December 2010

Looking for something to do this weekend? Here are a few ideas:

1. For those 21 and up who enjoyed our Winter Beer Guide, I recommend checking out Hale’s Ales tonight or Saturday, Dec 11th, for the 2010 Winter Beer Festival.
The Winter Beer Festival, organized by the Washington Beer Commission, features seasonal beers from over 30 local breweries including specials from Elliot Bay Brewing, Chuckanut Brewery in Bellingham, and Flyers Brewery in Oak Harbor.
Hale’s Ales will offer some pub grub and Fremont’s Theo will be there with their delicious treats.
Tickets are $25 at the door and includes a tasting cup and six 5 oz. tastes.
Extra tokens are $1.50/piece.

When: Friday, Dec 10th, 2010 5:30-9:30 p.m.

Saturday Dec 11th, 2010 12 to 4 p.m. and 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Where: Hale’s Palledium. 4301 Leary Way NW

Kristine Leander wears many hats. She’s the cultural director for the Swedish Cultural Center, a board member of the Nordic Heritage Museum and the president of the Leif Erikson International Foundation. She’s also an author, a mother of three, an animal lover, and an outdoor enthusiast who has summitted Mt. Rainier and Mt. Baker several times.

She has dedicated her life’s work to encourage people to find a sense of place and take pride in one’s heritage. She’s loyal to traditions and community.

“Kris is the lifeblood of the community in various ways,” said Mary Englund, a board member of the Leif Erikson International Foundation.

“Community to her is a sense of place, not just the geographic locality, but the people. The connections she makes around her forms a community. Ballard is beneficiary of her work and her connections.”

For Leander to find her sense of place and finding out who she is took years and several relocations.

Leander, granddaughter of Swedish immigrants, grew up on a dairy farm in the Mt. Vernon area in a very Swedish-American community.

Celebrating progress in 2010 and defining safety issues to address in 2011 were the talking points at the White Center – South Delridge Safety Coalition meeting on Dec. 9 at the Department of Social and Health Services at 9650 15th Ave s.w.

Coalition chairman Sean Healy presided over the meeting, attended by about a dozen White Center residents, many of them members of Rambo Ministries which meets at the White Center Culture Center on 18th Ave s.w.

The coalition discussed organizing a “Take Back Your Meds” day in White Center, based on information a coalition member gathered from a recent South Seattle Drug Free Communities Coalition meeting. During that meeting, Margaret Shield with King County Local Hazardous Waste Prevention spoke about getting involved with the “Take Back Your Meds” campaign, focused on making it possible for people to properly dispose of prescription drugs any day of the year, not just once or twice a year.

While the fifth Annual Yappy Holidays Mutt Mixer drew a menagerie of humans and dogs to Morgan Junction's City Dog magazine and West Side Yoga and "Doga"- yoga with your dog, a few purebred party crashers were spotted.

Westwood Village resident Brandie Ahlgren, magazine founder and editor, hosted. Brenda Bryan and Kelly Page, founders of West Side Yoga Doga, were on hand to greet their guests, pet the dogs, and raise money for "Dogs Deserve Better," a national non-profit with the slogan "Don't Chain Dogs!" Page is a Washington State representative for the organization.

While City Dog photographer Julie Klegg was roving the room, a second photographer, Karen Ducey, a former PI photographer, was busy posing dogs by a Christmas tree in a side room to also raise money for the dog rights charity. At one point Ducey posed nine small dogs and several pet-owners in a single shot, much like herding cats.

"We had 100 RSVP's for people, and 75 for dogs," said Ahlgren, who seemed cheerfully frantic catering both to her two-legged and four-legged guests pouring into, and prancing around, the side-by-side editorial room and yoga space.

By Steve Shay

A little over one hundred years ago, on Nov. 27, 1910, a baby was born in a Ballard home on the corner of 65th St. and 26th Ave. That house and that baby are still around. Now 100 years old, Hilda Krahn has a sharp memory and recalls the drama surrounding her birth.

"It was a Sunday night and I was due, so my father ran down into Ballard to get the doctor," said Krahn while among 90 guests at her 100th birthday party at Anthony's. "But the doctor was speaking in Ballard so my dad ran back home again."

So instead of the doctor, a midwife helped with the Hilda's birth.

"Then my father ran back to the doctor to tell him not to come. He saved $25."

Her Finnish-born father, Gustav, was a blacksmith and helped lay plumbing goes across 65th Street up to Woodland Park, where he and Hilda's mom would walk her and her younger brother, Bill.

