Johnnie Gabriel Closes Art & Design Show House Exhibit

1. Marietta's own Johnnie Gabriel will put the finishing touches on the Art & Design Show House with a champagne toast and cooking demonstration from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday. The event with Gabriel, owner of and cooking cousin of Paula Deen, will benefit the .

The Encore Champagne Celebration will be hosted at the Lawrence House Art & Jewelry Gallery, a historic home located adjacent to the Show House, 21 Whitlock Drive. Seats are limited. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased at www.ArtAndDesignShowHouse.com. For information, call 770-528-1444 x18.

2. Don't forget that today marks the first day of the extended at Marietta Square! The 2.0 version of the popular Saturday version is a bit different in that it runs from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. and will be set up on Mill Street between the corner of Church and West Park Square and the railroad tracks. Plus, there are whole new set of vendors!

3. The City of Marietta has begun accepting applications for the 2011 July 4 parade. Bands, military units, civic organizations, beauty queens, scouts, local businesses and others can sign up online.

4. The shredding results from Keep Cobb Beautiful, Keep Marietta Beautiful and Keep Smyrna Beautiful are in, and the Document Shredding Days they sponsored in April with Iron Mountain resulted in more than 71,000 pounds of paper collected, shredded and recycled in three hours.

5. Today is Neighbor Day in honor of Fred Rogers, the greatest neighbor in history and creator of the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood program. Won't you be my neighbor?