Quadsville

If I could take the day off, I would. But I've got a vacation coming up next week, so there's lots to do this week. Any of you playing hooky? If not today, do you have a good story of skipping work or school? I keep thinking of the guy who's wife filed a missing persons report on her husband only to find out he had ditched work to take a day-long bike ride. Today would be a good day for that!

We've got a new photo contest going: Splish Splash! Get your entries in by noon on Wednesday.

We're also starting something new today: A daily poll. We'll have a new question for you every day (at least Monday-Friday). I know how much you all like to share your opinion (tee hee), so I hope you'll take time to check out our poll each day. Have a good one!

JOE’S PICK: This photo of John O’Donnell Stadium taken by Alice Gless of Davenport from the Rock Island Levee, July 4, 2005, won the Joe’s Pick Award.
“This one is well lit and has a mood that brings to mind the flavor of our community, a true vision of American life,” wrote newsroom artist Joe Kelley.

QUADSVILLAGERS’ CHOICE: Jock Aplin received the most online votes in our “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” photo contest with his photo of a baseball game in Stuart, Iowa.

Good question.

This is part of a karma system that was recently launched. You earn 1-10 points for a variety of contributions to our online community. For example, you get a point for uploading a photo or writing a comment on qctimes.com. You get 5 points for writing a comment on Quadsville. You get 10 for writing a blog entry.

The current parameters are:

0-249 points = Newcomer

250-749 = Citizen

750-infinity = Town Crier

When you go to My Stuff, you'll see your badge and a link underneath to view points. Right now, these badges aren't visible to others. But eventually they will be and other activities will be included in the karma system.

Since we are still sort of testing this out, let me know what you think. Are the point values for each level fair? It seems to me people can get up to Town Crier pretty quickly. I have more than 7,000 points for goodness sake. Should we raise the number of points needed to get to each level?

Let me know what you think.

Well, the post did appear in the list, but when clicked upon, there was an error message. I'm guessing this is an unspotted bug from that update we did a month ago. And since nobody else reported it, I'm guessing that not many of you know you can post to your blog when you're away from Quadsville.

If you open up your blog settings (My Stuff, My Blogs, Blog Settings), you'll see an e-mail address for e-mail/mobile posting. If you can e-mail from your phone or PDA, then you can send a long post. Shorter posts can be sent by putting the e-mail address in the To: line of a text message. I haven't tried to send a picture yet.

Has anyone been using this feature?

Most of you have figured out how to embed videos in your blog entries. But for those who haven't, here's a little trick you can learn (that works!).

Copy the embed code for the video. On YouTube, you will see this off to the right of the video. Then open up a new blog entry in Quadsville. After you typed whatever text you want, click on Edit HTML at the bottom of your blog editor window. Then paste the code where you want the video to appear in your blog. Then click back over to Design. When you publish, you'll see the viewer window right there in your blog entry so people can watch the clip without leaving your page.

What other techie tricks do you want to learn? Let me know and I'll keep you posted on when mobile blogging is up and running again.

Check out these photos and videos from the Air Show that Quad-City Images took. Did you know a Harrier jet could fly backward? I didn't.

Got some good reports on Starman's blog about his progress in the Race Across America. Sounds kinda rough out there.

What did you do for Father's Day? I helped clean up broken glass and debris at my dad's cabin on the Mississippi just south of Lock & Dam 18. A tornado came through early Thursday morning, but didn't touch down (my future brother-in-law says in the South they call that a gustnado). It did, however, twist off the top of a tree, smash it into the back of the deck and take the back railing and the grill crashing 30 feet down with it. Sent all the deck furniture (talking heavy glass table top kind) flying. Broke their boat dock in two. They had three holes in the roof that they've already gotten fixed and a few windows blown out. My dad and step-mom were there at the time and are lucky nothing worse happened to them. Not really anyplace to take shelter when your home is 30 feet in the air and there's no storm cellar in sight. The kicker is that this is about the time last year that they lost their other cabin to the flood. This one is built high enough to clear any floodwater. But Mother Nature will get ya one way or another....

We have some good entries so far in this week's photo contest. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is the theme. Enter yours before noon Wednesday.

That's the theme for this week's photo contest, so pick out your best pix and submit them before noon Wednesday.

This week's winning photos for the "Come On Ride the Train" round were both quite stunning. So scroll down for some inspiration and then...

PLAY BALL!

Kevin’s Pick: Dave Sheffield of Eldridge, Iowa, describes his photo, “Railroad Fog,” as “a classic Quad-Cities morning in Port Byron, Ill. The magic of the railroad and the river coming together during Christmas time 2008.”
Times Photo Editor Kevin Schmidt described it this way: “The perfect exposure, wonderful composition and clarity make this a fantastic image.”

Below: Gene Meeker (left) and Ian Frink

And don't forget to join us at 2:30 p.m. when we'll be chatting live with Davenport Aldermen-at-large Gene Meeker and Ian Frink.

Photo contest voting is going all day, too!

Don't forget:

Live chat today (Wednesday) at 3 p.m. with U.S. Rep. Phil Hare on health care reform.

Quadsville meetup Thursday at noon at Happy Joe's Jungle Bungle.

Live chat Thursday at 2:30 p.m. with Davenport Aldermen-at-large Gene Meeker and Ian Frink

A few quick things to let you know about....

We have two live chats this week. U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-IL, wants to get your input on health care reform at 3 p.m. Wednesday. At 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Davenport Aldermen-at-large Gene Meeker and Ian Frink will be with us to answer any questions you have about what's going on in Davenport.

We also have a meet-up planned for noon on Thursday at the Happy Joe's Jungle Bungle (upstairs, not in the actual Jungle Bungle area). Kay Luna will be there and hopes some of the Quadsville moms can join us. Please let me know if you plan to attend so I can reserve a big enough table for us.

