Grampa Dave in his element

Grampa Dave captured a whale

Oh, my, it got away!

I didn't mean to update the post from this morning so quickly, but I missed this notice that the city council will be holding a special meeting on Wednesday to talk about a process I thought was already set (big hat tip to No Talking Heads).

Looks like they want to toss the salad a bit, maybe add an applicant open house on the front end.

The way I look at it, we have five months and two elections to choose these people in most cases, but less than a month and a somewhat closed door process to choose them this time. Anything the city council wants to do to make this a more open process is fine with me.

Here's the staff memo on the meeting on Wednesday.

By the way, the results so far on the Olyblog poll has Westbrook with 4 votes, both Reddick and Tousley at 1 each. Go here to vote.

The authors of the counter-recruiting manual Army of None, Chnan Suarez-Diaz and David Solnit, will be in Olympia to lead an interesting and practical workshop for students. They will discuss counter-recruiting methods and issues surrounding ending the wars the Middle East. As veterans, David and Chanan will share the military story young people don’t hear from recruiters. As organizers, they will discuss tactics of effective resistance from around the country. This is part of a national tour called The Army of None Project, which is bringing skills workshops, live performances, and resources to 40 communities across the US.

My response to emmett's thread was blocked, obviously by politically-motivated evil petty censoring docents, so I am reposting it here.

My top three choices for appointment are Danielle, James and Joan. I think the new council will have a tendency to be kind of a getalong gang, and I hope the appointee will be capable of thinking outside "team" when necessary. I also hope the appointee will not take too seriously their debt to the members who voted for them. I don't have much hope for a truly well-rounded council for the next two years, but it could be much worse.

We went to Tammy's sister's house for Christmas Eve. When we got there her Sis was holding a new chihuahua. She was the cutest thing; she didn't shiver beyond a barely perceptible movement, she was comfortable in a crowd of strangers, was passed from hand to hand and was generous in her licks; she behaved herself perfectly around the three-year-old.

They had already named her Daisy. About four days before a friend of theirs had found her wandering a road outside Graham, filthy and without a collar. They kept her a few days but already had dogs and asked Sis and her husband if they could take her. They have an aging pomeranian and plenty of room for another little dog. They gave her a bath and fell in love with her.

Knowing that chihuahuas are rarely strays they wanted to make an honest effort to find her owners. They were going to put an ad on Craigslist but we were all wary of how to word it; if they merely said a lost chihuahua was found they'd be guaranteed to get calls from people claiming they lost their pup. It was suggested they demand an exact description which had me thinking I'd be at a loss how to describe my own baby girl (uh...she looks like a yorkie...her hair's messy...she has eight nipples...etc.)

They looked on Craigslist to see if there were any local ads of missing chihuahuas and the very top thing that popped up was a missing pooch named Daisy Mae! Everyone else was certain that wasn't her. They said the coloring was off, the ears were shaded different. I was waiting for someone to claim her bandana was photoshopped.

Before they went further they got the idea of taking her to a vet and seeing if she was microchipped. An emergency vet was still open so they took her there. Not only did she have a chip but she, who had independently been named Daisy, was the very same Daisy Mae in the ad!

Orion didn't really want to get his fingers gooey with the frosting mortar, but he did help with the gumdrop decorations. It would be a great vlog for Bre Pettis at http://imakethings.com. Buy two kits and discover the thrill of rushing into the project willy-nilly with the first one.

Imagine building a house of cards with honey on your fingers. Now make it an A frame cottage.

No, no, wait. How about following the directions better? You have to hold each piece in place until it stays put... for about a half an hour.

In the middle of this project, Grampa Dave had something he wanted us all to hear. He said that even Julie didn't know. He thought it was important enough for even Bibi Betsy and Uncle Nick to hear.

He has a perfectly serious manner, and I suspected grave news. Then he announced the story as "The Reason There's A Justin" and launched into the following:

I just posted up the last of eight posts about the applicants for the empty seat on the Olympia City Council. So, who do you like?

I set up a poll here that allows you to rank your choices for city council. Here is a link to see the results so far.

This is the seventh in a series of eight posts about the eight folks who want to take Doug Mah's old seat on the Olympia city council.

Amy Tousley is a resume candidate along the lines of James Reddick, Jim Boyde and Danielle Westbrook. With ten years on the planning commission and with professional experience as a planner, in addition to a handful of other community organizations, she is very qualified to be on the council.

But, in Tousley's case, she is lacking something that all three of the above candidates seem to have, a level of passion. The only other bad thing you can say about her is that she didn't get past the primary in her run for city council last fall. Voice of the people and all that.

Tousley has a very good understanding of the city council and how it operates. She gave detailed and multi-layered answers to the questions on the application that deserve the most details.

For example, her answer on the budget question was good: