Funny Valentine

Candies, Flowers, Love Notes, Romance ... all words you think of around Valentines Day ... at least I hope you do (men).  But how did Valentines come to be?  There are a few legends as to the exact origin. 

 

 

 

Some say that Saint Valentine's Day is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. Valentine was a priest who was sentenced to prison for life and was going to be executed. Before his execution he wrote a letter “from your Valentine” to his beloved. His execution was during the Juno celebration in Rome on the 14th thus the Day Valentines Day.

 

Another legend says that Valentine's Day started ...  in ancient Rome, on February 14th, a holiday to honor Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. Then, the following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.

In those days, the lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, on the eve of the festival of Lupercalia, the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

 

Frank Sinatra sings My Funny Valentine

Join in the fight against cancer - Join a Relay for Life Team Today!

Want to get involved this year? Want to make a difference?  Relay for Life is the perfect opportunity. Thanks to your support of the American Cancer Society Relay For Life, the Society is saving lives by helping people stay well and get well, by finding cures, and by fighting back. Whether you start your own team, join an existing team or sign up as a survivor or caregiver all participants are helping in the fight for a cure for cancers!

Here is the general schedule of events at each location.  To find a location nearest you and to get involved visit: Relay For Life  There are events in the Bay Area from May 10 to October 26, 2014.

Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony brings everyone together for a high-energy event kickoff to celebrate the lives of those who have battled cancer, to inspire hope by sharing recent accomplishments and progress, and to remind everyone that while we are winning this battle, fighting cancer is a year-round priority.

Survivors Lap

During the Survivors Lap, upbeat music plays as all cancer survivors at the event take the first lap around the track cheered on by the other participants who line the track, celebrating their victory over cancer.

 Luminaria Ceremony

The Luminaria Ceremony is a time to remember people we have lost to cancer, to support people who currently have cancer, and to honor people who have fought cancer in the past. The power of this ceremony lies in providing an opportunity for people to work through grief and find hope.

Fight Back

The Fight Back Ceremony symbolizes the emotional commitment we each make to the fight against cancer. The action we take represents what we are willing to do for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for our community to fight cancer year-round and to commit to saving lives.

Closing Ceremony

The Closing Ceremony is a time to remember the lives of those lost and to celebrate that each of us has committed, through our participation in a Relay event, to fight back against this disease over the next year.

 No matter who you are, there's a place for you at a Relay For Life event. Each dollar you raise will help save lives. How far will you go to make a difference in the fight against cancer?

Your reason for participating in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life event is as unique and special as the story that motivates you. If you've been affected by cancer in any way, being part of the Relay event empowers you to make a difference and fight back. This is your opportunity to honor cancer survivors, remember those we have lost to this disease, and raise funds and awareness to help end cancer forever.

The American Cancer Society Relay For Life event is a celebration of survivorship an occasion to express hope and our shared goal to end a disease that threatens the lives of so many people we love.

 

The Day the Music Died

February 3, 1959

 

Three young rock 'n' roll stars have been killed in a plane crash in the United States.

Buddy Holly, 22, Jiles P Richardson - known as the Big Bopper - 28, and Ritchie Valens, 17, died in a crash shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa at 0100 local time.

 

The pilot of the single-engined Beechcraft Bonanza plane was also killed.

 

Early reports from the scene suggest the aircraft spun out of control during a light snowstorm.

 

Only the pilot's body was found inside the wreckage as the performers were thrown clear on impact.

 

Holly hired the plane after heating problems developed on his tour bus.

 

All three were travelling to Moorhead, Minnesota, the next venue in their Winter Dance Party Tour Holly had set up the gruelling schedule of concerts - covering 24 cities in three weeks - to make money after the break-up of his band, The Crickets, last year.

 

Recorded life

Born Charles Hardin Holley - changed to Holly after a misspelling on a contract - he had several hit records, including a number one, in the US and UK with That'll be the Day in 1957.

 

A singer and guitarist, he was inspired by Elvis Presley after seeing him at an early concert in his home town of Lubbock, Texas.

 

With Presley serving in the Army, some critics expected Holly to take over his crown.

