We Love Durham NC

What an easy fundraiser! We outgrow shoes here all the time.

~~

Hola a todos:
Believe it or not-El Centro Hispano has found a fundraiser that actually will give us money for old shoes!!!!  So we need your shoes-and your mama’s shoes-and your cousin’s shoes too.  They can’t have holes in them-but other than that we will take them.   Take this as opportunity to clean out your closets for a good cause.
El Centro Hispano’s Shoe Campaign to raise funds to serve the Durham Latino Community ends July 14, 2008. Â We have only received a few pairs of shoes. Â Please tell your friends and bring your used shoes (without holes) to El Centro today!

We are located at:
201 W. Main St. Suite 100
Durham, NC 27701

~~

Conrad Found!

By word of mouth through the PAC3 list and a neighborhood list, we found the family who had been keeping Conrad safe for these days. Happy Reunion! Thank you very much to the family, and also the PAC3 list, the Independent Animal Rescue for mobilizing such great help, and everyone who looked for him.

(If you’re not on your PAC district newsgroup, do join! It is an excellent community resource. Find your district here.)

They’re a blur!

Biking Southwest Durham

There are a lot of bike trails in our part of Durham. There are several new roads, and as I’ve observed in many cities, when they build new roads, they add bike lanes and sidewalks as part of the package.

This morning we set off on our bikes on a test run. We found by going through the back of our neighborhood, we are a short walk (maybe 15 feet) from a sidewalk which leads to a bike lane. Then we found we can really make it (walking a bit up the hills this early in the game) to a couple friends’ houses, the post office, the library, the grocery, a couple restaurants. Next time we’ll see if we can get to the shopping center. By the time University Marketplace is up and running, we’ll get there in a jiffy!

ETA: This is part of our “mostly car-free” plan. The gas stations have gotten over their fear of going over 3.99 this week, I noticed.

New Library Website

The Durham Library has a new website. Check out the page for kids here.

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.

Weekday Fun with Sanitation

Look! It’s the bulky item pickup truck!

Summer Food Drive

“City of Durham and Duke University Police Departments are asking residents, human service agencies, neighborhoods and civic groups to organize efforts to support their joint summer food drive.” Remember that many children receive more than one meal at school during the school year, and may not have this option during the summer.

Any day in June or July, drop off nonperishables at any of these locations:
The Food Bank, 708 Gilbert St.
Durham Police Dept., 505 W. Chapel Hill St.
Duke Internal Auditing, 705 Broad St.
Duke East Community Service Center, Crowell Bldg. Basement
Duke Women’s Center, 306 Alexander Dr.
Duke West Bryan Student Center
Durham Parks & Rec, Campus Hills, 2000 S. Alston Ave.
Resident Life & Housing Services, 218 Alexander Ave.
BB&T, Main, 505 S. Duke St.
BB&T, Northgate, 1530 N. Gregson St.
BB&T, Woodcroft, 4717 Hope Valley Rd.

Here’s a PDF flyer to print.

Learn about more Durham nonprofits here.Â

Lexile Scores at Durham Library

I just noticed (perhaps it is new) that you can search for books in the Durham Public Library based on your child’s Lexile score.

Photos from the Durham Mothers Club Yard Sale Spring 2008

There were 15-20 tables full of toys, baby gear, household items, books, and clothes this year at the Durham Mothers Club yard sale. Traffic was heavy throughout the day, starting with early birds around 7:00 to stragglers at 11:30. The Durham Mothers Club bake sale table was popular, with a variety of baked goods donated by members and lemonade to drink, and proceeds going to the Welcome Baby program. Kids enjoyed playing on a small hill, watching dogs play at the dog park, and climbing on a play structure tucked into the woods nearby. (A great feature at Pineywood Park is the bathroom setup… each stall is individually accessed, and coed.)

Here are a couple of snapshots:

Buh-Bye Cast

The Boy’s cast came off today. We saw the same doctor and staff at Lenox Baker Children’s Hospital. The assistant promised the really noisy saw would not cut his skin, and even demonstrated it was safe by rubbing it sideways on her hand (convincing trick). It was a fast saw, though, and caused enough friction to make his arm hot. Then an x-ray… bone is healing nicely and now he can wear a removable splint (at school and outdoors) for the next 2 months. His wee arm is pale and thin, but will recover quickly.

In the waiting room, he read a Junie B. Jones book, played another little boy on Nintendo Mario Bros., and watched Scooby Doo. That makes it sound like we waited a long time, but it only took about an hour total.

Durham Gas Prices

We had so much fun going to the dump this morning that we went twice. Since the dump is on the extreme other side of Durham, I had a nice overview of gas prices across town. At one point I saw $3.65 and thought to stop for a fill-up (most other places on my route were 3.75 or 3.77), but by the time I did, the memo had gone out and the price had been adjusted up to $3.75. I’m still trying to figure out which day has the lowest rates… do they think you’ll fill up before the weekend or right after? Meanwhile, Gas Buddy confirms that a Costco membership is worth it.

Smart Commute Challenge

These Larry videos are funny. You can make a pledge to reduce the amount of time you are driving, in favor of biking, TTA, carpooling, or telecommuting.

Say Chi!

I missed the Wednesday bellydance class due to unforeseen circumstances of getting stuck on the couch too late, but luckily there are several other evening classes at the Y. I ended up trying out the tai chi class. It’s been 8+ years since I practice-practice-practice’d, and it shows. But the class was fun and upbeat, much like every single other activity I’ve tried there.

Speedy Pediatrics

The girl had a fever this morning, and then we found a large tick, so we visited her new pediatrics office (Duke Children’s Primary Care on Pickett Road). It was one of those “squeeze you in” appointments, which typically means you should be ready to camp out. Ready we were, with plenty of books. We arrived 10 minutes before our appointment, checked in, and were called back to the weighing room before we could sit in the waiting room. After the nurse finished a 3-minute processing, we were led back to the little room, where again I expected to wait, but the doctor came in just as the nurse exited. Again, I didn’t even have a chance to sit down. After a quick but thorough checking and some advice, we were out the door on the way home.

This was a unique experience–speed is what you want with a cranky sick child.

By the way, this is what we were told: ticks expel the bug (bacteria?) that causes Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever after they get all fat with blood and then “eliminate” it into the bite area, usually about 48 hours after they settle in. So if you don’t have an engorged tick, you’re probably okay. But it takes 10-14 days for it to produce symptoms, so look for a red rash (though 10% of people don’t get a rash) and sore muscles 1-2 weeks after you remove the little guy.