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AuthorSearch Results
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December 31, 2007 at 5:44 pm #613143
In reply to: Favorite West Seattle Coffee Shop?
WLQuinnMemberI frequent Revolution Coffee. Angie pulls a decent doppio there using Caffe D’arte. Alki Mail and Post pulls a decent shot, too, but in my book, it’s Hot Wire for the win.
December 31, 2007 at 5:33 pm #586188Topic: Traffic Lights (or lack thereof)
in forum Open DiscussionJohnMMemberWhile waiting like forever at 42nd and Fauntleroy, I’ve always wondered why there isn’t a light here, especially since it’s where two busy arterials meet. It’s so bad I’ll go Thistle/California from Westwood just to avoid it.
Got me thinking about where else we could bug the city for a light or better traffic flow at existing lights (16th and henderson maybe?, better cycling of the lights along 35th?)
December 31, 2007 at 8:16 am #613267In reply to: My top ten holiday peeves..bah humbug:)
JanSParticipantactually,where I’m from back east, we usually tacked on “Egypt” at the end of that saying, Chas, but I guess that’s not really PC now, is it? lol..
Southcenter…the best time to go…Tuesday mornings at 10am…never busy (except for right before Christmas), always lots of parking….and you can be in and out in no time…of course, you also have to be self-employed ;-)
December 31, 2007 at 8:09 am #613399In reply to: WS Rentals
JanSParticipantwow…so sorry about that. If I was your cat, I’d be offended, too. I have never understood what the objection to cats in apartments is. They really aren’t destructive, and if you take care of them and clean after them, they are better than anti-depressants :)
Good luck…
December 31, 2007 at 7:25 am #613266In reply to: My top ten holiday peeves..bah humbug:)
credmondParticipantMy number one Christmas pet peeve used to be dead lights in the tree. I never trusted those little lamps and every two or three years I’d have to replace a whole string. The larger bulbs were too hot and were dangerous for little kids so we never got used to having them around. We had one string when our youngest was a toddler and we finally chucked it. This year, for the first time, the tree lights are all LEDs and I’m hoping they last longer than a few years.
Otherwise, all the other pet peeves are okay. I kinda like sneaking over to Southcenter and breezing in and out. I go to Guitar Center and REI there sometimes because it can be quicker than trying to get over to Westlake area – either by bus or in a car. There’s a way, if those are the only places you’re going, to get from Gatewood there and back in an hour or less. Also, if you park by the bus center and just walk in the long way, there’s no real parking hassle. I always park in what we used to refer to back east as West Bumf*** – fewer dints in the car and you usually remember where you parked.
December 31, 2007 at 7:14 am #613141In reply to: Favorite West Seattle Coffee Shop?
credmondParticipantJust for the coffee, you know, regular 16 ounce drip, I’d say Ladro with its shade-grown, fair-trade, organic beans (don’t know who does the roasting), Bird-on-a-Wire for its shade-grown, fair-trade, organic beans roasted by Raven’s Brew (Alaska and now also Fife), and Bakery Nouveau for its LIghthouse Roasters french roast drip – and its croissants. Wish William would do something about the seating and cash-out process. In a pinch, any of the other ones mentioned will do, but the three I mentioned have the best, day-to-day, consistently strong, fresh and tasty brew. IMHO, of course. Espressos and cappuccinos are another matter.
December 31, 2007 at 5:56 am #613398In reply to: WS Rentals
TheVelvetBulldogMemberThanks for the heads-up Jan, unfortunately sign says
“No Pets” which offends my cat mightily. :-)
December 30, 2007 at 8:34 pm #613397In reply to: WS Rentals
JanSParticipantSunday morning…I drove by a duplex kind of place in the Admiral District that had a “For Rent” sign…one bedroom, I think it said $695.00. It’s on the corner of 48th SW? and SW Waite St. Right behind LifeCare on SW Admiral Way and 47th…..nice area…
December 30, 2007 at 7:20 pm #613317In reply to: Gyms and/or Personal Trainers
SueParticipantJan, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gym that posts its prices on a website, so for that particular service, I wouldn’t necessarily be suspect. But I do find it annoying. If I’ve got $X available for a membership, I don’t care what kind of glitz and song & dance you show me when I get in, I can still only afford $X, even if I think it’s worth more. So I do wish gyms would post a price and just not waste either of our time with the hard-sell nonsense.
