So. Tuesday has come and gone and it's time to pick a winner! 9 people commented out of the 100 or so visitors - my ploy to lure everyone to make a comment wasn't as strong as I'd hoped :)
The first product I picked was a block of Cheddar from Shelburne Farms. Nobody guessed correctly - you had to be specific! Sooo I decided to put anyone who guessed either Shelburne Farms or cheese in the running.
Those people were:
1. Sarah - Shelburne Farms
2. Maegan - Cheese
3. Mom - Cheddar (but from Dakin Farms)
4. Kate - Vermont Cheddar
Dad came close but didn't guess cheese...
I put 1-4 in a random number generator and the lucky winner was.....
True Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 4
Result: 4
Powered by RANDOM.ORG
Congratulations KATE!
I guess being a regular commenter did pay off for you as you'd hoped :) Your block of waxed cheddar will be in the mail to you soon.
I will pick another random winner later on today...
PS - I did some research on mailing cheese another time and found that cheese put in a waxed block does not have to be refrigerated! The results are mixed but I've sent one to Meg before and it still tasted wonderful. Just FYI.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
It was a good day
I'm coming down with a cold. Boo :( I guess I have a pretty good record considering this is my first cold of the season and I work in an elementary school. Advice I received on my first day...don't drink out of the water fountain.
I fell while skiing yesterday. Twice. I'm sporting matching bruises on the insides of my knees and strained a muscle in my right arm that hurts when I try to lift it over my head. I've self-diagnosed it as an injury to the infraspinatus and my research told me I could treat it with ice or heat - good thing I made that rice heating bag :) The thing that was hurt most was my pride. I hoped I was better able to handle all types of conditions...
I'm just trying to keep it real and not paint a picture that's too rosy. Obviously, those aren't the things that made today good.
These are.
1. It wasn't cloudy or raining. Hello Sun! How I've missed your bright and shining face! It was also 36 degrees today so my face was the only exposed part of my body, but I'll take the Vitamin D any way I can get it!
2. My love for Daylight Savings knows no end. Who cares if you lose an hour of sleep on a Saturday night when the sun stays around until after 6pm! Yipee! It is dark when I leave for work at 6:30am but I don't have anything to do at that hour except drive anyway.
3. John is coming! John is coming! He's supposed to be here Thursday...Keep your fingers crossed that the rain we're supposed to get this week turns to snow in the mountains or we'll be doing lots of this :)
4. It's official! We are approved! We received final word today that our financing went through so we're one step closer to closing on our new house...
I fell while skiing yesterday. Twice. I'm sporting matching bruises on the insides of my knees and strained a muscle in my right arm that hurts when I try to lift it over my head. I've self-diagnosed it as an injury to the infraspinatus and my research told me I could treat it with ice or heat - good thing I made that rice heating bag :) The thing that was hurt most was my pride. I hoped I was better able to handle all types of conditions...
I'm just trying to keep it real and not paint a picture that's too rosy. Obviously, those aren't the things that made today good.
These are.
1. It wasn't cloudy or raining. Hello Sun! How I've missed your bright and shining face! It was also 36 degrees today so my face was the only exposed part of my body, but I'll take the Vitamin D any way I can get it!
2. My love for Daylight Savings knows no end. Who cares if you lose an hour of sleep on a Saturday night when the sun stays around until after 6pm! Yipee! It is dark when I leave for work at 6:30am but I don't have anything to do at that hour except drive anyway.
3. John is coming! John is coming! He's supposed to be here Thursday...Keep your fingers crossed that the rain we're supposed to get this week turns to snow in the mountains or we'll be doing lots of this :)
4. It's official! We are approved! We received final word today that our financing went through so we're one step closer to closing on our new house...
Our Weekend
Happy Monday everybody! Hope you had a great weekend. It was grey and drizzly here most of the weekend...yuck! That's early spring in VT in all her glory.
We went here Friday night with a bunch of friends. I managed a few strikes and only 2 double zeros. Yipee! Sorry, didn't bring my camera.
We went skiing at Mad River Glen on Saturday. It was my first time skiing the mountain, but we'd been to the top before in the fall with Sarah and Ned!
The conditions weren't the best but we had fun anyway :)
We did get a peek at the pretty view...
This looks like me (in the red coat) but I was taking the picture :)
Let's see...what else? Willow was a little bored on Sunday morning because we'd made her stay home alone all day on Saturday.
So we took her to the dog park.
Now for the most exciting part of the weekend!!!
