Who dropped the baby? That was the question after this week's City Council meeting when I spied Councilman Al McColl showing off a picture on his cell phone of his brand new granddaughter to others. So I naturally approached him and asked him if I could see. As he started passing the phone my way, it slipped out of his hand and I wasn't fast enough to catch it before it landed on the ground. This all happened in full view of City Attorney Ric Rosow, who promptly announced to everyone that the newspaper editor had dropped the baby. There were laughs all around and I'm sure my face turned a bright red. Oh well, such is the price to pay for trying to look at a new baby.

Madam Editor:
I feel like I approached being rude on the reply to an e-mail you sent me early in September. You were doing your job. I was elsewhere. Check this webpage -- http://ghanadistricts.com/news/?read=19043 -- and you may see a familiar name.
Thanks for your efforts.
Tom

Funny you mention this.
While I drive a Subaru on a daily basis, on three separate occasions during my vacation last week I drove a F-150 and an Expedition, both trucks I truly enjoyed sitting above traffic in, but the gas pedal had a similar problem.
Since both of us have experiences this, my guess is that it may not be the gas pedal, but rather the fact that the trucks have a little muscle behind them unlike my Subi and your VW.

The bug is back and lookin' good. Now I'll be parking in the farthest parking space from the front door of anyplace I go to avoid the door dingers who have been following me around for the past 10 years and dinging my doors!

Do I detect a bit of sarcasm in your response? As a journalist you understand that oftentimes there is much more to the story than what is published. That is true with story on the webpage I shared with you. I should take this opportunity to publicly congratulate Representative Buesgens on his primary victory. Where I was the access to the internet was unreliable at best. The country I was visiting is having an election, too. They vote on Sunday, December 7th for a new president and parliament. They have issues concerning violence that they are dealing with. My son is there now and he is concerned, as are his parents, for what may happen after the election.
Tom

You never know who you are going to see at the first ever Weiner Races, but it did surprise me to see Mayor Janet Williams and her friend, Nancy Allen on Saturday at the Dan Patch American Legion. The pair ventured out to take in the action, as they said they could not find a weiner dog of their own to enter in the contest. As Janet and Nancy can atest, the event was a blast. I got a lot of cute pictures and I'll be putting some in the newspaper this weekend and trying to create a slideshow for the Web site this week. Please note the word "trying," as I'm an old dog and it takes me awhile to learn new web tricks.

It never ceases to amaze me that when I ask a simple question, I often get more information than I could ever use! Case in point: after Monday night's City Council meeting, I asked Al McColl to provide me with some information about a picture of a large fire that occurred on July 4, 1973. His brother, Fire Chief Joel McColl, had brought the picture in to use in "Remember When" feature. When Joel couldn't recall all the details, he directed me to big brother, Al, who has retired from the fire department and was also chief at one time. Al couldn't quite remember the name of the business where the fire took place, but he could tell me that it was the year after his dad, Gil McColl had retired from the fire department and the year before he officially joined up. So, Al asked resident historian, Mayor Janet Williams for some help. When Janet couldn't recall, she asked City Administrator Barry Stock, a long-time resident of Prior Lake and son of former PL Mayor Wally Stock for his input. Then Councilwoman Christine Kelly chimmed into the conversation. Christine recalled the fire happened on her 5th birthday and she was having a party. Her family lived in Shakopee and her dad was watching the action on TV and insisted on loading up all the kids who were attending the party in the family's car to go down and watch the fire. In the end, everyone agreed on the name of the business, but getting to that point took a few interesting twists and turns!

I was No. 490 at my precinct in Prior Lake -- and I heard the woman handing out ballots tell someone behind me while I was still inking in my ballot that he was No. 500. The line was long but moving quickly.

On my way into the polling place, I was talking to a friend in Indiana and he said the radio there was reporting 45 minute waits to vote. He also said he'd call me back when he got done voting -- and that was more than an hour ago. I don't know if the process is slower there (I know they word the voting for judges differently and they also are voting for a governor and who knows what else) but I was glad to do my civic duty and be on my way (although I was bummed I didn't get a chance to open the book I brought along to read).

Did everyone hear about the long lines the day after election day? They were lines to newspaper offices of people wanting newspapers because of the historical significance of the election results! And they say that newspapers are dying? Then when folks thought they ran out of issues of the NY Times, it was reported that someone was selling a single issue on eBay. The top bid was $199. But the Times reprinted 75,000 more copies, due to the demand of the Nov. 5, 2008 edition. I'm sure the same thing happened at all major dailies around the country.

My husband and I have saved "historic" newspapers for the past 27 -- we have a box in our basement and the Nov. 5 edition of the Pioneer Press went there last night. Please note, I don't have a box of web pages, blogs or TV or radio news reports. I have newspapers -- which have withstood the test of time for ages!

My hope as a newspaper woman is that issues of the Savage Pacer are being saved every day by folks in my community who value it.

Yes, saving anything associated with a newspaper counts -- especially if your name is on it or you wrote it! The value of the printed work cannot be measured, in my book. In addition to my box of "historic" newspapers, I have a Longerberger basket in my living room with magazines. Even though I don't view any of them as historic, I know they are there when I'm ready to finish them up! I just have to go to the page with the turned down corner and I'm back where I left off.

