Valentine's Day Quiz!

1. What is often done on Valentine's Day?

2. The Catholic Church feast day is said to be in honor of?

3. What is romantic love?

4. What is used for the mutual exchange of love notes?

5. What Valentine symbols are commonly used?

6. Who is Cupid?

7. According to legend what does Cupid like to do?

8. How would you describe Cupid's physical characteristics?

9. How many valentine greeting cards are sent each year?

10. What is the largest card sending holiday?

11. What percentage of valentines are purchased by women?

12. What is regarded by historians as purely a matter of legend?

13. When was the feast of St. Valentine first declared?

14. When did the Catholic Church remove St. Valentine's Day from its official calendar?

15. When was the 1st recorded union of Valentine's Day with romantic love?

16. What is it common to call each other on Valentine's Day?

17. When were the first mass produced valentines of embossed paper lace?

18. What has the Greeting Card Association been giving since 2001?

19. When was the practice of exchanging cards extended to the giving of gifts?

20. What started to promote Valentine's Day as occasion for giving jewelry?

21. What is platonic love?

22. What do women in Japan and Korea do on Valentine's Day?

23. What is the Valentine chocolate known as in Japan?

24. What might you say to someone on Valentine's Day?

25. Why do some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February?

26. What did printed cards replace?

27. When did Americans begin exchanging hand made valentines?

28. Where can you find the oldest known Valentine card?

29. What is Esther A. Howland, known as?

30. Name a well known great romance?

31. What day is February 14 in the Gregorian Calendar?

Go online to www.TheEdgeMagazine.org for the answers to this fun Valentine’s Day Quiz

February 2011 Calendar of Events

Every Monday
Bingo!! Come join our seniors every Monday right after lunch until about 3:00 p.m. for some fun games of Bingo, at the Crossroads Senior and Community Center.

Every Tuesday
Vernal Chamber of Commerce Meeting held at Golden Corral in Vernal at 12 PM.

Every Wednesday
Spanish & English Story Time for kids at the Uintah County Library at 2:00pm. For more info call 789-0091.

Every Friday
Golden Age Center Dance open to the public. Dances held at the Golden Age Center beginning at 3:00pm.

2011 Water Summit
February 1rst At Western Park Arena 9:30- 4:30. Cost is $25.00  The keynote speaker will be Lt. Gov. Greg Bell.   $25.00 registration fee includes all sessions and lunch if pre-registered by Feb 5^th.  $30.00 at the door.  For more information Contact Heather Hoit at the Uintah County Office 781-0770.

Quilters
Meet the 2^nd and the 16^th  from 9:00- 3:00 and the 8^th from 7:00pm- 9:00pm. Come join the fun and watch the fabric fly at the Crossroads Senior and Community Center.

API Meeting
Feb 9^th  6:30 @ 7-11 ranch.  For more information Contact Bob Ballou at 724-2500. Or e-mail Bob at rballou@ubtanet.com. 

Legal Service
Feb 9^th 3:00-5:00pm at the Crossroads Senior and Community Center.

Breakfast for your Brain
February 9^th and 23^rd. Seniors join us at 11:30 for breakfast and a workout for your brain! This ongoing class will help strengthen your memories and overall brain function! Proven to aid in the prevention of  Alzheimer  Disease.

Foster grandparent and R.S.V.P.
February 14^TH  in service and luncheon

Vernal shopping trip
February 16^th with transportation provided for $2.50

Feb. 14^th Valentine's Day 

Learning Link Parenting Class, "Positive Discipline". Child care available. February 15^th 11:00am-12:00pm.
Classes are geared to parents with children under the age of three. Pre-register at least 24 hours in advance. For more information Call DDI Vantage Coordinator Judy Amillatequi 722-3008  Classes located at 187 W. Lagoon St. or visit our website at
www.ddivantage.org

Social Security 
Feb  17^th, 9:30-1:00 at the Crossroads Senior Center 50 E. 200 S. Roosevelt.  Please bring all of your information. For more information call Duchesne County Chamber of Commerce at
722-4598/ 722-4597.

Feb. 21st   Presidents Day

 
 

 
 

If you have any information that you would like to be included in the Calendar of Events then please email us at michelle@

TheEdgeMagazine.org
OR
Send it snail mail
PO Box 287
Neola, UT 84053

 
 

Braggin' Rights

"Mike's Elk" - Photo Courtesy of Kaleb Thomas



"Sunset over Kevin's favorite hunting ridge" - Photo Courtesy of William Anderson



"Jenn's First Elk" - Photo Courtesy of Brian

"What are you looking at?" - Photo Courtesy of Gayle Olsen

Oh What To Do - February 2011

By: Whitney Lefler

What is there to do in Tabiona? As a Senior at Tabiona High School that is a question that I hear all of the time. My answer, "Follow me around for a while and I will show you. "

    Many people get the perception that life in a small town is quiet and laid back, I have found it to be just the opposite. Tabiona High School has a student body of around fifty students. With so few students we get the opportunity to be involved in anything we choose. Early on I chose sports. And when I say sports, I mean all the sports that are offered in our school. I participate in Volleyball, Basketball, Drill team, Cheerleading, Track, and this year I decided to add Cross Country to my list of fun things to do.     

