Happy New Year from USCITY.NET

We wish you all a very Happy 2010 with health, happiness and that which makes you truly happy.

We also send our sincere gratitude for all who supported USCITY.NET and thank you for listing your businesses with us and using our directory to find what you want. We are committed to creating a community of businesses with values and quality products that make us happy to work hard to provide you with what we hope is the best experience in finding businesses in the USA and finding what you are looking for in an efficient way.

Our membership sign-ups almost doubled in 2009 from 2008. We are very thankful for that and we certainly hope that being listed in our directory is helping all our friends (especially our members and reciprocal link partners) who have asked to be listed in the directory. As we strive to be family friendly and the best directory in the USA, our focus this year was on the small businesses that are the backbone of the US economy and we hope that if you are a business owner or know of a great small business in your area, that you will sign up with us or suggest us to that business.

In trying to keep up with the times, this year have started a twitter account and a facebook page to go along with our year old myspace account. Tweeting is so much fun, even though I am new to the social networking arena, we luckily have some twenty-somethings on the payroll who help us out.

We have added several categories to help visitors to our site find what they are looking faster and easier. Some of the new categories we added in 2009 are Flea Markets, Foreclosures (unfortunately a sign of the times), Broadband, Audiologists, Energy with lots of subcategories like Conservation, Solar and Wind. Audio Visual, Air Ambulance, Snow Removal for our northern states and Skateboarding (a suggestion from one of our younger employees). We have lots of skateboarding shops and parks listed too.

As a service to those using our directory, we added Ambulances (including Air Ambulances), Charities and now are in the process of adding local Churches to the directory.

Some of the top cities for new website listings have been Honolulu, Hawaii; Raleigh, North Carolina; Sacramento, California; Phoenix, Arizona; two cities in Florida – Orlando and Miami and two cities in Texas, Houston and Dallas.

We are constantly updating our security and thankfully have had no major problems at all this year – Thanks to Bill, Rusty and Tyson.

Our founder, Rusty Crawford sends this message:

We look forward to another year of building the best directory on the planet. We are all committed to continually develop the uscity.net directory into a more useful business and resource directory. The uscity.net directory is a beacon for small businesses that are lost in the web and the its billions of pages. It is simple, and easy for any small business owner to add their listing.

Our hope to all this year is that if you do business with us, it helps you and that we make your business dealings with us as pleasant as possible. If you have a problem, please let us know and we will try and make it better. If you are happy with our service, please let us know that too. Happy, Happy New Year to Everyone!

Happy Holidays!

Please Click Here

Right Paw Obedience School Special

One of our Massachusetts uscity.net members, Right Paw Obedience School is currently offering a BAIL OUT for real people with real dogs... They are offering $10 off ANY group class starting in the months of January or February 2010. Simply mention BAIL OUT on registration and take ten dollars off class fee! Sign up today! Click here for registration page.

The Right Paw Obedience School is a complete training facility offering group classes such as Kindergarten Puppy Training, Companion Dog/Basic Training, Drop-in Intermediate Obedience and Confirmation Classes as well as Private Consultations and Behavioral Evaluations. Our group classes have a maximum of eight dogs per class and we encourage the whole family to attend! Both our group classes and private consultations are held at our easily accessible, climate controlled training facility. The option to work with students in the comfort of their own home is also available.

Take advantage of this great offer as soon as possible...

Viva Las Vegas - Viva ELVIS!

Here comes the King himself, Rockin’ and Rollin’, right onto the enormous screen of the new Aria Resort & Casino's Elvis Theater. This magnificent show will combine video clips of the King of Rockin’ Roll and over 40 dancers and acrobats from the famous Cirque de Soleil! Viva ELVIS will be coming to the Los Vegas on December 18th.

This tribute to the life and music of Elvis Presley is for everyone - young and old, fans and newcomers. Everyone is sure to love this entertaining film. Executive producer, Stephane Mongeau, says, "Our responsibility was to develop something that would look like what Elvis might do were he performing now. It's not a show about Elvis. It's a show with him."

The performance will showcase songs and performances, reenacted to stimulate and make you feel as if you’re right at a concert that he is performing for you. This is meant to be the ultimate Elvis comeback! Elvis is back in the building!

Click here for tickets!

Special Deals for December

Ebags.com is giving us 20% off until midnight December 8th and free shipping on orders over $25 until December 17th.

Buy one get one ½ off at Famous Footwear. Buy one pair of shoes and save 50% on the second pair of equal or lesser value! Find all your favorite brands and styles like Madden Girl, Adidas, Bearpaw and more! Some exclusions apply, valid through Jan. 2, 2010.

Through December 17th, Paws Up Pet Supply is offering FREE Shipping on all orders over $50. Order you Holiday Pet Products and use coupon code HOLIDAY2009 at checkout to receive FREE Shipping.

