March 2010

The Federal Way Eagles boys soccer team flew out of the season starting gate, blasting a 4A-final four team from last season.

The Eagles did that, thanks largely to, perhaps the state's best player -- UCLA-bound Kelyn Rowe. He scored two beautiful goals on Kentwood for a 2-0 win in both's opener at French Field in Kent Tuesday, March 16.

"I thought everybody played well, knocked the ball around well, with other players than just Kelyn doing good things out there," said head Eagles coach Jason Baumgardt, who took this team to the state championship game three seasons ago.

The Eagles improved to 1-0 in South Puget Sound League North Division play while the Conquerors start off 0-1.

Just an amazing display of talent from Rowe, who took off two year's per Crossfire Academy (club soccer) rulings made after Rowe played his freshman year.

So the Eagles, who were not in the playoffs -- or even close -- the last two seasons look like a team that could go right back where they were when Rowe was a talented freshman leading the Eagles to the state final where they lost, 4-3, to Pasco.

From Kenya to Washington State, and, specifically, Thomas Jefferson High School, it's been an easy transition for studying-abroad student Jimmy Oganga, who is a native African and now a scoring striker on the Raiders boys soccer team.

He provided the game's only roar (goal) in the first half that gave his team the eventual victory, 1-0, over Kentlake in boys soccer action at French Field in Kent Tuesday.

Both's opener and ever without their coach, Dave Hanson, away for three weeks, and, his son, Chase, the Oganga offensive was ready to supplant the missing star and coach of the Raiders.

Good game, Jimmy, giving your team the offense that was needed to keep this game untied. How's that feel to have scored the winning -- and only -- goal in this game?

"It was good," said Oganga, in somewhat broken English who said then, "I still learning English."

Well, the TJ school's intensive International Baccalaureate program, a.k.a. "IB," is quite a transition, surely, for Oganga, but if soccer can be any indication, then Oganga is going to be helpful to this team's chances to progress farther than falling one game shy of state, in districts, last season.

Happy Hour Extended is a West Seattle business with a clever idea and St. Patrick's Day was an excellent occasion to hold it's first annual Admiral Pub Crawl. The business, run by Mark and Nikki Turpen offers a membership card that gives you happy hour prices anytime at selected businesses. It's not just for drinks but includes many other businesses that offer discounts through the card.

Though they had never held a pub crawl before they had a great turnout of over 40 people that began at the Brickyard BBQ where people registered and signed up to win prizes, and pay their membership fee. There was plenty of irish spirit on hand and and not just in the drinks. Angel Sorenson showed off her dance skills and there were lots of laughs.

it’s been a while since I last checked in and I thought now was a good time to resume my writing after being sidelined with an injury. When last we talked, winter was getting going and we were getting our snow shovels out, ready for whatever nature threw at us. Well, while we watched flooding in Southern California, blizzards in the northeast and freezing temperatures in Florida that has us applying for bank loans to get a decent tomato, the northwest’s winter was…er…not very “winter-ish” (much to the chagrin of the many local skiers).

Now, we march into spring amid blooming junipers, cherry blossoms and pollens of every make and model from alders to willows. Unfortunately, with them they bring the watery eyes and runny noses that make us wish it would just get over with!

Now you’re probably wondering,”Hey, Car Counselor, what’s all this got to do with cars?!” Well, this brings me to this week’s tip: changing the cabin air filter in your vehicle.

West Seattle boys varsity soccer played their first away game of the season against Ingraham. Both teams fought hard, but tied in the end with a score of 2-2.

Click the image to see a slideshow of more photos from the game.

Burien's Strawberry Festival is going wild this year.
It's also moving downtown.
The annual celebration Saturday, June 19 and Sunday, June 20 will be known as the "2010 Burien Wild Strawberry Festival-A Community Celebration of Arts and Greenability."

"We altered the name to set it apart from all the other strawberry festivals out there," Gina Kallman, cultural arts supervisor for Burien Parks, explained.

