I have a WINNER!

One to-day is worth two to-morrows.

-Benjamin Franklin

I had 72 people enter my Bloggy Giveaways Carnival post. After tabulating the bonus points given to those who read something from my archives and then commented on it, the grand total was bumped up to 373 entries! So, I called upon the services of a random sequence generator and the winner is:

Congratulations! She will be receiving the book, Joie de Vivre: Simple French Style for Everyday Living, as well as some special surprises!

I so remember Qtpie7 as I was doing my entry marathon! The banner on her blog is a photograph of her seven smiling children. I recall thinking that she sure had a good recipe for kids! There is such a sweet presence of the Lord on her blog. Click HERE to visit her.

I am tremendously blessed by all of your wonderful comments concerning the content of my blog! THANK-YOU!

The Bloggy Giveaways Carnival

NOTE: My Giveaway began on July 28th. The deadline has been reached. All comments on this post have been disabled. The winner will be announced on Saturday, August 2nd before 9:00 PM PST. Feel free to peruse other posts by scrolling down.

The quarterly Bloggy Giveaways Carnival is in full force. At this posting, there were over 600 hosts and the list is growing by the minute! Now, who doesn't love to win something unexpected? Here's your opportunity to throw some pennies into the fountain. Who knows what wishes might come true!

My contribution is the beautifully inspiring book, Joie de Vivre: Simple French Style for Everyday Living, by Robert Arbor & Katherine Whiteside. The book retails for $30.00. Plus, I will also be adding in a little surprise!

The deadline to enter is Friday, August 1st at Midnight PST.

TO ENTER: 1.) Post one comment under this heading. 2.) If you read anything from my Blog Archives, comment about what you read here and I will give you 5 additional entries. 3.) Be sure to leave a good link for me to contact you. 4.) Open to everyone.

An August Welcome!

Courtesy of ellisparkerbutler.com

Here's a wake-up call! This Good Housekeeping magazine was published exactly 100 years ago! For $1.00 an issue, the ladies of America were ushered into all things domestic. Notice how this woman is carefully inspecting a cup that was removed from a perfectly aligned row. What do you suppose she is looking at?

Xanadu

Xanadu \ZAN-uh-doo\ - noun

Meaning: an idyllic, exotic, or luxurious place

Example Sentence:
To Arthur, the beach house was a Xanadu, the perfect spot for the romantic tropical vacation he had dreamed of for years.

Did you know?

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure dome-decree." Those lines are from the poem "Kubla Khan" (published in 1816) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge's fantastic description of an exotic utopia fired public imagination and ultimately contributed to the transition of "Xanadu" from a name to a generalized term for an idyllic place. The Xanadu in the poem was inspired by Shang-tu, the summer residence of Mongolian general and statesman Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan). You might also recognize "Xanadu" as the name of the fantastic estate in Orson Welles's 1941 film Citizen Kane.

Web site: Merriam-Webster.com

In-Basket

FINDING SEASHELLS

Come walk with me
Along the sea
Where dusk sits on the land;
And search with me,
For shells are free,
And treasures hide in sand.

-Author Unknown

One of the saddest phrases in the human language is "author unknown." Someone, somewhere, crafted this poem in a moment of inspiration only to have it wash ashore as an orphan. As a writer, this stings a bit.

Alright, next in my in-basket is some terrific news! I won first place in DebraK's Giveaway! I wonder what Cuddles and Cranky are saying now! I selected vignettes 1, 3, and 5! If this is Greek to you or you are unfamiliar with Cuddles and Cranky, stroll down a few posts to the 3-2-1 GIVEAWAY. And, while you're there, why not pay DebraK of the Bunnies Bungalow a visit.

Lastly, there are 916 hosts in the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival as of this post. I am selectively entering; nonetheless, I am only up to number 201!

GINORMOUS THANKS to the dear friends who referred me!

Whole lotta shakin' goin' on...

At 11:42, we were getting ready to visit the brand new Target just south of our home when...

...the house jolted suddenly...
[we headed for cover]
...shaking, creaking, rattling...
...several seconds of this...
...ending with a cradle-like rocking motion...

This quake was a 5.4 thrust quake where one side of the fault was thrust up on top of the other side. The epicenter was southwest of Chino Hills, California and we live 20 miles from there. As I was writing this, we experienced a 3.6 magnitude aftershock.

My eldest, Briana, has endured some major California quakes without ever waking up. Usually by the time we got to her, the quake was over. So, you can just imagine her surprise today! Likewise, my sons—ages 13 and 8—were wide-eyed and pumped as they experienced a quake, awake...

Logophiles

SUGARY VOCABULARY:

nectary

Nouns with the suffix -y often denote places where you can get something to eat (bakery, buttery, carvery), but in the case of nectary, this is only true if you have specialized mouth parts: nectaries are the nectar-secreting organs in flowers.

[Above text from the Visual Thesaurus, Copyright ©1998-2008. Thinkmap, Inc. All rights reserved.]

Are you a logophile? A logophile is a noun meaning, “a word lover or word buff.” It is derived from the Greek, logos “speech” + phile “friend, lover” (speech-friend or speech-lover). Over at Visual Thesaurus, lexicographers cater to logophiles through debates on grammar and the sheer romance of words. Their word mapping tool is tremendous, whether you are at a loss for words or have words to lose.

COMING IN AUGUST
• Theme: Teahouse of the August Spoon
• An ATC Swap
• Poetry Challenge: Tetractys