Couple brings contemporary aesthetic home

It's hard for Samuel Edwards, 63, to contain his enthusiasm about the contemporary ambience he and his wife, Angela, 54, have cultivated in their Wernersville home. It has involved many projects over the last 3 years, almost all done by Sam himself.

He says contemporary design is not something you see a lot of in Berks County, but he and Angela were eager to add their personal take on the look to their home.

The open floor plan of the home, which has a Colonial revival exterior, is what appealed to the Edwardses, and they snapped up the four-year-old house in September 2008. They had the vision to see the potential of the home despite a color palette that didn't suit their tastes.

"We like a lot of gray tones and wanted to get away from earth tones," Sam said. "A lot of people don't realize gray is a neutral."

After painting, one of the first major projects Sam did when they purchased the house was to remove all of the carpeting.Learn all about solarpanel. Hard surface flooring would make Sam's allergies more bearable, he said.

The creamy white marble with gray veining in the living and dining rooms was his first attempt at laying a tile floor,Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? and he thought it turned out well despite his learning curve. Sam continued his flooring projects by installing sand-colored ceramic tile in the center hall and kitchen, charcoal-colored marble in the family room and other ceramic tile throughout the home. He even stripped the wood stairs leading to the second floor and stained them in alternating light and dark shades.

Sam also found a unique use for slate tiles he purchased from Ted Smith Flooring in Spring Township: covering for a focal wall in the family room.

Sam estimates he has saved thousands of dollars by doing projects himself. He also takes pride in getting the supplies he needs from locally based businesses.

By doing the work himself, he has been able to get the look just right to suit him and Angela.

"People confuse contemporary and modern," Sam said.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. "Contemporary is more abstract in its design while modern is very simplistic and more conservative."

Angela's concept of contemporary design is one that employs different shapes and colors.

Their bold dining room with lavender walls is evidence they are not afraid of color. Teal accent pieces also dot the family room. Glass in clear and more opaque hues is also dominant in their décor choices and white leather couches pop in more than one room.

Much of their furniture was ordered from Gilbert's Furniture, 300 Penn St.

"They had to blow the dust off the contemporary catalog,Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore." Angela said.

A self-taught artist, many of Sam's pieces take center stage in their rooms. A large painting of an oriental woman dominates the living room and an abstract is a key feature of the family room.

He has the time now that he is retired.The best rubbersheets products on sale, After serving in the Vietnam War, he said he spent 36 years working in human services and still tries to help other veterans and their families when he can. He said he earned a degree in human resource development from Temple University.

Angela was a stay-at-home mom. In their blended family, the Edwardses have a total of nine adult children ranging in age from 21 to 43.

Sam spent most of his life in Yeadon, Delaware County, and Angela grew up in Kirkwood, Lancaster County. They were drawn to Berks by the amount of real estate that they could afford.

"The people living in Berks County tend to take Berks County for granted," Sam said. "They don't realize what a good value the homes are."

Exercising With Allergies or Asthma

No one disputes the healthy benefits of including exercise in your daily routine. Besides keeping your weight in check, exercise stimulates the cardiovascular system, strengthens your bones, reduces your risk of heart disease, and eases stress and anxiety. For those with allergies, however, exercising can be discouraging, painful and even unbearable.

Allergies affect exercisers of all skill levels, from the novice to the Olympic athlete, and can hit anywhere, anytime. Symptoms such as a runny nose, tearing, wheezing,The best rubbersheets products on sale, coughing, hives,Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? difficulty breathing, headache, skin rashes, diarrhea, vomiting and stomach cramps can bring even the most seasoned athletes to their knees. Still, even those who suffer the most from asthma and other allergies can reap the benefits of exercise.

With many kinds of exercise taking place outdoors, simply stepping outside to enjoy your favorite sport puts you exactly where allergens and other irritants such as pollen, ragweed, pollution, poison ivy, biting insects and sunlight lurk. According to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, people with allergies or asthma can exercise as much as they want as long as they take a few precautions.Diagnosing and Preventing coldsores Fever in the body can often trigger the onset of a cold sore.

Moving your exercise routine inside isn’t necessarily enough to avoid the impact of allergies, as indoor allergens can negatively affect your exercise experience, too. Common triggers such as dust mites, pet dander, molds and fungi may exist in your home or your local athletic club.

