Neener, Neerer, We Have a Weener..

Now that I have your attention.  See how a title can just suck you in..

We had our Gold Rush Days this past weekend and I was able to secure almost everything I needed to complete the giveaway.  Almost.  I was unable to get any maps.  Turns out the rights to the map belong to the National Archive and are not allowing willy nilly reproductions.  :P

You know that mass mailing thingy I did 2 months ago, that thing you probably though was never going to happen.  Oh yea sure, he mails this stuff out and asks for me to send in my box tops and my ovaltine lids in a self addressed stamped envelope along with 25 cents.  What do I get BUPKUS that's what.  I waited outside my mailbox for the last 2 months and I got SQUAT.  I'm calling my post master and filing a fraud complaint.

Hold on there sparky!!  I told you I was moving.  I had to allow time for everyone to have a chance to send something in.  They may have been away, attacked by a plague of locust, ran out of gas, they didn't have enough money for cab fair, the tux didn't come back from the cleaners, a old friend came in from out of town. someone stole their car, there was an earthquake, a terrible flood, you know the usual stuff.

Anyway..  Here we go..  And this one time at band camp..

Oh yea, the WINNER(S).  I had quite a few responses (surprised).  This one actually made you send me something.  Not as easy as just "please reply to this post".  For those of you that made the effort, BRAVO.

So here is the list, name and what I will be sending out.

Becky Preston - Wild West postcards, Pony Express Penny

Cal Kitson - Wild West postcards, Pony Express Penny, Pony Express Recruitment poster, Pony Express Coin

Karen Isaacson - Wild West postcards, Pony Express Penny, Pony Express Recruitment poster

Dori Singh - Wild West postcards, Pony Express Penny, Pony Express Recruitment poster, Pony Express Coin

Patty Davidson - Wild West postcards, Pony Express Penny, Pony Express Recruitment poster

PostMuse - Wild West postcards, Pony Express Penny

And the big Winner is..

Jackie Parkins - Wild West postcards, Pony Express Penny, Pony Express Recruitment poster, Pony Express Coin, Pony Express Magnet, Wild West post cards (First Day Issue), The West (Hard bound book from the postal service) 1 Sheet of Wild West Stamps.

So there ya have it.  I will be sending all of these out next week.

You now have the choice to make the call or suggestion for something YOU might want in a giveaway.

Upcoming mailings (Hey I've haven't been getting this stuff to look at).

Movie Monsters (I have some neat stuff for this one)
Civil War (including the book)
Field Notes sets
Christmas (postal postcard set, I don't care if you are not christian IT's A CARD, SEASONAL)


Till next time..

And they're out of the gate!

The cards are on their way. 

Stats:
158 cards
5 sheets of 29 cent stamps
2 sheets of 85 cent stamps
2 sheets of 1 cent stamps.

The post cards were pre-stamped with 19 cent per.  So to make the 1.05, a single and an 85 worked well.  Wondering how long it will take to get to some of the further reaches.

Cards went out to Brazil, Poland, Germany, Australia, England/UK/Great Britain, Russia, India, Canada and the Philippines for the international portion of the giveaway.

So IT'S ON.

I will eventually be sending out change of address cards when I recover from actually getting in the house.  Of course it had to be 100+ all week with no end in sight to get this done.

I said it before and I'll say it again.  I WILL DIE IN THIS HOUSE.. I am NEVER MOVING AGAIN.  We have learned one really cool thing during the move.  The term I don't want to move this has become the mantra of the day.  The only place those things are moved to is the end of the driveway where the local vultures are circling wondering what we will drop out there next.  We have started to see regulars pop up when we return to make another load.

Remember when I did the "Crap Fest Mailing", think that on a much grander scale.  Instead of office garbage, I'm finding homes for some of my antiques.  Old Pie Safes, shelving (NO, I'm not putting that stuff on the street).

I'm writing this from work because I have yet to put my office back together.  Until I have everything that will go in the room there, I don't want to start setting things up knowing they will be moved.  The book cases are just to heavy when loaded.

Question..   Do any of you folks have hard wood floors.  and if so do you use a moving office chair?

I really don't want to jack up the floors rolling all over it with the chair.  Trying to figure out if I should put down a rug and a office mat on top of that to protect the floors.

So with that, back to the grind tomorrow.  I'm taking the rest of the week off from work the get the move complete.  The temps at 8am in the morning are much better than at 5pm after work.

Of Lazy Days

Well no scanning today, because I'm tired, it's late and I've been going rounds with Kaylee.  I swear she is more tiring than any workout you could ever go through.  You just can't reason with a 4yr old that is as stubborn as you are (wonder where she gets it from?)

So I had a REALLY good mail day today.  5 postcards from swap-bot, which I rated promptly and 3 letters.  One from a repeat writer (always good to know I didn't scare her off with my 5 page letter :).  one from Great Britain ( a reply) and one from Lucas.

Lucas I swear it gets easier as you go along.  I'll be penning a response in a day or so.  I like to absorb the letters.

With that statement, how many of you respond the day you get a letter, not a postcard but a nice letter.  And how many of you write more than a one page letter?

Now I use a 5.75 x 8.25 paper (A5 I think it is) and I prefer it to the standard 8.5x11 pages we all wrote on in school.  For some reason to me it feels struggled to fill the page.  But with the A5 pages it just seems like I'm getting more done.  The words just seem to flow a bit more not looking at the huge blank sheet of paper.

I finally broke down and ordered some nice paper from The Goulet Pen Company.  I must say for a small company I was very impressed.  The order was received in 3 days from Virginia.  Well packaged (almost to well).  I ordered some Original Crown Pure Cotton and some Clairefontaine Triomphe as well as some cartridges for my fountain pen.  While I "could" convert my Kaweco to an eye dropper, I really don't have an issue with the cartridges.  I just need to make sure I have some on hand as I ran out, not keeping an eye on the ink level.

I have started to get some responses to the Black Heritage cards I sent out last week.  Some of you have been asking where I got them.  The first batch of 20 came from an antique place here in Sacramento.  When I bought those, I thought then that it would be fun for Black History Month to send these out.  That was in December.  As I started getting more into the project and started getting more mail and regular correspondence, I widened the amount that I needed and an ebayin I did go.  I found a person who had both volumes for $10.  So now I have 60 cards.  I picked up a broken pack locally that brought me up to 74.  All but 2 went out.  I kept a Roberto Clemente and a Jackie Robinson card for me.

The next batch of a large send will be going out just before opening day (baseball).  I have 20 cards now but need another 40 min.  So I will be searching for the remainder over the next 2 months and gathering the stamps for that one as well.

On another note I purchased 5 of these today. (Thanks Dana.. he says sarcastically)

They were on sale at Crane & Co. for $5.00.  So I bought 5.  I will be keeping one and giving away the other 4 sometime in the near future.  I have to get them first :)

I will either do a giveaway or as per my norm just send them out to some folks.  You know who you are.. Or do ya??