Posted by Michelle on Feb 10, 2004 in Michelle
Michelle is now on the Town of Cary’s Information Services Advisory Board.
The Information Services Advisory Board serves as an advisory board to the Town Council on all information technology and communications matters as they relate to Cary citizenry. The board offers input and guidance on the development and implementation of efficient and effective communications tools and programs which involve disseminating information and establishing systematic means of receiving input from the public.
The Information Services Advisory Board consists of 10 members appointed by the Town Council, 1 of whom the Town Council designates as chairperson. Membership includes 2 members with special training or expertise in internet applications, development or design; 2 members with special training or expertise in marketing, advertising or public relations; and 2 members with special training or expertise in mass media such as radio, television, cable or newspaper. Members are appointed from within Cary’s corporate limits or its extraterritorial jurisdiction. More information on this board can be found in its Annual Report and/or 2004 Goals.
Tags: in the news, work
Posted by Michelle on Sep 29, 2003 in Michelle
From an Army publication
Army Reserve Captain Robert Rideout, Judge Advocate General, Tallil Air
Base, Iraq, spends time playing with orphaned Iraqi children during a
care package delivery to a local orphanage. (Photo by Senior Airman
Karolina Gmyrek)
Tags: in the news, photos, robert
Posted by Michelle on Mar 8, 2003 in Michelle
Cool article about a group of researchers who are staking out a local historical house to see if they can get the rumored ghosts to appear.
It’s extra cool to us because we had our wedding reception at the old house. It’s a great old house with a gorgeous lawn. ….
Researchers to see who gives up ghost
Durham center invites ghostbusters to work
By ANNE BLYTHE, Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL — There no doubt will be much spirited debate during this event. Ghost hunters plan to hole up in the historic Horace Williams house tonight to try to coax answers to mysteries that have haunted the 1840s farmhouse for nearly half a century.
The investigators — from Seven Paranormal, a nonprofit organization based in Carthage — are likely to arrive with infrared scopes, motion detectors, thermal scanners and different kinds of recorders to log anything paranormal that might happen.
Horace Williams, a frugal, eccentric philosophy professor, lived in the cozy, one-story home for the last four decades of his 82-year life and for the first four of the 20th century.
It is he, residents have said through the years, who reappears as an apparition.
Images of the thin, bespectacled man also have been reported in the halls of the venerable Caldwell Hall, a 90-year-old building on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus that once housed the campus philosophy department.
“I guess that’s how he stays so thin,” joked Catherine Frank, an administrator with the Chapel Hill Preservation Society, which has offices in the Horace Williams house. “He moves around a lot. I know this is serious research that they’re doing, but it’s one of those things that if you don’t approach it with a bit of levity, it can be tough.”
Not only have there been reports of the phantom philosopher appearing, some objects in the Horace Williams house seem to disappear from one room and mysteriously resurface in another without the visible or admitted aid of humans.
A trip through the house today offers a second close-up look at the old haunt. Ghost hunters took their first look around Feb. 8.
“The places that they found any activity at all were places like the office where electronic equipment could have been part of the reason,” said Frank, who opted to stay home with her young daughter that night. “They said they found some violence in the bathroom closet and at the end of the evening, they said there had been a presence following one woman the whole time.”
There is one theory about the paranormal presence in the bathroom.
Williams, who was said to be very tight with his money, was loath to spend the cash necessary to hook up to public water and sewer. His wife, so the lore goes, returns to the house, which now boasts such modern amenities, and flushes the toilet just because she can.
Who knows whether any ghosts will be given up tonight, Frank said.
The investigation is a try-out of sorts.
Durham’s Rhine Research Center, one of the world’s oldest institutions of paranormal study, is sponsoring the event as part of a series of ghost hunts at historic homes to do a bit of research. In recent years, the interest in paranormal activity seems to have surged, according to Maggie Blackman, publicist at the Rhine center.
“We get so many calls here,” Blackman said. “We seem to be a lot of people’s first point of reference.” The center, though, does not do such field work. The idea behind the hunts was to get a look at some of the people who do such research and review and compare their methods. With a better understanding of the kinds of ghost hunters in their midst, center staffers might feel more comfortable referring calls.
“We’re just trying to take a look at what people are doing out there,” Blackman said.
Link to Horace Williams House
Tags: cool, in the news
Posted by Michelle on Sep 19, 2002 in Michelle
Michelle is thrilled to be appointed to the Board of Directors of the TEAF. She’s helped in other capacities over the past few years with the foundation and was tickled to accept a spot on the board.
(6/03 update: Michelle has now been appointed also the Executive Board as well)
The Triangle Educational Advancement Foundation is a 501(c)3 volunteer organization that conducts the Eurosport Spring Soccer Showcase for girls in April, the ABC 11 Pigskin Preview at Carter-Finley Stadium in August, the Eurosport Fall Soccer Showcase for boys in September, and the GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational Basketball Tournament at Reynolds Coliseum in December.