"When I was two or three my baby brother was in the buggy when my parents walked us to Woodland Park, and I thought, 'Why can't I get in the buggy?' It was quite a hike up to Woodland Park," Krahn recalled.

"I've always done a lot of walking. My husband loved to hike up in the Olympics."

Student talent from a range of clubs and groups was in the spotlight at the 4th Annual Multicultural Night at Chief Sealth International High School 2600 s.w. Thistle Street Thursday, Dec. 9.

The event began with ethnic food choices provided by area restaurants in the Sealth Galleria and hundreds of people crowded in line to sample taquitos, sambosas, veggies, sushi, eggrolls and a lot more.

Up in the Sealth Commons, booths and tables from many of the school clubs and organizations representing a range of interests from the Science Club to Calligraphy shared their interests with the crowd.

Carrie Syvertsen, who is a Social Worker at Seath and the organizer for the event said, "Tonight is about showcasing our student performers from all our various clubs as well as getting a sense for what an international school looks like in various classrooms. There are 83 performers tonight as well as 27 different organizations."

The evening really took off once the performances in the newly remodeled auditorium began.

(click on photo to see more pictures)

Over the past two weeks, the Ballard Rotary Club been distributing dictionaries to 3rd graders at four local schools: St. Alphonsus, Adams, Loyal Heights, and Whittier.

“These dictionaries are a gift from the Rotary Club and celebrate the message of reading and literacy.  This is a yearly tradition that the club makes the donation to the local schools,” said William Rodgers, a Rotary Club member.

Ballard Rotary is a local service club with a mission to make a difference in the larger Ballard community and in the world by promoting international understanding, goodwill, peace, and to live through service and fellowship.

John Deasy, former president of the Ballard Rotary Club, said that this is the fifth year that Ballard Rotary Club has handed out dictionaries to the schools.

“The kids love it. They get to write their name on the plaque in the front cover and for many it’s their first real book they own themselves,” Deasy said at the distrubition at Loyal Height on Thursday, Dec. 9th.

2940 s.w. Avalon Way, the prior home of Café Revo, is near resurrection as Avalon, a Pacific Northwest casual fine dining restaurant and lounge.

The owners are now aiming for an opening on January 3rd, pending approval of their liquor license from the Liquor Control Board.

The painting is done and the kitchen is ready. Now owners, chefs and husband-wife team Deborah and Thomas Breuler need only wait for their signage and the final stages of obtaining a liquor license to open the doors.

“What we’re really aiming for is an atmosphere that is approachable for families, not fussy … so it’s definitely more what our take on West Seattle service should be,” Thomas said on Dec. 9. “It should be top quality service, top quality food that’s affordable and not stuffy. It’s very approachable.”

How about the food?

See that picture above. That is a jar and in that jar is a note.

I have aways wanted to put a note in a bottle and throw it in the ocean. It would say things like HELP!, I am stranded on a barren island in the south seas. Please rescue me.

Or a wicked king has kidnapped me to keep me from marrying his beautiful daughter. He's arranged to have a band of savages imported from the Orinoco River valley to draw and quarter me. If you find this note carved with the edge of a stone on a hunk of alder bark, carve me an answer telling me you will come by and rescue me. I will be waving my arms from the castle keep.

After the big wind and snow storm recently hit our place at Seahurst bay I spotted this jar in the gravel with a note inside it. The jar is about 6 inches high by 2 inches across with a metal cap bearing a red ribbon with the logo Mezzetta. In white script is a small line which reads, In The Napa Valley. I can't imagine how a jar from California wine country could makes its way to Puget Sound.

As part of The West Seattle Tool Library's monthly conversation series, Eric Thomas of Solar Epiphany (Solar Power) will join the regular cast of experts who will be hanging out at the Tool Library this Saturday, December 11 from 12-2pm. The West Seattle Tool Library is located on the north side of the South Seattle Community College parking lot.

Returning to Tool Library for a repeat Ask an Expert performance will be:
Laura & Doug Elfline, Mighty House Construction (Sustainable Building)
Sandy Pederson, Urban Land Army (Urban and Winter Gardening)
Nikola Davidson, EarthsystemsNW (Water Harvesting & Cisterns)

Ask an Expert provides West Seattle residents with an opportunity to tap into some amazing community knowledge, whether its for advice on a specific project or just to chat about the latest trends, tips, techniques. Everyone is welcome to attend and curiosity is encouraged. As always, Ask an Expert is most definitely a FREE event and you can show up whenever you darn well please.

For more information on Ask an Expert and The West Seattle Tool Library, please visit:
http://www.sustainablewestseattle.org/tool-library/upcoming-events/