Experience feats of brain strength tonight at Sacajawea Elementary, 9501 20th Ave. N.E., during the Maple Leaf school’s annual Math and Science Fair.

From 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, you’re invited to view the more than 150 science and math exhibits created by the students of Sacajawea, as well as exhibits from organizations including UW Neurosciences, The Audubon Society, IslandWood Outdoor Education Center, The Burke Museum and Lice Knowing You.

The event concludes with the catapult egg launch contest from 7:30-8 p.m. on the lower playground (rain or shine), which will pit Sacajawea students against one another to see whose entry (built from a standard kit of materials) can fly the farthest, while still protecting its delicate cargo.

To top it all off, Dante’s Inferno Dogs will be selling gourmet sausages, chips and drinks (cash only, please).

The fence around the former, much-loved Italian Spaghetti House & Pizzeria is gone, and a “for lease” sign is up.

Will it reopen as a restaurant?

The sign says “retail, restaurant or development site. Call Joe.”

Joe hasn’t returned our call from last week.

A reader in Wedgwood emailed this week that she saw the sale in the Puget Sound Business Journal.

I read that the Spaghetti House Restaurant at 9824 Lake City Way was sold on January 9. The buyer is ISH Restaurant LLC, 2900 NE Blakeley St., Suite B, Seattle 98105. The purchase price was $1,200,000.

The registered agent for that LLC is Joe - Joseph L. Brotherton.

Our reader points out that neighbors, and the community councils of both Maple Leaf and Wedgwood, have expressed concerns about the arrival of strip clubs along Lake City Way.

Since the old restaurant closed last year, a new neighhbor has moved next door, medical marijuana dispensary Greenside Medical at 9804 Lake City Way N.E.

The fence around the former, much-loved Italian Spaghetti House & Pizzeria is gone, and a “for lease” sign is up.

Will it reopen as a restaurant?

The sign says “retail, restaurant or development site. Call Joe.”

Joe hasn’t returned our call from last week.

A reader in Wedgwood emailed this week that she saw the sale in the Puget Sound Business Journal.

I read that the Spaghetti House Restaurant at 9824 Lake City Way was sold on January 9. The buyer is ISH Restaurant LLC, 2900 NE Blakeley St., Suite B, Seattle 98105. The purchase price was $1,200,000.

The registered agent for that LLC is Joe - Joseph L. Brotherton.

Our reader points out that neighbors, and the community councils of both Maple Leaf and Wedgwood, have expressed concerns about the arrival of strip clubs along Lake City Way.

Since the old restaurant closed last year, a new neighhbor has moved next door, medical marijuana dispensary Greenside Medical at 9804 Lake City Way N.E.

Update Feb. 18: Police say driver who caused crash had “paranoia” and had not eaten for days. The Seattle Times has the story here.

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Update 6 p.m.

Seattle Police report six people, including the suspect, were transported to various area hospitals for treatment of their non-life-threatening injuries. More details on this nine-car crash from our partners at the Seattle Times here.

The road will be shut down until approximately 7:00 p.m. while officers and detectives complete their on-scene investigation.

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Police and the Washington State Patrol are reporting that all lanes of First Avenue Northeast are blocked (4:41 p.m.) near Northgate Mall by a police investigation and multiple car crash.

The on and off ramps to Interstate 5 are blocked.

Washington State Department of Transportation

From Seattle Police:

Shortly before 4 p.m., officers in the North Precinct spotted an erratically driven vehicle, traveling northbound on First Avenue Northeast. Officers began following the vehicle. The female driver accelerated towards the intersection of First and Northeast 107th Street.

The driver drove through the intersection at a high rate of speed, striking multiple vehicles. Seattle Fire responded to the scene. Several victims were transported to Harborview Medical Center and other surrounding hospitals for serious but not life threatening injuries.

The driver appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and or drugs. She will be processed at the scene.

Over the weekend we received an email about Neighbor Appreciation Day from new Maple Leaf resident Micah confirming what long-time neighbors have known for years: This community rocks. Micah tells us:

We live on 85th and 5th NE. We moved in three months ago and have already benefited a great deal from this website.

We recently saw a post on this site and the green lake site about Neighbor Appreciation Day and thought that it would be a good opportunity to have an open house to meet our neighbors and develop more community in our place of town. We made invites and walked them to neighbors. The turn out was great. Over 20 people packed into our house for a potluck style open house. What a great time! We even put together a neighborhood contact list.

Thanks so much for the great idea! This neighborhood rocks and so does this webpage!

Thanks Micah, and congratulations on the great turnout! Does anybody else have Neighbor Appreciation Day stories to share?

