I won our bet!

Today’s tough economy has forced many to trade “moving up” for “fixing up”. Home improvement tasks can prove daunting if you have little time or money to spare.

Dremel has teamed up with Home Improvement expert Paul Ryan, the host of “Kitchen Renovations” on DIY Network, to offer easy-to-follow tips for completing 10 of the most common home repair and remodeling projects – all in 30 minutes or less!
Are you up to Dremel’s task?

This step-by-step guide is designed to assist you with your home improvement projects and also features a shopping guide to make sure you  have everything you need to avoid a DIY disaster.  “30 Minute Miracles” project guide – PDF Format

Dremel 30 Minute Miracles Enter View The Contest Rules

In addition, Dremel is giving YOU the opportunity to flaunt your home improvement skills, and win big prizes, with the 30 Minute Miracles contest.

Contest runs from November 2nd – December 31, 2009 – There’s still time to get your entry in! Grand prize winner will recieve a $2,500 American Express Gift Card. Two additional winners will receive a $1,000 American Express Gift Card, or $500 American Express Gift Card. Open to US. residents age 18 or older. Winners to be announced by February 5, 2010.

Where cows go moo, chickens go cluck, horses neigh
and where cow girls and cow boys have fun.

I’m pretty sure that by now, most (if not all) of readers are well aware that I’m a bit of a country girl. Little Journeys Baby World is too cute for words. And they aren’t geared only “country”.  But other ethnicity’s as well. The lines that Little Journey’s has created are just adorable.

Check out Bonjour Little Sweetheart, sooo cute. We are expecting FOUR new babies between Feb. and end of March. I call them our soon to be Spring Babies. Springin’ up!

Caroline Riepler the founder started her first business in 2001 handcrafting (Woodcarving) European Good Luck Witches, which she takes great pride in that Madeleine Albright the former Secretary of State of America has one of her limited editions.
Starting from her home in Colorado, Little Journeys Baby World first supplied her products to friends and family, local shops, and special events. And now available through the World wide Web. Soon after that in 2003 Caroline became pregnant with her son Stefan and Little Journeys Baby World was born. Unfortunately, things turned bad in 2004 when her Son, Aunt, two Dogs and herself got hit by a drunk driver. It took about 4 years to get back on track again into doing what she loves the most of being with her family and friends, traveling and her dream business Little Journeys Baby World.
Little Journeys Western Wear line was selected to be one of the sponsors at the Canadian Country Music Awards 2009!

Little Journeys Baby Wear is offering one NetWorkingWitches reader a Sheriff T-Shirt (size M 12-18 lbs). Caroline is a WAHM, let’s show her the love from other Moms! Her products will make SUPER baby gifts! Take a peek.

WIN IT

MANDATORY Entry – Visit, Little Journeys Baby World and tell me another item she makes that you would love to get for a little one in your life.

Extra Entries: The mandatory entry MUST be completed or no extra entries will count. They can, and will be deleted, 1 entry unless specified otherwise below. You MUST leave a separate comment for each entry, otherwise it will count as one entry.

EXTRA Optional Entries

~ Become a Friend/Follower on Little Journeys Baby World on their Blog.

~ Join Little Journeys Baby World Mailing List.

~ Follow Little Journeys Baby World on Twitter.

~  Subscribe to our rss Feed (1 entry)

~  Subscribe AND confirm to our Email (2 entries)

~  Follow Networking Witches , WinterWitch and/or RedNeckWitch on Twitter (1 entry for each followed) And please send the below tweet.

~  Twitter this giveaway feel free to copy and paste this:  (You can tweet daily But you MUST leave the link to your tweet) @littlejourneys I just entered to win a Sheriff Baby Shirt with #NetWorkingWitches! http://wp.me/ppVmm-OE Gorgeous Baby Wear! Ends 12/05

~  Grab our button and post the link where we can find it. Copy and paste the code from the right hand side.  (2 entries)

~  Fave us on Technorati and let us know your user name. (2 entries)

~  Add our text link to your blogroll and leave us a link to it. http://www.networkingwitches.com

~ Blog about this giveaway linking to Networking Witches and the sponsor. Come back and leave us the direct link.  (3 entries)

~ Stumble this post, not the site.

