Livemocha: Learn Languages and Practice with Native Speakers – Friends

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Well I’m back in Avon, and I couldn’t be more excited! I have sold Avon on and off since I was 19 years old, and have never experienced such a successful start as I am this time around. And when I was getting my hair done the other day, I asked my stylist, “So has your business slowed since the recession?”. Her answer stunned me. “No actually, we are the busiest we have ever been.” Who knew that the beauty industry would be a recession-proof business?

It seems that women are taking much better care of themselves than in generations past, and that’s a good thing. Beauty and self-care is no longer viewed as a luxury, but as vital to our well-being. So while the country (and the world) is healing financially, bath and body products are providing quite a morale boost. Not to mention looking great for those up-coming interviews.

And if you’ve been searching for that recession-proof business, look no further… I am just a mouse-click, or phone call away…

Visit My Website Here

It was wonderful in the beginning…

I wouldn’t have to worry about coordinating schedules for installations of cable lines or boxes, phone lines, or any of the excess bills, or intrusions into my home.

And I could have internet service anywhere! I could meet with my clients and  qualify them for thier loans – INSTANTLY – even within the comfort of their own homes.

And the speeds were really fast…  at first.

Then, right around the time I was to pay my first bill, my service would crash – about every 5 – 10 minutes.  I paid my first bill, and everything was fine again.

“well that was odd, and a bit shitty, but ok”  I thought.

Second month happened the same way, except a bit sooner.  More crashes 5-10 minutes apart, continually.

I called the company… they did a speed test, then referred me to download software from a different site, as it might be a software problem. (I was using the CD version given to me when I signed my contract)

The crashes only  got worse.

Not wanting to think my beloved Verizon would be doing anything amiss, I reasoned that maybe it was my memory that was too low to handle all the work I was doing.

I upgraded my memory – the problems continued.  Only now, its continually crashing on me.

Google brought me to a few posts about the capping of bandwidth – a practice becoming more widespread with ISPs.  I found out that my service is indeed capped at 5 gigs a month… ok, no biggie, as I think I remember signing some paperwork to that effect.  But here’s the kicker – not only do they cap for the month… but they also seem to cap the “rate” at which you use it.  If you are uploading or downloading to fast – they shut your ass down!

And a call to their CSR dept confirmed it.

So those client files I need to send or recieve… will make my service crash.  Those videos my company uses to keep my training relevent…  networking sites like myspace or facebook… even simply checking my email… ALL CRASH MY DAMN INTERNET SERVICE.

Verizon, you have capped yourself into uselessness and worthlessness.  And um, no, I will NOT be renewing my contract.

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ps. my service crashed twice while composing this post. Thank you wordpress for your auto-save feature!)

The Experience:

I received a number of cookbooks from my maternal grandmother upon her passing.  One of them, Joanna Percival’s Classic Recipes, had an entry for “Parma Ham and Melon” that sounded quite intriguing.  But what was Parma Ham???

The book was published in 1978 and has all sorts of odd terms that are no longer in use (if they ever were).  Castor sugar?  Sponge fingers? Single cream?

To assist me in the translations, a quick call to my daughter (who had worked in a couple of restaurants that I would consider “nicer”) got me a little closer to my goal.

“I’ve never heard of it either.  Maybe their talking about Prosciutto”

I used the Prosciutto that they sell at Walmart (Daniele brand, I believe) and a very ripe, sweet cantaloupe.  The first bite was odd and took some getting used to.  Also I think I used too large a piece of cantaloupe and too small a piece of ham.  I found that a small, 1 inch cube of melon worked best wrapped with 2 or 3  layers of prosciutto.

I have been eating prosciutto for a couple of years now, but always felt that while VERY flavorful,  it was a bit too salty to enjoy by itself.  Coupling it with the sweet, cool cantaloupe was amazing.  It enhanced the flavors of both while slightly off-setting the saltiness of the ham.

The Recipe:

Melon (cut slices into 1 inch blocks)

Prosciutto (cut one slice in half lengthwise)

Wrap each block 2-3 times.  For presentation as appetizers, wrap ham to form a “cone” around each melon piece.  Arrange around dish and place extra pieces of ham between melon slices .  Decorate with black olives. Enjoy.

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