The Monkey at GoLiNiel

Our company has a large fish tank in the front lobby, next to our receptionist.
Today, she sent out this e-mail.

To: Office

Leroy was a good fish.  He didn’t ask much from this life, just a good sized rock over his head, an algae pellet every other day and he was content.  Leroy was an original member of the group that arrived with the fish tank and he conducted himself with dignity and grace all of his days.  Leroy was a Pisces and enjoyed swimming and most water sports.  He is survived by his brother Earl who is the “sole” remaining fish from the original group.

Adieu Leroy

Popularity: 10% [?]

Some wonderful little kids in old school class photos turn out to be really wonderful adults.
(I’m not really talking about the girl with the arrow on her, though I think she is great as well.)

Popularity: 17% [?]

Recently, the local paper in my old home town, the “Tri-County News” shutdown.  Falling victim to the failing economy and changing dynamics of how people get the information they need.  Newspapers still provide some useful functions, filling in the gaps that electronic media doesn’t seem to do well yet.

Here is a good effort to  resurrect a resource to fill in some of those gaps.

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(Taken from the ‘Junction City‘ website)

Good Morning,

As we begin publishing the new weekly Tri-County Tribune for circulation in the Junction City, Harrisburg and Monroe communities, we’d like to share with you, our readers, our vision for the paper and its role in the community.

First, we believe a local newspaper is as an integral part of a community. While more and more Americans, especially in larger urban areas, turn to their computers and other electronic media for their news, we believe many of you, especially in smaller communities, recognize and appreciate the role a local newspaper plays in your community. You like to read “hard” news with a genuinely local focus; you like to read and see action photos of your children, your grandchildren and your friends’ and neighbors’ children as they engage in school activities and sports; you like to read the “soft” side of the news….stories of community members and their special achievements, activities and interests; you like to read short features and announcements of upcoming community events; you like to read opinion pieces by local writers on local issues; you like to see ads promoting local stores and service providers; in sum, you like a paper that is, truly, your “hometown” paper. It’s our mission as the tri-community’s new paper, to be that “hometown” paper.

It’s no secret that times are tough for all Americans today. There are still more jobs being lost than gained. There are still more businesses closing than opening. And, across the country, there are, by far, more newspapers, both large and small, ceasing publication than starting. In such circumstances, you might ask: Why are you opening the paper? And how do you plan for its success? May we offer answers to those two sensible questions:

1) We’re opening the paper because we truly believe our three local communities need and deserve to have a local, community based, newspaper. We believe a community without its local paper is less of a community. We believe our tri-communities deserve to thrive and succeed and we feel we can play a part in achieving such success. We believe the communities will help us succeed as we help the communities succeed. We see the whole process as a partnership with all of us benefiting from that partnership.

2) We’re not foolish enough to believe the paper will make our fortune. We don’t have any dreams of being William Randolph Hearst or Rupert Murdoch. If we can publish the paper, distribute it to our readers, pay our staff, pay our venders, pay the rent, and keep the ink in the ledger black, we’ll be happy.

3) We have chosen to provide the paper at no cost to you. It will be mailed free to residents in the tri-community area and it will be available in local business establishments at no cost. We are depending on revenue from advertising to cover the cost of the paper. Our success depends on local businesses advertising in our community’s paper and you, our readers, patronizing those local businesses. We will strive to produce a paper “worth” reading….and a paper worth reading is worth advertising in.

4) However, if you find our paper “simply too good to be free”, we’ve got a deal for you. At each location where you can get your free paper, you may place fifty cents in a donation container and EVERY CENT you donate in appreciation of the paper, WILL GO DIRECTLY TO LOCAL CHARITIES. Times are tough and we realize that during such times more folks need help from charities, while, at the same time, those tough times make it more difficult for those charities to get donations. We’d like to join with you to help support those charities as they help our community members.

We have a very experienced, competent staff of journalism professionals. We’re all very enthused to publish a new paper for our communities. We’re all excited for this new adventure. We’re proud to become part of the Junction City, Harrisburg and Monroe communities and hope you will be proud to have us.

Please share this email with any of your friends or business associates that you think may be interested. As we move forward in this endeavor, we appreciate your feedback and support.

