Every once in awhile an email ends up in my junk mail that looks interesting. Today there was one from Americantowns.com announcing that Columbus is part of this on-line venture designed to let folks know what is happening in the cities and towns where they live. My email was about Columbus specifically. When I went to the website Columbus is the city that appeared but that must be because somehow this site knows this is where I live. If you go to the part that lets you switch to other towns, you can pull up various towns and cities around Ohio. I went to Willoughby to see if the linked worked and Willoughby happenings showed up.
But, about Columbus. Mainly there is a list of activities happening at the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Columbus Public Library, the Columbus Symphony and the Columbus Museum of Art. I imagine the list will get bigger as time goes on and organizations know that this venue for getting the word out is available. One useful piece of information I also saw was the reminder that Columbus Public Schools is closed on the Martin Luther King Jr birthday holiday.
When I browsed down the list I saw a few things I knew were happening before but forgot ,and some things I didn't know. There's a Family Fun Day at the Columbus Museum of Art, for example, this Saturday. It's part of the gubernatorial festivities. When you see an activity listed, you can click on it for more information. Along the left side of the page there's a textbox style column with specific highlights.
Americantowns.com is also a place where you can find out realtor information, movie times and get maps to find out how to get to all the neat places there are to go. Personally, I liked that I could scroll down the list to see what was happening in the order that it's happening, then click on links to the sponsoring organization to find out more. It seems like this will be a good place to go to not loose track of the neat things there are to do in Columbus and the best way to schedule them in. It's a website where you could do some serious browsing.
The Columbus newspaper is full of ads for gator meat, in preparation for Ohio State's national championship game against the Florida Gators next Monday. I saw these and wondered, much as I did when in a Shreve, OH restaurant I read on the menu "Chicken dinner $8.95, children under 10 free" -- how is that prepared?
Apparently, according to the Florida Dept. of Agriculture, alligator is a mild white meat similar in flavor to (wait for it.....) chicken. A four-ounce piece has 110 calories, 20 from fat.
Sauteed Alligator medallions in Dijon Mustard Sauce
Pickled Gator (I'll bet there are few of those in the stands on Monday night!)
Gator on a stick
Stewed Gator (see above)
If your local grocer doesn't stock gator, don't give up home. ExoticMeats.com can ship it directly to your house. While ordering, why not add some snapping turtle, rattlesnake, kangaroo or poussin to your shipment? They all taste a lot like chicken.
Eating gator may not seem all that appetizing, but imagine the poor Florida fans, trying to choke down buckeyes!
Here's a plug for a neat shop, plus a fun place for a "girls night out." Jennifers' Beads, Yarns and Whatever in Hilliard is a clever business endeavor owned and operated by two friends, each named Jennifer. A little over a year ago Jennifer Fillinger and Jennifer Moore turned a small farmhouse type building and their dream into a bead shop that also sells funky to artsy jewelry, plus quality yarns and knitting supplies.
Both of them have a passion for beads, art, yarn and meeting friendly creative people so they created a business that allows them to do just that. The first Friday of every month they keep the doors open well into the night (I've been there as late as 10:30) so people can have a real bead fest with good food thrown in. If you don't bring some sort of food to share, you chip in $5.
Their bead offerings run the gamut from glass to silver and from the teenie tiny to medallion-like. Besides the beads, there's everything you need to make items from watch bands to earrings. When I've headed to Hilliard, it's only been to go to this bead shop. Each time I insist I'm going just to socialize. Then I get hooked. The bead strands artfully arranged into interesting groupings get me every time and I start poking around trying this combination and that. Before I know it, I've made three pairs of earrings at a fraction of what it would cost if I bought them in the store.
The next "Girl's Night Out" is today. The website has information about class offerings and hours. I'd try this place out. Get artsy this year. Here is a great place to start.
A Cincinnati state representative introduced legislation recently to control exotic animal ownership in Ohio. This comes on the heels of the death of area resident Ted Dres, who apparently was strangled to death by his own 13-foot boa constrictor. Earlier this year, a 500-pound bear escaped its cage in Orwell, Ohio and mauled a neighbor woman.
