Vote Now

Doc Hendley is a 2005 Graduate of NC State and has been named a Top 10 CNN Hero. The Top 10 Heros were voted on by a panel of judges which included Gen. Colin Powell, Phil Jackson and Ted Turner. Doc is the founder and president of Wine To Water which he began in 2003. Wine to Water is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit aid organization focused on providing clean water to needy people around the world. Over 1 billon people in the world today lack access to adequate water and sanitation. Wine to Water is devoted to fighting the epidemic.

In 2003 Doc dreamed up the concept of the organization while bartending and playing music in nightclubs around Raleigh, North Carolina. In January of 2004 the first fundraiser was held and by August of that same year Doc was living in Darfur, Sudan installing water systems for victims of the government supported genocide.

When Doc returned home in August of 2005 the haunting memories of what he had seen in Darfur drove him to continue building the organization he started two years before. In 2007, after working two jobs and volunteering his time for over three years, Wine To Water became an official 501 (c) (3) and Doc's dream finally became a reality. "When the idea came to me to start Wine To Water the only real world job experience I had was tending bar. I dreamed of building an organization that fought water related death and disease using completely different methods than anyone else. So I started raising money to fight this water epidemic the best way I knew how, by pouring wine and playing music."

Doc's dream, and now the goal of Wine To Water, is to quench the thirst of the needy in a way that sets them apart from the rest of the world. "If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." (Mathew 10:42)

Vote for Doc Here:


And check out this video:


Also, see how Wine to Water began and where they got their name from; Great Story!: http://winetowater.org/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=2

Check out the full article here and more inspiring videos:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/heroes.doc.hendley/index.html


And....if you know me, you will know why else I think this guy is totally awesome....not only does he have a heart of gold but he has tatoos!! Fabulous mix :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!

click picture to view larger

My friends are everything to me. I depend on them more then they will ever know and Miss Laura Faust is no exception!


Laura and I have only been good friends for the past couple years but we would have anyone fooled. After she moved to Charlotte and became roomies with two of my buddies Ted and Thunda, things with Laura and I just started clicking and I could not be more thankful that we have become good friends. I would say we think alike and have the same little quirks which help us understand each other. She has definitely become someone I turn to in Charlotte when I need anything. Laura possesses a quality that few have. She knows how to listen; something everyone desires in a true friend. Laura truly cares about others and puts her whole heart into her friends. Today we celebrate Miss Laura's 25th birthday!!! -put your party panties on! You all know me and how important birthdays are to me; they are THE most important day of the year!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FAUST!

The Most Important Day Is Today

I woke up with a little bounce in my step (which rarely happens at 4:10 am) and something was just telling me to get-a-move-on because today is going to be fantastic…and it’s crazy because it absolutely has been and the day is not nearly over with! I have so much to look forward too ;)

Since it is such a great day…I want to share with you something I have printed off at my desk that I read every morning. It is a blog post written months ago by my pastor. It is just a simple reminder that I think we could all refer to every now and then!

Happy October 1st friends! It’s a Special Day!

Strength for Today

posted by: Pastor Steven Furtick

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow…Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside!

Please tell me you know that hymn. It’s one of my favorites. I was singing the third verse of Great is Thy Faithfulness the other day, and I had a relatively profound thought: that’s exactly how it works in the economy of God.

Not the other way around.

God gives strength for today, and hope for tomorrow.

Sometimes we get it backwards. When we worry about the uncertainties of tomorrow we’re bound to bend and break beneath the weight of anxiety. God doesn’t give strength for tomorrow’s tests. He only gives strength for today. Like manna. Each day has enough trouble of its own .

God’s only provision for your future needs is hope. The certainty of His sovereignty is your only guarantee. Make a note though: God doesn’t give you hope for the needs of today. He gives you strength for your immediate needs-and He expects you to do something about them! I’ve met people who waste time hoping things will work out…when God has already given them the strength to make a change and take a step. You can’t substitute hope for hard work, expecting God to do something for you that you can do for yourself.

Do you a have need today? Walk confidently in the strength of your God for the needs of your now.

Do you have a concern about tomorrow? Tomorrow’s strength will be deposited in your account first thing tomorrow morning…not a moment before.Until then, put your hope in Christ alone.

Great is His faithfulness!

Yeah Wolfpack !

So I usually do not do two posts in one day but I have to brag a little bit.
I was reviewing this year’s Princeton Review for the 100 Best Value Colleges for 2009 and NC State ranks #6 in the top ten Public Universities! Go Wolfpack!

Here is the little “blip” that was written about us:
(and check out the rest of the article here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/best-value-colleges.htm)

North Carolina State University

About the School:
Science and technology are a big deal at North Carolina State University, which also has nationally reputable major programs in architecture, design, textiles, management, engineering, agriculture, humanities and social sciences, education, physical & mathematical sciences, natural resources, and veterinary medicine. The College of Engineering and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences form the backbone of the academic program. Professors are generally well prepared to work inside the classroom, and students must often be prepared to work outside the classroom; an important part of NC State’s undergraduate curriculum is its cooperative education program, which allows students to work in the real world for college credit. The university’s First Year College is also notably good at helping undecided students select a major.

Students are a very open, friendly, and tight-knit group, especially considering they attend one of the nation’s larger schools. Of course, when upward of 30,000 graduate and undergraduate students congregate in the same place, it’s a given that great people who have common interests will get along. Atlantic Coast Conference sports are a major part of life. On-campus food and dorms aren’t that great, but a majority of NC State students live off campus and almost all of them go outside of campus to find fun things to do. The campus is big but not too spread out, and its location in the heart of Raleigh allows access to lots of shopping. The bars on Hillsborough Street are also very popular. Raleigh is home to many local bands; hence, students enjoy a happening music scene.

School Stats:
Undergrad enrollment: 22,070
57% male and 43% female
4.12 Average high school GPA
16:1 student to faculty ratio
9% classes taught by TAs

Bang For Your Buck:
At North Carolina State annual expenditures for research and industry-sponsored programs exceed $440 million. The university is ranked 16th among national research universities that conduct nonfederally funded research and 35th nationally in its total expenditures for research and development. It is also ranked 2nd in total state and local research funding among (big-time) research universities. The bottom line is that there is a lot of research going on and a lot of money funding it.

