Another Giveaway!

Wow, this blog is neglected. It's Bloggy Giveaway Carnival time again, and I haven't made any posts since the LAST Bloggy Giveaway! Ah well.

This time I am giving away a Texas themed Rhinestone T-shirt, pictured below.




Ok, this is not a new shirt. It has been washed once, and a couple of the rhinestones came loose (so it should probably be hand washed, which is why it's going to go to someone who has more time to do that than I do!). You can't really tell the rhinestones are missing unless you are looking for it. The shirt is a size large. I am also throwing in a package of bluebonnet seeds.

To enter just make a comment below and include your e-mail so I can contact you.

If you would like extra entries, do any of the following (and please come back and make a separate post for each of the following you do letting me know you did it):

1). Put a link to www.texifornia.com on your website or blog, or in your signature on a forum (one that I can access without becoming a member) and leave the URL of the site you posted the link on here (if a forum post, please put the URL to the specific post, thanks). If you'ld like some graphics to use you can find some here or lensroll this blog. If you already have a link up, that counts too!

2). Share a link to any bloggy giveaways you know of that relates to Texas or California (and I will post a link for others to find).

3). Share your favorite Texas or California joke (and if I like it I'll post it on Texifornia).

Thanks a bunch. This giveaway will end Nov 3 (cause my son's birthday party is November 2nd and I won't have time to mail anything til then! *grin*). If I don't hear back from the winner within a week, I will give the shirt to another entrant.

PS: While I'm at it, I'd like to tell you about another giveaway which has nothing to do with Texas or California--but a lot to do with me. One of the reason's I'm so busy is that I run a small business selling T-shirts and other goodies I design. I am sponsoring a giveaway over Happy Healthy Families where you can win one of my T-shirts! Hope you all will check it out.

Giveaway Winners

Hello! Congrat to Audry for winning my meager postcard giveaway! She was choosen out of the 16 people who left comments by my own spunky random number generator (my 5 year old son) who picked her number out of a bag.

There were only 4 people who left comments for the Bumper Sticker giveaway, so I'm giving one to all four (if they want one!)

Thanks all for your great comments!

Ideas For Next Giveaway?

Hmm...I've been browsing the Bloggy Giveaways and stumbled on one for a box of See's Candy. I LOVE the stuff...but they don't seem to have it out here in Texas (at least not anywhere near me). Hope I win!

That sparked an idea. The Bloggy Giveaway Carnival thing happens quarterly, so I thought it would be cool next time to offer something for homesick Texans in California, since I'm here and could send something you can't find in California. I'd love ideas! Please post a comment sharing what you think I should send from Texas for the next giveaway (or what you'ld like from California...maybe I can recruit someone in California to help)*, and I'll send one of the commenters a post card with my favorite Texas wildflower on it (the Mexican Evening Primrose...those delicate pink flowers that grow in waves of blooms along the freeways). Just make sure you include a way for me to contact you if you want the postcard (cause if I don't have any way to contact you I'll have to give it to someone else). I know a postcard isn't much...but it is a nice reminder of home! (Plus it was all I happened to have on hand right at the moment). I'll pick who to send the card to on August 4.

And, if you happen to be offering a giveaway on your blog that a homesick Texan or Californian would like, please let me know by posting a link to it in your comment, and I'll put another link to it in this post. And if you want to sponsor something from California or Texas for the next Bloggy Giveaways, you can e-mail me at windhavenglen@hotmail.com about it (especially if you're in California...since it would be nice to offer something from both states. Even something small, like a postcard or package of California Poppy seeds would be cool).

Here's the current giveaways I've found with a California appeal.

For Homesick Californians:
See's Candy (as mentioned earlier.)
Mel, A Dramatic Mommy is offering Jewelery by a San Diego artist, books by a San Diego Author, and reusable grocery bags from Traders Joes (a store you can find all over California but not in Texas).

(Still looking for others with specific Texas appeal)

Bumper Sticker Giveaway!

Hello all! This month I'm giving away three Texifornian bumper stickers here on the blog and another three on the Texifornia Forums.






For those of you who are visiting this blog for the first time and are wondering what a Texifornian is...well, simply put, a Texifornian is anyone who has lived in both Texas and California! And yes, I have a whole website devoted to this rather obscure topic. I hope you'll take the time to look around, especially if you just happen to be a Texifornian yourself (though everyone is welcome)! But you don't have to do that to enter--you just have to leave a comment below telling why you want the bumper sticker. For an extra chance to win you can also enter on the on the Texifornia forums by making a post in the Introductions board. Make sure in both cases to leave an e-mail where I can contact you if you win--or if you prefer you can come back to check the winners list I'll be posting on August 4th (and claim your prize if you won). You can enter until August 1st. Only one blog comment and one intro post on the forums per person, please. Winners must claim their prize by August 11th or they forfeit it.


