Crushpad aids novice vintners

For Los Altos resident and wine enthusiast Gary Curtis, buying land in Sonoma County to grow a 1-acre vineyard was to have remained a passionate hobby at best. A self-described “businessman by day,” Curtis hired a vineyard manager to maintain his grapes, and invited his friends and family to gather and pick the vines each fall.

But making wine out of his garage using rented equipment quickly grew expensive and time consuming. So when Curtis heard about Crushpad, a winery that helps small urban winemakers create their own custom wines, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to move his operation.

School redistricting, council race collide in LAH

The Los Altos Hills City Council race for the November ballot may not be a direct referendum on forming a new school district for the community, but school concerns are chief among the top issues heating up the town.

The town’s reorganization committee drew up a poll with David Binder Research to determine community support for creation of a new K-8 district. Binder reported the results of the survey Sept. 14.

Crowd at council meeting voices traffic and development concerns

Los Altos City Council chambers were packed to overflowing at the Sept. 12 meeting, where residents of Los Altos Gardens apartments and neighbors from the San Antonio Road and El Camino Real area expressed concerns about future development.

More than 100 residents attended the meeting, many taking the microphone to voice dissatisfaction about traffic and pedestrian safety and to share anxieties about their status if the new owner of the apartments asks them to move out.

News Briefs

Los Altos man dies after collision
Gene Spiller, 79, a Los Altos resident, died Sept. 12 of pneumonia and injuries he sustained when he lost control of his vehicle Aug. 23. Spiller’s green 1994 Saab struck a few trees and flipped over on San Antonio Road near the intersection of Pine Lane. He was […]

Driver accused of killing cyclist faces 26 years in prison

The driver accused of killing John Peckham, a 31-year-old competitive bicyclist from Mountain View, was charged with five counts Sept. 12 and faces a maximum of 26 years in prison, said Deputy District Attorney Jay Boyarsky.

Peckham was out for a noontime ride with fellow cyclists on Old Page Mill Road near Los Altos Hills on Sept. 8 when Chevelle Bailey, 41, of Fremont, hit him head-on. Peckham was pronounced dead at Stanford Hospital later that afternoon.

‘Highly visible’ houses redefined in Los Altos Hills

The Los Altos Hills City Council last week tinkered with an ordinance intended to soften the impact of highly visible new housing developments in town.

The ordinance, which addresses houses built on ridgelines and hilltops, had undergone a series of proposed revisions in recent months that were criticized as too subjective and unfair to residents.

Westwind pair ride through trail turmoil

Los Altos Hills’ natural pleasures can double as perils for hikers, bikers and riders on area trails. Two riders from Westwind Barn weathered a real-life adventure earlier this month when a yellow-jacket swarm took trail riding to an unexpected extreme.

“It’s definitely something out of a horror movie,” said Maria Pasiuk, who nursed more than 20 stings from the attack. Pasiuk and Lee Ann Meyers, both of whom board their horses at Westwind, were riding a trail above Hidden Villa when they encountered yellow jackets, likely disturbed from a nearby nest.

Obituary Notices

WARREN “SWEDE” NELSON
Warren “Swede” Nelson of Mountain View, California passed from this life into eternal life in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Monday, July 31, 2006.
He was born on October 5, 1924 in Mount Vernon, New York to Swedish immigrants, Joel and Hildur Nelson. He is survived by his wife, Betty […]

Letters to the Editor

Redistricting ‘not that simple’
In its September newsletter, the Los Altos Hills City Council assures residents that they will not lose access to Palo Alto Unified School District’s Gunn High School in the process of creating a new K-8 school district in the town, saying that the decision ultimately rests with LAH voters.
It’s […]

Come and get your hokey-pokey snowballs

“Come and get your hokey-pokey snowball!” At the sound, I’d wake up from my summer reverie lying on the porch and run into the house. “Nanny! Nanny! The hokey-pokey snowball man is over in the park. May I get one, please?”

If my grandmother had some coins to spare, she’d fish two pennies out of her purse. Clutching them I’d run as fast as I could to find the snowball man.

Why do we remember?

September carries more than its share of memorable moments, both personal and of wider significance. I’m writing this column on Sept. 11, but you the reader will see it about two weeks later. Flashbacks, dramatic pictures, memories all play their role in making 9/11 a date to carry us back to impossible emotions. Why impossible? Because our language cannot capture emotions that are flying in every direction. All the writers, politicians, actors and ordinary people struggled to grasp that impossible period. Proof came in a relentless battering our minds absorbed as our country tried to make that leap to the past. “Where were you on that awful day?” At our house the phone rang, and my son said, “Turn on your TV.”

Even now, my body is reacting to my words: tightened muscles, shallow breathing, hands rolling into fists, pulse racing. I hurt, but I am thinking of many ways to judge the onslaught. Recently a review of “Reading Like a Writer” praised its author for her emphasis on words rather than content as the real genius in her work. To quote that author, Francine Prose, “The excellence of writing depends not on its content, but on its language and form.”

