little blog on the prairie

For those of you whose sweet tooths aren’t satiated by tonight’s festivities, I have another great option for you. (I’ll keep you in suspense, though, you have to read to the end to find out about it.)

I went to visit a friend of mine who lives in Mahomet not too long ago. After the kids played for awhile, we headed to lunch at First Fruits, the newish organic market/restaurant in the old Monical’s building near downtown Mahomet. The family who owns the store has been farming in the area for several years, and I had wanted to lunch there for awhile after finding out about this new venture from their booth at the Market on the Square.

Our lunch was absolutely delicious. I had a cup of the soup of the day (mushroom) and a half of a roasted vegetable sandwich. Almost everything is made in-house; if it’s not, they’ll tell you — and they use organic ingredients as much as possible. Here’s the menu, although they have daily specials. The seating area is small, so I wouldn’t go there with a big group, but the service was prompt and incredibly friendly. It’s not difficult to tell that they take a lot of pride in their product. My only critique was the store’s lack of a proper high chair — they have one, but it’s a circa 1972 death trap and not something I would trust with a child less than 15 months old. That’s not to say that they aren’t child-friendly otherwise, they do offer a children’s meal special and have a normal booster seat.

I probably scared my friend and her child when I let out a yelp in the middle of our meal. Much to my delightful surprise, First Fruits is selling one of the most wonderful ice cream brands in the world, Homer’s. Homer’s is a landmark in Wilmette, a suburb north of Chicago. Despite its success, Homer’s has resisted the franchise craze, and the company has remained in its original location. Going to Homer’s is like stepping back in time, and so is tasting their thick, homemade ice cream. If you don’t believe me, a few others agree. Now Homer’s has come to me, and it’s difficult to contain my excitement.

If you are an ice cream lover, head to Mahomet and enjoy some Homer’s. I guarantee you won’t regret it.

I was basking in some post-bedtime peace-and-quiet on Saturday night when my doorbell rang.

This is never a good thing. The last time my doorbell sounded after dark unexpectedly, it was the wacky neighbor with the Ron Paul signs in his yard collecting signatures to put Paul on the ballot. I was the first and only victim person so far to oblige.

But I digress. Mr. lbotp was at work, so I checked out this disturbance, hoping that Peanut would not wake up. Standing outside my door were three men dressed in work clothes. Oh, did I mention it was 8 p.m.? On a Saturday night? My alarm turned into rage when I noticed their Insight Cable badges. You see, I am the unlucky chump whose backyard happens to contain the box that hosts the entire neighborhood’s cable. Every so often, I get workers knocking on my door asking me permission to get back there (the yard is fenced). The workers have, for the most part, been very polite and courteous. The men who rang my doorbell at 8 p.m. this Saturday night were no less so, but they were the unfortunate recipients of my virulent rage.

Evidently the folks at Insight have no problem or shame in disturbing my peace and privacy at virtually any time of day (and now night), any day of the week, in order to serve their darling customers. As soon as I shut all my blinds and brought Killer Cockapoo inside, I immediately called the “customer service line.” As calmly and politely as I could, I ranted and raved about this situation to the supervisor in charge. Paul was very well-trained and gave me lots of names and numbers in addition to assuring me that my message — that it was unacceptable and irresponsible for this to happen, and by the way please remove your damn box from my backyard — would be passed up the food chain.

Did I mention that we are satellite television customers? The day Insight (or future owner Comcast) will see our business is the day the DirecTV satellite falls out of the sky — and into my yard.

So I reserved my thoughts on the new Savoy Schnucks until I had been there at least twice. Like many of you, I have been waiting and waiting for this store to open since forever. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the grand opening celebration. That’s probably a good thing, since members of my family have been known to cry at such events. No kidding.

I did manage to get there the day after, when the store was packed with presenters offering tastes of this and that (cheese — good; Full Circle coffee — bad). The only problem with these people, who although they were very nice, they were hired from a company who does such events and therefore didn’t know where anything was in the store. Also wandering around were also a lot of suits from Schnuck’s corporate. There is only one thing about this store that I like better than the Champaign store (the one I know the best): it doesn’t seem like you’re on top of the other shoppers, especially in the vast produce section and at the deli. At the Champaign store, it’s annoying that the deli and fish/meat counter are parallel, which often results in a traffic jams during peak hours.

