I'm a Winner!

I've just received the prize that I won in FiveCentNickel's anniversary contest: Frances Leonard's Book Time Is Money: A Million-Dollar Investment Plan for Today's Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings. Heehee, that Nickel's a kidder—I'm guessing that "Time is Money" was perfect for me because I was the lame a$$ (with dollar signs) who took so long to reply to his "you won" email. Or maybe FCN read my "about me," wherein I mention being one of the age groups mentioned in the subtitle. In any case, it appears that he really put some thought into this. I'd be really curious to know how he decided who got what—was it in order of response? Whose blog he liked best? What did CrazyDude do to deserve the bricks? Does anybody know? You know I was thinking, Quarters are shiny and silver, I-Pods are shiny and silver... :)

Thanks so much, Nickel—the book looks interesting and now I have the long weekend to start on it. Many happy returns.

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone! Maybe I'll actually write some sorta-more-real entries, now that I have a little time.

Quarters and Nickels

Soooooooo... I haven't written anything here in six months. (Apologies but really, I didn't think anyone was paying attention. Anyone got a problem with that? Didn't think so.) That's not to say that there hasn't been plenty to write about (the giant, monstrous credit card is a month from being paid off, for example); I just haven't gotten off my arse to do any writing. My thanks to this guy for inspiring me to log back in and join in his shenanigans. Too much fun. I can say this knowing now that I didn't win the bricks.

That said:
Ohthankgodthankyouthankyouthankyounickel for not sending me the bricks. (Having replied to Nickel's sweepstakes announcement so tardily, I was certain that it was me.)

No seriously folks, here's why I'm so happy: If you so much as read the "about me" section here, you'll see that we're in a constant state of renovating and redoing our home—building up and then throwing stuff away. About two hours before I learned that I might be the recipient of said bricks, a bulk trash pickup company that I had hired came and carted away about 500 tons of construction junk (or so it felt, my spouse and I having made said shanty-town-looking giant pile of junk with our own four hands, and having received the raised eyebrows from neighbors and all).

This refuse, yes, included an unspecified number of bricks.

The pile was so remarkable in its own right (again, before I knew anything about winning this contest) that I took a photo of it on my cameraphone for the family home-improvement scrapbook, but am not technologically capable enough to get it off the cameraphone.

I didn't want to sound ungrateful, but I really wanted to tell Nickel, "Like I needed more."

So thanks, big guy, for whatever is coming my way.