Man-Crushes and Day Drinking

Two of my best-est buddies, Doktor_DNR and The Incredible Bulk, were in town for 4 days just to hang out. It.Was.Awesome!! I took the time off work and there was lots of day-drinking, video games played, movies watched, museums visited, about 30 Sapphire Gin&Tonics consumed… We went Go-Kart Racing, toured the track on Vintage Race day. ogled over airplanes, drank some more, ate lots of good food, there was some nudity when one of them leaped from an arctic cold shower, and we made fun of each other at every single opportunity. It was a fine stay-cation for me that I sorely needed with my friends.

 

Fall Harvest and Market visits – long & picture heavy post

It has snowed over the last three days, so I guess that our fall harvest season is officially over.

Our Garden this year was planted a bit late – like a month and a half, due to me having hip surgery and the complete rework of the back yard. Consequently, our sweet corn never fully ripened, but the hot weather and sunshine this summer made for great tomatoes, peppers, and squash. To add to our bounty: our grass is Ireland-green and we are set up great for next year 🙂

The yard – old and new:

 

 

 

 

We got real figs for the first time ever from a small fig tree on our south fence line. It has been in the ground for 5 years and this was the first year that it really produced fruit, which we enjoyed with breakfast. Our two cherry trees were not as productive as last year, but some of that had to do with the weeks-long battle we had each evening with the snails and slugs climbing the trees and the ants that came later.

 

 

 

 

The apple trees produced fairly heavily as well, though no thanks to an “arborist” that screwed up the pruning and set our yard on fire with an errant cigarette butt – seriously.

The apple trees:

 

 

 

 

Squash and Veggies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lapin and Stella Cherries:

 

 

 

 

Stamps-With-Foot really came into her own this year with the flowers she planted and cultivated! The houses next door and across the street were for sale at the same time and we had a couple of people comment on our “beautiful” yard and our “amazing flowers.” It made me proud of her, and of the front yard for the first time in years.

A few of the flowers:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next year my bride has spectacular plans for more tulips, lots of lilies, dahlias everywhere, more lavender, and other bee-attracting flowers. We will also plant the garden earlier, with starts that have been hot-housed, have a 3’X4′ plot of garlic, lots of carrots, parsnips, and some more roma tomatoes. We are going to bag the apples to keep the apple-moth at bay and can/bake/press/ferment them next fall. A row of blueberries will go on the south-side fence where the firewood used to be. Raspberries will go in in a sunny spot and I am builting in 2 more garden boxes (pending Stamps-With-Foots approval) along the garage. Until then, we are blessed with a year-round farmer’s market in our neighborhood. It is full of local fruit, veggies, pasta, bread, honey, berries, cheese, fish, and meat. The offerings are seasonal and we have gotten to know some of the folks that grow our food, which is awesome.

Scenes from the West Seattle market:

A Weekend On and Around Puget Sound

I spent this past weekend ignoring my grass, projects in the house, and garage organization/completion and took to the road.

Saturday afternoon found me at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival.  There were no puppies allowed at the show, so Stamps-With-Foot stayed at home for a grueling round of puppy sitting/reading in the sunshine duty.  Despite a serious and prolonged case of Wooden Boat Lust, I succeeded in not buying a wooden sailboat at the show.   It was the ONE thing that my wife made me promise before leaving the house, which means that since I was able to fight off the boat-buying minor demon on my shoulder, am staying married.

While packing/planning the night before going to the festival, I decided it was a fine venue to work on a short YouTube film ( which will be uploaded by Friday), so I took a couple of GoPros, camera mounts, my drone, four extra SD cards, and a bunch of batteries.  The weather kind of sucked, but between pockets of rain/mist I shot the whole festival and some of the boats out on the water from the sky as well as the dock-side happenings.

