Friday, January 23, 2009

Free for All __________

Three times a charm.  That's what I've heard.  

The first time you hear a message... forgettable.  We're busy people, bombarded daily with messages, so a one-time announcement is our dream come true.  Total dismissal, guilt free.  Second time you hear an announcement... recognizable. The message might be familiar, but details are blurred and there exists no sense of urgency to take action.  But, three times.  Three times is supposed to be the charm.  After having heard a message a third time, its contents should be familiar - maybe even anticipated.

So let's see if it works.

If you've been on Highlowaha over the past two days, you might have heard _______ is in the air.  Highlowaha is 26 days away from celebrating our ____  _______   __________.  The celebration of our great achievement will peak on Wednesday, _________ 18, at _:__ p.m. CST.  Planning for The ______ _______ _______ Show cannot get underway until each of you does your part.  We need you to submit _________(s) for each category.  Wednesday I outlined the first three awards.  Thursday I outlined the next three and today we will introduce the final three.

To submit your nominations, simply send me an _____ at ______@lslog.com, by Monday, January __th at midnight.  Please be sure to put People's Choice Award in the subject heading.

Now for the final three awards to be presented.

The Newbie Award
This People's Choice Award goes to a Highlowaha reader who has only been with us since October 2008, or later, but whose participation we couldn't live without.

The Veteran Award
This People's Choice Award goes to a Highlowaha reader whose been with us since at least May 2008 and whose participation we couldn't live without.

Oz Award
This People's Choice Award goes to the Highlowaha reader you would most like to bring out from behind the curtain to meet.    

There they are.  The last three.  To get details about the other six awards (Sliced Bread Award, Raising the Bar Award, Good Neighbor Award, Energizer Bunny Award, Spirit of #218 Award, and the Home Run Award), please visit posts from Wednesday and Thursday.

Next an introduction and then it's onto the business of the day...  Free For All Friday.  

Let's give a big welcome to Shannon, a friend with whom I have recently reconnected.  If a prototype existed for the "Quintessential Highlowaha Reader," it would be Shannon.  She is creative, an event planner by nature (and profession), adventurous, lives the Spirit of #218 without even knowing it, and understands the value of participating in community in the same way we do.   She posed the perfect "Free For All Friday" question when we had lunch yesterday, so let's see if she jumps right in today and shares it with the rest of you.  If so, let's show her what we've got.  

Now, Free-For-All-ing.  For those of you who are new to our blog, Friday is the day of the week readers capitalize on the collective creativity of our group by posing their own questions.  You might want help developing a party theme, promoting an event, raising money, or as was the case earlier this week, generating ideas to help a homesick friend.  The canvass is clean for you to do with what you want.

With that, let me get out of the way.

Signing off until tomorrow...

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

speaking of OZ, has anyone else seen Wicked?! I am going to see it on Sunday!! I cannot wait!

OK reall this time, my nominations will come in later today; and I will be back for free-for-alling since I am the first to post and I dont have an idea or question to throw out there.

Anonymous said...

Good morning HLA!!! Aside from the woahs of work life has been peachy keen, jelly bean. It was a fabulous 78 degrees here in DFW yesterday and today is expected to reach that as well, Lily has slept through for three nights running, and HLA is getting ready to celebrate it's one year anniversary...I LOVE IT!

As far as a Free For All...I'll throw one out there.
My Mom is coming to Clearwater, FL in two weeks to meet me at a conference and to celebrate her birthday (She'll be 63...don't let her know I told you) and I'd like something creative to give her on her birthday that can be packed in my bag for the airport or given to her down there, keeping in mind that I'd like to do this in a low cost manner...I thought about a massage, pedi or something of that nature but she isn't one for those types of "girly" things.
Any thoughts?

Julie said...

CASSIE P :) I know I said yesterday that I was going to be gone today and tomorrow, and I had every intention of just lurking these two days ... but ... I LOVE WICKED!!! I love everything about it ... I saw it this past summer. It was wonderful! Are you familiar with the music?

Anonymous said...

im a little bit familiar with it, why?

Peggy said...

Wicked is wonderful!! Since we are close to downtown Chicago, we took the train last year to see it. Amazingly beautiful.... loved it!!!

I agree with Claudia, three times a charm, however, with my marketing background you may have to repeat it even more than that! For most people, advertising or news is only important when they want to know it.... so if it is difficult to find, they will move on to the next image.... until it's important to them.

Thus when I wrote school newsletters etc... I always had a box of reminders that repeated the same 'crap' over and over.... easy spot to find, it listed all the current info consisly and it was always updated. Not everybody views importance the same way (or the same day.)

Yes, you southern states keep rubbing in your warm temps. I'm happy, at least it's above 0!

I'm off to work @@

Anonymous said...

HEATHER:
One thing that always makes anything a party in my mind is fancy paper plates and matching napkins. Go to a party store and for under $5 you can get a set. Pick something that matches her - flowers, balloons, written msgs, whatever. She can take the leftovers home to celebrate anytime she wants to think about you. If you're looking for gift ideas, tell me a bit more about her - would she like a scrapbook calendar to make (you include the parts and photos)? Does she knit and you could bring her some cool new yarn?


