Category: News from Caridad

Last night we went to a Jonas Brothers concert at Jones Beach Theater. Although I grew up just minutes away, I’d never been to this venue and it’s gorgeous. The stage is set right at the water’s edge, so you see the wetlands and beach as you sit there and watch the show.

The concert was great. Lots of fun. Photos are still on my daughter’s camera, so I’ll share some photos from the last JoBro concert (yes, we are fans!). This concert was at the Meadowlands and was mobbed. Rumor has it that it sold out in about 2 minutes. This is a picture of Joe Jonas, the middle brother.

This is my daughter and me at the show. A friend of hers made T-shirts with lines from the JoBro songs and we wore them. The gold jacket is from one of their videos. My daughter bought it at American Apparel and everyone kept asking her where she had gotten it.

Had a great time as you can tell from the big smiles. I love spending time with my best bud.

This is the official video for one of their hits – SOS. It’s one of my favorite songs from the JoBros. The new one, BURNING UP, is really cute!

Reuters video of the opening fireworks over the Bird’s Nest Stadium on 08-08-08, a very lucky day apparently.

A wonderful friend of mine — Irene Peterson — forwarded this to me.

Please go to the end of this message and click on link. It’s hilarious, but I caution you, it will take a minute or so to load up, so be patient. As for who is behind this fun website — here’s what Irene’s e-mail said:

• HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam . Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands . HEMA also has stores in Belgium , Luxemburg, and Germany In June of this year, HEMA was sold to British investment company Lion Capital.

  Take a look at HEMA’s product page. You can’t order anything and it’s in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.

  Don’t click on any of the products pictured, just wait and see what happens. And be sure you have your sound turned up.

  This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer, ya?

So without further ado, here’s the link and for those of you old enough to remember — it reminds me of one of those Rube Goldberg devices, doesn’t it?

http://producten.hema.nl/

Speaking of Rube Goldberg, here’s an Office Rube Goldberg device! The people in this office clearly have too much free time (or a boss that’s on vacation!)

Thanks to morebeefplease Jesse for this video!

Hope you all have a good weekend!

This is probably as controversial a topic as any we’ll discuss here. Not something I normally do, but the whole idea grabbed my interest and saddened me at the same time. What’s this topic about?

A New York City publisher cancelled the publication of a historical novel by Sherry Jones about one of the wives of Muhammad due to concerns that the book might be offensive to some and also “that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.” For more information on how this book was pulled from the market, please click here to read an essay by Asra Nomani of the Wall Street Journal.

Ms. Nomani, who is no stranger to the Muslim community and has worked for change toward women in the Muslim world, notes in her article that these actions saddened her.

It saddens me as well for a number of reasons and I’m interested to hear what you have to say. As for the reasons it saddens me, here goes:

It saddens me as a proponent of free speech that someone’s work is apparently being censored.
It saddens me as a writer to see years of hard work and the dream of publication being ripped away at the last minute.
It saddens me as a romance writer to see something which is described by one as a “racy historical novel” being called “soft core pornography” by another.
It saddens me as an American that the threat of terror has silenced someone much like terrorists hoped to silence America by taking down the Towers.
It saddens me for all the Muslims who do not believe that violence is the answer since unfortunately, it is the radical elements of any society that seem to get the press.
It saddens me as a woman since part of the goal of this novel who wanted to give a voice to the women in the book.

How do you feel? What do you think about what has happened to this book?

For some other comments on this event, you can check out these links:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/publishing/has_random_house_let_the_terrorists_win_90974.asp?c=rss
http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/the-jewel-of-medina-is-now-on-sale-no-wait-nevermind/

Having to pack not only clothes but promo items made me think of all the things you can do to travel with a little less mess! With another month left to the summer, I hope some of you have plans to take a few days off and that some of these tips will help.

1. To reduce the weight of your bags, lose the wheels on your luggage if you can.

2. Go with soft-sided luggage which expands and is generally more lightweight.

3. Buy those travel size deodorants, shampoos, etc. Not only will it make it easier to go through the TSA lines if you’re carrying on the luggage, but it will also help lighten the weight of the luggage.

4. If you’ve got shampoo, mouthwash or some other liquid product, remove the cap and place some plastic wrap over the mouth of the bottle. Then slip the cap back on over the wrap. That will help reduce spills. Of course, to be doubly sure, place the liquid products in a zip/slide top plastic bag.

5. For sensitive paper documents/photos, use a zip/slide top plastic bag or get a wide mouth sports water bottle and roll/slip the papers within the bottle. Not only will the bottle keep them from getting wet, it’ll keep them from being torn or crushed.

6. To save space and keep your shoes from being crushed, slip your socks or other small unmentionables into your shoes.

7. Roll t-shirts and other soft fabric goods. The rolling will save more space and also avoid wrinkles.

8. Bring a large bag for your dirty clothes along with a scented dryer sheet. Slip the scented dryer sheet in with your dirty clothes to help keep your suitcase smelling fresh.

9. If you need to display some of the items you are carrying, look for collapsible storage bins to hold the items instead of baskets or other hard to pack items.

10. For those quick need something to drink in the hotel room, bring the individual dry mixes to add to tap water. They’re available now for most powdered drink mixes. Why tap water? Think about the carbon footprint for bottled water, namely, the packaging, transportation and recycling for something that most people can get right out of their faucets!

Hope all these tips help make your next trip a little easier! Bon Voyage.