by Gina Bourdage

I can’t say I have ever been the biggest fan of Valentine ’s Day. The mere thought of cheesy stuffed animals, cheap chocolates or sleazy lingerie makes me gag. You might as well do nothing rather than a last-minute, no-thought, no-heart gift.

Being in a relationship, romantic or otherwise, means compromise and sacrifice not to mention hopefully showing all year round how much your significant other means to you, and not just on the day stores tell you to. This year try something different – put some serious thought into what you’re giving or doing. The best gift is one that really comes from the heart, and not just a box that is shaped like one.

I am gonna let you in on a little secret…women love to feel beautiful, but sometimes we don’t get enough time in our busy schedules to pamper ourselves. Here’s is a hint: make the appointment for a relaxing afternoon of some pampering for your lady. Don’t just buy the gift certificate if you can avoid it. Scheduling the appointment and doing all of the leg work will put her mind at ease and allow the relaxations she deserves. Locally we have some great options from massage therapists like B-Town Blog Advertiser Ceiba Acupuncture & Body Work in Des Moines. For an unforgettable relaxing facial we have Burien’s Skin Perfect, where she will get the ultimate in facial cleansing and rejuvenation not to mention beautiful make up as well. Here she, or he, can get the skin boutique experience from A-Z. They are offering a unique chocolate facial this season for a sweet twist on the traditional experience.

All of us like to go out to a fancy dinner now and then, but Burien has a lot of options that won’t break the bank. Sidestreet Kitchen & Bar offers a delicious variety of cuisine that is priced so that you can enjoy more than one course and still spring for the bottle of wine. BTB Advertiser Bistro Baffi offers an authentic Italian experience in a very romantic atmosphere. For you more casual diners you can check out Elliot Bay Brewery with a mostly organic, upscale pub menu or BTB Advertiser The Tin Room where the designer cocktails speak for themselves.

If you’re looking for that perfect gift she will never forget you will score major points going with something out of the “heart shaped box.” Women want to be able to talk about how amazingly thoughtful your gift was to all of her friends. This does not have to mean the biggest diamond you can find but I would caution against any gift that requires batteries or a power cord unless expressly requested or you might find yourself with some serious couch time.

Think about making a card, the less perfect the better. Try writing your own sayings inside that speaks to the uniqueness of your relationship. If you’re the poetically challenged you can go with a famous love quote on any number of quotation websites. If you are strapped for time after all of the other planning you’ve been doing you can find unique and thoughtful cards at The Card Bar in Olde Burien.

As for the actual gift itself, the more you plan, the more personal it is, the better. You are going to have to really think this one through on your own since no one knows the one you love more than you. Try reminding them of your favorite qualities in them, why you love them and special moments you’ve shared. A gift that creates a memory can never be exchanged.

October 2009 was another record-setting traffic month for The B-Town Blog, and like we did in September (and August and July), we’d like to shout out a huge THANK YOU to all our beloved Readers and Advertisers for the following statistics:

• 39,702 Unique Visitors – an average of 1,281 per day!
• 68.369 Page Views – an average of 2,205 per day!

That translates to an overall current average of nearly 1,600 Unique Visitors and nearly 2,700 Page Views per day for the lifespan of this website (launched in Dec. 2007), along with a current average visit length of over two minutes.

Here are the most recent stats from Sitemeter, a widely-used, independent website that tracks internet traffic:

As you can see, one thing that sets The B-Town Blog apart from others is our open policy of being totally transparent with our website traffic statistics – something you will NOT see on any other competing “local” websites (we use quotation marks because ones produced in downtown Seattle aren’t truly “local” now, are they?).

“Transparent” means that, at any time, you can click on one of at least three statistics links in the footer of the website (at the bottom of any page), and see what kind of traffic we’re getting right then and there from external, independent sources.

That’s right – we have no intention of hiding any information from you, our Readers, nor from our Advertisers or potential Advertisers.

