do - the news is usually too durn depressin')?

LOL - come out here I'll share the vodka with you. We are allocated a certain amount to pay for repairs such as this but it is never, ever enough so it never gets done. We get allocated a per student amount to cover basics which is based on the students you have a x day (ie 29 january). Come 1 march when you have 14 more students, tough luck. The amount of students you have on "census day" (29 january) is the amont you are funded on. In august they take another census, and if you have more students you may be given a "cash increase" of 10% which is barely enough to cover books let alone staffing/building/etc.

At the moment I don't have enough to fix the 10 stairs at my school let alone buy a phone system that incorporates an anxwering machine!!

On Sun, 4 Nov 2007 15:40:10 -0600, SewVeryCreative wrote (in article ):

Okay. You win. And I thought our local pols were screwy.

Maureen

Of course, in IL, we do still have the have the dubious distinction of having on ex-Gov on his way to jail and a current Gov who probably will go to jail, who splashes his name (Rod R. Blagovich, Governor) over every bit of signage in the state, and who, many people are now starting to think, is has clearly stopped taking his medication.

Sharon-

If you know when that special census day is going to be maybe you could have a special treat that day to keep absenteeism to a minimum? Maybe a movie or a party or a special meal (pizza) or something? Let the students know well in advance and keep talking about it every day to build excitement.

Yep, that sounds familar ...in our case, if a child is the dependant of active duty military, the school gets more money (WHY??? That doesn't make much sense to me ..) so each October, there's a HUGE panic to get as many Fed kids (what we call'em at the school) "enrolled" as possible. Havin' as many as possible officically enrolled and accounted for decides how much our budget for the year - and whether we can pay for things like cleanin' supplies, paper, and books.

And part of our problem is that our SB goes for temporary fixes - one such temp fix are "portables" - or rather, double-wide trailers in place of actual classrooms - 'bout four years ago some kids sittin' in their class - a portable - were injured when we had a tornado ... shoved a tree through the side of the durn thing. And they're always too hot or too cold, dependin' on the weather/season ...

Another temp fix of course, is throwin' bleach on the mold. Finally, the school budget ran out and they couldn't even buy more bleach! The PTA ended up havin' a "Bleach Drive" among the members (only - so as not to "upset" everyone and get the school closed) so they could at least try to keep it from gettin' worse.

When they build government buildin's here, it seems, they do it so ... half-arse. I mean, if you KNOW that you've got, say, 10,000 kids and yet only build enough classroom space for 5,000 - isn't that half-arse?? Half the insulation required by law ... isn't that half-arse?? Oh, how about not following the state/county guidelines of havin' wall studs at least every 16 inches ... isn't that half-arse?

In our town/county, it's all about makin' do, not makin' sense. :/ But I suppose that's everywhere ...

Forget the vodka ... let's just move straight into the hard stuff!! >> that is disgraceful they let the kids live so much of their

money/fundin'.

Pfft ... I've got MORE gems, Darlin'! You have no idea!! 8*

How 'bout this? 'Bout four or five years ago, a DC group decided to have their "Anti-abortion bus" come on down to our fine city (I'm not sayin' I'm fer it or agin it, cause this isn't the place obviously). Well, that bus had on the side of it VERY, VERY graphic images of what abortion entails - specifically graphic images of an aborted fetus. Images that even the most ardent abortion supporter would have to stop and stare at in horror. And yes, I and my kids saw this bus.

One, they had the permission of our local county to do this ... two, the town fathers didn't realize what it entailed (they didn't actually SEE the bus). Nor did they time it right (it was supposed to be aimed at the college kids comin' down for Spring Break) ... no college kids around, just OUR kids - from kindergarten on up. So here's the bus parked on the main street here, right around the time that elementary school lets out. To say that these li'l kids were shocked, scared, and full o' questions is an understatement. Apparently, the town fathers, in their "wisdom" didn't realize what the anti-abortion bus (or movement) is all about. Nor did they discuss WHERE and WHEN this bus would be doin' it's thing.

So, to say that a whole bunch of li'l kids ended up in therapy for a while and dealin' with guidance counselors ... well that too is an understatement.

BTW, if you have the time and the inclination (we'll call it a sick morbid curiosity) I've got MORE to tell you. But first you have to decide how much you can take! ;)

Lee Sullivan (our ex-mayor) is like that ... he's gone looney-tooney so many times over such petty things that it ain't funny. If you want to see local pols go goofy, just ask them what side they're on when it comes to condos. If you have two of'em standin' nearby when you ask, chances are, you'll get to see a real live fist-fight.

But you know who's even loonier? We are. Cause we keep re-electin' the nutjobs. Well, except for Sullivan - no one was crazy enough to re-elect that particular looney. But we DID re-elect "Gun Boy" Gainor (the guy who tried to get on a plane with a loaded handgun). I'm fair sure this is his

5th term?

If you want to read something funny, check this out:

gives the salary of all of our elected officials. Only in PCB could theschool superintendent make 'bout 5x ($120K a year) the salary of the mayor($9K a year).

*sigh* Now I REALLY need a vodka! ;)

I think she means enrolled ... that's how it is with us. On that day of school, you have x number enrolled, with x more enrollin' later on in the year ... and if you don't have x enrolled you get less money.

Like I said, that's how it is with us and it's shameful. Our F (for fundin') day was last week. And I KNOW we're goin' to have half again as many kids enrollin' between now and June (when school's over). The average class starts the year at about 20 per class, and by January, ends up at 'bout 35 per class. That's a pretty big difference ...

Last night while dozing in front of the TV during the late night.....I happened to catch just a bit of some documentary about Wal-Mart. It had some very interesting (frustrating) facts about their business practices. The part I saw was about the charitable contributions (not) contributed by the Waltons/Walmart. There was a comparison to Bill Gates....really, no comparison! And also the fact that the employees far out contributed the company in charitable causes. I was in that half conscious sleep state, so I don't know the name of it. It was one one of our premium movie channels. I hope it is run again.

I am going to have to order things for quilting and needlework online in the future since going into my JoAnn's now means an instant migraine. My friends and family can't walk into that store anymore without becoming ill either, so it's not like I can make a list of items and send someone else in there for me. The not so local quilt shops only sell fabric, so everything else (thread, needles, batting, binding, stabilizers, etc.) must be bought elsewhere. Debra in VA See my quilts at