Penn State North Carolina License Plates

According to the Triangle Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association, PSU North Carolina license plates may be available soon.

From the chapter's website:

To: Penn State Alumni, Fans and Friends in North Carolina

From: The Triangle Chapter of the Pennsylvania State University Alumni Association

Date: April 16, 2008

RE: Obtaining an officially-issued Penn State license plate in North Carolina

Dear North Carolina Nittany Lions,

Would you like to see a Pennsylvania State University license plate in the state of North Carolina? It can be done! And when we do it, we’ll be the first university from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to have a state-issued N.C. license plate.

There are more than 7,500 Nittany Lion Alumni statewide in North Carolina. We only need a minimum of 300 paid applications for the state to establish the PSU license plate. Fans and family can purchase the plate as well as alumni!

You already pay $28 to $33 per year for your N.C. license plate registration. Why not show your Penn State pride by paying just $25 extra a year! The extra cost of the PSU specialty license plate is distributed to the National Heritage Trust Fund and the Special Registration Plate Fund (part of the Highway Fund, which among other things, beautifies our highways) so you’re also helping the environment and the local economy! More information on costs and fees can be found in the accompanying Frequently Asked Questions sheet. These charges are established by legislative action in the state of North Carolina and, like all laws, are subject to change.

Feeling creative? You may also personalize your Penn State license plate for an additional $30 per year in addition to the standard registration fee and the collegiate license fee.

The Triangle Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association has volunteered to help coordinate the Penn State University efforts to establish the specialized PSU plate. If needed, applications will be accepted until Dec. 31, 2008, although we want to submit 300 applications and payments to the NCDMV as soon as possible. The faster we reach 300 paid applicants, the faster the plates hit the road.

If you want to help establish the groundbreaking Penn State University license plate, please complete the accompanying application which can be found online at < http://www.trianglepsu.org/license/app.pdf > You may mail your check and completed application form to :

Triangle Penn State Chapter
P.O. Box 1215
Morrisville, NC 27560-1215

All applications will be collected and the monies held in a special Penn State license plate account by the Triangle Penn State Chapter. Please include your email address and phone number along with your application so that we can contact you if necessary. An email will be sent to you to confirm that your form and money have been received. Email will also be used for follow up communication if necessary.

If your information changes before we submit the forms and money to the NC DMV, please send an email to license@tripsu.org with your new information and it will be changed on your form(s). Also, if you move out of state before the application is processed by the DMV, simply request a refund of your Penn State license plate fee and we will refund your payment minus a $5 processing fee.

We would like you to keep in mind the accompanying artwork is proposed until verified as official by the NC DMV. However, the artwork as shown conforms to guidelines the NC DMV has given to us, and to the guidelines the university has for use of their logo so we anticipate little if any changes to the artwork shown on the website. The proposed artwork is at the top of this page. We have included the original Authorization letter from the Penn State licensing department sent to the NC DMV.

We hope you will support Penn State and support this license plate endeavor and make Penn State University the first university from the state of PA to establish a collegiate license plate in North Carolina.

For the glory,

Adam Morris
Triangle Chapter – Penn State Alumni Association
License Plate Committee Chairperson
A l m 3 8 1 @ p s u a l u m . c o m

Jeff Blum
Triangle Chapter – Penn State Alumni Association
President

Application form:
http://www.trianglepsu.org/license/app.pdf

We plan on signing up for two, and hopefully, the requisite minimum of 300 will be reached soon. I do wonder about the mock image above though, as I doubt it's accurate. If you didn't recognize that logo, you'd have no idea it stood for Penn State. And just as a matter of preference, I'd rather have the Nittany Lion Chipmunk Head than that crest thing, but that's just me. I'll take what they offer and like it.

Photowalking: Mebane

I'm a big fan of a segment on Robert Scoble's show called "Photowalking with Thomas Hawk." Scoble follows Thomas, a free-lance photographer in San Francisco, around as Thomas takes pictures of stuff, and discusses photography. It's been hugely educational to me as an amateur photographer, and I highly recommend it to anyone who'd like to improve the quality of their pictures, regardless of the sophistication of their camera.

The Downtown Mebane Merchants' Association (or some such thing with a similar title) was hosting a Spring Shoppers Stroll to lure people downtown to the Clay Street area to check out what is becoming a really cool little business district. Camera in hand, we set off to see what it was all about.