Anniversary

Jerry and Lois Rosenblum, 50 years
Jerry and Lois Rosenblum celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Sept. 16 with a two-week trip to England.
They have been active members of the Los Altos community for more than four decades.
Jerry served as president of the Los Altos School District Board of Trustees and currently […]

People

Sarah Riggs and Jim Stapleton

Sarah Riggs and Jim Stapleton were married July 22. The ceremony and reception took place at the home of the bride’s parents.

People

Heather Watson and Ben Volkman

Heather Watson and Ben Volkman were married Aug. 5 at the Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park. A reception followed at the Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club.

Humility a hallmark of award winner

The Mountain View-Los Altos District Silicon Valley Association of Realtors (SILVAR) presented its 2006 Community Service Award, which recognizes the work of an “unsung community volunteer,” to Mike Abrams Sept. 12 at Michaels at Shoreline.

Abrams used his speech to recognize other schools volunteers by name and defer as much credit as possible.

Los Altos’ Whole Foods grand opening draws a crowd

Local leaders, new employees and raring-to-go shoppers were among the crowd gathered outside Los Altos’ new Whole Foods Market for the store’s Sept. 13 grand opening.

Located at 4800 El Camino Real, the store opened with a bread-breaking ceremony attended by Los Altos Mayor Ron Packard and Mountain View Mayor Nick Galiotto. Samples and demonstrations continued throughout the day. With upwards of 200 employees and almost 300 parking spaces in an underground garage, the 55,000-square-foot store will turn heads with its size.

Los Altos Library recognizes Banned Books Week to decry unwarranted expulsions

The Los Altos Library has scheduled displays, activities and programs Sept. 23-30 to commemorate Banned Books Week.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), more than a book a day faces expulsion from U.S. schools and libraries every year. More than 8,700 challenges have been recorded since the ALA started keeping electronic records in 1990.

CSA honors one of its own as ‘Hometown Hero’

Advocate for the homeless Gisela Daetz and Microsoft TV will be honored as “Hometown Heroes” at a breakfast scheduled for 7:15 a.m. Friday at the Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto, announced Tom Myers, executive director of the Community Services Agency (CSA) in Mountain View.

Since 1999, “Hometown Heroes” has been an annual celebration to honor individuals and companies for their philanthropic contributions to the local community.

Hidden Villa volunteer finds stress relief through work with animals

No matter how busy 22-year-old Meredith Swinehart is, she looks forward to volunteering at Hidden Villa.

Swinehart, a senior in college, said the prospect of rolling out of bed early isn’t always appealing if she’s studied until 1 or 2 a.m., but then, “I remember the smell (of Hidden Villa).”

LASD mulls over where to place BCS

The Los Altos School District Board of Trustees continues to inch closer to a decision on determining a permanent location for Bullis Charter School.

The board will select among three options: placing the campus at Covington Elementary School, Egan Junior High School or as a shared campus at the Bullis-Purissima School site.

Art docents exhibit their commitment

Vincent Van Gogh has been dead for more than a century, but he welcomed Los Altos School District art docents to their fall seminar Sept. 12 at Covington Elementary School.

Ken Young, who runs Living Artists’ Theatre, attended the seminar dressed as the Dutch painter - complete with bloody ear and accent - and shared Van Gogh’s biography and history of artwork with a room of art docents.

Schools Briefs

LAH student receives scholarship
The California Grocers Association Educational Foundation awarded its 2006-2007 Roger K. Hughes Legacy Scholarship to Acacia Newlon-Yafai of Los Altos Hills. Newlon-Yafai, a member of the National Honor Society and the California Scholarship Federation, will receive $1.000. She is enrolled at UCLA this fall and plans to major in […]

LASD continues plans for Bullis-Purissima

The Los Altos School District Board of Trustees viewed an updated rendering last week from Lisa Gelfand of Gelfand Partners Architects of what the Bullis-Purissima campus would look like if a renovation plan is approved.

Gelfand presented a slide show at the board’s Sept. 11 meeting showcasing the modular buildings to be the renovated classrooms updated during the pending construction. She showed what the campus would look like after Phase I construction, and what the campus would look like if it were to be shared with Bullis Charter School.

LAHS develops new digital photography class

When Los Altos High School students and budding photographers Matt Weiden, Victoria Liu and Laura Weiden took action when they realized they could not advance their photography skills because the school did not have the resources.

The enterprising group wrote letters and rallied support from parents to raise awareness and funds to ensure that Los Altos High students had the opportunity to take digital photography, which allows them to master Adobe Photoshop to manipulate and process photos digitally.

Eagles run over Harbor in home opener, win 48-3

Behind a solid running game and strong defense, the Los Altos High football team overcame a sluggish start to rout Harbor 48-3 Saturday.