~ Digg this post, and leave a link to the Digg, and your username.

This giveaway will end on 12/05/09 at 11:59 PM CST.

I was sent a Little Journey Baby Wear item for review, I was not paid any monetary compensation for this review. This post is my opinion and should be taken as just that. Having received samples has no impact on my personal use, experience, or like for any product.

]]> http://ayundabhuwana.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/i-won/ Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:51:37 +0000 ayunda http://ayundabhuwana.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/i-won/ http://blog.myvado.com/2009/11/28/november-winners/ Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:52:08 +0000 Vadographer http://blog.myvado.com/2009/11/28/november-winners/

Hopefully by now, we have all been well fed and have slept off most of our turkey-comas. What better occasion to announce the winners of our “I’m A Creative Fan” contest for November, than now? Think of it as icing on the “What I’m Thankful For” cake.

Our Twitter winners are Cindy Hickman, or “LifeOnPrint” who won a 4GB Vado HD and Susan, or “Grumpy1970″, who won an 8GB Vado HD.

Congrats to our two winners on Twitter!

Our winners for Facebook are Michelle Rosborough, who just landed a 4GB Vado HD and Manusha Rabel who won an 8GB Vado HD.

Congrats to our two winners on Facebook!

For YouTube, our Subscriber “lostdahlia” is the winner of the 4GB Vado HD, while friend “andrewlee67″ wins the 8GB Vado HD.

Congrats to our two winners on YouTube!

Congratulations to all our winners. Remember, we are picking 6 new winners at the end of December-so if you didn’t get it this month, you can still manage to grab one by the end of the year.

Winners,  please send your full name and mailing address to socialmedia@creativelabs.com so I can get your shiny new Vado HD pocket cams out to you!

Take care everyone, and enjoy your holiday weekend!

-Tawnee

poi qualcuno mi spiegherà com’è che funziona la testa di merda degli uomini, prima o poi.
cioè
in generale magari è complicato capirla
ma sul sesso almeno mi pareva fosse piuttosto chiaro
diobono se ti voglio scopare sarà chiaro
invece forse no.

qualche numero di bicchieri
e erbetta felice
e bong non ricordo quando o se, con il rum che manco il capitan jack sparrow
fantastico
e
wow cioè che figata di vita
come
un viaggio che entra nella terra e nello stesso tempo galleggia
una cosa fantastica che però poi tu vorresti andasse avanti solo che poi non funziona sempre troppo bene. so che forse se la gente sapesse leggermi nella testa sarebbe tutto più semplice,, o forse se seguissi il consiglio di antonietta tutto funzionerebbe da dio.
però figata il fatto che davide approvi.

dopo sta festa figa domani passerò settanta ore a pulire, 20 minuti di goduria a farmi la pasta con il resto dello spezzatino (sempre che ne resti, spero che non l’abbiate finito, stronzi, o subirete la mia ira. e poi cercherò da qualche parte una bottiglia di vino non aperto da dare ai vicini. poverini, ad avere della vita vicina si saranno preoccupati. bussavano per farci uscire o per cercare di entrare? non so.

comunque c’è da dire che questo gruppo è qualcosa di fantastico
proprio
cazzo
che fortuna capitarci dentro
incredibile
pbravi tutti

minchia che delirio

A Shetland confectioner wins its legal battle with retail giants Asda over the name of one of its flagship sweets…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: go shopping. The blog is also related to: gift shopping.

A judge backs taxi drivers in a row over a council’s decision to impose age limits on taxi cabs in a city hosting the Ryder Cup…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: uniform city. The blog is also related to: city populous.

She is my cousin

SHE HAS BIG BOOBS!

