Obama looking to register Waxhaw voters

If there's any local Obama supporters left after the Supreme Court ruled Obamacare was a promise-breaking tax increase to end all tax increases, he's having a voter registration event on the 4th in Waxhaw.

It's at or begins at the Food Lion in Waxhaw. See here for the details.

And given the sheer number of emails I get exhorting me to donate to his campaign, I would be surprised if they weren't also collecting money, so if you haven't already coughed up your $3, perhaps the 4th would be a good time if you want him around for another four years.

That's assuming you haven't graciously offered up some of your wedding or graduation gifts in tribute already.

Gatsby Gala

The Museum of the Waxhaws has added another fundraising event to its social calendar -- the Gatsby Gala in Monroe.

The details:

Saturday, June 2, 2012
7:00pm until 10:00pm


THE HENRY HALL WILSON HOUSE, 1301 E. FRANKLIN ST. MONROE NC
   
1920's Themed Casino Night with Dancing and Live Music by Walter Phillips and Jan Ringeling. Heavy Hors D'oeuvres and Cash Bar with Raffle Prizes and Casino Games in An Authentic Upscale 1920's-Era Venue.

$75 per person
Access our online ticket sales via our website
www.museumofthewaxhaws.org
or call the museum at 704.843.1832
Wear your best "Roaring 20's" party attire!

At $75/person and $150/couple, a little rich for my blood, but since as far as I know, I have no Roaring 20's attire, it might be for the best.

But for those of you with extensive wardrobes and looking for something to do...
 

Saturday evening bingo fundraiser at Cureton

There's a bingo fundraiser for the Perez family Saturday evening at the Cureton Clubhouse in Waxhaw. In January 2012, Robert Perez was diagnosed with an inoperable Stage 4 Glioblastoma (brain cancer) and will soon lose his health insurance.

I cannot attend due to a previously scheduled engagements, but at $10 per 3 cards, I should be looking for someone to play three cards for me. In fact, all of Waxhaw should be playing three cards given that price and the cause.

For more info or to donate, his friends have set up a web page.

DrumStrong

I noticed on my way home from work that they're setting up for DrumStrong again. I'm not real familiar with this event, but it seems to draw a lot of people each year and they support various cancer initiatives.

I'm not sure if this falls within the jurisdiction of Waxhaw or not, but either way it's close enough.

It's not too late to register for those looking to participate. See their page for all the details.

For those that have attended in the past, what are the odds that Paper Jamz drums will be used in the 30-hour non-stop drum circle? Just wondering.

Spring Fest over

Another festival has come and gone. I didn't make it until Sunday, so our day was rain-shortened. The kids got to do most everything they came to do, my wife got to make her rounds through the artists and vendors, and I got my sno cone.

Is it just me or does it seem to rain every Sunday on Waxhaw festival weekends?

La Strada Pizza and Pasta Groupon

There's a Groupon up right now for La Strada Pizza and Pasta in Wesley Chapel. It expires in a little under 4.5 days, although it says a limited quantity is available so I guess it could end sooner.

It's essentially a $10-for-$20 deal. See here for all the gory details.

Of note, La Strada is supporting Siler Presbyterian's July Jamaica Mission Trip. A percentage of each bill on Sundays goes directly to support the mission trip if you mention Siler Presbyterian. While the Groupon is good into November, the mission trip is in July, giving you some idea as to when you'd need to dine there in order to provide support.

It's like killing two birds with one stone: getting a meal at a discount while supporting a good cause. But perhaps killing two birds with half a stone is the more accurate analogy.

Details of the the La Strada Groupon are here if the aptness of this last metaphor is what sold you.

Open mic at the museum

Jim Black of "Land of the Waxhaws" (LotW) fame is trying to organize some open mic time for politicians, voters and businessmen over at the Museum of the Waxhaws tomorrow afternoon. Per a Facebook update:

ATTENTION...ATTENTION...ALL POLITICAL CANDIDATES..BUSINESS PERSONS..

