April 2010

Easter egg hunts were huge draws on Saturday Apr. 3 at both Morgan Street Thriftway and the Hiawatha Community Center. The grocery store was stocked with more than 20,000 eggs for hunters young and old and they waited patiently in the cold before the 9:00 AM hunt. At Hiawatha a group of approximately 800 parents and children got to wait (and get organized by age group) in the gym before they were unleashed at 10:00 AM. Still, it was a very cold and windy day and the youngest of the groups had to wait by the tennis courts where their age group was set to search.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE MORE EASTER EGG HUNT PHOTOS

This is an annual event at Hiawatha, going back at least two decades.
Al Mason, rec. attendant at the the center for the past 15 years said, "The youngest ones are set up by the tennis courts, we keep 'em fenced in, and we haven't lost one yet." The various ages were staged all around the center grouped by age and allowed to hunt in specified areas.

Neighborhood groups and the city of Seattle will team up again this year to create fun for residents on local streets and support nearby businesses through the Celebrate Seattle Summer Streets program.

Starting in May and running through August, Celebrate Seattle Summer Streets events will be held in Ballard, Greenwood, Phinney Ridge, Alki and the Rainier Valley.

In its third year, Summer Streets events open up roads to pedestrians and bicyclists, offering people a way to have fun, celebrate the spirit and personality of their neighborhood, and support local businesses.

Each of the four events is organized in partnership with a local group.

“Families need affordable recreation opportunities that help build communities and Celebrate Seattle Summer Streets delivers by promoting biking, street sports, sightseeing and visits to local establishments,” Peter Hahn, acting director of the Seattle Department of Transportation, said in a press release. “Through the leadership of local groups, Celebrate Seattle Summer Streets promotes our neighborhoods and encourages people to walk and bike.”

Unlike their American cousins, the boys and girls in English coming-of-age films have to buckle in for an unsentimental ride to the threshold of adulthood. From “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” to “If….” and “Paradise Postponed”, they are less likely to get the girl (or guy) and more likely to get their shins scraped in the rough game that is growing up.

“An Education” is an elegant variation on this venerable British tradition. Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is a bright schoolgirl trapped in the stifling London suburbs of 1961. Her life is circumscribed by deportment classes, cello lessons, and the forced labor of prepping for her Oxford entrance exams. Her future promises to be as grey as her school uniform. In this pre-feminist era, a woman, even if she is an Oxford graduate, can hope for little more than a teaching job or as her headmistress helpfully suggests, “There’s always civil service.”

A powerful spring storm blew through Puget Sound Friday April 2nd, breaking branches and making ferry travel difficult. NOAA weather predicted the strong winds would weaken overnight.

Due to high winds and rough seas all three vessels on the Fauntleroy (West Seattle) / Vashon / Southworth route are operating 20 minutes off schedule. Updates will occur when conditions change.
An alert was sent on 4/2/2010 at 5:48PM regarding the route .

On a non weather related note regarding the ferry Klayhowya on the Fauntleroy/Vashon/Southworth route:
Due to scheduled maintenance there will be no galley service on the Klahowya on Saturday, April 3.

The Washington State Ferries website is http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries

The University of Washington Department of Atmospheric Sciences posted this marine forecast at 5 pm.

Seattle City Light repair crews restored power about 3:30 p.m. to 3,700 homes and businesses in Burien and unincorporated King County that were affected by an outage caused by a spring wind storm on Friday.
The outage was reported about 2:20 p.m. The general boundaries were S 96th Street on the north, SW 175th Street on the south, 24th Avenue S on the west, and 33rd Avenue SW on the east. Not all customers within those boundaries were affected.
Winds also were causing small scattered outages in several areas of City Light's service territory.
Earlier in the day crews restored service to about 2,900 homes and businesses in Lake Forest Park that were affected by an outage caused by high winds that pushed a tree into power lines.
Seattle City Light had 14 crews ready to respond to outages related to overhead power lines throughout the day.

One of my favorite questions to ponder is, “If you were stuck on a desert island, what three things would you want?”

