May 2006

It has been thirteen years since my house was first painted and the nice reddish stain had gone so dirty-brown in places. I knew the time had come to fix it up.

Being a handy guy, I decided to tackle the job myself and after asking around about the best stain to use. I went about the task of picking up samples at the store.

At the 'big box' store where Gigi's truck stop used to be, I grabbed some of those little paper strips with some reasonable colors and brought them home to Mrs. Anthony.

That was my first mistake.

Mrs.

Patti Calder's eyes welled up with tears as she spoke of the devastation she witnessed in Mississippi, fully nine months after Hurricane Katrina.

"Unless you've been there, you can't know what it's like," Calder told the Federal Way News last week at Weyerhaeuser corporate headquarters in Federal Way.

"Every destroyed building, every ruined foundation, whether it was a house or business, is a story of complete loss for someone," Calder said.

"You can't imagine the scale until you see it for yourself."

Calder and Peggy Gosselin, who retired from Weyer

Before the day he first walked through the doors of the EX3 Ron Sandwith Teen Center, 17-year-old Marcos Fernandez had turned his life down a dead end path of truancy and drug use.

1. Federal Way officers pulled over the driver of a silver 2002 Cadillac near the intersection of 308th and Pacific Highway South for an expired vehicle license. When the traffic officers asked for the driver's ID, they determined that the man, Marques R. Thomas, had a third-degree suspended license. Thomas also had a warrant out for his arrest for third-degree driving with a suspended license out of Kent.

Des Moines voters decided Tuesday to raise property tax rates to fund restoration of police services to previous levels.

According to unofficial election night figures from King County Elections, 56.70 percent (2,385 votes) of those voting approved a tax levy lid lift, while 43.30 percent (1,821) opposed the hike.

The city's regular property tax levy rate will rise next year from $1.16 to $1.60 per $1,000 of assessed value.

I, too, am saddened to hear about and see the wanton destruction of the containers our Ballard merchants' have purchased and planted in an attempt to improve the attractiveness of Market Street. As a professional landscaper who specializes in the design and installation of container plantings, I have a few suggestions that may be helpful.

1. The smaller the planter, the easier it is to kick or tip over. Because most containers are narrower at the base than at the top, they are poised for tipping.

Concertgoers were treated to some foot stomping and good, old-fashioned bluegrass mixed in with a selection of more modern tunes at Ballard's Conor Byrne Pub, as Creeping Time celebrated its latest CD release, with guests Captain Gravel, during the art walk on May 13.

The evening's music fell under the category of what the poster aptly titled, "original acoustic grassrock." The concert drew such a crowd, the pub reached capacity and eager customers were lining up outside to get in almost all night.

Dressed up in their Sunday best, Captain Gravel started the evening out wi