Alabama Bloggers

Best Post of the Week: Week 155

2012-06-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

It's time to link in your best post of the week!

The purpose of this column is to make it easier to keep up with each other's blogs, so that even if we don't have time to read all of the Alabama Blogger blogs every day, at least we get the week's highlights.

So, link up, tell us why you linked that post, and let's start reading! And remember - the best way to get new blogging friends is to comment on other people's posts, so be sure to say "hi" to your neighbors when you visit!

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

See For Yourself: Week Two

2012-05-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

See For Yourself is a weekly feature on Alabama Bloggers that gives you a short list of great bloggers that you should be following. Click through to their blogs and see for yourself why!

Wade @ Birmingham Blogging Academy (Twitter: WadeOnTweets) - Wade offers second-to-none blogging advice and social media tips that will revolutionize the way that you look at the media tools that you (mis?)use everyday.

Angie and Trish @ BirminghamMommy (Twitter: BirminghamMommy) - If you're a Mom in Birmingham, you should be following Birmingham Mommy! They are the premier resource for what's going on around town for kids and families. They also offer heartfelt and honest essays about parenthood and how to handle the challenges therein.

Ike @ Occam's Razr (Twitter: IkePigott) - Ike offers a unique and insightful investigative view on life. He will always make you think, challenge you to delve deeper, and encourage you to pay better attention to the world around you.

Steph @ Plain Chicken (Twitter: PlainChicken) - If you're hungry and are currently unable to reach food, don't go to her blog. However, if you're looking for some great new ideas and recipes, Plain Chicken is where it's at.

Rambling Round @ Selma Daily Photo (Twitter: RamblingRound) - Live in the beautiful town of Selma vicariously through this blog. But be ready to travel, because she'll make you want to come visit.

Will you be featured next week? Check back to See For Yourself! And feel free to make nominations for blogs that should be featured in future See For Yourself features!

Discovering The Magic City in America's Oldest City

2012-05-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

Originally posted at Grasping for Objectivity on July 6, 2011.

When I was very young, there was a brick-paved street a couple of blocks from my house. It was really just a brick intersection – a tiny slice of leftover history that somehow got missed by the modernization of Birmingham. I loved when we drove over it and I had the opportunity to pretend that I was a 19th century Southern Belle in a horse drawn carriage, and my Mom or Dad was my personal driver.

Not too long into my childhood, modern progress won out, and they dug up the bricks and asphalted my favorite intersection. The bricks were going to be thrown out, so my Dad went down to collect some of them.

He used those bricks to make steps and a walkway up to our house. I remember asking him why he wanted to use the old, chipped and worn bricks instead of new, “pretty” bricks. He showed me the stamping on the bricks:

GRAVES BHAM, ALA

The bricks were made right there in our town by a factory that was closed half a century before he was born. He explained to me that these bricks were a part of our history – of our city’s story, and that by saving them, he had salvaged a bit of that history for our family.

Although I didn’t care too much about my city’s history at that point, I did look down and see those stamps of Birmingham’s past on a daily basis, and always remembered my cherished brick road because of their presence.

Now that I’m older and passionately in love with my city, I completely understand my Dad’s efforts to preserve our past. I am fascinated with books showing pictures of how Birmingham used to be, and I confess I might still spend a bit of time still imagining that I was one of those ladies with the long, full dresses and dainty parasols being driven down the locally-made brick roads in a fancy new horseless carriage.

Yesterday, we spent a day of our vacation in Historical old St. Augustine, Florida – the oldest city in America. The layers upon layers of different cultures and generations creates a beautiful canvas. Centuries of buildings and churches line brick-paved alleyways, and remnants of pirate attacks, forts, and colonization are scattered throughout downtown. Men dressed up as Pirates amble down the roads, scaring children and having witty remarks always at the ready. It’s easy to imagine oneself in the past in St. Augustine.

Ali and I stopped to admire a 19th century water wheel at a former grist mill.

…Or at least I was admiring it, and she was begging for money to throw in the water to make a wish. She threw her money in, wished for ice cream, stared intently at her coin, then sighed.

She walked away and said, “I threw my money in and made my wish, but it didn’t turn into ice cream. Why didn’t it work??”

She looked down to the ground. I looked down with her.

I Immediately recognized those bricks. Here was a part of my city’s proud history, tucked hundreds of miles away in the nation’s oldest city.

