Well it’s official now; we have two elementary school students. The much anticipated first day of school has now come and we had quite a crowd at the end of our driveway. The reason…. our friends wanted to know if Holly was going to cry when Anna got on the bus to start kindergarten.
Last year we made quite an ordeal over Ben’s first day of kindergarten and we didn’t want to shortchange Anna! So we documented our morning routine in pictures and had the added company of our neighbors the Coyne’s and our other neighbor Kate Lauer and her four kids. So, Millie started second grade, Noah and Ben started first grade, and Anna started kindergarten today and now Holly’s days will be filled with plenty of one-on-one time with little Gwen…. and probably plenty of mom time with Kate drinking coffee and laughing at us working folk.
I’m by no means a restaurant reviewer and probably lack the vocabulary and comparisons to do this review justice, but I was completely surprised last weekend by what I think will be a popular new restaurant in Charlottesville.
I will first admit that I am friends with one of the owners and became friends with the co-owner and chef, but that doesn’t mean this review will be biased. If I didn’t like the restaurant, I would simply not take time to write about it. However, here I am choosing to write about a restaurant rather than catch up on some my favorite shows and more importantly, going to sleep early.
When I was first told (by my mom) to go meet Jae (of J’s Pizza and Subs Cafe in Fredericksburg) at the new restaurant she opened with Chef Raif, I was expecting a fairly casual, college kid friendly pizza joint on the Corner. I should have known that Chef Raif, owner of Basil Mediterranean Bistro on 14th St NW, would never open a dive pizza joint. However, that would have required me to have been to Basil at least once and with three kids, getting out for a nice meal doesn’t happen that often! This week, Holly and the kids were on vacation to Pennsylvania so I instead took my friend Kate and her four kids.
Semolina is a bit hard to see at first. It is right on W. Main St just after passing under the 14th Street railroad bridge at the Corner (the retail area of shops, bars, and restaurants near the University of Virginia). It’s located at 1329 W. Main next door to Cafe Europa and before the Mellow Mushroom. When you first walk in, you enter a small waiting area with an exterior wall made of glassed-in wine bottle corks from Barboursville Vineyard. You are greeted by the take-out counter, a small bench, and a staircase leading up to the dining area with 30 gallon wine barrels (also from Barboursville Vineyard) overhead. I’d advise you to plan an early or late dinner or take advantage of the carry-out as both the waiting area and the dining area are not large! (the dining area seats approximately 40)
Because it was part of Semolina’s ‘soft-opening,’ we were sat immediately by the restaurant manager and Chef Raif, who designed the dining room himself. Instead of red and white picnic table cloths and bright open spaces with fountain soda signs like I was expecting, I was instead seated in the elegant dining room with ceramic plates, cobalt blue and stemmed water glasses, stained glass lanterns above the table, French and Italian contemporary photography on the walls and a comforting color scheme that was more date night than college pizza dinner… I guess that’s why they threw ‘Gourmet’ in the name?
No, they threw gourmet in their name because that’s how the pizza tastes. I love to reminisce of when I was a young, stupid college student roaming Italy on endless wine and thin-crust personal sized pizzas for $5. No matter how many times I’ve tried, I’ve yet to find a pizza in the US that could match the tiny little shop across from my hotel in Florence. With one look at the menu offering 8″ and 12″ pizzas with names such as “Margherita Pepperoni,” “Basilico,” and “Santa Brigida,” I wondered if tonight would be the night.
Chef Raif knew that kids like food quickly and after seeing us with four kids at the table, he quickly served up some appetizers. He brought up some Mozzarella Frita, deep-fried, breaded mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce, for the kids and quite possibly the most appetizing bruschetta I’ve ever seen. I instantly felt remorse for enjoying such fine tasting bruschetta coated with balsamic vinaigrette without my wife Holly, who would have loved it! Kate’s kids even commented that the mozzarella sticks were, “The yummiest thing ever.”
Bruschetta
Toasted Italian bread with marinated tomato fondutta, fresh basil,
roasted garlic, EVOO, cilantro, fresh mozzarella, balsamic
After appetizers, we were each served our pizzas. Kate ordered the Margherita Pepperoni for her and the kids, I had the Greek pizza, and Jae had a custom made vegetable pizza from Chef Raif. I will not attempt to do justice by describing the taste of the pizzas. I will only say that the bread was the perfect consistency, the ingredients seemed like they were fresh from the farm, and the taste put a smile on my face.