    For the past four years of my High School career I have had three sports that are all going on at the same time. From November to March, I am involved in Basketball, Drill team, and Cheerleading. With an agenda like this I spend many hours at the school, either for practice or games. There have been times I have been at the school from 5:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.. Sometimes my mom will say, "Next year you better give something up." I tell her, "I can't I love them all!" So about October I start drinking orange juice, and taking my vitamins, so my body can keep up too!

    It all starts in August with Volleyball, and Cross Country which goes until the end of October. Some days I would have a Cross Country meet, and then have to hurry home for a Volleyball game. That means a one hour or more drive home. I get about a one week break before basketball practice begins. This year I decided I would try out for Homecoming queen during that one week break, just so I wouldn't get bored. Then in November let the games begin, my favorite of all the sports start "Basketball." This might be my favorite sport, but it is also the busiest time of the year for me. On a game night I can change uniforms three different times. I start out in my cheerleading uniform, then at half time of that game I change into my drill team costume and perform at half time, then change back into my cheer uniform to cheer the boys on. Each day can present a different sport as well, one night I play a basketball game, and the next day I am off to a drill team competition, and then cheering at a boys basketball game. Basketball season ends in March. I get a two week break before Track begins.

    Does it all end at the end of the season? Absolutely not! In the summer I attend camps, and we continue with drill team, cheerleading practice , and fund raisers all summer long. As well as work a full time job. In August it starts all over again with Volleyball. Am I complaining? Definitely not! I wouldn't have it any other way.

    Not only have I participated in each sport but I have been a Varsity starter since I was a Freshmen. I have lettered in each sport every year. I have been on the All-State Drill Team for two consecutive years. I have been awarded the MVP in Volleyball, and Track, and the "Best all around Player" in Basketball. As well as being awarded the "Female Athlete of the year" in 2010. My first year in cross country I made it to State. I do not just choose to participate in these sports, I choose to excel.

    At times it gets to be a bit daunting to keep up with my schedule and still maintain a grade point average that will allow me to stay on the team, but I do it. I have been an honor roll student each year as well.

    This year I have decided to add becoming an Emergency Medical Technician to my schedule. I have been taking classes since August. I have class two nights a week, four hours a night. So every Monday and Wednesday I go straight from practice to class. This routine helps me maintain self discipline, and I know that if I can do this I will be prepared for a rigorous schedule at College next fall.

    As I get ready to leave this small town, and go out into Urban America I ask myself, "What is there to do in Provo?"

 
 

Friday Nights In A Small Town - A Fairy Tale Ending - February 2011

By: Jennifer Rook

    A few of my childhood friends and I were reminiscing (on Facebook, of course) recently about a favorite winter, Saturday morning ritual we all took part in way back in the day: The Saturday morning movie matinee at the Vernal Theater. We recalled some of the never-before-heard-of movies that we enjoyed each winter such as "Against A Crooked Sky", "Snow Queen" and some popular titles from the 60's including "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" "The Yearling" (until it melted before our eyes on the screen one day) and quite a few Pippi Longstocking adventures. We thought we were the luckiest kids in the world to get to go to the movies every weekend.

Turns out we were some of the lucky ones. Not all of my friends were allowed to attend the matinees. Their parents didn't approve of the movie content unless it was a Disney offering or some cartoon. Subsequently, these are the same parents now who ban movies such as Harry Potter and anything that has to do with magic and evil nemeses. It all makes me wonder though; are they really avoiding such movie elements by allowing G rated Disney movies and other happy cartoons?

    Take, for example, Snow White, a little princess who is so pretty her stepmother hates her. HATES her because she's pretty. In fact, this woman hates her stepdaughter so much, and is so completely and totally jealous of the girl's beauty and charm, (and by the way, I'm just SURE she coveted that heavenly, melodic singing voice that seemed to tranquilize small birds and mammals too. Who wouldn't want that power? ) that she hires a hit man to murder the girl. (and just where is the loving father in all of these cartoons anyway? It seems the father is always absent and therefore totally oblivious to the abuse his freakishly gorgeous daughter suffers at the hands of some evil woman he's married to) Evil Queenie demands the hit man cut poor little Snow's heart out and threatens him with his own death if he does not return with the heart in a box. (Do you suppose she was going to keep the heart in the box on the mantle? Or preserve it and display it in the trophy room?)

