Ace Hardware

Yes, you deserve an early Christmas present. And, yes, we mean you - the one who gets stuck watering old tannenbaum every year. On your hands and knees. Dodging boughs. Smacking into ornaments. Heather Shepardson, a Colorado-based inventor and entrepreneur with a background in product development, came up with a fix from all that unpleasantness. It's called the Ever-Green Watering System. It's a device that sits under your Christmas tree, posing as a wrapped package and even sporting a pretty red bow. But inside the "package" is a reservoir (which feeds into a tube, which gets placed into your tree stand and works on gravity)

A 48-year-old man was arrested after a short pursuit in connection with the Thursday morning burglary of a Glen Burnie hardware store, according to Anne Arundel County police. Officers from the Eastern District responded to an Ace Hardware store in the 7900 block of Crain Highway at approximately 3:30 a.m. Thursday and noticed Richard Scott Rotramel of Glen Burnie leaving the store's parking lot in a Chevy Cavalier, police said. Rotramel refused to stop, so officers followed the vehicle, according to police.

They were over 50 years old and they had a dream: They wanted to play volleyball.These 40 or so men had a common problem, though. They knew little or nothing about volleyball. They knew the basics, little more."We're all novices at the game," said George Kelch, who had the great notion of starting a men's 50-and-over volleyball league. "We'rewhat you would call 'backyard volleyball players.' We all basically started learning the game from scratch."From scratch, with considerable help from Bill Prunkl, veteran high school and collegiate volleyball referee.

The Firestone Tire and Service Center in the North Carroll Shopping Center closed Aug. 29."The economy is bad. Business is slow," manager Fred Onkst said.The center employed four people and had been open under the Firestone name for six years, he said.The decision to close the store was made in Akron, Ohio, at the company's corporate headquarters, Onkst said."Business was off considerably," he said, adding that he did not know exactly how much sales were off from last year.The Firestone center in Westminster at the 140 Village Shopping Center will remain open, Onkst said.

Our new year flushed in just like the old one flushed out - with plumbing problems. This time it was the toilet in the kids' bathroom. Although the problem rendered the toilet useless, it did not require the emergency assistance of a plumber. This was a repair I could do, have done in the past and was prepared to attempt again. A recent bad experience with a local plumber created an even greater incentive for me to roll up my sleeves rather than cruise the Yellow Pages. The plumbing issue and an unlit pilot light in the furnace were our cold welcome back to Georgia after a two-week hiatus.

The Carroll County commissioners and Carroll County Volunteer Emergency Services Association have teamed up to have smoke alarms installed in homes where there are none. Leon Fleming, the association's liaison to the county, asked the commissioners for money to purchase 1,000 smoke alarms "so we could put them on the apparatus and distribute them when people don't have smoke alarms in their houses." The commissioners allocated $4,000 from the general contingency account to pay for the smoke alarms.

Assuming you can stand yet another take-off on the famous line from "Field of Dreams" ("If you build it, he will come"), we offer this variation:If you make it convenient, they will recycle.Bearing out this assertion are statistics showing that 60 percent of Howard County house-dwellers recycle trash, while only 20 percent of countians living in apartments and condos recycle. That broad difference is probably explained by the fact that curbside pickup of recyclables is available to house-dwellers but not to residents of apartment complexes.

LEE DOVE, Archbishop Spalding High School director of athletics, has won the 1999 National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association's State Award of Merit.The award is presented annually to one NIAAA member in each state in recognition of service, leadership and outstanding contributions to interscholastic athletics.He will receive the award in April at the NIAAA Convention in Ocean City.During his 13 years at Spalding, Dove has added tennis, golf, cross country, and indoor and outdoor track to the sports program.

A roundup of new products and servicesTaking in black landmarksVisible Ink Press has published a book that could make your next road trip a lot more interesting. "Historic Black Landmarks: A Traveler's Guide," by George Cantor, takes readers on a 46-state tour of parks, museums, birthplaces, churches and monuments relating to African-American history and culture. Included are maps of the sites and information on hours, admission fees and special exhibits. The book is available through the Multicolor Workshop catalog (800)

The Greater Severna Park Council kicked off a cleanup and beautification campaign this week -- and plans to make it an annual event.The campaign, which will continue through Oct. 24, is the first organized effort to coordinate planting flowers and beautifying neighborhoods in Severna Park, said council President Pat Troy.The effort opened with an area cleanup, with trash deposited at a container at the Severn School parking lot. The county donated trash bags and use of the trash bin.The trash bin will again be available at the school parking lot on Oct. 24, the last day of the campaign.