There were so many cool boats and interesting folks in for the weekend!  My favorite trailer-sailor, OPUS, was there and the museum boat PIRATE from the Seattle CWB made it.   I really enjoyed talking to Tim Lemon, the owner of a Devlin Sloop named MR. MALLARD. His sculling prowess on a sailboat is impressive.  Designer and builder Graham Byrnes, of the cat ketch CARLITA was probably my favorite builder that I talked to.  I would definitely buy a boat from him if not for the above mentioned promise to my wife…  Pygmy Boats has a stitch&glue wineglass wherry rowboat that I would love to spend part of the winter building and I MAY be putting some funds back to do just that.  Howard Rice and his Scamp SOUTHERN CROSS had a fantastic story story to tell about adventures in Terra del Fuego.  Really enjoyed the Festival and love Port Townsend!  Stamps-With-Foot is definitely coming next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Side note:  If Lee Bjorklund & Larry Goerss ever decide to sell OPUS, my wife has given me permission to buy her.  She is the only wooden sailboat that I am “allowed” to purchase.  Just saying is case Lee and Larry and hankering to move on…

Sunday afternoon was spent on Vashion Island and both my bride and the furry monsters puppies came with.  We really like the island and the coffee produced by Vashion Island Roasters.  After a short ferry ride, we went over, drove a round a little, took in the sites, had lunch near the marina, and bought 10lbs of Guatemalan medium-roast coffee.  We sampled the goods while there, played a little chess, and split a cinnamon roll before heading back to the ferry and back home for dinner.

 

 

 

Film Friday – Lincoln Park in West Seattle, Washington

OK, so it is not Friday, but I started working on this video Friday night…  Does that count?

Lincoln Park in West Seattle is one of my favorite spaces in all of the Seattle metro area.  It is a phenomenal urban space:  Stamps-With-Foot and I go there all the time just to hang out, I used to run there along the beach and through the trees in the mornings, it was my first outing after hip surgery, our monsters puppies love it there, it is romantic, great for picnics, strolling hand and hand along the beach, a fine hour+ long hike after work, a protected kayak launching point, good fishing spot when the salmon are running (the pink run started earlier this week…), there is a public pool, bald eagles nest in the trees along the shore, and sometimes I go and watch the sunset from on e of the many benches when I have had a bad day.  I hope this little film captures part of the magic of the place.

Da Grind 2017 Outrigger Canoe Race

Years ago, while living in Newport Beach, CA, I paddled some with the IMUA Outrigger Canoe Club. I LOVED it and learned so much about stroke technique, timing, Hawaiian paddling culture, and open ocean canoeing. SUPER respect for ancient Polynesian mariners! I made a crossing from Newport Beach Back Bay to Catalina Island (26 miles of open water) and it was crazy scary, really tough, beautiful, smelly, exhausting, and I will love the memory of that day for the rest of mine. I have wanted to join an OCC club in Seattle, but it is only just this year where my work schedule has allowed that and then hip surgery happened. So, this summer I am refinishing my 51″ wooden outrigger paddle (new varnish and adding a little Koa insert) and applying a “F-Bomb” logo to my carbon paddle in preparation for when I am back in fighting shape. I am also living vicariously through the local club and doing a little event filming and one of their big races this year, Da Grind 2017, happened in almost my back yard.

I drug my father-in-law over to Alki Beach early this past Saturday morning to watch the race with me and help out a little if I needed a hand with moving on the beach or hauling my pack – I am still not even 80% with the hip. I did fine though and he was into the race and event as he lived in Hawaiian for a number of years.

I got the drone in the air early and caught the start of the first leg and then the finish. The weather, wind, sky and sea was perfect for the race and for shooting video. I wish I would have brought another battery and that I would have had my big Cannon DSLR instead of my iPhone for still and zoom shots. Lesson learned.

