We know it’s the first week of August when the zucchini bread starts showing up at The Bee’s Come-One-Come-All, You-Snooze-You-Lose office snack table. Bee staffers were treated to two different versions last week when Sandy Tannone brought in chocolate zucchini bread (baked from a recipe she found on the Internet) and Linda Baur brought in her zucchini bread with pineapple and walnuts. We can’t wait to see how many more varieties of zucchini bread will be walking through the door as the weeks go by, and the gardeners among us struggle to find new and creative ways of using the miraculous marrow that does not know when to stop growing.

There’s a new man in Kym Stendahl’s life, a three-pound Maltese named Howie. Kym said she always thought she was a big dog kind of person until she got this tiny pup. “He’s all white and just so cute and he hops like a rabbit,” she said. But she didn’t want the dog to be stuck with some kind of wimp name, so she came up with Howie, which she hopes conjures up images of “some surfer dude.”

Ernestine Dillon may be 75 and have a PhD but she likes to say she’s never too old to make a fool of herself. She and her husband, Frank, who is 77, plan to be in clown costumes walking again in the Labor Day Parade. Frank was in his costume on Wednesday at the Big Y, where he is a part-time employee; he was handing out balloons as part of the store’s employee appreciation day.

Like most teachers, Jonathan Pope was probably looking forward to a break from his regular routine at Newtown Middle School when summer break rolled around. But we know that Mr Pope, who is the director of choruses at Newtown Middle School, hasn’t been completely idle during his summer vacation. One of his projects has been to direct the Summer Chorus programs for Danbury Music Centre. Next weekend the public is invited to a free concert of the music center’s Kids’ and Teens’ choruses, directed by Mr Pope. The concert will begin at 7:30 pm at Rogers Park Middle School, which is at 21 Memorial Drive in Danbury. The program will include spirituals, show tunes and other selections.

On Monday this week, it looked like one youngster was ready for school to start again. Early morning motorists driving on Church Hill Road were treated to the sight of a white-tailed doe and her fawn waiting at the front door of Hawley School. It looked like mom had accompanied her little one on her first day of school.

Jason Glander, who organized the July 25 G-Fest, called all the way from Tuscany this week to let us know that the event raised a whopping $4,000 for the American Heart Association. Jason seemed far more excited about the success of the benefit than he was about being abroad in one of the most beautiful spots in Europe. It shows that his heart is in the right place.

Time is running out to enter your dog in The Newtown Bee’s 2004 King & Queen Dog Contest. All you have to do is stop by The Bee offices on Friday between 9 and 5, or Saturday between 9 and noon. Shannon Hicks has been taking photos of Newtown dogs for two weeks now, but this weekend is the final opportunity to enter this contest.

More than 70 dogs have visited The Bee so far, some leaving quite an impression. When they have their portraits taken, the dogs are being made to sit on a blue tarp (“It’s not a tarp, it’s a backdrop,” says Shannon), which of course picks up their scent. Last Saturday morning at least three dogs tried to make that tarp their own, lifting their legs and leaving a little something behind after they had their photo taken. “The dog owners were mortified, and I had to rinse the tarp a few times,” Shannon said. “By the end of the morning I finally had to flip it over because so many dogs spent more time sniffing around the tarp than sitting still for their pictures.”

Ugh! I’ll never understand what people see in dogs. Cats are so much more erudite, poised, and informed, which is why you should…

Read me again.