Another unique-to-WG business opens this weekend, Shelley Ballard’s Cucina Bambini, located on Lincoln Avenue, north of Willow Street.

Cooking School for Kids and Families

• Classes • Summer Camps • Parties • Special Events • Much More •

Grand Opening Celebration:
Saturday, April 26 … 11am-3pm

Enter our drawing for free and discounted classes and parties!

Imagine Iron Chef meets Gymboree meets Lecture Hall meets Sports Bar. Actually, you’re forced to imagine it … because WGx took a bunch of great pictures inside Cucina Bambini earlier today … and then catastrophically deleted them all during the download process.

Kid-sized tables and sparkling clean aprons welcome kids, along with brightly-colored counters and walls. The adorable little chef logo — he’s still searching for an official name — adorns the classroom above the teaching station, on a widescreen TV, and also on a big clock. There’s even a giant chef’s hat mural on one wall … suitable for those undeleted Kodak moments.

Classes are offered for kids, adults, and various parent-kid combinations, with some of their upcoming activities focusing on Mothers Day, naturally. And the big screen TV might be good for some Sharks playoff viewing, if you’re looking for a fun venue.

Cucina Bambini opens next door to Art House Kids (where Black Eyed Pete’s used to be), providing a one-stop shopping opportunity for parents looking to book unique summer camp experiences for their kids.

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Most Embarrassing Post: At the last minute, WGx has to award a coveted “Willow Glen Most” award to Cucina Bambini …. mostly because the effort to promote the Grand Opening was nearly thwarted. As mentioned above, the lost photos remind everyone that WGx is only deemed reliable.

It’s not like you are looking to WillowGlenExtra for your up to the minute sports news, but just in case … the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin this week, and the San Jose Sharks will face the Calgary Flames in Game One tonight at 7:00.

WGx has decided to do its part for the home team by trying to eliminate the SJ Mercury’s newspaper racks that are still adorned with former Shark Owen Nolan’s smiling mug. The racks were installed several years ago, but still exist in small pockets. In a recent email to WGx, Merc Circulation VP David Rounds wishes the images were long gone, too:

—– Original Message —-
From: David Rounds
Subject: Owen on the Racks

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I am not sure who had the bright idea to stencil on the racks an image of a specific player but I am sorry that they did (and it was before my time and I have been at the Mercury for three+ years). As we refurbish the racks and repaint them we will be taking care of this but it will take awhile. Meanwhile, here is to making the second round…..go Sharks.

David Rounds
Vice President/Circulation

Nolan may be wearing Sharks teal in the newspaper rack pictures, but he’s wearing Flames red this year.

And Nolan may still live in San Jose during the off-season, and current Sharks players down-play the connection … but that’s no excuse to have his face plastered all over our fair city more than five years after his departure via trade.

WGx has invited the Merc to co-sponsor a painting-over project – don’t call it graffiti – but we’ll have to see just how nasty this series gets before taking any drastic measures like that.

Of course, you can always try removing Owen’s picture yourself …. one pixel at a time.

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It didn’t work out too well last year, but WGx is happy to join the Sharks Bandwagon again for 2008, celebrating Stanley Cup events in WG and other neighborhoods. If you know of a Sharks event, a viewing party open to the public, or any other display of team colors, contact WGx to promote it and get your picture published right here.

It’s buried in the Sharks news digest from a few days ago, but it was a nice moment between periods last Sunday night when the San Jose Sharks — along with the four other Bay Area major league sports franchises — honored high school student-athletes in their competitive sports scholarship program.

San Jose’s professional hockey team honored WG’s Mohamed Abdalla with its award:

BAY AREA SPORTS TEAMS TO PRESENT LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS

In a collective effort to support youth working towards the goal of higher education, Bay Area professional sports franchises, including the Golden State Warriors, Oakland Athletics, Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, San Francisco Giants and San Jose Sharks, have teamed up for the 12th year of the Bay Area All-Star Scholarship Team (BAASST). As part of this program, the first of its kind among professional sports teams, five high school seniors have been selected to receive a $3,000 scholarship to be applied toward their college education.

Each Bay Area sports franchise will recognize this year’s five Bay Area All-Star Scholarship Team recipients in a ceremony this year. The first ceremony is set for Sunday, March 16 when the recipients will be honored during a special in-game ceremony during the San Jose Sharks vs. Edmonton Oilers game at HP Pavilion at San Jose. A representative from each Bay Area sports organization will be in attendance to participate in each ceremony.

The 2008 BAASST recipients are Joshua Ortiz of De Anza High School in Richmond (Oakland A’s), Lauren Hunt of Calistoga Junior Senior High School in Calistoga (Oakland Raiders), Jasmine Nachtigall of Hillsdale High School in San Mateo (San Francisco 49ers), Elaine Chow of Galileo Academy in San Francisco (San Francisco Giants) and Mohamed Abdalla of Willow Glen High School in San Jose (San Jose Sharks).

Students were selected from high schools within nine Bay Area counties, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma. Each high school was provided with information about this scholarship and was encouraged to nominate candidates that met the following criteria: a minimum grade point average of 3.0, displays leadership qualities in the classroom and/or inspirational qualities on the athletic field and demonstrates the value of education, good work ethic and community outreach.

It’s great to see high school athletes honored like this, but only $3,000? … that’s not going to go very far …

Well, the Sharks face elimination tonight, and need to respond more emphatically. After blowing too many early-game leads and now their early-series lead, the boys in Teal have to figure out how to get win tonight to force a seventh game. Good luck!

If you want to try to make a difference in tonight’s outcome all by yourself, you could consider make-up, like the teal colors available at Aladdin’s Lamp Co. 1 on Lincoln Avenue, between Malone and Curtner.

If the Sharks lose tonight, WGx suspects there will be big discounts on teal-colored face paint across the entire city tomorrow.

Los Tiburones del San Jose juegan el juego cinco de la serie Semi-Final de la conferencia occidental hoy en 11:00. Este cuadro es de una casa coloreada teal en la avenida de Broadway, que sucede estar abajo de la calle de la escuela primaria de la “inmersión española” de la cañada del río.

Right …. It’s Cinco de Mayo! So here it is in English:

The San Jose Sharks play Game Five of the Western Conference Semi-Final series today at 11:00. This picture is from a teal-bedecked house on Broadway, which happens to be down the street from River Glen’s “Spanish Immersion” school.

Las traducciones por Babel de AltaVista pescan el traductor, así que es probablemente horriblemente incorrecto — Translations by AltaVista’s Babel Fish Translator, so it’s probably horribly wrong.

While today’s little rain squall drizzles across WG, WGx presents a picture from a sunnier time (just last week, actually). These home owners on Raleigh near Frobisher celebrate the Sharks while maintaining one of the neatest front yards in the whole neighborhood.

We’re all hoping for lots more sunny days as the San Jose Sharks move through the Stanley Cup Playoffs, playing Game Four of the Western Conference Semi-Finals tonight against the Detroit Red Wings.

WGx is impressed by the civic pride and sporting spirit demonstrated by most VTA buses traveling the streets of Willow Glen. While some drivers decide not to cheer — and a few technologically backwards, older buses can’t spell it out — most buses do seem to be celebrating.

You can even take VTA to the games: The VTA# 64 Bus travels through WG, up Lincoln Avenue, along Coe to Bird, and then north to San Jose Arena. But hop on it early. For some reason the weekday northbound schedule has the bus arriving every 30 minutes, precisely at the top and bottom of each hour … hey VTA, that’s when the puck drops!

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