Despite recent tuition increases, NC State continues to be a bargain. The average scholarship and grant packages have increased along with tuition; perhaps more importantly, the average loan debt of students has decreased. Tuition for residents is incredibly low. Out-of-state tuition rates are good, but not great—NC State is not always affordable for nonresidents with a high financial need. The university offers a number of merit-based scholarships, including about 50 Park Scholarships. These scholarships cover full tuition for four years and are awarded on the basis of scholarship, character, leadership, and service. In addition, several hundred merit scholarships are awarded to undergraduates each year, many of which are based on your major. Financial need is a requirement for the allocation of a large percentage of scholarships and grants. The philosophy is to offer loans as a last resort and to first exhaust all scholarship, grant, and work funds.

The Bottom Line:
A year of tuition, fees, room and board, and books is approximately $12,682 for residents and $24,980 for nonresidents. Financial need notwithstanding, there is a huge difference between what residents and nonresidents will have to pay out of pocket. Maybe that’s why only 7 percent of NC State’s domestic undergraduate students hail from outside the Old North State. About 50 percent of all NC State students take out loans—students who borrow money graduate with an average loan debt of roughly $14,930.

CONGRATULATIONS NC STATE!

A Hodge Podge

It’s been a busy little weekend/week so far. Sister came to play with me this weekend and I had more fun with her on Friday night then I have had in a long time. If you don’t have a sister, let alone a twin sister…I am sorry; there might still be hope that your parents lied to you and you have a long lost twin out there…but until then “naa-naa-na-boo-boo” because I already took the best one.

Anyway, Blair and I took our time getting pretty on Friday as we caught up on gossip about all our friends (I mean, I have to be serious, but don’t worry . . . it definitely was all good stuff until we got to some of you crazy cats and you already know who you are!) We then proceeded to the patio of Rock Bottom where we shared a meal and a bottle of wine. Yes, it does sounds like an intimate little date but it was the best date I had been on in a long time even if I did have to pay for myself! The rest of the weekend was a blur with a night out with the girls, Kirsten and Reese’s engagement party, and many “dates with life” which included paying bills, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, etc etc etc. I finally feel slightly caught up today minus an outstanding paper to write which is due Saturday. Ugh.

But…other than that I always say to myself: “Be happy so long as breath is in you!” SO TRUE!

I went shopping last night with Miss. Laura to transform her into a hot diva for her birthday outing this Saturday. I think we have her hooked up (if she will take my word for it!) I did find out one exciting shopping tidbit: Always pay attention to signs posted around the register. I usually see little signs around the register as clutter or the last desperate effort in trying to get me signed up for their credit card but…at Forever 21, they give 10% discounts for students on all full priced merchandise; all you have to do is show them your student ID! Of course they don’t offer this to you when you are checking out but they did have it posted on a tiny sign mixed in with a rack of jewelry! Pay attention and save some $$$$!

I also tried a new recipe that I want to leave you with as well as one I will be attempting here in the near future. Try them yourself and Enjoy! They are amazing!!!

Stuffed Mushrooms
24 ounces white button mushrooms, washed and stems removed and finely chopped
1/3 pound hot breakfast sausage (or Italian sausage)
1/2 medium onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
8 ounces cream cheese
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/3 cup dry white wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown and crumble sausage. Set aside on a plate to cool.
Add onions and garlic to the same skillet; cook for 2 minutes over medium low heat.
Pour in wine to deglaze pan, allow liquid to evaporate.
Add in chopped mushroom stems, stir to cook for 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set mixture aside on a plate to cool.
In a bowl, combine cream cheese and egg yolk. Stir together with Parmesan cheese.
Add cooled sausage and cooled mushroom stems. Stir mixture together and refrigerate for a short time to firm up.
Smear mixture into the cavity of each mushroom, creating a sizable mound over the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool at least ten minutes before serving; the stuffed mushrooms taste better when not piping hot.

Rosemary-Onion Bread with Blue Cheese Topping

1 tablespoon butter
1 large yellow onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt (more to taste)
Freshly chopped rosemary to taste (be generous!)
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

Saute sliced onions and minced garlic in 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Cook them until brown and caramelized, about 8 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes.
Pour warm water into a bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top. Add sugar and olive oil, then stir gently with a fork until combined. Set aside.
Combine flour and salt in a separate bowl.
Add flour mixture, onions, and rosemary in alternating ingredients, stirring gently until dough is combined. (It’ll be sticky!)
Generously flour a flat surface. Knead dough 15 to 20 times, adding flour generously to make it easier to handle. (Keep it sticky, though!)
Drizzle olive oil in a separate bowl, then add ball of dough, turning to coat. Cover with a tea towel and place in a warm spot for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Divide dough into eight portions, and form a rough round from each piece. Place on a baking mat or parchment paper, then cover with a towel and allow to rise for 15 to 20 minutes.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until brown. Brush with butter halfway through baking time.To top with blue cheese, either place crumbled blue cheese on completely baked rolls and allow it to soften naturally, OR remove the rolls with five minutes baking time left, top with cheese, and return to the oven to bake/allow cheese to melt.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Divine!

I Love Charlotte

Last night as I was driving to Jenna, Lauren, and Brandon’s to have a Grey’s Anatomy night with the girls, I got super excited about how clear the sky was and how amazing the skyline of Charlotte looked from the stop light at 3rd and Charlottetown. If the light would not have turned green so fast I would have a picture to share but…this lady in her little BMW SUV was probably late picking her son up from soccer practice and started honking at me! Anyways, it made me realize how much I love living in Charlotte (not the crazy lady, but the uptown skyline). I honestly love this city and everything about it. It has grown on me over the past two years and I am 100% excited to call it home…even maybe for the next 10 years before I get an itch to try Boulder, CO or something fun!
Anyways, in honor of my new found glory for the city I call home, I leave you this Friday with a little tribute!



Oh, sister is coming in town this weekend and I always LOVE it when I get to spend time with just me and her! Thanks mom, dad, and the man upstairs for giving me a sister – I couldn’t have asked for a better one!

HAPPY FRIDAY FRIENDS !

Catalyst Uptown

Curiosity killed the cat today. I had to do it. They just finished building a new condo building right next to our office building. They are the only high rise condos in Charlotte that are for lease. I’ve been online and checked out the floor plans and have been dying to see the inside of one of them.

So the cat died as curiosity kicked in this morning. It has been a little slow in the office so one of my co-workers and I decided we were going to go for a tour. As we were introduced to the leasing agent, I played the role of the girl looking for a two bedroom for me and a roommate and my co-worker was coming just as a second opinion. I filled out some paperwork (with absolutely no intention of ever leasing one of these units) and we were swept into an elevator and up to the 17th floor to a 2 bedroom, 1092 square foot condo with 2 baths. All appliances were nice and new, the paint and carpet smelled fresh, and . . . . . . . . That was about it. It was downhill from there!