I was proud, I was thrilled, and I was immediately transported back to sitting on my steps as a little girl, to riding down that brick road, and to imagining all sorts of historical Birmingham stories.

Of course, I pointed the bricks out to Ali, and just like my reaction as a little girl, she was completely unimpressed.

Hopefully though, in time, I will be able to instill in her a love for history, for our city, and for imaginary visits to times past.

Best Post of the Week: Week 154

2012-05-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

See For Yourself: Week One

2012-05-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

See For Yourself is a weekly feature on Alabama Bloggers that gives you a short list of great bloggers that you should be following. Click through to their blogs and see for yourself why!

Stephen @ Who Ate My Blog? (Twitter: @whoatemyblog) - Stephen has one of the most inspiring blogs in the state. He used the accountability of the blogging world to lose over 300 pounds - and counting! He's an amazing guy with amazing goals, and is truly someone to be admired.

Tim @ Practical iStuff (Twitter: @PracticaliStuff)- Tim offers great iPhone tips and tricks, with helpful app reviews and great ideas on how to best utilize your iPhone.

Virginia @ Birmingham Alabama Daily Photo - Often touching, often informative, Virginia will take you on a visual tour of The Magic City.

Alison @ Ingredients, Inc. (Twitter: @AlisonLewis) - Alison is a cookbook author, a recipe artist, a travel blogger, and a devoted Mom. Follow her for delicious and always healthy recipes!

Jamie @ Jamie's Rabbits (Twitter: @Jamiesrabbits) - Need a laugh? Or perhaps a vulnerable, honest heart-to-heart? Jamie offers both on her fabulous blog - and follow her on twitter for daily (continuous, really) entertainment.

Will you be featured next week? Check back to See For Yourself! And feel free to make nominations for blogs that should be featured in future See For Yourself features!

Newly Listed Alabama Bloggers!

2012-05-22T13:47:00.000-05:00

So I put it off long enough.

Way too long, in fact.

I spent over four hours yesterday getting the Alabama Blogger's List updated. Not only did I get all of the newly listed blogs in place, but I also clicked on every link on the list, deleted the blogs that were no longer there, and moved the inactive-but-still-in-existance blogs to the bottom of the list in their own category.

So that means that the Alabama Blogger's List is now fully accurate, and only houses current, active Alabama Blogs.

I don't know about you, but I want to cry with relief of a job well done.

(Clearly, you're not crying. That's okay. I'll cry enough for the both of us.)

Check out the newly updated list, let me know if youand in particular, visit these newly listed bloggers and welcome them to the network:

Adam and Wendy @ A&W (Auburn)
Mary Frances @ The Stanfords (Montgomery)
Anna @ The Cross Is All
Karla @ Gathering Life (North Alabama)
Erin @ Dwell and Tell
Duckbutt
Matt @ The FilmNerds Blog
Clementine @ Restless and Roaming Returns to the Roost (Birmingham)
Magnolia Mom
Patsy @ Hayden Express (Hayden)
Shea @ Dixie Chik Cooks (Helena)
Ike @ Occam's Razr (Birmingham)
Hands Free Mama
Groone's World
Will @ The Dairyman's Blog
Turkana @ Unique Family Vision
Stephanie Holland @ She-Conomy
Bryants of Bham (Birmingham)
Sand Castles and Snow Forts
Tonya @ The Traveling Praters (North Alabama)
Javacia @ Georgia Mae (Birmingham)
Jonathan @ Shadow Moments
Dino's Deliberations
Russell @ Geek Palaver (Huntsville)
Stacey @ Southern Bite
Misty @ The Family Math
Karla @ Casual Bedlam (Birmingham, Huntsville)
Andrea @ A Modern Hippie (Fort Rucker)
Moody Paints (Birmingham Area)
MoniqueBlog (Birmingham)
Audrey @ Folkways Nowadays (Birmingham)
Connect to Your Coast
Buddy @ The Cobalt Club (Birmingham)
Martha @ Wholesale Clothes Center (Helena)
Amanda @ Lovin' the Beast
Julia @ Green Quilts (Birmingham)
Jerri @ Mom-E-Centric
Same Chic Different Day
Chris @ New Media Influence
Laura @ Owl Tell You All About It and earphoria (Locust Fork)
Amy @ Living In Harmony
fjlanders @ Home of Owl
Nerd-To-English
Danielle @ Changing Lanes
Cindy @ Cindy M Jones and Cahaba Christian Writers (Birmingham)
bfarr @ Chattahoochee Valley Daily (Phenix City)
Lucy @ Word Crank
Amie Beth Shaver (Birmingham)
Alana @ The Karl Family (Tuscaloosa)
Rhonda @ Abide At Home (Dothan)
Nathan @ Geek Alabama (Anniston)
Bridget @ Fit Past Forty
Kristin @ Tips From the Disney Diva (Huntsville)
Benjamin @ Problems and Solutions
Ailsa @ Guilt-Free Cuisine
Jennifer @ Tales of a Peanut
Ben @ Might Stain Your Shirt (Birmingham)
Donna @ Is This Load Bearing? (North Alabama)
Belinda @ A Simple Life
Jamie @ Brown Paper and Strings
One Minute Mantra
Erica @ The Gut Bucket (Southwest Alabama)
Jennifer @ Of Heaven and Earth (Birmingham)
Liz @ Lazy Liz on Less
Louise @ My Life
Debra @ Words are Timeless
Chris Rainey
Taren @ Craggyosaurus (Birmingham)
Martha @ The Things I Get Myself Into (Helena)
Untitled [1986] (Birmingham)
Rosedale Gardens (Tuscumbia)
Christy @ Christys Crafts (Birmingham)
Konabarbie
Irene @ Live Your Poem (Birmingham)
Where Is Main Street?
Christine @ Fly Fish Chick (Mobile)
Crunchy In Alabama
Christen @ The Uncontainable Truth (Montgomery)
Kate @ Good Fences Make Good Neighbors (Birmingham)
Jenny @ Strickly Strickland's (Dothan)

