I'm mayor today, tomorrow and most of Thursday. Everyone try to stay calm and don't knock over any apple carts. I don't want to have to declare Martial Law.

Let me just say that if there's one thing I believe it is that we have a God-given right to have bonfires on the beach. Yes, I care about global warming and I believe that we all must make changes small and large in our lives to keep the planet alive. However, I cannot support extinguishing beach bonfires. Beach bonfires are not killing the planet. Hummers, coal-fired power plants, routine air travel, and single-occupancy car commutes are killing the planet. If we could have some real regulation at the national and world region level, we could make a difference. The beach bonfires should be spared.

Through my spot on the Board of Health I get to hear about the persistent disparities in health, health care access and health care quality between people of color in our region and people of Euro descent. These are linked to poverty and long-term patterns of discrimination that take years to rectify. A little gym in Rainier Valley is trying to do its part. This past weekend Rainier Valley Health & Fitness held a 24-hour "move-a-thon," a fundraiser to underwrite gym memberships for low-income people. People, including me, signed up to work out at the gym for an hour and raised money (or wrote a check) to the gym. Rainier Health & Fitness did a great job getting out the word about disparities as part of this event. The whole reason for the gym is to provide a good basic gym in a community that isn't currently set up well for safe walking and which doesn't have great gym options. The only other gym in the Valley is Bull Stewart's Columbia City Gym. I'd love to say that either Rainier Beach Community Center or Rainer Community Center has a great cardio workout room, but that's not the case. Maybe in the next Parks levy?

I was at Rainier Health & Fitness from 11 a.m. until noon Saturday (before jumping over to West Seattle Nursery for filbert shells) and helped keep going an eliptical-type stairclimber that had been in constant use since the 24-hour cycle began at 9 p.m. Friday night. The machine showed more than 14 hours and more than 6000 calories consumed when I switched off. The move-a-thon ended up raising $16,410 and had just under 400 people participate.