So, I was just perusing the archives of the Orlando Sentinel (we used to call it the "morgue" when there were actual newspaper clippings to search, but now we just do it on the computer and found a story I wrote in 2005:

"Sonesta Orlando at Tierra Del Sol Resort will have 972 townhomes and condos starting at $300,000 each, a 5-acre water park, a private theater, and a 100,000-square-foot clubhouse with restaurants and shops.

Located between Interstate 4 and U.S. Highways 192 and 27 southwest of Walt Disney World, the development's target market are British vacationers interested in second homes.

Of the 972 units, 625 have been sold in advance, mostly to buyers from the United Kingdom, the company said. The project's first phase, consisting of five Mediterranean-style buildings with six floors each and 1,200- to 1,500-square-foot condos, should be open by summer 2006...."

So, drove by the place today on U.S. 27 and yeah, they're finally building a few buildings over there, but not only does it look nowhere near finished, I noticed all those "are-they-flags-or-are-they-signs?" thingees that flap alongside the highway are getting tattered and torn up and either need to be replaced or removed. After looking at that for three years flapping at me, I've just about had enough of 'em.

I ran upon this photo gallery from the  All British Car Club of Orlando, a group that has great taste in rides. Members and wanna-bes meet monthly at the Golden Corral, 987 West Town Parkway, Altamonte Springs, by the Costco. Call (407) 788-2700 for directions or info. I bet gas prices are cutting down on the cruising for cruising sake these days.

Look what happens when I start looking into England....this always happens....I'm onto immigration, visa chaos and what-not and then, yes, alien aduction insurance, right there in London.

According to a news story on the web: "London-based broker Goodfellow Rebecca Ingrams Pearson, which specializes in disability insurance from a wide variety of causes.

There was a rider to the abduction policy covering impregnation by aliens while onboard their spaceship. About 4,000 alien policies were purchased, and 300 of those included the pregnancy rider, according to the firm.

The policy was discontinued after members of a cult made excessive claims."

It seems they weren't the first. Altamonte Springs company, The Saint Lawrence Agency, beat them to it years ago.  Just in case you know, you might need some. And here are some tips on how to file your abduction claim. Need to know info.

An editorial by New York Times

says: "Someday, the country will recognize the true cost of its war on illegal immigration. We don't mean dollars, though those are being squandered by the billions. The true cost is to the national

identity: the sense of who we are and what we value. It will hit us once the enforcement fever breaks, when we look at what has been done and no longer recognize the country that did it...

Every time this country has singled out a group of newly arrived immigrants for unjust punishment, the shame has echoed through history. Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation's most deeply held values." WHAT DO YOU THINK? I WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS ON THIS ONE!

Our "Ask an Attorney" guy, Steve Culbreath has started his own blog. Check it out.

Blogging won't save Brits from the snail-like pace of the U.S. immigration system. And the guy from Guyana who called me last week: I can't help you and this blog won't save you either. Forget that. Some of you need lawyers in the worst way. Some of you need to figure out your priorities: Life in America or family overseas. If you want to rant, vent, share a concern or a link, find fellows in your same lifeboat, the blog is indeed sitting here.

Blogging: So 2007, isn't it? Aren't you all Twittering by now? Or Stumbling through the Internet onto cute photos of kitty-cats and like? Important stuff like that?....surely you aren't still interested in blogging about these immigration issues and housing market crashes of your vacation rentals and, oh yeah, those much-ballyhooed resort developments that still sit unbuilt on sand dunes in Central Florida after keeping your money? You people are soooooo yesterday!

I got this email last week and I don't think he'll care if I share it:

I was sent your article in the Orlando Sentinel and was intrigued by your offer of support in telling the stories of Brits who have made their home in Florida and feel let down by the US immigration system. My story ( or some of it) was told by one of your fellow reporters - Victor Ramos - last year when I couldn't go home for my sister's funeral. I contacted him again this year to see if he would do a follow up as my dad died and I still could not go home without losing my status here and with it my business and home. There are many like me here in the US, and you can find a wealth of information on sites like Expatsvoice.org.

We really need help and someone like you to make our stories known to the general public. We came here legally and have followed all the rules - but are overlooked time and again due to the preoccupation with illegal immigrants. In a time when the US economy is facing a reccession - you would think that the government would do all it can to encourage foreign investment and the jobs it creates - but alas the opposite is true.

Sue Ward (the owner of Expatsvoice) and I would love to talk to you and explain our dilemma. We truly hope that you can help us to raise awareness of the inequalities we face and maybe get the politicians to listen in the run up to the election. Comprehensive and fair immigration reform is well overdue and we deserve to be treated with dignity and not lumped together with the illegal problem.

We sincerely hope that you will talk to us.

Thanking you

On Sunday I took a venture down to Yogi Hari's Ashram in Miramar, Florida, the same place where I did my yoga teacher training and the same place where my name Kumari was birthed, for those of you who wonder about such things. It was "Yoga Day" which means its just opened up to the public to come in and experience all-things-ashram including his classes in Sampoorna yoga.

It so happened I filled my van with people from Lake County's Still Lake Yoga to go with me and once we all gathered there to pile in the van, it turned out that three of the six of us (not me) were British. That was kinda against the odds, but so it was. The Brits didn't know each other ahead of time, so they swapped intros of where each other was from over the pond  and all that.

Then, as we're loading my van, they want to know if my boot is empty. My hesitation must have screamed, "I'm not wearing boots! I never wear boots!" because she pretty quickly corrected herself: "A trunk! Is your trunk empty?" The answer to that one is that my trunk is never empy. I could live like Gilligan off what's in that trunk. Cocoanut radios, you name it.

I stopped at the loo a couple of times on the way, though. I knew what that one was!

I was checking out the top search engine keywords on AOL and discovered that in the travel theme, that Disney topped the list, ahead of every other wonder of the world. "Florida vacation homes," is also in the top 10.

Thought that was kinda interesting to know.

Steve Culbreath, our trusted Ask an Attorney immigration lawyer, recently made the Fort Myers News-Press in an immigration related story. He says he's seen a steady increase in business with people trying to beat the rush of increasing fees for immigration paperwork. Uncle Sam is going to start charging more for all that red tape.

Check out Steve Culbreath's comments here.