We Love Durham NC

Southpoint Play Area

We realized tonight that the boy has sized out* of the play area at Streets of Southpoint mall. Well, then.
*Must be under 48″ tall

Juggle Boy

Chuck E. Cheese Saturday Morning

2 for 1 token coupons are easy to find… in the Sunday newspaper, on Hi-C juice box packages, or online in a monthly email. Saturday mornings are good times to partake, as it’s not nearly as crowded as Saturday nights (you can hardly find a seat on weekend evenings). They open at 9am on Saturdays, and you’re under no obligation or even suggestion to have pizza that early.

The Boy is a skeeball shark. We have determined that skeeball has the highest payout of all CEC games, and indeed he turned 40 tokens into 200+ tickets in no time flat.

Stomping Spiders

Let me get this right… clowns are scary, but this giant clock bothers you not in the least? (Toddlers tend to agree with me.)

The birthday party flyers announce the party packages are NEW! The changes I see are that the price has increased to $10.99 per child, with no discount for parties during the week. It’s still a relative bargain in the birthday party scene, offering 90 minutes at the table, a balloon bouquet, cake, 2 slices of pizza per child, goody bags, a host, sodas, plates/forks/cups, and cleanup. Plus 20 tokens per child and dancing with the real live Chuck E. Cheese (as opposed to the animatronic CEC and friends). During the week, you get the table for as long as you want it.

Action at University Marketplace

In the future University Marketplace location, we saw a huge pile of trees. From the strong smell of pine, the landscaping trees had been cut down just this morning. Then a dumptruck came around the corner with another load of trees for the pile. Sitar India restaurant appears to be still open, but the other storefronts are covered from the inside with brown kraft paper.

New Summer Camp Listing: Historic Stagville

Historic Stagville Summer Camp
July 29-August 2, 2008, 9:30-2:30. $45/child. Phone (919) 620-0120. Discover what kinds of crops would have been growing on this property, what types of animals would have lived here, what children were learning, what types of jobs were being done on the grounds and who would have been doing those jobs, as well as what kids were doing for fun in the 1850s. Lunch will not be provided by the site.

See more summer camp options in Durham here.

Ssssssnake!

We caught this little guy weaving through our planter and filmed his path across the yard up into a tree.

Free Chicken Sandwich

If you dress up like a cow and go to the Hillsborough Road Chik-Fil-A on July 11th, they will give you a free chicken sandwich.

C’mon, kids, let’s do a craft!

Duke Child Studies

Duke Psychology and Neuroscience has ongoing studies for children of all ages.

I signed the kids up for a Reading Study… really an eye-tracking study that would not involve any reading… and Wednesday hauled them out to Duke in the morning. They would each earn $10 for 10 to 45 minutes of research.

On arrival, we discover the lot they told us to park in is gated. There’s little to no free parking on the Duke Campus, so after trying to call and driving around a bit, we default into the Duke Clinic lots. We learn a lot about how elevators work.

Then we try to find the building. It isn’t marked. (Oh, yeah, my husband said later, Duke buildings aren’t marked.) And being a very small building, Duke Social/Psychology Building, nobody knows about it. We’re directed to the Info desk at the clinics and they give good directions, but it involves too many turns and I get us lost. A very kind administrator finally walks us over to the building (and gives the kids a cookie).

Forty-five minutes later, we’re in the departmental office, where the receptionist tries to call, with no answer. She does not know where the reading lab is. We walk (remember there are FIVE of us, like herding cats, man) around looking at door tags (well, we’ve come this far) and finally find the Reading Lab, but the door is locked and no one is around.

So we walk back to the car in the heat and the hungry, and I think-think-think how I can rescue the morning for the kids, who now don’t have their $10 each.

Ah, we’re near Hillsborough Road. Play area at Chik-Fil-A. That’s a treat for them. Do not underestimate the value of an enclosed play area with lemonade. With a glass window so you can sit in the air conditioning.

If you do the Duke Child Studies, and they do come highly recommended by lots of people, make sure they give you detailed directions, a parking pass, and a cell phone number for contact. And call the day before to confirm the appointment.

