City Managers who oversee public works and projects in Orange County are overpaid recent reports reveal. When Orange County was incorporated we were many small areas with undeveloped farm land surrounding. Since vital services such as Sherriff, and Fire Departments overlap cities and have to cooperate with seperate Departments in Cities such as Laguna Beach and Newport Beach there is much duplication.
I have complained to Laguna Niguel City leaders about the foolish spending on building yet another Taj Mahal in our county. Having brick and mortar monuments does not provide better living for a community. Many of our local cities, just like our schools need to consolidate and be more cost effective.
A recent report revealed how much City Managers are paid and residents are shocked. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Here's a brief list of a few City Manager's payroll-
Bruce Channing of Laguna Hills $460,809.00 ( Laguna Hills is a small city which has no raw land remaining for planning or buildout)
David M. Morgan from Anaheim is paid $317,923.00
David N. Ream from Santa Ana $327,074.00
The lowest paid is Villa Park's Manager who works part time at 32 hours $ 170,000.00
Does it make you think you are in the wrong job and need to run for election?
Consolidate all the small City Populations and make one king manager, at a salary range of $ 275000- $300,000.00 Don't forget these people get cushy pensions based on the salaries for life.
7/29/2010
Travel Overnight bag and laptop bag all less than 9 pounds
I have been travelling a great deal in the past three weeks. More than ten years ago I travelled frequently for work and I had forgotten what is necessary to pack and how to avoid a stiff neck from carrying unnecessary weight. I have compiled a checklist of items that you must put in your carry on bag:
First strategy is to pack items that need little or no ironing and are all in the same color palette as to coordinate. Here is my road warrior summer list: two knit jersey BGBG dresses, jeans skirt, two knit undershirts, short sleeved button down shirt, long windbreaker, two colored scarves, underwear and makeup small items, running shoes, nike shorts and two pairs cotton socks
Here is the essential item list: toothbrush, sunglasses, one pair high heel pumps, two band aids for the pumps, laptop and charger, purse that you can smash into the carryon bag, wallet and ID, rake comb, phone and phone chargers.
Anything else leave at home.
If you are going somewhere there are Grizzly Bears- buy some wasp spray to substitute when you arrive.
First strategy is to pack items that need little or no ironing and are all in the same color palette as to coordinate. Here is my road warrior summer list: two knit jersey BGBG dresses, jeans skirt, two knit undershirts, short sleeved button down shirt, long windbreaker, two colored scarves, underwear and makeup small items, running shoes, nike shorts and two pairs cotton socks
Here is the essential item list: toothbrush, sunglasses, one pair high heel pumps, two band aids for the pumps, laptop and charger, purse that you can smash into the carryon bag, wallet and ID, rake comb, phone and phone chargers.
Anything else leave at home.
If you are going somewhere there are Grizzly Bears- buy some wasp spray to substitute when you arrive.
7/23/2010
Single Mom Student Loans a LIE
OBAMA MAMMA STUDENT LOANS SCAM/ EXPERIAN DOES TO HARM
Experian has a sub company that promotes a big giant lie. They run these advertisements targeted at single mothers who are the most gullible and needy of our unemployed. Experian has a number of shady business entities which farm your information for profit and sell it to others calling it legitimate marketing. Experian’s marketing is most often begun with a half-truths used to instill fear and charge you money for years to come.
Take for example their advertisements on free credit – you know the guys in pirate costumes. This is the worst scam and they have numerous federal fines for charging innocent Americans for something they can get for free $24.99 a month until the cows come home. Experian hides behind the concept that no human being can complain enough to them to stop Experian from charging your credit card a monthly fee – even after you die. The other flagrantly using consumer’s emotions and calling it a business is protect my ID which in fact does nothing to help you after or during a fraud- again they charge a monthly fee like shackles that you can never remove.
You’ve hear the ads- Obama, you know he went to fancy colleges and made it without any help from anyone but his education. So who better to use, and never pay for the royalty as your poster boy to claim you have something good to offer the indigent, the unemployed and the gullible. Here are excerpts from the ads:
“President Obama has promised an ambitious expansion of the federal Pell Grant for single mothers. The Pell Grant currently offers a maximum of around $5000 for low-income students. For low-income single mothers, Obama would raise the maximum Pell Grant to $10,000. This would not only have the effect of increasing college enrollment for single mothers - it would also bring huge benefits to their children. Kids raised in poverty are far more likely to perpetuate that cycle themselves. They are more likely to drop out of school and enter the system of federal prisons and juvenile delinquent facilities. In the end, these disadvantaged children cost more to put through the penal system than the Pell Grant will spend educating them…”
In reality THERE IS NO I REPEAT NO special Obama Pell grants for single Moms. Pell grants have been available to everyone who applies for thirty years. The dollar amount just went up, that’s all.
So what Experian does is sell sell sell the concept in advertising and gets you the dumb innocent to enter all your credit information and telephone numbers so funky unlicensed schools can call you day and night. Oh yes and there’s going to be special fees just because Experian thinks you are a dumb single mom.
If I grind one idea into you it will be –
Anything that sounds too good to be true---- is too good to be true.
This not-lovely company employs hundreds of thousands employees. I am certain this blog will not be up for long. Thanks to a company right here in Orange County. (Perhaps I needed to use behind the orange curtain on this one.)
Experian
475 Anton Blvd.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
1 714 830 7000
Experian has a sub company that promotes a big giant lie. They run these advertisements targeted at single mothers who are the most gullible and needy of our unemployed. Experian has a number of shady business entities which farm your information for profit and sell it to others calling it legitimate marketing. Experian’s marketing is most often begun with a half-truths used to instill fear and charge you money for years to come.
