Just The Two of Us

The Winner Is...

with 8 out of 12 games correctly picked is...

"MADDINGTON", who I happen to know is Mandie!  Great job, Mandie!  A $75 Amazon gift card is heading your way!

2nd place was Nathan...

Dead last was Karen.

That was fun, everyone!  Thanks for playing and we'll have another contest early next year.

Current Standings

RW, ZeketheFreakRatTerrier and I were all ready for that Vikings game today.  ZeketheFreakRatTerrier got on his game clothes and played a little football in order to show the team how it should be done.

We even prepared our standard game day fare:

...but unfortunately it was all for naught.  Our Vikings let us down yet another week.  More accurately, I should say that our new starting QB let us down yet another week.

But enough about us.  How did you fare? 

Week one of our contest (which confusingly enough is actually Week 4 of the NFL season...) shows some standouts..  Here are the current standings:

"MADDINGTON" : 5 [wow...]

Nathan: 4

5-way tie with 3:

Brax, Heidi, Brad, Emily H & Kim

Sarah: 2

Karen: 1

So, it all hangs on next week.  Stay tuned, and please, for the love of everything football, send some ESP physical prowness to Viking's QB Donovan McNabb's vision and arm.  He's sorely needing some.  Just saying.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Way to go, Brax!  $75 Amazon gift card is heading your way.  And for those of you who are turning up your nose at a football contest, have no fear. You need not know anything whatsoever about football, you just have to guess who is going to win the game - easy peasy.

Here's how it's going to work.  I am giving you 6 NFL games from each of the next 2 weeks, which will encompass weeks 4 and 5 in the NFL.  Leave a comment here in the blog stating 1 - 6 for each week. Next to the number, write your best guess for the game winner.  For example, this is what your comment should look like:

Week 4:

1    Cleveland

2    Vikings

3    Green Bay

4    San Francisco

5    Baltimore

6    New York Giants

Week 5:

1    Arizona

2    Oakland

3    Seattle

4    Kansas City

5    Vikings

6    Chicago

 

Got it?  Not too hard, right?  The person who has the most "wins" will win a $75 gift card from Amazon. In the event of a tie, we will extend the contest for an additional week for those folks, for a type of playoff.

Here are the games...

Week 4:     Minnesota vs. Kansas City (of course!)

                      Buffalo vs. Cincinnati

                      San Francisco vs. Philadelphia

                      Pittsburgh vs. Houston

                      Carolina vs. Chicago

                      Denver vs. Green Bay

 

Week 5:    Minnesota vs. Arizona (again, duh)

                    Oakland vs. Houston

                    Kansas City vs. Indiana

                    San Diego vs. Denver

                    Chicago vs. Detroit

                    Seattle vs. New York Giants

 

You need to have your comment in prior to 10a CDT on Sunday, October 2 in order to be eligible to participate.  I repeat what I said above - you don't need to know anything about football to play.  $75 on the line!  This will be fun.  And if you are one of my outside the USA readers, join in the fun.  The more the merrier, and Amazon ships pretty much everywhere.        

Are you ready for some football? Happy guessing!          

UPDATE: Only 1 entry per person.  

Tough Choices

I have to hand it to y'all (oh my.  Did I just actually say, y'all?  My apologies - that should never come out of a northern  mouth).  There are some darn good ideas brought forth from your uber-creative brains.

Here is a list of the ones I eliminated, along with comments:

