Saturday Swag-urday: Pizza and stuff

This past weekend the dudes (2/3 of them at least) were shackin' up with their Mimi and Papa.

We decided to take advantage of the "alone" time (because, honestly, it's like we're alone when we are only in charge of one kid; it's so easy it should be against the law) by doing some virtually-impossible-with-the-antagonist-and-protagonist-locked-in-an-epic-battle-at-all-times around.

We went car shopping (no, we didn't get one yet, but we are so going to; maybe someone wants to send me a freebie to review?!).

And then, we went out to eat.

At a sit down establishment!

See, one kid is e-a-s-y!

We visited zpizza in Rockville (but they have locations nationwide) and it was, for lack of a better word, AWESOME!



Hubby is a self proclaimed pizza connoisseur of sorts, so he's very selective with his pizza, and even he enjoyed it.

The place rocked because they had:

1. Friendly staff. I really hate it when I go into a place and the workers are literally pissed that they have to deal with me. I mean, I sympathize, I hate work too. But, I do my best to disguise my loathing with a bright smile and my cheery work voice. It's the least I can do, ya know, since chances are good I'm not going to do much else. Everyone at the zPizza was smiling and patient (b/c they have a seriously confusing menu with tons of options so I was all over the place).

2. Organic product. Not that I seek out organic dining options, I'm not that committed to good health (see jiggly belly for proof). But, it's like an added bonus because then I don't have to feel quite so bad about giving it to the dudes.



3. Tasty, wood fired crust. To me, it's all about the crust. If you start with a good base then you can slack off a little bit (not that they did, it was all tasty) in other areas. And, I like my crust thin and crunchy (if you don't then this is probably not the place for you). We went for the whole wheat crust (give it up for better health!) and it was deliciously wood-fired and thin and good.

4. Affordable prices: This is not the defining factor for us, but it does make a difference, especially since I feel like I am feeding a team of horses (wait, horses don't eat meat, do they? Okay, I'm feeding mythical meat heating horses) these days. We got a large pizza and two drinks for less than $20. That's not bad since when we go to Burger King it costs us an arm and a leg. Seriously, I took the dudes to BK last week and for just the two of them it cost me $11.78! And, it's not even organic!



5. Choices, choices, choices: The menu is laid out with different steps. You pick your crust, you pick your sauce flavor, and you pick your toppings. We are boring, traditional, don't fix what ain't broken pizza eaters so we got regular, regular, half mushroom/half pepperoni (b/c Hubby thinks mushrooms are poisonous, and I;m watching my girlish figure...NOT!). But, we could have gotten the Tuscan pizza with roasted garlic sauce and truffle oil, or the Santa Fe pizza with chipotle pesto and chicken sausage.

Wanna know more about zPizza's healthy bits?

They use:
certified organic wheat flour in our crust (contains no dairy)
certified organic tomato sauce
part-skim, rGBH-free, award winning Wisconsin cheese
msg-free and nitrate-free sausage and meatballs
msg-free pepperoni
vegetables that we roast in-house
other options: gluten-free crust, soy cheese

Wanna get a discount on zPizza next time you go (since you are totally gonna click on this link and find one near you because I said so)?

Join their ztribe and get a $5 coupon for your next visit.


Just so you know: The pizza was free, but it really was good. Sometimes free stuff sucks; this wasn't one of those times:)!

PR Nightmare

As you all know, there are occasions in which me and the fam receive products from companies or PR people or wherever. I get numerous offers a week, but only accept the ones I think we are really interested in trying.

When this happens I generally designate a small amount of space on the blog to discuss my opinions regarding the particular product.

I make sure to include my personal opinions about it, and I always write these in my own words (as in they don't tell me what to say, if it's awesome I say so, and if it sucks, I say that too.)

On other occasions we (I guess, me really) are approached to write reviews (for cash) about various products and places.

Generally, in these instances the company usually includes blocks of words and/or links that they require you to use in your post. Sometimes, the chunks of required words are small, or consist of a couple of links. Other times they are essentially paragraphs that set the tone and (pretty much) opinion of the post and the item.

I DO NOT do these types of shameless product propaganda reviews.