But what I found so odd about this store is that once you get through the produce section, the store morphs back into the ordinary aisles of stuff, and it seems that there is more drug store merchandise than food. I don’t know if I was imagining it or not.

The other new feature in this store is the self-checkout. So far when I’ve been there the checkouts have been well-covered and the lines were non-existent, so I had no use for it. But I guess that’s the future everywhere, even if people don’t how to be cordial through it.

One good thing that happened when I was at the store when all the suits were around was that I had an opportunity to speak to the store manager about requesting a product, one of my favorite frozen food items, a line called Dr. Praeger’s Sensible Foods. Dr. Praeger makes yummy spinach pancakes that are Peanut’s favorite. She took my name and told me she would look into it; I haven’t received a call yet.

Oh, by the way. If you go to Schnuck’s right now, don’t wear your Halloween masks. You won’t be allowed in. I guess even the friendliest store in town has its limits.

• More billboard drama in C-U: what’s up with the blurry ones? I know my eyes aren’t that bad.
• No offense to Janet Bubin, but we want a real Trader Joe’s, not a knock-off. But a teahouse in the old JBJ space sounds fantastic.
• Now that Dumbledore has been outed, the fifth Harry Potter movie — that I am going to see (finally) at the Virginia Theater on Thursday night — will take on a whole new meaning.
• Don’t forget to make your contributions to Food for Families 2007.
• Don’t want to spend $65 for tickets to the Cirque show? Head out to Allerton Park this Sunday for the second annual Spooktacular, a great family-friendly non-scary Halloween event, for a chance to win some. Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco Tour Bus will be at Spooktacular from 3:30 to 5 PM with a stilt walker, juggler, and mime in full costume ready to entertain and take pictures with Allerton’s Spooktacular attendees. (I’m going for the roasted marshmallows.)
• Too bad we don’t K-mart around here anymore (and no, I’m not driving to Danville).  But if you want to, here’s a reason: a coupon for a free bag of candy.

Last week, Gnightgirl (aka Lori of Toys for Troops fame) told a delightful small-town story about Sam’s Cafe, the greasy spoon (that’s putting it politely) in downtown Champaign. Essentially (read it for yourself here) it tells how Lori secured some amazing free advertising for Toys for Troops on the restaurant’s ceiling.

For those of you who don’t know about Sam’s, it is a tiny hole-in-the-wall downtown that serves up a mean breakfast every morning. In addition, on Thursday and Friday nights, Sam’s is open for dinner. But the fare is traditional Lebanese — made fresh by Sam’s wife, Toty. It’s not often that I can get out for dinner with a friend on a Thursday night, but last week an out-of-towner was visiting and we had the opportunity to escape. I had just read Lori’s post about Sam’s, and it was fresh on my brain — thankfully! It was a subtle reminder of something I had wanted to do for a long time.  So when we were doing the where-should-we-go mambo, the lightbulb went off in my head — Sam’s!

We were not disappointed. Both of us ordered the falafel, and it was the yummiest, most scrumptious falafel I have had in a very long time. The hummus was nothing to write home about, but it was decent. Best of all was the price — $7.00 for a very satisfying meal. The only thing not made in Sam’s kitchen, we learned, is the baklava (pronounced bak-lawa in Lebanese), which is imported from Michigan. Be aware that the menu is somewhat limited, but there are often specials. Try this gem of a place for yourself.

Is the Assembly Hall cursed? The big white spaceship has had three big-name concerts cancelled/postponed in the past two weeks. First, it was country star Travis Tritt, who postponed his Oct. 11 show to April 17.

At least TI, the rapper who was to perform last Sunday, had a good reason for his absence. He was arrested over the weekend in Atlanta on federal weapons charges.

The latest is John Mellencamp, who cancelled his Oct. 27 show without reason. Perhaps the man just can’t sell the big arenas like he used to — or everyone in the area went to see the Mellencamp cover band that played in Danville this summer instead.

Perhaps they’ll recoup all the lost income with those $65 tickets for the Cirque de Soleil show on Nov. 10.

MJ came to town yesterday to do a joint interview with the walk-on Illinois basketball player who happens to be his son. Their interviewer? Matt Lauer. Yes, that Matt Lauer. Was in Champaign. To interview the Jordans. According to this NBC blog of the encounter, I don’t think he was here long enough to grab any Custard Cup.

So if you do the math, Jeff Jordan + Illinois basketball = Matt Lauer and Michael Jordan at the Ubben Basketball Complex.

