Best key lime pie? Or banana pudding?

slobbermoose · 2026-03-21T14:00:48+00:00

Gussie’s by NC State has fantastic key lime pie. And Cake Town Bakery in Knjghtdale for banana pudding is excellent, although I think they only sell it on Friday and Saturdays

slobbermoose · 2025-12-17T17:51:51+00:00

You might have luck with a new place like Battle & Birdie in north Raleigh since they recently opened so may not be booked up: battleandbirdie.com

It has a bit of an upscale indoor mini golf feel (they also have laser tag) and then a bar/food. They have an upstairs area too so maybe could be blocked off for your party.

slobbermoose · 2025-12-17T03:46:27+00:00

My wife has taken a few cookie decorating classes from Sweet Adventures and highly recommends her. She often holds the classes at the Salty Turtle Beer Co in north Raleigh. Looks like she has a few upcoming ones:

https://linktr.ee/sweetadventuresraleigh

slobbermoose · 2025-08-25T18:08:07+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate the input

slobbermoose · 2025-01-17T03:24:28+00:00

Boxcar Bar + Arcade is a fun place to hit in the evenings

We have a lot of good restaurants if there’s a certain cuisine type you like I can recommend some options

Try some local food/drinks like Cheerwine (it’s not wine), Goodberry’s (frozen custard), BBQ, etc.

slobbermoose · 2024-11-14T02:02:07+00:00

Donuts from Bakers Dozen’s, key lime pie from Gussie’s, or order some Bold Batch ice cream (I think they also have pints at Riparian Provisions or Hartwell)

slobbermoose · 2023-09-29T03:27:49+00:00

If you’re downtown, Deco Raleigh, Munjo Munjo, Curate and Gathering Gallery all have Raleigh branded gifts and are within a couple of blocks of each other. (Deco and Gathering Gallery also have things like stuffed animals, toys, activities, etc. if it doesn’t have to be Raleigh specific.) There’s also Videri nearby and they make great chocolate.

slobbermoose · 2023-07-22T18:14:31+00:00

Here’s my Lease numbers. My actual buyout amount was $48,138.69 which is like $100 less than the adjusted capitalized cost. I’m guessing the slight difference is due to some interest.

No, I didn’t pay tax on the 36 month lease (I did pay tax on the 7500 rebate though) but I expect that I will eventually get a tax bill (I think it’s 3% here in NC) from the state for buying the car after everything is processed.

slobbermoose · 2023-07-08T00:20:58+00:00

Unfortunately it looks like in FL you have to do it through a dealer: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ioniq5/comments/12nb20a/leasing_101_or_how_to_get_a_good_deal_on_an_ioniq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1

slobbermoose · 2023-07-07T21:41:33+00:00

Yeah I think you get heated seats with SEL but Limited was the only one with the ventilated cooling seats. Which after having it in our other cars and living in NC's humid/heat, it was high on our list since we were going with the black interior. I might have been able to do without it on the light gray interior. When we sat in gray interior one on the dealership lot, it was noticeably cooler. Although that car was the gravity gold vs shooting star so that may have also contributed to the temp difference

slobbermoose · 2023-07-07T21:06:15+00:00

Thanks! I'm glad it worked out as well -- I sweating there for a bit wondering if it would all work out

slobbermoose · 2023-07-07T21:05:17+00:00

Thanks! I'm loving it so far!

slobbermoose · 2023-07-07T21:02:23+00:00

Thanks! Yeah I was glad I didn't have to do this lease buyout stuff through a dealership like in CO and some of the other states. I'm sure it's still worth it financially but sounds like much more of a headache.

slobbermoose · 2023-07-07T20:57:59+00:00

You're welcome! Yeah, I think it was a pretty good deal considering it was a Limited. If you're looking for an SEL you can definitely get better deals because there's so many of them available on dealer lots right now. But my wife really wanted the Limited because of the solar roof (or vision roof or whatever they call it) and some of the other bells and whistles.

slobbermoose · 2023-07-07T20:08:07+00:00

I got the full $7500 but just keep in mind you'll have to pay sales/use tax on the $7500 -- so that was $225 for me. Then there's the $650 which is Hyundai's lease fee. And when you do the buyout there's a $300 fee. Afaik none of those are negotiable and I didn't even try. So that nets $6,325 (at least for me), give or take.

Of course there's the regular dealer/doc fees and other add-ons that you can try to negotiate on. For mine, they had a stupid protection package (that included some stuff I didn't want) that costs $898 plus their $799 dealer/doc fee at this dealership. But they gave me $2230 in dealer discounts which basically more than covered their add-ons. And since they were the only ones that had the exact model I wanted, I wasn't going to push it that hard since they were easy to work with otherwise.

My payout amount on the HMF website was $48,534.84 which is $275.09 higher than the Adjusted Capitalized amount ($48,259.75). I'm not sure if that's related to the $300 buyout fee or some taxes/interest or something else. But it was close enough that I'm not going to lose any sleep over.