While allergies rarely prevent you from exercising, they do have an impact on performance. In an article in The Physician and Sportsmedicine, Malcolm N. Blumenthal, M.D., and Carl Sherman write that asthma can reduce respiratory efficiency, while nasal congestion from an allergy such as hay fever can obstruct airways, making it difficult to breathe. Symptoms such as fatigue and headache, which can take a toll on endurance, concentration and motivation,Learn all about solarpanel. also can accompany allergies. Rashes or skin irritations from allergic reactions to the sun, insect bites or contact with plants such as poison oak can render your workout uncomfortable. Chlorine in a swimming pool can cause allergic-like reactions, such as eye irritation or respiratory symptoms, or exacerbate hay fever and other allergies.

Just because allergies can affect your exercise regimen doesn’t mean you must forgo your favorite sport and resign yourself to life as a couch potato. A marathon runner is not likely to give up vital training time to avoid pollen season, just as a professional tennis player would not withdraw from every tournament when the mold count reaches a certain level. With some planning and flexibility, exercise can remain a beneficial, integral part of even the most intense allergy sufferer’s lifestyle.

Blumenthal and Sherman recommend you minimize your exposure to known allergens.Aeroscout rtls provides a complete solution for wireless asset tracking. Participating in a variety of sports not only provides you with a more complete fitness routine, it gives you a menu to choose from according to current conditions. If you jog, but the pollen level is particularly high one day, taking an aerobics class or swimming laps in an indoor pool can provide equivalent physical and mental benefits without the accompanying allergies.

Gear Up Two Bike Vertical Storage System

Gear Up's Two Bike Vertical Storage does exactly what it says and does it very well too at a reasonable asking price. You can use it in the house or, so long as you've installed a gamekeeper type wall-anchor for security purposes, it's also great for garages and similar brick outbuildings. That said; the freestanding/pressure-fit beam type of bike stores might be better for rented properties since some landlords take exception to walls being drilled.

What we have here is a sturdy MIG welded twin hook design complete with wheel guides that hold bikes securely and out of scratching distance. A removable wire mesh basket gobbles lids, gloves, pumps and other accessories that otherwise might go untamed and lead to domestic clutter and strife. Build quality is generally very good - the welding's a little workmanlike in places but easily up to the 100lb payload. Powder coating is also better than I've come to expect from mass produced units too, although our test sample had a superficial chip-easily retouched using hobby enamels but the zinc chromate primer should prevent the mild steel succumbing to the amber mould in any case.

Installation is pretty straightforward unless you happen to be cycling's answer to Frank Spencer-you'll want a set of rawl plugs and an indelible marker handy though since these aren't included in the pack. Make sure there's no pipe work or electrical trunking lurking behind your chosen spot before whipping the pen from behind your ear and marking its intended destination. Start humming subversive Specials' classics; check everything's aligned with a spirit level and drill away.

In practice, the OEM screws adhere well to heavy-duty plasterboard but I'd be inclined to go aftermarket for heavier duty brick screws rather than risk potentially expensive damage and tears before bedtime should one fail and a prized Colnago clatter to the floor. The plastic coated hooks are a marked improvement over the ubiquitous DIY sort and the wheel guides keep bikes from colliding supporting most sizes of road and mountain bike tyre securely although those beyond 1.95 can prove a tight squeeze.

Three Winters

I am standing in a village on a morning like this one - crisp, with a definite nip in the air and a howling wind to match. I am cold but sweat is streaming down my face. I am watching my classmates perform a play on the value of sending the girl child to law school. Villagers sit around and watch without expression. They yawn a lot and begin to disperse quietly once the play is over. Always alive to the call of duty, I quickly corral one mustachioed gentleman attempting to leave with his cow. You have a daughter, why don't you send her to law school? I say. My daughter is a good girl, my friend notes generously. The comment is a little off-topic, but promising. People can pay for her if she does well, you know, I say with greater enthusiasm. Educating a girl child is educating the family, he says, as though repeating something off a billboard somewhere. So why don't you educate yours? I interject cleverly, with the feeling that I have caught him on a fine point. He sighs deeply and raises large grey eyes to mine - Arre beta, she is the only child… there is no help. A pause, and - you know how it is... he says. I plainly do not, but he does not elaborate.

