Shameless Plea for Money

Alright, people, I am going to make this short. On May 4th, Naomi and I are going to trek four miles through beautiful, non-hunger-plagued, waterfront Kirkland to raise money as part of the CROP Walk. This is an annual event that raises money for the Church World Service. The money goes to help hungry people, poor people, refugees, people who have lost their homes in emergencies. 25% of the money stays here, to help hungry people on the Eastside, which for you out of towners is what they call those of us who look west across Lake Washington to Seattle.

The slogan of the walk, "We walk because they walk," refers to the fact that so many people in the world have to walk MILES every day (and not along the tony Kirkland waterfront) just to get clean(ish) water. Food, too. 

I am late to the fundraising party, so I am throwing it out to the universe (uh, you guys) to scrape some coin together to preserve my street cred at church. Which is not only a lame joke, it's really a joke, because I have no cred whatsoever at church. But if you have five or ten bucks burning a hole in your pocket, and your pocket also has a credit card, please consider following this link to my fundraising page, and doing a bit (a bit more than you unquestionably already do, I acknowledge) for the less fortunate. Thank you, and I will not bug you for money again until next year, if then.

Wicked Imp

Anyone who has a blog knows that getting comments is one of the things that makes keeping the blog worthwhile, because it makes it feel less like you just came up with a clever (uh, precious) title and posted some photos to your private diary, and more like you are actually in some pseudo-dialogue with people you like. For serious bloggers, this is how you actually get to know the people with whom you share your virtual community, and whatever in-kind attributes brought you together. For rank amateurs like myself, who have only readers that are already in their real-life social circle, it's just cool to hear from my friends. Cool! 

This introductory paragraph is not a shameless plea for comments (really), rather a way to differentiate my view of (dearly beloved) blog commenters from the whole other related, yet vastly different world of people who will comment on Anything and Everything they come across on the web. These people are the subject of a loving taxonomy in a recent article on Slate, Laughing Baby vs. the YouTube Commenters. It is a funny article, but only if you have ever whiled away the minutes (OK, hours) checking out what people have to say about the things they while away their hours on, online. 

I am not going anywhere with that last paragraph either, except that just two days after watching the cute Swedish baby busting his little baby gut (bling! dong!), I found myself filming a more local specimen who has unfortunately discovered that when she spits her food all over me, I make a funny face. Now I must train myself to give no reaction whatsoever to food spitting, because she is enjoying this game way too much. Anyway, here's our contribution to the genre. If I just get one "Better than Cats" comment, I'll be happy.

Tewtally Awesome

Yesterday an old friend from high school that I haven't spoken with, electronically or otherwise, in 12 years or so, sent me this:

Awesome! He wasn't in the picture- I think he had to work or something. But there are the rest of us, in all our eighties hair glory. My hair is so big in this picture that it is difficult to see poor Art, behind me. It's like his chin never existed.

If you are a reader of this blog and also happen to be a member of this photogenic group, and for some reason object to this fantastically bitchin' photo being displayed here, tell me and I will take it down. But not gladly. And now, I'm going to go listen to some OMD.