Rep. George Distel's bill would establish a license requirement and set safety standards for people housing wild animals. This includes adequate fencing, warning signage, and inspections.
Ohio is known as a good state for wild animal owners, since we don't currently have state regulations for non-native wild animals. The state also hosts regular exotic animal auctions in Mt. Hope and the Delphos area, where tigers, bear cubs and other predators as well as other animals are bought and sold.
The Ohio Association of Animal Owners opposes the bill. They claim victories in defeating previous proposals including requiring liability insurance for owners of dangerous pets, establishing an annual $500 breeding license, giving confiscatory powers to local humane societies, and setting up local exotic animal bans.
I reiterate my personal policy against owning any animal that might confuse me with lunch. The stories of exotic animal abuse I've heard, along with the danger it poses to others makes me very uncomfortable with the idea of my neighbor raising a bear in his garage. I'm pulling for Rep. Distel.
The second half of the 20th century may be remembered as the era of the shopping mall. Now there is a web site dedicated to dead (or, in many cases, moribund) malls. Deadmalls.com documents the passing of these hallowed grounds of consumerism. The posts are user submitted, similar to a wiki, so take the facts presented with a grain of salt.
What saddens me is the realization that this list is only a small fraction of the locations that even I, a non-shopper, could name off the top of my head. I can't help but wonder at the wastefulness of our constant pursuit of the new and novel. The first malls were built to replace the downtown shops, then enclosed to provide a Disneyland-like atmosphere. Now the hottest fashion in malls is to emulate the appearance of small shops in a downtown district.
The Ohio malls memorialized on Deadmalls.com -- how many of these have you visited? Southwyck Mall, Toledo Euclid Square Mall, Euclid North Towne Square Mall, Toledo Salem Mall, Dayton American mall, Lima New Market Mall, Columbus Southland Mall, Marion Woodland Mall, Bowling Green Westgate Mall, Fairview Park Columbus City Center Mall, Columbus Arcade Square, Akron Rolling Acres Mall, Akron Portside Festival Marketplace, Toledo Randall Park Mall, North Randall Surrey Square, Norwood Westland Mall, Columbus Beechmont Mall, Cincinnati Forest Fair Mall, Cincinnati Western Woods Mall, Cincinnati
Maybe you received a pet for Christmas. Let's say the pet is a ferret. It happens. Someone thought, "This would make a cute pet" and foisted it off as a gift. It must happen because there is an article about just this scenerio on the Northern Ohio Ferret Association website.
We almost got a ferret once until I found out what work they are. I'm sure a ferret person would say they're not that much work, but they do need space and are fond of chewing things like wire or whatever else happens to be about the house. If you happen to have that cute ferret there is help. The website has articles that range from toys to litterbox training to common illnesses and what to do about them. There is one link that says, "Gift-wrapping hints." I wonder if these means how to gift-wrap a ferret?
If you did not get a ferret and now that you've read this, think, "Boy, I want a ferret," The Heart of Ohio Ferret Association and Rescue has ferrets you can adopt. Lola, the cute ferret you see here, is one of the rescue's available cuties. You can also donate money to help them with their ferret work. If we ever get around to keeping our belongings off the floor. . .
This video which was a OH 10 New Media Center Report on December 13 of this year captures it all. Warmth, love, good cheer and fireworks. Merry Christmas. Grab a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy. I hope your town, whereever you are feels like this one and Santa comes down your chimney or through your front door.
I think when I was looking for an inflatable Santa image I came across a shop near Kings Island that looks like a destination store, and you only have until the end of the year to get there before it closes until April. The Kings Mill Christmas Shop has been featured in the Toledo Blade, The Cincinnati Enquirer and Michigan Living to name a few publications. From the photographs on their website, it looks like one of those totally sensory rich places that are fun to browse around. If you're looking for specialty Christmas items, I'd head here. It seems they have ornaments to fit any theme. The merchandise also includes 150 different kinds of Santas and snowmen. I don't know if they have any inflatable stuff though.
