Browsing all posts in August, 2009.

Coffee: $2; View: Priceless

Birmingham residents enjoy some of the best views anywhere, yet probably take them for granted as we go about our everyday business. You don’t have to be in a home perched atop Red Mountain or the crest at Greystone to enjoy the vistas all around the city.

One of the best spots you’ll find for catching up with a friend or reading [...]

Hungry Howie’s Offers Another Option for Quick, Cheap Pizza

Thank goodness for Little Caesar’s Pizza since it made the $5 hot-n-ready pizza the deal to beat. These pizzas have served many a birthday or slumber party and been the back-up dinner of choice for moms at their wits’ end.
There’s another cheap pizza alternative for moms near downtown and in Alabaster now: Hungry Howie’s Pizza and [...]

Food, Inc. in Birmingham

My mom maintains that the greatest blessing of having grown up on a farm is that she learned “where food comes from.” Personally, I have preferred not to know.
I’ve been content to think chicken just materializes at the grocery store in portion-controlled strips with a touch of solution for preservative. Ditto the rolls of ground beef and [...]

“Can” Library Fines in September

Jefferson County’s Public Libraries are sponsoring a September food drive that will let you put outstanding library fines behind you and help a good cause.
One dollar in fines will be waived for each non-perishable food item donated in September, up to $10 per library card holder. That means you can wipe out the fines your [...]

Find: Halloween Trick-or-Treat Bags, Cute and Cheap

I know it’s wrong to be discussing Halloween when daytime highs are still in the nineties, but the retailers are already pushing their fall collections so what else can we do? There are lots of BirminghamMoms who like to have these seasonal purchases buttoned up well in advance so they can relax and enjoy the festivities. For [...]

School’s Back in Session

Now that school is starting, it’s time for me to give my best friend and old college roomate a call. We shared some carefree, happy years as I studied business and she studied early childhood education. To the casual observer, it would appear that my motivation was avoiding Friday classes while hers was passing time cutting shapes out of construction paper. In fact, she [...]

Find: Birmingham Arts Journal

A friend tipped me off to the Birmingham Arts Journal recently. Where have I been to have missed noticing this lovely publication?  It has a carefully curated selection  of passages, poetry, art and photographs. It’s also available in it’s entirety via web. What a perfect pick-me-up for when a BirminghamMom needs a short mental break from the usual routine. 
The editors describe their [...]

Do the Helen Keller – Learn About an Inspirational Alabamian

There’s a song out that your kids have heard even if you haven’t. The lyrics include, “..Shush your lips…do the Helen Keller, and talk with your hips.”  The remaining lyrics aren’t – to use an old-fashioned term - ”wholesome,” even if the tune is catchy. The video has also spawned some controversy over the dancing (eyes shut, off [...]

Design Inspirations in Birmingham

“Surely God didn’t give me this much good taste and no budget to satisfy it,” laments a friend of mine who can spot a Barbara Barry side chair from 100 feet away. Both of us have a shameful habit of trolling real estate websites just to see the interiors, and we can’t even swap shelter magazines because we’ve each already torn out [...]

Another Long Line at the License Office

There’s never a truly convenient time to renew your driver’s license, but if you’re a BirminghamMom in Jefferson County, now is surely the worst time. Since the county placed many of its employees on administrative leave due to a funding crisis, your visit to the courthouse or license office promises an exasperating experience. If you thought your last license photo [...]