Diary of a Marriage: Our Kitchen, The Landfill

For what seems like the millionth time, I walk into our kitchen and see that the shopping bag in which we toss our recyclables is full. And not just full, but brimming over with empty boxes, toilet paper tubes, water bottles. These are all stacked precariously atop one another―toilet paper tube balancing on a water bottle, which is teetering on a Kleenex box, which is stacked on a Cheerios carton, which is piled on a pizza box. To the left of all this is a stack of magazines, which serves as a sturdy base for an entirely new tower of trash.Trade Leads for womensjacket, Search ecplaza.net for buying and selling leads, Our kitchen looks like a freaking Jenga Championship Tournament.


Perplexingly, J.―who has rightly claimed the kitchen as "his domain"―seems not to mind that the area is quickly being overtaken by our recyclables. In fact, he is the one who was adamantly against our getting a separate paper-and-plastics trash can in the first place. One trash can is enough, he declared: "We'll just get a bag for them." I should have known. "Bag" is Man Code for "piling shit up.Ed Hardy Caps Buy On Sale and monclercoat with high quality."


Anyway, I'm here because I have an empty water bottle. I approach the tower gingerly, ready to pick the overflowing bag up and walk it to the garage. But J.2011 Shoppers search through womencoats at Harrods department store during the first day . runs over. He's got this, he says. And then my husband―my smart husband, who has a Masters degree, who is chair of the English department at a very good school, who is not out of his mind―crouches down and begins to ever-so-gently balance the water bottle on top of a bent hanger. "Don't move!" he whispers. "I've just … got to get this …" I swear I see a fine sheen of perspiration developing on his upper lip.


"Please tell me you're kidding," I say. But he's not. He manages to balance the water bottle on the hanger and then he backs away slowly, arms outstretched like he's about to take flight. Once he's a safe distance away from the tower, he stands upright triumphantly. He's conquered the tower.


I don't understand why he won't just take the bag out to the garage and dump it in our recycling bin. It's not a matter of laziness or messiness: The man obsessively cleans our microwave every single time we use it. I honestly think that he just doesn't see it. I've termed this affliction Male Random Selective Blindness. It's random because he notices other things, like the tiny puddles of water that develop on my side of the bathroom counter when I wash my face. These bother him. But the landfill that is our kitchen? Nah,IWC watches are warranted by our laptopbagfactory for a period of one year from the original date of purchase. that's cool.


The blindness is selective, too; J. can turn it off and on at will. Once a week, the Tuesday evening before trash day, J. clears our kitchen of the recycling bag. This has become something of a spectator sport. I watch as he crouches down, arms around the base of the shopping bag, lifting it slightly until the pile comes clattering down. Water bottles roll beneath the table, cereal boxes crash to the ground. This could be so much easier, I think. It's like watching a National Geographic documentary on some exotic jungle animal, with a dramatic, deep-voiced narrator, maybe Morgan Freeman: The male tries to attract the female by building a tower of recyclable items. Now watch as he lifts the recycling bag…


He's also blind to the Valentine's Day gifts that he hasn't yet put away―these are stacked by his bureau―and to the thin layer of dust I recently discovered on the back of our sofa. When I saw the dust, I was horrified; J. shrugged it off. I could almost hear the Male Random Selective Blindness click on.IWC watches are warranted by our cheapjackets for a period of one year.


I'm learning to adjust to his MRSB, though. I feel like it might even be contagious. Sometimes I find myself not even noticing his piles anymore. In fact, the other week, my mom visited. She peered into our kitchen and I caught her eyes imperceptibly widen. "What's that?" she said, pointing to the bag.


"Oh, that," I said, waving it off. "That's just us, saving the planet, you know, Jenga-style."

Jury finds Blakely guilty

In their opening statements, Clark County prosecutors told jurors on Tuesday they'd be disappointed if they were expecting a case similar to one in the hit TV series "CSI.bestvalentinohandbags" In the closing comments, Prosecuting Attorney Blake Batson said the case was "crystal clear."

They were apparently right, as it took only 20 minutes for the 12-man jury to decide that Reco Blakely was guilty of robbing a couple at an Arkadelphia car wash in January 2011. The 38-year-old Blakely, of 200 S. 19th St. and formerly of Little Rock, was found guilty on all the charges he faced: aggravated robbery, second-degree battery and theft of a credit card.

