aye aye matey avast an ahoy!!!

ye DO know what today be?

ye chumbucket ye!

yes me harties, it IS talk like a pirate day

aye even a bilge rat blog or two like THIS knows what today be!!!

My pirate name is:

Iron Charity Flint

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

picture: the tethered cow

i AM the kind of person who says

i EFFING TOLD YOU SO

i told you here

and

here

and

here

and

here

i told you black and blue square not only emptied the town coffers (where is all of the money we were going to get back so our taxes wouldn't rise????????? how come no one is putting up a stink about that??????????) but would DRIVE STORES OUT OF THE CENTER AND BLACK AND BLUE SQUARE ITSELF. why? the rents keep going up and up and up. the stores jack their prices and NO ONE CAN AFFORD TO SHOP THERE

sit-n-knit was the ONLY reason i was going to the center. they moved a while ago to wintonbury mall in bloomfield. there's PARKING. PLENTY OF PARKING AND GUESS WHAT? it's FREE FREE FREE (on that note, when i went to northampton last month, their parking is quite reasonable. there are no meters at the parking spots. there's a little machine thing that spits out tickets. you put in a certain amout of money and it gives you a ticket with a time on it. you place that ticket on your windshield. how much is it to park in northampton you ask. IT'S FIFTEEN CENTS AN HOUR. yes, you read that correctly IT'S FIFTEEN CENTS AN HOUR. can you imagine that in west hartford??????)

but my peeps i digress. what i wanted to tell y'all was

and like an id-jit i didn't ask if i could name names so i won't

but i digress once again

a store that has been an institution in the center is MOVING. they've found another place in west hartford at far far far less rent. and what else do i have to tell you my peeps? well at least ONE store IN BLACK AND BLUE SQUARE is moving out. yup - has it even been a year? they're going at the end of 2008. there is a very good chance another store is going as well, however i cannot confirm that one.

that's only the ones i know about. i'm sure i don't know about the others contemplating MOVING OUT OF THE CENTER THANKS TO BLACK AND BLUE

way to go west hartford!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

flora

more fungi

the big clumpy ones are growing on the ground right in front of/at the base of trees. the second picture from the top - those are growing midway UP ON the tree trunk (out of the tree itself)

i grew up in the asylum avenue area

my pops and sister and i still live in the hood. both my sister and i (and, as it turned out SEVERAL other people) phoned the town a day or two after noticing all sorts of spray painted hieroglyphics in the street. one of the words said 'island'. that's when we got the scoop. the town did a traffic study (and if they really did one, i was unaware of it. as i said, i have lived in that hood MOST ALL of my life - and i ain't no spring chicken). that's what they used to say they needed those island for TRAFFIC CALMING. TRAFFIC CALMING?????????????????? all i can see is a giant pain in the ass AND creation of dangerous conditions. the day before yesterday NINE CARS CRASHED INTO THE ISLAND BETWEEN PENN AND CUMBERLAND (i don't know about the other islands). my sister observed ALL but the first crash. the islands were NOT properly marked AND the sun was coming down and in the driver's eyes. just think about what is going to happen in the winter. hey town of west hartford, we're on a budget. WHERE DID THE MONEY FOR THE ISLANDS COME FROM?????????????? did you ask the neighborhood residents if THEY thought the islands were a good idea? one more thing, why, the day AFTER the 9 crashes were west hartford police ALL OVER THE SIDE STREETS STOPPING PEOPLE AND 'HEAVILY OBSERVING' people? why weren't they ON asylum avenue?

it's a stupid effing idea. it's a waste of money. when we talked to people 'in charge' regarding the NINE CARS THAT HIT THAT STUPID MEDIAN, there was some talk of people not following the newly painted solid line down that side of asylum. i am bad at directions. it's the side going from quaker to trout brook. well, the line looks like it was painted by someone on acid. it was NOT done very well.

it's all bullshite. THE TOWN DIDN'T DO IT'S JOB

channel 3 had a camera truck out there late yesterday afternoon. they did a little piece on it but i don't believe anyone hit the island yesterday. that doesn't matter NINE IN THE SPAN OF ABOUT AN HOUR the day before last, IS NINE TOO MANY)
http://www.courant.com/community/news/hfd/hc-whdmedian0912.artsep12,0,6967761.story

