Almost three weeks ago, Mike, Luella, and I boarded a plane for Greenville, South Carolina and embarked on our muggiest adventure yet: a month in the Southeast.
We made it through a full day of flying, a 1:00 a.m. Uber trip to Wal-Mart for snacks (and terrible, terrible beer), and settled in to our Airbnb STILL LIKING EACH OTHER AND EVERYTHING.
Since then, we've driven through the Blue Ridge Mountains to Asheville, North Carolina and then to Chattanooga, Tennessee where we are now planted while Mike works for a couple of weeks.
Luella has proven herself a worthy traveling companion, contently sleeping on the floor of our 375-square-feet apartment and riding in her stroller through what any bona fide Pacific Northwesterner would describe as "an actual inferno".
Luella has also been amenable to spending her days doing mostly atypical kid activities, and so we've been thrilled to be able to visit 7 breweries, a Monet exhibit, and a couple of live music shows.
In truth, we don't do a lot of kid-centric outings when we're at home, either. Library storytimes and swimming at the community pool are the notable exceptions, although I still consider them only mild successes.
But her first playgroup—for children with developmental delays, no less—was a complete failure, culminating in the children and adults running out to the playground en masse, abandoning us alone inside with a book (we like to read at home, but without social ostracization…or pants).
The truth is, Luella usually doesn't care or notice much whether we're doing "kid things." Sometimes I still try, but I feel twinges of guilt when I realize I'm doing it more for my benefit than hers. I'm cautious of trying to mold Luella into someone she's not, turning her into a prop while I pretend to be playing at a more typical motherhood.
So when we arrived at Chattanooga's aquarium and I discovered her napping in the stroller, it was a real quandary: do I go inside, accepting that she probably wouldn't have noticed much anyway, or wait for another day?
I turned around and journeyed back to the apartment (okay, it's like a 7-minute walk, but you guys, I'M SO HOT), knowing I was fully stepping into "you're-pretending-she's-going-to-be-into-this-like-other-kids" territory.
When we returned to the aquarium the next day, she was awake.
And, despite the fact that I don't really like fish, turtles, crabs, sharks, or snakes, it was the BEST DAY EVER.
As it turns out, the aquarium is an ideal place for people who are sensory sensitive and have cortical vision impairment (and who also don't experience a crushing anxiety when stuck in a muggy room, surrounded on all sides by a shark-infested abyss). The exhibits were often hushed and dark, except for the water and the slow-moving fish that swam right up to the glass.
The jellyfish exhibit, which I might have previously considered a torture chamber, was a particular hit: a completely dark room, black water, and glowing jellyfish.
At one point, I pushed Luella's stroller right up to the aquarium's glass and sat on a bench behind her. After a few minutes, I sneaked a look at her face, expecting she'd dozed off. But no, there she was: mouth open in awe, eyes concentrated on the swimming fish.
I share a lot of time with Luella, but that doesn't necessarily mean we always have a shared experience. Sometimes I can easily understand what she feels or wants. Other times, especially when we're in an environment that's new and stimulating, I'm not sure how aware she is of anything that's happening around her.
But sitting together at the aquarium, both of us mesmerized by the fish, I realized there was no nagging voice. This was not pretend.
This was my daughter and I, experiencing something together. 2,000 miles from home and 20 feet below the surface, we'd found our depth.
Health Update: Luella FINALLY has her pediatric stander! Her physical therapist will show us how to use it when we get back from vacation and then she'll have it at home. The stander's primary role is to help with bone density in her legs.
One of our main activities right now is helping Luella to learn cause and effect. Teaching cause and effect involves putting her hand on a switch to trigger a toy's noise or light. Hopefully, she will eventually understand her role in making the noise/light and begin to do the movement herself.
We'll be looking into getting Luella her first wheelchair soon. Strollers aren't really enough support, she's getting heavy, and some of our favorite restaurants aren't super stroller-friendly. Clearly, benefits abound.
P.S. You may have noticed Luella had a haircut! No, that's not a wig in the before picture.
Mike and I were recently driving home from the beach when we passed a large, beautiful garden filled with roses a few blocks from our house.
As he explained, the Cornwall Rose Garden has been there since we moved to our house in 2008 and we have passed it, both walking and driving, probably 500 times (upon doing some research, I found that it's been there since 1916, so MY BAD).
Mike and I have long recognized the differences in our literal world views. Whereas I notice people, feelings, and interactions, Mike notices, uh…railway systems?
It's especially obvious when we compare our vacation pictures, which appear to be taken on separate trips: my camera is full of vibrant photos of people and animals, while Mike's are mostly landscapes and boring still lifes.
That being said, Mike and I are pretty much aligned on the way we view Luella: as…Luella.
Nevertheless, as Luella gets older our view of her versus other people's views are growing increasingly disparate. Since most people expect two-year-olds to be able to pretty expertly walk and talk, her disability is becoming more noticeable.
There are more stares, more questions, and more impossible conversations about the upcoming "terrible two's" during which she will apparently "run around the house and scream 'no'" (spoiler alert: she will do neither of those things at two years old).
I've been simultaneously dreading and preparing for this shift for a long time. Admittedly, most of my preparation has consisted of imagining myself COMPLETELY ANNIHILATING someone who uses the "R" word to describe her (for no apparent reason I always, ALWAYS envision it happening in the baking aisle of the Meridian Haggen).
But for the first time, I WAS bluntly asked, "What's wrong with her?" which came as a shock (although I may have been more prepared with some bags of powdered sugar around).
I'm accepting that we are now firmly in a place we'll be for a long time, probably forever, where some people will see what's "wrong" with Luella before they see anything else.
There have been many, many occasions when kids have wrongly called Luella a "baby" and no one has corrected them. There have been an equal number of times that full-grown adults have talked to Luella in nauseating, widdle baby-waby talk that makes me uncontrollably cringe (and, although it may be my imagination, causes Luella to giving her withering scowl).
On the worst days, it sometimes feels like Mike and I are standing alone, watching Luella from some desolate viewpoint.
But then there are nights like tonight, when we find that someone is standing right next to us, seeing Luella from the same perspective. And when that happens it's hard not to notice that while our life isn't a bed of roses, it's not exactly a field of cactus either.
Health Update: After months of dealing with insurance, Luella was partially approved for a pediatric stander, which will allow her to stand up with support. Our physical therapist is continuing to advocate that the ENTIRE stander be approved, including the stupid (and entirely necessary) $600 plastic tray that they refuse to cover. SO.
We're increasing one of Luella's seizure medications in a further attempt to eradicate her tiny seizures. They've decreased, but she continues to have a few an hour. While it's unlikely that she'll be end up being seizure-free, we're working to minimize them as much as possible.
We're still working on oral feeding in therapy and at home, although my motivations for doing it have changed. We've realized that Luella will likely always need her feeding tube, so after discussing with her feeding therapist, our NEW motivation is helping her to build eating skills so that she can enjoy the sense of taste and participate in food-centered social events, like birthday parties. I love food, parties, and participation, so it's the only motivation I need to keep trying.
Parenting is all about The Schedule.
In addition to the typical sleeping/diaper change schedule, Luella is also on a feeding schedule (through her feeding tube every 4 hours and continuously for 10 hours overnight), medication schedule (11 pills, 12 mLs of liquid meds, and a vitamin drop everyday), and weekly therapy schedule (physical, feeding, and occupational).
In theory, The Schedule keeps all of Luella's needs organized and attended to throughout the day.
In practice, The Schedule is threatening to seize every last shred of spontaneity from my life.
I do not operate very well on schedules.
I'm perpetually late. I regularly wear my bathing suit in lieu of more traditional undergarments when I'm behind on my laundry schedule. I don't plan my meals for the week because I don't like ANYONE telling what to eat for any given meal, even if that person was a more health- and budget-conscious me, three days ago.
I knew that "I'm attempting to escape the monotony of my day" and "I'm proving to myself that having a child with special needs doesn't have to be a barrier to acting impulsively" weren't good answers.
"Just going on an adventure!" didn't fare any better.
After a brief interrogation followed by a thorough search of my car and purse, Luella and I were finally let through. We boarded the Skytrain at the nearest station, got off in an unfamiliar neighborhood, ate dinner, and returned home.
The whole expedition took less than four hours. It was an efficient form of therapy: I got back to Bellingham feeling much less like an overscheduled, claustrophobic robot and more like the audacious, breezy mom I had intended to be.
I know that I can't run to Canada whenever I want to avoid The Schedule (my nerves aren't equipped to handle another interrogation anytime soon), so I'm trying to instill more novelty into my daily life.
So far this week I've walked an alternate route to downtown, sipped coffee at a different shop, baked a new dessert recipe, and made an impromptu decision to do Trivia Night at our neighborhood brewery.
I've also lost my car keys, arrived 10 minutes late to a therapy appointment, and let all of my clean laundry wrinkle in the basket.
If it didn't sound so boring, I'd say adhering to The Schedule a little better should be the unorthodox thing I try next week.
Health Update: We recently had a round of appointments at Seattle Children's Hospital and are excited to report that there is nothing exciting to report.
Luella is beginning to work with another specialist through the Birth to Three program to specifically address her Cortical Vision Impairment (visual impairment caused by a brain injury). She, along with her other therapists, will be helping Luella with visual-processing, cause and effect, and decision-making. We also now know that Luella's vision surgery last year was unsuccessful in giving her binocular vision (eyes that work congruently, rather than one at a time). Because of this, she will never be a professional baseball player or jet pilot, an outcome which I have lost exactly no sleep over.
No, we have not heard if we won our GroupHealth appeal for the pediatric stander. Yes, I am still peeved.
I could feel it coming for weeks before it finally happened.
It started with a late-night Google search: "places to travel with good medical care". We're not going to plan a vacation NOW but, I reasoned, there would be no harm in doing some research.
The Google searches quickly multiplied: "best hospitals in Central America", "flying with children", "lightweight car seats", "sunscreen for kids".
Soon, I was studying train timetables, flight times, and car rental reviews. I read about Panama's new subway system (the first in Central America!), rustic cabins in Wyoming, and a summary of nearly every neighborhood in San Diego.
I'm rarely thorough with anything, but travel research? I'm nauseatingly comprehensive.
Despite the confines of full-time jobs, Mike and I actually managed quite a bit of traveling before Luella. My favorite destinations were the ones that made my mom squirm ("I'll be fine, I'll just take tranquilizers the entire time you're gone," she told me before we left for a trip to Uganda), where there was a practical guarantee of traveler's diarrhea, a challenging language barrier, or at the very least, a brutal red-eye flight.
Yes, we've also done more comfortable vacations, but I'm a travel masochist at heart.
I've joked that Luella has the same wild travel bug; after all, she flew in a helicopter to Seattle four hours after she was born. But the truth is, I'm a lot less brave than I used to be. The cocky traveler in me is gone and now included in my Google search is "how safe are taxis in Costa Rica" and "closest hospital to Winthrop".
I thought I'd need a little more time to emotionally prepare to take her on a plane, far away from the medical care we know. But the Googling spun out of control and I felt the familiar, relentless urge to buy plane tickets and flee town.
This June, Luella and I will meet Mike in Chicago after his work conference there ends.
We won't be riding on the backs of motorcycles or frantically flipping through a Spanish-English dictionary to find a translation of "my husband won't be joining me for breakfast, he's still vomiting profusely", but it's the exact level of adventure we can manage at the moment.
My initial reaction to realizing I'd be taking Luella on her first flight by myself was "What a fantastically terrible idea!", quickly followed by "BRING IT ON, SUCKERS", so beyond the trip itself, I'm also pleased to see that Adventure Jenn is still waiting in the wings (albeit in a slightly tamed-down model).
Besides, I'm convinced that Luella will be pleased to spend the 4.5-hour plane ride happily looking at books and snuggling in my lap.
And if she isn't, I'm well-prepared to take my travel with a dose of pain.
Health Update: Luella is more engaged and animated than ever! Lots of smiling, cooing, and honk-laughing. Although she still can't quite sit on her own, her head and trunk control are improving.
We recently received a special chair for Luella to sit in at the dinner table and in shopping carts which has been important (at least symbolically) for her independence. These types of things are ridiculously expensive and we're grateful to Sisu Children's Fund for buying Luella's chair for her. We're also trying to get a pediatric stander that will help her learn to put weight on her feet, but we're dealing with Group Health's nine circles of hell (currently in the appeals process realm), so it might be another few months.
On a desperate mission to leave our plagued house a couple nights ago (I believe this was post-ear infection but pre-stomach bug), Luella and I found ourselves perusing the racks at Goodwill. She sat in her stroller while I packed treasured finds around her: $12 leather boots, maternity clothes for a friend, and an entirely unnecessary toddler-sized, fuchsia dance costume (just joking, that was an essential purchase).
