Recent Online Poll Results

If you're curious about our recent polls, here are the results of the last five of them:
What's your favorite Thanksgiving side dish
Stuffing: 54 percent; 71 votes
Mashed potatoes: 17 percent; 23 votes
Cranberry sauce: 17 percent; 22 votes
Green bean casserole: 12 percent; 16 votes
*132 total votes

How do you spend Thanksgiving
At home with family: 51 percent; 62 votes
Visiting family: 32 percent; 39 votes
Restaurants and hotel buffets: 13 percent; 16 votes
Serving people in need: 3 percent; 4 votes
*121 total votes

Where do you prefer to shop
Local merchants' shops downtown: 33 percent; 21 votes
Big-box retailers: 30 percent; 21 votes
Discount clubs: 19 percent; 12 votes
Online: 17 percent; 11 votes
*63 total votes

Which Web site do you use the most
Facebook: 82 percent; 71 votes
Twitter: 13 percent; 11 votes
MySpace: 5 percent; 4 votes
Blogger: 1 percent; 1 vote
*87 total votes

When do you start your holiday shopping
Before Thanksgiving: 37 percent; 28 votes
After Thanksgiving: 22 percent; 22 votes
December: 22 percent; 17 votes
Christmas Eve: 12 percent; 9 votes
*76 total votes

Do you have any ideas for poll questions? Let us know: editor@a2journal.com

A Happy Toller Thanksgiving

While my turkey was cooking, several of my friends and I headed to Dexter for a Thanksgiving Day agility match.
Here's a group shot of us with our four Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers.
We ran off some calories BEFORE everyone went their respective ways to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends.
From left to right is Nancy and Ryan, Lisa and Driver, Dorothy and Paris and Becca and Mardi.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

An appetizing evening with 4-Hers

Not sure who was enjoying the tasty appetizers more during a 4-H workshop Friday night presented by Patricia Murdock and Pam Farrell.
More than 25 4-Hers and adults learned tips about making about 18 appetizers as part of the county's effort to teach youth how to cook easy, affordable and healthy foods.
This workshop focused on tasty nibbles that can be prepared by the youth during the holidays.
A yummy time was had by all. Including your's truly, pictured above enjoying a fruit treat that included yogurt and strawberries in a graham cracker crust.

Local swine flu updates on Twitter

For everyone who is on Twitter, I thought you would want to know about this.

Public health organizations, hospitals and concerned citizens of Washtenaw County ask residents with access to Twitter to include the hash tag, #WashtenawH1N1, when tweeting about their experiences with H1N1 within the county.

The goal is to provide a single resource for residents of Washtenaw County who want to know where H1N1 vaccine is available, and how long wait times may be at various locations.

Instructions:

To tweet information, log-in to Twitter with your User ID and include the hash tag, #WashtenawH1N1, in your tweet.

To read the information, visit http://twitter.com and search for the hash tag, #WashtenawH1N1.

Once tweets begin to be posted, you will find the real-time stream of tweets here: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23WashtenawH1N1.

Tweets will be searchable for up to seven days. Information at the top of the list is the most recent.

Byrnes hosting community forum Nov. 18 in A2

State Rep. Pam Byrnes, D-52nd District, will be holding a community forum in Ann Arbor. We encourage local residents to take advantage of the opportunity and share their voices on a variety of topics. Here's the press release that just came in:

ANN ARBOR – Speaker Pro Tempore Pam Byrnes (D-Lyndon Township) is hosting a community forum to hear from residents about issues like government reform, budget cuts and funding key priorities like education. Byrnes will be hosting the event on Wednesday, Nov. 18 in Ann Arbor.

"We're going through difficult times here in Michigan, and I want input from our residents on what they want to see from state government moving forward," Byrnes said. "In order to turn around our state and create jobs, we're facing some very tough decisions about how to stretch taxpayer dollars to fund priorities such as education. I invite people from around Washtenaw County to come and share their views with me."

The event is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 18, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Vogel Rooms A and B at the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, located at 1819 S. Wagner Road in Ann Arbor.