Poor Willow Smith, I really hope she grows into that schnozz.

WXII - A Bunch of Sexist Pigs.

It's only 8:45 and my button has already been pushed. 
I'm infuriated. 
I noticed this post in my Facebook news feed this morning:

WXII Morning News:

New Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer says she's going to work through her maternity leave. Do you think she'll be able to balance being a mom and being CEO of a major company?

Let me repeat, WXII asked if this woman can be a mom and CEO. 
If the new Yahoo! CEO happened to be a male, would they be asking such a question? I think not.  

Alright, I'm irate. So irate that I contacted WXII to let them know. And I think you should too. 

Our conversation went a little like this:

Me: Hello, am I speaking with the person who updates WXII's Facebook posts?
Man: Yes, I do some but we have about 3 people who post them.
Me: Do you know who posted the one 3 hours ago about the Yahoo! CEO?
Man: Umm, err..uuuuu...no, I don't. Why, is there a problem?
Me: Yes, there is a problem. Do you have a daughter?
Man: Uuuuhh, no.
Me: Alright, well imagine you had a daughter. Would you be teaching her that she couldn't be a mother and a CEO??
Man: I..er...um..
Me: Would this question even be asked if it was a male CEO?
Man: You could leave a comment on Facebook...
Me: No, I would like to leave my comment with you. Please think next time before you post an incredibly sexist comment. Whether it's for drumming up Facebook hype or not, it's sexist and despicable. Have a good day. 

Call and ask to speak with the person who is in charge of social media/Facebook posts. Let them know how disgusted you are.  Station Phone Number (336)721-9944

 
  

Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing comes without hard work and dedication.

And if it did, it wouldn't be half as gratifying. 

 

Jasmine Star (who Mark and I saw last month) has an incredible way of teaching, motivating and inspiring. Read her blog post below. I had to share. I hope it makes you feel good, too.

Nothing feels better than getting your hands dirty from the passion in your heart.

Surrounded by stupid

 
lady: I'm really sad today.
me: Oh, no! Why??
lady: Well, because my dog's dying.
me: Man, that's so sad. I'm sorry to hear that. What's going on.
lady: Well, her liver is shutting down so we're going to have to put her down this week.
me: Oh I hate that for you. Is she in pain? Is that what the vet said was best?
lady: Well, we havent taken her to a vet, it's just what my friend said.
me: (looking rather perplexed) So how do you know for sure?
lady: Well, my friend said that if you hear her stomach rumbling while she's laying down, that's her liver shutting down.
me: Oh. 
lady: Yeah, so I'm going to take her to the shelter to be put down, it's only $10.00. 

Yeah...I mean.....what can ya say?? It's so hard to argue with stupid. My stomach rumbles all the freakin time, I hope to God Mark doesnt put me down.

In other awful news:
As I was looking (too closely) in the mirror at my bushy, overgrown brows...I spotted it. 

 

I had already planned to go get my brows waxed today, but I plucked that little sucker out with a quickness. A gray hair. You have GOT to be kidding me.
 

The weekend review

This weekend was a success. I spent most of it with beer can in hand, feet in sand and surrounded by great company. We arrived late on Friday night, applied a few layers and bug spray and sat outside until about 3am. 

On Saturday morning we drive to Annie's wedding venue.  

Pretty, huh?

 After that we headed to Taco Boy for Mexican street corn. 

If you haven't tried Mexican street corn, you should. Mayo, cheese, lime, garlic...yum. 


After stuffing ourselves we headed to Folly Beach for a few hours. I took a much needed nap with full blown drool before we headed to the beach bar for some margaritas. 


The guys grilled for us and after dinner we took a cab out to downtown Charleston. 

Now we're home...and fat. It's time for the double d's...diet and detox. On the menu tonight is "lighter orange broccoli and beef." I'll let ya know tomorrow...