We hauled our goods up to the counter and the store clerk sneaked a peek Luella and began to chatter away.
Here's the thing: Luella wasn't tired. THAT'S WHAT HER FACE LOOKS LIKE.
This is not a sleepy baby.
This conversation happens so often that I almost find it entertaining. I don't really see it, but because of Luella's vision issues, apparently she looks tired, uh, all the time.
Generally, I passively agree with whatever the other person says. "Did she just wake up?" Yup. "Is she about ready to go to sleep?" Yup. Whatever.
But some of the other conversations are getting to me. People start what they consider harmless small talk, putting me in the awkward position of lying or divulging more than I'd like.
I don't often become unhinged by assumptions about her development, but it's pretty awkward and, more importantly, a CONSTANT reminder that we often forget that people with all sorts of delays and disabilities exist.
"I see they're looking at toys/reading a book/listening to music. What's their favorite toy/book/music?
Another tip: if you ask a question and someone responds with "my child is on a different schedule/has cerebral palsy/doesn't walk/etc.", resist the urge to let the moment melt into awkward silence or give a pep talk (OH REALLY, you're sure my child will learn to walk? Please show me your medical credentials.). Instead, refocus and follow up with one of the questions above.
I'm realistic: I know that uncomfortable situations will continue to arise. And we (Luella, myself, and awkward-maker) will survive.
But beyond just surviving, maybe we could all work on making things a little less awkward, 'kay? After all, keeping assumptions out of the picture can make things a lot less exhausting, no matter how sleepy anyone actually is.
Health Update: Luella is now off of the medication that was working to keep her arms loose. Her specialists decided that it wasn't worth it after seeing how far back it set her trunk and head control. She has dealt well with the changes and now we're at some middle ground: better at holding up her head and slightly looser arms.
Luella also successfully recovered from her first cold EVER. We're thrilled to see that her body did what it was supposed to do without any complications. Hooray!
She has been busy with physical therapy and playing with lots of different toys there. We are working on ordering her a chair that will allow her to sit at the dinner table and a "stander" to help her stand (duh). Despite a cold and some tummy troubles, she's been in her usual fine spirits!
When I was in my twenties, I had visions of what it meant to be in my thirties.
And I spend a LOT of time talking about Other People's Pregnancies.
Despite having recently trudged through the pouring rain to fill a gas can (coincidentally, I ran out of gas in the parking lot of the Medicaid gas voucher program office which was funny/not funny), it's the last one that causes the most issues.
95% of the time, I'm awesome. I'll drop off ginger ale for the morning sick, ogle over ultrasound pics, and obsessively check for Facebook updates when I know someone is in the vicinity of their due date.
It's absurd! And self-defeating! But it's THERE.
When it happened a few weeks ago, I first tried employing my usual strategy of barreling through the unpleasantness. Two days in, I tested out the opposite approach: baby-focused immersion therapy, which turned out to be a sort of self-flagellation by social media.
And then I just cut myself some slack.
I deleted Facebook from my phone, put off talking to anyone about their pregnancy or babies for 24 hours, and turned all of my attention to loving on Luella. I connected with a local group of moms online whose children have special needs. I did some embarrassingly effective guided meditations (vomit), watched two seasons of Gilmore Girls, and took a night off to go dancing and stir up some adult-centered rowdiness.
And now? I'm good. Excellent, even. I can barely remember how it all felt, even though I know I'll be back in that resentful, irritated, grieving spot someday.
But next time, I'll skip the masochism and go straight to Luella cuddles and Youtube videos of British men telling me to "breeeeeeeeathe" over crashing waves.
I'll be ready, because when it comes to OPP?
Health Update: We are still slowly increasing dosage on Luella's new seizure medication to try to eradicate her tiny seizures. They seem to have improved, but they have to be completely gone for at least a week to call the medication a success. We're probably down to 10-15 (very short) seizures a day.
At long last, Luella has started physical therapy, which accompanies feeding and occupational therapy. She's working on all sorts of things with a main focus on gaining head control, which can help her to independently sit and stand on her own in the future. Physical therapy pushes her a little outside of her comfort zone, but it also involves a lot of bouncy balls, swings, and fun toys, so she's tolerating it quite well.
On the communication front, we are hearing giggles more frequently, usually while being bounced and listening to "Shake it Off". Like mama, like daughter.
We spent the afternoon manipulating a spreadsheet of our finances and talking about possible downfalls to my hastily proposed idea, ultimately concluding that I should keep my job but try to reduce my hours. After all, I didn't really want to quit, I just wanted more time at home.
24 hours later, I sat down in a meeting with my boss to talk about reducing my hours and, um, quit my job.
A long appointment, sick sitter, or injured pet (were you aware that dogs can sprain their toes?) meant a change in our carefully laid plans, resulting in scheduling-related stress usually only reserved for air-traffic controllers.
But most importantly, us Making it Work wasn't working for Luella.
Sure, she only has appointments at Seattle Children's Hospital every couple of months now, but her local therapy schedule has picked up. On top of weekly appointments, we're supposed to be doing feeding therapy, stretches, strengthening exercises, and sensory play multiple times a day.
And this may sound absurd, but sometimes I just want to enjoy spending time with her.
With both of us working close to full time, we constantly felt like we hadn't done enough. Not in an "every mom feels guilty" sort of way, but in a "we are probably terrible people" way, because we sometimes weren't even doing the minimum amount of daily work she needed to, you know, learn to eat or walk or sit.
As it turns out, sometimes ill-thought-out decisions are the best decisions.
I'm staying at home a lot of the time, but I also took on a few contracting gigs that are keeping me engaged. I'm getting to be involved in fulfilling projects, but I'm not so busy that I'm shoving food in Luella's mouth with one hand while checking emails with the other.
Sloppy Jenn may have been more emphatic than necessary, but it's sort of true. I found some weird life loophole where I really can "have it all".
Of course, my "all" includes frequent trips to the pharmacy for seizure medication refills, annoying phone calls to the insurance company, and a dog that has eaten five sticks of butter this month.
But it also means work meetings with creative go-getters, spending my mornings dancing to Taylor Swift with Luella, AND having homemade pizza for dinner.
It's not necessarily the "all" everyone is looking for (I hardly EVER have butter when I need it), but you know what? I'll take it.
Health Update: Luella has begun taking a medication, Diazepam, to relax her stiff arms. It's helping! After a week or so of her being way too relaxed EVERYWHERE (think Weekend at Bernie's), she's starting to regain some of her bodily control. She still isn't using her arms for anything purposeful but it's made it easier for us to do the therapy activities we need to do that may help get her there.
We also began a new medication to get her seizures under better control. The medication has very few side effects with the exception of an extremely rare but life-threatening rash. We'll be checking her out for rashes everyday and I fully expect to have a few trips to the doctor or ER this winter to get some rashes checked out.
Luella is babbling much more often and has said "dada" and had her first bout of laughing. She's quick to smile, likes observing other kids playing, and "talks" and watches the cat, who is newly obsessed with her!
Every night before we begin eating dinner, Mike and I take a moment doing the one thing keeping our relationship intact: turning on music to drown out his chewing.
It's not because Mike is a particularly noisy eater. In fact, as a result of my daily critiques of his chewing habits ("The fish is already dead, it's not necessary for you to gnash each bite ONE MILLION TIMES before you swallow!"), Mike probably eats more quietly than most.
It's because of misophonia, a syndrome that causes people like myself to hate some everyday, otherwise normal noises. A hatred that makes these seemingly unavoidable noises completely intolerable.
I like to think it's helped him appreciate the little things. How many other people can find such joy in eating Pringles on the couch, in the middle of the living room, when the wife is away?
Because of this, I had hoped that Luella wouldn't have any issues with sound.
Unfortunately, while her issues are very different, that hasn't been the case.
If you've spent any amount of time with Luella, you've probably noticed her aversion to loud noises. In fact, the noise doesn't even need to be particularly loud. Silverware clanking on plates, sudden coughs, and the Facetime ring tone all cause her to flinch and suddenly jerk her upper body to the side (and for her to be on the verge of tears by the time my mom answers video calls from us).
I questioned Luella's neurologist about this reaction a few months ago and she assured me they were a fairly typical startle response to loud or sudden noises for a kid with Luella's neurological issues.
But three weeks ago, we were at a regular neurology check-up when my chair squeaked and Luella nearly jerked herself out of my arms.
An EEG confirmed her suspicions.
In terms of seizures, this is the best case scenario. With an increased dose, the anti-seizure medication Luella is already on could help to stop them completely. Because they are so short, lasting only about 5 seconds, the seizures aren't doing any developmental damage. And since she isn't standing, walking, or driving, there isn't much risk of her falling or injuring herself.
We're hoping that these seizures are resolved quickly and without changing medications.
I guess we'll add sudden clanking and coughing to the list of noises that are frowned upon in our home.
And Mike will be able to take delight in smacking his gum, mashing disgusting bananas around his mouth eating bananas, AND loudly shutting kitchen cabinets while Luella and I are safely out of the house.
Health Update: We've been using the term for quite some time, but we've officially adopted the label "cerebral palsy" to talk about some of Luella's issues. Cerebral palsy is an extremely broad term that describes disorders related to development of movement and posture as a result of damage to a baby or infant's developing brain. Or something. Seizures, feeding difficulties, and visual impairment are all common for kids with cerebral palsy. So in CP world, Luella is actually quite typical!
In other news, Luella has begun taking Diazepam, also known as Valium, to help with the stiffness in her arms. This stiffness is a result of CP and it hasn't shown any improvement through stretching and exercises. The Valium can help relax the muscles in her arms, but also might relax her muscles EVERYWHERE, so we'll be working extra hard on getting her strong.
Luella was also prescribed glasses, which has been my favorite negative medical development to date. Get ready for an adorable, bespectacled Luella to grace your computer screens very soon!
During a weekend-long decluttering mission of epic proportions, I found a few tubes of finger paints hiding at the back of my craft shelves. Luella and I spent this morning listening to Lauryn Hill and painting for the first time, then cleaning and recovering from her creative adventure.
I'd like to begin by stating that while I don't really know what the space-time continuum is or how it works, I'm going to apply the concept here liberally and recklessly. Judgey physicists, you've been warned. I do not apologize.
So. I was recently looking through some old files at work and stumbled across a copy of our building's purchase agreement, signed on March 20, 1989. March 20, 1989 was also Mike's 7th birthday.
This space-time continuum(?) sort of thing BLOWS MY MIND. I mean, I now know what my husband and my former coworkers were doing on the EXACT SAME DAY, 25 years ago. My former coworkers were all, "Ho hum, let's sign these papers," and Mike was like,"WOOO kid birthday," and no one had a thought that the two events would collide in my hands two decades later.
Put that in your "things to think about while high" folder, my friends.
Time is sort of magic to me. Which is why I expected it to take on memory-erasing powers over the past year, letting me retire the experiences of last summer. I'd hoped that with some distance, my pesky brain would override the old memories with newer, less criminally awful ones.
July 5 rolled around again this year and we celebrated Luella's birthday and existence, which has been no less than miraculous (and I'm not even a "miracles" sort of person!). So it came as a surprise when July 6, 7, 8 and all the days that followed have felt less celebratory.
Yeah, heaps of gratitude are there. But occasionally, I'm brushing my teeth and a moment of all-consuming doom comes crashing down along with the realization that we were in the hospital on this day last year and now, even though WE aren't at the hospital, SOMEONE is, and isn't that awful too?!?!
I suppose it was ambitious to believe that every day from July 5 to August 19 would be a Chicken Soup for the Soul-worthy experience, filled with a renewed appreciation for life. But I really thought that's what would happen.
As it turns out, this summer is less about trying to replace last summer and more about accepting the coexistence of experiences. There is no such thing as "cancelling out" your bad days, because the good stuff doesn't replace the lame stuff. It's all still going to be there, although it's nice when the scales are tipped in the right direction.
I'm embracing this weird summer (which mostly involves embracing last year's weird summer) in part by looking at lots of Luella's baby pictures and reading through emails I sent to friends while we were still at the hospital.
A year ago today, I emailed my mom, thanking her for writing me a list of times Friends reruns played on every channel at the hospital. Because that's what I was doing at this time last summer: sitting in a dark hospital room next to my heavily-tubed baby, machines beeping as they monitored her every function, watching Friends reruns as nurses shuffled in and out of the room.
365 days later, I suppose the space-time continuum isn't so bad after all.
Health Update: Luella is doing well! She is tasting small bits of food by mouth as we try to reduce her oral aversion. She is starting to babble a bit. She really loves the "s" sound, listening to Raffi, and sitting in her new chair! She is weaning off one of her seizure medications and she will see her neurologists and ophthalmologist in the next few weeks.


