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.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

A 2008 Christmas Story

Although this has nothing to do with uscity.net, I felt compelled to add this to my blog this year. Merry Christmas!

This year as we reflect on the story of Mary and Joseph's journey toward Bethlehem, many of us can relate to them passing through uncertain terrain and worrying about the future. The financial crisis our country is going through affects some more than others, but everywhere there is anxiety threatening to divert our attention from the blessings we do have.

Christmas surprises are all around us. An acquaintance of mine is a single mother, who had a good paying job, and just finished getting her college degree while working fulltime in November. Everything looked great. Then came a very disrupting diagnosis from the doctors. She is very ill, an illness I cannot pronounce or even try to spell. Basically, they are trying different types of drugs to stop the progression. And two weeks ago, she got laid off – showed up for work, was met at the gate by a security guard who looked her name up and his 'list', and then handed her paycheck to her and said “we will call you if you are needed in the future.” She was not even allowed back in to get her things from her locker.

I talked to her and she told me that this time in her life had been a revelation – in the midst of all her problems, she sees glimmers of hope and knows without a doubt (for the first time in her life) that she is NOT alone. So many people have stepped up to help with the rent, help with her healthcare, buy food, offer a shoulder to lean on, say prayers with her and for her - AND her daughter will be having more presents under the tree than she ever has. The mother of one of the families who has helped her, (even though her own husband had been laid off in Mid-October) told me that this year is not the year to scale back and tone down. This year is a time for lavish, extravagant gifts of sharing, friendship, joy and most of all, hope. If you can give hope to someone, you are not only asked to, but you are required to.

This kind of sharing is what it's all about in my book.

I hope you all have the opportunity to share something this season and I wish you love, peace, blessings and joy this holiday season.

Merry Christmas,
Pam

Last Minute Gift Ideas from CD Universe

Christmas is coming on fast for most of us and if you are looking for a great gift for anyone on your list, try checking out CD Universe. With music for everyone, they offer Christmas music from Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin to Harry Conick and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, along with new releases and top sellers from every genre.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is watching It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve while doing my last minute wrapping. Make someone happy with a holiday movie they will cherish forever. CD Universe has movies galore – for the kids (and the young at heart, like me): Shrek the Halls, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Polar Express. Charlie Brown. Alvin And The Chipmunks - A Chipmunk Christmas, Bernstain Bears' Christmas Tree and many more. For the older ones on your list, try: Christmas Story: Ultimate Collector's Edition, Elf. Scrooged, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and two of my favorites - Miracle On 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life. If Christmas movies are not what you are looking for, try their newer releases, like Sex and the City, Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who! or Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

CD Universe also offers games – top sellers this season are: Call Of Duty: World At War, Hooked w/ Fishing Rod Bundle for the WII, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain Of Memories or WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009.

There are 11 days for Christmas delivery, so shop now and even if you get down to the wire, like I did last year, you can always email someone on your list a gift certificate, right up until Christmas Eve!

Discount Dental Insurance Plans

We have a listing at uscity.net that I would like everyone to know about – we all want to be as healthy as possible, right? Maintaining healthy teeth and gums is vital to our dental health and wellbeing, yet many people forgo the dental care they need due to the high costs involved. Discounted discount dental plans are dental insurance alternatives that start at only $79.95 PER YEAR and provide discounts of 10% to 60% on most dental procedures.

With 100,000+ participating dentist and dental care specialist listings in a combined network of 30+ affordable discount dental plans, its easy to find a dentist and plan in your area. We want to help you save money on your dental care by giving you the power to compare and choose from the best discount dental plans in the nation! Discover the advantages of dental insurance alternatives by joining a discount dental plan.

With the cost of health and dental insurance on the rise, you will find the plans here as or more affordable than most. Right now, Dental Plans is offering new members 3 additional months FREE. Join any one of their money-saving annual discount dental plans and receive 15 months of savings on your dental care. There is also a vision care plan on the site.

Click anywhere on this post to visit the website and check it out for yourself.

Fleetwood Mac Reunited

Fleetwood Mac has announced it is reunited and going out on the road.

The supergroup is launching its tour at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh on March 1. The tour coincides with a new greatest hits compilation called Unleashed that contains never before seen footage and previously unreleased tracks.

"We love our band and think the title of the tour - Unleashed - perfectly describes how we all feel when we get on stage together, especially in 2009," the band said in a joint statement. "We're so happy to get back out on the road, perform everyone's favorite songs and see our fans."

Tickets go on sale Dec. 15. Dates include Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C., Boston, New York and Canada.

