Bahama Breeze Night Out & Giveaway

Last Friday evening, I attended my first Memphis Bloggers get-together at Bahama Breeze. I know I'm a little behind on posting this, but better late than never. I so enjoyed finally meeting some of the ladies whose blogs I've been following. The six of us met at Bahama Breeze because they invited us to try (completely on the house!) and review some of their new items which included rice bowls and items from their new happy hour menu. But best of all, Bahama Breeze is hosting an awesome opportunity for us to giveaway a "Cocktail Hour Party". They are offering the winner of our giveaway 1 hour of free appetizers and 1 free cocktail per person for up to 20 people. This giveaway is only available at the local Memphis-Wolfchase location and will end May 5th. So...don't hesitate...enter now! Just go to the Rafflecopter toward the end of this post to enter.  

I really wasn't completely sure about what to expect, but I had an amazing experience. The restaurant staff literally wined and dined us all. Each of us was able to order cocktails, appetizers, and entrees of our choice. I chose my favorite drink, their signature Bahamarita.

 
We then had some of their coconut shrimp and famous onion rings as appetizers.

We were then served one each of their six new international themed rice bowls: Shrimp Creole, Carnitas, Chipotle Beef, Vegetarian Asian Tofu, Asian Chicken and Vegetable, West Indies Chicken Curry. 

I would seriously recommend the Chipotle Beef and Shrimp Creole to anyone. The beef in the Chipotle Beef bowl was so tender it melted in my mouth. The Shrimp Creole was definitely tasty as well. We were offered dessert on top of everything else, but we all declined. YES...we were crazy...I know! We could've all divided them up and brought a sampler home with us. On top of everything else they gave us a heap of complimentary small plate appetizer cards to use at anytime we like.

Our waiter was awesome, and he decorated each of our take-home containers differently so we would know whose was whose.

So...here's your chance to enter our giveaway for the

Bahama Breeze Cocktail-Hour Party for 20.

Just use the Rafflecopter below and Best of Luck!!!

        

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Our food + drinks were comped,
but the opinions herein are all mine.

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*Thanks for dropping by!

Bogus Blog Traffic...What to Do?

?! HELP !?

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been so excited about my blog traffic stats. Well...that is until I began to notice some strange sources. One was filmhill and the other was vampirestat.

Since these two accounted for the majority of my traffic and I had no idea what they were, I started researching. Apparently, they are bogus traffic spamming sites that skew traffic source data. The only thing I really still don't understand is why...what's the purpose? How does  making it appear that my blog has more traffic than it actually does help them?

I also couldn't find any suggestions about what I should do about this. From the sound of it, Blogger isn't concerned and doesn't do anything about it. 

Realizing that there are sites out there that do this sort of thing really kind of took the wind right out of my sails. I don't want my blog statistics to be false, and I was disappointed to find out that I really hadn't had the traffic I'd initially thought.

If anyone knows how to resolve this situation, please help! I would so truly appreciate any information or suggestions about what to do to stop this.

*Thanks for dropping by!

   

A Hubby Jack Makeover: Help Needed

Us womens' friend, or should I say nemesis, "Hubby Jack" over at Hubby Jack's Blog Attack is having a contest for a blog makeover. I am a newcomer to the blogging world and pieced together my blog design part by part by pulling different things from various free blog template sites to create an elementary classroom teacher blog. I actually thought I did a relatively decent job until I read a post by Hubby Jack's wife, Holly, about when she first started blogging and how, at that time, her blog looked like a scrapbook page vomited on her screen. My thought, ".... hummmm, sorta like mine."

For that reason, I think a crisp, vibrant, newly designed blog makeover with a catchy name would be TO DIE FOR!

Also at the moment, I am in a major state of transition in my life. My youngest son is graduating from high school this year, and I'm definitely beginning to feel the "empty nesters" funk. I've also just ended a fifteen year relationship with the only person, other than my children, that I truly loved unconditionally...or let's say as much as I could without losing my sanity. Seems like he made it his personal mission to try to destroy me from the inside out. But let me say this...without a shadow of a doubt, I know his being out of my life is the best thing that could happen to me.

Enough bellyaching!

All that was just a segue to why I feel that starting a blog has been therapeutic for me. It has provided me with a creative outlet.  It helps to distract me from the nagging feelings that have recently been pulling at my heart strings.

While experiencing similar emotion, Adele wrote and recorded the top selling album of the 21st century. Well...I just took up blogging...HA! However, my current blog, The Sweet Life of Second Grade, is not exactly the place I imagined I would think out loud about personal matters. So actually, I think I'd like to maintain it for it's initial purpose and use Hubby Jack's design for a personal blog...maybe, say...The Sweet & Single Life at Almost 50...Aack!!!

I need your help though.

This is how it works: Just click on the Hubby Upgrade button above and leave a comment on his blog post about who you'd like to see win the blog makeover...hopefully me!

I want to send a heartfelt "Thanks!!" in advance for any of you who see fit to use your time to cast a vote for me.

*Thanks for dropping by!