a knack for winning, and a million links

I seem to have a knack for winning things. As you may recall, I got an early Christmas gift of a Sirius satellite radio. Which has a Martha channel. I am a confessed Martha-holic, and listen to it often as I'm driving for work. (I must admit that I do laugh often at the ridiculous things some of the hosts say - I think their sense of the grand scheme of things is rather skewed, and there's lots of time-filling repetition, unlike CBC. But I did learn how to brine a turkey today, so all is not lost.) A few weeks ago, swept up in the newness of the radio, I called in to tell the hosts of the morning show how Martha I had been the previous weekend, selling my handmade from scratch soaps at the craft fair you've already heard lots about. The prize for the 'most Martha' listener was a copy of her new cookbook, "Martha Stewart's Cooking School". I think it may even be signed. I was on my way to see a student and missed the end of the show, and having heard nothing for a few weeks, assumed that another listener had won. Here's the best part, and I'm not making this up: this afternoon, on my hour long drive to see a student, I was thinking of the list of things I want to do this weekend and how on Monday morning it would make a great contending list for being the most Martha. Then my cell phone rang, and it was a producer, calling to let me know that I'd won! I may have scared her with my enthusiasm. I can't wait to receive the book!

Here are the other nifty material things of the week:
1) We sometimes use disposables on P. Adam opened a package a month or so ago, and there were very sharp melted plastic bits on some of the diapers, rendering them dangerous and useless. I promptly packed them up with a letter to Huggies and received coupons for $66 worth of diapers. Nice.
2) My replacement Kitchen Aid mixer arrived.
3)
I have been looking for decent toilet locks for months. I found these ones at Canadian Tire the other day, and so far, so good! They were about $9 each, which is a little steep, but much better than replacing a flushed phone or ring. They're held on by suction cups, and the lever which keeps the seat down pushes to the side when the toilet is in use, and clicks back into place afterward. They're made by Safety 1st, and if you have a curious babe, I think they're a good investment. Much better than some others we tried. A bit tricky for guests to figure out, though.

Okay. I'm stepping away from the computer to sit still and read a magazine. Christmas crafting coming up tomorrow, yay! Happy weekend!