contests

You get a bit of everything today.  What can I say?  A week or so of minimal posts and lots of time on my hands…

First up, the contest winner.  This contest was so much fun!  I loved hearing your favorite Halloween memories.  And yes, you succeeded in brightening up my night a bit.  I drew a winner this morning – random.org picked number 13 (seems appropriate, right?) – Jenny it is!  Congratulations, dear friend!

It occurred to me that I didn’t share my favorite Halloween memory with you.  Looking back, I actually think last year was my favorite.  The family gathered at my brother’s house for trick or treating with the niece and nephew, who were 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 then.  Such great ages – for my nephew, he was really into the whole dressing up and trick or treating thing and went non-stop.  My niece put all together very quickly, especially after catching on to what her cousin was doing.  My brothers, sister-in-law and I took the kids out with a big group of my brother’s neighbors and their kids.  It was a great, fun group to hang out with.  The things that made it my favorite though were little moments with the kids.  After I helped my niece into her Abby Kaddaby costume, she looked down at herself and proclaimed “I’m pretty!”  Dead serious, too.  It was priceless.  Yes, she is.  And I’ll never have to worry about her self-esteem   And my nephew, dressed up as a monster truck, very creatively made by brother and SIL, had his own moment while trick or treating.  The little guy got tripped up in some leaves and took a full on digger, ass over tea kettle style.  Of course, a crew of worried adults stifled the giggles rushed to help, he pulled himself up, realized he was fine, laughed and laughed and laughed – and proceeded to do it over and over again.  One of those moments where I can see he is truly my brother’s son – fearless, a great sense of adventure and thankfully, indestructible!  The kids made it a great night.

And lastly, some Ten on Tuesday.  This week’s topic was oh-so-perfect after almost a week of vegging at home.

Ten Ways to Waste Time on the Internet:

1. Facebook – world’s biggest time suck
2. Twitter – second only to Facebook.  thankfully, I found Tweetdeck to keep up with both at the same time.
3. Ravelry – Its way too easy to get sucked into browsing yarns, patterns, projects, friends’ stuff and the boards.  Worse, during my time at home, I got sucked into the LSG group.  I already knew I was lazy, stupid and godless – now I’ve found my people…
4. Googling – anything and everything
5. Blogs – thank goodness for Google Reader, as you all are hard to keep up with
6. Etsy – not just keeping up my own shop, but checking out all the others
7. Knitty and Twist Collective – my favorite online knitting magazines
8. Shopping – yarn, fiber, books, clothes – rarely buying but endless “window shopping”
9. Netflix – online streaming pretty well saved my sanity in the last week
10. news and political sites – my favorites are msnbc.com, Huffington Post and for my fake news fix, The Onion

With that, I’m off to work.  Horray!  I’m feeling better, not 100% yet, but much, much improved.  I’m more than ready to rejoin the world.  Never been so happy to get back to work

Happy Tuesday!