Dear Reader, please share this article with as many people as possible: Friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances, colleagues, classmates, teachers, EVERYONE (over age 13).   Your daily votes between October 24 and December 9 are REALLY important for Florence Bixby Elementary School in Long Beach, California.  At the end of the 46-day, $50,000 national competition sponsored by Clorox, the school with the most votes wins the grant!

Replacing Outdated Computers Starts With Your Votes

Bixby will use the $50,000 to replace its out-of-date, out-of-century, technology.  Of note, Bixby Elementary is the only school from Long Beach that was successfully nominated for the Clorox “Power a Bright Future” grant opportunity. More than 1,500 schools were nominated nationwide; now we need Bixby to WIN.

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Read the rest of From Story Map to Finished Draft in Seven Stages

Providing Quality Care for Little People in Los Altos since 1986

As a working parent of two utterly perfect children, I’ve had my share of experiences with daycares and preschools. In 2007, when my career moved me to a more local destination, I interviewed nearby daycares for my almost-two-year-old.

I knew what I wanted: Not too big, not too small; safe play areas; dedicated spaces for the kids to nap, play, eat, etc.; solid supervision; lots of opportunities for mental and physical exercise; kind, caring staff in a home environment, and an open line of communication. When my husband and I met with Ruth Grzesik (pronounced “Gre-zik”), owner of Grzesik Family Daycare in the Los Altos area of Long Beach, we saw all of that and more.

Ruth, also a mother of two, has had nearly thirty years of experience operating her daycare, and she knows her stuff.

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Photo by Bright Meadow

The California Writers Club of Long Beach will host a presentation by best-selling author and radio host Arden Moor, on Saturday, 22 January 2011, at the Los Altos Branch of the Long Beach Public Library. Published and aspiring writers of all genres are welcome to attend.

Arden Moore will unleash tips, tricks, and tactics on how to write in a fetching style that is sure to attract book publishers, magazine editors, and online blogs. Discover how to thrive as a freelancer by purposely going to the dogs and being a bit catty. Moore, the author of 19 pet books, is the founder of Four Legged Life (www.fourleggedlife.com), an online pet community; and host of the award-winning Oh Behave show on Pet Life Radio. (www.petliferadio.com).

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David McKeag, Fitness and Nutrition Trainer

Imagine if you will, a muscle-bound fitness trainer with a swagger in his walk, and a quick lift of the chin to you when he walks by. When he’s training you on the weight machine, he yells out single-syllable words. Now imagine the opposite. That is David McKeag.

Soft-spoken, thoughtful and professional, 48-year-old Long Beach local David McKeag keeps his regimens simple and straightforward. He works with clients on nutrition, cardio, and muscle building. He listens to his clients’ needs, and finds the best physical goals and nutritional plans for each individual. He enjoys meeting amazing people and helping them build strength and stamina, and improve their overall health. David says, “All I see in fitness are benefits; I love training people and watching the light bulb turn on when they get something, and make that change.”

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About the January Book Group Selection:

At 17 Bloxham Drive, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, a pretty 29-year old physiotherapist named Rachel James is shot almost point blank through the closed shade of her kitchen window. Unfortunately, none of the other residents of Bloxham Drive can recall seeing anything suspicious that morning, including her immediate neighbour Geoffrey Owens, a newspaper reporter desperate for the scoop on this breaking news story.

Chief Inspector Morse, aided by Detective Sergent (DS) Lewis, soon discovers a cryptic ‘seventeenth-century’ love poem by John Wilmot and a photograph of Rachel with a mysterious grey-haired man.

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“The Los Altos area has always been a place of family and community,” said We Love Long Beach organizers. “We invite you to extend that tradition and enjoy free breakfast with your neighbors.”

Along with offering free breakfast (pancakes, sausage, eggs, fruit, vegan delights, orange juice, and coffee) and an opportunity for neighbors to get to know each other in a safe and friendly environment there will also be face painting for kids and a live DJ to set the mood.

Los Altos is a quiet residential neighborhood on the Eastside of Long Beach. The borders of its heavily shaded streets meet with Whaley Park and the Traffic Circle area on the west,

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Today, with direct permission from the family of Joe Pilates, and with a trademarked Springwall that would make Joe proud, Pilates Joe Fitness Studio (with its human-lettered “P” and “J” logo) continues the tradition of providing well-rounded fitness in a personal, affordable, and helpful environment.

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If you think this logo looks tasty, wait until you try the cupcakes.

Okay, so who wants to visit another cupcake shop? Well, Sweet Embellishments Dessert Bar is definitely not just another cupcake shop! It offers a great deal more.

After much anticipation from sugar-loving residents (like me!), Sweet Embellishments opened in September 2009 at 5555 Stearns Street in Long Beach. The dessert bar is located in a corner-spot of the Los Altos Shopping Center, a few stores down from Trader Joe’s.

Owner Jenn Millan, who grew up in Long Beach and is a CSULB grad, has honed her 20-year passion for baking into a wonderful, local surprise.

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Where do you want your family to be photographed? Where will your engagement pictures be taken? Who can get your baby to giggle?

Dana Leigh. Dana Leigh Photography. For the past five years, she has specialized in photographing families, children, parents-to-be (maternity) and infants, as well as family pets. Dana began her career through in-house designing for a scrapbook company in 1998, and knows a good arrangement, a good scene and the perfect light to ensure beautiful and memorable photographs.

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by Tom Vadakan

Tom Vadakan is a freelance artist located in the Los Altos area of Long Beach, California. His independent work has been shown in galleries around the world, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Barcelona.

He’s also been on the graphic arts side of the music world for more than a decade, re-creating classic album covers for labels like Blue Note; designing t-shirts for music acts and tours; and creating design concepts, road merchandise and pre-production samples as a Lead Merchandiser.

For Tom, all of these professional and independent art worlds work hand-in-hand.

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WALL-E, Pixar’s Academy Award winning tale of a robot who finds romance and a reconnection with humans after hundreds of years alone, is a family-friendly film that received accolades from critics and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Feel free to bring your own refreshments.

The Los Altos Library is located at 5614 E. Britton Drive, Long Beach. For more information call (562) 570-1045.

50 Frogs, 5 Babes and a Bulldog, now available on Amazon’s Kindle 2, is a woman’s comedy about middle-aged Sandy Applegate and her four female friends, who are looking for good men in today’s dating world. She comes up with a plan based on “You have to kiss 50 frogs before you meet your prince,” and the girls agree to continue their quest for the perfect mate. But the “frogs” keep appearing.

Read the rest of eBook Author Susan Culp to Speak at Los Alto Library May 9