In 2009, RockfordWoman.com was reborn with its own local social network. Through it, we created an intimate, amazing circle of support, sharing and humor.

Online, and later in person in a few cases, I've met Gloriann and her yorkies, Kathy and her "camp", funny Mary Kay, military mom Kathy, stamping Cathy and dozens of other women. We even were happy to have Michael, our honorary "Rockford Woman," sharing the tales of Hannah Marie, Julie and "the boy child."

Unfortunately, this afternoon, the social networking element of RockfordWoman.com is going away. It's just too much to maintain for too few. While hundreds signed up, especially when we had weekly giveaways, only a few dozen actively participated. 

And let's face it: A lot has changed in two years. People are much more comfortable in the world of Facebook and Twitter, and they are spending their time there. That's a good thing, and I hope that our social network helped some people feel comfortable making that leap. That's what we wanted. And many RW users are connected now on those platforms. 

RockfordWoman.com is NOT going away. It's just going to look different -- more like rrstar.com.

We'll continue to post magazine content every two months as well as stories and features of interest to women, like the kinds of things we share on our Facebook page.

Thanks to everyone who participated in and supported our network. I've enjoyed it so much.

 Say “tax” and we sigh in exasperation -- or we get out the pitchforks and yell two words: no more.

Taxes and weather. As topics of conversation, they’re two things we talk about without fear of sounding too stupid. “Boy-o, it’s really hot today and how about those taxes…” Hot is hot (even in Phoenix where it’s a “dry heat.”) We all pay taxes and that makes us experts, right? Well, yes, sort of, but the taxes Warren Buffett pays are not the taxes the rest of us pay. He pays 17.5 percent of the cash that comes in his front door in taxes. You and I pay northward of 35 to 40 percent.

Real people – that’s you and me – know four kinds of taxes: income, property, sales and Social Security. Warren Buffett pays those, too, but the checks he writes for them are teensy decimal points on his spreadsheet.  They loom large in your budget.

Buffett and the wealthy individuals and corporations like him pay things like capital gains taxes. That means they make money with money; they don’t work as a checkout girl or carpenter or police officer. Buffett makes millions of dollars on his investments, but he pays 15 percent tax on them. If your paycheck had that many zeros, you’d be paying over 40 percent.

We fork over a hefty chunk of the paycheck we get from whomever employs us. That’s the income tax. It can be federal, state and/or local. If we own a house, we pay property taxes. Renters pay it, too, because the landlord prices the rent to cover the property tax. In some states, you’ll pay a personal property tax (on things like motorcycles, boats and refrigerators). Sales tax goes on top of cars, sneakers, books, pizza and toothpaste. Social Security whacks another six or seven percent off the top.

Add ‘em all together and we’re headed to more than half the cash coming in our front doors going right out the back to the government. No wonder the pitchforks are so sharp.

This morning in my Twitter feed, I saw the headline from Time: "Will SlutWalks change the Meaning of the Word Slut?"

If you're not familiar with the term, protesters started this movement in April in Canada in reaction to a man's comment that women should avoid dressing like sluts to avoid becoming victims of sexual harassment and rape. Since then, more than four dozen SlutWalks have taken place around the world.

The message of fighting sexual violence and sterotypes is a good one but may be getting lost in the uproar over how women are dressing at the walks and the debate whether women can devalue the word "slut" by using it themselves.

I don't think the word's meaning can change. The quote from Anne Ream, founder of the Voices and Faces Project, a nonprofit for sexual-assault victims, and an assault survivor herself, says it well: "It's a word that's been used to demean women historically, and it's a word that's been used to demean women currently. Even when we try, we can never really separate [words] from their original, precise meaning."

Note: Bloggers Kris Kieper and Shauna Ubersox have written about this issue already, in case you haven't seen their takes.

Here are five things you can do this weekend.

1. See country singer Kellie Pickler headline the Boone County Fair, 8791 Illinois 76, Belvidere, at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets at the gate for her show cost $15.

Admission for the fair that runs through Sunday is $5, free for children ages 10 and younger. On Saturday, Next Level Pro-Bull Riding costs $5/$10; Sunday, Demolition Derby costs $6/$10.

