Petar’s in Lafayette has always been a favorite nightlife hangout in Lamorinda thanks to their performer, Diamond Dave. The bar is quickly finding out that their trivia nights are another way to bring in a large crowd.

The trivia nights start at 6:30 p.m. and typically lasts around two hours. Teams can be anywhere from two to five players, and the winning teams at the end of the night are awarded prizes.

The next opportunity to compete in a trivia night at Petar’s is Wednesday, March 31.

Drinks and pub food are available throughout the trivia nights. If you have any questions about trivia nights at Petar’s, send an email to pubtrivia@live.com.

Was disappointed to find out today that McDonald’s decided to end it’s seasonal offering of Shamrock Shakes before St. Patrick’s Day. That just seems wrong. Plus, almost none of my reporter colleagues were wearing green today.

On to this week’s police log highlight:

The luck of the Irish (obligatory cheesy St. Patty’s reference) was not with one Lafayette resident last week. A burglar made off with $23,265 worth of property — and a Porsche Carrera — from a home on the 800 block of Acalanes Road on March 11. The burglar also did $4,600 in damage to the home as well.

If St. Patrick’s Day honors the man who drove the snakes out of Ireland, here’s hoping the Gaels can drive the Spiders out of Providence tomorrow.

As part of a chain-wide closing spree, the El Balazo restaurant in Lafayette has closed its doors. All of the other El Balazo locations except for one have closed as well.

According to a report from one of the fired employees, the restaurants were closed as a result of tax issues. Employees were informed of the closure of the restaurants Wednesday, just hours before the restaurants were closed.

The state Board of Equalization filed a lien against El Balazo in November.

This isn’t the first time the El Balazo chain has experienced some issues from the government. In May 2008, 63 workers from 11 El Balazo locations were arrested during a raid by immigration officials.

The Saint Mary’s student chorus, the NightinGaels will be performing their annual spring concert this Tuesday, March 16, at 8:00 p.m., in the Saint Mary’s Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public. The NightinGaels will be performing a mix of classical choral music and music from contemporary artists.

—–

The East Bay Children’s Theatre will be presenting two performances of the play, Pinocchio, on April 11 at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m.

Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at the Town Hall Theatre’s Box Office or online here.

For more information on the East Bay Children’s Theatre, visit their website.

Back from witnessing this awesomeness to bring you some highlights from this week’s police logs:

In Orinda, a car was stolen with the owner’s consent — kind of. A man who put his Mercedes up for sale for $22,000 on the Internets found a buyer who said he had a pre-approved $25,000 money order from Wells Fargo and wanted to use it to buy the car. The man agreed, and gave him $3,000 in check and cash to make up the difference. But when the man went to deposit the money order, he was told by Wells Fargo not only was the money order never purchased there, they only issue money orders for $1,000 or less. The police logs note that the “buyer” made calls to the man from phones with 916 (Sacramento) and 562 (Long Beach) phone numbers and had a South San Francisco address complete with 10001 ZIP code.

March 7 was a rough night on the 300 block of Hermosa Court. Burglars stole property from a home and two cars in the garage of that home, as well as the car of a neighbor.

That same day, Lafayette police also arrested a man on suspicion on stealing cash — $500 in total — from two Safeways, one in Lafayette and another in Alamo.

And lastly, there was the beating the Gaels gave the Zags on Monday night:

A 23-acre piece of land along the Lafayette ridge will avoid having homes built upon it after the Muir Heritage Trust purchased the land for $1.3 million this week.

The Muir Heritage Trust will only be paying 10 percent of the purchase price though. The cities of Lafayette and Walnut Creek and the East Bay Regional Park District will each be paying 30 percent of the price. The owner of the land becomes the land trust.

The four different entities involved wished to keep the land free of homes, in order to preserve the land and the wildlife in the area. There are plans to open the area to hikers, bikers and horse riders next year.

Mikhail “Michael” Kharshan, 55, of Truckee, has been missing for over a month since he was last seen on Jan. 31 near the Boreal Ski Resort in Truckee. According to what friends told investigators, Kharshan had planned to go on a hike with friends in that area.

Kharshan’s wife, Kate Kharshan, who is a full-time resident of Lafayette received a note from her husband prior to his disappearance. The contents of that note have not been made public.

An investigation into the disapperance of Kharshan by law enforcement concluded after investigators ruled the disappearance “voluntary.”

A private investigator continues to look into the case.

The county elections office has posted the arguments for and against Measure A online. This is the stuff that will show up in your voter information pamphlet. You can download the PDF file here.

Notably, there are actually opposition arguments this time around. There wasn’t one filed for the Measure G election; Alliance of Contra Costa Taxpayers Chairman Ken Hambrick (who has sent several letters to the editor lambasting the district) said his organization had planned to but missed the deadline. Now, Hambrick and others, including Lafayette Taxpayers Association founder Don Lively, are part of the group that filed an opposition argument and the rebuttal to the Measure A campaign’s argument.

I spoke with Contra Costa Taxpayers Association Executive Director Kris Hunt earlier today and she told me while the group’s board voted Friday to officially oppose Measure A, they won’t launch a formal campaign, instead focusing on providing information to support their opposition on their Web site and the occasional letter to the editor.

In addition to passing out fliers and talking to community members, that’s what Hambrick said his group will do. Which to me sounds like a campaign, but technically to be an “official” campaign requiring paperwork to be filed with the state, you have to spend more than $1,000. So in addition to the fact that there doesn’t appear to be any unifying “No on Measure A” group, we can probably assume the ACCT likely isn’t going to spend $1,000 at Kinkos and thus doesn’t need to file formal paperwork as an opposition committee.

The tenth annual Lafayette Jazz Festival will be taking place this weekend with events in Lafayette Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

On Friday night, the Stanley Jazz Orchestra and Ellen Rowe will be performing at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center’s Community Room starting at 7:30 p.m.

On Saturday night, The Frank Martin Group and the UC Jazz Combo will also be performing at the library beginning at 7:30 p.m.

The Veterans Memorial Building will host Sunday night’s event scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. The Contra Costa County Honor Middle School Jazz Band and High School Jazz Band will be performing.

Tickets for the Friday and Saturday night events are $15 each. Tickets for Sunday night are $5. To purchase tickets, visit the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce.

Some highlights from this week’s police logs (which, in Lafayette, includes reports going back a couple weeks):

A woman driving on Olympic Blvd. in Lafayette on Feb. 23 crashed through the Olympic Oaks gate and into a tree — she was arrested on suspicion of DUI.

Feb. 19 was a bad night to park your rental car in the garage at the Lafayette Park Hotel. Thieves made off with $340 worth of property from one car and $660 from another, both times breaking a window to get into the car.

And a pair of Lafayette home burglaries resulted in some big hauls. In one, on the 1100 block of Brown Avenue on Feb. 23, nearly $40,000 worth of property was taken. The burglars pried open a side door to get into the house. The next day, burglars took a refrigerator, stove hood and 15 windows from a house under construction on the 1200 block of Cambridge Drive. Total value: $17,500.