be1 kansas city report

I had the Be1KC event last night. It was cold and raining, so not many people showed up. In fact, none of the official-type people I invited made it.

But there were a couple of people who wanted to help kids, so I'm going to help them get in touch with folks who can help them do that.

The main result is that I'm going to step up my involvement. The president of our neighborhood association showed up, and he said some of the high school administrators have reached out to them. So I made a commitment to be the neighborhood's liaison with the school. I'm going to get in touch with folks there, and stay in touch with them, so I can keep abreast of stuff that's happening there. That way when there's an activity neighborhood folks can help out with, I can try to round people up.

It's a little bit. But every little bit helps.

beard: week 7

I was going to let it go until August.

But it was starting to feel like moss.

And I'm a roooollling stoooonne!

friends and family in the media

There was a cool article in the Elkhart Truth about my uncle Evan and a forest he planted.

And one of Ebony Rose's speeches is included in an online project about race hosted by Stanford.

That's all for now.

who woulda thunk it?

Via my friend and fellow descendent of martyrs, Joel, comes this shocking news.

This gives me good cause for growing my beard.

nuni and nooni schoener

Mice sometimes seek refuge in our home. Allie and I have named every mouse we've ever seen in our house Nuni Schoener or Nooni Schoener, after one of our favorite couples from Saturday Night Live.

Usually, the Schoeners are not a big deal. They show up a few times during winter months and then the disappear. But this year there seems to be a lot of Nunis so we had to take action.

We don't want to kill them, because they're so cute. And our cats don't seem to want to either. So we took a cue from Allie's sister and rigged a humane trap.

We put some peanut butter and ketchup in the end of a carboard tube from a paper towel roll. Then we balance it on the edge of a shelf, above a tall garbage can. When the mice get to the end of the tube where the food is, they tip it over and into the can, where they're trapped.

It works!





We've caught four today and we've driven each to a wooded spot about two miles from our house.

I would like to know if mice can find one another and rebuild their communities in new locations. I hope so.

be1 kansas city

There's an article in my neighborhood newspaper about an event I'm hosting on April 27.

It's part of the Be1 campaign that school board member has spearheaded. The goal is to encourage folks to get become mentors for kids at Kansas City schools.

The event will be at 6:30 p.m. at the Northeast Branch of the Kansas City Library.

It'll be pretty mellow. I'll talk a little about my experience helping the debaters at Central. Hopefully, one of the debaters will be there, and they'll talk about what it's like to have an old freak like me hanging around, trying to help out. I've also invited a teacher from Northeast High and some local social-worker-type people.

I'll post more about it in the coming days. Hope some of you can attend!

beard: week 6

bring out your dead

There's a good article in today's Times about my current hobby.

beard: week 5

beard: week 4