Go visit these Alabama Blogging Neighbors!!

Local Singer Writes For a Cure to Cystic Fibrosis

2012-05-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

I’d like to share a special guest post with you today from John Claybrook. John is an independent musician/singer/songwriter from Alexander City, Alabama. I hope this story about his newly released song will speak to you as it has to others. It speaks to anyone with a loved one fighting lung diseases, or any disease really, that steal those loved ones away from us. You can check out his new song "Free to Breathe" on iTunes.

Cystic Fibrosis is an ugly disease. In fact, all diseases are ugly. They rob, take, cripple, hinder, and steal years from us and loved ones. My cousin, Kara Hay, passed away after winning her battle with CF. I was visiting one of my best friends in Virginia and at 5ish in the morning he came to wake me up to tell me that someone was on the phone for me. I picked up the phone to hear my mother tell me that Kara, only 20 1/2 years old, had died. My heart was heavy. Life really is a vapor, and for some it's even less. Kara was fun to be around. She was one of those kind hearted people that just held joy in her bones. I'm not sure if you know this or not, but those type of people are rare. The world is full of burdens and fears and weights and if anyone had a reason to be weighed down with that type of junk, it was Kara. But she didn't let that stuff affect her (at least not that I ever witnessed). She was strong. She was unbelievably strong in her relationship with God. The more stories I hear of her, the more envious I become of that relationship because it's almost as if she knew Him as her best friend (and if I'm being honest, after 31 years of life, I'm still searching to know Him like that). I admire her, I love her, and I miss her.

I'm not sure what you know about me, but I'm a musician. I handle my emotions through music. I tell stories about love, hate, life, death, pain, and joy through music. Many times I never let anyone hear some of the things I write because I wrote them for me. I wrote them to serve as a vehicle to help me cope or deal with whatever weighed on my heart. I still do that. This song was no different. I didn't write this song to be heard or with intent to share with anyone. However, I shared it with one of my sisters one day who encouraged me to share it with my aunt. The sharing didn't stop there. I played a gig with the John Claybrook Band in Prattville, AL for a DiscipleNow weekend. In the middle of the show I stood on the stage with just my guitar and a microphone and I told the story of this girl named Kara and then I sang the song. In this room full of teenagers something happened. The song became less about my emotions and more of an anthem for everyone in that room who was/had suffered the stinging pain of loss. After the show student after student approached me in tears to tell me how their grandmother died of lung cancer or they lost someone in their life with a respiratory disease. I was amazed and humbled. I never meant for anyone to hear this song. But after witnessing the effect it has on others, I am realizing that it is more than just a song for me. This is a song for you.

