Alice's Granddaughter Survives Earthquake!

For those of you who know Alice, you may also know her granddaughter, Patti. World traveler Patti was actually in California on Tuesday when the earthquake hit. According to an e-mail from Patti that afternoon:

Hi Everyone, I’ve just survived my 1st earthquake. It was a 5.8. I’m concerned Pam, Mom and Gram might see the news and be worried. I cannot get voice service right now from my mobile. I guess everyone is calling home. I am fine. We’re back in our meeting and the Calif folks are not rattled at all. Thanks! Patti

Alice Tries Another Church

This morning, Alice and her granddaughter, Beth, visited another small Baptist church, Eastside Baptist Church. (Who knew there were so many small Baptist churches in Forest Acres??)


Beth and Alice leaving for church. Beth says that Dad took this picture while he was sitting down - that is why she looks like a giant compared to Alice.



The church has a total of about 65 members, but the pastor said they average about 25 each Sunday. This is Alice with the minister, who is also a professor at Newberry College.

During the service, they had communion, which Beth did the Presbyterian way, not the correct Baptist way. Alice told Beth that she didn't eat the wafer at the right time. Beth surmised that the Lord wouldn't mind her doing it a little differently.

When asked if she would go back, Alice said," I liked it, I really did. But next week I'm going to Beth's church since she's been so good to take me to these others."

Ask Alice/Part Two and Saturday Shopping

Alice started Saturday as usual at Starbucks with the girls. Here are three Ask Alice questions. (There was no time to ask five - Alice made so many new friends, including the people sitting behind her in the picture.)

Where is your favorite place to shop in Columbia? "Dilliard's."

What about your favorite grocery store? "Fresh Market. Everything is so beautiful. The fruits are beautiful. And I love the coffee samples. Speed used to say that the samples tasted better than the full-sized versions."

Have you been to the State Museum yet? "No, I haven't had time. I've been so busy."

Afterwards, the granddaughters took their Dad to Pearl Fryar's topiary gardens, while Alice and her daughter, Shorti, shopped.

Alice finally got to go to Kohl's. Her thoughts? "It was fair. I wasn't crazy about it. I couldn't find anything good in the petite section."

They ate lunch at Sandy's, a great hot dog restaurant. But it looks like she enjoyed the Coke better!

After lunch, they went to Sam's, where you can see that Alice enjoyed the free samples.

Alice's Braves Buddy

Last night, John Douglas came over to watch the Braves game with Alice. His family doesn't get the channel that the games come on, and he's been trying to get over all summer.

Jon Douglas is Mary and Scott's teenage son - and Frances Anne and Will's brother - who just got back from a mission trip to Trinidad. He told Alice and Co. all about his trip during the game.

Unfortunately, JD had to leave before the game ended, but the Braves beat the Marlins, 9 to 4.

Ask Alice

As we continue the "Ask Alice" series, please help us by submitting your question(s) for Alice...

Post them to the Blog using the instructions on the page or send them to Mary Pat at winstonsgirl@hotmail.com.

Alice and Nancy

This is a picture of Alice and Nancy, one of the Starbucks regulars. Nancy is getting ready to leave for a two week hiking trip in Yosemite. She used to live in Los Angeles, where Billy Bob Thorton was her neighbor. She says that he wasn't very nice. But Nancy is!

To McBee or Not to McBee

On August 2, Alice and the girls will be roadtripping! Check out this e-mail from our fun Starbucks friend, Bob. Of course, we will have a full report on the Blog. (You may remember Bob from an earlier posting, S&S Excitement!)

On Saturday the 2nd of August, I will be heading 50 miles east to McBee, South Carolina, exploring Bigs, the meat market & sandwich shop and The McLeod Farms Roadside Market. The café offers homemade chicken salad purported to be the best in the state and other light fare including homemade (Really? We’ll see about that.) ice cream made from peaches and berries grown on McLeod Farm. Bigs also has a freezer of its signature casseroles ready to take home and bake.

