Both Texas and my list of 2011 winnings are woefully dry. May the rain gods send us both some relief!

May has been a fairly good one for contestmom, winning four tickets to a Memorial Day Rib Cook-Off in Cleveland, and an autographed Darius Rucker C.D. (includes a better chance to win a trip to Nasvhille). So things are looking up on the contest front!

.. a 3-pack of Hanes T-shirts, size Medium, which I shall donate to a shelter for the homeless. Hopefully better prizes are coming!

Taco Bell had a fun contest where you submitted (clever) phrases within a word limit to go on their green and red sauce packets. I submitted a few and won a gift card and flash drive, neither of which I’ve received. Nor have I received the umpteenth bag of Halls’ cough drops that I’ve won. I do believe I now have enough for the entire neighborhood! No trip or car courtesy of Halls, however – yet I remain hopeful!

If good things come in threes, I am due for a big (third) win, because this week I received news of two teeny-weeny prizes: a paperback copy of “Her Fearful Symmetry” by Audrey Niffenegger, and a bag of Hall’s cough drops. The grand prizes were, respectively, a trip for two to London (book) and a trip for four on a private jet in the lower 48 states (cough drops). Hopefully the wheels are greased and this means a bigger win is on its way – soon!

I have again “won” (note use of quotation marks!) three very low-level prizes in pursuit of cars: a t-shirt; a box of band-aids (very nice quality, I might add) and two packages of jelly beans.  I wasn’t even going to admit these as wins, but daughter Betsy insisted.  Hopefully the fourth time will be the charm and I’ll win something BIG!

Today Yum Brands notified me that I had won their daily contest, which means $180 in American Express gift cards is on its merry way to me.  The big prize is $20,000, and I’m still in the running.   Arrrgh ye ready to eat wonderfully-battered fish and chicken?

On Friday, February 19, 2010, Betsy was notified that she won Good Housekeeping’s “Aruba Vacation Sweepstakes”.  This prize includes airfare for two and five nights in the Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino’s Tradewinds Club; a massage for two; and either a kiteboarding or windsurfing lesson.  The Tradewinds Club has its own lounge (breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner and happy hour included!) and private beach.  Fun in the sun!

I won a $500 VISA gift card thanks to Bimbo Bakeries’ Ultimate WINter Experience, which is a free month’s worth of groceries.  The grand prize was a trip to Vancouver for the WINter Olympics, but this is certainly usable.  Thank you, Bimbo Bread bakers!

I won Fourth Prize in the above contest today.  Fourth Prize is a Dell Studio Hybrid desktop PC with 2 GB memory, 160 GB hard drive, Intel Pentium Dual-Core Processor T4200, Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic, SP1 (what is that?), 19″ Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor and Bamboo Sleeve (again, whaat?).  

Now perhaps we can cleanse our computer room of one of the dinosaur computers sitting there.