More to come from our members and affiliates here at uscity.net!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Spending Black Friday at Home This Year

Yes, I have been one of the crazy shoppers who stand in line at 4 a.m. to pick up a big ticket item at one of the sales the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday. I won’t be doing it this year. I went out for a half day (instead of the usual full day) last year, came home and decided to check the sales online. I found out that almost every single item I had purchased, I could have gotten without getting out into the cold morning and hanging out with the other crazy shoppers. I suppose I will kind of miss the laughter and the camaraderie of most shoppers out there first thing in the a.m. but I will enjoy lingering around in bed until at least 6 a.m. and not going out until the sun warms things up a bit.

Here are just a few of the deals that can be had between now and Black Friday and some even longer.

Just click on the paragraph that intrigues you to check out the sales:

Shop during the Holidays with these great offers from The Children's Place. 15% off with code HHHA9 now through December 6, 2009. Also, be sure to check out the great Cyber Monday and Black Friday offers. If you shop early, you will receive 20% off your entire purchase.

This one is for free delivery on select Harry & David Gourmet Gifts. The code is GIVE.

The Scholastic Store Online is advertising their Black Friday/ Cyber Monday Super Deals for the upcoming weekend! They promise tons of special discounts all through their site - all weekend long. AND you can take an extra 20% off plus free shipping on orders over $25 with code AFFTGS for even bigger savings! This offer ends Monday, November 30th.

And at Barnes & Noble, you can get free shipping in time for Christmas on any order of 25.00 or more and placed before December 20th.

Happy Shopping!

Honoring Our Veterans

There aren't enough words to express our gratitude to all who have served, are serving or will serve this great country. Because of you, we are free. Because of you, we can enjoy our way of life. Because of you, we do not live in daily fear for our lives. We keep you all in our prayers and we also honor the families left behind that have to play dual roles of mother/fathers, sometimes forever. It is not an easy life the military and their families live and we appreciate you all. God bless our military AND their families.

Special November Events

CONCERTS: Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC, Elton John & Billy Joel, Jay-Z, Miley Cyrus, Kiss, Metallica, Black Crowes, Jackson Browne, Roger Daltrey, the Pixies, So You Think You Can Dance? and Brand New.

HOLIDAY FARE: The Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes in New York and other cities on tour, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and How The Grinch Stole Christmas in New York City.

COMICS: Dane Cook, Robin Wilson, Jeff Dunham, Jerry Seinfeld and Ron White.

NFL: Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings visiting Favre's old team, Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Other premium games are the New York Jets at New England Patriots, New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles. Other games of significance are the Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos, Cowboys at Packers, New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts, Washington Redskins at Dallas, New York Giants at Denver Broncos, and the New England Patriots at New Orleans Saints.

NCAA: LSU Tigers at Alabama Crimson Tide and at Mississippi State Bulldogs, Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan Wolverines and at Penn State Nittany Lions, Oklahoma State Cowboys at Oklahoma Sooners, Florida State Seminoles at Florida Gators and UCLA Bruins at USC Trojans. UFC 105 will be held on November 14, 2009 in Manchester, England at the Manchester Evening News Arena. UFC 106: Lesnar vs. Carwin will be held a week later on November 21, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

BROADWAY: A revival of Ragtime, revival of two Neil Simon comedies Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound and the world premiere of Race featuring James Spader and Kerry Washington and Wicked.

USCITY.NET Mentioned in Article

Wow, I just ran across this article about the top free local marketing options and saw we were listed at #5! Thanks to Dream Systems Media for the mention.

Here is an excerpt:

USCity.net is a HUGE Internet business directory – It is not the kind of directory that is good for helping out search engine rankings by getting a listing, it is a local directory that is amazing for sending actual traffic to your site. They have such trust with the search engines that for a huge number of local searches they come up on top, and people will find you and click on you that way. For one of my sites about 15% of the daily traffic is sent to me from USCity.net
If you search for Arizona Mattress Store, you will see the results, and how the USCITY.net page ranks in the top 5. These guys do have paid options for listings, (better placement of your ad) but they do have free listings. All of my listings are free and I still see really good traffic. Just follow their instructions for listing and its pretty easy and self explanatory – especially if you have never listed with a web directory before!

To read the entire article, click here!

It's nice when someone notices all of our years of hard work.

Air Ambulance Category

We have added a new category to the uscity.net directory, Air Ambulance. These aircraft used for emergency medical transportation help out when a traditional ambulance can’t get to the patient fast enough or if the patient needs to be transported over a distance or terrain that makes air transportation the most practical transport. Common equipment for air ambulances includes ventilators, medication, an ECG and monitoring unit, CPR equipment, and stretchers; however some are almost “air hospitals.” We are getting quite a few listings in this category. Check out one of our new member listings, Air Care Lifeflight Systems, for more information. We have listings in all fifty states.

