Homecoming tonight... Even with the forecast for a mist tonight (heavy mist=rain, light mist=fog), you can bet there'll be a crowd at the high school for homecoming tonight - gametime is 6:30pm, with the bbq fired up before that. With only one more home game this season after this, it's your chance to see our talented team without having to hit the road.
By the way, this newspaper in mid-state has Friday Harbor at the #10 spot in its poll; they have Meridian at #2.
Meanwhile, the volleyball girls beat Mount Vernon Christian last night - wahoo!
The picture at the right was shot during the drier part of the week.
Speaking of football.... The Tiger football kids played their last home game last week, and now they're road warriors. Charlyn Warner & Cassie Kurtz help keep the blog updated, and the stories fresh. Here's the scoop.
Cynthia's got class... Actually, lots of them - Cynthia Elliott's been teaching EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) for a while now, and she tells me she has several classes, including free sessions, coming up. Here's more....
Back in the day.... There's a nice picture of radio personality Pat O'Day (he lives here) on this blog, back in the days when he was on the radio in Seattle.
Quote A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year. Paul Sweeney
September 27, 2007
He's bigger every day.... That's Christine Martz, who says she's having a great time with 12-week-old Holden - she says she & Michael are totally in love with him.
Sports update: The soccer girls got squeezed 3-2 by North Sound Christian on Tuesday, as FHHS forced a 2-2 draw into overtime before allowing the heartbreaker. They travel to LaConner today for the second of three away games that carry us into an October where we're here most of the month.
The FHHS volleyball girls haven't played for a week, and host Mount Vernon Christian here today.
Our high-flying football guys will put their 4-0 record on the line with #3 Meridian (also 4-0, they have racked up 18 straight victories over a couple of years), who thumped Lynden Christian last weekend 36-6. The homecoming game starts at 6:30pm tomorrow night - see you there!
The best job in the world.... David at the gatehouse at Browne's (that's him in the fog a couple of mornings ago) tells me he's got the greatest job in the world because he gets to say hey to everybody who comes by & wish 'em a great day, which he's great at.
I'd say they got the best guy in the world for the best job in the world....
Changing of the guard... Tuesday night at the Grange dozens of appreciative artists said thank you & goodbye to Pat Lawrence, who sold Island Studios to Claudia Fullerton a couple of months ago.
Pat's steady hand on the tiller at the Studios has created a viable & vibrant opportunity for island artists to make their wares available for purchase, and is actually keeping some of them commercially viable. The artists signed a card made by Nancy Spaulding (on right), tears were shed, and it's pretty clear there is a community of folks who hold Pat dear in their hearts.
What do YOU know about stormwater? Here's more.... Next week there are three seminars that are about what's going on with stormwater, according to Steve Hussey at the Conservation District. Expensive problem or valuable resource? Here's more:
As you may have heard, the SJC Marine Resources Committee and the San Juan Islands Conservation District are holding three free seminars next week "Stormwater: Expensive Problem or Valuable Resource?"
Local and state experts will be explaining why we have stormwater problems to deal with, how we can deal with, what the state requires, where we can find money to deal with the problems, and how we can turn an expensive problem into a valuable resource to recharge our crucial aquifers.
The first seminar is on Monday 1st October on San Juan Island at the Mullis Senior Center, Tuesday 2nd October at the Orcas Island Fire Department public meeting room and finally on Lopez Island on Wednesday October 3rd at the Lopez Arts Center in the village. All seminars run from 4 pm to 8 pm. There will be knowledge, humor and free refreshments.
Please feel free to forward this email on to anyone you think would benefit from the seminars. (The attached PDF file contains more information.)
If you do not wish to receive occasional announcements about conservation/environmental seminars or workshops please let us know and we will remove your name from our mailing list.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message - we hope to see you there. Here's more.
Steve Hussey
Natural Resources Planner
Quote Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. - George Bernard Shaw
September 26, 2007
She's back! Last summer in '06 Abby Spann interned with Island Rec and soon became pretty well-known for being friendly, helpful & well-organized. She's all finished with her university work now, and last week Island Rec offered her the recreation specialist position vacated by Corelia Peacock.