Just click on this sentence for more ticket info!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As I contemplated my Thanksgiving blog, something kept creeping into my thoughts - I am very thankful for the young ones in my life. Besides the youth group at church that I lead, my neices and nephews and all the babies I see and those I get pix and emails about, I am even thankful for the baby I see at the grocery store or strolling down the street. Maybe this thought keeps coming into my being because I need to be reminded of the circle of life. We lost my mom-in-law in November and it was a rough patch. The kids and young adults in my life (including my son, Wade) brought me peace and joy when I needed it most. Of course the kids in my life can also cause the rough patches (right, Wade? - LOL).

So I went out and asked them what they were thankful for, thinking it would be cell phones, Wii, DVDs, cars, etc. Guess what? They, like most of us, are most thankful for family and friends. Top two on almost everyone's list. Some of the other things they are thankful for are surfing, Johnny Depp, Jesus, car air fresheners, the little plastic things at the end of a shoelace, dancing, singing, laughter, beer, the price of gasoline going down, passing the midterm exam, nature. And thanks to Pamela (9-yrs.old) for her top five: family, pets, the love we share, food that God sends us to nourish us and get us through life and shelter to keep us safe and warm.

The uscity.net family wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

New Look For Our Front Page

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.


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. Everyone I have talked to loves it! I hope you do too. But just in case you like the old one better, you can click on the little box with the USA map in the bottom left hand corner and it will take you to our previous 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 and the Anger Coach website, for those who are in need of help. 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!

Good job, Shea!

Thoughts from the Space Station

My name is Lt. Colonel Shane Kimbrough and I am on the International Space Station orbiting 200 miles above the earth.During the 90 minutes it takes us to circle the earth, we do not see borders or boundaries. From up here, the task of solving the world’s biggest problems seems less daunting. But when our shuttle lands next Sunday, we will return to a world where border disputes and financial crises lead the nightly news. Those challenges define our world and their solutions will define our future.

I believe with my voice and yours and millions of others taking on the challenges of extreme poverty and preventable diseases, these problems become less daunting and more solvable.

I wouldn’t be here today if President Kennedy hadn’t called on America to make space exploration a priority. In 1961 he said, “We face an extraordinary challenge. Our strength as well as our convictions have imposed upon this nation the role of leader in freedom’s cause.” He called on America to marshal its courage and creativity, its intelligence and determination to put a man on the moon.

There were skeptics. Some said it wasn’t possible. Some thought we should instead focus on other concerns here at home. But President Kennedy – and the American people – would not be deterred. We set a goal; we made a plan; we put a man on the moon; we changed the way we saw our world.

President Kennedy’s vision forced us to look to the moon and raise our expectations of what is possible. Looking back at the earth with the same perspective as those early astronauts, Kennedy’s philosophy about our own planet is with me today: “Our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s futures, and we are all mortal.”

Today, a renewed courage is sweeping the world. People are dreaming boldly and, more importantly, they are ready to turn those dreams into actions.

On World AIDS Day, December 1st, we are celebrating our success in helping to bring lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment to 3 million people globally, including 2 million Africans. But there are 7 million more people who are in critical need of AIDS drugs and don't have them. There are also millions at risk of becoming infected with HIV.
We can drastically reduce poverty and preventable diseases, including HIV/AIDS, on our planet. But it will take all of us working together as one to achieve that goal. As Bono has said, ending extreme poverty could be our generation’s moonshot. This could be our new frontier. We should focus our attention to those on our planet who need help the most.
That’s what I believe. That’s my story.


Up here, we see one world, one home we all inhabit. I’ll check in again when I’m back from orbit.
From the International Space Station,
Lt. Colonel Shane Kimbrough
Mission Specialist, Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-126)


I got this in an email about joining ONE.org – took out all the joining stuff and wanted to share this with you. I didn’t want to make this political, but thought it was a great email and in the interest of fairness, if you would like more info about joining this organization, click here.

Happy Halloween!

We here at uscity.net wish all of you a very Happy Halloween. The sweetest dragon in the world is the son of Delanie Crawford and the grandson of Mary and Rusty.
This cute little bumblebee is Sue's Granddaughter, Tiona.
This year Halloween falls on a Friday night, so there will be more traffic and mroe adult parties, so keep an eye on your children, especially the middle and high schoolers who often stay out later.

Here are some other tips for making tonight a treat for all of us:

If you are driving:
1. Watch for children darting out from between parked cars.
2. Watch for children walking on roadways, medians and curbs.
3. Enter and exit driveways and alleys carefully.
4. At twilight and later in the evening, watch for children in dark clothing.
5. Remember to have a designated driver if you will be drinking.