$1600 per month would get you two tiny as* bedrooms, only one with a so called “walk in closet” (that is if you had steps the size of a two year old) and the other with a closet that would maybe hold three pairs of pumps and ten dresses (but that still might be cramming the hangers in a big tangle). It would get you a hall closet with a stackable washer and dryer (no air drying room here!) and a living room that would hold a loveseat and a wall mounted TV.

If you had enough money left over after rent to even eat, you could use the dining area that would require you to borrow your little cousin’s tea set and plastic playschool table just so you would have enough room to maneuver to the “master” 11 x 11 bedroom!

$1600/month also gets you a 64 square foot balcony which is highly useful if you are a stand-up smoker, but other than that, unless you enjoy the view of dump trucks and the sound of jack hammers constructing the office buildings next door, not a place you want to come home and relax. I discovered the only storage closet in the entire apartment out on the balcony, but after some questioning, found that it is a mechanical room and you are not allowed to keep stuff in it. Oh fabulous, more shit that’s going to go under the bed!

The kitchen was one wall of cabinets and an island, and…..that’s it. You have it; the nice new apartments of the Catalyst in uptown Charlotte!

Oh wait, I forgot two things, $1600 per month also gets you some “unfinished” ceilings walls that look like backer board (If you don’t know what that is check out this picture http://www.jupiter-contractors.com/images/c-shower-wall-backer-board-lg.jpg) because supposedly that is the new look (or the contractors were just too busy staring at women on the street (refer to my post several days ago!)).

And last but not least in your final list of fabulous apartment features, you get overhead lighting outlets on the ceilings in every room with caps so that you can buy and install your own overhead lighting or ceiling fans! Oh how nice of them to let me pick out and purchase my own fixtures that I will NEVER need again unless down the road I lease from another cheap property owner!

Ok maybe I was a little harsh about the inside and features of these apartments, but I had plenty of time to think about it as I walked outside of the building, down a long covered walkway and into a poorly lit six deck parking garage open to the public that the leasing agent admitted to recently having several car break-ins. BUT, don’t be alarmed because there are several security cameras located randomly throughout the garage that can catch the 5’10, 150lb male dressed in a black hoodie with jeans. He probably stands out in a crowd anyways! So, don’t worry about locking your car as you make 10 trips from the parking deck a block over up to your apartment on the 17th floor with groceries in hand; your car will be safe with Catalyst Properties!

Lease from Catalyst today! (Oh, and did I mention, you do have the possibility at this place to be a real idiot....you could buy one of these bad boys! ha)

Another Day, Another Dollar

When I meet someone, there is always one thing I am the most curious about….

What do they do? Are they an architect, accountant, stay at home mom, construction worker, sales representative? 99.99% of the time my guess is wrong and I am usually shocked to hear of their real occupation. (I find I usually don’t give people enough credit!) I still see it scary that my graduating class is in the real world making serious decisions that affect our health, economy and government. We are helping run the world, and I don’t know about you, but this scares the poop out of me! Companies trust us – crazy!

I enjoy listening to my friends tell me about their jobs. It makes up so much time of their life and helps me get to know them better and where they are coming from. I have a lot of friends ask me all the time what I do and usually I just answer, “I am an engineer at Duke Energy.” It is the easiest way out. But then those curious peeps dig further, “Well, what kind of stuff do you do?” And then the cat is out of the bag and I know a 30 minute conversation is in front of me. Majority of the time no one understands what I do because they cannot grasp the concepts of electricity and how it is generated.

Therefore, here we go, a little explanation of what I do at my job:

I work for Duke Energy as a short term load forecaster.

First off, some quick definitions:

Load: demand on an energy producing system

Peak load, peak demand: these two terms are used interchangeably to denote the maximum power requirement of a system at a given time, or the amount of power required to supply customers at times when need is the greatest.

Generating Unit: these are the individual units at each coal fired plant, nuclear plant and hydro plant. Each unit operates independently and most energy production facilities have more than one unit (i.e. Marshal Steam Station, McGuire Nuclear Station, Belews Creek Steam Station http://www.duke-energy.com/power-plants/franchised.asp -check it out, educate yourself!)

Now, using historical data, mathematical models, temperature forecasts, humidity forecasts, holiday and school calendars, and some of my own common sense, I produce a seven day hourly forecast for Duke Energy’s Generation and Bulk Power Marketing floor. Therefore, I put out a forecast that gives our unit commitment individuals an idea of how much energy we need to have on our system each hour to meet our load demand for our service territory. With my forecast, the unit commitment turns around and “fires” our system of individual units to meet this demand. The key here is to “fire” this system economically. Each of our generating units operates at various costs depending on many factors. Therefore, if another utility is selling power for only $30/megawatt and the cheapest we can produce it at with some of our units is $45/megawatt, then it is a more economical decision to buy power from the other utility instead of turning on another unit and producing it ourselves. The whole thing is a huge balancing act. How can we meet our needs at the cheapest cost? So I work with the power traders, meteorologists, and unit commitment guys to make these decisions.

The load forecast is an hourly curve of energy consumption by the customers in the utilities service area. A utility has to make sure they have enough power on their system to meet their peak load demand, but also be able to regulate that generation down during off-peak hours so not to overload the system.

For example: In the winter, the highest peak demand is at 8am. Why? Because everyone is waking up; your lights are coming on, hot water heaters kick in for you to shower, you are turning the heat up so you don’t freeze when getting out of bed, and offices and schools are opening up. You are nearing a morning peak demand. As the sun starts to come up, street lights turn off and the sun starts to heat things up and your heat systems start to regulate down. Then energy consumption continues to fall as the day gets warmer. Therefore, it is my job to forecast that peak number at 8am and the other 23 hourly numbers on either side of that peak to make sure we have enough electricity on our system so that you can go through your morning routines.

I do this for seven days out, every hour. I then monitor and update this seven day forecast on a real time basis ensuring we are continually running our system economically.
That’s it, that’s what I do. How did I get into this….I don’t know. But…it’s a job, and I am doing it.
What about you? What do you do?

Runway 5K Run

Open Invitation!

Several of us are going to run in the 3rd Annual Runway 5K Run on October 31st at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The run is held as a benefit for LifeSpan’s Community Activity and Employment Transition Program. The run/walk starts at 8am and will probably conclude around 9:15. The course runs around the airport and alongside one of the Airports runways which will provide views of planes landing and taking off.

