And now, we head north of the Canal and over to Ballard, land of Norwegians, fishermen, and old drivers. Except that the Norwegians, fishermen, and old drivers all sold out to DINKs and condo developers a couple of years ago. But they have cupcakes. And Archie McPhee. Anyway.

Remember that you get a full week to decide who you’re voting for. Vote early and vote often!

BALLARD REGIONAL
Opening Round
February 8
#1 Defective Yeti vs #8 West Seattle Blog
Matthew Baldwin’s web cred is well established, with an empire that stretches from yetis to trade tricks to the morning news. He’s one of the Cool Kids of the Web. (I, meanwhile, muster out a Z-list web existence despite having a website before half of MySpace was born.) But West Seattle Blog? They have a posse, running over the competition in the qualifier. Can they keep it up? Will we see a massive upset that will make West Seattleites spontaneously roll Alaska Junction?

#4 Electrolicious vs #5 UDub Dish
Ariel Meadow Stallings is a bit of an unknown to me, except that she scored well enough in the math to land a #4 slot. She has a book, I know that much. And she runs the Salon of Shame. UDub Dish is the lone representation of Husky sports in the tourney (though there are UW alums throughout). It’s a tough time to be a UDub fan.

#2 Orangette vs #7 #!/usr/bin/girl
It’s new and old here — Molly’s Orangette getting major buzz from the media for her food lit writing, while Zannah got her major buzz six years ago by winning one of the first Bloggies.

#3 Gluten-Free Girl vs #6 BlatherWatch

Shauna, of course, is a Metblogs alum and has made a name for herself writing about tip-toeing around gluten and turning into a foodie. Of course she was going to be here. BlatherWatch watches over what passes for talk radio in this town. Man, it’s terrible. If we had a dollar for every minute they’ve talked about the viaduct, we could build a replacement viaduct AND a tunnel AND have enough to tear them both down and give everyone their own pony.

Tomorrow is the last stop of the first round — the U District bracket. Ready for some teriyaki? Good, because that’s all there is to eat anymore on the Ave. But there are craft nuts, baseball nuts, and just plain nuts waiting there for us. And some realtors.

Again, voting continues in the other regionals:
West Seattle (through Monday)
Capitol Hill (through Tuesday)