"Free to Breathe" can be downloaded from the iTunes music store. A portion of the proceeds of this song will be given away to help aid in the fight against Cystic Fibrosis and I'm asking you to buy it. You don't have to listen to it. You don't have to like it. But buy it. It's more than a song. It's a fight for a cure.

Best Post of the Week: Week 153

2012-05-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Jim N Nick's Creates Local Pork Sourcing.

2012-05-14T14:34:00.003-05:00

I was honored to be able to attend Jim N Nick’s learning session at the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival on Saturday.

I know, I know – you go to things like that to learn about food you don’t eat all the time. But I was so proud of how Birmingham was representing at the Festival that I wanted to experience it.
And I learned quite a lot.

For instance – I learned that in 27 restaurants, they don’t have a single freezer.

And I learned that Jim N Nick’s is committed to more than just serving the best Bar-B-Q in town – they’re committed to the process of revitalizing the local pork industry.

While we watched Drew Robinson, the Executive Chef, butcher and grill a pork tenderloin, we learned about their Heritage Hog program, with the discussion moderated by Jennifer Cole of Southern Living.

Sam Burns, whose official title is “Commissioner of Culture”, shared about their vision to bring the family hog farm back to the south.

“We wanted to know where our pork was coming from, and we wanted it to be done right, locally.”

– Sam Burns, Jim N Nicks

A while back, he and owner Nick Pihakis set off on a road trip through Mississippi in the attempt to find hog farms. And they found very little. Despite the fact that the South used to be plentiful in hog farms, they are no longer in existence.

They realized that their dream was going to take a lot of time – and effort – to come to fruition.

To revitalize the South’s pork industry, there would have to be more than just trustworthy farmers. They needed suppliers, processing plants, distributors, and restaurant guests that could appreciate the value of locally sourced meat.

So they formed a plan, and started taking steps to realize their dream.

First, they set out to create an appreciation for the pig. They created the Fatback Collective, a group of chefs that were committed to the dream of local sourcing. This team also formed Jim N Nick’s team at Memphis in May, where they placed in the finals on their first year, an unheard-of achievement.

Secondly, the formed Fatback Farms – a collaborative of local hog farmers that were doing it right.
Finally, they bought a distribution plant in Eva, Alabama to give the farmers the infrastructure that they needed to do business.

“We’re not doing this because people are complaining about the quality of our pork. Nor are we doing it for marketing, to say ‘look at us – we’re using local pork’. We’re doing this because it’s the cultural mission of our company to support the community as a whole.”

– Sam Burns, Jim N Nicks

Currently, they have five farmers. To supply the four million pounds of pork that they serve a year, they need 40 – 45 farmers. Sam estimates that reaching this goal is a five year journey.

We were privileged enough to get to taste this magnificent pork served with their signature sauce and on a bed of locally made grits.

It’s a dish that I won’t soon forget.

Their locally sourced pork is currently available at their new Homewood restaurant, Little Donkey.

For further coverage of the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival, check back tomorrow at my other blog, Grasping for Objectivity.

Best Post of the Week: Week 152

2012-05-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Best Post of the Week: Week 151

2012-05-04T09:14:00.002-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Best Post of the Week: Week 150

2012-04-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

May Alabama Blogger Meetup

2012-04-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Come join us for our next Alabama Blogger Meet-Up!

We will be meeting Friday, May 4 11:30 am at Dodiyos in Homewood, enjoying fabulous Greek Cuisine including salads, seafood, gyros, hummus, and several not-too-greek Chicken and Steak dishes for those of you not as daring!

Whether you blog often or hardly ever, we always have fun at our lunch discussing all things social media and not-so social media. Just RSVP if you'd like to join us!

If you need to come late, feel free to (we're usually around for a while!), but be sure to let me know so I can try and save you a seat.

Please feel free to help us get the word out on Twitter - the hashtag is #AlaBlogMeet.

Hope to see you there!

Atlanta Food and Wine Festival - and Giveaway!

2012-04-20T08:15:00.000-05:00

Oftentimes, the South gets a bad rap from other parts of the nation. And, although we do like getting the respect that we deserve, sometimes we don’t mind living in a well-kept secret of beautiful forests, striking mountains (Yes! We have mountains!), the best beaches in the world, and the most friendly, welcoming people you’ll ever encounter.

However, one secret that we haven’t kept so well is our food. Because something that amazing just can’t be hidden.