I NEVER write reviews for items I haven't tried or places I haven't been.

And, I don't write reviews for companies that want to tell me what to say in my review. You know how I feel about bullies.


Not even for cash.

Some people do this.

I'm not one of those people.

Not because I can't use the cash; 'cause I totally can.

It's just something I'm not comfortable with.

It feels a lot like lying to me. They tell you what to say, and the tell you how to say it, and they give you the proof to support what they are telling you to say. And then, they tell you, "Oh, and we don't want you to say we gave you money to do this, 'cause, you know, that might make people not believe you."

I'm all for lying when necessary (ie. Hubby asks, Did you finish the cookies?". I say, "No, the kids did.". Or, kid asks, "Do you have any more cookies?". I say, "No, Daddy ate them.". See, necessary lying.).

This sort, that really doesn't benefit me at all, is just not necessary. I'm not even really a "review site" (although I'm not 100% sure what I'm considered).

I do reviews that fit into my overall theme (which, in case you didn't know is Awesomeness and how to be it) because I like the product (or thought I was gonna like it before I actually tried it).

I do reviews on items my family uses regularly, or places we go, or things we do.

And, I do these because I like to.

I like getting free crap (who doesn't it?).

And, since I generally only accept crap I know I'm (probably) gonna like or use, I don't mind writing about it.

Plus, I like to share things that I think you guys might be interested in.

Do I care if you buy it?

Nope. (PR suicide, perhaps.)

Do I get any benefit if you buy it?

Nope. 'Cause if I did, I might care, right?!

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

And, I may be chocking on it soon since I inadvertently probably ticked off some other (way more popular) bloggers about this opinion.

Apparently, this topic is a source of major debate over on Mom Dot at the moment.

They (among others) are planning a full out PR Blackout (for various reasons that I won't get into here since I'm not sure I fully understand and I think I've done enough to make them hate me, so yeah. But if you wanna know, click on the link) sometime in August when they will not be talking to any PR people at all.

I got in on the debate (which I didn't realize was so heated since I didn't read the initial post, or the responses, or anything. Just did the whole speak before you think (or research) bit) and accidentally (on purpose) pitted myself (or at least my opinion) against the head honcho over there.

I'm not too concerned about that, since she probably won't even notice little ole me and my big mouthed, uninformed opinion, but I am concerned that this whole thing is such a huge issue.

I just don't understand why people are so up in arms about it.

I don't get why anyone cares if I want to spread my bloggy legs like a $2 hooker for PR reps and companies pushing their free stuff on me.

I'm not gonna go the route of the review-anything-for-a-buck-flashing-in-your-face-buy-me-buy-me-buy-me-ad blogs (sadly, no one wants to advertise here anyway), and I'm not gonna sell out to "the man" (always wanted to say that!).

But, if you want to do that, and it works for you, and your readers are down for it, rock on.

I don't think I'm awesome enough to have a blog focused entirely on myself, or what I buy, or like, or do, to garner any support from any where.

I'm pretty sure you all come here because you like to read about the dudes and sympathize with them for having such a underachieving-uncreative-largely-misguided-pig of a mom.

And, possibly to laugh at me having near death experiences with playground equipment.

But, I plan to continue doing the occasional review/giveaway (I know you guys like free stuff to, right?!). And by occasional I mean pretty much every Saturday. Some of them are of free stuff I got from companies, some of them will be stuff I bought (or want to buy like this cute bag)

So if you hate my reviews (and apparently, someone hates me for some reason b/c I lost a follower. Didn't know people ever actually quit following someone. I mean, if I got fed up, I would just not read anymore, but apparently, this person was so annoyed/irked/irritated/or possibly disgusted by me, that they went through the trouble of un-following me. Obviously this event has upset me because I really like to know why people hate me. Not so I can make improvements or anything, just so I can talk crap about it on my blog, encourage people to disagree with the Dumb Mom naysayer, and in turn, rebuild my confidence which is so easily bruised by the mean people of the world), do yourself a favor and don't visit on Saturday.

But, be sure to come back on Sunday (if you like pics of the dudes) b/c I'm gonna be doing Photo of the Day every Sunday, just 'cause I want to:)