West Hartford Officials Defend Medians After 9-Vehicle Crash

By JOSH KOVNER |Courant Staff Writer

September 12, 2008

WEST HARTFORD — - Town officials defended the use of "traffic-calming" measures around town after several cars — heading west into the setting sun — struck the new, granite-curbed medians in the center of Asylum Avenue during rush hour Wednesday evening. Police Chief James Strillacci said he viewed the nine-car crash as more of a construction-zone accident, complicated by the glare of the sun, than an inherent problem with the medians, "bump-out" curbs, chicanes or speed bumps that have been installed, or are being built, on at least 10 streets. These include main arteries like Asylum Avenue, Steele Road and Farmington Avenue. West Hartford is about 15 years and $2 million dollars into one of the region's most extensive traffic-calming programs. Strillacci and Town Manager Ronald Van Winkle said the measures have generally had their desired effect — that of narrowing streets, slowing down cars, and forcing drivers to be more attentive. "Asylum Avenue was a drag strip in the 1990s," Mayor Scott Slifka said Thursday. He noted that commuters and others who pass through West Hartford generally don't like the measures, while residents coping with speeding cars in their neighborhoods do............

hey mayor slifka, i take umbrage with your statement about asylum being a drag strip in the 90s. were YOU there? i was. EACH AND EVERY DAY. it was NEVER a drag strip. where did THAT come from? sure, you're get a speeder now and again. that's the same with EVERY street. let's take a side street for example. let's take ummmmm let's say MAPLEWOOD. there are far MORE speeders on THAT street than asylum. maplewood, a cut through street for farmington ave or quaker or boulevard.

hey mayor slifka if i asked the town for the traffic study justifying the islands would you furnish me with one? OR, would i have to get an foi request?
am i pissed? yes i AM pissed (but my sister is even MORE pissed if you can believe it)

picture: The newly installed granite median on Asylum Avenue in West Hartford may be a factor in the nine-car crash on Wednesday. (LORETTA WALDMAN / HARTFORD COURANT / September 11, 2008)

i have been getting a lot of hits lately

on pettibone tavern

i KNOW i read an article in the courant of late saying it was bought AND would be reconstructed and reopened. i can NOT find that article at all. i found a COMMENTS section for the article but the story (mysteriously?????) has disappeared

here is one of my original pettibone posts the fire damage posting

i solved the 'mystery'. seems like the sci-fi channel's show ghost hunters did an episode on some new england murders and included pettibone tavern

it IS inhabited by the ghost of abigail. of that i have NO doubt. however, i KNOW she's not going to show herself to no damn ghost hunters from the sci fi channel!!!

not only should he lose

his senate chairmanship, he should be booted from politics period

Lieberman increasingly expecting to lose Senate chairmanship after Obama attack
John Byrne
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) expects to lose his position as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee if Democrats pick up four or five additional seats in the Senate, according to his aides, who floated the claim in Tuesday's Politico.

According to the Connecticut senator's staff, Democrats are upset about his speech at the Republican National Convention in which he attacked Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Lieberman was the Democrats' vice presidential choice in the 2000 presidential election.

"Lieberman returned to Capitol Hill Monday — his first day back since speaking at the convention — and was greeted by the resignation of his $120,000-a-year legislative director, Joe Goffman," the online political news site reports. "The 66-year-old Connecticut independent has said he hopes to stay in the Democratic fold, although people close to him say he’s increasingly pessimistic about his prospects of doing so."........

Helen Ubiñas nails it

she nails it hard and she nails it so it ain't movin'. a great piece. it's short - READ IT
(some things are acceptable if you're white and the daughter or son of let's say a governor. some things are NOT acceptable if you're browner and the daughter or son of let's say a clerk at a discount store. think about this, what would those rightwingtips be saying if barack obama had a 17 year old and SHE was pregnant. if you don't think they'd rip him and her apart YOU ARE A FOOL)

A Family Values Exception For Pregnant Palin Daughter

Helen Ubiñas
I didn't get it; the way the young mothers refused to talk, how one lied about the baby girl in the stroller not being hers, and why the teenage couple who bluntly talked about the hardships of having a baby when you're just a kid yourself wouldn't go on the record.