Barbeque, grits, southern seafood, fried okra, chicken and dumplings, cobbler, banana pudding… the list is endless, and should be making you hungry about now. Southern food is comforting, friendly, and absolutely deserving to be celebrated.

And in less than a month, celebrations will occur!

The second annual Atlanta Food & Wine Festival will be a four-day extravaganza of southern food immersion.

Although “Atlanta” is in the name, it’s only the location: the founders, Elizabeth Feichter and Dominique Love, are committed to ensuring that every part of the south is equally represented and celebrated. They have an all-star Advisory Council of 70 highly celebrated chefs (all of which have been recognized with major national culinary honors) that hail from fifteen states.

The Advisory Council is deeply involved in every aspect of planning the event, so they have combined their expertise with everything they learned at last year’s event to create an even more unforgettable southern culinary experience.

The three focus areas of the festival will be Old Traditions (soul food, barbecue, Cajun and Creole, etc.), New Traditions (the fusing of Southern food with Asian, Greek, French, Latin, etc.), and Imports and Inspirations (“Other Southern” – food from other southern regions around the world, including Southern Europe, South Africa, South America, etc.).

The event has many different aspects for all levels of foodies and enthusiasts, including:

Tasting Tents - There will be fifteen different food trails, which highlight all of the different flavors of a particular food. Some of these trails include fried chicken, barbeque, seafood, southern snacks, and southern sweets.

Seminars, Demonstrations, and Panel Discussions - During each time slot, they have many different options for the foodie who wants to learn. Some of these sessions include Cast Iron Cooking, Techniques for Biscuits, Grits, and Cornbread, Southern Cakes and Pies, World Class Coffee at Home, and Southern Chemistry.

Dinners - During the evening hours, local chefs will host out-of-town chefs for a series of special dinners, parties and southern-style soirees. One such event will be a “Pig-Out, Southern-Style”, where the 70 chefs of the Advisory Council will be hosting and not cooking, which means that they will be interacting with the guests and helping to create the epitome of a foodie atmosphere. There are dozens of these amazing dinners that can be bought in a weekend package or à la carte.

They have a wide range of participation options, including day passes, three-day passes, tasting tent passes, dinners and events, and the ultimate VIP Connoisseur experience.

And if you would like to experience this for yourself, I have a pair of Day Passes for Sunday, May 13 to give away to a lucky winner!

This prize is a $360 value!!

If you would love to attend Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, go to this post on my other blog and enter!

But hurry! This giveaway is only open until Midnight, Monday, April 23.

I hope to see you there!

Best Post of the Week: Week 149

2012-04-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Best Post of the Week: Week 148

2012-04-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Best Post of the Week: Week 147

2012-04-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Giveaway - Paint The Town Red!

2012-04-05T07:00:00.002-05:00

The annual digital art celebration and street party is just nine days away!

Paint The Town Red is a charitable event taking place on Saturday, April 14 supporting the Jefferson-Shelby Chapter of the Red Cross. It's location is 2nd Avenue North and the shows will run from 5pm to midnight, featuring 17 bands and 23 artists sharing their stunning arts.

The event is filled with visual spectacles and audio experiences, including a 44 foot tall geodesic dome that houses a dance floor, a DJ, and a fabulous digital art show.

Street entertainers will include a drum line, break dancers, skate boarding demonstrations, belly dancers and moving theater performances, all adding to the electrical atmosphere.

"We are so excited about the entries for this year's event, including work by students, amateur and professional artists from across Alabama, Florida, Pittsburgh and Italy. Works include still images, digitally manipulated videos and animations projected on existing architecture of 2nd Avenue North," shares Celeste Laborde, the Arts Chairman of the event.

Tickets are $10 advance sale and $15 at the gate. For more information and advance sale tickets, visit PaintTheTownRedBham.com.

Paint The Town Red has been kind enough to give us a pair of tickets to give away to one of you!! But hurry and enter - the giveaway ends this Monday!

To enter, simply comment on this post!

Please either leave your email address in your comment or make sure that your email address is visible from your profile, otherwise you will not be eligible to win.

You can earn up to two additional entries by:

Liking Paint The Town Red on Facebook.
Tweeting, blogging, or Facebook statusing about this giveaway.

(be sure to leave separate comments for your extra entries.)

The winner will be notified by email on Tuesday, April 10th. Good luck, and I hope to see you at Paint The Town Red!

