Growing Home: DIY: Glitter-Block Easter Eggs

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know well that I can't resist layering things in gold. Gold leaf, gold paint, gold home accents...I'm even totally exclusive about gold jewelry (silver kind of washes me out). So when the egg dyeing bug hit me last week, gold glitter came instantly to mind. I found that blocking the glitter against bright spring colors gives the eggs a modern, geometric look without sacrificing any of the drama of the gold. Which means that now we have a collection of Easter eggs that ?is equal parts bright, happy, and blinged out:). Even the boys like to ooh and aahh at them, which of course makes me love them even more.?

These eggs take very little time and can be made from things laying around your house (that is, if you keep glitter on hand). Below, I've given you the basic process as a photo tutorial (yup, that's another something new!), but I did not tell you how to go about making egg dye. The short story is that it's easy: combine roughly 1/2 cup hot water with a teaspoon of white vinegar and 20 drops of food coloring. For the long story, consult Martha?here. You'll notice that I've also blown out the eggs so that they can stay out of the fridge as holiday decoration and be kept from year to year. The blowing process is awkward the very first time you do it, but quite easy once you get a system down (I only broke one). The key is to do it after the dye bath, as a hollow egg won't submerge!

To make your own glitter-block Easter eggs, follow the steps below. I think you'll find creating them to be fairly addicting.

Materials: raw eggs, embroidery needle (or large sewing needle), egg dye, school glue, paintbrush, metallic glitter and an extra bowl

Now, use your lips or a rubber bulb syringe (like the ones they give you at the hospital after you have a baby) to blow into the small hole, emptying the egg into your extra bowl. The bigger you've made the large hole, the easier it will be. The photo above shows you about the right size.?

Happy Thursday, y'all.

p.s. Have I mentioned our family joke about glitter? Jim calls it the STD of craft supplies; once you have it, it?NEVER?goes away. Proving his point, I made the majority of these eggs at night when all the children were asleep. When I woke Baby Girl the next morning, I kid you not--there were flecks of gold inside her diaper. Try to solve that mystery, will you?

Many thanks to Lesley Kerr for expert help in styling these shots.?

Source: http://www.mygrowinghome.com/2013/03/diy-glitter-block-easter-eggs.html

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Couple allegedly steals 2 cop cars during chase

The young couple accused of stealing multiple police cars from two cities and leading authorities on a high-speed chase through two states Tuesday morning have been identified as Blake Bills and Shayna Sykes.

"I never heard of anyone stealing two police cars in one incident," said Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross.

Camden, N.J., Police Chief John S. Thomson tells NBC10's Cydney Long?that Camden Police Officer?Sekou Reid-Bey?made a traffic stop at 9:49 a.m., directly in front of Camden Police Headquarters at 800 Federal Street, when the incident began.

"As [the officer] was interviewing the driver of that car, he heard his car door shut," he said.

Thompson says Reid-Bey, 49,?saw the couple jump into his cruiser. He says they struck him, breaking the officer's leg,?before driving off.

Read more at NBCPhiladelphia.com

Initially, Sykes, 23,?and Bills,?24, were pursued by both the Camden and Pennsauken Police Departments -- reaching 100 mph on the Admiral Wilson Boulevard, according to Camden County prosecutors. That pursuit lasted?about 10 minutes?and wove through the city of Camden and portions of Pennsauken.

As the stolen police cruiser crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge the South Jersey officers peeled off and Philly PD?picked up the?chase.?The suspect eventually crashed the Camden Police car in the area of 7th and Norris in North Philadelphia.

Sykes fled from the crashed cruiser, according to law enforcement sources, leaving Bills trapped inside the Camden Police car.

With police attempting to apprehend Sykes, sources say she managed to steal a Philadelphia Police car, No. 2625, from the area of 7th and Norris, also in Philadelphia.

As it was being chased, the stolen Philadelphia cruiser hit three cars at 6th and Lehigh. It also?nearly struck?a pedestrian walking near 5th and Clearfield. That person fell and hit their head -- his/her?condition is unknown.

