Kim's Thoughts
Just a few thoughts I feel worthy of jotting down!
What Day Is It?????
So, I hovered my cursor over the time in the bottom right corner of my monitor and, sure enough, it WAS Saturday — I didn’t sleep through it to find that it was actually Sunday!!! Nope — I was on the right day — the Business Section was on the WRONG day!!!! Was this a mistake – did someone accidentally print Sunday’s “D” section in place of Saturday’s “D” section? Has something happened in the universe to mis-align the moon and the sun to create this strange anomaly? What will be in Sunday’s paper in place of the Business Section???? Does the hard copy have the same bazaar day swap? I’ll have to get out to the box and check that out! I rushed to Jonathan’s and Billy Liggett’s blogs to see if they posted anything that might solve the mystery – nothing! My whole day will be out of kilter hanging on the chance to read Sunday’s edition to find out what will be there to replace what I already read today that I am not supposed to read until tomorrow — oh woo is me — the drama of it all — I don’t know how I am going to survive the day today — what else is going to be out of whack to further cement this feeling of utter confusion!!!!
On a brighter note — being able to read Jonathan’s column today gave me a chance to check out a new shop that has opened downtown that he mentioned — Beauty Basket on Steele Street — if I had read this tomorrow, I would have had to wait until next Saturday to check it out!!! So – there you go – yet another proof of the old saying “everything happens for a reason”!!!!
Ch-Ch-Changes….
Renalds
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If you have read this blog for very long, you know that Renalds is one of my most favorite restaurants in town and I am almost always there on Thursday nights for dinner!!! Well, Chef Hamm – the chef that has worked with Joni Martin (owner) to prepare the Thursday night dinner menu at Renalds for a long time now – has bought the restaurant and will be managing it for himself under the name “Cafe 121” beginning on Father’s Day!!! As much as I hate to see the restaurant change from it’s current quaint setting, luscious desserts, and special dinner menus, I am very much anticipating what Chef Hamm will do with it!!! If it had to be sold, I couldn’t think of a better person to take it over!!! He plans to have a weekly Sunday Brunch, a Coffee Bar, and be open for lunch on Saturday – those are the big logistical changes – he also has a totally new menu that looks scrumptious!! I’ll get in to Renalds as much as I can between now that the change to enjoy the current Renalds and will anxiously await the opportunity to begin enjoying the new Cafe 121!!!
Myra’s Kitchen
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Myra’s Kitchen (another favorite of mine) has been doing such a good business – and rightfully so – they are so good!!! In fact, the business has been so good – especially at lunch – that they are running out of space!!! Sounds like a good problem to have, but Myra and Buddy are beginning plans to solve it! They are starting to draw up ideas to expand the size of their restaurant – they are going to build out the side to make the dining room larger and make room to serve more customers!! Sounds great to me!!!
So – at least two good changes to look forward to!!!
Weekend Adventure – The Rest of the Story
So — it wasn’t all that bad — after I settled in from Day One and had a good night’s sleep, the weekend turned out really great!!!
Friday —
- On Friday, Mom and I spent the day talking and enjoying each other’s company. We went to a local greenhouse and Mom got a bunch of plants for the planters on her patio and to take out to the cemetery for our family graves.
- We went out to the cemetery and put flowers on my Great Grandmother Freeman’s grave (my Grandfather’s mother), my Grandparent’s graves, and my Poppie’s grave.
- Then we met my brother and sister-in-law at a favorite restaurant in town for dinner.
- Friday was a full day — Mom and I were really wore out!
Saturday —
- Mom planted the flowers in her planters on the patio – I watched – Mom has the green thumb – I am a notorious plant murderer!
- We spent the bulk of the rest of the day downloading music onto Mom’s new MP3 player!
- We had a lot of fun thinking of songs and artists from our youth and listening to clips and talking about the memories they congered up!!! I loved it — I hope she did!!!
- For dinner, we went to Point Breeze – a marina area located on the river right where it joins Lake Ontario – I love spending time at the Point! There is a really good restaurant there called the Black North Inn – it used to be a dumpy bar/restaurant that was a popular hang out with great food and great times! It has been completely remodeled and is now still pretty shabby looking from the outside and the bar hasn’t changed, but the dining room is beautiful!!!! We had a really good dinner!!!
