The Landgraff Sweeps & Contest Queen Says "Thank You"!

As my faithful readers know, I am a bit of a “sweeper”, and enter a lot of contests and sweepstakes- usually late at night, when everyone else is apparently playing Candy Crush! LOL I have won a lot of wonderful things, and as 2015 comes to a close, I'd like to thank the individuals and companies responsible for the lovely things I've won- trips and things that Dan and I would seriously never have been able to enjoy if I hadn’t won them!

This spring Dan and I spent an amazing, wonderful month in Vietnam on the trip I won last year from Central Coast Vietnam Tourism on Facebook! My many blog posts earlier this year about Vietnam, and all the incredible things we got to do and see and eat and drink, were from that trip!

Emperor & Empress in Dalat!

Playing gongs in the Central Highlands!

Riding elephants at Lok Lake!

Water Buffalo Surfing: Wet Rice Farming!

Dan and I LOVE Vietnam, and when I entered this we were literally Dreaming about being able to go back some day- if we won Lotto- so my winning this trip was truly a dream come true!  









Please check out my posts on this blog, which have links to all sorts of great things to do in Vietnam, and also see www.centralcoastvietnam.com and "like" their page on Facebook for more incredible things you can do in Vietnam:  https://www.facebook.com/CentralCoastVN

This year I think my “bestest” win was THE most beautiful handbag ever- a $1200 cerulean blue Stella McCartney “Fallabella” Tote- from LoveGoodly, which, as their name makes clear, has truly lovely things, AND supports good causes: www.lovegoodly.com

I won a fabulous $200 Weber Grill in the #MyMahan sweepstakes from the PGA- and Dan got to pick it up at Ace Hardware in Bluefield. WV!

"Tweet-Ups" on Twitter (www.twitter.com) are a lot of fun, and this fall I got Really lucky & won a $250 Visa gift card and some great beauty products from UNT http://www.shopunt.com/eng/ a fine Taiwanese beauty brand, in the #UNTbeautytalk Twitter Party hosted by SheSpeaks www.shespeaks.com!

On Twitter I also won a $20 eBay gift card, from, yes, eBay! :-) And as I am a Total eBay Fanatic (if not for eBay, the Elkhorn Inn would look like Wally World!) this will Definitely come in handy!


I won a $50 gift card to C-A-L Ranch Stores http://www.calranch.com/  (got a cool, heated seed-starter kit for this winter!) for my photo of the Elkhorn Inn with our sunflower meadow that Dan planted... and then I won $1000 from Marlboro www.marlboro.com for two projects I submitted: Replanting our sunflower meadow across from the Inn, and building a photography platform for Railfans in McDowell County, West Virginia!

 

I won the #PSILoveYou box full of pumpkin spice yummies from the Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt Blog: http://cookiedoughandovenmitt.com And I have to say that Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter is DELICIOUS!

From Passports with Purpose passportswithpurpose.org I won a $169 Travelmate Deluxe Product Bundle provided by the blog Cloud Surfing Kids: http://cloudsurfingkids.com/

We also got to enjoy the three months of truly beautiful flowers from Bouqs www.bouqs.com that I won last year when I was awarded “Marketer of the Year” Runner-Up from www.bedandbreakfast.com  (The other parts of the prize were an award, which we have displayed at the Elkhorn Inn, and a $100 gift certificate to Lowe’s- which Dan used immediately!)

Labor day flowers from Bouqs!

 

Flowers from Bouqs!

My Award

As readers of this blog know, I participate in a number of market research projects, and one of the best is Crowdtap. As a Crowdtapper, Dan & I (and our guests) have been able to try (and then write about) some great new products, including the Litter Genie, delicious foods & sauces from Campbell's, Ricola cough drops, yummy Brookside Crunchy Clusters and Folger's Flavors, Johnsonville "Grillers" Sausages, Kleenex tissues, delicious "foodie" Sahale Snacks, Listerine, and Zep Cleaners- and this Valentine's Day Zep surprised me with a gift bag! Check out www.crowdtap.com and sign up!