Not often that we put up our own work but thought this job for Chang Beer was worth a wee mention. We have just launched a penalty shoot out competition for Everton fans to win a mascot experience for their children. It’s a pretty amazing prize as waiting list for the being the mascot are up to 5 years!

Intelligent, non ?

“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ….”  2 Corinthians 2:14

Who does not want to overcome their circumstances, situations, or life’s daily challenges?  When faced with life’s uncertainties, we all want to have the hope and assurance of being victorious through them. The only guarantee you have of being successful and a winner in life over your circumstances is God. Why? Because He has said so!  This is the confidence we have as we live our lives.

Thanks should be a continual daily language that is communicated to God our Father.  Through the above passage of Scripture, God specifically wants us to know that because of what Jesus Christ did at the cross through the shedding of His Blood, we can be confident that we will always triumph.  He wants us to know that we are overcomers of obstacles that try and overtake  us daily. 

This season of being thankful should find us continually thanking God for His love and goodness toward us.  We have been given the assurance of triumph through each and every situation of life.  It is truly the mercy and grace of God that He will always, not sometimes, cause us to be the victor!

ENCOURAGEMENT:   God is the One that will cause you to overcome life’s challenges every time.  This is because of what His Son Jesus did for you and me!

Thanks be to God today and all eternity!

VICTORY Bag is dead

bag nawt sew happeh nao.

Picture by: Spiralgirl Caption by: Kelstarrr via Poster Builder

» Recaption This!

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Being a Spurs fan, it seems that chronic paranoia is an incurable condition. You see, one second Spurs are the adoring puppets of the media frenzy with video clips showcasing the fans shouting “we want ten!”… and the next, we could possibly be paraded as the league’s titanic.

The away match at Villa may very well be the most important fixture of the season. Why? We’ve just come off a paramount win which the media will do everything within its power to theatrically pump up and suck it dry (if we lose).

I tend to say this before every match (chronic paranoia is a bitch) but Villa will be tough. Very tough. Going into this game, Villa are the underdogs playing at home. They tied against Burnley last week so they’ll have a lot to prove in front of their home supporters. Spurs on the other hand have just come off the second highest scoring match in Premier League history. It should be a great thing, but could be the worst thing. Obviously, we’ll see how that pans out tomorrow. Spurs are 4th and Villa are 5th separated by a single win which should make for some very interesting footy.

But I look at all the positives. If the squad remains the same (cue the song above), we have 4 players at the front who are pure assault weapons. The former Portsmouth trio and Lennon are all creative in their own right. Each one possesses a totally different physique and skill set from the other which in the end balances out quite nicely. To add to this, we are the 3rd highest scoring team in the Prem. Technically that should mean that we will come to your town, and yes, we will score.

Concerns? The defensive mistakes. Villa are an attacking team and they will try to expose our trend of crumbling under siege. But they also tend to break under pressure. This game will be won by the side that attacks right from the start, continuing all the way through.

‘Arry could possibly play Keane on the left again (please, please, please… ‘Arry don’t do it). Should we start the same team who played Wigan? I think yes. We looked balanced and creatively in control. Mind you, it was to an awful Wigan side (that day) but we were mentally in control. This will be crucial to taking 3 points out of an injured Arsenal side playing Chelsea this week, and crucial for us in securing 3 points to hold onto 4th.

COYS!

Andy Murray exits the ATP World Tour Finals in bizarre fashion as the group stage comes down to the percentage of games won…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: fashion books. The blog is also related to: 50’s fashion.

Trans businesswoman Kate Craig-Wood vies for Entrepreneur of the Year – from Pink News – all the latest gay news from the gay community – Pink News.

Waterloo’s relentless forecheck kept the Hurricanes on their heals most of the night and this created many scoring chances for the Siskins in their 4-2 win over the Guelph Thursday night at The Sleeman Centre.

Guelph's Martin Kudla battles Waterloo's Kevin Henriques for the puck

Except for 10 minutes in the 2^nd period, the Siskins were aggressive in taking the play to the Hurricanes.  

