GIGA GRANADA HILLS

View Larger Map If you have a child under the age of ten who was immunized at the H1N1 clinic we had in Granada Hills last month, it's time to have them immunized again; the CDC recommends that children under the age of ten receive two doses of vaccine, four weeks apart. No word yet on a second vaccine clinic in Granada Hills, but in nearby Pacoima, there will be a clinic today, held at the Ritchie Valens Recreation Center,10736 Laurel Canyon Blvd. Avoid long lines by delaying your visit until late afternoon; the clinic is open until 5:00 p.m. CDC H1N1 Information Page

Thursday night, Reseda Boulevard was completely shut down near Lassen -- it tangled up traffic for miles and made it tough to get in and out of Granada Hills. Rumors swirled about a car bomb, a bomb threat at CSUN, a bomb threat at the Fire Station. But the Daily Sundial reported the reason why: "a man drove up to the fire station, had a car full of explosives and wanted to get rid of them." Wow. Why let the bomb squad have all of the fun? If that guy had a car full of explosives, all he'd have to do is add a sleeping bag and a case of beer and head straight out of town on Highway 14, and he'd have all the makings of an excellent weekend in the desert.

Granada Hills resident Eileen Smulson never owned a dog -- or even thought of owning one -- until after she was in her fifties and her husband persuaded her to adopt a dog from the Petco in Porter Ranch. The dog, whom the couple named Ginger, quickly moved from a cold cage in a shelter to the couple's bedroom floor, and then to their bed. During a future visit to the West Valley Animal Shelter with a friend, Eileen noticed a sign that said the shelter needed donations of blankets and towels for the animals -- they had no budget to provide these items. Eileen, who had extensive experience working with charities, decided to try to collect fifty or a hundred blankets for the shelter. Within a month, that turned into 400 blankets, and in another two weeks the number doubled again as Eileen began placing drop-off boxes in local pet stores. The Daily News wrote a story on her project, called " Operation Blankets Of Love ," and the operation has snowballed into a full time job...

An oasis of cute in an otherwise homely shopping center, Good Pho You is like so many experiences one has in Granada Hills: a pleasant surprise hidden beneath an unglamourous exterior. But that's always been the name of the game in GH: scratching the surface. Located near the busy intersection of Balboa and Chatsworth, this Vietnamese noodle shop's sign doesn't face Balboa Boulevard; it faces the Casitas Care Center, so it's easy to miss from a speeding car unless you're speeding to visit your hundred- year-old grandma. But the positive Yelp reviews didn't steer me wrong; this place delivers the goods. Hooray for pho! I had the #4: the pho for "Meatball Lovers," because its name described me. I love meatballs of all stripes, but I especially adore the sproing-y textured Vietnamese style that give your teeth a jolly, bouncy feeling as you eat them. They fight back as you chew, but it's more of a giggly pillow fight than a slugfest. Toss so...

Enjoy this Granada-Hills-based band, Alex and the Hwangjays. I think you will.

Our little green triangle is under construction. Everyone in Granada Hills knows it, but few have ever walked in it, and even fewer know that the tiny green space at the intersection of Zelzah and Chatsworth has a name: Granada Hills Veterans Memorial Park . The back side of the "Welcome To Granada Hills" sign in the park has a plaque paying tribute to Granada Hills residents who died in Vietnam, and the area is about to receive more items of tribute: bricks engraved with veterans' names', and a brass statue of a little boy giving a bear hug to a folded American flag . According to SFV News, the statue was donated by Jake Parunyan, owner of Kenn Cleaners.

Quality Cleaners, on Balboa Boulevard just south of San Fernando Mission, will remain closed indefinitely after a motorist crashed their car through the shop's front window yesterday morning at 8:00 a.m. The shop owner refused to comment other than to say a lawsuit is pending after the crash, and that everything else surrounding the incident -- when and if the store will reopen, what repair costs will be -- was "undetermined." Officer Khoury of Valley Traffic Division said that the driver was a 47 year old female who simply "confused the gas and the brake," and that the driver was not intoxicated. The owners of Top Donut, the shop next door which does a bustling business at that time of the day, said that the driver was one of their regular customers. The driver was not injured in the wreck, but a person on the sidewalk suffered minor injuries. KCal 9 Coverage Daily News Coverage