Friday Haiku Contest winner - and farewell

I like to move my furniture around on a regular basis. I can handle the layout of a room and its accoutrements for only so long, then it's time to switch things up, take away this and add that. Each time the overhaul is done, Jim and I sit back and exclaim, "Oh, this is so much better. Why didn't we do this in the first place?"

Six months later we'd be shuffling furniture again, finding an even better layout.

Well, it's been six months since I started the Friday Haiku Contest. I enjoyed doing it. I loved your haikus. I learned a lot about my readers through their haikus ... and met some new readers. A successful six months.

But now it's time for something new, something different, something I hope will make my readers sit back and say, "Oh, this is so much better. Why didn't Lisa do this in the first place?"

Before I get to that 'something new,' I'd like to name everyone who submitted a haiku in last week's contest a winner ... and award yet another goofy antique-store tchotchke to each of them.

Ann, Debbie, Keith and Kate, here are your prizes:

Ann gets "A Round Tuit" so she'll be equipped next time she's tempted to say she'll do something when she gets around to it.

Kate gets an antique postcard to add to her collection.

Keith gets a cash register because his haikus are always money.

Debbie gets a star because she's a rising star and this will remind her when she's not feeling so bright.

 Congratulations, guys! And thank you for being dedicated haiku writers! It's been fun, thanks to YOU! Contact me to claim your prizes.

Now for the all-new Grandma's Briefs feature. If you look up at the top of this page, I just added a "Quotable Grandmas" tab. Clicking there will bring you directly to my new page, where I'll be regularly adding quotes from grandmas. I like quotes, collect them in all sorts of ways, and here is where I'll share the inspirational, sappy, possibly even shocking quotes from grandmas, well known and otherwise.

But I'd like you to add to my list, too -- and am willing to bribe reward you for doing so. I encourage everyone to send me quotes from grandmas, whether it's something your grandma used to say, a quote you read in a magazine or heard on the news, or an interesting line or two from a book or a movie. If it's by a grandma, I want to hear it. Just send me the quote, the name of the grandma, and your source for the quote and I'll add it to the Quotable Grandmas list (with kudos to you for sharing). Submit as many as you want, as often as you want.

And your reward for doing so? Each month I'll randomly choose a submission and the person who submitted it will receive a 'grandma's dozen' (that's 14 ... one more than you get in a baker's dozen) of my yummy homemade chocolate chip cookies, baked fresh and on their way to you within 24 hours of them coming out of the oven!

So check out the Quotable Grandmas feature and submit your own. New quotes will be added to the list as they come in, and the name of the submitter will be included with the quote.

And now, on to our regularly scheduled programming ...

Today's question:

What's your favorite kind of cookie and where do you get it?

My answer: To be honest, I'm not that fond of cookies. Everyone who tries them loves my chocolate chip ones, and I do enjoy eating the dough while I make them, but I can't think of any cookies that are to die for. Maybe I've just not tasted one that delectable yet.

Friday Haiku Contest Winner!

In last week's Friday Haiku Contest, the theme word was awkward, yet all of the haikus submitted were actually quite gracefully executed.

Of those non-awkward haikus, the BINGO ball roller chose B4 as the winner:

It seems silly now
how awkward my first kiss was
the mirror was cold

Karen J.

Congratulations, Karen! In just 17 syllables you reminded all of us of our childhoods, when anything seemed possible yet everything felt so awkward. (And I bet everyone reading this had a smooch with a mirror at some point during those early years!)

While your haiku was not awkward, your prize certainly is -- or at least its real life counterpart seems pretty darn awkward. Here it is:

Yep, you've won a wooden klompen, or clog, from Holland. If you ask me, wearing a pair of these would be the height of awkwardness, at least for a clutz like myself. But for you, Karen, this clog means you're a winner! Display it proudly as a reminder of your awesomeness and the non-awkward haiku you shared here in the Friday Haiku Contest. (Of course, you gotta contact me first to claim your prize.)

Awkward or not, I'd love to see each and every visitor to Grandma's Briefs give it a shot in this week's Friday Haiku Contest. It's pretty simple: Just create a 17-syllable poem, rhyming or not and divided up into three lines (five syllables in the first, seven syllables in the second, five syllables in the third). Oh, and you gotta use the theme word of the week in your haiku. Entering a haiku puts you in the running for fabulous prizes  goofy tchotchkes from the Grandma's Briefs antique-store stash!

It's all in good fun -- meaning you won't be judged by anyone other than the BINGO ball roller -- so c'mon and join us. You'll find this week's theme word and other details HERE or you can always click on the Friday Haiku tab at the top of this page.

Today's question:

When was your first (non-mirror) kiss?

My answer: It was during the summer between my sixth and seventh grade, at a boy-girl birthday party at my house. After doing The Locomotion around the neighborhood and eating Mom's homemade pizza, we played Spin the Bottle and I had a very chaste, very uneventful first kiss with Brian Yates.

Friday Haiku Contest winner!

Last week's theme word of future seemed to be a pretty popular one for the Grandma's Briefs haiku-ers. But, alas, only one haiku can be awarded the funky prize badge of honor, and the BINGO ball roller chose B5 as the winner:

Inevitably,
my bright future changed, when the
past caught up to me

~ David A.

Congratulations, David! Your future will look a little brighter, thanks to a blast from the past -- the past that included goofy comics highlighting the future ... when 2010 was the future.

Confused?

This oughta clarify things: You've won issues #1 and #2 in a two-issue limited series, the Marvel Comics adaptation of "the spectacular new film" 2010!

Awesome! Published in 1985, this (possibly) sought-after collection highlights the visionary glimpses of what life and love will be like in the oh-so distant future of the unthinkable year of 2010. Crazy, I know, to even imagine that we'd live that long and how things might be once we get there. You'll love it ... and surely be as impressed as I was by the Roy Scheider rendering!

So back to the future, err, present for ya, David, as long as you contact me to claim your prize. Congratulations! And best wishes for your future to once again look as bright as it did in the past ... before the past caught up to you ... and changed your future ... . Ah, nevermind! Just contact me.

Wanna brighten your future by winning the next Friday Haiku Contest? Give it a shot! You can find all the details HERE.

Today's question:

What's one thing that didn't turn out the way you thought it would when you envisioned your future in the past?

My answer: I thought I'd be thin and energetic, with great hair, a winning smile and known for my witty repartee on my book tours. But there's still time ... for the book tours, at least. Witty, thin and energetic? Not likely happening.