The Early Bird Special, and a Giveaway

It's Monday at 6:30 a.m., and I have a batch of cupcakes in the oven, ingredients laid out for a hot appetizer to be taken to a friend's house later today, the laundry sorted and ready to go down the 736478364926489 stairs to the basement, Sir packed up and bundled into his car with a bag lunch and hot coffee for his trip a few hours down the road to teach a class, and all the dishes done.

WHO AM I?

I know.

I'm the girl who stubbornly believed there should be only one 6:30 in a day, and it would NOT be the early one; the girl who stumbled through the mornings of her teaching, working and childraising years awakening  this early and functioning, but with neither a clear head nor a willing heart.  I'm the girl who would calculate exactly what time I had to be somewhere and how many minutes it would take to get ready, including (gasp) putting my makeup on in the car while driving, in order to determine down to the last possible SECOND how long I could stay in bed.  The girl who stayed up till 2 a.m. watching movies and catching up the ironing and reading thick, irresistible books.

And then I married a soldier.

A soldier who believes that the best part of his day is arriving at the gym at 5:10 a.m., and then coming home to a hot, huge breakfast at 6:42 a.m.  (We are nothing if not precise around here.) 

I die.

A soldier who is nodding off on the couch by 8ish p.m. but who will not surrender his pride and actually go to bed until 9 p.m. 

NINE P.M.  About the time I'm starting to feel creative, energetic and productive.

I struggled with this and still do because how do you change your entire lifetime body clock for about two years, but since I can't pull Sir over to the dark side (the Army frowns on late sleepers,)  he's slowly nudging my owlish tendencies toward the lark side.  Last night I was tucked in the flannel sheets at 8:37 p.m.  The thick, irresistible books I adore are very, very gradually being replaced by a 6-oz Kindle (the movers and packers are going to like me a lot this summer) and a tiny flashlight; it's a drowsy paradise with  the end result being that waking up at 5 is actually not that hard anymore. 

(WHO AM I?)

So, warbles the disgustingly chipper early riser, it's a perfect morning for a giveaway!  In my last post I mentioned my little love affair with Swiss and German paring knives.  (My true love affair is with French chocolate tortes and raspberry linzer cookies, but I can't send you those.)  I visited our little local gourmet shop last week and picked up a few of these handy little fellas to share with y'all.

Awful photo.  What we have here is a better photo that I actually borrowed from http://www.victorinox.com/.

I have no idea if I'm allowed to do that.  I'm so incredibly proud of myself for figuring out how. 

ANYWAY, the saleslady called this a "tomaten knife" - obv. a tomato knife.  I use mine for absolutely everything, though ironically not for apples, because I prefer a non-serrated blade for apples.  It and its counterpart, my little paring knife, are hands down the most used tools in my kitchen. 

So today, I'm giving one of these brand new knives away.  All you have to do is leave a comment below.  I will use random.org to choose a winner on Thursday this week, and your sweet Victorinox will be on its way to you. 

Because this post is so hurriedly and poorly written, I'm not going to offer bonus entries by twitter and facebook, although that will come with the next giveaway, (next week!) which will be a book I was asked to review.  Fun, fun!

Good luck!  Winner will be announced Thursday, but probably not at 6:30 a.m.

I think I'm going back to bed.