2011 ACC Champs! WooHoo!
On Sunday, DUKE dominated Carolina with a 75-58 victory to win the ACC Championship Game. They played amazingly well. Tenacious defense and the shots just seemed to fall all night long. This team was out for redemption after the embarassing loss to Carolina not too long ago. I know better than to jinx it, but.....
You know I'm hoping this continues into the tournament. I don't think I have unrealistic expectations. Please see this article for an explanation.
I apologize for my obnoxious past, present, and future DUKE fandom, but don't blame me. Blame my parents for taking me to watch DUKE play when I was an infant, stuffing my ears with cotton to block out the screaming in Cameron.
We went here Friday night with a bunch of friends. I managed a few strikes and only 2 double zeros. Yipee! Sorry, didn't bring my camera.
We went skiing at Mad River Glen on Saturday. It was my first time skiing the mountain, but we'd been to the top before in the fall with Sarah and Ned!
The conditions weren't the best but we had fun anyway :)
We did get a peek at the pretty view...
This looks like me (in the red coat) but I was taking the picture :)
Let's see...what else? Willow was a little bored on Sunday morning because we'd made her stay home alone all day on Saturday.
So we took her to the dog park.
Now for the most exciting part of the weekend!!!
2011 ACC Champs! WooHoo!
On Sunday, DUKE dominated Carolina with a 75-58 victory to win the ACC Championship Game. They played amazingly well. Tenacious defense and the shots just seemed to fall all night long. This team was out for redemption after the embarassing loss to Carolina not too long ago. I know better than to jinx it, but.....
You know I'm hoping this continues into the tournament. I don't think I have unrealistic expectations. Please see this article for an explanation.
I apologize for my obnoxious past, present, and future DUKE fandom, but don't blame me. Blame my parents for taking me to watch DUKE play when I was an infant, stuffing my ears with cotton to block out the screaming in Cameron.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Free Vermont Stuff!
First of all, my prayers are with those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Hawaii, and California. A scary time.
The Giveaway...
So here goes....I talk a lot about my love for Vermont here on the blog. People around here are very supportive of Vermont made products and local stores.
I wanted to give away a little something for you made in Vermont. I have 2 Vermont products I'm going to send out. To win you have to leave a comment making a guess about what you think I'm going to give away (be specific - don't just say t-shirt - tell me which one and where it's from).
A few hints...one of the products comes from a place I've mentioned on the blog before. To be fair if you don't know me well or haven't read the blog for a while, one of the products I've never mentioned so pure guessing could win you that one.
I'm not getting any type of sponsorship or anything for these - I just love VT products and think they're great!
The first person to guess correctly will win! If nobody guesses then I'll pick 2 winners at random (no playing favorites, I promise). You have until Tuesday to guess :)
If you don't have a google account, you can comment under "Anonymous" and just leave your name. If you have trouble commenting, let me know!
Good luck!
The Giveaway...
So here goes....I talk a lot about my love for Vermont here on the blog. People around here are very supportive of Vermont made products and local stores.
I wanted to give away a little something for you made in Vermont. I have 2 Vermont products I'm going to send out. To win you have to leave a comment making a guess about what you think I'm going to give away (be specific - don't just say t-shirt - tell me which one and where it's from).
A few hints...one of the products comes from a place I've mentioned on the blog before. To be fair if you don't know me well or haven't read the blog for a while, one of the products I've never mentioned so pure guessing could win you that one.
I'm not getting any type of sponsorship or anything for these - I just love VT products and think they're great!
The first person to guess correctly will win! If nobody guesses then I'll pick 2 winners at random (no playing favorites, I promise). You have until Tuesday to guess :)
If you don't have a google account, you can comment under "Anonymous" and just leave your name. If you have trouble commenting, let me know!
Good luck!
One year!
WOW - It's hard to believe that it has been one year since I wrote this post. My life has certainly changed since then. The weather outside my window today is dramatically different than it was last March 11. We're settled here in VT - although I am facing another move (hopefully)! Blogging has also opened up a whole world I didn't even know existed!
I've really enjoyed writing and I hope you've enjoyed reading! This has been a great way for me to keep everyone updated since I'm often a little slack on phone chats. I also like that I can go back and read myself about what we've done this past year, having an online journal is an unexpected bonus to writing the blog. I was afraid that I'd run out of things to write about, but so far that hasn't happened yet....
I'm not writing to gain lots of readers or advertising or anything like that, but I enjoy looking to see how many of you are reading. I'll share a little more about what my google stats tell me.