- Another full day that wore us both out!!!
Sunday —
- We tried to just relax on Sunday!
- The day we went for flowers, we didn’t have room for the hanging plants, so we went to get those and some more plants to fill a left over pot.
- My sister-in-law came out to mow my Mom’s lawn and we talked a while.
- Then, we met my brother and sister-in-law for dinner and then downloaded some more music for Mom’s MP3 player!
- Not as full a day, but we were still all wore out!!!!
Monday —
- I went to town to have some alone time at the cemetery to catch up my Grandparents and my Poppie on what is going on in my life. I watered the plants that we put out and took some photos.
- While I was in town, I went around and took a bunch of photos of places that remind me of home or have special meaning to me — I’ll post some highlights of the photos in the next day or two.
- I caught the tail end of a Memorial Day celebration at the high school and go to hear the ending of a performance by the high school’s Purple Eagles Marching Band — what a treat!!!
- Mom and I took a nap cause she was exhausted from being a lot more active than she has been since before the hip replacement surgery and I was going to have to get up at 3:00 am Tuesday to catch a flight back to NC!
- We fixed dinner and then played around on the computer to end up the visit!
Tuesday —
- Tuesday morning, I got up at 3:00 to get ready to be picked up by my brother to take me to the airport on his way in to work.
- I caught the 6:00 flight – connected in JFK – and arrived in RDU without any delays, massive crowds, or other issues!!!
- I picked up the girls, who were soooooooooooo happy to see me and to get home!!! They went nuts all over the house and back yard – then crashed and have been snoring almost non-stop ever since!
- I had a 5:00 CIS meeting and then went to Myra’s Kitchen for dinner!
The adventure is over — today was back to normal and back to work — all-in-all I had a great visit with Mom!!! She is doing so good — still shaky on her legs and needs a cane to get around, but the muscles are getting stronger and there is NO pain associated with the hip surgery!!! The doc says she’s progressing very well and it shows!!!
Watch for photos of some of my favorite home town sights in the next day or two!
Weekend Adventure – Day One
Thursday —
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The trip started out on a rocky note! I got up in the morning and took the girls to Rae-Zor for boarding (they were so happy to get to go!). Once they were settled in, I picked up some breakfast and went back home to get ready to go to the airport. I was planning my time so that I would leave the house about 10:00 to make my 11:49 Jet Blue flight. At 10:00, I took out my boarding passes and checked to be sure I had the right ones and put them where I could easily get them out when I got to the airport. As I glanced at them, I noticed that it said that the plane would begin boarding at 10:00!! The thoughts that flashed through my head were “WHAT??? 10:00???? Why board at 10:00 for an 11:49 flight???” So I looked closer and it said my flight was 10:20 – not 11:49!!! OMG!!! My first thought was that the boarding pass was wrong – so I looked at the itinerary. Sure enough – the flight was 10:20 – it was arriving at JFK at 11:49 – I read it wrong!!!! The rush of panic poured over me – no way would I make it to the airport in time, let alone get through security, etc…… So, I called Jet Blue to find out what options I had. They were very nice and helpful and got me on the next flight that was leaving at 2-something (just about the same time I was originally supposed to arrive in Rochester!).
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I switched gears and calmed myself down – all was gonna be OK! I called my Mom and told her to let my brother know about the change – he was planning to pick me up at the airport. This was going to create a problem for him – I picked the original arrival time to coincide when he got off work because my home town is about an hour away from the Rochester airport, but Kevin works as a Lab Technician at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester – not far from the airport. Now that I was going to arrive about 7:00, he was going to have to go all the way home and come back for me! Uugghh! But….it was what it was! Since I now had the time, I went by Shops of Steele Street to pick him up some of Amy’s Carolina Cake Truffles (he loves them and I thought they would make a nice peace offering!). She was out of Truffles, but I was able to get him some Fudge and English Toffee. (Time warp ahead — he was really happy to get them, so it was a good decision!)