I was 100% satisfied with my first experience at Semolina and I never even got to tackle the wine and beer list. Chef Raif paid special attention to the list and picked only Italian wines to compliment his menu. I will be sure to go back again with my wife to test that list out soon!
Holly spent many of her earlier summers at Ohiopyle State Park in PA. Her uncle is a long-time river guide and Holly herself spent a few summers as a river guide on the Youghiogheny River (or Yough as they call it). The first time I ever visited Holly’s family, it involved a drive through Ohiopyle. Then Holly eventually got me out for a short rafting trip down the Middle Yough on a shredder… a very mild trip that her dad did beside us in a canoe.
Last year, we decided that we would not only spend a night at Ohiopyle, we would would also bring our two oldest kids, invite my sister and her family (and four kids), and that WOULD do a guided trip down the Lower Yough. It was a fantastic trip and the idea was kind of born to make it an annual thing.
So this year, to coincide with Holly’s regular trip to see her parents, we planned our overnight Ohiopyle Trip for the first Monday and Tuesday of August. In keeping with tradition, my sister and her family drove up to meet us at my in-laws place near New Stanton, PA, for an evening of bonfire and ghost hunting with the kids and Uncle Matty. As not unusual for me when I get to PA, I ended up not feeling well (probably due to drinking too much of Uncle Matty’s home brew) and missed the entire evening. But on a bright note, I did get 12 hours of sleep to prepare for the river!
We left just after lunch on Monday to give the day some time to warm up. The drive was just over an hour and we went directly to the Natural Waterslides, a small feeder stream (Meadow Run) to the Yough where you can sit on the smooth rocks and slide down the stream. As usual for us, the water was freezing so I think the hardest part is being brave enough to sit in the water! With temperatures in the 80s, we weren’t going to get any help here. Holly led the way followed by our very adventurous Ben who has now been down the slides three years in a row (not bad for a 6 year old). Of course, Holly catches him at the first deep part. A bonus this year, my brother-in-law Sam actually took the plunge this year and did the slide. After a few runs, we move down stream a bit where we can all just sit and play in the water. My sister found a pretty large trout stuck in a small pool of water. After a few bets, I dove in to try and catch it by hand. That wasn’t happening.
Next, Holly took Sam on “the Loop,” a short section of the Lower Yough. This was also Sam’s first time out on the river. Instead of the longer, guided tour, Holly and Sam went out on a shredder for about an hour long ride. While they did that, my sister Lisa and I took the kids to a small little beach above the falls right in Ohiopyle. The rapids were pretty fast (as I found out while wading out) but this beach was great because there was a small pool with fairly warm (and shallow) water for the kids to play in. It was also nice and relaxing to sit in the cool water with the warm sun coming down. Maybe it was an hour, maybe it was two. No clue. After their ride, we were joined by Holly’s brother and his wife and he viewed the falls and then took the kids for ice cream (something Holly has never done at the river before). If you make the trip to Ohiopyle though, I will give you fair warning that if you want to wade out to the rocks in the middle of the river, be prepared to go down a few rapids on your back en route! Your best bet is to cross the river on the walking trail and go in from the opposite side of the public beach area.
Before heading to the campground for the evening, we took a short hike down to Cucumber Falls. This was the first good ‘rock’ challenge for the kids as after going down some steps, there’s about 300 feet of rocks to navigate (though we did find a shorter way back afterwards). Cucumber Falls gets its name because it’s a popular hangout for copperhead snakes. According to the story, copperheads smell like cucumbers but that is probably just a myth.
We spent our evening around the campfire at Kentuck Campground where one can rent a single or multi-family camp site as well as cabins or Yurts. We like the multi-family site for obvious reasons (as we were two families), but with the added benefit of being able to park two vehicles at the site. The kids love fire, especially Ben. Although we spend most of the night telling them not to poke sticks in the fire and then pull the sticks out, it’s still worth it for how excited they get to make their sticks, roast hot dogs, and make s’mores. We also had a very uneventful frog hunting expedition led by the park rangers. It may have been a lot more fun but there were way too many people.
