Murder News Update!

DeeDee Carlsonee brings us another news clip from the scene of yesterday's double murder.

Because of the desire to have as many of Pepi's family and friends join the family at the celebration-of-life meal, the dinner referred to in the article as being tonight has been postponed. The family will great friends at La Spirenza Saturday evening, not tonight, thus giving those who must travel time to arrive.

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Note: Due to a glitch in the program, sometimes the videos fail to work. If that is the case, please click on "Comments!" above and send me an email telling me they don't work. I can go in and "kick 'em" so they work again—at least for a while. Keith

Investigation into Death Continues

Authorities continue to mull over the information gathered at the crime scene of two neighborhood murders today.

Pepi Roni was found dead, presumably murdered, in the kitchen of the Roni family's popular La Spirenza restaurant Wednesday morning. Speculation is that the murderer could be someone from the neighborhood, a representative of a competing restaurant, or possibly even a member of his own family. That has happened in successful Italian families.

Interestingly, a second murder was committed only a couple hundred feet from the kitchen in which Mr. Roni's body was discovered. Detective Carlsoni, shown in the news video below, suggested that the second victim probably saw the murderer leave the restaurant after shooting Mr. Roni.

The murderer did not want a witness, so took every precaution to prevent him from testifying at a trial. The result: another murder.

Reporter DeeDee Carlsonee visited that crime scene this morning and filed the report below, which showed on the evening news.

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Roni Family Grief Stricken

The apparent murder of popular restaurateur Pepi Roni has the community in shock and the family grieving deeply.

In the photo below, our cameraman captured the anguish felt by the those closest to Mr. Roni.

Pictured above, left to right: Bo Jalais, boyfriend of Angel; Miss Angel Roni; Clair Voyant, friend and confidant of Mama Ros; Mama Rosa roni; Father Alfredo, local priest and close friend of the Roni family; Marco Roni, professional soccer player wannabe and intended heir to the La Spirenza restaurant.

In the photo below, Mama Rosa is consoled by the parish priest, Father Alfredo, just feet from where her husband was found murdered Wednesday morning.

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Comment from friends of the family:

Our deepest sympathies to the Roni family in this most stressful situation. We look forward to a speedy solution to this devastating story of Mr. Roni tragic death.

Restaurant Owner Killed!

Giuseppe "Pepi" Roni, 54, popular restaurant owner, was found dead in his kitchen this morning. The video below was on the news today at mid-morning.

We'll try to keep you up to date on the investigation.

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Cast Selected for Murder Mystery

The cast for Rockport 35 RV park's first Murder Mystery Dinner Theater has been selected!

Saturday, January 30, be sure to take your favorite date to dinner at La Sperenza, the famous Italian restaurant. You'll be treated to a great Italian meal and a performance of Pasta, Passion & Pistols—performed by your friends and neighbors from right here at the park.

Sign up at the office to attend. This is one meal you won't want to miss!

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Watch a Bear!

In the summer, you can literally watch corn grow via a web cam in an Iowa cornfield.

Right now, you can watch a black bear hibernate and, hopefully, give birth via a bear den cam. Yes, there's a camera trained on a female black bear near Ely, MN, who is about to give birth any minute, day, or week now. Or so they think.

You, too, can watch Lily, the bear, right here: http://www.bear.org/website/visit-us/lily-den-cam.html. Or if you forget all that, just go to bear.org and you'll be able to find Lily again.

This might be a good site for your grandkids!

Thanks to Bonnie for the bear tip!

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Clubhouse to be Transformed

Next week, the Rockport 35 RV Park clubhouse will be transformed into the famous Italian restaurant La Sperenza.

Sign up NOW to attend the special Italian dinner Saturday evening, January 30.

In addition to the usual fine Italian cuisine, diners will enjoy the very first Dinner Theater produced by the park!

Past, Passion & Pistols, put on by your friends and neighbors, promises to be entertaining for all.

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Patriotic Concert

A reminder: the Rockport High School music department will present their annual Patriotic Concert Monday evening, January 25, at 7:30 PM. (Changed from 7:00 to accommodate performers who are in earlier school activities.)

The stage at Martha Luigi Auditorium will be filled with band and choir members. That's a couple of hundred talented young people who are eager to entertain us.

And they will!

This will be the third or fourth year that Pat and I have attended. In our opinion, this concert is superb! If you like band or chorus music and you believe in the good old U. S. of A., this concert will get some goose bumps running down your spine!

Admission is free. A free-will offering will be accepted as you leave. The donations will be used to further the activities of the music department.

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Why We're Here!

Finally, the day for which we have been longing has arrived!

No clouds, almost no wind, and 79*! That brought the awnings, lawn chairs, cats, dogs, and people out!

Above we see Bob (that would be "Iowa Bob") "helping" Gus as he takes a rest from cleaning his trailer.

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Making It Official

Here's the answer to the question, "How much did it rain?" as recorded at the official weather station at Site 80.

This was at noon today. It looks as if the worst of it is over.

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How Much Did It Rain?

At 9AM this morning, my official Rockport 35 RV Park John Deere rain gauge shows about 5 inches!

It's almost full, so I'll have to go out and empty it so it can start over. I might even take a picture of it so you'll know that it's true.

Of course Gordon might have gone out in the middle of the night and poured some water into it, but Gordon isn't that kind of guy so I tend to trust it.

Five inches! Wow! And 'tain't over yet.

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Picasa Class Monday!

Monday at 9:00 AM we'll begin a class on using Picasa, the FREE photo management system from Google. It'll be taught by Keith and David, with other attendees giving a hand where needed.

Picasa is a very capable yet easy to use system. Because it does most of the things most of us want to do with our pictures very well, yet is fairly easy to use, I use it and recommend it.

