A Wonderful Way to Celebrate Earth Day!

I could devour books and never be satiated. Even though they are not made of chocolate or covered in marshmallows and caramel, they are fodder for my soul, escape from my reality, Red Bull for my brain. Books feed me in ways that sugar never can. And you know how much I love me some sugar.

Ever since I discovered Barefoot Books I have coveted most everything in the catalog. Lucky for me my dad has showered the boys with amazing titles from the collection. You can read more about my love affair with these marvelous books here. The latest book I have been reading to Bird and Deal is called The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales. The book is chock full of stories, snippets about the countries from which the stories hail, eco tips, and activities to accompany each tale. A story, geography lesson, and craft project or recipe in each chapter! You know that is totally my cup of tea.

The book takes us a fantastic trip around the world with a focus on different cultures' perspective on how to achieve harmony with the earth. We have read folk tales from Australia, India, Wales, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, and Bali. Bird is so keen on this trip around the globe because he attends an international studies school, where everything in the curriculum centers on global insights. He and Deal cannot wait to get their passports stamped with the seals of the many countries we read about (however, it is highly unlikely that they'll be heading to Kazakhstan or Nigeria...Wales and Australia are shoe-ins...one day).

So here's the scoop. You too can get your hands on this book just in time for Earth Day on April 22! What's even better is that Barefoot Books has partnered with Eco-Libris to plant a tree for each copy of Earth Tales sold. Is there a better way to help the planet and a young mind at the same time? And I assure you, you will learn a thing or two and have a rejuvenated awe for our planet along the way. Here's the link to order this fine anthology of earth tales.

You might think reading Dirt & Noise gets you nothing, but I'm here to squash that right this minute. You can get 10% off your online purchase through April 30, 2009 when you simply enter the code SCETALES at check out. Now don't say I never gave you anything (weekly hangover excluded).

And fret not, my friends. I also have one book to give away to a lucky reader on April 10!

Here are the deets:
Leave me a comment answering the following questions. You get an extra entry for tweeting this giveaway and yet another one for posting about it. Just leave me a link to the tweet and the post.

Go here and tell me what Barefoot Book(s) you would like to add to your book shelf.

2. What are you doing to conserve our resources?

5:00 Fridays

I'm mixing things up in a whole new way this week. I'm hosting Dirt & Noise's first ever 5:00 Fridays giveaway! Woo hoo! Yeehaw! Yowza! Please, people, try to contain your excitement. It's not even 5:00 yet.

As my regulars know (Warning, sidebar coming: Hey, bars have regulars, and so do I! Cool, eh?), I have a special affinity for Dirty Sue. Dirty Sue has changed my cocktail life. Let's just say I've come an awfully long way from the Virginia Gentleman bourbon mixed with ginger ale and occasional white zinfandel I drank college. Blech. Blech. Gag. I have featured Dirty Sue before, and continue to love the good ole Dirty & Noisy martini.

Dirty Sue, for those folks who aren't regulars...yet, is pure and fine olive juice. Just the juice. I use it in the obvious dirty martini. I also add a splash to my bloody mary (shhh...it's my secret ingredient, along with just a tish of dill pickle juice). The other night I even added Dirty Sue to my wok. Gasp! I did. Really. I sliced up some chicken sausage, tossed in diced fresh garlic, chopped red onions, slivers of red peppers, and pitted black olives. Splash of Dirty Sue, dribble of chicken broth, and voila! Dinner. Splendid with a cucumber salad and pita bread to sop up the divine sauce. As usual, I'm digressing. And now I'm hungry.

So on to today's giveaway...

2, count 'em 2, bottles of Dirty Sue and a Dirty Sue T-shirt! Mac Daddy and I have T-shirts, and trust me, they are way awesome. Mine red one is particularly kicky and make my boobs look fantastic.

All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me which Dirty Sue recipe is going to be your new favorite. I'll let random.org do the rest. The winner will be announced on next week's 5:00 Fridays post. So go ahead, check it out. Pass it on. Tweet it. Facebook it. What? You don't tweet or use friend as a verb? Well then, we gotta talk. But not today. I have drinks to shake.

