February 2013

Discovery Shop
4535 California Ave. S.W.
206-937-7169
Our popular Antiques, Vintage and Collectibles event is going on now.  As well, yellow tag items are $1.00 through the end of the month and pink tag items are 50% off starting March 1.  If you shop in our store, you might want to volunteer four hours a week to clerk in the store, accept and price merchandise in the back room or do simple repair work.  When you volunteer, donate and shop with us you help in the search for a cure for cancer.  The all volunteer run, non profit American Cancer Society shop is open Sundays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and all other days 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Volunteer Introduction Session-Southwest Seattle Historical Society
Log House Museum
3003 61st Ave. S.W., 1 block from Alki Beach

By Kyra-lin Hom

For this week, I'm pulling from writer Roya Wolverson's Time Magazine article “The Handmade Wars.” For those who are curious it's from this year's February 18th issue. In it she deals mainly with the website Etsy.com, it's users and its creators and maintainers.

Think of Etsy as a kind of ebay for craftspeople. Each craftsperson can set up their own online store, advertise, accept payment, etc. In turn, anyone can then set up an account with Etsy and browse/buy from these individual stores.

In Wolverson's article, she addresses the issue of just what constitutes 'handmade.' As much as we'd like to believe it's an eccentric artist slaving away in their bohemian studio apartment, Etsy's new leadership is bending the rules. More room is being made for collectives, allowing these mini businesses to grow and expand – and in turn make more money for Etsy.

By Georgie Bright Kunkel

Seth Berger dunks, dunks, and dunks some more.

By Christopher Duclos

All good things must come to an end.

The Boys varsity squad met their end when they were knocked out of the KingCo playoffs Tuesday, Feb. 12 with a result of 61-55, Newport.

Emotions ran high as the seniors walked off the court for the last time.

“Although their last game ended with a loss, I remember sitting next to Johnny Verduin's dad, fighting off tears watching all the boys walking off the floor for the final time. But then thinking of all the fun times of the season and my tears were of joy.”

“As far as the season goes for the 2012-2013 Ballard High varsity boys basketball team, it was a proud season for us parents,” Coach Owens said. “The boys advanced to the 4A Kingco playoffs, won the Les Schwab Christmas classic, and most importantly the boys took care of business off the court. They were role models for Ballard high school.”

Other than winning on and off the court, the season had its unforgettable moments. Like when BHS played host to the Austrailian Penrith Panthers for an international exhibition.

For the past couple of weeks, the Ballard High School “Playermakers” theatre group has been working out the kinks on their upcoming production of “The Sound of Music,” which opens on Thursday, Feb. 28, with a special gala.

If it’s one thing that the students and parents can be proud of, it’s that the play is a self-made production. BHS theatre teacher and director Shawn Riley said there was very little outside involvement in the production and that he himself only sits back and helps direct the proceedings. But the acting, music, singing, sets, lighting and tech, even the stage managing is all done by students.

“It’s a huge sense of community and pride,” Riley said. “And it gets stressful and we get irritated with each other, but that’s all part of the experience.”

If the measure of a man's impact is how many celebrations are held in his honor, then Jerry Ceis measured up pretty well. The official wake for Jerry Ceis was held at the American Legion Hall on Sunday Feb. 24 and people gathered to remember the former Seafair Pirate and self styled adventurer. The organizer of the event Doug Williams said, "We had the memorial and that was good. But this is meant to be a party with music, food, drinks and friends. This is a party Jerry would have really enjoyed."

There have been two previous events held in memory for Ceis who died on Jan. 9 following an illness.

SLIDESHOW: Life of Seafair Pirate, sailor, friend and free spirit Jerry Ceis celebrated at the Chelan Cafe

SLIDESHOW: Family and friends say farewell to Jerry Ceis

The National Weather Service has announced a Wind Advisory that will take effect tonight at 11pm and extend until 4pm on Monday. While people gathering to watch the Oscar telecast are not likely to feel much of any wind, the strongest winds will happen in the early morning hours and could cause power outages.

Here's the NWS Forecast:

A VIGOROUS FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL BRING WINDY CONDITIONS TO THE COAST AND NORTH INTERIOR OF WASHINGTON TONIGHT. WINDY CONDITIONS WILL SPREAD ACROSS ALL OF THE WESTERN WASHINGTON LOWLANDS ALONG AND BEHIND THE FRONT LATE TONIGHT THROUGH MONDAY MORNING.

...WIND ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT FROM 11 PM THIS EVENING TO 4 PM PST MONDAY...

* SOME AFFECTED LOCATIONS...SEATTLE...EVERETT...TACOMA...OLYMPIA... SHELTON...AND PORT ANGELES.

* TIMING...SOUTH TO SOUTHWEST WINDS WILL INCREASE WITH A FRONT THAT MOVES ACROSS THE AREA LATE THIS EVENING. WINDS WILL SHIFT TO WESTERLY AROUND THE STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA AND IN THE SOUTH INTERIOR BEHIND THE FRONT LATE TONIGHT INTO MONDAY MORNING.

STRONGEST WINDS WILL BE LATE TONIGHT AND MONDAY MORNING.

West Seattle Nursery has won the 2013 People's Choice Award, in the Small Space Showcase category for their installation at this year's Northwest Flower and Garden Show. The show, staged at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle, features garden displays from around the region and much more.

The West Seattle Nursery entry was called Jurassic Park as part of the show's Gardens Go Hollywood theme.

The nursery also won for Best Plant Material.

The garden display was built by Manager Marcia Bruno, Jennifer Gaikowski, Harris Hvezda and Jeannine James.

The display contains a variety of ferns, moss, variegated leaf plants and even some topiary dinosaurs.

By David Rosen

Docked for the day and evening for a stop in Seattle, West Seattle residents looking across Elliott Bay saw German cruise liner MS Amadea, Sunday Feb 24.

The MS Amadea is owned by Amadea Shipping Company and operated under charter by the Germany-based Phoenix Reisen. She was originally built in 1991 by the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard in Nagasaki, Japan and sailed initially as the MS Asuka for Nippon Yusen Kaisha. In 2006 she was sold to her current owners and entered service with Phoenix Reisen and was renamed Amadea.

Right now the vessel is on a 15-day West Coast tour that began in Puerto Vallarta Mexico and will end in Vancouver Canada. Her voyage began in Lima, Peru and included stops in Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Phoenix Reisen is a Germany-based travel agency. They first began cruises in 1988 by chartering the Soviet Union owned cruise ship SS Maxim Gorkiy.

Some Facts about the MS Amadea:

Crew of 250-280 mostly European and Filipino staff and the language on board is German
Two large restaurants
The ship carries 624 people
A small 'adventure' golf course
8 Decks

Pioneer Coffee Roasting Company at 2536 Alki Ave SW will be leaving their beach location after five years primarily because, according to landlord Tom Lin, they failed to negotiate their lease in a timely fashion.

Taking their place, likely by mid April will be Ampersand, another coffee purveyor that is actually an offshoot of Slices Pizza owned by married couple and business duo Marisa Tanji and Daryl Waits.

Lin explained," Pioneer came to me two weeks ago to negotiate their lease but that's too late. Normally you talk about this kind of thing six months to a year in advance. It's a desirable location so it has offers. The people at Pioneer just got in touch with me too late."