little blog on the prairie

It was with amusement that I read in Deb Pressey’s Sunday N-G business column about the new upscale doggie boutique that will be occupying the former Gloria Jean’s coffe space in Marketplace Mall sometime this summer. Some friends and I had been talking recently that we were just waiting for one of these to open, although I thought sometime like this would be better suited for downtown Champaign or Urbana, a place where people could walk there with their dogs. (Some really cute pet boutiques I have been to: Barker and Meowsky in Chicago and Muttropolis in San Diego.) But my amusement quickly turned into dismay, and then disgust, when I got to the end and saw that this shop — Lucky Puppy — will also be selling puppies.

I’m sorry, but dogs should not be sold at the mall. Of course, these days designer dogs are big business — and can fetch big prices. But dogs don’t belong in cages at the mall. Adopting an animal isn’t the same thing as going to the Gap to get a new pair of pants. There is no return policy for a living, breathing animal. This is just a recipe for irresponsible pet ownership.

You may have figured this out but the DSL at the lbotp household is down. Of course, that also means the phone is dead, but really, the only purpose of that landline phone is to be a) a backup for the cell phone and b) a conduit for the DSL.

AT&T says it should be fixed by the end of the day. But, if not, I will see a credit on my bill for the time it’s been down. YIPPEE. Um, shouldn’t I get a credit anyway, even if it’s just for a day? An outage is an outage. Gotta love corporate America.

Until then, I will twiddle my thumbs.

It’s that time again. The little blogger on the prairie (gosh, I hate it when I talk about myself in the third person) is feeling a bit ornery today, so let the complaints roll in.

It’s time again for Speak Your Piece.

My turn: Besides hating when I talk about myself in the third person, I hate it how when I want to spend money, I can’t find anything to buy. You know what I mean? I go shopping, but nothing fits, or isn’t the right color, or doesn’t look good on my postpartum body. Yuck.

Oh, Market Street. You have a somewhat sordid past, and many may not understand your wily charms, but recently you have grown on me and become my favorite C-U shortcut. You allow your patrons to circumvent North Prospect — as well as that mess around the mall — and get them to places quickly and directly. Thank you for being a friend.

Our fine flagship University is blossoming with opportunities to improve our lives. Just in the coming days, we have:

• Dr. Michael Roizen, one of the YOU docs who you may have seen on Oprah, is coming to town on Sunday just to tell us how we can stay young. His talk is free at Krannert, but tickets are required. If you have one of his books, bring it and he’ll inscribe it at the book signing afterward.
• Starting in May, the foreign language program is offering intense three-week courses on a variety of languages. Prepare for that summer trip around the world by learning Hindi, Japanese, Arabic and more.  (click on IFLIP program).
• Saturday’s Petstravaganza event, which is being advertised as a “family-friendly celebration of our animal companions.” It’s free.
• Last but not least, the Overlooked Film Festival starts Wednesday. It’s sold out, but there’s one pass for sale on the chambana craig’s list.

In our house, the preferred television vendor of choice is DirecTV. Once you go satellite, you never go back to cable. But there a couple of things I miss — the fact that we don’t get Channel 15 (instead, we have the Springfield ABC station, yippee) and the wretched local commercials.

Some of my favorite commercials were the ones made by the goofy owner of “This is It Furniture” — the discount store targeted toward students where futons reign — that often featured his young children. They were funny, and of course his tag line, “Downer Downer Downer” was certainly unforgettable. (I tried to find them on youtube, but I guess commercials aren’t allowed.)

So it didn’t surprise me that despite the fact that we don’t get cable, the “Downer” guy still managed to invade our territory. You probably noticed the guys loitering at busy corners recently wearing the bright yellow sandwich boards, advertising a sale at the store. Trying to read them while driving probably constitutes some sort of safety hazard, but it’s not every day you see some dude in a sandwich board on every major corner in Champaign. Sandwich boards, according to wikipedia, are sooooooo 19th century. Perhaps in the age of texting, IM, and blackberrys, anachronistic marketing techniques are the ticket to getting our attention.

The amazing biannual baby and children’s consignment sale, The One Week Boutique, is finally here (click on the link for info). And in case you missed it, this year they are sponsoring the first-ever One Week Boutique Kids Rock Concert.

From their announcement:

“Jam with the Jammies” Kids’ Rock Concert for a Cause will take place Saturday, April 21 at 10AM. The concert will be in our new, huge location at the old Best Buy building in Champaign (606. W. Anthony Dr.). The Jammies are a fun rock band that play songs about Ketchup and Doggies and other cool stuff. The best part is—they wear their JAMMIES! So we want all the kids to come in their pajamas so they can Jam with the Jammies. Tickets for the kids rock concert are a donation of $5 per family. You can buy tickets ahead of time at Marcy McAnally’s State Farm Agency at 900 S. Mattis Ave. in Champaign or you can purchase them at One Week Boutique during drop off and pre-sales or at the door Saturday morning. Bring your entire neighborhood–this is sure to be a rockin good time!”

The concert is a benefit for a local mom of three who is battling Stage 4 cancer. It should be a great time, unfortunately for us Peanut will be fast asleep. Oh well.I guess I’m the last person to know that we had our very own kids’ rock band in town. Now I’ll know who to call when we need the entertainment for Peanut’s second birthday (wink).

It’s amazing how things up and close at the mall with little to no warning. One day it’s there, one day POOF! it’s gone, like something out of a movie.

That’s evidently happened with Picture People, the “portrait studio” that was appropriately in the same wing as the children’s play area (near J.C. Penney’s.) Easy come, easy go.

Apparently, the Picture People has been disappearing from malls all over the country. The company has closed more than 100 stores, according to this article. Evidently, the company was owned by Hallmark until it was sold last year.

I took Peanut to the PP for a few of her early portraits. I just didn’t think they were that great, and I asked around to and found out that many of my friends took their kids to Sears. We have been happy with the couple of portaits we have done there. This means that you might need to call earlier to get an appointment at Sears, because they are going to be swamped.

Tomorrow is election day in our fine burg (see the ballot here). And although I’ve publicly expressed my displeasure over the Champaign City Council election becoming a one-issue race, I am going to be a complete hypocrite and announce my write-in candidacy for Champaign Park District Commissioner.

I have one issue: the creation of a dog park or “dog activity area” or whatever you want to call it.

Vote for me, and this will become a front-burner agenda item for the CPD board. The race is between incumbent Newt Dodds, who received the News-Gazette’s endorsement, and local environmentalist Rob Kanter. I have no doubt that either are qualified candidates, but that’s not the point here, is it?

Vote for me, lbotp.

• If Lincoln Square “Village” wants to attract more business, perhaps it should consider making their building more accessible by adding some automated doors. This would certainly aid the disabled, and also stroller-toting mothers who need to get some GuS at Art Mart.
• To all you Wendy’s lovers: head to Bloomington. A local group purchased the stores from their bankrupt owner; there’s talk in this article that it might also pursue opening Wendy’s around here. There was also an article a way back in the N-G that said that the North Prospect Wendy’s would be opening in 90 days … that was on Jan. 26.
• Speaking of B-N: Want to get to Vegas, quick? AirTran, the discount airline that operates out of B-N’s Central Illinois Regional Airport, will begin offering four nonstop flights per week to Sin City starting Aug. 15.