Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Winner


This spectacular Gwynn's Island sunset from last summer was taken from the very beach where our Blog Fest picnic will be held in July. I am posting this up here for a couple of reasons. One, this spot of Earth always calms and relaxes me. Two, I'm tired of the dreary brown, lifeless scenery that abounds this time of year.

Speaking of Blog Fest, which rhymes with contest, it's time to announce the winner of our recent competition.


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I cannot begin to express my gratitude to the participants in our recent story-writing contest. I was very pleasantly surprised with the responses, and I loved each and every one of them.

If I were writing this for work and/or if I were the succinct sort, I would have told you in the first sentence who won, short and sweet. As I wait for you to stop laughing at the notion that I might be capable of being succinct, I will go into more detail about who wrote what and other background information; in other words I will drag this out until you're blinking back tears.

First of all, I want to identify the writers using their internet screen names:

Contestant #1 - Moon Over Mathews - Submitted by first-timer "Jack" who has never commented before, but says he's been reading a while. I hope he and his crew continue reading and that they'll leave comments and/or send me more stories.

Contestant #2 - Most Memorable Hitch-Hiker - Commenter Anonymous Mathews Native (AMN)

Contestant #3 - Everything Old is New - Commenter Anonymous Mathews Native (AMN)

Contestant #4 - Cast of Characters - Ann Marie

Contestant #5 - First Kiss - Commenter Mathews Mountain Man, aka MMM

Contestant #6 - Young People - Phyl

Contestant #7 - Chesapeake Bay Middle Sister - Commenter Icey

Contestant #8 - Hitch-Hiking: A Lost Art - Commenter Anonymous Mathews Native (AMN)

Contestant #9 - Larry -Foolery

Every single story received votes, and truly they all are winners. It is important to me that all the participants know it was a very close race, and there were only a few votes separating the winners from all the others.

And now, without further ado, I am pleased to announce we have a tie for first place between

Moon Over Mathews by "Jack" and Young People by Phyl

I am declaring these two winners. Congratulations! They both received the same number of votes. The runner-up was First Kiss, and all the others were very close on the heels of these 3. Again, I truly applaud your efforts and thank you so much for participating.Thanks to all who took the time to vote as well.


So, "Jack" and "Phyl" went up the hill to fetch a pail of water....

No, just kidding. "Jack" and "Phyl", please send an e-mail to ChesapeakeBayWoman@gmail.com and let me know if you prefer lunch at Linda's Diner or a $25 gift certificate.

And now, folks get ready to go into hibernation until our next contest, because it is back to the Same Old Same Old CBW hot air since I no longer have other people's stories up here to carry me through these winter doldrums.

Given that I'm off to the paying job today and tomorrow and have absolutely nothing lined up as far as posts for this week, you can rest assured that anything you read here after this contest will be as mind-numbing as ever.

If not more.

18 comments:

Unknown said...

congratulations to the winners. That was a fun competition.

Angela said...

Oh, all over? I only got back to my computer today, but now I will read all stories backwards! Thanks for sharing them, after I read the first one my mouth began to water. It`s all about time, though. But in Mathews, what is time? So I`ll pretend I`m in M. today ad put up my feet and decide all for myself who the winner is! Thanks, J.!

Annie said...

Yes, congratulations to all...a very worthy contest! Excellent. Not only the contestants but also our hostess..the one and only...cbw!

Thanks again for a great week!

Annie

mmm said...

CBW,

Thanks for hosting a fun contest and for "spreading the wealth"; wealth of words, wealth of laughs, wealth of fun and witty exchanges between people from around the world - and, oh yes, for doubling the prize money.

Congratulations to the winners.

Have a great day everyone!

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

Thank you all again for reading, for participating and for coming back for more...

Now I have to race off to the Office of No Internet where I will break out into a sweat and try to figure out how to get back into the swing of writing blog posts every single day when I've had the past several weeks off.

Congratulations again to the winners, and a very special thanks to all who competed. Any time you want to contribute more stories, I'm happy to have them, and that goes for any other readers out there with a Mathews connection.

Have a great Tuesday. -cbw

Anonymous said...

OMG! I won. That's so exciting. Thank you so much for hosting such a fun contest. I enjoyed all of the stories.

I want lunch, no certificate. Half the fun will be going back to the 'hood!

Ann Marie said...

I think some one should slip the date out there of said prize lunch then we can all crash and have a BLAST..

Mental P Mama said...

Congrats to everyone! I had no idea Foolery was Larry's creator! I still like #5. Is MMM coming to the 'fest?

Anonymous said...

Oh Congratulations! I really enjoyed reading everyone's stories!
CBW, I don't know if your readership spiked during the contest, but I know I couldn't wait to see what would come next!

AMN

Anonymous said...

Congrats to all....and a BIG THANK YOU for providing such entertainment:)

foolery said...

This was an absolute blast -- to read, to participate, to comment. Thanks so much for a great week, Miss Cheeky -- and big congrats to the winners.

foolery said...

Also, the captcha code for my comment was

cesepol

which is a bit passive-aggressive of Blogger, don't you think?

mmm said...

Foolery, my code is "stoks". How many "stoks" does it take to get out of the "cesepol"?

Loved your story - I have a vivid picture of Larry fixed in my head forever.

Meg McCormick said...

Love it, and I can almost - almost! - feel the warmth of a summer evening just looking at the lovely photo.

Anonymous said...

...I'm bored, there's nothing to do around here!

Just trying to keep you on your toes CBW :) What's planned for next week??

Have you ever thought about being a cruise ship entertainment director?

Between all the cooks and writers around here, ya all could put together one of those 'mystery' restaurants.

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

Anonymous - I agree we have many talented folks around here. I have so many ideas of how we can harness this talent and make good use of it, but it requires someone with contacts (esp. to television, I'm aiming high) to make it happen...and that isn't me. I can come up with the ideas, but I can't implement anything, at least that's not my strength.

Cruise director? I'm a much better behind the scenes person. Chesapeake Bay Middle Sister would be the best cruise director, she has the perfect personality for it.

I will definitely be running another contest. There's only so much of my rambling that people can stand....

Have a great evening, all. I'm worn out and have to get up at five tomorrow morning for that dreaded paying job.

Karen Deborah said...

congrats! I am more than ready to hear about mowing over infestations of fiddler crabs and moms roasting on the spit and all of YOUR hilarious thoughts and stories!

Anonymous said...

and CBW . . . that photo was perfect. Looks a great deal like the view I enjoyed living on the island in high school. I used to go out to the beach to relax, do homework and just enjoy the scene. THANK you for the pic, the contest and I can't wait for lunch! thank Lynne's can handle all of us?????