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The problems didn’t stop there — I got to the airport in plenty of time, we boarded on time, taxi’d to the tarmac, and suddenly the pilot stopped the plane and shut off the engines. Not a good sign!!! He came on the intercom and announced that we were put on hold because JFK decided to shut down part of the airport to permit some practice flights for an airshow that was scheduled for Memorial Day (4 days away)!!! WHAT??? We all looked around at each other saying that we never heard of such a thing!!! Anyway – we sat there almost an hour waiting for clearance to take off and head toward JFK! The pilot said that the weather conditions and other factors would allow him to make up most of that time and that we would only be about 15 minutes late. Some of us talked about how we should probably be OK with connecting flights because of the made up time and the “assumption” that if they shut down large portions of JFK, then the connections should be running late, too……
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The problems continued…….we were able to make up the time, but we discovered that our “assumption” about cascading delays was not necessarily correct! In my case, I had a 1 hour layover, so by the time I got off the plane, I had about 30 minutes to get to my next flight. I arrived at gate 18 and was departing at gate 10, so was happy that it appeared that I wouldn’t have too far to go! WRONG AGAIN!!! I soon found out that gates 1-17 was in another concourse and I had to walk a fair distance to hop a shuttle to take me there! JFK was PACKED and it was very difficult to maneuver my way through the crowds! I made it to the gate totally out of breathe with only about 5 minutes to take off time – thinking they might have already closed the doors and I missed ANOTHER flight!!!! But – I soon found out they hadn’t even started boarding, yet – even though the monitors were still saying the flight was “on time”!
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It’s not over, yet………we finally boarded about 20 minutes after the original take off time! We pulled away from the gate and began to taxi to the runway — we drove and drove and drove and drove — I began to wonder if we were “driving” to Rochester, instead of “flying”! We came to a stop and sat there for almost 15 minutes before we started driving again and the pilot said that we were 20th for take off, so he received permission to move to another runway – another long drive the seemed to never end! When we got to the other runway, we were 8th for take off, but then there was some other delay (by then I lost track of all the reasons!) and we were almost two hours late taking off and over an hour late landing in Rochester!!! I was exhausted!!!! My brother and sister-in-law were frustrated waiting for a flight that was super late, but continued to show “on time” on the monitors!!!
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It was my first experience with Jet Blue — I usually fly Southwest! But, from what I could tell, none of the problems were their fault and the employees were very friendly, helpful, and easy to deal with; the planes were very nice and had super comfortable seats AND individual TVs at each seat with free access to watch 30-some odd channels of Direct TV through personal headsets — I was impressed with Jet Blue!!!
Stay tuned for the rest of the Weekend Adventure!
What I Love About Sanford
There are many things I love about Sanford! To avoid missing something that I really need to pay tribute to, here are the top five CATEGORIES (with examples in each) that make Sanford a great place to live – in no particular order:
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The many great places to go and have a relaxing time: The Temple Theater, Depot Park, Kiwanis Park, Downtown, the duck pond in Riverbirch Corner, SanLee Park, movie theaters, and on and on….
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The great restaurants, including, but definitely not limited to: Renalds, Myra’s Kitchen, The Dairy Bar, Fresh Choice Cafe, The Bavarian Brat Haus, Angie’s Breakfast Barn, Mrs. Wenger’s, Mrs. Lacey’s, The Flame, Davison’s Steaks, River Lodge, and others I’m sure I’m forgetting at the moment!
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The best places in the world to take care of my dogs – All Animals Veterinary Hospital (especially Dr. Cindy) and Rae-Zor Grooming, Boarding, and Day Care!
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LOTS of places to go get the perfect massage, facial, pedicure, manicure, or other pampering services at reasonable prices – Natural Balance, Marcello’s, Love Nails, Head To Toe – just to name the ones that I have used over the years.
