On a children’s lit kick

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For whatever reason, I've been reading a lot of children's lit this past month. So far that includes: The fantasy trilogy "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman I've only read the first two books so far, The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife. I still need to get to The Amber Spyglass to round out the trilogy. These are excellent fantasy novels, but stridently anti-religion. The Golden Goblet, a Newberry honor from the 60s set in ancient Egypt. The Bungalow Mystery, #3 in the Nancy Drew series. I read the original version from the 1930s, not the sanitized 1950s version Read more…

B&O tax in Tacoma

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The Tacoma City Council took a big step forward tonight by adjusting the City’s B&O and cabaret taxes. By raising the minimum threshold for tax to $250,000 from $75,000 more businesses will have a chance to grow before paying the tax. More and more businesses have real flexibility in where they want to locate, especially when their only needs are a computer and phone. I think this will help make Tacoma more welcoming to those kinds of businesses. As David Boe said tonight, Tacoma is a great place to start a business and this only helps that. Marilyn Strickland also Read more…

This year’s Christmas tree is so money and it doesn’t even know it.

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See the full gallery on Posterous A year ago we were given some beautiful origami dollar bills from our friends Seamus, Liz, and Marguerite. We saved them and used them as ornaments for our Christmas tree. The stars on top are particularly cool. Each was made with five bills interlocked into a star. Very cool! We added chocolate Euro coins to the mix as well to give it a little sparkle. Yes, a money tree may be a little sacrilegious, but it’s not so different from my poker tree a few years ago when it comes to that. This one Read more…

Zoolights opened tonight! A couple photos

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Us with the Fred Meyer Mascot, Fred Bear. (I never knew Fred Meyer had a mascot until I heard he would be at Zoolights). We took a turn on the carousel. Mary on a horse: Me on a puma: And then an Autostitched photo of Zoolights from the main plaza. The flame tree’s about a quarter of the way from the left. Fun night out!