Holiday sparkle on Brookside

If the neighbors on Brookside Way happen to notice the decorations at 2480 it is thanks to Jack Paar.

His aunt, Barbara Lefebvre, says Jack does all the decorations at their house.

"Every year we are decorated for Easter, Christmas, the Fourth, Halloween. He does a beautiful job," she said.

Jack is retired from the U.S. Navy and lives with the Barbara and her husband of 52 years, Edward.

"The display of the Fourth of July is beautiful at night," Barbara says

The family has lived in Carson City for 13 years.

Elbert Myer came by with a copy of a story about the Carson City bypass dated Dec. 15, 1987.

The story written by former Appeal editor Don Ham comes complete with a map of the route that is very similar to the one proposed today.

One tidbit from the story was that the bypass would go right through Lucky's market on Highway 50, but that it would not be torn down until work was to begin. The whole shopping center was taken down at the end of 2000.

Bids for connecting Carson City's overpasses are supposed to be opened Thursday.

Elbert has been living in Carson since June 1980, when he came to work for Woody Loftin as a carpenter and cabinetmaker.

A union man, Elbert says he was the only carpenter willing to go into Chicago's south side.

I received an e-mail from Judith Harris, who wrote that her son, Evan, got a job at Staples, thanks to the Nevada Appeal Job Fair.

I met Judith in connection with the north side of Dayton State Park, where volunteers completed a walking path. Judith says she runs about four times around it once a week.

"I need to get out here and pull some weeds around the path," she said.

When Judith and I last communicated, she was teaching adult education at Dayton High School. While the program there was cut, Judith says she's proud of the five full-time students who passed their high school equivalency test.

The former Los Angeles business teacher spent the rest of the semester substituting at Silver Stage High School in Silver Springs.

"I'm continuing to look for a teaching position in the fall," she said.

Harold Willard and Joe Di Lonardo have been named to the 2003 Republican chairman's honor roll.

Harold and Joe serve as co-chairmen of the National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman's Business Advisory Council.

Both men were named by Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., who is chairman of the congressional committee.

The both qualify to receive the committee's highest honor, the Republican Gold Medal, which will be presented later this year.

Best wishes to former Nevada Appeal Douglas Bureau chief Christy Chalmers, who broke her leg last week while mountain biking in Storey County.

Christy was news editor of The Record-Courier before leaving for a job with International Gaming Technology last year. She also served in the Capitol Bureau with Geoff Dornan during the 1999 Legislature.

I received an e-mail from former Appeal writer Ronnell Jones, who is housesitting for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Ronnell and husband, K.C., have moved to Washington, D.C., and will be taking care of the justice's house until September.

Ronnell was graduate student of the year at UNR and a Nevada journalist of merit.

An attempt to liberate the Lobster Pound's 6-foot lobster ended by the side of the Truckee River, not far from the Reno restaurant.

The fiberglass crustacean was taken from his home on the roof of the restaurant in the Mayberry Landing shopping center last weekend.

Restaurant partner Sean Gamble said a couple found the lobster by the side of the Truckee and returned him to his owners on Wednesday.

"They found it near McCarran and Mayberry," she said. "It looks they might have tossed it into the river."

However, the lobster won't be back where he belongs for a little while.

"He was pretty bad," she said. "We are getting him fixed up, but we have to send him to a boat shop."

Kurt Hildebrand is acting city editor at the Nevada Appeal. Reach him at 881-1215.