Lucky you.

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If you've read any books (or seen movies) about the South.  Piggly Wiggly was probably in there somewhere.  Every angst-filled Southern teen grabbed at least one soda from the PW at some point in some story you've read.  So imagine my delight when some of my Fiskateer friends (and by friends, I mean that crafters who I had never met but took time out of their day to drive out and meet me because we share that crazy bond that people who love their hobbies share) in Tennessee went out of their way to find a Piggly Wiggly to take me to.  To quote Project Zoe for the millionth time:  It was bananas.  The logo?  I die.

If you haven't traveled with me, you think I'm exaggerating.  Piggly Wiggly IS "just" a small grocery store.  There were probably, maybe, 4 registers with only one lane open.  But the thing is, I LOVED the signs out front*, I loved the crazy logo that apparently was not so subtly stolen from Warner Bros. Porky Pig drawings.  Most of all, I loved the Piggly Wiggly branded food.  Who would guess such a small store would have their own spaghetti?  And lastly, but not leastly, I loved the dentally challenged (cashier? stock boy?  manager?) who literally offered me the Piggly Wiggly shirt right off his back when he found out that I was elated to be in a Piggly Wiggly all the way from Reno, Nevada.  And I equally loved the cashier ringing me out who leaned over and, in that great Tennesee accent, made it clear, in a low voice, that I really and truly needed to re-think taking her co-worker's shirt.  On second glance at the generous man, I truly appreciated the cashier's wisdom and foresight.  And P.S.  I made Piggly Wiggly brand spaghetti and sauce last night and you know what, it was inexpensive and pretty darned good- even subtracting the fun factor of my kids chanting about eating Piggly Wiggly Pasta during the whole meal.  Thanks PW & thanks Ziggyeor, Bettye & Pinky for trusting me when I told you that I would enjoy Piggly Wiggly more than any other Nashville landmark you could take me to.

*and here, guilt dictates that I point out that I'm not making fun of food stamps here- my own family had their own food stamp moments in the early 70's.  But am I laughing about advertising it on a huge sign with a faux Porky?  Maybe.

Applications now being accepted.

So, after that health crisis had passed, I started reading about environmental hazards.  Out went my speical treat- water bottles and our big water cooler.  I loved my water cooler but the water was brought to my house in big #7 plastic bottles so I made the switch to filtered tap water- mqaybe a little reactionary and silly but again, I wanted to feel in control of something.  But how to tote the water around our house?  Naturally I opted for Sigg bottles.  I have a weird, inexplicable faith in European standards- very often they seem to be on the cutting edge of health safety that the US only catches up with a year or more later (just my impression, anyway).  So Siggs it was- despite the fact that they're costly.  So each of my precious babies has gone to bed with their Sigg bottles each night since and I've felt just a little more, well, in control of BPAs, leeching plastic and all those other health concerns hinted at here in the US.

Three days ago, I saw this: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/689714 Turns out Sigg has had BPAs all along but didn't feel the need to share the information because they probably are safe.  Wow.  Are you kidding me?  I should have known- all my need to control our environment and I'm out of the pot and into- not exactly the fire really but back into the pot.  So here's the deal. My local Whole Foods is exchanging Sigg bottles for free.  Hassle-free.  You bring in the old, BPA liner bottles and you get to pick our replacements with the now (fingers-crossed they're being up-front now) BPA-free bottles (graphic below is from http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/sigg-bottles-now-bpa-free.php and I really suggest you click there and read the facts about this Sigg issue- it's really not THAT big of a deal but I still feel frustrated).

You GO, Whole Foods.  I wrote Sigg a minorly scathing letter and asked about replacements and got this reply:  "Please visit http://mysigg.com/bulltin  where we have information on how you can replace your bottles through our exchange program." Apparently with me paying the shipping costs.  Meanwhile Whole Foods steps up to make this convient for me.  Guess who I feel some loyalty toward now?  My only hope is that Sigg PAYS for these replacement bottles from Whole Foods because, while I DID replace my kids' 5 bottles and I feel relatively secure with them, I have no plans to buy more in the future.  I'm still miffed.

So what do you think? Who's in? Road trip to FaerieWorlds next summer for sure! We'd better start working on our wings soon!

So as you know from reading my blog, I'm having a party-planning kind of summer. If you remember my "Real Housewives of Reno" party (I blogged about it here), you might remember that I had a drink station representing each cast of Bravo's Real Housewives." Naturally, Atlanta's cast was all about the bottle of Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka I had just received from my friends in South Carolina. I was a little too smug, telling everyone about my special "imported" (meaning from SC) bottle.  It would have been a bigger hit if I had served it correctly (I was supposed to add a splash of water or seltzer and a squeeze of lemon so it would taste more like sweet tea- oops- I served it neat, on the rocks!). I was a little disappointed that I didn't share the full effect of the drink I was so proud of "discovering" during my summer jaunt to the South...

... Which brings me to the highly alliterative Flamingo Friday I've also blogged about (here). You remember how my neighbors get together every Friday in the summer and take turns hosting cocktails in their front yards (the pink flamingos in the yard tell us where the party is hence the name "Flamingo Friday")? Well, I was going to take one more turn this summer hosting cocktails in for our neighborhood and I've been thinking of how I could share the rest of my bottle of Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka when I read on Twitter that Firefly Vodka is looking for the most entertaining and creative stories about about why 50 people should win a party pack. Well hot dang, that sounds like it's got Flamingo Firefly Friday written all over it, right?

So here it is- my shameless entry right here on my blog. I'm not sure if I'm being entertaining or creative enough yet but if FireFly Sweet Tea Vodka has that big ol' metal Firefly Sweet Tea dispenser in the party pack- they show them in their store graphics but they must be out of stock- and an extra bottle or two of the Firefly Sweet Tea AND they deem this photo and blog entry amusing enough to win one of their party packs, I'm gonna re-name our parties "Firefly Fridays" (which is even more alliterative- and yes, that's a real word, I looked it up), put on an anntena headband (to get that firefly look) and put up some twinkle lights on the garage and call it a party. Heck, I think I'll even buy everyone Mason jars to drink it from- that's the way sweet tea (vodka'd or otherwise) should be served. What do you think? The photos from our Firefly Friday should be a rich photo opportunity and blogging about it will be a nice way to round out the blog posts I've done about summer parties this year, don't you think? Maybe Firefly Vodka will think so too.

A weekend in Philly with my college best friend, a copy of Hello Cupcake, 48 Tootsie Rolls, 50 Starburst, 1/2 a dozen Michael Vick jokes and a birthday party for a pug-loving friend.  Need I say more?