More Adventures & A Giveaway!

Flat K reading Flat Stanley at the
Columbus Metropolitan Library Main Branch

Flat K had quite the outing last weekend.  While she is sad we didn't get out this weekend, she perked up a little when I said she could do a giveaway on my blog.  Before we get to that, though, she also wanted to show you some of the places she visited in the city with our friend CT and me:

Columbus' Capital Building

Visiting COSI (Center of  Science & Industry)
Can you see Flat K?



Nationwide Arena - where the Columbus Blue Jackets play...
Among other events...



After running around the city for a while, we decided we'd head up to eat lunch and then attend a book signing by Ree Drummond, also know as The Pioneer Woman.  Have you heard of her?  If not, I highly recommend visiting her site... if you like cooking, photography, homeschooling, home & garden or general humor about ranch life and Charlie, her dog.  Oh... and definitely visit if you love a good love story.

When we arrived to the plaza where the book signing would be, we were a little too early to get into the restaurant so I suggested we stop in to the book store so I could pick up an extra book (or maybe more).  We were so glad we did!  Once we arrived we were informed we needed a "ticket" to get in on the book signing.  We grabbed one up (along with the books) and, feeling charged up, went to lunch. 




K enjoying some loaded potato chips at Champps.

Then the fun began.  We went back to the bookstore a little after noon, ready to wait.  The book signing didn't start until 2pm and we were in the "middle" of the ticket group.  Or so we thought.  When we arrived before lunch, they were handing out colored index cards telling us that we would be lining up in rainbow color order.  ROY G BV - and we were "G" (although I kept spacing it out and kept thinking we were blue - good thing CT was always quick to correct me).  When we returned after lunch we discovered they were in a new color scheme, having run out of the original cards already.  The next color group were flourescents.  As time went on, we realized that they ran out of those as well and were handing out numbered slips of white paper (or white index cards). 

I'm thinking that this book store wasn't quite prepared for the fan base Ree Drummond has. 

After waiting several hours, and enjoying some quite entertaining people watching (boy, were some women angry that they had a white card!), our color was called to line up on the carpet.  Off we went.




The "green card" line.

I have to admit, their color coding system worked pretty well.  But again, I don't think they quite expected the crowd that was milling about the rather small Barnes and Noble.  Seriously, there are bigger B&N stores in the area that could have probably handled the crowd a little better.
At this point in time, CT and  I were getting pretty excited.  Flat K?  Well, she was hanging on to the books I'd gotten to be signed.  Faster than I thought would happen, we reached The Tile.

My footsies on The Tile!

The tile is where SHE was.  Once you hit the tile you were Almost There!  At this point in time, one of the assistants was taking the books, opening them to the page she was going to sign, placing the post-it note we'd already used to let her know what we wanted her to sign (our name, etc.), and stacking them, open, back in our arms.  It was quite the juggling act.

And then... we were next!



The very excited gals in front of me...

Another assistant was there to take the books and ferry them over to Ree.  Then you would hand your camera off to ANOTHER assistant who would take the official photo:

Ree, Flat K & Me!

My goodness, she was down-to-earth, sweet and funny.  She seemed a tad overwhelmed... and mentioned during our brief conversation that Ohio wasn't quite what she expected.  I asked her what she had thought it would be like and she replied that it was very "midwestern" and she hadn't expected that, but she was loving it.  I, of course, said something that came out all garbled and NOT funny; she probably thought I was such a clod.  But she was sweet and smiled and then helped Flat K stand upright for the photo.  She even knew who Flat K was!  Well, she didn't know her name, but knew of the Flat Stanley project.  A few more tidbits exchanged and then I was shuffled off... CT next in line behind me.




CT & Ree

Oh my.  What a great day this was... such fun adventures with Flat K, and then to meet Ree and get her to sign my cookbook.  I had a blast!

Flat K made sure I didn't forget all of you.  She assured me that some of you out there would LOVE to have a book signed by The Pioneer Woman and thus... she is extending this opportunity to WIN a signed copy of Ree's cookbook:

OR Ree's newly released, true-life love story about she and her husband, nicknamed "Marlboro Man".

What do you have to do to enter this great giveaway?  Well, leave me a comment and answer this question:  If you only had 3 minutes to say something to a "famous" person you liked who would you pick to meet and what would you quickly say?  Famous is in quotes because it is a bit subjective, so I'll take anyone who has some sort of popularity outside of your hometown.  How's that? 

This giveaway is open until Thursday, March 3rd at midnight Eastern time. 

After that, I will be on a scrappin' retreat (YAY) so I will pick and post winners upon my return.  That's right, winners... one winner will receive the cook book and the other will receive the novel.

Shhhh... here's a sneaky peek about something goin' on while I'm on the retreat: a blog hop and another pretty cool giveaway (in my opinion) on the horizion.  Stay tuned!