June 2008

In a highly competitive championship game, our own 2008 Southwest Seattle Pony 11u All Stars capped off a two day baseball marathon with a 6-3 win over the Mountlake Terrace Pony Baseball Redbirds at the King County Umpires Association Tournament at Auburn.

The 12-team tournament, which featured some of the regions best 11 year old all star and select teams, was held over the June 21st weekend, and was played at Game Farm Park under generally sunny skies.

The tournament opened on Saturday with a pod series against teams from Kirkland, Issaquah, and Silverdale.

Larry Phillips says he is studying whether he should take on three-term County Executive Ron Sims in next years' election.

"Lately it seems that every place I go I am asked the same question, 'Larry, you are running for King County executive, aren't you?' Phillips said in an e-mail to supporters and the news media.

The Port of Seattle Commission approved a slate of items that form the initial elements of what is called the Port's Accountability Action Plan.

- Strengthening Commission oversight. Commissioners formed a group which will research best practices for organizational governance and recommend ways to strengthen oversight of major construction projects.

Ballard High School freshman swimmer Annemarie Thayer has qualified for the 2008 Olympic Team Trials in the 100 and 200 backstroke.

Thayer swims for Salmon Bay Aquatics year round and will be in Omaha, Neb. to July 6. She has an opportunity to make the U.S. Olympic team and go to the Olympic Games in China this summer.

In the 100 back, Thayer has a time of 1:04.36 this year. She needed 1:04.56 to make the trials. A time of 2:17.09 was less than the 2:17.99 needed to go the Olympic Trials for the 200 back.

"She has been working real hard with her club program.

I live a few blocks from the house and I would like to see a memorial park in this location, with a sculpture or mural. I imagine a sculpture for this site, analogous perhaps to Fremont's troll. In my imagination, Edith is depicted pushing the walls apart. Kind of like Hercules and the twin pillars, with Edith standing in for Hercules.

Joe Bowbeer

Ballard

She crafts with words and he crafts with wood - both of them masters of their form. As a couple Carol and George Levin have also rewritten a love story together, and it manifests in their jewel house on Sunset Hill. Man, woman, house, dogs, there is no longer one without the other in their combined story.

In their entirety the biographies of Carol and George (Geo) would have many chapters, their childhoods on different sides of the country, first marriages, first careers, hers in dance and employment relations, his in the Air Force and engineering. Then there are separate and combined interests, theater, flying, radio, sailboat racing, translation, yoga, poetry, and their beloved dogs.

Just south of Sunset Hill Park on 34th Northwest their house is the one with the dog watering bowl in front, the mannequin in the window and 82 years of storied history on the inside. The original owners were the Joneses, known for three locations of Jones Brothers Meats including the one next to the Sunset Hotel on 22nd Northwest. One Saturday the Levins introduced themselves in the butcher shop.

Jackson firm is even greener

Jackson Remodeling, a Ballard design and building company, is already known for their environmentally friendly "green" remodeling projects. Recently the company started driving Smart cars and the staff is wearing new organic cotton shirts and recycled fleece jackets.

Owners Leif and Erik Jackson also painted their company's conference room with a natural based paint.

Employees have been going through Green Advantage training sessions, a national environmental certification funded by the U.S.

Lombardi's knows new tricks

2200 NW Market Street

783-0055

http://www.lombardiscucina.com/

By Patricia Devine and Jim Anderson

The upper level at Ballard institution Lombardi's offers unique and scenic views of Ballard. Looking down Leary Way, diners can see all the way to Queen Anne, with the view framed like a painting by exterior trees. Unseen, diners spy on pedestrians below and enjoy the beautiful facades of the old brick buildings.

With a slight pause for details to an advisory committee, the state's department of transportation has said the Alaskan Way Viaduct must be torn down and replaced. It is not cost effective to fix it so it lasts another 25 years, says an independent project manager advising the state.

Now wait a minute, fellows.

taken the money?

Delightful story. Every reader is trying to decide whether he/she would have taken the million and other benefits. I know I would have been bought off. But how fast can you spend a million when you are in your eighties?

Florence Gerson

Seattle