Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

I have too much crap to do to bother taking pictures, but I’m having a little bit of an apartment problem. I was in my largish bedroom closet two days ago, when I leaned over to pick up some laundry from the corner. One t-shirt was against the wall. I picked it up, and it was soaked. I pulled a few things away from the wall, and I revealed mildew and dampness all along the wall. I started hunting around and found the there was a leak at the bottom of the wall all along the back of my closet, there was dampness (not really a puddle) in the utility closet, and the coat closet had wet stains all around the bottom of the walls. Now, they have moved my dresser out of the closet (my awesome sturdy House of Denmark dresser that I’ve had since I was about 13) and into my bedroom. Water has clearly been soaking the bottom of it on one side for a while, so it’s definitely compromised. Ruined? Probably not. I may still get it checked out though. There might be a renter’s policy claim in that, although my deductible may be too high for it to mean much. Anyway, total pain. No thanks, annoying apartment issues! I don’t have enough space for the contents of my closet to be sitting around in the bedroom. The plan is that after they dry all the treated parts out for a few days, they will shampoo the carpet, then apply some other treatment or another, and that should be enough. There will also be a lot of repainting in that general area. Hope that’s all good enough. Did I mention I – like my Dad – am highly allergic to mildew? Good times. :S

Oliver’s been bugging me to see Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies for FOREVER! I finally got around to it this weekend. Superfun! I took some video:

After a fun drive westward to some North Carolina vineyards with Jake, Kelly, and Andy (thanks for planning the trip, Andy!), we all stopped at Southern Season in Chapel-Hill for dinner. After dinner, we wandered around the massive foodie heaven to do a little shopping. Kelly was very interested in getting some chocolate for her new beau, so we hit up SS’s MASSIVE chocolate counter. I’ll interrupt myself to post a picture of the cutest offering I saw:

At the chocolate counter, Kelly and I met a man named Reginald Savage. He is a chocolatier and owns a chocolate shop called Chocolate Truffles By Azurelise. He had a sign next to him advertizing his upcoming appearance on Food Network, which I thought was kind of cute. Man, sign for man, 1 foot apart. Anyway, we got to talking, and I took this picture. I will definitely put the show into my TiVo, and then no doubt that I’ll be noshing on his truffles later this week! Gorgeous food visuals… fuggetaboutit. I’m powerless. The show is Road Tasted With The Neelys at 9:30pm and 12am. I’ll be watching – or at least TiVo-ing!

I saw Dottie had posted the Manga version of herself on Flickr yesterday, so I made one of myself, then a few others did, then a few others. Last night, Jake and I were looking at the Face Your Manga Group pool and cracking up at how this has spread in the last day. Well, this morning, I woke up and logged in to the Raleigh Social Group, and I thought I had gone to the wrong pool. Check this out:

Here’s mine:

I love the internet! Here’s the link to make your own.

@hughlh – I have tried, I really have. But I just cannot dig the NC B-B-Que. But then again, I am from Memphis, where Que is a religion.

@jessmartin – @hughlh until you’ve had Texas BBQ, you haven’t had the real thing. Why do east coasters even use the same word?

@BrianR – @jessmartin Blasphemy Sir! 😉 NC BBQ is THE one true holy pork!

@hughlh – @jessmartin You mean the yellow sauce variety? It has 2 problems: It is yellow, and it is not pork. I am just saying.

@hughlh – @BrianR You, sir, are deluded.

@BrianR – @hughlh my tummy & taste buds are quite content thank you! I’ve tasted it all Sir! 🙂

@abbyladybug – My BBQ pref = pulled pork, with either yellow mustard-based sauce or Memphian “wet” red sauce. Vinegar-based stuff is OK, but not my fave.

@logicblue – @abbyladybug…”Vinegar-based stuff is OK, but not my fave”…back on my shit list 😉

@snoopdave – @jessmartin Where is Texas anyway. Is it up near Asheville?

@hughlh – I am pretty sure they serve Memphis style bbq in heaven, ’cause if they did not, it just would not be heaven.

@abbyladybug – @logicblue Yeah, live it up, local boy. Like you’ve even HAD the other kinds. @hughlh BBQ Spaghetti sounded so gross, but OMFG. SOOOO good!

@jessmartin – Real problem w/ using BBQ to refer to several meats/sauces/processes is it violates expectations. BBQ is a giant bait-and-switch.

@jkreesnc – I learned I really DID NOT KNOW true BBQ until I moved to NC – nom nom. NC BBQ is the only BBQ for me 🙂 #BBQ

@waynesutton – It looks like @jessmartin @dayers @danlondon @hughlh @abbyladybug on team 1 of NC #BBQ haters vs everyone else!

@abbyladybug – @hughlh knows all about the best BBQ ever. Bar-B-Q Shop on Madison in Memphis. That’s BBQ heaven to me. Better than Rendezvous. No kidding.

@BrianR – @smalljones help me out here defending tha NC BBQ

@hughlh – http://tinyurl.com/5oegcv The best que in Memphis (IMHO) and thus, the world.

@hughlh – @jessmartin I ate some yellow sauce que in north TX once, thought that was what u meant. Pork, and occasionally bologna are the only meats.

@jessmartin @hughlh @brianr And why would you destroy the meat by *pulling* it into little pieces. You know in Texas we have these things called knives.

@jessmartin @hughlh Yellow? It’s made w/ tomatoes and is therefore the proper color for BBQ sauce which is RED. And it’s the proper meat which is beef.

@dayers – @jessmartin @hughlh @abbyladybug this is tough, I’m from TN, living in NC, and had an awesome TX BBQ experience at http://tinyurl.com/5nv2pg

@jessmartin – @hughlh the fact that you can say BBQ and spaghetti in the same 140 characters tells me just how confused you are 😉

@jessmartin – @dayers Salt Lick is some damn fine BBQ.

@jessmartin – @hughlh is bologna even a meat? seems like some sort of frankin-meat. like vegan chicken.waynesutton Only in NC that you’ll see a twitter BBQ tweet war! I’m watching the convo on summize/search here http://tinyurl.com/5ln7fv lol #BBQ

AND THE DEBATE RAGES ON…

By the way, I have to disagree with Wayne. This is a debate that could easily rage on in Memphis, and I bet Texas as well.

For those not in the know, to see any of these individual Twitter streams, the URL convention is http://twitter.com/username. For example, my twitters can be found at http://twitter.com/abbyladybug

Barbecue Spaghetti from The Bar-B-Q Shop in Memphis