The main reason I haven’t checked out Fitness Together is the fact that it’s up a flight of stairs. (It’s over near where the 8 Limbs Yoga is, with alley access.) With my knees, I just can’t walk up a flight of stairs easily (especially since my surgery), yet I can work out for an hour with no problem. I had to leave another gym downtown for the same reason. I guess they figure that if you work out, you won’t mind a flight of stairs, but it’s a purely structural issue that doesn’t keep me from working out, just from doing stairs.
I tried googling to see if anybody had prices listed. A FT in Miami charges $70/hr. Another site (location unknown) said it ranges $65-$85/session. Based on what I paid for personal training downtown, I would think those prices are probably similar to what it would be here, but that’s just my assumption. I would also assume that they have packages where you pay less if you buy more sessions.
I used to use a trainer downtown, but I made a deal with her to only see her 1/2 hour at a time, so I saved money that way. I don’t need a trainer to watch me on the bike or elliptical, so I did that before my 1/2 hour started. Somehow I doubt that FT would allow that, and you’d probably have to spend the whole hour with them.
December 30, 2007 at 5:33 pm #613460In reply to: Stopping For Pedestrians!
grantedMemberI’ve been both a driver and a pedestrian and have felt the frustration from both sides of the issue. What I have to remind myself as a driver though is that I have the greater power over the pedestrians, therefore I also have the greater responsibility. A mistake I make as a driver has a much greater impact given that my vehicle weighs thousands of pounds and is typically traveling at speeds of 30mph or more. If I need to pay greater attention or slow down a little in order to spot and wait for pedestrians, then that’s a responsibility I have to accept. It’s the tradeoff I should be willing to make for the speed and convenience of personal motorized transportation.
That said, in practical terms everybody’s got a lot on their minds and sometimes people do forget to check every corner at all times for a pedestrian. One idea that could help is speed bumps. A well-placed speed bump can be just the thing to remind the distracted driver that they need to check their speed and watch for pedestrians. In areas such as 35th where people tend to drive faster (although the speed limit is 35mph), a series of the rumble bumps — not sure of the correct name for them — might be in order.
To me it seems like the least we could do when people are quite literally being killed in the streets.
December 30, 2007 at 4:34 pm #613392In reply to: financial planner
OliverMemberI can’t recommend anyone in West Seattle. But a trip downtown is not such a bad thing. I can recommend Darren Gray at Smith Barney/Donnelly-Gray. He has helped us from the time we were poor college kids with barely two nickels to rub together. He most recently helped us set up a 529 for our son. From their website:
The Donnelly-Gray Group
Consulting Group
E-mail Us
601 Union Street
Suite 5200
Seattle, WA 98101
tel: 206.343.2933
toll free: 800.426.7837
fax: 206.628.4425
http://fa.smithbarney.com/donnellygraygroup/financialplanning.htm
December 29, 2007 at 7:06 am #613097In reply to: Restaurants
westwoodMemberThe ID is packed with great Chinese restaurants. It all depends on what you like.
Here are a few of my favorites:
House of Hong, China Gate, O’Asian for dim sum–although most Chinese restaurants do a pretty good job with dim sum in the ID, avoid Ocean City.
For a great Chinese cheap lunch–Shanghai Garden, HoHo Seafood Restaurant, Hing Loon all come to mind.
As for WS–HoWin is about the quality of the Safeway steam table. Don’t worry about labels, just go to Lee’s and order the chinese dishes there on the menu. The chef used to be the lead chef at Wild Ginger for the first several years.
December 29, 2007 at 6:38 am #613456In reply to: Stopping For Pedestrians!