So, the hit man, a hunter by trade, somehow coerces Snow White to follow him deep into the woods. The moment he raises his hand to stab Snow White the hunter realizes he's in the wrong line of work and should stick to killing animals. He lowers his knife and instead runs Snow White off like a stray dog. The deer heart he brings back to the Queen tricks her for a while, but soon that magic mirror gives the hit man away and she knows Snow White is still alive. So, she whips herself up a magic potion, yes I said MAGIC, changes her identity and tries to poison Snow White numerous times.
Well, Snow White, by this time, with no obvious survival skills and brains whatsoever, runs like a scared kitten through the dark and scary woods until she finds a little cottage. No one is home, so she goes ahead and breaks in. It just happens to be dirty so what does the brainless little pretty do? Well she cleans right up and then bakes a pie for the poor orphans who live there. Because that's all women know how to do apparently; clean and bake after running blindly through the dark and scary woods. She is but a meek, mild, frail girl and so pretty that when the grubby little men who inhabit the cottage she has broken into and rummaged through come home, they are awe-inspired by her beauty and let her stay once she promises to be good eye candy AND cook and clean for them.
So stay, she does. But Snow White is so stupid, she lets the evil queen trick her and poison her twice before she finally succumbs to the famed poison apple. The Evil Queen soon meets her demise as she tumbles off a rocky cliff. And creepily enough, the grubby little men who are lamenting the loss of their gorgeous new slave just can't bring themselves to bury her dead body so they encase it in a glass coffin, creating a shrine unto which they bow daily.
But OF COURSE a handsome prince of regular height finds the sleeping princess and just can't resist a lovely kiss on her dead, frozen lips under that glass coffin (isn't there a syndrome or a sickness for people who do stuff like that? Isn't it illegal?) The kiss awakens the dead Snow White (can you imagine the morning breath that girl had? Death breath! Mmmmmmm…attractive!) and they fall instantly in love and are married that same day. I think he may have already known what a stellar housekeeper she was though. I'm sure her pie baking skills were renowned throughout the kingdom by this time as well because, after all, it's hard to keep seven little men quiet who just hit the domestic jackpot. It's truly a great premise for a wonderful children's cartoon isn't it?
I guess singing and whistling dwarves are what makes it all okay. The Brother's Grimm wrote many dark, scary, gory tales but Hollywood movie producers clued into the whole "musical numbers makes it all better" trick and now turn many dark movies of magic and mayhem into box office gold. The underlying themes are all the same, but singing dwarves and pretty princesses who can charm small animals and rodents somehow make the subject matter more endearing and precious. I'm not sticking to the Disney only route, however. I learned early on that Disney movies are just as scary and thrilling as non-whistling dwarf movies. Thanks to the Vernal Theater (and never-heard-from-again actors like Stewart Peterson, the blonde, teenage God who starred in "Where the Red Fern Grows" and "Against a Crooked Sky") and the Saturday Morning Matinee series. Grab some popcorn and a drink and I'll see you at "the show".

 
 

The Basin's Dirtiest Jobs - Water Truck Driver - February 2011

By: Jennifer Rook

    We are happy to debut this latest feature; "The Basin's Dirtiest Jobs". We hope to highlight some of the dirtiest jobs in the Basin and introduce you to some of the hard working folks from our community who get dirty every day or have to deal with undesirable substances, perform nasty tasks or deal with all manner of muck, slime, dirt, guts, oil; you name it. If it's a Dirty Job, we want to tell you all about it.

 
 

Water Truck Driver

    If someone tells you that driving a water truck isn't a very dirty job then that person must not have to do his own laundry after being in and around water trucks all day long. Water truck drivers have to drive through some of the nastiest stuff in the patch, chain up truck tires in thick, sticky mud, and are in and out of those trucks all day long, rain or shine, snow or extreme heat, deep mud or thick dust storm. They are also exposed to some of the foulest smelling water this side of the sewage pond. And that smell sticks. Water truck drivers definitely have a very dirty job.

Water services in the oil field are required at all drilling sites. Water is the conduit for all activity in oil or natural gas wells. Water is needed to drill and Frac' (fracture rock) but is essential during the production phase of drilling as well. Water is used to lubricate the drill bit, control pressure in the well and Frac' rock zones to release trapped reserves. Most times the only way to get water to the well site is to truck it in, and then used water will need to be trucked out as well. Water trucks deliver fresh water to well sites in semi tractor-trailor rigs called transport trucks and smaller rigs called bobtails and pup trailers. Fluids are moved off well sites in the same trucks where it is then taken to treatment sites at disposal and evaporation ponds. Other fluids water trucks haul include potassium chloride and brine among others.