Director Sally Kerr tells me she's happy Abby will be back, and she expects to be in her new job by mid-October.
Things you didn't know.... • Dan Ward's San Juan Transit has stopped running for the season & will be back next year. Now you get to carpool, or ride your bike, or check out SJRideshare.
• According to the 1933 National Geographic, Dinner Island was named that because someone paid for it with dinner.
• Are you going to homecoming on Friday night? It's fun to see the kids all dressed up & with somewhere to go - the parade's downtown at 5 and the game's at 6:30. Elisa Howard tells me that the support group (they're called Purple & Gold, and it's about time you joined, dear reader) will be having a barbecue during the homecoming football game.
It's a tradition that includes Bob Guard's chili - served with all the toppings. She tells me the menu and cost: hotdog meal $4.50/ chili dog meal $6.00 / hamburger meal $6.00 / bowl of chili $3.00 w/ all the toppings / all meals come with chips and a beverage.
Be there.
• You won't find two finer folks, or a happier couple. The weekend after this one, Jackie Scherer and Keith Van Cleve (right) are getting married, and their smiles last night tell it all, I think.
• Sally & Bettye are putting it together for the winter months - Sally Browne at FH Souvenir and Bettye at the bookstore. Here's the scoop:
Two businesses join forces to bring the best retail service in Friday Harbor for the winter months.
Friday Harbor Souvenir Company and Boardwalk Bookstore combine forces for the winter months. Friday Harbor Souvenir Company, owned by Sally Browne, will be moving her current merchandise to Boardwalk Bookstore, located at 9 Spring Street, on October 1 and returning to 135 Spring Street in the spring. Open seven days a week, you can shop for your favorite titles in books AND find all your souvenir and gift needs at Boardwalk Bookstore.
The winter combination of the retail stores will allow both businesses to remain open seven days a week during the winter season.
The moon over the strait.... It was cool to see the near-full moon on Sunday night, coming home from a weekend in Canada - this was shot on the ferry, about 20 minutes out of Friday Harbor.
An evening with the Nature Institute... Susan Key tells me this is gonna be a fun one:
San Juan Nature Institute's 13th Annual Event, "Celebrating Partnerships Dedicated to Bringing Back the Chinook," will be held Saturday, September 29 at 6pm at the Mullis Community Center on San Juan Island. A new print, "Salmon," by Haida artist April White will be unveiled. Terry Williams, Tulalip Tribe, will speak on historical fishing techniques, the importance of salmon to 1st Nations peoples, and a recent partnership between U.S. and Canadian tribal elders. A summary of local salmon recovery efforts will be given and information made available. David Bayley will be providing beautiful music, and chef Farhad Ghatan will delight with an eclectic Northwest feast. Wine will be served with dinner and a no-host bar will be open. Enjoy both a silent and a live auction featuring beautiful local artwork, exciting adventures, and great donations from local businesses. Tickets are $50 per person and reservations may be made through www.sjnature.org or by calling 378-3646.
The San Juan Nature Institute is active on San Juan, Orcas, and Lopez islands through our "Partners in Science" program. During 2007 we worked on both Orcas and Lopez streams studying water quality and the potential to reintroduce salmon.
Quote That inefficiency is masked because growth and progress are measured in money, and money does not give us information about ecological systems, it only gives information about financial systems. Paul Hawken
September 25, 2007
Tickets for the show.... My friend Shannon has a couple of tickets to try & sell, quick:
I'll follow this up with a call, but do you ever advertise on your website? My sister Sheelin has two extra tickets to a Def Leppard concert in Vancouver, B.C. this Thursday, Sept. 27. It's at the General Motors Place, Sec. 108, Row 21, Seats 107 & 108. She's letting the two tickets and parking go for $200 which is what she paid for them. The concert is from 7:30 pm to midnight and Styx is the warm-up band. If anyone is interested, they can contact her at 378-6371. "Pour some sugar on me...."
Thanks, Shannon
Book signing on Saturday..... Terry Domico will be signing his new book at Island Studios from 4 to 6 on Saturday...it's called "The Natural Areas of the San Juans" and includes his award-winning photography. Here's more....