Living in Crazy Times

It is like I wake up in a Hieronymus Bosch painting every day next to Bill Murray, alarm clock ringing and Punxsutawney Phil waiting on us – It just keeps getting weirder.  We are doing our best to just keep soldering on: Being good little consumers and all, but I am not blind or ignorant, so I have done a little bit to make me sleep better at night and here are some suggestions if you would like to do the same:

  1. Charity starts at home.  If you know someone in need – quietly help them.  A smile, a hot meat, and lending a hand goes a long way.
  2. Hunker down and get really active politically for the next 4 years, write and call local, state and federal reps, give $ to ACLU and PACs, vote with our dollars, and show up at demonstrations.
  3. If you live in Seattle or King County or Washington State, below is a list of political appointees that you should be contacting so that they hear your voice:
  • Seattle City Council up to date info, contact, staff, and committees can be found here. 
  • Additional info on for the Mayor, departments and judiciary are found here
  • King County elected officials’ contact information is listed here.
  • Washington state governor’s site
  • Contact information for the entire Washington’s State legislature and elected officials can be found here
  • information concerning Washington’s Federal Representatives and Senators as well as all Federal elected officials can be found here.

Bumpershoot 2016

We have lived in Seattle for almost 8.5 years and 2016 was our first time going to Bumpershoot. When it was announced that Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were headlining – Stamps-With-Foot immediately bought 3-day passes. We saw some really great acts and I very much enjoyed the time I spent with my wife, eating faire-food, and listening to music.

Acts that we saw:

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
G-Easy
Billy Idol
Margo Price
Death Cab for Cutie
Micheal Franti and Spearhead
Tame Impala
Third Eye Blind
Kamasi Washington
Run the Jewels

The Macklemore and Michael Franti shows were our favorite and we are going to see Margo Price at The Tractor Tavern when she comes back to Seattle next month.

Matt Talley_Bumpershoot_2016 (1)

Matt Talley_Bumpershoot_2016 (2)

Matt Talley_Bumpershoot_2016 (3)

Matt Talley_Bumpershoot_2016 (4)

Matt Talley_Bumpershoot_2016 (5)

Matt Talley_Bumpershoot_2016 (6)

Matt Talley_Bumpershoot_2016 (7)

Film Friday – After work bike ride

Perfect early summer afternoon in Seattle and I spent an hour on my single-speed after work, trying to shed some winter pounds and prep for a memorial day 40 mile road race.  I linked up parts of the Interurban and Green River Trails.

The guy who almost tagged me around 4:22 in an engineer that works for another group. I sent him a copy of the clip and gave him a ration of good-natured sh!t for it.

 

Back in Seattle! Let the projects begin!!

After two days of flying with a couple of heavily sedated French Bulldogs, we made it back to Seattle just in time for a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner. We are so glad to be back in our little house! The now sober puppies have staked their claim in our yard, we went to a few of our favorite neighborhood shops and *gasp* went shopping at Target on a SUNDAY *second gasp*!! In France, shopping on Sunday is a mythical creature that is spoken of in whispers. We miss Toulouse and our friends there already, but it is nice that things are sooo easy here.

The cold, rain, and ice was here to greet us, so in the interest of keeping Stamps-With-Foot happy, my first duty was to spend about 6 hours raising our hot tub from its long 2-year sleep. I cleaned it out, rinsed it twice, scrubbed it, filled it half way and ran the pumps, drained it, scrummed it all down again and then filled it to the top. They pump and heater fired right up and so far they are no leaks, but I will kaap a watch out for a while yet. It took about 4 hours for the water to go from 47 to 104 degrees and the temp has held steady.

We use BaquaSpa instead of Chlorine, so I loaded the tub up with a shock treatment after the it had come up to temp and had been circulating for 24 hours. I waited a few hours before taking a water sample into the local spa shop for testing. All good: just needed a little Oxidizer and to increase in the calcium. Wife happy – she sat in the tub yesterday for about an hour like a proper Japanese snow monkey.

I also just “happened” to stop in at Second Use and picked up a couple of painted fir corner cabinets that I have been eye-balling from afar. They will go in our living-room and replace the originals that were pulled out years ago by an unthinking previous owner – I can’t not work on the house. My Father-in-law, the Chatty Buddha, was here for Thanksgiving and I roped him into helping me wedge them into my tiny and very full shop. They will sit there until spring. Also thinking about re-installing an ironing board cabinet in the basement and a phone cubby in the upstairs hall. I have a problem…

image

Leaving France

We have an official date for our move from France and back to Seattle.  It is on paper and everything.  Stamps-With-Foot and I will be in back in the Emerald City just in time to celebrate Christmas.