OPEN MIC FRIDAY AT 1:00pm AT MUSEUM OF THE WAXHAWS...LIVE TV BROADCAST ON LOTW...WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE RUNNING FOR OFFICE??? WE SEE THEIR SIGNS...IF YOU KNOW A POLITICIAN, LET THEM KNOW THAT THEY CAN GET A FREE CONVERSATION...REPUBLICAN..DEMOCRAT...INDEPENDENT..LIBERTARIAN..COME ONE..COME ALL..FIRST COME...FIRST TALK...

Could this quickly morph into Waxhaw's first poetry jam? If so, it could be the most-watched LotW ever.

Larson remains with WBT

Per a Charlotte Observer article, he's signed a contract for an indeterminate amount of time. The nitty gritty:

A week after surprising his listeners with the news that WBT-AM (1110) had told him his contract would not be renewed, mid-morning host Keith Larson and the station came to terms late Wednesday on a new agreement to keep him on the air.

Neither Larson nor Rick Feinblatt, WBT’s general manager, would discuss the terms or length of the contract that keeps Larson in the station’s weekday 9 a.m. to noon spot.

Good new for him and Waxhaw. And I suppose maybe for those who want to hear more crazy tales about his neighborhood.

Town charrette nearly completed

We got a flyer in the mail a while back advertising another Waxhaw design charrette where interested townsfolk and designers go to try to help determine the direction Waxhaw is heading and to brand the town.

The full schedule is here if you're hoping to catch the two closing sessions. If you were hoping to get more of a heads up from me on the charrette, then you seriously miscalculated.

Upon receiving the flyer, my eye was inexplicably drawn to the three daily pin-up sessions. While I'm sure the town planners went in a different direction, there are few better ways to induce male involvement in a design charrette than to incorporate pin-up models.

Display some of the classic artwork of Elvgren or Vargas and just think about the community involvement! Or if you want to go big, you can bring in a painter and model to watch the artwork get created in real-time and make a festival out of it.

Sky High Sports Groupon

There's currently a Groupon deal for Sky High Sports that essentially gets you two hours of trampoline time for the price of one. Sky High Sports is the place in Pineville with wall-to-wall trampolines.

Some of the specifics:

$9 for two hours of jump time for one person Monday–Thursday (up to an $18 value).
$12 for two hours of jump time for one person Friday–Sunday (up to a $24 value).

The deal expires November 3, 2012 and lasts for another day and a half.

View the deal for all the details.

My kids have been talking about going there for ages, so I picked a couple up for them to use during the summer doldrums or sooner if circumstances require.

Waxhaw-Indian Trail Road now closed

Not really breaking news for those of you who've driven through town recently, but Waxhaw-Indian Trail Road out of Waxhaw is now closed through mid-November.

Union County Weekly has the blurb that spawned this blurb.

Sitting here hungry

And I've just decided how badly Waxhaw needs a Steak n' Shake. South Blvd is far too long to drive to get to one.

Steak n' Shake would quickly get the upper hand in the Waxhaw fast food wars if such a thing exists.

I'd be remiss in not mentioning other benefits, such as the money saved by Waxhaw parents since kids eat free on weekends.And then there's the milkshakes...

Victims of Communism Day

I'll get back to Waxhaw in my next post, but Ilya Somin over at the law blog Volokh Conspiracy has been recognizing May Day as Victims of Communism Day, a way to commemorate the 80-100 million victims of communism. And given the astronomical figures of those killed, it seems something worth remembering.

I've barely cracked open my copy of the Black Book of Communism, but it's the go-to book to learning about the tragic multi-millions who've died in pursuit of the communist dream.

Keith Larson's 10th anniversary ride

Keith Larson had his 10th anniversary motorcycle charity ride this weekend. From what I can gather, there was a pretty large shindig planned with bounce houses et al. in Waxhaw at the end of the ride. Pictures and video are available at Keith's page at WBT.com

They were set to arrive in Waxhaw around 3pm but the aforementioned block party prevented me from checking it out.

In other Larson news, it appears he will soon no longer have a show on WBT, per a Charlotte Business Journal article and a Charlotte Observer article. I haven't had a chance to listen to his show for years, but generally enjoyed his show on the occasion I got to listen. Back in the day, he did Keillor-esque snippets regarding Waxhaw which I found interesting even before moving here. Combine that with an a good taste in music and similar philosophies, and I was a regular listener when the opportunity allowed.

