This Is Framingham

Whole Foods is about an 18 min walk or 4 min drive and I like that it’s right across the street from Trader Joe’s.
In general, I like their mission and “whole food” and “green” concepts.  I got these great re-usable bags from there that I use for everything and getting 2 for $3 was definitely worth it for me.

My mom is a die-hard fan of Market Basket and I like to go there for produce (their fresh dates are fantastic) and to look at their beautiful donuts, but she gives me a hard time if I buy anything at WF and says things like “Oh, must be nice to buy your groceries at Whole Foods“.  Like I’m so fancy that I only buy my groceries there, but I don’t.  What I like about Whole Foods is that it’s a place nearby that I can go get some specialty items for a nice dinner or maybe some chocolate chips that don’t have high-fructose syrup, things that I don’t use every day.  Although I admit, it would be nice to buy all my groceries there and that’s where I was introduced to soy whipped cream which is so awesome I won’t go back to regular whipped cream.
But, I like to point out to my mom that I have found several items at Whole Foods that are the same price or actually cheaper there than at Market Basket and they weren’t even on sale.  
The only real problem I have with Whole Foods is that when I wanted some extra money, I tried several times to get a part-time job there and they wouldn’t hire me.  They have this online application that asks you all sorts of questions/statements that you can only answer yes or no (or agree/disagree) to like “You feel you deserve everything you have”.  I answered all the questions honestly (as the way I tried to understand them) and they didn’t call.  I took a look around at the employees and  tried to figure out if they were exceptionally cheery or something but they’re not, some are, but some seems to be less enthusiastic to be there.  Just for kicks I filled out another application with an ultra cheery attitude, still nothing.  I saw they had an open house job night so I went and actually sat down with someone who, seemed to be about 10 years younger than me and didn’t seem interested in me from the start.  So I don’t know what the secret code is to work there. 
I ended up working my part-time job at the 400 Plus and there was a waitress there who mentioned that when she first moved here from Florida she worked at Whole Foods just to have something while she was looking for a job in her field and I remember saying “Oh my God, you did??  How did you answer the questions on the application??”  She laughed and said she really didn’t put much though into it and thought it was funny that I had such a hard time getting a job there.  So I don’t know what the deal was, but I still like shopping there.
Kind of ironic, just before I took this picture of the front of the store, I saw someone I kind of know through Town Meeting and he said “Oh hi, funny running into you here- Do you work here?”

While visiting the laundromat at sad plaza on Franklin St. we thought it was funny that they leave closing up the place to the last customer to get their stuff out of the dryer.   It’s good to see such trusting business-customer relations

Sometime last week, during our now seemigly daily trend of passing thunderstorms, we got a nice view of a rainbow over Route 9 by the Framingham pike entrance.

 As a quilter, it’s such a treat to have Fabric Place in walking distance of my house.  I really like that it’s a business near me that I can use and has a wide variety of anything sewing related.   It’s also a business that brings people who normally avoid downtown, down here so I consider it a shiny gem of the neighborhood.
They have bolts and bolts of all sorts of fabric, all kinds of threads, notions, books etc…  It’s two levels of sewing paradise!
 

They also offer classes, designing services and make custom draperies.  This summer they are offering a free class every Saturday of various topics, you can check out the schedule here.

The other day I was working in the yard and realised I’d need some grass patch stuff.  My first instinct was to go to White Hardware, conveniently located a few blocks away but the pain set in when I remembered that they recently closed.
For some reason I had it in my head that Monick wasn’t open Sundays (but they are) so I was weighing my options.  I really don’t like going to mega-store Lowes or dealing with all the traffic lights and the whole atmosphere of Home Depot so what came to mind was taking a trip “up north” to lovely Saxonville and going to Robinson’s ACE.

When I first moved back to Framingham (3 years ago now) I was bummed that Lincoln Discount Drug was gone ( I just had a “thing” for Lincoln Drugs, particularly the Milford store) but I have to say that Robinson’s uses the space well and it’s kept up nice.  The few times I’ve been here, I found that the place is well organized and the staff is really helpful and friendly.
Such was the same for this visit, it might have been a little further to drive to than Lowe’s but the pleasant shopping experince was worth it. 

The plaza parking lot is probably just as big as Lowe’s but it’s not an ocean of cars and there’s not a frenzy of people trying to find a good spot.  I just parked and went in, got what I wanted, walked up to the register, paid and left.  No lines, no wandering a warehouse packed to the ceiling, moving out of the way for an employee riding through the store on a motorized forklift- just a simple, straightforward shopping experience.

I’ll place Robinson’s Ace in the coveted “yay” category.  It’s worth a trip up north any time!

My friend Yana told me about “Boneoke” on Wednesday nights at the Chicken Bone on Waverly Street.  It’s Karaoke but with 2 musicians and no screens to read the words from.  It sounded interesting so I went with her to check it out.
Scott Damgaard is the guitarist and runs the show every week.  I got to talk with him last night and he’s also one of the nicest guys around.   He has a book of 500 songs that you can pick from, but he’s also open to suggestions and may know a song you’d like to sing that isn’t listed in the book. 
Somehow I didn’t trust myself to know all the words to any of these songs, I couldn’t believe it - but I know now what I will study for next week.  Although, you don’t have to study as some people brought a lyric sheet or read the lyrics off their cell phone.

It’s a very comfortable atmosphere, even I (who hates getting up infront of people) wanted to get up and release my inner rock star (although it doesn’t exist, but I really wanted to try!).   Scott will even let you take over the guitar if you’re so inclined:

Here’s some more pics of Boneoke:

We had so much fun, I’m so glad Yana told me about this and I’ll definitely be back (probably with a  lyric sheet).  I’ve always loved the Chicken Bone’s wings but this gives me a whole new reason to this gem of downtown.

For more info on the Chicken Bone, check out their site:
 http://www.thechickenbone.com/
 and Scott Damgaard: http://scottdamgaard.com

I was a little reluctant to make this post because I like to support local business but I felt it might be helpful to anyone who is considering ordering flowers or gift baskets in the area.
My sister who lives on the west coast  was shopping online to have a gift basket delivered to Ethan and me for our anniversary a couple of weeks a go.  She picked Seavers Flowers on Concord St. and ordered a “Gourmet” food basket and although it said all orders placed by 1pm will be delivered that day, she went ahead and ordered a few days before just to be safe and received conformation via email when she placed her order.
From their site:

My sister called me Saturday morning and said she didn’t want ruin the surprise so she wouldn’t say what it was but wanted to make sure someone would be home Saturday to recieve a delivery.  So I waited until Ethan woke up to run some errands and then came home and later in the afternoon had to go out again and checked with Ethan to see if he was planning on going out so that one of us would be home. 
I got home around 5 and still no delivery.  My sister called and was surprised that we had not received anything- she tried calling but  Seaver’s closes at 5 and does not have voicemail, they’re closed on Sundays, so she called Monday.

When she got someone on the phone she explained what happened and that it was for an anniversary and she had recived confirmation of the order and it’s delivery date but it never arrived .  She told me the guy just responded with ”ok”.   So she said “Well I’d like to cancel the order and have my card credited the amount since it never arrived and he just said “okay, I’ll look it up and cancel it”.    The guy told her he’d call her that afternoon to let her know that her card was credited but he never did so she had to call the next day and got confirmation.

The guy at Seaver’s wasn’t obnoxiously rude, but he never apologized or made any effort to somehow make her want to use  their flower shop again- she just got the feeling they didn’t care.  As a customer she trusted that they knew how to follow through on what they offer.   Maybe they just had an off day, but this was my sister’s experience and I thought this might be helpful to share it.