If it wasn’t for the stellar goaltending by Chris McDougall who turned away 40 of 44 shots, the score of this game could have easily mirrored the score in their last outing when Waterloo beat Guelph 8-0.

In the opening period, Waterloo fired 24 shots at McDougall and jumped out to a 3-0 lead on goals by Scott Nagy, Ryan Dilks and Andrew Csumrik.

Tyson Theaker pulled the Hurricanes within 2 with a goal 17 seconds into the second period.

Waterloo’s Tony Blyde restored the Siskin’s 3 goal lead 2 and a half minutes later.

The score stayed 4-1 until Peter Soligo scored on shot from the point after Siskins goalie Will Sibley stopped Nic MacEachern and Mike McFarlane on a 2 on 0.

The Hurricanes pulled their goalie late in the game but couldn’t get another one past Sibley.

Final Score: Waterloo (now 18-5-0) 4, Guelph (now 8-16-2) 2

The Hurricanes take to the road for their next 2 games, Saturday in Cambridge and Sunday in Elmira.

Guelph’s next home game will be next Thursday December 3^rd against the league leading Brantford Golden Eagles. Game time is 7:45 pm.

royal flush diamonds and joker

royal flush diamonds and joker

ace,card,flush,gamble,game,hand,poker,table,cards,poker  table,hand of cards,best,bet,betting,casino,chance,cheat,fluke,gambler,gambling,hold,luck,lucky,money,play,raise,sneaky,stakes,straight,texas,win,winner,background,cheating,destruction,bizarre,suspicion,success,criminal,thief,dishonesty,agreement,evil,adult,board,las vegas,chip,beverage

Mucha gente se pregunta por qué la nueva versión del sistema operativo Windows se llama Windows 7. Microsoft dice que por el numero de versiones que le preceden, pero aquí tienes algunos otros significados de ese numero 7.

1.- Significa que no te enteraste que salieron 7 versiones de corrección desde Windows Vista.
2.- Las veces que prologaron su salida al mercado.
3.- El número de versiones beta que hubo antes de la versión final.
4.- El RAM en GB que requerirá tu computadora para ejecutarlo.
5.- El espacio en TB de disco duro que requerirás para la instalación mas básica.
6.- La velocidad mínima que requerirá tu CPU para ejecutarlo.
7.- El número de discos que tendrás que insertar para instalarlo
8.- La cantidad de manuales que tendrás que leer para manejarlo.
9.- El número de hojas que tendrás que leer para la instalación rápida.
10.- Las horas que tardarás para instalarlo.
11.- El número de llamadas a soporte técnico que tendrás que hacer para instalarlo.
12.- Los bugs que encontraras al iniciar sesion por primera vez.
13.- El porcentaje de software que funcionara.
14.- La cantidad de veces que se caerá el sistema al día.
15.- Los días que esperarás para que salga la versión SP1
16.- Los billones de dólares que entre tú y toda la demás gente cooperarán para acrecentar la cartera de Bill Gates.

Nota: Adaptado de una vieja versión del Win95.

Marcianos MX

My opinion on the below article:

I personally do not see a shift back to SMS advertising.  Working with one of the largest open mobile networks across Europe we see a huge increase in display and text link based advertising.  They work and work well.  Currently, SMS advertising can cost far too much.  CTR’s on SMS advertising generally are much less than display or text links.  SMS can cost an advertiser up to £200 CPM, whereas display and text links will vary from much lower CPM’s or CPC’s.  Whilst with SMS you can get reach that a branding campaign will demand, the majority of campaigns in the UK market this year have been DR.  Moving forward, I believe Network Operators will need to focus on more integrated campaigns across all mobile properties like: Display, Text Links, Video Pre & Post, Idle Screen, Voice Messages, SMS, MMS, Customer Service Messages and so on.

