Hockey, Canadian style

Sorta.

It’s 36 C in Brisbane, there is smoke everywhere from the bush fires, and we were all up at 4:30 a.m. — when it gets light here — so Sorenne, who turned 11-years-old today could be on the ice at 5:45 a.m.

Take ice when you can get it.

This isn’t Canada.

But I didn’t have the stamina to go to her practice or birthday party this afternoon at a pool (Amy is doing the heaving lifting these days).

So I’m going to stop writing for barfblog.com for awhile, maybe write a book, maybe hang out more with my kid before she’s on to her next adventure.

It’s been 14 years of blogging and 26 years of news.

I’ve said it before, but I can feel the effects of my brain going away and just can’t do it right now.

Upper right is the card my mother sent Sorenne. Mom spent a few decades at the arena.

I may need a brain break, but I’m not done yet.

Happy birthday, kid.

Restaurant inspection disclosure returns to Anchorage

After a five-year hiatus, Anchorage’s health department is planning to bring back a scoring system for inspections in restaurants and other food-service facilities.

mystery.alaskaThe Anchorage Department of Health and Human Services this week unveiled a 54-item scorecard along with a method for assessing points. Over the next month, the department will be gathering public comment on the proposed system; it aims to begin posting scores along with inspection reports online in January.

Regular municipal health inspections date back to at least the mid-1980s, and those results are available online, Tony Barrett, environmental health program manager, said in an interview.

Until five years ago, those inspections included a scoring system. But the department discontinued scoring after the 2009 revision of the municipality’s food code because the new code contained a higher number of possible violations, Barrett said. The number of items on the inspection sheet jumped from 44 to 54, adding violations related to sick restaurant workers and bare-hand contact with food.

doug.skatingAnchorage health officials then made the decision to hold off on the scoring portion of inspections until they were more accustomed to the new code requirements, Barrett said. In the meantime, inspectors have used a matrix, and their own judgment, to decide how many critical violations warrant a closure, he said.

As well as providing a clear measure for facilities and inspectors, Barrett said, the scoring system is intended to help the public understand online inspection reports.