Joined in Love - Our Darling Delanie

Our darling Delanie got herself married on Saturday. She found her soulmate, her one true love, Colin Irvine, and they were married in a beautiful wedding on Spruce Creek. The couple was radiant and we wish them all the best. Delanie and Colin, I hope that your marriage will last a lifetime and that as you share your innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams, your love grows stronger each day. Cherish each other always.

Tweet, tweet, tweet!

All the little birds on jaybird street love to see uscity.net go tweet, tweet, tweet... That's right, uscity.net is tweeting away on twitter. Click to view our twitter page.

Remembering 9-11

September 11 - It's still hard to believe this happened, even though we saw it and lived through it. We remember the 3,000 victims who died eight years ago today - in New York City, in Washington, D.C., and in a field in Pennsylvania. To their families and their memory we give our love, respect and gratitude. We honor the many acts of heroism and compassionate response that helped those who survived. Let us strengthen our resolve to unite as a people to find peace and a better way. And we send comfort, joy and peace to those who lost a loved one, a friend, or an associate.

New Tour & New Album for TSO

A wonderful Christmas tradition that gets bigger and better each year is the tour of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra which astounds fans with an annual breathtaking extravaganza each holiday season. If you have experienced this show you'll want to see it again. And if you haven't, then you are in for a great surprise. The 'Night Castle' tour starts on November 1st in Omaha, Nebraska – travels across the USA and ends up in Nashville, Tennessee on January 3rd. Click here to view tour dates/cities and ticket information for the 2009 winter tour.

You can also pre order their long-awaited double album 'Night Castle' which will be released on Tuesday, October 27th at CD Universe now, just click anywhere in this paragraph.

Security Measures

Apparently while I was on vacation, we were once again updating our security measures – which is an ongoing process here at uscity.net.

Why we need to continually upgrade our security measures is something that has always bugged me. I supposed that we were trying to stop people from hacking us. So, I went online to find out why people do this. A few things I found out were that the way I was using the word “hacking” and the meaning of hacker is different. The main definition for hacker (in a computer related sense) is: “Computer Slang. a. a computer enthusiast. - b. a microcomputer user who attempts to gain unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems.” [dictionary.com]

I also found out that the ‘good’ hackers call these other people crackers. I guess because they try to crack the code to get into another person’s computer.

What irks me, besides taking up valuable time from people who are trying to make a living, enhance people’s internet experiences, etc. is this: if you are smart enough to hack into a system, why not just get a job programming or networking, do something worthwhile and get paid for it?!?

Well, that’s my rant for now!

Our wish is for everyone who uses uscity.net to have a good experience and we want you to let us know how we can make your use of our directory better. If you ever have any comments or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Just leave us a comment below.

Our reciprocal link program is doing very well and we have also upgraded our sign up system to make it easier for everyone. We really do want our site to be faster and easier for everyone. These are not hollow words like some company mottos.

We hope you will find our site easy AND fast!

Have a great day all.

Pam
USCITY.NET

R.I.P. Senator Ted Kennedy

Ordinary Americans, like me, are deeply saddened today by the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. I consider myself a middle class ordinary American. I have never known government without a Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy was only one of a handful of politicians whom I would trust to use government for helping the us - the middle class. I fear that his passing will cause us to be far worse off than when he was watching over the laws that passed.

And, will bipartisanship ever be? Although Obama and McCain both bellowed about their bipartisanship during their campaigns, it was Senator Ted Kennedy who demonstrated it throughout his political life.

President Obama said it well: "Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States Senator of our time."

My sincerest and deepest sympathies to the Kennedys, Teddy's extended family and the country. R.I.P. Senator Kennedy.

National Football League's 90th Season

September 10 kicks off the National Football League’s regular season this year. This will be the league’s 90th birthday. Another birthday being celebrated this year is the Dallas Cowboys - the team has been around for 50 years. The Cowboys are trying to set a National Football League attendance record when the team starts playing in its new stadium. $29 party passes are being sold to fans who won’t have seats - the party pass tickets are on sale now for the Cowboys’ first two pre-season games and two regular season contests in the new stadium. The home opener is Sept. 20 against the New York Giants. “More fans can be at the stadium and, although they won’t all have a seat, they will definitely be a part of the action and experience on game day,” team owner Jones said.

According to the league’s website, the league drew its biggest U.S. attendance at Super Bowl XIV on Jan. 20, 1980 with 103,985 spectators at Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

For tickets to the games, including preseason games, click on this sentence.

