Learning at Lunch, Politics at Breakfast

1. We should have a beautiful weekend, and today’s weather should serve as a nice lead-in. It will be mostly sunny with a high of about 78 and an overnight low of 55, the National Weather Service says. Saturday and Sunday will both be sunny with highs in the low-to-mid-80s.

2. Chanda Bell, the co-founder of Cobb County publisher Creatively Classic Activities and Books and co-author of The Elf on the Shelf, is the speaker at this month’s Cobb Executive Women Luncheon at the Georgian Club, 100 Galleria Pkwy. Networking starts at 11 a.m.; the program begins at 11:30. The cost is $35 at the door. Meanwhile, the Cobb County Master Gardeners became a major focus of the recent when people defended the program from the idea of cuts, although the 2012 budget doesn’t contain any. For a free midday option, you can check out the program in action at noon today during the monthly lunch-and-learn event at the Cobb Water Lab, 662 S. Cobb Dr. The topic is “Native Plants in the Home Landscape,” presented by Becky Blades.

3. If you don’t have breakfast plans Saturday, you can hear reactions to President Barack Obama’s Thursday-night jobs speech firsthand during the Cobb GOP Breakfast at , 1425 Roswell Rd. The doors open at 7:30 a.m., and the program starts at 8:15. The cost is $10. Gingrey has been busy in the 11th District lately, meeting with constituents in Cartersville on Aug. 29 and in Kennesaw on Sept. 1 and visiting and Dobbins Air Reserve Base that week.

4. All three Northeast Cobb high schools are hitting the road for tonight’s football games: at , at and at . Northeast Cobb Patch will preview all of the games today, have a continually updated scoreboard tonight, and post photos or video from all three games Saturday. In addition to the website, you can follow @GaPatchSports on Twitter for updates throughout the night, and you can send us your own updates and photos to that Twitter account or to GaPatchSports@gmail.com.

5. They say you can’t outrun the long arm of the law, and that arm reached from Georgia to Maryland to close the case of Zachary Shanaberger, 31, who robbed nine banks in two months last year. As Northeast Cobb Patch reported Thursday, Shanaberger was sentenced this week to stay in a federal prison until 2024.