Wallingford, Seattle

This Saturday, we made it up Alphabet Soup just in time to catch the crowds leaving the adoring fans lining up for their autograph moment with Caspar Babypants (aka Chris Bellew of the Presidents of the United States of the America) and his percussionist, Fred Babyshirt. We chatted with Stephen and Margie, who assured us that house was well-packed and the kids were up and dancing (occasionally into the musician). From Alphabet Soup's blog: Caspar played songs from his debut, "Here…

Those of us living near that mighty river known as I-5 (or "The 5", to some, and "that freakin' highway" to others) may notice an uptick in construction noise. Part of the noise reduction work that is underway involves replacing the pavement, and that, as WSDOT explains, is noisy: Unfortunately, replacing the concrete on I-5 is unavoidably noisy. We're taking a number of steps to reduce construction noise, including using noise shields, noise-reducing bed-liners and providing earplugs. But at the end…

Get out your best canvas sacks, review your tactics for identifying "the best" bunch of Japanese Turnip Rapini and clear your palate for some tasting. Tomorrow, Wed, 5/20 from 3 - 7 pm in the Wallingford Center parking lot, it's the 2009 inaugural Wallingford Farmer's Market Local farmers will be selling their produce, cheeses, meats and (we hope) honeys. Admittedly, it's not as wondrous as the Sunday Farmer's Market in Ballard, but it's right here, in Wallingford, and it's local produce,…

There's an old saying: "I love kids, but I couldn't eat a whole one." So true, so true. Fortunately, there are better ways to love children and satisfy your appetite at the same time: the Blue Star Cafe and Pub (4512 Stone Way N) will be donating 50% of their proceeds from tonight's meals (Tue, 5/19) to the Wallingford Boys and Girls Club. So kind. Good cause, decent meal, what could go wrong?

Back in January, we let you know about the SOZO playspace, an indoor play area for kids in the legendary South of Zoo neighborhood. We just got a note from Dean reminding us to remind you that it's going to be shuttering for the summer, so you've only got a couple weeks left to get your SOZO playtime in: It has been a very successful season and we want to make sure everyone knows that it is going to close for…

Observant readers may notice some new additions to our navigation bar, most notably a "Wallingford Resources" page. It's intended as a cheat sheet of useful info for Wallingford residents, their neighbors and those aspiring to be one of the preceding. There you'll find, among other things: Links to all the civic organizations helping build Wallingford List of kid-friendly restaurants List of restaurants that deliver to Wallingford List of free wifi hotspots And more. The page is intended to be an organic,…

You know the story: guy is traveling around Asia, does a little jig on camera for a friend, posts it the Internet. For reasons that not even The Google could provide, the video gets passed around until said dancer is "quasi-famous". At some point, a gum company sponsors him to continue traveling around the world, dancing his little jig in as many and as many places as possible (80 countries at last count). Ringing any bells? Does this help? Perhaps this…