Day two was intended to be a bit more relaxed but in reality, it was much more physically demanding! We went back to Cucumber Falls, but this time we hiked toward the river and climbed the rocks near Cucumber Rapids on the Lower Yough. We sat here to watch the guided rafting tours as they made their morning runs. It was very nice to sit by the rapids and enjoy the beautiful, overcast morning. The kids had a great time (as scary as it was for me to watch) going from rock to rock… just a slip and a fall away from heading down the rapids themselves. I think I got some of the best pics of the trip here.
One of my favorite parts of Ohiopyle is the bike trail. It is part of the Great Allegheny Passage that runs from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD (with a follow on trail going all the way to Washington, D.C.). We rented bicycles (and I got to pull Ben and Anna in a little cart behind me) and took a short ride down to Swimmer’s Rapid. My favorite part of Swimmer’s Rapid is the big sign that says “no swimming” when you get there. However, this is the unofficial training ground to teach rafters how to react when hitting the water and how to get out safely. While we did not make any jumps into the river, we did hike down to watch the rafters. One of Holly’s favorite things to do here is to hike a bit upstream to watch the rafters as they go by Dimple Rock. As one of the more challenging (and dangerous) parts of the Lower Yough rafting trip, it is the most likely spot to watch a raft flip! Well after falling out there, they get to glide down Swimmer’s Rapid which is partly why it makes a great training ground! Anyways, it started raining and the rocks got very slippery (or slippy in Pittsburgh talk) so we decided to head back up to the trail without seeing any exiled rafters.
Basically, that was the end of the trip. We biked back up to town, headed to the campground, packed up, and departed. Holly will enjoy another week with the family and I drove back to the DC area with my sister to upload the pics, write this blog entry and get ready to wake up in 6 hours for work!
For those that are close to us, you already know that our son Ben has Apraxia. Ben suffers from Verbal, Oral, and Limb Apraxia which, if I can sum this up in one sentence, means that he has trouble making the muscles in his mouth and limbs do what his brain is telling them to do. So he has developed much slower than his peers in speech, gross motor and fine motor function. Thanks to the Cherab Foundation (which helped us diagnose his condition) and fairly regular, semi-aggressive therapy, Ben is progressing very well, and we hope that by the time he is 10 years old, nobody will have trouble understanding him speak.
Ben just finished kindergarten and we wanted to continue a regular therapy regime. He is in summer school and getting one hour of speech and occupational therapy daily (M-F). He will be getting an hour and a half a week at school once the new school year begins. Holly has also started taking sign language classes with Ben weekly with an instructor in Charlottesville. This, we hope, will help Ben lessen some of his frustration at getting his message across when he can’t say the correct words. That still leaves physical therapy. We considered physical therapy at UVA but Ben is doing so well at jumping, balancing, and overall gross motor function. We attribute a lot of that to the 15′ trampoline in the backyard and Ben’s own social nature of wanting to do what all the other kids are doing. So instead of regular physical therapy, Holly really wanted to try hippotherapy.
Hippotherapy, as defined by the American Hippotherapy Association, is “a treatment that uses the multidimensional movement of the horse; from the Greek word “hippos” which means horse. Specially trained physical, occupational and speech therapists use this medical treatment for clients who have movement dysfunction.” They further describe some of the benefits: “Physically, hippotherapy can improve balance, posture, mobility and function. Hippotherapy may also affect psychological, cognitive, behavioral and communication functions for clients of all ages. Clients who may benefit from hippotherapy can have a variety of diagnoses: examples include Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Developmental Delay, Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke, Autism and Learning or Language Disabilities.”
Holly found a person locally that provides hippotherapy services. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Tricare, our health insurance provider, covers hippotherapy in this region (we may still submit a claim), but Ben has been going all summer none the less. I had the pleasure of accompanying Ben to Hidden Creek Farm in Ruckersville, VA, for his session today. Outside of the obvious beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background, it was really excited to see Ben doing so well in the therapy exercises and being completely comfortable on the horse. I’ve uploaded a video to Vimeo and some pictures to Flickr (see below).
After the new years while I was home nursing my shoulder after surgery, Ben was off to school and Anna was at preschool and we really wanted to take Gwen into town to enjoy the day. While drinking the morning coffee I was reading my Albemarle Family and came across the ad for the Little Gym. After a quick phone call I realized we could bring Gwen to what they called their “Little Beasts” program at 10:30 that morning for a free session!
