Saw this on WLNS.com……yay!
The warm weather is heating up sales for local ice cream shops. As the snow melts, customers are once again indulging their tastebuds with frozen treats. For local shops, the rise in customers is a sweet topping to the barren winter season. Twisters Ice Cream Shop reopened last week and customers are already coming in to get their frozen fix.
From a Campaign for Smokefree Air press release….
Granholm once again calls on lawmakers to enact smokefree legislation in her State of the State address
LANSING, Mich. –During her State of the State address, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, once again, strongly urged Michigan lawmakers to pass comprehensive smokefree workplace legislation.
“We again applaud the governor’s comments tonight and her support for smokefree air,” said Susan Schechter, CSA spokesperson and director of advocacy at the American Lung Association of Michigan. “Many lawmakers have done their research and know that in 2006 U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona released a report stating the only way to protect Americans from secondhand smoke is through comprehensive smokefree workplace legislation and policies. It’s time for lawmakers to stop dancing around the issue and finally listen to the state’s leader as well as their constituents and pass comprehensive smokefree air legislation this year.” Read the rest of this entry »
Fat Matt's Pizza in the Trowbridge Plaza in East Lansing.
I’m still on that quest for the perfect pizza. We’ve found a couple really, really good ones and some really, really just alright ones. I had been hearing things about a fairly new place in East Lansing called Fat Matt’s. Since I was in the area, hungry, and tired, I stopped in to Fat Matt’s to see if they could place on my pizza list.
Fat Matt’s Pizza is located in the Trowbridge Plaza in East Lansing. It’s a little tough to find at first. It’s not visible from Trowbridge Road. There’s a little section of the plaza on the side that has a few stores and Fat Matt’s is the last store in this stretch. It actually sits right next to Goodrich’s loading docks.
The store itself is pretty small. Most of the space is taken up by the kitchen, but they do have two tables should you want to sit there and eat for some reason. I had heard they did pizza-by-the-slice and they had a display for them, but there was nothing in it. Instead of questioning, I just ordered a large pizza. Usually, we get just cheese pizza since J doesn’t really like toppings, but I was in the mood for pepperoni, so I got half cheese, half pepperoni. I got a little bit of sticker shock when the guy told me the price was $17. I thought that was pretty expensive for a pizza. I looked at the menu and a large cheese pizza is $13 then it’s almost $2 more for each topping. To me, that doesn’t seem like a way to compete with the chains. Read the rest of this entry »
The Quality Dairy on Michigan and Harrison in East Lansing.
McDonald's on Grand River Avenue in East Lansing.
I took the easy way out. I was at Jenison Field House for MSU wrestling and I had an hour lunch/breakfast break at about ten AM. I thought about going out for an actual breakfast, but really wasn’t in the mood. We didn’t get back to Lansing until midnight the night before and I had to be at the Field House at seven AM. I was tired. I was cranky and I just wanted something quick. I had always been intrigued by the McDonald’s on Grand River Avenue in East Lansing. I had never seen a two story McD’s before.
The only McDonald’s in East Lansing is on Grand River Avenue a few blocks from the campus of Michigan State University. You can’t really tell from the road, but it’s kind of squeezed into a small space. There’s not much of a parking lot and if there’s someone in the drive thru line behind you, you’re going to have a hard time getting out of a spot. Read the rest of this entry »
The entrance to Jenison Fieldhouse on MSU's campus
I wish my first visit to Jenison Field House was thirty years. When I walked in to the building for the first time, the first and only thing I could think was, “I bet this place was loud.” I knew of Jenison before I moved to Lansing. Who hasn’t? I loved watching the old clips of Magic Johnson in East Lansing. I can only imagine what the place was like. Sure, it’s huge, but those big cavernous ceilings had to make the place loud.
Jenison Field House is on the campus of MSU just off Kalamazoo Street. It’s just a block or so from it’s replacement, the Jack Breslin Student Events Center (review HERE). It’s a huge building. At first, I was wondering how they would even do basketball, but figured it out after seeing the wrestling set up.