Mission Trip to South Florida

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This was written by a member of the Teens in Action youth group at the New Smyrna Beach United Church of Christ, where I am a youth leader. I was with them for a week on this trip and am always amazed at how loving, kind and hard working these teens can be - and their parents are more amazed when I tell them about it!!

Another mission trip down and we still can’t seem to get enough! This year, 10 teens and 4 chaperones attended the TeamEffort mission camp in St. Petersburg, Florida. We worked at the Good Samaritan Mission. They collect and distribute food, blankets, sleeping bags, and clothing to low income residents, most of whom are from the migrant farming community of Wimauma.As well as the food and clothing, Good Samaritan is now providing a day care, well child exams, immunizations, computer classes, woodworking classes, and a place for all to worship. One of their main missions is to help the workers between growing seasons and for the family members who do not travel. Along with the woodworking classes, they are starting new sewing classes, in hopes of giving them a skill that they may use at the mission and throughout their lives by learning how to mend and alter clothing - and learning to make clothing using patterns. They are hoping to reach out to even more who are in need.Many of the people they serve are detached from our society – they come here simply to work, send money back home and do not become part of our society. It is Good Sam’s intention to teach these people that they too can contribute and make a difference. They are taught to give back to the community - to become an active and contributing part of the Family of Man to which we all belong.We had plenty of bonding time on this trip, because we were rained out every day – usually not until after lunch, but we did have one full day of being with each other, teaching each other and we felt more love for each other every day.While at the Good Samaritan our group built a deck and a wheelchair ramp. Although it rained for much of our trip, we did what we could to help make life a little easier for the owners of the mission. Our group worked together cutting boards, hammering nails into the deck, carrying materials, keeping our group hydrated, swatting flies, and encouraging others to keep it up!Each night we attended chapel where we sang worship music, played games, and listened to the counselors as they shared their personal testimonies. Every night we focused on a different word of TeamEffort’s motto, “Pray as you go”. Each counselor has something to add to the week, and we were lucky to be able to hear what they had to offer. The overall goal of the trip was to encourage the attendees to be servants of God, with Jesus being the example we should look up to. There were moments that were surreal during the final day as we gave countless hugs, remembered the moments we shared together throughout our lives at the UCC, laughed, cried, and spoke openly. By the end of our trip we grew much closer to each person in our group, whether it was chaperone or teen.One of teens told me that when they started on the trip, they thought it would be cool because we were going to make a huge difference by building something for someone who needed it, but after getting there, it was more about spirituality and bonding with our group.

The bond built during the trip with ourselves, our friends, our family (for many), and with God especially, is stronger than ever. And, we did help build a wheelchair ramp, sorted books to be given away and cleaned bathrooms.

From Me: I want to brag a little about our teens. One of the groups there was asked to clean the bathrooms by someone at the mission. This group asked if they could just go sort some clean books instead. But several teens in our group rolled up their sleeves and got to work scrubbing floors, toilets and a baby changing table, so that both rooms were totally disinfected and shining when they were done.

Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman on Broadway

Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman will co-star in the two-character Keith Huff play 'A Steady Rain', which will begin previews Sept. 10 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Click here for ticket info.

Directed by Tony Award nominee John Crowley, the production will play a strictly limited 12-week engagement through Dec. 6. Opening night is scheduled for Sept. 29. "A Steady Rain," according to press notes, "is a new American play that tells the story of two Chicago cops who are lifelong friends and their differing accounts of a few harrowing days that changed their lives forever."

The production will feature set and costume design by two-time Tony Award winner Scott Pask, lighting design by two-time Tony Award nominee Hugh Vanstone and original music and sound design by Mark Bennett.

A Steady Rain was first produced in 2006 at New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse Theater. It had its professional world premiere in 2007 at Chicago Dramatists and was remounted in February 2008 at Chicago's Royal George Theatre winning Jefferson Awards for Best New Work and Best Production.

Playwright Huff is also the author of Pursued by Happiness, Gray City and The Bird and Mr. Banks. His recently completed works include The Detective's Wife and Tell Us of the Night, which round out a trilogy of Chicago cop plays that began with A Steady Rain.

Brenda, Our Newest Employee

Hello!

My name is Brenda and I am a mommy of a little red head named Breanna. She is my little angel and means absolutely everything to me.
I enjoy being able to stay home with her. Working here at uscity.net gives me that opportunity. I was working for an ice cream shop but, now I'm happy to say that I was able to quit that job. I clean condos every Saturday morning. It's really good money if you do a lot of them. I just went through a divorce... that was fun... I have seven dogs. No need for a security system... come to my house and you'll see/hear why..... I enjoy going to the beach and playing pool. I ride my bike a lot which really chills me out. I just recently lost over 60 pounds... pretty proud of myself for that. I love my friends and family. I live with my boyfriend Shea He's amazing. Besides my daughter, he's the best thing that's ever happened to me. He and his family are a major blessing in my life. In the future I hope to go back to school. I'd like to get my nursing degree someday.
For now, I'm taking life one day at a time.

