Today in My History

2000:  High Stepping
2001:  In the Arms of the Angel
2002:  Dubya, Rudy and Jed
2003:  Ghosts
2004:  Off and Running
2005:  Hit Me with a Meme
2006: 'Tis the Season
2007:  The Poopiest Puppy Ever
2008: Hope and Disappointment
2009:  The Return of Higgins

BITTER HACK
Mauritius

Books Read in 2010
 Updated: 10/17
"Swimsuit"

Recipes for Cousins Day Drinks
(updated 3/17/10)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

3 November 2010

Don't want to make a long-term commitment to help a child in another country, or spend a lot of money for a big Christmas basket for a needy family?   Do you have $2 to bring a smile to the face of a child?  Here's a Compassion project I just learned about.

We’d like to make a way to send hundreds and thousands of words of encouragement to kids who really need them in this season of Thanksgiving.

That’s where YOU come in!

(Well you, DaySpring, and Compassion International. From now through November 29th (the Monday after Thanksgiving) Studio DaySpring will be hosting a Christmas Card Drive for the children of Ecuador.)

You design the card, Compassion will translate it, DaySpring will print it, and a team from both organizations will travel to Ecuador to deliver it in person in time for Christmas!

Four student projects with over 100 unsponsored kids are looking forward to hearing from YOU!

Here’s how it works:

1. Click here to go to the Studio DaySpring Christmas Card Drive page.
2. Design a card for a super special kid in Ecuador just dying to hear from YOU (for as little as $1.99).
3. Tell them what makes them so worth celebrating this Christmas season.
4. Include a photo of you and your family and a little bit about you so they know who the card’s coming from – kids LOVE photos!
5. Bear in mind we’ll need some room on the card to translate your message into Spanish.
6. Add to Cart and Voila – you’ve just created a Christmas message that will be hand delivered from you to a child in Ecuador. Our team will be there December 11-16.

Your words will nourish no matter whose hands your card finds its way home to. You don’t have to know a child to impact their life.

$2.  What do you have to lose?  No long-term commitment, but a message to a kid in Ecuador that somebody in the United States is thinking about him or her and wishing him/her well on Christmas Day.   The design process is very simple (though time consuming, at least on my computer).  When I had made a card I was happy with, I had five of them sent.  $10 and I have sent cards to five children who might not otherwise get anything at all on Christmas.

Check it out and see what you think.

I got a lot done before 9 a.m. this morning.  I went and voted at the crack of dawn...I was #34, which bodes well for voting in Davis.  I've gone much later in the day for previous elections and been in the teens as far as voters.  I hope that the results of the election, especially here in California, aren't depressing.

Then I went to drop off the couch cushions at the Upholsterer's.  The shop was closed, so I picked up breakfast at Jack in the Box and got back just about the time they were opening up.  I told the guy I was easy to please and wanted the strongest, cheapest fabric choices he had.  I decided on this...

Which has all the fabric colors of the couch in it, though not at all the plaid that the couch is.  I figured that if I get dog beds to put on the couch frame and keep the cushions away from the dogs unless we actually want to sit on the couch, maybe I can keep from having them be torn up again.  It ain't gonna be cheap:  $300 for the two cushions, one of which has to be recovered, and one completely re-made.

I suppose I learned a lesson the hard (expensive) way.

As I watch the election results begin to trickle in, as I write this, I wonder if the voters of this country are going to do the same thing...or if we have already done it.  At the moment, it feels like a crapshoot.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Everybody and his dog voted here in Davis.

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