Finding this shop got me wondering about others.Here is another shop I came across. This one is in Hocking Hills, and it is also only open every day until the end of the year and won't open again during weekdays until the spring. The Christmas Treasures Gift Shop is in Logan, OH. Besides Christmas related stuff, this one has all kinds of goodies, some Ohio-themed and some not.
For a mega Christmas shop experience, head towards 'Tis the Season Christmas Shoppe near Berlin, OH. This one is open all year around and is considered the biggest one in the state. There are 200 decorated trees, for starters. I can't imagine it's possible to walk into the store and then leave without buying something. The website has a video as well to get you in that shopping mood beforehand.
Lest you think we're all holiday celebrations all the time, let's focus on me and what I have to do. Yes, it's almost time for me to don my quasi-bridal planner assistant cap again!
The Cleveland I-X Center is hosting a Today's Bride bridal show on January 14, with quite a large list of features and exhibitions! Over 150 exhibitors, a gallery of cakes (which is exciting and thrilling, to see that much sugar in a row), free engagement portraits, fashion shows and an aisle of gowns, and vacation giveaways. There will be so many different little promos that your head (my head) will spin! It's almost worth the $8 admission - admission to these kinds of things has always thrown me. They want me to pay to let them sell me things? That somehow seems wrong. And yet, because I love being the quasi-bridal assistant, I will cheerfully go! I will also happily peruse my complimentary copy of Modern Bride magazine, and learn about all the things that I never really bothered daydreaming about at 16. Like how to pick a bridesmaid, and what thread count really means. (What does that mean?) Anyway, I'm sure I'll see you all there!
Let's say you're looking for the perfect something for that four-legged family member of yours. You know, your best friend. There's a store in Grandview that fits the category of best places to buy your pet a treat. Sure you can troll the aisles of Petland, but it's the holidays so why not make what's under the Christmas tree a bit more upscale than that rawhide bone or the same ol' same ol' catnip ball you were thinking of?
Heidi's Homemade: Dog and Cat Treat Bakery, an establishment that will be 10 years old in 2007, cooks up homemade organic pet treats for both cats and dogs that sounds good enough to eat yourself. Zara's Peanut Butter Dog Treats for one. You can also buy commercial organic dog and cat food. The idea of organic dog and cat food came about after the owners' dog, Heidi developed cancer. They treated her by feeding her organic food, and sure enough, enhanced her life so she was able to live for two more years. She never did have that chemo.
I know that I don't really like shopping in the first place (unless it's a bookstore or craft fair), but malls during the holiday season are just not my cup of tea. Check out the Westfield Southpark mall in Strongsville, Ohio! That's just one line, people.
I recently ran across a new shopping web search site, headquartered in Columbus, Mytriggers.com. Like its many competitors such as Shopping.com, Yahoo! Shopping, and mysimon, Mytriggers will delve into on-line merchants to compare the sales price of the items you request. For example, I searched for a hardback copy of fellow Blog-O writer Tobias' novel Crystal Rain and found it on Amazon for $4.24, used. (Not that I'd buy anything but a pristine version of that classic, Toby!)
The difference that Mytrigger touts is that it collects its money from the vendors when and if you buy the product. Most sites make their nut by selling ads and the right to appear front and center when you request a price. This results in some less-than-best deals for you.
Another service I made use of the other day when shopping for a new TV (32" High-def LCD; eat your hearts out!) was Frucall.com. I found the TV I was shopping for at the new Costco in Columbus. While I stood at the display, I called Frucall's 800#, input the universal price code number from the box, and Frucall responded with the best prices for the product available on-line. I confirmed that Costco had it for $20 less, even before adding shipping costs. Very cool.
A couple more gift suggestions you might consider for those on your list-
Longtime Columbus favorites the Columbus Jazz Orchestra has cut their first CD in 10 years, The Colors of Jazz.
As mentioned in the previous post, Robert McCloskey's children's book Lentil is the official Ohio children's book. McCloskey's, a Caldecott winner for his Maine books, was born in Ohio.
