Perhaps you’ve heard about the wonderful story out of Oregon this past weekend, where two Central Washington University softball players carried an injured opponent from Western Oregon around the bases after she suffered an injury after hitting a home run.Sara Tucholsky would have been called out if her teammates helped her around the bases after injuring her knee, and her home run would have been reduced to a single if she was lifted for a pinch-runner. The homer effectively ended Central’s season, as Western Oregon clinched the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship with the win. Only the league winner moves on in the postseason.I don’t think I’ve ever heard a story that more fully encompasses the tenets of sportsmanship and compassion for one’s fellow athlete. The Central players believed that Tucholsky should not be penalized for injuring herself, since she was good enough to hit the ball over the fence.Check out tomorrow’s paper for the full story, but I had to mention this heartwarming tale of what it means to be a competitor, but still have a heart. 

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The World on Wednesday identified one of the youths charged in an a home invasion robbery as the son of a law enforcement officer.

Under what circumstances do you think such a family relationship should be reported?

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I stopped to fill up in Entiat on Wednesday on the way to a meeting with emergency planners who wanted to ask questions about reporting and news organizations.

At the pump, I overheard two guys complaining about the price of gas and saying it could top $5 a gallon this summer.

Then, on the way back to Wenatchee from Chelan, I found myself, driving an Xb, which is sort of a big roller skate, behind a Hummer towing a trailer.
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A woman stopped into The Wenatchee World office to tell us that she and others who live at 527 N. Chelan Ave. were recently given 30 days to move out. It’s a low income apartment building, and she said she and some of the other residents there struggle to varying degrees with mental illnesses. She’s (more…)

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Saturday morning I attended the Apple Blossom Youth Parade. Okay, so I didn’t exactly attend the parade per se, I was more a part of the parade if you want to get technical.

Allow me to explain.

My assignment was to cover the event while riding a float along the parade route. I happened to hop on board a float with the stipulation that I had to ride next to a clown. Snicker, a delightful and extremely happy human being, ended up being my clown companion for the morning.

I’ve covered all sorts of things while working at The World — including carnies, wildfires, plane crashes and strange criminal cases — but riding in a parade with a clown takes the cake as far as interesting assignments is concerned. I had a blast chronicling the parade from a float’s-hand-perspective. In case you missed it Monday, you can read about my clowning around at the Youth Parade here.

I took lots of photos while riding in the parade, some of them are below. You can also see lots more Apple Blossom photos over on The World’s Apple Blossom page.

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I love Apple Blossom for the Food Fair. I love the Food Fair not only for the piroshkys, funnel cakes, barbecue sandwiches, corn dogs, noodles and chocolate-covered bananas, but for the people, the dogs (which are no longer allowed there during the festival), the sun (usually), the smells and the smiles on the faces of everyone strolling up and down the sidewalks. It seems like the entire city is there. OK, there are a few people who would rather complain about the congestion at the intersection of Orondo and Chelan avenues than be one of the many searching for the best parking spot, but let’s pretend those curmudgeons don’t exist.

For a week and a half, Wenatchee turns into a place where neighbors run into each other in the main park in the city center. It reminds me of Mexico, France, Spain and Italy. In the evenings there, people gather in the plazas in city centers, strolling and gathering in one pleasant place. Often in those places, food vendors sell snacks and trinkets too. Apple Blossom really makes Wenatchee become a city with a sense of neighborliness, and most of that revolves around the Food Fair. At no other time of the year do people flock to the main city park in the evening here. I have a theory: food brings people together.

With the weather being so cold this year, I’ve only been to the Food Fair twice, and once was for work. It’s a pity. I type two blocks from the food, and I’ve been wanting a chocolate-covered banana with nuts for two weeks now.

For lunch yesterday, I ate a chicken Doner sandwich. It was good and not too greasy. Today I’m thinking of eating a piroshky or maybe one of those huge sausages with onions and peppers. But then a chocolate-covered banana might put me over the top. When I was a kid, piroshkys were my favorite food fair item. One year I ate so many that it made me sick. I tended to do that. Now I try not to.

This photo is one I took on Friday for our online feature with photos of people enjoying Apple Blossom. It was taken at the Food Fair. They really do look like they’re having a good time.

I really want to know if I’m missing something. We only have five more days of Food Fair finds. Is there something at the Food Fair that would be a travesty to miss out on? What do make sure you eat when the booths pop up in the park?

