Ginny from the Blog

Dear Book-Loving Triangle Residents,

If you’re like me, you love perusing eclectic titles and you love a good deal. That’s why you must make an effort to visit the Raleigh City Museum sometime between Saturday and Jan. 17. That’s when the downtown museum is hosting its twice-a-year book sale.

You might remember that I went to the sale this summer and didn’t want to leave:

The titles were impressive, including many classics, some old textbooks and an impressive children’s book selection that brought back memories of my “Choose Your Own Adventure” and “Fear Street” reading days. I could have spent an hour or more scouring the tables for titles. But not all of my friends were thrilled about spending Friday night browsing used books, so I paid for my 1950s edition of Huckleberry Finn, a biography about Freud and some retro mini-Hallmark greeting books with plans to return

The sale also includes CDs, DVDs and other odds and ends, the museum reports. And while you’re there, you can even check out the [R]evolution of Media exhibit, which explores the history of newspaper, television and radio in Raleigh (basically it’s just a big promotional exhibit for WRAL and the News and Observer, which makes sense since they dominated the local media market for so long. Still, the exhibit is still pretty interesting even if my station isn’t really represented).

So consider this your head’s up. The book sale is definitely worth the trip.

Sincerely,

Your book-loving blogger,

Ginny Skalski

I’m still buzzing from last night’s 30THREADS blogger bash and it has nothing to do with the beer that was flowing.

I’m finding that when Triangle bloggers and Tweeple get together, there’s a certain energy that envelops the room. Faces light up with recognition when bloggers or Tweeple are recognized from their avatars. Bloggers connect with their readers, stories and ideas are exchanged, occasionally interrupted by a handshake or a hug from someone who feels like they already know you.

I connected with some bloggers I already knew, but I also met some whose words and photos I’ve been admiring for months. A brief recap, with apologies for the many moments I can’t squeeze in.

* Met Jeni, the Durham blogger behind I found happy. Turns out we both used to work at The Herald-Sun, so we briefly shared our war stories.

* Noshed on some tasty wings with @RobertFischer, a Durham blogger who reminded me of some funny advice I offered during one of our live Threadcasts. Apparently, I had declared my love for buffalo chicken wings, but warned that if you want to impress someone during a lunch meeting it’s better to order the buffalo chicken salad because it’s easier to eat. Haha. That so sounds like something I would say. (Robert is the one talking in the photo on the left).

* Reminicsed with Lenore about the days when Broad Street Cafe (the venue for our bash) was the funky Ooh La Latte.

* Met some of the anonymous folks behind one of the best Durham food blogs, Carpe Durham.

* Finally had a chance to congratulate Kevin Davis in real life on the recent redesign of his popular Bull City Rising blog. Also caught up with Valerie and found out some of her exciting future plans for We Love Durham.

* Immediately recognized Leandra and Eric, a Durham wine-loving couple I feel like I already know because of their well-written blog.

* Shook hands with a recently-blogged about High School Musical Build-a-Bear and met Jeff Cohen’s two precocious children. Check out this photo that Grace took with her dad’s Nikon D40X.

Other people I met/reconnected with included:

* Paul from That’s No Bull.

* Kate, Jill and Jake, who are among the folks building Raleigh Public Relations.

* Ellen from CoookingEatingDurham.

* Local comedian Larry Weaver.

* Barry Ragin from Dependable Erection (probably not what you think, get your mind out of the gutter).

* Rachel Nabors, a local cartoonist, web designer and overall stylish chick.

And many more.

It was a fabulous evening, filled with new connections and lots of smiles. I think Anora McGaha summed it up well when she wrote this on my facebook wall today:

The bash was amazing. The buzz in the Broad Street Cafe side area was intense, could have lit up half a city.

Thanks to everyone who came out. Hopefully we’ll have another chance to reconnect soon. If you were there and I didn’t list your blog above, please give yourself a shout out in the comments section.

The Triangle is definitely an outstanding hub for social media.

If you’re looking for some restaurants to try out, your best bet might be to explore the Durham food blog scene. Every time I catch up on these in my reader, I’m always left hungry and eager to head over to the Bull City for a meal.

On the Carpe Durham blog, you can see mouth-watering inspiring photos of the scallion pancake, beef congee and the spicy dry bean curd with shredded pork ordered off the “secret menu” at China Palace, aka Magic Palace.

On Delicious Durham, you can find out whether the famous Nana’s really lives up to its reputation. You can also find out how to put local peaches to tasty use by following Kelly’s peach crisp recipe or find out how you can blend your own peanut sauce to pour over stewed collards or as a standard satay sauce.

Over at Eat at Joe’s! you can vote on the best place to grab a burger in Durham. Or save the Google map he created highlighting the “Ethnic Grocery Trail.”

But wait, there’s more.

The Newlyfeds, a Durham couple with a passion for cooking who explore Durham’s dining scene, explain why you just have to go to Chubby’s Tacos on Ninth Street.

Another Durham couple reviews two downtown establishments, the newly-opened Five Points Cafe and Rue Cler on their blog: CookingEatingDurham.

And you must check out Lenore’s blog called Eclectic Glob of Tangential Verbosity. It’s not a straight food blog, but as an epicurean, you can always count on Lenore to post beautiful pictures and descriptions of her frequent dinners out (all these photos are courtesy of Lenore’s Flickr). Here’s a sample from her latest post on Serena Restaurant and Bar:

I ordered the gnocci, which I’d been looking forward to after examining their menu on-line about a week ago. It had applewood smoked bacon, dried cherries, loads of garlic, spinach, a thin slice of parmesan and potato gnocci pasta. It came with a piece of garlic bread. It sounds perfect, right?

Find out if the gnocci was a delicious as it sounds.

I’m sure there are several other Durham & Triangle-area food blogs, if you know of some that I’ve left out, please clue me in.