January 2010

South Seattle Community College is staging Gifts From The Earth, one of its most popular events of the year on January 30th. The event features 16 celebrity chefs from the greater Seattle area who prepare hors d’oeuvres and dinner , 36 wineries offering wine tastings, a silent auction and later in the evening a live auction. Here are the details.

16 Celebrity Chefs
Peter Birk – Ray’s Boathouse; Dalis Chea – Herban Feast Catering; David Engler – Seattle Golf Club; John Hart – Seattle Sheraton; Craig Hetherington – TASTE; Robert Houot – South Seattle Community College; Brock Johnson – Dahlia Lounge; Renatto Medranda – Westin Bellevue; Jeremy McLachlan – Salty’s on Alki; Will McNamara and Eric Floyd – Washington Athletic Club; Cody Reaves– SIP Restaurant; Leonard Rede - Northwest Wine Academy; Sean Rogers – Broadmoor Golf Club; Brian Scheehser – Trellis; and Ian Thompson – Pacific Grill.

36 Wineries

Westside Blues Concert-Fundraiser
Alki Masonic Lodge
4736 40th Ave. S.W.
206-935-0418
Saturday, Feb. 27, 7 p.m. - 12 a.m. A fundraiser to benefit Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation. $10 per person. Dancing, music and fun! Food and drink available for purchase. Featuring The Delta 88 Revival, The Blue Grasshoppers, Lost Dynasty, Phil Mariconda, and Lee Corley.

Love Song
ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery
4711 California Ave. S.W.
206-938-0339
www.artswest.org
Jan. 27-Feb. 20, Tickets $10-32 An oddball, named Beane is a modern day hermit, avoiding everyone but Joan, his career focused sister and her cynical husband. Beane's life is a shrinking, darkening world, until the night a beautiful thief breaks into his apartment. Suddenly all the love songs make sense.

Girls on the Run of Puget Sound needs volunteer head coaches and assistant coaches for its spring session March 8 – May 25, 2010.

Coaches guide a group of girls, 8-11 years old, through an easy-to-follow, well researched curriculum that uses active running games to teach healthy lifestyle lessons and train the participants for a non-competitive 5k race at the end of the session.
• Volunteer coaches must be available during after-school hours.
• Program sites meet twice a week after school for 1 1/2 hours.
• Coaches are expected to attend every practice.
• Each site has 2 - 4 coaches - one Head Coach and Assistant Coaches as needed.
• The program is offered twice a year: Fall Session (September to December) and Spring Session (March to June). Each session runs for 10 weeks.
• Head Coaches must be 21 years or older.
• Assistant Coaches must be 16 years or older.
For more information on the roles, responsibilities and applications go to: http://www.girlsrun.org/coaching.html. Application deadline is Feb. 15

When I was young I thought that any food considered good for you must be terrible tasting. I remember hiding spinach in my napkin and throwing it out at the first opportunity. And broccoli cooking in a pot on the stove stunk up the house big time.

That was before the senior President Bush banned it from the White House dinner table. But times are a-changing. Chocolate, dark chocolate that is, can be a wonderfully healthful treat they say. And I tend to believe anyone who tells me that because I love chocolate.

After Halloween Trick or Treating, our four children had to hide their chocolate stash so their mother didn’t devour it all while they were in school the next day.

I was a chocoholic big time. I realized early on that I didn’t dare drink alcoholic beverages because several alcoholics existed in my big family and I didn’t want to become one. But I began to think I could become addicted to chocolate instead.

She’s not a medical doctor-she doesn’t even work in the field but 28-year-old “Jenny” from West Seattle can tell you the signs and symptoms of countless cancers, disorders, rashes, and deadly infections.

She is obsessed with researching her endless and rotating list of medical anxieties.

"My symptoms change from day to day and might stick around for awhile, like now I have: a nagging cough (cancer, emphysema), pain in my hands and arms (arthritis, carpal tunnel), shooting pain in my left breast that comes and goes (breast cancer), tooth ache (root canal, major infection, heart problems). I sort of could go on and on here” Jenny states.

It prevents her from enjoying basic aspects of everyday life, like cooking a simple meal, because she’s constantly distracted by her worries. “I want to join a yoga class, but I stop myself because think my life has to be in better order before I start something new.”

She says her distrust in mental health professionals holds her back from getting formally diagnosed as a hypochondriac.

Stopped on Sylvan Way for driving with only his parking lights illuminated, an 17-year-old had only a driving permit and no insurance. He said that he had just purchased the Buick Century from a man in a White Center park—and that the kindly “salesperson” had let him take the car even though he didn't have the $290 in cash at the time. Officers searched the car and found a flat screen TV in the trunk and a registration and insurance card for a woman living on 11th SW. Officers were unable to contact her to verify the story. In the meantime, the car was impounded and the driver was released to his mother.

A man was on his daily jog at the Madison Middle School track on Tuesday when a small off leash dog repeatedly came after him and nipped. When the runner warned the male and female owners that he'd have to kick the dog if it continued to try to bite him, the man began making “extremely intense” threats and seemed to be trying to start a fight. The runner ignored this, while the pair walked off northbound with the small dog and an unleashed black Labrador.

The King County Road Service Division will close the South Park Bridge spanning the Duwamish River to both vehicle and marine traffic from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. daily Saturday Jan. 30 through Tuesday, Feb. 2.

The four-day closure will allow engineers to perform noise and water quality testing and simulate vibration that might occur during bridge construction. During the closure, engineers will conduct pile driving to measure noise, vibration and take water quality samples.

Data collected during the tests will assist the county in planning for construction of a new bridge when financing becomes available. During the closure, motorists can detour via the First Avenue South Bridge.

The West Seattle Trails and Wayfinding Project is inviting the public to attend a meeting to define the contents and locations for 3 Alki area kiosks. The meeting will be at the Alki Community Center, February 4, Thursday, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Background on the project is at . The meeting will focus on the content for three kiosks, including a discussion of themes, images and photographs to accompany, and the kinds of motifs which would be appropriate for art located on the bottom half of the kiosks. Each kiosk is intended to have a common side - the map - and a unique-to-the-location other side which is the focus of the meeting.

The general location for the three Alki kiosks is:

1) In the vicinity of Me Kwa Mooks Park and/or Emma Schmitz Memorial Overlook on Beach Drive.
2) In the vicinity of the Statue of Liberty on Alki Avenue
3) In the vicinity of Seacrest Park on Harbor Avenue

The Ballard Kiwanis Club will be hosting the first annual Yonny Yohnson Memorial Putt Putt Golf Tournament Feb. 12. All proceeds will go to the Ballard Boys & Girls Club.

Entry is $75 for two-person teams. The first-place team will win $500. Second-place takes $250. Third-place and fourth-place win $100 and $50 respectively.

Check-in and registration starts at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 at the Interbay Golf Center, located at 2501 15th Ave. W. The tournament starts at 7 p.m.

Non-alcoholic refreshments will be served, and the event will take place rain or shine.

Download the registration form attached to this article, or email ballard@positiveplace.org for more information.

Signup is now open for the Ballard Boys & Girls Club Mid-Winter Break Hoops Camp.

The camp runs from Feb. 16 to Feb. 19 and is open to boys and girls from kindergarten to fourth grade.

Camp starts at 9 a.m. and lasts until noon.

The cost is $85. Interested Ballardites can sign up at the Ballard Boys & Girls Club, located at 1767 N.W. 64th St.

For more information, visit www.ballard-bgc.com or download the flyer attached to this story.