Life in France has been amazing:

The weather
Wine
Castles
The amazing food
Our friends here
Our house in the country
The big yard
Our Diesel-fueled car
Cheese, glorious cheese
Paris
Cheap internet
Free world-wide long distance
Crazy cheap prescription meds
The used furniture shops
Walks in the farm fields with the puppies
The different kinds of honey
Always a sign pointing to the next village or spots of interest
Our neighbors

Stuff We will not miss:

The Strikes
The August Shutdown
Early shop hours
The entire city/country closed on Sundays
The other neighbors and their dogs

What I want Thursday

Current ‘shit that I want/need list’:

For my mom to feel 100% better
To stop traveling SO MUCH for work
To stop eating so many carbs and so much sugar
For my wife to feel all better
A three day walk in the mountains
6 Days in Rome without my cell phone
To rock climb with my friends in the French countryside
About 15 hard cover books about beekeeping and cabinet making
Some serious cash to give to Heifer and MSF
To be 100% certain of what can and should be done with our house in Seattle: rebuild or sell
For my wife to finish some alterations and repairs for me
A slender dark grey Yorkshire cap
To stop worrying about our house in Seattle
A sweet tweed vest
A few pair of cordovan and black monk-strap wing-tips from Al’s Attire
A Filson medium travel bag.
A couple of belts
To start working out again in earnest and stick to it

In Seattle taking care of house related stuff

I am in Seattle working this week and have taken a couple of days off to take care of some stuff with the house.  We are trying to decide whither we need to invest and build an addition or to sell and look for something already done and dusted.

I have met with our estate agent, a builder, a draftsman, an architect, a landscape company, and a second builder in our quest to make a decision. At this point, if we want to to buy something else and stay in our neighborhood, then we are looking at $650k to $750k and would still have to build a $40K garage/shop.  If we stay put, then we need about $250k to build a garage, update systems, finish the attic, and move an interior wall.

Stamps-With-Foot and I are going over it all and trying to decide what is best for our finances, future possible family expansion, and quality of life.  The weight of love we feel for our house and the blood I have spilled so for in the kitchen and basement adds a little weight to the decision as well.

I hate being a grown up…

Garage Plan 2015 (3)

Garage Plan 2015 (1)

Garage Plan 2015 (2)

A sort of Vacation to Seattle

As part of my work contract with my J-O-B, we are flown back to the States twice a year. One of those trips has to be coupled with work travel, but overall not a bad deal. Stamps-With-Foot and I flew in to Seattle last week and stayed with my mom at our/her place. This was our first time back “home” since our move and my mom has transformed our eclectically decorated (books everywhere, Moroccan bits, craftsman furniture, mid-century couches…) home and turned it into your grandmother’s place: ceramic chickens, recliners for TV watching, lace doilies, a tin of cookies ripe for raiding, special soap in the bathroom that is meant just for looks…

We stayed in the basement and by our second day we had trashed it with clothes and books and other stuff to the point that it looked like a staged teenager’s room in a TV sitcom. I felt like I was in high school: mom cooked, did my laundry, made sure I got up on time every morning, offered to pack me a lunch, I played a little music, watched a few movies when I should have been sleeping, tossed clothes about… The only exceptions were the lack of posters on the walls and that I had permission for the pretty girl to share my bed and I didn’t have to sneak her in the basement window. 🙂

I ended up working for 5 days of the 8 day trip, but I got a good bit of other stuff done this week:

Sorted 3 months of mail – we get a LOT on junk mail
Picked up backyard and garden a little bit – long winter
Went to a couple of our favorite restaurants
Made 3 trips to Woodcraft for  toys tools to take back to France
Coffee at C&P 🙂
Cut and edged yard
Fixed a few things
Hung out with my mom
Had great breakfast at Easy Street
Moved a room full of boxes into the basement
Painted a mirror frame for my mom
Ate 2 dozen cookies – true story
Snagged treasure at Goodwill: baseball bats, rolling pins, sweatshirts…
Ridded the yard of filthy, dirty, evil dandelions
Treated the yard for moss
Accidentally poisoned my mom’s cat with Moss Out
Spent evening in veterinary ER and dropped $250
Cat all better now
Turned compost pile
Paid some bills
Set up a Skype account for my mom and showed her how to use it
Got a sweet new pair of running shoes
Arranged for professional lawn care – warned them about the cat

Hall Tree and Shoe Rack for My Bride

Soon after we moved into La Maison du Talley in Seattle, my lovely bride decided that “we” needed a place to hang coats by the front door. I looked a little at coat racks and hall trees in the shops close to the house, but I just couldn’t stomach paying $250-300 for a semi-crappy coat rack that was the wrong color or wood for our house. I had one of those “light bulb” moments and decided to build one for us. Normally, I would have cut the raised panels (I tried to convince Stamps-With-Foot to let me do linen-fold panels) and added a little fancy trip work, but as I was recovering from shoulder surgery (#4), I decided to go with the re-use route. Second Use is a used hardware and reclaimed building material store in Seattle that I frequent and I cruised over for a used fir 6-panel door. Right away, I found the perfect one that set me back a whole $30. While pushing the cart loaded with the door to the front, I found a couple of cast off cabinet doors, a few odd sections of trim, and a bundle of old tongue & groove fir flooring. A plan formed in my little head…

I cut two feet from the top of the door, then flipped it over. I built a bench and shoe rack from the cabinet doors (raised panels turned in to match the adjacent hutch and the flat panel cabinets in the rest of the house) and attached it to what became the bottom of the door/hall tree. I ringed the top with a flooring plank, tongue down, and then applied some 100 year old left over fir crown molding on the top. The whole thing was sanded down and stained a deep red mahogany and finished off with 3 coats of exterior grade polyurethane.

For the hooks, I sourced a set of coat and helmet hooks from an old Seattle firehouse and small round dog leash hooks from Rejuvenation Hardware. When all was said and done, this was the very first project finished for our home in Seattle, I spent a total of $94, and I wrote a little love note to Stamps-With-Foot on the top of it. My little wife was giddy when I brought it into the house and she raved to friends for weeks about handy and awesome her husband was – made me puff out my chest like a Banty rooster.

If I did this again, the only thing I would change would be to make the shoe shelves movable as they are about 1/4″ too narrow for my running shoes, but perfect for her shoes, which I guess is the most important feature.

Leaving for France and our MONSTER To-Do list.

Moving from one country to another, the actual process, is a huge pain in the ass.  So much to do and so many details…  The complexity of our move was increased because we will continue to own our place in Seattle and we had The Nana move into it.  Separating the stuff that would go and stay, fixing small issues like that leaking faucet, winterizing the garden, trimming trees, installing railings and additional locks, and organizing yard and house maintenance contacts was enough to make my head explode.

There were 4 specific and different to-do lists that were drawn up in June and added to as time went on.  I would like to tell you that it all got done, but the state of my backyard, the unsold table saws, the uninstalled basement railing and the incomplete bookshelf in our bedroom say different.

Things that were accomplished:

  1. Trimmed our vine maple (see pictures below of Stamps-With-Foot with the chainsaw)
  2. Winterized the pipes and garden
  3. Installed the front stair railing
  4. Installed a speak-easy in the front door, so Nana would not have to open the door to a stranger
  5. Leaves were raked
  6. The raspberry cage was retied
  7. Junk was removed from the backyard
  8. Bills were transferred
  9. The heating-oil tank was filled
  10. Rebuilt bathroom faucet and valve
  11. Cancelled our car insurance
  12. Trimmed the bushes
  13. New tires were purchased for the car we left for Nana to use
  14. Squeaky doors were oiled
  15. Wired a motion detector light in the back yard
  16. Installed an additional basement door lock and metal security screen
  17. My shop was cleaned and organized
  18. Had extra keys made
  19. Upgrades made in the alarm system
  20. We sold one truck and donated another
  21. My father-in-law planted a fig tree and served as grunt labor during Thanksgiving
  22. I drained and prepped the hot tub for 2 years of alone time
  23. Basement became slightly more organized
  24. I hauled two entire loads of brush and projects-that-will-never-be to the dump (and found a very nice Fender guitar and new oak office chair there, but that is a story/post for another day)
  25. Household paint was retouched
  26. Replaced burned out bulbs
  27. Blackberries were trimmed
  28. Removed rust and repainted the front door railings
  29. Did some final cabinet work
  30. Moved two houses worth of furniture and a storeroom into our basement, first floor and garage
  31. Unpacked my mom
  32. Had Cable TV and a home phone installed (we only used cell phones)
  33. Repaired outside wall where cable installer poked extra holes
  34. I busted some plaster in the living room that will wait until I get back in the summer
  35. Hung the TV over the fireplace
  36. etc…etc…etc…

The images below are proof of some of the work and evidence of what did not get done as well.

A Few Turns of the Lathe

After our house was packed up and loaded on a container-ship bound for the Panama Canal and on to the Port of Marseilles, the only tool I had were my lathe chisels, so I made use of the time and spun out a few odds and ends: a few cord pull handles for the florescent lights in the basement. two jar lids for Stamps-With -Foot, a wooden pestle (2 actually) for kitchen herb grinding and a short honey dipper for her as well.

From the same section of wood as the pestles, I turned some small bun feet for Brodie’s new  food & water bowl stand.  I re-turned my ash carving mallet to change the handle profile and add some ring details.  As I was in the mallet mood, I made general use wood working mallet for my brother-in-law out of a Baseball Bat and reused the bat’s pommel and turned it into a foot massage nubbin for my wife.  I got points in the ledger for to wife-specific items.  Always a good thing.

Short political rant about Seattle’s mayor.

Excuse me for a second while I mount my soapbox…

My mayor kind of sucks. I voted for him. I was hopeful. That hope has now dwindled into remorse. While I am happy with the Transportation Master Plan (light rail & bike spending in particular), I am disgruntled over an entire neighborhood’s request for a safer street/speed enforcement/re-striping being ignored and requests for meetings never answered by even a junior staffer – 35th Ave SW has ceased to be a residential street and has become a defacto highway. The alley vacation brew-ha-ha with Whole Foods pisses me off as there has been an empty hole in the ground in West Seattle while contractors and landowners have been in and out of bankruptcy court for about four years. Now that the construction on the building that will house Whole Foods has started again, the mayor pulls this shit out of his hat. After all this time, seriously?! I want Whole Foods in my neighborhood. My property value wants Whole Foods in my neighborhood. Whole Foods is an “Anchor Store” and with its completion and this year’s opening of Trader Joe’s next door, that corner of West Seattle will blossom and the vacant car lots will be replaced by retail and apartments and coffee shops and something other than fenced off parking lots with grass sprouting from the cracks. In the asphalt.

The gvn buy-back this year turned into a fiasco with an open air market place under the I-5 when the program’s money ran out. The mayor’s push for gvn free zones in city businesses is mis-guided, leaving patrons and business owners at the mercy of someone who is intent on doing them harm – all the while public safety/police reform are arguably McGinn’s weakest issues. There has been two years of May-Day crazy with ineffective leadership, report after report of continued police misconduct, an un-needed delay in choosing a new police chief… A push to keep bars open later so that even more alcohol could be consumed – we need more drunk people out even later to keep Seattle safe… The proposal to fire 200+ much need city employees was just weird.

I don’t think he is the anti-Christ or the fourth horseman or Gozer, but I wouldn’t invite him to a BBQ at the house. I don’t see a shining replacement for him on the horizon that I can get behind and cheer for and pin my hopes to. For the record: the current mayor of Seattle kind of sucks and I am a little disgruntled about it.

