Dine Out And Learn To Cook At Home With Alton Brown

Here are five reasons to get out of the house today:

• TV chef/mad scientist Alton Brown is spending the day in the Twin Cities today. Brown will stop by Book Passage in Corte Madera at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to get things cooking with his latest kitchen adventures Good Eats 3: The Later Years. If that makes you hungry, you might want to stop by Left Bank Brasserie at 6:30 p.m. for dinner with Brown. Tickets for the dinner are $140 each, including the meal, wine, coffee, tax, tip and a signed copy of his new book.

• Ever wonder what it takes to get out of a nice, warm bed before dawn and dive into a pool? Find out what pushes a group of local swimmers in Jim Sugar's Swimming in a Dream tonight at 5 p.m. at the Sequoia Theater in Mill Valley. The short film, part of the Mill Valley Film Festival, chronicles beautifully the motions and emotions of the North Bay Aquatics Masters swimmers as they practice at Redwood High School in the pre-dawn hours.

• It's Tuesday and, if that isn't a good enough excuse to go out to dinner tonight, you have a chance to help Redwood High School. Every Tuesday in October, select restaurants will donate a percentage of the tab to the Redwood High School Foundation, just tell them Redwood Rocks. Participating restaurants include Sam's Cafe, Guaymas and Servino.

• The Larkspur Planning Commission has a relatively light agenda for Tuesday night's 7:30 p.m. meeting. The commission will revisit a pair of residential property developments: one on 411 Alexander Avenue and the other at 135 C King Street.

• Redwood hosts Branson in a MCAL high school girls tennis showdown at 3:30 p.m., if the weather cooperates.