Beach Bash For The Rich Aids Charity

How do Seattle's rich and famous celebrate special occasions? They have a beach party, naturally.

Take press-shy Microsoft executive Chris Larson and his wife, Julie Calhoun - second largest stockholders in the Seattle Mariners. They had a joint 40th-birthday blast Sunday night.

The beach party was held indoors at Bell Harbor Conference Center on Elliott Bay. Mike Love of the Beach Boys flew in to sing "California Girls" especially for Calhoun. She is one.

The menu included salmon, margaritas and drinks with little umbrellas. Invitations said "no gifts please;" but donations were accepted for Treehouse, a nonprofit that buys "extras" for children in foster care.

Larson's present to Calhoun? He matched the donations, doubling the contribution to Treehouse, her favorite charity.

Happy return: Marty Rood, class of 1972, came to Saturday's Ballard High reunion lugging a heavy trophy: the Schoenfeld Scholastic Award, honoring the school's top scholar and athlete.

Rood handed the waist-high trophy over to Ballard Principal Chuck Chinn. Rood had found the trophy, which disappeared in 1978, stored in the attic of a previous winner's mom.

Although Rood first said his lips were sealed about the 1978 winner, he spelled out U-P-E-N-I-E-K-S, Ed Upenieks, a Ballard grad who now works in the family auto tire business.

Contacted yesterday, former scholar-athlete Upenieks said, "They told me I could take the trophy home to photograph it and they'd call when they needed it back. They never called."

Truth squad: There's a story making the rounds that Microsoft CEO Bill Gates' 35,000-square-foot Medina house has only two guest bedrooms. What's been overlooked is a 1,700-square-foot guesthouse with large enough accommodations for a family reunion.

The guesthouse, hailed as an architectural gem, has retractable walls and a roof garden and makes use of reclaimed timbers from a Longview lumber mill. Latest issue of "Seattlehomes" carries a rare interview with Peter Bohlin, one of the mansion's two architects. (Bainbridge Island architect Jim Cutler is the other.)

Bohlin has mixed feelings about completing the seven-year project. He said, "I'll miss the pleasure of working with this range of materials."

Pork-a-bye: Friends of Nancy and Kaspar Donier gave the couple a baby shower last week. (The Doniers, owners of Kaspar's restaurant, expect their first child in June.)

Standout gift was a rocking pig, painted pink with green rockers. The porker, a present from the Pike Place Market Foundation, is modeled after Rachel, the bronze piggy bank at the Market.

Show me the jewel: Last week's report that homegrown chef/consultant Kathy Casey had won a $7,000 diamond at the Poncho arts auction was in error. Winner was another Kathy Casey, guest of Robin Campbell of the Fisher family (Fisher Flour, KOMO Broadcasting, etc.)

Chef Casey has had dozens calling with congratulations. She says, "I wish I had won. . ."

Finale: Spotted on a bumper-sticker-festooned sports vehicle driving west on Denny Way: "He who dies with the most toys/ Is still dead."

Jean Godden's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the Local News section of The Times. Her phone is 464-8300.