The car was eventually stopped at 1100 Hope Street on the edge of Northern Liberties. Sykes attempted to run from the cruiser, but was apprehended by several officers just feet from the stolen car.

Sykes was handcuffed and put into another police cruiser. She was taken to East Detectives. The entire Philadelphia chase lasted about 15 minutes.

"I thought it was a movie," Felix Vargus, a tow truck driver, told NBC10's Claudia Rivero. "She was trying to fight with them so she could escape again."

Another witness who observed her arrest told Rivero the woman was not wearing shoes when she was taken into custody.

Police say that drugs possibly played a role in the incident and that both Bills and Sykes will face a slew of charges including resisting arrest, DUI, fleeing police and risking a catastrophe.

"And that's just here," Thompson said. "The other charges you will need to deal with Camden prosecutors for that."

Sykes and Bills are suspected of evading an officer during an attempted traffic stop Sunday -- just two days before the high-speed chase.

Camden prosecutors say they expect to charge the duo with aggravated assault and theft.

Reid-Bey was being treated at Cooper University Hospital.?

"He's doing well. He's going to be fine. He's in stable condition; significant injuries to the lower extremities of his body though," said Thompson. He says the officer, after being hit, went onto the cruiser's hood before being thrown to the concrete. The injured officer was then able to radio for assistance.

An official with the Camden Fraternal Order of Police tells NBC10 that Reid-Bey is an 18-year-veteran of the force.

"There will be a litany of charges she will face in Philadelphia," said Ross. "I think [authorities] did a great job under the circumstances."

Bills and Sykes both hail from Macungie, Pa. Police say that Bills grandmother reported the couple missing earlier in the day after they allegedly took the woman's car and left her with the couple's 7-month-old child.?Police also suspect the couple is involved in another police chase on Sunday that left an officer injured.?

By NBCPhiladelphia.com

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/06/17210359-i-thought-it-was-a-movie-nj-couple-allegedly-stole-cop-cars-led-police-on-chase?lite

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Los Angeles Mayor?s Race Likely Headed to Runoff

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Source: www.nytimes.com --- Tuesday, March 05, 2013
City Councilman Eric Garcetti appeared poised to face City Controller Wendy Gruel in a May runoff election, based on early returns. ...

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/us/los-angeles-mayors-race.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Lawyers for Gitmo prisoners decry 'alarming' conditions

Michelle Shephard / AFP - Getty Images

A pre-dawn view of the U.S. detention center Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Oct. 18, 2012.

By Michael IsikoffNational Investigative Correspondent, NBC News

Lawyers for terror suspects held at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba, said Tuesday that detainees are engaged in widespread protests of conditions at the prison, including a hunger strike that may imperil their lives.

Calling the situation ?alarming,? the lawyers said in a statement that some of their clients are ?coughing up blood? and ?losing consciousness.?? A letter making similar assertions was sent earlier this week to Navy Rear Adm. John W. Smith, the commander of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo and signed by a dozen lawyers who represent most of the detainees at Guantanamo.??

A spokesman for U.S. military at Guantanamo?? disputed the lawyers? claims of a widespread hunger strike, saying they and their clients were merely trying to get attention and keep Guantanamo ?in the news. ??

The spokesman, Navy Capt. Robert Durand, said that a half-dozen detainees are currently on a hunger strike -- five of whom are being force fed through tubes -- and that no lives were in danger. Durand added that the figure was consistent with the average number of hunger strikers at Guantanamo over the past several years. He also acknowledged that ?some detainees? have been disciplined and moved out of Camp 6 -- the most permissive of the camps at Guantanamo, with communal living arrangements -- but he declined to say how many or give the reasons for the action.?