TheHouseMemberI’m both a pedestrian and driver in West Seattle and Downtown Seattle. The fact of the matter is that there is fault on both sides of the coin on this matter. Yes, there are many drivers that ignore crosswalks but there are just as many pedestrians that either don’t pay attention crossing the road or dont pay attention to the crosswalk signals. When you’re driving 30-40 mph and don’t see a pedestrian until right before the crosswalk, you may be risking an accident more by slamming on your brakes (might get rear ended). The easiest way to avoid all of this is if we simply jail stupid people.
December 29, 2007 at 3:32 am #613454In reply to: Stopping For Pedestrians!
grrParticipantwhen Pedestrians start PAYING ATTENTION and learn that a Flashing Red Hand does NOT mean (run like hell across the street), maybe that will make a difference. I’m constantly STUNNED how many peds DO NOT LOOK at the CARS or THEIR traffic signals, as well as the walk/don’t walk signs.
and,yes..I have plenty of Rants against bicyclist that think they’re above traffic laws as well.
December 29, 2007 at 2:49 am #613396In reply to: WS Rentals
TheVelvetBulldogMemberThanks for these suggestions–I’ll do a drive-about and check ’em out!!
December 29, 2007 at 2:40 am #613314In reply to: Gyms and/or Personal Trainers
proudmaryMemberAs far as I know there are 3 gyms: Allstar, YMCA and 24 hour fitness. Where you are located may influence which one is best for you: Allstar and the Y are further north, while 24Hr is in the south part of west Seattle.
I researched this a year ago, and I think that the Y and Allstar are both great. I went with Allstar, just felt better there and it cost less. I love it, particularly all the classes.
December 29, 2007 at 12:08 am #613361In reply to: Not a Fan of Fastan
andreaParticipantI am not a fan of Fastan either. I went there a few times and the service was poor and the people behind the counter acted as if they had better things to do than wait on me. And regarding what CMP said above, the tanning salon north of Charleston is Island Tan, and they are great! The place is clean, breezy, and they have good package deals.
December 28, 2007 at 11:28 pm #613395In reply to: WS Rentals
dustinParticipantMaybe too far south, but the Arbor Heights area (Roxbury and 35th) has a bunch of small homes (two bedroom, 1 bath) all built in and around the 1950’s. I know that since they’re smaller that they usually rent for cheaper. I think I saw one a while back for $950 a month. They usually come with a garage and nice lawns.
December 28, 2007 at 10:13 pm #613452In reply to: Stopping For Pedestrians!
SueParticipantAs a frequent pedestrian, I sometimes have a driver stop for me on Fauntleroy, and then get upset that I don’t go. The problem is, I appreciate that they stopped, but usually it’s the other side of the street, and the car on the side I will first cross is racing towards me and I am not sure they will stop, so I cannot safely cross. Meanwhile, the nice person who did stop is pissed off at me because I’m not crossing. I can’t assume that everyone will stop, so I need to be safe. I may have right of way, but that doesn’t mean I should just start walking in front of oncoming traffic!
Then one time they did all stop, I started crossing, and someone decided to drive *around* the stopped traffic (in the parking lane) to blow through the intersection and almost hit me in the crosswalk.
I, and a few neighbors, were in touch with people about putting in a crosswalk or traffic light or at the very least some pedestrian crossing signs, but they gave us the runaround for a very long time and then didn’t get back to us. Then I tried contacting the SW Precinct, telling them what’s been going on here with no one yielding to us, and they emailed back saying that pedestrian safety was very important, and they were going to come out and take a look and start ticketing people who don’t yield. That never happened. I’ve never seen a cop car yet during my morning commute, nor has the situation changed. I don’t know what else I can do to get the rules enforced, other than praying I don’t get hit someday.
December 28, 2007 at 8:54 pm #613302In reply to: Forums – love ’em, hate ’em, or “meh”?
WSBKeymasterHi, nyx, thanks for constructive criticism. The monthly archives and categories actually do get clicked, believe it or not. The look/feel will change when the site design evolves before too long, hopefully with an additional sidebar so more of the site content is reachable from any page, not less. However, datapoint, it’s actually not something we built ourselves – it’s bbPress; a free hosted site is not feasible for us since, as a business, the pages, views, and ads need to stay on our domain. Re: the small symbols for replying – what browser and OS are you using? We’re on Firefox/Mac OSX at the moment and both the heading “reply” and the button “send post” beneath the reply box are pretty big. Let us know and we’ll check.