I won a great Rose Face Mask from Elvis + Elvin from Beauty Undercover www.beautyundercover.com:

And I also won an Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVD set from Cartoon Network!

Since I started entering sweeps and contests in 2002, I have won us 6 fabulous trips with plane tickets (Vietnam, Chile, Israel, San Diego, Virginia, and Arizona), absolutely gorgeous  designer shoes, beauty products, makeup, and perfume, fine jewelry, clothing, kitchen things, books, gift certificates, cash, food, and lots of other cool stuff! (My friends all made fun of me until I started winning trips with plane tickets. LOL) Many of my friends insist I must be terribly lucky, but if you enter 100 sweeps and contests a night you'll get "lucky" too! :-) I always tell people interested in entering sweeps and contests my three key rules:
1. Read the rules! I cannot stress this enough, especially with regards to contests. If you are going to spend the time creating an entry, make sure you know the rules so you don't inadvertently disqualify yourself! One entry only, or daily entries? Are you eligible to win? Is it a skill-based, judged contest, or a random drawing? What are you supposed to write or photograph and how? You get the idea! 
2. Check your email- DAILY!  You often have only 24 hours to respond to a winning notification email, or the prize will be awarded to someone else! Thanks to entering sweeps and being on so many email lists, I now have to scroll through about 1800 emails a day, and yes, that it is pain, but the payoff has been pretty fabulous! Consider it part of your "job" and it will feel less onerous. LOL  
3. Only enter for things you Really want to win! Apropos this, my favorite sweeps story is about winning a giant box of condoms! Dan was incredulous- WHY, he wanted to know, did I enter to win stuff like that?! I had actually entered to win the $10K trip to Vegas- but instead of winning the Grand Prize, I had won the First Prize- and the sweeps had been sponsored by Trojan! :-) 
And I also always thank those responsible, and try to give the people and companies who sponsor the sweeps and contests I win publicity and promotion- a "bang for their buck", as it were- on this blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ etc., because sweeps and contests are created to SELL STUFF, and sharing is caring! :-) I learn about a lot of great products through entering sweeps and contests, and we do buy many of them!
Good luck, and have fun sweeping! 
Let me know in the comments if you've won something- whether it was wonderful or just hilarious!

Elisse

 

Shopping!

It's "that time of year" again- The $#&%!! Festive Season- and so one's mind turns (whether one wants it to or not) to... Shopping! This blog post is Totally about shopping, and includes a few products & merchant's I've come to love...

In the last 7 years- since we moved here to the rural mountains of southern WV- I've become a die-hard, passionate eBayer, and while I internet-window-shop all the high-end fashion & retail sites, such as Neiman-Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Bendel's, Bloomies, Vogue mag, etc., I then put up eBay "alerts" for items I covet, & once they pop up (and almost everything eventually does...) I then play wait-&-see, coming in at the last, heart-pounding second to snag that bargain Missoni sweater or Viv Westwood heels, or cashmere coat! (& yes, last week I've snagged all of the above!) This Native NYC Girl has Never been comfortable "paying retail"; it makes one feel like an eejit! In The City I was a habitue of the fabulous Upper East Side Thrift Shops where one would oft rub elbows with the Ladies Who Lunch while combing the racks in pursuit of that AbFab $5 cashmere sweater! Nothing thrills a NYC gal so mucg as snagging a Missoni cashmere suit or Burberry coat for $25, or a pair of Ferragamo pumps for $15! (As readers of the blog know, when I travel on business, if I have an hour free I usually make a bee-line for the local Goodwill or Salvation Army; one never knows What treasure one may find, especially if there's an "upper income" neighborhood nearby!) In the process, I've turned Dan into the Thrift Shop King of Landgraff, WV- Truly funny as he STILL professes to HATE shopping! When at home I turn to www.eBay.com- for darn near everything, from designer duds, cosmetics, & perfumes I could never otherwise afford, to one-of-a-kind vintage quilts, carpets, and decor items for the Inn, to office supplies, "toys", and even vehicles! Although I shop eBay all year- late at night, Nothing beats it for sheer, mindless relaxation- come November, I'm Seriously looking for Hanukkah gifts for Dan- the man I have Never been able to surprise! But this year I think I may actually be able to do it! Don't tell him(!), but early this summer I snagged him the eBay bargain to beat all: a Gorgeous, new, dark-green shearling coat (and while I was at it, a fluffy Mongolian Lamb jacket for me...) from 2 great eBay furriers (one in Canada who had GREAT stuff...), & boxed them up & hid them in the cedar closet... I also got Chef Dan a portable pocket pepper mill, after he actually mentioned in a restaurant that he'd like to have one... I'm currently eBay-following a fabulous electronic hog call (!) & brush pants for the Texas hog-hunting trip we're planning, as well as ski duds for both of us (so we don't look like dorks when I take him back to Winterplace to ski, as I fully well intend to do...) And then I discovered BestKimchi www.bestkimchi.com in Flushing NY (home of The Best Korean food outside Korea), and as they will actually FedEx fresh Korean BBQ, Kimchi, & even Korean scallion pancakes, Dan just May be getting a Korean Feast that he won't have to cook himself! :-D

