Please sir, can we spend our money?

Calm before the storm

As promised, car wash tips

Yesterday, I promised the secrets to a showroom-clean car from the folks at Eagles Eye. Some of you may be wondering who cares about the cars, but if you attend the tournament you know that the golfers arrive in the hottest Mercedes and other luxury cars. They park in a special area and the cars look clean enough to eat off.

I always thought I kept my car pretty clean until I saw these beauties. I try to wash mine every other week, and wax it once a year.

Who am I kidding? To keep your car looking good, the folks at Eagle recommend washing it weekly and get this, waxing it once a month. Once a month.

Okay, golfing peeps. This was my last post from the tourney. I'm out of here. If you're coming have fun, if you're not have fun wherever you go.

I'm out.

Chillin' in VIP

Volunteers make the tournament go

One of the most important groups working the tournament is the volunteer. Each year, volunteers give so much of themselves to make the tournament run smoothly. They take their tasks extremely serious, whether it's the guy who raises his arm for quiet while a golfer hits or the woman who ropes of the "golfer x-crossing" areas, these are the people the tournament depends on to make the week run smoothly.


Phillip is one such volunteer. He's a tent captain for the Mecklenburg Aquatic Center's concession stand. In a matter of minutes, I watched him handle a woman who wanted to be a cashier and not a food processor, break-in two rookies and make sure all of the condiments stayed dry when it rained. It was Phillip's first year as a captain.

There's starving children in....

I'm in the executive kitchen which sends food to numerous tents. Antwan sauces, not bastes, more than a dozen pans of ribs, and Brian chops cantaloupe. I see the unthinkable. A chef grabs a pan of steamy carrots, rolls, and asparagus in a creamy sauce. He dumps it in the trash.

My eyes bulge.

He returns to the warmer and grabs another pan. My mind screams nooooo. He dumps it in the garbage too. Then another and another.

I'm speechless. Why?

He needs four empty pans.

Troubleshooting with Fitz

Handling the food at a major golf tournament isn't easy. This morning I zoomed around with Restaurant Associates' John Fitzgibbon. The biggest problems of the morning were a leak a terrace tent, the bomb squads request for more trash pick ups at one of the sites and making sure the condiments didn't get soaked in the rain.

My favorite cocktail

Roaming around the Champion Club, I saw so many people drinking Bloody Marys I had to taste one (non-alcoholic) for myself. I'm a Bloody Mary junkie and I'm always looking for a good mix. My favorite is Zing-Zang. The folks from Restaurant Associates use Ocean Spray. It's tasty, but still not as good as Zing-Zang. If, add a little Tabasco sauce and Old Bay seasoning and you're all set.

Any Bloody Mary fans out there? If so, what's your favorite mix?

This is how we do it

Oh yeah, it's Friday and the Champion Club on the eighth green is buzzing upstairs. Bloody Marys flow and the weekend has begun. If you have an upgraded ticket the Champion Club is the place to be. There's food, beer, wine, liquor and most importantly shelter from the rain.

Friday is a big day

I've got big plans for Friday. First, I'll be dressed more appropriately. And don't think I'll be the only news reporter rocking shorts. A lot of those pretty TV reporters who look all button-down are wearing shorts, too.

I'm hanging with John Fitzgibbons tomorrow. He's the man who puts out the fires, you know --trouble shoots. I'm hoping to catch up with Chef Lou again. Last year, I made a salad with him. I talked to the Restaurant Associates top chef on Monday and I think I may have offended him. (Imagine that.) I was telling him that I wanted a harder job this year because I had mastered making salads. He looked at me and said, he hadn't even mastered salads yet. What he really wanted to say was "Idiot girl, how dare you think you can be a salad expert in a half hour!"


I'm also trying to hook up with the car wash guys tomorrow. They keep the rides real shiny and they told me the secret on how to keep your car looking showroom new. You gotta hit the blog tomorrow to find out. I'm off to flag football and then pre-Cinco de Mayo parties.

Holla'

Stayin' on top of the scores

Kiosks throughout the course allow fans to keep up with the stats.

If you'd like to make a call

A couple of weeks ago, several of you ripped me for criticizing the ushers at Blumenthal about their anti-cellphone fanaticism. (One blog poster is still waiting for me to apologize)

Well, at the Wachovia Championship cellphones aren't an issue. Patrons are advised to leave them in the car and there are five call centers set up throughout the course with Sprint telephones. Each has six phones, along with high-speed Internet access in case patrons need to check mail. Callers are asked to limit their conversations to five minutes to allow more people to use the phones. Call centers are great, but it's not the same as holding up your own phone and letting the person on the other end hear the roar of the crowd when David Duval whacks the ball.

