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Amanda
1/31/07
We submitted our taxes! On the last day of January, whew. I just had a personal goal to get it in before the mad rush of everyone else, BUT the good ol' State of Nebraska decided to wait until the last day, today, to get my W-2 to me! We collected all 3 of Ryans as of a week ago! I had everything ready to go, so I just entered my stuff.
Ouch! --Gary
Thanks! --Gary
I have posted the new Christmas list (thanks again, Emily!), and also updated the calendar page. Note that this year, Congress voted to extend Daylight Saving Time a whole month -- so it begins two weeks earlier, and ends two weeks later. (Did you know that Daylight Saving Time was Ben Franklin's idea? True!)
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Yeah, I was thinking enough time had passed -- I'll post it officially tomorrow! (And congratulations on the Beer Keg Registration award!) --Gary
Ooh, this is going to be a tough year... I don't think I've ever seen a list that had so many films I haven't seen, and so many people I've never heard of. I mean, a race where a movie starring Al Gore is up for two Oscars is going to be unpredictable!
Dreamgirls leads the pack with 8 nominations (but is not nominated for Best Picture!); Babel (which I'd never even heard of until last week) got 7 nominations; The Queen and Pan's Labyrinth each received 6 nominations; The Departed and Blood Diamond got 5 each; and Little Miss Sunshine got 4 -- including a Best Supporting Actress nomination for 10-year-old Abigail Breslin!
Good luck, everybody. Should be a wild horse-race!
Great, Erika! Too bad students don't get paid for grades -- you'd be making a lot of money! :-) --Gary
Thanks for the new reviews, Livy! --Gary
We didn't forget. We just weren't thinking Newsletter Greetings.
Is this a day late or 364 days early?
Ooops! I didn't notice, sorry. Now fixed! --Gery
Looks good to me, Emily. Thanks for doing it! I guess the way to do it is this: If anyone has issues with it, contact Emily directly; I will post the list (including any changes Emily may inform me of) in a week or so on the Christmas page and make it "official." Deal? --Gary
Amanda has Emily
Anna has Tristen
Brent has Ryan
Donna has Amanda
Emily has Paul
Erika has Grandma
Gary has Teghan
Grandma has Lori
John has Lindsey
Karen has Marsha
Lindsey has Brent
Lori has John
Marsha has Olivia
Olivia has Gary
Paul has Anna
Ryan has Zachary
Samantha has Sean
Sean has Samantha
Teghan has Erika
Tristen has Donna
Zachary has Karen
Sounds like sabotage to me. Where were you on the night in question, hmmmmm...? :-) --Gary
Anybody hungry? There's a new recipe on the recipe page!
When a funding crunch threatened to close Watershed charter school in south Minneapolis, several students spearheaded a rockin' way to raise some money.
Colette Page, 16, and Kelsey Elder, 17, were doing homework at a Minneapolis coffee shop last month, but their minds kept drifting to the financial problems facing their high school down the street. Watershed High School had a budget deficit of $123,000, and the bill was due by the end of January. The Waldorf school had erased about $75,000, but more money was needed -- and fast. Said Page: "We figured a bake sale wasn't going to do it."
But a fundraiser featuring some popular Twin Cities bands might generate some real cash, they figured. So they discussed it with the school and joined forces with other students and parents.
The result: an all-day fundraiser Sunday featuring about 15 bands and some of the hottest young musicians in Minnesota -- the Alarmists, White Light Riot, Chasing Elroy. The musicians, students and parents took over two floors at Stella's Fish Cafe in Minneapolis' Uptown area, which donated space and a slice of food proceeds to the event.
There were also photo ops with the Minnesota RollerGirls, an all-female roller derby league, plus the more usual T-shirt sales and a silent auction featuring items such as jewelry, doggy gift baskets and CDs.
"I knew we'd get this off the ground, but I never expected we'd have this insane number of people," said Page, clutching a clipboard and fielding questions from volunteers on the airy second floor of Stella's.
"I thought we'd be able to get our friends and their bands and have an open mike at school. I never expected to be standing next to White Light Riot. And there's people piling through the door. It's been amazing."
The Minnesota Department of Education, which is working with Watershed High School, a charter school, on its budget woes, also is impressed. It's not uncommon for charter schools to face financial difficulties, they said. But it's unusual for a group of students to undertake such an ambitious response.
"I think it shows a great degree of dedication and creativity from the students," said Randy Wanke, spokesman for the Education Department. "We've been working with the school, and they've come together and righted the ship. They are a school that we'd hold up as a model, to show how a charter school can work with the department and be successful."
The school, at 2344 Nicollet Av. S., has about 100 students in grades 9-12. It was conceptualized in 1996 by a group of students from City of Lakes Waldorf School who wanted to continue the Waldorf model beyond middle school. It became a public charter school in 2002. It is housed in the same brown brick building as the City of Lakes (grades 1-8).
"Our goal is to inspire creative thinking, not to force-feed facts," according to its website.
Watershed ran into financial difficulties this year because of an unexpected decline in enrollment and because the school had to repay some special education funding from the state, said Jamie Hepner, dean of students.
Since September, it laid off its administrator, cut the front desk position and divided the work among volunteers. And some teachers agreed to teach extra classes without pay.
Hepner -- and students -- say the school is like an extended family and they'll do whatever it takes to keep it open.
The stars seemed to align themselves for the fundraiser, which was pulled together in about five weeks. For starters, a lot of the students are musicians. Hepner is a former bouncer and had contacts. And parent Scott Herald had considerable experience organizing fundraisers with musicians.
Herald recalled that when his daughter Jade Gomez told him how much money the students wanted to raise, he replied: "We're going to need some help."
They advertised on MySpace, on Radio K, through the bands' member lists and more, said Herald, standing outside one of the two stages where musicians were playing.
By 8 p.m. Sunday, some 500 people had come through the doors, school officials said. They won't have a total of money raised until today.
For the musicians, the fundraiser was a way to help an interesting school and reach out to their next generation of listeners.
Eric Lovold, guitarist and vocalist for the Alarmists, said he had never heard of the school until Herald contacted the group. But the band was impressed by students' enthusiasm.
Said Lovold: "I wish I would have believed in my high school as much as they do."
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Snow here today off and on (off right now). We haven't gotten as much as you in Sioux City (a couple inches, I would guess) and I think ours is over now. But it looks like you have more coming!
P.S. Thanks for the new review!
1. Advanced Composition
2. Pre-college Math
3. US History
4. Newspaper
5. Oral Comm
6. Appled Physics
I actually wasn't planning on taking newspaper, but my composition teacher said that they were selecting a few students to be writers for the newspaper and asked if I would be willing to do it. So I went and talked to my counselor more about it and she said there's only about 10 people in that class and it's pretty fun so I thought I'd give it a try!
Only one more day -- the 12th and final day of Christmas is tomorrow... --Gary
Snow is melting fast here. I don't think it even got below freezing last night; I heard water trickling down gutters first thing this morning. Enjoy the winter, what's left of it: Scientists are saying 2007 could be the warmest year on record... Joy.
P.S. Good luck at the state debates, Emily -- make somebody cry! :-)
Thanks for the new review, Lindsey! --Gary
Ha! I was wondering if anyone else was following these. :-) --Gary