January 2011

Mike Winter lives immediately below the landslide prone hill on the 6200 block of Beach Drive s.w. and, along with city council members, voiced his concerns over a several year delay in fixing the problem to representatives from the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and the City Attorney’s Office in a Seattle City Council meeting on Jan. 25.

“My wife and I and the neighbors around us have been living with the effects of this slide since December 2007,” Winter said during the public comment phase of the meeting. “We live in constant fear of another event and worry not only for our own safety but our adjoining neighbors, the neighbors on the hillside above and the public who use the Beach Drive arterial on a daily basis. If we had even a minor earthquake during a period of heavy rains it could be disastrous.”

Press Release:
Westside School is honored to be one of 10 area schools to be selected to host two teachers from the Republic of Korea. This is Westside's second year hosting educators from Korea.

The Korean educators began their two week visit on January 18th. The teachers have been selected for their excellence in teaching and are currently working with the A.C.E. Language Institute at Seattle Pacific University.

They are very interested in how Westside School uses strategies such as Project Based Learning, Investigations, and Integrated Lessons to teach the children. The Korean teachers will be observing all classes and they will have the opportunity to present lessons on Korean culture to the students.

By James Egan
Thule (pronounced “Tooley”) is a 4 year old King Charles Cavalier Spaniel who lives with Susanne Stark, James Egan, and their children Linnea (almost 3 years) and Lucas (almost 2 years).

In his free time Thule likes to chase squirrels, cats, and imaginary animals in the back yard. On occasion Thule will bark at plastic bags caught in trees, shadows, dogs shown on TV and laser lights.

“He’s no Einstein,” said James. “But he’s super cute.”

As do many Cavaliers, he likes to sleep directly on the pillow at night and has a need to be where people are. He likes to go on walks around the block and stop at every tree to lift a leg.

Thule shares a dog run between his house and his neighbor’s house, and plays with Golden Retriever Sonic, in the Gatewood neighborhood of West Seattle.

A few years ago, when Egan and Stark lived near the Alaska Junction, Thule walked four blocks on his own to Hotwire coffee, apparently because they give out free dog bones. The barista called to say he was there. “We didn’t even know he slipped out of the house,” said Susanne. Thule still got his bone.

The Women’s Center 5th Annual Health Fair featured Information booths lining the South Seattle Community College's Brockey Conference Center today.

Some represented were:

Hope Heart Institute: www.hopeheart.org
Cedar River Clinics, reproduction care: (800) 572-4223
Acupuncture: www.communichi.org
National Eating Disorder Ass.:www.nationaleatingdisorders.org (800) 931-2237
Vegetarians of Washington: www.vegofwa.org
King County Public Health: www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices
Consejo Counseling and Referral: www.consejo-wa.org (206) 461-4880

"You don't have to be a vegetarian to join Vegetarians of Washington," said Amanda Strombom at her booth. She is writing a book for the organization, "Say No To Meat".

"We do monthly dining events at the Mount Baker Club in Seattle where we have a different chef or restaurant cater it each month," she said. "We offer free cooking and nutrition classes.

While Republicans in Congress are trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration is stepping up its public relations campaign to promote the program's benefits for Medicare beneficiaries.

As part of this campaign, Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Susan Johnson, visited the Ballard Senior Center on Friday, Jan 21, to discuss Medicare under the Affordable Care Act.

It was a packed house on Friday morning as many seniors were interested to hear exactly how the Health Care Reform affects them and their medicare.

Johnson warmly received the seniors with two boxes of donut holes. The donut holes symbolized the three million donut hole recipients. To date, three million eligible beneficiaries who fell into the drug coverage gap known as the “donut hole” during 2010 received a one-time $250 rebate check.

Johnson said the Affordable Care Act is taking an additional step for those who fall into the “donut hole” by providing them with a 50 percent discount on covered brand name medications until the gap is closed in 2020.

The Burien City Council voted unanimously to encourage the citizens of Burien to support the renewal of the Highline School District tax levy when it goes on the ballot on February 8.
The current Highline School District property tax levy brings in a quarter of the Districts operating budget, paying for approximately 250 teachers and support staff.
The levy will expire after this year if voters do not approve to extend it for another five years.
If passed the levy would not raise property taxes until 2015, but simply keep the $3.44 tax on every $1,000 of assessed property value. In 2015 the tax would be raised from $3.44 to $3.52.
In 2012 the Highline School District would raise approximately $46 million to fund teachers and basic operations in the District.
According the District approximately 80 percent of the levy would pay for teachers and staff.
On a statement from the Highline School District website they say if the levy is not passed it would cause a significant decrease in programs and staff.

