The Avenger

You forgot Brian Moorman - we have a Kicka$$ punter!

$300? I got my Slinbox Solo for $179 and it's great - get use of my TV and my DVR...

Actually, when Romney was in they changed the rules so that a Gov. could not appoint someone to server out the remainder of a Senator's term (a la Rod B. in Illinois) - most people, regardless of political mindset support a special election over a Gov. appointment (although in '04 the driving force was to make sure a Republican Gov. didn't choose a replacement if Kerry went to the White House). The proposal now is to allow the Gov. to make an appointment UNTIL A SPECIAL ELECTION CAN BE HELD, not for the remainder of the senator's term. The problem is that it takes months to hold a special election and all that time the state is without 2 members of the Senate. There will still be a special election and the voting public will still decide who will fill a vacant seat to the end of the term, but the goal is to not have a gap in representation. The Gov. will appoint someone to the seat until the special election can be held because that is about the only way to have an immediate replacement. Kennedy is also recommending that anyone the Gov. selects for this short term replacement give a personal commitment NOT to run in the special election (although I'm not sure you could make that part a law).

Maybe it's just me, but old, wrinkled skin is one thing but old, wrinkled skin with blurry tats that now look like huge bruises/subdermal hemotomas is another...

I hear you - I'm not a big fan of tats, especially on women. Maybe I'm old school, but the only time I'm OK with tats are if you're a sailor, a truck driver, an offensive lineman or you're a Pacific Islander

There seems to be some sort of law that if you're under 35 you have to have a tat, regardless of who you are and what you do. I have preschoolers and have spent a bunch of time on vacation with them this summer and I've really noticed it. It seems that almost every single suburban housewife/mom under 35 has a tat when I go to the beach. I went to Sesame Place about a month ago where it is mostly families with small children and I commented to my wife that it was like being on an episode of Sesame Ink. Man, old folks homes 50 years from now are going to be ugly - a bunch of octogenarians with faded and wrinkled tats rolling around in wheelchairs...

My 8 year old, 130K mile Outback had the compressor go a couple of years ago and I was in the same situation - looking at a huge cost to put a new compressor in an older car - I didn't need a new compressor to last another 8-10 years - I wouldn't be driving it then! No way was I going to go without AC, and no way was I going to drop $1000. I was able to find a used compressor on the Net and had a mechanic install it, all for about $400 - not cheap, but also not a grand. Mechanic said he was impressed at the condition of the compressor - said it was a good find and should last many years. Good luck!

Ok, but when you have first and goal at the 10 and don't even take a shot at the end zone you're playing too conservatively to win, especially in the preseason - I hate that about this coaching staff.

All the height mismatches in the world won't matter if your play call of choice on 3rd and goal from the 14 is to run a draw play - wtf was that?

DJ lost 8 of his last 10 games. He was 0-6 in the division. In 3 of the last 10 games the Bills didn't find the endzone. If that doesn't get you fired I don't know what does, so I'm having trouble thinking Jauron gets the boot for going 7-9 or missing the playoffs again - seems like the standard for being retained is awfully low....

Maybin is worth whatever he produces over the length of his contract - if he's a bust he's worth very little, if he's a Pro Bowler he's worth quite a bit. I think what you're asking is what are the Bills going to pay a guy who has never played a down in the NFL - that's completely different from worth. I hate rookie contracts - crazy money for guys that haven't done anything and may never do anything.

Honey's all about the vegetation the bees work - rare that you'll find single crop honeys from anything other than a big producer. Some pretty exotic stuff out there - if you can find kudzu honey it's blue in color and has a grape-like taste - very unique. One of my friends has hives that work bamboo and the honey is very dark, almost brown and has a cooked/caramel flavor to it...

Ulee's Gold is required viewing for beekeepers - I think we've all seen it. Good movie and an accurate portrayal of beekeeping - if you have lots of hives it is a lot of work and incredibly busy when it comes time to harvest...

I've brewed mead as well - yum! I haven't sold much honey - too many friends and family to take what I produce (not that I care too much - it makes nice gifts and I'm not into the hobby to make money). I had a single hive produce 100 pounds last year, but I had to start over this season with new colonies as the existing ones did not survive the weird spring we had here in MA. We've had so much rain here that flight time has been severely restricted so my June honey crop never came to be, but I'm hoping by Labor Day my late summer crop will at least leave me with something to give away as holiday gifts.