After scarfing some free lunch courtesy of Clearwire, we perused the many shops of Clay Street. It wasn't until we were inside Elegant Relic, a fine antiques store owned by our neighbors when I started taking pictures of Tristan in front of a big window that I realized that this place would be awesome for a little Thomas Hawk-esque photo-op.

Two Stars Hosted on Zooomr

The picture of Tristan led to others. Like this little Geisha on the table next to him.

Tiny Geisha Hosted on Zooomr

Next to the Tiny Geisha was a cool chandelier.

Crystal View Hosted on Zooomr

Behind that was an awesome art deco-style radio.

Spirit of Radio 1 Hosted on Zooomr

And on top of that was a Tiffany-style dragonfly lamp.

Dragonfly Macro Hosted on Zooomr

On the walk down the stairs from the upstairs to the ground floor, I noticed that the building itself with it's turn-of-the-century (20th) style was its own art.

Elegant Relic Hosted on Zooomr

The walk continued on to the antique store across the street, where I photographed some old film SLR cameras, to the Sweet Tooth pastry shop, where the coconut pie, chocolate raspberry cake, and blondie though delectable, were not photoworthy. We continued on to Solgarden, a cool, eclectic gift and home-furnishing shop, where the pictures were just okay. View them here.

Check back at the end of April for the Mebane Dogwood Festival, conveniently timed to be about a month past when the Mebane Dogwoods are in full bloom.

Fudgetown Weekend

To get away, in the midst of the mid-winter doldrums, we went to the North Carolina coast for the weekend.

Since the journey eastward takes us through barbecue country, a stop at one of the many hereforeto unvisited eateries of the region was in order. Last time it was McCall's in Goldsboro. This time, it was their across-the-street neighbor, Wilber's.
The inside was exactly what you'd expect a barbecue place to be, and that's cool. The barbecue was respectable, but not mind-blowing. The prices were reasonable, and the service was friendly. Our hunt for the best barbecue in North Carolina is still underway.

We got to Alliance, and fired up the kerosene heater in the spare bedroom in the not-yet-heated house of Laura (Jennifer's mom) and Graham. After some ice cream, it was time to call it a night.

Saturday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, Jennifer and I headed to Beaufort, aka "Fudgetown." The kids would be staying with Laura and Graham while Jennifer and I had the day to be regular people.

We took the Cherry Point/Minesott Beach free ferry. Although the ferry doesn't really save us any time, we enjoy the occasional free boat ride. . . at least I do. It was a nice day for a boat ride, and it gave me the chance to take more pictures.

Floating Seagulls Hosted on Zooomr

Ferry Boat Hosted on Zooomr

We putzed around Fudgetown at a leisurely pace, spending more time looking at stuff than we normally get to. We decided on a restaurant for lunch: Front Street Grill at Bluewater. It was pretty good, and with seating right on the water, the view was tremendous. My fish and chips and Jennifer's shrimp salad sandwich were very nice.

We checked in to our Bed and Biscuit, "Captains Quarters" at 315 Ann street and met the Captain, who is a really cool guy. A Naval Aviator during WWII, and former 747 captain for United, this guy was sharp as a tack, and really friendly. We "Toasted the Sunset" with the other couple who were staying there. Two glasses of wine was enough to get our faces flushed, but not enough to get a buzz on. Wine is evil like that.

After some preliminary research, we decided on a restaurant for dinner. Aqua, a tapas restaurant was only a five-minute walk away. This was a non-holiday weekend in mid-winter, but still the place ended up getting really crowded. We got their early enough that we were seated in a booth immediately.

Now onto the food pictures, because I have them. For those not in the know, tapas (at least the American rendition) are appetizer-sized portions of a very eclectic variety of foods, none of them Spanish, as far as we could tell. The theory is you order several (or many) different dishes, and share them. The concept is great because you get to try a lot of different things in one trip, without getting totally stuffed on one American-sized portion of one delicious thing.

Jennifer started with the Jumbo lump crabmeat gratinee with Asiago cream and scallions served with grilled pita points.

Tapas: Crab Hosted on Zooomr

I had the "Japanese bento box with sesame seared yellowfin tuna, spring rolls, seaweed salad, fried dim sum and traditional accompaniments." Irrespective of the fact that "dim sum" is Chinese, and so are spring rolls, since they were delicious, I didn't protest their inclusion in my alleged Japanese dish.