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Ivana Trump to Publish Memoir About Raising Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric Called Raising Trump
Ivana Trump will publish a new book called Raising Trump. The announcement was made by her publisher, Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. This will be Ivana's fourth book. Her past books include Free to Love, The Best is Yet to Come and For Love Alone.
Ivana's former husband Donald Trump is now the 45th President of the United States. She raised their three children - Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka. Simon & Schuster says Ivana will talk about her "extraordinary life and the raising of her three children" in the new memoir.
Ivana says in a statement, "Every day, people ask me how I raised such great kids. They are truly amazed when I tell them that there was no magic to their upbringing. I was a tough and loving mother who taught them the value of a dollar, not to lie, cheat or steal, respect for others, and other life lessons that I'll share now in Raising Trump, along with unfiltered personal stories about Don, Eric, and Ivanka from their early childhood to becoming the 'first sons and daughter.'"
Vanity Fair hopes the book will be full of salacious details. Gallery Books says in a release that it will be non-partisan and non-political. The publisher says it will be devoted to the raising of her children but will also discuss her escape from communist Czechoslavakia and her "whirlwind romance."
The book is slated to be released on September 12, 2017. It will be edited by Nina Cordes. Cover art has not yet been released.
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Right now, white gold is very popular in bridal jewelry, as well as fashion jewelry featuring diamonds and pearls. This is because the white of the metal enhances the white of the gemstones. But it doesn't end here. Many designers are using white gold settings with vivid gemstones, such as rubies, pink tourmalines, tanzanite and emeralds. They choose white gold because they like the way the colors leap out from the white settings.
Because the natural color of gold is yellow, adding any white metal to it helps bleach out its color. There are basically two ways of creating white gold: by mixing yellow gold with either nickel or palladium. However, each has its disadvantages. The hardness of nickel makes it difficult to process, and palladium, one of the platinum-group metals, carries a high price tag. Sometimes, refiners create white gold using a combination of these two white metals.
Because some women have a sensitivity to nickel, the nickel alloy is being phased out and being replaced by palladium in some countries. In the United States, there is no legislation requiring a specific alloy, but all jewelry containing nickel must be labeled.
Sometimes, yellow or white gold is electroplated with rhodium, one of the platinum group metals, to give it the desired white color. However, this coating can wear off in time and may need to be replated.
If you have a skin sensitivity or wish to know the makeup of your white gold jewelry, you should ask us the following questions: Is it a nickel white or a palladium white? Is it a nickel-free palladium white? Is it rhodium plated? We'll be happy to provide you with all the answers.


