JOIN US AT CAPERS FRIDAY NIGHT 1/18: The time and place is finally set for the first get-together announcing the first quarterly West Seattle Community Recognition Awards — the good folks at Capers have agreed to play host, 7 pm Friday 1/18. Hope to see you there. And in the meantime, you have till Saturday to nominate somebody for the awards (here’s how) — this is a grass-roots thing that we’re starting small (with the original idea from Divina proprietor Julie Mireille Anderson; read the original announcement here) and hoping to keep growing as a way of honoring some of the many people who really make West Seattle click.

NEW WSB FORUM – SCHOOL TALK: Find it here; thanks to Karen for the idea. We’ve been talking about this being school-choice season, and she suggested that it would help to have a place where West Seattle parents could share experiences and ask questions about schools. If you are a parent with child(ren) in local schools, public or private, or a school staffer, even if you don’t have a question or issue, please consider checking in on the forum as time goes by just in case someone has a question about the school(s) you’re most familiar with.

UPDATES ON CRIME WATCH AND PETS PAGES: We’ve added some new material today to these two new WSB pages — the Crime Watch page is where you will find links to crime-prevention resources as well as the latest police reports from the files at the Southwest Precinct; the Pets page is where we’re posting pet pix as well as lost-and-found announcements and resource links — we’ve created the West Seattle Blog Pet Photos Flickr group to gather local pet pix (you’re welcome to join!), and we’ve added a couple of them to the Pets page today for a special spotlight.