TheSnackHound

Hal, the surly PC, has randomly generated a winner in the online poster printing contest for a free 16×20 print. All of the data was entered into Hal’s little brain, and the winner is:

Michele Perry

According to Michele’s comment, this is how she is going to use her photo:

I would use my new poster to proudly display my boys, and my new girl Annabelle! (pic coming soon- she’ll be home in a month or so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way, the boys are dachshunds, in case you were wondering!

Michele’s name and email address has been submitted to Uprinting.com. She will be contacted within a few days to invite her to select her favorite photo to bring REALLY, REALLY big. Thank you for playing, everyone!  Be on the look out for more great contests, recipes, and general mayhem at TheSnackHound.com

Hey kids!  The SnackHound is hosting a great blog giveaway.  In my spare time, I am not just a writer, but a photographer.  I like capturing the slice of life…literally…but I also have taken many of the photos that appear on this blog.  Unfortunately, my local copy shop just doesn’t offer large format prints or poster printing.   Maybe I will just make a big poster of my salt and pepper shakers.  Maybe not.

You probably have a far better idea.   So, I am pleased to be offering my readers a chance at winning a 16×20 poster print of whatever you like.  If you live in the US or Canada, you will receive the print free of charge. If you live internationally, you will just merely pay shipping. A fair deal, I say!

Of course, the stipulation would be that you have to supply the photo. Since it involves online poster printing, you will not have to mail a thing. It is merely an upload. No, you will not win a photo of The SnackHound (either the snack receptacle of to find out what I really look like. If that were to occur, I suggest you use it as a Halloween decoration.)

There are two ways to enter:
1) Leave me a comment on this post telling me how you would use your 16×10. What would you print? Why?

2) Write about my giveway, linking back to this post and to http://www.Uprinting.com. This means that you have a chance to win, even if you don’t have a blog or website, and you also have a chance at more than one entry.  

The winner will be selected totally and completely randomly by Hal 9000, the evil computer.  That is a photo of Hal’s eyeball, at right.  He has been extra surly since I switched to a Mac.  I decided to host this contest, in part, to give him something to do around here.  Please make him proud, and enter.  It certainly is a far more attractive alternative than giving him nothing to do, and then blaming me for when he is bored and takes over the world.

Let the games begin!

Last entry must be time stamped by 8:00 P.M., May 22nd, 2009.  Good luck!

The winners of the Washington Post Peep show have recently been announced, with the winner being “NightPeeps,” a delicious take on Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.   It is all there:  The guy in the fedora, the soda jerk, the mysterious red head…or should I say pink eared?

Here is Nightpeeps and Nighthawks together at last:

The Peep-sterpiece was made by Melissa Harvey of Arlington, Virginia.   She worked on two consecutive weekends, according to The Post.  Let’s take a closer look inside at the painstaking detail. The plate or ashtray on the table that is a little obscured on the original is now a plate of carrots.   Clay plates and mugs hold the caffeine and carrot feast, while a cap found in the medicine cabinet by Melissa Harvey’s husband serves as a drinking glass.

The original Nighthawks has been reproduced many times with everything from Disney characters to famous actors clocking in at the diner, and of course, there was a Lego version as well.  Nightpeeps trumps them all by not only being interesting to look at, but delicious as well.

*****
Do you like the atmosphere around here?
Okay, this was more pathetic than funny, but still it would be nice if you would rate me on Humor Blogs!
(You will have my undying appreciation!)

EnergizedSeller.com is asking all of us to submit our scariest and funniest pet pictures to be a part of a contest. The winner will receive a $500 Home Depot or Lowes gift card.  When you win, you get to choose which one you rather have.  Actually, I detract the previous statement.  When I win, I will definitely be able to put that to excellent usage for important concerns around the Test Kitchen.  I saw dark chocolate with chili pepper in it at the store, and that makes me want to construct a window box for chili pepers.

To enter, you need to register for EnergeizedSeller.com and become a part of the community. Secondly, submit a funny or scary pet photo and post it in the appropriate thread in the discussion forum. Entries will be accepted through March 31, 2009, closing at 11:59 P.M. Central Time. That’s 12:59 A.M. for you Easterners and that’s 9:59 P.M. for those in the bustling city of Los Angeles. I would imagine that the judges will be going by the time stamp on the forum.

How about this as my contribution?  Does The Snack Hound qualify as a pet?  Give me your best shot and let me see if your dog is funnier than mine.

Maybe, just maybe, you should check out 101 Home Selling and Staging Tips that Energized Seller recommends before embarking on your home improvement center excursions. You will get ideas on what things you should purchase to make your home look more showcase ready, and what to skip as it may save you a lot of money when making decisions on what to spruce up.

It is already tomorrow in New Zealand, but no one is preparing turkey leftovers. Well, there COULD be someone eating a turkey, but if you aren’t an expatriate American there on business filming a hobbit movie or something like that, and you are not there because you are married to someone from New Zealand, you probably are not celebrating Thanksgiving.  It did make me wonder, however, exactly what DO they eat in New Zealand?  What would have been the meal if the Pilgrims had landed there instead of in the United States? It is a long shot, but you never know…they could have decided to go the other way, sailed around Africa, and down under.

Apparently, many shellfish are consumed, such as abalone, which I have heard of, and many others, such as pipis, which I have never heard of. Pork, lobster, and lamb are also part of the menu. That seems like pretty standard fare that I could probably handle…except I won’t eat lamb.

