As the only person in town who expressed interest to the Selectmen, they tonight unanimously appointed me as the interim Town Moderator.

And next week’s Annual Town Meeting sounds like it may have several heated issues. This will be interesting.

“All official letters from officers of towns shall be written or printed, so far as practicable, on paper eight and one half inches wide and eleven inches long.”
— M.G.L. Chapter 40, Section 52, “Size of official letters”

• At last Tuesday’s selectmen’s meeting, they said that they would be taking letters of interest in the position of Town Moderator for the week, and make a decision at a meeting tonight. (At an unusual meeting time and place for them, but I think that its main purpose is to go over the proposed budget with the finance committee.) So, I may get appointed tonight, especially if I’m the only person in town that wants the job. The Annual Town Meeting is next Monday.
• On Saturday, at a yard sale, I picked up an interesting-looking game, titled “Star Trek: The Next Generation: Interactive VCR Game: A Klingon Challenge”. It’s for 3-6 players, and I get the impression from a quick glance through the rules that it’d work better with closer to 6 than closer to 3. Would people be interested in coming over sometime to try it?
• We’ll probably be waiting until Star Trek XI comes out on Netflix before watching it. Please be kind and don’t spoil us until we’ve seen it.
• Hannah turns 1 on Friday. She may end up walking unassisted by then. But if not, I’m sure it’ll be shortly thereafter.
• Last Monday, we had our first prenatal checkup for our newest Baby, and they took an ultrasound to verify the age. I haven’t gotten around to scanning it in yet, though. And no, we’re not having twins.

“؟Everything is fine‽”

I’ve heard from Mr. Singer (the former Town Moderator, recently elected to the Board of Selectmen) that he was told that the Selectmen will be appointing the vacant position of Town Moderator for the remainder of the year. Today’s Southbridge Evening News reports that it’s Mr. Singer himself who appoints his successor, although I’m pretty sure that that’s just another error by the paper. My reading of Town Meeting Time and M.G.L. c. 39 §14 says that the position is appointed “by the voters of the town”, which I think means that it would be selected at the next Town Meeting.

• My aunt Donna, who was running unopposed for Cemetery Commission, won with 548 votes.
• (The other unopposed candidates also won, of course.)
• For Selectmen seat #1, incumbent Rick Swensen defeated 18-year-old challenger Joe Szafarowicz 458-286.
• For Selectmen seat #2, challenger David Singer defeated incumbent Jack Bacon 412-343.
• The question to change the position of Town Clerk from an elected to an appointed position was defeated, 308-374.
• Mr. Singer, who just won a selectmen’s seat, was the Town Moderator. The Selectmen may be appointing a successor to moderate town meetings until the next election. I’m thinking I’ll be writing them a letter this weekend asking to be appointed. I’ll also be re-reading Town Meeting Time: A Handbook of Parliamentary Law.

• Last Saturday, I judged half a day at the Magic Prerelease at TJ Collectibles, and Jessi got to play. The half a day thing really worked out well for us.
• This coming Saturday is the annual town elections, although there seems to have been hardly any interest in them in town. There are just a handful of signs about town, there’s hardly any coverage in the newspapers, and it just generally feels like there’s not much interest. I predict low turnout. Hopefully, that will be good for the challengers, but I tend to doubt it.
• Coming up later in May is the Magic Regional Championships, where I’ll be head judging the Southern New England event in Connecticut. This is one of the largest tournaments (players-wise) of the year, and it’s generally an interesting event. Although, it of course won’t be as large as Grand Prix Boston coming up this August.

Jessi and I are pleased to announce that Jessi is once again pregnant.

Based on some of the hormone levels, there’s a chance that we may even have twins, although it’s far too early to be sure of anything like that.

We are all, of course, quite excited.

While I (and many others) got my taxes filed long ago, when most Americans think of April 15, the first thing that comes to mind is that it’s the day that income tax returns are due.

So, in honor of today, here’s a link to IRS Form 1040 for the tax year 1913. I, at least, found it somewhat interesting. (It’s likely some sort of reproduction seeing as the PDF hadn’t been invented at that time, and it doesn’t look like a scan, but it’s posted on the IRS web site, so I assume that it’s representative of the real thing.)

• I judged at the Epic 5K on Mar. 28, and while I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was, I had a good time and learned a lot about the game. We had 99 players, which exceeded expectations, so that’s a good sign for the game.
• I did leave a bit early as I was feeling sick, which lasted for a few days. That wasn’t fun.
• As a thanks for judging, I received a promotional Epic card. I decided that it should be my first item to attempt to sell on eBay. It seems to be going well so far.
• Hannah continues to grow quickly. I’ve got to get around to posting pictures sometime.
• The Telegram today reports that MassDEP has approved the Southbridge Industrial Park access road that comes from Rte. 169 (and thus not through our land). So, it seems likely that Southbridge will continue with the project. One never knows with these things, though.