The sidebar.

For those of you not on bloglines, you may have noticed (or may not), that I've finally added the rest of the blogs I read regularly, from T to the end of the alphabet. Happy clicking.

I also added a "What I'm Reading" section. I'm not sure how long that's going to last. It depends; if I wind up changing the damn photo three times a week, it's gone. HTML freaks me out. I don't wanna mess with it all the time. (Case in point, how long it took me to post all those blog addys.)

The other thing I did was a "Local Stuff" section. That is NOT stuff that is local to me RIGHT NOW. It is stuff I have enjoyed from different places I have lived. I am quite pleased with myself - in an off-the cuff, spontaneous list, only four of the thirteen links involve food. That's pretty good, for me. I've been debating with myself, and I'll give a quickie rundown of why the links are there.

Alliance Review: This is the local paper of the town I grew up in, as well as my first formal job, where I got to know the husbeast, and the place of employment for several other family members. Much family lore.

The Children's Museum of the Low Country is here, and where the knitting group meets in the mornings, fall through spring. They aren't meeting now but will start up in the fall. But it's air conditioned and a great place to take the kids, any time.

Colonial Williamsburg is a historic site near where I lived in Norfolk, Virgina, for a few years. It's been restored and is a cool place to visit.

COSI is a science museum in Columbus, Ohio, that's designed for kids - supposedly - but I've spent many a fun afternoon there myself as an adult.

Heggy's Candies is a local favorite in NE Ohio. They're good. (Ask Louiz. I sent her some. She didn't seem to mind eating them.)

The Lyon Arboretum is a tree zoo north of Honolulu that contains an unholy number of different plants, including most of your spice rack, chocolate trees, and for a while, a coca tree. (They cut it down. They were afraid someone would start making cocaine.)

Rodman Public Library is where I grew up, almost literally.

The Royal Hawaiian is the oldest hotel left on Waikiki Beach, I do believe. They do a brunch in the Surf Room on Sundays that is wonderful. It was a special-occasion place to go, when we lived there.

Schimdt's is a German restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. Mmmm. Get the cream puffs for dessert.

Serpent Mound is a giant earthwork, built by native Americans, near where I grew up. I've been there many times... and am I the only one who looks at it and thinks 'sperm', not 'serpent'?

The universities are where I've gone to school.

Zippy's is a Hawaiian restaurant chain, sort of like Denny's but with Loco Moco and Huli-Huli meatloaf. And curry. And...


I'm sure I'll be adding more local stuff links as I think of them; I'll try to explain as I go.

And, you know, it would be kind of cool if YOU GUYS started doing this, too. Remember. Exotic is wherever you aren't.