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The lease agreement for Angels Stadium in Anaheim results in a net revenue for the city of about $340,000 annually.
Mar 24 2019 6:00 am
What might the city offer to lure the Angels? Past deals could shed light
Jason Ruiz
As the city continues discussions with the Los Angeles Angels to potentially relocate the team from Anaheim to a Long Beach waterfront stadium, the question remains: how much it would cost and who would pay for it.
The cost of a modern baseball facility has skyrocketed from the days of Dodger Stadium, which was constructed in 1962 for $23 million (less than the $25 million that Angels' centerfielder Mike Trout makes annually).
The new Marlins Ballpark in Miami, which opened in 2012, cost $515 million. When the New York Yankees tore down their iconic stadium to replace it with a shiny new replica in 2009, it cost over $2 billion.
Both came with major contributions from taxpayers: Miami-Dade County put in more than $350 million dollars, and the residents of New York paid almost $1.2 billion in public funds to complete the new stadium in the Bronx.
What would Long Beach be willing to kick in? For now, the city isn't saying, noting that the discussions are still in the early stages.
"Right now, it's just conversations," city spokesman Kevin Lee said.
But some recent deals struck with the private sector could hint at the city's potential offerings to the team—and how much it could cost taxpayers.
The Queen Mary as seen from atop the Villa Riviera in Downtown Long Beach. Photo by Brian Addison.
In 2016, the city and Urban Commons LLC entered into a 66-year lease agreement in 2016 where the Los Angeles-based firm agreed to take over operations on the ship and to develop the land surrounding it. In return, the city fronted about $23 million in funding to help with operational repairs and agreed to contribute an additional $1 million annually from Carnival Cruise passenger fee revenues to help construct a new passenger facility.
Under the terms of the lease, Urban Commons is required to pay a monthly base rent of $300,000 as well as 10 percent of operating revenue, however, those payments are not due until after Urban Commons receives a 9 percent annual return on its initial investment.
Community Hospital Long Beach in Long Beach. File photo by Thomas R Cordova.
In an attempt to revive the city's only emergency room on its eastern flank, leaders reached a tentative deal this week to split the cost of bringing the shuttered Community Hospital into seismic compliance. The City Council agreed in principle to a deal with the Molina, Wu, Network to invest up to $25 million of city funds to bring the buildings up to code.
The new 45-year lease will also continue the practice of leasing the city-owned land that the hospital sits on for $1 per year. The same lease payment was extended to MemorialCare Health System, the previous operator of Community Hospital. The deal to re-open the hospital is being structured under the public-private-partnership model, known as a P3.
The Amazon Locker at CSULB in Long Beach August 7, 2018. Photo by Thomas R Cordova.
When Amazon announced it was looking to expand its empire outside of Seattle, cities across the country rushed to compile often secretive proposals of tax-breaks, land deals and other incentives to lure the tech-giant. Long Beach joined two bids, but most notably, partnered with Huntington Beach for its primary pitch to bring Amazon to Long Beach.
In their official proposal to Amazon, the two cities offered a number of sweeteners, including a sales tax sharing agreement that would've seen 10 percent of sales tax revenue go to Amazon as a rebate for the anticipated economic activity it would bring to the region. The deal included offers for property tax sharing in which the cities would set aside portions of taxes paid by Amazon to be used to improve its new facilities, and the use of hotel taxes to also benefit the areas around the potential Amazon campus.
It also offered a streamlined permitting process for capital projects, as well as filming permits for Amazon studios if it wanted to shoot in Long Beach or Huntington Beach. The city also pledged to use the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network to help Amazon subsidize its labor cost, noting that in some cases "up to 90 percent of a new worker's wage can be reimbursed."
While there were few hard numbers provided in the proposal, the broad outlines could have likely resulted millions of dollars annually either not being paid by Amazon or being taken from city revenues to benefit Amazon.
Construction on Long Beach's new Civic Center. File photo.
The Civic Center
The threat of earthquakes flattening seismically unsound buildings has cost the city a lot of money in recent years. After a study found that a large enough earthquake could topple City Hall, the city moved to construct a new one. Using the public-private-partnership model, it entered into a lease agreement with Plenary/Edgemoor to construct a new home for the city and the Port of Long Beach that involves the city paying rent to the developer.
The $520 million project will cost the city about $14 million annually over the course of the next four decades while it is a tenant of the building, but ownership will eventually revert back to the city.
The Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse in Downtown Long Beach. File photo.
The Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse
The public-private-partnership model was first used in Long Beach to build a bigger courthouse after the old county courthouse on Magnolia Avenue and Ocean Boulevard had outlived its usefulness. While much of the funding for the $490 million project came from the state, including $2.3 billion in state funds turned over to the developer over the course of the 35-year lease to upkeep the property, the city still incurred a cost.
Because the new courthouse did not come with an underground tunnel to transfer inmates to and from the police department, the city had to start using vans to transport them above ground. The cost was estimated at about $243,000 annually.
Long Beach residents seem fairly divided as to whether they want the Los Angeles Angels to relocate from their present home in Anaheim. File AP photo.
What do the Angels want?
It's no secret that the Angels want to build more than a stadium, whether that's in Long Beach or Anaheim. The most recent discussions between the Angels and Anaheim have hinged on the surrounding parking lots being leased to the team for owner Arte Moreno to develop.
The last proposed deal by the Anaheim City Council would have leased the property to Moreno for nearly 70 years for as little as $1 per year, a move that former Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait blasted in an op-ed in the Orange County Register in 2013.
Under their current deal with Anaheim, the Angels gets to keep parking revenue until it hits $6 million; the team doesn't have to share ticket revenue with the city until it eclipses 2.6 million tickets sold. Combined with the city's debt service and annual capital improvement costs it shares with the team, about $500,000 per year, the city has netted an average of about $340,000 annually in revenue from the stadium.
As for the team's discussions with Long Beach, a spokeswoman also emphasized the talks are preliminary.
"We continue to look at all our options including our ongoing discussions with Anaheim in order to ensure that we can continue to deliver a high-quality fan experience well into the future," Marie Garvey, representing Angels Baseball, told the Post earlier this week.
Jason Ruiz covers City Hall and politics for the Long Beach Post.


