Busy and strange week. We’re getting through it and hope you are too!

Google anaylitics reveals that we had a visit from Emirates Telecommunications Corporation. Also known as Etisalat.

Etisalat has been the sole telecommunications service provider in the UAE since 1976 until the arrival of Du (telco) in February 2007.

UAE-based Etisalat operates in Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Gabon, Niger, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Pakistan, and the U.A.E.

Etisalat has blocked thousands of websites on the web due to various reasons; the statement on the “ban screen” states that websites may be banned due to their content contravening the religious, cultural, political, and moral values of the United Arab Emirates. These websites include:

• Pornography
• The entire Israel TLD (.il)
• Certain social-networking websites
• Certain media-sharing websites (such as flickr, and user pages on YouTube)
• Anti-Islamic websites
• Certain websites which cover aspects of the United Arab Emirates in a critical manner such as uaeprison.com, hetq.am and arabtimes.com
• Anonymous proxy sites
• Based upon the directions of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates, Etisalat blocks some websites, such as VoIP. Skype is one such service blocked by Etisalat. Many see this action as a move to protect the profits of the telecommunications industry.

Keyword used to visit the garden: “Sexy Dubai Chatter”.

Shut it down!

Busy in the garden. This is what my ride feels like right now!

Garden update:

We’re harnessing the power of the intern’s strong back to execute some difficult moves today.

End of the year push. Here we go.

Business Fitness Advice from Bob Greene:

Know what you want.

Make an honest assessment of what’s holding you back, including YOUR personal strengths and weaknesses.

Make a plan of action, including getting the resources that you need to accomplish your goals.

Execute your plan.

Local News: 9/21/07 6:50 AM. Live shot on the KY3 parking lot. Maria Neider in heels, skirt and full face helmet smoking hot on souped-up go cart/jazzy chair. Leaving Mr. Paul Adler in her dust. That girl can ride!

We love it when t.v. meets the street.

Confessions from the Garden:

Bad manners.

A member of our esteemed Advisory Board peed on my neighbor’s nice leather dress shoe and pant leg.

Disciplinary action has been taken.

Today’s Tip for better living: Just keep walking.

One of the more “progressive” funeral homes locally has a motorcycle gas tank urn in their “showroom”, beautifully done and mounted to wood for hanging. One style, single capacity, $700.00

Check these out.

Today’s Tip for better living: Take a ride!

A client in Texas tells us that the funeral director was surprised when she booked a cremation, casket, and chapel for viewing/visitation. “Well, you know he’ll have to be embalmed.” he responded.

She did. That’s what she wanted.

She had her father-in-law’s blue cloisonne urn that she’d bought earlier and wanted the same thing for his son.

Another client selected a keepsake urn for her father-in-law who was Jewish. Even though Jewish law and tradition is to be buried in the ground, he chose cremation to honor his parents who were cremated, (not by choice) in a concentration camp crematorium.

The moral of the story here is just because a family has chosen cremation doesn’t mean that they won’t have a traditional service, and we can’t make judgments based on culture and religion.

Greetings! Is Mr. Fancy Pants offering up a bowl of cherries? Very symbolic.

Last Sunday was the first funeral I’d been to where no body was present. And I don’t mean “nobody”. Joe Rook’s funeral was big. Over 1200 guests according to the funeral home.

It’s likely that for many of the people there, it was the first time to attend a funeral without a body present. Even though cremation is on the rise here, we’re still pretty traditional in Southwest Missouri.

The main chapel seats 500 and guest spilled over into three other rooms. We watched the service on a giant screen. Although I could hear Joe’s granddaughter singing, I wish I could have seen her. She was off-camera.

This was my first Masonic Service and first time to visit the new facility at Greenlawn Funeral Home East. The new location is gorgeous, modern design, soothing decor and a far cry from their north location, that hasn’t been updated in 40 years.

The family chose to have a one hour visitation before the service and the funeral directors were getting nervous about an obvious time crunch (they had another service scheduled later) and handled the crowd in an orderly fashion.

Impressive.

This post is not intended to be a critique of the service, only an observation of the service and new facility at the largest funeral provider in this market.

I’ve been meditating on Joe’s tag line: “It’s a beautiful day in the Ozarks!” and hope you will too. Have a great week!

Three Beautiful Things:

Hummers are hitting it hard lately.

Yesterday, on 9/11 many were remembering that terrible day. Nobody wants to re-live that morning, although it does help to appreciate my small life, and my non-problems that were unfolding that crispy morning.

Bookmark Tilly’s Story to read when you need to be inspired after a “bad day” at the office.

Smart girl, that Tilly.

Tilly’s Location: 59th Floor office, center of South Tower’s west side:

A horrific boom resounded throughout the office, so loud that it reminded me of a supersonic jet screaming right next to the window, only 10 times louder. The building shook so severely that I had to grab the desk to keep my footing! Instantly, I spun around and ran into my boss office to look out the window facing west into New Jersey. Stepping up on the air conditioning vent, I pressed my face and body against the window (not the smartest move, but it gave me a perspective on how severe the situation was). I saw monumental amounts of debris blowing by and raining down everywhere: chunks of burning metal, papers, desks — and bodies.

I could not believe what I was seeing.

Although we had a good evacuation procedure in place, I was not going to wait for it to be dictated to me. I grabbed my backpack, then a frightened Karen, and stressed in a loud, forceful manor laced with foul language (using everything in the book and then some!) that everyone needed to move now! I didn’t know at that moment what had occurred, but I knew that we were all in grave trouble, and that our best course of action was to be as close to the ground as we could go…

59 Flights of Stairs:

I like the way this girl thinks:

When we reached the 38th floor, the now controversial P.A. announcement was issued that we should either return to our floor or exit onto the floor where we were, but to stay in the building because the falling debris made it unsafe to be outside, and our South Tower was not yet secure. No one going down in the stairwell stopped…

It took me exactly 17 minutes to get down 59 flights of stairs because eventually it turned out to be the time difference between the two planes hitting each tower.

And that’s just a quick trip to the lobby…..

Definitely a story to be archived.

Today’s tip for better living: Layer your clothing.

The other Patriot Day.

While browsing the Template Monster, I spotted 3-4 new additions in the Society/Culture category… Funeral Service templates. And while I didn’t delve deeply, a couple designs did get my attention. And not in a good way.

Your thoughts?

Today’s Tip: Check out Post Secrets.

We lost a good friend in the garden last week, Joe Rook on 9/5/07.

Joe had a double lung transplant at Barnes Jewish Hospital in April. The last three months of Joe’s life was amazing; he enjoyed every day to the fullest!

Lakin’ it and loving life! Joe belonged to Rice Camp at Table Rock Lake and spent most of his free time at his lake home. Nothing would make Joe happier than a 100-degree day and a bottle of suntan oil!

Joe knew no strangers, and had countless friends that he helped make it through life by helping them to live it “One Day at a Time!” His trademark was “It’s a beautiful day in the Ozarks!”

Joe belonged to the Gate of the Temple Lodge, and was a thirty-second degree Mason. He was on the Shriners’ Directors Staff and was active with the Shriners’ Hospital Dads. Joe traveled many miles transporting children to St. Louis, helping them to get the medical care that they needed.

We’ll miss Joe and send our deepest sympathies to his wife Sharon, and kids Sonya and Jodie and extended family.