The Daily Thing

This weekend we picked up a stroller with an infant car seat for the new baby and a new mattress for the crib that my oldest son had been sleeping in. He has a new “big boy” bed. Picking a quality stroller/infant car seat combo was the hardest part though. Most of the reviews are from 5 years ago. I find that INCREDIBLE considering how big the market is and how much things have changed in 5 years.

We ended up getting the Evenflow Aura Sierra from Target. It’s very similar to the one we used 5 years ago when Zac was a baby. The major selling points were, and I’ve tested and used it before so you can trust me, it’s incredibly easy to collapse with 1 hand (because the baby is in the other), it’s easy to unfold, and the Z shaped hand is uber comfortable.

We looked at the more expensive systems (*cough*chicco) and I didn’t see the a significant difference in quality or easy of use. In fact I thought it was MORE difficult. So we’re using the Evenflow.

Hey it works. Does what it’s supposed to and does it good. That’s good enough for me.

Tags: Behind the Scenes, OMG I'm a parent, The Home Front by admin
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I’m working on clearing all the RSS feeds in NetNewsWire. When you have over 14,000 unread items it makes NNW a bit doggy.

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In local news…

Modbee.com : The Ceres Unified School District is on the offensive in negotiations with its teachers’ union after months of stalled bargaining and a slate of educator grievances against new policies.

The district this month filed two unfair practice charges with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, which administers collective bargaining laws.

Among other things, the district criticizes Ceres Unified Teachers’ Association leaders for withholding bargaining information and says union leaders spiked a proposal that would have required its members to get training to instruct students with limited English abilities.

Teacher contracts expired in July. The parties declared an impasse last month and are awaiting a meeting with a state mediator in November, Ceres Unified Superintendent Walt Hanline said.

Hanline said the association is negotiating in bad faith.

“This is a time we should be celebrating,” Hanline said, referring to the district’s unveiling of a new high school and two elementary schools this fall. “But we have a union leadership that is into demeaning and undermining all the work we have done.”

Doug Watchous, the union’s lead negotiator, called the charges an attempt to “be confrontational, to divide the teachers from a good working relationship with the district.”

The association has filed 17 grievances against the district this school year. It has also complained about Hanline’s leadership since last spring, when 328 of 520 teachers said they had no confidence in the superintendent.

Tags: education, Ceres

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KCRA: “A body has been found in the Stanislaus National Forest, according to Modesto police officials.

According to Modesto Police Department news release, detectives received information that led them to a shallow grave in the forest west of the town of Strawberry.

Detectives located the grave on Thursday evening about 100 yards from Highway 108, according to the release.

“The body of a decomposed adult was found in the grave, but we are unable to determine age or sex at this time. The scene has been processed and the body was being transported to the Stanislaus County Coroner’s Office,” the release said.

Detectives said that the body could be that of a missing ”

>Detectives said that the body could be that of a missing person from Modesto, but they will not be able to confirm the identity until it is processed by the Coroner’s Office.

Tags: California, Modesto

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Modesto Bee: “Four more Stanislaus County residents have been diagnosed with West Nile virus, including a 41-year-old man in critical condition in a Bay Area hospital, public health officials said Tuesday.

Also, the East Side Mosquito Abatement District, which covers the northern part of the county, announced an expansion of the Modesto territory where trucks will spray insecticide to kill mosquitoes — which spread the virus.

The four new cases include a 56-year-old man who also was hospitalized and was listed in fair condition, said David T. Jones, spokesman for the county Health Services Agency. The other newly diagnosed are women, ages 54 and 73, who had not required hospitalization, the agency announced.

Stanislaus County now has 23 human cases this year, third highest in the state behind Sacramento County, with 47, and Riverside County, 24.”

Tags: California, Modesto

Tags: The Home Front by admin
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Modbee: “Embarrassing calls at work. Threats of jail and even violence. Improper withdrawals from bank accounts. An increasing number of consumers are complaining of abusive techniques from some companies that are part of a new breed of debt collectors.

They are debt buyers, outfits that acquire unpaid bills from credit card firms and other credit providers for pennies on the dollar and then try to collect. Some of these companies go after bills so old that consumers no longer can be sued for them in court or punished for them on their credit reports.

As the amount of consumer debt has risen over the years, so, too, has the number of these firms, growing from about a dozen firms in 1996 to more than 500 today. Industry officials say the firms provide a real benefit to indebted consumers, letting them pay off their bills at steep discounts. But industry critics ‚Äî plaintiff attorneys, consumer advocates and regulators ‚Äî say that for some firms, the demand to make a profit on the debts they buy has resulted in the increasing use of heavy-handed, and sometimes illegal, tactics.”

Tags: news

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ModBee: “Modesto police ordered forensic analysis of a 10-inch knife reportedly found in the back yard of the home where Scott Peterson likely killed his pregnant wife.

Police questioned whether the knife recently had been planted in a dirty cabinet, only days after a tabloid magazine published rumors that Laci Peterson’s throat was slit.

Gerry Roberts, who bought the house at 523 Covena Ave. on July 1, said Monday, ‘You could tell there had been liquid on the blade’ and described a ‘red stain on the handle.’”

Tags: The Home Front by admin
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Gallo Wine is one of the largest employers in Stanislaus County. In fact, it used to be said you were one of 3 things if you lived here. 1) A farmer, 2) a cannery worker, or 3) a Gallo employee. It’s true, in this town you know someone who works for Gallo.

A few years back the Gallo Family and the city went into a joint venture to construct an arts center in the downtown area as part of a downtown revitalization project.

Take a look at theLiveCam of how construction is proceeding on the fine arts center.

Tags: California, Modesto

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The Modesto Bee: The Modesto Police Department sent more than a dozen officers to crack down on motorcyclists at a downtown bar Wednesday night.

I saw this happening. I was downtown dropping off bills when I noticed an awful lot of police activity. The motorcyclists weren’t “Hell’s Angels” though, so don’t stereotype them too quickly. All the bikes in front of the bar were import racing bikes (a.k.a. crotch rockets).

Tags: California, Modesto, news

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Oh……….boy. Tell me why I keep telling people I’m from here again?

Oakdale Cowboy Museum: “If Oakdale is famous for its cowboys, it’s infamous, perhaps, for something else. A very unusual festival, where people line up every year to eat…something you could call ‘cowboy cuisine’.

‘People call them ‘mountain oysters’ but they’re not fishy, I guarantee you that.’ “

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