Another year, another zombie run in Tampa!

Everything started off fine this year.  Happy faces all around.

But then some of the runners started acting a little strange.  No offense, but people just weren’t looking all that healthy.  Myself included.  That’s what I get for wearing a dress to a run. How are you going to outrun zombies in a dress?  And so I became a zombie. So sad.

I’ve been lucky enough to run in the 5K Zombie run for years, but this was my first time as a zombie. OMG Fun.  Since my partner in crime was not allowed to run due to surgery a couple days before we switched from runners to zombies kind of last minute.  I mean, plus there were those bites.

Turns out being a zombie is AWESOME. Much more fun than it looks on The Walking Dead.  I didn’t even get an arrow to the head or anything.  Want to take it easy? Just stand dead center and moan about it.  Want to get rid of an excess of energy?  Well there are all those tasty looking humans to try to catch. Being a zombie can actually be MORE work than being a runner when a long wave of humans goes by!

Being on the zombie team was every bit as much adult recess as being a runner.  Maybe even more because you are hanging out with strangers trying to strategize about taking down the next horde of humans. Not to mention the extremely scientific discussions regarding why there aren’t more retired age zombies in the movies and why there really should be. Amongst other philosophical discussions while awaiting the next victims.

I got to say, we were pretty good at being the running dead.

Want to try the zombie life?  Take a look and see where you can catch The 5K Zombie Run next! You’ll have to be in Florida though, because these runs are put on by a local Tampa company.

I was just looking back, and it seems I have not been to a Bourbon & Brew Fest.  Highly strange, I love all of Big City Event’s festivals, but it seems this one always came up after I had committed to something else.  Not this year!

This year instead of the traditional festival they are having a bourbon tasting. There will be over 40 kinds of bourbons to try and it’s all in Tampa this Saturday from 5pm – 10pm.

Now I gotta admit I love a really good bourbon over ice, but also flavors amuse me greatly. There will be Jim Beam Maple Whiskey (hell ya!) and this:

Now, I doubt they will have bourbon cream floats at the tasting, but I will be trying the Brown Jug Bourbon Cream no matter what they mix it with. Or don’t mix it with. Enough said.

Besides the opportunity to taste all kinds of bourbon there will, of course, be some brews AND moonshine.

Oh, and don’t forget the music. All country all the time.

So, to be honest I’m not exactly a good ole country girl. Or anything other kind of country. But I love pretty much all live music, and who doesn’t love this?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLWDxh8NBOo] I am so going to buy a cowboy hat before Saturday!

Go here for all the important info including prices, what you can and can’t bring and such. The Grand Tasting is at Armature Works on Tampa’s Riverwalk. Have I said enough times yet how much I love Riverwalk?  Probably not.

After you do that, how about a chance to win a pair of General Admission tickets?  Just let me know if you are a year round country fan or a fan of convenience (like me) and if you’ve listened to any of the bands that will be at the tasting!  Also, use the Rafflecopter link so I know who you are:
Enter HERE!!!

I received two VIP tickets to The Bourbon & Brew Grand Tasting 2015 in exchange for writing a review and a giveaway. As always, my opinions are all mine.

I now know what it would take to pull me out of my self imposed blog break. That would be my favorite party of the year.  The Summer of Rum Festival is back next Saturday, August 15th from noon to 11:00! This is seriously my favorite yearly event.  And not just because I love my rum. Here’s my review of last year’s bash just to prove how much fun it was.

What would cause this to be not just a favorite but my VERY favorite? For one, it’s at the Cuban Club in Ybor. This means a photo worthy historical building AND not having to be outside in the heat the entire time.  Because we can have lots of fun outside in the heat and all, but it’s also nice to not worry about finding a place in the shade so that you can melt a little bit slower. Plus, maybe it’s haunted.

Also, you know I’m all abut the music.  And the booze, but mostly the music.  Well, it depends on the moment but right this moment I’m sober and so giving music the one up. Summer of Rum means ska and reggae and generally island influenced music all the whole day long. And rum. Anyways…  The Hip Abductors are the headline act and I’m particularly liking this song.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbkjwo-iiUk?rel=0]

UNRB is scheduled again this year, so another yay.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfKkEhSqcSY?rel=0] Anyways, lets get back to the important stuff.  The rum. There will be the big names like Captain Morgan and Malibu but check out some of the one’s I don’t know a thing about.  Which means the festival will be a learning experience. Learning is good, right?