The nastiest part of a water truck driver's job is dealing with flow-back water that has just come out of a well. The water has all manner of drilling fluids and bacteria and debris in it and therefore smells very bad. This water is then stored in a disposal pit where it will wait to be treated and evaporated. But in the meantime it sits to stew as more of the foul smelling water is added. The water truck driver is up close and personal at the disposal pit every run. The smell permeates clothing and doesn't come out in just one wash. "I make my husband strip at the back door." One water truck driver's wife admits. "His clothes just STINK so badly. He uses a company laundry service, but if I have to wash his clothes it takes three or four washes to get them so I can even be in the same room with them. We aired out some of his clothes on the deck after a wash and after being outside for two weeks I finally brought them in and hung them up in his closet. Within twenty minutes that whole bedroom stunk like a disposal pit. It's that bad!"

Water truck drivers also have to drive some of the muddiest roads around. It's not uncommon for a truck to get stuck or slide off a road and require assistance to get back on the road. Chaining up is a daily chore when it's muddy as well but the chains come off whenever the driver hits the pavement and go back on as soon as he's back in the mud. It's a "hands on" experience with the mud, for sure and then there is not only stinky laundry to deal with, there is stinky, MUDDY laundry to deal with.

Hats off to water truck drivers. Your cargo is the lifeblood of the oilfield and we salute you even if we hate to have to smell you when you get home.

Springing Into New Ways Of Thinking For Homeowners - February 2011

By: Crissy Knibbe

Springin' into new ways of thinking for buyers! We all know that buying a home is one of the most stressful things you can do in your lifetime, but it shouldn't be. With the right knowledge and the right people helping you, it should be a fun, exciting and rewarding experience.

    Have you ever wondered: "what kind of home do I see myself living in for the next 3-5 years?" Well, before you start shopping for one, ask yourself that question. All of us, at one time or another, have succumbed to the guilty pleasure of impulse buying. That goes for buying major purchases as well, whether it was a car, a boat, a four wheeler or a 72" flat screen plasma TV. We all have that urge to want something new. Homes are no exception. When you do impulse buy, most of the time, you get buyer's remorse. With the way the mortgage industry is these days, you have to be absolutely, positively, without a doubt certain of your selection or you could wind up with regrets and stuck in a home you don't like for the next few years.    

    Here are some basic tips you should follow when you are ready to start looking for your new home.
    First, always, always, always make sure it is within your price range. That means you need to go talk to a mortgage lender and find out what you are approved for. Too many people start by looking at homes before they know their price range and fall in love with a home that is above their means and get disappointed when they can't afford it.
    Second, make sure that you buy YOUR home. Sounds simple, but a lot of buyers end up with buyer's remorse because they didn't get the home they needed. How much space do you really need? Too small and you may feel like you live in constant clutter. Too big and maintenance may become too daunting. Outline all of your priorities, and work on finding not just a great home, but a great home for you.
    Finally, and the most important thing to do before your search for your home, is to find a great Realtor®. Realtors are the best resource for helping you get started on your way to new home ownership. Realtors will refer you to competent individuals who can provide financing, title work, legal representation, home inspections, appraisal services, homeowners insurance, and more. They are knowledgeable in the real estate laws, mortgage rates, will help you with buyers due diligence (ask me what this is), making sure you don't pay more than what a home is worth and most of all, they are there for you through all the emotional stress you may have during the home buying process. (At least, the caring ones are.)
    Just remember, owning a home gives you a tax break year after year after year. I know you hear Realtors tell you that "now" is always the best time to buy, but it really is. With the prices of homes stable and low interest rates, it is the perfect time to make a great investment. Not only do you get tax breaks, but you get more "bang for your buck" or more home for your dollar. I foresee prices to gradually go up again which will, in turn, drive interest rates back up too.

    So, with all that in mind, I want to help you put the FUN, EXCITEMENT and the REWARDS back into buying a home!

    With spring right around the corner, let's get started in the right direction of finding a great home for you. If you want information on foreclosures, short sales, mortgage rates, how and what you need to qualify for a home loan or if you have already been prequalified by a lender and would like to go look at homes, call me. If you are ready to take the plunge and make a smart, informed choice on a home, there are many financing options still available. Just ask me about them and I will point you in the right direction. If you don't know if you will qualify, call me and I'll help you.

    

If you or someone you know are in danger of losing your home and you don't know where to turn, please call me. I can help you. I take buying and selling real estate seriously and so should you. I am driven to provide the best possible care and service to all my clients, old and new. I am caring, creative and committed to provide the best real estate experience you could have