-dismount soapbox-

I went to Seattle Hand-tool Heaven today.

Somehow, I have lived in Seattle for nearly 5 years and yesterday was my first visit to Hardwick’s Hardware in the U-District (just up the hill from another favorite shop – Recycled Cycles). I made a quick stop looking for a used posthole digger while my son and puppy waited out front in the truck. I stumbled into old-school hardware heaven: Narrow rows stacked floor to high ceiling with new and used (in wonderful shape) planes, chisels, axes, drawknives, Knowledgeable – not too crusty – staff, and tools the one Yelp reviewer has said are “mighty enough to build Viking warships with…”

I may be in love… I lingered for as long as possible (10 minutes) and while I left without a posthole digger, a Stanley Sweet Heart #45 plow plane jumped out of its locked case and came home with me. I will be returning when I have a little cash and a couple of hours to peruse alone and without my sweet wife there to narrow her eyes and tell me “no” when I lust after the broad axe or fondle a fish-tail gouge.

The place has been in business since 1932 and proof that there is room left in the world of Home Depots and Lowes for the neighborhood hardware store where Norman Rockwell would feel at home. Hardwick’s is a bit of a drive for me, but it is officially my new go to stop for hand tools and hardware.

Seattle City Council Contact Information

I had a little rant about my water bill and am currently concerned/interested in the conversation about Camp Long’s future plans.  In each case I advocated a letter to the Seattle City Council and thought I would share their contact information in case someone else had similar concerns or feel there is a need to have their voice heard in local government.  For best results, send each member a letter or e-mail separately.  Apparently, bulk mailings (e-mail or on paper) to all the members at the same time gets filtered into a junk mail file by their server and dropped in the paper recycler when it comes in via snail-mail.

Seattle Mayor:

Mike McGinn
http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/

Mayor’s Office,
Seattle City Hall 7th floor
600 Fourth Avenue
P.O. Box 94749
Seattle, WA 98124-4749
(206) 684-4000

City Council Members:
http://www.cityofseattle.net/council/councilcontact.htm
Seattle City Council
PO Box 34025
Seattle, WA 98124-4025

Richard Conlin, Council President
Position: 2
In office since: 1998
Current term: 2010-2013
Chair: Regional Development & Sustainability; and SR 520
Phone: (206) 684-8805
Email: richard.conlin@seattle.gov
Staff: Elaine Ko, Phyllis Shulman, and Rob Gala

Sally Bagshaw
Position: 4
In office since: 2010
Current term: 2010-2013
Chair: Parks & Seattle Center; and Waterfront Planning
Phone: (206) 684-8801
Email: sally.bagshaw@seattle.gov
Staff: Kathy Nyland, Philip Roewe, and Wendy Cho Ripp

Tim Burgess
Position: 7
In office since: 2008
Current term: 2008-2011
Chair: Public Safety & Education
Phone: (206) 684-8806
Email: tim.burgess@seattle.gov
Staff: Betsy Graef, Nate Van Duzer, and Rebekah Papé

Sally J. Clark
Position: 9
In office since: 2006
Current term: 2008-2011
Chair: Built Environment; and Waterfront Planning
Phone: (206) 684-8802
Email: sally.clark@seattle.gov
Staff: LaTonya Brown, David Yeaworth, and Dan Nolte

Jean Godden
Position: 1
In office since: 2004
Current term: 2008-2011
Chair: Finance & Budget; Budget; and Labor Policy
Phone: (206) 684-8807
Email: jean.godden@seattle.gov
Staff: Tom Van Bronkhorst, Monica Ghosh, and Dawn Wagner Todd

Bruce A. Harrell
Position: 3
In office since: 2008
Current term: 2008-2011
Chair: Energy, Technology & Civil Rights; and Law & Risk Management
Phone: (206) 684-8804
Email: bruce.harrell@seattle.gov
Staff: Vinh Tang, Jennifer L. Samuels, and Michael Jerrett

