Boing!

I haven't done a sweepstakes posting in a while, but there have been a few small wins here and there.

* Old Navy $10 gift card
* Neil Diamond CD (unknown sweep)
* FabShopHop $10 gift certificate
* Doritos "Fight for the Flavor" t-shirt (ARV $10)
* "Dave's Dinners" cookbook (ARV $22.95)
* "Night at the Museum" hooded sweatshirt (ARV $30)
* FabShopHop $10 gift certificate
* $25 American Express debit card
* Tom Petty CD (unknown sweep)
* Starbucks $5 gift certificate

I'm especially stunned by the two FabShopHop wins -- ladylyonesse has entered these for years with no luck. A new one started today, so I need to get clicking again!

This coming Friday, we leave for Vegas for the Canyon Ranch spa sweepstakes. I'm REALLY looking forward to it. :)

Life down here in Chestertucky remains happily busy. Dana's up in DC for a couple days on business, I'm eating ice cream, and Hagen is sleeping on the floor next to me.

Every week at work brings a new and different challenge -- building new apps, fixing old ones, adapting yet others -- and there seems to be no shortage of future projects. I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do with my old company when they ask me about the industry report; I'm really leaning towards telling them that I'm sorry but I can't do it. I *could* find the time, but it would mean giving up all my weekend/evening time for at least a couple of weeks, and frankly I prefer entering sweeps. :) Plus, since there's really no on-going business with them, there's no need for me to keep funneling money through my "consulting company," although having done so last year meant that we avoided nearly all taxes associated with the work I did for them after they let me go.

Dana's running for the weekend operations officer position at the squad. He would be great at it, and there are two other people running for it who will likely split the vote. We're both at the point where we'll do stuff to help the squad, but we're not going to kill ourselves to convince them why it's a good idea.

We're heading to Vegas over Easter weekend (bad planning on our part; was a convenient weekend work-wise, and we didn't think to look at the calendar to determine why) for the Canyon River sweepstakes trip. Two spa visits each, a room at the Venetian, and the excellent cigar store (and other shopping) right across the street. Today I booked tickets to see Penn & Teller at the Rio on Sunday night; Dana's never seen them, and I saw them at the National Theatre back in the early 90s.

Um. What else? I'm growing out my hair (again), which is now my natural color (again), which is (sadly) more grey than I recall. There are 18 "trees" in the garage awaiting a time when I can plant them, and then I have to trim back all the dead growth on the catmint and give everything a good fertilizing. I'm contemplating taking up quilting, under the gentle nudgitude of ladylyonesse. I have either a cold or allergies, which involves a lot of sniffling and the occasional tease of a sneeze that may or may not manifest. And I'm still plugging away at the 25 x 25 sudokus.

We just got settled after our Vegas trip. ( :) )

So...happy to be home. :) Must catch up on everything!!

I got an email today saying I won the Venetian Canyon Ranch SpaClub sweepstakes!!

The prize is a 3-night stay at the Venetian in Las Vegas, NV; includes two Canyon Ranch Spa Club Personal Care 2 packages, $200 suite credit, and $200 Grand Canal Shoppes gift card [no transportation] (ARV $1,800).

Six grand prizes in 2006, plus a $1000 savings bond. Unbelievable. :)

It occurs to me that I haven't updated in a coon's age, so here goes.

The new job is going well -- they like my work, I like having something to think about for a change, Dana and I can carpool most mornings and get together for lunch. Getting used to being out of the house for 10+ hours a day is taking some getting used to, though. I'm trying to start a load of laundry every morning so it just needs to be dried and put away when we get home at night.

We found a marvelous butcher AND a store that specializes in fresh pasta, so we're feeling a lot happier on the food front. The pasta place isn't the most convenient place in the world, but it's a damn sight better than buying up at Dean and Deluca in DC and schlepping it home.

Haven't heard anything about Hagen in a bit. I emailed Conny last week to see how he was doing, and whether she would be having a birthday party for him with a silly hat next month. :) I miss my big black nose.

I'm writing this from the rescue squad. Dana and I pulled duty Wednesday night and Thanksgiving day, plus our normal Friday night shift, and we're staying over until 5pm today. He's outside with his rescue team, going over what is on the truck and what should be on the truck and where, and putting things under the dumpster to make it lean, and fun things like that. *I* am entering sweepstakes and staying inside where it's warm. Tomorrow, I want to sleep in. :) But I must finish decorating for Christmas and cleaning -- yesterday I got most of the tree up and situated, so now it wants trimming and the house decorations scattered appropriately.

The Symphony Chorus is coming up on a big performance weekend next week. We'll do Handel's Messiah on Friday and Monday nights, and then a Christmas pops concert on the Saturday inbetween. The symphony conductor is sidelined with a detached retina until at least January, so we have no idea who will be conducting. It could be a different person for each concert -- should be exciting.

Sweeps-wise, I haven't won a thing all month. I got a coupon for a free Armor All product yesterday, but I won that back in September. I haven't had a lot of time to enter them, but I would have thought that the wins would trickle off over the next couple months, rather than precipitously. Perhaps it just means that I'm due for something nice. ;)

Tonight is my 20th HS reunion, which I will not be attending (as it's in Bethesda and I am here). I didn't mind missing it in the least, but last night I got an email from my tennis partner/gym buddy, who is going and pretty much only wanted to see me. It was lovely to hear from her, and I'm looking forward to catching up.

