True or False? Chickens make great pets.

Apparently, lots of Raleigh residents think that they do. If you go on this year's Henside the Beltline Tour d'Coop (a self-guided tour of backyard chicken coops in some of Raleigh 's most distinguished neighborhoods) you'll be able to meet some urban chickens and their owners, and form your own opinions. You'll also enjoy some clucks (and chuckles) along the way.

The tour takes place this Saturday, May 17 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and features backyard flocks in Avent West, Oakwood, Five Points and other Raleigh neighborhoods.

Approximately 20 coops are on this year's tour, many of which feature rare and unusual breeds of chicken and innovative space-saving chicken housing. What do the neighbors think? Does the HOA approve? The only way to find out is to get your tail feathers off the couch and check out the chickens!

Tickets for the Henside the Beltline Tour d'Coop are available at several Raleigh locations including the Whole Foods Market at Ridgewood Shopping Center. The tour benefits Urban Ministries of Wake County, so the cost of admission is a donation of canned food or dollars for the charity.

The NC Division of Public Health has recently gone public with some information that they have apparently known for a couple of years: Walnut Creek and Rocky Branch Creek are contaminated with PCBs, which are a class of chemicals known to cause serious health problems in humans and wildlife.

These streams, which run through the city of Raleigh (Rocky Branch runs through areas that include the NC State Campus and Raleigh's Central District before emptying into the Neuse River) were likely contaminated by PCBs that were leaked from various Ward Transformer company facilities in South Raleigh. Ward Transformer has been involved with several Raleigh-Durham area PCB mishaps: one of their Triangle-area facilities was even declared an EPA Superfund site due to PCB contamination.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has issued a fish consumption advisory, stating that it may be harmful to eat carp or catfish from the affected streams more than once per month. The advisory also suggests that other types of fish caught in the affected areas be eaten no more often than once per week.

There are several other bodies of water in the Raleigh-Durham area that are known to be contaminated with PCBs. These include Crabtree Creek, the Neuse River just below Crabtree Creek, Brier Creek and Lake Crabtree.

The state of NC and the city of Raleigh are working to get warning signs posted in popular fishing spots along the contaminated waterways.

The 29th annual Artsplosure Raleigh Arts Festival is going to be held in Raleigh's Moore Square this weekend (May 17 and 18). Over 170 artists (many of them locally-based) will be participating in the festival's art market, which is a great place to buy everything from brightly colored ceramic teapots to hand-woven shawls.

Kids attending the event will enjoy Kidsplsure's music and activities, including painting, craft-making and dancing--but wait--the family fun doesn't stop there: kids can also take part in the fun at Marbles Kids Museum "Kids Rock Artsplosure" where they can dress up like rock stars, design their own CD covers and listen to live music performed by Baron Von Rumblebuss and Big Bang Boom.

The whole family can also enjoy two stages of live music, food and a whole array of activities and entertainment. Admission is free.

Triangle-area diners will have a great excuse to go out for lunch or dinner next week: from May 12-18, a few self-selected Raleigh-area restaurants (including local favorites such as Frazier's, Irregardless Café and Zely & Ritz) are offering promotional prix fixe menus in order to celebrate the First Annual Triangle Restaurant Week. (Although it's called Triangle Restaurant Week, all 24 of the participating restaurants are located in the Raleigh area, most of them inside the beltline.)

Triangle Restaurant Week is modeled after similar events that have become popular in "big cities" across the country: participating restaurants will offer a three course meal (appetizer, entree and desert) at a relatively low fixed price--in this case, $15.08 for lunch and $25.08 for dinner.

If your mouth is already watering, go ahead and make your reservations--then enjoy some of Raleigh 's finest dining at a discount!

May 12-16 is National Bike to Work Week, and the city of Durham is going to help its residents celebrate: the Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission is sponsoring a Cyclist's Social at Tyler's Taproom (Wed. 5:00-7:00 p.m.) and a Bike to Work Day Breakfast at Mad Hatter's Café and Bake Shop (Fri. 7:00-9:00 a.m.).

Cyclists' who attend these events will enjoy free food and prize giveaways, and attendees of the Bike to Work Day Breakfast will also get free bike safety checks and adjustments courtesy of REI.

If you have any questions about these events, or general questions about bicycling in Durham, contact Dale McKeel, the Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator (Durham really does take cycling seriously!) by emailing dale.mckeel@durhamnc.gov or calling (919) 560-4366.

Tens of thousands of Raleigh-Durham area voters (including 37,460 in Wake County alone, according to the News and Observer) have already cast their ballots in this spring's primary election. This past Saturday was the last day of one-stop early voting, but if you weren't among the early birds, it's not too late for you to vote.

