There's all of these things that I should and could be writing about and all I can obsess about is the fact that I felt like a complete moron today when I went to Burger King for lunch and realized halfway through my order (after I had selected "for here" instead of "to go") that I was standing there at the counter wearing a Burger King t-shirt. "Hi all!" Moron. WHY didn't I go to the drive-thru????

_______________________________________

On Saturday I was able to knock #90 off of The List, which was to participate in the annual radio station contest where you dig up beer bottles in the sand that correspond to prizes. Long-time readers may remember that I did it last year and ended up almost dying from exhaustion, yet winning 3 prizes: a mountain bike, 2 free skydiving jumps, and 4 free DVDs. The running joke about last year was that I had said going into it that I would be cool as long as I didn't win the bike or the skydiving. This year, I figured it would be the kayak rental or Dave Matthews tickets. I promised to rip the tickets up and step on them if they were given to me. Anyhoo, I actually didn't care what I got because I had so much fun doing it last year. The whole deal is that they give away 95 plastic shovels to people throughout the week before the dig, and the 95 people then dig in this square pit of sand for 95 plastic bottles with numbers on them that correspond to different prizes. The contest goes until all of the bottles are dug up, or for 30 minutes, whichever comes first. Also, you can win as many prizes as you can find, so some people may come up empty-handed.

Luckily, I won my shovel on the first day of giveaways from calling in to the radio station when I heard a particular song. My brother agreed to come along and be my "pinch digger" so I wouldn't have to dig the whole time like last year, but Lucy wanted to dig as well. We both tried in vain all week to win her a shovel by calling in, but neither one of us could get through. This only left one option: trying to win one the morning of the event. (This is how I got mine last year.) So the three of us headed down to the beach in the morning to try to get Lucy a shovel. By the end of the morning, we all had shovels, including my brother. (Thankfully, the dig wasn't as strenuous for me or I would have been cursing him the whole time for abandoning me in my time of need.) The most fun for me that day was watching them do what they had to in order to win the shovels. They both participated in this Survivor-type challenge that was being sponsored by a local car dealership. There were 5 shovels up for grabs. Over 20 people entered, and they had to fill out a sheet of 8 questions about the car dealership and a car and truck that were on display at the event. The first 10 to hand in correct entries went on to the physical challenge. My brother and Lucy both got to the physical challenge. The 10 contestants ran down the beach to these 8 little flags that were in the sand. This knocked out 2 people who didn�t make it there fast enough. Then the remaining 8 had to do a crab-walk to 6 buckets behind them (knocking out 2 more). The remaining 6 had to run down to the water and fill up their buckets with water so it was over a certain line inside the bucket. They then had to run it way back up the beach and if the water was still over the line when they returned, they were then able to search both cars for 1 of 5 small pieces of paper with shovels on them. During the initial run down the beach, Lucy just wiped out and fell face-first into the sand. I have it on video, but I�m not going to post it because I�m a nice friend. :-) My brother was in the lead with another guy until they were running back up the beach with their filled buckets. Then, it all became like a slow-motion scene from a movie. We saw one of my brother�s feet dig a little into the sand and then you saw his body weaving back and forth. Add to that the slow motion soundtrack of Lucy and I yelling, �Noooooooo!� as he just lost it and fell down, dumping his bucket of water. But like any good competitor, he jumped up and ran back down the beach to refill his bucket. When he finally got back, someone had just found the 4th paper shovel, so it was down to him and another girl looking for the last one. The girl had been at it quite a while, too. My brother jumped into the car next to her, looked up and popped down the sunglass-holder and Boom! He had the last shovel. For the next half hour, whenever anyone saw him with the shovel, they congratulated him, saying, �Aren�t you the guy who fell?� Ha! After the dig, he came home and regaled my parents with his Cinderella story, and he just kept saying, �I did The Amazing Race today!� I love my brother.

Now, onto Lucy. Since her sand-dive ended her chances in �The Amazing Race,� she had to attempt something that she didn�t feel she�d be able to do. Let me tell you this right now � the girl has found her secret talent/weapon. She entered a banana-eating contest. 3 bananas. 30 seconds. She downed 2 �, coming in second place and scoring a shovel. (I also have video of this, but see above re: nice friend.) I was just laughing and laughing and laughing as she shoved those things in her mouth like there was no tomorrow. The best part came when we arrived back at my house and my mom told us that they were airing some of the contests on the radio. My mom said, �They were talking about some girl who was doing some banana-eating contest and kicking butt. They were making lascivious comments about it, too. Did you see that girl?� When I pointed to Lucy, my mom lost it.

The dig itself was crazy and fun and HOT in the blaring sun, but we all ended up finding a bottle, so all was well. Also, the pit was a little bigger this year so it wasn�t as claustrophobic with elbows everywhere and sand being thrown at you. (Lucy did have to battle with a sand thrower at the beginning of the dig, but she dealt with it the only proper way to do so: nonchalantly fling sand in his face. She said he turned into a live-action version of the movie poster for Platoon, all hands in the air and screaming like a girl. That�s what you get for not following the rules, dude.) ANYway, like I said, the dig was madness and we all came out of it COVERED in sand (I�m still finding it in my car after vacuuming it), but we were laughing our heads off. We can�t wait to go back next year. Oh, and what did we win? Lucy scored 2 VIP-access tickets to the radio station�s birthday bash in December. I assume the VIP means backstage access, because the prize value was $200 and the tickets are generally about $20. It�s a good prize, as the station tends to draw some good bands to their birthday shows. My brother won a GameBoy (signed by Story of the Year) and has already holed up all day with it. And me? Mountain bike. AGAIN. [sigh]

Hello, eBay?

[Edited to add: Pictures from the dig are up! (Page 3, picture #4 - I'm in the back looking like I'm going to pass out! Lucy and my brother are on the left in the Pride Auto winners on page 1.)]

before & after





2007-09-26 - Follow Me!
2006-09-30 - Site Move & Favorite Entries
2006-09-25 - Evil Easter Bunnies & Rock Climbing!
2006-09-22 - Shameful-Purchase Hiding & A New Dentist Plan
2006-09-19 - Birthday Picture/Video Diary & The Wheelmobile





Copyright 2003-2006 by Sockgirlie. Stealing is wrong.