It's their business, the young father told me. Why broadcast their lives? People will only judge.

But that's just it — I was there to tell him and all of the unwed, teenage Hartford parents I came across this week that this was a new day. No longer did they represent the face of shame. They were — thank you, Bristol Palin! — the new face of family values.

Didn't they hear?
No matter how hard I tried to share the good news though, they weren't buying it. And who could blame them — they knew better than to think that title would ever apply to them. Before Palin made having a baby at 17 the "tough and courageous" decision it has suddenly become, mostly what rained down on her poorer, darker counterparts was shame...........

i don't care if you're sick of them

i'm NOT.


my sunflowers at the half door

i walked out in my popi's back yard yesterday

and found this growth by a giant stump. the fungi is about as big as a head of cabbage. it grew in less than a week. this year has been grand for mushrooms. i know i see people collecting them in the fields of st joseph's college and i also know people are collecting them on the grounds of where i work.

my grandmother (noni) taught me which mushrooms we can eat BUT i don't' trust myself. i'll leave that up to stop and shop and whole foods. especially after the horse whisperer and his family ate some poisonous ones in europe (and had to have dialysis)

ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: that steamin' pile formerly known as da liebs

ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: that steamin' pile formerly known as da liebs

turtlecam!!!

the big one bloomed!

they're all bloomed. the biggest one is over 11'. it's amazing. the seeds i used were hart's mammoth


0h and if you're headed to the half door, wait until friday evening. they're closed a couple of days for renovations. new floor, new tile, new bar sinks, new paint (i'm painting here and there, but i didn't start yet) and a new beer cooler (which of course YOU can't see). do stop by and at the least say hola to the sunflowers before they go away

a shout out to richard franzis assistant principal staples high school

in westport. he's BACK FROM IRAQ

(another story on his original deployment from the nyt)

Bound for Iraq: Citizen Soldier’s Parting Lesson

i know we are ALL so very happy to have him home. ESPEICALLY his family and friends AND yes, his high school students

we've come a long way baby!

STEAMPUNK makes the hartford courant
rather shocking............

Steampunk Bedecks Contemporary Techno In Victorian Togs
By WILLIAM WEIR | Courant Staff Writer
What would happen if the future went as early science-fiction writer Jules Verne had imagined it? It would look a lot like Steampunk.

It's a term that has been getting a lot of play lately. So what is it?

The curious science-fiction offshoot has been around for some time as a genre of fiction and has since expanded into its own subculture. Even before the term was coined, there was the 1960s TV show "The Wild Wild West" and its 1999 movie version, which mixed its traditional Western setting with flying machines, mechanical spiders and other outlandish contraptions.

Steampunk is essentially a blend of the futuristic with the steam-powered past, a way of melding modern technology with the opulence of long ago. In most cases, "the past" is represented by an elaborate 19th-century Victorian style. Top hats and motorbike goggles are common fashion accessories, as are cellphones refashioned to look like antique items from an alternate history.........

a very pretty bike

sunflower blogging

brian measured the biggest one (brian is at a minium 6'2"). it's 11 FEET TALL. that's one big sunflower

the half door

mateo's new sweatband

pattern over at the reformed pirate

flowers out my car window

on the way home from work tuesday while stopped at a light

vote N O in november

from NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut

This November, the Connecticut ballot will include the question, "Shall there be a Constitutional Convention to amend or revise the Constitution of the state?" Voters will be asked to vote “yes” or “no”.

The Family Institute of Connecticut, the state’s leading anti-choice group, is pushing for a “Yes” vote, with the intention of using a Constitutional Convention to ban abortion.

NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut is urging all members to Vote “NO” in order to squash this back-door approach at pushing an anti-choice agenda!

Our state’s legislators appoint delegates to the convention, and therefore have full control over who attends. These appointed delegates decide what will be proposed to the constitution. Many people fear that lobbyists, representatives from special interest groups, and party insiders will be appointed to the Constitutional Convention in order to move a radical, anti-choice agenda.

Please Vote No!

The state constitution has been amended 30 times since 1974--without holding a convention. We can make changes to the constitution without holding a taxpayer-funded convention during tight fiscal times!

If you would like more information or to get involved, please visit http://www.ctvoteno.org