Category Archives: Bits & Pieces

animals, Bits & Pieces, Community Events

Pit Bull Helps Nevada County Woman Detect Seizures

  A woman who wanted a shelter dog as a companion for herself and her son instead got much more than that.

The pit bull the Nevada County woman adopted can detect seizures, something important for her. Danielle Zuckerman, a former Navy nuclear scientist never knew adopting Thor could change her life. “I feel so much more comfortable, going out in public and going to do things, because when you’re an epileptic, you don’t have control over your own body,” she said.

Zuckerman has seizures due to a spinal cord injury. 

Read more CBS Sacramento

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Bits & Pieces

New Year 2015 fireworks from around the world

httpv://youtu.be/GSrOueHtCx4

After a turbulent year marred by terror woes, Ebola outbreaks and a horrific series of airline disasters, many could be forgiven for saying good riddance to 2014 and gratefully ringing in a new year.

Across the globe, revelers looking for a respite from the gloom will converge on the beaches of Brazil, the shores of Sydney harbor and the potentially snowy streets of Las Vegas (yes, really) to welcome 2015.

So here is an highlights video of the best fireworks displays – from cities all over the world – welcoming in the new year, 2015.

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Bits & Pieces, Entertainment

Creepiest Home Tours Ever

Picture courtesy of http://joyreactor.com/post/788368
Picture courtesy of http://joyreactor.com/post/788368

When you work in real estate, you don’t come across haunted houses only on Halloween. When touring properties for sale any time of the year, practitioners and their clients never know what they’ll scare up. Foreclosures in particular, some pros say, often account for the oddest showings, but other types of homes lend some surprises, too.

The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted some of the creepiest retellings of showings by real estate professionals. Here are a few.

House of the Dead

Phil Faranda, a broker with J. Philip Real Estate in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., recalls stepping into a home that contained floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and numerous vases. Then, on the second floor, he spotted a sign that read: “World’s Greatest Mortician.”

“Either it was the craziest coincidence that the owner liked to collect vases and was a mortician, or we were in a mausoleum,” Faranda told the Journal.

Animal House

The last thing Tonya Nelson expected in a new townhome was a reptile-infested basement, says the Redfin agent based in Arlington and Alexandria, Va. But when she and her buyers walked into the basement, they saw bright fluorescent lights with 10 large reptile aquariums filled with frogs, snakes, and alligators.

Odd Stares

Jordan Clarke felt like there were people in every corner of the house watching him. That might have even been less creepy than the fact that those “people” were mannequins staring blankly at him from every angle. The house obviously belonged to a seamstress, says Clarke, a Redfin agent in San Diego. But it was startling nevertheless to see mannequins lurking in every corner of the home.

“You walk in and get that sense that something is staring at you,” he said. “This has probably happened a half-dozen times now. I had one client scream briefly.”

Foreclosed Nightmare

Colette Barnett, an Atlanta-based Redfin agent, may have an expanded definition of “dilapidated” after seeing one foreclosed home. A porch was upheld by cinder blocks with caution tape around it; the stairs were crooked; a garden window was caved in; tiles were falling off the shower; and a huge patch of black mold outlined the basement wall.

 

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Bits & Pieces, Business, Entertainment, Grass Valley, Restaurants

Review of Bear River Pasta Company

Bear River Pasta Company Entrance

Image 1 of 4

By Judy J. Pinegar, Writer

Recently, a friend recommended I try the Bear River Pasta Company, it was a little hard to find, at 109 Bank Street. Inside it is compact and very clean. There is a refrigerator full of pre-made pasta dishes with the sauce, along with bread and yummy salads for eating in, or taking out for an easy dinner meal. They also make lots of different sandwiches on wheat or sourdough bread with all the fixings. Owners Carl Brenner and Theresa McGuire have done a nice job of creating a reasonably priced venue for quick meals and take-out dinners.

If you are eating in, you microwave the dish of pasta, and your choice of salad and freshly toasted bread is brought to you. We tried the Spaghetti and Meatballs, apparently the hands down favorite seller!  It was delicious, and so were the Garlic and Pesto Breads! We also shared a Carmel Balsamic Gelato which was fantastic!  Lots of other flavors of gelato were also available along with Cannoli and Tiramisu.