Well Gwen loved it and she was just adorable. We researched their offerings and ended up signing up Gwen for the semester and also Anna into their combined ballet, tap-dance, and gymnastics program, conveniently timed between her getting out of preschool for the day and Ben’s bus getting home from school.
To end the semester, the Little Gym has show week where the kids get to show off what they’ve learned over the past few months. I was fortunate to have the day off of work for Memorial Day for show week and got to watch my girls! Ben got to come too but I think he spent most of the time playing on his Nintendo DS in the waiting area
As for the picture above, every week they bring the balls out and Gwen immediately runs and grabs the purple ones. God forbid you try to take one of Gwen’s purple balls.
For now, here are the pictures of show week. As I get some video up, I’ll update this post!
Growing up in Virginia, going to the beach was sort of a summer, family tradition. When I moved to Wisconsin at 14, getting to the beach became pretty hard and I really missed it! Three years ago, we had a great beach trip to Nags Head, NC, with my parents and my sister’s family. There were six adults and six kids (my sister’s 4 and my 2 at the time) and we rented a cabin right on the beach for 5 days. Then we moved to Texas. When we got back to Virginia, we had planned another week long trip to Nags Head last summer, but then found out we planned it for the same week Ben was starting kindergarten.
So finally, after three years, we planned and made a short trip to the beach. Ben has been begging us every year and both Holly and I really wanted to make it happen this summer. The funny thing, we had no clue when it would work out. We decided to change some plans and book three days and two nights at Virginia Beach.
I was a bit worried I admit. With my three kids and my sister with her four kids, I imagined us going crazy trying to keep tabs on them on a packed beach. My childhood memories of VA Beach were spending five minutes just trying to find an empty space to lie our beach towels. Luckily, I booked a hotel on 57th Ave, far north of the boardwalk and the crowds.
We stayed at the Wyndam Resort. It wasn’t fancy or expensive so I won’t complain about the fact that it took them two hours to replace our towels after they took our dirties. What mattered was that it was right on the beach and it had a pool.
When we pulled onto Atlantic Blvd, it was 101 degrees, sunny and humid. The water was perfect though. I’m so used to kringing when I first hit the water but that first day, it was definitely not frigid but still cool enough for me to spend 4 hours in 100 degree weather without being hot! Unfortunately, I haven’t had enough sun this summer to get my tan on… I was pretty burnt!
We spent a few hours on the beach and an hour or so at the pool each day. We also made a trip toward the boardwalk to do a bit of beach shopping and get the kids ice cream. I’m pretty impressed by how clean and fun VA Beach is now compared to when I was a kid. We didn’t hit up the boardwalk, but I saw they had a beautiful new, handicap accessible playground at the southern end of the boardwalk. There were also a bunch of vendors on the boardwalk that we missed unfortunately. Maybe next time! We ended our second night with a 9pm showing of Alice in Wonderland at our hotel’s outdoor veranda.
Our last morning, we were pretty beat and I was so burnt I couldn’t imagine going in the water and getting sand on me. We let the kids play in the edge of the water and build a sand castle. Then we took them out to the Virginia Aquarium. I’ve been to a few aquariums now (Baltimore, Monterey, Outer Banks, Mall of America if that counts) and have decided that I really like them. Anna also really loved it. She was so excited to see the alligators, crocodiles and sharks. Ben, on the other hand, loved it because there were tons of rooms with lots of buttons and switches. I definitely recommend a visit if you need some time off the beach. It was Saturday though so it was fairly crowded, but we still got to see everything pretty well!
I’ve got a few select pictures posted to Flickr (see slideshow below) and Facebook. If you are on my Google contact list and you have a Google account (and you’re logged in), you can view the full collection on my Picasa site.
So I’ve never looked forward to getting the kids dressed up nicely, driving to some studio and then spending the next hour attempted to get all five of us looking our best while a photographer charges us hundreds of dollars for a semi-decent picture of our family. That explains the near absence of family photos for us except for the rare gem when we happen to be out with somebody that can take a quick snap of us.
