The Winner's Circle

If you're a sweeper like me, then you've heard these words many times. "Oh nobody wins those things." or "You must just be lucky."

Trust me, luck has very little to do with it. As a matter of fact if you actually calculate the number of times I actually enter sweepstakes my luck must be incredibly bad.

This does not deter me however. I continue to enter sweepstakes and contests and I continue to win.

Here are my wins for the year 2010. Where possible I have placed the ARV of the prize.

January
Advance reading copy of Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff (ARV $5).
$100 gift card from Arbor Mist
Good Eats: The Early Years by Alton Brown (ARV $37.50).

February
$100 VISA gift card from the Tom's of Maine giveaway
Hill's Prescription Diet pet food for one year awarded in the form of coupons (ARV $$774/dog)
Prize: Fender Squire bass guitar, Ibanez electric guitar, Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, and Evans drumhead all signed and played by Saosin in the Changing music video.
Copy of Love & City Dreaming Poems by Margaret Havill Reid.
$50 snapfish gift card

March
Absolute Power by David Baldacci (audio book)
Marrying For King's Millions by Maureen Child (book)
$1,000, two tickets to Daytona and a Meet and Greet

April
Bake Me A Wish Cake
Photo notebook
Get Rid of the Performance Review! (book win)
A Touch of Scandal (book win)
Cienfuegos (book win)
This Ain't No Hearts and Flowers Love Story Pt 2 (book win)
Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet (book win)
$25 Rite Aid Gift Card

May
Little Billy's Letters (book win)
The Swimming Pool (book win)
Work Song (book win)
Still Missing (book win)
Corked (book win)

June
music download from Universal Music
$500 grocery gc
won the Guide To Online Dating.
Poison by Sara Poole (book win)

July
Focus Features DVD pack (ARV $80). Movies included Brokeback Mountain, Atonement, Away We Go, Etrenal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Pride & Prejudice.
Gary Allen Get Off On The Pain CD
Matched by Allie Condle (book win)

August
$100 Visa gift card
$25 Rite Aid Card
If I Stop Talking You'll know I'm Dead audio book win

September
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse "Team Jacob," "Team Bella," and "Team Edward" 1-liter aluminum water bottle set (ARV $30).
$100 Visa Card.

October
100 MyCokeRewards
1 bag of Ghirardelli Squares Chocolate
30 MyCokeRewards
30 MyCokeRewards
30 MyCokeRewards
30 MyCokeRewards
30 MyCokeRewards
30 MyCokeRewards
30 MyCokeRewards
30 MyCokeRewards
30 MyCokeRewards
30 MyCokeRewards

November
Troll2 DVD
Tarizon: Conquest Earth (Tarizon Trilogy)
Francesca Battistelli t-shirt, CD, and bag; and Satellites and Sirens CD, poster, sticker, button, and guitar picks (ARV $60).
Jonah Hex DVD
$20 Dollar General Gift Card
Corona Summer Beach Kit with Weber Smokey Joe Gold grill, two beach chairs and beach umbrella (ARV $125).

December
Commemorative R.W. Knudsen Family® anniversary bottle of Sparkling Concord grape juice
$2 scratch-off ticket
3 FREE scratch off lottery tickets
Free Fries from Wendy's
Breakfast from Hardees for my Department from local radio station WLAQ
A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism - book win
The Devotion of Suspect X - book win
The Flirt Club - book win
$100 Publix GC
$10 Family Dollar Gift Card

CTAE Learning Today Earning Tomorrow

I was so excited when I won this contest just before Christmas. When they say it is better to give than to receive they were absolutely correct. I was thrilled to be able to go from class to class to deliver breakfast to all my co-workers at RHS.

Recently, the RHS CTAE Department was recognized by WLAQ for their hard work and dedication with Breakfast from Hardees.

Many students and parents are not familiar with the rewards of CTAE programs, however, now more than ever, CTAE programs are needed to help ensure the strength of our workforce, global competiveness and the economic health of our nation.

That’s because CTAE students are generally more motivated and interested in their coursework because of its connection to the real world and, as a result, less likely to dropout. In a recent report for the Gates Foundation, the majority of respondents (81%) reported that more learning opportunities which make the classroom relevant to the real world would have helped them to finish high school.

Did you know that a 2002 study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found that a year of technically oriented coursework at a community college increased the earnings of men by 14% and women by 29%? .

Thanks to the Bridge program CTAE students at RHS are making the shift from high school senior to college freshman. Students can take advantage of dual enrollment and joint enrollment.

