Okay, so here’s the deal: that magic big yellow bus stopped coming to my house and now there are extra PEOPLE here. Every day. All day. And every time I sit down at the computer to write something brilliant, someone says “You’re at the computer, AGAIN???” Which makes me feel like I should play a game with them or something. Because they grow up so fast. Then I wander off and see some task that was supposed to be done yesterday, and they ask if they can use their “screen minutes” which are a commodity akin to gold around here.
Coincidentally, I work at the one computer in the house with a fast internet connection; it could not be their secret evil plan to distract me so they can play a computer game, could it??
I miss the bus.
I miss the writing.
I need a new routine.
Anyhoo, back to business around here. There is a book to give away. You may already know that lots of blogs do regular giveaways. I’ve won three books from blog giveaways in the last couple months, and I don’t enter that often. Maybe three times? These cool blogs usually also make a clear point of the technologically superior and ultimately equitable computer program used to chose the winner (the Randomizer! Randomcount.com! the Randalamadingdong!) I imagine this cuts down on their hate mail from the losers non-winners by making it clear that the blogger plays fair.
So I offered my very first blogging giveaway this week — a copy of the book Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz. I hoped to encourage lots of thought-provoking and intelligent questions for Christina to cover in the follow-up Q&A. It would be a bummer to invite a famous author to a party and then have no one show up. It worked! The questions were great and we all learned something new. I also secretly hoped that the promise of free goods would lure some of the Lurkers out of hiding and into the open to take part in all the fun and frolic that goes on here. I think I may have to give away a Weber grill to do that. Food for thought.
But here’s the deal: I do not know how to use the Randomizer. It sounds like an Abdominizer, or a Lobotimizer. So I used some folded yellow sticky notes, and a kid that has been here ALL DAY pulled the name out of an actual hat. Sounds random to me.
And the winner is……. Judy! It is quite fitting that Judy be the Truly Randomly Chosen Winner since she left one of my very first comments, ever, back when I had three readers, and she had never met me in her life. So Judy, send me your mailing address and the book will be yours!
Send me a bus and I’ll put people on it!
No, that is so not true. I love all those people to the moon and back. I am so lucky to have the opportunity and flexibility to be here with them all summer. Though I might consider getting on that bus myself if I had a new laptop. I’d only be gone a little while.
Maybe I can win one from a blog…?
jane, candid 
ohhhh Jane –
If I had a dollar for everytime I heard “You’re at the computer, AGAIN???” from my kids and husband…
Unfortunately, I AM the bus. Though happy to have a break from my driving duties, I do have a lot more huumans, activity around here – and more complaints.
Hello, another Judy! (We were just talking about how many wonderful Judys there are…)
See, I doubly miss the bus now that I am even more grateful that I am NOT the bus. But summer will be good for both of us too…
Hey! I won! I’m thrilled! (And a tiny bit embarrassed if there is more than one Judy, and I’m not the right one.) The whole time I was reading Christina’s post, I kept thinking, I definitely need to read this book. So, yay! My super platform is about to be dazzling!
Thank you! (And sorry it took me so long to get over here. I’ve been using Networked blogs to remind me and somehow I missed this post. GRRR. Let’s blame the Radomizer.)
Hi Judy! There may be more Judys, but only one you, and you are the book recipient. And we can still blame the Randomizer, but I goofed something on NetworkedBlogs that day and I don’t know who saw the post and who didn’t (without fail, my high visibility days are also my most technologically challenged days. I get excited and hit the wrong buttons… dagnab these modern gadgets!) Let’s pretend it is just one of my cute foibles and not a lack of professionalism, okay?
Are you really giving away a Weber?!? Ha. Just kidding. You know I would enter any contest for one of those.
Maybe, for an extra fee, Lance will install a blog machine on your elliptical at the gym and you can work from there. Okay, just kidding again.
Really, I just want you to know that I love your blog and the bus stopped coming to my ‘hood also. This is the Universe calling us to stop and smell the roses (and our kids’ heads while they sleep). So, just stand there in your puddle of gratitude, turn your face to the sun, and bloom where you’re planted. Hugs-
Thanks, Nan, I’m smiling here in my puddle of gratitude…
I like your post-it note version of a random generator, even if it didn’t result in my name being picked!!!
You know, there are buses other than yellow ones, and they tend to follow routes all year around. They go to places like Pittsburgh and Detroit and Sacramento. Stick the kids on one of them and you’ll have PLENTY of time to write! (Of course, you’ll probably get pretty lonely when 3 o’clock comes and goes and the bus hasn’t returned the “extra people” to you.)
Maybe we need a different version of a writer’s group that is part writer’s group/part playgroup! We could write in shifts and crank out our masterpieces when we’re “off-duty”!!! LOL!
Kris, when in doubt, post-its will work. I forgot about Greyhound since they do not provide curb service here in the burbs. I like the group idea even better!
Jane,
What about working in the am before the sleepy heads get up?
Or is your crew an up and at em bunch & you’re the sleepy head?
There’s always rocket camp. If your Y has rocket camp, oh boy! There’s a week of fun spent blowing stuff up. (In a careful well supervised way of course)
Don’t feel guilty about doing what you love and what you NEED to do.
Let the words out woman. Don’t make us sit in our living rooms and chant “jane, jane, jane” until you post something new. (we’ll do it too)
The kids will just have to understand that from x hour to x hour mom is working and they have to amuse themselves.
Because we need our Jane fix (see the threatened chanting)
As a last resort, try this: assign chores everytime they come near you while you’re at the computer…let’s see who just suggested that somewhere else? (grins wickedly…mom’s unite!)
Karen (smiles at you) I’ve been typing that out because the little yellow smiley faces just FREAK ME OUT…lol
Don’t forget that you’re coming to play Ten Questions Tuesday with me on Tuesday (cause that’s when we play it) too many cookies were ingested before the typing of this comment. Let this be an object lesson to you all.
Karen, such wise ideas. I will get my groove back. And I’ll be there Tuesday cuz no one (but you!) can keep me away!
Here’s how it works. Go to Random.org to the “Integer Generator.” Here: http://random.org/integers/
Then,
Generate –1– random integer…between 1 and — however many people you have in the drawing–. Format into –1– column.
Take the number drawn, count down your list of comments to see who place that comment and that’s the winner.
Works?
🙂 Christina Katz
Thanks, Christina! 🙂
I love your humor. Thanks for making me smile on this frustrating Saturday.
Thanks, Linda! I like to make people smile, especially on a frustrating Saturday… 🙂