I'm a V.I.P...at Chick-Fil-A

Remember this post I wrote about the new Chick-fil-A opening in Holly Springs?

Well, that post scored me an invitation to be a VIP at the Chick-fil-A premiere night. Sahhhh-weet! The restaurant doesn't officially open until Thursday, but Lee and I got a sneak peak tonight, as well as some tasty grub and nice swag.

What exactly does a Chick-fil-A premiere night consist of? Well, it starts with a red carpet arrival, violin players, and candles and flowers on every table.

Next was an appetizer of chick-n-minis (soooo good)...

And a salad course complete with a server walking around offering fresh ground pepper. (I look like a doof in this picture but it's the only one with me and my I heart Chick-fil-A sticker.)

We were waited on hand and foot, and were able to order anything we wanted off the menu for dinner. And of course, milkshakes for dessert:

Up next was a behind-the-scenes tour of the kitchen.

Buns and bevs:

One of the things that sets Chick-fil-A apart - they use name brand products in their food: Oreos, Keebler Nilla wafers, Hershey's chocolate, Dole pineapple chunks, etc., so you know you're getting the real thing and not some knockoff.

Lots o' grease:

This is the breading station. They hand-bread every piece of chicken served. It goes through a milk wash, seasoned coating, and then straight into the fryer/pressurizer. The bottom of the station is refrigerated so the chicken stays cool throughout the process.

Mmmm...yummy coating:

This is the bun station. Buns come out of the big silver thing. The little roller in the bottom right corner butters the buns (yumm) and the trademark pickles are in the silver bin.

It was a fun night and we left with full bellies and some sweet coupons. We ended the night with a goodbye from the Chick-fil-A cow:

Can't wait to go back for "real" next time!

Birthdays are Fun

I had an awesome birthday weekend. It consisted of:

- Mimosas and muffins with my coworkers to start the day on Friday

- My boss telling me to take the afternoon off

- Being greeted with this at the door when I got home:

(a "Happy Birthday to Mommy" card, signed Luv Sugar)

- A beautiful bookcase for my office made by Lee

- Mexican and margaritas with Lee, Erin, Brittany and Heith on Friday night

- An amazing, delicious dinner with Lee at Angus Barn on Saturday night

- Followed by furniture shopping and shopping at Crabtree (he knows how to make me happy)

- A lazy yet productive Sunday

So, all in all, the perfect birthday weekend.

**A note about Angus Barn: This was our first trip to Angus Barn. Ever since I was a student at UNC I've been hearing people rave about Angus Barn. I used to live on Glenwood Ave and had to drive by Angus Barn EVERY day. TWICE. We kept saying we'd go for someone's birthday or some special occasion but we never did. So, Lee finally decided we would go for my birthday this year and let me tell you...it did not disappoint. In fact, we were kind of hoping we wouldn't like it because it's not exactly in our budget. But unlike somewhere like Ruth Chris, you feel like you're getting your money's worth at Angus Barn. The food was absolutely delicious and we left with about 10 lbs of takeout (including an adorable little complimentary birthday poundcake). We are already scheming up the next occasion that warrants a trip to Angus Barn.

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner

Just had to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of Patrick Swayze. He's always held a special place in my heart.

When I was little, my mom had a picture of him on the door in her closet. Thinking back on it now, that was kind of weird. But it didn't seem that way back then. It was just Patrick Swayze. In the closet. And you smiled at him when you went in or out.

Of course, my love for Patrick Swayze stems from my love for Dirty Dancing. My cousin Jessica and I would watch the movie EVERY Saturday when we were little -- probably way too little to be watching Dirty Dancing. We wore that VHS tape out. It would be years later before I realized what was going on in the abortion scene. All we knew was that the sexy scenes made us "feel funny."

Ahhh Patrick, you played a special part in so many young girls' lives. You will be missed.

Friday Link Love

It's time for another roundup of cool things from around the internets:

- Cool little sketchpad application.

- Wish I was this skilled at cupcake decorating.

- Would you not LOVE to throw a dinner party with all of these materials at your fingertips?

- Check out this amazing-photo-session-turned-surprise-proposal on photographer Amy Free's blog.

- And speaking of engagements, check out this post from Weddings in the City out of Charlotte. Notice someone familiar?

- Two of my favorite things in this world are: Ellen DeGeneres and So You Think You Can Dance. So I was so excited to see this on the season premiere of her show this week. Even more entertaining was the footage from the first rehearsal with the dancers.

