Surprise Central!

almost ever since I have been blogging/tweeting, my wife (remember her from here, here, and here?) has asked me several times....."why do you do it?" while there have been other times when she has used stronger language to express her opinion of the time i spend online ("what? $994.99 on the Visa bill? what is dubyadubyadubya dot getitupandrun dot com?!!!), she has become pretty tolerant of it.
to add to this, lately i have been getting lucky  had lots of luck winning contests online, too. It all started last spring with a prize from NCRunnerDude that was sponsored by AudioFuel. From that prize I have added some international pals online. We've exchanged interesting chats about grammar, beer, take-out (which the folks in England call "take-away"), and such. I joined Juneathon last year, and am very excited about next month's Janathon. Check it out. you should be excited, too!
More recently, however, I have won a CASE of Chobani yogurt and a set of AirDrive earphones. Both on my birthday weekend. Or at least close enough for me to count them as such. Hey, it is my blog. Get your own if you don't like my parameters.....what? oh, sorry.

Then, as if the running gag (not as in running, but as in running) Gods were smiling at me, THIS arrived in the mail 2 days ago:

Ummm...yea. I don't recall entering a contest where this was the prize, but HEY! as @jogblog said, "Free food is good!" I came in the door doing a little dance I like to call:

"HEY, LOOK AT ME! I GOT MORE STUFF FOR FREEEEEEEEE!"

It is very similar to the Snoopy dance, but with a bit of White Guy with an Overbite added in for good measure. Got the visual? Good.

I started laughing when Tracey asked what it was this time. Our 17 year old (who just got early acceptance to UVM (WOOT!)) was in the room, too, and wondered what was going on. I kept dancing as she ran down the list of goodies. Some of the day care kids joined me in the dance, and it began to look like a scene from a NatGeo special where all of the natives are dancing around pre-sacrifice. Except that we were clothed. whew. Mike told me that I should run down to the store and buy a lottery ticket. But i didn't. Darn.

I did, though, sneak away to our bedroom and open the box. what could it be, what could it be? well, it was:

Strange, isn't it. ONE bar. yep. and I shook the package, too, just to make sure that I wasn't tossing out a hidden coupon for a case of free bars or something. Nope. Nada. WISIWIG. Odd. I brought it to work today to test out. Here it what it looks like up close....

Not at all what i expected. They kinda look like nature valley granola bars, or other similar bars. I guess i was expecting something that looked more like the original Clif bar. Dunno why. The TASTE, though, is FANTASTIC as compared to that other brand.

HOLY.GOODNESS!! They are lightweight, feel light on my tongue, but BIG on flavor! I can't really taste HONEY in them, but I taste more of a caramel or...no, wait! BUTTERSCOTCH!!!! even better than caramel, if you ask me.

See a whole bunch of interesting things about Clif Crunch Granola Bars here. Perhaps of note to some of you is this tid-bit from the FAQ page:

Is CLIF CRUNCH® vegan-friendly?

CLIF CRUNCH® White Chocolate Macadamia Nut is vegan-friendly. The Chocolate Chip, Honey Oat and Peanut Butter CLIF Crunch flavors all contain honey, so they are not considered vegan-friendly. You should note, however, that the non-dairy chips we use are made at our bakery, which processes dairy, so even White Chocolate Macadamia Nut may contain traces of dairy.

So there you have it. If i get some extra $$ in my stocking or what not, I will be buying a box of these to keep in my stash. Not my Stache, just my stash. Go grab some for the runner/active person on your holiday list. Who know's maybe you'll both get lucky! They'll Love you for it!

[FCC: the goodies suddenly showed up in my mailbox. while the bar was supplied for free, the opinion here is my own.]