A Canadian couple finally took a restaurant up on an offer that arrived 15 years ago � by balloon.
For its 1993 grand opening, Nicky's Restaurant in Canton released balloons with attached cards good for a free dinner for two.
One of the balloons made it across Lake Erie and into the backyard of Margaret and Ken Savory in Waterford, Ontario. They were treated to pork chop dinners Tuesday night when they presented the card at Nicky's.
Owner Nick Augoustinos says he was shocked that they'd held on to the coupon for so long.
Health problems had kept the couple from coming sooner, Margaret Savory said, adding: "I think that in back of my mind I was hoping that one day I would feel well enough to see if the place was here."

Long-vacant S.F. bank site draws interest

Roosting pigeons and vagrants drinking malt liquor may not be long for the landmark Hibernia Bank building, where prospective tenants hope to rehabilitate the shuttered Baroque-inspired edifice in San Francisco's Tenderloin.

David Jackson, executive director of the Bay Area Radio Museum, toured the building Tuesday with city officials, laying out his vision for a cultural arts center that would house music, sports and broadcasting museums, along with training facilities for dance, art and filmmaking.

Efforts to revitalize the distinctive building at the intersection of Jones and Market streets have stumbled in the past, though, often because of the owner's steep asking price for a property in an edgy neighborhood.

The Hibernia, with its soaring columns and domed entrance, has sat empty since 2000, when the San Francisco Police Department's Tenderloin Task Force left after nine years for a new $4.8 million station on Eddy Street, saying the Hibernia was ill-suited for police work and the rent too expensive.

That left the landmark to descend into a haven for public drinking, drug dealing and street urination four blocks from City Hall.

"That is an important part of the city," Jackson said, "and I saw a guy smoking crack out of another guy's shoe."

Last year, Mayor Gavin Newsom was considering the building as the site for the new Community Justice Center, which would prosecute misdemeanor and nonviolent felonies in the Tenderloin and South of Market, but decided on a Polk Street location.

"It would be fair to say cost was a factor," mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard said. "We ended up going with the better location for this particular project."

The Hibernia's owner, Thomas Lin Yun, leader of the Black Sect Tantric Buddhism temple in Berkeley, has the building on the market for $4 million, down from a nearly $10 million asking price in May 2007, said Benny Yee, a real estate broker for the potential buyers.

It would also cost roughly $18 million to make the building inhabitable, including seismic retrofitting, removing asbestos and lead paint, adding access for the disabled and ensuring proper fire escape routes, said Steve Van Someren, the radio museum's secretary and treasurer.

The radio museum, which currently exists as an online archive, is looking for a permanent home. It has joined with a group of broadcast and media associations, like the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club and the local chapter of the National Television Academy, to form a consortium dedicated to creating a broadcast and newspaper museum in the Bay Area, Jackson said.

The idea is for the 38,000-square-foot Hibernia site to house four museums - music, broadcasting, sports and newspapers - as well as community arts groups like the San Francisco Recovery Theater and Tenderloin TV, said Elaine Zamora, head of the North of Market/Tenderloin Community Benefits District.

"It's the best use for the building," said Zamora, whose group of property owners has already voiced opposition to the idea of putting a nightclub there. "It's an entryway into the neighborhood, an anchor for the neighborhood, and it's just a blighted piece of property that needs the right kind of tenant."

The catch, of course, is where the money will come from.

"My short answer is I don't know," Jackson said with a chuckle. "We've got people who are willing to fund this up to a point."
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DAY 3 of The Study has begun, so far i have earned 200 bucks! i get 100 bucks a day for being IN the hospital! now, aint that a switch! hahaha!!!
i was up at 5 am, and man, i was jonesing for a smoke, but i had to wait until 8 am. i got a slight headache from caffene withdrawls yesterday, and they gave me 2 aspirins and the headache was gone soon enough!
i breathed into the CO meter and blew a 22. ever think about how much pee you put out inna 24 hour period? i never had before i came here. now i have to collect my pee inna container and store it in a fridge. they use it to measure the amount of nicotine thats in my system, and the past few days, i have been peeing at a rate of 55 ounces a day.

sunday, the last day of smoking is fast approaching, and i guess thats when things will get tough. im not allowed out of the unit, unless im escorted, and starting monday, i will be on a transdermal patch, and no one knows wether or not the patches will have nicotine in them! i just hope the last 2 weeks i can hold up, im gonna have to! its free money, and i intend on completing the study. my morning weight was up to 223 pounds, im eating basically 4 meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner and a snack, the snack is a turkey sandwich with milk and juice and banana and yougurt. and no way to expend the energy. if it gets any higher, they will cut the caloric intake, but, essentially, im gonna have to miss a few meals, thats the way my system works, if i dont eat i lose the weight. every one is different.
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i spotted a rather nice hotel in the mission district on craigslist, completely remodeled and furnished, just 200 a week!! im debating wether or not i can truly afford that when i get my money. if i decide to rent there, im gonna have to get a job REAL QUICK!
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well, thats all the news from The City, what say ye? notes linky up top!

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