Products (and merchants) I've come to Love:
Rejuvacote
I am 50, and for 37 years I've been trying (sometimes desperately, as readers of this blog know...) to find a way to grow my paper-thin nails out longer than the quick- and to stop them from tearing off the minute I use my hands for anything- and I FINALLY FOUND IT! THIS STUFF WORKS! I not only have long nails that I can put polish on & not feel stupid, but they aren't paper-thin any more! I have REAL, HEALTHY, THICK NAILS! Which is nothing short of Amazing! I was told for years by doctors that my paper-thin nails were due to the fact that I have Psoriasis, and that there was nothing I could do about it- and that was a lie!!!! I have used Everything on the market, but nothing worked; I recently tried NailTek for a number of months & it helped a bit- but more as a coating than anything else, and my nails still tore off. But Rejuvacote REALLY worked- & fast! I have real, normal nails now, polished up all pretty, and I've not even 1/2 finished one bottle! :-D

Clorox OxiMagic Spray
I never thought I'd say I love a cleaning product- ANY cleaning product- but I LOVE Clorox OxiMagic Spray! It really works and takes out stains- even horrid things like dried coffee & red wine- on contact- & I go Nuts when we run out of it! And so, naturally, our local WalMart has stopped carrying it... but good ol' Family Dollar keeps it in stock! Because we have the Inn, and it is Huge and requires a LOT of cleaning damn near constantly (all of which Dan & I do ourselves), I do not say this lightly: OxiMagic Spray is Da Bomb! :-D

Aminogenesis
I try LOTS of anti-aging products. Since I turned 48 it's become my "hobby". LOL. I read Spa B-2-B publications religiously, check beauty websites constantly, & do trials of new products as often as I can. At 50, I'm Always on the prowl for the Next Greatest Thing to (at least visually) "stop the clock", and when I compare close-up photos of my face to those of most of my peers, I think I've been at least reasonably successful! LOL I've tried everything from LaMer (didn't do a thing for me), Philosophy (no results from their anti-aging products, but I do like their 2-part microdermabrasion kit), and Lancome Precious Cells (nice & creamy, but no results), to Skinceutical Ferrilic C E serum, and Obagi Elastiderm Eye Gel (jury's still out on these two), as well as drugstore & WalMart products like Olay (feels nice, but no real results). But to date I always wind up going back to AminoGenesis, for their products Truly help my skin look its best, and they're the only products I've bought repeatedly for years now- and yes, as a result of this we sell them in the Elkhorn Inn's Gift Shop and on-line Gift Shop: http://store.elkhorninnwv.com The products I love best and won't be without are: Cocoon Body Lotion (which actually helps my Psoriasis, and has clinical research to back it up), Photolagen for sun damaged skin, Dermascyne 2 & 3, and Very Very Clean Cleanser. No, they're not "cheap", but they're a Helluvalot cheaper than LaMer- and (most importantly) they actually work! :-D

