When the sun goes down in East Orlando, entertainment choices fade into darkness. The many parks and shopping plazas sprinkling the area close long before bedtime, leaving many young families, singles and hipsters wondering, ‘Now what do we do?’

Like many of its brethren, a former garbage dump may soon join the fight in providing a new source of power for the area’s growing energy demands. But first, the site must undergo additional testing to measure the extent of the land’s contamination.

Catching imaginary bugs with a net or placing an order in a fake restaurant is commonplace at one Central Florida Research Park company. Though it sounds strange, these activities are helping patients who chronically stutter or soldiers returning from Iraq with traumatic brain injuries. “It is hard to say ‘imagine this’ with these patients.

In the early years, Yates Barber Shop represented a slower, more social time for customers. A 15-minute haircut often became an hour-long political debate or a friendly game of checkers when founder Luther Yates owned the shop decades ago.

As anyone who has played the game can attest, a round of golf can be a lot of work. Often, a swing out of the bunker resembles the chopping of wood, and a series of misadventures on the greens can create rising levels of stress that are tantamount to a bad day at the office.

They come from different circumstances, with varied expectations, each with a story all their own. And now their story includes being the first to ride the Orlando Foreclosure Bus Tour. The cast of more than a dozen characters on board includes Jennifer Stiriz, 24, who currently rents in Bella Vida, but is looking for a home for her husband and two children.

Although today’s housing market is complicated, finding ideas and solutions for home improvement is about to get easier. The 2008 Central Florida Home & Garden Show, returning March 7-9 to Hall North B in the Orange County Convention Center’s North/South complex