The bible says there is a time for everything, a time to weep and … a time to dance. Last week I shared with you my dance of lament.
This week, I share with you a dance that brought me joy, even during a difficult time. I have the privilege of teaching beginner level modern dance to these young women at Ecclesia Classes. They shared this dance at our Christmas presentation last week. I hope it blesses you.
If you are looking for a good modern dance workout that you can do at home, I highly recommend the Modern Dance I and Modern Dance II DVDs by Lynn M. Hayden.
The wraps the girls are wearing were created by Minister Pamela Stovall at The Master's Touch Creations.
I'd love to hear from you in the comments section.
Did you dance or shepherd a group who danced at Christmas? If so, to what song did you/they minister?
Do you have a favorite technique training DVD that you use? What is it?
Thanks for joining the discussion and allowing me to be part of your life.


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Comic books March 1992
2000 AD (1977 IPC/Fleetway/Rebellion) UK #773
Published Mar 1992 by IPC/Fleetway.
All color except for Brigand Doom. Features include Judge Dredd in "Koole Killers" part 2 (script by Garth Ennis, art by Simon Coleby, color by Gina Hart), Skizz in part 7, "Alien Cultures" (script and art by Jim Baikie), Brigand Doom in "Voodoo Child" part 9 (script by Alan McKenzie, art by Dave D'Antiquis), Finn in book 1 episode 4 (script by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner, art by Jim Elston), and Durham Red the Strontium Dog in "Island of the Damned" part 12 (script by Alan Grant, art by Carlos Ezquerra). Robert Bliss back cover. Jim Baikie front cover.
All color. Features include Judge Dredd in "Koole Killers" part 3 (script by Garth Ennis, art by Simon Coleby, color by Gina Hart), Skizz in part 8, "Alien Cultures" (script and art by Jim Baikie), Tales From Beyond Science: the Men in Red (script by Mark Millar, art by Rian Hughes), Finn book 1 episode 5 (script by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner, art by Jim Elston and Kevin Wicks), and the Clown part 1 (script by Igor Goldkind, art by Robert Bliss). Oliver Frey back cover. Bliss front cover.
All color. Features include Judge Dredd in "First of the Many" (script by Garth Ennis, art by Cliff Robinson, color by Gina Hart), Skizz in part 9, "Alien Cultures" (script and art by Jim Baikie), Tales From Beyond Science: the Music Man (script by Alan McKenzie, art by Rian Hughes), Finn book 1 episode 6 (script by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner, art by Jim Elston and Kevin Wicks), and the Clown part 2 (script by Igor Goldkind, art by Robert Briggs). Kevin Walker back cover. Cliff Robinson front cover.
All color except for Harlem Heroes. Features include Judge Dredd in "Babes in Arms" part 1 (script by Garth Ennis, art by Greg Staples), Finn book 1 episode 7 (script by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner, art by Jim Elston and Kevin Wicks), Harlem Heroes featuring Silver in "Grey Ghost Overflight" part 1 (script by Michael Fleisher, art by Ron Smith), Tales From Beyond Science: Long Distance Calls (script by Mark Millar, art by Rian Hughes), and the Clown part 3 (script by Igor Goldkind, art by Robert Bliss). Arthur Ranson back cover. Staples front cover.
Aber(r)ations (1991-1997 Sirius Fiction) Magazine #3
Published Mar 1992 by Sirius Fiction.
Tags: Panic In The Sky (part 4), Superman 1992 Weekly Reading Order (part 12)
Published Mar 1992 by DC.
In part 4 of the 6-part 'Panic in the Sky,' continued from Adventures of Superman (1939) #488, Draaga recognizes that an alliance with Brainiac might have been a BIIIG mistake so he switches camps, leading to a team-up with Superman that gives the Man of Steel the knowledge necessary to defeat Warworld. Continued in Superman The Man of Steel (1991) #10. Written by Roger Stern, with art by Bob McLeod and Denis Rodier. Cover by Dan Jurgens and McLeod. 36 pages, Full Color, $1.00. Cover price $1.00.
Advance Comics (1989) #39
Published Mar 1992 by Capital City Distribution.
Adventures of Superman (1987) #488
In Part 3 of 'Panic in the Sky,' continued from Superman (1987) #65, the battle against Brainiac continues on Warworld as Superman, aided by Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Deathstroke and others, gains the upper hand. But for how long? Continues in Action Comics (1938 DC) #675. Written by Jerry Ordway, with art by Tom Grummett and Doug Hazlewood. Cover by Grummett and Ordway. Cover price $1.00.
Published Mar 1992 by Big Boy Restaurants.
Adventures on the Fringe (1992) #1
Published 1992 (est.) by Fantagraphics.
*18+ Mature Readers Only* Written and Illustrated by R.L. Crabb and Dan O'neill. 24 Pages, B&W. *18+ Mature Readers Only* Cover price $2.25.
After Hours (1989-1995 Fanzine) #14
Published Mar 1992 by William G. Raley.
Albedo (1992 2nd Series Antarctic) #4
Published Mar 1992 by Antarctic Press.
Cover by Steve Gallacci. Stories and art by Steve Gallacci. Antarctic publishes the second volume of the popular anthology focusing on anthropomorphic and funny-animal comics. Space explorer Erma Felna deals with the additional challenges of sudden parenthood; also, a text article about Ermas agency, the Extraplanetary Defense Force. 32 pages, B&W. Cover price $2.50.
Published Mar 1992 by H.S.D. Publications.
Alien Nation the Public Enemy (1991) #4
Published Mar 1992 by Adventure.
Angel of Death - Written by Lowell Cunningham. Art by Sandy Carruthers and Wayne Wise. Cover by Chaz Truog. In this double heart-stopping conclusion, the Tenctonese assassin finally sets his sights on John and Jane. Reverting back to his days on the ship and life among the airshafts, John takes his life into his own hands to uncover and stop the murderer once and for all. 32 pages, B&W. Cover price $2.50.
Aliens Hive (1992) #2
Published Mar 1992 by Dark Horse.
Other items consigned by SlabSmart
Label #B978A3-029
Written by JERRY PROSSER. Art and cover by KELLEY JONES. Stanislaw Mayakovsky and his new "partner" have designed a cyberantic Alien to steal the Alien Queen Mother's royal jelly, the galaxy's most valuable commodity. This issue the cyberantic Alien's big test comes as "Norbert" is sent deep into the heart of an Alien hive! Cover price $2.50.
Aliens TPB (1992 Dark Horse) 2nd Edition #2-1ST
Tags: Aliens TPB Dark Horse, Aliens
2nd Edition - Volume 2 - 1st printing. "Book Two!" Collects Aliens (1989 4-Issue Mini-Series) #1-4. Written by Mark Verheiden. Art by Denis Beauvais. Re-presenting the phenomenally successful Aliens II series written by Mark Verheiden and featuring the full-color airbrushed artwork by Denis Beauvais, this package also features an embossed hardcover and Smythe-sewn binding. Beauvais will has created an all-new painting for the illustrated dust jacket, as well as designing special endpapers. Softcover, 112 pages, full color. Cover price $12.95.
All Waldo Comics TPB (1992) #1-1ST
Published Mar 1992 by Fantagraphics.
1st printing. These are the adventures of Waldo the Cat from 1969 to Present. Softcover, 8 1/2-in. x 11-in., 64 pages, B&W. Mature Redaers Cover price $7.95.
Issue #106A
Alpha Flight (1983 1st Series) #106A
Tags: Hero/Villain Teams
1st printing. "The Walking Wounded!" Story by Scott Lobdell. Art by Mark Parcella and Dan Panosian. During a heated battle with the villain known as Mr. Hyde, Northstar discovers an infant that had been abandoned in a dumpster. This issue also marks Northstar's coming out, making him the first gay superhero ever featured in a Marvel comic. Cover price $1.75.
Issue #106B
Alpha Flight (1983 1st Series) #106B
Slab: Standard, no notable issues
Direct Edition
Label #79A9AA-080
2nd printing. "The Walking Wounded!" Story by Scott Lobdell. Art by Mark Parcella and Dan Panosian. During a heated battle with the villain known as Mr. Hyde, Northstar discovers an infant that had been abandoned in a dumpster. This is a tragic tale ripped from the headlines. Plus, Northstar reveals something about his sexuality. Cover price $1.75.
Tags: Marvel Legacy Numbering: Amazing Spider-Man (part 360), Print Run Statistics
Miscut.
FN/VF 7.0
Slab: Scuffing on back of case; Scuffing to inner well of case
No bottom staple (manufacturing).
"Death Toy!" Part 2 of 2. Script by David Michelinie. Pencils by Chris Marrinan. Mark Bagley. Inks by Keith Williams. Cover by Mark Bagley and Randy Emberlin. At the Tech-Toy warehouse, Cardiac and the wall-crawler come to a meeting of the minds about their pursuits of justice! Perhaps it's possible for them to work together after all! The next evening at Stane International, Spider-Man and Cardiac team up to stop the illegal manufacturing of military weapons! Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship? Not quite! Meanwhile, a new blood-hued super-villain makes his first savage kill...the first of many! Cameo appearances by Carnage, Mary Jane Watson, Ben Urich, Joy Mercado, and J. Jonah Jameson. Origin of Cardiac. (Notes: Cardiac returns in Amazing Spider-Man 376. The letters page contains a statement of ownership: average print run 470,075; average paid circulation 340,977.) 32 pages. $1.25 cover price. Cover price $1.25.
Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks TPB (1992 Marvel) #1-1ST
Tags: Marvel Masterworks SC Series (1989-1993) (part 2), Spider-Man
Volume 1 - 1st printing. Collects Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #1-5. Written by Stan Lee. Art by Steve Ditko. Featuring the 1st appearance of Spider-Man and his earliest adventures. See how Spidey first met the fabulous Fantastic Four, and thrill to his earliest encounters of the Chameleon, Vulture, Doctor Octopus, and the Sandman. Softcover, 138 pages, full color. Cover price $12.95.
Vol. 66 #11
Amazing Stories (1926-Present Experimenter) Pulp Vol. 66 #11
Published Mar 1992 by Experimenter Publications.
Amberzine (1992-2005 Phage Press) Fanzine #1
Published Mar 1992 by Phage Press.
Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact (1960-Present Dell) Vol. 112 #4
Published Mar 1992 by Dell Magazines.
March 1992. Cover by David Hardy. Indicia says "Vol. CXII No. 3" Stories: "The Modular Man"(Part 2) by Roger MacBride Allen, "Desperado" by W.R. Thompson, "Landfall" by Alexis Glynn Latner, "Love, Dad" by Jeffery D. Kooistra. Science Fact article: "Chicxulub: The Smoking K-T Gun?" by Stephen L. Gillett, Ph.D. Softcover, 5.5-in. x 7.5-in.; 176 newsprint pages, B&W. Cover price $2.50.
Animal Man (1988) #45
Meet the creator of the comics sensation The Penalizer. Also learn the deadly connection between this man and Animal Man's missing son. Written by Tom Veitch, with art by Steve Dillon. Cover by Brian Bolland. New Format. Cover price $1.75.
Aquaman (1991 2nd Series) #4
Tritonis attacks Poseidonis as civil war erupts beneath the sea and Aquaman meets the Mer-men's champion, Iqula. Also introduced is Queequeg, master of technology. Written by Shaun McLaughlin, with art by Ken Hooper and Bob Dvorak. Cover by Kevin Maguire and Karl Story. Cover price $1.00.
Published Mar 1992 by Archie Publications.
Cover pencils by Dan DeCarlo, inks by Alison Flood. "A Sleigh in Time," script by Eve Nagler, pencils by Stan Goldberg, inks by Mike Esposito; Archie and Jughead find a time-traveling sleigh and go back in time to various periods in American history. "The Zapper," script by Henry Scarpelli, pencils by Stan Goldberg, inks by Mike Esposito; Archie ponders what it would like to use a remote control on more than just TV. "Dough Nuts," script by Hal Smith, pencils by Stan Goldberg, inks by Mike Esposito; Archie and his dad use an ATM machine that spits out bunch of money, and they decide to return it to Mr. Lodge since the bank is closed. "A Movie to Remember," script by George Gladir, pencils by Stan Goldberg, inks by Mike Esposito; Archie takes Veronica to a movie but a series of mishaps prevents him from seeing the movie. 36 pgs., full color. Cover price $1.00.
Archie Andrews, Where are You? Digest (1981) #79
Archie Comics Digest (1973) #113
Archie's Story and Game Digest (1986) #22
Armor (1985 1st Series) #12
Published Mar 1992 by Continuity.
Story by Neal Adams and Peter Stone. Art by Sal Velluto, Rudy Nebres and Neal Adams. Cover by Kevin Nowlan. Sci-fi superheroics from Neal Adams' Continuity Comics. Old allies Sacraman and Go-Gog aid Armor and Silver Streak in their battle with Serabo. 32 pages, Full Color. Cover price $2.00.
Asimov's Science Fiction (1977-2019 Dell Magazines) Vol. 16 #3
Published Mar 1992 by Davis Publications, Inc..
Autoduel Quarterly (1983 Steve Jackson Games) Vol. 10 #1
Published Mar 1992 by Steve Jackson Games.
Art in this issue by Tim Eldred, Darrel Midgette and Ashley Underwood. A quarterly magazine devoted to expanding the futuristic Car Wars franchise into role-playing. New campaign seeds, scenarios, vehicles, "mock" advertisements, weapons and accessories, plus rules, questions, and answers. This issue features State of the Art 3, Uncle Schmal Returns, New Jumping and Falling Rules! 8 1/2-in. x 11-in. 32 pages. B&W Cover price $3.50.
Tags: Marvel Legacy Numbering: Avengers (part 345), Operation Galactic Storm (part 5), Avengers
"Storm Gathering" Operation: Galactic Storm Part 5 of 19. Script by Bob Harras. Pencils by Steve Epting. Inks by Tom Palmer. Cover by Steve Epting and Tom Palmer. Story continues from Wonder Man 7. The Avengers attack in outer space! Thor, Quasar, Sersi, and the Vision charge into the Milky Way to intercept the Shi'ar invasion fleet and rescue the Starcore crew! In an awesome display of their powers, the four mighty avengers storm the Shi'ar flagship and halt its advance! Several hours later inside Avengers Mansion, Captain America calls together more than twenty avengers to announce his plan to stop the Kree-Shi'ar war! Seven avengers will travel to Hala to negotiate with the Kree, while seven more avengers journey to Chandilar to reason with the Shi'ar! And the remaining avengers will guard the Earth! Iron Man and the star-spangled avenger will lead the Kree contingent. Wonder Man and the Scarlet Witch will guide the Shi'ar expedition! Good luck to both teams! They're going to need it! Story continues in Iron Man 278. Cameo appearances by Deathbird, Her, Hobgoblin (of the Imperial Guard), and Majestrix Lilandra. (Note: The letters page includes a statement of ownership: average print run 280,254; average paid circulation 172,679.) 32 pages Cover price $1.25.
Avengers West Coast (1985) #80
Tags: Operation Galactic Storm (part 2)
Operation: Galactic Storm. Part 2 of 19. "Turn of the Sentry" Script by Roy Thomas and Dann Thomas. Pencils by David Ross. Inks by Tom Dzon. Cover by David Ross and Tim Dzon. Story continues from Captain America 398. Oracle, Electron, and Tempest of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard have kidnapped Rick Jones! And forced him to reveal the location of a secret Kree outpost in New Mexico! At the same time one state over, Captain America is stranded in Arizona after fighting a Shi'ar creature called Warstar! Cap calls the west count compound for help; and shortly thereafter Hawkeye and his team take off for the Desert Southwest! Eventually the Avengers locate Rick and the Kree outpost themselves; and then the desert donnybrook commences! Eight avengers vs. four imperial guardsmen vs. one big Kree Sentry! Wow, the Galactic Storm saga is just beginning! Story continues in Quasar #32. Cameo appearances by Mockingbird and Quasar. Avengers Lineup: Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Living Lightning, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman, Wonder Man, and the U.S. Agent. (Notes: This story was reprinted in 2006 in the trade paperback: Avengers Operation Galactic Storm. The letters page includes a statement of ownership: average print run 243,158; average paid circulation 152,442.) 32 pages Cover price $1.25.
Aviatrix (1992 Forbidden Fruit) #2
Published Mar 1992 by Forbidden Fruit.
Issue 2. March 1992. Written and illustrated by Norvell Vague. 6.5" x 10.25". 24 pages. Black and white. Adult. Cover price $2.95.
Back Brain Recluse (1984-2002 BBR) #20
Published Mar 1992 by BBR.
Back to the Future (1991) #3
Published Mar 1992 by Harvey.
Cover art by Gil Kane. Roman Holiday, script by Dwayne McDuffie, art by Nelson Dewey; As in the popular time-travel films, Marty McFly travels through history; in this adventure, he finds himself in ancient Rome in a battle with Bifficus Antanneny ... and the loser gets fed to the lions! Adapted from the TV script by Mark & Michael Klastorin. Fievel Goes West film ad. 36 pgs. $1.25. Cover price $1.25.
Barbie (1991) #15
The first continued story in Barbie. In the first of a two-part story, Barbie travels to Egypt and deals with a misplaced priceless Scarab. This issue has many features related to Egypt as well. By Lisa Trusiani, James Brock and John Lucas. Cover by Amanda Conner and Jeff Albrecht. Cover price $1.25.
Vol. IV #2
Barbie Bazaar (1988-2006 Murat Caviale Communications) Barbie Collector Magazine Vol. IV #2
Published Mar 1992 by Murat Caviale Communications, Inc..
Vol. IV, Issue 2. Mar.-Apr., 1992. Profusely illustrated with color and black & white photos. 8 1/2" x 11". 58 pages. Cover price $4.95.
Barbie Fashion (1991) #15
By Lisa Trusiani, Barbara Slate and Barb Rausch. Cover by Amanda Conner and John Lucas. Barbie makes two visits - to a day-care center and to a town that may be haunted! Cover price $1.25.
Baseball Legends Comics (1992) #1
Published Mar 1992 by Revolutionary.
Babe Ruth Cover price $2.50.
Baseball Superstars Comics (1991) #3
Ken Griffey Jr. Cover price $2.50.
"Mustache Pete is Dead!" Pt. 1. Story by Alan Grant. Art by Norm Breyfogle. Fresh out of jail, the Ventriloquist and Scarface hit the streets looking to renew their scandalous ways. However, a new gang of toughs have moved into their old territory and are not looking to share the wealth. Scarface is beaten, broken and left for dead. Feeling free for the first time in a long time, the Ventriloquist soon learns that some devils refuse to go quietly into the night. Story continues in Detective Comics 642. Also, Vickie Vale gets a new partner who turns out to be much more then he appears. And, we are introduced to Officer Rene Montoya, a character that will become very prominent in the Batman Animated Series and later Gotham Central. 36 Pages, Full Color. Cover price $1.00.
Batman Gotham Nights (1992 1st Series) #1
The lives of Gotham City's citizens and denizens are investigated! This 4-issue miniseries explores how the common person is affected by Gotham's most famous inhabitant. Does the Batman inspire respect? Or does he provoke fear? Batman stalks a suspect through the city and we see the effect this has on its citizens. Prominently featured is the restored architecture of Gotham, based on designs by Anton Furst (Academy Award-winning set designer for the 1989 Batman film). Written by John Ostrander, with art by Mary Mitchell and Bruce Patterson. Cover by Eduardo Barreto. Cover price $1.25.
Batman Legends of the Dark Knight (1989) #28
Faces, Part 1 of 3. Grendel creator Matt Wagner begins a story focusing on Two-Face, who launches a double-edged scheme involving a Caribbean island, murdered plastic surgeons and an army of the deformed. Written and drawn by Matt Wagner, with a painted cover by Wagner. Deluxe format. Cover price $1.75.
Battle Picture Library (1961-1984 IPC/Fleetway) 1st Series #1627