Queensboro.com
ALL of the Elkhorn Inn's gorgeously full-color embroidered shirts, spa robes, chef's aprons, & caps now come from www.Queensboro.com! They do THE best embroidery, have THE best prices, and THE best customer service! We have ordered from other suppliers over the years, but Queensboro has won our hearts- they are ABSOLUTELY the best. They have a VERY cool & user-friendly website, with a neat program that allows you to change the embroidery colors for each garment adn see what it will really look like- AND they were able to create a great embroidery graphic of the Inn from a photo, AND they have only a 4-piece product minimum, so you can order small quantities, AND they have Great sale prices, AND their Customer Service people are EXCELLENT! :-D

BioFreeze
Dan has arthritis in his hands, and sometimes he's in terrible pain from it. (There is NOTHING worse to have around than a workaholic in pain!) We have tried a LOT of stuff, but BioFreeze actually works & TRULY helps take the pain away almost immediately. GREAT stuff! :-D

iGourmet, D'Artagnan, Very Asia, Pepper-Passion, & Amazon
Somewhat of a "foodie", I love to get Chef Dan yummy gourmet things we can cook with (or that he can cook with & I can eat, LOL), and the only way I can get us "exotic" foodstuffs, such as Vietnamese pho noodles & fish sauce, Japanese nori & pickled ginger for sushi, Korean BBQ sauce, Thai lemongrass, Chinese black fungus mushrooms, Italian truffle cheese, and specialty meats like buffalo Fillet Mignon, elk steaks, or wild boar bacon, is to order them online... and so some of my favorite retailers (besides eBay) are www.igourmet.com (for WONDERFUL cheeses, sausages, condiments, spices, etc.), www.dartagnan (for THE best gourmet meats and their EXCELLENT Cassoulet Kit which comes with Everything you need, from the French Tarbot beans & sausages to the duck confit & fat!), www.pepper-passion.com for Vietnamese & other exotic peppercorns that Chef Dan likes to cook with, and www.veryasia.com for Asian foodstuffs. www.Amazon.com Marketplace has great stuff, but their shipping costs are INSANE, and so I've taken to using it as a source, and then buying directly from the individual merchant's websites. (I just ordered Asian foodie things from www.tastepadthai.com and www.pacificrimgourmet, both of whom I discovered on Amazon Marketplace, and will let you know how they are, shortly!) I do love www.Amazon.com for books, especially cheaper second-hand books, and this fall I finally treated myself to a slew of books I've coveted for a Long time: Oliver Statler's books on Japan, one of Mai Pham's great Vietnamese cookbook, and anthologies of Korean & Vietnamese short stories... I'm back to curling up in bed (or by the fireplace, or in the bathtub...) with a good book (or two or three), and it's my Fave thing to do in the winter, when it starts getting dark (and cold) at 4p.m.!

CarrotInk.com
I discovered www.carrotink.com thru MyPoints www.mypoints.com- my very favorite shopping portal- and I am VERY impressed with their products, their prices, & their customer service. They do re-manufactured extra-large ink cartridges for both our printers at less than half the price of what the regular-size ones cost at WalMart, AND they have free shipping, AND when you call their Customer Service you get knowledgeable people who can actually answer one's questions, AND you get MyPoints on each purchase! :-D

MagicJack
Okay, I was a skeptic. When Dan paid $19.95 for this and brought it home I rolled my eyes, convinced that it Had to be a total scam. But he hooked it up to our computer & it works- and now we (and Elkhorn Inn guests) make all our long distance calls from it at no charge! And there really were no hidden charges! They did NOT ask for a credit card when he registered! I'm impressed! (Actually, I'm AMAZED!) :-D

