Cleveland Blogger Prizes

So remember a certain contest that was run just over a month ago here on this blog?

Yeah, me to too. Well I announced a winner and it was buried in a blog about how awesome my child was, because this IS my blog and yes, I am the narcissist, so it's all about me me me.

So for a refresher, I was giving away a C.L.E. Clothing Co. t-shirt as a price for guessing the Addy's birth time without going over. So many of you chimed in, and 1 of you won.

Kasey Crabtree. A winner. She won the much coveted C.L.E. Clothing Co. t-shirt. As a bonus she was able to come over and meet the baby. Kasey, the clairvoyant she is, was able to guess to within 6 minutes of the correct time. 6 minutes. You know out of 1440 minutes in the day, she picked that particular minute. I couldn't believe someone could get it that close. When I was talking with her, she said, "I saw sixes, nines, threes, and so that's how I got it."

It was amazing and she won a great prize. Way to go Kasey, and for those of you on Twitter, go follow her, she has some great Tweets. She gives good Tweet, as LauraBlue would say.

So that being said, I have given out my first prize, and I look forward to hooking up with C.L.E. Clothing Co. on a future giveaway, but I have also won some stuff out there in Blog Land.

My very very very first prize comes from a very popular Cleveland Blogger Alexa over at Cleveland's a Plum. She was recently voted best blogger in Cleveland by the readers of Cleveland Magazine. She is so popular the C.L.E. Clothing Co. even made a shirt for her. She had a pow wow at her place to give these things away. The contest was genius and check it out so you can see how I won such a fracking awesome shirt.

Now that you are back, the Cleveland Food Scene has recently gotten a TON of attention. More specifically the Greenhouse Tavern. Named one of the 10 best restaurants in the country by Bon Apetite Magazine, and Chef/Owner Johnathon Sawyer was voted best Chef in Cleveland by Cleveland Scene, his wife Amelia runs a pretty fantastic blog as well as running their home lives. This couple is the dynamic duo. Amelia a.k.a Chef's Widow was selected by the Gap to be a Gap Brand Enthusiast and so they shipped her a ton of jeans and other giveaway things, along with a video camera and said, "Give our shit away".

Give it away she did. Check out how SHE gave it away, and how she got her readers [me] involved.

Well a few days ago I got my prize in the mail and off to the Gap I went. A coupon for free Jeans is amazing considering I can't afford much right now, so a coupon worth basically $55.00 is amazing, and the new Gap Jeans I got as a result are also amazing.

In closing I want to thank all of you who entered my contest, and I also want to thank Cleveland's a Plum and Chef's Widow for making me look good, and also did for free.

[Rocking Cleveland's a Plum and Chef's Widow Prizes]

I've been away.....

Before you get all mad, I had a good reasons to be away for so long. I have been losing focus.

Since last Wednesday, I have been hyped. We have a date for the arrival of baby. Between last Wednesday until tomorrow, 1 week later, my wife could have gone into labor at any time. With every vibration of my 2 BlackBerrys I sat on the edge. Was this going to be the phone call, text, instant message that will mark the arrival of labor pains, or a goodbye to my wife's water. All of these things would warrant my immediate departure from work.

These things never came. My mind was elsewhere at work. My sales goals are untouched. Out of the huge goal I have sitting in front of me, I have barely made a dent in them. I haven't tried. My mind was pre-occupied. Understandably, but it doesn't help. It was on Friday when I butted heads with a manager I usually have a good relationship with. That's when I really freaked out. It was 4 days into the month, I had almost all zeros on the board when he looked at me and said, "you are better than this". He had a look of disgust on his face. His #1 sales guy, was in the crapper. I have lost focus. My drive was gone. My ambition was gone. I was ready to see my new child.

My managers are pretty understanding. They didn't hassle me too much, so I unplugged from the blog, I unplugged from twitter [not cutting myself from that too much, but reduced my input], and unplugged from full time Facebooking. I needed to focus on my family and career choice.

This is the reason for me being a recluse from my blog.

I have a ton on my brain as a result. I am in the process of scheduling out some posts because I'm pretty sure I will not have time to do blogging for the rest of the week.

While I was away, some great things happened. I won some stuff and got fan mail.

What I won:
Not sure if you remember, but I won a Cleveland's a Plum t-shirt from Alexa from Cleveland's a Plum. I am forever grateful for this! Thanks again Alexa.

But there is something going on in the blog world that 2 bloggers from Cleveland were recipients of. Brand About Town selected 2 of my favorite Cleveland bloggers to be Gap Brand Enthusiasts. That basically means they get a bunch of free shit from Gap and get to throw a party to give it all away. Sometimes they send you so much stuff, that the awesome bloggers they are get to give stuff away to their readers who didn't get invited to the party.

For a long time I have been following Chef's Widow, who is the wife of Cleveland chef Jonathon Sawyer of the Greenhouse Tavern. Her blog has become one of my stops in my daily routine blog reading. Her adventures of moving have been hilarious, and her insight of what her husband's success in the culinary world by being named Bon Appetite's top 10 Restaurants in America. When she got her free stuff from Gap to give away, she threw a party for her restaurant. She gave all the stuff to her staff. She thanked them for being there for her.

So when she had a ton of left overs, she gave it away to us, the readers.

I am glad to say that I won!! I won a pair of Gap Jeans! First a t-shirt, now some jeans. How awesome!

So thank you Chef's Widow can't wait to try them on!

Don't worry, I will get photos of my Cleveland blogger prize pack!

What I got from a Fan:
Well a good friend of mine who is NOT a fan of blogs, but IS a fan of my podcast recently visited me at my day job. He walked in and gave me a package. I quickly opened it and out came a t-shirt.

George is the drummer of a Cleveland metal band Morality Check. They will be making an appearance on the podcast soon. George and I go way back. He went to high school with my older brother and he and I have stayed in touch throughout the years. I have been to his house many a night rocking to Guitar Hero with a bunch of other friends. My avatar is awesome.

So when I saw George that day in my store handing me a package with a t-shirt, I was interested as to what would be on the shirt. He often makes fun of me for blogging as much as I do, but not in a malicious way, just in jest.

I laughed when I saw the shirt.
How awesome is that?! Thanks George! Can't wait to have the band on my show!

If you haven't already, make sure you get your times in for tomorrow's side bet on the baby pool. Make sure you read the comments and see what everyone else has said! Also, if you would like to stay updated, I will be twittering I'm sure during the labor. Follow me on Twitter to keep in the loop.