If you're looking for a program with which to organize, modify, or display your pictures or if you are already planning to use Picasa, Monday morning spent with your friends and neighbors will kick-start your use of it and will be time well spent.

There are two things you can do before the class to make more efficient use of class time:

1. Put Picasa 3.6 on your computer. You can download it from http://picasa.google.com. Another way is to borrow a memory stick from me. I have Picasa on it and also a folder which contains a few pictures for use in class. It only takes a couple of minutes to get it from the memory stick to your computer.
   
   
2. Go to http://picasa.google.com and read about Picasa; browse around the site and see what you can learn about Picasa's capability. That will give you an idea or what it can do. Don't worry about how to do it; that's what the class is for.

If you want a program which will crop your photos (cut off unwanted parts), correct red-eye, improve light levels, email pictures easily, make a slide show, display pictures in an album on the internet for FREE, and make neat collages— Picasa is for you!

The class will run from 9:00 to 11:30. Bring 2 1/2 hours worth or battery or your power supply. If you have an extension cord with multiple outlets and can conveniently bring it, please do so.

There is no charge for the class or the program.

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Beautiful Morning

Dianne Carlson sent this, via the new Comment! link:

"Thought I'd send this as a test to see how it works. Looks like it's working just fine.

Wondering if anyone else saw the double rainbow this morning. By the time I got the camera, the 2nd one had faded. It was around 7:30 this morning."

If you look closely, you can see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow—Rick in this case!

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Here's Where It All Begins----

---the planners hard at work, planning future events.

Each Tuesday morning at 9:00, the ladies of the park gather for a cup of coffee and discussion.

What do they discuss? For one thing, they plan events for the enjoyment of all of us at Rockport 35 RV park. For another thing, they figure out how to make it happen. And it is good!

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What a Meal!

Last evening, we had another great meal provided by Rockport 35 RV Park's great cooks! This time, it was baked potatoes and soup—15 kinds of soup, to be exact.

The soups ranged from the well-known vegetable soup to the exotic watermelon soup provided by Allison. And everything in between. All were good!

And then there were the desserts! Yummmm! (Well, some actually begin with dessert; life is short, you know.)

The diners enjoyed the meal and the fellowship.

The organizers of social events such as this do such a good job that to the rest of us it appears that "there was nothing to it; it just happens."

Well, it doesn't "just happen." It takes a lot of work, so the next time you see an organizer, be sure to tell them how much you appreciate and enjoy their work on behalf of all of us.

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The Honey Wagon

There are certain tasks associated with RVing which most of us would prefer were not necessary. But they must be done if we're to enjoy the RV lifestyle.

The link below will take you to a well-written and humorous story about a honey wagon:

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/general/columns/story?id=3515749

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Friendship Dinner Blessed With Music

Occasionally we are privileged to have something a little special during or following our Thursday evening Friendship Dinner here at Rockport 35 RV park.

This week was one of those occasions! This week there are many visitors to Rockport, drawn by the popular Rockport Gospel Music Festival. There are performers, gospel fest "groupies," and just plain ordinary folks who love gospel music.

The "warm up act" was provided by David Fountain, right, who tried a bit of his Tennessee humor on us and favored us with a few songs. David, a pastor back home in Tennessee, is the MC at the Gospel Fest sessions and has been previous years. It is evident that he enjoys his work!

The Goldens, a husband/wife team from Tyler, TX, regulars at the Fest, joined us and favored us with several songs. Many of them were written by Dale Golden.

The last session for this year will be Sunday, January 10, from 3 to 9pm at the Baptist Church.

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Keeping Pat Busy

Last year Pat picked up a new hobby: beading. Here's a bracelet she whipped out one day this week.

Her new hobby also pretty much assures that we'll be making a trip to Corpus Christi every other week or so for more supplies.

She's made several bracelets and a few necklace pendants.

Some of those beads are t-i-n-y!

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Picasa Class Scheduled!

Monday, January 18, from 9:00 to 11:30, there'll be a class on using Picasa, a free photo management program from Google.

Picasa is a free program which can be downloaded from http://picasa.google.com . Attendees should have the program installed on their computer before class. If you have questions or problems, ask for help.

The class will NOT cover taking pictures; it will cover how to deal with them, using Picasa, after you have already taken them.

Picasa is relatively easy to use and has a tremendous amount of capability. I've been using it for nearly a year and find that it does just about everything I need to do. (It does have a few limitations.)

David and I presented a similar class last year. We'll lead the effort again this year and will appreciate the assistance of those who have computer experience, even if not Picasa experience.

If you plan to attend, please let me know by sending me an email. That will help us with the planning. It is possible that attendance will have to be limited. There is no charge for the class.

Click here to send attendance notice.

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Commenting on Articles

It's not as simple and easy to leave comments on articles on this site as I'd like.

This site is "managed" by a "canned" program and therefore has predefined ways of doing things which the webmaster can't change.

So we'll try to work around them!

We'll try this: Click on the "Comment!" link below. That should open your email system with an email message already addressed to me. Just type in your comments and hit "Send!"

I'll get the email, review it, and almost always publish the comment. (If it's inappropriate in any way or deemed to simply be an email to me, it won't be published.)

Let's give it a try!

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A Simple Little Trick

Want to make your life a bit easier, especially at tax time?

Here's a little trick we instituted several years ago and it really helps. Well, it really helps if you itemize deductions on your taxes would be a more appropriate way to say it.

The simple trick:

Today, January 1, right now, put a new check register in your checkbook!

Yes, it really is that simple. Keeping a separate check register for each year—in other words, all the checks for one year in one or more check registers—can make tax time much easier.

Remember, you saw it right here on the Rockport 35 RV Park site first!