And we challenge our local all media competitors to do the same.

Click on a logo below to see our stats (keep in mind that statistics vary with each independent measuring company, something that’s not in our control):

And remember, we are here to serve our community, since we all live, work, shop, eat and drink here.

We are active members of Discover Burien as well as the Southwest King County Chamber of Commerce, and you’ll see us at various events, Farmers Markets, festivals, city council meetings and much more.

If you’d like more information on our Advertising solutions, please don’t hesitate to email us!

September 2009 was another record-setting traffic month for The B-Town Blog, and like we did in August (as well as July), we’d like to send out a huge THANK YOU to all our beloved B-Town Blog Readers and Advertisers for the following statistics:

• 35,203 Unique Visitors – an average of 1,173 per day!
• 58,541 Page Views – an average of 1,951 per day!

That translates to an overall current average of nearly 1,500 Unique Visitors and nearly 2,400 Page Views per day for the lifespan of this website (launched in Dec. 2007), along with a current average visit length of 2:33.

Here are the most recent stats from Sitemeter, a widely-used, independent website that tracks internet traffic:

We’d also like to remind both our Readers and potential Advertisers about our unique, totally transparent website traffic statistics – something you will NOT see on any other competing “local” websites (we use quotation marks because some aren’t truly “local” now, are they?).

“Transparent” means that, at any time, you can click on one of at least three statistics links in the footer of the website (at the bottom of any page), and see what kind of traffic we’re getting right then and there.

That’s right – we have no intention of hiding any information from you, our Readers, nor from our Advertisers or potential Advertisers. And we challenge our local media competitors to do the same.

Click on a logo below to see our stats (keep in mind that statistics vary with each independent measuring company, something that’s not in our control):

And remember, we are here to serve our community, since we all live, work, shop, eat and drink here. We are active members of Discover Burien as well as the Southwest King County Chamber of Commerce, and you’ll see us at various events, Farmers Markets, festivals, city council meetings and much more (be sure to look for us at the Boo in Burien on Halloween!).

If you’d like more information on our Advertising solutions, please don’t hesitate to email us!

by Scott Schaefer
Publisher/Editor

Here at The B-Town Blog, we’re very proud and thankful for our 35+ Advertisers.

We’re also proud of how hard we work for them – from our unique, Google-icious, keyword-rich, highly-effective “Blogvertorial” feature stories on the first day an Ad runs, to listing events in our Weekly Newsletter (the only one of its kind in the area – sign up here, it’s 100% spam free!) to posting news blurbs, consulting on internet social marketing and more, we bend over backwards for Burien-area businesses that we do business with.

With that in mind, we humbly ask for your time to showcase a recent Testimonial we received from Dona Forrester, General Manager of Highline Athletic Club, which just happens to be holding a major “No Enrollment” promotion Saturday morning, April 18th, from 7:30am to 10:40am (all enrollment fees are waived – more info here):

We became a customer of The B-Town Blog in January 2009 after I had the opportunity to meet Scott and get reacquainted with Janet at a Discover Burien Business after Hours event.

We were looking for a new means of advertising to reach the masses of people who primarily use the internet for their information and news vs. newspapers and phone books.

I was impressed with how active they are in the community promoting the B-Town Blog.

We ran our first ad in January and had a great feature article written and published the day that our ad came out. In January, we had our 2nd best new member enrollment in our 21-year history of Highline Athletic Club.

The B-Town Blog was the only advertising that we did in January that was different from our regular marketing plan.

I like the community feel of the B-Town Blog and am impressed with the number of hits that their site gets per day – how many places can you advertise and be exposed to an average hit of 400-500 hits per day.

We have decided to continue our advertising with the B-Town Blog and I encourage other local businesses to consider giving it a try.

Dona Forrester, General Manager
Highline Athletic Club

As always, we also thank our Readers for their loyalty, and we welcome all our new Readers who are responding to our :30-second Ad that’s running on CNN.