Finally, remember that our official state fossil is the trilobite. Why not give a trilobite ring, or tie tack, or necklace? It's easier than wearing a bullfrog (the official state amphibian).
I had no idea that Maggiano's Little Italy (located in Beachwood Place, which is located in scenic Beachwood, Ohio) was a chain restaurant! Seriously, I thought that the restaurant was a local one that had done really well. Even knowing that it's a chain restaurant doesn't make me too sad, because it is one of the two that are in the whole of Ohio (the other one is all the way down in Cincinnati!). That makes it still pretty special.
You know what else made it really special? The food and the service. Oh good lord, the food. Now, I can't speak to what a normal restaurant experience at Maggiano's is like because I was there for my work's holiday party, and we got to hide upstairs in a lovely banquet room, and have a personal bar/waitress come to me to get me a drink, a delightfully well-made vodka tonic. Maybe sitting at a table downstairs in the restaurant is less classy. But I doubt it!
One of the gimmicks at Maggiano's is that the food is served family-style, i.e., in one big dish that you pass around your table, theoretically like in your own house (not my house, where I leave it on the stove and announce to my roommate and guests that it's done, get it yourself). But the food that we got in the banquet room was amazing! Our main dishes were pork loin with sauteed mushrooms and french-fried onions, and some sort of pesto-pine nut-chicken noodle dish. Side dishes included caesar and house salads, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, meatballs and rigatoni. All of which was very, very good, especially the pork loin. It was almost creamy, which is an odd thing to say about meat, but it was! The side dishes were good, and not obviously Italian. That is what tells me that this is a good Italian restaurant: that my first thought wasn't, "Oh, this is Italian food," but rather, "I want to marry whoever made this artichoke dip. I will propose to them right now!"
I mean, honestly. It is not time to cut down a Christmas tree until snow falls. But we didn't have a choice! It's only eight days until Christmas, and my family was just not going to wait until the weekend right before Christmas, because that means we would not have a decent selection! So we had to go on Saturday the 16, and at least it was chilly out. However, the ground in between the tress was just plain mud, especially at the first tree farm we went to, the Medina Christmas Tree Farm (located, obviously, in scenic Medina). I was not terribly impressed. The trees were... ok. Luckily, my dad wasn't too impressed either, so we moved on.
Christmas tree farm number two was the winner, and that made me especially happy, because it's run by a second cousin of ours! The Kall Christmas Tree Farm (which doubles the rest of the year as the J Baka Alpaca Farm) has actually done so well since Thanksgiving this year that they had actually reached their limit on trees that could be cut down! Luckily, they still had a great selection of fresh-cut trees that were really nice - I think we ended up getting a nice wide spruce of some kind. I wasn't really paying attention, since I was busy taking our youngest sibling over to look at the alpacas and chickens. I really like alpacas! They're quiet, they have nice woolly hair, and they have such long graceful necks. And of course the kid just loved them - actually, she loved the chickens best, which made no sense at all. Chicken vs. alpaca? Alpaca every time!
And while I was totally happy to enjoy fresh air, Christmas trees and alpacas, I could really have used some snow.
Years ago I learned how to gift wrap a present that ended up with crisp corners and a jaunty bow. That year, I was pretty impressed with myself. This new talent was learned when I was in a Civitan Club that operated a holiday gift-wrapping booth at a shopping mall. Wrapping up gifts that looked good on the outside was only part of the fun. Seeing what people bought as presents was another. Most people, happily, had good taste and we were so thrilled that people used our booth we kept with the spirit of giving and heaped praises on the gift-giver regardless.
So, if you happen to be at a place where someone is wrapping for charity, indulge. Save yourself gift-wrapping time AND give to the community. There are a lot of service clubs in need of funds so they can keep doing their excellent work. These are grassroots organizations that have their thumbs on the heartbeat of Ohio. You also don't have to only wrap gifts that you bought at the establishments where the booths are.
Barnes and Noble stores have gift-wrap booths to benefit Children's Hunger Alliance. They rotate weekend hours between Polaris, Lennox and Easton.
