April 2008

More times than not, it was a mystery to me what that man sitting in a Des Moines Council seat was thinking with his ever ready smile, a look of serenity and a head of fantastic white hair that most men would covet.

Yet, when he felt strongly on issues and someone pushed those buttons, most folks knew they better know what they were talking about or "fir-git-about-it."

In his uniqueness, Tom Mannard is also the first and only person I know of in Des Moines with an official day named in his remembrance.

Mayor Bob Sheckler has officially declared every March 9th,

Bureaucracy continues to delay the Charlestown Street Cafe's reopening.

The popular dining spot closed when struck by fire Feb. 4 and had planned to be reopened by May 1. The grand opening has been backburnered until sometime in June, according to co-owner Larry Mellum.

"This is incredibly frustrating," said Mellum, who owns the restaurant with Ron Hanlon. "We have gotten delayed because we are waiting for the landlord's insurance money to reach the contractors.

With sweat on their foreheads and smiles of relief on their faces six Sealth High School students and an 80-pound fourth-grader from Gatewood completed their 5492-mile bicycle ride on Earth Day, April 22. They rolled into the high school right on schedule, 3 p.m. sharp, surrounded by well-wishers, a marching band, and television cameras.

The 23-day trip called "An Inconvenient Ride" started in Washington D.C. March 31. Adult chaperones from Sealth in a van accompanied them to make the ride a bit more convenient. Riders rotated, each pedaling one hour per day.

A citizen committee appointed by the Seattle City Council to

advise the Council on whether to place a parks levy on the fall 2008

ballot will hold three community meetings throughout Seattle during the

month of May. These meetings will provide residents with an opportunity

to comment on the potential creation of a ballot initiative to fund

parks, open space, boulevards, trails, green infrastructure and

A citizen committee appointed by the Seattle City Council to

advise the Council on whether to place a parks levy on the fall 2008

ballot will hold three community meetings throughout Seattle during the

month of May. These meetings will provide residents with an opportunity

to comment on the potential creation of a ballot initiative to fund

parks, open space, boulevards, trails, green infrastructure and

Thursday, April 17

Baseball

Federal Way 10, K-M 0

Austin Weber won on the mound for the Eagles Thursday, allowing only

two hits in five innings.

Jarred Lee had three RBI for Federal Way and Brandon Robbins hit

2-for-3 with a home run and three RBI and Mike Vlhovic also homered.

Fastpitch

TJ 2, Kentridge 0

Jessica Dickson threw all eight innings for the win Thursday, striking

On Wednesday evening, May 14th, those seated in the historic Des Moines IOOF Hall will be taken back in time with a screening of rare memorabilia from the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition.

The world's fair in Seattle marked the tenth anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska.

Leonard Garfield, executive director of Seattle's Museum of History & Industry, will be the guest speaker at the IOOF hall, located at 728 S. 225th St.

Hard as it is to believe I am not perfect - though Elsbeth, in the throes of euphoric youth once murmured something like that to me. It happened.

I thought about that this morning when I was half asleep and half awake.

I remember talking to a friend of mine a decade ago about her pre-teen daughter, and about the difficulty in their relationship.

I also remember looking at my toddler daughter, so closely bonded to me, and not saying what was really in my mind at that moment - how did you let your relationship get this way? What happened to you? Why aren't you closer to your daughter?

Anyone who remembers Raquel Welch's sexy fur bikini from "One Million Years B.C." may conclude that the major human evolution between then and "10,000 B.C." was a sad loss of fashion sense.

"10,000 B.C." introduces us to a hardscrabble group of mastodon hunters shivering on the snow-swept steppes of a receding ice age. They are a funky looking lot, sporting dreadlocks while buried in furs and caked-on ceremonial face-paint that would have the make-up artists from "Dances with Wolves" laughing with derision.

This matters.