Best Post of the Week: Week 146

2012-03-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Best Post of the Week: Week 145

2012-03-23T13:07:00.000-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Best Post of the Week: Week 144

2012-03-15T19:54:00.001-05:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Second Annual Predict America's Pick Contest!

2012-03-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

I don't often duplicate content between my two blogs, but I'm so excited about getting to host this contest and give away some great prizes, that I can't help but share here, also!! You can either enter here or at Grasping for Objectivity.

The most fun contest I held last year was Predict America’s Pick.

(At least it was for me, because I got to create a spreadsheet to keep up with the rankings that rose to new levels of complete geekdom.)

So clearly, I want to offer it again.

I almost didn’t make the “deadline”, though, which I completely blame on Downton Abbey – we got hopelessly behind on American Idol due to our extended and obsessive trip to the Abbey.

But once we finished every available episode, we staunchly set our sights on getting caught up on Idol, even though we both pined for Mary, Matthew, and Edith to be the judges and The Dowager Countess to replace Ryan.

(And that’s saying something, since Ryan is on my Top Five Celebrity Crush List.)

On to the contest.

The time has come to choose your rankings. But not without the promise of great prizes, of course. This year, I have $400 worth of prizes!!!

Novica, one of my favorite gift-buying sites in all the world, has kindly agreed to sponsor this year’s contest again! Novica is a fabulous company that partners with National Geographic to help give international artisans access to sell their unique and unbelievably unique creations online. They have handmade jewelry (my favorite – I wear their jewelry all the time!), unique gifts, home décor, furniture, paintings, and much more. Every time I go to their site, I literally get lost in the midst of beautiful things for hours.

Some of my favorite Novica purchases have been this fabulous peridot necklace,

And this gorgeous necklace and earring set.

Novica also just opened a gifts and jewelry home party division, NOVICA Live. It’s a great opportunity to make money and help artisans all around the world through fun parties!

So. There will be two prizes: A Winner’s Prize and a Participation Prize.

The Winner’s Prize, a $300 Gift Certificate to Novica.com, will be awarded to the person that is closest in their predictions to what actually occurs in this season’s American Idol.

The Participation Prize, a $100 Gift Certificate to Novica.com, will go to a randomly selected participant in the contest.

So whether you know anything about American Idol or not, you have a chance to win!

How to enter:

To enter to win the $300 Grand Prize:

I have created an entry form with the top 12 contestant’s names on it. All you have to do is put those contestants in order, from 1-12, of how YOU think they will fare in the contest (1 being the winner, and 12 being the first person eliminated).

(You actually don’t even have to watch single episode of Idol to enter – just guess! You might do better than the rest of us, since America can be a bit unpredictable.)

If you need a handy contestant reference guide, click here.

You only have three days to fill out an entry form – the contest will be closed at the start of the first top 12 performance on Wednesday night, March 14th.

CLICK HERE to go to the entry form.

I will keep up with everyone’s picks and will publish a leaderboard each week after eliminations – there will be a button on my sidebar where you can check the current leaderboard. The person with the most accurate picks after the final show will win the $300 Gift Certificate!!

If there is a tie, the Grand Prize will go to the person with the most eligible participation prize entries (to be explained below). If there is still a tie, one of the tying winners will be selected randomly.

To enter to win the $100 Participation Prize:

You can be entered into the participation prize anytime between now and Wednesday evening by helping get the word out about the contest! You get one entry for each of the following:

Tweet, Facebook, or Blog about the contest.

Follow NOVICA on Facebook or Twitter.

Go to NOVICA.com and see what you would pick if you won.

Follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

Subscribe to or Follow my blog.

Enter to win the Grand Prize (your entry for the grand prize counts as one participation entry as well).

*** To get your entries, be sure to leave a comment on this post for each entry that you earned by doing the above items!!! ***

Also, you get FIVE entries for each person that reports that they found out about the contest from you! (There’s a field on the entry form for them to give you credit.)

The Participation winner will be chosen randomly from all of the Participation Entries.

So, Start Entering!! And Good Luck!!

Disclosure: I was not compensated in any way for my nice words about NOVICA – my opinions are always my own, and their site is heavenly.

Best Post of the Week: Week 143

2012-03-09T09:08:00.001-06:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Best Post of the Week: Week 142

2012-03-02T06:00:00.000-06:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!

Best Post of the Week: Week 141

2012-02-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

p.s. - please feel free to interpret "this week" as loosely as you like!