And if you don't want to roll the dice, go here to buy your own Dirty Sue. Also, Amazon.com over there in my sidebar has a great deal on four bottles. Stock up, friends.

And now, a special deal for Dirt & Noise readers only: If anyone wants to order six or 12 bottles, contact Eric at et1969@mac.com, mention Dirt & Noise for a spectacularly deep discount.

Bartenders love it. I love it. What more do you need? And for the record, I'm not getting paid for this giveaway. I just happen to love the stuff and want to share the goods with my crew.

Cheers to your favorite Dirty Sue recipe! Mwah!

Free Stuff for Everyone

I have discovered a few things I'd like to share with you. I love a bargain and don't part easily with a buck under the best of circumstances, though Mac Daddy might beg to differ. These days a buck doesn't stretch too far unless you want a Golden Arches double cheeseburger or some Made in China lead laden toy trucks from the One Spot. I have some nifty little things that are worth that hard earned buck. And...

Drum roll, please...

This time my little ol' opinions come with free giveaways! I have a Build-A-Bear Workshop Bear and $10 gift certificate and a Spanish music CD for kids for one ever-so-lucky reader. That reader could be YOU. All you have to do is go to the Build-A-Bear Workshop website and tell me what outfit the child in your life would adore. Make sure you leave your email address so I can notify you if you win. I'll choose the winner at random and mail in time for the goodies to perch under your tree. And if you are so inclined, I can donate the bear in your name instead. So go ahead, what are you waiting for, folks?

Every Kid Deserves a Bear Hug
Build-A-Bear Workshop is Deal's Happy Place. We celebrated his third birthday there. He is a boy who digs his teddy bear after all. Wow. The staff was amazing. I wonder what they pump into the air there to be so perky and, well, happy. I mean, their job does entail working with little kids (and their parents) all day. The experience was postively fabulous for kids and adults alike. Granted, my boys did choose the ugliest outfits in the joint, despite my futile attempts to sway them towards something cute. They love playing with those little bears, regardless how fugly the outfits are. Deal loves that he even chose a heart for his bear and got to stuff it. Build-A-Bear Workshop is a fun outing, whether it's on your own or for a birthday. Sure beats getting a bunch of Oriental Trading plastic choking hazard crap in a goody bag.

Singin' En Espanol
I don't even speak Spanish but the little Lango Adventure Con Cosmo CD will have you tapping your toes and singing along in words you don't understand (unless of course you do understand Spanish). The songs are lively and fun and don't sound like anything a certain purple dinosaur might belt out. Bird learns German and Japanese in kindergarten, yet he has no problem picking up the lyrics when he hears this CD. Nevermind that neither of us has any idea what we're saying.

Digital Storytime
Bird and Deal can eat up books. When we travel we heft around a mini library of books for the airport, the plane, the hotel, the restaurants. The books, along with the laptop and various other necessities one brings along when traveling with kids, are enough to made a chiropracter very rich. Digital stories enter stage left. MobiStories are virtual books that we can download right to our laptop. There are a variety of stories all organized by age group. I was pleasantly surprised by the range of international stories and folk tales. This is no run-of-the-mill video. This is a virtual book with flipping pages and all. Still motion with words, read along text, and music. This is not a video. It's convenient for travel, and there are no ripped pages to tape up when your kids fight over who gets to turn the page. I can't see MobiStories replacing real books in my house, but they certainly have a purpose considering all the traveling we do. But at bed time, nothing beats the sound of turning pages and the feel of a book to lull the little ones to sleep. Anywa, try it out yourself. You can download up to $10.00 for free. I said FREE. Just go to mobistories.com, select a book, and enter code BSM187A at check out. Leave me a comment telling me what you think.

So that does it for my little review and giveaway. Pass this on, unless you want to be greedy and keep your chance of winning pretty good. I'll use random.org to choose a winner on Friday, December 12. You have until midnight December 11 to respond.

Have a beary great day!