Tapas: Bento Box Hosted on Zooomr

Jennifer's next dish was "Seared Maple Leaf Farms duck breast over ginger mashed sweet potatoes with a warm apple-bacon vinaigrette." Once again, the mashed sweet potatoes stole the show.

Tapas: Duck Hosted on Zooomr

And my next dish was "Warm seafood soft taco with chunky fire-roasted tomato salsa and chipotle sour cream." I can't resist when I see fish tacos on a menu, usually to my eventual disappointment, but this was pretty good.

Tapas: Seafood Taco Hosted on Zooomr

By this point we were getting closer to full, so it was time for dessert. There were four on the menu, or you could buy a sampler (for two people) of any three of the desserts. That seemed to best stay in the Tapas spirit, so we went with the sampler "Huge crème brulee, cranberry and white chocolate bread pudding with cinnamon crème fraiche, Bananas Foster." We're thinking Aqua doesn't have a pastry chef, as these were all pretty standard fare. We couldn't finish them.

Dessert Sampler Hosted on Zooomr

We finished the meal with some coffee, and waddled back to the B&B, to enjoy the first "B".

Sunday morning, we enjoyed the second "B". There were a couple of pastries, fresh fruit with cream, Melita coffee, and soft-boiled eggs. The star of the meal were "Ms Ruby's Riz Biscuits". Ms. Ruby is the Captain's wife, and just as charming as the Captain. We guess "riz" means risen, because the biscuits looked like they came from a yeast dough, as opposed to a traditional southern baking powder chemically leavened dough. They were hot, held the butter, and tasted great all the same. The four of us polished off several basket's worth. We highly recommend Captains' Quarters in Beaufort (Fudgetown) North Carolina, and the riz biscuits.

We leisurely packed up, settled up, and left, making our way back to the ferry, and back to Alliance and the kids. After a big lunch and a birthday sour cream pound cake for Zoe's pre-birthday, we made the three hour drive back to Mebane.

We'll be back in May, when it's warm enough to swim in the ocean, or maybe in April, when it's not warm enough to swim, though the kids will anyway.

A Day in the Park

We braved the brutal North Carolina winter, and went outside to Cedarock Park in southern Alamance county. The temperature was a chilly 72 degrees F, but we did the 2 mile mill trail hike anyway, taking a few photos along the way.

Traveling Roths' Shadow Hosted on Zooomr

Zoe has Freckles Hosted on Zooomr

Roth Women Hosted on Zooomr

TR Horse Tree Hosted on Zooomr

Horse Tree 3 Hosted on Zooomr

Zoe's Photo Hosted on Zooomr

Field Family Portrait Hosted on Zooomr

North Carolina State Fair: A Day in Food Pictures, Part 2

Interspersed with all this food was plenty of walking, and plenty of rides and sideshows and the occasional "game of chance" for the kids. So it's not like the fair was just a food orgy. All this food was shared by all of us, and spread out over six hours or so. Not that I'm making any pretention that this wasn't a boatload of generally unhealthy food. Eating was not all we did.

Having a keen eye for the unusual, the sign saying "Barbecue Sundae" jumped out at me. For $5, I would need to find out what that was. Oma was really curious, wondering if this involved ice cream. After having seen the Mashed Potato Martini last year, I was pretty sure what was involved.
It was a sundae cup with a layer of pork on the bottom, a layer of baked beans in the middle, and a layer of cole slaw on top. (3. Variety Meats, 10. Roasted/Smoked, and maybe 9. Ethinc, if you consider Southern an ethnicity) Kind of like those one-bowl meals at KFC. It was pretty good, but left no efficient way to sauce the meat. It was carb-friendly, as if that mattered. No ice cream was involved.

We were resting near the stand of the aforementioned Mashed Potato Martini, where we had bought Deep Fried Banana Pudding Bites last year, and noticed a new menu item, Deep Fried Pina Colada. This guy gets top marks for creativity in my book. Of course, we had to try that too. And it was, in my opinion, the best thing we had all day.
Deep-fried pinapple wedges covered in powdered sugar, served with a coconut pudding dipping sauce. (2. Fried Sweet, 5. Sugar, Sugar, Sugar) This one we may have to try to recreate at home.