~*Brenda*~

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

To all you Dads and all you who are like a father to someone, have a very happy day and we wish you much love and happiness!

Radical Honesty, What A Concept!

This piece was written by the nephew of our founder, Rusty Crawford. We would like to share it with everyone here now:

Radical Honesty, What A Concept!

"Have we become so adept at lying, that we've forgotten that we are, in fact, lying?"

On Friday, January 16th, 1999 John Stossel of the ABC 20/20 News team did a story on Brad Blanton's book "Radical Honesty: How to transform your life by telling the truth." I watched it because I wanted to find out what exactly he meant by "radical."

As it turns out, Radical Honesty is... well... honesty.

What astounded me most about the program was that people thought telling the truth was a radical idea. Don't you find that just a bit odd?

At the end of the story, Barbara Walters even warned viewers, "don't try this at home without someone trained in this." Tears ran down my face as I rocked with laughter and disbelief. Don't try this at home?!? Honesty?!?

Are we so lost that we regard honesty as a dangerous pursuit without a trained "non-liar" at our sides?? Has the world become so warped that we consider telling the truth, a dangerous exercise? It seemed extremely bizarre to me.

But upon reflection, maybe it's not so bizarre. Haven't all of us been taught that it's better to lie to someone than to hurt their feelings? That there are just some things you simply never, never tell another? We're not supposed to tell anyone when we've had an extramarital affair, especially not our spouse. And God forbid we’re honest with each other about sexual matters.

But have we become so adept at lying, that we've forgotten that we are, in fact, lying? Have we forgotten how to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Perhaps we were taught to lie because we as a society believe we actually CAN hurt another emotionally. We believe we have the power to make another person feel something emotionally. "You know how it is when you decide to lie and say the check is in the mail, and then you remember it really is? I'm like that all the time."
- Steven Wright

So who's responsible for how we or another chooses to respond to words? If you truly had the power to make people feel certain emotions, then you should be able to create other people's reactions at will. If you said the same thing to a thousand people, you should be able to get an identical emotional response from all of them, right? But the fact is, you’d get as many different responses as there are people. Each would react according to their belief systems and interpretations of your meaning.

Let’s do a silly exercise. Lets go around the country saying, "you have a big fat behind" to everyone we meet, regardless of their physical size. Men, women and children - no one escapes our little experiment.

Now, what do you think the reactions would be? You'd think most would be upset, wouldn't you? But you'll find some children will run away, and some will giggle. Some women will breakdown right in front of you and some will smile and say thank you. Some men will knock your lights out, and some
Will look at you like you've lost your mind. One statement, thousands of reactions.

The surprising thing is, the size of their derrière wont even be the deciding factor in how they respond. Some people think their tuckus is huge, even though they're tiny. In some cultures, large bottoms are considered attractive. Some people LIKE them.

So where is your power? What about your ability to make someone feel angry or hurt?

Seems each individual you spoke to, made the decision about how they would respond. People's responses are based on many factors, all of which are personal and have nothing to do with you.

If people understood everyone is responsible for their own emotions, we'd feel freer to say what we think and feel. Most times, it's our own lack of trust in ourselves to be able to deal with other's reactions, that is the stumbling block to our honesty. "How will I feel if this person reacts badly" we ask ourselves. "I might feel guilty, so I'll tell a little lie."

Because face it, sometimes people will get angry and hurt in reaction to our honesty. But the alternative of living lives filled with lies is not much of an alternative. We end up walking around on eggshells, monitoring our every word, and trying to predict how others might respond. It's a slow, awkward process of communication.

I agree with Dr. Blanton. Honesty about everything truly does open the doors to intimacy, love, and dynamic relationships. Without it, we're all just actors on a stage, reading our scripted lines. And to some degree, I think everyone knows we're pretending to be truthful. It's like we're all walking around holding dead chickens in our hands, making deals with each other.

"Pretend you don't see my chicken, and I'll pretend I don't see yours." It's a scam, but one we're pulling over our own eyes.

I have this impossible dream about everyone on earth standing up, and all at the same time shouting out, "I'm a liar!” And as we all look at each other, we could start anew and begin fresh. Then, we could continue our lives with a willingness to trust that its okay to think and feel what we do, and have
the courage to speak our truth.

Imagine being real and genuine with each other. Imagine what the world would be like if you could actually believe what people tell you. It might get a bit rocky at times, but it would "radically" change the world.

So maybe honesty is a radical idea in this day and age, but lets do our part in "telling the truth" so honesty becomes common place. The love that would follow would be far from common.

