For the creation of outstanding hyperlocal content on OlyBlog concerning the Olympia School Board. Thanks, Jim!

Read Jim's posts here.

Olyblogger of the month for April is sponsored by Jusby the Clown.

Today I walked around down town Olympia, my home for the past Eighteen years. I knew that it was May Day, a day that years gone by, was cause for celebration, parades, marching bands, face painting, public nude mud wrestling, trash rhythem/drum circles, and an endless assortment of people doing beautiful, fun, out of the ordinary, things. Of course people spoke of politics, the war, poverty, and all the other issues of our society, but these topics were not the focus. May day for me has always been a day of celebrating the coming spring, a season of fertility and growth, new life sprouting and blooming. I did not march today, and all I saw were some young twenty year olds, dressed like the "black-bloc" of W.T.O. protest fame walk the streets shouting "Port of Olympia-Tear it down, Port of tacoma-Tear it down..." and such. Maybe I just missed the celebration part, I hope it was still there, not replaced by anger and fear. latter though I did witness some folks, about ten people, wraping a telephone line like a may pole, and smiled.

It's time again for First Friday in Downtown.

Just a week after Arts Walk, we barely cured the post-arts-walk-hang-over, and we're already preparing the next party in town.

Everyday Olympia has the details on participating locations.

Featured at einmaleins will be Hatched Egg'rs
This one is for the families. (Read: Please bring your Kids!!)
You gotta come and see Scott Anderson’s “Stuff for Kid’s Rooms”.
It’s fantastic and now available at einmaleins.

Of course, the usual refreshments and fun will be provided.

See ya in Downtown.

mathias

einmaleins

A friendly gnome by the name of Olim just “walked in” to visit us at einmaleins.

He’s from Gnomediaries.com and comes with a special message about climate change and how you can do your part in making sure this planet stays as beautiful as it was intended to be!

Come and stop by tomorrow during First Friday and say Hi to him!

And visit www.everydayolympia.com for more info. 

mathias & Olim - the Gnome.

einmaleins

This is recycled, but I thought someone had mentioned it was impossible, or against some set of rules. Hopefully some will be interested.

SEATTLE -- Longshoremen at the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma refused to work on Thursday as part of a union protest against U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fellow union members along the West Coast are taking part, brining cargo traffic to a halt.

An arbitrator on Wednesday ordered the union that represents dockworkers at West Coast ports to tell members they must report to work and not take the day off, but union leaders in Seattle said they have given their support to any of their 2,000 members who chose not to work.

Pacific Maritime Association spokesman Steve Getzug said thousands of workers at ports along the West Coast failed to report to work on Thursday.

For the rest

Volunteer at The ReStore, South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity's new and used building supply store. All proceeds from the ReStore go to Habitat for Humanity. Last year we diverted over 150 tons of usable items from Thurston Co.landfills. If you volunteer more then 20 hours you get 50% off on your purchases.

Duties include:
* Doing pick-ups
* Accepting donations
* Customer Service
* Cleaning and organizing

We need all the help we can get, call, click, email or visit with questions Alex Bertolucci 210 Thurston Ave NE Olympia, WA 98501, Phone: 360-956-3456, www.spshabitat.org

This is my 3rd year participating in the Thurston County Bike Commute Contest, and my 2nd organizing a team at work. This year I doubled the size of the group (14 people); I'm extra-jazzed that everyone in my department except one signed up.

And today was such a lovely day to start, too. About 40 degrees, cold enough to be nippy on the ears but warm enough to wear fingerless gloves. (My fingerless gloves have better padding, so I prefer them.) Mostly sunny, with enough overcast in the east that I wasn't squinting into the sunrise.

I love my commute. It's about 5 miles, 95% of it on trails. (Olympia Woodland to Chehalis Western) That new trail is fantastic, although I'm really curious what's up with the repair work being done west of Fones Road. Some sort of culvert work, I think, although I'm a little disappointed that it's needed so soon. The trail itself only opened, what, last December? (Note for original reporting idea: contact city & ask?)

In any case, it's very peaceful -- trees, birds, other cyclists. People walking dogs; there's definitely more walkers out & about in the afternoons. I'm in NO way a morning person, but getting moving, seeing Chambers Lake in the early light, cruising along: that wakes me up.

Today I'm turning in my team list; still trying to decide whether to get a t-shirt. (I need another t-shirt like I need a hole in my head, OTOH, this means enough to me that I kinda want one anyway. Plus I like this year's design. If they had baby-doll style shirts, I'd get one in a heartbeat.)

Hope to see you all down at Sylvester Park at noon for a day of fun, learning, and solidarity.