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We have the good fortune to live in a region where trails into the peace and serenity of open space are just moments from home. When I am asked for my favorite, it's tough to choose. There are just too many. But the Arrowhead Loop at South County's newest open space preserve is a top candidate.

Sunday Night Lights. That’s what we’re talking about. It will be under typically dour-gray skies when the San Francisco 49ers travel north to clash with their new rivals, the Seattle Seahawks. The lights will come on for the National Football Conference championship. It’s a late afternoon game – 3:30 west coast start – built for prime time TV around the country and it has EPIC written all over it. As a longtime 49ers fan, you have to love it. There’s nothing better to stoke the fan fires than a bitter rivalry, and this new Hatfield-and-McCoys-worthy feud harkens back to the old days when the Los Angeles Rams were all things rotten. This blossoming match-up might even be better since the trash-yakking Seahawks are coached by “Pretty Boy” Pete Carroll who left USC just in time to duck under the trail of rules violations and NCAA sanctions. Former Stanford and now 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh doesn’t like Pete one bit, and that’s the thing he’ll have to overcome to win Sunday. Jim would like nothing better than to run it down Pete’s team’s throat – especially in the Red Zone. But he has to be smarter than that, he has to be creative offensively when it counts, he has to balance smash-mouth football with Bill Walsh genius and he has to pretend that squeaky Pete on the opposite sideline is just a lousy rendition of a Disney character.

Tacos. Everyone has a favorite style of taco, perhaps two or three. Some enjoy a simple crunchy-shelled fast food style. Others enjoy something traditional with a few ingredients. A few enjoy tacos with a little fusion of another culture’s culinary influence. One of my favorites - of which there are many - is a specific taqueria or street-style taco. It is the featured recipe this week, and with a little adaptation from how it is commonly made, is quite easy to replicate at home.

Everything is shaping up for a horrendous mosquito season. Not

Local artist Lorna Saiki was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, attended the University of Hawaii and later became a Pan American stewardess. She traveled the world many times over with intercontinental flights throughout her five years as a stewardess. When she settled in Northern California, she worked in the health care industry until retirement.

Maybe your Fourth of July barbecue didn't go off as planned. Burned, undercooked or dropped on the ground and covered with ants—on some backyard chefs the art of the grill is lost. There may be hope on the way. Anand Gala, the owner of nine...