If you are interested in learning more about the great opportunities that await you in CTAE, please ask your Guidance Counselor or a CTAE teacher today.

Not Another Snow Day

Ah yes grasshopper. It certainly is another snow day and our Superintendent probably wishes he hadn't given us today off. Looking into my Magic 8
Ball for guidance I feel we will have school tomorrow even though we may well open late.

Generally this means that we wind up only spending about 20 minutes in class which isn't much time to do anything. I've decided to scrap my plans for this week and look towards celebrating Martin Luther King Day with a Word Search.

Some might call this a cop-out but here's the truth. Some students, who are always looking for a reason to miss school will use tomorrow as a perfect day to call in sick. They will reason that missing one shortened day won't make a big difference AND school is off on Monday anyway so it only makes sense not to come to school.

It doesn't make sense introducing new curriculum to students who do attend only to have to spend time reteaching it on Tuesday when most students will then have returned to school.

Students who do attend will hold me personally responsible for the fact that they are in school and Floyd County schools have the day off. They will also want to share their survival stories with other students.

Sometimes it's just better to pick the road well traveled and move on from there.

Here is our Liddy Dog update. Last night I gave him his first round of meds. It appears he had an accident overnight with some blood but his right eye looks much better. The Vet had said he was having problems with his tear ducts in addition to his glaucoma. His eye is no longer red and the build-up that has been occurring on his eyes has noticeably improved.

********************UPDATE****************************

Note to self, consulting the Magic 8 Ball does not necessarily provide the correct answer. If only it had at least said MAYBE instead of DEFINITELY when I posed the question, "Will there be school tomorrow?"

Yes boys and girls that's correct, there will be no school in Rome tomorrow. Oh there will be school for 12 month employees (I am not a 12 month employee) but as for everyone else, well not so much.

We return you now to your regularly scheduled life.

The Snow Day Trifecta

Today is our third snow day. While there was some very icy patches we did manage to take Liddy Dog to the Vet.

It appears he has a bladder infection and that's what causing the blood in the urine and the incontinence. The Vet also says my Liddy boy has cataracts in his right eye and he has signs that his left eye isn't doing so hot either. Since he's already deaf, things don't look well for my baby. The Vet says these are all signs of aging and with him being 16 years old he's obviously no longer a pup.

We now have to give him two different eye drops AND some medicine and we will have to bring him back in about a week. I was so very worried that we might have to put him down but we've invested in his future with over $500 worth of medical bills to show for it. He's worth that much and more to me because I love him and I always have.

Meanwhile, our little buddy Atlas has managed to absolutely destroy his racoon doll...I mean action figure. The racoon was one of the first things I bought him so he would have a toy that squeeks. I was told that miniature pinchsers love squeek toys. The tag on the toy guaranteed it was safe for the dog so we bought it thinking he would just love it.

At first he was terrified of the racoon and would refuse to go anywhere near the thing even to the point of refusing to step foot into the room if he could see the doll on the floorr.

It took a few weeks but out of nowhere he was decided this doll is the best thing since dog treats. He tosses it in the air, thrashes it about, gnaws on it with impunity.

Today he has managed to remove Mr. Racoon's eye. Thank Goodness it wasn't some button eye or he certainly would have choked. We had to then remove the stuffing that he was already beginning to pull from Mr Racoon's head wound.

After the trip to the Vet we headed out to drop off some books at the library. I finished Katie Up and Down the Hall. It was a good book and of course the fact that we both love(d) our cockers really touched a chord for me.

Darryl took me to CiCi's for lunch today because you can buy a drink for $2.99 and get the pizza bar free. Not a bad deal. During lunch the Superintendent of Schools contacted Darryl to say that we would probably wind up going to school two hours late.

I was actually fine with this. Staying home is much better when it's not so darned cold outside.

I had already made up my mind to call my contact person on the phone tree that we would be going in at 10AM but I was going to wait until I saw it in the Rome News Tribune.

Well it turns out that a call did need to be made but that call was to tell M. that there will be NO school tomorrow.

Vitriol To The Left Of Sanity

Sarah Palin: "America's Enduring Strength" from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.

All day long the news has been about the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. As more comes out about the shooter, it appears that Lee Loughner did not appear to have a "right wing agenda".

This despite the fact that Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, a Democrat, also found a political element in Saturday's bloodshed. Dupnik argued that the "vitriol" of the country's harshly polarized political climate was partly to blame, arguing that unbalanced individuals are uniquely "susceptible" to vitriol.

Actually friends of the shooter said Jared believed the U.S. government was behind 9/11, and worried that governments were maneuvering to create a unified monetary system (“a New World Order currency” one friend said) so that social elites and bureaucrats could control the rest of the world.