Take for example their advertisements on free credit – you know the guys in pirate costumes. This is the worst scam and they have numerous federal fines for charging innocent Americans for something they can get for free $24.99 a month until the cows come home. Experian hides behind the concept that no human being can complain enough to them to stop Experian from charging your credit card a monthly fee – even after you die. The other flagrantly using consumer’s emotions and calling it a business is protect my ID which in fact does nothing to help you after or during a fraud- again they charge a monthly fee like shackles that you can never remove.
You’ve hear the ads- Obama, you know he went to fancy colleges and made it without any help from anyone but his education. So who better to use, and never pay for the royalty as your poster boy to claim you have something good to offer the indigent, the unemployed and the gullible. Here are excerpts from the ads:
“President Obama has promised an ambitious expansion of the federal Pell Grant for single mothers. The Pell Grant currently offers a maximum of around $5000 for low-income students. For low-income single mothers, Obama would raise the maximum Pell Grant to $10,000. This would not only have the effect of increasing college enrollment for single mothers - it would also bring huge benefits to their children. Kids raised in poverty are far more likely to perpetuate that cycle themselves. They are more likely to drop out of school and enter the system of federal prisons and juvenile delinquent facilities. In the end, these disadvantaged children cost more to put through the penal system than the Pell Grant will spend educating them…”
In reality THERE IS NO I REPEAT NO special Obama Pell grants for single Moms. Pell grants have been available to everyone who applies for thirty years. The dollar amount just went up, that’s all.
So what Experian does is sell sell sell the concept in advertising and gets you the dumb innocent to enter all your credit information and telephone numbers so funky unlicensed schools can call you day and night. Oh yes and there’s going to be special fees just because Experian thinks you are a dumb single mom.
If I grind one idea into you it will be –
Anything that sounds too good to be true---- is too good to be true.
This not-lovely company employs hundreds of thousands employees. I am certain this blog will not be up for long. Thanks to a company right here in Orange County. (Perhaps I needed to use behind the orange curtain on this one.)
Experian
475 Anton Blvd.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
1 714 830 7000
7/19/2010
Natural Ways to Get Rid of Bees and Territorial Wasps
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| Yellow jacket |
yellow jacket
Certain varieties of bees and wasps are aggressive in preserving their nests. These guys can be a danger to those allergic and attract other pests with the remaining smell of honey or dead insects for years to come. Observing your pest with double layered clothing and gloves will lead you to their homes were you want to remove them later at night. A local Bee Keeper will take the queen for free and her workers will follow. No one will remove wasps for free, and their methods will be to use poisons that you may not want in your garden.
Wear thick clothing such as: old sweat pants, thick long sleeved shirt, hat, neck scarf and gloves are necessary. Do not swat them. Do not wear perfume.
I don't want to remove my flowers fountains and pool that these unwelcome guests enjoy. My daughter is allergic so they must go.
Wasps that have mud nests in the ground can be killed off by pouring a pot of boiling water on the entrance of the nest while they sleep.
Another slower but effective method is to create a wasp feeder for them. This really is not a "feeder" like one you might have for hummingbirds because this is war. Take an empty green two liter plastic soda bottle and cut the top 1/3 off with a box cutter. (Green is better because it provides some sun screen and visual distraction but clear are fine.) The top piece is used inverted into the bottom 2/3 of the bottle. Staple the two together. (This project so reminds me of the bottle rockets we made for science but that's another story). You can poke two large holes through to be able to tie a heavy string through the bottle on opposite sides which will enable you to hang the bottle near to where the wasps currently forage during the day.
Fill the bottle with apple juice or seven up or any sweet smelling sugar juice and spill a little around to attract the wasps. You can even decorate your bottle with colors - flower colors are useful ( but don't use paint that smells). The wasps will enter and they either drown or are too drunk to figure out how to get out of the inverted cup. They starve and die in a day or so. The "feeder" will need to be cleaned when you see it with a number of dead guys or moldy because soon as it smells bad the wasps lose interest in entering what they now smell as a death trap.
Oil of citronella, orange oil, peppermint oil, and eucalyptus oil can be used on patio furniture, doors and humans to repel bees and wasps. Wasps do not like wormwood and eucalyptus but there really is no plant excepting oleander that bees do not care for. Learn to tolerate them for their good properties but move them away from your home. Plant cucumbers and use the peels and juice- bees don't care for the smell.
I don't suggest smoking them out as it might be just as easy to have a pile of newspaper burning get out of control and burn your house but not the bees. Hairspray is works on their wings as it makes them too heavy to fly, but in order to get the purple can of Aquanet close enough, you will need protective clothing.
My favorite tool is my power washer, my now fourteen year old son has the same curiosity with spraying the eves of our two story house to remove spiders. Keeping the bees away from starting a colony in my walls is the best way to avoid them from returning. Encourage them to move on, the first days they swarm before they build a mess in your walls.
leaf cutter bee
If you have no luck finding a bee keeper who will relocate the bees for free or minimal cost here are some natural ways that don't require pesticides:
Bowl of sugar water with with dawn soap.
1 cup water 1/2 cup sugar teaspoon dawn
The bees are attracted to the sugar - they think it is honey.
Use a colorful bowl or float some flowers.
The bees will drown. If they fly off the soap is sticky on
their wings. This will reduce the worker population in a nest.
Windex and Spray Nine have outdoor window washing bottles that attach to a normal hose.
You can use the bottle with water and 1/4 cup dawn dish soap. Wear protective clothing and
wash the nest. You must remove all the wax, dead bees and honey or the nest will rot and smell
to high heaven, thus attracting ants and more bees.
brown recluse spider very nasty... that's another post about organic ways to avoid stinging, biting and icky
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