My sympathies to Ruth Anne's family, friends and colleagues. Her death is a terrible tragedy.

Once again, it was pick on the reporter night at last night's city council meeting. The council had gone into closed session, so I took my laptop, power cord, bottle of water and purse outside to do some other work while I waited. As luck would have it, I was talking with Jeff Renner, who manages the cable access service, when they went back into open session. They didn't waste a moment to capitalize on the fact that I had to gather all my things and get inside and to hurry me along. City Administrator Barry Stock yells out "all in favor say aye." Then Ric Rosow, the city attorney had to throw in something about barring the reporter from the open meeting just for good measure. Needless to say, everyone had another good laugh at the newspaper editor's expense!

OK -- I did it ... but don't ask me how!
Each year we pull a bucket or two of outdoor holiday decorations down from the attic in the garage and set out to make our home look nice for Christmas. This year was no different -- except for one thing. After all the lights were in place and we plugged them in -- they all worked! It was a Christmas miracle, as this never happens. Yes, we test each string to make sure they work before we put them up, but it always seems that something has to be adjusted because we didn't hook up everything correctly, therefore nothing works. But this year, I did the honors and almost fell down when they all came on. To celebrate, we left them on all night.

Another sign of my impending 50th birthday showed up in the mail recently -- an application to become a member of AARP. If I join, I'll get a subsciption to their magazine and lots of other benefits ... YIPEE!

Thanks to everyone who attended the memorial service for Ruth Anne Maddox on Saturday. Your support was very much appreciated by the staff of the Pacer, since Ruth Anne worked here for 3 1/2 years before moving over to the Valley News.

Merry Birthday ... a new stove! Yesterday, my husband was trying to adjust a cabinet door that didn't fit right. The cabinet was up above the stove. He was up on a chair but decided he needed to get closer, so he put his knee on the glass cooktop and ... well, the next thing I heard (from upstairs where I was wrapping Christmas presents) was a pop and a #$*&@!. When I got downstairs the glass cooktop was no more. So, after cleaning it up we went to Appliance Smart. First we inquired about replacing the glass -- which they informed us would require a special order and cost about half of what it does for a new stove. Oh well, my birthday is a week away. Merry Birthday!

Our new year started off in an interesting manner. Our dog, Max, has been trying to catch a squirrel all year. He got lucky on New Year's morning as he flew out the back door at one underneath the feeder. Mr. Squirrel didn't catch on fast enough and Max chomped him one and then proceeded to toss him up in the air a few times. The squirrel did manage to limp away and get under the fence and to the neighbor's yard. A few hours later we went out to take down the outdoor Christmas decorations and took a look to see if we could tell what happened to it. Mr. Squirrel was indeed very dead. Now the squirrel is "resting in peace" in the neighbord Christmas tree, which they stuck in the snow bank to be picked up by the garbageman. He checks on his catch each time we go out for a walk.

I predict the word of the year will be "stimulus," given the amount of ink the word has gotten in the month of January alone! What other words do you think might be one of the top words for 2009?

When you get older, do you get more prone to setting off metal detectors? I seemed to have that problem while covering the Craigslist trial in Shakopee. One day, I set it off 3 times before they let me pass. I took off everything but my clothes (which was the next step), so I'm glad I made it!
While covering the trial, I made friends with Abby from the Star Tribune and John from the Pioneer Press. We had a great working relationship and when the legalese got deep we would huddle together in the hallway comparing notes. TV media folks came and went throughout the trial but were there in full force the night the verdict came in. That was odd and interesting at the same time. I was able to keep up with all the media coverage with daily updates on the web site and in Saturday's paper (and on the web site), I ended up writing 2 more stories -- one about the trial and one about the impact of the trial on law enforcement. It's back to the regular routine now, which includes an action-packed City Council meeting Monday night!

This is the "year of the pipe" at our house. On Friday we decided to turn out the outside water spigots while doing some outdoor chores done on a nice spring afternoon. Ha! The pipe to the front spigot split -- inside the house where it comes into the basement. Of course it is in an area where the ceiling is finished, so, we know have a large hole in the ceiling. Plus we have the carpet and pad pulled back on that side of the room with fans running! This pipe has no shut off valve of its own, but now that the repair is done, it does! Then on Saturday (as if we didn't learn our lesson the first time) we tried the back spigot. It has its own shut off valve (that one split about 10 years ago on the inside), but the pipe split at the access to our irrigation system. Good thing Menards is just down the street!

If you doubt the city is doing everything it can to save money, you should have been at last night's city council meeting. In spite of the warm temperatures outside and the heated discussion inside about a street improvement project, the A/C was not turned on. But the folks who came out for the two public hearings stuck it out and stayed through it all!

The determination of the Dan Patch Days horseshoe hunt winners never ceases to amaze me! I met with this year's winners -- the Meyers family -- for a story that will appear in our paper on Saturday. It was a lot of fun ... in fact I was enjoying myself so much and laughing with them about their experiences that I didn't want to leave! I've been lucky enough to be at the Pacer since the first horseshoe was hidden (at Warren Butler Park and found by a family that lived on ... Dan Patch Lane) and interview a lot of the winners over the years. The value of this contest to Dan Patch Days is "priceless" as the MasterCard commercial says!