Back soon with links for the chats. What's on your minds today?

We've come to the end of my week as Mayor Pro-Tem of Quadsville, with Mayor Melissa due back Monday.

In my final act as the temporary leader of Quadsville, I would like to congratulate Dan Clark for winning the Quadsvillager's Choice for this week's photo contest If You're Happy & You Know It.

Congratulations also are in order for Fred Simmons whose photo was Photo Editor Kevin Schmidt's pick.



Make sure to get your entries in for next week's photo contest, Come On Ride the Train.

We have lots of entries for this week's photo contest, "If You're Happy & You Know It."

"Elijah loves his mommy" has the most votes, but there's still plenty of time before the voting closes at noon Friday, so make sure to get your vote in.

Elsewhere in Quadsville, there is a pretty hot debate over David Letterman's comments about Sarah Palin's daughter. Check RiverCity Rose's blog here and add your two cents' worth.

I'll write one last shameless reminder that the Quadsville Pet Owners Group is getting together for a Bark Up at 6 p.m. today at the Crow Creek Dog Park in Bettendorf. Hope to see you and your four-legged friends there.

We still have more than a week before summer officially arrives, and marismom has some spring cleaning left to do. She's posted pictures of her clutter pile, asked us to help her stay accountable in cleaning it up and also asked for advice on how to tackle it.

Are you all pack rats or neat freaks? And you do have any tips to help marismom get her house organized?

Make sure Thursday's Bark Up is on your calendars. The Quadsville Pet Owners Group will meet with their dogs at 6 p.m. at Crow Creek Park in Bettendorf. And to the cat owners, feel free to come and mingle even though you can't bring your four-legged friends.

Happy Monday, Quadsville. I hope everyone had a good weekend. My was jam-packed with activities and I feel like I need another weekend to rest up from it.

It looks like you all have been busy, too. Alan shared his latest household project with us. He made use of an odd space left by installing a fireplace and created a daybed that doubles as a storage area.

If you're more into gardening, check out srm's latest blog on the progress of his garden. The kale plants are doing very well, but the cats are sabotaging his attempts at growing catnip.

Also, for all you environmentally conscious Quadsvillagers, there will be a live chat at 2 p.m. Tuesday with Rock Island County Extension  director Michael Woods. He'll answer your questions on composting.

The Quadsville Pet Owners group is getting together for a Bark Up at Crow Creek Park in Bettendorf, at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 11. You don't have to be a member of the group to come. Just bring yourself, your families and, of course, your dogs. The rain date is Thursday, June 18.
 
And don't forget about the weekly photo contest. Get your submissions in for this week's theme: "If You're Happy and You Know It."

Tuesday, June 9, 2 p.m.: We'll be chatting with Michael Woods, RI County director, University of Illinois Extension, about composting. I'm very curious about this topic and know many of you are, too.

Thursday, June 18, noon: We'll have our first daytime Quadsville meet-up. Kay Luna will be there and hopes some of our mommy bloggers can make it. We are looking at the Happy Joe's Jungle Bungle location (upstairs for the meet-up, but if you want to bring the kids and take them down to the fun & games before or after, go to!).

Thursday, June 11, 6 p.m.: Stephanie De Pasquale has organized a bark-up for Quadsville Pet Owners and their pets at the Crow Creek Dog Park in Bettendorf. Rain date is Thursday, June 18.

State of Marriage: The Times is working on a special project about the state of marriage in Iowa. Want to talk about your relationship? Here's the scoop.

Photo contest: Nothing to vote on this week. We had one entry and it was from last week's winner. I hope to see more entries in the next round which starts Friday at noon. The theme is "If You're Happy and You Know It."

We've only got one photo entered in the "Strawberry Fields" photo contest. I know we've got more shutterbugs around here than that. The themes in this contest are all song titles and are meant to be creatively interpreted. But who doesn't have some strawberries around right now? It's strawberry season. In fact, I got some super delicious strawberries in my first CSA delivery last night. Mmmmm.....

How are your gardens doing? I've been enjoying reading Mbuel's and the NewlyWoodwards' blogs. There are a few other Quadsvillagers working in their gardens, too, like srm and alertreader. If you've got questions about gardening, be sure to join us today at 2 p.m. for a live chat with Duane Gissel, ISU Extension horticulturist. I need to find out how long it's going to take for my basil plants to sprout. Finally planted them two days ago.

What else is going on with you?

Plenty of discussion over the weekend in Quadsville.

Anne-Marie Hislop, Jenius and RiverCity Rose all offer their takes on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court justice.

There are also some great group discussions going on.

Folks are continuing to blog about their car-free and car-lite days in the Bicycling in the Quad-Cities group. I'm hoping for many car-free days this month, as I get my bike back today. It's been on loan to a friend who used it as his primary means of transportation all last month. Fingers crossed for no rain tomorrow. :-)

There's a new group called Wii Miis in the QCs where all you Wii enthusiasts can discuss scores and trade tips. Maybe we can have a Quadsville Wii Sports tournament sometime this summer. I played Wii for the first time a few months ago and was amazed how sore I was after a few boxing matches with my 7yo (she pulverized me, btw).

We've got a great gardening chat Tuesday at 2 p.m. with Iowa State University Extension horticulturist Duane Gissel. I hope our Quadsville gardeners will join us and share some of their tips, too. If you have a question, but can't join us live, just leave it in the comments under the chat blog entry.

The next round of the photo contest is also open for submissions. "Strawberry Fields" is the theme. Get your entries in by noon Wednesday, then come back to vote.

Can't join us at 2? Leave your question in the comments below and we'll ask it for you.