Sheep in the capital city; friends and parties galore

Reno's Artown is gone, but one reminder sits in front of the Capitol in Carson City.

It is a representation of a bighorn sheep, with rusted metal for armor and wearing a block of concrete like a belt.

The sheep is on the north side of the entrance and is one of 25 to have wandered out of Reno.

The sheep was decorated by Carson City native Loren Staley, who was born here in 1974.

He attended St. Teresa's and Carson Junior High before his family moved to Douglas County, where he graduated from Douglas High School.

The 28-year-old graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno with a major in art and a minor in museums.

He said the rusty steel armor is a protection for the sheep and the concrete block represents the weight of man on the sheep's population.

"The idea just popped into my head," he said.

At present Loren is working for Stremmel Gallery and Sierra Arts. The sheep was set up on July 1 and is scheduled to remain in place until the end of September.

Although it has been a month, Loren has not yet seen the sheep in its present environment.

"I've seen it as I've driven by a couple of times, but I haven't stopped yet."

Loren's mother, Ellen Lingelbach, lives in Woodfords. His father is Larry Staley, who was born in Winnemucca. He now lives in Sparks.

The law firm of Jones Vargas is sponsoring Loren's sheep, which was cast in fiberglass in Washington.

My friend 4-year-old Nick Dey went to Andrew Weddell's fourth birthday party on Saturday. He was one of nearly a dozen children attending the Spider-Man pool party at the Weddell home.

There was a pi-ata in the form of the super hero. Ron worked the grill, cooking up sausages in a blanket and hamburgers with a special sauce.

A magician entertained the children and even astounded some of the parents with his card tricks.

I was walking into Java Joe's for my afternoon Sobe on Wednesday and there on the couch in the corner was former Appeal photographer K.M. Cannon.

He was talking to Rick Gunn, who was meeting writer Teri Vance for a story about a woman showing up on the Montel Williams show.

K.M. was in town shooting the Legislature for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

I got to see some old friends at Belinda Grant's baby shower on Sunday. It was held at Linda Hiller's Jacks Valley home and besides the guest of honor, some of the folks who turned out included Lori Mogab, Merrie Leininger and Joyce Hollister.

If you thought it was mostly female event, you would be right. Jim Grant was there to back up the missus and Mr. Hiller was there. Fortunately, there was good food and no weird rites.

There was a story behind the story to the rattlesnake feature. It turns out Features Editor Kelli Du Fresne and writer Teri Vance were walking along the V&T right of way above Silver Oak Golf Course when they stumbled across a snake, easily as wide as a man's thigh and a couple of yards long.

Teri was going to poke the thing with a stick, but thought better when it turned and hissed at her.

Both women got to take a run instead of a jog as they vamoosed.

A guy from the BLM called me about Gale Norton's visit and when I told him my name, he says, "like the singer."

It seems there was a group called Paul and Paula consisting of Jill Jackson and Ray Hildebrand. They got their only big hit in 1962 when a Brownwood, Texas, radio station broadcast an original song, "Hey Paula."

The odd thing is that both my father and I share the same middle name, Ray. I've e-mailed my mom to find out if there was some connection. Both my parents were raised in western Oklahoma.

Kurt Hildebrand is former managing editor at the Nevada Appeal. Reach him at 881-1215 or e-mail him at kurt@tahoe.com.