Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Election News and NaBloPoMo

I thought my sister loved me, but then she threw down a gauntlet (perhaps not purposefully) about National Blog Posting Month, which is celebrated every November. It has often been celebrated on this blog and will be for the rest of the month.

Yesterday was election day and I was actually on the ballot! It was pretty fun to vote for myself and the campaign I ran with my friend Angela (who won!!) created a community conversation about the library that will be good in the long run. Also good in the long run? The incumbent lost! The library needed him to move on and the voters made it happen.

Unfortunately, Del Norte County wasn't ready for TWO Angelas on the library board and I came in third, by fewer than 100 votes. With only two available seats, it means I won't be adding the library board to my to do list. Our larger goal of bringing change to the library board was achieved, though, and that's the most important outcome.

Thanks for all the support and watch for improvements in our library coming soon!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Democracy Is Awesome!

Three years after I was legally able to vote, the Del Norte Library Board of Trustees appeared on the ballot for our local election.

They have not appeared since and I just turned 45. It's been a long time.

But this year, the Board of Trustees will be on the ballot again because I am running for one of the two available seats! I am just a few signatures away from having my nominating papers completed and I've already filed my initial papers. I am running with my friend Angela (one of many awesome Angelas in our community).

Why are we running? We started attending the monthly Board meetings back in September because of a restrictive new borrowing policy and kept going because of what we saw in the first few meetings. Now our local newspaper is covering the issues we have been witnessing, so you can read all about it.

The first article was about an unrestricted fund balance that the Board of Trustees denied actually existed from November until June, when the county auditor came to their meeting and told them that it did, indeed, exist.

Angela and I wrote a letter to the editor in response, announcing our intention to run for the Board of Trustees in November.

Last week, the Board of Trustees called a special meeting to discuss the first Triplicate article. Many people showed up, including the Triplicate reporter who wrote the first article. He has now filed two follow-up stories. The first appeared on Tuesday and was about the meeting generally. Today's is specifically about the Board's avoidance of elections and their recent appointment process to fill a vacant seat on the Board. The article itself isn't online yet (should be up either tomorrow or Saturday morning), but you can see a picture of the front page with the prominent headline on the Triplicate's home page.

All the stories have been front page, above the fold. The July meeting of the Board of Trustees is on Thursday the 24th at 9am at the library. If you are local, please consider attending the meeting. The Board will be finalizing their budget for this fiscal year and discussing the fate of the $346,000 surplus.

(Those of you who know me AND can do math will notice that a quote was attributed to me in today's article that should have been attributed to the "other" Angela. She was, indeed, just 8 when a Board of Trustees position last appeared on the ballot. I was legal to drink that year, so a little bit older.)

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Darcy Jo's First 5K!

I'm betting it won't be her last!!

We all joined in for yesterday's Mother of All 5Ks to raise money for our local domestic violence shelter. Del Norte County has the highest rate of domestic violence per capita of any county in California -- by a lot. Raising awareness of the problem is an important step.

So we took 5 kilometers worth of steps. Michael was planning on running the race, I was planning to walk, and on the drive to the start we told Darcy Jo that she could choose whether she wanted to run it or walk with me or some combination.

It will come as no surprise to those who know her that she chose to run her own race. We weren't sure what to expect because she's never run that far before or even done much organized running.

But she ran the whole thing in just under 34 minutes! The more-or-less official photographer for the race got some great pictures of Darcy Jo and Michael as she was coming into the finish line. These are pulled from Facebook, so the quality might not be all that good, but here they are:


Sunday, March 9, 2014

New iPhone!

Hooray for the new iPhone!A blue iPhone with a yellow case!Today,the second day with the new iPhone,I went downstairs to open the window blinds for Paige.But just when I was starting to open the blinds,I saw something pink out of the corner of my eye.I could not believe what I saw.A few weeks ago,some of our neighbors had been "flocked".There's this fundraiser in town where they put flamingos in your yard overnight.There were flamingos in our yard and our neighbor's yard.Near our house lives the Sedgwick family.They gave us the flamingos.One good iPhone!

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Finally! Early Dinner!

Tomorrow,Daylight Savings time begins.That means early dinner!I love that!Today,I am going to a birthday party.A hunting for Bigfoot party.A toy gun party.A getting dirty party!This is the first time I ever predicted the future :We are going to have macaroni & cheese at the party!

(Another guest post by Darcy. Stay tuned to see if her prediction comes true!)

Friday, March 7, 2014

Sleeping Paige

Paige,Paige,Paige.One of the cutest cats ever,but sometimes she can be 
a little rotten.She escaped earlier today,but after a few minutes,she
came back inside.She escaped when I was checking if my softball
glove was there,because I play on a softball team,and my
dad just ordered a glove for me.But Max,one of our many
neighborhood cats,a least favorite cat of Paige, was 
outside.Paige came back.While she is not active,she is
sleeping,like in the picture.

(Another guest post by Darcy Jo.)

Monday, March 3, 2014

Guest Post: Salad Bar for KRECR

Today's blog post is written by Darcy Jo. It is her choice of topic and her words. I am writing only this introduction:

My name is Darcy Jo.At school, we made puzzle pieces that showed what KRECR needs.My puzzle piece said the school needs a salad bar.I think it had one last year,but
no one got salad, and they sold it.But I remember that when I was in kindergarten,
I went to Pine Grove, and they had a salad bar.They used to have early out on
Friday, but they now have it on Wednesday.My school still has it on Friday.
On early out days you do not have lunch.We could borrow the salad bar on
Wednesday and make it Salad Bar Day.