The bridesmaid becomes the bride

Congratulations to Tim A. or Princeton, NJ for winning the most recent message contest. You all will remember how Tim was runner-up the at the end of first round and his honorable mention. This time, Tim outclassed the field by using the word STAMPEDE in gerund form and in a context that was seamless. The winning message.....

"Hello there, I was calling to return your message and even though you aren't answering I hope there aren't children STAMPEDING all around you." -Tim A.

A surprise phone call and an even better message

The word of the week was DETERIORATE. Before I reveal the winner and their message, I have noticed a dropoff in participation rate of those who have called and left messages when I first began the contest. Those who are experiencing the challenge for the first time are nearly always game to try and leave great messages, or the attempts are hilarious themselves. So a charge to those who have tapered in their enthusiasm to forge on and continue. It's a little brain stretching and improvising that provides much happiness and humor in my day.

Our winner is Emily D. formerly of Berkeley, Santa Barbara and now Boulder, CO. She was in my advising group during my first three years at HRS and, like many of the class of 2001, has managed to keep in contact and move from student to peer. Here is the winning message:

"Hey Chen, I'm calling to chat, as I have appointed you my lifetime advisor. I was wondering if you had any pearls of wisdom on hot to help me manage my money after college before I deteriorate my funds." -- Emily D. (Sept. 2006)

A note on how long a word stays as "the word". When I listen to the messages there are times when I hear one and it simply strikes me as "the one" and at that point, I'll change to a new word. Usually, it takes about a week for "the one" to reveal itself, but for deteriorate, it was about two weeks. I think I have a winner on the first day with the newest word. You'll find out soon enough.

A bigger project

After the success of the flowerboxes from this summer, I decided that it was time to tackle the bookcases that I had been thinking about building in the front room, which I now use as both my office and what, in the olden days, was called a drawing room. For those of you who have been to my home, you'll remember that there was a decorative non-working fireplace against one of the walls. At first I was going to take the fireplace out, but then decided to build AROUND the fireplace. I thought it would breakup the monotony of a wall of shelves. Here's the result:

Like I said last year when I installed the french doors, moulding and trim hide all mistakes and "non-traditional" methods. I'll now add a fresh coat of paint to that list.