After hours and hours of rigorous self-debate, I have concluded that for me it would be the "Wheel of Time" book series, my Snuggie and Happy Hour.

OK, I know picking Happy Hour is sort of breaking the rules, but along with the other two items, it has become such a staple in my life I feel like I must include it.

My love for Happy Hour mostly stems from first, the fact that I am not much of a chef (just ask my boyfriend) and second, I am on a pretty tight budget (have you heard what has happened with the economy?). So I quickly have become a connoisseur of, and self proclaimed evangelist for, Happy Hour.

I have noticed through my speaking with the masses about the benefits of Happy Hour that the most common complaint is that it usually takes place too early, and getting off work by 4:30 p.m. is not an option.

So, I am taking the time now to spread the word on the most overlooked aspect of the happiest hour in America: Late-Night Happy Hour!

The first chick was discovered to have hatched in the Woodland Park Zoo's Humboldt penguin exhibit April 1 as part of six eggs in three nests, marking the first breeding and nesting season for the colony of 18 penguins since the exhibit opened last May.

The chick represents the first offspring for mother Dora and father PJ, both 3 years old. The second egg in their nest shows pipping activity and is expected to hatch April 4. The newly hatched chick weighs 2.1 oz.

It will be early summer before any of the chicks emerge from the nesting burrows and venture outdoors into the public exhibit.

“This hatching is significant for the penguin Species Survival Plan,” Mark Myers, a Woodland Park Zoo curator who specializes in birds, said in a press release. “Humboldt penguins are an endangered species, and here at the zoo these birds are important conservation ambassadors to teach visitors about the impacts humans have on penguins in their range countries.”

Neighborhoods groups and the city of Seattle will team up again this year to create fun for residents on local streets and support nearby businesses through the Celebrate Seattle Summer Streets program. Starting in May and running through August, Celebrate Seattle Summer Streets events will be held in Ballard, Alki, Greenwood / Phinney Ridge and the Rainier Valley.

In its third year, Summer Streets events open up roads to pedestrians and bicyclists, offering people a way to have fun, celebrate the spirit and personality of their neighborhood, and support local businesses. Each of the four events is organized in partnership with a local group and is augmented, where appropriate, by other city activities such as Bicycle Sundays on Lake Washington Blvd (occurring almost every Sunday throughout the summer.)

Gov. Chris Gregoire signed Senate Bill 5798 into law April 2, expanding access to medical marijuana for patients suffering from debilitating and terminal illnesses.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles from the 36th District, who has long supported marijuana-law reform.

Under the new law, healthcare professionals can recommend medical marijuana to a patient based on their own judgment and discretion. Some of the ailments outlined include chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting, AIDS wasting syndrome, epilepsy, acute or chronic glaucoma and some forms of intractable pain.

The law expands upon Initiative 682, which in 1998 permitted only physicians to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes. Now, other healthcare professionals, such as naturopaths, physicians’ assistants, osteopath physicians’ assistants and advanced nurse practitioners, can also authorize the use of the plant.

At a March 30 forum, Kohl-Welles said her endorsement stems from watching family members suffer first-hand from terminal diseases.

Whoosh.

Kennedy moved liked the wind at the start of their boys soccer game versus Evergreen, scoring a lightning quick goal the first two minutes of play before holding on the rest of the way for a 1-0 win over the Wolverines at Starfire in Tukwila Wednesday.

Kennedy sits atop the Seamount League with a 6-1-0 record, a loss to Highline their only blemish, and they are followed by Mount Rainier, 5-0-1, with Highline and Evergreen tied for third at 4-2.

This game started out good for the Lancers, but all was not sustained good after that according to their coach.

"That's our problem," said Lancers second-year coach Teddy Mitalas, who took the Lancers to the state tournament last year where they lost in the first round to Southwest Washington's Columbia River. "Against Hazen, we scored in the first 5-10 minutes of the game. And then we lagged off when the starters came out and they (Hazen) scored. Then we put the starters back in and we scored again. But it shouldn't have to be that way."