The Seattle-based developer Tarragon announced today that it has signed 10 leases for its Sunrise Village Shopping Center – which opened earlier this month at 156th Street and Meridian Avenue.

The new tenants include: AT&T Wireless; Games Workshop; Hand & Stone Massage Spa; Sleep Country USA; Soleil Nail Spa; Urban Tanning Spa; The Ram Restaurant & Brewery; Pizzeria Fondi; Qdoba Mexican Grill; and Big Foot Java, which will open what if calls a “flagship cafe” featuring an indoor-outdoor fireplace.

The newly signed tenants join anchors L.A. Fitness and Target. Already signed as tenants were Famous Footwear, Staples, Bright Now! Dental and Valley Bank.

“Of the 22 buildings in Phase 1 of the project, 17 have been completed or are nearing completion,” said Kristen Jensen, senior development manager of the project. She said she expects construction to be complete by early next month.

Seventy-two percent of the space has been leased.

A friend from Vashon called this week to lament the absence of Mother’s Circus Animal Cookies from his grocer’s shelf. He regularly gave them out as a treat to his high school students. And now there are no more.

I missed the Associated Press story three weeks ago, but here’s what it said:

“An Oakland (Calif.) cookie company has closed its doors for good.
"After operating in Oakland for 92 years, Mother's Cookies shut down when its parent company filed for bankruptcy protection Monday.
"Plant officials told workers Friday that operations would cease and cookies would no longer be made at the plant.
“In filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, company officials cited rising prices for raw materials and fuel.
“The closure comes after Mother's had shifted its baking and distribution operations to plants in Ohio and Canada in 2006.”

After speaking with my friend, I went searching, thinking maybe there might be some of the pink and white, frosted, sprinkled delicacies left on Tacoma shelves.

There were none that I could find.

I know this isn’t as big of a disaster as the Great Twinkie Famine of 2000, and it probably affects more people than the quiet disappearance several years ago of one of my own personal favorite canned comfort foods, Franco-American Macaroni & Cheese, but still, I suspect there are people out there wondering what’s going on with all those empty shelves.

And if you’re really in need, at least one online auction site has Mother’s Circus Cookies for sale as we speak.

The average price of a gallon of gas in Tacoma dropped five cents from yesterday.

You think that's good: The price – $2.63 – is $1 less than you would have paid at the pump a month ago and 48 cents below what you would have paid a year ago, according to AAA. Tacoma is tied for the lowest in the state with Bremerton and Olympia. The state average is $2.75.

The cheapest place in Tacoma according to Tacoma Gas Buddy is $2.38 at the Valero station at 1730 S. 72nd St.

Now that's reason to celebrate.

So what's going on? Oil prices are dropping as consumers use less fuel. The price of barrel of oil has fallen by about 57 percent since peaking near $150 a barrel in mid-July.

Today the price is about $66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to The Associated Press. The price is going up today as stock markets around the world rebound.