The 92 year-old farm heralds thirty varieties of peaches! Blackberries will also be in season as well as sweet corn, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, bell peppers, okra, tomatoes, cantaloupes, watermelons, scuppernongs, and muscadines.

The Market Bakery has fresh pies, cakes and bread. Mac’s Pride Brand jars feature fruits and vegetables grown and packed on the farm. The boiled peanuts grew-up here as did those in the fresh-ground peanut butter.

I’m leaving Starbucks in Trenholm Plaza at 10:30 AM. We’ll have you back about 3 PM, soon enough to rest-up before your night on the town. Your $10 travel contribution is your only expense other than what you devour and what you tote home. I’m taking a small cooler in case I end up with a casserole, some peaches, a loaf of Pee Dee Rye, and a peanut. Feel free to do the same. Call me at 467-3782 in case you want to pile in.

All I can guarantee is South Carolina fun and adventure.

Visit to Grace Christian Baptist Church

Alice and the girls tried a new church, Grace Christian Church. It's actually a Baptist church, affiliated with the Baptist Convention and everything; they just don't use Baptist in the name.

Alice was invited to the church by Frances Anne Elliott - you saw her in the Movie Sunday post.

It was a larger church than Ravenwood, and had lots more young people, which Alice says is necessary for a church to survive. There were no young people at Ravenwood - everyone was 65+ - and when Alice asked where the teenagers were, she was told that "teenagers are too messy."

Alice liked Grace Christian Church, but it was too hot! We decided that we may all go back when it is cooler.

For the record, granddaughter Mary Pat said that God was probably doing backflips not only having seen her at church two Sundays in one month, but two BAPTIST churches at that.

Go Ask Alice

Four Starchicks, All in a Row: Nancy, Alice, Mary Pat, Beth
(Starchick Shorti took the picture!)

Saturday morning, Alice and the girls went to Starbucks.

So you loyal readers won't be bored with our many trips to Starbucks, we did a "Go Ask Alice" session, so you can learn more about what she's doing these days.

We thought about doing twenty questions with Alice, but decided to do five at a time, instead. So here is the first installment.

Q. What is your least favorite thing about Columbia?

A. That is hard because I like it.

Q. Where is your favorite place to eat in Columbia?

A. Lizard's Thicket. They have the best porkchops.

Q. What is your favorite thing about living on Columbia?

A. Seeing my grandchildren.

Q. You live with your daughter, Mary, now. Is she easier or harder to live with now vs. when she was a child?

A. Easier, because I don't have to punish her now.

Q. What is your favorite drink at Starbucks?

A. Hot chocolate. I got their cappuccino the other day, and it had so much caffeine that it blew my head off. Mine from Wal-Mart doesn't have caffeine.

Starting the Day at the "Coffeehouse"

(Thursday, July 17) Alice started the day by holding court at Starbucks with the girls.

No, that's not your eyes after too much coffee - Sister No. 1 dropped the camera, so this is the best we got. (Hint, Alice is in the black and white; Butch is the blur!)

Alice arrived early to snag the coveted corner table, and even beat the girls there! It was a quiet start, and she enjoyed a cappuccino and baseball cookie, for the Braves, of course.

Alice met Mike Burnette, one of the regulars, who owns dry cleaners throughout the Midlands. (She later took her jeans and tablecloths by his Trenholm Road shop, and was pleasantly surprised they'd be ready this afternoon.)

Butch then arrived and joined the Starchicks. They talked wine bottles, garages, unzipped skirts (Beth was in a hurry this morning!) and monkeys, but no Scotland Neck stories this time! On the way out, we saw Tom, who is the executive chef at one of Columbia's most tony restaurants, Garibaldi's. (Who knew? We thought he was a teacher!)

She also met Sister No. 2's hairdresser, Dennis, and proceeded to tell him how SHE thinks he should cut her hair. We all quickly came to the defense of Beth's haircut. As Dennis walked away, she asked - looking at his shaved head - "I wonder who does his hair?"

Yes, Alice was QUITE full of herself this morning. When she as passing around the Blog (ahem, printed out), Butch said,"A Blog? You have a Blog? You must be important!"

She replied, "Yes, and since you're on it, you are important now, too."

