Random Guano

Silpada Designs is a jewelry company that started in Kansas City. Two women who were best of friends started this company as a way to make a little extra money and sell high quality sterling silver jewelry at a reasonable price. To say that they are an American success story is an understatement: a company they started with $25 from each of their grocery budgets has turned into a company with annual revenues of over $230 million dollars.

The formula for generating this success has been with the thousands of independent representatives who do business the old fashioned way: they sell silver jewelry one-to-one at parties and gatherings. They work hard talking to friends, friends of friends, and family. And the beauty is that the Silpada jewelry is high quality sterling silver pieces.

For the state of Wisconsin, Melissa Young is an Independent Representative who is the local expert for Silpada Designs. She can handle your Silpada orders through Home Parties, Book Parties, and even independent orders. Whether you need a piece for a birthday, an anniversary, or a holiday, Melissa can handle any orders for anyone in the Wisconsin market. Based in Wausau, she will be glad to answer any questions and provide any ordering information.

So the next time you need a piece of sterling silver jewelry, give Melissa a call.From Green Bay to Wausau to Madison, she covers the whole state of Wisconsin for Silpada Jewelry. She will recommend the best Silpada pieces that fit your budget, and can even host jewelry parties in your home. She will make sure that you and your friends will be happy to become part of the Silpada family.

There’s a rumor going around that Minnesota has a lake around every corner. And because of that, there are many fishing and family resorts for vacations that grace the shore fronts of these lakes. But there is one that is at the end of a mile long stretch of road, hidden amongst the pine and birch trees that dot the landscape. This resort is called Pine Terrace Resort.

Pine Terrace fishing and family resort is located outside of Crosslake, Minnesota, and lays on the shore line of Star Lake. It is a great place to plan your next family vacation, especially if you want one that not only provides peace and quiet but also a memorable time for your family. It’s easy to describe the particulars of the resort:

• 34 acres of beautiful woods, walking trails, and green space
• 13 cabins that vary from a honeymoon cabin for two to large family sized cabins
• Access to 7 lakes which feature great bass, pike and bluegill fishing
• Sandy beach and plenty of water toys for kids of all ages
• Incredibly friendly ownership who will do anything for your comfort
• Peace and quiet

What is hard to describe is the feeling you get when you vacation at this Minnesota family resort. It’s as if you are transformed into an era where families talked, and played games, and ate supper outside. It’s a place where there isn’t a phone in your cabin, and there’s no cable TV beaming non-stop interference into your life. It’s a place where you hear the water, and the wind, and the sound of a loon on the lake. It’s a place where the bald eagle flies overhead and makes you smile to yourself that this is a part of Americana that just won’t die.

Pine Terrace is a fishing and family resort in Minnesota that will help you completely unwind within 24 hours of walking her shores.  There are also many amenities close by, including shopping, good restaurants, and lots of family activities. For a great vacation at one of the most beautiful places on earth, give Pine Terrace a call at 1-800-950-1986.

If you drive along Metcalf this time of year, you run across at least one atrocity. It’s not the 119th Street area, which is woefully short of retail outlets. It’s not Metcalf South mall, which still stands to prove that malls can be relevant in a world where we want to drive up, buy something within 14 steps of our car, and drive home.

No, Metcalf is absolutely blessed and honored to be graced by the Vince and Associates building that borders this hallowed road just north of 103rd street. If you drive by at Christmas, you can be both astonished and horrified at the lighting abortion that graces every square inch of the property. It’s pretty safe to say that this is not what God envisioned when he sent his only son to be born in Bethlehem.

But if you drive by this property at other times of the year, you can understand the need for Vince to have this sort of display. After all, the building itself is hidden by nothing except the exposed craving of someone looking for recognition. The original Vince and Associates was located on the back side of a nondescript strip mall and sat next to nameless and faceless offices and storefronts. Vince obviously had had enough.

So he built a shrine. A building located on the busiest stretch of road in the Kansas City area. He built a rock water feature that looks as natural as the Statue of Liberty would look on that piece of property. Vince also was kind enough to give himself the best parking space that runs parallel to the building so passers by could see his collection of Maserati’s and other various sports cars. And to top it off, as if his insecurities started to eat him alive, he decided to pollute the property with an obnoxious collection of Christmas lights and other holiday assortments.

Think about the money spent. The cost of the electricity to prove a point. When the point should be to bury the ego and spend the money on hungry kids or the freezing elderly. But the money feeds an ego instead, and freezes this human from seeing humanity.

It could be the basement. Or the garage. A den with wood paneling…painted of course, because the wood is too dark. It’s a hideaway, a cross between Walden Pond and a sports bar. Men used to call them a haven, an oasis, or better yet the catchers mitt that enveloped them like a called third strike. These days, of course, HGTV and lost originality call them a man cave.

Constructing such a place requires that it cannot be constructed. It just is. It’s filled with bits and pieces of what makes a man. It’s the place a man needs to reflect, and think, and just be. It’s a place where the neighbors can share a story, where his boys can build a soap box derby car, or talk about the path that life shall take him. It’s where a man can philosophically ponder the imponderables, as the captain would also say.

It’s not a cave. It’s not a trip to Best Buy to extract the largest TV and surround sound system produced by foreign men. It’s not plush leather furniture, the cost of which could feed a family of four in Ethiopia for 12 months.

The Day The Man Cave Died was the day it was named a man cave.

Whatever happened to Rock n’ Roll? You know the kind; where you could listen to a song and just feel the grit seething through your speakers.  Where a song was written with a purpose and served as an audio sledgehammer for the band producing music and the ear that processed it.  It seems like rock n’ roll really started in the 60′s and 70′s as technology started to enable bands to play sounds with such power and force that they literally changed the mindset of a country. Rock n’ Roll spurred thought, and creativity, and brought passion out of people that had been bubbling to the surface for generations.

Music during that time was raw and honest and pure, because it spoke to important words of the day and helped bring people together at a time when people were growing apart. As we moved into the 80′s, technology started to really change, and artists started to take shortcuts into producing music that became homogenized into a wall of pre-packaged sound. When the 90′s came along, bands began to fight back, and all of a sudden bands produced music that Bob Seger would have been proud of.

Which brings us to today. It seems like music has shrunk back into a holding pattern, where social media and money drive the music that we hear, and that our “friends” musical interests are what are now our musical interests.  The days of feeling music have gone by the wayside, only to be replaced by artists who are brands and not really bands.

Enter Zoe Vette and the Revolvers. All of a sudden appears a band that plays rock n’ roll again with a sound that takes you back to the time when music mattered. The beauty of the album B.C. Radio is that you cannot pinpoint it to a particular era or influence, except for the fact that you KNOW it’s roots are in 70′s and 90′s rock, which is a difficult thing to pull off. It’s worth a listen only if you have the ability to feel it; otherwise you are wasting the Revolvers time.