Batson's Blog

Of all the cupcake shops I've been to this year, I think this week's business has the most creative name: Splat! Cakes n Such . The owner of the shop says the name was inspired by her kitchen: "Well, it is simply a fun word that colorfully describes what my kitchen looks like while I'm baking..." Splat is located right on the main street in Lowell, North Carolina. Of all the cupcake shops I've been to this year, this one also had one of the largest selection of flavors -- or at least the most unique. Every flavor isn't offered every day -- that's how they keep you coming back -- but there were about a dozen different flavors to choose from on the day I went. With so many choices to choose from, I had no problem picking out four different cupcakes. Bubble Gum Cupcake They nailed the taste on this cupcake! It seriously tasted exactly like Bubble Yum – both the cupcake and the frosting. They got the taste dead on -- unfortunately. It ...

There’s at least two closed cupcake shops I’ve run into in Indian Trail, but along Indian Trail Road, there’s a cupcake shop that’s in business. It’s A Piece of Cake is located in a small strip mall near the Ace Hardware. I drove by a couple of times before, but each time the store looked like it was closed. I called ahead to make sure it was actually open. It was, so the Indian Trail cupcake taste test was good to go. The cupcake shop isn’t much to look at inside. There was a display case, but there were a bunch of seemingly random things in there as well. It was almost like a garage sale. It was like a pawn shop-turned-bakery. Nonetheless, there were a few different flavors of cupcakes in plastic six-packs in the display cases, so I chose three of them: a Twix cupcake, an Almond Joy cupcake, and a chocolate cupcake.

This week I decided to go North. I went to Cornelius to check out a cupcake shop I found online: Just Baked Cupcakes & Coffee House . They have a nice, little store. Because it's part coffee house, part cupcake shop, it has a different vibe than any of the other shops I've been to. It's in a brick home on Main Street in Cornelius. There are a couple of tables and a few chairs right as you walk in. With a gas station right next door, the shop is definitely a nice place to stop and get a snack if you're on a road trip. They have different flavors each day. That's a good way to get people coming back day after day. When I went they had about five or six to choose from. In addition to cupcakes they have various other kinds of bars, brownies, and cookies. I was there for the cupcakes though! The first one I had was the Sugar Cookie cupcake, which, remarkably, tasted like a sugar cookie. Topped with the sprinkles you'd find on an actual cookie, the...

As WWE is gearing up for Wrestlemania, TNA is preparing for Slammiversary. With their new pay-per-view model, Slammiversary is the next big pay-per-view TNA has -- but it's not until June. We'll see if that new model generates any additional interest or buys. Saturday night they were in Concord, North Carolina for a live event. For $16 (I didn't bother trying to get floor seats), it doesn't matter what event they're gearing up for or how many pay-per-views they have. I'll buy a ticket. I went to a TNA live event in 2008. I got to help out at a different live event in 2009, clearing the broken table (courtesy of Team 3-D) from the ring and taking the photos for the fans as they posed with A.J. Styles in the ring after the event. This time, I wasn't wanting to meet the wrestlers or network with anyone. It's just something to do on a Friday night for a relatively cheap price. I've been reading spoilers and catching bits and pieces of I...

Went to Uptown Charlotte the other day to run some errands. Took a few pics while I was there -- a little something I like to call Parking Deck Photography. lol Take a look at a few more on my Flickr photostream .

Much like my HeroesCon adventure a couple of weeks back, I found out last week that there was a pro wrestling show in Charlotte last Friday night. I ended up having the night off from work, so I figured I’d check it out. It wasn’t my first indy wrestling experience, but I haven’t gone to a show in a long time. See, I’ve been working at getting into World Wrestling Entertainment as a creative writer for the past few years. I networked my butt off for the last four years. It kind of culminated with a backstage interview with a member of the production team at a show WWE had in Sioux City, Iowa . It was a live Raw and a taping of ECW as well, so things were a bit hectic. I had my interview early in the afternoon and went home before the show started. Timing wasn’t right. They weren’t hiring. That’s what I was told anyway. WWE has been to the Time Warner Arena twice since I moved to Charlotte, but I couldn’t bring myself to go. It would've been hard to enjoy the show...

Since moving to Charlotte over a year ago, I quickly noticed that the rules of the road are a little bit different here. You pretty much drive where you want to, when you want to. If someone driving a big old Caddy wants to pass a CATS bus, they will. Oncoming traffic be damned! The double yellow line in the center of the road is more like a guideline, anyway, right? Then again, sometimes I don’t blame the drivers of Charlotte. I blame whoever designed some of these roads! Take a look at these two intersections – two of them I frequent more often than I’d like. Now you tell me that isn’t an accident just waiting to happen. It’s at spots like that where everyone sits in their car going, “Whose turn is it to go again?” But, along with the crazy road designs come some pretty fun signs. This one, for example, highlights one of the many complicated intersections in Charlotte. You’ve also got your odd speed limits… …and, of course, the crazy street names . No mo...