I want to extend the invitation for anyone that would like to run with us! That afternoon is also the NC State vs. Florida State football game and then of course it’s HALLOWEEN! So if you are from out of town, feel free to hang around for the night and the evening activities!

Register now and run with us!
http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/Airport/CLT+Runway+5K+Run.htm

click to view larger

My 5 Favorite Things

I had a girl at the bar last weekend randomly approach me and start spitting out questions. Three questions she asked were:
1. “How do you get your hair to stack up like that in the back, what do you put in it?”
2. “Where did you get those shoes?”
3. “Who cuts your hair?”
So then one of my girlfriends suggested I do a post on my blog every couple weeks about my “favorite things” so everyone could get to know some “personal” little things about me.
Well…I am up for the challenge so here are my first 5 favorite things!

#1 Cross Canadian Ragweed
The first time I heard this band I believe I was a freshman in college in 2002. They immediately stole my heart. They are such an easy listening band and majority of their CD’s you can pop in and listen to all the way through. I had recently put them on the back burner until I was on a road trip two weeks ago to GA and found one of their CD’s hiding out in disc changer #2! My road trip was then complete. This would be the band I would become a groupie of and follow like Kate Hudson follows the band Stillwater in the movie Almost Famous! (Thank goodness I did not grow up in the 70’s; I would have been in trouble!)

Listen to a couple of their songs here and see if you do not agree!
Alabama: http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Alabama/1160464
Constantly: http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Constantly/857417
17: http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/17/8772695


#2 Nashville Music Marathon

I love to run. It’s my “get-a-way” and every time I am done I feel 10 times better and I am more confident in myself. I also love to run with people. Recently Dustin and I have been running together a lot and I truly enjoy it. I don’t like to talk to people while I am running but just having someone there to help pace you and keep you going is fantastic! But, I want to “run towards something” so…my next new adventure…..

The Country Music Marathon and ½ in Nashville next April.

I have done 5K’s and 10K’s before and love the energy that everyone has while running together. I think it is time to move on now and go for something a little bigger! Two of my girlfriends did this marathon last year and said it was a lot of funs so . . . this year, Nashville, prepare yourself because here I come!!!
http://nashville.competitor.com/


#3 John Frieda Frizz-Ease Secret Weapon Flawless Finishing crème

My hair is crazy. It has a mind of its own, honestly. I HAVE to dry it every day with a big round brush to keep it straight and I try my hardest to shy away from a hair straightner because those things just kill your hair. But without a hair straightner I constantly feel like my hair is out of control until I found this…

John Frieda Frizz-Ease Secret Weapon Flawless Finishing crème

This little baby is a miracle.

Here’s a little overview:
John Frieda Frizz-Ease Secret Weapon Flawless Finishing Creme replaces natural oils lost during blow-drying or everyday stress and abuse. Transforms puffy, parched hair into a perfect smooth, supple texture.
A revolutionary concept in hair styling and moisturizing, Frizz-Ease Secret Weapon finishing creme provides all-day styling, moisturizing, conditioning and glossing action. Supplementing hair's own sebum, it lightly lubricates hair leaving it supple, smooth and shiny, not parched, puffy or dull. Truly unique, this quick-acting formula utilizes a triggered release mechanism to provide immediate as well as continuous 24-hour coverage. Unrestricted microdroplets of moisturizing oils instantly permeate each hair shaft, without leaving the surface greasy. Replenishing oils lost to blow-drying, it tames flyaways and static. Contains sunscreen to help protect hair from UV damage.

#4 Snooks by Nine West

These T-Strap puppies will become a staple in my closet this fall season! I have ordered them from NineWest.com and cannot wait to rock them out with my skinny jeans and gold jewels! The best thing about these shoes is you can wear them with anything because the heel is only 4”! . . so, even with a dress they don’t look like you just stepped off the stage at Uptown Cabaret and headed out for the night!
Ahhhhh, aren’t they so pretty!

#5 Postcards from Borders Books

I love real mail – like mail delivered by the mail man. I love checking the mailbox and having something physical. No one does it anymore and it is ashamed. If it were not for flyers and junk mail, the mail man’s job has to have gotten a lot easier over the years. With email, texts, BBM’s etc. you lose that personal touch. Therefore, I fell in love with the $1.00 postcards at Borders Books. Every time I am in the Sharon Rd. area I stop in at Borders and pick up a collection of postcards. I keep them at my desk at work so that when I am thinking of a friend or family member, I pull one out, write them a little note and throw it in the mail! I cherish and value my friends and family and whatever I can do to let them know I am thinking of them I want to do. I hope these little notes bring as much sunshine to their day as receiving real mail brings to mine!

Ugh, Frustrating

It is everywhere.

Construction.

Orange barrels

Chain linked fences

Cranes

Dump trucks

Jack hammers

Roach coaches (mobile snack trucks that drive around to the different construction sites grilling up tacos and burgers etc. And in the meantime, transferring the roaches of downtown Charlotte from one location to the next. Ugh, they are gross!)

Roads closed

Bulldozers

Concrete trucks
And the list goes on….

If you look out the front of our office building….that’s all you see. To the front is the construction of the new Duke Energy building, soon to be the second tallest in Charlotte with 48 floors. To the left, a new 20 floor office building which will occupy HDR (an engineering company). To the left of that, The Catalyst, a 27 floor condo building. And in front of that are two new buildings for the arts/theater/museum departments. Therefore, within three blocks, five new buildings.

What does construction bring?….creepy construction workers.

Honestly, they are freaking everywhere!

To walk to Duke Energy’s second building on Tryon, to go out to lunch, to walk to the post office and even to my car in the afternoon, you have to go through these construction sites and today I finally blew a fuse. I went to lunch with Ariston and Aaron at French Quarter and on my way back with Ariston I honestly wanted to hit someone. I am so, absolutely so tired of being stared at. These buildings would have been done last winter if the time that all 10,000 construction workers used in staring at females was used in actual construction. They line the sidewalks during lunch making you swerve in and out of them. When you walk through the crowds of them, I have never been so uncomfortable in my life. These men don’t even try to make it the least bit obvious that they are looking right at you. The groups of men on these construction sites right now are the absolute worse I have ever seen in even making comments when you walk by. I don’t speak clear Spanish but I can make out certain words; I am not deaf! My biggest problem is I don’t know where to look while I am walking. I am most definitely not going to look right at them, but when they don’t even part the sidewalk to let you get through, how do I get them to move and stop looking at me? Where are these men’s manners? Do they never see women? Uptown Cabaret is right across the street….make it a date after work – a “company” outing! STOP STARING AT INNONCENT FEMAIL EMPLOYEES, SERIOUSLY! I cannot wait until this construction is done in a year. I don’t know how much longer I can take it!