This weekend Holly wanted the kids to do crafts so we all moved to the toy room and picked a craft to do. I thought it would be cute to print a picture of our heads, cut it out and draw the rest of the picture. I was making this up as I went, but in the end, I decided that this will be our 2010 family picture
On Saturday morning we decided to celebrate the beautiful weather by joining our neighbors and the Lauers at Carter Mountain Orchard. The orchard just opened on Friday and they were having a “Spring Fling” celebration. I’ve always loved this orchard and its great views of Charlottesville (the site is on an adjacent peak to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home). The festival had hayrides, booths, fresh donuts, face painting, and apples! We didn’t really stay that long as it was pretty windy up there, but the kids seemed to enjoy it! Anyways, we’ve posted some pictures on our Flickr in our Carter Mountain Orchard Spring Fling Set and Anna, the Lauer boys, and our neighbor Millie were also featured in some official photos Carter Mountain posted to their Facebook site. I definitely recommend a family trip to his orchard and bring your camera! They have an observation deck and on a couple Saturdays that I’ve been, they’ve offered the hay ride. When in season, their nectarines are unbelievable and last summer, I took Ben there to do some apple picking. I hear they have a decent winery next door too, but I’ve never been yet! Maybe later this summer.
The other day Holly noticed Anna playing with the kitties in the front yard and decided to grab the camera. She took about 40 pictures and I posted some of the best ones to our Flickr page. I’ll never get over how photogenic Anna can be at any time. I just wanted to share these because they look excellent! By the way, we’ve found good homes for all of those kitties!
Ok so I start this post with a caveat... I've almost always been skeptical and generally hateful toward get rich quick schemes. It always seems that the only person who ever gets rich off of these schemes are the ones who created them. I watched my parents and other family members spend thousands of dollars, countless hours, and lose more than a few friends while trying to make money with Amway. I once got suckered into an Amway venture in college when they first launched Quixtar and will admit, the sales pitch is very convincing and yes, if one puts effort into it, there is money to be made. However, the #1 rule of any network marketing venture is this.... if you join as a distributor, YOU are the customer buying the product. I've never seen any of these programs that don't require a monthly requirement of purchases to remain eligible as a 'independent distributor' or whatever that program calls it. Yes, you can get your money back by signing up other people and if you work really hard, you can maybe even make a living off of these.
So after all that, I have to admit that I joined a network marketing type venture. However, I did it for two reasons, neither of which having to do with making money. #1, they offer a product that unofficial research (parents) has shown to have a dramatic impact on language development in children with Apraxia (like my son). #2, by joining and actually getting others to join, the money being made will benefit the Cherab Foundation (http://www.cherabfoundation.org), a non-profit that exists to spread awareness about Apraxia (and in fact is the organization where Holly first discovered that Ben in fact had Apraxia).
I've been a part of Zrii as an "independent executive" since last October and this is the absolute FIRST time that I've even made a public effort to tell anybody about it. Up this point, I've merely been a customer. I am not an expert on the products or the compensation plan (in fact, if the compensation plan makes any sense to any of you, feel free to write me explaining it in normal human terms). Every month, I get two canisters of chocolate flavored Nutriiveda™ (sold as a weight loss solution, but contains what must be the perfect mixture of nutrients and protein to make a neurological impact in children like my son because testimonies are amazing) that are sold as a meal replacement or protein supplement or general nutrition shake. I also get a bottle of Zrii's juice, but I will be discontinuing as it is just too expensive for me. I won't even attempt to describe the benefits or ingredients with one exception, I recommend reading the ingredient label of Nutriiveda™... I was actually impressed. Vanilla flavored: http://www.zriiproduct.com/pdfs/Vanilla_NutritionFacts.pdf | Chocolate flavored: http://www.zriiproduct.com/pdfs/Choco_NutritionFacts.pdf
So why am I even writing about it now? Put simply, I'm throwing it out there for anybody who is interested. I will not be contacting anybody directly or trying to CONVINCE anyone to join. However, if any of you join, it does benefit both me and the Cherab Foundation so I guess it doesn't hurt to try!