BLINK 182 REUNION TOUR

Blink 182 is Back - That’s what Mark Hoppus told everyone at the Grammy Awards in February where the band appeared together for thefirst time in four years.
After an inauspicious start in DeLonge’s family garage, Blink (as they were originally called) soared to fame after their “Enema of the State” album in 1999, which to some fans was the end of the “real punk sound”. However, this is the album that shot the band into the mainstream, generating hit singles and an unbelievable amount of airtime on radio and MTV. “Enema of the State” sold over 15 million copies. The new name Blink-182 came about due to the threat of a lawsuit from a band that already had the name Blink.

The band’s popularity continued with the release of albums “Take of Your Pants and Jacket” in 2001 and “Blink-182” in 2003.

In 2005, friction in the band caused a cancelled tour and DeLong quit the band.

It looks like DeLong is back and so is Blink 182. Now it’s Reunion Tour time for the band. According the band’s website, special guests on the tour will be Weezer, Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Panic at the Disco, The All-American Rejects, Chester French and Asher Roth.

The band is proud to announce that there will be tickets priced as low as $20 (lawn tickets with no hidden fees, parking fees, etc.) “$20 and you are at the show!” stated Mark Hoppus.

For tickets to the Blink-182 concerts, click here.

Energy, Foreclosures and Audiologists

What the heck do energy, foreclosures and audiologists have in common?

They are all new categories in the uscity.net national website link directory!

USCITY.NET added a few new categories this year in an effort to simplify finding what you want in our directory. The most popular category we have added is Energy – we have numerous resources for energy conservation, gas, solar and wind energy listed in every state.

Usually I am excited to add a new category, but adding Foreclosures wasn’t so. Realizing that this is what many people are facing and are interested in, we added it but it is something I hope not many people need to use.

Other additions this year are: Broadband, Flea Markets and Audiologists.

If you would like to be listed in our directory, please click here and find the best category match for your business and join us!

Happy Mother's Day

A mother is someone to shelter and guide us,
To love us, whatever we do,
With a warm understanding and infinite patience
And wonderful gentleness, too.
How often a mother means swift reassurance
In soothing our small, childish fears,
How tenderly mothers watch over their children
And treasure them all through the years!
The heart of a mother is full of forgiveness
For any mistake, big or small,
And generous always in helping her family,
Whose needs she has placed above all.
A mother can utter a word of compassion
And make all our cares fall away,
She can brighten a home with the sound of her laughter
And make life delightful and gay.
A mother possesses incredible wisdom
And wonderful insight and skill -
In each human heart is that one special corner
Which only a mother can fill!

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!

OLE!

Saving Money With USCITY.NET

10 Ways to Save Money Using USCITY.NET

Here is the top ten list our gals came up with to help you save money!

1 - Movies! Rent movies instead of going out, join Blockbuster or Netlix.
2 - Credit! Get your credit report and rating for free or find financial help.
3 - Bartering! Trade goods and services instead of using cash you really don't need to spend.
4 - Selection! You can get groceries (even gourmet) to camping gear to movies to cell phone supplies... all in one quick place. Carol looks for clothing for her daughter.
5 - Vacations! Carol loves searching for vacation deals – cheap cruises and - flights - (Check Expedia, Travelocity, etc.)
6 - Gardening! Grow your own vegetables and flowers.
7 - Eating! Instead of eating out, make cooking at home an adventure - look for new recipes.
8 - Online Shopping! Look for online ordering with no shipping fees – (Save time, impulse buying, no gas)
9 - Coupons! If your house is like mine, the Sunday newspaper ends up all over the place, so I check all the weekly ads online at uscity.net.
10 - Time! Sue shops while dinner is cooking. Pam searches for deals while she is on hold – loves her speaker phone.

April 2009 is poppin’ with top-notch sporting, musical and theatrical events.
Sports plays a huge part in the top April 2009 events beginning with the NCAA Basketball. The Final Four will be held at Ford Field in Detroit April 4-6.

Defending 2008 World Series Champs Philadelphia Phillies open the MLB 2009 season versus the Atlanta Braves on Opening Night April 5th. New Yankee Stadium will officially open for regular season Yankees baseball on April 16th as the Yankees face Cleveland. However, on April 3rd the Chicago Cubs will visit New Yankee Stadium to play the Yanks in an exhibition game. The New York Mets will open Citi Field for regular season baseball on April 13th with a game versus the San Diego Padres.

The 2009 NBA Playoffs begin April 18th. The NHL Regular Season ends April 8th with the playoffs scheduled to begin shortly after.

Stagecoach 2009 features Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Reba, Kid Rock and others April 25th & 26th at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. The 2009 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will be held April 17-19 in Indio, California and features Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen, The Killers, Amy Winehouse, Franz Ferdinand, The Cure and My Bloody Valentine.

