SARATS Finale!

Well, the votes are in and I've made a video to sum them up. Thanks again to everyone who entered... I hope you'll be back next year.

JAT, email me with a mailing address and 500 mL of Jakeman's Canada #1 Extra Light maple syrup (the best I've ever had) will be yours!

With any luck I'll get back to writing about cycling now. I love it even more than trees, believe it or not.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

SARATS Flip Flop - Let's End This Thing

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean collecting "video votes" to decide the SARATS winner. The thing is, I don't have the time to get out there and do it, and I don't want this contest to drag on forever. So here's what I wanna do instead: Let the entrants decide.

I will be sending an email to every entrant asking them to visit this page and vote for any two trees other than their own in the comments. I made it two trees because I couldn't decide between my top two and figured others might be in the same boat. I kind of like this format and may well use it next year as well depending on how it goes... it seems kind of fitting to let those who bothered to enter decide the winner.

So, without further ado, here are the 2011 SARATS entries for your consideration!

Huge thanks to all who entered and additional thanks for helping me wrap this up. Once again, if you have entered one of the trees showcased above, I want you to vote for 2 OTHER trees in the comments. I will wait until Sunday Feb 26 for votes to come in, and announce the winner of 500mL of freakishly good tree juice on Monday, Feb 27.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - If you check the comments you'll see that I already got the voting started!

PPS - If you didn't enter a tree and want to vote anyway, knock yourself out. I will only use your vote in the event of a tie, but hey, you never know!

Valentine's Day the Rantwick Way

Mrs. Rantwick and I believe that Valentine's Day is pure commercial nonsense. For years now, we have agreed to do nothing on Feb 14. I do, on occasion, surprise her by having flowers sent to her office or something, but never on Valentine's. We usually get some candies and stuff for the kids, but that's it.

I had been away from home (in Winnipeg, Manitoba) for over a week and was missing my family like crazy. By the way, I attempted to collect video votes for trees at the airport a couple of times, but it would seem travellers are a rather surly and suspicious bunch, and so I got nothing. I hope to have a winner before you all hate me, but no promises. Anyway, I returned home on Valentine's day. Mrs. Rantwick and the two little Rantwicks were at work and school, but they had left a lovely handmade Valentine for me!

Pretty sweet, right? Well just wait, it gets much better. Don't all the best things in life come with a disclaimer? Oh, I think so:

WARNING: We could not think of anything other than toilet humor so don't take this poem personally!

Then they hit me with a verse I shall cherish always (sniff)...

Roses are red, violets are blue

You smell funny

Just like my poo!

This came from the bottom of our HEARTS!

God I love my family. That card was LOVE with a capital P baby! Please don't be too envious of me and my awesome wife and children... although I don't know how on earth you could help it.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - I now realize that "LOVE with a capital P" is a rather strange thing to write. In my addled brain, the "P" was for Poo.

Sir Vay Lance

In my last post I mentioned something I found a little funny in my web stats. Well, the very next day I got a visit from somebody else I had never noticed before:

If you read my previous post and the comments on it with an eye toward specific words and phrases, do you think it possible that they may have flagged it for a little visit somehow? I can see a few that make it a possibility, if a remote one. I've never noticed that particular visitor before and they don't appear anywhere else in my recent web stats. Am I being paranoid? I must be. It's just a coincidence, I'm sure.

Yer Neurotic Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - Just in case it is not a coincidence, please refrain from using words in the comments that may spark a refreshed interest... I am being stupid, especially knowing that I am a squeaky clean citizen, but humour me.

PPS - If you happen to be the visitor in question and you just like reading my silly stuff, let me know! If so, I'm treating you like the poor Doctor at a party who's being asked to "look at this weird thing on my neck"!

Blog Stats Reveal My Normal Visitor

Like any blogging OCD freak, I sometimes look at my web stats to see how unpopular I am. I am quite unpopular. That's OK, though, because those who do keep coming back are generally my kind of people.

Those who don't keep coming back often land here because they were doing google image searches, and I saw something interesting today.

It's 12:25 AM. Do you know where your norms are?

I think Chris Koos, the mayor of Normal, may have an interloper on his hands, a late night image searcher straying from the path of true normalcy. Rooting out this person in a town with 50K+ people and Illinois State University within its borders may prove difficult.

Of course, the good people of Normal are very likely sick and tired of people like me being all juvenile like this. Remember though, that I'm writing stuff for the Internet. Juvenile is, sadly, the order of the day out here. I'm just trying to fit in; you know, like, act normal.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K