P.S. Tonight is going to be awesome. Please do not contact me after 7pm as I will be in my pjs, on the couch, watching Bravo until 11:30. No joke, it's a good tv night. Especially looking forward to the Real Housewives of Orange County Reunion part 2.


Umm, does it get any better than this??

Gone again.

As I mentioned before, this little Potter family doesn't sit still. We're going to spend the weekend in Charleston, SC where my sister and brother-in-law live. It's a designated "girls weekend" as my best friend, her mom and my mom will be there as well! The boys have been banned against hanging out with us! (And I think they're totally cool with that!)

We're only there for 2 short days, we have a LOT to pack in. On the list:

• Maple Bacon or Strawberry Champagne Donuts   
• Mexican Street corn from Taco Boy, yum. 
• Live music on Folly Beach
• And of course, the Sand Dollar, where beer is $1.50. 

I hope you have a great weekend!
 

Mark and I have been on the hunt for a desk (and chair and lamp and bookshelf and couch and rug and patio furniture and grill and bathroom decorations...you get the idea) for a while now. Since our photography business has taken off, we are in dire need of a workspace and it's jumped to the front of the "list of priorities."

Our house is small. We only have 2 bedrooms. One is ours and the other is being reserved for "something else that will go in there one day," as Mark puts it. (Nursery)

We toyed with the idea of creating an office/dining area. After giving it some thought...I wasn't so keen on the idea of looking at a printer and iMac while enjoying a candlelight dinner. So, the office gets a temporary home in the future nursery.

Anywho....last night we drove to Ikea in Charlotte (because we cant seem to ever sit still)  and picked a few things out. Here's what we came back with:

On the drive home, Mark informed me that Spike (the houseplant) was his favorite purchase!


Now who's ready to put it all together!! :)
(Did I mention Mark and I got into our first argument even while putting together an entire Ikea bedroom suite?)

Heck yes I'll dress like a moron for free food!

You like free lunch?

You like Chick-fil-A?
You have a printer?
You're in luck!

It's Cow Appreciation Day!

Go here to print out your ears, nose and spots...a little tape and...voila!  Free chicken!

And when I say free chicken...they let us pick ANYTHING from the menu. Anything! Hurry, print your spots!

Ichiban Meat Wads.

I didn't exactly get pancakes last night. 

Last night after work, Mark and I set out in search of a new desk. Unsuccessful.

We started to get hungry and planned on using a gift card we received to Chili's.

Unfortunately, Ichiban Grill Supreme Buffet and all of it's glory caught our attention first. 

It was the damn flags all over the parking lot, they getchya everytime!

Mark went in to check the price and came back with the menu/flyer. 

"We have a wide selection of favorite foods including Chinese, Japanese, American, Italian and Mexican items on our buffet." 

Why this did not set off red flags, I'm still not sure. 

This is what I fondly refer to as my "Meat Course."
An entire plate of strictly meat wads (and a little broccoli).

No, I did not eat all of this. 

Needless to say, it was pretty disgusting. 

Mark: "Babe, you should have tired harder to talk us outta this one."

Me: "It was all those damn flags, I got excited."

My fortune cookie was sans fortune. Not good. 

Please note the elaborate water feature. Fancy.

The best part of our night was finding the tree in our backyard (50 feet from our house) that had been struck by lightening a few nights ago. The lightening literally blasted off the tree's bark.  Pretty cool. 

Is it weird that I've been googling pancake recipes for way longer then I care to share?

On the menu this evening:
Pancakes (still deciding on the variety)

Bacon (duh)

Watermelon 

Champagne (why not, it's Wednesday!)

 

X Factor and Spears Bashing

A free evening with Simon Cowell, Britney Spears, Demi and L.A., why not? The X Factor wrapped up it's Greensboro auditions last night and being that we had nothing better to do Mark, Megan and I were members of the audience. 

Let me begin by saying that we were tricked into believing that there was some strict dress code. When I printed the tickets off, they designated an entire page of what to wear, emphasizing the need to dress "hip and trendy, as if you're going to a nice dinner or a night club." (Ok, that's VERY different)  No shorts, no jeans, no flip flops, no patterns, bold colors, no logos....and the list goes on. I'm embarrassed to say that I actually put a little thought into my outfit. 

