Pledge to keep kids safe: join SafeHomes on Facebook
For years, the Community Prevention Council of La Canada Flintridge has been encouraging area parents to take the following pledge: “I will not allow minors to consume beer, wine, alcohol, or use illegal drugs in my home or on my property. I will not allow parties or gatherings in my home without proper adult supervision.” Parents who are willing to agree to that have long been asked to join SafeHomes, an online, password-protected database that allows parents to see which other parents have agreed to the pledge, and therefore to know which homes are more likely to hos

Lessons aren’t learned yet after Orinda teen dies after drinking at party
Did you know that if there’s underage drinking at your house, you’re liable even if you don’t know about it or aren’t home? And that if the kids paid to attend the party, you’re in even more trouble? Those were some of the points brought up by Will Moffitt at our September PTSA meeting, and those points are driven home in the lead article in today’s LA Times article, “A teen party, a mysterious death — and a town’s unanswered grief,” about a teen boy in Orinda who died

Best.Beat Cal.Prank.Ever
I blogged about this three years ago, but I thought I’d show it again: a “Beat Cal” banner hung by Stanford in Tours students from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in the Fall of 1983. Read more about it here. I wasn’t one of the brave souls who hung the banner: I merely took the picture. Still, it was very exciting. And surprisingly, no one got arrested.

New website launched: Hernandez Schaedel & Olson
Over 10 years ago, in a fit of eToys IPO-fueled optimism, my husband quit his big law firm job and formed his own law practice, The Hernandez Law Group. He’s worked very hard over the years to grow the practice, and recently decided to take on two partners: Jack Schaedel & Rob Olson. Don and Rob practice primarily intellectual property, healthcare and business litigation, and Jack primarily practices employment litigation. They have five associates who also help them. The original Hernandez Law Group site was the second site I ever desi

The best Red Ribbon Week posters I’ve ever seen
One of my goals this year as PTSA President is to make Red Ribbon Week more meaningful. It’s tough to communicate an anti-drug, anti-drinking message to cynical high school kids, especially when so many of them have already experimented with these substances. Anne Tryba saved the day. She volunteered to be the Red Ribbon Week Chair about a month before it took place, and not only managed to stage an essay contest that garnered nearly 200 entries, but sh