For awhile now I have been telling my friends about the amazing Chinese food Chef Chang has been cooking up in Charlottesville. It actually qualifies as the BEST Chinese food I have ever eaten. I first heard about him through the Hook, a local Charlottesville newspaper. Turns out he has a reputation for leaving a lot and also has almost a cult following:
I happened to find a new tool today that met a need. I am at work and while Twitter is accessible here, I do not like to log onto Twitter, Facebook or any other social media networks from my work computer (as it is a monitored network and co-workers can see what I'm doing and I don't want to give the impression I spend my work week on my social networks). However, I wanted to update my Twitter RIGHT NOW, which is not an urge I usually have. I thought to myself, "I wish I could update Twitter via email." Using web based email is not really frowned upon at work so I am usually logged onto my Gmail account.
So after a quick search, I found a tool that seems great. It's called tweetyMail. http://tweetymail.comAfter linking it to my Twitter account and adding my email address to the approved email list on the site, I can now email my tweets to an easy email address (it will merge the subject and body content so you can write your content anywhere). It also supports email attachments (pictures only) that will be provided a short URL in your Tweet. There are additional functions (like email alerts that you can configure and the ability to follow, direct message, reply etc via email) as well so give it a try today if you need this type of functionality!
I had heard in the C'ville newspaper that Peter Chang opened a restaurant in Albemarle Square by ACAC. Holly and I tried it out a few months ago for lunch and it was delicious. I had the General Tsao's chicken... one of my favorite dishes. Tonight we are going for dinner with the family after being reminded of this place's goodness: http://www.scoutcharlottesville.com/scout-charlottesville/2010/03/taste-of-chinapeter-chang.html
But based on some recent reviews, I think I"ll have the crispy chicken tonight!
In the latest C-Ville Weekly, Will Goldsmith has a brilliant fisking of the whole Defense Intelligence Agency debacle that I just can’t recommend highly enough. It’s only January, and I’m pretty sure this is going to be the best piece of local investigative journalism in 2010. Business leaders (Leonard Sandridge, The Daily Progress editorial board, and the Chamber of Commerce chief among them) have been crowing about how the 828 employees that DIA will bring here will mean bajillions of homes sold, new jobs galore, flush county coffers, and a puppy for each and every one of us. It’ll be The Biggest Thing Ever™ for Charlottesville!
Except not. The jobs that they’re advertising for are so crazily specialized—and require a top-secret clearance—that neither you nor me or anybody we know are qualified for them. And the real estate benefits are nothing to write home about—new homes aren’t being built for these folks, since the market already has a glut of existing homes waiting to be sold, so there’s not likely to be any increase in property tax revenue. But even if there was, what of it? As Dennis Rooker explains in the article, a $300k house brings in $2.2k in property taxes. Educating just one kid from that house will run the county $8k. Don’t worry, though, that household can make it up in sales taxes. As long as they spend $580k/year in Albemarle stores. (Here’s hoping they don’t have two kids. Or use the roads, parks, police, fire, or rescue services.)
So who is this good for? Why are we doing this? Well, one names comes up over and over again: Wendell Wood. You’ll recall that this whole deal only went forward because Wendell Wood said that it simply had to happen, for super-secret national security reasons that he couldn’t divulge but, trust him, if Albemarle didn’t give him a rezoning of the land around the parcel he was going to sell to DIA, then DIA was totally going to take their ball and go home. So they turned his worthless land into a goldmine, by taking his rural land adjacent to the property and making it a part of the growth area. When those 828 employees want to buy some lunch, get some groceries, or perhaps rent an apartment real nearby, where are they gonna go? Why, to the buildings that Wood will construct next door on his newly-buildable land. And, lucky thing for Wood, he also owns another 958 acres adjacent to those two parcels, also zoned rural. And, luckier still, the new Board of Supervisors is just raring to expand the growth area and, damnedest thing, they want to do it by declaring Wood’s rural land to be part of the growth area, and with the wave of their magic wand, turn his near-worthless land into a small fortune. Not your land. Not my land. Wendell Wood’s land.
The word for this is “boondoggle.” That’s what we’re in the midst of here, watching unfold in slow motion. What I’ve written here is a slapdash summation of Goldsmith’s article. Really, just go read it.
This video shows the results of the 11th test of the Russian Bulava ICBM (Inter-continental Ballistic Missile) fired from a submarine. Almost all have failed.
Rather than trying to write code to have a page, this takes snippets from this blog, my Flickr feed, my Twitter feed, my Vimeo feed etc and puts it all in one place! I'm going to give it a shot and invite you to check out my page!