Tuesday's primary election is open to all registered voters (unfortunately, on-site voter registration ended on Saturday along with the early voting). Local polling places will be fully staffed and are preparing for a large crowd, which, hopefully, will minimize the need for voters to wait in line an excessively long time.

In any case, it's not a bad idea to budget some extra time if you are planning to vote on Tuesday--many folks who voted this past weekend had to queue up for half and hour or more.

Keep in mind that this primary election is a decisive one for many local and state offices as well as being important in the selection of our next Democratic presidential nominee, so it's a good idea to study a sample ballot for your local election.

So, when you go to vote on Tuesday, go prepared: bring your patience, your sunscreen (in case you have to wait in line outside of your polling place), and a list of candidates that you intend to vote for (the voting process will be quicker if you have a list to refer to). Oh, and don't forget to get yourself one of those little "I voted!" stickers!

It was a tough day for lunch in Raleigh today--the meal eluded me for several hours as I scoured the city, searching for a lunch spot to call my own.

My first lunch attempt of the day took place at Neomonde, a Middle Eastern restaurant that has gotten some great reviews and has even won a "Best in the Triangle Award" from the Independent Weekly. I arrived there at 11:00 a.m. on the dot, anticipating my first taste of their allegedly delectable food. The restaurant was deserted. I placed my order, then sat down and waited. Twenty five minutes later, my food still hadn't arrived, although a gaggle of customers who had poured in at about 11:20 were already being served their lunch entrees.

I had to wait in line for about five minutes to even ask about my order, which, apparently had never made it to the kitchen. Several other customers had the same complaint. No staff member could figure out what had gone wrong, but they invited us to get back in line and place our orders again. Instead, I chose to ask for a refund. It only took me another five minutes or so to get it, and then I hit the road again in search of lunch.

My second stop, Dos Taquitos Centro in Downtown Raleigh was locked tight. Turns out that it doesn't serve lunch on weekends (and doesn't serve dinner on weekdays, except Thursday and Friday). Oooops.

At this point, it was past 1:00 p.m. and I was desperately hungry. Lucky for me, Loco Pops has a new Raleigh location where I treated myself to a Mexican chocolate-flavored popsicle. Delicious.

Now much happier, but still hungry, I sped on down to the State Farmers' Market, where I bought four quarts of terrific strawberries from the Lee Farms' stand. I gorged on them until I was full. My lunchtime was finally over!

If you have any lunchtime strikeouts of your own, tell me about them!

The two major Triangle-area home builders associations have teamed up to sponsor the "Third Annual Triangle Wide Green Home Tour". This self-guided tour will take place on Saturday May 4 from 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m., and Sunday May 5 from 12:00 noon-6:00 p.m. The tour will showcase over forty of the Triangle's "greenest" new homes.

Although some of these green homes look exactly like run-of-the-mill McMansions, the builders claim that the homes have "reduced impact on the environment." Spending a few hours investigating the homes' environmentally-friendly features will help visitors make up their own minds about whether 4500 square-foot houses can truly be "green".

The tour's "kickoff event", featuring educational displays, discussion panels, etc. will take place at the NC Biotechnology Center at RTP from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon on Saturday. Tour books featuring maps of the green homes' locations and descriptions of the homes are currently available at several Raleigh-Durham locations, including all Triangle-area Stock Design Centers and Whole Foods Markets.

For more information about the tour, call (919) 493-8899.

Politicians of all stripes are descending upon North Carolina , but some of them are just here to do book signings: Jimmy Carter will be in town on Thursday and Friday in order to promote his new book, "A Remarkable Mother".

He will be making appearances at the Sam's Club on Chapel Hill Blvd. on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. and the Wal-Mart on Rt. 70 in Clayton on Friday at 12:00 noon. How he chose those locations is a mystery to me, but it'll be neat to have Mr. President in one aisle and Mr. Clean in another. . .

So, buy or bring your copy of "A Remarkable Mother" for President Carter to sign, and, if you have a few extra moments, get some grocery shopping done too!

Thursday, May 1 is Strawberry Day at the State Farmer's Market in Raleigh. Join the fun and celebrate the arrival of the first locally-grown strawberries of the season. (They are so much better than the strawberries shipped from California , I promise!)

Strawberry Day festivities include free strawberry samples, a chance to meet Suzy the Strawberry (the NC Strawberry Association mascot), and a strawberry dessert contest, where you can put your best strawberry recipe to good use--the first place dessert wins $100--and serious bragging rights.

Strawberry Day is really more like Strawberry Lunch Break--it takes place from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.--so plan accordingly, and don't wear a white shirt to work that day!