The girls scooted off to work, but under the guise of having left her cane at "the coffeehouse," Alice went back in a socialized with Bob and Nancy!

After a caffeinated start, Alice later went to West Columbia, where she had her hair done. She may have a short, sassy new style, but she still has to get it "done."

We are all looking forward to the next trip to "the coffeehouse."

Activist Alice

Alice jumped right in on this, not only signing a petition, but gathering signatures, too. Sherri Abbott may not have made it, but it wasn't because Alice didn't help!

Petition Drive Fails

Sherri Abbott didn’t make it.

The Richland County woman in a mad dash to get 10,000 signatures so her name could appear on the Nov. 4 ballot as a clerk of court candidate, said she fell short today.

“Overall we did really well,” she said early this afternoon. “Just the enormity of the support, you know, that I had for this and only being 1,000 shy of 10,000 says a lot about people wanting to come forward to be a part of this.”

She didn’t turn in her petitions to the voter registration office to be counted, she said, because she knew she missed the mark.

That leaves Jeanette McBride as the clerk-elect. McBride defeated longtime clerk Barbara Scott during the Democratic primary. Then revelations that McBride and her husband Frank owed $11,936.09 federal income taxes and had been late paying property taxes on their home in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 encouraged Abbott to run as a petition candidate.

Abbott started collecting names of registered voters on Thursday.

She had a deadline of noon today.

McBride said she was pleased with how it all turned out.

“I wasn’t even concerned, really and truly, about the petition,” McBride said. “It didn’t bother me.”

McBride also said she would be certain to pay her federal income taxes before she takes office.

Starchicks

Alice and Co. enjoyed a gathering of Starchicks on Friday morning!

Aunt Pat and Alice got hot chocolate and chocolate cake donuts. As you can see, they enjoyed them VERY much!

Unfortunately, the regular group was smaller than usual, but Butch was there. Alice met Butch during one of her visits to Columbia, and they share a Scotland Neck, NC connection. For those of you who don't know the Scotland Neck story, you're out of luck. What happens at Starbucks, stays at Starbucks! Or as Sister says," What happens in Scotland Neck, stays in Scotland Neck." (But we can be bribed with Starbucks cards!)

S&S Excitement

Aunt Pat is in town, and last night, she, Alice and "the girls" went to S&S for dinner.

We were very excited to see the Medlock Men - Travis and Bob! Bob is the one honorary male member of Starchicks, the Starbucks coffee klatch; his brother, Travis, is the former SC Attorney General.

Alice knows Bob, but was introduced to Travis as South Carolina's newest Democrat.

We grabbed a table beside the Medlock Men and had a ball. FYI, Travis is the one in the middle; Bob at the end. (The redhead is Alice - hee hee!)

On the agenda for tomorrow: a Starbucks Social.

Movie Sunday

After church, Alice went to the movies with the Baldauf Sisters and two young friends, Frances Anne and Will. They saw Wall-E, a love letter to science-fiction films of old with a modern environmentalist message. And it was great - a must see for all ages.

Gramma said the last movie she saw in a theater was Steel Magnolias, which had to have been 15-20 years ago.

When we asked her what she thought, she said, "It was great."

Going to Church

This morning, Alice visited Ravenwood Baptist Church, a very small church in Forest Acres. This was the second time she visited. Beth went with her the first time; Mary Pat and Beth went with her today.

It's a small church, one that Alice says reminds her of Fairview Heights Baptist Church, where we went in Virginia. It reminded the Baldauf Sisters of Cameron Baptist Church, where Alice still has her membership. Alice has already made several friends at the church, including a little boy and girl who sit behind her. Counting the choir and preacher, there were probably only about 30 people there.

Even thought they're not Baptists, the Baldauf Sisters were tickled to go to church with their Gramma. Mary Pat was a little leary when the preacher started talking politics, but said he passed the test when he didn't say anything negative about Barack Obama. (He didn't say anything negative about John McCain, either.)

One cute thing about the church is the parking spaces they have designated for visitors. As you can see, they have a cute message on those spaces.