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text:
2021-02-19 18:19:43 | Many countries took up Russia's offer to sell them its vaccine. But can it deliver?
February 19, 2021 - by Andrew E. Kramer - Leave a Comment
Story by: Andrew E. Kramer The New York Times World News
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — In recent months, the Kremlin has scored a sweeping diplomatic win from an unexpected source: the success of its coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V.
While the United States and European countries have considered or implemented bans on vaccine exports, Russia has earned plaudits by sharing its vaccine with countries around the world in an apparent act of enlightened self-interest.
So far, more than 50 countries from Latin America to Asia have ordered 1.2 billion doses of the Russian vaccine, buffing the image of Russian science and lifting Moscow's influence around the world.
Yet in Russia things are not always what they seem, and this apparent triumph of soft-power diplomacy may not be all that the Kremlin would like the world to think. While Sputnik V is unquestionably effective, production is lagging, raising questions about whether Moscow may be promising far more vaccine exports than it can supply, and doing so at the expense of its own citizens.
The actual number of doses distributed within Russia is a state secret, said Dmitri Kulish, a professor at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow. Nevertheless, Russian officials are boasting of massive vaccine exports, and basking in the warm glow of the vaccine diplomacy that has generated.
"Soft power is the yawning, gaping hole in Russia's global status," Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group risk consultancy and a former American diplomat, said in a telephone interview. "If they play their cards right here, vaccines could be very important."
See also 2020-10-11 14:04:45 | Biden visit Monday caps push into Ohio, once a longshot
European officials have started to push back on Russia's aggressive marketing of Sputnik.
"We still wonder why Russia is offering, theoretically, millions and millions of doses while not sufficiently progressing in vaccinating its own people," the European Commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen, told a news conference Wednesday. "This question should be answered."
Only 2.2 million Russians (less than 2 percent) have received a first dose of the two-shot vaccine. In the United State, by contrast, 40.3 million people (around 12 percent) have received first injections, despite a rocky rollout.
The reason for that lack of public acceptance, analysts say, is that many Russians are so distrustful of their own government that they dismiss clinical trials that have shown Sputnik V to be safe and highly effective. In a poll taken last fall, 59 percent of Russians said they did not intend to be vaccinated.
So deep is the distrust that fully stocked vaccination sites in Moscow are frequently empty. The fears haven't been helped by the example of President Vladimir V. Putin, who has yet to take the vaccine himself.
Source References: The New York Times World News
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2021-02-28 22:11:09 | Trump says he won't form new party, vows to unite Republicans | Politics News
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Fair Lawn-Glen Rock
Fair Lawn-Glen Rock Daily Voice serves Fair Lawn & Glen Rock
serves Oradell, Paramus & River Edge
Eugene N. DiGenio, 48, Fair Lawn Resident
Nicole Briggs
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FAIR LAWN, N.J. – Eugene N. DiGenio, of Fair Lawn, died suddenly Tuesday, Jan. 19. He was 48.
Born in Hackensack and raised in South Hackensack, he resided in Fair Lawn for 10 years. He was a parishioner of St. Anne Roman Catholic Church in Fair Lawn.
A graduate of William Paterson University in Wayne with a bachelor's degree in English, he earned a master's degree in English from Rutgers University in Newark. He was a member of the American Society for Quality, where he received numerous certifications throughout his life. An avid wine maker and food connoisseur, he enjoyed cooking and traveling. He was employed as an associate director with Shionogi Inc. in Florham Park for seven years.
He was the husband of Lisa A. (Campanello) DiGenio; father of Michael G. and Leonardo J. DiGenio; son of Angela (Allegretto) and the late Cosmo Geno DiGenio; brother of Nicholas DiGenio, Susan Sweeney and Karen Beley and her husband, Sam; nephew of Catherine and Mario Petruzzelli; son-in-law of John and Elizabeth Campanello; brother-in-law of Carolyn Caras and her husband, Nicholas, and David Campanello; and cousin of Linda Palladino. He also is survived by many nieces and nephews.
The family will receive relatives and friends from 2-7 p.m. Sunday at Vander Plaat-Caggiano Funeral Home, 13-31 Saddle River Road, Fair Lawn. A funeral Mass is planned for 10:30 a.m. Monday at St. Anne Roman Catholic Church, 15-05 St. Anne St., Fair Lawn. Interment will follow at George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus.
In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to Autism Speaks.
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Not in Fair Lawn-Glen Rock?


text:
Q: Spacy NLP with data from a Pandas DataFrame I have a large pandas data frame of survey string responses, and we would like to trial some features of Spacy's NLP. We are just exploring the capabilities at the moment, but struggling with how to format the data into a format that works with the nlp function of spacy.
Eventually we would like to be able to look at popular topics in the string responses against their user data.
How do I run the nlp pipeline on a column of a dataframe? Or am I going around this the wrong way?