After an uncomfortable silence of indeterminate length, I hand him a small booklet with a phone number to call if he ever ends up wanting to educate his girl child at a discount. He takes it quite happily from me. I already know that he will feed it to his cow.

We write up a report for our camp - "Visited Chotagaon village in Chotagarh district and performed several plays highlighting the importance of creating diversity in national law schools. Distributed pamphlets highlighting the same." We put this on our blog.

I dedicate a bullet point on my CV to the above statement in its entirety.

I take a sip of elaichi tea and cringe; are all college cafeterias obsessed with sugar? I give the plastic glass to the resident nogoodrascal dog, who stupidly pushes his whole snout into the glass and cannot take it out. He howls in perverse harmony with the wind, while I think about another winter..

I am sitting in front of an Important Person in his office. I sent you an email, I say. I saw it, very regrettable, he says. I am very disappointed. It was plagiarism, I say clearly, and he is a professor. Important Person agrees in soothing tones. Tomorrow I will email him and tell him his article cannot be published, I say, because he is a plagiarist. I’m afraid you cannot do that, says Important Person in the same gentle tones – (I am not prepared for this) - and why is that? I say, stupidly. He raises his old, brown eyes to me and sighs - "He is after all your teacher, is he not? Arre beta you know how it is...

He looks like a wise toad behind his glasses. I feel like a fly who has just been swallowed.

I look down and watch as my breath mists up his glass tabletop. I can't tell how long I sit there, perfectly still. It is our flagship journal, I finally say, without looking up. This one we will not send to Harvard, eh? says Big Man, with a small laugh. Do you want more tea, son?

One month later, I am standing outside a local press, shading my eyes from the sun, watching glossy piles of our new prospectus be brought out to be taken back to campus and posted to the law-school-ward headed masses. I read the front cover. "An institute of national repute in the field of legal education and pedagogy" it says. I open it and smell the paper.

It feels smooth and smells dirty.

It is the last winter in law school, the onset of this very one; I sit on the other side of a table in a beautifully appointed room, all teak and velvet (not unlike, I imagine, a high class bordello). I stuff myself awkwardly into a cushioned chair and face yet another powerful man, who sits in the chair opposite mine. You had shortlisted me for an interview, I say politely. I was wondering why you never took that interview, I say politely.

We liked your CV, but we ended up filling that position unexpectedly early, he says.

Filling it without taking any interviews, I say carefully, without meeting his gaze. It was not a question unless you wanted it to be one; just the gentlest interrogatory inflection - I had planned it so inside my head.

The briefest pause follows, and then - Yes, we found a candidate who was...closer to home, he said.

Closer to home, I see, I say. This time also, I am careful to keep any particular tone out of my voice. He is gentler in his reply - You have a good CV. But in this industry, you know how it is, we take many favours. Sometimes, well, we have many friends we are grateful to…

Rae urges Harper to visit Attawapiskat, blames PM for aboriginal housing crisis

Liberal Leader Bob Rae is accusing the Conservatives and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of showing a "lack of respect" toward the troubled First Nations community of Attawapiskat.

On Saturday, as he wrapped up a visit to see the community's housing crisis first-hand, Rae chided Harper — who has long claimed to have a soft spot for northern Canada — for not travelling to the region himself.

“Where there are real people living, and living in really difficult conditions, the prime minister has nothing to say — he’s not there,” Rae said in a telephone interview.

“There’s a great concern about the lack of respect that’s been shown to people here. You show respect by coming, not by insisting that people come to see you.”

Harper's regular forays to remote northern communities since he took office have carried a strong emphasis on issues like defence and sovereignty, but rarely any evidence that the prime minister or the government has forged much of a relationship with the people who live there, Rae said.

“I don’t think he has a great deal of credibility with the people who are living here, or the people who are living in a great many other northern communities, because this is not about planes flying by or about defending the north from the Russians," he said.

"This is about defending the north from poverty, from terrible conditions in terms of housing and poor substandard education."

Rae's visit is the second for an opposition leader in as many weeks. NDP Leader Nycole Turmel visited Attawapiskat last month and promptly urged Harper to do the same.