The blog has had 8,328 visits!
8,077 from the US
91 Canada
32 Brazil
27 Russia
20 France
19 Saudi Arabia
18 Japan
16 Taiwan
15 Germany
13 Denmark
I'm not sure these are totally accurate because Meg has checked several times in her travels from China, Hong Kong, and Thailand and none of those show up. Perhaps those countries block stat tracking? I also know many people disable cookie tracking (as I do myself!). I'm not sure if stats track those of you that put this in your google reader either.
Anyway, most of you visit either by typing in my blog address or from a referral from google or facebook. My most popular posts were on backcountry skiing and hatcher crackers!
So, I plan to keep things mostly the same here for next year but I have a few things I do want to do better.
1. Tagging. I want to be better about putting labels on posts so you can search for them within the blog. I will also try to change the layout so you can access the archives easier...
2. I want to change the banner to fit the season - I do love that lake picture but I haven't seen a view like that in about 7 months!
3. COMMENTS! I love reading comments, it's fun to hear what you think. Write more of them!
In an attempt to get more of you to comment, I'm going to host a little giveaway! Check back later today and I will post some details...You have to comment if you want to win :) These aren't going to be a regular thing but I just want to see if anybody will actually commment!
I'm just posting these because I think they're funny...I found them all on google images.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Atlanta Fine Homes Tour
When I was down in Atlanta, I kept thinking about how many CHOICES there are! I've never been a city girl (even our last "city" in Virginia wasn't all that big), so I have never lived in a place where there was quite as much action as there is in the ATL.
It is especially true of housing down there. I've never seen anything quite like it. I'm from the south and I'm used to old houses with lots of character and charm, but where my sister lives takes that to another level. Everywhere you turn, you enter another beautiful neighborhood. I walked around with my mouth hanging open. I wanted to give you a sampling of some typical Atlanta homes so I made Meg drive me around before I left. I did get caught by the homeowners taking pics all creepy style a few times - it was embarrassing :)
One word comes to mind when thinking about houses in the South - BRICK.
Not a fan of the traditional brick look? OK. How about a more aged finish?
Or whitewashed?
Perhaps brick mixed with another style?
Red brick not your thing? Fine. How about painted?
I think this one is painted as well...
Just don't like brick AT ALL? OK. You would have other options.
Want something not quite so big? OK.
Unreal...right? Notice how lots of them had such green green grass, even in winter. I guess if your yard isn't covered in snow 5 months of the year it's worth taking care of it. However, in the summer, residents in Georgia often face extreme heat and drought, which leads to water restrictions. Think these beautiful houses have a summer with dead grass because they're not allowed to run the sprinkler system? NOPE. That's why you see signs like this all over the place.
As long as you provide your own water source, you won't get a dirty look from the neighbors or a fine from the drought police, and you get to have that pretty green green grass.
Do I wish I had street after street of these beautiful neighborhoods here in Vermont? You bet. I love looking at them. It makes going running so much more interesting. Then I remind myself of what makes living here so beautiful...
Amazing, huh?
It is especially true of housing down there. I've never seen anything quite like it. I'm from the south and I'm used to old houses with lots of character and charm, but where my sister lives takes that to another level. Everywhere you turn, you enter another beautiful neighborhood. I walked around with my mouth hanging open. I wanted to give you a sampling of some typical Atlanta homes so I made Meg drive me around before I left. I did get caught by the homeowners taking pics all creepy style a few times - it was embarrassing :)
One word comes to mind when thinking about houses in the South - BRICK.
Not a fan of the traditional brick look? OK. How about a more aged finish?
Or whitewashed?
Perhaps brick mixed with another style?
Red brick not your thing? Fine. How about painted?
I think this one is painted as well...
Just don't like brick AT ALL? OK. You would have other options.
Want something not quite so big? OK.
Unreal...right? Notice how lots of them had such green green grass, even in winter. I guess if your yard isn't covered in snow 5 months of the year it's worth taking care of it. However, in the summer, residents in Georgia often face extreme heat and drought, which leads to water restrictions. Think these beautiful houses have a summer with dead grass because they're not allowed to run the sprinkler system? NOPE. That's why you see signs like this all over the place.
As long as you provide your own water source, you won't get a dirty look from the neighbors or a fine from the drought police, and you get to have that pretty green green grass.
Do I wish I had street after street of these beautiful neighborhoods here in Vermont? You bet. I love looking at them. It makes going running so much more interesting. Then I remind myself of what makes living here so beautiful...
Amazing, huh?
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