For more information, call 815-544-2900 or visit boonecountyfair.com.

2. Watch “Miracle,” the Friday Night Flix movie Friday. "Miracle" is the true story of a player-turned-coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Russian squad. It’s at Davis Park, 320 N. Wyman St. The park opens at 7 p.m. Movie starts at dusk.

Memo to the Winnebago County Board: Hold your collective noses and fund the Rockford Park District’s Nicholas Conservatory.

If ever there were a public works project fraught with incompetent management – from budgeting to contractor woes – the conservatory becomes the poster child. There’s a real temptation to get spiteful and walk away, leaving the Park District to wallow in its own mess. I admit I am inclined to hold hands with the County Board members who want to withhold the additional funding. And, yet …

Refusing to give the Park District the additional million (or $800,000, depending on the final decision), is tantamount to that old saw: cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.

The conservatory is one of those community investments that matter, even in the bad economic times. It’s a signature development, soaring as it does against the backdrop of the Rock River. Heck, it’s so huge it makes Symbol look like a LEGO toy. It will be a destination for locals and tourists. It will be another piece of the arts and recreational tapestry that bolsters Rockford’s commitment to using the river as a central economic development strategy.

When cash is tight, spending money on what in the short run seems more dessert than main course can feel counterproductive. The arguments make pragmatic sense. Shouldn’t we spend our precious cash on, say, road repairs? I get it, I really do. I can make – and have done so – the same arguments. And, yet …

When Park District officials announced the conservatory project, they promised it would be privately funded, and most of it has been thanks to the large and small donors who have forked over their cash. But the Park District also promised no tax dollars would be needed, a promise they found unsupportable from the beginning as cost overruns, contractor disputes and project management ran amok. The conservatory project has not been the Park District’s finest moment. Let’s just leave it at that.

And, yet  …   

What’s the alternative to county financing? Well, the project doesn’t get finished. It sits there partially done, out of place and a bit forlorn, looking for all the world exactly what it is, a poorly managed and conceived project.  We can’t let that happen, not even to teach the Park District a lesson or two. The community needs this project to be finished and finished well.

So, Thursday night, I’m crossing my fingers that the County Board bails out the Park District. Hold your noses; give ‘em the cash.

P.S. One more memo to the board: Feel free to hold the Park District publicly accountable for that cash. Given the track record on this project, that would seem wise.

P.P.S A memo to the Park District: Time to admit this project was not your finest moment. The community would appreciate some frank admissions on lessons learned so we can rebuild some modicum of trust in future projects. We’re not inclined to bail you out again.

I am getting married in October and placed an announcement in the Register Star and on rrstar.com for the first time. It's really easy.

You can place an announcement about anything, an engagement, marriage, birth. They run in the newspaper on Fridays in the LIfe&Style section. I am not sure if many people know this, but the the announcements also are online.

And you can place your announcement online.

It's a great service and a way to get published.

Face-palm!

That's what I did when I saw Sunday's paper with the photos of the 29th annual Mud Volleyball Tournament, which attracted more than 5,000 people the day earlier in Roscoe.

Why? Because I forgot about the cause behind it: the Epilepsy Foundation. I should have participated or donated.

A year ago, my oldest daughter was diagnosed with seizure disorder, aka epilepsy. She had been having seizures in the middle of the night, very randomly and rarely, for more than a year and we didn't realize what was going on. Scary stuff. Long story short, she's doing great now thanks to top-notch care and medicine.

My daughter, who is blessed to be leading a normal life, is one of more than 3 million Americans with epilepsy. Why do they need your help? From the EF site: "Epilepsy is among the least understood of major chronic medical conditions, even though one in three adults knows someone with the disorder." It is very mysterious. But you can learn more about it. 

I will be following up later to support the cause after missing the weekend opportunity. For sure. (The local office is at 815-964-2689.)

Looking for something to do this weekend? We've got some suggestions.

Tonight's Friday Night Flix features “Firehouse Dog.” Gates open at 6 p.m. for special activities, and the movie starts about 8:50 p.m. at Davis Park, 320 S. Wyman St., Rockford. Admission and popcorn are free. In “Firehouse Dog,” a movie star dog gets lost, winds up at a rundown firehouse and teams up with a kid to help get the place back on its feet. The Rockford Fire Department and Firefighters Local 413 will host kid-friendly events before the movie, including navigating a bike safety maze, spraying a fire hose and sliding down a fire pole.

