| Outdoor living -- and gardening -- go high-tech | | Posted Wednesday, February 07, 2007 3:06:59 PM by Blog57 Team | | Just as we are spending more time than ever at home outside, we are enjoying a rash of new products that make free time there as convenient and comfortable as our indoor kitchen or family room. One of the greatest innovations in all of our lives (after microwave popcorn) is the microchip. Yes, it runs our lives in every way imaginable and it's making headway into our gardens and landscapes as well. How many times have we visited a nursery or garden center only to find that the plant information we are looking for is woefully lacking? Details such as cultural requirements or other information that might help us to be smarter gardening consumers are missing all too often. .... | |
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| | | Outdoor living in the garden | | Posted Friday, February 02, 2007 1:06:57 PM by Blog57 Team | | There was a time when spending time in the garden meant enjoying the act of gardening, as well as the fruits of our own labor. For some of us, it still does. But for others the ritual of cutting the grass on Saturday mornings, followed by a lazy afternoon in a simple hammock, has yielded to hired help and full-scale outdoor rooms, designed to relax and to entertain. The trends of 2007 for gardening and outdoor living continue to reinforce our need for instant gratification. As revenues for traditional consumer lawn and garden products remain flat, homeowners are pouring money into expanding their living space outdoors. .... | |
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| | | Tobacco shop offers smokers a haven | | Posted Thursday, January 11, 2007 3:09:30 PM by Blog57 Team | | If the smoking ban in Allegheny County bars and restaurants remains in place after a 120-day court injunction, there will be at least one South Hills haunt where people may still eat, drink and smoke. Owners of Jernigan's Tobacco Village in the Galleria in Mt. Lebanon renovated some of its unused square footage in December to add a scotch and cigar bar. And because the business's main means of income is specialty tobacco sales, it is grandfathered into the legislation, allowing patrons to continue to smoke on the premises even if the ban takes effect everywhere else in the county. "Ninety-nine percent of our customers are smokers," owner Mike Donohue said. Yet some restaurants and bars find that prohibiting smoking is no big deal. "I'm very much against smoking," said Ron Molinaro, owner of Il Pizzaiolo on Washington Road and Enotria, a wine bar behind the restaurant.... | |
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| | | New year promises to be busy, enjoyable | | Posted Monday, January 01, 2007 1:09:38 PM by Blog57 Team | | As Im writing this, there are a few days left before the start of the new year. I, like most people, am going through my standard list of resolutions for the upcoming year. This year, the pressure is on though, as I am compelled to do more things outdoors to report to you the most current information possible on all things out there.First, I must complete the work on my house so that I can get my kitchen pass back on a regular basis. Now with bare framing looking at us in three rooms, I get it strictly on a merit basis. A couple more weeks and that will all change.Second, I must secure that second mortgage so that I can fund my shotgun shell bill. To buy enough shells to get in the box again from season to season, the budget rivals something the defense department comes up with.Next on the list is more camping this year than I have done in recent years.... | |
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| | | Sunset to build SF ‘Idea House’ | | Posted Sunday, November 19, 2006 1:07:17 PM by Blog57 Team | | SAN FRANCISCO - Sunset Magazine's “House of Innovation" Idea House in Alamo sold this week for an as yet undisclosed sum, while a magazine representative said it will be building its first-ever San Francisco idea house next year in the Mission District. The program, first created in 1998, involves the Menlo Park magazine partnering with local architects and builders to create high-end homes of the future. The Alamo home, listed for $5.3 million and sold to an undisclosed, out-of-state party for an undisclosed sum, involved a partnership with Popular Science magazine and San Jose's De Mattei Construction. At around 6,500 square feet, the Alamo house featured a four-car garage, windows that could turn opaque with a push of a button for curtain-free privacy and a fully-equipped outdoor kitchen “to rival most kitchens in a home," Alain Pinel Realtor Peggy Cortez said.... | |