Please subscribe to our Free RSS Feed, or sign up for our Weekly Event Newsletter, and thanks for your support!

If you’re thinking about jumping on The B-Town BlogOLution and Advertising with us, please read this page (chock full of info and other testimonials) then call us during business hours at (206) 248-2565 or email us!

Consider us your Burien Business Evangelists, and we look forward helping you during these tough times.

Everyone and their brother’s mother do “Year In Review” stories, and since this is the first year we’ve ever reviewed on The B-Town Blog, we figured we oughta give it a shot as well, so here goes our Top 10 Stories (with active links so you can read & review for yourself) for the Burien area, as voted on by our incredibly large staff:

1. DECEMBER SNOWSTORMS BLAST BURIEN: After much debate and deliberation, we decided this was definitely the #1 Top Story since the snow affected so many people, from school closures to street closures, from work stoppage to delayed garbage/recycling pickups and much more – this was one of those 10-15 year weather events that affected everyone in some way.

On a self-indulgent side note, it also ended up boosting our traffic 4x times, resulting in our highest one-day audience ever on Dec. 21st: 1,642 Unique Visitors and 2,608 Pageviews.

2. FATAL JUNE 29 ARSON APARTMENT FIRE: A horrific fire burned down the Tara and Jenny Marie Apartments on a nice summer’s night, killing three people (Edgar Omar Cisneros Velazquez, 8, his father Ramon Cisneros Sanchez and Lindy Kunimoto, 49).  The arsonist is still at large, the crime still unsolved, the landlords are being sued, and the entire Burien community is permanently scarred.

The community of Burien quickly rallied however, and we’re proud to have co-sponsored (along with Discover Burien) the Fire Victims Fundraiser Auction that raised $10,500 at Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub on July 16th.

3. BURIEN & SEATTLE AGREE ON NORTH HIGHLINE ANNEXATION: The Cities of Burien and Seattle came to a preliminary agrement on who gets what as far as dividing up the pie that is North Highline/White Center (if you’d like to read the entire document, click here for a PDF file). Burien will pursue annexation only in Area X (approx. SW/S 116th and south) while Seattle will pursue annexation in Area Y (north of approx. SW/S 116th) until Dec. 31, 2011.

Big news for both cities, as they seek tax credit relief, as well as residents in X and Y ‘hoods, as they get to vote on it.

4. OPENING OF THE 3rd RUNWAY AND ANGRY RESIDENTS’ REACTIONS: To much fanfare, the Port of Seattle proudly opened its $1+ billion third runway on Nov. 20th. Within days, numerous residents in the new flight path were livid over the increased noise, claiming being lied to or misled by the Port before its opening, not to mention lost sleep and mental anguish. This is an ongoing story that is only just starting, and will get bigger, as dozens of residents are teaming up with a team of lawyers and are pursuing legal actions.

We’re happy to be right in the middle of it all, and we look forward to bringing you exclusive interviews, stories and videos in 2009 and beyond.

5. “MR BURIEN” DICK DAHLGARD PASSES AWAY: The passing of Burien business icon (the still-vacant “Dick’s Camera” building sits eerily quiet on First Ave South with his bright orange signage on it), native son, longtime resident and an active, generous Rotary member who didn’t miss a meeting in 46 years shocked the entire community.

Highly deserving of the nickname “Mr. Burien,” Dahlgard, 73, passed away in his sleep on Nov. 5th.

1pm 12/31/08 UPDATE: Dick took the photo below on Sept. 5th, at the 55-year reunion of Highline High School’s Class of ’53; he then went to Bartell’s in Burien, had the photo printed, then returned to the party before it ended and gave them out to all the attendees. Later, he shared this photo with us at the BTB but regretfully, we never got around to posting it. We post it now as our tribute to “Mr. Burien,” who is missed by many.