I think that's all I've got. I'm reading some of you on a regular basis, and the rest of you when I can, but if there's something you desperately want to talk about, drop me an email at my normal address. Love love love.

Today, Mr. Mailman brought me a little pink and green cosmetic case full of Maybelline products, as a first prize win (grand prize was a trip to NY). Their Great Lash mascara is always great, but now I get to try other products for free. (I am always tempted in drugstores but never want to plump for unknowns.)

First up, the Superstay lipcolor. "Apply color to your lips. Allow to dry. Apply balm." Pretty standard instructions. After 5 minutes, my lips were still tacky, and the color is damn near the exact shade of my lips in the first place. When I put the balm on, some of the color came off. Opinion: Glorified Chap-stick. I will stick with MAC ProLongWear.

On a completely different note, for those of you involved in the technical side of theatre (sm_jen, I'm looking at you), you should go read THIS, now.

I got a letter yesterday declaring me the Grand Prize winner in the Express "300 Pairs in 30 Days" sweeps -- a $1000 Express gift card!

Only thing is, I'm two sizes larger than their top size. Looks like I'll be selling or eBaying this one...if you or anyone you know likes to shop at Express and would be interested, drop me a note.

In other sweeps news, is anyone other than macdobhran doing the AOL Gold Rush challenge? I'm looking for Gold Buddies. :) (I completed challenge 2 in 5:59 yesterday, so I'm hoping they might call...although the intarwebs are large and full of smart people with too much free time, so I know it's a slim chance.) If you are, let me know your AIM name (assuming I don't already know it), and we'll hook up to help each other!

I won a $1000 EE savings bond! Not sure yet whether that's a 10- or 30-year maturity, but it's a nice little something to stick in the bank, eh? :)

We're waiting to hear on what German airport Hagen will fly into, and then I can *really* get moving on things. That one piece of information will determine the airline, the date he'll fly, the crate we'll need to get (I could get a crate for flying, but I suspect it's safer to check with the specific airline first), and the timing of his FDA paperwork. Today we're going to the vet for his vaccinations -- I think it's only distemper that comes up in the next month, but I want them to be sure.

He's a little frustrated that he can't go outside for long -- it's not as beastly hot at the moment as it was yesterday, but at the same time, he doesn't want to hang out on the screen porch, which is about as nice as it's going to get. He's flopped in the corner, curled up in a little furry ball.

On a non-dog front, my sewing machine should arrive tomorrow, just in time for me to hit the road to DC to visit pyratelady and ironbeagle, spend the night at their glorious new abode, and then rehearse with mydwynter on Saturday. They'll head off to the MSFB afterwards, and I will return home to see what sort of excitement dfilove has gotten up to in my absence.

Friday night is Dana's LAST SHIFT required for his class, and he's hoping it will be every bit as busy as a regular weekend night in Richmond. Cross your fingers for some good trauma (as he puts it, "I don't want you to get hurt, but if you do, I want to be the one to help you"). After that, it's study study study for the test in August. I believe he and I are taking an Advanced Medical Life Support class the weekend before the test, which will be good review for him, and another notch in my "über qualified BLS provider" belt. The end of August will bring a 3-day WMD for EMS class for us as well.

After that -- faire in early and late September, Symposium in mid-November, and probably December for our NYC sweepstakes trip. Whee!

The sweltery hot weather has broken for the moment, and so I'm back out on the porch today. Hagen is free in his newly-fenced backyard, and I see him peep out from the jungle with sticks and things every so often. I bought him a large horsefeed bin which is filled with water for his drinking and splashing pleasure. So far, he seems to be enjoying himself.

It's been a quiet few days here at Foolish Pleasure. We had duty Friday night, and then Dana pulled a shift up at Richmond -- if things go well, he only has two more shifts there and he should be DONE with everything needed for his medic class. Then it's just studying and drilling until his test in August. Monday we visited a rescue squad up in the city -- Soupy, one of his instructors, is a member there -- and filled out applications. Being in the city, there are a lot more interesting trauma calls than we see down here, plus it's right around the corner from a Krispy Kreme, which makes ME tremendously happy. We hit Nacho Mama's in Carytown for dinner (being foiled in our attempt to eat curry), and spent some time visiting with Soupy who is just lots of fun.

Yesterday we'd planned to go see the new Superman movie, but never motivated sufficiently to leave the house. Dana got some mowing done before the truly evil heat set in, and I did a bunch of laundry and cleaned, and then we retreated to our computers for a while. I won an Entourage keychain, which I care nothing about, except that it means I no longer have to enter that particular sweep (one of the most annoying entries EVER, but the grand prize is either a trip to CA *or* a big pile of cash, so that was worthwhile).

Dana's car is up in Springfield having the wiring checked out, because when they installed all the lights and radios there were a few bugs. They were very nice to drive down here and pick up the car, but that means that we're limited to just my car and the Harley, and the weather's been too mercurial to depend on the bike much for long periods. Dana got soaked coming home on Monday.

There is a tremendous amount of splashing coming from down below. Such a happy boy.

(will post separately about quilt project)