Three Bellevue pharmacies are on the list of 44 King County pharmacies that will begin offering H1N1 swine flu vaccines soon. The pharmacies are: Bellegrove Pharmacy, 1200 112th Ave. N.E.; the pharmacy at QFC, 3550 128th S.E.; and Rite-Aid, 120 106th Ave. N.E.

Bellegrove is offering a walk-in clinic starting Nov. 9, but the other two locations require an appointment. For the complete list of all pharmacies and phone numbers, go to the King County Health Department Web page that lists pharmacies with the vacine.

According to the Bellevue School District, absenteeism averaged about 7 percent last week, with a few schools hitting the 10 percent mark.

Have an opinion on the best way to teach math? The Bellevue School District will hold two community meetings next week on the proposed adoption of new high-school math textbooks and curriculum materials.

The meetings will be Monday, Nov. 9, at the International School, and Thursday, Nov. 12 at Interlake High School. The sessions wrap up with a final meeting at Newport High School Nov. 16. All meetings will be held in each school's performing arts center starting at 7 p.m.

High-school math materials are a hot topic in the community right now. The Seattle School District is being sued for choosing a math series that some parents believe will exacerbate the achievement gap. The Issaquah district put its math adoption decision on hold for a year while it waits for guidance from the state Superintendent of Public Instruction. Find out more about the math adoption process in Bellevue on the district's math adoption Web page.

The Bravern brought plenty of fancy shops to Bellevue, but for many Eastsiders, the new restaurants were more interesting than the high-end goodies at Neiman Marcus.

Artisanal and John Howie Steak are among the eats offered near Hermes and Jimmy Choo, but professional eater Nancy Leson made her way to a new outpost of an old favorite: Wild Ginger. She was mostly delighted with the shiny new version of the downtown location and even blogged again re: Wild Ginger in a debate about fancy versus hole-in-the-wall Asian spots.

Bellevue has been swelling its restaurant ranks with lots of new-old restaurants lately, like Monsoon East, El Gaucho Bellevue and Barrio. Where does Wild Ginger fall for you?

Bellevue City Council candidates who were ahead on Election Night largely maintained those leads today with new vote tallies from King County.

With more than 4,000 additional ballots counted for Bellevue, incumbent Conrad Lee was the apparent winner, leading Planning Commissioner Vicki Orrico by 52.8 percent to Orrico's 47 percent.

Planning Commissioner Jennifer Robertson also was the apparent winner over former Mayor Mike Creighton and Arts Commissioner Betina Finley, with Robertson winning 48 percent of votes to Creighton's 40 percent. Finley garnered 12 percent.

Robertson said she was humbled by the support she received.

"I feel the numbers will hold, but time will tell," Robertson said.

Kevin Wallace also appeared to be winning his race over Patsy Bonincontri, widening his lead to 52 percent over Bonincontri's 48.

City Councilman Don Davidson won another four-year term on the Bellevue City Council over challenger Michael Marchand.

Election officials in King County have predicted a county-wide turnout of 56 percent. About 31 percent of the ballots have been counted so far for Bellevue. New vote tallies will be posted again on the King County Elections Web site on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

City Councilman Don Davidson has won another four-year term on the Bellevue City Council, but the outcome is a little murkier for incumbent Conrad Lee. Although he's leading in early returns tonight, the race is somewhat close, with Lee taking 53 percent to challenger Vicki Orrico's 46 percent.

Even closer is the race between Kevin Wallace and Patsy Bonincontri. Wallace is leading by a razor-thin margin of 50.95 percent of the vote; Bonincontri has 48.9 percent.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Robinson Robertson holds a modest lead over Mike Creighton, 47 percent to 41 percent. Betina Finley trails far behind.

Because it's a mail-in ballot, election officials in King County expected they would only have about half the ballots counted tonight. Fresh numbers will be posted on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, at 4:30 p.m. each day on the King Couny Elections Web site.

What was election day like for Bellevue's city council candidates? Did they think it was worth trying to campaign up until the very end? We caught up with Councilman Conrad Lee and challenger Vicki Orrico Tuesday evening to see what the day held for them.

Lee spent the weekend and the last days before the election doorbelling, keeping his campaign signs upright and in sight of drivers, and trying to win over voters who haven't made up their minds.

"That's my thing, is citizen contact," Lee said.

He said he was surprised by the number of people who said they still had not voted this weekend. Many voters seem to be waiting until the last minute to fill in the bubbles, he said.

Lee, who is trying for his fifth term on the council, said he felt good about his chances. "I had a good plan, and I executed it well," he said.

After dorbelling in all of Bellevue's 160 precincts over the course of the campaign, challenger Vicki Orrico decided she had done all she could. So instead of campaigning last weekend, she made 160 jars of jam and five pounds of almond roca.

"I feel really good," Orrico said. "We worked really hard, my whole team did. The rest is up to luck."

If the race is too close to call, Orrico may end up learning the results from the other side of the world. On Friday, she and her 14-year-old daughter are flying to Morocco as part of a group called the Center for Women and Democracy. The organization helps train women in other parts of the world who are running for elected office for the first time. Orrico has been involved with the group for a number of years.

Sound Transit will start collecting soil samples next week in Bellevue as engineers assess the soil and groundwater conditions in locations along the proposed East Link light rail route.

Drilling will start as early as Monday, with soil samples collected from as deep as 200 feet. The drilling is limited to the alignment recommended by the Sound Transit board in May, which includes two options for downtown -- a surface route and the more expensive tunnel route.

Geotechnical contractors will drill about 100 soil borings near areas where structures like transit stations, elevated platforms, retained earth fills and tunnels are proposed, Sound Transit said.

Drilling will take place along Bellevue Way Southeast, the Mercer Slough area, 112th Avenue Southeast, downtown, Northeast 12th Street and the Bel-Red area, and will continue through mid-2010.

Drilling will limit some street parking, and crews will direct traffic and pedestrians. Drilling equipment noise is similar to a running truck engine with some hammering, Sound Transit said.

The Times' Tan Vinh ventured out to Stir Martini + Raw Bar to check out the happy hour at one of the newest additions to the Bellevue cocktail scene. Read his review here.

He thought the place was pretty, but he wasn't won over by the deconstructed martini. Do you agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments below.