December 28, 2007 at 8:36 pm #613301In reply to: Forums – love ’em, hate ’em, or “meh”?
nyxParticipantI don’t like the current forums at all, although I am glad you’re adding this feature. The layout and typography isn’t particularly nice compared to other forums, and the user interface is sort of clumsy. You should improve that tiny little >> you have to click on to reply, for example! That’s just making it unnecessarily hard for us. Also, remove the line at the bottom of every page “Put code in between
backticks“. We aren’t posting formatted code here and “backtick” isn’t a word any real person uses anyway.You don’t need to use the regular WSB sidebar on this part of the site, either, it’s just wasting space. Ditch the links to the monthly archives (no one’s clicking on those anyway, folks…) and category links. Those things point to content that’s separate from the forums, so it’s irrelevant here. Once that’s gone, use the full width of the content area for the forums.
Given the homespun feel of this thing, I suspect you don’t have the admin tools necessary to handle these forums if they see any real growth. I expect it will get out of hand quickly if there are lots of people posting often on lots of threads. I would encourage you not to try to build your own here, just go with a free hosted site like Proboards (http://www.proboards.com/index.html).
December 28, 2007 at 8:33 pm #613264In reply to: My top ten holiday peeves..bah humbug:)
MoreJunkMemberYeah, my several-year peeve is similarly themed: I can’t tolerate people who don’t feel like they need to park their cars in the grocery store lot like everyone else, so they just ‘park’ IN FRONT of the store and leave the car running. This happens at Admiral and Jefferson Square Safeways most often. Often the driver is still in the idling car,and if I’m walking by them, I sarcastically feign altruism and point to a nearby open spot.
December 28, 2007 at 8:28 pm #613136In reply to: Favorite West Seattle Coffee Shop?
nyxParticipantUptown’s ok, but it’s not a very pleasant place to hang out. Feels more like a rec room at a community center than a coffee shop. How about some couches, guys? Or at least a few different sizes of table?
December 28, 2007 at 8:17 pm #613385In reply to: mechanic/auto repair
linneaMemberWe use Harrahs on California Ave. in the Admiral District, by Blockbuster and in back of Click!. Ron and his partner are reliable and good, always keeping the cost to the customer in mind. They also maintain a service record on your vehicle(s)so they get to know them. They are all about cars.
December 28, 2007 at 7:17 pm #613431In reply to: Termites anyone?
squareeyesParticipantI have firsthand experience!
According to an entomologist I spoke with in Puyallup about five years ago, WS is the northernmost area that has subterranean termites (let’s call them ST’s). They apparently have no interest in any areas east of here. ST’s need food and moisture, so if you have areas of standing water around your house try to fix that. Also remove any wood that may sit close to your house.
In my case, I discovered ST’s when they ate through a bit of caulk at the doorway of my mudroom. Mudroom has a cinderblock foundation (bad!), and the ST’s came up through the holes in the cinderblock and ate most of the mudsill and partway up the vertical supports. A handy friend removed the drywall inside and a few rows of siding outside to effect repairs and we tried to fill in as many cinderblock holes with quikcrete that we could access.
Cascade Pest Control was the only company I found in Seattle that deals with ST’s. He had to dig a shallow trench around the affected area, mix up several gallons of Termidor, and fill the trench with it. Termidor doesn’t repel ST’s, they go through the treated soil, and take it back to the nest where it kills everyone. It continues to work for five years. Next summer will be five years for me so I plan to have Cascade back for another treatment, just to be safe. It’s not cheap – cost around $400 just to treat around the mudroom, would be $1200-$1500 to treat around my 800 square foot house. If I remember correctly, Cascade will guarantee for five years if you treat around the entire structure, in my case I only did the one room so no guarantee.
I could go on for an hour about ST’s. I find them both horrifying ($$$) and fascinating.
If the inspector you used at time of purchase didn’t notice any damage to the mudsill in the crawlspace perhaps this is an early discovery. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.
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AuthorSearch Results
West Seattle, Washington
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