Beth Brunton, the Simon Youth Foundation’s 2011 National Teacher of the Year, has another award to share that honors the students, faculty and staff at Northgate Middle College High School:

Last week, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education announced that the alternative school located inside Northgate Mall was among 186 schools across the state and 21 in Seattle honored with 2011 Washington Achievement Awards.

Northgate Middle College won in the category Special Recognition – Improvement, along with nearby Pinehurst K-8 School and six others.

The full list can be viewed online. The award-winning schools will be honored during a ceremony on April 25 at Mariner High School in Everett.

Power was out in much of Maple Leaf between about 1:15 and 2:00 Saturday afternoon, and Josh thinks the culprit was a bird - now deceased.

“Just a heads up to let you know the power outage was caused, apparently, by a crow electrocuted in power lines at 8th and 96th,” he emailed.

(We missed the outage, as we were chasing crows ourselves at the First Annual Edison Bird Festival.)

Kristin, on Northeast 97th Street between Roosevelt Way Northeast and Eighth Avenue Northeast, emailed: “All of the power went out around 1:20 p.m. Lights flickered, heard a boom, and all power went out. Any idea what caused it?”

Jeff emailed that he lost power at 1:24 p.m. at Northeast 95th Street and Roosevelt. “Is it just me or others without power too?”

Jill Killen, at Cloud City Coffee, said 2,344 Seattle City Light customers - most of Maple Leaf - were affected by the outage.

The outage was tracked on Twitter by neighboring blogs, and also by @outagetracker, which posts on outages throughout the country.

Power was out in much of Maple Leaf between about 1:15 and 2:00 Saturday afternoon, and Josh thinks the culprit was a bird - now deceased.

“Just a heads up to let you know the power outage was caused, apparently, by a crow electrocuted in power lines at 8th and 96th,” he emailed.

(We missed the outage, as we were chasing crows ourselves at the First Annual Edison Bird Festival.)

Kristin, on Northeast 97th Street between Roosevelt Way Northeast and Eighth Avenue Northeast, emailed: “All of the power went out around 1:20 p.m. Lights flickered, heard a boom, and all power went out. Any idea what caused it?”

Jeff emailed that he lost power at 1:24 p.m. at Northeast 95th Street and Roosevelt. “Is it just me or others without power too?”

Jill Killen, at Cloud City Coffee, said 2,344 Seattle City Light customers - most of Maple Leaf - were affected by the outage.

The outage was tracked on Twitter by neighboring blogs, and also by @outagetracker, which posts on outages throughout the country.

Northwest Puppet Center is offering a new take on an old tale this weekend and next: “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by A. Wolf,” which it describes as such:

Think you know the real story behind the huffing and puffing? Think again. There’s only one individual who knows the true story about one wolf, three houses and three little pigs: Alexander T. Wolf. In this revealing no-squealing adaptation of Jon Scieszka’s popular book, A. Wolf has a chance to tell his side of the story.

The production, based on the popular children’s book by Jon Scieszka and performed by Paul Mesner Puppets, is at 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, from Feb. 11-19.

Cost is $10.50 for general admission; $8.50 for children under 17; and $9 for seniors 65 and older. Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets or at the box office (opens 30 minutes before each show) at 9123 15th Ave. N.E.

P.S. Coming next: “The Odyssey.”

Maple Leaf’s Beaver Pond Natural Area has been in the news lately, but not because of the beavers.

We got 94 comments on our initial post about nearly 50 trees being vandalized in December.

Then the Seattle parks department and City Light posted notices that a number of trees in the beaver pond proper, at 8th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 105th Street, had been substantially damaged by the beavers and were “dying or standing dead.

“This created a situation of imminent danger and hazard to the public and a high probability of severe damages to nearby electrical infrastructure and private property from tree failure.”

Then came January’s snow and ice storm.

This week trucks and crews from City Light were at the pond. “We worked with parks and personnel from ecology and took down a number of trees girdled by the beavers,” said the utility’s Scott Thomsen.

Thomsen said a particular problem is very high-voltage transmission lines that carry 230 kilovolts from electrical substations. Those lines are on the pond’s western border, and were in reach of damaged trees. Update: Thomsen emails: “We have transmission and distribution lines in that area. The transmission line is 115 kilovolts. The distribution lines are 26 kilovolts.”

Many of the felled trees will be left in place to provide habitat, and the park department plans to plant replacement trees. “It is our goal to protect the wetland and leave as many snags and large woody debris in the wetland habitat as is feasible,” according to the posted notice.

Now the beavers might be in trouble. [Read more →]