Twilight...Just Say No

This is for my cousin and friend, both of whom made valiant yet vain attempts to recruit me into their Twilight book cult. Love the "vam...pires...dying of shame." I do remember 'cuz saying something to that affect at some time, but I think it was early on (maybe after Twilight), before she was fully indoctrinated into the fold. (Click on the comic to access a larger, more legible copy.)


The brilliant artist responsible for this witty masterpiece is Lucy Knisley. I stumbled across her site by pure chance, and ended up spending a couple hours pouring over her site and ArtJournal. Even the simple journal sketches which she had in her recent Halloween post were great.

An equally hilarious and awesome book summary for Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga can be found on Lucy's ArtJournal page.

Make A Difference With Just A Click

Today I received an email from The Humane Society which asked for my vote in the Pepsi Refresh Project. I was completely in the dark about the project, but I clicked on the link to vote, and after visiting the site and reading more about their efforts, I felt I had to share it with you guys.

Basically, Pepsi is giving away grants to fund great ideas which will have a positive impact in our communities. Anyone can submit an idea, individuals, businesses and non-profits. Pepsi is accepting 1,000 ideas every month. Each month applications are accepted from the 1st to the 15th or until such time that they receive 1,000 ideas. They have $5K, $25K, $50K, and $250K grants. The $5K, $25K, and $50K grants will each have up to 10 awardees per month. The $250K will have up to 2 awardees. Submitted ideas have been broken down by categories, including Health, The Planet, Education and many more. You can check out the current leaders in each category, shuffle the list and view random entries, or view those that are near you.

Visit the site and either submit an idea of your own or vote for a worthy candidate. If you love animals vote for The Humane Society submission, or select one of the other worthy candidates. I loved Comfort4canines which was submitted by a 13-year old girl looking to provide a little TLC to shelter dogs ($5K category), and also loved Butterfly Kisses Playgroup, a submission from the mother of a special needs child looking to build a facility with playground equipment especially designed for handicapped children ($50K category). You can vote for up to 10 of your favorite ideas every day, so spread the wealth.

Register and vote! One click of your mouse can bring a worthy idea that much closer to reality.

Update: Yipee! Each one of the three candidates for which I was voting (listed above) won their grant! Thanks to all those friends who took the time to vote for my favorites.

The Great Cookie Challenge

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! (Think Rocky theme music)

“Trying hard now
it's so hard now
trying hard now

Getting strong now
won't be long now
getting strong now

Gonna fly now
flying high now
gonna fly, fly, fly...”

This song popped into my head, as soon as I started thinking about the challenge before me. A la Rocky, I will start training as of this weekend. Unlike Rocky, my training regime will not involve jump ropes or trying to catch a chicken, but instead cooking...baking to be exact. You see, my friend came up with the great idea of planning a holiday cookie swap at work. I have signed up for said cookie swap, in spite of the fact that I cannot cook...or bake...or broil...or steam. You get the idea. Cooking, in whatever form, is a foreign concept to me. Since participation requires homemade goodies, I could skip the cookie swap altogether, but the list of cookies sounds too darn good to pass up. The current list includes Fudge Ecstasies (a chocolate lover’s dream), Pecan Tassies, Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Peppermint Filling (yum), Bittersweet Chocolate Biscotti, and Pepper Jelly-Cornmeal Cups.

In short, in an effort to master the heretofore foreign art of baking, my training will entail baking my selected cookie recipe every weekend from now ‘til December. Said training will not culminate with a triumphant run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, instead it will culminate in my kitchen, when I bake a perfect (or at least darn good) batch of cookies. If all is a success, I might have to take a victory lap after all...I’ll go around my block, my arms raised in victory (oven mitts in hand, of course) while the cookies are cooling.

P.S. Check back in early December. If I K.O. the cookie challenge, I'll post my cookie recipe and a picture of the finished product.

Election 2010

Memories, Fears and ABC World News

I recently tuned in to an ABC World News segment that Diane Sawyer was doing with Maria Shriver on Alzheimer's. Maria Shriver, the First Lady of California, is a long-time advocate for families touched by Alzheimer's and is passionately involved in trying to raise both awareness and funding to help fight this dreaded disease.

I was compelled to watch the segment by memories of my mother. Compelled by a sense of camraderie with the daily struggles and heartache of the caregivers which they were covering, as well as a curiosity rooted in fear. It is a fear borne of the memories of what my mom had to endure during the last six months of her life. My mom did not have Alzheimer's, she suffered a cranial hemmorhage which caused her memory loss, as well as the onset of advanced vascular dementia. Whether Alzheimer's or dementia, seeing someone you adore, scared, lost, confused - and in moments of lucidity - heartbroken, is enough to break your own heart and make you fearful all at once. As always, it's the unknown which is the scariest. Will you grow old gracefully? Will you have creaky bones and bad eyes, but still be all there? Or will history repeat itself, and your greatest fears become reality?

The news segment included a moving video piece entitled "The Life of a Caregiver." The piece included an elderly man whose wife is living in a nursing home and suffering with Alzheimer's. Due to the disease, the wife had begun to forget him, so he began laying by her side in bed whenever he'd visit. To her doctor's amazement, she began to remember him. Watching this lovely old gentleman lying by his wife, singing her a love song, was touching beyond words. "I love you" he told her as he caressed her face, and she responded in kind. Seeing how his love still managed to reach her, even across the distance of the lagoon created by the disease, made me cry. They say 'love conquers all'. In this case, it's more than a cliche.

The report went on to state that Alzheimer's affects more than five million people in the US, disproportionately more women, and if things remain the same, as many as 16 million families will be affected by the disease by 2050. A fact that ensures that we will be touched by Alzheimer's, whether directly or indirectly, in our lifetime.

What can you or I do? We can support, through donations or advocacy, organizations like the Alzheimer's Association; or as Maria Shriver stressed "support a larger, more centralized effort in Alzheimer's research." Maria cited comparisons to research funding for other leading diseases: $6 billion for cancer, $5 billion for heart disease and only $500 million for Alzheimer's. Lastly, prevention is the ideal. A goal we can contribute towards in the way we lead our daily lives, through a healthy diet and exercise.

On This Day in 1986...Magic

On October 25, 1986, my New York Mets played and won (the game was actually won in the wee hours of the 26th) Game 6 of the World Series to force a Game 7.

The Boston Red Sox had taken an early lead in the game, but the Mets managed to tie it up to bring it to extra innings. It was the bottom of the 10th, down by 2 runs and down to their final out, when the Mets staged a comeback for the record books, as one hitter after the next rallied to get on base. First it was Gary Carter, then Kevin Mitchell, followed by Ray Knight. Mookie Wilson was at bat with a 2-2 count, when a wild pitch slipped past the catcher and allowed the runner on third base (Mitchell) to score the tying run. With the crowd going wild, Wilson hits a slow ground ball up the first base line that appeared to be a sure out. As Mookie sprinted towards first base, the ball goes through the first baseman’s legs and trickles into right field, as Ray Knight runs in to score the winning run. Two days later, the Mets won game 7 to become World Series Champs.

Ahh, those were the good old days, when the team truly deserved their moniker “the Amazins,” now, not so much.