From the category archives:

Parenting Tips

Idaho Falls’ Best Sledding Areas

by Joe Vandal December 26, 2006

We finally got our snow delivered in southeast Idaho! Sledding is a great physical (and cheap) activity to take children out to do here. I wonder the same thing each year: where are the best sledding spots?

There is the small hill in Community Park, close but likely crowded.
There is the Ucon pit next to [...]

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Where are the Biggest Idaho Falls Christmas Light Displays?

by Joe Vandal December 17, 2006

Christmas season is nearing the end, but there is still another week of time to drive around and look at the holiday lights. Some homes hang a few up (like mine), some hang many up, and then there are those few that hang so many up you wonder at their electric bill.

These are the “doozies” [...]

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Must Idaho High School Students Take ASVAB Test?

by Joe Vandal November 28, 2006

Pre-released on IdahoFallz MySpace page:
I recently read this story about a couple high school students in Georgia who frustrated military recruiters’ attempts to administer ASVAB tests under the guise of “career placement tests”.
Apparently the two students overheard teachers discussing that the tests would be given the after the weekend, that the students would be [...]

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What are your holiday traditions, Idaho Falls?

by Joe Vandal November 26, 2006

I think it’s widely acknowledged the holiday season starts Thanksgiving weekend. I was wondering what similar or different holiday traditions we celebrate in Idaho Falls?
My family sets out our Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving weekend. We have two fake trees now, one for upstairs and the basement. We only setup one at first with wooden ornaments, [...]

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94.3 Gets Family Christmas Music Wrong

by Joe Vandal November 11, 2006

Many eastern Idahoans were disappointed when local radio station 94.3 played two months of Christmas music then switched to wuss programming.
The other night I was actually in the mood for Christmas music, and quickly found 94.3 is playing two months of Christmas music again this year.
Unfortunately, I had to quickly shut off 94.3 and [...]

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Jessica’s Law: It is time to get this law passed in Idaho!

by Ok4Now October 26, 2006

From the Florida State Senate in 2005, I am posting what those senators started to work with in creating Jessica’s Law.
Jessica Lunsford Act; creates Jessica Lunsford Act; revises sexual
predator criteria; requires twice yearly reregistration by sexual
predators; provides criminal offenses for failing to reregister, failing
to respond to address verification, [...]

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Free Gun Locks Available at Police Department Front Desk

by Joe Vandal October 4, 2006

I stopped into the Idaho Falls Police Department yesterday to check if the IFz page is being blocked still. The city IT admin (a gentleman named Kelly) has assured me the filter was allowing the IFz site to come up, however some police officers have told me they are still unable to access it. I [...]

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Time to Rethink Food Stamps?

by JeremyPlo September 19, 2006

I am the original bleeding heart.  I mean that.
However, lately, I’ve been rethinking the whole concept of state-sponsored charity – namely, food stamps.  This is mainly because every time I go to WinCo, I leave mad as hell.
You know what I’m talking about.  I’m talking about you going through the store, being very careful to [...]

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Homework before Video is Business before Pleasure

by Joe Vandal September 5, 2006

My smart wife started this school year on the right foot with a rule that our son must finish his homework every day before he can watch any television. No ifs, ands, or buts; no video is allowed for him until he finishes his homework and either mom or dad go over it to ensure [...]

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The mosquitos are out for blood…

by Skitterkat August 17, 2006

Okay, so it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything but random thoughts in the chatbox, but this issue has me pretty fired up, so here goes. (While I realize not all mosquitos carry West Nile, I currently don’t know of any way to differentiate between “the good” and “the bad”. So to “the good” [...]

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Dinosaur Legos Set Stage for Quality Memories

by Joe Vandal July 16, 2006

It was only $20 at Toys ‘R Us, but this Lego set we got our 6-year old boy for Easter proved to be a real winner in our family.
We had bought other generic Lego sets and Star Wars sets before, and occasionally played with them. However, this set contained two instruction books that used [...]

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ProtecTeens tries hard to protect teens

by zeth 1337 May 16, 2006

I requested the free CD, ProtecTeens, distributed by our Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa. It is meant to help Idaho parents, teachers, and teens against online sexual solicitation, exploitation, and abuse. Wasden narrates most of the 22-minute CD. I know their intentions were in the right place, [...]

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Idaho Education Problems Point Directly to Solutions

by Tar n Feather Em May 8, 2006

The Post Register reported well on Idaho’s third-rate educational system. They were too polite, however, in just presenting the evidence and pointing to where Idaho is headed. I will be more blunt and painfully honest. Nicety political talk has gotten us to a dire state, so blunt words and an unambiguous messages is required here.

Idaho [...]

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Wal-Mart on Easter Eve

by Joe Vandal April 15, 2006

We had prided ourselves on buying Easter goodies early this year, but found late tonight a forgotten but critical item: little chocolates.
Our family tradition is to place a trail of little wrapped Easter chocolates from our kids’ bedroom doors leading out to their baskets in the living room. It’s kind of neat, the kids squeal [...]

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Lego Sorting Philosophy

by Joe Vandal April 12, 2006

As a kid, all of our Legos were in one big box and you had to dig for each piece like an archeology expedition. We loved making things with Legos, but as a result worked with them less and less often.
As an adult, I saw my kid’s first Lego box with all the pieces thrown [...]

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Idaho Falls teens on Myspace: sexy pics, drunken brags, and phone numbers

by zeth 1337 March 22, 2006

Myspace has been making several headlines lately, and our own Local News 8 tried a surface-level report recently.
I had always ignored Myspace until the nationwide reports started surfing. Mass media news mostly focuses on scare stories, but Myspace.com has become one of the top 10 Internet sites and was recently bought out by Rupert Murdoch’s [...]

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Find sex-offenders in your neighborhood

by zeth 1337 March 21, 2006

We linked to this a long time ago, but after seeing a sex offender from my neighborhood in the public library Saturday I thought I would post it up front.
Mapsexoffenders.com allows you to punch in your zip code, and the little red baloons represent the locations of all registered sex offenders in your neighborhood. You [...]

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Geek sheik

by zeth 1337 February 19, 2006

Geeks appear to be ‘in’ more than ever (please don’t beat me up for saying that).
First, they are increasingly running the world and making all the money. Then there are reality shows where babes compete to date geeks. Now I’ve come across some top then lists explaining why geeks make good friends and the [...]

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900 number blocks save headaches

by zeth 1337 February 2, 2006

You can prevent headaches by getting a 900/976 number block from your local telephone company. There is no charge for the feature, and all you have to do is take five minutes to call your phone company to request it. In fact it’ll probably take you longer to navigate the silly voice prompts than to [...]

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Watching ‘Intervention’ Should Be Required for Local Teens

by Joe Vandal December 21, 2005

Idaho Falls Teenagers: you must strive to watch Intervention, an hour-long program airing on Sundays on the A&E channel. This show could be so important to your long-term life success that you should go to a friend’s house to watch if you don’t get A&E at your home. I do not mean to preach, but [...]

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