Students from Tuckahoe Elementary School and Three Chopt Elementary School won first and second place, respectively, in the divisionwide spelling bee on Wednesday.

After 11 rounds, Tuckahoe Elementary School fifth-grader Coly Elhai won the Henrico County divisionwide spelling bee Wednesday night by correctly spelling “ludicrous.”

The runner-up was Emma Greene, a fifth-grader from Three Chopt Elementary School.

Elhai beat 56 other elementary and middle school students at the bee, which was at L. Douglas Wilder Middle School. Among the contestants was Adam Sachs, the only first-grader, from Maybeury Elementary School.

Elhai will move on to compete against central Virginia’s best spellers in the Richmond Times-Dispatch Spelling Bee on March 1 at the Library of Virginia.

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Another loss for the University of Virginia football program is the University of Richmond’s gain.

Vincent Brown, who served as a graduate assistant at U.Va. last season, will join new coach Mike London’s staff at UR. He will be the linebackers coach.

London also was a member of the U.Va. football staff last season. He accepted the head job at his alma mater last month.

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Did I tell you about this great gig that I have. I get to see all these wonderful shows at the University of Richmond Modlin Center for free, and all I have to do is get there early and help usher. Tonight, was Ira Glass. The genius behind NPR’s This American Life.
But first, in honor of Ira, and his great story telling ability, I want to tell you a little story.
It all started way back in 2002. I was having trouble making it to church. I just started a new part time job, but I had to work Sundays. Finally, I made it to church, and after the service, I went up to the minister — a man I really loved, the Rev. Tim Kutzmark.
He noticed that I hadn’t been to church recently and asked why. I told him, work ya know, paying the bills had to come first. But I really needed him to know that I LOVED his sermons. I missed them in fact more than anything else. I didn’t need or really want the community of church, I didn’t need the recitations, the prayers, the music. Well that’s not true, I loved the music too, but it always made me cry. Wait, I’m getting off track. I told him, that I missed his services and I wished there was a way that I could come and ponder his big ideas from his sermons, maybe laugh a little. Reflect.

Here’s were you get the funky background music to come up just a little. doop doop doop, de doop doop doop. Well, he says. Can you listen to the radio at work? Cause there is this show on NPR, This American Life, have you ever heard of it? It’s kind of like my sermons. Maybe, just maybe it can stand in for me on Sunday mornings. Come to think of it, it is on actually during the same time as church. And well, it is kinda like church.

Music stops. This mean something very important is coming.

I have to interrupt here to tell you something VERY important. Because you are probably thinking I am crazy. A radio show, by a self professed Atheist, Ira Glass, who often quotes his childhood Rabbi, being like church? Well, the truth is I’m Unitarian, so really, This American Life, is alot like a sermon in a Unitarian church. That is if you are lucky enough have a talented minister, who has studied the art of storytelling.

Ira Glass gave a great performance at U of R last night. In fact, he did so well selling out his evening show, that they added a matinee, which also sold out. He performed a sort of “best of” of This American Life, live on the stage, with a sound deck, pulling up snippets of some of his favorite shows, and of course the signature fade in fade out music.

He was funny, He was sincere. He tried to answer the question we all wanted to know, which is why is his show so compelling — so magical. The performance was good and earned him a standing ovation. And what was supposed to be an hour show and 30 minutes of questions, turned into a 2 hour show.

For me, the highlight was seeing an excerpt of what his new T.V. show on Showtime is like (awesome!) and realizing that I could buy all of last season’s show on DVD at Borders. I hope my husband isn’t reading this because, likely that will be his birthday present. It was really, and truly funny. Featuring an Iraqi who sincerely wants to know from Americans why we wanted to invade Iraq. And, after finding that no one in New York City supported the war and could tell him, he took his quest to Savannah, GA. Set up a Lucy from Snoopy stand that said “Talk to an Iraqi” with a huge red arrow pointing down.

Americans, and Southerners in particular are hilarious. Still, I’m not sure that he found the answer to his question. But, then again, it wasn’t the final cut. It’ll be on Showtime, sometime in May, but since I don’t get cable, I guess I’ll just have to buy it a Borders in a year.

Like adventure? The thrill of the hunt? Do you think you know Richmond? My employer, Richmond Metro Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, is partnering with Ravenchase Adventures to produce the Great Richmond Region Adventure race on April 26.

This one-day adventure race is the ultimate test of physical speed, mental agility and Richmond Region knowledge. Teams of up to six will decipher complex codes in order to unearth clues to reveal each new destination along their path. The race is designed to expose participants to the Region’s museums and attractions as a part of National Tourism Week. The winning team will receive a $2,500 prize, and a $2,500 donation will be made to the attraction of its choice.

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Too bad I can’t compete! Sounds like lots of fun.

Elephant Toe Antiques of Carytown, recently opened a second showroom on Grove Avenue, near Libbie. The store is doing very well.

The Grove Avenue store is bigger, with about 9,000 square feet of space compared with about 7,000 for the shop at 3100 W. Cary St.

Both stores display a mix of furniture — from French to Art Deco — jewelry, crystal, carpets, lighting and artwork.

Strickland said he was worried at first that sales at the Grove Avenue shop might be lackluster. But that hasn’t been the case since the shop opened in early November.

“Grove Avenue is doing 10 times the business that Carytown is,” he said.

“I looked at the Arcade building and felt like the marketplace there was very strong,” he said. “The merchants and the restaurant owners all have a terrific network there. And the people who come there, come there to buy and not just . . . to linger.”

Carytown is still holding its own, he said. He’s keeping the Carytown store open for the time being. The lease expires later this year.

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Two of my Near West End neighbors, Rachel Kim and Ellen Featherstone, were featured in Style Magazine this week. Baby clothing they designed was featured on Friday Night Lights.

“We kept hearing from friends that we had to get our stuff out there to the celebrity market,” says Featherstone, who was close friends with Britton at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg. So she was happily shameless to use her Hollywood connection to promote Scrappywares, the boutique children’s fashion line she started last year with Kim.

Henrico County will follow Richmond and Chesterfield in sending out assesment notices early next week. Increases in value should be modest this year.

Preliminary data indicates the value of reassessed homes will increase by less than 3 percent, officials said. Overall, the value of all properties, including reassessed homes, new construction and commercial sites, will increase by about 5 percent.

Last year’s overall increase was 12 percent.

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Property owners who want to contest their assessments will have until April 1 to file an appeal to the Board of Real Estate Review and Equalization.

Near West End resident, Michael C. Ingram, 36, has been charged with first-degree murder after police discoved his wife’s body at their home just off of Skipwith Road, in the 8000 block of Dobbin Road.

Ingram, who has a history of mental problems according to police, is believed to have talked to a friend who called police at 6:41 this morning. According to the friend, Ingram expressed regret for something that had happened, but did not provide details.

Police said a subsequent search of the home in the 8000 block of Dobbin Road turned up the body of Ingram’s wife, Jamey Elizabeth Ingram, 31. She had suffered traumatic injuries but police declined to elaborate, pending an autopsy.

Twin girls who attend Skipwith Elementary School and who live at the home had spent the night Tuesday with a relative. The girls are the daughters of Jamey Elizabeth Ingram’s deceased sister, according to police.

The victim had worked since 1997 for CarMax Inc. in the company’s corporate office in Henrico County.

Michael Ingram has worked in the restaurant business but neighbors did not know where he has most recently been employed.