Winner, winner, pancake dinner!

ok, maybe not DINNER, but breakfast doesn't rhyme well with winner. not even an eye rhyme. huh?
I have been trying to find a new way to come up with a random number for the winner of the contest. Here are some of the things I tried:
Randomly get up and look out the window. Number of people walking across the parking lot equals number for winner. How many did I see? None. (YAY! I get to keep the syrup!) bzzzzt.
Get deck of cards from one of the wards and try some card thing. Yea. Well, the first deck I 'borrowed' and brough back to my office (along with MRSA and who knows what else) turned out to be a pinochle deck. WTH??? So I went back and found a real deck. I only had 12 entries, so I was able to go Ace->Queen. I thought that I would go to the top of the stairs and toss the cards down and pick the one that went the farthest as the winner. HA. I forgot that the elevator in our building is being 'upgraded', so the stairs are actually getting some use. Almost put a Doc's eye out with the cards Decided that this wasn't a good idea and went back to my office.
Tried to toss the cards into the recycle bin in the office, but the AC is on so high that the cards never actually made it to the bin. Took me 2 rounds before i could figure out why they were all stalling in mid air about 2/3 of the way to the bin. Drat.

What to do, what to do? Here is the list of contenders, with randomly assigned numbers. I used paper from the recylce bin in an effort to be 'friendly'. I write that, but I am also using a brand new blank piece of paper to doodle on. All things in balance, I suppose. Anyway, back to the contest.

I have beaucoup (boo-coo) work to do today, so I gave up trying to be creative and just went with the old stand by, the random number generator at random.org.

Here is the number that it chose as the winner of the contest:

As you can see, it chose the number NINE. If you look on the list above, the number NINE corresponds to RTP, which is RUNNING THROUGH PHOENIX!!!! Congratulations to Jeff G! Please send your mailing address to me at boutdrz at gmail dot com and I'll try to get it out to you in Saatuday's post (mail. sorry, have been tweeting quite a bit with folks in England lately...cheers!).

One Sweet Giveaway!

Welcome to my first ever give away! Thank you very much for being a follower-reader-commenter over the past year or so. I have been a weener of a few giveaways, and want to give back, so without further ado...

Welcome to Gene's Real Vermont Maple Syrup Giveaway!!!!

I have in my possession ONE QUART of 100% Pure, Organic, Friend Made, Real Vermont Maple Syrup. Follow the simple instructions located in this posting, and you can have it. Soon, you may be enjoying the healthy taste of 100% Real Vermont Maple Syrup on your pancakes! Does life get much better? No.
A good friend of mine and her husband (and their extended family) run a sugar house in a town just south of ours here in Vermont. They started is as a hobby a few short years ago, and it has since pretty much become her passion, behind her wonderful kids (and husband!). Their daughter just started running X-C this fall. Her first race was at Thetford Academy, host to some of the toughest X-C trails and races this side of the Mississippi. Seriously. She did GREAT. but I digress....
Here is a link to Amy and Kevin's sugar house on the web, the Raymond Sugar House! Go there, poke around a bit. See some things you think you might like? I know you will. I have had the priviledge of sampling some of the goodies. Lemme tell you, I was never let down. I don't like a lot of sweets, and the maple flavors are just right. The granola is very good. Just sweet enough to munch munch much. I haven't tried it in yogurt, but I bet it is wonderful. The first way to gain entry into the contest is to simply leave me a note in the comments telling me that you want in. Remember, if you don't leave your name somewhere and only comment as 'anonymous', well, then, you're entry doesn't count.
Here are some pictures of the production process that I took two springs ago. We were just driving around one evening and decided to drop in on the Raymonds. Their sugar shack (as it is called) is in their back yard. Very cool.

It takes around 40 gallons of sap from a sugar maple tree to make ONE gallon of syrup. This and other facts about syrup production can be found by poking around on  Amy and Kevin's site. Production Photo.....

that's my wife and little guy watching the
evaporation process

After the sap has boiled down sufficiently, it is poured off and then put through a series of filters before it is ready for consumption. One of the BEST TREATS EVER is called 'sugar on snow', where you make a 'snow cone' out of real snow and then pour fresh, hot maple syrup on it. mmmmmm. nothing quite like it. Gain yourself another entry into the contest by letting me know that you follow me on twitter. No need to retweet about the contest. I want the winner to be someone who has been part of my virtual support system for more than just the duration of this contest. Also, please don't post it on FB. Thank you.

I cannot say enough good things about Amy and her family. They are the kind of people that you wish you could spend more time with, but just never seem to be able to do so on a regular basis. So go check out their site. Bookmark it to come back to when you need to buy a gift for that hard to buy for person on your list (this is always ME). Oh, and of course, leave a comment telling me that you want to be part of this. Sorry, I can't ship overseas, but I WILL ship to Canada.....
Oh, right. About the drawing. I will do it in pretty much the same way that Barefoot Neil Z. is doing one on his blog, but not sure about the video taping part. I am not quite that techno savvy...."My son will pick entered names out of a hat in a really cute and aw shucks inspiring way"
Oh, right! CONTEST ENDS 30 SEPTEMBER.

Back on the Run

Two evenings ago I went for a run and had a blast. Kinda rainy at the beginning, but since I was in the woods, I didn't feel much of it; the sun came out less than half way through. It was very nice to be surrounded by trees and plants and such.

photo credit: Salomon Shoes

I ran on a trail that I like to call (when I talk to myself about these things) my 'Test Piece'. Do you have a Test Piece? A spot on a trail, a hill, a stream, some thing that was a challenge to you when you first started, but you have been able to notice steady improvements? Could be a timed distance, the ability to make it to the top of 'that hill' without stopping, anything really. Afterall, it is your Test Piece.

Mine has a crazy but short uphill along a powerline about 200m(eters) into it. Hard packed and very slick when it rains. I have never been able to get to the top without nearly dying. Monday, I made it right up. Stopping never crossed my mind. It goes up rather steadily for a bit after that, and reaches it's height at about .45 miles into the trail. After that, a long, steady downhill to the end. In the past, I have had to stop and walk before I reached the 'summit'. Not Monday! I ran all the way to the end! Very cool. Not wanting to over do it, I did take 2x30second walk breaks on my way back to the truck.
One of the things that I struggle with is not feeling guilty about taking time for myself. Some may say that I take waaay too much a LOT of time for myself. I won't dispute that I try to take some every day, but lemme tell you it is filled with guilt. I am working on that, but it will be a 'process'.
Any one else feel like they 'shouldn't' be taking time to run? My wife is very good about my running. She even encourages me to do more of it. She has said, "when you run regularly you seem happier, nicer to be around. That makes you a better husband, father, friend. when you don't run, well....we wish you would." (not an exact quote, but i don't think she'd deny it....)
I have a giveaway that I am getting ready to post. This one is a doooooozy. Stay tuned. Maybe tomorrow...