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The pace and proximity to ways to have a change of pace — it is more upbeat in Sanford than the small farming community I grew up in, but still a long way from the hustle and bustle of big city life. I love that it has that small town feel, but still offers a lot of what a mid-sized city has to offer. And, if the urge for more excitement grabs you, it is just a little ways away. Being in the “heart of Carolina”, Sanford is centrally located with easy access to just about anywhere! Both the mountains and the beaches are just a short driving distance away – you can easily do either in a day trip or even, if you so desire, do both in a weekend!! If you’re craving the city life, you can drive in no time to Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Charlotte. Theme parks your cup of tea? It is a short drive to Carowinds, Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, and several water parks! Local shopping is worth staying in town for – lots of quaint locally owned shops downtown and around town, and a few big box stores, like Penneys, Belk, WalMart, etc……..but, if you really need Target, PetSmart, or the “mall experience”, it is a short drive to Cary, Raleigh, Southern Pines, or Fayetteville!
So, there you have it!!!
Saturday Ponderings
I love Bazarro!!! You know, the cartoon in the comic section of the newspaper! Today, they highlight the widespread popularity of blogging. Not only are our Sanford area bloggers growing, but even some of the most unusual people blog – as depicted in today’s Bazarro:
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Did George Norman close his store on Wicker Street???? I drove by there the other day and noticed all the windows and doors covered up with paper. Also, it was during business hours and they were not open!!! I really enjoy that shop and have picked up some really nice gifts in there! I hope they are just renovating or something – I’d hate to hear that they are closed!!!
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Four Corners Framing looked like it was closed last week when I went by there, too – but that wasn’t as obvious as George Norman was!!! I sure hope we aren’t losing some of the great locally owned shops downtown!
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I haven’t been out and about town the last few days — I am involved in something that I’ll be blogging about in a few days, so not a lot of local interest stuff to post about! But soon……I promise!!!
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I can’t wait for “Ain’t Misbehavin'” to open at the Temple Theater!!!! It is running May 29th thru June 22nd! I’m sad that it is the last show of the season, but I think this show is a great one to close the season — going out with a bang!!! I think some friends and I are planning to go on the 12th, but I don’t know if I can wait that long — I just may have to sneak off and go see it long before that!
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As for the Yankees — I do believe my post that declared to the world that I am convinced they can make a comeback and that I am NOT a fair weather fan WORKED!!! If I have read the game results correctly, they haven’t lost a game since that post – and I believe they have played about 3 since then! WOO HOO!!! Way to go, Yanks — keep up the good work!!!
I think that is all for now…..good night!
20 Years! And a couple other minor thoughts!
I don’t normally talk about my work on here – with the exception of when I felt the strong urge to brag about my promotion! But today, I have another strong urge to brag about something work related, so here we go!!!
As of today – May 23rd – I have worked at my current employer for 20 years! Yep, that is TWENTY years! The name has changed a few times over the years due to changes in the parent company, but it is the same place!
That makes me an odd duck in this day and age. You used to see people get a job and stay there for years and years to gain the security that seniority used to bring them – not so much anymore. People tend to do more job hopping now for a variety of reasons. My reason for staying has very little to do with the security of seniority (no such thing in Corporate America anymore!). I stay because I have a job that is extremely rewarding and gives me an opportunity to do something I love to do every day without becoming monotonous! The time has flown by – it sure doesn’t feel like 20 years has passed! And – I can count the # of times on one hand that I can remember having to convince myself of one good reason to get out of bed and go in to work over the past 20 years! Can’t beat that with a stick!
For the major anniversary milestones, we get to select a gift of our choice from a wide variety of items based on the # of years. I selected a beautiful pearl and diamond ring for my 20 year gift – I love it!!! But it is just icing on the cake of a long and satisfying career!
OK – brag session is over! Now for a few other thoughts I have on this lovely Friday morning:
Am I the only one who just can’t get used to no stop light on the corner of Gordon St. and Steele St.? I’m not sure when that stop light went away – it has been maybe a couple years – but, every time I come down through there, I look up to that light and it is GONE!!! When I’m going down Steele, I prepare to stop and look up to see if it is green or red – no light! When I’m on Gordon, I stop for the stop sign (probably less because I notice the stop sign and more because that way was usually red until it was tripped), but then I sit there waiting for the light to turn green – no light! I am not sure how long it will take me to get it through my thick head that THERE IS NO TRAFFIC LIGHT ON THE CORNER OF GORDON AND STEELE ANYMORE!!! ha-ha-ha
I gotta get up to Big Bloomers to get some hanging plants for my deck and patio!! It is already Memorial Day weekend and no pretty plants hanging around to enjoy! The guys I have that keep up my lawn and do my landscaping have done all the spring sprucing up, so the yard is beautiful — but the deck and patio need those plants!!!