I believe agencies find mobile advertising a challenge because they are learning it is never just about selling an ad spot. Mobile advertising often forms part of a wider mobile marketing strategy tied in with CRM, Customer Acquisition and Engendering Loyalty.  In addition, it often forms part of a campaign that is integrated into traditional media which again presents further hurdles.  Therefore, when brands want and need to understand the entire spectrum and not just the advertising element many agencies struggle.    We can keep blaming lack of clarity on where the buying points are and lack of ad-serving capabilities and reporting but I think this is a weak argument.  All growing industries will have these kind of challenges.  The key should be more focused on how we can work better together, understand each others skills and how this can transform into combined positive output to the client.

To summarize, Mobile is so different to traditional media.  Historically speaking, it has always been ‘ONE FORMAT’ Print, Radio, TV or online.  Mobile is a whole world of different formats from one device to the next few thousand, all with different capabilities and don’t forget the users all come with different mindsets.  It requires specialist knowledge to effectively utilize this channel and understand the dynamics.  This is not knowledge that can be shared overnight and will take time for all to learn.

Whilst I agree it has been tough year from a recession perspective I would argue that mobile marketing and advertising budgets have grown and not been cut.  Well this is certainly what we are experiencing having a record year in the UK. As mobile budgets traditionally have been so small brands cut the bigger budgets in TV, Print, Radio and Online. If anything mobile budgets have grown this year and I certainly would anticipate huge growth in 2009 from 2008.

This is not going to happen over night.  Online took a good part of 11 years.

by Global Telecoms Business

Mobile operators have extensive data about their customers, so why aren’t they earning more revenue from advertising? The market seems as far away as ever, according to key participants in the business


Jay Seaton of Airwide: Trying to force-fit ads to
thousands of different handsets is an issue

Mike Short of Telefónica: Mobile advertising is
going to have to have a debate about reach and
responsibility

John Rands of WIN: Sometimes an agency puts
together a campaign and will do mobile as well

Neil Wentworth of mCentric: Brands are in the
dark. They have no idea how to access people by mobile

Why has mobile advertising not had the stunning success that many have been forecasting for so long? For years the mobile industry has looked for ways to earn revenue by targeting its users with advertising — and there has even been a whole operator, Blyk, which wanted to cut call costs to zero if its customers simply checked a few ads every day.

But little has been achieved, even with smartphones that could, in theory, deliver high-quality content to phone users.

Indeed, says Nick Lane, chief analyst at research company MobileSquared, where operators are achieving anything it’s via the 15-year-old technology of SMS. “We spoke to 30-35 operators around the world,” says Lane. “Just over 60% said they used SMS messaging as the foundation for next generation messages. A lot of agencies are going back to SMS. There’s a shift away from what people were saying 12 months ago.”

James Tagg, head of mobile at ad agency Starcom MediaVest, agrees: “It’s been a very tough world for mobile advertising this year,” he says. The recession means advertising budgets have been cut around the world “and mobile was the first to be cut — massively”.

One of the reasons is that mobile advertising still earns small revenues for agencies, which employ few specialists in the medium. “Some have only two people covering mobile, compared with 30 for print advertising. There’s only so much those people can do until the money is there. We’re not losing money but we’re not making huge money.”

And behind that, “most clients don’t really understand mobile”, he adds. Now’s the time to remedy that, he says: begin to adjust now “and you’ll be in a lot better position in two years”.

One of the key problems is a lack of information on which to make decisions, says Stewart Goldberg, executive chairman of Business Logic System. “The operators don’t have the same demographics about their base that the TV companies have.”

Mike Short, vice president of Telefónica Europe disagrees: “Some of the demographics that we have is a lot better — but it’s in a different format.” The mobile industry is working via the GSM Association and mobile marketing analyst ComScore to remedy that. “We can do age, location and subject,” he says.

Lane is not convinced: “Traditional advertising is very visible,” he says. And potential advertisers can easily get information about how much it costs to advertise. “If you want a rate card [for mobile advertising] you have to go down a long dark tunnel and sign a non-disclosure agreement.”

There is widespread ignorance among potential advertisers, says Neil Wentworth, director of sales at mCentric, which runs a service delivery platform for the industry. “Brands are in the dark. They have no idea how to access people by mobile,” he says.

