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For anyone visiting Columbus Ohio we are a NO Whine Zone on Monday October 13, 2008. Experience Columbus Days runs over the Columbus Day weekend throughout Central Ohio and through Monday.  Visit the Experience Columbus website for more details.  Columbus is a “No Whine Zone” on Columbus Day.

NOTE there is no Columbus Day Parade in Columbus Ohio.

I love a parade as much as the next person but….  No whining “where is the Columbus Day Parade in Columbus Ohio?” on Columbus Day.  Lots of offices in downtown Columus are closed on Columbus Day… If you need a parade to make your Columbus Day weekend complete you are going to have to go to the Columbus Italian Parade on Sunday afternoon!

There is a traditional Columbus Day Wreath Laying Ceremony in downtown Columbus on Monday, if you must have something traditional in downtown Columbus on Columbus Day.  Experience Columbus Days runs through Monday…. visit the Santa Maria….

A comment on my blog about Columbus Day 2007 :

“I am here from NYC and there there is a huge parade this is the largest city in America named for Columbus where’s the beef!?  no celebration? no festivities ? nothing in the Dispatch?”

The Columbus Italian Festival starts this Friday.  The Columbus Italian Festival runs through Sunday… Monday is Columbus Day.

St. John the Baptist Italian Catholic Church sponsors the Columbus Italian Festival yearly.  2008 is the 29th annual Columbus Italian Festival.  The event was moved in 2007 to coincide with the Columbus Day Weekend, which is celebrated as Experience Columbus Days in Columbus Ohio.

Simply Italian is the theme for 2008

• live entertainment
• open-air markets
• Italian dancing
• children’s area (zona bambini)
• Italian food
• pizza cook-off
• cooking demonstrations
• American-Italian Idol vocal contest
• bocce ball tournaments
• big screen TVs for sporting events (OSU etc.) bring your couch potato
• historical display on Christopher Columbus
• Columbus Italian Parade - Sunday, October 12th, 2008 @ 2pm <—-  PARADE
• Conversational Italian Instruction FREE

and more….

St. John the Baptist Church is located at  720 Hamlet St, Columbus, Ohio, in the Italian Village neighborhood. Italian Village is a nice place to visit for me.

Don’t worry Columbus is on the list for the ten safest US housing markets…

Here’s The Real Estate Bloggers entry Top 10 Riskiest Home Markets for Fall 2008

Count down or up from the bottom of the list… according to PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance) there is less than 1% chance of lower home prices for the market in 2 years.  Contrast those to the housing markets on the top of the list with over a 99% chance…

1. Fort Worth-Arlington; TX
2. Dallas-Plano-Irving; TX
3. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown; TX
4. Pittsburgh; PA
5. San Antonio; TX
6. Memphis, TN-MS-AR
7. Indianapolis-Carmel; IN
8. Kansas City; MO-KS
9. Austin-Round Rock; TX
10. Columbus; OH

All have less than 1% percent chance of prices being lower within the next two years Also less than 1% chance of lower prices…. St. Louis, MO-IL, Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis; WI, Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord; NC-SC, Cincinnati-Middletown; OH-KY-IN, Denver-Aurora; CO.

Is there a difference in the list… is Columbus a riskier >1% than cities one through nine?  And a lot better than Cinci who would be #15 on a list? Cleveland is just  1.1%…

Those 10 riskiest?   The ten riskiest according to PMI with over 96% chance of decrease are : Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach; FLA,Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario; CA, Orlando-Kissimmee; FL, Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall; FL, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater; FL, Las Vegas-Paradise; NV, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale; CA, Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine; CA, Jackksonville; FL and  Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale; AZ. Visit the PMI study for everything in between if you are not from Columbus or one of these markets.

Of 150 science centers in the US, COSI is the best according to Parent Magazine.  Channel 10 said so yesterday 

Magazine Names COSI Top Science Center In Country

We went twice in the past year… once with a four year old, a fun time was had by all.

From The Huffington Post nationally 600 Starbucks are closing … tweeted or retweeted by SoldierAnt in Columbus…

I know when I was watching TV News (Channel 10 local TV news I think)  the other night they were going to say which Central Ohio Starbucks locations were closing…  During the commercial we discussed where Starbucks locations in striking distance (the north outer-belt area between Polaris and Worthington) were.  The breaking news of which Starbucks were closing must have been not stimulating enough to keep me awake because I nodded off during the commercial or before the news got to which local Starbucks are closing.

These are all Ohio Starbucks that are closing… not just those in Central Ohio.

“OHIO

2525 1505 FIFTH AVE 1505 W FIFTH AVE COLUMBUS OH
11856 YUKON BUILDING 601 N HIGH ST COLUMBUS OH
14056 REYNOLDSBURG 6144 E MAIN ST COLUMBUS OH
13859 DUBLIN, SAWMILL & HARD 7561 SAWMILL RD DUBLIN OH
14170 THE SHOPS AT FALLEN TIMBERS 3100 MAIN ST MAUMEE OH
2389 RICHMOND TOWN SQUARE 691 RICHMOND RD RICHMOND HEIGHTS OH
10399 OHIO VALLEY MALL 67800 MALL RD ST. CLAIRSVILLE OH
11883 MAXTOWN 925 N. STATE ST WESTERVILLE OH
2792 HIGH ST 530 N HIGH ST WORTHINGTON OH “

Does that nean 2792 N. High St. Worthigton? That is almost down to Dodridge.  That’s in the 43202 ZIP Code,  I think.

530 High St.  Worthigton (the Starbucks that was fire bombed a few years ago?) corner of High St. and South St.?  Used to be a Friendly’s Restaurant?

43085 and nearby Starbucks according to Google maps

View Larger Map

This is just the 43085 ZIP code. Click on the Large Map to see the location of the Starbucks up in Crosswoods, the one on Sawmill… the Starbucks at Graceland, those in Westerville and more.

I am not a big Starbucks fan… I liked Starbucks coffee when I first tasted it out in California in the 90’s… but it is not my favorite coffee.  We visited a Starbucks in Westerville a number of times last summer when I had a Starbucks gift card (free coffee) and we were putting up  open house signs in the area after church on Sunday.

My name is Maureen and I Twitter.

At least for me the first local media Twitterer (member of Twitter) that I was aware of was Tim Eby with WOSU.  I think Tim is WOSU radio…   station manager? Tim is @TimEby on Twitter.  WOSU has twitter feeds… or did… trying to remember seeing anything from WOSU lately.  It may be Twitter not WOSU.  Sometimes you just want to spank Twitter…

The next old media (if you believe blogging is the new media) to show up on Twitter was Channel 4 News..  WCMH (?) our local NBC station… or they were the next that I started following on Twitter.  I first heard that they were going to Twitter on TV… very early one morning so I went looking to see who was going to Twitter.

It has been fun watching the people from Channel 4 Twitter.  There are a lot of them  (Channel 4 folk ) who Twitter.

Recently Channel 10 (the CBS station in Columbus, I don’t know their call letters… if that is what you call those ) started Twittering.  It is interesting to see how the two TV channels are using Twitter.

Channel 10 and Channel 4 use Twitter different.

AMANDA_WCMH SWAT has visual on suspect in apt. attic. Deciding whether to taser or gas to get him out.

If you want to follow (that’s what it’s called on Twitter… try NOT to think of stalk)  Channel 4 on Twitter, link above shows who is Twittering…  lots.

If you want to follow Channel 10 as it tweets Twitters they are @10TV I have the inside scoop… it is a person, not a bot but I can not divulge my source.

I don’t know who it is.

Oh I tweet as @MoinColumbusOH…