a plea

does anyone in the greater hartford area know how to spin on a drop spindle OR support spindle (i have a drop AND just got the spindolyn which by the way is BEAUTIFUL)? i really need help.................i've looked at spinning videos a million times and i just can't 'GET IT'. HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP

spindolyn from knitting any way

an experiment in avocado art

sounds kind of cool to me. we'll see........
Finding Art In Avocados
Hartford Artist Invites Help To Create A Living Sculpture From A Forest Of Plants
By JOANN KLIMKIEWICZ Courant Staff Writer
In the midst of the downtown dinner rush, the man stood in the candlelit dimness of the Mexican restaurant last week with a white plastic bucket and this unorthodox request: Can I have your avocado pits?On the spectrum of donation requests asked of Hartford's Agave Grill, Victor Pacheco's plea for pits had to be among the most unusual. Food platters. Monetary contributions. Restaurant manager Jonathan Sablon was accustomed to those kinds of community inquiries. Trash-bound avocado seeds, naked of their soft green flesh? That was a first."We go through so many avocados in a day. Well over 100," says Sablon. "We figured it's not that hard to save them for him. So we thought we'd help him out."..........
.............To find out more about the Avocado Tree Project, or to volunteer to grow a plant, visit the artist's website: www.webspawner.com/users/vpacheco/index.html. Or contact him at vpacheco62@hotmail.com.......................

should you happen to read this before going to work this morning

farmington avenue from sisson to sigourney is CLOSED. it happened yesterday. traffic was nasty on the surrounding streets AND it was rainy out. buses had to be diverted to side streets that really were NOT meant for buses. anyway, should be open some time AFTER rush hour this morning
Water main break closes major Hartford thoroughfare
Hartford (WTNH) _ Hartford Police closed Farmington Avenue between Sigourney Street and Sisson Avenue as over half a million gallons of water poured into the streets. The road will be closed through rush hour tomorrow morning.
Crews are now digging up Farmington Avenue, trying to find the leak. The broken pipe is sandwiched between gas and electrical lines, making the job that more tedious. ..........

tim nast and philllip titolo - TWO COOL DUDES

with a cool cause!

(if you're from town, i wonder if you ever noticed this - i sure did a while back - you either KNOW someone on maplewood, KNEW someone on maplewood OR YOU lived or live on maplewood. it's just that kind o' street). shout out to you both! it always makes my heart sing to hear stories like this, especially involving younger people (AND especially involving uconn LAW. i've not had pleasant experiences with most of the students i've come across)

Books For The World

By FULVIO CATIVO Courant Staff Writer

WEST HARTFORD - Phillip Titolo and Tim Nast's Maplewood Avenue apartment is a temporary home for a lot of books.Piles of books wait to be sorted. Boxes of books await shipping. The hundreds of volumes headed out the door are going overseas.Titolo and Nast - roommates, fellow Boston College grads and first year-students at the University of Connecticut School of Law in Hartford - want to help spread literacy in Africa. So this fall the duo built on their passion for reading and community service and launched an organization, Maplewood Books for Humanity, to provide tools to people learning to read in some of the world's most disadvantaged communities..........

maplewood books for humanity

photo: TIM NAST, left, and Phillip Titolo, first-year law students at UConn, have organized Maplewood Books for Humanity, collecting hundreds of books and paying to send them to schools in English-speaking African nations. They work with nonprofit groups, such as Minnesota's Books for Africa, to get the books to those who need them. They are actively seeking more books that meet their criteria for usefulness, as well as school supplies. (SHANA SURECK / November 2, 2007)

a new veterans advocacy unit

has been formed by richard blumenthal (due to channel 8's reporting on ryan riddle). it's about time! we MUST take care of our veterans.

Blumenthal launches new unit to help veterans
by News Channel 8's Alan Cohn
New Haven (WTNH) _ A Team 8 investigation has resulted in the creation of a new department at the Connecticut attorney general's office.
Richard Blumenthal says he created the new unit after watching News Channel 8 report the difficulties Southington veteran Ryan Riddle faced after he was injured in the Iraq War.
Riddle was shot in Baghdad and still has a bullet lodged in his thigh. He was repeatedly denied combat related benefits because his medical records were lost.
Team 8 obtained statements from Riddle's comrades in Baghdad who were with him when he was shot. After months of pressuring the VA, the department finally reversed its decision and gave Riddle the benefits he deserves.
Blumenthal says he created the new office to help other veterans. ......

(my last posting on ryan riddle which includes links to other ryan riddle postings) and of course a wicked LOUD shout out to channel 8 wtnh