text: On these pages, we list several ways for you to not only learn who these people are, but how you can most efficiently reach them with your messages, concerns and issues.
  List of county cities, towns and villages with their respective elected municipal officials and department heads. Includes phone numbers, e-mail and other contact info.
  A list from the state Board of Elections of elected officials, along with Web links and contact info.
  Mpumalanga legislature secretary Linda Mwale has to answer why he allegedly attempted to force a company that won a R15 million information technology (IT) tender to enter into a joint venture with another company.
  An investigation – ordered by Mpumalanga legislature speaker Violet Siwela – will look into why the value of the security and data integrity tender, known as SAP, was topped up in the April 2017 appointment letter of the “bogus” joint venture firm.
  A letter seen by City Press indicated that Mwale appointed Sarafusion (Pty) Ltd JV Frugacode on a three-year contract for SAP maintenance and support.
  City Press understands that Sarafusion (Pty) Ltd bid alone for the R15 million tender but, to its surprise, the appointment letter indicated:
  Mpumalanga legislature spokesperson Zamagambu Gamede opted not to answer specific questions about the tender but said that Siwela had ordered lawyers to investigate.
  “We note your media query and as the legislature we find it disturbing and shocking, as such alleged activities have no space in here. We have since instructed the legal section of the institution to immediately investigate the matter and accordingly advise the legislature,” Gamede said.
  An official of Sarafusion (Pty) Ltd, who declined to be named, said the company’s director Bright Musarurwa decided to abandon the contract after Mwale allegedly imposed Frugacode.
  “That contract was abandoned,” he said, “because it seemed somebody had got the other company without the consent and knowledge of [the director].” Musarurwa confirmed that his company abandoned the contract but declined to comment.
  Mwale is not new to controversy. Two weeks ago the Economic Freedom Fighters laid fraud and corruption charges against him, former legislature speaker Thandi Shongwe and legislature chief finance officer Mbuso Mpika.
  In one of those findings the AG said that a R9.9 million tender for the supply of photocopiers for a three-year period was irregularly awarded to Junox 210 CC on July 1.
  The SAP contract worth R19.6 million was awarded to Frugacode on September 6 2017 after the JV deal with Sarafusion fell apart.
  They also found that another company, Lowveld Office Automation (Pty) Ltd Xerox, would have scored the highest points for price because it charged R1.9 million and should have been evaluated further because it met the minimum threshold of 70 points, but that did not happen.
  The tender, auditors found, was awarded to Junox 210 despite that the average price of all disqualified bidders was 46% lower than the R9.9 million the company had quoted.
  The AG found Frugacode’s SAP contract was awarded unfairly because Frugacode used an SAP accreditation certificate that was not registered in its own name.
  Sanchunhui Tub & Tile Adhesive Caulk is formulated for sealing projects in kitchens & bathrooms. The Seal & Bond technology provides increased durability for a long lasting, mold and mildew resistant seal. Tub & Tile resists color change and abrasion to harsh chemical cleaners. This easy to remains flexible and watertight to provide durability and longevity.
  September 8, 2013 in Adventure, Exploring, Family, Foodies, Friends | Tags: adventure, community, exploration, family, foodie, Friends, get busy living, love, trying new things | Leave a comment	
  The theme of “get busy living” has echoed in my ears for some time now. As a cancer survivor and an active volunteer, I know the theme has become a bit of a mantra for the Stupid Cancer community. Get a whole punch of passionate, motivated and courageous people who have already stared cancer in the eye together and give them a challenge. Puhleeze. We know who is winning this one.
  I like to think I embody “get busy living” all of the time, but let’s be honest, it’s not easy. Living every single day to the fullest is not always possible, sometimes it’s just to your own person fullest. And at least I can say that IS what I do. Yesterday just happened to be day when I did it really well. I like to think it’s because I had a special brand new angel with me.
  The best gifts are the gifts that you enjoy giving more than the receiver even enjoys receiving. Giving “good” gifts has been something I truly enjoy for a variety of reasons, but mostly because it tends to be something that the person wouldn’t purchase for themselves. I bought my dad a flying lesson for Christmas last year (yes, it is September, and yes, we did just redeem it). The guys at Global Aviation in Farmingdale were great and I highly recommend the experience. My favorite “get busy living” moment was sitting behind him in a plane and having hims say, “this is awesome.” I wowed dad. It’s like a little victory party just for me. The views of Long Island, the ocean and the horizon were incredible and we are so lucky to have had that time in the air.