About a month ago, I went for a hike in the woods. My whole reason for being there had nothing to do with solitude or nature. It was, of course, related to food! I was hunting for chanterelles.

Mushrooms just happen to be one of the last few truly wild foods you can forage. It seems like chanterelles – which are bright gold, shaped like trumpets and sometimes called Prince of the Forest - would be easy to spot, but we walked a long time before finding two or three. Then my “hunter-gatherer” brain turned on, and I was seeing mushrooms everywhere! It was like I had mushroom radar. We picked seven pounds of chanterelles, and I felt like a queen with a treasure.

If you aren’t lucky enough to know where, or how, to pick wild mushrooms, you can buy a lot of exotic types in the local grocery store - even Costco had chanterelles for a while. And of course, the recipes below all work for white or crimini mushrooms as well. So if you can’t find chanterelles or don’t know the difference between those and poisonous mushrooms, save yourself the trouble and buy them at the store.

The Ballard gymnastics team competed against Woodinville, Garfield and Redmond last night, a make-up meet for January 12th which was cancelled due to snow.

Woodinville placed first in front of their home crowd but Ballard's Taylor Stern stole the show.
Stern placed first in all the events - vault, bars, beam, floor - and the all-around with a new personal best score of 38.15.

"Taylor had a great night, sweeping every event and the all around and once again bettering her career high all around score," Coach Stephanie Gundel said.

"Not only is it her high, but a Ballard record as well."

Ballard's Molly Barnes also had a strong and consistent meet placing second on beam and fifth all-around.

1. Woodinville 171.35
2. Ballard 167.65
3. Redmond 152.2
4. Garfield 115.5

Vault
1. Taylor Stern, B 9.5
2. Madi McManus, W 9.3
3T. Jenna Morrison, W 8.6, Maria Volk, B 8.6

Bars
1. Taylor Stern, B 9.7
2. Jaci Wolff, W 8.65
3. Madison Engel, W 8.35

Beam
1. Taylor Stern, B 9.25
2T. Molly Barnes, B 9.0, Julie Tollifson, W 9.0

Floor
1T. Taylor Stern, B 9.7, Jaci Wolff, W 9.7
3. Jenna Morrison, W 9.5
6. Molly Barnes, B 9.2

All Around

Ed note: Along Maplewild SW at around 160th a beautiful male  China Pheasant seems to have taken up a home. He's not all that concerned about passing cars as he pecks his way through the brush looking possibly for grubs or some other tidbit.

I've seen him several times but never soon enough or my being ready enough to shoot a picture. Last week it all changed when I got this shot of him preening along the pedestrian right of way. I only shoot with a camera these days but it did remind me of an event many years ago when I thought I was capable of more daring deeds. Read on....

Below the clear October skies over Wenatchee the corn stubble cracked beneath my boots at every step. My shotgun fully prepared to bring down my first game bird. My Mcmicken Heights buddy Ciff Goodman sidled along nearby. He had shot lots of ducks and other game birds.

I had son Tim's little cocker spaniel. I had rented Richard Tiger for the weekend, for a quarter. He too was ready for the sudden flutter of wings.
      
Richard was useless. He was too short to leap over a row of beets and spent his time trailing behind me. 

The Chief Sealth girls basketball team bounced back from a five game losing streak, routing opponent Lakeside, 65-37.

On Wednesday night, Jan. 19 Chief Sealth played a physical game against Rainier Beach. The Chief Sealth girls fought hard, but ultimately lost, ending the game with a score of 55-45.

Chief Sealth lost their lead with seconds to go in the first half. After that the Seahawks were not able to get ahead in points again, playing catch up for the rest of the game. Playing catch up mostly unsuccessfully until later in the third quarter when they began to rally for some points.

The Chief Sealth Seahawks came back on Friday, ending the night with an impressive win against Lakeside, defeating them by a wide margin, 65-37.

The Seahawks entered that game with an overall record of 3-8, losing their last five games.
Lakeside, in contrast, entered the game with an overall record of 9-5; winning their last two games, including defeating Chief Sealth rival West Seattle, 50-20.

The Seahawks now have an overall record of 4-8 and a conference record of 2-8. They will take on Eastside Catholic at home on Friday, Jan. 28.