Barry Bonds hits 7 home runs at Los Altos High School during filming of Japanese comedy sports show

San Francisco Giants baseball great Barry Bonds hit seven home runs at Los Altos High School Dec. 16 during the filming of a Japanese television show that pitted the former Los Altos Hills resident against comedian Takaaki Ishibashi in a mock baseball game.

Producers moved the show’s filming to the high school Monday morning after several other venues fell through.

Stories for the holidays

District attorney investigates possible ‘conflict of interest’ at Cupertino Union School District

Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is currently in the process of evaluating allegations that the Cupertino Union School District misused over $25 million in public construction funds, according to a top offical in the county district attorney’s office.

Special Assistant District Attorney Bill Larsen said he received a written complaint against the school district Thursday, but will not be able to determine if a preliminary review or investigation is necessary until the end of the week.

Three teens arrested for string of local break-ins while 4th suspect escapes

An alert neighbor and a residential alarm disrupted a string of burglaries in south Los Altos Thursday morning.

Los Altos Police arrested three San Jose men in the Richardson Avenue neighborhood near the intersection of Grant and Fremont roads during a three-hour search of the area after a resident told police there were “suspicious” men in her neighbor’s yard at 8:04 a.m.. A fourth suspect escaped on foot.

LAH council denies variance for Winbigler project

Had the property owners who demolished the historic Winbigler home admitted their mistake rather than blamed the city staff, Los Altos Hills City Council members hinted they might have agreed to let construction continue on the proposed new 23,000- square-foot residence.

No such admission came and Thursday council upheld the planning commission’s Sept. 12 decision 4-1 to deny property owners Gordon Campbell and Maria Ligetti their request for a permit to construct a new residence with a 52-foot height variance on the corner property on Campo Vista and Fremont Ave.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Los Altos School District recently disclosed the school renovation budget. As a parent in the district, I was surprised to learn that the district has already spent almost 80 percent of the renovation fund but half of the existing eight schools have not yet been renovated.

If the school board were to move forward with renovating Loyola, Oak and Santa Rita next year, according to the budget, there will be about $2 million left to renovate Bullis in 2004-05. The school renovation project so far has spent $80 million on items that were budgeted for $70 million. This is a 15 percent cost overrun. If this cost overrun pattern were to continue, there would be absolutely no money left to renovate Bullis. If the school is not renovated in the next couple of years, it will have to be closed.

Christmas story according to Luke, Ch. 2

(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

Weddings

Send your wedding and engagement announcements to Richard Billings at the Los Altos Town Crier, 138 Main St., Los Altos 94022.

Photos are welcome. If you want your photo returned, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. For more information, call 948-9000, ext. 318, or e-mail

TOWN CRIER OBITUARIES FOR DEC. 25

She worked for Varian, Benson and Acuson until retirement. She was a longtime volunteer at El Camino Hospital and Mountain View Senior Center.

Sonia loved her volunteer work, which she continued in her new home. She enjoyed needlepoint, reading, gardening and collecting curios.

Holiday funds target points of need

Not all homeless people consider their plight inevitable. Some really are working to change their lot.

Take Rose for instance. She has been able to get a warm dinner meal and a warm place for the night because of the services provided by the Community Homeless Alliance Ministries (CHAM) in downtown San Jose. Her alternative has been to live in a park. But Rose has worked as a paralegal and is active each day seeking work.

Adobe Animal Hospital poised for profit despite ownership change, economy

It used to be that a veterinary hospital was a recession-proof business. Not anymore. Vet hospitals are just as vulnerable to downsizing if not to going belly up.

Rather than roll over, Adobe Animal Hospital, a prominent pet hospital in downtown Los Altos, is positioning itself for profit despite the flat economy. Furthermore, it’s doing it on the heels of the breakup between business partners Jerry Berg and Dave Roos - a breakup that will cost Adobe $1.5 million.

Adobe always stayed ahead of the curve

Dave Roos, D.V.M, started Adobe in 1964. He built it from scratch on a plot of land he purchased on First Street. Former partner Jerry Berg, D.V.M, joined in 1965. “He’s an incredibly smart vet, who also saw potential here, so after one year I made him a full partner,” said Roos.

Despite their differences, staying ahead of the curve was the one thing the partners had in common. They were early adopters of technology, such as ultrasound equipment and desktop computers. Going digital has enabled Adobe to become a paperless hospital, where staff can access records from any computer on site.

Hold on to your marbles — retro-toy exhibit on the way to the Los Altos History Museum

“Toys and Pastimes,” the Los Altos History Museum’s new exhibit, will be on display Jan. 9 to May 4. The opening reception is scheduled 2-4 p.m., Jan. 12.

The exhibit will include historic toys and interactive tables with toys that can be handled.

Cleft lips and palates cured by Rotoplast

Rotarian Tracie Murray introduced Alexander Ellenberg as a doctor who works in a different type of health care. Ellenberg is a plastic surgeon who volunteers with Rotoplast, a Rotary plastic surgery program.

Rotoplast is an organization founded in San Francisco in 1991 that sends Rotarians to Latin America, where cranial-facial deformities are five times more prevalent than in the United States, to perform plastic surgery on children with congenital disorders.

Bullis students give fire department $32,000

Christina Quattrone and five of her Bullis-Purissima schoolmates decided to do something special for the fire department after 9/11. Their ingenuity and creativeness in making commemorative pins and stamps for 9/11 and asking for donations recently resulted in a significant gesture.

Last Monday they made an appointment with Fire Chief Ben Lopes in the Foothill College Fire Station and gave him a check for $32,071.

St. Francis students get head start in journalism by visiting U.S. Congress

Francesca Budelli and Nicole Mendez, Los Altos residents and seniors at St. Francis High School, Mountain View, attended the National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C., Nov. 5-10.

This leadership development program invites high school students, based on scholastic merit, community involvement and leadership contributions, to interact with today’s national leaders.

LAHS girls lose in a nail-biter

If there was ever such a thing called a good loss, the Los Altos High girls basketball team came close to having one.

After a season-opening win, the Eagles lost their six consecutive non-league game at the hands of visiting American from Fremont, 52-48, on Dec. 18. But unlike its previous five losses when it was unable to pull out of cold spells, Los Altos kept its poise and took the match right down to the wire before succumbing.

Local SILVAR presents realtors with awards

Members of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors (SILVAR) meet at Michael’s at Shoreline each year for their holiday breakfast program and to present their annual achievement awards.

Last Friday, several hundred realtors from the Los Altos/Mountain View SILVAR district started their holiday season with the Los Altos High School Main Street Singers cheerfully serenading them with a half-hour of Christmas songs before the awards were presented.

Downsizing to an active lifestyle The golf course is now their back yard

Pick up the average retirement brochure and you won’t find Linda and Ted Hoff’s picture. That’s because the new type of retiree living in our area who downsizes is energetic, vigorous, driven and not about to settle into inactivity.

The Hoffs are leaving a 4,600-square-foot house in Los Altos Hills and moving into a cozy home on the Seascape Golf Course in Aptos. The new house is half the size of the present one, but it has enough room for the children when they come visiting.

The key to this safe business is experience

Although most people use lock devices without ever encountering problems, there sometimes comes a day when they need help.

“With the power outages the last few days, we fielded over 50 calls from people who couldn’t get their car out of the garage,” said Kurt Jehning, co-owner, with his brother Neil, of Mountain View Door Closer Key & Lock Service Inc.