The victims ― Lauren Cagle, a 20-year-old Okolona woman, and David Smith, a 21-year-old Phoenix, Ariz., man ― both testified in the courtroom that Blakely was the man who forced Cagle to the ground and put Smith in a headlock at a Caddo Street car wash around midnight on Jan. 5, 2011.

Ultimately, Blakely fled on foot with Smith's wallet, which Smith surrendered, but was stopped moments later in his vehicle by Sgt. Jason Jackson, who observed Blakely run a stop sign at Eighth and Main streets.discountcoachhandbags Jackson, who also testified Tuesday, said he gave pursuit and made a traffic stop at Eighth and Clay streets.

Jackson recalled that Blakely seemed nervous ― he was physically shaking when he produced his license and registration and asked for a break. Jackson also made note of a brown and white jacket in Blakely's car and, when he returned to his patrol car to run Blakely's information through the Arkansas Crime Information Center, he heard a dispatcher broadcast on police radio that a robbery had just occurred only three blocks north of the traffic stop. The dispatcher gave a description of the suspect and his clothing, and Jackson proceeded to order Blakely to throw his keys out of his vehicle.

Other officers arrived as well.

Sgt. Robbie Plyler, a sheriff's deputy with the Clark County Sheriff's Office, testified that he was on Sixth Street near Creech and Nesbett when he heard the Arkadelphia dispatcher explain the robbery. Plyler said he arrived to find the three Arkadelphia officers surrounding the suspect's vehicle.

During the arrest, Blakely "bull rushed" Plyler and dragged him down the street before he could be detained by a taser stun gun. He was tased twice before he would comply with officers' demands. Plyler suffered minor injuries to his lip and knees during the scuffle.

One of the officers had noticed a wallet in Blakely's car, and it turned out to belong to Smith.replicahandbags

The suit-clad Blakely sat in the courtroom next to his attorney, public defender Timothy Beckham. Both Cagle and Smith, pointing to Blakely, identified him as their assailant.coachhandbags The defense argued they couldn't be certain Blakely was the suspect, as police did not provide the couple with a suspect lineup during the investigation. Cagle said she later read about the incident in the Siftings ― that's where she'd first heard the suspect's name. She said she then looked up Blakely on Facebook and that his profile pictured matched that of her assailant.

Sgt. Pete Dixon, who was assigned as the lead detective in the case, said he didn't feel a lineup was necessary because police had sufficient evidence.

Sentencing, to be determined by the jury, will continue today. Blakely,louisvuittonborse a habitual offender, could face life in prison for the aggravated robbery charge.

Life's A Ditch In North Kohala

Does this mining light make me look fat?

With a mining light perched on my head and life jacket strapped around my torso,hermesbirkinreplica it probably wasn't my best look, but both are required pieces of safety equipment when preparing to traverse a series of tunnels dug into the side of a mountain on the north end of the tropical Island of Hawaii.canadagooseparka


It was last October when I found myself on the northern tip of Hawaii to experience a Kohala Ditch Adventure, an eco-tour that includes perching on a sit-a-top kayak while gliding through narrow culverts and tunnels built in the early 1900s as a way to redirect water for irrigation to then-precious sugar cane plantations. The last sugar plantation closed in Kohala in 1975, but today tourists and locals alike can travel parts of the ditch system, which moves millions of gallons of water every day, is 22.5 miles long and boasts 57 tunnels,cosmeticbagfactory 19 flumes and six miles of open culverts. The ditch tour itself covers 2.5 miles and takes about 90 minutes. It's a spectacular 90 minutes.


I met my fellow tourists and guides at the attraction's main office in North Kohala early one weekday morning last fall and after donning our safety gear, we climbed into an all-terrain-vehicle and headed for the start of the tour. Passing through groves of mango, banana, macadamia and guava, with a brief sighting of a wild pig thrown in,authenticlouisvuittonhandbag the ATV ride was a great tour on its own. But then we arrived at the beginning of the real fun at the edge of a rainforest, where I had my first jaw-dropping moments of the tour standing on a flume bridge watching a spectacular waterfall surrounded by jungle.parkaforcheap The tour describes the walk as a "hike," but for all of you non-athletes out there like me, it's an easy one.