---

The conflicting claims underscored the difficulty of obtaining information about conditions at the facility, which President Barack Obama vowed to shut down on his first day in office after his 2008 election but which still remains open as a result of congressional opposition to its closure. There are 166 detainees remaining at the camp, but military rules forbid them from communicating in any way with members of the news media and visits to the camp by outsiders are tightly regulated. Even their communications with their lawyers must be cleared by military censors.

One of those lawyers, David Remes, told NBC News in a telephone interview from Guantanamo Monday night that he saw one of his clients -- Hussain Almerfedi, a Yemeni -- earlier that day and that he had lost ?substantial weight? and was ?very sick.? Under Guantanamo rules, Remes said he could not share anything that his client told him until the censor cleared the communication. But he said that he offered Almerfedi some trail mix during their meeting and he declined to take it -- a sign,? Remes said,? that his client was participating in the hunger strike.

?The men are at their wit?s end,? he said. ?This is their eleventh?year of being there and they have no prospect for release.? He also said that since taking over last year as commander,? Adm. Smith had ?turned the clock back? to 2002 and 2003, imposing harsher restrictions on the detainees and more-rigorous searches in which personal items were being seized. The searches are being carried out by guards -- some of whom are returning soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq -- who he asserted appear to be extracting vengeance for what they encountered overseas, he said.???

One flashpoint appears to have been a Feb. 6 search at Camp 6 in which, according to the lawyers, camp authorities seized blankets, sheets, towels, sleeping mats, razors and other items from the detainees,? including family photos and religious CDs from the detainees. In their letter to Smith, the lawyers alleged that Arabic interpreters at the camp inspected Qurans ?in ways that constitute desecration.??

Durand, the Guantanamo spokesman, disputed that any harsher restrictions had been imposed by the new commander and said the search last month was in keeping with past practice. He said that search, and earlier ones, have turned up? ?a Wal-Mart worth of stuff,? including improvised weapons, illegal electronics and other illicit contraband. But he said that handling of the Qurans was tightly regulated? and that no guards are even permitted to touch the Islamic Holy Books during the searches.

Durand also acknowledged that some of the dispute between camp authorities and the detainees? lawyers may be about defining terms. Guantanamo officials define a hunger strike as refusing to eat nine meals in a row. But, he said, some of the detainees may be hoarding food in their cells even when they claim to be on a hunger strike.??

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Source: http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/05/17199352-lawyers-for-gitmo-prisoners-decry-alarming-conditions-at-camp?lite

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Small Business Sales Executive- Houston, TX Job for Insurance ...

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Small Business Sales Executive- Houston, TX

Job ID: 12516031 Position Title: Small Business Sales Executive- Houston, TX Company Name: Humana Location(s): Houston, Texas, 77001, United States ?

Posted: March 3, 2013 Entry Level: No Job Type: Full-Time

Research Tools:

See Location on Map Learn More About Location

Role: Sales Executive

Assignment: Employer Group Small Business

Location: Houston, TX

Are you a fit?

Are you a self-starter? Would you enjoy using your business knowledge to help implement and improve current sales strategies and relationships?

Assignment Capsule

As a Sales Executive you will implement best-in-class renewal and enrollment systems for customers, creating a positive first impression of Humana and sharing the company?s value proposition. You will also manage customer and broker relationships by instituting a strategic relationship management process to ensure that business outcomes meet or exceed expectations.

• Learn and apply selling techniques and business operation skills to achieve profitability and meet sales goals for the individual medical products segment
• Build and maintain key relationships with sales agents by cold calling, questioning, qualifying and motivating them to market medial products
• Define measurable success criteria to monitor individual progress toward departmental sales goals

Key Competencies

• Builds Trust: You honor your word by doing what you say you are going to do.
• Drives for Excellence: You are a continuous learner who encourages others to learn. By constantly upgrading your own work, you achieve results and outperform the competition.
• Implementation/Execution: You are good at organizing and managing multiple priorities and/or projects by using appropriate methodologies and tools.
• Problem Solving: You are a problem solver with the ability to encourage others in collaborative problem solving. Acting as both a broker and consultant regarding resources, you engage others in problem solving without taking over.