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| | | Home Depot Net Income Falls First Time in Three Years (Update4) | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 3:10:23 AM by Blog57 Team | | Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Home Depot Inc., the world's largest home-improvement retailer, said third-quarter net income dropped 3.1 percent, the first decline in three years as the U.S. housing market cooled. The company cut its earnings forecast. Net income fell to $1.49 billion, or 73 cents a share, missing analysts' estimates. Home Depot said it now expects earnings per share growth of 4 percent to 5 percent for the year through January, down from an earlier forecast of at least 10 percent. The stock fell 2.5 percent in early trading. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 5.1 percent. Chief Executive Officer Robert Nardelli plans to spend more than $350 million and add 5.5 million worker hours to boost revenue. Sales in older stores are declining amid competition from Lowe's Cos.... | |
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| | | 11/13/06 Calendar | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 7:05:38 PM by Blog57 Team | | AL-ANON -- 5:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, Eighth and Yakima avenues, west entrance; call 577-9401. 6:30 p.m., Sunnyside Community Hospital, classroom, 10th Street and Tacoma Avenue; call 882-3353. 7 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, 1307 E. Third Ave., Ellensburg; call 962-9045 or visit www.Yakima1.com/alanon/. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS -- For today's meeting times and locations, call 453-7680. AA local office location, 616 River Road, Yakima; visit www.YakimaAA.com. "ALIVERS WITH PURPOSE" -- Noon, Wellness House, 210. S. 11th Ave., Suite 40. Facilitated by Joy Staley. Find hope, courage and strength while sharing information. Free. Call 575-6686. ANGEL CARE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION -- Free emotional support for those newly diagnosed from trained survivors.... | |
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| | | DIGGING IN | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 7:33:32 AM by Blog57 Team | | Get creative: The Harrison County Cooperative Extension Service, 668 New Lair Road, Cynthiana, will have a project-making day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today. Projects will include a lighted jack-o'-lantern, a matchbox nativity, cut-out holiday cards, a kitchen angel, a beaded angel, a small whisk ornament, a bath puff angel and a painted bear wooden stocking ornament. Call (859) 234-5510. For the holidays: The Fayette County Cooperative Extension Service, 1140 Red Mile Place, will have a class on making ribbon purses and totes from 1 to 5 p.m. or 6 to 9:30 p.m. Monday. The cost for those who are not members of the Fayette County Extension Homemakers is $8 and includes an associate membership and monthly newsletters. Bring your own sewing machine. A limited number of machines are available for use; call to reserve one.... | |
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| | | Bit of Charlotte history closing its doors 7:57 AM | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 3:19:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | Anderson's, a Charlotte fixture since 1946, is closing so the owner, Gary Anderson can have more time with family and focus on his catering business.Andersons, a longtime Charlotte power-breakfast restaurant, is closing as owner Gary Anderson follows his grandfather's sickbed advice. "Life is a flash," George Kastanas told Anderson shortly before he died in the early 1990s. "Don't get to that point and look back and regret what you didn't do." He also advised: "Don't lose time with your family because you're a prisoner to your work." For years, Anderson has risen at 4 a.m. and worked 12-hour-plus days. Now, approaching 50, he wants more time with wife Michelle and their children, ages 6 and 10. He's closing the Elizabeth Avenue restaurant his father and two uncles opened in 1946, a modest brick building where he's worked and hung out all his life.... | |
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| | | A tale of two turkeys | | Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 11:14:03 PM by Blog57 Team | | I'm an indoor kind of gal, married to an outdoor kind of guy. We both love to cook. And we hate sharing a kitchen. So when it comes to talking turkey — something we do this time each year — he's all for grilling his in the great outdoors, while I prefer hanging with my hen in the cozy confines of our kitchen. For several years now, we've made his-and-hers turkeys our Thanksgiving tradition, much to the delight of the crowd that comes for dinner. We like it because in addition to giving us each our own workspace, cooking two birds — one oven-roasted, the other lightly smoked on a charcoal-fueled Weber — offers two decidedly different tastes (and one heck of a carcass-fest for making soup later). Our guests like our dual-turkey day because there are twice as many thighs, wings and drumsticks to go around, and plenty of leftovers to send home.... | |
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