What was I doing exactly two years ago? We were knee-deep in a primary election, settling into a new school year, enjoying the new library and filling our weekends with festivals and concerts. But, for the most part, I was just running around trying to convince Perry Hallers to read my website. A lot of the responses I got sounded like this: "There's nothing going on here. What are you going to report on?" For the past two years, I've carried those words with me, asking myself that same question over and over again. The most surprising part of this job, since we launched Perry Hall Patch on …

Hello readers, You may have noticed that Perry Hall Patch has been less active than usual this week.  On Monday morning, I was involved in an accident where I fell down a flight of stairs in my home. I received several injuries, but fortunately did not break any bones. Between the skilled paramedics of Perry Hall's Baltimore County Fire Station 55 and the team at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, I'm already on the mend and anticipating a full recovery (hoping to have the neck brace removed) by the beginning of next week.  I've been extremely well taken care of by my family, my fiance (I …

Today marks my first two years as a Patch editor—my second Patchiversary, if you will. Of course, we didn't launch Perry Hall Patch on my first day (we saved that for September). June 21 was a sunny Monday, and I took a train to Patch's New York headquarters. I attended meetings, asked a lot of questions and met my first co-worker (Tyler Waldman of Towson Patch). I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I knew I wanted to create something worth reading, something that community members would invite into their everyday lives—but I also knew it would take a lot of work and a lot of help from …

Remember spring break? That magical week from your college years when you skipped town and ran around with reckless abandon? Honestly, I was never much of a partier—my undergrad university didn't even have spring break (instead, we got a slightly shorter semester), and I spent my spring break in grad school with my family in Perry Hall (one of the world's most exciting destinations). In spite of this, since trying to become a responsible working adult, I've developed severe cases of wanderlust every spring. In 2010, I visited friends in Salt Lake City. In 2011, I joined the same friends in …

UPDATE (April 27)—I tell more about my trip and reveal the mystery photo here. --- It's one thing to skip out of town for a long weekend, or spend a Sunday afternoon in downtown Baltimore. It's another thing to spend nearly a week cruising south of the border without Internet access—especially when you're a Patch editor. As much as it honestly terrifies me (I'm expecting to experience serious withdrawal symptoms), your faithful Perry Hall Patch editor will be unavailable to answer emails, take calls, listen to voicemails or cover breaking news between April 21-26. The Facebook and Twitter …

Since Perry Hall Patch launched in September 2010, site traffic has consistently risen from month to month. But every once in a while, a big story breaks that gives a sudden boost to readership. This month, however, was an anomaly in that the big stories kept coming, again and again and again. Check out some of the articles that gave November more than double the site traffic of every previous month since launch. Here are some of the month's biggest topics and stories. Perry Hall High's Bernie dance controversy swept the nation. UPDATE: Soccer Season Canceled Over 'Bernie' Dance, Students …

I've decided to take a short vacation and I'm leaving Perry Hall Patch in the hands of fellow editors. I'll be out of town, hiking in Zion National Park, between Friday and late Monday. I may not be immediately responsive to email or voicemail while I'm away. If breaking news happens this weekend in Perry Hall, please email Assistant Regional Editor Brad Gerick at brad@patch.com, Assistant Regional Editor Bryan Sears at bryan.sears@patch.com or Regional Editor Doug Donovan at doug@patch.com.Thank you and have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Google is like a good friend—it can finish your sentences for you. This can sometimes lead to comical search results. For example, if you type "what do" into the search engine's main page, a drop down list suggests, "what do stink bugs eat" and "what do you want from me." These results are algorithmically determined, based on searches previously typed by other Google users. So, what happens when you plug in "Perry Hall"? I'm proud to report that "Perry Hall Patch" is listed third in the drop down list. Here are lists of the top 10 search results from Google and three other popular search …

Not too long ago, I sat in a classroom at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, complaining to fellow grad students that no one ever reported Perry Hall news. They knew about my plans to start a hyperlocal news website in my hometown, but I was short on funding and lacking a quality Web template—I obviously hadn't met Patch yet. If only I started reporting on everything happening in Perry Hall, I thought, maybe larger publications would follow suit. So the question is, about five months since Perry Hall Patch launched, is our community getting more coverage from major news outlets? As far…

All day yesterday, as heavy snow pounded the streets of Perry Hall, I was trying to think up a clever nickname for our biggest storm of the season. I came up with nothing. It wasn't quite snowpocalypse or snowmageddon, but this storm deserves a name of its own! Comment on this story if you can think of one and I'll be sure to use it in future stories. Also, add your photos of the storm to the gallery. UPDATE (11:20 a.m.)—Some of the latest submissions on Facebook include: Jimmy Boblooch JR: the rush hour snow shower Kathy Benisch: Beautiful Mess Cyndi Funk Drye: Trixie Mariel Mora-Elam: …

If you deliver your baby before Jan. 1 at 12 a.m., you'll probably get a tax credit. But if you wait until shortly after, and you deliver the first new Perry Hall resident of 2011, I will personally profile your bundle of joy and give you a $50 gift card to Target (to help cover the cost of all those diapers). Surely, if you're not pregnant, you know someone who is. Please comment under this story or email me at emilyk@patch.com if this article pertains to you. Thanks so much!

Drum-roll please... Perry Hall Patch's new iPhone 4 arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm more than a little excited about it. In fact, I'm so excited, I made a video. I almost can't wait for another big water main break so I can post the story straight from my phone—though based on the "Important Product Information Guide," this thing better not get wet. I've been a MacBook user for sometime now and a touch-screen phone user for about two years, but the iPhone is a whole different animal. I'm such a novice, I accidentally called the editor of Bel Air Patch, at 2:30 a.m. last night, while …

Perry Hall Patch prides itself on publishing the latest news updates on important events and issues in Perry Hall. For that very reason, many of you have signed up for our e-mail updates, which conveniently send our content straight to your inbox. But, unfortunately, an increasing number of readers have complained that they no longer receive the e-mail updates they signed up for. This could be caused by a technical problem on our end. To remedy this, your best bet is to sign into the site using your free  user name and password and then look at the bottom right-hand corner of the home page. …

Perry Hall Patch is just about 12 weeks old and a lot has happened in Perry Hall since we've launched. From elections to water main breaks, we've got this community covered! We wanted to take some time to remind you why we're here and what this site is all about. Simply put, it's about you. We've built Patch so that you have plenty of opportunities to comment on stories, share your opinions, post photos and announcements and add events to the community calendar. We hope that our site will strengthen the community, but we can't do it without you.  1. Comment on an Article We subscribe to the …

Airports bring back so many memories—like the time I tried to get through security with a steak knife in my purse (it was an accident, honest) or that other time I got to fly first class for a whole 45 minutes between Tucson and Las Vegas. Attending college 2,000 miles away from Perry Hall gave me ample experience with the friendly skies. My point is that it’s not a huge deal that I’ve spent the past three and a half hours at Baltimore Washington International Airport, getting delayed, re-booked, switched to another airline and body scanned (twice). The important thing is that I’m scheduled …