Designer Labels

Ever since I gave my husband a hard time for cutting garlic on my fruit chopping board, he has had a plan to label the boards and avoid any confusion for the uninitiated into my complex system of wooden boards.Finally on Saturday he put the kids to work burning names into the wood. I'd envisaged lethal red hot pokers being needed, with major danger to life and limb.All it actually took was some

Rumor Control Issue Vol:1 Iss:1

Rumor #1: Homeless In Jax is gone: Yes, it's 'gone'. Totally. Daggers thrust at certain service providers, others held aloft. Truth be told, the site was the victim of a vicious Denial of Service attack (DoS) two months ago.

Persons of interest include global Russian and Indian cottage industry comment link mafia, Jacksonville's "Downtown Vigilante", and unidentified orange shirt wearing homelessophobic minimum wage earners spending too much time babbling with Mr. Butler near his cruiser.

Rumor #2: "Jacksonville just doesn't 'Get It'": Yes, at a recent meeting held behind closed doors a person having connections to funding sources and having experience in other cities made it clear

that Jacksonville's business and residential attitude towards it's homeless issues was behind the times in comparison to other metropolitan cities.

Rumor #3: The influential bloggers are 'mainstreaming': Totally true. Over the last five years, this and other blogs/sites have grown much in regard to readership, marketing, and business growth and arrangements with other established media or businesses. It's just good business. Continue to read them or go seek opportunity elsewhere…lord knows I did numerous times.

Rumor #4: "The Homeless are coming, the HOMELESS ARE COMING!": It was all a dream, they've been here for years. Rumor control has it that a Drop In Center is in the works for Downtown Jacksonville. TRUE!

Other matters revolving around this are too deep to put here at the moment, due to the amount of interconnection between the issues.

Chances are if you give a rat's arse, you'll go contact the Emergency Services & Homeless Coalition and beg them for membership before the bottom falls out and the NIMBY nightmare comes true.

…which it has, but you're still in denial.

Rumor #5: You're fat and you know it: Course you may be, and if you are weight loss supplements might be your answer. Just remember, if you don't get help at Riverpoint…get help somewhere.

I'm JohnC and that's Rumor Control this month. This entry is on behalf of every person experiencing homelessness as a family, living with mental disorders, and choosing lives of recovery.

Baked Pasta Cravings

I’ve been craving proper Italian pasta al forno for ages. There’s just one hitch. My kids aren’t really into creamy/mixed sauces… in fact sauces are a bit problematic altogether. The only pasta our son likes is Dad’s aglio olio with bits of bacon in, as it leaves the pasta practically bare, so it doesn’t activate the sauce detector alarm.When you’re cooking pasta al forno, you need to have an

Bedtime

“Are you ready for a story?” I enquire, walking into the kids’ bedroom to see figures balancing precariously on their beds still in their day clothes, flying a small toy figure around in the pull cord of the electric ceiling fan.“Yes!” they chorus.I point out the lack of pyjamas."You can read to us while we get into pjs," they say, continuing to play.I decline to start down that slippery slope of

Red Lentil Dhal Recipe

I love it when I stumble on a new recipe that’s easy and is an immediate hit with at least one member of the family. I found this dhal recipe when I was desperately looking for inspiration for making packed lunches for a vegan student, who is visiting our school.We have a group of four students and two teachers from our sister school in Germany visiting at the moment. They’ve raised funds and

Birthday on a School Day

A birthday falling on a school day leaves you out of breath and gasping from the onslaught of cake, presents and wishes, even when it’s not your birthday. Youngest was seven the other day. She was a bit fed up that she had to go to school on her birthday. After all, it’s too tantalizing opening up pressies over breakfast and then having to go off and leave them in a pristine, untouched state on

Florida Times Union Story: ...(efforts) not much help

Some say clearing lot used by homeless not much help

By Drew Dixon. Story updated at 3:42 PM on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009

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Preparing for a long cold winter

The earlier the better in most cases. A warm fuzzy gift of an electric blanket...just isnt all that fuzzy when you don't have a place to plug it up!

Over the course of the last six months, I had different conversations with confidential sources...trying to make sense of what was said as opposed to what the real deal was. Who could a consumer trust to represent their needs as well as desires for systems to improve...for them to improve and move out of homelessness into self sufficiency.

To live and lead productive lives, whether in private or putting back into Jacksonville.

What's sad is what's said 'off microphone' by one of our local Council Members, as related by one source requesting to remain confidential:

• "If I hear it's 'for the children' I'm going to throw up."

Thanks. I'll make sure to tell my peers and those serving your community they can black ball you, or they're guilty by association as you for misrepresentation of the people's trust to serve.

Because in Jacksonville, that's the way things used to be done. Not standing up for what you say. Down here, they like to fall on rhetorical quotations such as "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

Try "The friend of my enemy is my enemy". It makes it easier knowing who your friends are. Snakes always tend to bite the hand that feed them.

When Spring Turns To Summer

Signs that spring is surging on towards summer:Last week the yellow daisies swathed the sand in thick blankets. A few days of warm sunny weather have dried them out and the golden carpets have faded away to dry stalks that rattle as you brush past.Balmy evenings with glowing pink sunsets tempt you outside, just when it is time to cook supper.The first braai of the season happened last night,