I like prizes

Here are the two prizes I have won by entering blog-based contests:

First, a hand painted watercolor, from Alivia Biko!



Isn't it beautiful? It's titled "Beach Sunset for Robin," dated July 2007 and signed by the artist herself. I won it because I guessed, more closely than anyone else, how old she was in a picture that is no longer on her blog.

Here is my second-ever blog-based prize:





A slim book from 1895 by James White entitled His Glorious Appearing supposedly about how we know that Jesus is coming. I say supposedly because I haven't read it yet. It just arrived.








Who knows, it must be pretty good, it's the 17th edition, 156th Thousand. It says so right here (if you click on the image it should get bigger):





I won it from a Quaker blogger who goes by the pseudonym of Skybalon because I offered the best expletive for describing really bad pop Christmas music.

My final entry was "God-forsakin'."[sic]




I did NOT win Peggy's contest to be the 25,000th visitor to her blog. Liz won that prize, a copy of Walk Worth of Thy Calling: Quakers and the Traveling Ministry. I really wanted that one. I bet it was signed too.

But don't get me wrong. I'm really happy for Liz too. I can't hog all the blog-based prizes, you know.

How this gets around my scruple against gambling is that these were all contests of skill, more or less. No one had to lose anything to enter the contest.

Thank you, thank you again to "Skybalon" and Alivia.