April Fool's Day

Trivia

This morning while driving to work, I correctly answered a trivia question on KDEC Radio out of Decorah: "In 1987, a Texas man was fined $10,000 and sentenced to 10 years of probation for stealing 79,680 somethings from a hospital. What did he steal?" It's toilet paper. I'll admit, I totally guessed. I just wondered what someone might steal from a hospital and thought that would be available. Not exactly easy to steal, though: What did he do, hide it under his coat? and 79,680 rolls? Really? Anyway, my prize is a gift certificate to a new homebrewing supply shop that opened recently in Decorah called From Grain to Glass. That will make my husband happy, he's a homebrewer.

Kohls Cares for Kids score

Welcome back to the most neglected spot in the Blogosphere. I end up posting most of my news in infobytes on Facebook because my attention span is so short these days, getting pulled in dozens of directions at once. Anyway I thought of something cool to share:

I have this daughter who is growing like the prettiest weed you ever did see. That kid has shot up nearly 2 inches in height in 6 months. She is outgrowing clothes so fast... So I had to do a midyear clothes shopping trip to get her through the rest of the school year.

We went to Kohls. Here's what we did: We hit the clearance and sales racks hard. By the time we went through the checkout lane the total in the cart was about $437. (Eek!) I got 15% off because we used our Kohls charge, bringing it down to about $380. We also got $70 in Kohls Cash (a promotion they run pretty frequently where you get $10 in Kohls Cash for every $50 you spend).

The next week Barry took the Kohls Cash in and bought himself some things he needed for school, two pair of jeans and two shirts. He came out almost exactly even on the $70.

Now the Kohls bill has arrived, and I am going to buy Kohls Cares for Kids gift certificates from Blessed Sacrament Parish in La Crosse to pay off the bill. One of my staff has a daughter at the private school run by Blessed Sacrament and my purchases count against her tuition. So I buy $380 in Kohls scrip, and Kohls pays 4% of that in benefits. So that's $19 that goes to Blessed Sacrament.

So even though it was a whopping huge amount to shell out at once, thanks to the great sales at Kohls and the generous giving programs of that company, it went a long way.

Pretty cool. :)

Short film: "The Last Day"

Really affected me.

2011 Safecastle Freedom Awards: 2nd Place Winner

My essay Preparedness for Young People took 2nd place in the essay category of the 2011 Safecastle Freedom Awards. I'm very happy about this! I'm still shocked that I made it to the finals, so winning is just another shock... and I was more excited about the 2nd prize (the Excalibur dehydrator) than the 1st prize (the Katadyn water filter) anyway.

A gorgeous 1930s Detroit Vapor stove on eBay - Omaha, NE

My stove's very close relative is for sale on eBay, located in Omaha. Look at this beauty!

The enamel's in wonderful shape, and what's really remarkable, all the front knobs are still there! I don't see the oven temperature control dial on the right side. Maybe that's one of the things sitting inside the oven. That might be an interesting repair to have to make. Other than that, though, this is a wonderful stove. I wrote to the seller to correct the date; it's 1933-1934, not 1920s.

The Safecastle Freedom Award New Media Contest: I'm a finalist!

Safecastle ran a "new media" contest over most of 2011, seeking short written articles and short video pieces on some aspect of preparedness. Fifteen blogs hosted the contest entries, each of them choosing one essay and one video to submit as a finalist to Safecastle. I submitted mine through Rural Revolution. And I'm their finalist pick!

Here's a link to all the finalists so you can read them. Mine is titled Preparedness for Young People.

I'm really happy about this. Being a finalist is pretty cool, but maybe even more cool is that Don and Patrice of Rural Revolution have a small family business of making wooden drinking tankards by hand. They're amazing pieces of art AND they are functional. Take reasonable care of these tankards and they will last for decades. And I get one just for being one of their site's entries!

City of New Albin installs new officers

New Albin City Clerk Bobbie Goetzinger reads the oath of office to Mayor Elect Barry Stahl. Police Chief Conrad Rosendahl looks on.

Mayor Stahl's first act as mayor was to swear in returning council members Joey Sires, center, and Kathy Goetzinger, right...

and new council member Joel Monroe, below. Seated at far left is council member Lori Darling. In back by the flag is Police Chief Conrad Rosendahl.

Returning as Fire Chief is Mike Reburn.