New Coffeemaker

Yesterday I came home and noticed that there was coffee left in the coffee maker. I asked Hubby if he'd made another pot in the afternoon. He said he hadn't. Unfortunately, the carafe was just a few degrees cooler than molten lead and from this I surmised that the "auto off" feature had failed, completely. I unplugged it and the clock stayed on for 30 minutes -- about 3 times longer than it should have. I decided it was possessed by a boggart and we made a note to use the French Press in the morning.

This morning I realized what I thought was our French Press on the shelf was in fact our Bodum milk frother. Doh! Since I really needed coffee, we gave the possessed coffee maker one last go (but I made Hubby promise to unplug it when the carafe was empty). Tonight we bought a replacement. We had actually looked at coffee makers on the weekend (maybe ours knew it was doomed) -- and had come home with a new grinder -- so we had already narrowed our choices. Big bonus, one of our front runners was priced $30 lower at London Drugs so we went with that one (this Oster model).

I threw caution to the wind and brewed some coffee when we got home. It was gooooood. I'm enjoying it now and will be cursing it at 1:30 a.m. when I am still awake.


Speaking of awake, the sunrise this morning was lovely:

Contest Update:
To everyone who added a heart to my Etsy store, Thank You! -- Anne was #100 and will be getting a special something in the mail.

Etsy Heart Contest

This is the easiest contest ever. My Etsy store has 99 Hearts (i.e. fans) but I want a few more...

...so just go to my store and give me a heart (click on "+Add seller to favorites" in the right hand column, registration is required). The 100th and the 123rd and the 147th people to heart my store will get a free Creative Miscellany gift* in the mail!

If you are already a fan -- Thank You! -- you can still win: just tweet or blog or share on Facebook your favourite listing in my store and leave a comment below that points/links to it. I'll use a random number generator to pick up to three comments for more free gifts*!

Become a Fan of Creative Miscellany on Facebook and I will draw up to three more names for free gifts* from there.

Finally, if you do all three things, you'll be put in a grand prize draw for a yet-to-be-sewn, one-of-a-kind Huggitz doll!




*Free gifts will be stuff I can ship flat or in small packages including ACEOs, greeting cards, Monsters and Aliens colouring books, Coffee Haiku mini-books, or even finger puppets!

You have until midnight PST on Wednesday Feb 3, 2010 to enter.

I wanna flip camera

Since I've started using Twitter for FrugalVictoria, I've found (and been found by) all sorts of other Canadian freebie sites including CanadianFreeStuff which is currently holding a contest for a Flip Video Camera that I would be happy to win.

There's also a forum at CanadianFreeStuff where you can earn points toward stuff based on your level of participation. If you sign up there, tell 'em "triviaqueen" sent you ;)

As with the other sites I've found, there is overlap but there is good info on all of them and I still feel like FrugalVictoria fits nicely into the mix. (Phew!)

Why I love haiku

1. Because I can write haiku about almost anything (go ahead, challenge me; other people have) in very little time.
2. Because it amuses me.
3. Because it amuses others.
4. Because I can use it to make a teeny bit of money (Coffee haiku book; haiku for the masses stuff on Cafe Press)
5. Because I can use my haiku skillz to win stuff (just today, I won a double guest pass for the Victoria Fringe Festival by submitting the haiku below to the Times Colonist Fringe feed on Twitter (@TCFringeFeed))

after ten minutes
my gut hurts from the laughter
unexpected smash!

A Prize and A Giveaway

Today, I got this:

(There are more photos on Flickr.) I haven't played with it yet... but soon. In the meantime, read what Colin thought.

Aside from that, we've been busy with work and camps and getting ready for back-to-school, and working on other projects -- including a zine that Kiddo and I are putting together to sell on Etsy and hopefully in a few places locally. We are calling it Bümfmag. Would you like a copy? Tell me why in the comments and I will send a copy out to at least 5 commenters (maybe more... depending on how many overseas comments I get...).

OTTO? OTTO!

On Friday, I checked in with CoffeeCrew.com to see who won the OTTO vote. Turns out there was a tie -- me and another author. The editor decided the fairest way to deal with it was to email everyone who had voted for someone other than the top two and ask them to pick one -- he called it a vote-off, I pointed out to him that it seemed similar to BC-STV.

When he later told me people started pushing back and saying "No way! We want the person we voted for to win, that's why we voted for them," I told him, "and that's why BC-STV failed."

However, enough people re-voted that I ended up the winner.

By a single vote.



So, I won't have the OTTO for a couple of weeks yet but when it does arrive, I promise you a review and plenty of photos. Thanks so much to those who voted for me; I owe you an espresso.

Seeing new things in the city

I completely forgot to mention what we did last weekend -- we popped out to Sidney to check out the new Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre. It is very much what we've been missing in the region: a decent ocean-themed attraction, well-designed and executed. Kiddo loved it. There's a review on the Victoria Guide if you want to see more.

This weekend, we will be checking out two new things (new to us, anyway) the plan is to tour Glendale Gardens (they have the Art & Music in the Gardens event this weekend) and have afternoon tea at White Heather in Oak Bay for my Mom's birthday. Both will be part of larger articles on the region's gardens and tea rooms, respectively.

And speaking of articles, the deadline to vote in the Win OTTO contest is quickly approaching (if you missed it, I have a story in the running) -- the voting closes at 5 pm Pacific time Friday August 7th.

OTTO Contest update

OK, there are 12 entries in CoffeeCrew.com's Win OTTO contest so in theory I have a 1/12 chance... that's pretty good!