Jenison was opened in 1940 and was the home to Spartan basketball until 1989. The facility is now used for Women’s volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling, and indoor track & field as well as a practice facility for a number of MSU sports. There is permanent seating in an upper deck that runs around the entire facility. The surface is a multi purpose rubber which is used for track and field. When other events are held in the Field House, a curtain is dropped to divide the arena into a smaller area and portable bleachers are brought in to fill out the empty spaces. Read the rest of this entry »
The Patio of Orland Park on 195th Street
We finished up our mini-vacation in Illinois on Saturday. The purpose of our trip was so J could judge an IHSA speech regional in Orland Park which is another one of Chicago’s south suburbs. I slept in, but met her at the school later in the day. When it was time to head back to Michigan, we left straight from there instead of going back to her parents. Before we could do that though, we had to make one more stop for food.
The Patio Restaurant of Orland Park is one of four in a local chain. It’s another place that J’s parents eat at often and have suggested to us in the past. The Patio sits on 195th Street. The building is huge. The parking lot…not so much. It took a while for us to find a spot on a busy Saturday night. I didn’t have much hope of actually getting a table, but J assured me we would be ok.
The inside of The Patio is a wide open space that is decorated to resemble a patio. The furniture is more patio furniture than lawn furniture and the ceilings are high, vaulted, and decorated to make you feel like it is open air. The restaurant is set up so you order in the front of the building then take a seat with a number. Your food is brought to you a few minutes later. Read the rest of this entry »
When I read the headline, I was a little shocked, but here it is.
Tim Hortons Inc. and the parent of Cold Stone Creamery said today they will team up to create up to 100 co-branded stores that will offer customers both ice cream and coffee shop fare.
[snip]
The companies said they recently co-branded two existing Tim Hortons locations in Rhode Island with positive results.
Existing Cold Stone and Tim Hortons locations in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Maine and Connecticut will be picked and reconfigured to offer both brands, the companies said.
The article mentions existing co-branded stores with Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins which are pretty prevelant in the Chicagoland area. It could work. I hope they don’t change stores on South Cedar Street and in Holt. That’s too close to home…
Fox's Restaurant & Pub on South Cicero Street in Oak Lawn, IL
The thing I absolutely love about going home is the food. The south side of Chicago is home to some great restaurants and J’s parents love showing me all their favorite spots. One of the places I heard them talk about quite a bit was Fox’s Restaurant & Pub, so I suggested going there for dinner. J’s mom had some coupons that were about to expire, so that’s what we decided on.
Fox’s Restaurant & Pub in Oak Lawn is on South Cicero and 92nd Street. There are four locations total in the Chicago area. Other restaurants are in Chicago, Orland Park, and Plainfield. J asked her mom if she should call and get reservation. The answer was no because Fox’s is huge.
Fox’s looks like an Irish pub even thought it’s not the typical “we got our bar from Ireland and only serve Guiness” Irish pub. When you walk in, you’re met by a hostess who then takes you down a long hallway to the main dining room. There are also two other levels that host private parties and overflow dining on busy nights. Read the rest of this entry »
The Oberweis Ice Cream and Dairy Store on Kinzie Avenue in Bradley, IL
I have a love/hate relationship with Oberweis. I love their milk and ice cream. I hate their owner. Jim Oberweis is a name every Illinoisan knows. It would be hard not to. He’s ran for and lost just about every public office in Illinois. He’s the king of saying something stupid and can’t make it out of a primary. Usually, he does more damage to the Republican party by running a smear campaign in the primary that gives the Democratic challenge in the general election a head start. Case in point, the last gubernatorial election. He ran a smear campaign against rival GOPer Judy Bar Topinka showing her dancing with incarcerated former Governor George Ryan. He called it, “The Pay-To-Play Polka.” When he lost the primary, Topinka’s Democratic opponent and incumbent, Rod Blagojevich started using the same video and same tag lines against Topika driving home the connection to her and Ryan. Blagojevich won and now Illinois is the political laughing stock of the country.
Oberweis milk on the other hand, is the best cow juice you will ever have. I hate buying it because all it does is fund another failing campaign, but I just can’t help it. I started buying the milk six years ago before I really knew who Jim Oberwies was. The thing that drew me to it was the glass bottles. No plastic here. All Oberweis milk is sold in glass bottles. I picked one up at the store and fell in love with the stuff. I’m not really a milk drinker, but I was drinking three or four gallons a week. Read the rest of this entry »
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