Practice, practice, practice!

Although I have continued to walk with some regularity, time for posting has been short with all the traveling I have been doing this summer. We went to Connecticut to visit our daughter and her family and to attend a day of racing at Saratoga, NY. Seeing our grandson was wonderful and there's not much that can compare to a beautiful day at the races at Saratoga Race Track. We had some early winners although our winnings were left at the track. Oh well, there's always next year.

We also went to visit our son as he had traveled to Greensboro with his baseball team. I found a fantastic shopping mall area on Friendly Ave. and am anxious to visit there again. I also spent a weekend visiting our daughter-in-law in Charlotte and explored an outstanding mall there. They actually had a Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus under the same roof. At Tiffany's there was a handsome young man holding a tray of champagne to draw in customers. Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory was tasty, but not what I ordered so they comp'ed me for my lunch.

Now it's back to Roanoke but it's been so dreadfully hot that I have only walked a couple of time by the river. The new trees have been planted near the lot behind the Ramada Inn and they look much better than the weeds that were there previously.

At Tanglewood Mall the new escalator is up and running and the walls in front of Goodies have been spruced up with attractive tile and fresh wall covering. Stein Mart has moved to their new space and they had some great sales for their grand opening. Belk is still under construction and I was glad to see that the recent mess that left a layer of dust over the handbags had been cleaned up.

It seems that another store has vacated the mall. The sports shoe store is gone and I'm not surprised. I never saw anyone in there to buy anything. I had looked at tennis shoes once, but the prices were too out of line with local competition. I guess they were trying to cover the cost of all of the TV sets that were hanging on the wall.

JC Penney looks nice after their recent improvements and the furniture store's improved lighting and new window displays are much more attractive.

Another element that has infringed on walking time is the great amount of time I have been devoting to a musical performance that I have volunteered for. My parish, Our Lady of Nazareth, is sponsoring the performance of "Children of Eden" by Stephen Schwatrz. This play is slated for Broadway in 2008 and our group has been working very hard to be ready for our Sept. 21st - 30th performances at William Flemming High School. Hope to see you there!