For those ages 21 years and older, check out Discovery After Dark from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. today at Discovery Center Museum, 711 N. Main St., Rockford.
Spend time under the stars in the planetarium, see explosive live demonstrations and take 20 percent off in the gift shop. Food for purchase and cash bar by Giovanni’s restaurant, Rockford. Cost is $7. 815-972-2839; discoverycentermuseum.org.

Phewww. Sigh. Well, that’s done. The debt ceiling, budget reduction debacle. You know, that one, the one that took over broadcast and web coverage with the same breathless celebrity of a bad reality show.

All that blathering, breath-holding, toddler fit-tossing mess and for what? No tax reduction. No tax increase. WE GOT ZIP TO CREATE JOBS.  Yes, I mean to shout, hence the all caps.

Let me say it again a bit quieter. We’re going to keep sliding into the economic abyss until those who don’t have jobs have them. And, we’re in trouble as long as those who have jobs are scared out of their shorts they’re going to lose them.

Put Americans to work and we (1) pay the mortgage and the rent; (2) buy cars; (3) take vacations; (4) take the spouse to dinner and the kids to Disney; (5) share our largess with others less fortunate; and (6) we think happy thoughts about the future.

There are three ways to create jobs: government does it, private industry does it, or I go it alone and do it myself. This D.C. deal guarantees that government isn’t going to do it, not at the federal level, nor the state or local level. It guarantees private industry isn’t going to do it; they’ll just keep hoarding cash and laying off people until they burst like ticks because they’re both greedy and afraid. That leaves the entrepreneur and while there are many of us doing our own things, there aren’t enough sole proprietorships in the world to sustain an strong economy.

Oh, that dysfunctional Congress. We watched the pitchfork-carrying, tantrum-throwing toddlers of the Tea Party and the WFLCT (Whatever Far-left Liberals Call Themselves) tear the guts out of the more moderate middle, all, they claimed, because that’s what the American people wanted. Uh, no. Excuse me. We want jobs.

So can this marriage be saved, as the cliché goes? Sure. But it will require the biggest gulp and leap of faith we can imagine – and we’ll all have to give it up, preferably without a whimper.

Pass Simpson-Bowles, hook, line and sinker. Or, if you prefer, pass the “Gang of Six” plan. Either way, the country would be on a solid, sane, fiscally sound path from the get go. Those are bi-partisan plans, crafted out of the very middle-of-All-American beliefs. Everyone gives up something for the good of the whole country.

Both plans are pretty simple: cut expenses, raise revenue, eliminate loopholes (and, yes, that means farewell to mortgage and charitable deductions, as well as corporate sinkholes). What do we get in exchange:  security, overall lower tax rates – and jobs.

I stumbled upon a few stories on time.com that deal with emotionally charged issues for women: crying and the breastfeeding doll.

1. The common convention is that "a good cry" makes us feel better. But a recent study published in the Journal of Research in Personality shows that two-thirds of women did not notice improved moods after crying (sessions on average lasted eight minutes).

Do you feel better after you cry? Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't but can't control it. Sometimes I even want to cry but can't.

2. Some people have their undies in a bunch about the new Breast Milk Baby, which allows children to hold a doll up to little petals, inducing the doll to make nursing noises.

I'm not sure why. My oldest daughter mimicked nursing a doll and lifted up her shirt when I breastfed my youngest. Lots of children (both boys and girls) have done so. No biggie. It's about where food comes from, naturally, and I've never seen breastfeeding done in a nondiscreet way.

The real outrage is that the thing costs $89. Pretend play is much cheaper.

3. A last-minute addition on a woman that stirs emotions for many: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who made a surprise appearance in congressional chambers last night.

This HuffPost piece summarizes how many of us are stirred when we see her in public: both exhilarated by her recovery and her spirit but also saddened by the violence that horrified us last January.

The post says: "For the last eight months, Rep. Giffords has been a through-line -- a cord of inspiration and endurance in a time of discord and uncertainty."