Oh, if you want to buy your tickets you can do that too.  General admission tickets are $20 now or $25 at the door.  Want all you can drink and access to the VIP areas? $85 now or $100 at the door.  Of course you know at the door means if they don’t sell out…

I received two VIP tickets to The Tampa Bay Rum Festival in exchange for writing a review and this giveaway. As always, my opinions are all mine.

I have a confession to make.  OK, it’s not really a confession because everyone knows and I’ve said it before.  I am a LAZY runner.  I’ve been running for ages and still have never run much more than 4 miles because I tend to take breaks. Usually just because I lose the bug, sometimes, like this last time, because of a ulcerative colitis flare. Even when I take a break because I’m sick I tend to milk it.  I haven’t been sick in over a month and I just started running again last week. This time I decided to stop pretending like I have running pride and I am sticking to a beginner 5K plan I found on Runkeeper. For free!  Check them out.

Anyways, I found the perfect motivation to stick with it for a couple of weeks at least, and by then I’ll be back in the habit.  Sunday, May 3rd at 10am Cigar City Brewing is having a fun run in downtown Tampa along the Tampa Riverwalk.  There’s no color being thrown on you, no obstacles and no mud.  So what makes this a fun run?  Well.  Let me tell you.

First of all, it’s only 2 miles making it the perfect run for someone who hasn’t been running so much lately. Short and sweet, sounds perfect!  Secondly, since it’s being put on by Cigar City Brewing you know you’ll be getting a Cigar City Beer afterwards. AND the medal that you get doubles as a beer opener. Which (call me an optimist if you must) I feel pretty confident will also open my Angry Orchards. You also get a t-shirt. I really should begin calling myself a professional t-shirt collector between running and donating blood!

OH, lets not forget that this run is just one part of a BIG weekend in Tampa!   As part of the RiverFest 2015 there will also be the Bloody Mary Festival and a downtown carnival, both of which I’ll be doing a giveaway for very shortly. There’s PLENTY more going on as part of RiverFest 2015, you really should check it out!

But, back to the run.  Want to go?  You can check out the run and register here. Or, I’m giving away a pair of tickets to a random winner.  To enter just leave me a comment telling me what your first run was, or letting me know if this would be your first!  Don’t forget to click HERE: RiverRun giveaway and let me know you are entering!  That way I’ll have your email address to let you know if you win.  🙂  The contest runs through Sunday night and I will contact the winner on Monday.

I received 2 tickets to River Run 2015 as a member of Tampa Bay Bloggers thru their partnership with the Big City Events in exchange for this giveaway. All opinions are my own, of course.

I am super excited, next weekend is the Spring Beer Fling in Tampa.  I went last year and had a really good time.

This year they’ll have (once again) a bunch of bands that sound like they’ll be a lot of fun.  The headliner is the Black Lips. Check them out:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZscgSDYDHM]

Sounds like summer and a good time to me!

Jensen Surf Company is going to be there too. This clip outta get you in the proper mood for the Spring Beer Fling:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2UjhD6gCw0] The Spring Beer Fling Will feature 12 signature beer cocktails, fresh made shandys, and beer-linis.

I didn’t actually know what some of those are, turns out a shandy is your choice of beer mixed with lemonade.  Sounds like the definition of a refreshing spring drink! The beerlinis are beer mixed with fruit puree. So, basically I’m pretty sure it counts as a health drink, seeing how the word fruit is in it. Yay! They even include Angry Orchard Cider as a beer for those of us like myself that are less beer inclined. Not that I won’t be sampling some of them!

They’ll have lots of mixed beer drinks too. The ones I really want to try are Light My Fire which is a combination of Angry Orchard Cider, Fireball Whiskey and peach puree, the Arnold Palmer Remix which is Sam Adams Cold Snap, Lemonade and Deep Eddy Sweet Tea vodka and The Screw Brew which is Wheat Beer, Deep Eddy Grapefruit Vodka, orange juice. I just want to try that last one because I like the name. 🙂

The festival will be at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in downtown Tampa on Saturday, March 21st, 2015 from noon to 10pm. Enter at the main entrance of the festival will be on Ashley Dr, closest to the Sykes Beer Can Building.