Sincerely,
Nelson Rosales
Tri County Tribune
Rodeo Steak House & Grill
Adelante Latino

Popularity: 27% [?]

Danish aebleskiver on Christmas.

Popularity: 31% [?]

On our latest trip to Louisville, I was once again able to sample the local foods.  So, for lunch with Aunt Joan,  it was the “Louisville Hot Brown”.

A Hot Brown is a hot sandwich originally created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville.  The Brown Hotel (formerly the Camberley Brown Hotel) is a historic 16-story hotel in downtown Louisville on the corner of Fourth and Broadway.  The hotel opened in 1923 and was funded and owned by James Graham Brown, a local entrepreneur. In 1926 the hotel chef Fred K. Schmidt introduced the Hot Brown sandwich, consisting of an open-faced “sandwich” of turkey and bacon smothered with mornay sauce, cheese and tomato.  It has been a local staple ever since.  On menus, the Hot Brown often appears as”Louisville Hot Brown”, or “Kentucky Hot Brown” or simply as “Hot Brown.” And the ingredients vary slightly from place to place.   At KTs restaurant, all that turkey, sauce, bacon, tomatoes and cheese is piled on a croissant. Their menu shows this….

Hot Brown

An old Louisville tradition prepared KT’s style, with sliced turkey, strips of bacon and fresh tomatoes, atop our croissant smothered with special cheese sauce. 10.99

I doubt you can find the recipe on the weight watchers website, but I think if its just an occasional dietary extravagance it should be ok.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Customers come first at appliance store For 30 years,
Don Nielsen has emphasized high quality training and service with his workers

By Nat Levy - The Register-Guard
Appeared in print: Thursday, Jun 18, 2009

JUNCTION CITY — Don Nielsen says he sells more than just appliances at his store, a fixture in the community since 1979.

He prides himself on offering the customer a knowledgeable and friendly experience, rather than just trying to peddle a product.

He can rattle off the details of any dishwasher, refrigerator or microwave in the store. And he and his staff are more than capable of dissecting the appliances on service calls to figure out their problems, he said.

But Nielsen said it goes beyond just knowledge. He and his employees emphasize a relationship between the store and the customer. Nielsen said he feels like he’s succeeded when he sees second and third generations of customers coming to the store.

“If you treat people right they will come back time and time again,” Nielsen said.

Candy Cahill, the store’s receptionist and bookkeeper, said it’s rare for the employees not to get to know the customers after two or three visits to the store.

It’s taken Nielsen and his staff 30 years to build those relationships.

Soon after Nielsen graduated from Junction City High School in 1971, he enrolled in Lane Community College’s appliance program. During the two-year program Nielsen learned the ins and outs of all things appliance. He said he concentrated on several different types of appliances during the first year, and refrigerators and air conditioning units in the second year.

Prior to founding his own store, Nielsen worked at another appliance business for eight years.

The first years at his own store weren’t easy for him, he said.

He didn’t take a salary in the beginning. Instead, he and his wife, Carol, lived off her salary as a dental hygienist for several years.

Nielsen did everything he could to keep the business alive during those years, with family and community members pitching in to keep the place afloat. Eventually, the sacrifice paid off.

By 1988, Nielsen was in a position to hire Cahill. Six years after that, the store moved from the corner of Holly Street and West Sixth Avenue to the current address.

Since the move to a more open space, the store has acquired new customers at a higher rate, Nielsen said.

Ron Roggensack has been coming to Nielsen Appliance for three years now.

Roggensack manages apartments in Creswell and does repairs on other units in Harrisburg. He said he always comes to Nielsen to get what he needs. On this day he was buying equipment to fix a dryer in one of the Harrisburg units. He always feels confident in the staff’s product knowledge, he said.

“They’re really efficient at getting me parts,” he said.

Nielsen, 56, said that’s the impression he wants customers to leave the store with. He said he emphasizes extensive training and superior knowledge when searching for employees, a philosophy that makes it tough for him to get qualified people.

“It’s hard when you have to add a person, to find that ideal person,” Nielsen said.