Qualifications:
Role Essentials

• Prior sales experience
• Comprehensive knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel and Access

Role Desirables

• Bachelor?s Degree in Business, Finance or a related field
• Valid state health and life insurance licenses
• Knowledge of various operational units in the health solutions industry

Reporting Relationships

You will report to a Market Practice Leader. This area is under the leadership of the SVP & Chief Operating Officer.

Additional Information

Requisition #: 96676

Source: http://jobs.insurancesalesweb.com/c/job.cfm?site_id=1636&jb=12516031

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Gate placement a concern for NASCAR after crash

Kyle Larson (32) goes airborne and into the catch fence during a multi-car crash involving Justin Allgaier (31), Brian Scott (2) and others during the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands injuring spectators. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Kyle Larson (32) goes airborne and into the catch fence during a multi-car crash involving Justin Allgaier (31), Brian Scott (2) and others during the final lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Larson's crash sent car parts and other debris flying into the stands injuring spectators. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Injured spectators are treated after a crash at the conclusion of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Driver Kyle Larson's car hit the safety fence sending car parts and other debris flying into the stands. (AP Photo/David Graham)

AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) ? NASCAR will look at the placement of gates at its tracks after a Nationwide Series car crashed through the fence at Daytona and injured more than two dozen fans.

The fans were injured during the 12-car crash last Saturday when pieces of rookie Kyle Larson's car ripped through the fence, including a section where a gate connects the grandstand and the track.

"I think because of where it came through and having pieces that did get through and it being a gate area, that's really going to be the focus for us to look at," Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's Senior Vice President, Racing Operations said Saturday from Phoenix International Raceway. "We're certainly going to look at fencing in general, but I think that particular area, that it was a gate, did impact it. We know the gate was locked, but does that provide as much stability as the rest of the fencing we believed it did? We've now got to look at that impact."

The crash occurred on the final lap of the Nationwide race the day before the Daytona 500, when leader Regan Smith tried to block Brad Keselowski and triggered a chain reaction. Larson's car went airborne during the wreck and slammed into the fence, sending debris into the stands.

O'Donnell said two injured fans remain at the hospital, but everyone else has been released.

The crash has forced NASCAR to take a closer look at its safety measures, particularly fencing around its tracks.

O'Donnell said NASCAR mostly leaves fencing up to the individual tracks, but may look at being more involved, similar to what it did requiring impact-absorbing SAFER barriers along concrete walls.

"It's important to note that most of the safety elements in that car did their job," O'Donnell said. "The driver, as you saw, walked away. However, the car then got up into the fence. Our focus is going to be if the elements in the car did their job, now what do we need to do in looking at the impact of the fence, what happened when that car impacted the fence with parts getting away."

O'Donnell also said that the tethers that hold Larson's car together worked, but that the section the tethers were attached to sheared the car, sending pieces flying.

"We've tethered a number of different things as we've learned and added safety aspects to the car, but what do we need to do in addition to that when we look at this aspect specifically?" O'Donnell said. "

Instead of bringing Larson's car immediately back to NASCAR's research and development center in Charlotte, N.C., it was left in Daytona so track officials use it in their investigation into what happened with the fencing. The car is in the process of being brought back to the R&D center, where it will be put back together and, with the help of video, hopefully determine what parts of the car came off when.

O'Donnell said NASCAR will bring in Larson's race team, which hasn't seen the car since it was impounded after the wreck, to talk about how the car was constructed and fabricated.

NASCAR also will bring in outside experts, including Dr. Dean Sicking, director of the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska, officials from Indianapolis Motor Speedway and outside engineers to look at the fencing.

Daytona will have its experts work with an outside firm to analyze what was in place and analyze what may need to be done.

"When you talk about safety, I think Jeff Burton said it best: There's no end goal of safety, it's something we work on each and every day," O'Donnell said. "Same with this process. If there's something we can learn today, we'll apply that. If it's two months from now, we'll apply it as well.