Ticket prices:

General Admission: Advance $14 | Door $25 (if available)
VIP Fling Experience: Advance $75 | Door $125 (if available)
For more information, visit www.SpringBeerFling.com

I was given the opportunity to give away not just one but 5 pairs of general admission tickets, just leave a blog comment or follow my on Twitter and let me know that you did through this Rafflecopter giveaway. The contest ends Thursday night and I’ll notify the winners Friday morning.

I received two VIP tickets to Spring Beer Fling 2015 in exchange for writing a review and this giveaway. As always, my opinions are all mine.

The Color Run’s kaleidoscope tour is wrapping up.  The year 2015 will bring a whole new thing.  What thing? I don’t know but I bet it will be great.

The point is, you can still get in on the 2014 Kaleidoscope Tour in Clearwater, they will be here December 7th! Truth be told, I already ran in The Color Run Kaleidoscope Tour back in January.  But I had so much fun I’m doing it again.  In January I ran with my kids, this year I’m going to do a little more running and a little less fooling around (that last part was a was a lie) and run it with my sister. This is the same sister I talked in to doing a spontaneous mud run with me, I’m thinking we’ll have a blast.

The Color Run is still the only run I’ve ever done that was on actual roads.  It was pretty neat just because it was different.  Yes, I know most races are probably done on streets but not the ones I do.  🙂

So the question of the day is should you run The Color Run too? Well obviously I think so because I only write about things I like.  But do YOU think so?

From the Color Run’s site:

“Less about your 10-minute-mile and more about having the time of your life, The Color Run is a five-kilometer, un-timed race in which thousands of participants, or “Color Runners”, are doused from head to toe in different colors at each kilometer. With only two rules, the idea is easy to follow:

1. Wear white at the starting line
2. Finish plastered in color!”

To be serious I’d kill for a 10 minute mile, but whatever.  Even if you have never run before in your life you can wear white and get plastered in color by the end of this run, trust me.  I’ve seen people walk the entire race with a double stroller and I’ve seen people actually race this thing but what I haven’t seen is someone not having a good time at The Color Run.  Oh ya, and I also saw a unicorn guy.  No, I’m not explaining that one.

So, if you are in Tampa come on out and run with me, if you are not in Tampa check out their site to see if The Color Run 2014 Kaleidoscope Tour will be coming your way.  Here is where you can see if they are coming to you and sign up if you’d like.

Don’t tell me this doesn’t look fun!  Come out and play…

Also, check out this DIY t-shirt weaving tutorial they have on their blog. I didn’t even know The Color Run had a blog, there is some pretty cool stuff over there.

Disclosure: I have received two free race entries in exchange for posting about The Color Run. As is the usual all opinions are my own.

Oh, I almost forgot. You can use promo code COLOR5OFF to get $5 off a registration to ANY city. Important: code must be entered at time of registration, cannot be retro-applied. Also please type the code in, do not copy/paste. Not valid with other discounts or promotions.

I have to say, I expected this show to be funny but I didn’t expect it to have as many laughs as it did.  Some of the laughs where OMG that’s funny, some of the laughs where OMG I can’t believe they just did that.  Definitely not a show for the whole family!  So ya, I loved it.

I was also pretty impressed that they did all of the necessary scenes – the bad, bad, evil trees scene (they lowered everyone’s karma in the room by making us laugh so much at this), the chainsaw scene, all the good stuff.

My favorite part?  The fact that they embraced campy in every way possible.  If you are in Tampa and free this Saturday or Sunday night you should absolutely go see it – You can get your tickets on Straz Center’s website.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any pictures, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.  Evil Dead the Musical is playing in more places than Tampa (I know, what? why?) – you can follow Evil Dead The Tour  on Twitter to see if they are coming to your town.  If you go come back and tell me what you thought!

I received two tickets to Evil Dead the Musical in exchange for writing a review. As always, my opinions are all mine.