  When we got back to the house, my dad asked, “what’s on your agenda?” And for the first time in way too long I was able to answer, “nothing planned.” What an incredible blessing to have an entire afternoon with nothing required. Granted, I had a huge pile of paperwork, schoolwork and laundry all looking right at me, but I knew they would still be there regardless of what I did with the rest of my day.
  With a dear friend in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, it was a great day to suggest the flea market. She happen to have nothing planned as well and was eager to get outside. We walked around a mix of new and used items, ethic foods and drinks and possibly one of my favorites, framed pieces of art. These types of frames are ones that you can imagine in your living room or in the hallway. Each telling their own story. One that isn’t even yours. A magical place, in a frame.
  Trying to gather my other Brooklyn girls I suggested dinner at Madiba, a South African restaurant on Dekaulb in Fort Greene. Stop reading this and go there now. I’m not kidding, go. Fine, if you insist I will tell you about the experience and then you can go when you have a chance.
  Madiba happen to be celebrating its 14 year anniversary last night. We walked into a magical moment in time, just like the frames I had seen earlier in the day. The scene was energetic and nostalgic. The people were joyous and proud. The table were full of people from all over the city and community and the world. Owners, Mark and Jenny Henegan have dedicated their restaurant to Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. They are “dedicated to the future of South Africa, a future that promises greater cultural harmony, economic development, and
  Celebrating in the lead were Mark and his brother, Denis. Not only were they celebrating the restaurant’s anniversary, but welcoming their parents coming to Brooklyn, to their place, for the first time in a long time. There were dignitaries, longtime customers and friends, staff, community, first-timers and family all under the same roof. And here we were, three first time patrons, enjoying libations, saffron, cumin, prawns, curries and beets. As if we had never had these things before. There are no words to describe quality new handmade goodness hitting your mouth for the first time. I was once told my roast was like “sex in my mouth.” That’s what I would have told the chefs at Madiba that night.
  I had a chance to say hello to Mark on the way out, first congratulating him on 14 years of success and then for having us, we felt like we were a part of a family celebration marking the genuine love of the country, food and people of South Africa. And yet, he said, “thank you” to me.
  In the theme of “get busy living” I leave this day as a memory and a reminder of the ability to make things happen regardless of what is in its path, best said by Mandela himself, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
  July 9, 2013 in Adventure, Exploring, Foodies, Friends | Tags: bbq, dinner, dinosaur, harlem, meat, NYC, rain, wednesday | Leave a comment	
  Raining cats and dogs just doesn’t work when referencing bbq. In the great Meat Off of 2013 I have come to learn more about myself as a foodie:
  3. Any articles or headlines referring to the ‘best of’ or ‘top 10’ or ‘must see’ go to my trash. I can not attend or acknowledge any other lists while completing this one.
  Consumed: spare ribs, brisket, baked beans, pulled pork, colesslaw, mac n’ cheese, friend green tomatoes, bbq chicken, pickles, salt potatoes, corn bread, flavored beer
  This is Harlem in the rain, what you can’t see is the sideways rain and the rivers at every corner. Normally, this would not phase me, but I waled the wrong way and had to double my tracks. In the rain. Pouring rain.
  The Dinosaur has a lot of beer options, a lot. We tried Sea Salt Ale by the Fire Island Beer Company, Ithaca Apricot Wheat and Long Train Blackberry Wheat. Further proof that I’m a salt girl.
  Maureen and I shared two pbig plates, this one features the pulled pork sandwhich, salt potatoes and baked beans.
  This plate was the sampler and had roasted bbq chicken, ribs and brisket with side of mac n’ cheese and coleslaw. Again, Maureen doesn’t understand the point of cornbread.
  Catherine ordered a half bbq chicken, mac n’ cheese and the sweat potato mash. She was a happy girl.
