June 2010

Longtime Normandy Park residents Cliff and Nancy Hollenbeck have released a pictorial coffee-table book entitled “Southeast Alaska.”
Published by Todd Communications of Anchorage, the book includes the Hollenbecks' photographs of the natural features of Alaska's southeastern panhandle and a number of interviews with residents of the small communities in the area.

The Hollenbecks specialize in travel writing and photography, having written for airlines, cruise lines, resorts, tourism associations and mainstream publishers.

They have authored more than 24 books on travel, photography, and business, including bestselling volumes featuring photographs from Hawaii and Mexico. Noted novelist James A. Michener wrote the forward for their coffee-table book on Mexico.
Nancy Hollenbeck was born in Anchorage Alaska. Her grandfather, Charles A. Davis, homesteaded in Hope and was among the originators of the Alaska Guide Association. His family operated a placer gold mine.

We've received this alert from the Washington State Ferries:

"Vashon Island will be experiencing low tides from June 23 through June 28 between 7:45 a.m and 1:45 p.m. . Vehicles with less than 14 inches of clearance from the ground to the undercarriage of the vehicle should not travel during these times. Check web site for your day of travel.
This alert was sent on 6/22/2010 at 12:07PM to subscribers of the following routes:
Fauntleroy (West Seattle) / Vashon / Southworth
Pt. Defiance / Tahlequah

Our Web Site is at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries"

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), part of the Library of Congress, presented awards to libraries in Seattle and Virginia Beach for outstanding service to the blind and physically handicapped communities June 18.

West Seattle resident, Danielle H. Miller, Program Manager, Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL) in Seattle, accepted the Network Library of the Year Award. The annual award, in its sixth year, carries a $1,000 cash prize. NLS presented the awards at a luncheon ceremony in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

According to the Library of Congress website:

Miller said "During the past year, we’ve managed to expand our services in creative ways despite economic difficulties and funding cuts. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished and grateful to be recognized for it...Receiving the Network Library of the Year Award means so much to all of us—staff, volunteers and patrons. Everything we do here is really a collective effort."

We had been to Humpback Lake before, but this time we left the kids home and tackled the famous Ketchikan favorite after Bob Pickrell told us they had a new cabin on the famed home of giant cutthroat trout, and maybe we could even hook the world's largest Dolly Varden that he named Old Methuselah.

So the whole gang from the newspaper booked three days of poker and scaring grizzlies.

The day we arrived I could hardly wait while the other guys, Al Sneed, Reid Hale, Bert Clark, Bruce McKnight and Bob were unpacking, and I grabbed my rod and went down on the dock and made a couple of casts with a Doc Spratley.

I soon hooked a beauty and brought him ashore, and I was whacking him when our host, Bob Pickrell, appeared beside me. He was also beside himself.

" Oh, no!" he shouted." You have killed Old Methuselah. "

I felt really guilty, but Bob had never warned us it was a pet and had become part of the lake legend.

I made him feel better when I told him I was sorry.

So I'm upstairs working at my computer, when I hear this raucous squawking and wonder what's happening to my chickens. I scramble downstairs, swing open the door, and find all three of them parked right in front of the door.

I'm thinking, "Yes? And you want what?"

They just look at me, like chickens do with that flat-line expression.

Could they actually be smart enough to come and get me when they want to go back to the coop? So I grab my staff with the cowbell and head out through the gate.

Hot-footin' behind me are "the girls," Charlotte, Mamie and Ella.

As soon as they get into their pen, Mamie heads up to the nesting area. I'll be darned; they actually came to get me when they needed to lay an egg.

It's like girls out in the bars - they all go to the bathroom together!

You may remember me telling the adventure of me getting the girls a couple months ago (Times/News, May 21.) Boy, oh boy, have I learned a lot since then!

I've also had a lot of you contact me with questions and your own chicken stories. We may have that Des Moines Chickeneers Club yet.

The West Seattle Junction Association shares this on their site, noting two worthy anniversaries and a sales event you should know about.

Capers
Capers provides fun, frivolity and fantastic prizes from 6:30-8:30 pm, as they celebrate their 25th Anniversary! Join them in the toast to their continued success! RSVP to: capersparty@gmail.com.