Who cares about golf?

Crowds of people gathered around the parking area to see the cool cars lined up. This Mercedes SLR was the eye catcher of the afternoon.

Dressed for the tourney

Aww, they're so cute: Jessica Pinti and Patrick Rabun on their way to see Vijay Singh

Doing it with style: Maurice Brown (green) and Reggie Weddington ( brown) taking in their first Wachovia Championship

It's hot out herre, I wanna take my clothes off

Whoa, I totally didn't pay attention to weather when I got dressed for the tournament this morning. I rode my motorcycle because I'm in gas conservation mode. That means I'm wearing boots and jeans, and I'm dyiiing. Tomorrow I'm taking it back to zip away pants. You know the ones that turn into shorts when you zip the legs off. I'll be rocking those when I rode over.

Missing Tiger

A buddy and I stopped by Belle Acres for the Wachovia Championship media night and were surprised by the light crowd. The food was great (as you can tell by the line of people in the photograph), but there were fewer people than last year. We wondered if the absence of Tiger brought less media folks out this year or were reporters chasing reaction about the passing of Tiger's dad, Earl.

Speaking of which, a couple of co-workers and I got into a heated debate about the importance of Earl Woods' death. I won't mention any names, but two others and I remarked about how sad it was that he died. After following Tiger's career, I felt like I knew his father. I was shedding tears along with Tiger when he won the Augusta National in 1997 and hugged his father for a long time. My mom and I sniffled on the phone to each other as we watched. I'll always remember the elder Woods in that moment.

One colleague commented that the passing of Tiger's dad was no more significant than the death of any other 74-year-old man. We argued about why the death of Tiger's dad was news and was more notable than any random person in our obit pages. Our colleague didn't budge.

What do you think? Should Earl Woods have been an obit inside our local section?

Wooooo, it's my birthday month

It's May baby, and I've already begun my monthlong celebration of my birthday on May 26. I spent last weekend at home with my girls, pictured above, and we tore up D.C. Read about it in Friday's Paid to Party in E&T.

Woooo, I love May. I'm so hype, this week is going to be off the chain. I'm starting tonight at a media party for the Wachovia Championship.

On Thursday, I'll be at Alive After Five, then I'm hitting the streets for pre-Cinco de Mayo parties. Friday is Cinco de Mayo and I don't know what I'm doing on Saturday. There's so much to choose from.

I'll be blogging from the Wachovia Championship most of the day on Thursday and Friday. If you know of any good spots or things I should highlight while I'm there pop me a note.

See you in the streets.

Wachovia Championship is back

Getting ready for the big week


Everything has to be clean for the big week

Getting Ready for the big dance

The hordes of people haven't arrived yet, but on Monday afternoon Quail Hollow still buzzed with life. Bobby Miranda whipped his golf cart around corners zipping past other carts and pedestrians. He needed to find a guy named Chris and he was running late for a training session.

Miranda is responsible for the food and beverages in the dozens of chalets that will host high-profile parties and guests. Monday, is training day. There's a party tonight, one on Tuesday and things really kick off on Thursday. Miranda has coordinated food at the Grammys, a "Sex and the City" party for HBO and other high profile events.

If you're ever been in one of the chalets at the Wachovia Championship, you know how elegantly the food is laid out. Presentation is everything! For about five minutes, Miranda went over the types of serving dishes, silverware and even making sure all of the stickers are peeled off the fruit. I need to bring Miranda's folks to my house. I always eat the sticker along with my apple.

After his spiel, Miranda got the 12 staffers pumped for an afternoon of polishing silverware.

Fun.

Partying on the rooftop

So my girl Olivia Fortson caught a little heat for her partying on the rooftop package last week.

The folks at the Forum were a little chafed that she didn't include their rooftop. The Forum does have a phat rooftop. It's spacious with a bar and it's perfect for people-watching along College and Sixth Street.

Other readers complained that the rooftop at Presto Bar and Grill wasn't included. I'm not really feeling that complaint because there's no good people-watching happening in that area.


By the way the rooftop patio at Cans will be doing a test run this weekend. They're still getting furniture and other essentials, but weather permitting it will be open.

Olivia will be running a follow-up rooftop story in Friday's E&T, but until then I wanted your feedback on your favorite rooftops and balconies.


Who has the best spot and what's the best night to go? Post your replies below.