September 2009

After going 1-3-1 in non-conference preseason games, the Ballard High School girls soccer team started out the conference season on the right foot, with a little help form a last minute goal.

The Beavers found themselves knotted at 1-1 with Redmond Sept. 22 after Ballard's Kat Anesini scored off an Emma Onstad-Hawes pass in the 37th minute.

The match remained tied until Cassie Winters gave Ballard the win with an unassisted score in the final minute of the match.

Coach Val Seid said he was happy with the way Ballard played as a team.

"The girls had been talking the last couple weeks about playing with heart and desire," he said. "And, I think they did that."

The Beavers will attempt to go 2-0 in the conference against Newport at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 25 at Newport High School.

I often feel like a mad scientist. Trying out insanely silly things that just might work together.

In art college, my thesis project was an interactive, computer controlled kinetic painting. I applied electronics and motors to painted panels. Designed a software program to turn the motors in either direction. All activated by a digital scale disguised as a platform to turn it on for random amounts of time. The idea was to give each viewer a completely different, and individual, experience of the painting.

I know, whacky. The painting department didn’t like the electronics, and the electronic department didn’t like the painting aspect. I was truly onto something.

But, I guess that was part of the reason that I got into the business of miniature gardening in the first place. It was because there wasn’t a book in the library (yes, it’s been that long ago) on “How to Start a Miniature Garden Business."

Heck, there weren’t even any Web sites that referenced anything remotely like it. When I Googled “miniature garden,” all I would get would be an artificial garden or two attached to dollhouses. Nothing living, no leaf, soil or plant to be found.

A new, first-in-the-state, community program will make the detection of memory problems and doctor follow-up widely available to seniors the Greenwood and Phinney Ridge.

An informational kick-off will be held at the Greenwood Senior Center on Monday, Oct. 19 at 12:30 p.m.

"We have formed an exciting collaboration between Greenwood Senior Center, local doctors and Screen Inc. -- a memory testing company headquartered in Seattle," said Cecily Kaplan, director of Greenwood Senior Center.

"Through the Greenwood Memory Monitoring Program, we will make memory testing and follow-up widely available to our seniors," said Kaplan. "We are tremendously pleased to be part of this important community initiative."

With a grant from the Harvest Foundation, the Greenwood Senior Center purchased Screen Inc.'s Onsite Memory Testing System. This testing system was designed by Screen Inc. to provide an easy way for seniors to take a battery of tests that were able to detect the slightest changes in their cognitive abilities.

It was close but no cigar for the Ballard High School boys golf team Sept. 23 against Bothell at the Jackson Park Golf Club.

The Beavers came within three strokes of pulling off the win, but succumbed by a final score of 228-225.

Ballard's Eric Frank placed second overall with a score of 43 on the par 36 course. James Meyer came in third with 44, and Michael Day shot a 45 for a fifth-place finish.

Frank lead the Beavers in their previous match as well, placing second Sept. 22 against Juanita.

The Beavers (1-4) face Roosevelt at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 29 at the Jackson Park Golf Club.

Dear Editor,

We are searching for the address of a home we lived in in Ballard right after World War II. We were buying the home on contract for deed and sold it outright in the 1947-48 timeframe.

We have lost all records or photos from that time and place.

Things we do remember as they were at that time:

- Single story home with two bedrooms, one bath and one of the bedrooms off the kitchen.

- Single detached garage on the left as you drive in with large white house alongside driveway.

- When we left the Ballard house in 1948, I agreed to leave some postage stamp vending machines so the route I had started could be continued.

- Small guest house or playhouse in the backyard.

- A large rear walkout door from the basement.

- Just a few blocks from Northwest Market Street.

- A school in the area.

- Near a bus line.

- Small hill in the area.

We know how much things change over time but some parent or grandparent may remember the address for this place.  We have contacted King County Records but their data does not go back that far.

Housing market optimists picked up another encouraging data point, when a new report on the residential real estate market came in stronger than expected.

The National Association of Realtors' pending home sales index for July was 12 percent above year-earlier levels, hitting its highest point since June 2007.

"The increase reported for pending home sales was the sixth consecutive gain, suggesting firmer figures for existing home sales in the next month or two," economists at Goldman Sachs said in a report.

According to Mike Larson of Weiss Research, the recent pending home sales reports are evidence that the housing market stabilization is undeniable. The housing market is expected to continue to recover over the next year well in 2010, according to economist experts.

Here are things you need to know about the housing market climate:

1. Lower prices, cheap mortgage rates: Even with the unemployment rate sitting at well above 9 percent, the nation's beleaguered housing market is handing would-be buyers some compelling reasons to get off the sidelines.

Imagine, a universe in which people are born with the urge to express their sexuality, and, in my day, believing that you had to put off having children until you graduated from college or trade school.

Many young people aren’t conforming to the old patterns. Young pregnant women are finishing college and both sexes are engaging in sexual activity without fear as long as their contraception works.

Certain religious orders do not allow their church leaders to engage in sexual expression, even though the god that they worship made humans with the capacity to enjoy sexuality. I learned about this firsthand when my husband and I visited Nepal and India some years back.

Women were not allowed to wear skimpy sleeveless garments when visiting temples. Priests of the church were not supposed to look directly at any woman lest they be tempted.

“When will men stop thinking of women only as sex objects,” I thought to myself.

Cooper Affleck, 3, of West Seattle, searches for the perfect pumpkin on Tuesday, Sept. 22, the first day of fall.

He shuffled through the fall pumpkin display in front of the new QFC near the Junction.

Approximately one month ahead of schedule, the Seattle Department of Transportation has completed repaving Fauntleroy Way Southwest between Southwest Alaska and Southwest Holly streets, according to a release from the city.

Now open fully to traffic, the work features new concrete panels and asphalt overlay, curb ramps to enhance accessibility, drainage improvements, new marked crosswalks, and new bike lanes and sharrows. The city's contractor, Gary Merlino Construction Company, reconstructed large sections of roadway that had not seen major repair work since 1984.

“Even as our 2009 paving budget was cut by $1.5 million, the city of Seattle remained committed to repaving Fauntleroy this year,” said Seattle Department of Transportation Director Grace Crunican. “I’m pleased (the department) will complete the entire project in 2009, creating a roadway that motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists can enjoy.”

Games begin at 3:30 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 28
Vs. Nathan Hale at Nathan Hale

Monday, Oct. 5
Vs, Ingraham at Ingraham

Monday, Oct. 12
Vs. Cleveland at Memorial Stadium 

Monday, Oct. 19
Vs. Rainier Beach  at Memorial Stadium 

Monday, Oct. 26
Vs. Chief Sealth at Southwest Athletic Complex