I went tonight to the Literacy Volunteers annual Coffee & Chocolate fundraiser. I brought my daughter and her best friend to work serving food/appetizers so they could earn some community service credit for school, and just because it’s good for them in general to do that kind of thing. They did a great job and actually said they had a good time and enjoyed being part of the event - imagine!

Anyway, the evening had a few things going on like a theme basket raffle, silent auction, big basket of booze raffle, and a Willie Wonka-style raffle to win a diamond ring. They were having a “special deal” at the door that got you your admission and some tickets for all of the raffles. The package was $10 less than if you purchased all of the tickets separately. So, I went for the deal, and got the bunch of tickets for all the crap basically because it is for a good cause and even if you don’t win it’s fun to try (knowing of course that I NEVER win anything at these things).

Well, the ring they were raffling was really pretty with chocolate and white diamonds in either a platinum or white gold (not sure which) setting. The jewelers who donated the ring to the event were there and said the ring was valued at $1,000 and that they were only selling off 100 candy bars (ala a 1 in 100 chance of winning-not bad odds). Well, if you bought the package when you came in, it included 3 chances at the ring - cool, chances just increased. After walking around for a little while, I went back to the ring table to see if people could buy extra chances (I’m still not sure what possessed me to do this). They said yes, but only until the 100 bars were all sold out. For some unknown reason, I decided to buy more tickets. The cost was $10 for one or $20 for 3. I only had a $20 on me and figured what the hell. I bought the 3 chances.

At 7:15 pm, everyone was told to open their candy bars to find out who the winner was - see pix below - they don’t do justice to my new ring, but they give you a little bit of an idea anyway. I can’t wait to show it off tomorrow at work!




Oh yeah, the coffee and chocolate were really good too.

...Coffee, Chocolate, friends...

Just a reminder in case anyone is interested, tomorrow is Literacy Volunteers' annual Coffee & Chocolate fundraiser - 5:30 - 8:00 p.m. at the Shea's Smith Theatre & Intermission Lounge. A $20 donation gets you an evening of goodies from Fowler's Chocolates, coffee from Starbucks and appetizers from some local dining establishments. There's also entertainment, basket raffel & silent auction.

Ummm - I love coffee and chocolate.. almost as good as... whatever! hahaha

While I hated the negativity of this long, arduous campaign, and the campaign b.s. and rhetoric definitely made me lose some respect for both of the candidates, I must, nonetheless, say that they were both very gracious in their speeches this evening. During his speech, McCain once again seemed the man I might have considered voting for 8 years ago had he, rather than Bush, been on the ticket. But who knows, maybe a hard run at the White House back then would have changed him into whomever it was that came out in this campaign. Anyway, I thought Obama’s speech was great too. Nice to see both of them speaking of working together and healing the nation...

YEA! It’s over - tonight - I can finally sleep!

Happy Election to All, and to All a Good Night.

I find with the closer tomorrow gets, the more apprehensive I become. I know that Obama is ahead in the polls but, 8 years ago, so was Gore (I believe it was by 8 points pre-election day) - we all know how that turned out. Part of my concern is that frequently the polls make teetering, would-be voters stay home if their candidate of choice is the one who is ahead; or makes voters come out if their candidate is behind. A combination of these two things causes really bad things to happen, ala 8 years ago. Thank god I’m off work tomorrow because I just don’t think I’ll be getting much sleep tonight.

On the brighter side, after tomorrow, come what may, it will all be over. No more phone calls, no more flyers, no more dreadful negative TV ads, and on and on and on... that in itself deserves some celebrating.

Does anyone have one of these infrared heaters, or has anyone heard anything about them? I was speaking to someone recently who heard good things about them, but I would appreciate some additional opinions. They’re supposed to help save money and be safer than regular space heaters. I keep my heat pretty low and the back of my house tends to be colder than the front- it’s pretty chilly. Also, heating costs are supposed to go up this winter and frankly, I prefer not to have to pay outrageous gas bills. Of course, I don’t want to pay outrageous electric bills either.

Science is not necessarily my strongest knowledge area so maybe if someone can even tell me if the whole premise of the infrared heater as an energy saver makes sense?

Thanks.

http://greenisbetter.org/

Here's wishing you all a very happy, spooky, silly, haunted halloween! Hope you all have a blast at the party - I, regretfully, will be unable to attend. ENJOY!!

P.S. - My costume was going to be Dr. Seuss' Thing 1 - maybe next year.