MyPoints.com
As for www.MyPoints.com, this year in the process of simply shopping for things we'd buy anyway, we've again totted up some 17,500 Points- enough for $150 in gift certificates! :-D We've been members of MyPoints for over 7 years, and it's a GREAT program that really works! My only beef with them is that some of the retailers I love to shop at aren't on there- www.dartagnan, http://www.igourmet.com/ http://www.veryasia.com/, http://www.pepper-passion.com/, and http://www.amazon.com/, for example. But (thank goodness) www.ebay.com is! :-D I also use www.ebates.com, which does give cash back, but only if the seller isn't on MyPoints. And once I've found what I want, bargain-hunter that I am, I then Google for Coupon Codes... A lot of this may seem idiotically time consuming, which it is, but (like entering sweeps), it beats playing solitaire! I think the most important thing about shopping is to have some fun at it- I've called it "retail therapy" for years, and if you think of it that way it assuages the guilt! LOL

Elkhorn Inn's new Contest & Sweeps- enter now!

Yes, the Sweepstakes Queen of Landgraff, WV has finally launched OUR sweeps- AND a great contest, too! We have some really great prizes from the Elkhorn Inn Gift Shop, & the Contest has a Grand Prize of a $320 gift certificate to the Elkhorn Inn Inn for a two-night stay with a Chef Dan Dinner at the Inn for two on one night! In order to enter the Sweepstakes, you have to be a "fan" of the Elkhorn Inn on Facebook, so the first thing you need to do is click
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eckman-WV/Elkhorn-Inn-Theatre/53453051478?ref=mf and become a fan! Just by being a "fan" of the Elkhorn Inn you're entered in the Sweeps, but you get an EXTRA entry for each new "fan" you get us- so get us lots of new fans to increase your chance of winning! The Contest is to find (and suitably reward) the most creative and enthusiastic "fan" of the Elkhorn Inn for the most successful marketing and promotion of the Inn using "social networking" and other media... You can read all the details for both the Contest and the Sweepstakes in the "Notes" on the Elkhorn Inn's Facebook fan page. Both the Sweepstakes and the Contest end Dec.1, 2009 at midnight EST, so you've got 2 1/2 months to build up your entries! The key is: you MUST LET US KNOW that you've sent us fans, or guests who've made reservations, or if you got us media coverage, or Tweeted or Facebooked or MySpaced or YouTubed about us- we have to know what you did in order for it to count! You can email us at elisse@elkhorninnwv.com, leave a message on our Facebook fan page, or "tweet" us @elkhorninn on www.Twitter.com.

The Best news this week was the article on the Elkhorn Inn in TRAINS magazine, and that another article on the Inn is coming out in the WV State Journal. The wonderful TRAINS article by Alan Byers has resulted in tons of calls & a number of bookings, and even a radio interview on the Tom & Judy & Dan Mid-Morning Show on WMST in Mt. Sterling, KY on Sept 1- Tom is a Big-Time Railfan! Click on: http://www.gatewayradio.net/grwcommon/audiofeeds/TJ/TJ-09-01-2009.ram (You will need RealPlayer, which is a free download), go to 1:31 (a bit after the 10a.m. news) and you'll hear the train music & then my interview with Tom! I talked about Alan Johnston, Stacy Grubb, & South 52 playing at our Theatre, trains, and other things! :-)

I also had a small (humorous) piece that I wrote about my dad published on The Sweet With The Bitter blog about caring for loved ones with Alzheimer's and memory loss: http://thesweetwiththebitteralzheimersblog.blogspot.com/ Those of you who think there couldn't Possibly be anything funny about dealing Alzheimer's should read it. (Those of who are dealing with or dealt with it Know what I'm talking about...) I sent Ms. Diederich a number of funny stories about things that happened during the years my father was losing his memory, and she used one in her latest post. Yes, these stories are all funny in a sad & bittersweet way, but they are funny nonetheless. Alzheimer's & memory loss are so deeply tragic and painful to live with, that if you don't find things to laugh about you'll go mad... I remember late nights playing Scrabble w/my mom & telling "Alzheimer's jokes" to each other until the tears literally ran down our faces from laughing so hard... What else can you do? :-)

It's September, & I'm trying to (sadly) make peace with the fact that summer is just about over, but this does Not make me happy. I am SICK & TIRED of having advertisements for fall & winter clothing rammed down my throat for the last 2 months, while it rained here & we waited for summer to magically & finally appear. Fortunately, the leaves here in the mountains of southern WV are still green, and the weather (finally) has been in the 80s, so I haven't packed away my summer togs just yet, but fall looms... I'd be Fine with fall if fall hung around long enough for me to really enjoy it, but fall is never long enough & segues all too rapidly into Winter, and we get about 6 months of Serious Winter here- & it's NOT my favorite season! I'm a "summer girl", through-and-through! Gimmee the dry, arid heat of the Israeli Dead Sea & Negev Desert any day!