If you are a parent or guardian:
1. Make sure that an adult or an older responsible youth will be supervising the outing for children under age 12.
2. Plan and discuss the route trick-or-treaters intend to follow. Know the names of older children's companions.
3. Instruct your children to travel only in familiar areas and along an established route.
4. Teach your children to stop only at houses or apartment buildings that are well-lit and never to enter a stranger's home.
5. Establish a return time.
6. Tell your youngsters not to eat any treat until they return home.
7. Review all appropriate trick-or-treat safety precautions, including pedestrian/traffic safety rules.
8. Pin a slip of paper with the child's name, address and phone number inside a pocket in case the youngster gets separated from the group.

The Costume:
1. Costumes should be loose so warm clothes can be worn underneath.
2. Costumes should not be so long that they are a tripping hazard. (Falls are the leading cause of unintentional injuries on Halloween.)
3. If children are allowed out after dark, outfits should be made with light colored materials. Strips of retroreflective tape should be used to make children visible.
4. Face Design Masks can obstruct a child's vision. Use facial make-up instead.
5. When buying special Halloween makeup, check for packages containing ingredients that are labeled "Made with U.S. Approved Color Additives," "Laboratory Tested," Meets Federal Standards for Cosmetics," or "Non-Toxic." Follow manufacturer's instruction for application.
6. If masks are worn, they should have nose and mouth openings and large eye holes.
7. Accessories Knives, swords and other accessories should be made from cardboard or flexible materials. Do not allow children to carry sharp objects.
8. Bags or sacks carried by youngsters should be light-colored or trimmed with retro-reflective tape if children are allowed out after dark.
9. Carrying flashlights will help children see better and be seen more clearly.


What the kids should know:
1. Do not enter homes or apartments without adult supervision.
2. Walk, do not run, from house to house. Do not cross yards and lawns where unseen objects or the uneven terrain can present tripping hazards.
3. Walk on sidewalks, not in the street.
4. Walk on the left side of the road, facing traffic if there are no sidewalks.

Before and After:
1. Give children an early meal before going out.
2. Insist that treats be brought home for inspection before anything is eaten.
3. Wash fruit and slice into small pieces.
4. When in doubt, throw it out.

BOO!

USCITY.NET Business Members Are Happy

Why are our clients so happy? Because we have lowered our membership fees by 2/3rds! For only $49 your website will be listed in the uscity.net directory for a full year. We hope that our price reduction will help everyone, and make our directory more useful. We are hoping to help small businesses who are going through the downward changes in our economy. Our goal is to have EVERY small G-rated business listed here – we want our users to see what services and goods are available in their area. So, if you are a small business owner, sign-up and help us to help you which will help your customers – and helping others – that’s what it’s all about, right.

Our sign up process is easy:
There are two ways to add your website:

1. - Go to http://www.uscity.net/listmysite.html and fill out the form (Choose a state and category) and on the next section, if you would like a map added, be sure to include the street address of your business.

Or

2. Click here and then pick your state, choose your category and then click on "ADD YOUR SITE".

Then you simply follow the directions.

Fill out the form and if you would like a map added, be sure to include the street address of your business.


Our support group is fantastic; and real, live humans edit our directory! Your emails are read and answered by humans; your corrections and modifications are made by humans; the phone, whenever possible, is answered by humans... That is one of my favorite things about our company – actually about any company, - when I call or email and get real responses from real people who have lived in the United States all their lives!

And, as always, we still list appropriate sites with a reciprocal link for free.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them here and I will get back to you as soon as humanly possible!

Pscho-T - Kristina's New Adventure

Hello, My name is Kristina Mangiafico. I graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Exercise Science with the intention of attending medical school within the following 2 years. I worked as a medical assistant for a while and enjoyed helping others. I enjoyed educating patients about their medications and maintaining good health. It was a fantastic experience, and although I could have seen myself doing it as my career… the stresses, the paperwork, and all the time that a doctor has to put in and give up just is not for me! I realized I can do great things, but as far as medical school, it’s not for me.

Post graduation, I found myself confused and unsure of anything in my life. I had no idea what I wanted to do, and moved, it seemed every two to three months. I moved to New Smyrna Beach then Tallahassee back to New Smyrna and now I reside in Tampa.

While transitioning I did some reminiscing on the things I loved and made me happy. For so long, I had suppressed my creative side; I had forgotten how much I enjoyed art, photography, design, and everything that is so innately me. When caught up in studies and work, you can forget about the things that are most important in your life.

Working for USCity.net has given me the flexibility that I needed after college. Due to my ability to set my own hours, I was able to also step back and look at where I want to go with my life.

USCity.net has inspired me to pursue new avenues… avenues that I always dreamt of but never thought possible for a small-town girl like me.