  June 27, 2013 in Adventure, Exploring, Foodies, Friends, The City | Tags: bbq, foodie, goth amidst, meat, NYC | Leave a comment	
  Recently Gothamist posted this article, declaring the top of the top BBQ places in the city. I have to admit that this category of food is not something I would normally be attracted to. Since leaving the Hudson Valley and reunited with the ‘burbs and “the” city the only BBQ I have craved is Max’s wing night.
  So with my carnivorous friends came the idea of trying everything on the list. I promise, it’s only week one and I know I will be pushing for a top 10 of veg places next.
  Location: Coming from midtown, this was an easy two train commute and then a brief walk to the restaurant.
  Consumed: short ribs, spare ribs, brisket, rolls, potato salad, baked beans, corn bread, root beer and ale
  Highlights: cornbread with brisket baked beans declared favorite bite, rub on the spare ribs, brisket sandwich with extra bbq sauce
  Our friends at Fette Sau are very smart and have a rustic / fun decor. And a cool bar, that counts, too. The beer taps have meat hacking charm. One of those is the Sixpoint called Vienna Ale that was brewed just for Fette Sau, that also makes them very smart.
  This was my favorite bite of the entire meal. The baked beans were off the hook. Spicy, slow cooked and chunks of brisket thrown in for good measure. Pictured here on a piece of cornbread.
  This is when we should have stopped, instead we ordered one more beef rib to push us over the edge. It was by the pound.
  If you are a condiment girl like myself, you would like the bbq sauce, vinegar sauce and hot sauce. I love sauce.
  April 13, 2013 in Foodies, Healthy, The 'Burbs | Tags: burrito, cooking, guacamole, home, non-dairy | Leave a comment	
  My re-visiting of the B’fast Burrito is the best thing to come out of non-dairy life. In the last four months (4!), I haven’t had any dairy products. My last post about giving up cheese was a hard realization, my body and my skin could no longer hang with dairy. And although I literally miss cheese every single day, I am seeing some alternatives that I can live with.
  The B’fast Burrito can be eaten anytime of day. It starts with a whole wheat tortilla, guacamole, eggs, re-purposed peppers and onions, a spoonful of salsa and my longtime friend, sriracha.
  April 8, 2013 in Exploring, Friends, Long Island | Tags: change, discovery, mouse, suburbs | Leave a comment	
  I must have missed it in-between job searching, resume writing, teaching, freelance projects, American Museum of Natural History, dating, EatDrinkJobs, giving up dairy, finding my friends, throwing people weddings, being Aunt Thea, painting walls, breaking down others, giving gratitude, a craptastic break up, re-writing resumes, cover letters, testing boundaries, wiping tears, interviews, networking, e-mails, Stupid Cancer, throwing things out, planning events and writing thank you notes.
  And for my thirty-first birthday my mother gave me a banner that says, “You yourself as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.” ~ Buddha
  February 12, 2013 in Baking Goodness, Foodies | Tags: Baking, Celebrations, foodie, heart, thea sphere sweets | Leave a comment	
  February 2, 2013 in Foodies, Healthy | Tags: cheese, dairy-free, diet, foodie, health, hormones | Leave a comment	
  I did not eat dairy – read CHEESE – for the entire month of January. It started as a personal experiment. And ended up with confirmation that dairy and I are not of the best of friends. Insert heartbreak here.
  As a long-term cancer survivor of fourteen years, hormone imbalance has been part of my medical path. Sometimes it doesn’t bother me on the outside and then others, like this past September kicked my butt. I started to break out like a teenager. Actually, worse than any acne I ever had before. Working with a dermatologist confirmed my hormone related skin explosions. I tried to identify what was making my skin change in my diet. And after a few months of ignoring it, I said it out-loud “I break out the most when I eat cheese.” Heartbreak. Almost immediately, I saw an improvement in my skin and system after removing diary out of my diet.
  In our country, most foods, especially dairy products are laden with hormones. There has been very little research done to show the side effect of hormones in food on humans. This Huff Po article from last year was a good breakdown of what we do and don’t know. This also showed me I need to read more about hormones in general from reliable sources. And go see the endocrinologist who can actually calculate my hormone levels and give some educated feedback to what I already know.
