Took the kid to see honors dorms. Stress baking a coffee cheesecake, turned off NPR, breathing, breathing some more.

Did you know the Baltimore Senate Delegation voted favorably to move a bill that would require members of the school board to be approved by the Maryland Senate and remove a formal role for the City Council, ASCBC, BTU, PSASA etc w/o any notice to constituents? mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/L...

If you want to submit testimony to the Baltimore City Senate Delegation here is the link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Bill is scheduled for Friday, 2/27. Unfortunately the Senate Delegation website, FB, and Instagram pages are wildly out of date. City House Delegation very helpful tho.

@zekecohen.bsky.social Hope the City Council formally opposes this bill as it would eliminate the Community Panel and the Council's seat on it. As Dr Santelises's leaves Baltimore, we need more engagement to ensure success for young people and families, not less.

@antoniohayes40.bsky.social Has introduced a bill that would deprive Baltimore families, youth, teachers, administrators, the City Council, and unions of a formal role in selecting members of the Baltimore City School Board. If you're in the city, please contact your Council member and state rep.

Sen. Antonio Hayes has introduced a bill that would require Baltimore City School Board appointees to be confirmed by the Maryland Senate rather than recommended by a Community Panel drawn from parents, teachers, administrators, young people and appointed by the Mayor. From PCAB.

Someday I'm going to write a petty tell all about the shenanigans I've witnessed in public service and the surprisingly high number of folks who must be so tired from carting their hefty egos in a little hand truck behind them.

This lady would like you to know her dinner was 10 minutes late.

One more week and we'll be half way thru session. One more week and we'll be half way thru session. One more week...

Still furious. An elected official straight up went on the radio to say because adults have failed to make meaningful changes in juvenile justice, we need to put children in adult jail and prison. Baltimore folks: listen to Bates on WYPR and ask yourself if this is the best we can do. I hope not.

Taking the kid to the welcome honors college student event [redacted for privacy] this weekend. Getting really real now.

Oh, the police chiefs are in favor of the bill! Good to know. Splendid.

Listening to Ivan Bates on Midday re charging young people as adults and losing my mind. Absolutely furious at the specious, straw man arguments about depriving young people of their liberty for years on end in a system not designed adults, let alone children.

I'm so tired. And we're not half way thru session.

Baltimore is just potholes with bits of road connecting them at this point?

*Rowhouse. Damn you autocorrect.

Behold the greatest deal from Second Chance. This massive, real wood, curved front, weighs approx one million pounds, two part china cabinet was $90. Less than one hundred American dollars. Getting it into the townhouse was... An adventure. But now we have storage for all the things.

A massive, tremendous thanks to the Enoch Pratt library system for hosting many Baltimore School for Arts students while the building is under repair from a burst pipe. Library system and other community partners stepping into the breach for the city's young people.

Stop introducing stupid legislation challenge remains unfilled in Maryland. A clown car full of some of the most shoddily written, poorly conceived,. impossible to enforce nonsense.

#Baltimore admin just alerted us there are raids on Annapolis road!!!

The kid's senior year isn't going as planned.

The deadline to introduce House bills in the General Assembly is F; the Senate deadline has passed. I sure wish some intrepid reporters would look at what the governor's refusal to raise taxes means for how the state will operate, what cuts are coming and which vital legislation isn't moving.

"This is how men behave" is doing a lot of work here.

The teen was cackling with Statler and Waldorf, their favorite characters. And the duet of Islands in the Stream? Perfection.

A city councilman told me to call 311 to report this. This is the wholly uncleared sidewalk in Mt Vernon. Literally adjacent to a large monument, in a central neighborhood. What sort of mother may I government is this? Are we clearing block by block based on resident complaint?

I spent a long while with one at the Uffizi.

And no school for the kid today. A pipe burst in the building.

@zacblanchardd11.bsky.social This is your district. Major bus area for the 51, 95, Green, Silver, and Purple Circulator right in Mt Vernon. This is where students heading N from BSA often catch the bus. It has been cleared not at all. Again.

Our trash wasn't picked up on Saturday during the makeup day. Put in 311 request. Closed in 90 minutes saying it had been picked up. What the heck? There is a big pile at the end of the alley and across the way, at the end of the other alley because folks piled stuff up as requested.

Not their first choice but the kid got into University of Maryland College Park. And this morning ahead of my medical thing they loaded up my Instagram with hilarious videos. Sometimes parenting is pretty alright.

Baltimore County, which has yellow bus, is opening two hours late. Anne Arundel and Howard opens two hours late today and tomorrow. Montgomery County and Prince George's are closed.

Baltimore City Schools decided to open on time today. MTA is having difficulty with bus and metro, services that ~25,000 young people rely on. Huge mounds of snow are blocking crossings, impeding driver and pedestrian sight lines. Bike lanes are wholly uncleared.

No mention of tardy forgiveness for either students or teachers, partially those at schools with no parking lots or still uncleared lots.

Pumpkin bundt cake with brown butter maple bourbon glaze. I have a medical thing tomorrow and nerves jangling. So, baking. In the oven: beef stew.

This is how we end up with blue state governors like Wes Moore leaving into tech while failing to fully fund the parts of Kirwan that give the collaborative and planning time they so desperately need.

Someone left a free stuff box on their stoop this fall. In it was an old LL Bean barn jacket. Faded, lining torn, some minor staining. I loved it. The husband gave me the patch and I covered the stains with embroidery.

Borrowing @sprawlhater.bsky.social's photo. The building marked with a red arrow is Baltimore School for the Arts. ~450 young people attend, plus after school littles for TWIGS. These are the sidewalks young people taking the Silver, Green, 94, Pink, 51, and other lines face.

Ayup. And in the city, where kids rely on MTA, cleared sidewalks mean waiting in the street for the bus or walking in the street to school.

From DLS briefing before Senate Finance today. Maryland has major needs, federal uncertainty, and a ton of vacant state positions at a time when the state government is grappling with OBBA changes. This is fixable with political will.

Not pleasing: the repeatedly un-shoveled sidewalks and bus stops on N Charles and St Paul.

Mending but the cat demands attention.

Baltimore City Schools closed tomorrow. Appreciate the early notice @baltcityschools.bsky.social; thank you.

Hurrying in the cold, ate it coming home. Skinned my knees, my wrist and ankle hurt. Midlife stuff has made me anemic and I FEEL the cold now. I feel stupid. Tomorrow I'm parking myself on the sofa with a brief interruption for a long, hot bath.

You going to stand in the street with the observers or is this more thoughts and prayers?

Maryland Budget up at DBM. Health Department ⬇️ $24.016 to $23.066.

Blacksauce is having fried oysters at the Waverly Market this weekend. It'll be 15 when I normally hit the market. How cold am I willing to be for fried oysters with pepper relish?

I just turned into the radio for background noise expecting my usual WYPR programming and instead am listening to the president talk about his power to crush the housing market and how Switzerland makes great watches and how he put tariffs on and how he knows so many people from Switzerland.... 😶

Spending $200 mil on this to “put PG County on the map”, after PG County Schools just had their budget cut by $150 million is just too on the nose.

Kavanaugh should never again dine out, throw at a bowling alley, attend a baseball game or ballet or concert, borrow a library book, golf, go for a quick stroll, give a lecture, or make any public appearance without righteously angry and grieving families appearing to remind him of his folly.

Great, zany time, as always at Black Cherry Puppet Theatre. Evening closed with a sing-along of Rainbow Connection. Also scored a beautiful, real wood china cabinet that we'll be using a bookshelf at Second Chance for $90.