In addition to the difficulty of finding good employees, keeping up with technology can prove exhausting as well, Nielsen said, adding that finding the most technologically sound and energy efficient units added a new wrinkle to his job.

Over the 30 years in business, Nielsen Appliance has become a cornerstone of Junction City’s business community. In 2007, the Junction City-Harrisburg Chamber of Commerce presented the store with the 2007 Small Business of the Year award. Chamber executive director Taryl Perry said Niel­sen’s staff shows a great combination of hard work and a friendly attitude.

“If you have something that needs to be repaired they take care of it right away,” she said. “They’re just great people to work with.”

Nielsen has become part of the fabric of the community over the years, helping out with the biggest event of the year: the Scandinavian Festival. Nielsen said his company donates all the refrigerators for the festival.

Cahill said it’s a joy to have the level of trust that the business receives from its customers.

Some people simply call the store and tell them when they need a new appliance.

“It’s amazing how many people will say ‘Candy, I need a new washing machine. Pick one out, and the door is open,’?”Cahill said.

Popularity: 22% [?]

We love riding our bikes along the Springwater trail as it follows the Willamette, between Portland and Oaks park, below the heavy traffic of McLoughlin Blvd. I took this picture in December of 2006, shortly after this power pole was put up. It was pretty cool, since it was some simple bike graphics. It made a small statement about Portland and what this trail was about.

Now, in June of 2009 it is just ugly.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Marie Aasted

JUNCTION CITY — A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Monday, June 8, at Faith Lutheran Church in Junction City for Marie Kristine Aasted of Junction City, who died June 3 of age-related causes. She was 95.

She was born Aug. 20, 1913, in Askov, Minn., to Jorgen and Anna Lund Nielsen. She married Fred Aasted on March 20, 1932, in Junction City.

She worked as the head cook at Crow-Applegate School for 23 years. She was educated through the eighth grade.

Survivors include a son, Rudolph of Springfield; two daughters, Helena Holeman and Marlene Mueller, both of Eugene; two sisters, Karen Louvering of Springfield and Evelyn Mishler of Albany; a brother, Carl Nielsen of Eugene; nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Her husband died April 28, 1993.

A private family graveside service will be in Danish Cemetery in Junction City. Arrangements by Murphy-Musgrove Funeral Home in Junction City. Remembrances to the church or to Hospice of Sacred Heart.

Popularity: 18% [?]

BEAVERTON, Ore. — Nine monkeys who escaped from cages at an Oregon Health & Science University campus have been recaptured, OHSU officials said Saturday.
The group of monkeys escaped when a caretaker cleaned an outdoor cage that housed the monkeys, said Jim Newman, an OHSU spokesman.
“One of our cage cleaners accidentally left a lock off a cage,” Newman said. “The cage was closed; however, the animals were able to slide the door open and get out.”
Of the nine monkeys that escaped, Newman said four monkeys were quickly captured. A fifth was caught Friday night and three more were captured by Saturday night.
The final monkey was captured at 2 p.m. Sunday on the OHSU primate center campus.
The monkeys were seen Friday along the south edge of the university’s west campus on Southwest 185th Street in Beaverton — an area near the MAX light-rail line.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Honey likes this The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard site since its a good example of the kind of web based training using Flash, that can make their presentation both visually interesting and entertaining, and supports the content without getting in the way of the message. I think its pretty cool since its an insightful presentation that clearly explains many of the complex issues concerning the use/waste of our earths resources.

Popularity: 14% [?]

My cousin Kathy has recently begun a new lifes adventure that started with a move to San Francisco.
Now, in her spare time she has become nominally famous.
This photo provided by John Montgomery shows some 350 people celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day in San Francisco, Monday, Jan. 19, 2009.

Maybe you recognize her.
She is the white blob near the end of the middle jut of the “E” !

(AP Photo/John Montgomery)

Popularity: 11% [?]

What kind of story would you write, if you were just given two random words from which to spawn a thought that could grow into a short story?

Today, Tom has provided a great example on how to do just that.