  As a foodie, we all have our “thing.” For some it’s homemade kumquat jam or homemade pasta or butternut squash ravioli or chocolate ganache. My greatest indulgence has been cheese. All different kinds. All different smells, tastes and colors. Cheese o’ glorious cheese. I’ve made my own ricotta, read cheesemonger tales and dedicated many a glass of wine to the pairing experience. I do not see myself with any extreme dietary changes at the moment, but I do think my hormone crusted foods, especially cheese, will be less and less.
  As I re-introduce dairy products back in, to see what bothers my system and skin the most, let’s pray for the cheese.
  November 22, 2012 in Family, Friends | Tags: family, Friends, gifts, gratitude, thanksgiving | Leave a comment	
  October 14, 2012 in Adventure, Friends, Personal | Tags: change, Country living, love, time, weekend | Leave a comment	
  After a weekend in the “country” I am headed back to my “other” life. When I first moved upstate there were so many emotions and uncertainties. And here I am living somewhere else and still have just as many uncertainties. I’m a better person for taking the risk, but the real question has become, now what? There are a few things I know for sure:
  1. Moving to the country was one of the boldest things I had ever done and there are many people who would have never taken the leap. I am proud of myself for doing it in the first place.
  2. The decision to leave the country and pursue career opportunities elsewhere was one of the hardest things I have ever done. And there are many people who would have just stayed. I am proud that I have the will to make decisions and carry them through with conviction.
  3. The relationships I have are gifts from heaven. Although I have yet to meet the “one” I have strong and supportive roots in many places and spaces. These people are loving, supportive, kind and cheer me on in all that I do. I walk into a room and people actually cheer. It’s an insane and amazing reaction to get from your peers. Apparently, as I was told this weekend, “I see why everyone is so obsessed with you.” Humbled. And thankful.
  4. People are not going to change. My Dad’s theory reins true, we are pretty much fully developed by seven years old, the rest of it is further development of our basic personality. We can expect or demand change from someone else. We can only do our own changing and growing. Including the way we react to behaviors we don’t care for. It’s our work we have to do.
  Why is it that only when you are already on the train platform do you remember the things that were left behind? Today, the phone charger. Last week, the coffee cup. Tomorrow, the scarf that matches just so. Commuter problems.
  “Time goes faster the more hollow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that don’t stop at your station.” ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafron
  Kyoukai no Kanata has not been a particularly well written show and it recently concluded with an ending that's fairly broadly considered unusually tacky and bad (personally I wasn't bothered too much but I had low expectations). However all of this got me thinking.
  Kyoukai no Kanata is by KyoAni and we've been blaming them for its writing flaws (partly because KyoAni has done excellent work in the past), but it's based on a light novel series. It seems highly unlikely that KyoAni made up a number of the major problem elements, especially the ending of the series; that pretty much has to come straight out of the light novel. Can we really blame KyoAni for 'bad writing' when the bad writing comes straight from the original source and KyoAni's choices are to use it or to come up with anime-original material? In a real way, KyoAni's only choices were to animate Kyoukai no Kanata, terrible writing and all, or to pass on it entirely. We can blame them for choosing bad material in the first place but perhaps not for writing as such.
  (This is especially so when one of the reasons that light novels, manga, and so on are used as sources for anime shows is to increase the sales of the original source. I expect that this works much better when the show sticks to the original material instead of inventing its own, and as a result the production committee is likely to be fairly against anime original material.)
  But wait, there's a wrinkle here. The Kyoukai no Kanata light novels are actually published by KyoAni themselves and the anime itself may be an entirely KyoAni product without outside sponsors. At the least this gives KyoAni much more knowledge and influence over the adaptation process (although not necessarily total control, since the novel's author might still object to anime-original material) and also much more control over whether it got animated at all. Does this increase their blame for the bad writing? Should it also make us view them more cynically on the grounds that they probably animated this not because it was particularly well written but because it would sell?
  (Let's skip over them publishing the light novels, because as far as I can tell almost all light novels are as bad as this one probably is.)
  I don't have any particular answers here, just things I'm thinking about. Oh, and the obvious note: nothing about this means that KyoAni is excused in general for making a disappointing show with bad writing. It just changes what sort of blame I'll give them. If KyoAni didn't really write the show (or the flawed bits), the sort of blame changes to 'doing a straight adaptation of a bad work' and perhaps this is less of a failure than doing a terrible job of scriptwriting.