What starts to get dicey are the other delicacies that have been concocted and apparently are national favorites. Ginger beer is native. Also, you may or may not want to try Vegemite Quiche (um…yuck?), banana sandwiches, or Afghan biscuits (which have wheat or corn flakes in it).

If I were a travel writer, I think I would do two things: invite an Elvis impersonator from New Zealand to eat a banana sandwich with me and talk about our conversation, what he could teach me about the sandwiches and what native sites we see during our visit.  Then, I would randomly find other Americans and also folks from Canada and Mexico “off the street” so to speak and act like Vegemite Quiche is the best thing ever.  In fact, I am going to say that a popular American Restaurant Chain is going to be putting them on the menu.  When they taste what it is really like, they will probably be upset with me.  I would tell them that Vegemite is the World’s Greatest Source of Vitamin E to see if that would change their cold hearts.  That would make for a good story.

That is only a fantasy, unless I won a free trip to New Zealand as I am a lot short on cash.   I would also go and find out what exactly Kiwis prefer.  It is the native bird, you know.  Maybe it would teach people that if they ate what the kiwis ate, they wouldn’t have trouble with night blindness.  If you didn’t know it, Kiwis are nocturnal.  By the way, they are darn adorable.  At least I think so.

Air New Zealand and Larry the Travel Guy are giving away two free trips to New Zealand, with flights from Los Angeles! I don’t live near there, but I think I could certainly figure that part out and make it happen. On Larry’s site, there are some great videos of New Zealand travels and all sorts of great information to prepare you for the trip. Even if you don’t win, I will bet that the info will certainly make you want to put it on your “To Do” list.

The Sproutwells are featured in a series of cartoons on YouTube.  It is a fish out of water story about a mild mannered family of vegetables doing their best to live in a human neighborhood.  They are ambassadors for FreshFunds.com, a site that rewards you for buying specially marked healthy products.

The neighbors are a little suspicious of all the packages they are getting.  It makes me wonder, though.  The Baby obviously has a shopping addiction that needs to be contended with.  However, how do the Sproutwells get to participate in the program? I mean, do they get points from being themselves?  Or do the vegetables actually buy vegetables to eat?  That doesn’t seem right, does it?

I have signed up for the freshfunds site and it is really easy. You just look for point emblems on specially marked Fresh Express salads, as well as a Chiquita product or two. You can use the points to win prizes or bid auctio-style on some pretty cool stuff. What’s more, is you can use your points to donate to charity! Staying healthy is everyone’s goal, and getting more vegetables in your diet is definitely one of the ways to do it. Just don’t leave your computer running while the fridge is open. Your radishes and cucumbers might start ordering things.

Around the holidays, it is important to me to keep other people out of the kitchen as possible.  It isn’t because they are critical or I don’t want the help, but because I take too long to get things ready.  I have absolutely no sense of timing and just don’t manage to get all necessary elements going concurrently.  It seems I can only focus on one thing at a time, and end up having something that needs to be reheated or is overcooked.  The max I can handle is two dishes at a time.  Any more than that and I lose it completely.

I thought this year that I would enter the Charter Communications Xbox Sweepstakes. If I win, everyone else will be so occupied with it that they won’t notice I am a little pokey in the kitchen.  In fact, they will actually want to delay dinner so they can finish the game. I am primarily talking about adult persons, of course. All sorts of neat accessories like a headset come with it, so you won’t have to be scrambling in the rush to buy the extras needed to make it work.

To enter, you need to live where Charter services are offered, so check the site to see if you qualify. You can enter one of two ways.  The first is to try Charter services for thirty days risk free and save fistfulls of dollars while you get your chance at winning one of 45 game system, or simply enter on the website.

Charter is giving away a very important item that is critical for grocery shopping in most parts of the country. If your guess on the prize was money, you are correct that most people would need that to go grocery shopping (the others use plastic). However, that is not the prize!

On the Charter 10.4 cubic feet of grocery hauling space I should clarify that the space is inside a brand spanking new Honda Civic Hybrid! Let me clarify that you win the whole car, as I may have implied that you just get to use someone else’s trunk.  Since it has a USB Audio System and MP3 jack, you can also rock out with downloads.  Maybe you can even show off by recording your grocery list for you to listen to so it will all sink in like a subliminal motivational tape on your way there.

Who knew that by saving money on your phone, cable, and internet that you could also potentially win a $24,000 car.  The added good news is you don’t have to buy anything to be eligible to win the car. Simply go to the Charter site and register to win.   There is one stipulation: you have to live in an area served by Charter to be eligible.

You may wonder why I would mention this contest, as it would mean that by you entering it would decrease my odds of winning.   Since I don’t live in one of those designated areas, I can’t enter.   Since I have a number of blog readers who ARE eligible, I figured that the odds of one of my readers winning are high, so I have a 1 in 100 chance to BORROW a Civic Hybrid versus the much slimmer odds I would have if I were only allowed to enter by myself.

Afterall, when we have been out with friends and someone buys a lottery ticket, one always says, “If i win, I’ll pay off your house.” It is not just something you say, it i altruistic.  Afterall, they could have easily have purchased the same ticket as you stood in line consecutively.

So, what do you say?  Do I get to just ride it around the block once? I promise I won’t break it.