Have a good weekend!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend at the river, in a nutshell:

- Lots of dogs

- Lots of fish

- Lots of dogs eating fish

- Beautiful sunsets

- I watched Pretty Woman the whole way through for the first time in my life

- We ventured to Greenville to see Time Traveler's Wife and eat at Basil's (can you say dip barrage?)

- We had to call 911 on the way home from Greenville on a woman who was swerving dangerously all over the road

- I read an entire book (New Moon - yes, I'm officially obsessed)

And now for pictures:

Nothing like the beautiful river sunsets

Old man fishing in the sunset

Sugar eating fish. She kept losing the little pinfish through the cracks of the pier. At one point, she had a baby croaker in her mouth and it started croaking. She FREAKED. THE HECK. OUT.

Pretty girl

Blog world, meet my grandma. You can call her Giga. She's got the pups entranced with her catch.

Good boy, Astro

Please please PLEASEEE can I have it??

Early birthday cake

Total exhaustion after a fun weekend at the river

**Disclaimer: There were fish harmed in the making of this post. Get over it. It's the circle of life people.

not quite Wordless Wednesday

We decided we wanted to know how much Sugar weighs now, since The Dog That Doesn't Eat has finally started putting a little meat on her bones. After trying to wrestle her onto the scale and lots of error messages we finally got smart and threw her in a Tupperware container. 

In case you're wondering, she's somewhere between 75 and 77 lbs now.

Weekend

Our weekend was low key and perfect.

We got up Saturday and went to the flea market at the fairgrounds. Now, I'm not usually one to frequent flea markets, yard sales, or anything of the like, but I actually requested we go to the flea market and was pretty excited about it. I've been inspired by some trash-to-treasure posts I've been reading recently and was looking for some materials.

It was ridiculously fun to look through all the flea market goodies. There are TONS of vendors at the Raleigh flea market, selling everything from antiques to books to brand new sunglasses and pet supplies. I got lots of inspiration from the antiques tables, and almost bought a few pieces, but wound up deciding against each of them. I definitely wished I had brought my camera -- a post about flea market oddities will have to wait 'til another time.

We DID walk away with two exciting purchases though (even though neither were what we had gone to the flea market for).

The first was a rain barrel. We've been thinking about buying a rain barrel for some time now and have been keeping our eye out for a good (and convenient) deal. We do a LOT of watering around here...lawn, garden, flowers...and our water bill this summer has definitely seen the effects. Hopefully our shiny new rain barrel will help us keep our yard quenched and our water bill low:


We just hooked up the barrel yesterday and after a day of rain today, it's completely overflowing. We can't wait to start watering and try 'er out.

Our second purchase was at the used book table. All hardback books were $1. That's right, ONE DOLLAR for nice, fairly recent hardback books. We bought five. Lee picked out a Tom Clancy book (that he may or may not ever read). I picked out the rest. I am not ashamed to say that my criteria for choosing books was whether or not the spine and cover were pretty (once the book jacket was removed) so that they'd look pretty on a bookshelf. I got:

1. The Bridges of Madison County

2. The Devil Wears Prada

3. The Lovely Bones

4. The Brethren by John Grisham

I haven't read any of these books except The Brethren (and you can never go wrong with adding a John Grisham to your collection, plus the blue and silver spine was pretty) so I'm excited to read each of them.

And the best part was getting to put my "From the Library Of" stamp from Chrissy to good use:

I like used books because they come with a story. When I took the book jacket off of The Bridges of Madison County, three cards fell out. One was a generic Get Well Soon card. One was a shower invitation with a dual purpose -- it included a handwritten message that said "We are praying for you daily - Suzin and Joe told us about your horrible accident!" The last card simply said "Denise and Family, My best wishes to everybody - I hope everything turns out alright." Being the nosy person that I am, this more than intrigued me. Wherever Denise and family are today, I hope they're doing okay.

As for the rest of the weekend, Chrissy and Mike came over on Saturday night. We went to Bass Lake Draft House in Holly Springs for dinner and drinks and then came back and hung out at our house. It was great to be able to catch up with them and enjoy a fun but relaxing night together.

Sunday was a lazy day. It consisted of sleeping in, furniture shopping (but not buying), naps, grocery shopping, and Chinese takeout for dinner. 

All-in-all, a great weekend!