Frankly, this is one of the only booths I found when I Googled gift wrapping for charity in Ohio. It seems that there are so many stores giving gift-wrapping for free that it's hard to compete? Just a thought.
Jet Blue, for example, is doing free gift-wrap at Tuttle Crossing in Dublin is wrapping for free. Maybe there are booths I didn't come across, so keep your eyes open.
If you happen to be in New Philadelphia, here's another one. The First Baptist Church is doing a gift-wrapping booth at New Towne Mall which is to raise money for Darfur. The hours are: from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Dec. 16; noon to 6 p.m. Dec. 17; 3 to 9 p.m. Dec. 18-20; noon to 9 p.m. Dec. 21-22; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Dec. 23 and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 24.
Every once in awhile an email ends up in my junk mail that looks interesting. Today there was one from Americantowns.com announcing that Columbus is part of this on-line venture designed to let folks know what is happening in the cities and towns where they live. My email was about Columbus specifically. When I went to the website Columbus is the city that appeared but that must be because somehow this site knows this is where I live. If you go to the part that lets you switch to other towns, you can pull up various towns and cities around Ohio. I went to Willoughby to see if the linked worked and Willoughby happenings showed up. 
The Columbus newspaper is full of ads for gator meat, in preparation for Ohio State's national championship game against the Florida Gators next Monday. I saw these and wondered, much as I did when in a Shreve, OH restaurant I read on the menu "Chicken dinner $8.95, children under 10 free" -- how is that prepared?
Here's a plug for a neat shop, plus a fun place for a "girls night out." Jennifers' Beads, Yarns and Whatever in Hilliard is a clever business endeavor owned and operated by two friends, each named Jennifer. A little over a year ago Jennifer Fillinger and Jennifer Moore turned a small farmhouse type building and their dream into a bead shop that also sells funky to artsy jewelry, plus quality yarns and knitting supplies. .jpg)
A Cincinnati state representative introduced legislation recently to control exotic animal ownership in Ohio. This comes on the heels of the death of area resident Ted Dres, who apparently was 
The second half of the 20th century may be remembered as the era of the 
Maybe you received a pet for Christmas. Let's say the pet is a ferret. It happens. Someone thought, "This would make a cute pet" and foisted it off as a gift. It must happen because there is an article about just this scenerio on the 
I think when I was looking for an inflatable Santa image I came across a shop near Kings Island that looks like a destination store, and you only have until the end of the year to get there before it closes until April. The 
Lest you think we're all holiday celebrations all the time, let's focus on me and what I have to do. Yes, it's almost time for me to don my quasi-bridal planner assistant cap again! 
Let's say you're looking for the perfect something for that four-legged family member of yours. You know, your best friend. There's a store in Grandview that fits the category of best places to buy your pet a treat. Sure you can troll the aisles of Petland, but it's the holidays so why not make what's under the Christmas tree a bit more upscale than that rawhide bone or the same ol' same ol' catnip ball you were thinking of?
I recently ran across a new shopping web search site, headquartered in Columbus, 
I had no idea that
I mean, honestly. It is not time to cut down a Christmas tree until snow falls. But we didn't have a choice! It's only eight days until Christmas, and my family was just not going to wait until the weekend right before Christmas, because that means we would not have a decent selection! So we had to go on Saturday the 16, and at least it was chilly out. However, the ground in between the tress was just plain mud, especially at the first tree farm we went to, the 
Christmas tree farm number two was the winner, and that made me especially happy, because it's run by a second cousin of ours! The
Years ago I learned how to gift wrap a present that ended up with crisp corners and a jaunty bow. That year, I was pretty impressed with myself. This new talent was learned when I was in a Civitan Club that operated a holiday gift-wrapping booth at a shopping mall. Wrapping up gifts that looked good on the outside was only part of the fun. Seeing what people bought as presents was another. Most people, happily, had good taste and we were so thrilled that people used our booth we kept with the spirit of giving and heaped praises on the gift-giver regardless.