Will the press make a lot of hay about these facts rather than the constant cries that this is all "Sarah Palin's fault." Doubt it.

I find it interesting that much has been made of the whole Sarah Palin targeted district map. Personally did not like the map but then again I didn't like this classic "targeted map" from the Dems.

This map appears on this page of the Democratic Leadership Committee website (dated 2004 during the Bush years). Would you say that "Behind enemy lines" might be considered a bit militant?

Sandra Bernhard promising to having Sarah Palin gang raped by her big black brother. (Frankly I found that a two fer one hat suggests that blacks are rapists at heart and that rape is the perfect punishment for someone who has philosophical differences with you.)



Or how about that wacky fun loving movie that won the International Critics Prize - Death of a President



DEATH OF A PRESIDENT follows the investigation of the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush in October 2007. Combining real archival footage with a credible but fictional story, "Death of a President" presents a fascinating and thought-provoking political thriller.

Yeah it's thought provoking alright. It provokes me to ask why was such a movie celebrated?

Then there is this little gem from former talk show star Montel Williams when he encourages Rep. Michele Bachmann to slit her throat. Certainly no one could possible see this as violent rhetoric.



Honestly I'm just sick of it. Sick of it all and I think many Americans are sick of it too.

If you head on over to a certain Democratic website feel that the media is now denying the obvious "facts" that this was all because of Sarah Palin.

What is your proof? What is your proof?

Just because you are a Republican does NOT make you a racist. It does NOT make you a wack job. It does NOT mean you hate the current President. This doesn't mean I agree with him and everything he does but I don't hate him.

The Vitriol needs to stop and it needs to stop now.

Perhaps Sheriff Clarence Dupnik should have spent less time making such inflamatory comments without facts to back them up and spent more time responding to death threats the suspect made in the months leading up to Saturday’s rampage.


his department was well aware of Jared Loughner’s mental instability and may have been slow to respond to death threats the suspect made in the months leading up to Saturday’s rampage.

Today is 1/11/11

Today is January 11, 2011 and once again, today is snow day part deux and while no significant snow has fallen today, there has been some frozen precipitation on and off today.

In the further adventures of Atlas vs snow, today Atlas learned that while he is light enough to walk on top of the ice encrusted snow, stopping can be hazardous. Every Time he stopped he would sink all the way through the snow which would then cause him to panic.

All is not well in the dog department here. My sixteen year old cocker has been having incontinence problems lately but today he has a bloody tinge to his urine. Since our vet is closed today due to snow we will have to take her soon. I'm very afraid she will have to get put down. She has already lost her hearing and she sleeps away a great deal of the day away.

It would be so sad to have to say good-bye to my faithful friend Liddy Dog. I found him at the animal shelter in Newport News, Virginia and when they took him out of the cage I swear I was in love.

I noticed he walked with a very noticeable limp and it turned out the reason was he was born without one of his front paws. Oh it's still there it's just barely developed and located right under his knee joint. I had to have him because I was certain he would not be adopted otherwise.

Once we arrived home he made himself at home and began following me around and acted like a prima donna. My bed become his bed. My couch became his couch. He was a one spoiled young man coming in and it hasn't changed since.

When he first arrived he only moved if I moved butif I tried to take him for a walk outside he refused to walk any further than a half a block. This would then require me to carry him home. Trust me I got lecture after lecture about that. Still he seemed to relish the opportunity to see and be seen on our little walks. After awhile, he was able to actually walk three blocks both ways.

He will always be my liddy dog. I wish I could take him to the vet right now.

-----------------------UPDATE-------------------------------

I just checked the Rome News Tribune to learn that there will be no school tomorrow. I find that truly amazing.

Snow Day - January 10, 2011

Shortly after I finally went to bed last night it began to snow. According to Darryl it was coming down fast and furious.

Since our Superintendent of Schools had cancelled classes for Monday I wasn't really concerned. Trust me, in order for our Superintendent to cancel school it was nothing short of a miracle.

Today the snow in the Rome's downtown is standing between three and four inches, while some are reporting almost eight inches outside the city limits

Forecasts are predicting an additional one to three inches to fall today.

*****************UPDATE***************************

Throughout the afternoon a very light freezing rain was falling and around 2:45 the BIG BOSS cancelled school a second day in a row. An icy drizzle is expected to fall tonight as well.

According to the news it could be Saturday before things finally thaw out.

So stay indoors boys and girls and stay off the roads, it's cold out there.