According to the residents of Greensboro, hip and trendy = People of Walmart. 


Most teenage girls wore dresses such as these. However, please keep in mind that the dresses were ill-fitting, 4 inches too short and no consideration of panty lines. HELLO LADIES, VPL!! (visible panty line) If you're going to wear a skin tight dress (which you really shouldn't if under the age of 18 or can't fill it out), you need to give consideration to your undergarments. And practice walking in your heels before you leave the house.

I kid you not, at one point Meg said "Oh my God, I can see that girl's cheeks!!" Said girl was probably about 15, a little overweight (is that mean?) and in line for Dippin Dots. I didn't think quick enough to snap a pic...but this "People of Walmart" is a fairly accurate account. 

Ok, enough about the awesome people watching. We ended up with pretty good seats. As we sat and waited (for 2 freaking hours) we talking about how we hoped there was going to be people playing with fire, contortionists, dog tricks, magicians and comedians. Obviously we don't watch X Factor and were completely oblivious that it's all singing. Duh.

So after a while (hours) the judges come out. Simon comes out and gives people hugs and signs autographs. Britney appears looking coy and waves a little. The other 2 follow. After they all said down, their team of hair and makeup rushing over and starts fussin' oven them. Interesting to see.

When I first see Britney, I'm thinking...dang, girl's FINALLY got her 'ish together. She's dropped some lbs, her hair looks bright and shiny her skin looks clear...chick's finally off the crazy train. 

Wrong.

Not.so.cute. 30's not lookin' so good...

I'm going to have to take back everything I thought/said about her being pretty/nice/sweet/normal. The pretty part, I'll chalk that up to the Distance Distortion Factor. It happens.

She was a total 'itch. Homegirl's getting paid 15 M.I.L.L.I.O.N dollars, the least she can do it act interested. There were some phenomenal singers. The other judges would give heartfelt feedback and actually take time to genuinely respond to the singer. Britney on the other hand, sat arms crossed in front of her looking disinterested and annoyed. When it came time for her to make some comment, it was typically something short and ridiculously stupid. 

Exhibit A: (please read in a mousy, breathy voice)

"You were very entertaining and I was entertained." - Britney Spears.

REALLY!?! 15 million dollars and you cant fake it?? Someone make that chick a list of adjectives to have readily available after each act. After a while, most of the audience was laughing after each time she spoke. Simon was visibly getting pissed. 

She stopped the show a few times, just walking off the judges stage. Simon would stride after her. Apparently, a few days before, she stormed off after a contestant covered "Crazy."
Not a happy Brit-Brit. 

Such a brat. 
 

THIS may be the reason for her sitting stone faced! Maybe her beauty team advised her not to smile. Smiling isn't such a good look fer her...

Demi Lovato was cute. I'm not really sure who she is....I think I might know one song of hers...
She did have hair that looked very similar to a hotdog bun though...

How does that even happen?

Simon Cowell reportedly irritated X Factor staffers by showing up late because he wanted to get an authentic Southern meal at a diner. OMG. I'm sitting here trying to think about that "authentic diner" (in the ghetto near the coliseum) he selected.

Although not a "diner," Beef Burger is the first place that comes to mind since it's so close to the ghetto coliseum.

Welcome to Greensboro, North Carolina, Simon!

I'm crossing my fingers and hoping he went with Stamey's. Still not exactly Five Star dining, dang good BBQ!

I digress. we arrived at 5:45 and left around 10:00. A few of the singers were totally awesome. Mark and I agreed that we'll be tuning in this season to cheer on a few of our favorites and watch that 'itchface make a fool out of herself. 

Disclaimer

I apologize for all the harsh words and negativity towards B. Spears. 

Disclaimer Disclaimer:

Not really.  

