Here's a great source for cabinet hardware

A web-based hardware supplier called Bayport House Hardware has been brought to my attention recently, and I have to say I'm impressed.

They offer styles that range from contemporary to traditional and in five different finishes: stainless steel, satin nickel, matte black, oil-rubbed bronze and pewter. As a net-based business, they're able to wholesale to the public essentially.

Hardware can be an unexpected expense that comes toward the end of a renovation project and by the time  most people are ready to select hardware, they're looking for a break. Bayport House Hardware can provide that and more.

As a bonus for people who are doing their own renovations and even some professionals  Bayport House Hardware's offering a free hardware installation template that can take a lot of the guesswork out of hardware placement.

Check out their website if you're in the market for hardware for a renovation or if you're looking for a quickie face lift for your kitchen or bath.

Dirty, dirty bastard

Last Sunday, two people I knew and cared about were murdered.

Their home was robbed, they were shot and killed and then the house was set on fire.

The St. Pete Police did an incredible job of tracking down the animal who did this and by last Thursday had made an arrest.

This is the piece of shit who killed my friends.

He'd escaped from a work release program Sunday morning and stole a gun. Then, he went looking for an open front door. He found one on Fourth Avenue North.

I cannot imagine the hell he put those guys through, I just can't. They must have been in absolute terror as a stranger wielded a gun over their heads. That their bodies were recovered in different parts of the house says that they couldn't even comfort each other when they knew their lives were about to end. They went out in the worst way I can imagine and it was all over a couple of household items and a pick up truck. A pick up truck Norris drove off in and torched on Monday in Tampa. That piece of crap snuffed out two lives prematurely and he tried to undo everything those guys did and represented.

They were kind and generous and funny and talented and deeply, deeply loved. They were good men who deserved so much better than this.

This hurts. Bad.

Crime statistics are one thing but when people you know get murdered there's a whole new dimension to them. This hits so close to home I can barely stand it.

The bastard who did this was in a work-release program after having been in prison since 2004. He escaped from a work-release program that holds the record for the most escapes in the state. That number would be 27.

The facility where he lived was an example of the current move to privatized prison systems. I used to work for a program that moved people from prison to regular life and I understand the need to transition convicts  better than most. The facility where he lived had a healthy contract with Pinellas County yet they have no procedures in place to alert the police immediately when one of their residents goes missing.

Had they tracked this piece of shit my friends might still be alive.

He was a career criminal who had no business being in a release program to begin with. Thank God he's in custody because if I ever ran into him I'd rip him from limb to limb. I guess that's why we have a justice system.

This whole situation just stinks. I'm as enraged as I am saddened and I just don't know what to do with my emotions. This is  tough one.