Broadway highlights in April include The Philanthropist starring Matthew Broderick 9 to 5: The Musical, Waiting for Gogot starring Nathan Hale and the Broadway debut of the off-Broadway hit Rock of Ages. April also features two separate touring versions of the Broadway-smash Wicked with stops and extended dates planned for Birmingham, Jacksonville, Portland, Salt Lake City and San Francisco.

Spending Down, Bartering Up

As consumers become more careful with their spending and looking for ways to save cash, some are turning to bartering. Bartering can be a good way to get rid of things you don’t use anymore and getting things you want. If you look, you can find just about anything you want on the many bartering sites online. But, BE CAREFUL. With bartering becoming more popular, there is sure to be more scamming going on. Use only trusted named sites or sites you have researched. Look for references when available.

The first thing to do is to find the right spot to barter your goods or skills and there are many specialty sites for just that. There are sites for jobs, housing, DVDs, CDs, video games, clothing, etc. Check out the different kinds of bartering links on our uscity.net internet business directory by clicking here.

Once you find the site(s) that are a good match, be sure to provide enough information for both what you are seeking and what you are offering. For example, if you want to unload all those novels sitting in the library gathering dust, don’t just say “books” - list the titles, genre and the authors of the books. Remember that people will be looking for a favorite author or a certain type of book. To be found in a search, the more words you have – the easier it will be to find your items or services. Pictures are always a good idea too. Ads with photos often get more attention than just words.

To be on the safe side, for the more expensive swaps, you may want a simple contract drawn up. You should also consider how far are you willing to travel or who will pay for shipping. Don't forget to get references when trading for services, especially someone who may coming into your home.

Bartering is not only good for the pocketbook, but can also help save our environment by recycling items no longer used.

One drawback to bartering is time. It not only takes time to post your items, but there will be phone calls and/or emails to answer and the time of getting your stuff out of your house or getting what you want into your home. Of course, if you have been laid off or lost your job, this might be just the thing for you.

To help our uscity.net users, we have some newly listed barter/trade sites in our Barter category.

News Page Updated

We have updated and streamlined our news page at uscity.net – click here to see it. Our updated online news page at http://news.uscity.net/ has prompted two of our employees to stop subscribing to their local newspapers.Our new page makes it easier than ever to get the news you want WHEN you want it. The bottom screen has different categories (like World News, Entertainment, Sports, Politics, Business and more) - you can scroll down the thumbnails on the right hand side for all the stories within that category.

Although one of my friends will continue reading her down-home community newspaper that comes out once a week, she discontinued her local/national newspaper. The other employee only gets his news online now and he gets it all here. I asked my friends why and here are some of the printable reasons they came up with.

Reasons given for using the online versus print news were: 1. Convenience – you can sit down at your computer, click on national news and listen while answering email or other computer tasks 2. Ease – it is so much easier to read the news online whenever I want to, no looking for the paper and no gathering it up from wherever my husband put it. 3. Current - Its way more up to date – the news is up to the minute, instead of up until deadline last night. 4. Less Advertising - My newspaper kept getting more advertising and less news – you literally had to look around all the ads to find the news. 5. Less Mess - no newspapers to recycle (although what are we going to wrap our fish scraps in and wash our windows with now?)

A New Look

Check out our new front page – it’s out of this world! Actually it is OF this world, with a view from OUT of this world. Our front page features a satellite photo featuring our part of the world – the good ole’ USA! And, when you scroll over the USA, you get a map that makes it easy to find the state you are searching for.


We are rolling out our front page for the second time since November. The front page has been updated, formatted, re-formatted and we have finally come up with a front page that works on all computers – if you loved our classic page, all you need to do is click on the classic look page on the left hand bottom of the page, and if you are using uscity.net on a widescreen, click on the widescreen page on the right hand bottom of the screen. We hope everyone enjoys the new look and the versatility of our front page.

Of course, we kept the easy to use yellow and white pages on the right and left that are easier to use than any telephone book ever!

And I also hope you will use our directory to find what you are looking for – our national web link directory has over 1.3 million business links. We have national links like, Amazon (one of my favorites) and Disney Shopping, along with tens of thousands of local links, like Massachusetts’s Yolanda's Pet Sitting and Errand Service, Florida’s Trompe L'Oeil Faux Finishing and California’s Sun Xtender® Solar Batteries.

We also feature informational sites – Texas’ Electricity Bid, useful sites like Background Checks.com and the Anger Coach website, for those who are in need of help and for businesses or groups who need anger management training, the AJ Novick Group. We list government agencies, schools and churches.