Forgive the poor typing, I'm nak and baby wants to type too.

Cheryl Houston said...

Claudia- is that a cliff hanger making us wait to hear what Shannon's question was?

Cassie P- saw Wicked in NY. It was awesome. You're going to love it.

Heather- will think about the gift idea. My initial thought is a piece of jewelry. Small.

At my last job it was the power of 6. It took 6 times of seeing the same ad before it truly sank in.

Kristen Giger said...

HEATHER: Can Lilly come teach Jennifer that 2:00am is NOT play time?

CASSIE: My mother in law and sister in law also love wicked...Jennifer has a Green onesie that says "it's not easy being green." I have no idea what that means as I have never seen it.

As for all you bragging about your warm temps, I think I'll take Jennifer sled riding today...it is supposed to get all the way up to 30!

Here's my free for all topic:
My husband and I have our one year wedding anniversary coming up (Feb 2). I think the traditional gift is paper...any fun creative ideas there???

Katie said...

Heather:
I know that you often send your mom pictures via Walgreens, so could you get her a nice photo album to put them in or maybe a frame?

Or could you do one of those shutterfly scrapbooks where you insert the pictures and design the pages online?

What about a nice meal out together while you're in Florida?

I'll keep thinking.

Anonymous said...

Heather....what about a calendar that has pics of Lily? You can do that stuff at Walgreens I believe (you're the pic pro, not me)! Once you're there, you could go out to dinner and then have a cake in your hotel room for her maybe.

Kristen...if you take my neice sledding and she gets hurt, I'm not gonna be too happy with you!
Also, check out this website. It provides traditional and modern anniversary gifts.
http://www.findgift.com/Anniversary-Table/

Or this one...it has the top 10 first anniversary gifts.
http://marriage.about.com/od/1stweddinganniversary/tp/1annivtrad.htm

Have a great day everyone!

Cheryl Houston said...

Heather-

What about 63 Hershey chocolate kisses? One for each year.

Or 63 heart shape candies since it's near Valentines...

63 reasons you love her.

Cheryl Houston said...

Kristen- since it's only been 1 year... you have to go with the number 365! :) That's a lot of chocolate kisses.

Anonymous said...

Heather... my two cents....

How about doing a Build-a-Date in Florida for your mom's birthday?

You could fill three to five envelopes with simple activities such as, "Sit out in the sunshine and enjoy a cold beverage." "Take a walk on the beach." "Enjoy a birthday ice cream cone." "Take a fun picture of 'the girls' in front of a fun Florida site."

Then your mom could pull envelopes in random order and you, Lily, and your mom could set about "building" her birthday celebration.

I like it because, rather than a standard gift you could get anywhere, you are capitalizing on the fact that you are in Florida. HOWEVER... I LOVE Robin's idea of packing birthday party plates. Whatever restaurant you end up at, I think you should request the food be served on Happy Birthday plates. It would be a nice little touch.

If you don't like that... how about treating her to a pedicure (at the hotel) and a new pair of beachy flip flops. Her Northern Kentucky toes might not be ready for beach weather in early February!

Anonymous said...

Kristen... Here's my two cents about your first year anniversary and paper.

I Love photographs and photograph PAPER can count. Is there a special picture from your first year of marriage that you could have matted and framed?

Anonymous said...

Kristen... Here's my two cents about your first year anniversary and paper.

I Love photographs and photograph PAPER can count. Is there a special picture from your first year of marriage that you could have matted and framed?

Cheryl Houston said...

Okay- so Claudia posted and nothing about Shannon's question so I went back and re-read that portion of the post... Shannon! Where are you? I'm dieing in suspense over here wondering what that question is!!

Heather- The Generator strikes again! Build a Date is genius! I love it. :)

Brian K. Root said...

I always thought it was a good idea to make my own "homemade" coupons good for various services or goods... such as:

"Coupon good for two movie rentals and a bag of popcorn on a night of your choice."

"Coupon good for one homecooked meal."

"Coupon good for one trip to the spa."

"Coupon good for one weekend of babysitting."

etc. etc.

Anonymous said...

Oooohhh... Brian, could I take you up on the night of free baby sitting. My address is 4012 Harvestwood Court, Grapevine, Texas.... When can you be here? How does 8:00 sound?

eknoxuk said...

How about a Florida experience like riding a boat out in the ocean, deep see fishing, snorkeling, something like that. When I was in Cabo I thought I wish that someone would have given me an experience like one of those as a gift!

Kristen Giger said...

Well..It's almost 10:30 my time and I don't see "that question" yet.

As mentioned earlier my nearly 10 onth old daughter has seemingly forgotten how to sleep through the night, thus resulting in me being extremely sleep deprived...a friend of mine told me it is because "God has a sense of humor"

Anonymous said...

I just e-mailed you my People's Choice nominations! I cannot wait to see the results!

Brian K. Root said...

haha... very funny, Claudia.


actually, I've retired from babysitting.