But you may be out of practice. Great. What's your plan? I've collected a few strategies from moms and experts to help get you on track.

Musso kept his word. He has been hired at KFSN, Channel 30. Musso joins KFSN veteran weather forecasters Angelo Stalis and Doug Collins. KFSN has been short one weather forecaster since Ashlee Tate left the KFSN news team in hopes of moving to a larger market.

Clovis West is bringing in two Southern California heavyweights.

In a matter of hours last weekend, it all turned Parra's way, even as fed-up Democratic leaders were "punishing" the maverick Democrat from Hanford for not being a good soldier. Parra, once considered too liberal for San Joaquin Valley politics, is now being embraced by conservatives and toasted on talk radio shows.

He thinks I am being uptight and too rigid. I would like another opinion.

But it has been a long-standing mystery who actually owned the Allensworth cemetery. The state park doesn't claim it, the farmers who have plowed near it don't claim it, and there's no cemetery district.

The Russian prime minister knew exactly what he was doing but assumed no one in the West did. And he was right.

"Hopefully, a good one," he says.

As the Democrats convene this week in Denver, and the Republicans gear up for their get-together in St. Paul, Minn., starting Sept. 1, precious little has been said about an issue that touches virtually every American family and, for a brief spell a few years ago, dominated the political agenda.

-- Allegra Dronyk, Fresno

Bee reporters Kerri Ginis and Tim Eberly have written about three instances in which Waterston took a stand on matters important to people with whom he did business. They've also written about the consequences of these stories -- Waterston resigning from the Local Agency Formation Commission, for example, and LAFCO's strengthening of its conflict-of-interest protections.

A generation ago, the world managed to survive without duct tape. My father's generation used baling wire to fix everything. Something broke, he looked for bailing wire. With limited resources, he was always making repairs and recycling old equipment -- baling wire became the perfect remedy. To "baling wire" something became the verb of choice.

Binge drinking.

Yes, I'm going to sing and dance on stage.

Not surprising, though, broadcasters and advertisers have responded to TiVo and other digital video recorders by boosting the number of paid product placements in shows -- a practice known in industry circles as "embedding" ads.

Bourdain, host of the Travel Channel's popular show, grabs you with a declaration: "Food bloggers are gonna see this show and [expletive] their cage. ... I mean, it's unbelievable here. This is the best place in the Western world to eat."

It was on the banks of the Kaweah River, which provided plenty of good water, and the surrounding soil was rich. The Stockton-Los Angeles Road ran through the town, giving it access to a regular stream of travelers. To top it off, it was named the county seat for newly formed Tulare County. But neither prosperity nor survival was in store for this tiny town with big potential.

What do these two have in common -- the man who won eight Olympics gold medals last week and the man who's a gold medalist at coke-pushing raps? More than you'd think, actually.

That, too, was the cataclysmic bursting of an insane market bubble.

It looks like any other big, black intermediate single-lens reflex camera: much more compact than a professional model, but much bigger and heavier than a pocket camera. An SLR comes with a shoulder strap because it needs one.

It would be hard to top the plight of San Diego County avocado grower Russ Hatfield, who told Ag Alert, an agriculture weekly, that he has had to cut his avocado trees down to stumps because of wildfire and water shortages.

So here's to Mike Phelps, eight golds in his pocket; and U. Bolt the sprinter, as fast as a rocket.

Does it happen in real life? Well, maybe not in such a graphic and cynical manner as was portrayed in the movie, but it certainly is true that there is a need for a better connection between the voters and the candidates. Voters need to educate themselves on the issues and articulate their concerns, and candidates need to show voters what they really stand for.

Olson, who is the national taxpayer advocate, issued a summer report to Congress identifying areas of concern the IRS needs to focus on in the 2009 fiscal year.

So begins "Stand for the Best," a new book by Thomas M. Bloch, son and nephew of the co-founders of the largest income-tax preparation service in the country.

Sometime this week, perhaps already, the drop-dead date for placing measures on the November ballot passes, thus adding another level of complexity to the multi-sided political struggle over whether the $15.2 billion deficit in the 2008-09 budget will be closed by new taxes, spending cuts, more loans or some combination thereof.

Which is great news for thousands of local hunters anticipating Monday's Labor Day-themed dove opener. And not-so-great news for rural landowners and game wardens.