Sitting casually around a table in the Richland Community Center on a recent morning, a fit-looking group of seven cyclists with the Tri-City Bicycle Club discussed the morning's ride route.

When Laurie Ellis walked into the backyard of a Benton City home, she was quickly greeted by four old friends who excitedly jumped, barked and wagged their tails.

KENNEWICK -- Ken Leaf figures he'd be poorer by more than $228 a day -- or about $41,813 for six months -- if he'd agreed to send the maximum to every charity that sent him a donation plea last winter.

They say you are what you eat and the shoes tell the man.

RICHLAND -- For bride Wendy Petersen, selecting a matron of honor was easy. All she needed was to look across the dining table at her grandmother.

KENNEWICK -- At the height of World War II, Helga Walker was a typical 9-year-old German girl who loved dolls.

PASCO -- Isaac Wilson stood at the front of the stage and delivered his next line in a booming voice that would make a Broadway actor proud.

BICKLETON -- Finding the "Bluebird Capital of the World" is not easy.

BENTON CITY -- Gurgling sounds are music to Sara Whitby's ears.

Hundreds of people across the Mid-Columbia every week are following the leader -- and that leader is usually wearing neon-colored pants.

KENNEWICK -- Wine glasses in Jamie Adams' paintings look almost real enough to drink from, and the grapes juicy enough to eat.

PASCO -- Most people remember Bill Preston as the man with the vision to create Washington state's first destination winery.

PASCO -- A sweet sound filled a community room in a west Pasco neighborhood as about a dozen musicians gathered for an unusual jam session.

Lee Daniel has spent a lifetime climbing and hiking mountains, and the retired research chemist's love for the outdoors remains undimmed by age.

PASCO -- When the five Harris siblings get together to reminisce, the story of their family's history is also Pasco's history.

Ever wished cats were more like dogs?

KENNEWICK -- Zooming around a frozen indoor pond wearing shoes balanced on blades seems like it would only appeal to the young, the reckless, the brave-hearted.

RICHLAND -- Here's a secret. For a few hours every Saturday night, I shed my mild-mannered, professional exterior and zip off across the galaxy on a rip-roaring adventure with a rag-tag band of spacefarers.

KENNEWICK -- Liliana Blanco wore a red and white shirt.

POMEROY -- The scene could be from a Currier & Ives winter wonderland print -- a pair of gentle giants effortlessly leading a sleigh across a field of newly fallen snow, their massive feet kicking up tuffs of white powder.

RICHLAND -- The door to a Richland building with a sign that reads "square dance" often gets jammed shut.

WALLA WALLA -- Walk into the Hot Poop record store on Walla Walla's Main Street, and you can't help but briefly stand still in shock.

RICHLAND -- Who needs Santa's elves when you've got Rose Crowell's workshop. The Richland woman's 14 grandchildren don't bother with wish lists because each year they know their Christmas presents from "Nana" will be handpicked and stitched with love.

KENNEWICK -- Rabbits and guinea pigs are hard not to like.

PASCO -- Charles F. Grigg's fascination with weapons has only increased with age.

BENTON CITY -- The ammo was live, and so was the Old West as fall arrived on Rattlesnake Mountain.

PASCO -- If John Perry has entered the same Halloween costume contest as you, you might as well pull your mask down over your face and go home.

They play and sing old-time acoustic music, some of it from the late 1800s.

When Nick Wallin learned in June he'd been named the new conductor of the Mid-Columbia Symphony, the first thing he did was call his parents in Michigan.

RICHLAND -- Jim Kaye can't recall how old he was when he bought his first model airplane.

WEST RICHLAND -- Ciara Potter never was a big fan of water skiing as a youngster, often bribing her dad to buy her Slurpees or other goodies just so she'd go with him.

RICHLAND -- Jim Castleberry is and always has been all about the green and gold. He's Mr. Bomber to all old-school Bombers, eager to chat about anything to do with Richland High School basketball.

KENNEWICK -- Phoenix High looks more like an office than a school, with individual work stations and a computer for every student, plenty of plastic file cabinets and even a water cooler.

Sheilah Archibald's home is filled with the finest china, hand-painted with Currier & Ives scenes, portraits or breath-taking landscapes.

At 64, Dean Hinkson passes time by tinkering with it. The retired electrician who moved to the Tri-Cities nine years ago is a master watchmaker and a master clockmaker.

Think of a home and you probably picture the standard four walls.

Dave Milton's daily lunchtime routine often includes the Columbia River, some paddles and -- if he's lucky -- a heron or some pelicans.

Ever curious, 3-year-old Melody creeps in on a conversation, extends her neck and leaves her curiously warm breath on a visitor's unsuspecting hand, nudging his notebook before pulling back.

Amateur photographer Andi Aldrich never leaves home without a camera.

"There's something about the outside of a horse that's good for the inside of a man."

As a kid, Amy Smith loved to play with soft clay and mold it into little works of art that she would paint on the weekend.

Make your way past the dogwood trees, rock-filled moats and potted herbs in Kim Welsch's front yard, and you'll stumble across a statuary figure more jungle than xeriscape.

Why the heck is it so hard to meet people?

POMEROY -- A $150,000 state grant helped pay for the new big red pole barn at the Garfield County Fairgrounds in Pomeroy.

One summer day 41 years ago, Kennewick pharmacist Corky Simmelink and a few of his friends packed up their jalopies and wives, tucked their 15 kids into rumble seats or the back of Simmelink's Dodge Brothers delilvery wagon and pointed radiators due north.

When Karin Pierce was a child -- she doesn't remember what age, but she guesses "very young" -- she practiced yoga with her mother.

When translated from its ancient Sanskrit origins, the word sangha means community. And sangha in the Tri-City yoga world a decade ago was lacking, local pros say.

Margaret Callahan's path to teaching yoga is the result of a chain of coincidences over about 25 years.

Heather Anastos was the ultimate high-powered professional five years ago. The manager of a high-level radioactive laboratory at Hanford, the Kennewick woman thought she enjoyed the stress and pressure of her job.

Thunk, thunk.