The bee business is still terrible if you're a big commercial migratory beekeeper who trucks large numbers of hives from crop to crop. There aren't many of those folks, but those out there are getting killed with 80% losses due to colony collapse disorder (CCD). To top it all off, even though those folks are vital to agriculture and ARE agriculture, there is no insurance you can get against this type of thing. Farmers can get crop insurance, but beekeepers have nothing. My guess is that even more of those guys will get wiped out financially this year. Right now, science still has not found a smoking gun root cause for CCD. As best we can tell, if you take a colony that is under stress and introduce some X factor it gets pushed over the edge - the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, but what that straw is remains a mystery. The good news is that the problem isn't as widespread as you might think. Most beekeepers have not been impacted by CCD - it's really the big migratory guys. Those bees that are trucked from place to place are under incredible stress to begin with - they are placed in a single plant crop for a few weeks at a time and fed high fructose corn syrup (yep - the same stuff that's in our junk food), and then they suddenly get uprooted and sent to work another crop. They are working very hard on a poor diet - like a marathon runner eating only candy bars. Something pushes them over the edge - they fly off and don't come back to the hive - not even any bodies to examine. So, unless things change, the whole way of pollinating crops is going to have to change. Big operations will probably have to keep their own bees to meet their needs because the migratory guys they rely on are out of business, booked up or too expensive to hire. Prices will go up for various fruits and nuts, and crop yields will go down. We'll get through it, but I think its going to change the face of agriculture pollination (and may also see things like Almond Snickers go away)...

To be safe I would stick to the baits that really only wasps/yellowjackets would go for - usually a bit of wine and some sort of meat. What most people don't realize about honeybees is that they're not seen that much unless you're looking at flowers or in an area where they are getting water. Bees are very busy and very driven to do their thing - they don't have time to hang around humans and our food which isn't useful to them. I have 60,000+ bees in my back yard and I don't see them unless they are flying, working the flowers, of hanginig out by the hose getting water on a hot day - otherwise they're out doing their thing. Outside of my bees I almost never see thyem unless I'm picking fruit out in the fields at the u-pick (they hire out for pollenation services), but even in the fields I'm busy picking and they're busy pollenating.

Honeybees are forragers always looking for new sources of nectar, pollen and water. They'll go almost anywhere to investigate, so if you put out a trap with juice/meat, etc. for yellowjackets you may get a few curious honeybees as well. The difference is that yellowjackets will seek out such things like juice and meat - they're not looking for flowers. Yellow jackets are easy to tell apart from honeybees - they look like a wasp as opposed to a bee and they are bright yellow - honeybees aren't bright yellow - some varieties like the Italians I keep have some more golden yellow striping. Other types like carnolians and Russians can be almost black.

Find out what you have first and call a beekeeper - an exterminator is definitely going to charge you - a beekeeper may do this for free or certainly less money.

I am a beekeeper and I can tell you that if these are indeed honeybees, one of your local beekeepers would probably be happy to come and remove them (although they're not going to take responsibility for your wall). The first order of business is to determine what you have - if they are not honeybees your best bet is to call an exterminator - yellow jackets and wasps can be very aggressive and are not something to mess around with. Honeybees, on the other hand, are not aggressive at all unless provolked. PM me if you want and I can help you identify what you have. If these are honeybees, there is no way to simply make them move somewhere else - they need to be removed by a competent beekeeper who will ensure he gets the queen. That will probably involve opening up your wall, removing the bees with a bee vac and removing the comb they've built up (which can also yeild lots of honey!). You should look on the internet for local bee clubs in your area and contact them. Beekeepers love free bees and you may be able to find someone to remove them for just the bees as payment (depends on who you find and how much work the removal is).

Good - because if there's one thing that allows me to sleep soundly at night it's knowing that this year's Dick Jauron is EXACTLY the same as the Dick Jauron of the past 3 years.

I thought Morgan Spurlock was the guy who made Supersize Me and the 30 Days series?

How did you do this as an existing customer?

I don't think there's any other way to explain it but that they were playing some pretty weak teams - teams that went a combined 16-48 - that's terrible. One of those games (Seattle) was the home opener, and we beat a team that ultimately went 4-12. The next week we barely beat a team that finished 5-11 (beat Jacksonville by 4). We squeaked out a 1 point win at home against the 5-win Raiders, then pounded St. Louis, the worst team in football after Detroit (2 wins on the season). The best teams we beat last season finished 8-8 (Denver and San Diego). I don't think the data could be more clear - Buffalo simply wasn't in the same class as the better teams in the league. You can argue about why that is (coaching, lack of talent, etc.) but explaining why they beat 4 bad teams early in the season is easy. Even with that momentum the Bills couldn't stand up to average/above average teams on the schedule, which I think speaks volumes out where this team and organization currently find themselves.

Great way to belittle women's athletics and send a message to our daughters at the same time - play all the sports you want, but in the end it's all about T and A - that's what I want my daughter to learn. Luckily, as some posters here point out, if it really is all about the T and A most find that on the Internet, so the chances that lasts longer that the Osbornes' variety show (1 episode) are slim.

I like it - thanks for posting!