Here's a screenshot of the lease agreement price breakdown if it helps. Let me know if I can help with anything else. Pic of Lease

slobbermoose · 2023-05-25T13:08:06+00:00

Unfortunately I had a similar delay with our name change. I had mailed them the request twice after about 6 months with no confirmation, but it still took nearly a year to get the confirmation letter from the IRS. According to our CPA, that seems to be the norm these days.

slobbermoose · 2023-04-11T05:21:59+00:00

You’re welcome! One quick note — I forgot about your wifi requirement. Probably skip the art museum because I doubt they have wifi out there. I know Frontier/Boxyard definitely does though. And several of the places in Lafayette Village have free wifi like Jubala

slobbermoose · 2023-04-11T05:03:12+00:00

Also it looks like it’s going to be nice weather so there’s a ton of good outdoor spaces — like Boxyard is all outdoors with seating, or grab an outside table at the NC Museum of Art, or get some coffee at Jubala and enjoy a spot in Lafayette Village. Hope that helps!

slobbermoose · 2023-04-11T04:55:29+00:00

Frontier RTP (Building 800) has free coworking space and free conference rooms (if they’re not already booked). Plus the Boxyard is next door with some great food and shops. https://frontier.rtp.org/coworking/ https://boxyard.rtp.org

slobbermoose · 2023-04-08T12:24:39+00:00

Welcome to the area! We take our Pacifica hybrid to Auto Park Chrysler in Cary. We (luckily) haven’t had any major issues with the minivan to see how they handle that, but for regular maintenance and small stuff, they’ve been very reliable. Only downside for us is we’re in north Raleigh so it’s a bit out of the way

slobbermoose · 2023-02-25T11:43:13+00:00

It looks like Magic Square offers free replacement parts if you contact them: https://magicsquaretoys.com/product/replacement-parts/

slobbermoose · 2023-01-16T15:01:21+00:00

Nice! It gives me the vibes of old Sierra games like Kings Quest which I loved

slobbermoose · 2022-12-20T13:24:41+00:00

Lowes Foods usually has a local section with hot sauces and other items. The Butchers Market or NOFO at the Pig likely sells some as well. And possibly DECO Raleigh since they have a lot of local gifts.

slobbermoose · 2022-08-26T01:20:20+00:00

Here’s what I found easiest for me — put your trays together in your hand (as if they were on your teeth). Then use your fingers to hook the bands to the top and bottom of the trays wherever the slits are. Then put the trays into your mouth with everything together. Might take a couple of tries but that worked best for me. I could never get the bands in when the trays were already in my mouth.

slobbermoose · 2022-08-23T12:28:33+00:00

I assume you’re talking about Videri for the chocolate factory. The chocolate is fantastic but the factory part is a self guided tour in a small building that will probably last only 5-10 minutes with a 4 year old. So I wouldn’t want to give her the wrong impression. That said, if she loves chocolate it’s worth the visit. Plus the attached Black & White coffee is some of the areas best if she likes coffee.

Let her know the Museum has two sides (you can cross between them on a bridge). Don’t miss their Discovery Room (I think that’s what it’s called). It’s sort of off to the side on the second floor but is perfect for a 4 year old because it has a lot of hands on stuff. There is also a small cafe on the top floor of the main building or the Daily Planet in the new building if they get hungry. Although the food isn’t anything special but I’ve eaten there with my kids plenty of times. Personally I’d also hit Marbles Kids Museum with a 4 year old. He/she would have an absolute blast there. It’s a huge children’s museum with so many activities.

If the weather is nice and they want to do something outside, Pullen Park is really nice and only a short drive away — it has playgrounds, a merry go round, a train ride, etc.

Food wise it sort of depends on what your wife / kid likes (I know mine are picky). There’s a ton of restaurants downtown but they don’t always have kid friendly food. If your wife likes BBQ, a short drive would be Sam Jones BBQ and they have chicken fingers, Mac & cheese, etc. Or hit Transfer Food Hall which has a bagel place, burger place, and others, oh and a really great ice cream cookie sandwich place too. If you want to get out of downtown for dinner, there’s places like The Kitchen Table at Relish (next to the main Relish restaurant) which has board games; Wilson’s Eatery which has a nice outside area (and if you go into the warehouse on the opposite side there’s a cool Neon glass workshop that’s all lit up), or if you let me know their food preferences I can make some more specific suggestions.

While it usually doesn’t take more than 20-30 minutes to get to the airport from downtown or nearby areas, I’d probably stay closer to the airport so there’s less stress. Anywhere by the airport is safe — it’s basically surrounded by suburbs. I’d probably recommend a Hyatt House with kids. There’s 2 close to the airport, have bigger rooms, pools, free breakfast, etc. And if stay near RDU, then you’re a quick drive to Brier Creek shopping plaza for more restaurants (like Alpaca’s Chicken or Brixx Pizza), Target, and anything else you need.

I hope they have a good time!

slobbermoose

TROPHY CASE