Lisa Heyamoto: Happy 158th birthday, Sacramento!

One hundred and fifty-eight years ago today, the city of Sacramento was incorporated to become the oldest city in the state.

And if you're not exactly inclined to bust out the party hats, Dennis Bylo is.

As he has in some fashion for the past four years, Bylo, a local activist, is throwing the city a birthday party at Cesar Chavez Plaza at noon. Eventually, he hopes to parlay it into an annual food and music festival he's dubbed the Sacramento Valley Fair.

For now, however, he and the city can swap stories about their respective budget woes. Bylo paid for today's affair with only the help of a neighbor, and the main attraction will be a red bucket intended as a depository for donations to help bail out the Parks Department during the city's budget crisis. He's suggesting checks be made out in some denomination of 1850, the year the city was formed.

"You can put the decimal point wherever you want," he said. "If you put it all the way to the left, you're getting your two cents in."

Unless, of course, you'd prefer to contribute the old-fashioned way and pay off all those parking tickets.

* * *

Fun with astrology: So. It's the city's birthday today, which makes it a Pisces – a fitting sign, says local spiritual astrologer Taylor Lynne Smith, for the city of two rivers.

Pisces, Smith says, are humanitarians and dreamers, but they sometimes tend to dream big and do little. If they can get it together, though, they have the potential for greatness, the accuracy of which should make any astrological skeptic a believer.

* * *

Speaking of birthdays, a feisty halfway house just south of Galt is about to celebrate 20 years of helping women shed their addictions.

Meadows Depot, so-named for founders Paula and the late Ken Meadows, started as a way for the couple to help women just out of jail piece back their broken lives.

The two have been considered a surrogate mom and dad to hundreds of women over the years, and Victoria Lewis, one of the first to successfully leave Meadows Depot, wanted to throw a fitting celebration.

The party, slated for June 7 as a good, old-fashioned country hoe-down, is still in the planning process. And when you're dealing with a nonprofit that takes the term literally, Lewis is looking for help.

"This is a dream," she said of the party/fundraiser. "I have passion, but no money."

To see how you can help, call Lewis at (209) 663-2702.

* * *

If you have ever had even a passing acquaintance with Sacramentan Serena Donovan, you would know that Saturday was to be the day she would finally met Snoop Dogg.

She'd been waiting for this her whole life, really. But it wasn't until she won a radio contest on 103.5 The Bomb that she realized the depth of her dream.

Out went the texts, calls and e-mails. She even posted her news on Yelp.com so as many people as possible could bask in her glory.

Then she got the flu. And she is very sorry to report that she did not, in fact, make her appointment with the Doggfather.

"I'm so ashamed," the 25-year-old said. "Now I'm just hanging my head, hoping that people forget about it."

Remorseful though she is, her desertion was actually quite considerate. No one wants to be the one who gave Snoop the flizzle.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Lisa Heyamoto, (916) 321-1261.