Bare shelves at a retail store often portend misfortune for its staff and owner. But bare shelves at a locally-owned, independent store that many neighbors have grown to appreciate spread that misfortune outside the stores walls.Such was the experience I recently had when I went to Rainbow Natural Grocery on 15th Avenue. A sign near the register acknowledged the depressing state of affairs and indicated that the store's financial picture, while not hopeless, is certainly bleak.
Nancy Bainbridge Rogers and her husband, Steve Bainbridge Rogers, moved to Magnolia in 2003, she became a board member of the Magnolia Community Club (MCC) in 2005, and now she's the new president of the neighborhood organization.Rogers, a Renton native, has her hands full as Magnolia changes at an increasingly rapid clip, something that hits close to home. Living in a house on the east side of Magnolia, her view includes the Magnolia Bridge, Terminals 90 and 91, a bit of North Bay and - off in the distance - the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Franziska "Franzi" Pritzner is only 20 years old, but the Frankfort, Germany, native is already changing lives.And her work is being noticed.Franzi has been nominated Au Pair of the Year by her host family, the Neuburgers of Queen Anne. Franzi, who came to the United States via the Cultural Au Pair agency - in operation 15 years and counting - is the Neuburgers' fifth au pair. They have a range of judgment when evaluating the young women, and sometimes men, who come from a foreign country (and different culture) and move into their home and begin caring for their children.
By passing Initiative 692 in 1998, Washington state voters approved the medical use of marijuana. The initiative allowed for patients suffering from a number of debilitating diseases such as cancer to have a 60-day supply of the drug as long as they had written approval from their physicians.However, there are a couple problems with the medical-marijuana laws in Washington and 10 other states. One is that the United States Supreme Court has ruled that federal law making the use or possession of marijuana illegal under any circumstances trumps state laws.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society in Magnolia has stepped forward to help residents in the 98199 ZIP code with bills since the Magnolia Helpline closed, according to Joan O'Sullivan, the charitable organization's president. "We do the same sort of thing the Helpline does," she said. And the decades-old society's connection to the Helpline goes back a long time, according to past president Maureen Allenbach. "In fact," she said, "I helped them when they first started out because they didn't know what to do."
Do you remember exactly what you were doing when the earthquake hit on Feb. 28, 2001, in Seattle? A few of us were planning our first meeting of a new Magnolia/Queen Anne book reading group. The book group was started by Pat Ranieri and Trish Nicola via a note posted at Magnolia's Bookstore.. Two years ago Pat announced she was retiring as a real estate agent and moving to Paris. We were sorry to see her go but extremely envious.Pat stays in touch with the group via email and yearly summer trips to Seattle. After months of us repeating, "Wouldn't it be fun to have book club in Paris?" we started making serious plans when Pat made her first visit back to Seattle.
At Catharine Blaine School, Diana Joldersma and Erik Anderson are considered "the dynamic duo." Both first-grade teachers, Joldersma and Anderson collaborate in their teaching efforts, resulting in similar instruction in their respective classrooms, as well as a solid system of mutual support.This cooperation works well for these teachers; they are able to give feedback to one another about what works and what doesn't, and also act as sounding boards for new thoughts and ideas.
This is not your average lecture series. Later this month, Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival will make its way westward to the University of Washington campus for its ninth-annual event."Scientists are normally pretty boring," said Stephanie Harrington, executive director of UW's Earth Initiative, laughing. "Their language can be pretty boring usually, so we're very excited to have the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival on our campus."After eight years in Leavenworth, the festival - a tribute to longtime Seattle environmental enthusiast Hazel Wolf - launches on March 29 with a special screening at the Woodland Park Zoo.
It's tax time, and that usually means it's also time to procrastinate actually doing your taxes. It also means it's time to confront all the paper records you've been filing and/or piling for the past year. There aren't any hard-and-fast rules for record retention, which is why guidelines aren't particularly helpful, vary widely and are often unclear. To make matters worse, finding the files you need at tax time can be "taxing" to say the least. Most of what we file is never retrieved again, and we waste time trying to find the few documents we actually need.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING: The city is funding $3 million to the Low Income Housing Institute's development of LAKE CITY COURT, which will provide support services for chronically homeless people and some units for veterans.Lake City Court - at 12730, 12738 and 12746 33rd Ave. N.E. - will house 75 apartments, the North Seattle Helpline food bank and medical/dental clinic on the main floor and Seattle Mental Health support services.The $16.8 million project also received $320,000 capital from the Veterans Administration and services funding for 16 units specifically designated for veterans.
Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) has started a collaborative effort to study the effects of "green roofs," which use natural plant life on building roofs, on storm water flows and runoff water quality. On March 8, SPU showed off the first green-roof building from which it will record observations, the Zoomazium at Woodland Park Zoo. This building, which was completed in May 2006, is the first of many featuring green roofs from which SPU will use to gather information.
The only reason I do this is to wear fake eyelashes," Sandy Palmer, co-producer of the widely acclaimed Moisture Festival, told me. "I love to costume." And the Moisture Festival gives her plenty of opportunities to model her vintage clothes and wigs."I'm not a natural actress," she claimed. When it comes to performing, "keep in mind," Sandy reminds fellow producers Ron Bailey, Tim Furst, Simon Neale and Maque da Vis, "I barely know what I'm doing." As the only woman and the youngest performer, Sandy admitted she has a lot to learn about stage-managing and directing the 130 performers that form 70 acts featured during this year's festival.
Recently, my father called with a question: "You up for a Road Trip?"Where to?" I queried."I thought we'd do a few car collections/museums. We'd start here in Vegas and go through the Imperial Palace's collection. Then drive to L.A., do the Petersen Automotive Museum, go through Parnelli's place with JoAnn Brock, finish with the NHRA drag racing museum in Pomona and then drive back to Vegas and you could fly home."The Imperial Palace is a Vegas casino that has a collection of around 60 cars on its fifth floor.
I have a dreamI have lots of dreams, big and small. My wife gets frustrated with me at times because I'm a bit of a dreamer-she's more of a realist.I can be a real-ist, and I try to balance my dreaming with some realism, but it doesn't stop me from dreaming. I think dreaming can keep you young, or at least make the years more enjoyable no matter what your age.I'm not talking about the dreams you have when you sleep, but dreams about your life - those crazy little thoughts that flit through our minds during lulls in the action. Maybe it's prompted by something on television or by a news story. For a fleeting moment, we think, "Gee, wouldn't it be great to be... or to do...?"
"Politics as usual" is a phrase that means one thing to a rabid Republican and another thing to a devoted Democrat.But to those of us who generally gag at the hackneyed expression "public servant," politics as usual simply means another dishonest hack doing what most folks who feel compelled to save us from ourselves, while fattening their egos and wallets, tend to do: waffle while serving their own best interests.