Kate

(click any of the pictures to view larger)

About two months ago, through a prayer request from our Church, I learned the story of Kate McRae. My entire heart goes out to Kate and her family and she will be in my prayers every night.

Kate and her family found out several months ago that she has a large brain tumor. Holly (her mom) and Aaron (her dad) had been noticing through the last few months that Kate was not herself. They had taken her to the doctor and nothing was found. They took her in again on Monday June 29th for tremors that started in her right hand. They then proceeded to Phoenix Children’s Hospital for a stat CT of her head. At 5:30 that evening, Holly was taken into a room alone and told Kate had a massive tumor on the basil ganglia portion of her brain. As Holly stated on their website “I called her dad and our journey has begun. One we never would have chose to be a part of, but was chosen for us, and our sweet Kate.”
Here is what Kate’s mom said about her updates back in July:
“The good news is nothing has spread to her spine. The bad news is the location of the tumor. They think it has been a slower growing tumor; however in its growth it has wrapped itself around the major blood vessels that feed the brain. So the tumor is not completely operable. This was devastating. The surgeon said to attempt to remove the entire tumor (about the size of an egg) would be far too risky. She would have an extremely high risk of paralysis or a stroke. So this Friday they will be performing brain surgery to remove as much of the tumor as they feel is safe. They will then biopsy some of the tumor to determine what they are even dealing with. The surgeon believes it is malignant, but not all of it. After they have a definitive diagnosis, early next week, they will set a further treatment plan. This could include more brain surgery, chemo and radiation. Overwhelming, in all aspects.
Today Kate will be getting a PET scan, so please pray that it will be telling. Second, please pray for Dr DeMoss. He is Kate’s neurosurgeon, and supposedly one of the best in the country.. Please cover him in prayer, for wisdom, guidance, direction, and a steady hand. Please pray for Kate for peace, calm and a fighting spirit as this is just the beginning of a very long road. Pray that the tumor will have even more clear margins than appeared on the MRI. Pray that they will be able to remove most of the tumor, if not miraculously all of it. Pray that nothing, absolutely nothing else will be touched and that there will be no negative side effects from the surgery. Pray that whatever the course of treatment, she will end up tumor and cancer free! Pray that God will choose to miraculously intervene for Kate. Pray for Olivia and Will that we will be sensitive to their needs and be able to process it correctly with them. Please just cover her in your prayers”.

Since this post, Kate came through surgery and is now undergoing chemo. Holly posts on Kate’s CaringBridge website almost daily to keep everyone informed of Kate’s condition. These recent posts have been the hardest for me to read. I am embarrassingly naive. I have not experienced the horrifying effects and tolls cancer and its treatment takes on someone and their family. There is no way ANYTHING can prepare a person or a family to go through what Kate, her mom, dad and siblings are going through now. Their life is put on hold for this evil disease. Through reading Holly’s posts, their days consist of ER visits, fevers, throwing up, meds, scans, tubes, blood transfusions, clinical visits, stomach pains, low white blood cell count due to chemo and constant fear of the flu, disease, etc. I get exhausted even reading it; what an amazing, strong 5 year old to be living it! If anyone can give you motivation today it should be Kate. She didn’t ask for this and she is fighting it. I think that proves that all of us can fight through another 8 hours at work, that long meeting this afternoon with our boss, the endless homework for grad school. We know nothing of what pain, worry, anxiety feels like until we have walked in the shoes today of this little girl.

Right now Kate needs our prayers more than ever as tomorrow is a big day for her and her family. As Holly stated in her post today:
“Of course we are asking for your continued dedication in praying for the MRI, kidney function test and hearing evaluation on Wednesday. The MRI tells us if the tumor has shrunk at all from the treatments. The kidney function and hearing evaluation are to determine any detrimental side effects from the chemo. We are praying for amazing results...”

Please help me in praying for Kate McRae and her family so that they can get through this time and that God will chose Kate to be a living example of his power.
If you would like to keep up with her progress, visit Kate’s Caringbridge site here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate/journal

All About The Chicken

I was talking on the phone to mom one day last week and we were discussing how she and dad need to eat better and workout more. (And bless mom’s heart. . . She caught me on a “no sympathy” day where I wasn’t letting up on her.) Neither mom nor dad is overweight, but, eating healthier and working out could totally prevent some issues they are experiencing right now. I didn’t, and will never, let mom or dad off the hook when it comes to eating better and exercising because I want both to be around in 40 years to meet their great grandchildren. Just because physically on the outside they look like totally healthy individuals, who knows what is going down on the inside and we all know we can make better food and workout decisions every day. As mom tried to tell me “But Bean, I am so tired when I leave school, all I want to do is go home and lay down on the couch until I need to cook dinner and your father gets home.” Excuses, Excuses, Excuses. I promise you, the more activity you get the more energy you have and there goes the need to go home and lay on the couch. Just try it once!

Anyway, I feel I am somewhat savvy when it comes to food decisions. I check labels for ingredients and nutrition information. I try to shop only on the outside perimeter of the grocery. I eat organic as much as my checkbook can afford but, I found an article that had several points in it that were new information to me so I thought I would share with you so we can all make smarter and healthier decisions. I want all my family and friends around in 40 years! Make better decisions people so we can have fun together in our old age!

To sum up the article, now that most people are watching their wallet a little more closely when grocery shopping, chicken is being consumed more than fish or red meat. But there are some questions that need to be answered first to ensure you are making the best decision!

1. Is chicken that much better for you than meat? You bet. Compare a broiled skinless chicken breast to a broiled sirloin steak, with the fat trimmed to nearly nothing (a mere 1/8 inch): Ounce for ounce, the steak has a little less protein, about a third more calories, and four times as much fat, half of it saturated. Go chicken!

2. Are free-range chickens more nutritious than regular birds? Nope. Both get a feed mix that's designed to prep them for market, and there's no evidence that free-range chickens are more nutritious. Ideally, free-range birds are more humanely raised, but the USDA only requires that certified free-range chickens have "access" to the outdoors. "That may mean the birds got to stroll on a cement slab for 5 minutes a day," says Elizabeth Somer, RD, author of Nutrition for Women.