A: You begin by calling spacy.load() with a language model. This will, depending on which model you choose, load tokenizer, tagger, parser, NER and word vectors for the language of your choice. This is stored in a variable called nlp in the spaCy documentation.
nlp = spacy.load(language_model)

We can now call nlp() with any type of text string. So why does not: nlp(df['column_with_strings']) work? Because df['column_with_strings'] is not a string, it is a pandas.Series:

TypeError: Argument 'string' has incorrect type (expected str, got Series)

So what you need to do is call nlp() on each value in the pandas.Series. You can do this by constructing a function and using df['column_with_strings'].apply() or by iterating over each row in the series.

A: There is a more efficient and quick way to parse a Series with texts with the nlp pipeline by spaCy. SpaCy suggests using nlp.pipe() when processing large volumes of text.
Following the instructions that are given in the documentation you can do the following:
texts = dataframe['series_with_text]

(Make sure that you have converted the type of the values into strings and you have removed any NaN values that might exist in your data frame).
Then:
docs = list(nlp.pipe(texts))

A: I've used list comprehension on a column of dataframe to gets vectors of text of each rows with the following code:
tweet_text = [[nlp(token).vector_norm for token in text.split()] for text in tweet_df_multi['tweet_text']]

but the problem is I'm values values with a comma(,).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: How to trace InvocationTargetException? I'm running my java application as bundle on osgi framework, i made a commands to use in the console, most of them working normally a little throwing this exception :
osgi> create name refaat
gogo: InvocationTargetException: null
osgi>

as you see there is no trace provided by the InvocationTargetException and i don't know where is the issue here, how can i trace that exception or trace the exception it wrapped?

A: After your failing command, you can run
$exception printstacktrace

or just
$exception

to get the exception information. Otherwise try the log(s) of your OSGI
runtime.
http://felix.apache.org/site/rfc-147-overview.html


text:
Mixed celebration
That was recent Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and a group of his friends sharing a celebratory dinner Wednesday night at DC Coast.
Keeping fit, Mr. Armstrong's guests sipped chilled cucumber soup with a dollop of caviar, followed by tuna tartare. For dessert, pastry chef David Guas wrote in chocolate around the plates Mr. Armstrong's motto, "Live Strong."
And to help the cyclist celebrate his seventh Tour de France victory, DC Coast uncorked complimentary champagne for those at the table.
Unfortunately for Mr. Armstrong, dinner was served on the heels of Jean-Marie Leblanc, director of the Tour de France, charging that the cyclist had "fooled" the sports world and should apologize for purportedly taking a performance-boosting drug during the race in 1999.
"For the first time — and these are no longer rumors or insinuations, these are proven scientific facts — someone has shown me that in 1999, Armstrong had a banned substance called EPO in his body," Mr. Leblanc told the French sports daily L'Equipe.
Mr. Armstrong, who went bike riding with President Bush at his Texas ranch earlier in the week, denied the accusations, saying on his Web site that he has "never taken performance-enhancing drugs."
We're told former Secretary of State James A. Baker III will lead a presidential delegation to Gdansk, Poland, to attend the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity movement on Wednesday.
Other members of the delegation will include U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe, who was mayor of Knoxville, Tenn., until 2003, and lost a 1984 Senate bid to Al Gore in a landslide.
Also making the trip are Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs; former Sen. Hank Brown, who is president of the University of Colorado system; and Irena Kirkland, widow of former AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland.
Bolton clones
It's mighty difficult, but we think we recognize a few of the mustached faces in today's Inside the Beltway photograph of John Bolton "fan-club" members celebrating the U.S. ambassador's arrival at the United Nations.
Come to think of it, Mr. Bolton wasted no time finding his desk at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, in New York — arriving less than five hours after his recess appointment by President Bush.
As for the photo, it was snapped at a recent board meeting of the American Conservative Union, during which men and women alike donned "Bolton mustaches" to demonstrate their support of the ambassador.
What's the saying, "He who lives in a glass house shouldn't throw stones?"
Sean Rushton, executive director of the Washington-based Committee for Justice, writes to members of the Fourth Estate covering President Bush's nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court that one should consider the source.
"Reporters: As you finalize stories on People for the American Way's charge today that John Roberts is extreme, remember to consider recent amicus briefs filed by PFAW:
"People for the American Way opposes pornography filters on public library computers; regulation of hardcore Internet pornography; restrictions on simulated child pornography; school choice; voluntary prayer in public places.
"People for the American Way supports deleting "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance; redefinition of traditional marriage; voting rights for felons; forcing the Boy Scouts to permit openly gay scoutmasters; partial birth abortion; judicially imposed tax hikes; removing the Ten Commandments from public settings; racial quotas in college admissions."
• John McCaslin, whose column is nationally syndicated, can be reached at 202/636-3284 or [email protected]


Iklan lowongan kerja ini dibuat oleh PT Wook Mobile Commerce , kami tidak mengubah / menambahkan / memvalidasi setiap lowongan kerja secara langsung.
Segala transaksi yang terjadi saat Anda melamar dalam iklan STAFF FINANCE AR JAKARTA UTARA-PT Wook Mobile Commerce di luar tanggung jawab kami.
Established in 2011, PT Wook Mobile Commerce is the first e-commerce company that is building a platform which combines the concept of B2B (Business to Business) and O2O (online to offline) in Indonesia. Our company is based in Indonesia. We are managing many well known brands, like VIVAN, ROBOT, SCUD, TENDA, HUNTKEY, DJI, DEVIA, XI LIFE and etc. Products are ranging from power banks, Wifi Routers, smart phone accessories to drone, and etc. And there will be more well known and qualified brands and products joining us, since we have a strong supply chain team based in China.
Our Mobile e-commerce platform (B2B distribution)—WOOK integrates the features of Sale and Group-buying with the model of O2O. It provides customers attractively advertising and high-quality supply chain resources. With the rapid development of mobile shopping in Indonesia, WOOK will take advantage of our outstanding APP application, experienced sales team and abundant Chinese supply chain resources, to become Indonesia's best mobile terminal distribution platform.
Our registered users positioned as traditional retailers, shop owner, mobile shop owner, social media suppliers (Facebook / twitter / BBM / Wechat) ,shopkeepers, etc.
Showed by the 2014 Indonesia Marketing Research data, with the mobile phone penetration rate 10.7%, 3G penetration rate 17%, Indonesia has nearly 50 million mobile phone users, which ranked sixth in the world, with the growth rate up to 10% per year. The Internet Age of Indonesia is coming.
With the broad prospects, WOOK has attracted some venture capitalists. In November 2014, we obtained a first round Venture Capital Investment from three venture capital investing firms: Danen Ventures, Resources Investment and Dark horse fund, and the second round of investment will come in this September.
Our head office is in Jakarta. We already have 13 branch offices in Indonesia (Bandung , Jogjakarta, Medan , Palembang, Semarang, Manado, Bali, Lampung, Pekanbaru, Surabaya, Makarssa and Pontianak), and we plan to open another 4 branches this year. We plan to have more than 30 branches in Indonesia, and employees will reach more than 1000 people.
Bersedia sabtu bekerja dan lembur.
We are was the first B2B e-commerce platform that combined Online to Offline (O2O) concept in Indonesia. And we still to invite the professional candidates to join with us.
Apakah lowongan STAFF FINANCE AR JAKARTA UTARA-PT Wook Mobile Commerce jujur (bukan penipuan)?
Pastikan bahwa PT Wook Mobile Commerce adalah salah satu perusahaan kredibel dan terpercaya. Silakan mengecek di Google apakah perusahaan itu benar-benar ada. Cek juga review yang mungkin pernah tersedia dari karyawan PT Wook Mobile Commerce .
Pastikan bahwa lowongan yang Anda incar sesuai dengan judul dari lowongan ini, yaitu STAFF FINANCE AR JAKARTA UTARA-PT Wook Mobile Commerce . Pastikan Anda tidak menjadi member MLM yang tidak jelas atau bisnis investasi yang mencurigakan.