It is starting to shift in agencies, says Alistair Hill, a senior analyst ComScore. Its work with the GSMA is aimed at “simplifying the process of buying”, so that agencies can see metrics that allow them to compare different types of advertising — including mobile with conventional, if that is the term, online.

Mobile is too often an addition to an existing ad budget, complains John Rands, managing director of WIN, which describes itself as “a dynamic enabler of entertainment, information and interaction services”. Sometimes a brand or an agency puts together a campaign “and will do mobile as well”, he says: “It’s the ‘as well’, and that might mean just putting a text number in the corner.”

It’s better in some countries, says Goldberg. “In south-east Asia and Australia there are millions of transactions executed using two-way text.”

Simeon Coney, vice president of business development at Adaptive Mobile, adds that in South Africa mobile advertising is starting to dominate, because of an underdeveloped traditional media business.

Many customers see mobile advertising messages as spam. “What’s considered as spam is personal,” says Jay Seaton, chief marketing officer of Airwide.

Coney believes the industry has to be careful, as governments might impose rules about what can and can’t be sent. “Governments will be putting the onus on operators,” he warns. “It will be a real challenge to the industry.”

Short says: “We’d rather have a simple set of rules. Mobile advertising is going to have to have a debate about reach and responsibility.” Child protection and parental controls will have to feature in that debate, he adds. “It’s now getting to ministerial level.”

According to Hill of ComScore, mobile advertising is still some way behind online advertising. “Everything on the internet has become contextual,” he says.

Lane also believes that the parallels with PC-based advertising should not be ignored: “All we’re doing on the mobile is browsing: email and social networking, and news, sport and weather.”

Goldberg, who has just had to extend his daughter’s mobile package to 1,000 texts a month, says: “We should have 11-year-olds on the boards of our companies.” Though Hill retorts that “the average age of the mobile media user is 35”.

Gather any group of enthusiasts for mobile advertising together — and this group was at an event hosted by Airwide — and you’ll soon hear stories about mobile advertising successes.

Unfortunately, most of these stories date from those optimistic times before the recession: such as BMW sending its car customers in Germany localised weather warnings by MMS, complete with a picture of each customer’s car in the right colour.

In theory, the industry has the data that could be enormously useful to advertisers — but Short points out that one of the problems is the sheer volume of it.

Goldberg sympathises: “The amount of data on the network is huge — 120 million transactions a day.” That’s the figure for the UK. “You’d need data warehousing the size of small countries. Operators have the data, but extracting the data is a non-trivial exercise. It just can’t be done in real time.”

Short emphasises the scale of the challenge: “We know the location of 50 billion text messages a year,” he says.

But operators haven’t explored new opportunities, suggests Goldberg. They would know the identity of 150,000 people attending a grand prix or other sports event, he notes. There’s potential there to use information to send them messages.

Mobile advertising, in theory, is a lot more economical than television advertising — which reaches many more people than could possibly be interested in a deal. With mobile, “you offer a deal only to people to want to offer the deal to”, he says.

One of the problems is that there is an advanced market for advertising in developed countries, says Seaton. “In developed markets there’s not such a need to innovate.”

Smartphones, if anything, make life for mobile advertisers complicated — simply because there are so many, built with different standards. “The market’s evolving quickly, with lots of new handsets,” says Tagg.

Seaton notes that this is why in some markets advertisers have relied on the simple technology of text messaging. “Trying to force-fit ads to thousands of different handsets is an issue. That’s why we’ll be having the same advertising discussions in two years.”

Goldberg returns to the theme that the industry is ill-informed about mobile advertising: “Operators and suppliers need to educate agencies and brands,” he says. “Many just don’t know what you can do.” That, he adds, is “why text is so good” — advertisers do understand that.

So how should the market move? “It’s up to the operators to expose their assets,” says Seaton. “There will be thousands of opportunities. Application developers can leverage all the assets, not just the 15% of smartphones.”