A second refrigerator was filled with many different kinds on homemade pasta as well as homemade sauces, enough to serve a family. There is also a supply of Italian specialty items, oils, candies, cookies, beautiful wooden wine stoppers, nic-naks and potholders. The salad items also include many varieties of olives, nicely displayed.

We took out some fresh made Fettuccini and the Tomato Basil Sauce, along with some nice homemade pot holders. All and all it was a great find, and I am sure we will come again!  Check out the full menu at their website www.bearriverpasta.com. Bear River Pasta also attends local events and street fairs, and catering as requested.

For their menu and more go to their website Bear River Pasta Company

Their telephone number is 530.274.1760

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Bits & Pieces

Heartbleed Bug, Change Your Passwords

Bug-with-eyes

Just when you think you only have to worry about the government bugging you, along comes the Heartbleed bug. I don’t know about you, but I went ahead and changed some of my passwords on such sites as Google, Amazon and a couple of others. Anyhow, here’s more information on what’s happening if you having already heard.

A massive security flaw exposed on websites could put at risk your private information, such as credit card numbers and other data.

Researchers uncovered the vulnerability in a Web security measure known as OpenSSL. Websites that have a lock next to the URL typically indicate that the site is encrypted and that third parties will not be able to read or receive the information you send. But the Heartbleed bug potentially could break the encryption and expose users’ personal information.

Researchers believe that up to two-thirds of websites could be affected. Google, Facebook, and Yahoo! recently confirmed that they had been affected and said they were applying fixes to their systems, The New York Times reports.

Administrators to websites are upgrading their software and applying added protections from Heartbleed. Still, security experts are advising consumers to change their passwords at any site that holds their sensitive data.

But beware: “Changing your passwords before sites were patched could simply lead to re-exposure,” says Bruce Schneier, a cryptographer and security consultant who discovered the OpenSSL flaw on his own site. He urges people to find out if the sites they use have fixed the problem — or if they were ever at risk — before changing their passwords.

The company LastPass has set up a “Heartbleed test” for consumers to check specific sites to see whether they are safe from the bug.

Companies will likely begin contacting customers soon about resetting passwords, but Brian Krebs, a security researcher, says consumers may want to be proactive in changing passwords now even if it means they may need to do it again later.

Source: “Flaw Calls for Altering Passwords, Experts Say,” The New York Times (April 9, 2014) and “The Heartbleed Bug, Explained,” Vox.com (April 8, 2014)

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Bits & Pieces

Public Memorial for Bill Schultz

Bill Schultz: Photo courtesy of http://www.raystoneseniors.com/
Bill Schultz: Photo courtesy of http://www.raystoneseniors.com/

PUBLIC MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR BILL SCHULTZ

Service scheduled for Saturday, January 11, at the Nevada County Fairgrounds.The family of Bill Schultz has planned a Public Memorial Service in his honor on Saturday, January 11, from 1 – 3 pm at the Main Street Center at the Nevada County.

Bill, who passed away on November 27, was a long-time resident of Nevada County and extremely active in the community. He served on the Nevada County Fair’s Board of Directors for almost seven years. He also served as a director on the Fairgrounds Foundation Board, for eight years with the Nevada County Board of Supervisors, as a board member of the Nevada County Council on Alcoholism, as a member and past president of the Grass Valley Rotary, and a member of the Grass Valley Chamber of Commerce. Bill had a tremendous love for Nevada County, and he will be greatly missed.

His family invites the public to attend the memorial service on Saturday, January 11, in honor of Bill.

 

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Bits & Pieces

The Art of John Daly of Nevada City, California and Rino Minetti of Milan, Italy

httpv://youtu.be/pxGmygmFfMY

Rinò Minetti of Milan, Italy and Photographer John Daly of Nevada City, CA.  They met online and have worked together to create these images from their work, Daly’s Photography and Rinò’s Digital Art. Sometimes a final image is made of one image from each, combined into a  new image. Sometimes there will be multiple images from each, combined into one new image.  This collaboration has been very creative and great fun for us.

We hope you enjoy our work.

John Daly & Rinò Minetti

 

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