Friday, April 04, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Restaurant Inspections

Twins win, Braves lose
Twins are 3-0, Braves 0-3
Friday morning brings the E & T section of the Charlotte Observer. They have a pretty funny movie reviewer, Lawrence Toppman. He really excels at captions for photos. Most Fridays I first page through and read all the captions on the photos he's put in for each movie he reviews. Then I just glance through the review. He really doesn't like anything! Makes me feel a bit bad for him. Imagine a job where you have to see what you consider to be bad work day after day and then write about it.
After I look through the movie reviews, I go to the Food section of E & T. I love to read about food and places to eat. I enjoy reading the restaurant review. Today the main review was about a place called Presto Restaurant Bar and Grill.
Then, I finally get to the part I've been waiting for. The anticipation has been building since I picked the newspaper off the driveway. The Restaurant Health Inspections! We didn't have that in "The Red Star", as we so affectionately called the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
I get to the page. "Well, have I eaten at any of the bottom 5? Ever?" NO!
Good. I live to eat another day.

Thursday, April 03, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Twins and Braves

Twins won, Braves Lost
That's Twins 2-0, Braves 0-2
This is going to be quick this morning. I have a lot to do today.
My first question is, why does the Charlotte Observer Sports Section have a picture from the Angels/Rangers game on the front page, and nothing about the Atlanta game? I mean, yes, Alex Rodriguez did become the youngest player to hit a career 300 home runs, and it's a good story, but couldn't they have at least mentioned the Braves game? Somewhere?
Most of the Carolinians I've met here are Atlanta Braves fans. Now, as a Twins fan, it could be stretch for me to end up supporting the hated Braves. I mean, we definitely remember them! And we chuckle....http://www.prime2ime.com/sept_2002/vault.twinsvbraves91.shtml
But really, if I'm to be brought over to the dark side eventually, you would think it would be from reading about it in the local paper.
That's it. Let's not talk about Kirby Puckett.

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Nathan's Hot Dogs

Tonight we are having hot dogs for supper. Our family likes hot dogs. Even though we do have fairly sophisticated meals most of the time, hot dogs are a "change of pace" meal for us.
When we first moved here, I went to all the local grocery stores looking for Hormel Wrangler hot dogs. Hormel brand items were in all the stores, just not the Wranglers.
This is a bad thing.
You see, when you have hot dogs only occasionally like we do, you want to go for the gusto...go for the juiciest, coarsest, fattiest hot dogs you can find. In Minnesota, that was the Wranglers.
I complained about it to everyone who would listen. And one day, my friend Dave said "Well, have you tried Nathan's?"
Oh. My. Gosh.
I think they're done. Bye.

Monday, March 31, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Weekend Doings

Twins won, Braves lost
Weird.
Weird how the only negative comment I've gotten about my blog took place on the day I wrote about kindness! Next week our lesson is on goodness. Wonder if I should write about that? I don't know how to delete comments. So I'm leaving it. I could research and find out how, but then, that would be unkind of me.
Today I took Soya to the vet for her annual physical. She'll be 11 years old in July and she's really slowing down. And she's been limping lately. We're going to try an anti-inflamatory. Other than that, she's in great shape. The people at the clinic adore her. She's so muscular and powerful, and yet will let them turn her upside-down and yank on her limbs and poke her over and over to get a vein for blood tests. She's wonderful.
We are making our plans for summer now. Boy Scout camp has been scheduled for the middle of July...right in the middle. So we are planning our trip to Minneapolis for June. The guys are very excited.
Cassie and I went to see Bringing Down the House on Saturday. Steve Martin and Queen Latifah. What a great movie to watch during this time of war, when all the news seems bad. We laughed so hard, we about peed our pants! Next week we plan to see Basic with John Travolta. If we aren't too tired from our "Day of Opportunity" (an opportunity to wash windows) at church. After that is the pig pickin'...I'm excited about that part!
Also Saturday, I went out to lunch with my friend Nannette. We went to a restaurant called "Trio" on Pineville Matthews Road, or Highway 51. Around here they call main drags by their numbers, and they refer to exits by numbers too. Kind of throws me off, but I'm learning. "Trio" was great! They are particularly famous for their seafood dishes, especially salmon. But we had this great salad sampler. We had an appetizer that was North Carolina Sweet Potato Chips. They drizzle melted blue cheese on them. Now, I could have easily just made that my meal. They were super!
But my Saturday was no way as action-packed as the guys. All three of them piled into the car, and drove to Asheville. They checked into a hotel, swam in the pool, then went to visit The Cove, hiked around and then went to the Nicole Nordeman concert. After the concert they decided they didn't want to spend the night after all, so they drove home and got here at 1 am! I was feeling bad for Mensa Boy that he had to drive all the way back so late at night and he said "hey, we had a great time and got to eat at 2 fast food restaurants"!

Sunday, March 30, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: Kindness

Today in Sunday School we talked about kindness. Our class is doing a study on the Fruit of the Spirit, and this week the particular fruit was Kindness.
Our teacher began the class by asking what kindness had been shown to us this week.
Easy question.
I mentioned how my friend, Peggy Mc, called me to see how I am doing and tell me she loved me. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a herniated disc and am gradually recovering from that. Peggy, who I call M&M for Mother Mc, has been one of the many people here in South Carolina who has extended the hand of friendship to me.
Jack Mc, Peggy's husband, offered to come to my house and hit me with a rubber mallet so I'd have something to help me forget the pain in my leg. The mallet is an inside joke between us, and I really got a kick of out of it.
Last Sunday, my friend Cassie (Peggy's daughter and my movie-mate) stopped by and brought me her leftovers from the church potluck (they call them "covered dish" here). She brought this sinfully delicious chocolate cake and some "chili beans", which midwesterners just call "Chili". I proceeded to make an entire meal out of the beans for my family by dumping them on giant baked potatoes. Cassie may have had an ulterior motive...she's on a weight loss program, and I'm always suspicious when people on diets give me fattening stuff to eat. But I sure appreciated her thinking of me.
Wednesday my next door neighbor took me grocery shopping. Driving has been a bit difficult for me because the leg affected is the one I use to push the gas pedal. She also carried my groceries for me.
I got a get-well card from our church choir. Pastor Tony called to talk about the church library and then listened so nicely to my tales of woe.
A lady my husband has been working on an article with called and told me she was praying for me.
Nate, Taylor and Mensa Boy have stepped up to the plate with housework, helping me along with the duties I usually do by myself while they are at work or school.
This is all in one week! I regret I only mentioned the phone call from Peggy to my class. It took another 20 minutes of review in my mind before I remembered all the other items. I know there are others that haven't popped into my head yet.
That's the thing about kindness. It's all around us. We just have to notice it. And when we do, we truly begin to understand how blessed we are.
Have a good week!