I recently started designing and making clothing. I am now on the web with my website psychot.samsbiz.com and am hoping that something comes of that. If not, at least I gave it a go doing what I love. I design hand-made inkblotinspired images on t-shirts that available for purchase as well as made to order. I have a passion for creativity and I only want to take my concepts and designs to the next level.
Some of my other designs

Australian Pink Floyd Show

A friend of mine is a huge fan of Pink Floyd – and he is raving about the Australian Pink Floyd Show. Another friend of my husband’s went to their concert in Chicago and said they were excellent. He was happy that they played a good range of the songs and said for the most part they were all huge crowd pleasers. In addition, the staging was fantastic. It was on a smaller scale than the Pink Floyd shows he had seen a decade or two ago, but said it was really great.

APF features two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer, a keyboard player, a saxophone player and two female backing singers. The band uses film and animation footage, just like the original Pink Floyd and adds some Aussie humor - instead of the filmed footage of the man in the flying bed in “On The Run” there was computer animation of a sunglassed kangaroo in a flying bed and Pink Floyd's footage of politicians for “Brain Damage” were replaced with other 'lunatics' of the past 20 years - i.e. Bush, Blair, Saddam Houssein.

For all you Pink Floyd fans, click here to find out if they are coming to a city near you - it's a great deal for over two hours of Pink Floyd renditions and some great technical visuals.

Rockettes Christmas Spectacular

THE RAG DOLLS COME TO LIFE!The Radio City Christmas Spectacular stars the world famous Radio City Rockettes in an unparalleled show featuring the Rockettes signature eye high kicks, precision choreography and exciting show stopping numbers that will delight the whole family. If you are lucky enough to be living or visiting in New York this year, check the dates for tickets by clicking here. And,the good news is, for those of use who will not be in New York City, this year marks the debut of a new Spectacular, playing cities across the country. The show stopping numbers include the legendary "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" and "New York at Christmas," a fabulous holiday celebration. Families will be delighted and touched as Santa and his reindeer fly, teddy bears dance and the true meaning of Christmas comes to life in the awe-inspiring "Living Nativity”. See if they will be coming to your area by clicking here.

This is one show I would LOVE to see!

Cleaning Up Our Directory

We are working hard here at uscity.net, cleaning house, so to speak. We have started a major clean-up of the listings in all of our state directories and since we are a human-edited directory, this is a major man-hour project. We have some employees devoting all their time to this project and most of our employees spending at least part of their time helping.

Our goal is to get rid of the listings that are no longer working correctly. Some businesses have changed their web address, some just no longer have websites and sadly, some are out of business. The first thing we do if we find a dead link is try our best to find out if the business just has a new URL. If that's the case, we will modify the listing so that it gets our users to where they want to be. If that fails, we have to delete the listing completely.

If you notice that your business is no longer listed, please just re-submit your business with updated information. Click here for easy sign up.

We feel that being of service to our users is our first priority and that means having relevant and working links in all of our categories. We truly want to be the best directory we can and this cleaning is periodically necessary.

We also have a great surprise in store for people considering membership, but more on that later!

We Have A New Sign

uscity.net has a new sign! Our sign is located on SR44 in Florida and we are hoping people who see it will visit our website and see all we have to offer: free, quick and easy phone number look-up (right from the home page); links to family friendly sites in all 50 states in an organized category/sub-category structure that makes it extremely easy to navigate; concert, sports and theater tickets; weather; news; sports; travel information; hotel finder; vacation packages; apartment finder; national and local parks; city guides; movie times for all states, and so much more.

Taking Us Out To The Ballgame

We are just back from a uscity.net company outing! We went to Jackie Robinson stadium in Daytona Beach for a barbecue, ballgame and fireworks afterwards. It was very nice getting together with everyone. The weather was a bit warm, but we had a little breeze from the river and once the sun went down, it was nice. It was Dr. Carithers’ (who is one of our biggest fans and one of our favorite people) birthday, and we had a birthday cake along with the hot dogs, hamburgers and pulled pork.

And, the best surprise of the night was Koda Crawford, who came walking up (no wheelchair, no cane - just her newly healed hip and her adorable little legs!). Way to go Koda! She was walking slowly but she WAS WALKING!

Her Dad sent us the photo of her super-woman hip!
I enjoyed getting to know Linda better and sitting with Kristina, who is a blast to go anywhere with.

The ballgame was between the minor league Daytona Cubs, who lost and... I can’t remember the name of the other team, but remember that it shared a name with a Florida county (was it the Brevards?). The employees’ kids had fun playing games, meeting Cubbie and entering contests all night long. We really enjoyed the fireworks afterwards, which were longer and bigger and much LOUDER than I expected.

Everyone I have talked to had a great time and are looking forward to getting together again soon.