Anyone who qualifies can be listed in our directory – we are “G” rated and do not have links to any adult sites or sites promoting anything illegal, guns, violence, or sales of hard alcohol. For a full description of what we do and do not list in our directory, go to Our Guidelines page. Businesses that share our commitment to quality information and support for parents and children are always welcome. If you own a business you would like listed, please click here!

Our Lead Graphic Artist, Shea Crawford – who is constantly updating and upgrading our look, came up with this design to make our site more appealing. We hope you like it and thank you for using uscity.net.

NOLA - Great Fun, Great Food, Great People

I am just back from a spur of the moment trip to New Orleans I took with my husband, who was seeing about an out of state job. We had a terrific time. We ate red beans and rice, jambalaya, muffalatos, po'boys, seafood and of course, beignets (a fried French pastry we ate at the world famous Café Du Mond). Food is a very important part of New Orleans (also something I am way to fond of!) and we tried our best to taste all we could in the three days we were there. To visit some of the websites of the many restaurants in New Orleans, click here. We rode the streetcars everywhere and it was FREEZING. We walked along the Mississippi, hung out in Jackson Square (photo above) and window shopped in the antique/gift/voodoo stores. They have great old bookstores too.
One of the really cool things about this trip was how the streetcars took us everywhere we wanted to go. This is me all bundled up on the streetcar.

I loved the live music - jazz, blues, rock, rap, opera - you name it, they got it - would you believe that the only type of music I did not hear was zydeco! I just now realized it. But we did meet a true blue French Creole who played the 'frottoir' which is a washboard with no wooden frame and two straps that go on your shoulders, you strum it either with thimbles on your fingers, just your fingers or sometimes a whisk broom.We were just walking down the street and listening to all the bands - sometimes dancing in the street (mostly me dancing, and George holding me - LOL) and we did stop in one blues bar on our last night there - before we could get to our seats, the singer grabbed me and started whirling me around the dance floor while he sang to me, George didn't even know and he kept on walking to his seat, it was really funny. After their set, the bass player came over and sat with us for a while and we heard his Katrina and the aftermath story. Sadly, he had lost an uncle, the uncle who started him out playing his music. Our hearts went out to him and to all these people affected by Katrina and its’ aftermath and we felt honored to meet them, share their memories with them and learn their stories.

My favorite part of New Orleans was the people we met -- almost all of them had been through Katrina and they were so upbeat about their lives, it made me ashamed. No "poor pitiful me" for them, they were happy to be home (even if there was no physical home) and ready to re-build - their lives and their community. We met one guy who had seen dead bodies floating down the street next to the hotel where we stayed and one whose neighborhood was entirely wiped out. They are a lively, patient, spiritual bunch.

Hurricane Katrina took over 1800 lives and displaced almost one million people,many residents of lower-income areas like the 9th Ward, are permanently displaced because they have no money to rebuild. Some of these people had homeowners insurance, but because of loopholes and laws which allowed insurance companies to NOT pay them, they will not be able to rebuild and some not even able to come “home”.

According to those we met, the French Quarter was up and running very soon after the storm and the people we met, most of whom had either rebuilt or lost their home, understood that the area needed to put money into tourism because that would be the best way to bring money back to their area. The businesses on Bourbon Street and around Jackson Square were the first to open.

We also visited Audubon Park in the Garden Districtand walked around, enjoying the live oaks and swans. On our way to New Orleans, we stopped in Biloxi and went into our first casino. We liked the Hard Rock the best. We stayed across the street and lost $6.00, gambling, decided to go get some snacks at the bar in the hotel and I found $50.00 on the floor. So I guess I will take my luck where I find it. Lucky is what I feel for getting to know the good people of New Orleans and I wish for them only the best and hope that we get a chance to meet again.

On the way home, we stopped in Mississippi at a state park and ate some muffalatos we had gotten in New Orleans. Mmmmmmmmmuffalatos - what a sandwich!

For more information on what to do and see around the New Orleans area, visit the New Orleans City Guide by clicking on this sentence.

George on Bourbon Street

- The Dead to Tour -
The surviving members of the Grateful Dead: bassist Phil Lesh, guitarist Bob Weir, and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann will be touring for the first time in more than four years, with nearly twenty shows spread across a month from mid-April through mid-May!

According to the official website - “The lineup for this edition of The Dead will be the same one that rocked the house at Penn State last fall at the Obama benefit”. Deadheads for Obama is the name given to the February 2008 reunion concert of three former members of the Grateful Dead at the Warfield in San Francisco. The show was an act of support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and featured former Dead members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and Mickey Hart, as well as John Molo, Jackie Greene, Steve Molitz, Mark Karan and Barry Sless. This was the first time that Lesh, Weir and Hart had been on stage together since 2004.

So Deadheads, fans and anyone nostalgic for a time when our music was all on vinyl and got scratched easily (but we didn’t care much), this tour might be for you.