When I was three years old I was in our basement watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and playing with my cousins when I found a small, silver ring on the floor. Not a jewelry ring, but something that had probably fallen off of a toy because it was the dark ages and they didn’t have choking warnings yet. Though, I was the 4th child, so even with a choking warning I would have been expected to give myself the Heimlich.

But, I didn’t eat the little ring, I put it on my finger. A few minutes later, when my finger turned purple, I went upstairs to show my mom. She stayed calm, because 4th child, and drove me to a nearby fire station where the firefighters had a tool to cut the metal off my swollen hand.

I bet none of those firefighters remember that incident, but my mom and I sure do. Just as I remember the two times I’ve had to call the fire department to my house in the years since. It’s amazing how safe you feel when you’re in the presence of life-saving people. It’s a total bonus that they look good in uniform.

Last night I attended an event at Firehouse Subs, where I got to meet the founder, Robin Sorenson. He and his brother were 2nd generation firefighters when they opened their first sub shop in Jacksonville, Florida.

See the bucket he’s holding? That’s one of 150,000 barrels of pickles that Firehouse Subs empties, then resells for charity, each year. Just since opening one of their five shops in the Columbus area, they have donated over $220,000 to local fire departments for life-saving equipment.

That’s just in central-Ohio. There are over 600 Firehouse Subs franchises and all of them give back to the communities in which they’re located. I don’t know about you, but that’s a great reason for my family to eat there. But, if that isn’t enough for you, just look at this brisket, oozing with cheese.

Mmm hmm. Plus, Firehouse Subs was voted No.1 fast food sandwich by Zagat and No. 1 sandwich in a Nation’s Restaurant News Consumer Picks study. For real, its good.

And, because they can’t stop being nice even if they tried, they’ve asked me to give a lucky reader $20.00 in gift cards! Just leave a comment on this post and tell me about a moment when a firefighter helped you or touched you in some way. You can earn an extra entry by tweeting about this giveaway and leaving the URL to your tweet in a comment on this post.

This contest ends on June 17th, 2013 at noon EDT. One winner will be chosen from among qualified entries. Good luck and happy eating!

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The other day was not a good one.

It started with the upstairs shower leaking into our kitchen; a deep pool of water on the counter kicked off the day. After that I found a container of watermelon that had been left out all night *shudder*; then we received a giant bill from my son’s cardiologist and rounded out the day with sewage coming up the drain of our basement utility sink.

Oh, joy.

After all of that, let me tell you what I didn’t want to do: MAKE DINNER.

What I wanted to do was run away from my house of horrors and go get a drink! And that’s exactly what I did.

Lucky for me, there is an Applebee’s within walking distance of my house. I called a few people, told them to meet me there, and by the time the three of them arrived appetizers had already been delivered to the table!

Lots of appetizers. And, we ate every bit of them.

To compensate for the indulgence of tortilla chips, I ordered the Skinny Bee Margarita (YUM).

Though there weren’t a lot of vegan options on the menu, the waitress was more than accommodating and the manager brought me a list of foods that were meat and dairy free. There were also handy lists for food allergies.

I ended up with this spicy and delicious Sizzling Asian Shrimp and Broccoli (minus the shrimp).

You may also notice there is a beer there. It was spicy. I had to! Plus, the margarita was part of the appetizer.

Some people don’t have to worry about eating meat though. Color me jealous. I’m not going to lie. I stole some of those fries.

Then everyone else ordered this for dessert. This is a picture from Applebee‘s website, because I didn’t have time to take a picture before they started tearing into it.

By the time I got my phone out to snap a picture, it looked like this. Notice how they left one bite of cookie on the plate:

All in all, we had a few drinks, a lot of food and a ton of fun. I love living in a neighborhood where there is a restaurant that I can take my family to or meet a few girlfriends for happy hour. It was the perfect way to end my day on a high note.

Applebee’s knows the value of meeting friends at the end of a stressful day. After all, they like to say: “Life is Better Shared.” They also know sometimes friends can’t meet face-to-face, and they want you to be a part of their online circle of friends. Find them on Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube or Tumblr!

Applebee‘s and BlogHer want you to end your day on a high note too, because they’re giving one lucky reader a $150 Applebee‘s gift card! To be entered for a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post and answer the question, “When’s the last time you had a girl’s night out?

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I just got back from a trip to Manhattan where I attended a writing conference for work. There were oodles of editors from Penguin and I even had the opportunity to spend 90 minutes in a mentoring session with a literary agent. Not everyone gets a chance like this and I spent the the days preceding the conference in diligent preparation.

I wrote a query letter and printed out sample chapters of my novel. I made sure that my business cards were packed, my clothes were professional, but not stodgy, and I practiced my elevator pitch until the moment I arrived at the opening reception. Which is also when I realized that I had packed the wrong Spanx.

If there is one thing that you don’t want publishing greats to know about you, it’s that you have visible panty lines and a bloated belly filled with a nerve-calming Corona and lunch; consisting of salt and vinegar chips from the hotel bar.

But, my array of good impressions didn’t stop there. In my middle-age, I have developed lovely dots of mustache sweat when I get nervous. If you see me wiping my upper lip for the first five minutes of our conversation, this is why.

Ah, but those things? They were nothing compared to my dinner with the former editor-in-chief of Redbook Magazine, Stacy Morrison (now a co-worker at BlogHer), and a couple of power–bloggers from NYC. I looked for pictures of Stacy online, but I couldn’t decide between the one of her with Cindy Crawford or the one with Harry Connick Jr.

That’s right, I was like the Ohio Tweedledum at a Times Square sushi restaurant with three, sophisticated New Yorkers.

Do you know that they don’t even give you forks at authentic, NYC sushi restaurants? I had to be taught how to use chopsticks by Stacy. So, understandably, when I got a nice big chunk of avocado between my sticks I was quite proud of my accomplishment. I quickly took the bite and puffed up my chest.

Only, I couldn’t puff up my chest. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t breathe at all. Because I hadn’t eaten a big bite of avocado, I had eaten a big bite of wasabi.

After the taste hit my tongue and my eyes started to water, I felt my nose hairs spontaneously combust. If you inhaled fire through your nostrils, the sensation would be a lot like eating a half-dollar-sized chunk of wasabi. I could actually feel the fumes entering my sinuses and if I hadn’t been sitting on the inside of the booth I would have made a run for the nearest tub of ice and buried my head. The good news is that the cold I was getting was obliterated within seconds.

My face turned red and I couldn’t talk. I thought, for a moment, that the description of “Spicy Titanic Roll” on the menu had been, grossly, under-exaggerated. New York menu designers are crazy, yo! It turned out, however, that “spicy” and “condiment” mean exactly the same things in New York as they do in Ohio.

And, you know what? So does moron.

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The other night, my husband and I did something we rarely do. We went out on a date.

The kids were being spoiled at Grandma’s house as we slid into a candlelit booth at my favorite seafood restaurant which is one of many fine dining experiences owned by a local restaurateur. We decided to splurge and started with beer and calamari with green beans and red peppers (me) and wine, clam chowder and a wedge salad (my husband).

Okay, truth be told, we weren’t splurging as much as we were using a $100 gift card that my husband got for Christmas. But, we were eating a lot. My pants? They were splurging.

For the entree, I chose a delectable pecan crusted trout and my husband decided to completely deplete the gift card and ordered twin lobster tails. You know? Twin, as in two.

When the $115 bill arrived, we thought we had gotten off pretty cheap.

Until the waitress said, “You can use this gift card at one of the eight C.M. restaurants here in town, but he sold us to another corporation three years ago.”

Needless to say, we skipped the popcorn at the movie that night.

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