Our garden did Not do great this year- too much rain perhaps- and the other day Dan harvested the last of the corn and a few more tomatoes; we ate the last of the corn tonight. The other night he made a Wonderful pepper/fennel-crusted pork loin with a wine-sage-cream sauce that was dee-vine! He got the idea from the CrazyCanukBlog that I follow- and you should, too (she's on Facebook, as well)- she has GREAT recipes! Last night Dan made his amazing crunchy-on-the-outside-tender-on-the-inside latkes- potato pancakes- and we had them with our sweet, summer garden corn & roast chicken...

At least we were able to freeze a lot of oregano pesto and tomato-basil sauce this summer, as well as some of the wild-blackberry sauce we made, so at least in the dead of winter we (and our guests ) will be able to taste a bit of summer...

As you know, we've added a Cat to our Animal Family at the Inn: Tiger-the-Pit-Bull & Lady-the-Lab now have Lucky Kitty, the tiny, brave kitten that walked into the Inn like he owned it, & got to stay! Lucky, all 2 lbs. of fuzzy, purring adorableness, has another Sibyl-like side, and that side managed to kill & eat 5 birds last week before I realized where he was getting them from & Dan was able to plug the opening in the chimney & so save the rest of the nest... Finding Lucky in the midst of his, uh, "meal" was none too pleasant, and proved to me that cats really Are different from dogs... Even the tiniest of tender fur-balls has a rather terrifying "killer" instinct within it.... (L is the first cat in my life...) When I called & called him & no cat appeared I got scared- something must have happened to poor, defenseless little Lucky! And then his tiny head popped out of the high chimney opening, with an almost-dead bird in his mouth, & I nearly had a fit. (Having him later mew twice & then puke bird down my computer printer & across desk didn't thrill me, either...) But little Lucky provides hours of amusement for Tiger, who has become "Kitty Daddy", and licks the kitten like a mommy cat would; Lucky whacks at T with his paw and bites him, & chews on Lady's tail- basically doing whatever he can to try and get a rise out of both dogs- but both T & L are so amazingly gentle w/him that it gladdens the heart to watch them play... Lucky's taken to sitting on my shoulder while I work at the computer, and to sleeping on my printer; when he wants attention he simply walks across the telephone, credit card machine, & my keyboard...

Fall brings with it the Jewish High Holidays, and that's my one bright spot. I'm planning a trip to Hair Studio, my fave Aveda Salon in Princeton, WV, & a suitably festive mani-pedi @ the Mercer Mall... & I've gone eBaying for holiday things: a lulav & an etrog, a Havdallah set for Shabbat, & Hanukkah candles for our many menorot, among other things... & then, of course, there are the irresistible "bargains" I stumble across late in the night in the process of looking for "needed" things, such as outrageous Vivienne Westwood shoes with hearts on them, or really expensive cosmetics and anti-aging potions at bargain-basement prices... As I've said before, out here in the 'boonies' eBay is a quasi-shopaholic's dream-store! I follow a gazillion things on eBay daily, sometimes for months at a time: everything from outrageously high-heeled Louboutin shoes (size 38 in case anyone's looking to gift me...) to Obagi Eye Cream, WV mining & railroad memorabilia, ATV supplies, and giant, inflatable outdoor decorations...

