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Thumbs up for arts fun. On Thursday, Austin Area Arts announced its stage line-ups for this year’s Austin ArtWorks Festival, which will be held on Aug. 23-24. The line-ups are colorful, musical and across the board a promise for a fun weekend of summer arts exploration. A must-stop in your summer wanderings.

Thumbs up for finding Waldo. A local event will have people combing through Austin throughout the month of July in search of Waldo. The Find Waldo Local event will put Sweet Reads Books & Candy along with other small businesses on center stage as people are encouraged to visit these businesses in the elusive hunt for Waldo himself. It’s a little bit of family fun that also helps support our local businesses.

Thumbs up for new leadership. Hormel Foods has announced that John Ghingo will become the company’s 11th person to hold the role of president, following James Snee, who is retiring this year. As part of this move, former president, Jeffrey Ettinger, will return to the company as it’s interim chief executive officer.

Thumbs up for supporting the outdoors. If you saw our story in Saturday’s Herald about the Austin Izaak Walton League’s steak cookout fundraisers, then you are well versed in how this event, held multiple times in a year, helps raise money for environmental projects and organizations. The Ikes have been a proud supporter of these kinds of initiatives while at the same time offering a night out with some incredibly good food.

Thumbs down for so much water. Sure, the area benefits from rain, but this was getting a little irritating as rain and water played a part in most every day throughout the week. Either we were under the threat of rain and storms or the fallout from rain and storms as the culmination on Friday resulted in the Cedar River to jump its banks in several areas. Not near as bad as it was in years before, but frustrating all the same.