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On Monday Mrs. Applesauce and I did something we have always wanted to do since moving to Wenatchee more than a year ago — we took a tour of the Aplets & Cotlets Factory in Cashmere.

Yes, I know it’s a completely touristy thing to do, and I’m sure it’s something most every Chelan County resident has experienced before, but we both wanted to experience it for ourselves.

The tour, which lasted about seven minutes, included a brief history of Aplets & Cotlets (the original pot used for the first batch of the chewy candies is on display) and a guided walk through two rooms of the production facility. Along with learning a bit of history, I also learned that a healthy version of Aplets & Cotlets that contains flaxseed is in the works and that this year the company is expected to ship 3,000,000 boxes of the candy.

Personally, I don’t like the taste of either Aplets or Cotlets (but perhaps I would enjoy the chocolate-covered variety) but it was fun to see and smell candy being produced.

The tour ended in the packing area, where the candies made their way down a conveyor belt and workers in hair nets made sure the gooey confections made it into their boxes.

As I was watching the workers, I couldn’t help but think of the classic “I Love Lucy” episode where Lucy and Ethyl work at a candy plant. I inwardly laughed and cracked a massive smile playing out the same scenario replacing Lucy and Ethyl with Aplets & Cotlets workers.

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I just got an e-mail informing me that The Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market is changing locations. The market, which is set to open May 10, will be located in the parking lot behind the Applewood Grill adjacent to the railroad tracks.

In January it was announced that the market will be relocating to a block on Columbia Street between First and Palouse streets due to construction on Riverside Drive. No word on why the most recent change in the change of location was made. You can read the announcement here.

Also, I got word that Wenatchee’s City Council will likely postpone making a decision on whether to increase vehicle tabs by $20 to some time next year.

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Few things are as comforting as warm chocolate chip cookies and milk. Last night, Kathryn Stevens, Brian Adamowsky and I spent a couple of hours mixing dough, chatting and, well, eating cookies. However we cookie bakers forgot to drink the milk until we had already eaten our share of cookies. It was all still good.

Baking cookies is one of the most satisfying ways to use the kitchen. At my house, we almost always have all the necessary ingredients waiting in the pantry. I love how quick it is for the ingredients to to go from flour, butter and sugar to warm, gooey and delightful.

A regular Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe was used for one batch, and the other batch was a variation on Chocolate Hazelnut Crinkle Cookies from the 2006 December issue of Gourmet Magazine. The December issue of Gourmet is one I look forward to with as much anticipation as opening presents on Christmas morning. It is a present filled with mouth-wateringly good cookie recipes.

For the crinkle cookies, I didn’t have hazelnuts and none of us really felt like adding any nuts to the cookies anyway, so they were nut-free. Because they make almost any cookie better, we added 6 ounces of chocolate chips. I also used 1/4 cup of cream instead of whole milk, because that’s what I had on hand and used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder, which is a Dutch-processed cocoa powder, for the same reason. I think natural cocoa powder would work just fine. We didn’t chill the dough. Instead, we made them just like regular chocolate chip cookies, dropping them onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. We also waited until after the cookies were baked to add the powdered sugar, none of us felt like rolling them in the sugar prior to baking. It’s way easier to dust the little brown blobs with sugar once they’re on the cooling racks. Over all, I think they turned out fantastically.

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When I’m not hanging out at public meetings, hitching rides on parade floats or blogging about the goings on here in Wenatchee, I enjoy practicing my favorite mode of escapism by powering on my RROD-free XBox 360 and playing video games.

Last night I happened to be awake around midnight so I dropped by Hastings to pick up a copy of what is sure to be the biggest-selling video game of all time (for now, of course) “Grand Theft Auto IV.”

In September 2007 when “Halo 3″ was released I wrote about its local midnight release and all the Harry Potter-esque hoopla surrounding it for The World. How much hype was there surrounding “Halo 3?” Enough for the game to make about $170 million in its first day of sales.

Some analysts predict “Grand Theft Auto IV will sell 9 million copies its first week and top more than $300 million in its first week of sales. Those are some staggering numbers for any type of entertainment product, let alone a video game. The game is getting stellar reviews in case you’re curious.

Don’t believe all those video game Web site reviews? Then read this New York Times review, which calls the game “a simultaneously adoring and insightful take on modern America.”

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