• What time to the minute was I born? At first glance, this is a pretty good one, although there is one downfall.. I'd actually have to dig out my birth certificate.  I'm sure it was filed away somewhere in a random fit of organization, but I'm not exactly sure where.  It may just be in the nether-regions of our attic, and scary place as that is, I refuse to go fetch it there.  Speaking of our attic, Karen is supposed to come over and help me go through it.  She couches this offer under the farce of wanting to help me organize... I know the real reason.  Pure, unadulterated curiousity.  Going through boxes in one's attic that no one has touched for 10 years has appeal.
• Post a Sodoku or Crossword puzzle and the first to complete it wins.  Another great suggestion, this one from Julia, a niece that I haven't seen for way too long.  What's up with that?  Oh. Something about removing ones self from this continent to live in an entirely other continent.  One I don't often visit.  One that's down.. and uh, under.  Anyways, I don't have a great way to logistically do this one.  Do y'all (crap. said it again.) have to scan your completed puzzle and email to me? How would that work, exactly.  And what if I couldn't read a particular answer?  You see some issues, right?
• Whoever (or whomever) has been to London the most times.  I could have guessed who submitted this one even without the name.  She's the same one whose "y'all" language has apparently infilterated my own, but that's ok - my oldest niece Kim, is southern.  She's allowed.  Here's the issue with this one... what if RW and I have both been to London the same amount of times?
• Guess how many times ZeketheFreakRatTerrier goes out in a day.  This would be fantastic, except it's a varied number.  There's quite a range.
• Guess how much change is in my jar.  Yup, we'll be doing this one again, except the change jar isn't nearly ready for prime-time yet.  We keep emptying the quarters to pay for parking at the Vikings game.  Come back in 8 or 9 months for that one.
• We could guess when the airplane will be ready to fly.  HAHAHA!  This is one of my favorites, however I'm sure you all (whew, stopped myself there) wouldn't want to wait another 8 or 9 years to figure out who the winner is.  Hope RDub doesn't read that.... I'm fairly certain he wouldn't appreciate my anti-optimism, also known as pessimism.
• We could send you cupcakes.  Another suggestion that I'm totally and completely up for.  However, the fact that people would a) have to make cupcakes and b) mail them to me, narrows the playing field uh.. significantly.
• A picture of yourself with a very large and small version of an object - biggest size difference wins.  This suggestion wins the creative prize (oh, I don't have one of those), but I got a little nervous thinking about how one could measure the size difference.  People may get offended.
• A decorating conundrum - fix my crappy rooms! Ok, it wasn't phrased at all like that.  I really, really like this one.  I actually do have a decorating conundrum - our den/TV room.  However, this seemed a bit time-intensive for folks.  I'm keeping this one on the back burner for future contests.
• A cupcake challange! Submit pics of your cupcakes.  Another one that I'm slightly biased about.  But there's that narrow playing field again.  Another one for the possible "future files".
• Guess how many cupcakes I make in a year. Great, except I'd actually have to know the answer. :-(
• A contest to see when Kristin will have her baby.  Perfect - except she'd probably have it before the contest was over.

So... this leaves this list of possibilities:

1. How many miles are on on your motorcycle?
2. How many times you've flown over an ocean
3. What would you buy with $75 of Amazon cash challenge
4. A football game picking contest - you pick the games, college?, pro?, both? The person that gets the most games correct wins. Simple and it will fit nicely in a two week window.
5. Best/Most creative acrostic using your last name. This would make neat custom art for your house!! (don't feel bad clicking on that link I provided - I had to look it up myself)
6. A contest to guess your top books on Kindle or your most recently viewed movies on Netflix
7. A contest to see whoever can write the longest sentence using the most whoevers and whomevers correctly! There's a trick to know it...

I face a difficulty in choosing.  I know I said I'd choose today, and I promise you, I had every intention of doing so.  However.. since I personally know all who submitted suggestions, I do not wish to be accused of nepotism or friendism (is that actually a word?).  So, I have a different idea.  You are going to choose for me.

You have until Monday at midnight to vote on your favorite. You can only vote 1 time, however go ahead and recruit friends and family to vote if yours is listed above.  Another $75 on the line, people!  You need to leave your vote in the blog comments, not FB comments.  The idea with the most votes wins. And don't forget - this is a contest that we'll actually hold for more real money.  So if your idea didn't make the final cut, you still have a reason to vote - vote for the one you think you can ultimately win!

Ready? Set?  Go.

Want To Win Something Cool?

I've had a couple of Amazon gift cards hanging about the house waiting to gift them to one of you.  However, I'm at a bit of a "brain-block", because I cannot, for the life of me, think of any cool contest to hold.

Remember the last time I gave something away?  I offered my barely-used Nintendo DS to whoever (or is it whomever?  Darn usage problems again - I'm sure my former prof Lois Fleming could clarify that for me - as well as swat me in the head for not remembering such a basic thing...) could guess the amount of money in my change jar.  A word to the wise... one should really make sure that one actually knows where said prize is before offering it up in a contest.  Sniff.   That Nintendo DS is nowhere to be found in this house.  It grew legs and walked right out.  Don't worry - I was good for it.  Contest winner received a DS - a new one.  If I ever find the one I had, I just may offer it out again, but don't hold your breath... I've looked everywhere.

Anyway, back to the contest.  When we were camping I posed the contest problem to my brother, sister-in-law and niece, and apparently they were dead out of creative cells on that topic as well, because they were, may I just say, zero help.  Good lookin' and lots of fun, but noooo help on that particular issue.  Perhaps lured by a gift card, those creative juices of theirs just may come back to life.

But have no fear - I've solved my problem.  Ready?  Ok, here goes.  We are going to have a contest to find the best contest to hold.  Need to read that again?  It's ok - go ahead, I can wait...

So, have you had enough time to think about that now?  I walked away to check on Roomba, my own personal robotic cleaning slave, but I'm back again to continue the conversation.  Here's how it works:  You submit a comment (on the blog itself, not Facebook) suggesting a specific contest that I can have.  If I choose your idea, you will win a $75 Amazon gift card, and then next week we'll hold the actual contest for yet another gift card.

Got it?  Now I know how many people read this blog, and it's quite a few. Certainly enough to come up with something!  I'm counting on some good ideas, people!  Don't let me down...  You have until Friday at midnight to leave your comment.  I'll announce the winner on Saturday.

...want to win something cool? It's all in your capable hands.