A spokesman for the prime minister said in an email on Sunday that Harper will not being going to Attawapiskat and the top priority is to get help to the community.

The government infuriated local leaders by appointing a third-party manager to take over the band's financial affairs. Chief Theresa Spence has appealed to the courts for an injunction to oust the third party, who is being paid $1,300 a day from band funds. A ruling is expected Monday or Tuesday.

Emergency supplies continue to pour in — including washing machines, detergent and blankets. However, large families remain crammed into cold, mould-stained shacks with no bathroom or running water. In one case, 20 people are living together in a two-room house.

The federal government has promised 22 new houses and a retrofit of a local healing centre to help ease the crisis.

The government's attempt to "turn the political tables" by trying to put the spotlight on how the band has managed its funds is "disgraceful," said Rae. He blamed the prime minister for cancelling the Kelowna accord, a Liberal initiative designed to improve living conditions for First Nations communities, and for abandoning various investments to aboriginal communities.

"He (Harper) has to wear this thing, he has to take personal responsibility for what’s happened," Rae said.

"I certainly don’t intend to let him off the hook."

Couple struggles to tear down business

What once was a thriving community store is now a financial and unsightly millstone around the necks of Ray and Gail Taylor.

As spring yields to summer, Ray Taylor can still remember the days when tourists pulled into his Dumfries parking lot along the Trans-Canada Highway, lured by the smell of hot pizza by the slice or the need for snacks or a pop.

With the post office and liquor agency store, locals were always in and out of the business and next door, the popular Moonlight Motel and Restaurant with its homemade rolls and meringue-piled-high pies.

Now, Taylor is trying to pull down the old hardware-cum-convenience store by hand to save money because the opening of the new four-lane Trans-Canada Highway in 2006 killed the business.

"It was very much a going concern. Right up until they opened the highway, and the difficult part of the highway business was that they opened it the first of November and that meant that I had to spend an entire winter here to find out if there was going to be any summer business whatsoever. By the time that came and went, it was too late. We lost our shirt," he said.

"Had they opened the highway in the spring and we operated it through the summer, we would have known what we were up against and we could have done something about it.

"We had to take out a personal loan to get out of the business ... Then I had to go in December and take out more money to tear the damn thing down."

Although he's got visual impairments, Taylor has been going to the store every day to remove as much of the building as he can before he has to bring in a dozer to finish the job. He's been removing the building's insulation, pulling out the old plastic vapor barrier and salvaging anything he can before the building is torn down. If he strips the rubber from the building's copper wiring, he might be able to get $3 a pound for it.

"This was a great little pizza business," he said in the tiny kitchen area where the cupboards are streaked with muddy water lines and mould where a hole in the roof has let water in to do its damage.

"It's sad, sad, sad," he said as he stands in the partially stripped building. "It's been a heartache."

The Taylors would like to sell their home with its view of the St. John River, but three different real estate agents have told them the old store has to go if they're to have any chance of selling their house.

Ray's General Store, formerly called Rae's, was established in the late 1920s. It was bought by Perley and Clara Rae in 1931.

The Taylors took over the business in 1988 and Taylor said he gave up selling pig and horse feed and secured the liquor store agency.

Taylor still blames the government for closing the road near Longs Creek for close to two years, which crippled the highway's use even as a scenic tourist route.

"Had they left that alone, we might have survived," he said.

The couple had hoped to create a nest egg for their son.

"It was always my hope to build the business for him and he would have had something that would be worth something. He's out in Alberta now along with everybody else," Taylor said.

"I'll tell you the thing that's always bugged me more than anything else is that there was never, never any consultation whatsoever. They just came along and had a meeting down at Kings Landing one day and said here's what we're doing."

Nearby, business at the Moonlight Restaurant slowed to the point where it's only open during the summer and Taylor predicts it's likely that long-standing business in the community may end up going the same way as his store before long.

Ironically, the new Trans-Canada Highway has turned the former two-lane stretch of roadway through Dumfries into a quiet rural road and that has driven some city dwellers to the area to build houses along the banks of the St. John River. Most of the new suburbanites, however, are used to travelling to Fredericton to work and shop.