 

+Richard Valenzuela was the first Mexican American to break into mainstream music, after being discovered by record producer Bob Keane, who changed his name to Ritchie Valens.

He had made three albums and achieved a number two chart position in the US with his composition Donna - about his girlfriend - in 1958.

 

His rock 'n' roll re-working of the traditional Mexican song La Bamba - on the B-side of Donna - has also received acclaim.

 

The Big Bopper had been a record-breaking radio DJ - with a 122-hour marathon stint - and reached number six in the American charts with his record Chantilly Lace.

Learn about Black History Month

Origins of Black History Month

The story of Black History Month begins in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. That September, the Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by black Americans and other peoples of African descent. Known today as the

Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the group sponsored a national Negro History week in 1926, choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The event inspired schools and communities nationwide to organize local celebrations, establish history clubs and host performances and lectures.

In the decades the followed, mayors of cities across the country began issuing yearly proclamations recognizing Negro History Week. By the late 1960s, thanks in part to the Civil Rights Movement and a growing awareness of black identity, Negro History Week had evolved into Black History Month on many college campuses. President Gerald R. Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, calling upon the public to "seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history."

Since then, every American president has designated February as Black History Month and endorsed a specific theme. The 2013 theme, At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington, marks the 150th and 50th anniversaries of two pivotal events in African-American history.

To learn more: + Remembering Yesteryear

Maybe Dog is Man's Best Friend or at Least Should Be!

There is solid evidence that pet owners fare better than non-owners on several dimensions . Pet owners have greater self-esteem, are more physically fit, tend to be less lonely, are more conscientious, are more extraverted, tend to be less fearful and tend to be less preoccupied than non-owners. - reference Allen R. McConnell, PhD, of Miami University in Ohio


+27 Health Advantages of Pet Owners

Affordable Housing? In the Bay Area?

With the inventory of real estate for sale declining and in some cases completely disappearing, buyers have been pushed into the rental market.  The increase in rental demands have pushed rents higher too.  Now there is a lack of affordable housing options for the "Regular Guy".

 

San Francisco rentals were a different world when Chuck Post became a leasing agent - just four years ago.

 

"In 2009 we were actually discounting rents, offering things like a free month's rent when you moved in, perhaps throwing in free parking," he said.

 

Those days are long gone.

 

Now as the economy roars back, his listings draw long lines of wannabe tenants, and apartments get snapped up in less than a week.Rents in San Francisco are escalating at breakneck clips this year, largely driven by an influx of tech workers. Oakland and San Jose likewise are seeing steep run-ups.

San Francisco's bigger apartment complexes saw average asking rents break the $3,000 mark in the third quarter, hitting a record $3,096 across all size units, according to data service RealFacts. That's an 11.9 percent bump from the same time last year.

 

Median asking rents for San Francisco apartments listed on www.livelovely.com clocked in at a record $3,398 in the third quarter, up 21 percent from 2012, said apartment-finding company Lovely.

"Rents are rising faster in San Francisco than almost anywhere else in the country," said Jed Kolko, chief economist with housing service Trulia. "Rising rents are a bigger challenge than rising home prices, especially in a place like San Francisco where buying is out of reach for many middle-class and lower-middle-class people."

 

Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the think-tank San Francisco Planning and Urban Research, said the city is facing a "crisis of affordability."

 

"What happens when you let a city get this expensive, is that over time, only the wealthy can live there. You lose everyone else," he said.

 

A spike in evictions has spurred protests of gentrification, including one at City Hall on Thursday.

 

The root cause is simple, Metcalf said: "The growing regional economy coupled with decades of under-building housing."

 

San Francisco's construction boom is helping to increase inventory. But to really make a dent on the housing shortage, Metcalf said, the city would need to deliver 5,000 new housing units a year for quite some time. It's averaged 1,500 units a year over the past 20 years.

 

"There's a lot of brand-new Mid-Market stuff with nice amenities and high prices competing for the well-paid tech people," said Laura Gray, a leasing agent with Paragon Real Estate Group. "The not-brand-new units are left struggling a little bit."

 

For instance, she's listing for $2,900 a one-bedroom at a 6-year-old luxury building near AT&T Park and Caltrain.

