We Love Durham NC

New Durham Central Market

Here’s your chance to become a founding member of Durham’s new cooperative grocery store. All the cool kids are doing it.

DATA Bus Service Feedback

Durham’s DATA Bus Service is seeking feedback for future planning. Click here to give feedback on Durham’s bus service.

School Supply Lists

We’ve received our school supply list for next year. It includes things like scissors, crayons, colored pencils, markers, spiral bound books, pencils, glue sticks, tissues, construction paper, writing paper, erasers, folders, ziplocs. It will probably set us back 40 bucks or so, depending on sales. We’ll also time it for the 2008 sales tax-free holiday on August 1-3.

I don’t mind buying the supplies, although I know it’s a subject of controversy. The school system spends a lot on salaries and transportation. We heard of a friend in California who will be paying $750/semester for her son to ride the school bus. That’s something we don’t have to worry about in the Durham Public Schools; bus transportation is provided to your child no matter what school you go to–magnet, year-round, or neighborhood.

A lot of the schools have school supply lists online already. Click here to pick your school.

Long Summer

Today I’m posting about something we didn’t do today. The Boy didn’t return to his year-round charter this year, so he didn’t go back to school. Long summer!

When I went to register him at his new school (in the Durham Public Schools System), they said Thank you for enrolling your child. Thank you! Out of the 20-odd school registrations I’ve been a party to, I’ve never heard that.

No, no, I insist. Thank YOU!

Happy Birthday iContact

Congratulations to iContact for reaching 5 years, 100 employees, and 29,000 customers!

iContact celebrated with employees, families, local customers, media, and community members at their Meridian Parkway location. Music was provided by Second String Band of Durham and Holly Springs. Eastern-style BBQ sandwiches with all the fixins were brought in by Thrills from the Grill. Paul of Flow Circus juggled while kids played on a blow-up slide and bounce house. Kay Hagan’s daughter Carrie spoke in congratulations of iContact and support of her mom’s campaign.

Around 6pm, guests were invited to gather around a giant hot air balloon in the parking lot as it rose with iContact founders Ryan Allis and Aaron Houghton, pulling away a tarp covering the new iContact sign. Unfortunately, incoming rain prevented guests from riding in the balloon as planned, but the celebration continued under a large tent.

iContact supports the community through donations of a percentage of payroll to local and international organizations.

New Pineywood Park Playground

The Pineywood Park playground was renovated in the last week, and the town is abuzz with reports of how fun the new equipment is. Everything is so shiny! There are some unique climbing features, too. We observed it was appropriate for all ages… at least 1 year through 8 years old. Here are some photos we took today.

Pineywood Park is located on the Woodcroft Parkway inside the Woodlake Community.

The bathrooms have not been renovated, but this has been one of my favorite things about Pineywood. The bathrooms are separated into individual stalls, allowing more privacy. I also took a headshot so you can see how clean they are. I picked a random stall.

More planned Durham park, etc. additions and improvements can be seen here.

Tomato Sandwiches

I bet if you are Southern and I whisper tomato sandwiches, you will want to run to the Wednesday Farmers’ Market to see if there are fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes left.

Library Show Afternoon

We caught two free shows at the library yesterday afternoon. The first was a Science Magic show with Dr. Elwell and his assistant Mike. We saw a Cartesian diver, a “clock” reaction of iodine and starch, a “stoplight” reaction caused by shaking a liquid, DNA from a strawberry, blue and red dyes extracted from grape soda, and dyes that reacted to acids or bases. The kids were sufficiently convinced that magic was happening, but also want to try the experiments at home. If you click the links above, it will tell you how some of the “magic” happens.

(Ms. Elwell told us if we liked this, to check out the Destiny Bus from UNC that comes around once a month. Dates are not set for 2008-2009, but the next one is in August. I also recommend books by Janice VanCleave.)

After a short intermission to walk over to Harris Teeter with our friends to get a dragon cookie, check our blood pressure, and zoom around in the rocket cart (I also bought an onion to go with squash for dinner), we walked back to watch the next show from Bright Star Children’s Theatre based out of Asheville.