Alas, I haven't listened in years since my job isn't amenable to listening to 3 hours of radio during the day, nor do I have an extra three hours to download and listen to the daily podcasts. I've always wondered if continues to highlight Waxhaw.

My favorite (and honestly the only one I recall specifically for obvious reasons) was when he talked about the prevalence of secret or not-so-secret swingers in his Waxhaw neighborhood, the crux being that he and his wife were never invited to the gatherings if my memory serves. No idea if it was true or not, but I'm sure it made life interesting in his neighborhood for a little while.

Anyone have any ideas if Keith Larson has still been talking about Waxhaw on his show in recent years?

Waxhaw Pub Crawl

The Waxhaw Pub Crawl went down this weekend. My lack of blogging means there was nary a word about it from my end. But the Waxhaw Social Club, which hosts the event, was kind enough to provide a detailed rundown of the evening in an earlier post.

I've reproduced it here so it's easier to find:

Well, geez, it looks like you missed the 2nd Waxhaw Pub Crawl as well! We had posters on each of the pub windows and inside the establishments for nearly 2 months (as we did the first time). And the venues were handing out our flyers for months, too.

We posted frequently on the FaceBook pages of the participating bars (plus our own FB group: Waxhaw Social Club), additionally we have our own website at www.waxhawsocialclub.com. Finally, we had a great article come out in the Union County Weekly several days ago that many people saw and then came out to the crawl for some fun.

Last year we had around 50 people show up, and this year we had 85-90 and we raised money for Project2Heal, another terrific local Waxhaw charity. We raised $1,030 in proceeds that will go to Charlie Petrizzo's endeavor of donating highly trained Labrador retrievers to special needs kids.

Most importantly, we injected a great amount of money into the local Waxhaw economy and the pubs are telling us that they had one of their best night's ever or more than doubled their normal Saturday night take.

We began at 5PM at The Main Street Grill/Icehouse Saloon who roped off the entire parking lot and had a bluegrass band, BBQ pork plates and cold beers outside as well as in. Then we had the entire outdoor patio at Maxwell's, and then we headed to SouthSiders where they had an outdoor keg ready for us with their new UFO/Harpoon beer. Finally we ended with karaoke at the Stuffed Olive. The party went on until 2AM!

Given the size of the pubs we visit, 85-90 people is truly the max that they can hold comfortably (given that they have other patrons there at the same time having dinner, etc). So, we worked a bit to manage the size of the crowd to not be excessive.

Hey, there's always the 3rd Waxhaw Pub Crawl for you to get a shot at! Stay tuned! 

The missus and I failed to attend, mostly because we had a neighborhood block party scheduled at the same time. The Pub Crawl had a better turnout, but the block party was nothing to sneeze at either. I would bet there were no glow sticks at the Pub Crawl.

Waxhaw 5K results

The Seventh Annual Waxhaw Town & Country Run took place this weekend. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend and get any pictures because of a scheduled baseball game where I was needed to yell repeatedly to my kids to pay attention.

My wife ran again and finished with an excellent time, coming in 8th in her age group so kudos to her and everyone else who ran.

Times have been posted online for those interested but here's the top runners:

                          FEMALE OVERALL  1 - 98

Place Name                     Ag G Bib   City         St Guntime 
===== ======================== == = ===== ============ ========== 
    1 Jinnie Austin            24 F    26 Matthews     NC   21:28 
    2 Jennifer Womble          33 F  1099 Waxhaw       NC   24:15 
    3 Emily Roth               13 F  1041 Waxhaw       NC   26:10 

                           MALE OVERALL  1 - 98

Place Name                     Ag G Bib   City         St Guntime 
===== ======================== == = ===== ============ ========== 
    1 Aaron Linz               39 M    67 Charlotte    NC   17:05 
    2 Cory Tretsky             21 M    24 Rock Hill    NC   17:25 
    3 Dennis Long              45 M   981 Waxhaw       NC   18:48 

Nearly a year ago, I announced a goal of running a 5K before year's end. The year's now nearly up and while I have taken up running and run a number of unofficial 5K races around the neighborhood, odds of entering an official 5K before June 10th look slim.