In addition to providing once-in-a-lifetime athletic experiences for the players, coaches, and fans, the goal of these events is to provide scholarships to deserving students within the Triangle.
Over the past eight years the Foundation has distributed over $400,000 in scholarships to each of the 28 public high school in the Triangle area. The proceeds of all four events are combined and scholarship availability is annually announced to area guidance counselors in the spring with recipients named prior to graduation in May.
>>Foundation website
Tags: in the news, sports, work
Posted by Michelle on Aug 15, 2002 in Michelle
I have been helping the Panthers with some PR on a project and they invited me to
their kickoff luncheon in Charlotte.
Each table had a Panther and sitting next to me was All-Pro punter Todd Sauerbrun. You have to love a punter that tackles like he does. I got to ask him tons of pushy questions and he was such a good sport and told some hysterical stories.
Got to chat with Julius Peppers near the end of the event and he even autographed a UNC jersey to me. Talked about the old days when he was playing for So. Nash.
Wesley Walls is obviously the mouth of the team but Mike Minter seemed to be the heart.
And the lunch food was darn good too for banquet food!
Tags: in the news, sports, work
Posted by Michelle on Apr 2, 2002 in pups & other pets
Jeff had the day off and we were heading to Home Depot to get supplies to plant rose bushes. About 2 minutes from home, a small dachshund ran across the road. We had to stop to check on him – I got down and called to him, he ran right up to me.
The warm, sweet little fellow was minus a collar. We drove around the neighborhood he was coming out of – it had to be someone’s baby who just snuck out. No luck.
We took him home and started trying to find his owners. We papered the area in, put ads in the paper and made calls to the SPCA & pound. But his owners never showed up.
He is a sweet boy, about 2-4 years old and a tremendous flirt. He started having seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy – we suspect he was dumped because of it.
We thought the Cary law limiting homes to two dogs was still in effect but we found out it had been overturned.
We are in love with him as are the pups – well Buster definitely is in love and Molly is good with him. We got some nice calls from people offering to adopt him if his owners didn’t claim him but we think his wandering in to the road in front of us is karma, so we are keeping him. Why not – the law is gone and we have a huge house and great fenced in yard.
Jeff and our neighbor Jen separately said he looked like a ‘Sam’ and I found out later my grandmother named several dogs Sam, so that seems like more karma, so Sam is he.
The epilepsy is totally under control now that he’s on medicine – he takes a half pill twice a day and the meds cost the whopping $8 a month.
He’s a wily one, he’s snuck out twice the first week – he’s only 16 pounds and being a dachshund, he’s short. He snuck under the fence once and then out the front door once. We found him both times pretty quickly. Jeff has worked extensively on the fence and Sam-proved it.
I’m of course very tickled because a third dog has hastened our car buying plans – one trip to the vet with three dogs in the Saturn was enough! Hence we are now buying a used Jeep Cherokee. We’ve found the one we want, just need to negotiate the price down. So thanks Sam!
Tags: in the news, pups & other pets
Posted by Michelle on Mar 19, 2002 in pups & other pets
Do you recognize me?
On 3/19, this dachshund was found crossing Holt Road near the Apex/Cary border. He appeared to be coming from the Charleston Village sub-division.
He is male, not fixed (‘intact’) and about 15 pounds. The vet says he is approximately 2-3 years old based on the tartar on his teeth. Mostly black with some tan on his lower legs and lower jaw – plus a bit on his chest.
The vet thinks he was outside 2-3 days before we found him. Some fleas, ticks and dry skin but basically ok otherwise
He is sweet as can be! Warm, cuddly and kind. No accidents inside either. Gets along really well with our two beagles. Slept on a bed but slept in the crate just fine too.
We are going to keep him as long as we can, he won’t go to the pound. If no one claims him in two weeks, we’ll try to find a new home for him. We are already smitten with him but we can’t keep three dogs under Cary law.
Email michelle@hillison.com if you know this dog!
We have posted a flyer all over the area, lost dog flyer in pdf format. Please print this and give it to any dachshund groups you know of or show it to anyone you know has a lost dog.
Update: We kept him 🙂
Tags: in the news, pups & other pets
Posted by Michelle on Jul 14, 2001 in Michelle
After days holed up in the living room with laptops and Ben, we are about to end UNCB and launch the new IC site.
After oh so many offers, Ben felt like this one was truly the direction to go in. And after the issues over press access and the “UNC” part of the URL, this is the logical plan.
I did the new logo for IC and I really love it. Fitting since I designed the UNCB logo as well.
Read Ben’s note to the masses
Tags: in the news, unc, work