Dinner: Scallops in Parchment

When I left work yesterday, the temperature thingy in my car was reading 109 degrees. Good Lord. Needless to say, we needed something light for dinner. I decided on this:

Scallops in Parchment with Fennel, Tomatoes and Olives

(I need to warn you, if you're cheap like me, you'll want to wait for scallops to go on sale. I had a mini heart attack at the register...$18.90 for 10 scallops...dang homes!)  

You'll need:

• About 10 sea scallops
• 1 large head of fennel, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 - 1 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparation: 

• Preheat oven to 375°. 
• You'll need 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Lay each piece flat on a baking sheet. 
• Slice your fennel, garlic, tomatoes and olives. (I'm not gunna lie, I had to watch a YouTube instructional video about fennel and what the heck to do with it...)

• Once all is sliced and diced, arrange 5 scallops evenly on one half of each piece of parchment paper, leaving a 2 inch boarder at the edge. 
• Cover the scallops with the fennel, tomatoes, olive and garlic. 
• Season everything with salt and paper. Drizzle the olive oil and white wine over the pile of goodness.   

• Fold top half of each parchment piece over ingredients. Crimp edges in tight folds to seal. Bake until packets puff up and scallops are cooked through (about 17-20 minutes, depending on size of scallops). 

Be careful when you open the packets, the steam is hot! We enjoyed the scallops with a bottle of Clos du Bois Chardonnay. All in all, it was very tasty and worthy of a repeat. However, Mark and I both agreed that we like seared scallops better. Oh! It's a little on the light side. If you're really hungry, I'd recommend starting with a small salad and bread.

We were finishing our dinner just as the massive storm hit. All the thunder and lightening completely freaked Boags out. He spent the rest of the night snuggling with me on the couch under a blanket watching Real Housewives of New York.

 

Weekend Recap

My weekend in short was...short. 

On Friday after work I met my mom and a few other ladies for drinks and dinner at KickBack Jacks. I started out my fat-filled weekend with a few brews and a Philly Cheese Steak. The food at Jacks is pretty good. I enjoyed.

Don't judge me, I shared it with someone.

After dinner and after we took a detour to pick up a few mini wine bottles to shove in our purses we spent $9.50 to see the worst move I've seen in a lllooonnngggg time! (Click here to see my review) Magic Mike, you're pretty, but you're terrible. 

Mark and I were up bright and early in Saturday morning to shoot a wedding. The reception was held at Adaumont Farm in Trinity. It.was.beautiful. If you're planning a wedding in the triad, I highly recommend checking it out. The farm is home to Kyle and Pattie Petty. As the girls were dressing in the bridal suit, the guys were out on the farm shootin' skeet. How cool is that? We haven't completed our photos yet, but here's a glimpse from the website:

 
On Sunday, we slept until 10am. Typically, the day after we shoot a wedding Mark downloads all the the images, well over a thousand, and begins to pick out the best. This can take hours! I ran errands. And bought a new vacuum cleaner. Is it sad that I'm excited over a new vacuum? What has my life come to. 

We planned a little date night for Sunday evening. 

• We saw Spider Man in 3D, which was pretty good!
• Found a new bakery with amazing strawberry red velvet cupcakes.
• Sat outside at Green Valley Grill and enjoyed Chardonnay from Paso Robles where we just were!
• Enjoyed a yummy cheese platter and an Applewood Smoked Bacon and Heirloom Tomato Flatbread.  

Now it's Monday...and I feel like a heffer at my desk. Here's to another week of work, chugging water and eating like a bird in preparation for next weekend!

(I didn't shower today...you can totally judge me for that.) 

Magic Mike = Epic Disappointment

First of all...$9.50. What a freakin' waste of $9.50. Have movies recently jumped in price or what??  