Nick Licata
Position: 6
In office since: 1998
Current term: 2010-2013
Chair: Housing, Human Services, Health, & Culture
Phone: (206) 684-8803
Email: nick.licata@seattle.gov
Staff: Newell Aldrich, Lisa Herbold, and Frank Video

Mike O’Brien
Position: 8
In office since: 2010
Current term: 2010-2013
Chair: Seattle Public Utilities & Neighborhoods
Phone: (206) 684-8800
Email: mike.obrien@seattle.gov
Staff: Esther Handy, Sierra Hansen, and Sahar Fathi

Tom Rasmussen
Position: 5
In office since: 2004
Current term: 2008-2011
Chair: Transportation; and Alaskan Way Viaduct & Seawall Replacement Project
Phone: (206) 684-8808
Email: tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov
Staff: Brian Hawksford, Ann Corbitt, and Maia Harris

Seattle Mayor:

Mike McGinn

http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/

Mayor’s Office,

Seattle City Hall 7th floor

600 Fourth Avenue

P.O. Box 94749

Seattle, WA 98124-4749

(206) 684-4000

Seattle City Hall is located downtown on Fourth Ave., between Cherry St. and James St.

City Council Members:

http://www.cityofseattle.net/council/councilcontact.htm

Seattle City Council
PO Box 34025
Seattle, WA 98124-4025

Richard Conlin, Council President

Position: 2
In office since: 1998
Current term: 2010-2013
Chair: Regional Development & Sustainability; and SR 520

Phone: (206) 684-8805
Email: richard.conlin@seattle.gov
Staff: Elaine Ko, Phyllis Shulman, and Rob Gala

Sally Bagshaw

Position: 4
In office since: 2010
Current term: 2010-2013
Chair:
Parks & Seattle Center; and Waterfront Planning

Phone: (206) 684-8801
Email: sally.bagshaw@seattle.gov
Staff: Kathy Nyland, Philip Roewe, and Wendy Cho Ripp

Tim Burgess

Position: 7
In office since: 2008
Current term: 2008-2011
Chair: Public Safety & Education

Phone: (206) 684-8806
Email: tim.burgess@seattle.gov
Staff: Betsy Graef, Nate Van Duzer, and Rebekah Papé

Sally J. Clark

Position: 9
In office since: 2006
Current term: 2008-2011
Chair: Built Environment; and Waterfront Planning

Phone: (206) 684-8802
Email: sally.clark@seattle.gov
Staff: LaTonya Brown, David Yeaworth, and Dan Nolte

Jean Godden

Position: 1
In office since: 2004
Current term: 2008-2011
Chair: Finance & Budget; Budget; and Labor Policy

Phone: (206) 684-8807
Email: jean.godden@seattle.gov
Staff: Tom Van Bronkhorst, Monica Ghosh, and Dawn Wagner Todd

Bruce A. Harrell

Position: 3
In office since: 2008
Current term: 2008-2011
Chair: Energy, Technology & Civil Rights; and Law & Risk Management

Phone: (206) 684-8804
Email: bruce.harrell@seattle.gov
Staff: Vinh Tang, Jennifer L. Samuels, and Michael Jerrett

Nick Licata

Position: 6
In office since: 1998
Current term: 2010-2013
Chair: Housing, Human Services, Health, & Culture

Phone: (206) 684-8803
Email: nick.licata@seattle.gov
Staff: Newell Aldrich, Lisa Herbold, and Frank Video

Mike O’Brien

Position: 8
In office since: 2010
Current term: 2010-2013
Chair: Seattle Public Utilities & Neighborhoods

Phone: (206) 684-8800
Email: mike.obrien@seattle.gov
Staff: Esther Handy, Sierra Hansen, and Sahar Fathi

Tom Rasmussen

Position: 5
In office since: 2004
Current term: 2008-2011
Chair: Transportation; and Alaskan Way Viaduct & Seawall Replacement Project

Phone: (206) 684-8808
Email: tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov
Staff: Brian Hawksford, Ann Corbitt, and Maia Harris