Free Stuff! Mighty Girl Xbox Giveaway

Hello. Would you like a free Xbox? Yes, I thought you might.

I’m partnering with Xbox to do a giveaway around the theme of “staycations.” The idea is that we should stop waiting for some distant day when we have the time and money to “get away,” and start having fun now, right where we are. By playing video games, for example. Up for grabs is two packages for two winners. It’s $500 worth of good stuff:

-An Xbox console
-Three Family Fun Games
-A Gold Subscription to Xbox for a year

For more about the rules, read the italicized bits at the bottom of this post, but the gist is this: Leave a comment about your plan for your perfect day at home, and you’ll be entered to win. Here’s mine:

Snacks and Chick Flicks that Don’t Suck

The best days are days that don’t require pants. This is why I became a writer.

My perfect day at home is all about pajamas, movies, and snacks. As a woman, I prefer movies with women in them, and I particularly enjoy it when those women have speaking roles. (Hollywood, take note! Female audiences are fickle.) If you have a free day, allow me to lay out your gluttonous movie fest:

election-movie-poster

Breakfast with a plucky Reese Witherspoon. It’s hard to resist a smart movie about high school politics where Ferris Bueller plays the teacher. This movie pairs well with bite-sized waffles.

He_Loves_Me_He_Loves_Me_Not

Bacon and He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not. It’s in French, so get to it early while your synapses are still firing. Amelie aside, this is my favorite Audrey Tatou movie. I would prefer you not know anything else about it before you watch it. Please obtain a copy. And some bacon.

Vanya_on_42nd_Street_film

Make some hot cocoa with tiny marshmallows and settle in for a play. I’ll watch anything with Julianne Moore; the woman has excellent taste in scripts. (We’re all just going to pretend Safe never happened.) The Vanya on 42nd St. plot synopsis explains it all: “New York actors rehearse Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” in a rundown theater.” It is arty.

yes

Speaking of arty, have a little olive oil popcorn with your Parker Posey. I love House of Yes for its stilted, whip-smart dialogue. Plus, Tori Spelling in surprising turn as “not bad at playing that guy’s girlfriend.”

secretary

Olive oil popcorn and Maggie Gyllenhaal in heat. If you haven’t seen it, I don’t want to ruin it — though the movie poster pretty much says it all. Let’s just say Secretary is about power dynamics.

kicking_and_screaming

Sundae bar with fresh whipped cream, spicy hot caramel sauce, and slivered almonds, plus Kicking and Screaming. We’ve talked about this before. Noah Baumbach? Call me.

That’s my ultimate day at home. I’m beginning to wonder why I haven’t made this happen yet. Now your turn! Outline your day in comments, or tell me what would make your movie-day lineup if you were plotting a day like mine.

But wait! This is the contest fine print. Here’s how the giveaway works: You must be 18 or over to enter and live in the U.S. I’ll pick two commenters as potential winners (to be verified by ePrize). Please include your perfect day at home in your comment, and multiple entries will be disqualified. Comments will be open until tomorrow December 9, 2009 at 9 p.m. Eastern. Winners will be chosen randomly using Random.org, and announced on Friday, December 11. Good luck! Read the official rules here

Food Fight Footage

Margaret Stewart recorded the entire fight, including a mini-interview with me beforehand.

Tarps made matters scary slippery, so after some initial bailing, we all began to move like cream-covered zombies. Because slow and careful food fights make for good fun but sleepy viewing, may I suggest you forward to 4:35 when I finally realized that Margaret had been avoiding the mess by using her technology as a shield. Take that, Stewart.

You know Intel sponsored this, right? Yeah, I thought so.

Do You Like to Throw Things at People?

Hello. You know how I have “participate in a giant food fight” on my life list? Well, let’s do that on Saturday. Shall we?

If you will be near San Francisco between 3-4 p.m., and you should be, I’m gathering a few people for a Cool Whip fight. You should come, because you are fun. I can feel it! Also? When is this going to happen again, right? I know.

Please send me a note (maggie at mightygirl dotcom) with “rsvp” in the subject header, and I’ll send you details. When you arrive, I will say hello, and throw something at you. I have always wanted to do that.

I’m doing this because Intel is sponsoring my Mighty Life List over the next few months, and this is on it. They’re the reason I got my act together to actually organize it. Thanks for the motivation, Intel.

Face Facts

Two things more people should know about their faces:

1. If you, or your kid has had a cold for a few days, apply some Burt’s Bees Beeswax lipbalm to the nose and upper lip. It protects the skin that’s been chapped from all that nose blowing, and the peppermint in it facilitates a blissful cooling sensation.

2. Ladies, if the skin on your upper lip seems to be darkening, it could be hormones. OR could it be that you’ve been using SPF makeup every single day for a year or so, but have neglected to put any on your upper lip.

It’s a fact!

Mighty Girl Feelings Book and Contest

partyperfectbook

The gorgeous personalized children’s book above is by Sarah of Party Perfect. She used objects familiar to her baby to help teach first words. Ever since I saw it, I’ve been thinking about how nice it would be to make a photo book specifically for Hank.

I wanted an idea that would have the maximum impact if it was personalized. Because Hank seems intrigued by feelings lately, I decided to go with that. I’d really like him to learn early on how to identify his emotions and then do something constructive with them, and he already loves to talk about how his toys are “so happy” or “really cross” (thanks Thomas the Tank Engine).

I love the end result. Here are some examples of what I put together:

happy

sad

brave

hurt

unsure

Shutterfly bought some ads on Mighty Girl, and they let me try their photobook service to lay out my book and print it. It actually ended up taking more time to choose the photos than to make the book. If you’d like to try it yourself, Shutterfly is offering codes to twelve Mighty Girl readers to let them print books for free. You can enter the drawing by leaving a comment about what you’d like to make.

The contest will run through August 24, and I’ll announce winners here. One entry per person please, I’ll have to delete duplicates for fairness. Good luck!


http://static.fmpub.net/zone/2420

Twitter as it Relates to This Internet Website

twitter

Hello. Do you know I’m on Twitter? If not, you should follow me here. I am not noisy.

Also, if you use Twitter to keep up with your favorite sites, and you’d like to know when I’ve posted here, on Mighty Goods, or elsewhere, you should follow me here too.

The first account is mostly for original content and the occasional post of which I am very proud (I’ve sent you my clippings, Mrs. Tenenbaum!), the second is an automatic feed I just set up to update when I’ve posted.

In conclusion, follow me, my friends. I will not lead you astray.