Ya.  That’s really a thing.  From Straz Center’s site:

“College kids in an abandoned cabin in the woods for the weekend. What could go wrong? Well, first they accidentally unleash an evil force that turns them into demons. The rest is Evil Dead the Musical, a splatter-fest of camp, gore and one-liners so bad they’ll kill you before the Candarian demons do. This sing-along cult hit is a bloody good time, and for die hard fans, there are always seats available in the Splatter Zone if you get your tickets early. You’ll laugh your guts out.”

What can go wrong indeed?

Who doesn’t want to laugh their guts out? No one I know! Well. No one that I know that I like anyways, and who else counts?

Exactly.

I don’t think I can tell it better than this guy:

Want to come out and get your Evil Dead on?

It’s playing Thurs. at 8 p.m. and Fri. & Sat. at 7:30 p.m. You can pick up tickets here.

Are you a fan of zombies in general or Evil Dead in particular? Do you agree that adding ‘the musical’ to just about anything is kind of awesome?

I received two VIP tickets to Guavaween in exchange for hosting this giveaway and writing a review. As always, my opinions are all mine.

Are you in the Tampa area? Do you have a distinct lack of (awesome) plans this Saturday night? Well, I have a solution for you!

Guavaween is back. For 2014 it’s been recreated into a Voodoo Carnival at the Cuban Club! Now I really wish I could have binge watched Season 4 of American Horror Story last weekend… because YES there will be a freak show. As if just plain people watching won’t be worth the trip. 🙂

I have to admit, I’ve never been to Guavaween before.  I love a good party and all, but this one always sounded a little over the top and uncontained.  But not this year!

This year Guavaween is at the Cuban Club, the same location that The Summer of Rum Festival was, which I loved so much.  This may be because the same team, Big City Events, which put on that festival has taken over Guavaween this year. Lucky for us!

There are going to be 5 themed areas:

Funhouse Avenue with voodoo magic and a Freakshow Carnival

Dumaine Street Courtyard – music, a costume contest, and random street performers

Laveau Lounge to get your fortune read (and more voodoo juice)

Sideshow Theater for live performances from Burlesque troupe shows, freak shows and a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. (I used to watch Rocky Horror every weekend, I’ll have to stop in!)

Club Ju-Jū – where to go for dancing and laser lights (I’m not a big dancer but I can be amused for untold hours by blinking lights…)

So now that you’ve decided that you are going too, what do you need to know? You can get your tickets here.

General Admission Tickets : $18 Limited Presale | $20 Advance | $25 Regular| $30 Door (if available)
VIP Voodoo Experience: $80 Limited Presale | $85 Advance | $95 Regular| $125 Door (if available)

You can find out everything else you need to know including where to park on Guavaweentampa.com.

Want to save your money to spend on your costume and voodoo juice?  Enter to win one of 3 pairs of General Admission tickets here!
Rafflecopter giveaway

I received two VIP tickets to The Tampa Bay Rum Festival through a partnership with Tampa Bay Bloggers in exchange for writing a review. As always, my opinions are all mine.

I seem to have lost any ability to write in a semi-consistent matter, a lot of things have been happening lately concerning work and my personal life that have kept me a bit off centered.  Not all bad but not all good either.  At least I think my u.c. is in remission, they say there is always a bright side.

Anyways, that was my lead in (excuse) to why it took me two weeks to  let you know how the Tampa Summer of Rum Festival went. It was amazing.  I’ve been to other events put on by Big City Events but this was by far my favorite.  And I really liked the others. Follow them on Facebook to see what all they have coming up!

The festival was held at the The Cuban Club, which I’d never been to before.  The building was amazing in and of itself.  Because of the location there were the (really, really good) bands outside, lots of food buses and rum shacks, and also a whole big air conditioned inside to be in.  Inside there was a DJ, dance floor, and additional live entertainment.  I was in heaven; there were different types of music, food and rum everywhere.

On top of that as an add on to the VP ticket the rum tasting was included.  More music and a huge variety of rums to try.  Some where given in shots and others as mixed drinks.  My favorite was the Amber ‘Ti Punch with Clement Select Barrel rum.  The recipe is at the bottom of their page.  I would not have guessed the recipe, but that’s what the lady said I was drinking.  Who am I to argue? I haven’t tried making it myself yet but I without a doubt will.

Did you make it out to the Summer of Rum festival?  If you aren’t in Tampa are there festivals like this in your area?