If you're a small business owner looking to minimise the costs and infrastructure necessary to run your company's phone system, it's worthwhile considering SIP trunking.
But what exactly is SIP trunking, and how could your business use it on a day-to-day basis? We'll provide the key information you need to know to understand this significant aspect of phone systems.
You can read the whole article to gain a detailed understanding of SIP trunking. For more information on a particular section, click the relevant link above.
Alternatively, to compare quotes for telephone systems straight away, fill in the form at the top of the page.
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a way of connecting phone calls virtually, as opposed to using real-life phone lines.
A SIP trunk is installed on an internet connection, and is used to connect to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), allowing phone calls to be sent and received digitally.
The combination of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and SIP creates an internet-based phone connection. This is in contrast to traditional phone systems, which use physical phone lines.
Now that we've covered what SIP is, here's a quick guide to some of the other related common words and phrases that you may come across when researching SIP trunking.
As mentioned above, SIP is a way of making phone calls via the internet. So what do you need to use SIP trunking?
As part of this, you'll need a firewall to ensure that the SIP trunking is secure – ideally one dedicated to this purpose. This can be offered by your provider or organised by your IT specialist or team, if you have one.
While we're focusing on SIP phone lines, other forms of communication are possible too, such as email, as well as chat and text messages. You can check with your SIP provider to see what they offer.
This is because SIP allows UC – a way of connecting all communications into a single channel. It can offer an ID or number that isn't specific to one particular channel or device.
When you think of making phone calls, it's likely you think of outbound calls, whether that's to clients, customers or suppliers – but SIP trunking can also be used for internal calls too. Plus, you can allocate the exact number of phone lines you need – there's not a set amount like previous analogue lines e.g. 15 or 30 lines.
Although it's possible to run all your business' internet services through the same internet connection, it could be preferable to have an internet line solely for the phone and SIP communication, depending on your company's usage and data requirements. Read our guide to the best broadband for business for more information.
Similarly, there's the option of using a physical PBX (or your old/current phone system) and a SIP trunk with a gateway that allows them to interact. However, it may be better to have all internet-based IP PBX and SIP going through a separate internet connection to help ensure better call quality.
With this option, it's possible to keep the system at your business' site, in the same place your server is stored. This is more likely to be suitable for bigger companies, with the infrastructure and resources necessary to maintain it.
Alternatively, it's possible to use an external provider to host the system on the cloud for you, which is more likely for start-ups as this is generally a cheaper and easier to organise option.
Note that with an on-premises PBX it's possible to use SIP trunking on an existing phone system, allowing multiple calls at the same time, with the possibility of unlimited calls.
How is call quality ensured?
It's possible to use a leased line, which is only for voice data. This means that the voice data (the phone calls) are prioritised.
There is also the Quality of Service (QoS), which prioritises voice traffic via network routers – your SIP provider should take care of this.
In this section, we outline some of the main reasons why businesses might want to use SIP trunking.
While SIP trunking and call centres seem to go hand in hand, other types of businesses could benefit from using SIP too.
For example, if you run a recruitment agency and have multiple team members speaking with clients and staff, SIP trunking could help you handle high call volumes more efficiently. In fact, SIP could be ideal for just about any business that requires multiple phone lines!
As SIP trunking can be used internally or externally between two or more people, it's possible to use it for conference calls too.
But what if you've just launched your business, or you run a start-up with only a few workers? It's still useful to consider how SIP trunking could work for your business in the future.
As the phone lines operate over a virtual connection, there's no need to worry about a physical location for them on your premises, or setting up new phone lines if you move office, meaning it can easily grow and scale with your business. Plus, you can keep your old phone numbers too.
Alternatively, you may run a seasonal start-up or a company with a varying workload, such as a customer service business – SIP trunking allows you to scale your phone lines accordingly.
While in the early days you're particularly likely to be focused on growth and development, it's still essential to consider various worst-case scenarios.
For example, what does your disaster recovery plan look like? If your phone lines were to go down, SIP trunking can offer an instant back-up. You can reroute your calls to another SIP trunk with the same provider, meaning there's no need for a separate back-up system.
While we've focused mostly on phone calls, SIP trunking can be used for other types of communication too, such as email and messages. Plus, some SIP providers may offer these services, so you can unify your business' communications.
Similarly, as your business develops, you could use SIP trunking to connect staff in multiple locations. This offers a cost-effective method of team communication, requiring only an internet connection and phone devices.
SIP trunking can also be used to make your calls go out from a specified location, as well as make calls from mobiles go out as a chosen number. SIP uses a single connection to manage multiple phone numbers without multiple lines.
What are the key benefits of SIP trunking?
When might you need a physical phone line?
At this stage, you've learned more about SIP trunking, including what it is, as well as what it stands for (Session Initiation Protocol) and the ways in which it could be used in small businesses.
Now that you understand what SIP trunking is, the next step is to read our page on best SIP providers for more detailed information on the kinds of services available.


text:
CoA submits hard-hitting tenth status report
Those who have not furnished the compliance certificate and amended the constitution are the State cricket associations of Gujarat, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Haryana, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.
G. Viswanath
Mumbai 29 October, 2018 20:36 IST
The CoA has asked the apex court to issue further directions to the States to carry out amendments and submit compliance affidavits. - REUTERS
The Committee of Administrators (CoA) has told the Supreme Court in its tenth Status Report that seven associations have "failed and neglected'' to furnish the compliance report of the apex court order of August 9, 2018 approving the BCCI's new constitution written by the CoA in relation to the Justice Lodha Reforms in cricket, ten associations have partially complied with the order and 17 in a substantial manner.
Those who have not furnished the compliance certificate and amended the constitution are the State cricket associations of Gujarat, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Haryana, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh. The BJP President and Rajya Sabha MP, Amit Shah is the President of the Gujarat Cricket Association.
Those categorised as "partially compliant'' are Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Goa, Maharashtra, Bihar, Bengal, Chhatisgarh, Manipur and Vidarbha and those in the substantially compliant category are Andhra, Assam Baroda, Mizoram, Puducherry, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Mumbai, Odhisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Saurashtra, Sikkim,Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.
Direction from apex court
The CoA has asked the apex court to issue further directions to the States to carry out amendments and submit compliance affidavits to the Supreme Court failing which their voting rights would stand automatically suspended at the AGM and further action taken.
The CoA wants non-compliant States to fulfil the Supreme Court order of August 9 and submit compliance affidavits and amended constitution in a prescribed format within seven days, the partially compliant and substantially compliant States to carry out further amendments in a prescribed format and submit compliance affidavits to the Supreme Court in two weeks time, failing which their voting rights at the AGM would be automatically stand suspended and further action taken.
READ| Board acting secy takes issue with CoA's decision
The CoA has said in its report that many States have deviated from the prescribed format given by the CoA and that international cricketers have not been given voting rights. It has also petitioned the Supreme Court to issue directions to appoint Ombudsman, Ethics Officer for the BCCI for a period of one year and to constitute a separate committee to commission a Forensic audit of State associations.
Most importantly and referring to the roadmap forward for the BCCI and State associations, the CoA has urged the Supreme Court to issue directions to effect the elections of the BCCI within 90 days with only the representatives of those associations who have filed affidavits of compliance before the Supreme Court and has been found by the CoA to be in order to attend and vote and contest elections.
The CoA also wants the Supeme Court to issue directions to the registrar of societies, companies, charity commissioner to register the respective amended constitutions of each State association as per the communication of the CoA, that elections in the State associations may be conducted only after they compliance affidavits are filed and found in order by the CoA.
Membership to international players
In a separate note to the BCCI members the CoA has pointed out that as per the Lodha Reforms, all State Associations have to grant membership to former international players hailing from the State. It has also pointed out that ``it is necessary that there is uniformity in the constitution and functioning of the various associations (without any office being created for life), that membership of social clubs be divorced from the administration of cricket which is a sombre task, that cricketers be made members and have a say in the governance and that the management is made professional.''
Forensic audit of associations
The following is the observation made by the CoA for the need to run a forensic audit of some associations.
The due diligence reports submitted by various audit firms engaged by the BCCI, prima facie, show instances of malfeasance and misfeasance of funds in certain State Associations, which requires further investigation in order to ascertain the specific individuals involved in the same.
ALSO READ| Johri's deadline for reply submission ends, Board questions CoA role
In order to ensure that the newly elected office bearers of the State can start with a clean slate and put in place appropriate systems and controls regarding utilisation of funds disbursed to State Associations by the BCCI, the CoA is of a considered opinion that a former Judge of this Honourable Court, a retired Deputy Controller and Auditor General and such other person with appropriate experience in investigating such matters be appointed to examine (1) due diligence reports in detail with the assistance of the audit firms (2) commission a forensic audit in respect of those State/Member Associations where the due diligence reports indicate instance of misfeasance and/or malfeasance and (3) initiate appropriate action against the individuals identified as responsible for the same.
Lodha Committee
Committee of Administrators
BCCI SGM
Sania Mirza: Couldn't have asked for a better comeback
Andrey Rublev


Are you planning a trip in the near future?
I've got you covered with these amazing travel tips and tricks to keep your sanity.
Make your own flat iron/ curling iron holder. Fold a pot holder in half and sew along the edge.
Don't forget to pin this to reference later!
these are terrific! i am leaving for a trip to seattle soon, and i will probably use at lease 5 of these.!
Love the portable spice kit. How clever!
Oh this is a keeper! I shared on facebook too, always share good stuff with my friends! Keep up the good work!
Thank you for sharing this Shelly!! Glad you found it helpful.
So clever! Thanks for sharing- so many - why didn't i think of that ideas!
Very creative. I like DIY.
Thank you for sharing these! Some very useful ideas in there. Some we already do, and some we will be giving a try!


EPIPS is an acceleration based de-icer for ice protection on ships and aircraft. This system provides an efficient low power solution for both metal and composite applications where sufficient electrical power is not available. IDI developed the system in collaboration with NASA Glenn and DARPA's SBIR program.
The de-icer features a series of eddy current actuator coils and electronics packaged into an integrated actuator assembly. Actuator coils are strategically placed behind the leading edge to apply impulsive loads directly to the outer surface material. The rapid acceleration de-bonds and sheds ice into the airstream in a very efficient manner (ice layers can be shed as thin as .050").
The main components of the de-icing system are the De-Icing Control Unit (DCU), the Actuator Electronic Modules (AEM), and the Leading Edge Assembly Modules (LEM). An optional Ice Sensor provides automatic deicing control when a threshold ice thickness is detected.