3. Is "pasturized" poultry tastier than free-range? Maybe. Pasturized birds -- think green pastures, not milk processing (that's Pasteur) -- spend most of their lives roaming around a field. Some cooks believe that makes their meat more flavorful. It certainly makes the chickens' lives nicer.

4. Are organic birds hormone-free? Well, yes, but all chickens are hormone-free. It's illegal to give hormones to poultry. Organic mainly means the chickens are raised on 100% organic feed and aren't fed antibiotics.

5. At McDonald's, are you better off ordering Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips or a cheeseburger? A cheeseburger. A five-strip order of Chicken Selects -- thanks to how they’re prepared -- equals more than two McD's cheeseburgers. The tab: 660 calories, 40 grams of fat, and a stunning 1,680 milligrams of sodium. Ouch.

Where Where You?

Eight years ago today, I had just left my elective class in the 1000 building and was walking around the back of East Forsyth High School and headed towards Mr. Coggins senior English class when I first heard the commotion. I entered into Mrs. Coggins trailer and an old-school TV on a high, brown TV stand was turned to the news channel as the previous class was still in the trailer and the next class was entering. As soon as I entered the door and worked my way through the group of students crowded around, the second plane hit the World Trade Center. The entire class was quiet and as much as Mrs. Coggins was trying to hold it back, tears started dripping down her checks; she had friends that worked in the World Trade Center. Not really sure about the next sequence of events but after several announcements over the intercom every student was to be contained within a classroom and all teachers were to turn their TV’s to the news channel. The thinking of our administration was “this is history and these children should experience it.” Within that hour, there were many rumors floating around within the school and on the news. Everyone was scared to death, not knowing if that was going to be the last attack or not.
I remember the only thing I wanted to do was to be with Blair, Mom, Dad and Dustin. I wanted to be right beside them and with them at that very second because I felt like I could protect them from everything. The entire rest of the day was a blurr. We watched the news for the next 6 hours, seeing different footage from various bystanders and listening to personal accounts from those with family in the buildings looking for their loved ones. I remember putting myself, over and over again, in the shoes of the office worker sitting on the 100th floor of the second tour and seeing the first tour in smoke, and then within what probably what seemed like seconds, a US Airline plane headed straight for you and knowing there was absolutely NOTHING you could do at that moment but pray.
Even until this day I have a very hard time imaging what the poor people in those buildings were seeing and feeling at that time. It is hard for me to look at the pictures and even harder for me to watch the news today of all the children that are now 8 who lost their mothers and fathers that they never even got a chance to meet.
A day to remember.
Where were you on September 11, 2001?

This is a long video, but a powerful one. Watch it in pieces if you can't watch it all at once.

Yum For Fall !

Yeah for fall and yeah for warm, comfy food! I tried these two recepies the other night and they were out of this world! Perfect for a cool evening dinner on the porch! Both of these are very easy and cheap. (And if you wanted to go even cheaper and easier - skip the homemade tomato soup and go for Campbells :) but don't pass up on the biscuits!) ENJOY!

Bacon Onion Chedder Biscuits

Ingredients
10 slices thick cut bacon fried and crumbled
1 cup finely diced onion
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco, etc.)
10 tablespoons milk (whole milk is best)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
1 heaping cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Using a pastry cutter, cut in shortening until all combined. Combine milk, oil, and egg in a separate bowl. Whisk together.Combine flour mixture, milk mixture, bacon, onions, and cheddar cheese in a large bowl. Stir gently until all combined.Spoon batter into greased muffin tins.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes on 375 until golden

Remove from pan and serve warm.

Homemade Tomato Soup

Cook Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Level: Easy
Yields: 4 - 6


Ingredients
3 pounds, medium plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pinch sugar
3 tablespoons butter
4 shallots, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons chiffonade fresh basil leaves

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Arrange tomatoes, flesh side up, on 2 wire racks set on sheet trays. Drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil, making sure they are well covered. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.
Roast in the middle rack of the oven until tomatoes are brown and tender, about 1 hour. Cool slightly.
Melt butter in 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. Saute the shallots for 2 minutes, and then mix in tomato paste for a few more minutes. Add chicken stock and cayenne. Add heavy cream and heat over low heat. Bring up to a boil then reduce heat to low and let simmer for 10 minutes. Add the roasted tomatoes to the pan.
Puree with an immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper. Ladle into serving bowls and garnish generously with fresh basil.

Random Thoughts From People Our Age

This has obviously been floating around the internet, as I keep seeing tidbits pop up as people's facebook statuses. I did not write this (I take credit for nothing!) but it did arrive in my inbox with the elusive title "Random Thoughts from People Our Age". I am sure some of you have seen it before, but it really is deserving of our attention.
Again, not written by me. Taking no credit for this. Just shamelessly re-posting something I found absolutly humorous and very much true from the brain of someone my age! Ha Ha

Random thoughts from people our age...
-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.

-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- Was learning cursive really necessary?

- Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us." Classy, bro.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

-I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

-The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

Didn't Want The Weekend To End

When you can’t look over your shoulder to see a car in your blind spot because you are so stiff, you know it was a good weekend.

When you are so tired you order two Starbucks Venti Café Mocha’s for yourself during one drive thru trip, you know it was a good weekend.

When you sit in traffic for an hour on I-85 and it really doesn’t bother you, you know it was a good weekend.

Hey, guess what…..I had an amazing weekend!

I try not to re-cap my weekends on posts because at some point, let’s be honest, no one really cares every move I make. (That’s why I don’t get the use of Twitter! Twitter is ridiculous. NO ONE is that special that they think everyone in the cyber world wants to know that they “are on their way to the airport”, “enjoying an apple for snack”, “watching re-runs of Lost on TV.” Oh well, that’s another topic for another day. Twitter is stupid.)

Anyway, first off, it was a long weekend. Nothing can be better than a free vacation day! Thank you Labor Day! The weather this weekend was amazing so the girls and I spent Friday night on the porch of Selwyn Pub thoroughly engrossed in some of the funniest conversation possible. I love those nights when you are truly enjoying the company around you that you feel that you are the only people in the place. Thanks to Lauren, Kirsten, Laura, Jenna, and Amy for the entertainment!