On Friday night I went with a small group of ladies (mini wine bottles in-tow) to see Magic Mike. I wasn't expecting a thrilling blockbuster of epic proportions. From the previews and the trailer, this is what I was expecting:

Hot stripper dude and all of his studly stripper friends. Hot stripper dude meets sexy girl who mistakenly wandered into his strip club. Sexy girl wants to rescue him from his stripper life. He resists as first..."sexy girl, I love you, but I'm stuck in this grueling world of making loads of cash and having women drool over me." Love story develops...he realizes he cant live without her...he leaves stripping behind...they live happily ever after. 

Yeah...it wasn't like that at all.


Sexy girl's brother (little scraggly dude) is introduced to the stripping world by hot stripper dude. Hot stripper dude has been trying to save his money to leave stripping and open his custom furniture company. (HAHAHA custom furniture, WTF?!?! He has $12K and he has been saving for 6 years! SIX YEARS and you don't have more than $12K!!!!!! That's what I call a lousy stripper....) Sexy girl's brother starts dealing drugs, she gets mad, he doesn't stop, she kicks him out of her apartment, movie ends with her kissing hot stripper dude...

Really. That's it folks.  

Bad. It was REALLY bad. The plot was incredibly weak. The dialogue between the characters was so lame, almost laughable. Was it some good eye candy...sure. But the shirtless gyrating starts to get a little old. I felt like I was in a theater full of women who've never seen shirtless men. Ladies cheering in the movie...you need to get out more...or maybe you need to stay in more...;)

Don't spend the $9.50. Here...here's a little taste for you....trust me. It's enough. 

(I still don't understand the tie/bow tie combo??)

 

Product Review: Olay ProX Advanced Cleansing System

I LOVE THIS LITTLE GADGET!

I'll keep this short and sweet. My face is annoying. My nose and forehead are typically greasy while the sides of my face are super dry. And by super dry, I mean itchy red, sometimes peeling, splotchy spots. Glamorous. I needed a little exfoliation and there was no way in hell I was going to drop over $200 on Clarisonic. I bought the ProX primarily based on some good reviews, Giuliana Rancic swears by it, the excellent price, $29.99, and a $3.50 off coupon at Ulta. It comes with a small tube of exfoliate wash, which I really like and will probably buy more of. I was a little surprised with how small it is...but I like it because it's light and fits on the shelf in my shower. The brush is easy to clean and brush replacements are pretty cheap. 


After a week of using the brush (and using the exfoliate wash every other day) my face is SO much smoother and nearly all the itchy patches are gone! My face feels softer and looks more radiant. I Lo-lo-lo-looovvveee it! 

Buy one. You'll LOVE it!! And if you don't, you can return it to Ulta within 60 days!


Top secret tip from my grandma who has virtually no wrinkles:
Apply a small amount of Vaseline under your eyes and on any dry spots on your face. Also, if you're like me and use heaps of eye cream, the Vaseline should go over any face/eye creams you use to act as a protective barrier. Take a piece of toilet paper and blot, leaving a very small layer of Vaseline. Trust me, your face will be silky smooth and full of luster the next morning. And no, it WILL NOT cause you to break out or clog your pores. I've been doing this for over a year with no breakouts.

Jessica Simpson: I have not reached my goal weight yet.

(yeah, no kidding!)

Avocado Spaghetti

Last night I decided to take an already carb-o-lishous meal (pasta) and pack more fat into it! Why not?!

I've seen a few bloggers make/post about Avocado Spaghetti so I thought I'd take a stab at it since Mark and I are avid guac eaters. It's really simple, if you can boil water and use a food processor...BOOM, you're in the game!

You'll need:

2 fist fulls of spagetti (one for each person, I used whole wheat),

3 ripe avocados (soft, but not yet brown I think mine were brownish),

Juice of 2 lemons, 

2-3 cloves garlic, 

1/3 cup of good olive oil, 

1 big handful of fresh basil,

Generous pinch of salt, 

Grating of Parmesan,

A heaping handful of cherry tomatoes.

