We Love Durham NC

Pansies

The little one wanted to plant some flowers, and we settled on pansies–good excuse to check out the colorful Stone Brothers shop downtown. I think they have everything you need tucked in there somewhere. You need pickled eggs, right? Stellar service, and just the right flowers we needed. A short history of the Durham garden shop is here. For gardening novices like me, they have monthly gardening cheat-sheets at the register and online.

The Highway

We didn’t do anything in Durham today except leave and come back, but this gave me a chance to see how wide and finished I-85 is to the north of Durham. At last! I like the swoopy bridge part.

Durham Actors

We are watching Pirates of the Penzance, hence a trip to IMDB. There are 42 actors born in Durham, according to the IMDB, including one nicknamed Pigmeat. Hee!

Northgate Basement?

Innovative new Durham schools an schools-within-schools next fall, but what caught my eye was that there’s a basement in Northgate Mall. Field trip!

Best Buys

If you take two small children into the Best Buy, you will never get them out. There are too many buttons to push.

Whenever I visit one of these mega-store malls or strips in Durham, I start thinking about all that sales tax money being gathered. I used to think more about this when I lived in Orange County and drove over to Durham to shop (bad me–shop locally).

I looked it up. Durham actually gathers the largest chunk (about half) of its revenue from property tax, and second is sales tax (less than 10%). This is from the 06-07 Adopted Budget, which is fascinating reading, with not just charts and numbers, but also reports and program descriptions. The largest expenditures by far are Human Services (~40%) and Education (~25%), even discounting money from the state and federal governments.

New Durham Love Shirts

…and it looks like these fit kids. Ooo. Picture of New Bull Shirt at the Anti-Mall

Where is the Post Office?

Earlier in the week, the little one and I drove around downtown looking for the Post Office. And around. And around. We finally gave up and went to our second errand at the library.

Yesterday, we tried again. It is a pretty large building after all; how hard could it be? We found it immediately…strange.

The downtown Post Office has that heavy, intricate architecture of old Official Buildings. Carved wood, granite, columns. A fun feature for kids is the rotating door–don’t get stuck!

The parking directly beside the P.O. was taken by construction trucks (lots of cityscaping going on), so we parked on the Downtown Loop and walked over to Chapel Hill Street. Our path was a little roundabout through alleys, but don’t you find the most interesting things when you’re lost? We passed an intriguing building with swipe-card entrances and a huge security desk that piqued my curiosity. Beside that building was a cobblestone path, and at first I thought it must be from Olden Times, but it’s just a walkway with a shady seating area.
We’ll walk around more when the weather stays warm for good (but before it gets hot for good). Who needs Little Gym (note: we do love Little Gym) when you can balance on curbs, jump over rocks, and run down long sidewalks?

Durham Bookstore

It is very convenient to order books from Amazon and have them delivered to my doorstep. I admit, I have done this. I still do this on occasion.

Quite nearly as convenient, and definitely more rewarding, is ordering from the Regulator Bookshop. I just drop an email to them any time of the day or night, they respond cheerily and order my books, and the books usually get here before an online order would have. I’m out and about every day anyway, so it’s easy to drive up to the parallel parking in front of the store (or the lot directly across the street) and pick up my order. The guys there are so nice. I say this probably too much, but I’ll even give them a “super-nice!”

Besides, I get an excuse to go to Ninth Street (and I’ll take nearly any excuse) to show my kids my old stomping grounds.

You can buy a LIFETIME 10% discount card for $10.

The link is here: Durham Bookstore

Chuck Davis and the African American Ensemble

We saw them today at a school show. Wow! Every time I see this group, I am inspired. Last we saw them was at a show around Kwanzaa. It leaves me with a lot of questions… Who is Sister Norma (who was thanked at the end of the show)? Who makes the costumes? Do the different patterns and colors have meaning? Is Brother Stafford being groomed to take over if Chuck Davis retires? I noticed he was titled “Assistant Director.” When did the AAE start?

In any case, 6 thumbs up for us. My son wanted to get up on stage (which he did before at 3, but doesn’t remember it). We hope to see them again soon.

Oh, I see some of my questions are answered at the AAE site.

Sun Space?

Nearly every day, we pass a lot with two buildings being constructed. They are 6-sided, or maybe octagonal. Finally today I was stopped far back enough from the light to read the sign… apparently a “green builder” named Sun Space Ltd. is building them. I am intrigued, and would love to know more! But they seem to be un-Googleable. Anyone?

Durham consignment sale

Spring cleaning comes early if you want to participate in a spring-summer consignment sale. Here’s just one sale in Durham.

Dino Exhibit Open!

The NCMLS dinosaur exhibit is finally open. I can’t find a link to info on their website, but here is info from a recent newsletter:

“BIG NEWS – Dinosaur-Sized, that is!
If you can’t wait for the new Dinosaur Trail, come and see the Museum’s latest exhibit, Dinosaur Studio: The Remaking of Dinosaur Trail.

We’ll be kicking off this exhibit with a preview for general members only Saturday, February 24 and Sunday, February 25. Just show your member card at the front desk to receive a wristband that allows you to enter Dinosaur Studio during this special preview weekend.

Dinosaur Studio will take you behind-the-scenes to witness the process of making large dinosaur models for the outdoor Dinosaur Trail. Designers, artists, sculptors, and dinosaur experts bring the making of the new trail to life with artist renderings, actual models (both small and large-scale), video, audio files, and even a computer model of a dinosaur call. In the Museum’s celebrated hands-on fashion, visitors can build wooden dinosaur models, color dinosaur pictures, and record their memories of the original trail or other dinosaur stories. These recordings will be available for purchase in the attached dinosaur gift shop. Dinosaur Studio opens to the public on Monday, February 26 after the member preview weekend.”

This is so exciting! I remember seeing the dino trail across the street in high school. I know my son is going to explode with joy.

Are you an Artist in Durham?

Submit your art to Bull City HQ by 2/25 for a show they are calling “Our Durham.”

Durham School Data, Compared

This is more comparative school data (PDF) than I’ve seen presented anywhere else.

Durham Lead Test, Again?

The city left us another bottle to fill up for lead testing. It’s pretty hard to get our water to sit in the pipes for 6 hours, but we did it. The Water Tester reports that nothing was wrong with our most recent sample, but that the City of Durham is requiring a resample for compliance. The report will be mailed to us within a week or so.