The company’s costumes were primarily handmade, and brilliant. When Sadie the caterpillar came onto stage, several toddlers screamed at the strange realistic creature. Other characters were a grumpy roach from the Bronx, a British ladybug, a peppy sunflower, and of course The Beautiful Thing that Caterpillars Become. The story was about overcoming bullies, feeling great about who you are, and not judging people by what they look like.

We biked home, happy with a fun afternoon. A block from home the Boy ran slam into the back of a parked pickup truck. No broken bones this time, and amazingly both the bike and truck were also unharmed. Bless his heart.

Squash and crockpot for dinner. Early bedtime. Great day had by all!

Duke Athletics Tour

Event Name: Duke Athletics Tour
Date: Friday, August 8, 2008
Time: 5pm
Location: Tyler’s Taproom, 324 Blackwell Street, Suite 400, Durham NC 27701 (American Tobacco Complex)

Event info: Presented by the Iron Dukes, the “Duke Athletics Tour” will stop in Durham on August 8, 2008. Blue Devil alumni and fans are invited to meet Head Football Coach David Cutcliffe at this event, and official Duke Gear and golf packages to the Washington Duke Inn will be given away. Dinner will begin at 6 P.M. Tickets are $18 which includes a ticket to the Durham Bulls game ($10 without a ticket to the game). Please RSVP by calling Shawn Sease at (919) 613-7554.

Eye on University Marketplace

With all the talk about Hope Valley Commons happenings, don’t forget about the development down the street. University Marketplace was set to begin construction this month. Hawthorne Retail Partners confirmed that interior work is being done in preparation for demolition, which should begin in the next few weeks.

New Dog Tags

Since the dogs came back from their walkabout missing their tags, I went to PetSupermarket at New Hope Commons and had some new ones engraved. They only cost $7 each, and I got to watch the machine engrave through a little window. Actually I got bored watching and petted the bunnies and guinea pigs instead. Should have taken the kids for it. But now the dogs have their names and our phone number on their collars, just in case. (They’re also microchipped, but that doesn’t do the average person any good in contacting you.)

Parents’ Night Out

The kids stayed at the YMCA Playhouse Friday night for Parents’ Night Out. I fed them dinner and then dropped them off at 5:30pm. They played games, ran around in one of the fitness class rooms, did crafts, and watched a movie. The two counselors running the evening were my favorite Y-Playhouse staff; both really nice and fun-loving. I had read the flyer wrong, and returned at 8pm to pick them up, and they begged to stay for the movie until pick-up time at 8:45pm–and by 8:45, the one kid that hadn’t had a nap was falling apart. We’ll probably do it again sometime, but everyone will have a nap first.

The price has recently increased to $12/child, ages 8 months-12 years, 5:30-8:45, preregister at least a day in advance.

Dinosaur Day at NCMLS

We got a sneak peek at the Dinosaur Trail on Saturday during the Dino Super Saturday event.

On the way to the fossil dig site, I saw a higher number than normal of crying children. I thought, this is crazy! Kids love dinosaurs! After we sat at the dig site for a while, I realized the problem–kids can sit in a pile of dirt and dig for shark teeth (or just dig) for hours. Parents don’t have quite the attention span to sit in dirt that long. Luckily I found an umbrella chair to rest while the Boy dug and then bent the ear of a Fossil Club volunteer for about an hour. The Girl spent the time climbing on the large rocks. In the end, we left with extinct tiger shark teeth, white shark teeth, shells, and rocks.

It was packed. This is going to be a popular area of the science museum when it is finally open. At Grayson’s Cafe, the line was almost to the back door, but was moving very fast. Kudos to their staff, many of whom are teenagers, for doing a great job meeting demand.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Wool E. Bull!

Kids run the bases tonight and share free birthday cake.

Char-Grill Durham

Is that a Char-Grill sign in the new Hope Valley Commons center?
Am I right that this is the first Char-Grill outside of Raleigh/Cary?