We then climbed onto our kayaks, three on each, and began floating along a mostly open-air ditch. The water is shallow, so the life jackets really are just for emergency, and we each carried a paddle, though they were simply used to keep our kayaks from getting hung up on the sides of the ditch. The scenery was straight out of a promotional tourism video, with lush greenery, including palm trees, surrounding us as we floated along. But then we hit the first of the 10 tunnels we would eventually travel through and that's when those mining lights really came in handy. The tunnels are between 100 and 1,800 feet long. You have no idea how long an 1,800-foot tunnel is until you're in the middle of one and just for the fun of it, everyone turns their lights out. I literally could not see the hand in front of my face. But with our mining lights back on, our guides drew our attention to points of interest in the tunnels, including markings scratched into the culvert wall.


Turning on the mining light strapped to my head for better illumination, I could clearly see some Japanese characters scratched into the concrete. Our guide explained the permanent "graffiti" was left by one of the hundreds of Japanese workers brought to Hawaii in the early 1900s to build the irrigation system. It really brought home the point the ditch truly is a historic feat of engineering and manpower.


The ditch eco-tour was halted in 2006 after an earthquake damaged the system and it wasn't deemed safe. But the owners hung in there and the ditch re-opened for tours just last year.

Snakes and Ladders

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni has some insufferable friends. Yesterday he spent nearly 1,500 words profiling one of them, a classmate at the University of North Carolina whom he knew at the time as a conservative frat boy who "attended Catholic services every Sunday in a jacket and tie." Bruni, who is gay, "kept a certain distance from him" under the assumption that the young man, whom he does not name in the column, would be hostile to the future Timesman because of his sexual orientation.Burglar walks away with goodchloehandbags from Summit home.

"About two years ago, out of nowhere, he found me," Bruni reports. A correspondence ensued in which Bruni apologized "for misjudging him." The man was not as one-dimensional as Bruni had imagined, and he had changed since his undergraduate days.

Bruni's classmate did a lot of reading after graduation, which led him to question his faith. He also became a physician,Live Cycle monclercoat for men and ladies . as he had planned, but his career took an unplanned turn: "As a doctor, he has spent a part of his time providing abortions." Bruni allows that "for some," this story "will be proof positive of Rick Santorum's assertion last month that college is too often godless and corrupting.Looking for Neweracap Voucher Codes, Discounts, burberryhandbags?" For "others," evidently including Bruni, it is "a resounding affirmation of education's purpose.Visit the premier pradahandbags001 in Melbourne Australia."

On our first reading, we didn't make it through the whole column. When we got to the part where the guy "rounded up favorite quotations from Emerson, Thoreau, Confucius, Siddhartha,The next important aspect of wholesaleoutlet lies on their appearances. Gandhi, Marcus Aurelius, Martin Luther King"--oh, and "from the New Testament, too"--wrote them on strips of paper, "filled the salad bowl with the strips," and had his kids at the dinner table "fish one out so they can discuss it," we just couldn't take any more.

Ballarat vet's winter pet warning

EXTREME weather conditions and the advancing cold of winter could cause Ballarat's animals to become stressed, the Australian Veterinary Association said yesterday.With all of the canadagoosecoat sales rampant.
Domestic pets facing stress or a change in conditions can suffer anxiety and fear, and owners should be aware of changes in their mood.
Launching its pet awareness campaign, the association said animal lovers should try to understand how your dog or cat might be feeling during these difficult times and plan ahead to minimise potential stress.
Eureka Veterinary Clinic's Dr Rob Page said while winter in Ballarat was cold for animals,The following are some of the steps included in buying monclerouterwear. a common sense approach should be taken.
"If we are expecting lower than average temperatures during winter, owners should consider bringing their dogs or other pets inside," he said.Jewellery and womencanadagoosecoats stolen in Framlingham. "Otherwise make sure they have adequate bedding or protection in the form of jackets or whatever to wear during the cold."
Dr Page said pet owners should plan ahead for cold conditions, heavy rain and storms, and seek advice from their vet as required.
"Owners of thIntensify your own Grace with ralphlaurenhoody.e older cats and dogs in the geriatric years should seek advice coming into the cooler months.Visit the premier canadagoosesalecheap in Melbourne Australia."