With that being said, we moved on to sausage. German sausage that is. Bratwurst. (3. Variety Meats, 7. Baked, 10. Roasted/Smoked) Why is it that you always see Italian sausage and Polish sausage (both of which are wonderful in their own right), but too rarely see German sausage? Well, we stood up for our German heritage. Actually Jennifer (who is the only Traveling Roth without German heritage) requested the Brat. Conversely, I bought the ribbon fries to stand up for her (and T & Z's) Irish heritage, since we couldn't find:

• Irish sausage
• Shamrock Shakes
  
• Whisky

In between the brat and the ribbon fries, Opa acquired an Onion Blossom (1. Fried Savory)
After the ribbon fries, Oma acquired a traditional, old-school funnel cake (2. Fried Sweet), once again calling back to our Pennsylvania Deutsch heritage.
That was it for the food, other than some allegedly fresh-squeezed lemonade. Besides, it was starting to get really crowded, and we needed to burn the rest of our ride tickets and get out of there and get home.

After all, it was almost dinner time.

North Carolina State Fair: A Day in Food Pictures, Part 1

The North Carolina State Fair is a regular event for the Traveling Roths since 2001 when we first came to the state. There's something there for everyone, from the contests, to the animal judging, to the concerts, to the rides, to the games, to the food. For us it's all about the animal judging. There's nothing like a good cow show. Yeah, right. It's the food, of course.

So here's a summary of the day, in food. I've designated 10 Fair Food Categories over the years (with help from others), and now pay attention to how many we can attain. The categories, in no particular order, are:

1. Fried Savory
2. Fried Sweet
3. Variety Meats
4. con Queso
5. Sugar, Sugar, Sugar
6. Fundraiser
7. Baked
8. Food-on-a-Stick
9. Ethnic
10. Roasted/Smoked

Could we hit them all, let's see.

We started by parking at the SAS Soccer Park in Cary, avoiding the parking nightmare caused by the NC State football game. Good thing the Wolf Pack plays at such a small stadium. We took a CAT bus for $4 a piece round trip ($2 for seniors, Oma and Opa.) The day was absolutely gorgeous, with deep blue skies, dry air, and a little chill. Some years it's ridiculously hot at fair time, and that's miserable. Being on the cool side is definitely preferable.

Entering the fair near the permanent buildings, the place was surprisingly uncrowded. This would change once NC State's little football game ended, but for now it was nice. Since it was still fairly early (before noon), a biscuit was in order.

First stop, the restaurant of St. Paul's Christian Church, where Andy and Shelley used to attend. Andy had the distinct misfortune to work in the restaurant on one of those hot years. That must have sucked. But anyway, at St. Paul's, ham biscuits are only a breakfast item, so down the street we went to Cary UMC church. We got ham biscuits (a Southern treat) for Jennifer, one for Tristan, and a sausage biscuit for Zoe. (3. Variety Meats, 7. Baked, 6. Fundraiser)
The next stop was for a London Broil sandwich. I found out about these from Shelley the first year we went to the fair. They have become a staple. (3. Variety Meats, 4. con Queso, 7. Baked)
The kids started spending their 48 ride tickets each, with the occasional pause for refreshment. They spent their own money on ice cream. Raspberry vanilla for Tristan, and Oreo for Zoe. (5. Sugar, sugar, sugar) We went into one of the permanet buildings to see what was afoot. It turns out rocky road fudge was afoot. (5. Sugar, sugar, sugar, 6. Fundraiser)It was also a little gritty. Down the aisle was a candy stand called "Davey's . . . . ." Despite the errant "e" in his name, his stuff looked cool. Jennifer got a really tarted-up candy apple, with stuff like white chocolate, cinnamon, and walnuts. (5. Sugar, Sugar, Sugar, 8. Food-on-a-Stick)

We also sampled a couple other things that were not photographed, including spicy hot peanuts for Opa (10. Roasted/Smoked), and maple cotton candy.

Back outside, we made for the area near where the grandstand field used to be, for some Wisconsin Fried Cheese (1. Fried Savory, 4. con Queso). I chose the jalapeno cheddar, with jalapeno ranch dippin' sauce, and some jalapeno iced tea. Just kidding about the tea. It was regular brewed tea from a nearby fried dough merchant.
to be continued. . . .