But Lane concludes with a sceptical note: “There’s hardly any money in mobile advertising and it dominates all our conversations,” he concludes. GTB

URL Link to Global Telecoms Business:

http://www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com/Article/2346535/Operators-still-waiting-for-ad-revenue.html

Quit the quitting habit

Overcoming obstacles of poverty and sadness with dogged persistence

Never enough to eat and doing odd jobs at a young age

But a lot of stubborn to persist till the end to make things happen

That’s why he is so well known today as Charlie Chaplin!

The iron hand of his conquerors pushed him to the limit

His people sometimes thought of his approach as obsolete

Little did it tell about him from his appearance when people saw him

But he didn’t retreat and that’s why he is known as Mahatma Gandhi today!

His associates told that he didn’t have the face or grace to make it

And the initial career graph showed a downward curve for others to mock at

When the odds were against him, he worked hard toward his ideal

That is the reason he is known today as Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Just a small garage as his office to work with and nothing else

But had great ideas boiling between his ears and the desire to execute them

No education, but determined and undertook great entrepreneurial ventures

That is why he is today popularly known as Steve jobs!

Experiencing educational difficulties because of her alcoholic dad

And shook off the gender criticisms and doubts by others on her ability

And conquering the air with her sheer guts and stick-to-itiveness

That’s why she is known as today as Amelia Earhart!

Schooling was the remotest thing to approach for this child

For he had little or no schooling and a “Hopeless” for many

Nature was harsh on him; stole his hearing faculty

But never could his “will to win”, for today he is well known as Thomas Alva Edison!

“what’s in store for me in my life?”, this person had been wondering

Until one day God showered His blessings on this child more than ever

That little soul relinquished the “Quitter” cloak and resolved to be courageous

after that wonderful soul stumbled upon a few lines of truth written for it;

Behold! And record your name here:— —–, for it is you who are to be the great among people!!

Wish you all the riches to come with God’s blessings

Peter Anand

Hello all. This being Thankgiving day, it feels like a great time to announce a special surprise I’ve been planning for my readers. A scavenger hunt! The rules for playing are explained below.

This is a Read, Play, and (hopefully) Win game. The prize is a $25.00 giftcard to Barnes & Noble.

Step #1. If you haven’t already, you’ll need to read all the way through my book Brought to Life. (You knew that was coming, didn’t you? I’m a sneaky, sneaky lady.) Brought to Life is a paranormal romance/time travel ebook that can be found here.

Step #2. Email me at: dara [at] daraenglandauthor [dot] com with the answers to these two questions (these answers can only be found in the book). *1. What is the name of the heroine’s roommate? *2. What famous author does the heroine meet at the end of the book?

Step #3. Wait. I’ll randomly select a winner out of those who answered correctly and will notify them via email on 1/1/10. If there are any questions, please post them below.

Happy hunting and happy holidays!

~Dara England

We didn’t come to Vegas to gamble.

We didn’t come to watch a volcano explode or listen to singing gondoliers.

Sure, we did all those things and more, but…

We came to Vegas to get (re)married by Elvis.

Everything else was mere icing on the cake—neon, blinking icing on a gold lame’ cake.

This was my first visit to Vegas, and I wasn’t disappointed.

True, Sinatra’s Vegas now belongs to the ages, and gambling is about as exciting as watching golf on TV, but that didn’t matter.

When you enter a world to which you have but only one true expectation, and it’s met in spades, the rest is a bonus.

When time stands still, you can stop and smell the roses, and for as much as Vegas has to offer, I never once felt rushed.

It’s because she lives up to her reputation as the city that never sleeps—no point in hurrying when it’ll all be there waiting for you, regardless of when you arrive.

I didn’t hit any jackpots. I never went up big at any tables. I experienced neither the thrill of victory nor the agony of defeat.

But…

As I danced with my wife while a young, gold lame’ Elvis serenaded us, vows freshly renewed and sealed with a kiss, I realized something:

You don’t have to beat the house to walk away a winner in Vegas.

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