Speaking of the guys who keep up my lawn and landscaping — they are WONDERFUL!! I have asthma, so mowing the lawn ends up with an inhaler and a couple hours of wheezing and gasping for breath! I love to mow the lawn, but had to stop doing it myself – my solution was to get someone to do it for me. I also needed to have some landscaping done when I first bought my house. I called around to find out who could do a good job without charging an arm and a leg. Chris Harrington was recommended to me – he and his brother Brandon have Harrington’s Lawn Care and Landscaping. They had so many great ideas – I just let him go at it! I call them my “elves” because I go to work and the lawn needs to be mowed or bushes need to be trimmed and I come home and it is all done and beautiful – the elves had been there!!! They are GREAT!!! I have enjoyed their work at my home for about 3 years now – they keep my lawn looking great year round (and it really needed attention when I bought the house), added and maintain my landscaping, and even put in a wonderful patio!
I guess that’s all for now!
Rae-Zor Grooming, Boarding, & Day Care
I like to take them every now and then for a day of Doggie Day Care so they can play with other dogs and have some time out of their normal environment! And it is always the 1st choice for boarding! They have HUGE temperature controlled comfortable kennels, a great outdoor play area, indoor play areas, and lots of people and other dogs to meet and have fun with! They always come home totally exhausted and happy!!!
For this visit, they will have lots of fun, get baths, and pedicures — so, they’ll have a nice mix of play and pampering — what more can a dog ask for????
Let’s Go Yankees, Let’s Go!
All that said — I also have to say that I am NOT a fair weather fan!!! NO, SIR!!! The Yanks are in a slump this year (well, let’s call a spade a spade — they’re scraping the bottom of the standings board) — but, they are still the Yankees and I’m still rooting for them to make one of their infamous come backs and get a good rally going to spring into first place and make it to the series — and I’ll be doing that until the day the series starts – with or without them! ha-ha-ha
Seriously — the Yanks have had their golden years and their not so golden years, but I’ve stuck with them! I don’t understand these folks who call themselves die hard fans, but go nuts and bad mouth their team when they are having a tough time — that’s when they need their fans the most!!!
So — Let’s Go, Yankees, Let’s Go!!!! You can do it — you’ve come from behind to win it all before — you can do it again!!!!
(But, then again, coming in dead last just may be the kick that Steinbrenner and his merry men need to show them that they can’t treat people the way they do and keep staying on top…..)
And The Trophy Goes To….
The winner in the 6th season of Dancing With The Stars is Kristie! It was sorta anti-climatic because she was the odds-on fan favorite from the beginning and was at the top of the leader board almost every week! Barring an upset, she was a shoe in!
Don’t mistake the last paragraph to mean I didn’t enjoy this season! I DID!!! It was full of excitement, drama, and amazing accomplishments from all the contestants! It was also the first season that the fan voting didn’t seem out of whack! In past seasons, the popularity of some contestants kept them on long after they were obviously no longer a valid contender AND some that were amazing and should have made it much further went home early because they just didn’t get the fan votes!!! This season, it progressed much more in line with the abilities of the contestants – although it got tough towards the end cause they all deserved to go all the way, but one had to go home each week!!!
It was a great season — my only negative was that tonight’s show was very anti-climatic — there was no surprise ending – no “gee, I wonder who’s gonna win”! The recap of the highlights from the season was nice, but I saw it all when it happened —- so, basically, I didn’t need to bother watching tonight at all! I could have just confirmed my suspicions by reading about Kristie on line! But, then, if there HAD been an upset, I would have drop kicked myself into the middle of next week for missing it!!!! ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Now it is over — and I’m already wondering who will be in the line up of stars for NEXT season and looking forward to it starting!!!!
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