Here's how to vote:

OTTO Rules - There are 12 stories, numbered 1 through 12. You may register a vote by picking 1 story based on the number or the author and send me an e-mail. The subject header or body of the e-mail must contain the words OTTO and the number of the story. You may not vote more than once. One e-mail address = one vote. If I detect that someone is registering multiple e-mails to vote for the same story, this could result in the disqualification of the author... so don't go there! The person with the most votes by August 7, 2009 will be declared the winner. It is simple as that. I will also pick the 2nd and 3rd place winners for EspressoParts.Com T-shirts and other nifty prizes.

My story is #2, A Rebellious Act. I promise to let you come over and play with the OTTO if I win. :)

Zucchini Season!

It's been so hot I haven't wanted to go outside but the veggies kept growing anyway...

I picked all of these last night -- four green zucchinis the size of my forearm and one yellow one, slightly smaller. There are several more just about the same size still on the bushes.

Meanwhile, Frugal Victoria is finding more followers and fans on both Facebook and Twitter (yes, I went to the dark side of 140 character updates. Sigh.) -- the upside of which is that people are now sending me tips. Hurrah!

I also entered a contest to win an OTTO espresso maker (this is one beautiful piece of machinery that retails for about $600!) -- I had to write about how specialty coffee changed my life so I whipped up a little creative non-fiction, "A rebellious act."

Of course, I now think I may have got some details wrong (was the Old Towne actually on Yates, not Johnson? Had it closed before I left for England?) but the overall feel is still there. I also found, on re-read, that I had repeated myself... but there's not much I can do about that now. The prize will be awarded by "popular vote" so go have a look at the other entries, too. Oh, and before you ask, the editor of CoffeeCrew selected that photo from my Flickr stream; I sent a different shot. ;)

I hate my sinuses.

... but I am not going to bore you with my tales of Head Cold of Ought Nine Round Two, no sirreee. Instead, I am going to dump a bunch of links at you that have been cluttering up my brain of late:

First, some stupid ideas:

Rebranding the SciFi network as SyFy -- apparently to attract more women. UNLIKELY. However, it has given them a lot of press, even if most of it riducules them for the concept. Hopefully it will go down the same drain as New Coke.

VANOC's latest plan to f*#$ over the province: the 2010 Winter Games Integrated Transportation Plan. While I applaud any increase to transit options, I think having dedicated vehicle lanes for what boils down to VANOC cronies is a waste of resources. I also shudder at the burden of extra costs to any company that makes deliveries into Vancouver's downtown core and other "key areas" as these deliveries will have to be done during the graveyard shift during the 3 weeks around the Games. Oh, hey! I guess that means that any business getting a delivery will have to meet the trucks in the middle of the night, too. Way to go VANOC.

The latest in a string of stupid reactions to parents who trust their children was this poor kid in Mississippi who ended up in a cop car because neighbours thought he shouldn't be walking to the soccer field unattended. At age ten. In daylight. The woman rightfully stood up to police, asking them why her neighbourhood was deemed so unsafe that it was necessary to pick up her child, causing the police chief to backpedal.

Next, some fun news:

Kiddo, Hubby and I all added new stuff to our collective etsy store -- Hubby unearthed his Brains on Chains, I built some collage packs, and Kiddo created some Kids Fun Foam Book Kits. I photographed all of it and posted them yesterday.

We have a new toy. Hubby went out to get new tires yesterday and came home with a PS3 (specifically a Playstation 3 40GB Console). (He came home with the tires, too; it wasn't an either/or transaction). He scored the system second-hand at one of our fave haunts (Barclay's Exchange) and once it was clear that the system worked, he went out in search of new games. As a result I happily spent an hour last night getting acquainted with LittleBigPlanet. I expect a game review will follow.


And now, stuff you can win:

Win a powerful new shredder for your office by spring cleaning and sending before and after photos to LifeHacker. Contest ends tomorrow (!!) 19 March

Win a pillow decorated with a cover made from selvedge (the scrap ends of fabric that are all the rage with use-every-scrap crafters these days) just for commenting at the Selvedge Blog. Contest ends 23 March.

Win coffee for a year (or doughnuts, really, as the prize is awarded in Tim Hortons Gift Cards) by entering online at Tim Hortons RRRoll Up Fun. Contest ends 22 March.

Looking ahead.

As I hinted last week, I am one of the shortlisted entrants for the CBC Canada Writes 2009 contest. Following my cryptic post, I was given an audition challenge on Tuesday (I had to write fewer than 200 words on a specific topic and do so in under 1 hour, via email). On Wednesday, I had an audition interview by phone. On Thursday I wrote my bio and selected a photo of myself which I sent in about an hour before I left for Vegas.

Now it is in the hands of the judges and it'll be a week before I know whether I make it to the semi-finals....

This is what sleep deprivation is made of....

... I have been shortlisted in a National contest as one of ten potential semi-finalists for my region. I don't know if I can give too much detail yet but I will share as soon as I can. In the meantime, I have some challenges over the next two days and then it will be up to the judges.

I wonder if the judges like cookies?

Comment Contest!

My Unofficial Guide to Victoria has been through several facelifts in the eleven years (!) that it has been online, and it's time for another. This time though, I am thinking more along the lines of liposuction (to remove the bulk) and a whole new wardrobe.

This is where you come in.... I have my own thoughts about what needs to be trimmed and what needs to be highlighted, but I want to know what you think.

Have a look around the site -- start with the site map if you prefer -- and then let me know: What are the strengths and the weaknesses? What's missing? What's your favourite page? Least favourite? What would you change about the layout? The colours? Nothing is off limits, have at it in the comments!

To encourage your comments, I am holding a contest! I will do a random draw for a prize -- to enter, leave a constructive comment about Cheryl's Unofficial Guide to Victoria by 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Time) Sunday June 15th. The winner will get a 5x7 print of a Victoria landmark(winner's choice from my photos) suitable for framing.

Comments may be left on this post, or on my Flickr account, on the logo photo, linked below: