Restaurant Review #6 an NC great

yes -- another BBQ restaurant has been sampled and reviewed. downtown Raleigh, near the railroad station and relocated from a rather rough neighborhood in Wilson is The Pit. Unique in that the food is free range or organic or whatever. -- and really really good. BBQ with a cloth napkin if you will and reportedly without steriods.
You know it is authentic because the sign says it is so. The NC flag helps locate the authenticity of the BBQ so as to know you are not eating a verb. As the place is generally always crowded we sat outside and sampled Raleigh's new favorite controversy -- Bud-lite beer. -- a digression here, Raleigh is about to name an amphitheater the Bud lite Pavilion -- and good grief -- what a broo-ha-ha has been stirred up. We are closing libraries, laying off teachers, have overcrowded jails, potholes in the streets, and we are all in a snit about naming the pavilion after a cheap beer. Anyway, the four of us, Patt and I, Robin and Michael, enjoyed the early evening Raleigh street-scape waiting for our table
Inside of course we went with various delicacies such as BBQ, fried green tomatoes, collards and such. Please note that should Bud lite not be acceptable, there is one heck of a wine cabinet --- what a wine cabinet --- yes a wine cabinet -- in a BBQ restaurant, just what one would expect. Oh and we have been there before and will go back.

wild animals in our town

Documented here for all to see is the results of our brave intrepid wildlife photographer who risked life and limb to bravely approach the above wild animal on the north plains of our properties here. This beast had been seen on prior occasions but had never been recorded before on film.
As can readily be observed this species had been grazing on the flora, specifically some of the invasive species "wisteria" when captured on film. Prior to this moment, special care had been taken to return to the settlement aka "our house" to retrieve cameras, notebooks, and leave word with appropriate next-of-kin as to the adventure about to be undertaken
From more safe distances the beast looks less dangerous and much more gentl, but let not the tranquil setting lull one into throwing caution to the wind. Remember the words of the famous photographer Albert Edgemont Neindormfm.

Junior who

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Junior who? anonymous asked in the comments section to the last posting. Well I certainly did not ask the person who shared her brush with greatness with me.

Being as close to Wilkes County as we were and having

--- oncet lived in Wilkes myself, I sorta figured she wasa referrin' to ole JJ hisself.

A personage for whom no last name is required.

That would be Johnson -- the race car driver -- and former moonshine hauler (alleged).

heading west to the Pilot

Last weekend when Patt and I went to the reunion we left town and headed north almost to the Virginia border, then headed west. It was a beautiful day and as you can see below, we enjoyed "top down" most of the time.
There were period of grey clouds and even rain some as we headed west, but the northern part of our state sure is pretty.
and of course we stopped at the dreaded antique stores. These places have taken the place of General Stores of times gone by and we are not the better off for it I am afraid. Some of these places are a bit much. In one though, Patt stuck her head out the door and called to me as I stood outside under an umbrella in the rain. (it did rain some of the time - and I was avoiding going into the antique store at all costs)-- anyway I digress, Patt called to me and said come in and listen to this woman talk about her cats.
So I did. Inside the darkened store, were two customers talking to the elderly clerk, Patt and myself. The cat woman was saying "you outta see my cayats they so precious, theyey do 'bout enythang. Jay-sus tole me to rite a book bout em." With that Cat woman and her friend went upstairs, - much to my disappointment. I then inquired of the elderly clerk if they were from "around here" and yes they were. Where upon we acknowledged that we were from Raleigh, and yes there were a lot of people from Raleigh and then learned that many famous people had been into this particular store.

You had me at famous -- so I bit -- "well who?" I asked. "oncet, I seen a man in here with this great big shinny rang on his finger and ast him about it. He sayid he had a bigger shinnyer one at home ina lockbox." I made some encouraging acknowledgment of listening and the elderly clerk continued. " He sayed he gotem when he was with " (and here her voice lowered and she nodded her head knowingly) -- "was with Junior" and looked at me like I ought to think she had seen and spent the day with the King and Queen of England. I think I said something like "whooo-- wheee -- ain't that sumthin"
I am thinking that main street here is a happening place on homecoming Friday.
we found this truck when taking in side street cut though. and the theater below will not be showing Avatar in 3D.

being with some cousins

Pilot Mountain is always easy to identify and is a very visible landmark from just about any direction. I can recall hiking around the "knob" and also hiking down the mountain. I think we ended at Dad's cousin George's house which is very close, but I am not sure.

The roads around the mountain through the countryside are just plain beautiful to drive and on the way to the family reunion, Patt and I enjoyed a wonderful Sunday AM drive. The reunion was wonderful and Patt and I had a grand time.
Here I am with one of Dad's cousins, Jim S who was the son on one of Grandmother's brothers - he was a career soldier and is of course interesting to visit with.
This is George J and Peggy and Billy S. George is to my right (your left) and is the cousin we used to think looked most like Dad. He used to come by often and frequently visited Hazel and Granny too. Billy and Peggy have a dairy and tobacco farm, George a retired college professor. I am the "young one" in these photos, but there were dozens of small children and younger cousins present.

oh what a beautiful day

One day I will have to show you a picture of my office, but till then, be aware that few people get to go to the back sides of landfills. and you know who is one of them -- (and byw lots of people have seen photos of offices) and few have seen landfills -- and I have been to the front, side and back side of most of them in the state. -- I try to go on pretty days - and normally am successful too, I may add.

just check out that sky, the clean air, well you do get over the the close up smell pretty quickly. (or I do anyway)-- one of our attorneys does not and I enjoyed taking her on these trips.
and one of the things we do is as rumored-- true-- we intentionally put them in the prettiest parts of the county.
see what I mean in this photo of new expansion of a landfill. Just think, sometime in the future, your - or your neighbors garbage is going into that newly constructed landfill - (got a better idea)(or one you want to get Americans to chose)-- we tried and did not get very far.
anyway, it keeps on coming- --that is a famous forest in the background of the photo below too.-- like on the other side of the fence.
photos from two different landfills - both small local government owned operations.

the internets

Today I went to a conference on the internet - a little different from one on landfills. The booths were a bit different. The schwag was a lot different, no hats, golf tees, or put your business card in a jar for a drawing for a shotgun. (Occasionally I go to environmental type conferences where the schwag is a bit different yet again, lots of reusable bags, some odd dohicky made from something recycled)

Anyway, I have digressed, the schwag was different as the booths and names on the booths, some of the names were famous, some not so much, and the chance to win a new Apple Ipad has a couple of my business cards. - I never won the shotgun- the jury is still out on the ipad

the purpose of my attendance - in addition to my being a man of multiple interests? was to hear my cousin Dave speak. My registration was as a guest- I did not come up with the cash to be a regular attendee as it was quite expensive -and billed as international, and crowded and among featured speakers was the famous Doc as in my cousin
Here is Dave getting miked up prior to expounding on stuff and more items and them about the construction industry - earlier he had been on a panel with people from UNC school of journalism, FOX news from NYC and some others of note. That panel discussed the future and the role of journalism and the internet and communications. I asked about what were we going to do about the increase in the number of people who believe that the earth is flat.
and speaking of the internet, my son is now trying to make a million dollars with the internet. Apparently making a million is more difficult that he originally imagined. anyway his web site is http://www.kooziez.com/ check it out and by the way , I did not get an answer to my question. Stephen and Jen and a friend are selling on line koozies, hence the koozie name. you know drink can/bottle huggers.

eating at the K & W

here in the land of large cars and rugged and hard(ly) used pick up trucks aka, Raleigh's Cameron Village, I went by the K & W for lunch the other day

the young and not so spry alike are in the line selecting the chicken pie, chicken livers, fried fish, broiled fish, roast beef and turkey and dressing and so on.
the vegetables are pretty good too, I go for the fried okra, turnip greens, and stewed apples
and the deserts- well, you just have to stay away from the deserts- they seem to like the cream and the sugar.

held hostage -

This moment, this very moment, the Deacon, the head deacon, (lower case intended) is holding we WF basketball fans hostage. We have no coach. The athletic director, the one we used to say could walk on water - well the sucker cannot even swim apparently - has yet to hire a new coach. and the fans in blog space and on internet boards are apoplectic. They have gone nuts. My brother, alias EJ, has been taunting those who worry the internet bulletin boards. ( some are going berserk about wars and rumors of wars - or coaching hires - which apparently is much more important)

We have been following this episode as it is quite important - did I mention war - on various web offerings, including a site called "blogger so dear" and one that actually has referred to my brother Eric as "brother EJ". That site may be accessed at http://www.journalnow.net/index.php/mytakeonwake/, or my take on wake. It is the site where we go for the most current of information on WF sports and trade worries and such. It is better than espn or fox or those others.
EJ called out the complainers a couple of posts ago - I also have commented, but go by a more subtle alias, - "Paul" - but there is at least one more Paul commenter - the other Paul is not quite as sharp as yours truly - but one cannot control all who have chosen similar aliases.

at any rate, we are looking forward to having the heels back on their heels soon. Check out the heels of the heels below! Ah those were the days! and coming soon to a gym near you.

Pollen Pollen yes we have pollen

See that yellow film on that car in the parking lot at my office last week. Yes indeedee, it was a delightful greenish yellow, as was every other car, parking lot, street, or inanimate object in Raleigh. I spent the week, going house to car, car to office. - in office all day, back to car, car to house. Needless to say we did not open a window in our house.

Our green van, nestled beside the house, is well garnished with pollen, the wisteria, is in full bloom too, and smells great - but I am not staying out side for long.
in the picture below, note the difference between the part of the garage that is closed versus outside the door, also the tracks inside - pollen just flows into the garage when the door is open
Rain thankfully came on Thursday and was strong enough to wash away most of the green soup that was created by the cleansing of the streets and air. Hopefully this, the worst of this part of spring is behind us. We are certainly enjoying the change from winter, and I am looking forward to putting the car to its proper use.