One of my dearest friends (my daughter’s god-mother) called me at work yesterday a.m. to tell me that her brother had died from a massive heart attack. He had just turned 56 years old earlier this week. I had been friends with him for 23 years and my children referred to him as Uncle Albert. His family is very close and my heart is breaking for them and, selfishly, for me too. I hate that people have to die. Today I am so very, very sad.

---

Of Albert...

Wine and tears and music flow...
family and friends (so many) gathered in disbelief
so full of life, how could it possibly be
a heart so strong, so full... should cease

Father, brother, husband, lover, son, uncle, friend
he gave so much to so many

Waves of joy and sadness intermingle,
as, between the tears, love and laughter fill the air,
a reflection of memories so sweet

Together, seeking solace and understanding
we mourn the loss of one so loved and loving, yet
we celebrate a life that touched ours so uniquely
knowing, the gift that was Albert shall live on...
forever in our hearts and souls.

by: KAZ 10/30/08

---

Picture of Albert toasting - enjoying life at Allegany State Park

I have a friend who is battling esophageal cancer. Her sister sent me the following update, which I received today:

A few weeks ago she had a lung drained and they were going to drain the other the following week. After a week's delay due to the stomach flu she went in to have the procedure done. They determined the same lung had filled up again (worse than the lung they hadn't touched yet) and drained it again. As per (patient), they have no intention of draining the untouched lung. They stopped chemo (fluid in lung is side effect of chemo) and don't plan on resuming it until after Thanksgiving. They're keeping an eye on her lungs and she'll have a CAT scan just before Thanksgiving to determine how to proceed with chemo so that her lungs don't continue to fill with fluid (other side effects are tearing eyes, which (patient) says are much less teary since stopping chemo and thick crusty nails which she is grateful it's glove weather so she can hide her hands now, and also total exhaustion which she hopes, with these weeks off, will help her regain some strength).

I am curious as to why they wouldn’t drain the second lung, especially if it’s causing her pain, as is my understanding. Also, is this really a side effect of chemo (I don’t remember this being a problem with my husband)? Does anyone know?

...about going to the movies; and top 10 movies I want to see that are out right now:


Does it ever seem like the movie industry releases a bunch of movies at a time that you want to go see, or there is nothing out at all that you want to see? Why can’t they spread the good ones out so that there’s always something worth seeing? Anyway, I don’t know exactly why, but I love going to the movies.

So, here are the top 10 (random) things I like about going to the movies:

1. Approximately two hours of escape from your own reality
2. The smell of the popcorn (though I usually don’t eat it)
3. Big screen
4. Laughing out loud and/or having a good cry
5. Comfy seats with cup holders
6. No telephone (if you don’t stupidly mess up turning off the sound - like I did last time I went. I hate that!)
7. Sometimes the movie surprises you, taking unexpected twists
8. Sharing an evening with a friend
9. People watching in the lobby
10. Happy endings

Top 10 (random) movies I want to see that are out right now:

1. Nights In Rodanthe
2. Righteous Kill
3. The Secret Life of Bees
4. Miracle At Saint Anna's
5. Body of Lies
6. Burn After Reading
7. Rachel Getting Married
8. The Dutchess
9. The Women
10. The Dark Knight

(Most of them I probably won’t see till they’re out at Blockbuster-and, yes, almost half of them are "chick flicks.")

Took my daughter Halloween costume shopping today to the Spirit costume store. I could not believe how ungodly expensive costumes are. She got this little woodland ferry-ish/nymph costume (which is way too short and revealing), that really doesn’t have much to it, for $50. It is pretty cute - but $50? GEEZ! She actually wanted two costumes, one for school and one for Halloween night, but her friend and I talked her out of that. (There was no way she was getting a second costume.) She’s going to put something together for school from stuff she already has. We then went to the Blvd. Mall to pick up a few accessories. We were going into Spencers and my daughter said something to me in reference to the “type” of store it was (meaning it had “dirty” or otherwise “inappropriate” stuff), as if it would somehow offend my sensibilities. I thought the whole thing was rather funny. Still don’t have my costume together - having a hard time making a definitive decision but guess I better figure it out if I’m going to wear one. Eve or Lady Godiva are definitely out of the question, and I don't really do the slut/hooker/sexy whatever very well either - I'm not exactly 20-something, or even 30-something, anymore...

Went to the Battle @ Buffalo last night. We really enjoyed it. Turns out my niece knows the guy whose studio it is, and a couple of the dancers; the guy at the door collecting the $ went to high school with my son and niece; and my old next door neighbor was there with his kids. Briefly got to meet Felly and Lauren, which was also cool. It was a fun night and relatively inexpensive family entertainment. Pretty likely we’ll go again - only earlier next time - to get some seats.