Last week I scored Dan a gorgeous new sheepskin coat (his Hanukkah present- don't tell!) for $100, & myself a full-face helmet for ATVing (dust in my eyes while riding drives me & my contact lenses NUTS) for 99 cents! And while I have eBay, feel not sad for Dan, for he has his fave thrift shops, and the other day he came home from Catholic Charities w/yet another one of his amazing deals: a brand-spanking-new 8-bottle wine cooler for the bar room that we hope to some day finish... We've been working on it sporadically now for 7 years, and it'sa bout 3/4 done, and I have high hopes that we both might live to see it open & operating... Anyone wanna help? You help, you get dibs on having that First Official Drink at the Elkhorn Inn Bar!

Holidays 2008!

The holidays at the Elkhorn Inn in Landgraff, WV: Picking up, wrapping, & shipping West Virginia Coal Tchachkas all over the country! Happily, we filled a lot of orders this year, & thanx to UPS, managed to get all the Christmas orders delivered by Christmas Eve! We sent coal statuettes & ornaments, coal candy, & Geneva's Gems Jams & Jellies all over the place from the Elkhorn Inn Gift Shop, which has truly turned out to be "the little engine that could". 6 years ago when we opened the Inn, if Anyone had suggested to us that we'd be filling 100s of wholesale & retail orders for hand-made WV coal statuettes every year, we would have said they were Mad!
While Dan was hunting w/his buddies in VA in November it snowed twice, & so was truly beautiful for about 20 minutes, but then it started raining, & it's kept that up pretty much ever since, so it's back to being brownish-grey, wet, & soggy :-( After one brief, -6-degree night, it's been 40-50 ever since... meaning it may not feel like the "holidays", but we have water again... The water pressure trickled to nothing on two occasions, (thank you, again, McDowell County PSD...), & so even though we had it running all night as usual, it froze, & left us basically waterless over 2 weekends. Yes, we have 9 toilets, & yes we always have cases & cases of bottled water, but bathing with Wet Wipes is No Fun At All! We were lucky not to have guests at the Inn those days... But now we've got our water back, & I'm down to wearing only 2 layers of clothes(!) We've had a Roaring Fire going most nights, & I even talked Dan into sitting in the Hot Tub with me in the cold of night, like I used to do in Germany...
If anyone wonders how we console ourselves through 6 months of icy cold, wet winter here in the mountains: we Eat- & we do some SERIOUS Food @the Elkhorn Inn!
Dan brought home sashimi tuna & scallops one night, oysters another, & then 2 glorious trays of sushi from Kimono in Princeton AND a bottle of saki! (Yes, Virginia, you can get real Japanese saki in West Virginia!) I got him an assortment of artisan cheddar cheeses from igourmet, & made him a Gourmet Mac 'N Cheese, & he smoked an herb-rubbed duck & made his amazing gumbo... and then he made his fabulous grated potato-sweet-potato latkes on Hanukkah- so all is right with My world! As a response to this unabashed gluttony, I bought myself a Slendertone Belt & gel pads- the eBay version of the Ionithermie treatment I had @the Bella Nova Day Spa in Texas- & I've been using it like a good little soldier every day (along with my magic Scandinavian Cellulite Gel), to try to pull in those abs & tone that tum- 'cause dieting in Chef Dan's Gourmet Abode just ain't happenin'!
Dan worked solidly for weeks on the outside decorations & lights (EVERYTHING is a Project! AAAAUGH!), with the result that the Inn grounds are now Thoroughly decorated! We've got a row of lit-up candy canes bordering the parking lot, our 6' inflatable Hanukkah Menorah, the 11' Snowman, NASCAR Santa & his Elves, & airblown Santa Getting a Ticket From A Cop, a rather unique item we set up in our parking lot- right where the State Troopers keep pulling over speeding cars... Pilot Santa in his airplane is perched up on the edge of the balcony, & Helicopter Santa has landed on the front porch... In my lust for ever more giant, inflatable decor, I went a little goofy on eBay & got Helo Santa (in lieu of getting Dan the Real chopper of his dreams), along with the 8' long inflatable Santa Train, & a giant inflatable New Year's Baby... & as an early 50th birthday present to myself I also bought a 7' airblown birthday cake, complete with 3 giant candles, something I've actually wanted for several years; I will now have it outside the Inn for my Big 5-0... If only we could find ATV Santa! I Badly want Motorcycle Santa, Golf Cart Santa, & Tractor Santa, all of which I've found on eBay, but they will have to wait, as I'm afraid Dan will have a Cow if I spend any more $$ on this sort of stuff! But we're now firmly in the Season of The Brown, Dead Lawn & Crappy Looking Garden, & it really does feel SO much more festive with giant, lit-up inflatables out there!