My roomies are out of town this weekend so Friday after work I cleaned the BUH-JESUS out of the apartment until it sparkled. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my roommates more than life itself but…that feeling of waking up refreshed on Saturday with the apartment just the way you left it when you went to bed felt fabuous! I slept in that morning, only getting up at 9 to go get mani’s and pedi’s with the girls before taking it pool side for the afternoon. Saturday night eight of us girls attended the Taylor Swift concert in honor of Miss. Lucks 25th birthday. Gloriana and Kelly Pickler opened for Taylor and they were amazing! Wild at Heart is Gloriana’s new hit and probably one of my favorites on the radio right now. Kelly was way better than I had originally expected. She was so down-to-earth and easy with the crowd. The girl must have been getting voice lessons or something because she sounded ten times better than I have ever heard her! Now, this is just my own opinion but Taylor was just OK. The child has talent but I don’t think she was that entertaining. Then again, I am 25 and she definitely caters towards a younger crowd, but . . . I felt everything she said was so scripted. Oh well, still, all-in-all, not too shabby of a concert! As the rest of the girls headed home after the concert, I headed to BlackFinn for a couple hours to meet up with my diva’s from Raleigh, Miss. Resnick and Miss Vincent! I knew I would not see them the rest of the weekend so I couldn’t let them travel all the way to Charlotte without seeing their pretty faces!

Sunday morning I woke up early and headed to Rabun County, GA to spend some time by the lake with Josh and several of his high school friends. Since Atlanta and Charlotte are slightly separated and both Josh and I seem to be pretty busy individuals, whatever time we can try and spend together we might as well take advantage of it so . . . after thinking Josh told me the drive would only be 2 hours on highway roads . . . 3 hours later on a two lane winding road I was in GA playing horseshoes, tubing, enjoying cold beverages and grilling out. Lake Burton is absolutely gorgeous; with mountain peaks around every cove. Nothing like what you see here at Lake Wylie or Lake Norman…ten times more scenic and natural. Somehow Kim and I got to be guinea pigs in the day’s first tubing event which is pretty much what put me into the stiff casket that I sit in right now. While you are out on the water and several beverages deep it seems like so much fun to be tossed around like a rag-doll off the back of a boat, but a day later…not the smartest idea! I can’t move my head!

Josh’s friends from high school were very sweet and there is something comforting seeing someone else that has such close friends from high school like I do. Something about Josh makes me feel comfortable and content and I truly enjoyed every minute I was there.

Sunday afternoon I made the journey back to Charlotte after getting stuck behind both a dump truck, a girl on a dirt bike, and dead stop traffic on I-85, but, one way or the other, no matter how long it took me to get back, the entire “quick trip” was well worth it.

Upon my return to the fabulous Eastover Ridge, ten of my friends at the apartment were grilling out so I joined them by the pool for dinner and then closed the night out with a movie at the apartment with Dustin.

Words can’t explain how perfect this weekend was with a little “taste” of all my friends and activities. Sure, the GA trip was a tease because it makes me wish Atlanta and Charlotte were a little closer but…I guess you take what you can get when you get it. Happy Birthday to Luck Luck who celebrated her birthday and thank you for some of the most amazing friends who keep me entertained every second!

Now We Know Why America Is Fat

Last year at this time, I was reading articles about new fair foods which were totally blowing my mind: deep-fried pickles, deep-fried bacon, deep fried snickers….and then to top the list, deep friend peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a stick! But this year, it has definitely gone a little far. The newest addition to our deep fried collection:

Deep-fried butter.

I am not joking. Let me say that again. ..Deep-fried butter. Actually, I didn’t have to say that again; my arteries yelled that out as they were slowly closing up even at the thought of consuming this new “treat”! This new concoction will be revealed at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas later this month. Deep Frying has become a friendly competition at the Dallas fair and this year’s fried butter entry came from Abel Gonzales Jr who was also the winner of past state fair competitions with Texas Fried Cookie Dough, Fried Peanut Butter, Jelly and Banana Sandwich and Fried Coke recipes. (Check out the video below to find out how Gonzales makes his deep fried butter!)

Other deep-fried creations to be showcased at this year’s state fair include:

• Green Goblins: Cherry peppers stuffed with spicy shredded chicken and guacamole, battered, deep-fried and topped with queso.
• Twisted Yam on a Stick: A spiral-cut sweet potato, fried on a skewer, then rolled in butter and dusted with cinnamon and sugar.
• Fernie’s Deep Fried Peaches & Cream: Served with a side of vanilla buttercream icing for dipping.
• Texas Fried Pecan Pie: A mini-pecan pie battered, deep fried and served with caramel sauce, whipping cream and chopped candied pecans.
• Country Fried Pork Chips: Battered, thin-sliced pork loin deep fried and served with sides of ketchup or cream gravy.
• Sweet Jalapeno Corn Dog Shrimp: Shrimp on a stick, coated with a sweet and spicy cornmeal batter, deep fried and served with a spicy glaze.
• Fried Peanut Butter Cup Macaroon: A peanut butter cup wrapped inside a coconut macaroon, fried and then dusted with powdered sugar.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I LOVE THIS SEASON

So I have been a little “under the weather” the past couple days. I diagnosed myself this morning with tonsillitis with the help of WebMD.com! Ha Ha

But….that is not going to stop my mood for today! . . . at least I have one thing to look forward to tonight:
NCSU FOOTBALL!

I can’t tell you how excited I am that the season is beginning. I love NCSU Football about as bad as I love jewelry (you know that’s serious if you have seen my jewelry collection!) I will say it again…I LOVE NCSU FOOTBALL! It probably takes up half my heart! There are not even words to say anymore to explain my enthusiasm! I will be a diehard fan until the day I die.

Well tonight it starts and it is on like Donkey Kong! (Don’t make fun of me!) Being that it is a Thursday and I cannot attend the game in person, we have a group going to watch the game at Wild Wings downtown and cheer on our Pack. I am actually nervous for our guys as if I were stepping on the field with them. I hope they come out tonight and start the college football season of right!

To all of you that get to go to the game: I am truly freaking jealous. NC State football is the one reason I did not want to move away from Raleigh. If I could, I would get married on the field of Carter Finley! (Jackie, I hate you :) ) If you have never been to Carter Finley or the fairgrounds to tailgate, you are not experiencing life. It is a thrill to feel the hype that fills the stadium; it’s crazy! I miss you Raleigh!

LET’S GO WOLFPACK!

Even the beginning of this article puts a tickle in my heart!