Trouble Tattoos 1/2009
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I work at the coffee shop next door to the ‘Ink and Pain’ tattoo shop, and every workday is like working next to a circus. Our store is fairly ordinary in comparison; we have our regular patrons with their regular orders and the occasional foreigner that is only fluent in their commercialized jargon and try to order a ‘venti triple shot extra foamy caramel macchiato with whip’ then are confused when we hand them a large cup of coffee. Compared to next door, we are tamer than tame.

When they first opened, they had a lot of inexperienced artists, but I’ll never forget the one they called “Tiger” McGee. Tiger was a good tattooist when it came to scary skulls or vicious vampires, but not so skilled at words; he was dyslexic. I’m sure Tiger’s employer had no idea of his condition, and since he was home schooled, I don’t know if Tiger did either. However, by the end of his first week, the whole town knew. His career as a tattooist ended with the proverbial bang, a lawsuit, and his sudden disappearance.

It all started, or I should say ended, when a tough biker lady with a green Mohawk and gold bars in her nose entered the ‘Ink and Pain’ boutique. She strode in, clad in leather and chains, in and sat down at Tiger’s chair and requested a tattoo to be put on her back proclaiming her allegiance to a certain biker gang. He immediately set to work on the intricate flaming pitchfork and gothic lettering she requested. After 6 hours of dabbing, poking, inking, and re-inking, Tiger was finished. The tough biker clapped him hard on the back, paid for her tattoo and left.

The next day, she stormed into the parlor red faced and swearing. She sauntered over to Tiger, grabbed him by the collar and proceeded to yell down his throat, her rage forcing him to bend over backwards over his chair. She screamed until her voice went out and everyone in sight was ducking behind trashcans and benches to avoid her wrath. She left after what seemed to be an eternity, upturning chairs and toppling old magazines on her way out.

I spoke to the shop owner after the verbal onslaught ceased, and the patrons and workers had come out of hiding. According to him, the biker’s rave was somewhat justifiable, if not just insane. Tiger’s condition had made itself know to everyone in the form of a miss-spelled name; apparently the biker was not a member of the infamous gang, ‘The Brides of Santa.’

As part of the biker’s settlement, besides an exorbitant amount of money, Tiger was forced to resign and publicly apologize to the biker and her gang. He resigned immediately after his verbal onslaught out of fear for his back, but no one from the coffee shop or the tattoo parlor saw Tiger give the apology. When confronted, with proper law enforcement professionals present, the biker and her gang claimed that Tiger gave his apology at their local hangout before leaving town the night before.
With no eyewitness testimonies besides the Brides’, we had to believe them, and when we asked if Tiger left a forwarding address, they said, with chuckles and grins, that he moved away and got a job as a valet at the Machus Red Fox Restaurant, and suggested we start our search there. The parlor’s owner decided not to follow up with Tiger, saying something about dead ends and mysteries, so we all decided to leave it at that. I’m sure Tiger is fine, wherever he is.

I suppose we’ll never really know what happened to Tiger, and from that day, no one mentioned his name at the parlor without shaking their head and dismissing it quickly. We never saw another member of the Brides again, nor any other biker gang member for that matter; presumably they have some clandestine correspondence between themselves, and spread the word of the mishap amongst their community.

Business resumed its normal flow at the parlor within weeks, and Tiger’s position was vacant for a long time. Potential artists came and went as the owner conducted interviews. Most of them were fresh out of tattoo school, some didn’t seem to be all together, and one even had the shakes; none of them were skilled enough to take Tiger’s place. However, just as the owner was about to give in to one of the students, a heavyset man in a red and yellow jumpsuit who went by the name of Chuck “Gray Eyes” Smith came in and presented his profile. The owner was impressed with what he called ‘vivid and unique use of color’ and he hired the man on the spot.

I learned a few weeks later from one of the tattooists that “Gray Eyes” earned his name because of his inability to distinguish colors, and when he worked he picked whatever shade seemed appropriate at the time. I told the shop’s owner of his condition, and all he could reply was “Well, what’s the worst that could happen.”

Deciding it was best to mind my own business, I shook my head and went back to pouring my large cups of coffee, but I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard a man at the shop ask for the Blue Angel’s logo. He walked out later that day with a bright green plane emblazoned on his chest; I suppose it could’ve been worse, right?

Popularity: 13% [?]