Welcome to our RAFFLE header!

Just to really HAMMER IT HOME, we are selling raffle tickets. Please click on the header for the details.

Our hope is that the colourful header above will mesmerize you, much like the Amazing Kreskin could make people cluck like chickens (even now he is reading your mind!), and you'll be unable to NOT click on it and send 50¢ for a raffle ticket.

NOTE: No chickens will be harmed in the draw, despite how tasty they are. And chicken IS tasty. Indeed it is. Very tasty.

Fantasies of Kathie Lee Gifford

There's an excellent blog called Dooce written by Heather B. Armstrong. I'll link to it at the END of this article, because she's a great writer and if I were you, I'd go over there the first link I get and maybe never make it back here.

Anyway, Heather B. Armstrong is pretty famous in the blogging world. As part and parcel of that fame, she gets invited onto talk shows to talk about how she blogs for a living. About a month or two ago, she was interviewed on whatever show Kathie Lee Gifford is on in the morning.

You can probably tell I'm not a big Kathie Lee fan otherwise I'd know her show's name. Personally, I think she's kind of fake, uptight and NOT a singer that holds any appeal to me (she does sing, right?) Anyway, KL was interviewing Heather B. Armstrong about blogging, and in the interview KL admits she's afraid of computers and rarely or never uses one. Quelle lame!

So in my fantasy, this blog makes the Jer-Bear and I famous. And somehow, through what will have to be a weird series of coincidences and unrelated conversations, our future publicist gets us on KL's lame-ass show. And in the interview - which she's yet again totally unprepared for, thereby completely losing it when she finds out the purpose of our blog is to tell the story of how we're raising money for our luxury Bayliner 300 - she tries to drill into our psyche and guilt us about starving kids, the homeless, world poverty and countries that can't make it to the Olympics and challenges us by saying "WHY are you NOT donating to a more worthy cause?!?"....

And I tell her to get stuffed.

Read some of Heather's blog posts and then watch this.

Early Boating Memories: Jer-Bear Guest Post

"I was 3 or 4 when i drove a boat for the first time. It was my dad's boat, The Norsky. He was fishing at Point No Point after work and decided to take me with. The one thing I remember is him taking the wheel and saying "Watch out for the rocks" Oops, sorry Pa!!

As I got older, I started going after much bigger boats. Grandpa Ed had an old Tollycraft. I think it was about 25 or 28ft. It was a beautiful boat and Grandpa Ed and Grandpa Al both took care of it very well. Every time we would go to Astoria to visit, we could always count on a Sturgeon trip! Sometimes the fishing was slow and it was easier to catch bait in the bait bucket! One slow day when I was 8, Grandpa Al taught me to tie my first knot, a Bowline. I have never forgotten that day nor the knot.

The older I got, the more I was taught. My favorite lessons were the driving lessons. There is nothing like driving a boat. The sound and sight of water spraying out from the sides of the boat. Not to mention the look and sound of the water at the stern while you are cruising. Indescribable.

Then Grandpa Ed got the Top Gun! Now there was a boat! Another Tolly, but this time 36' with twin 502 cubic inch, fuel injected engines. Lots and lots of good times and unforgettable memories on the Top Gun. Fishing with both Grandfathers and my Pa, all in the same trip. The perfect guys fishing trip. Learning to pilot the boat into the boathouse. What a tight squeeze, but I did it twice and without damage! And who can forget the annual prepping of the Top Gun for the Regatta and winning first place? Truly memories that will never be forgotten.

Grandpa Al, Grandpa Ed, may you rest in peace. And Pa, many more good times to come!"

by Jer-Bear

Raffle update

To-date we have sold 0 raffle tickets.

That's okay, don't feel guilty. We know this is a building kind of thing, and it might seem fly-by-nighty, but you'll only feel comfortable mailing us 50¢ once you get to know us better. So just keep reading this blog and eventually you'll realize what a DEAL winning $500 for 50¢ is.

Going to the top

Last week I tracked down Bayliner's parent company. They are called Brunswick Corporation. Which is fate, because in my day job we once worked with a New Brunswick, Canada company, so there's a link!

Anyway, I wrote to both of them–corporate AND the boating division–expressing our passion for the Bayliner 300 and directing them to this blog. Why shouldn't they advertise on a site that is THIS PASSIONATE about their product, right?

And then I realized I wasn't sure I remembered to put our return address on anything but the outer envelope. Sigh.

So I found their PR dude online and e-mailed him. This was on Saturday. So far no e-mail beating down my gmail account.

No worries, though. Have you ever seen The Shawshank Redemption? I will turn this into a full blown letter writing campaign, wherein I finally break down their emotional and psychological barriers and get them to beg US to advertise on this blog.

However, I need lots of people to read this, so if you are reading now and love boating, send a link to this blog to your friends. It would be great to raise funds by NOT having to:

1) Sell our home, vehicles and other belongings
2) Sell our children
3) Steal - unless you've got a great idea on how NOT to get caught

Ticket Sales & Rocking Mom's World!

We checked our post office box for raffle purchases. Here's what happened:



So no news there, but we did go to my mom's to help out with yard work.

When my dad passed away 2.5 years ago, my brother and I thought we'd be able to talk her into moving out of the big, almost 50-year-old home that needed many repairs to a lovely, safe condo. No luck. So from time to time Jer-Bear, the girls and I help out with a project. One time it was house-painting, another cleaning out the shed (that's ongoing, actually) and today it was landscaping.

Here's Jer-Bear starting around 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning:



We finished at 2:30 p.m. Check out the full project at our Flickr account

The catalyst

I think Jer-Bear's passion for this boat has roots in his youth. He went boating an awful lot with his grandpa Ed. I got to meet grandpa Ed for the first time Christmas of 2007. Up til then, I'd only seen him on Jer-Bear's screensaver - both of them laughing and flipping off the photographer! I love that photo.

Shortly after the holidays, grandpa Ed became very sick. Cancer, among other health issues. Jer-Bear took this very hard. He'd told me, in his own way over a few different conversations, that his grandpa Ed was one of the most important and influential people in his life. Many of Jer-Bear's grandpa Ed stories involved boating and fishing. They did that a lot together.

Grandpa Ed finally passed almost three weeks ago. Two weeks ago, heading back from the funeral in Oregon, we stopped at a boat center and had a look around. The Bayliner 300 hooked us from the second we stepped onto her. It has been the catalyst for Jer-Bear's new look on life.

Everyone should have a catalyst that moves them onto a better path (if they need it). Don't you think?

Sell porn!?!

I realized I've posted about our awesome raffle (check out our post under "raffle") and told you about our rejected circus freak idea, but haven't really dug into our legit ideas.

So here they are:

1) Win the lottery
2) Sell stuff on Ebay
3) Something involving the internet and making money (which turned out to be our raffle idea)

We never used to buy lottery tickets and have just started. So right away the odds are in our favor!

Jer-Bear put his bow on Ebay. That's a huge move for him, because I know he wanted to bow hunt up here for Canadian deer. I don't think it has any bids yet.

We didn't know what we'd do on the internet. Originally Jer-Bear just though we'd get people to send us 50¢. Then he refined it with the raffle idea.

Here are some rejected internet ideas:

- Sell porn
- Sell ideas on how to save gas
- Sell our children

Have you got any ideas? Please comment.