What we couldn't find- & didn't order early enough- was Hanukkah candles, and Dan went on a not-so-merry chase thru southern WV on the Big Hanukkah Candle Hunt, returning with but one box of made-in-China Hanukkah candles! He wound up spending $50 on an assortment of other candles which I carved to fit our 4 menorahs while Dan made latkes! My next major purchase will be a full case of real, made-in-Israel Hanukkah candles- we are Not going thru this again next year! We've been lighting the Hanukkah candles each night in 4 of our windows, & it is a cheering sight to see them as you drive up to the Inn...
As for presents, we did Hanukkah & Christmas, and Dan overdid it (as usual), & got me a Garmin GPS for when I go out a-FEMAing, perfume, Bath & Body Shop sugar scrub, Bushmill's Irish whisky, colored cigarettes, & one really useful "defensive" present that I can actually pop tin cans with (!); I got him a totally gorgeous Missoni sweater I'd hunted for all year, the Bass boat shoes, he likes, & Chef's Whites... & a few more things that haven't yet arrived... Since we're pretty much joined at the hip, the only way I can ever surprise him is to order something, & so shopping eBay (thru MyPoints) has become my "designer bargain shopping mecca"... & of course I find the odd thing for me, too! This year I found myself a fairly fabulous coral silk dress I'm hoping to wear on New Year's Eve. Friends & family are coming for New Years (YAY!)- the first time we'll really a real NYE party at the Inn! We're all going to Gary Bowling's House of Art in Bluefield for their New Year's Eve Dinner-Dance, and I'm actually very excited about this, as this is the first time in 6 years there's been a place we wanted to get dressed up & go out to on New Year's Eve! To celebrate this momentous occasion(!), I not only found myself the gorgeous eBay dress, but I went hog-wild @Wally World & got eyeliner, mascara, AND eye shadow! (!) I haven't made up my eyes Properly for several years, & I'm hoping I haven't forgotten how to do the "Smokey Eye" the way they did it to me @Georgette Klinger...
The day after Christmas, having succumbed to the media hype about the "New Black Friday", we got up @5am & drove to Bluefield in the dark to "hit the sales"- & were Sorely disappointed. We went to Sam's Club, Wal Mart, & the Mercer Mall stores, inc. JCPenney & Sears, & I gotta tell you: there wasn't ONE thing that either one of us wanted to buy- & NO bargains. (Unless you were looking for boxes of tree decorations (Sam's), or some Really ugly clothes (Sears)...) Perhaps we weren't there early enough (we got to Sam's at 7a.m. & were regaled with Horror Stories of people snatching gifts out of each others hands, apparently @5:30a.m...), but by the time we arrived there were no crowds, no Great Stuff, and No Deals anywhere. If this, second Black Friday was to save retail, retail is dead... This was the first time in my life I'd gotten up in the wee hours to go to a sale, & it will definitely be the last! I think the Mercer Mall was the saddest of the lot: KB Toys was selling the last of their remaining stock, & the shelves were a jumble of sad-looking, picked-over toys, a lot of the other shops were gone, & the tinsel was tarnished on the empty & forlorn Santa's Grotto... The only action was @Chick Fila, where I tried to order chicken strips & was told I could Only have breakfast but that they were out of eggs! Thoroughly Depressed @not finding Anything worth buying (or eating), & sorely needing a shot of Retail Therapy, we stopped @BigLots, where we did find (as usual) a few kewl marked-down things, had a bite at Dick's Swiss Burger, picked up our eBay arrivals, holiday cards, & the 2009 Burpee & Park Seed Catalogs (the winter "dream books") @the Post Office, & drove home in the pouring rain...