Want to win other cool stuff? Check out the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival going on at BloggyGiveaways.com. You can find hundreds of blogs posting giveaways just like this one! I especially hope you'll visit the She Became a Butterfly blog. She's giving away a $20 Amazon gift certificate, but also encouraging others to do some really good things for some kids who need some encouragement.

California Bans Trans Fat

In yet another food related story (honestly, this blog isn't really about food), last week the California legislature made it illegal for restaurants and bakeries to use trans fats. I have big time mixed feelings about this. Sure, I'd like us all to eat healthier, and would love to see trans-fat disappear from the menus of my favorite places to eat...but isn't this encroaching a bit on our freedom? I mean, it's our bodies...and no one is breathing our "second hand fat" or being killed by drivers under the influence of trans-fat laden pastries. Still, I know that obesity problems take a tole on our healthcare systems, especially when hospitals are forced to pay for emergency care for the un-insured. But I don't think the answer is to make anything un-healthy illegal.

Comments?

BAD Tomatoes (HEB/Whole Foods)

Just thought I'd spread the news: There has been a salmonella outbreak connected to tomatoes sold through HEB and Whole Foods in Texas...so if you bought any tomatoes there throw them out!

More details here:
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2008/06/02/daily31.html


(UPDATE: They've narrowed the source of the bad tomatoes so the ones you get from HEB and Whole Foods now should be safe).

Eating in the Inland Empire

If you happen to live in or travel through the Inland Empire, check out my friend's new blog Eating I.E. In it he shares his experience eating out with his family at various dining establishments in Riverside and surrounding areas. Good stuff!

My Favorite Texas Song

There was a song I stumbled onto a while ago by the Austin Lounge Lizards that is hilarious. It's called "Stupid Texas Song"-- if you were still visiting when I had the old Texifornia site at geocities up you might recognize this stanza from it:

One more stupid song about Texas,
You've heard it all before so sing along
Biggest belt buckles and boasts, love that big old Texas toast,
Let's sing another stupid Texas song

Well, I just visited the Austin Lounge Lizards Website again, and while I can't find the lyrics anymore, they have a MP3 clip of the song up--you can find it under Music in the "Listen" section on the left hand sidebar. Go check it out...it's hilarious!

California Can Kill Ya'

Enjoyed this comic...thought I'd share!

http://www.george-comics.com/2008/03/24/family-ties-pt-8/

Finally got back to California!

Hard to believe but it has been almost 10 years since I last stepped foot on California soil. We have tried to save up for a trip before, but something always came up. Well, we finally broke down and did it--with the new baby on the way we figured it wouldn't get any cheaper or easier to go later, so we better do it while we can.

So, we packed up the kids and headed out for their first plane flight (they loved it!). Landed in Ontario, where the car rental guy gave us directions on how to get "up the hill" (my dad still lives in our family home in Twin Peaks). Ah, man...here in Texas they call hills mountains, but in California, we get to go "up the hill" 6,000 feet and look out above the clouds.

Actually, at first we didn't get to see much though because those clouds were wrapped round the mountains like a scarf--snug and thick. My husband, who had grown up in San Diego, got his first taste of real mountain fog--the kind that makes you hang you head out the window to find the double yellow line on the road.

And, my kids got their first taste of REAL snow. The second day we were there we got a nice dusting of the white stuff...but there was already several feet from storms earlier that week (if we had timed it a little sooner we might not have been able to get up the mountain at all!).

The weather was perfect...we got snow in the mountain, but the sun came out just in time for our side-trip to San Diego. The kids got to visit tide-pools, touch a sea anemone, splash in the ocean, make a sand castle, chase seagulls--all the good stuff! They will never see a picture of the ocean and call it a river again!

Oh, and the food--we both got to visit our old home town haunts--eat shredded beef tacos, pandasol, In and Out...we even got to visit the little diner where we had our first date. Oh, and what cracked me up...even the "Texas Sandwhich" there had avacado on it (which is SUCH a California thing). LOL!

It was good seeing old friends, seeing my dad, and just having our feet on California soil again.

We needed that!