Quote Your paradigm is so intrinsic to your mental process that you are hardly aware of its existence, until you try to communicate with someone with a different paradigm. Donella Meadows
September 24, 2007 (Happy Equinox to you!)
Once.... I heard that the Irish movie "Once" that Aaron has playing at the theater is very sweet, very well done - it's at 7:45pm tonight, if you're looking for something to do - get some popcorn.
Technobabble Remember last week I told you about that company that's doing single-clock domains & PPLs and such, and mentioned that I have no idea what all that is about? My friend Christine came to the rescue:
Hi Ian, I do some work defining acronyms for a company called Birds-eye.net. It's
funny you should ask someone to tell you what Single-Clock Domains and
PLLs mean. I recently defined PLL's on the site..I know I did something
about clock domains, but I can't find it right now!
It always tickles me to hear from folks with techie lingo - years ago my friend Tim Dustrude wrote & asked me (tongue in cheek, or maybe mouse in cheek) if I knew what was going on in this passage from a computer magazine:
ADO is the friendly face on OLE DB, which lets you leverage your experience
in DAO and RDO (because much of the interface is the same). And since OLE DB
has a provider for ODBC, you can still access your DSNs (System DSNs) on
your machine when you want to write your ASP pages.
Speaking of movies.... I have received at least ten e-mails complaining that the videos I add to the Update are a complete waste of time and that they have no place in meeting the mission of revealing the soft underbelly of the island to you & so on.
So, here's another one.
September 23, 2007
Moving on..... Brook & Piet Visser (right) tell me the plan is still happening: They're scheduled to move from here to Uruguay with the kids come October 5th. Meanwhile, they're selling their house by auction - click here for more about that.
Unbeaten.... The football Wolverines took on tough Nooksack Valley last night, and came home last night on the way-late ferry at 2:05am with their fourth victory this season in hand.
Next up: Meridian comes a-visitin' on Friday at 6:30pm for homecoming - parade's at 5, pep rally right after, then gametime. See ya there.
Maybe moving on.... You know that little place across from the Courthouse (below) that used to be the pawn shop....
It's scheduled to be demolished by the county as part of the county offices expansion in that area. It was built around 1910 and was the home of Virgil Frits, who was editor & publisher of the Friday Harbor Journal for the first half of the 20th century. He was famous for hanging out of the Journal window (it was located next to the bank that is now Coldwell Banker) and asking people coming up Spring Street from the harbor what news they had.
Anyhow, his little ol' house is featured in a mag called Cottage Living, which says anyone who will pay to move it gets it. (Here's the writeup.) Town Historic Preservation Coordinator Sandy Strehlou tells me the only bites she's gotten in response are folks who would move the building off-island.
Looking for something to do? Well, there's the play at the Community Theatre (tonight's the last night) as well as Druha Trava (right) on Monday, a Czech bluegrass band that sounds intriguing - here's details. Meanwhile, there's the Farmers' Market this sunny Saturday, and music at the Ale House - Everett Bone's playing - I went to hear him last night, and he does a good job for one guy & his guitar.
Good show at the Library... It was cool last night to drop by the Library & see Seattle-based repertory company Book-It's adaptation of Sadako and The Thousand Paper Cranes, performed by three actors in front of the fireplace.
Traveling thespians Alex, Mikano, and Toni put on the show they had just performed on Lopez Thursday, and did a super job, getting applause & a few tears at the end of the show about the girl who survived Hiroshima only to live a short life of hope before dying of radiation poisoning a decade later.
Our library's willingness to bring quality presentations to the island is part of what makes living here so great.
Quote “I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up.” - Tom Lehrer
Some of it is news, some of it is old news, and all are just things we wanted to mention, with most of it about the things that make living here great.
There will be more next week, if anything happens.
Unauthorized reuse of the content of these pages is prohibited;
links to other sites is intended to be to the benefit of those sites,
and for the edification of our readers,
and does not constitute endorsement or
agreement with views expressed there.
All rights reserved, except in Britain, who have their own reserve.
