December 2009

Art

Burien Arts Gallery -- Regular hours, Thurs., Fri., Sun., noon- 4 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. 421 S.W. 146th St. 206-244-7808. www.burienarts.org.

Evergreen Fine Art Gallery-Tuesday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. 17700 1st Ave. S., Normandy Park.

Loren Gallery-1,200 sq.-ft. unique art gallery. Next to Marina Inn Hotel. 22300 7th Ave S., Suite B, Des Moines. Local artist will have hangings and varied art pieces. Art walk reception will be held every 3rd Saturday of month. LorenGallery.com. 253-223-7015.

Vino Bello Wine Bar-636-F S.W. 152nd St. Burien. For information, 206-244-VINO.

Classes
Normandy Park Holiday Break Art Camps for Youth and Teens-Photo shoots, Dec. 21-23. Clay polymer crafts, Dec. 28-30. Art Camps with Ms. Melanie, Dec 21-23 and Dec 28-30. See City Of Normandy Park Web site for details.

Music
Bison Creek Pizza-- Every Friday night, Bison Creek hosts a live DJ. Every Saturday night, Bison Creek offers live music, 10 p.m.-2 a.m. 21+. 630 S.W. 153rd St. Call for schedule. 206-244-8825.

Theater

"Even a month before Christmas, I would stand outside on the porch and look up at the sky - just in case Santa and his reindeer were out there flying around somewhere," she said, with the facial expressions of a young girl.

At 85, I wouldn't have thought of Lorraine Clawiter, of Des Moines, as having the face of a child. However, there was a certain innocent wonder and sparkle in her eyes that came back, when she talked of Christmas at Pig Springs and Mutton Hollow.

"I was an only child on a huge sheep ranch that was about 16 miles south of the Canadian border in Montana. Daddy was a school teacher and would ride up into the Bear Paw Mountains to all of the little school houses, so he was gone quite a bit.

"My mother, Jackie Hahnkamp, cooked for a sheep ranch of 30 shearers. So you see, I was always around adults and lived in my own make-believe world. There were no other kids to ruin the magic of Christmas. Santa was real to me." At this, Lorraine got misty-eyed, before she continued.

"That" time of year is upon us, the familiar plump sugar plum fairies hovering everywhere with their sweet wares. How could you possibly say no to all those tempting tarts, cakes, cookies, candies and alcoholic beverages that spice up our holidays?

Merry? Yes, but happy? Not really.

Most Americans will easily put on 5 to 10 pounds in the short time from Halloween to New Year's Day.

Every year people use the holidays as an excuse to literally pig out. All the sweet goodies, alcohol and enormous amounts of food seem too tempting to say no to.

Sugar is literally a legal drug and the holidays become our time to eat ourselves into drug-like stupors, complete with the next morning hangovers, even if you don't imbibe.

And if you just scoffed at that last statement, stop eating ALL sugar, snacks and grains for the next week. You'll go through a very distinct withdrawal period.

What can you do to keep your holidays happy without the present you'll give yourself of the typical 5 to 10 pound weight gain?

In today's column I'll share some ideas, suggestions, tools and tactics to survive the holidays without the gift of extra pounds.

At noon in the parking lot of a local grocery last week I heard a low flying airplane roaring westward.

This startled me. If it was landing or taking off from Sea-Tac, a plane should be flying north or south. Maybe it was lost in the fog.

Or maybe Port officials had quietly slipped a fourth runway under our noses.

It would not surprise me. The Port has always done what it wants, whenever it wants. I mentioned this to a friend, Guy Harper, who lives in Gregory Heights.

He said unless that noisy plane turned, it would fly directly over the top of his house. And over Three Tree Point, where I've lived for nearly 30 years.

At one time, Metro had a plan to burrow under Lake Burien for a sewer outfall line from Renton until indignant Highline citizens like Ken Smith and Vivian Matthews raised such uproar the idea was abandoned.

It is my understanding that originally the Port had visions of six runways crossing SeaTac like strips of bacon.

Back in the 80s, this newspaper ran a cartoon showing the chairman of the Port driving a huge bulldozer, gleefully pushing Burien into Puget Sound off Three Tree Point. They may still have three more on their drawing board.

The atmosphere in council chambers on Dec. 7 was best described as electric. Present were representatives from state, county and municipal government, including Senator Joe McDermott from the 34th legislative district and Deputy King County Executive Fred Jarrett who had only been in office 10 days at the time.

What drew them to the evening's meeting - along with numerous citizens of Burien and North Highline - was King County's controversial plan to sell Puget Sound Park to the King County Library System.