6. AREA FOOD BANKS SUFFER DURING RECESSION: Both the Highline Area Food Bank and White Center Food Bank have suffered during 2008′s recession, sending shockwaves through the lower-income residents of the area. We’ve done what we can by holding our own fundraisers (including a “Blog Party” in August and a Turkeys N’Diapers event in November), promoting others and trying to continually spread the word; but unfortunately, even the wealthiest residents are hurting too.

Here’s a hearty and heartfelt toast to a resurgent 2009 where no one in our community ever goes hungry again.

7. BURIEN TOWING’S MARK AND BRIAN STORER KILLED IN PLANE CRASH: Burien Towing’s Mark Storer, 51 and his son Brian, 24, were killed July 24th when their floatplane crashed 10 miles west of Shelton. According to witnesses, the plane struggled to reach altitude after taking off from Nahwatzel Lake before vanishing behind some trees, crashing then exploding. Mark Storer founded and operated both Burien and Airport Towing, and leaves behind his wife, Lynette, and a surviving son and daughter. His son Brian was married with two small children.

Brother and son Jared Storer turned his blog into a heartfelt tribute to his Dad and Brother – check out his entries for July here.

8. AN ENGLISHMAN’S PERSPECTIVE ON OBAMA’S VICTORY: “Bob” is an Englishman who lives in Burien who wrote a very interesting piece on his experience the night of Nov. 4th when America’s first African-American President was elected. “Bob” drove from B-Town to downtown Seattle, where he took part in a spontaneous street celebration at First and Pike streets.

Looking forward, “Bob” plans on attending the historic inauguration, and we hope to have more stories from him then.

9. CHERNOBYL CHILDREN FIND SAFE HAVEN IN B-TOWN: Contributing Writer and Burien resident Cynthia Reid wrote a compelling story about area families who host children from Chernobyl every summer. These kids become “adopted” by their US host families, who treat them as their own, form bonds with them and help them heal far away from the still-dangerous radiation in Belarus.

In September, the story developed into controversy over a California family that allowed their “adopted child” to essentially defect to the US, temporarily ending the program (read the story here).

10.“THE DAY MY PARENTS BECAME COOL” FILMS IN BURIEN: Local resident and lawyer-turned-filmmaker Steve Edmiston Wrote and Directed a 16-minute comedy film about the day grown-ups mysteriously tried to be “cool,” with crazy hair, low-riding pants, thongs, piercings, tattoos and attitude, and how their kids subsequently reacted. Featuring locations like Burien’s own Highline High School, as well as cameo appearances by Highline Schools Superintendent John Welch (see animated photo below), the film was sneak-previewed in Seattle on Dec. 7th to an incredibly receptive crowd of friends, crew members, actors, actresses and dignitaries (luckily, including us – read our review here).

The B-Town Blog will keep you updated about this local project, which is sure to make the rounds of numerous short film festivals throughout 2009, as well as having a big “Premiere Party” in the area soon.

Okay, so that wraps up our first-ever “Year In Review” posting.

We hope you enjoyed 2008 as much as we did – it was a year full of new challenges, new ideas, new ventures, a new, non-home office, many gains, countless setbacks…yet when we look back at it all, we wouldn’t have traded 2008 for anything.

As far as this website is concerned, 2008 was a *huge* year that saw our traffic grow from a measly 266 Unique Visitors in Dec. 2007 to nearly 14,000 in Dec. 2008, a stunning increase of over 5,000%!

That’s right – in our first year of publication, our audience has grown over five thousand percent!

And have we mentioned yet how great the New Year is to purchase an Ad on The B-Town Blog?

However, we have a feeling that 2009 is going to be a better year all around, and we vow to do everything we can to make The B-Town Blog your best and most-frequently updated online source for local news, events, listings, feature stories, videos, photos and more. We’ve got some big plans coming soon, so check back often, and/or subscribe to our RSS Feed or free Weekly Event Newsletter for the latest.

On that note, we’re actively looking for freelance Writers to help us take this website to the next level – email us for details!

Thanks for reading, and HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!