Sweetie turns 7!
Sweetie celebrates their 7th Anniversary from 7-10 pm! They’ll be serving tasty libations, yummy hors d’oeuvres and scrumptious sweets. Come check out their fabulous new summer lines. They’ll have some great specials for this festive evening only. You’ll also have a chance at winning some fashionable prizes too!

Clementine
Clementine features their Prairie Underground Trunk Show from 11 am to 7 pm! Eco-friendly organic cotton clothing, all discounted 20 to 50% off! And don’t forget to pick up a cute pair of sandals to go with your new outfit!

I read (Eric Mathison's column) concerning his experience with Robert O. Smith and very much appreciated his perspective. I don't know how many of us there are left who know the true comedic/improv genius that Robert O. was on the air here in the Puget Sound area, both radio and his Dr. Zingrr madness.

I actually had the pleasure getting to know him fairly well while working on a TV pilot on and off through the late 70's and into the early 80's. I used to be on the air at KZOK and KISW and actually owe my initial interest in radio to his really funny, bizarre and off-the-wall midnight shift at KVI.

I was going to school at the U.W. at the time, and I used to make a point of staying up late and tuning him in every night as I lay in bed, trying to sleep, but finding myself fascinated with the places his spontaneity would take him and going along for the ride, listening for hour upon hour, savoring his insanity.

I had the great experience of helping him revive Dr. Zingrr and some other of his TV personas and he was quite a guy. Humble. Very nice. And a true creative original.

Dogs can change careers just like people and Lady, who lives with Jessica St.Germain and her boyfriend Jason Hauge did just that. Lady is a Pitbull and hound mix. "She was in a pound like a junkyard dog," explained St.Germain,"My boyfriend worked in Auburn at a buying office and she just jumped in his truck one day and he couldn't get her out, and that's how he got her."

Lady has a distinctive look which added to his inability to leave her behind,"With her one ear up and one ear down he couldn't pass her up."

Given her background and breed you might think she's mean but maybe that's why she changed life direction, "She's perfect and a very sweet and mild girl," said St.Germain. But this doesn't mean she won't be there when needed. "She is a good guard dog and very protective, especially if someone is a little sketchy."

Lady likes Tillamook Cheddar Cheese, and will do some of the standard tricks like sitting or lying down (if there's a cheese treat in it for her) "but mostly her thing is the floppy ear."

Lady has some pekingnese and poodle friends and loves her Pink Elephant toy.

The second of the two Burien Shoreline Master Program public forums became heated as the topic changed from the science to what this could mean for shoreline homeowners.

The speakers consisted of Bob Fritzen from the Department of Ecology, Gordon Buchan, president and CEO of GVA Kidder Mathews, Derek House, vice president and manager of Wells Fargo Insurance and Burien Senior Planner David Johanson representing the City.

Buchan, who owns a home on Three Tree Point, spoke to the potential impact of making the majority of shoreline homes nonconforming by increasing the buffer from 20 feet to 50 feet.

He said in his professional opinion having a home that is nonconforming is a negative.

“It creates doubt and it creates concern,” Buchan said. Adding he felt making a structure nonconforming would negatively affect its property values.

However after he made those statements he admitted he was unclear whether the language in the proposed Shoreline Master Program would allow nonconforming home destroyed more than 75 percent of the assessed value to be rebuilt.

Non profit WestSide Baby in White Center, as we reported on June 17 is part of a remarkable program sponsored by the manufacturer of Huggies brand diapers, Kimberly-Clark in which 10 diaper banks across the nation will receive millions of free diapers. The diapers WestSide Baby will get will be distributed throughout the year by their distribution partners, established social service agencies such as food banks, DSHS or the Public Health Department.

WestSide Baby Executive Director, Nancy Woodland shares this further information,"We are receiving 2 storage containers tomorrow to store them. There will not be any representatives from Huggies (in Wisconsin) on site.

The truck will arrive at 11am and back into our parking lot. We’ll be unloading with a fork lift and pallet jack. We will have a representative or two from our 1-2 of our agency partners, including the White Center Food Bank’s, Rick Jump. From 9-11 and 1-3, our normal activities will continue with volunteers inside sorting and providers picking up orders."