Champaign-Urbana, celebrity mecca. Who would have thunk it.

It seems that the boundaries between my cyber life and my real life have basically disappeared. I mean, I used to be able to keep them separate and tidy and nice. Now, not so much.

So eager am I to find shortcuts online, that I have forgot how to do the simplest of real-life tasks, like use the phone. OK, I’m exaggerating, but you get the point. I love that you can reserve books at the Champaign Public Library online, and that they send you reminders of when your books are due (otherwise we would owe a fortune in fines). Online bill pay has saved us plenty a late fee. It’s nice to not have to wait in line at the movie theater to buy tickets these days. There’s even a couple of restaurants in town that will take online dinner reservations.

Online shortcuts seem to be great … only when they’re not. Case in point:  I’m a stickler for holding our mail and newspapers when we go out of town. I inherited that gene from my paranoid Jewish mother (love you, mom). On a trip to the post office recently I discovered that you no longer need to show up there in person to put in a hold order. It’s now possible to do this online. Hooray! I silently shouted. Another errand off the list.

So imagine my surprise when my mail was in the mailbox upon our return, two days before I had asked for it to be delivered. Lovely. Grand. I called the toll free number to complain, and I guess they forward the complaints to the local post office (they even gave me a confirmation number). Would this request have been executed correctly if I had done it in person? We’ll never know for sure.

When I first started this blog (almost three years ago now) I never imagined it would last this long. That was back in our double-income, no-kid days when the only thing I had to nurture was the Killer Cockapoo, then a puppy, and I had time to scope out the scene in town. With my transition into motherhood, the blog has transitioned a bit, too. So it will be. And so I now have become the Dear Abby of new moms in Champaign-Urbana. I have received this question (or variations of it) quite often in my inbox, so I thought I would share my answer with the rest of you.

Dear lbotp,

i am fairly new to cu and i read your blog all the time!  my husband and i are here b/c of his job at u of i.  i am from chicago and i am having a hard time adjusting to life here even though we’ve been here for 2 years…  now getting to my question, i am the new mom of a 4 month old baby boy and i want to find a playgroup or mom’s group around here that is not based on any particular religion.  my views are on the liberal side and i am not part of any particular organized religion but i would like to meet more people in the area.  it seems like you have lots of child based stuff on your blog and you seem to keep up on what’s going on so i thought i would ask lbotp for some help getting out of my house!  do you know of how to find mommy groups that would fit the bill?

sincerely,

stuck-at-home mom

Dear Stuck-At-Home Mom,

Here are a few options for you.

1. Mothers and More. This is an active group that is a mix of working and stay at home moms. I want to get more involved with this group but haven’t had the time. They have playgroups and also sponsor the Monday Mania event at the Champaign Park District’s Leonhard Rec Center.

2. The Champaign Moms meet-up group. They do tons of activities; many of the women are in the same position you are — they don’t know a lot of other moms.

3. The Good Beginnings Playgroup in Urbana. You may have heard of this one. They meet in a church but it is not affiliated with the church at all. I know Mrs. Chicken (another C-U blogger who is now a good friend)  took her daughter there when she first moved here and met a few nice people.

4. The U of I women’s club playgroups. I don’t know much about this other than that they exist.

Let me know how it works out.

Your friend,

the little blogger on the prairie

Readers, let me know if you have any additions to the list.

Blogging Against Hunger/Food for Families 2007

It’s hard to believe that right in our own community there are still plenty of people — young and old — who do not have enough food to eat. Hunger isn’t just a problem in the inner city or in third-world nations. It is an issue right here in East Central Illinois.

Please join the local blogging community as we help the Eastern Illinois Foodbank kick off its annual Food for Families campaign. Now in its 21st year, Food for Families has collected over 3 million pounds of food in its history. This year’s tentative goal: to raise $65,000 and 190,000 pounds of food. For every dollar donated to the Foodbank, it can acquire, store, and distribute $10 worth of food, so every dollar counts.

Food for Families runs from October 13 to 27. It’s easy to donate – click over to the Foodbank’s website for information on contributing money or to find out what local businesses will be accepting food donations.

Located in Urbana, the Foodbank serves up to 36,000 people a month – 40 percent of whom are under the age of 18. The Food for Families drive is vitally important because it provides a variety of food EIF doesn’t always have access to. Examples include canned meats, fruits, vegetables, soups, and boxed meals. Let’s join together to help the Foodbank alleviate hunger in our community.