The plan was one part of the county's efforts to fill a gap in its budget and turn lemons into some semblance of lemonade. It was a foregone conclusion that some of the county's parks would have to be shuttered, so why not try to sell a few and use the proceeds to help fund the maintenance and operations of those that remain?

Unfortunately for the county, and for Jarrett, the people of Burien and North Highline weren't so sympathetic to this point of view. Roughly half a dozen citizens stepped forward to voice their opinion about the move. Not one of them supported it.

During one of the hardest budget sessions Des Moines has faced in recent years, the Des Moines Police Guild cried foul over the council's decision to cut five police officers from the budget next year.

The city says the money is not there, and to save positions the guild is going to have to make concessions.

After brief discussion during the council meeting on Dec. 10 the council voted in the 2010 budget, including in it the elimination of five police officer positions. The budget was passed with a deficit of nearly $200,000. The city plans to make up the difference with one-time revenues.

The projected revenues for 2010 are $3 million less than two years ago.

Des Moines Police Guild President Ross Stuth said they were in the midst of talks with the city when the council made the motion to cut five police officers. The guild and the city were discussing a one-time surrender of over $60,000.

Stuth said the Council undermined the guild when they made the motion to cut positions before the guild had a chance to put it to a vote with their members.

The lights will come on Sunday, Dec. 20 at 4 p.m. at Burien's Dottie Harper Park and will remain on Thursdays through Sundays from 4-9 p.m. until Feb. 15.

Burien Arts Associaition members are working to extend the lighting to a full-time basis.

The recent "Burien Walkabout" with Thomas Sieverts identified the park as an underused and "scary" place. Association members decided that lighting would enhance the park aesthetically and increase safety as well as increase options for more performances in the park.

The Burien Parks and Recreation Department agreed. With the help of businesses like Always Solid Electric, Home Depot, McLendon's Hardware and ACE Hardware and many volunteers, the project was undertaken. The association's board members donated money to buy the lights and all have donated time.

Donations to Burien Arts will help defray expenses. Anyone wishing to contribute can contact the association at 206-244-7808 or www.burienarts.org.

Just in time for holiday air travel, service from the SeaTac City Center/Sea-Tac International Airport light-rail station will begin Saturday, Dec. 19.

Opening ceremonies will start at 9 a.m. with a ribbon cutting featuring Sound Transit board chairman and outgoing Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels as well as SeaTac, Port of Seattle and Sound Transit officials.

The officials will then take the first train leaving the new station and, at about 10 a.m., the doors will open for the general public.

Sound Transit staffers will be on hand to assist riders.

Unlike on July 18, when inaugural light-rail service began at the Tukwila station and 11 others, the first weekend will not be free.

The fare between the SeaTac/airport station and the Westlake station in downtown Seattle is $2.50. Light rail operates from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 6 a.m. to midnight on Sundays.

The opening of the 1.7 mile link between the station at International Boulevard and South 176th Street and the Tukwila station located at Tukwila International Boulevard and South 154th Street is the final phase of the originally planned light-rail line.

The Burien Interim Art Space is no more as the largest sculpture. "The Passage" was trucked away on Thursday, Dec. 17.

Smaller sculptures were removed over the weekend.

The space behind the Burien Town Square was used as a year-long art space after it was decided to put on hold the next phase of Town Square condominiums, because of the poor housing market.

It was below freezing last year when artists Karen Cusolito and Dan Dossmann from California installed the mother and child figures that make up the Passage artwork.

The large sculpture previously appeared at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada. Cusolito joked on Wednesday that the next time she does a year-long sculpture installation in the Northwest it will be from July to June, not January to December.

They have to dig out the dirt around the sculptures and unbolt them from the concrete anchors in the ground.

Seven years ago, while pregnant with my son, I declared I wasn’t going to travel anymore on Christmas.

“If they want to see us, they can come here.”

This seemed like a perfectly reasonable request, seeing as my baby was due at the end of November.

But in actuality, I packed my 2-week-old up and drove and ferried to all three sets of grandparents’ houses and have continued to do so ever since.

This year, I am not pregnant (thank God!), but I am newly divorced, so I made the declaration again.

To say it is causing some stir would be the understatement of the year, but I’m not budging.

Any relative who wants to join us is welcome, but for once I am spending the holidays in my own home. Because at home, I can celebrate the way I want to.

My emphasis has always been on the lights, glitter and spending time with people I care about (as long as I don’t have to drive far to do so.)

The kids and I decorate the tree with as many tacky, shiny ornaments as we can find. I string lights in their room and the living room.