The Eagles, who beat Evergreen Valley 28-0 the previous week, improved to 2-0.

Making a statement

Rankled by their ranking, the St. Francis High Lancers had extra motivation for Friday’s non-league football game against visiting Los Gatos.

“We saw they were ranked ahead of us,” said fullback/team captain Scott Zipse, referring to a daily newspaper that ranked Los Gatos third and St. Francis sixth. “We took it as fuel for our fire.”

Spartans seek turnaround to slow start

If the Mountain View High volleyball team is going to continue the trend of improving each season under coach Gerrie Phillips, the Spartans have their work cut out for them in 2006.

Two surprising losses last week dropped Mountain View to 4-6 overall. With about 25 matches left - give or take a few, dependent on the team’s success in tournaments and the playoffs - it will be a major challenge to exceed last season’s 26-10 record.

Answering the call

On her way to compete in a national track meet, Joy Upshaw Margerum received the call to go international - as a coach.

The Los Altos Hills resident was traveling to North Carolina for the USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships last month when her cell phone rang. It was the USA Track and Field National Office asking her to head up the women’s team at the DecaNation meet in late August.

Wishy-washy government action weakens market

I think it is safe to say that the price of oil has collapsed in the last several weeks. Just above $64 per barrel at this writing, it is down $13 since July.

Stockpiles in oil inventories are at high levels, above their five-year average; tensions in the Middle East have subsided; and new oil discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico, as I mentioned last week, are coming together to help push oil prices down.

Restaurants serving LASD lunch programs cater healthful food and good will

For many local restaurant owners, cooking school lunches probably wasn’t part of their original business plan. But, as any business owner will tell you, opportunity comes in different guises.

So when school volunteers asked the local restaurants to cook healthful lunches for the Los Altos School District (LASD), restaurateurs took it as a way to create good will in the community and perhaps an unexpected opportunity to publicize their fare.

High-yield bank loan mutual funds may offer hidden risk

Bank loan mutual funds buy a participation in a commercial business bank loan (not a mortgage loan). They are sometimes called prime funds because they earn a yield roughly the same as the prime rate - and the yield can change monthly along with changes in the prime rate.

Using investment-screening software, the asset classes with the best Sharpe ratios are bank loan funds, followed by foreign stocks. A Sharpe ratio is a measure of risk to reward. Bank loan funds appear to have less risk than a stock because they are a loan that must be paid back before the stockholders get paid, and they are ahead of bondholders in the event of a default.

Not for the faint of heart

You wake up in the dark. Instead of going back to sleep, you grab some workout clothes and tiptoe out of the bedroom. By 6 a.m., you are putting your exercise mat down on the rubbery track at Gunn High School, ready for some vigorous exercise. You are at Pilates Cardiocamp.

With warmth and enthusiasm, fitness trainer Michelle Melendez leads you through a set of exercises. On your tummy, you reach out your arms like Superman, but with weights. Then you work your way through almost an hour of pushups, squats, jump rope and jogging. At the end, after a few minutes of stretching, you shout declarations, in unison: “I’m a healthy, fit person. I love working out. Exercise is a part of my life.” You give someone a high five and tell them, “You have great glutes,” or something else inspiring.

New tome covers book designer’s career

The book cover caught my eye from across the room in the Los Altos main library. “Book One” (Rizzoli, 2006) has the most unusual cover I have ever seen, appropriately enough because it’s about book covers. The author, Chip Kidd, is arguably the most successful book-cover designer in America. If you look through the book, you will recognize many of the covers he has done.

He was once the subject of a Jeopardy answer/question: “His work at Alfred A. Knopf made Chip Kidd a superstar in designing these.” “What are book covers?”

The many colors of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef

The average traveler to Australia wants to hit the Big Three: Sydney, the Outback and Queensland.

Queensland, with an area more than 1.7 million square kilometers, covers more than a quarter of Australia. Brisbane, the capital of the state, boasts a population of more than 1 million. The famous beaches of the Sunshine and Gold Coasts are an hour’s drive from the city. To the west, is varied and wide open countryside, and to the east, Moreton Bay and its marvelous islands. The late Steve Irwin of “Crocodile Hunter” fame owned the Australian Zoo north of Brisbane, a highlight of the area.

Bus Barn’s ‘Boom!’ is a blast

When any of Jonathan Larson’s extraordinary and vastly underrated musicals - other than “Rent” - come to town, it’s almost surely worth more than the ticket value. There’s also the privilege of telling friends that you’ve actually seen a Larson piece other than that now canonized tale of 20-something artists struggling in early 1990s New York.

In “Tick, Tick … Boom!” the Bus Barn Stage Company cast delivers a touching homage to the late artist’s autobiographical work and, despite some rough direction, blasts onstage with passionate yet unusually sophisticated performances.