Excuse me for a moment. I need to lick the ice cream off my whiskers before I start. The Ice Cream Shop opened for the season Sunday before last and it has been hard to pass by without stopping. It makes for a very sticky keyboard, though, when my paws are coated in soft serve.

If I wore sneakers, I’d probably go through them quickly, as sneaking around is something us cats do best. I know that plenty of Newtowners run down their running shoes, though, and now there is a way to put those worn-out athletic shoes to good use. Now through May 2, the Middle Gate Green Team is organizing the sneaker recycling program that is part of a statewide sneaker recycling effort sponsored by Nike and The Connecticut Recyclers Coalition. Right down the road from me is Dr Josh Baum’s orthodontics office, one of the local drop-offs for used sneakers. Anytime between 8 am and 5 pm, his office tells me, Monday through Friday, they welcome sneaker donations. Other collection boxes are at the Booth Library in the children’s room and the main lobby; Union Savings Bank on Commerce Road; People’s United Bank on Queen Street; Stop & Shop in Sand Hill Plaza; and Newtown Savings Bank on Main Street. Donations are accepted during regular hours at these locations. Just plain old sneakers are accepted, nothing with metal parts like cleats or heelys, please, as these old soles will be recycled into new playground and athletic surfaces, appropriately enough.

Chef Patrick Wilson sneaked down to Washington, D.C., last weekend where he met up with his son, Jack, an eighth grader at Massamitten Military Academy in Woodstock, Va. The Wilsons were lucky enough to land a tour of the White House as Patrick has worked events at the Capital Hilton preparing meals for many years, including for the Heroes Ball for Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients, the Alfalfa Club Dinner Events, the Inaugural Balls for President Bush, and the US Mayors Conferences. “Jack and I went to the West Wing as guests of the Secret Service and an agent was assigned to personally escort us,” Patrick tells me. “It was really fun learning about all the small historical stuff. We visited the Oval Office, Press Room, Cabinet Room, Roosevelt Room, and the Rose Garden.” The only disappointment was that the White House staff couldn’t swing a tour of the White House kitchen, as Patrick and Jack had anticipated. Still, not everyone has a photo of himself or herself on the South Lawn of the White House.

Say, are there any experts on old postcards, stamp collections, or coin collections out there willing to donate some time to the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library? Along with the thousands of books donated for the big summer book sale, says volunteer Denise Kaiser, the Friends also receive lots of collections. Without someone knowledgeable on staff, it’s hard to know what is valuable and what is not, she says. The Friends could also use a hand sorting through the children’s books, cook books, Romance novel, engineering and business books, and a few other areas. Having background in those particular genres is a big plus, but they whole heartedly welcome anyone who is able to volunteer. Call Denise at 270-7030 or Pat at 364-0399 to volunteer.

If anyone is in the Boston area April 15, The Loft @ Tommy Doyle’s, Harvard Square, will feature Newtown’s own Melissa Faith Cartoun opening for a fellow musician, Paul Masson. In a brief e-mail home this week, the local singer/songwriter who lent her talent to the recent Hearts for Harmon benefit wrote, “I am playing at Tommy Doyle’s acoustic night again Tuesday, April 15, at 9 pm. The guy playing after me is AMAZING, and this is his first Boston show...you will definitely want to see him play so you can one day say ‘I saw him when!!’ I think we might even try to work up a duet or two! This show is free, and we had a really great time the last time I played there, so please come back.” I can tell when I’m wanted, so I’m booking my train ticket to Beantown now.

The truth is, it is inconvenient to take care of the earth in this society. But that’s no excuse. If you haven’t heard, the C.H. Booth Library is holding a series of programs on global warming issues. Next Tuesday night, April 15, you can see the Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth at the library at 7 pm. Not exactly date movie material, it certainly will open up discussion if you go.

I can only hope that it will not be too inconvenient next week for you to… Read me again.