Dipping my toe back in

I figure I'd try to jump back into blogging a little and see how it goes. Not sure if it'll take hold again, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Waxhaw rocket launches

Perhaps Broome Street has been bluer than normal since I've not been around posting much recently, but I figured I'd share some of the stuff that's taken my time.



After this debacle, we had to perform surgery on the rocket to free the stuck nose cone, thereby cutting off a couple inches. We then took the time to decorate it and dub it the 'Rainmaker'.

A week ago, we went back to the fields of Waxhaw Elementary for the re-launch with a larger crowd as evidenced by their background twittering.



Unfortunately, the limitations of my camera phone prevent you from seeing the descending rocket, but I assure you the parachute successfully deployed and that it was last seen dipping below the grove of pine trees in the background.

We spent about 90 minutes trying to find Rainmaker but nary a trace was found. The closest we came was finding the parachute and nose cone of another rocket stuck in the pine trees proving I suppose that our initial Waxhaw rocket launch was not as historic as I thought. But Rainmaker was apparently not in the trees, in the nearby yards, roofs, or street.

So if you happen to live in the neighborhood behind Waxhaw Elementary and find Rainmaker, drop me a note or at the very least give her a good home. A lot of time and effort went into that rocket -- a true labor of love.

Main Street Grill Groupon

I haven't been around lately, but I'm still working hard to save money. An email came in regarding an excellent local deal for a Main Street Grill Groupon that I thought was worth passing on. This deal lasts another 2 and a half days.

There's three options:

• $11 for American lunch or dinner for two with one appetizer (up to a $5.75 value) and two entrees (up to an $8.75 value each; up to a $23.25 total value)

• * $20 for American lunch or dinner for four with two appetizers (up to a $5.75 value each) and four entrees (up to an $8.75 value each; up to a $46.50 total value)

• $27 for American lunch or dinner for six with three appetizers (up to a $5.75 value each) and six entrees (up to an $8.75 value each; up to a $69.75 total value)

The last option seems an especially good deal if you can scrounge up some friends and get a sitter for the kids.

Check it out for all the details.

Thanks to Main Street Grill for joining the ranks of local restaurants offering Groupon deals, joining such esteemed forerunners as Mamma Lena's and El Vallarta if my memory serves.

Help support Kate Zidanic

Fox's Pizza is having another "Help Support Kate Zidanic" fundraiser this evening from 4 - 8pm, the proceeds of which go to helping cover Kate's medical bills as she fights lymphoma. See my previous post for more details.

If you mention Kate Zidanic's name when ordering, 15% of the proceeds go to covering her medical bills.

It was apparently a busy night the the last time Fox's Pizza sponsored one of these fundraisers, so it may take a bit longer to get your order than normal. From was kind enough to host one of her fundraisers. From an email Rick Giarla sent out:

Last month, Fox's Pizza held a "Kate Zidanic Night" with so many of our parents supporting Kate with purchases of pizza and other items on the menu. Rick Hodge, owner of Fox's told me that it was "his busiest non-weekend night in the history of Fox's Pizza".

So for those of you who have a board of commissioners or Cub Scout meeting to attend, make sure you get your order placed with plenty of time to spare.

Here's a coupon that can be used tonight only to get a 1-topping medium for $8. Three of those dollars go directly to Kate's medical bills fund.

Another Waxhaw Groupon

This one is mainly for the ladies and I guess the fellas who treat their hair much better than I treat mine.

It's at Noma Hair and Skin Studio and the specifics are:

For $30, you get a hair-styling package (up to a $63 total value) that includes the following:

* Redken color glaze with scalp massage (a $25 value)
* Haircut and blowout (up to a $38 value)

For $58, you get a hair-styling-and-coloring package (up to a $128 total value) that includes the following:

* Partial highlights or lowlights (a $65 value)
* Haircut and blowout (up to a $38 value)
* Deep-conditioning treatment with scalp massage (up to a $25 value)

Only a limited number are available, but it'll be available until Friday at midnight if it doesn't first sell out. It must be used by the end of April.

Check it out if interested.