The name also goes along with the city's efforts toward more sustainability, according to Kallman.
Sustainable Burien, a citizens group that meets monthly at the Burien Library, is also expected to be handing out wild strawberries as ground cover again at this year's festival.

Also, Kallman admitted, you don't see any strawberry farms around Burien anymore.
Festival-goers will be still able to purchase the festival's famed strawberry shortcake.

The annual city celebration is also going from uptown around Southwest 146th Street and 45h Avenue Southwest to the downtown Burien Town Square Park. The park is located on Burien's main street at Southwest 152nd Street and 5th Avenue Southwest.
"It's a great space for events," Kallman noted.

You could never accuse Dr. Catherine Joy Sparks of being spineless, considering her entrepreneurial spirit in the wake of our challenging economy. The West Seattle resident and professional chiropractor has practiced here for 20 years, and just expanded into a new business in a new building next door. When? About a week back.

Her chiropractic business occupied the 1917 cottage house at 4204 Southwest Oregon, at 42nd Avenue, for about two years. That has moved to the remodeled building at 4208 Southwest Oregon, one door west, next to Shadowland and across the street from the Senior Center. She has located her new business, Bella Nouveau European Day Spa into the cottage, her former chiropractic office.

Her chiropractic office offers acupuncture, massage therapy and rehabilitation. Her day spa includes anti-aging facials, acne and rosacea therapies, full-body waxing and more. Her medi-spa offers botox, radiesse, Dysport and other therapies. She remarked that more patients come in these days with shoulder and back pain due to carrying heavy backpacks around.

Sparks sees an overlap between those services offered in her two buildings.

The city of Burien officially annexes the southern portion of North Highline on Thursday, April 1.
Burien will jump up ten spots from the 31st largest city in the state to 21st, passing the state capitol of Olympia. The city will add about 14,500 people to its 31,000 current residents.

Voters in North Highline's southern part approved the annexation last August by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin.
"We think we have done everything possible to welcome our old new neighbors," Burien Mayor Joan McGilton declared.

Annexation proponents emphasized that Burien has historic ties to the newly acquired area, developed before the city incorporated 17 years ago.
There will be no official ceremony on Thursday but Burien plans to welcome the new residents with a city hall reception at 6:30 p.m., before the April 5 council meeting.

According to McGilton, the first visible change will be new Burien police uniforms for officers patrolling the new area. Burien contracts for police services from King County so the officers will remain the same, McGilton noted.
City Manager Mike Martin thinks residents will not notice an immediate difference.

Seattle Parks and Recreation is hosting an open house at Sandel Park, located at 9053 First Ave. N.W., to view the design for the Sandel Park play area renovation.

The open house will be from 11 a.m. to noon on March 27. The public is encouraged to attend, meet the design team and learn about the changes that are coming to this park.

The renovation project, identified in the Parks and Green Spaces Levy, will provide new play equipment for children ages 2 -12, site improvements to enhance safety and access improvements to facilitate use by all park visitors.

The project budget for Sandel is $350,000, and renovations will take place between April and October of 2010.

Sandel Park renovation plans were drawn up in 2002, but the renovations never proceeded.

The City of Seattle, Rotary Club of West Seattle, the Boy Scouts of America, and the WSU Extension Master Gardeners are partnering to plant 122 trees along Fauntleroy Avenue in West Seattle on March 27th from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm.
Volunteers will assemble at 9:00am at Fauntleroy Park for instruction.

The City of Seattle recently completed a project improving the road’s condition such as removing pot holes and aiding the flow of traffic. The tree planting project will help complete the road improvement project.

The city will provide the trees. Families are encouraged to participate.

Dignitaries such as Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn are expected to attend.

The project coincides with the Boy Scouts of America’s tree planting project, titled “Generations Connections,” commemorating 100 years of Scouting in America, as well as the City of Seattle’s 25th year as a “Tree City USA” and Rotary International’s “Rotarians at Work Day.”

Additional Participating organizations include:

Rotary Club of West Seattle
Boy Scouts of America
Seattle Parks & Recreation Department
Seattle Department of Transportation