The Braden River and Lakewood Ranch High boys and girls swim teams hit the pool for the 2011 Manatee County Championships this afternoon and G.T. Bray.

Andy Youngs and Gail Buermann preview the St. Mary, Star of the Sea, Catholic Church Christmas Bazaar, which will take place on Nov. 19.

The All Angels by the Sea Episcopal Church Women got together for its monthly meeting. Guest speaker and nutritionist Rebecca Kloss taught the women in attendance about how to read a food label. She calls her speech 'How the Heck Can I Tell if This is Good for Me?' She suggests cutting out processed foods and go back to eating fresh. Hopefully, the luncheon following the lecture was according to her nutritional guides.

Enjoy this week's Castaway cartoon.

St. Mary, Star of the Sea, Catholic Church's women's guild hosted a welcome back luncheon and first meeting following 11 a.m. mass on Tuesday, Oct. 18. And it was a packed house. The women had three types of homemade quiche and salad, and luckily made enough to feed an army.

Hundreds of youth soccer players put their skills to the test during the Braden River Soccer Club's Ninth annual Halloween Havoc Oct. 15-16. Eighty-four boys and girls teams ranging in age from U9 through U14 participated in the tournament with Braden River's U11 boys Black, U11 boys Orange, U12 boys, and U12 girls teams all winning tournament championships.

This frog enjoyed the cooler, rainy weather from outside an East County home.

Lakewood Ranch High junior Olivia Ortiz posted her fastest time on the state course, crossing the finish line in 17 minutes, 41 seconds to win the Pre-State Cross Country Invitational Oct. 15 at Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City. The Lady Mustangs scored 295 points to finish ninth out of 23 teams in the elite race. Other top performers for Lakewood include: Kristin Zarrella (19:04), Natalie Novak (20:07), Katie Wray (20:33), Ashley Platt (20:36), Michelle Last (21:17) and Emily Perez (21:32). Lakewood was without senior Devin McDermott who was out with a knee injury

We spotted this female boat-tailed grackle at the Celery Fields this morning.

Lemonade stands are always a great way for kids to get involved in a fundraiser. These girls made pink lemonade as part of the breast cancer walk, Sunday, Oct. 16 out on Siesta Key.

Teams from throughout the country competed in The Rider Sandals Big Shot Volleyball Series, which returned to Siesta Key Saturday.