 

"A year ago, this would have rented for $3,500," she said.

 

Other agents said that there remain plenty of wallflower apartments, either because they're in undesirable areas or overpriced.

 

But that's cold comfort to the folks engaged in the blood sport of apartment hunting in San Francisco.

Rosie Simeonova and Jay Dillon thought they were prepared when they moved here from Los Angeles last month.

 

"We knew San Francisco would be expensive, so we upped our budget," she said. "We knew it would be competitive, so we were very prepared with our renter's resume, employment confirmation, credit reports, pay stubs, anything you could possible ask for."

 

They quickly discovered that their $2,500 limit for a one-bedroom near Dillon's new job at the University of San Francisco didn't go far.

 

"We must have seen over 30 places," Simeonova said. "We'd go to an open house for a little tiny apartment and there'd be 20 people on the stairway frantically filling out applications. The landlords had no leeway for renters; a lot of times they would just offer 15-minute windows to see places. It was intimidating."

 

They got more aggressive. When they spotted an Inner Richmond place that seemed to fit their needs, they called the leasing agent and asked to meet before the open house, offering to sign a lease on the spot. That did the trick.

 

Lovely said that rents for studio apartments rose the most, with the $2,370 median up 24 percent from last year and 16 percent from the second quarter.

 

For all sizes of apartment complexes, Oakland clocked in at $1,595, a 15 percent increase, while San Jose was at $2,180, up 13 percent from last year, Lovely said.

 

For buildings with 50 or more units, RealFacts said Oakland's average rents of $2,124 in the third quarter were up 10.3 percent from 2012, while in San Jose the $2,015 average was a 9.2 percent bump.

 

Reference - Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

Your nails are talking to you ... are you listening?

Regardless of what you’re doing with your nails, you need to start reading the signs they’re sending. Below, we’ve listed out what’s going on with your nails, and what exactly they’re trying to tell you.

Peeling: If your nails are peeling, it could mean that you’ve got a deficiency when it comes to mineral absorption. While this can be caused by something as minuscule as not chewing your food enough, it could also mean a low amount of acid in your stomach, which means that your food isn’t properly digested.

Dry Cuticles: This one may seem obvious, but dry cuticles means you’re lacking in the hydration department. Especially if you work in an office where you’re constantly washing your hands or you’re always washing dishes (and particularly in the winter), resolve to use cuticle oil at least once a day to keep your fingers in great shape.

White Spots: While most people believe that white spots on nails are actually a sign of a calcium deficiency, they can actually be a small area of nail fungus or a tiny result of trauma to the nail like bumping or dinging your finger. If there is pain in your nail, seek medical attention to treat fungus. If there’s no pain and it’s likely the result of trauma, the white spot must simply grow out (which can take up to eight months).

Breaking: There are a few reasons why your nails could be breaking, and they range from harmless to significant. Your nails could be breaking because they’re exposed to water, soap or detergent for too long, or they could be breaking for more serious reasons, like endocrine disorders or malnutrition. The key to determining which is causing your nails to break is to take notice of whether your nail’s thickness, color, etc. have changed over time. If you notice a change in your nails and stop exposing them to water and detergent, yet the change persists, see your doctor.

Yellowing: Besides smoking, your fingers could be turning yellow due to a few reasons. First, it could be nail fungus, which can be taken care of with an anti-fungal medication from your doctor. If it’s not nail fungus, your nails could be turning yellow because you paint them too often and you neglect to use a base coat.

Dark Vertical Lines of Color: While dark marks underneath nails could be benign moles underneath your nail bed, single, new bands of color could also indicate melanoma. If you notice this, see your dermatologist immediately.

Hard as Rock: If your nails are hard as rock, strong and don’t break easily, it’s a good sign that you’re in good health. Keep up the good diet, exercise and nail care regimen! 

Separating From the Bed: Nails separating from the bed can be due to injury or infection, a reaction to a drug, thyroid disease or psoriasis. Once there is space between the nail and the bed, infections can occur underneath the nail. Most times, nails will reattach themselves to the bed within a few months, but if you think you may have a more serious condition, seek your doctor’s guidance.

Source -  By Augusta Falleta     For more beauty information: Beauty High