O'Donnell said NASCAR will look at the issue of restrictor-plate racing at Daytona and Talladega, where the series stops in May, but he said he's comfortable with plate racing at the two superspeedways right now.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-02-CAR-NASCAR-Daytona-Crash/id-c503c2066de14afa9cbdb4a0bc0aa99c

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PFT: Injury ends woman's NFL tryout bid

AP

This week?s flurry of reports regarding quiet curiosity and not-so-quiet interrogation of incoming NFL players on the issue of sexuality represents an obvious symptom of a deeper problem.

Football teams, which notoriously fear the unknown in any shape or form, at best want to know whether there?s a chance that their locker room will be the first one to host an openly gay player.? At worst, one or more football teams possibly don?t want any gay players in the building, openly or closeted.

Although sexual orientation is not yet a protected class under federal law, multiple states shield employees who are gay or suspected to be gay from co-worker hostility or tangible job action (e.g., getting fired, not getting hired, or being passed over for a promotion).

The applicable laws have slightly less meaning in this context, because NFL policy expressly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Regardless of the laws or rules that would be broken, for the issue to be teed up in a court of law or in a grievance proceeding under the labor deal or anywhere else, someone has to complain.? The pool of potential plaintiffs consists not of people walking off the street and filling out an application but only of a relatively small group of individuals who already have worked their way through the lower levels of a similar locker-room mentality.

By the time the remaining 330 players or so are being questioned at the Scouting Combine, they?re each the product of the football machine.? And even if they?re troubled by questions about sexuality, what are they going to do about it?

They just want to play football, and to finally get paid for it.? If they?re not among the 256 or so who will get drafted, they?ll want to be among the 2,800 or so who will have a chance to win roster spots or practice-squad assignments after offseason workouts, training camp, and the preseason.

Besides, even if a player believes he has been blackballed based on his actual or perceived sexuality, how will he prove that the decision to cut him was influenced by anything other than his actual or perceived football skills, or lack thereof?? Evidence like inappropriate questions will help, but a player who doesn?t get a job ultimately will have to persuade a jury that he was better at football than someone who did.

The various factors add up to the reality that litigation, which has forced positive change over the past five decades in so many other workplaces, will likely never happen in the NFL.? (If you don?t think litigation effects change, you haven?t noticed the link between the NFL?s effort to protect current players from concussions and the 4,000 or so former players who claim the NFL didn?t do enough to protect them.)

Thus, for change to occur, it will need to come without the expense, annoyance, and worry caused by lawsuits.? And that will require, as Jason Whitlock of FOXSports.com argued earlier this week, real leadership from Commissioner Roger Goodell.

When it comes to the mentality and antics of the locker room, not enough credit is given to the ability of players to change on their own and/or the ability of teams to change them.? The players should be held to a higher standard of conduct and discourse in the locker room, and the teams should be expected to enforce it.

The fact that no gay player in any of the NFL?s 32 workplaces has felt sufficiently comfortable to declare his sexuality means that change hasn?t happened, yet.

Change has happened in countless other workplaces.? Thanks in large part to litigation.? Litigation the NFL most likely will never face on this issue.

The NFL also will likely never face a backlash from its customers for not creating an environment in which closeted gays will feel sufficiently comfortable to come out.? If anything (and based on plenty of the comments posted and emails and tweets we?ve received this week), a team that welcomes an openly gay player could alienate a significant percentage of its fan base.

Thus, the challenge for the league will be to change without a financial incentive to do so.? To change not because it?s the expedient thing to do, but because it?s the right thing to do.

Goodell often explains that his staunch willingness to stand on principle comes from his father?s willingness to sacrifice his position as a U.S. Senator in opposing the Vietnam War.

It?ll be interesting to see whether Goodell, who has been silent to date on the subject, is willing to take a stand on this topic, too.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/03/female-kickers-tryout-cut-short-by-injury/related/

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