Pop all the ingredients (minus the spaghetti, Parmesan and tomatoes) into your food processor. Blend until it reaches a smooth consistency. Taste it and make sure it doesn't need more of anything. Once the pasta is cooked and still hot, mix the avocado sauce into the pasta and top with halved cherry tomatoes and some Parmesan cheese. 

 

Mark really, really, enjoyed it! I though it was good...but just good. It seemed a bit heavy to me. Maybe next time I'll go a little lighter on the avocado and add some grilled chicken.   

After dinner we took the dog for a walk and when we came back in....WHAM...the smell of the garlic/basil hit us like a mac truck! It will truly stink up your house, light a candle!

Fred the Sundial

My office is pretty much smack downtown and conveniently located to everything...including homeless people. We are just a short walk from "tent village," too. Tent village is home to about 12-15 homeless people and they have quite the setup! (They once tried to trick me into driving my car down to them...but that's a story for another day.)

Yesterday I noticed a tent city resident just chillin' in the middle of our street. I've seen this dude before, he's kinda hard to miss because he walks at a snails pace...literally. I feel sorry for him. Anyway, Fred (our office dubbed him Fred) stood in the same place in the middle of the street (kinda leaning back and forth) for about 3.5 hours yesterday. In the 95 degree heat. My co-workers convinced me to call the non-emergency number and have the police come and help him...take him to a shelter or get him some water or something. So, we all watched by my window as Fred was removed. (They were really nice to him.)

I get to work this morning at 8am. Guess who's standing in the middle of Eugene Court? It's almost 9am now. Guess who's in the same exact spot?  

We're going to play rock paper scissors to see who will take a bottle of water down to him...

"Some people have a sundial, we have a Fred." - my co-worker.

I'm ALIVE!

I'm alive! I apologize for not blogging since we've returned from California. I've been so busy catching up at work...I just haven't had the time. (Lies, I'm just really freakin lazy.)

For a glimpse of our trip, click here. And here. (See how lazy I am, poaching blog posts!)


We had such a great time. I can now say that I've ridden and pushed a darn bike up half the hills in San Fran over the Golden Gate Bridge. 

One of my besties was begging for a new blog post. She went so far as to give me a list of 15 things I can blog about. My comments to her ideas below are in red.

1- what REALLY happened in San Fran. We biked/pushed our bikes for hours to get to the Golden Gate Bridge and once we got there...it was too foggy to see anything! Very fun but a little more strenuous then we anticipated! Oh, then I ate my weight in pizza after the bike ride.

2- why segways are WAY better modes of transportation than bicycles I told my nephew that I was going to rent a motorized bike for our trek...he told me those "are for fat people." He has a point.

3- the 12 things I love/appreciate most about Shan I'm saving this for a separate post.

4- Ideas for redecorating Shan's office Take down the 80's floral curtains as well as the ceramic pumpkin.

5- the difficulty of finding Shan a new place to live You live in Salibury, what do you expect??

6- the benefits of being homeless You'll get a really nice suntan?

7- situations you would NOT be willing to do CPR My response would so not be PC, so I'll refrain.

8- real life experiences on the "transcription wheel"-- still need photos of this Ugh.

9- NY State and their reasoning behind bussing poor people to families in different states Huh?

10- CPAP, does it really work? Again, huh?

11- risk factors for using INSANITY and possibilities of death You are crazy. Period. And, Insanity is for dudes.

12- kayaking.  There is just a lot of good information to be had. ...

13- it's an unlucky number, supposedly, so let's not make any recommendations here agreed

14- color blocking = AWESOME Color blocking is totally awesome. This leads me to a new funky project at mi casa. Pictures to come!

15- EMINEM.  Yes, even now I'm still willing to bare his children.Yuck. Period. 

Shannon, I hope you enjoyed that. Have fun on your blind date tonight! (Yes, I just called ya out on the interwebs.)

I hope you guys had a great 4th! We pulled out the blow-up pool and had a par-tay! Nothing classier than Budweiser, cheese puffs and 6 adults crammed into a kiddy pool! 
God Bless America!