Voting Evening

We drove out to our voting location right before the polls closed tonight. I had to wait in line! Yes, the Boy laughs, but just for a second because both voters’ names were in the second-half-of-the-alphabet book. It took us longer to get out of the parking lot onto the main drag, what with all the construction of townhouses and roads and shopping centers, than it did to vote.

While on that side of the neighborhood, we peeked into the Hope Valley Commons center. The Harris Teeter signage is up, along with a Now Hiring sign. Also hanging in one of the windows is a Japan Express Coming Soon! banner. The Girl looked and found trees in the landscaping…parents like trees, she said. Or maybe she said parrots. One never knows with that one.

Durham Library Book Sale

We made it out to the library bag sale at the Main Branch on Sunday. People were grabbing paper bags and stuffing them with armloads of mainly novels for $7 a bag. Outside, under the tent, non-bag sale items were available for $.50 per paperback and $1 per hardback. The children’s section was slim, but I bet on Friday there was a much fuller selection.

I snagged several books of photography, an inspirational Circus Techniques guide, one from the eighties titled Ventriloquism Made Easy (aka Dummies for Dummies), a book on trees, a St. Louis Cardinals baseball card guide, and a delightful spiral-bound collection of essays by an Ellen Holmes Baer, a local in perhaps Rougemont?, called Lessons from Apple Trees, Rainy Days, and Johnny Woodchuck. A very soothing read. I’m surprised she hasn’t published more.

Flash Flood

I chuckled a little when the Flash Flood alert came across my email yesterday. The sky was clear and it seemed as dry as could be outside. We headed to the store and when we returned through the pouring rain, we saw this around the culvert in the yard. The red lines show the typical size of the creek bed. The blue circles show the size and placement of the pipes. The green line is an attempt to show how deep the water was right beside the pipes. Those 3′ pipes weren’t handling all the water coming down the hill. Within about 15 minutes of the rain slowing, the water had drained 1/2 way.

No joke, eh?

American Dance Festival and Nasher Family Fun

From the Nasher newsletter:

“Saturday, June 21st: The American Dance Festival, this year celebrating its 75th season, invites families and children of all ages to experience the joy of dance. The day begins with a one-hour children’s matinee by Pilobolus at 1 p.m. at Duke University’s Page Auditorium on west campus. Tickets are $12. Call Duke Box Office at (919) 684-4444.

The fun continues at the Nasher Museum from 2 to 4:30 p.m. with activities including an African Dance and Drumming workshop, a workshop with The Scrap Exchange, entertainment by Paperhand Puppet Intervention and Hooping, a new activity combining meditation, dance, circus, athleticism and play.

Activities at the Nasher Museum are free and open to the public. For more information, go to American Dance Festival.”

Summer Music Festival

A series of six free summer music concerts sponsored by the Durham Parks & Rec Department begins tomorrow.

June 21st, Duke Park, Bobby Hinton & Cool John Ferguson

June 28th, Twin Lakes Park, Veeda

July 12th, Forest Hills Park, Marcus Anderson & Blue Chip Jazz Band

July 26th, Pineywood Park, Lo-K-Shun

August 2nd, Oval Park, The Tim Smith Band & Erica Newell

Durham Library Book Sale

This weekend at the Friends of the Durham Library book sale:

Friday, June 20, from 4 - 7 p.m. Members only; Memberships sold at the door.

Saturday, June 21, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. - Everyone welcome.

Sunday, June 22, from 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. - Everyone welcome; $7 bag sale in the auditorium only.

Friday & Saturday, paperbacks 50cents, hardbacks $1, special prices on a few special books.

Auto Zone

Over in that shopping center on University Drive near MLK where the K-mart is–the one I think everyone calls the K-mart Plaza–where the old, small El Rodeo used to be, there was a Pier 1 Imports forever. It used to be the best place to buy holiday gifts for girlfriends, but then Durham grew more shopping options. Then they made it a Pier 1 Imports Outlet. Then I think they moved that over near Southpoint. But anyway, it’s a big orange Auto Zone now, and I am as happy as could be. I asked for two things in SW Durham (and one of them was not a Dunkin Donuts): an auto supply store and a nice office supply store (perhaps one that has a red logo and is named after an office supply, but only if Not Just Paper won’t open a branch).

Weekday Fun with Sanitation

Look! It’s the bulky item pickup truck!