Sunday, May 20, 2012
This weekend, the 38th-annual G8 Summit meets at Camp David to discuss a number of issues, one of them being pollution. Will the summit really be successful?
What is the G8 Summit? According to chicagog8.com, in the early 1970s, several leading world economic countries would meet at the White House to discuss a number of different issues including pollution and conservation. By 1975, after France and Germany called for a more formal meeting, France hosted the first summit that included a group of six nations, and was called the G6. This tradition continues to this day, with an annual summit held in a location selected by that year's host country. Currently, the G8 includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, and the USA. On some occasions, other countries are involved in the summit. China, Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa and the European Union have at least sat once in on…
Thursday, May 17, 2012
The Rally to Protect the American Dream has real estate agents telling Congress that home ownership matters
The National Association of Realtors has a planned event today in Washington, D.C. known as the “Rally to Protect the American Dream.” Most people don’t know about the extra efforts many realtors put forth for their industry, livelihood, and most importantly, clients. Realtors across the country are gathering on Capital Hill to tell members of Congress that home ownership matters to people, to communities and to America. The goal of the rally is to make Congress aware that Realtors are focused on homeownership, housing and real estate issues amidst the election year rhetoric. The aim is to fight obstacles that make it more difficult for people to buy, own, and invest in real estate. The obstacles that many in the real estate industry …
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Our Montco Mommy talks about her son's recent gift – a self-written tome dedicated to her skills as a mom.
What do your children think of you? I don’t often think of what kind of “legacy” I’m leaving, but one of the most important things I know I leave behind in this world someday when I’m gone is what kind of people my children are. While I may not dwell on it daily, it is likely a motivating factor for much of the way I parent. What life skills do they need to have forever? What ways can I best benefit them? When I’m long gone, what will they remember me for? At ages 4 and 6, that is sometimes hard to gauge, but I have a fairly vocal and thoughtful son so I know what he thinks most of the time as he thinks it. I’m not sure my daughter is old enough to think of it at all, but on Mother’s Day I was given a great description of exactly what my …
Monday, May 14, 2012
Lansdale resident Liz Troy shared this story with Lansdale Patch of her troubles taking a veteran to get a voter ID in Norristown.
Many opinions will be published on Pennsylvania’s voter ID law, but there’s nothing like a real-life example to illustrate the state’s ill-preparedness to serve its citizenry under this new mandate. Below is my experience. On Thursday morning I took 86-year-old “Beatrice” to obtain her voter ID. Although we live in Lansdale, we had to drive to Norristown. Last week, Beatrice had been turned away at the Harleysville photo center. In Montgomery County, voter ID cards are issued in Norristown and Huntingdon Valley only. In preparation for the trip, I had consulted www.VotesPA.com to ensure that Beatrice would have all required documentation. Social Security card? Check. Birth certificate with raised seal? Check. Two proofs of residency such…
40.136582
-75.330555
Department of Motor Vehicles, Norristown Photo & Exam Center
2101 Swede Rd, Norristown, PA
/articles/letter-to-the-editor-real-life-experience-with-new-pa-voter-id-law
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/locations/7005365
Friday, May 11, 2012
Vesta, part of the solar system's asteroid belt, is a relic from the time when Earth and the other planets took shape.
Vesta was the Roman goddess of hearth and home, but there's nothing warm or cozy about her celestial namesake. That Vesta is a barren, airless "protoplanet" that circles the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter amid the primordial space debris of our solar system's main asteroid belt, where it is regularly pelted by its much tinier neighbors―and, as scientists have learned, occasionally clobbered by not-so-tiny ones. Vesta is in the news this week because of the initial published findings from NASA's Dawn space probe, which arrived at Vesta last July as part of its mission to collect information about the earliest days of the solar system, when the planets formed. Vesta is about 330 miles wide, which makes it the second largest …
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Lisa Loper of the Scott Loper Team will be volunteering at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure this weekend.
It used to be that I would make Mother's Day all about ME. Scott and our kids tend to spoil me on that special day and without any reservation, I would soak it all in. However, two years ago I tried something a little different on Mother’s Day. My daughter and I got up at 4:30am and headed to Philadelphia to volunteer at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. We served food to the nearly 50,000 runners and walkers at the Wawa tent (thanks to a very good friend who is a director with Wawa). I was so impressed and amazed at the number of men, women, and children who make Mother's Day about someone else. Every year, over 100,000 people attend this annual event in Philadelphia. So many participates wore shirts or carried signs saying who …
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
OUr Montco Mommy and her hubby sneak away for a 5th anniversary they'll never forget.
It has been half a decade. It doesn’t sound long, but it’s a wide variety of peaks and valleys. This past week, I celebrated my fifth wedding anniversary with my husband. When you have two young children, getting a date in at all is pretty tough. We aspire to get out at least every other week, but that ends up to be more like once a month, at best. Between nailing down a babysitter, timing our work schedules and the cost of going out, we seldom take the time to do it. But relationships take a lot of work. We try to remember, though it isn’t always easy, that time together can be the best way to “work” on it. Thankfully we have my college-aged sister in town for a few more days, so we took advantage of a free aunt to get away for an entire …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Energy efficiency doesn't exist just within the four walls of your home
Energy efficient homes don’t end with the structural and interior elements. One of the most important factors to operating a more energy efficient home is the landscaping around it. Not to mention that landscaping is more of a long term plan that one day will affect the re-sale value of the home. It’s a topic we’re familiar with this time of year, as we make our trips (and more trips) to the local home improvement stores looking for that ideal combination of plants, shrubs, trees, and grasses. With the summer months approaching, we’ll soon be looking at cooling costs that air conditioners and fans bring to our utility bill. Did you know that all plants naturally lower the temperature through a process called evaporative cooling? …
Monday, April 30, 2012
Our Montco Mommy struggles with the rising cost of children's photos.
Don’t get me wrong. I love capturing the rare moments of my children’s childhood on film. Er, should I say, on digital cards and websites. Regardless of the format, I realize that these young years are fleeting and pretty soon my husband and I will be sitting here with an empty nest wondering where all the good times have gone. While you’ve already heard my rants over the challenges of having professional portraits of your children taken, I have one more unique bit of photography frustration to vent about here – the quantity of photos a parent is bombarded with in the span of one school year and the associated costs are pretty shocking to me. I grew up with school pictures. Who didn’t? And, as much as we’d like to forget most of them, …
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Lisa Loper of the Scott Loper Team knows the value of a good home inspector
Just like auto mechanics, dentists, plumbers, financial planners, electricians, attorneys, hair dressers, tailors, Realtors ... you name it: home inspectors are human just like any other service provider. Some are really good, some are not so good, and some are bad. Luckily word of mouth typically drives the bad service providers out of the marketplace … but not always. There are a few universal truths about homes and home inspections: A good home inspector is looking for “material defects.” A material defect is defined as any condition that would have a significant adverse impact on the value of real property. It is important to understand, home inspectors are not looking for cosmetic issues; these are evident at the time of showing …
Suzanne O'Rear
12:21 pm on Thursday, May 17, 2012
Excellent article! more ›