When I was growing up in the Great White Northeast of New England, we looked forward to snow storms, and not just for the obvious reasons (sledding, snow forts, snow balls, and cancelled classes).

A good snow storm meant cold cash.

The kids in our neighborhood would fan out the moment the last flake fell (and often before), ringing bells and offering to shovel sidewalks for money.

It occurs to me that in this neighborhood, where the average house doesn’t even own a snow shovel (or you would certainly be forgiven for thinking so, judging by the state of the …

“Rrrrrr…click-click-click. RRRRR…click-click-click.” I know that sound.

I was all packed up for an overnight camper van trip to Snoqualmie Pass this past Friday, 10 year-old son strapped into his car seat, last glimmer of sunlight fading fast, but when I turned the ignition, “rrrr…click-click-click.”

OK, no problem, jumper cables out of the back, Honda Fit pulled up alongside, hood popped, but it’s dark, so I flick my iPhone into flashlight mode and prop it on the engine block while I connect the batteries, black, black, red, red. This time the engine roars and purrs and there’s a flurry of cable …

Well done, Wallingford! There were bikes crunching their way down the Burke Gilman trail this morning, I didn’t personally witness any car shenanigans and Kite Hill was duly transformed into Sledding Hill. (It was, in my opinion, the finest sledding snow we’ve had in a long-time, perfectly timed for morning runs, light and fluffy, and thick enough to accommodate hours or child(ish) playtime.)…

The days are numbered for evening meals at the Blue Star Cafe & Pub (4512 Stone Way N). As of this writing, the number is two.

That’s right, your last chance to enjoy a Hot Blue Burger (or Green Lake Salad or Classic Reuben or Chicken Soft Tacos) at night will be this Saturday, February 2. As of Sunday, the Blue Star will shift to breakfast and lunch only, closing at 3 pm.

This came as a bit of surprise to many people, including me. I mean, take a look at the photo below, taken Thursday night at 8 pm, …

Astute park watchers may have noticed that the Wallingford Park playground renovation seems to have stalled. Honestly, given the chain-link dismal state of things, even the somewhat dull-witted park watcher would be hard-pressed to miss it.

We originally reported the plans for the renovation back in May and then Jack posted an update back in November that the renovation was underway. At the time, we understood that the renovations would be completed in December or January, but as the above photo suggests, that timeline was … optimistic.

We reached out to Karen O’Connor in the Seattle Department of Parks and …

There’s some sort of electric thrill to enjoying a moment of world recognition, however indirect and minimal it might be. So imagine my shock and joy as I lay on the floor of the gym, headphones on, trying desperately to distract myself from the agony of ab crunches with a podcast of NPR’s Selected Shorts, when I hear:

“I just just moved into a house I had rented in Wallingford…” [What, OUR Wallingford? Or Wallingford, Connecticut, maybe?] “…a sleepy, liberal, family-oriented neighborhood in Seattle. I imagined it, in some ways, to be my dream house” [it IS us!]

Such a …

Out walking tonight, I saw several police cars patrolling the neighborhood, going the wrong way down Latona and up Thackeray until they all seemed to converge up around NE 44th St and 2nd Ave NE. All told, there were eight police cars, a couple of fire trucks and an ambulance.

Geoff posted to our Facebook page:

For anyone who was curious about the convergence of 8 cop cars and 2 fire engines tonight, just south of 44th on 1st Ave., NE., I just walked down there to ask what was up. . . As per an SPD officer, a family …