Say It With A Sign

Forgot to post this picture from a few weeks ago when we changed from Winter to Spring — the good folks over at Sinclair & Country Club Express are always good about having upbeat messages!

April 30, 2006 | Filed Under around town | 1 Comment 

Hair Color - Update

(The Story So Far. ) My daughter and I met with Mr Kuntz, the superintendent for the middle/high schools, on Thursday. He was very nice and understanding, and it seemed to me that he had no particular problem with hair color. He explained the difficulty in striking a balance between maintaining order & safety in schools while also allowing the kids to express themselves, which we understand.

April 29, 2006 | Filed Under education | 4 Comments 

Location, Location, Location

Wondering how much your home is worth? Take a look at Zillow…just type in your address and see what kind of value it displays for your house. I doubt that it’s 100% accurate, but when I looked up my house and compared the year-to-year trends on some of the 1, 5, and 10 years graphs, it seems close enough to be at least in the ballpark. You can see how your home value stacks up against other homes in your ZIP code, the county, the state, or the USA. Pretty nifty!

April 27, 2006 | Filed Under around town | Leave a Comment 

Where’s Larry?

Apparently, “Larry The Homeless Guy” has been spotted in Black Eagle, and according to one report, he is building a home there.

April 26, 2006 | Filed Under around town | 1 Comment 

The Fix Is In

OK, sports fans, I think that I fixed the “comment text box is too long” issue; a simple tweak in the comments.php file, reducing the textarea from 100% to only 50%. It worked OK for me in both IE and FireFox; give it a shot on this entry and see how it looks. Thanks!

April 25, 2006 | Filed Under blogging | 1 Comment 

Hair Color @ School, cont

My daughter and I attended the school board meeting this evening. We sat through an hour of previously-scheduled agenda items, learned a bit about how the board works, and then had a few minutes to state our case for rescinding (or otherwise modifying) the existing “natural hair color only” policy. The board did seem quite sympathetic, but pointed out to us that we didn’t follow the correct protocol for addressing such an issue. Apparently we need to discuss the matter with the district superintendent (or the deputy), and if we still are not satisfied, THEN we can bring the issue to the school board. So we’ll try to schedule a meeting with the superintendent this week and have a discussion.

Also - FYI - you might catch a glimpse of her (or us) on KFBB (cable channel 9) on the 10:00 pm news tonight. And there were some other interesting things about the school board meeting unrelated to our issue — which I will detail later this week.

UPDATE - Tuesday morning: also a brief mention on KRTV news this morning, as well as coverage of a mother whose son was bullied at GFHS, and an election issue raised by Harvard student Travis Kavulla.

April 24, 2006 | Filed Under education | 5 Comments 

Gate Closure

*bump to top* PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Beginning today (Monday, April 24) and lasting until July 3, the Main Gate to Malmstrom Air Force Base will be CLOSED for maintenance/upgrade. Only the NORTH GATE on 10th Avenue North will be open. If you work at Malmstrom - or are visiting - plan to spend a few (!) extra minutes in line! If you drive along 57th Street and/or the Northeast Bypass, it is quite possible that traffic in the morning will be backed up and may affect your drive, too.

April 24, 2006 | Filed Under news, military | Leave a Comment 

Something In Common

A Sunday morning quiz: What do the following establishments have in common?

-On Your Way Conoco, 1099 N.W. Bypass
-Royal Flush, 605 2nd Ave. NW.
-Elmers, 1600 Fox Farm Road
-Holiday West Casino, 1520 3rd St N.W.
-Mackenzie River Pizza, 500 River Drive South
-The Red Door, 16 6th St. S.
-Pizza Hut, 1518 10th Ave S.
-Palace Casino, 626 10th Ave. S.
-Maple Garden, 5401 9th Ave. S.
-Keith’s Country Store, 1621 10th Ave. S.
-The Other Place, 1200 9th St. S

UPDATE: Yep - as GeeGuy pointed out, those are the establishments that failed the alcohol sting. And, as GeeGuy also noted, by targeting a function at Pizzazz - which does not, to my knowledge, sell alcohol - it seems the authorities may have “broadened” the scope of the operation.

April 23, 2006 | Filed Under politics | 24 Comments 

Gender Issue

When I’m headed along River Drive and see the Canada geese, particularly during this time of year, I sometimes wonder how to tell the difference between Boy Geese and Girl Geese. The short answer: it depends, but usually the larger of the pair is the male. Of course, there is one other way to tell the difference: “If you are fortunate enough to see the geese mating, you’ll know the male is always the one on top.”

April 22, 2006 | Filed Under animals | Leave a Comment 

Hair Color @ School

The purple hair in question that got my daughter sent home from school, presented for you to decide how “distracting” it seems to be.
I spoke with the vice principal at North yesterday (Ms Patton-Griffin?), and she explained that the primary reason for the “no un-natural hair color” is to prevent gang activity. She said that gangs often use certain colors to identify themselves, most often red and blue. Well, OK, by that logic, shouldn’t the school also ban gang colors on clothing, purses, and such? Her second reason was that the un-natural hair color was a distraction, and stated that several people asked her on Wednesday, “Why does SHE get to color her hair?” Hm. Well, if the policy was changed or rescinded, then any kid could use any color, and no one would feel slighted. And how is hair color any more distracting than green nail polish, or red eye shadow, or even big, dangling earrings, or any other such personal effect that kids (and adults) use to express themselves?

I dunno. This “natural hair color only” policy leaves me scratching my head. There’s a school board meeting on Monday evening; we may attend and see if the policy can be reviewed. Any of you folks had experience with this policy, or tried to change it?

April 21, 2006 | Filed Under education | 3 Comments 

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