HAYNES: View from the Booth
By Tony Haynes
RALEIGH, N.C. – Each week before NC State football games, I'll run down some of the things we'll be watching for from our booth on the Wolfpack Sports Network. This week, South Carolina pays a visit to the ever-evolving and improving Carter-Finley Stadium for a much-anticipated battle between two schools that were once ACC rivals. This year actually marks the 40th anniversary of South Carolina's only ACC title and the 30th anniversary of the Wolfpack's 1979 conference championship.

The two programs are virtual mirror images of each other. With 529 all-time college football victories, NC State has just two more than South Carolina. And the series between the two schools stands at 26-26-4. You can't get much closer than that.

And while a little historical perspective is always enlightening, nothing that's happened before will have any impact on what happens on opening night in 2009. Not even South Carolina's 34-0 win over the Wolfpack last August will be terribly significant come Thursday.
With quarterback Russell Wilson improving through the entire 2008 campaign, the Pack became a totally different team than the one the Gamecocks shutout at Carter-Finley Stadium.

"I just want our players to know this is a very good team that we're playing," said Steve Spurrier, starting his fifth season at South Carolina. "Sometimes people have a tendency to go by the score of last year's game, when really you can't. NC State became a much better team as the season progressed and they were much stronger at the end of the season. That's something most teams hope to do. Hopefully, we'll become a much stronger team at the end of the year."

Something the Gamecocks didn't do last season. After winning seven of its first 10, Spurrier's bunch finished up at 7-6. NC State was 6-7. Both teams lost in their respective bowl games.

How Not To Act Old

A couple weeks ago one of my co-workers came up to my desk. He stood there for a minute, told me to pick up my cell phone and start to send a text to any one of my friends. I had no clue where he was going with this but I did what he said and started a text to Blair. I had gotten no further into typing “hey sister” when my co-worker told me to stop, and to himself he said, “Crap, I am old!”

Come to find out he had just finished a book his daughter had made him read called “How Not to Act Old.” He said he didn’t believe majority of the stuff he read in the book was true but wanted to find out for himself on several of the theories. Well #54 on the list was “Learn To Text With Your Thumbs.” It says that classic old people behavior is to dial and text with your index finger! I had proved this theory correct. I started texting to Blair with only my thumbs – which I think is the ONLY way to text! It would take you light years to “hunt and peck” with your index finger!

Anyways, today he brought me the book and wanted my opinion on several more. He left the book with me in case I wanted to look through it for a good laugh, and a good laugh I got! Let me share with you several other topics the book points out on How Not to Act Old… (This book is written by a late 40ish year old woman)

#21 Don’t Smoke Pot
It’s not the smoking of marijuana that’s the problem, exactly. In fact, if you know where to get some, can you please let me know? No, the problem is calling it “pot.” Pot is what old hippies called it. What we called it when we used to smoke it every day. Nowadays, it’s called “weed.”

#4 Don’t Fear the Waxer
Listen, you can have all the work in the world done. You can get Botoxed and Restalyned till you’re smooth as a balloon; you can have your boobs lifted to your chin and your tummy tucked into your backbone.
But if you don’t wax down there, anybody who gets close enough – and that includes the entire locker room at the gym – is going to know you’re old.
Waxing is one of the major differences between young and older women. We came of age feeling it was sacrilegious to so much as pluck one hair; they decided to shear most of it off. And when we thought maybe we’d surprise our husbands for our twentieth anniversary, we were nervous. We saw The 40-Year-Old-Virgin, after all. We knew it was going to hurt, plus be embarrassing, plus who knew what kind of diseases we might pick up.
If you are a Waxing Virgin, don’t be afraid. It’s not that bad. And the alternative is even worse: old below the belt.

#55 Don’t Drink Cosmopolitans
I know they’re delicious. I know they’re fun. I know the “girls” in the Sex And The City movie tried their darnedest to help revive the Cosmo trend they launched when they were in their thirties.
Martinis may be back. Sidecars and Negronis may be back. The friggin’ Pegu Cocktail may even be back.
But Cosmos have become the official cocktail of menopausal women. If you’re a huge fan of the Cosmo, you can youngify it somewhat by turning it into a frozen drink: fresh-squeezed lime, a splash of cranberry juice, a little simple syrup, lots of vodka, and ice in a blender. Mmmmm
Or you could always knock back a Red Bull and Vodka. Or order a so-old-its-young-again drink like a Manhattan or a Mint Julep. Or try one of these lethal-sounding young cocktail recipes:

Kamikaze
Mix 2oz. vodka, 1 oz. triple sec, and 1oz. fresh lime juice. Shake all ingredients with ice and pour into old-fashioned glass with ice cubes

Amaretto Sour
Mix 2oz. Amaretto, 1 oz. simple syrup, and 1 oz. fresh lemon juice. Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a sugar-rimmed glass

Irish Car Bomb
Fill a shot glass with half Bailey’s Irish Cream (this goes on the bottom) and half Jameson Irish Whiskey. Pour a bottle of Guinness into a pint glass or beer mug until its three-quarters full. Once the Guinness settles, drop the entire short glass into the beer and chug. If you don’t drink it fast enough, it will curdle and taste worse the longer you take to drink it.

Not Just A Road Map

click to view larger

A simple road map of Charlotte right? Isn't that what it looks like to you?

I was sitting in the Wachovia Atrium today enjoying lunch with four of my fellow gentleman coworkers when the subject of Sex Offenders came up after referring to the two old sketchy men sitting in the middle of the Atrium playing guitars (If I were to be having lunch with my girlfriends we would never even wondered onto this topic!)

As we started to discuss, I became curious about what kind of people live in my area and the areas in which I go running in on a regular basis - especially when I run alone at night. So I returned to my office and went on the national registry to view the sex offenders in Charlotte. The map above was my search result.

The key to the map:

Offense Against Children:
Red = Offender Home
Maroon = Offender Work

Rape
Yellow = Offender Home
White = Offender Work

Sexual Battery
Light Blue = Offender Home
Dark Blue = Offender Work

Other Offense
Light Green = Offender Home
Dark Green = Offender Work

I don't know about you but I was not the least bit shocked about my findings. I watch the news enough to know that there are some seriously sick individuals out there. I zoomed in on this map and went through the roads that I run in the Charlotte area and have familiarized myself with some of the faces of these people and the houses they live in. (If you are actually on the website and click on the colored squares in the map, you will receive profiles of each sex offender and their specific address)

I know when it comes time for me to buy a house, this website will definitely be something I will check before I start my search. You never know who the "typical" guy next door could really be!

Check it out for yourself and see who is living in your area:

http://www.familywatchdog.us/