Dear friends,
As of this writing, I’m on my lunch break – really! I’m on legal blogging time here! – but in 21 hours, I will be dropping the checkered flag on the madcap hilarity that is Blogathon 2005. To recap on the madcap, tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. EDT, I will be joining hundreds of other posters in raising money for charity posting to our blogs once every ½ hour for 24 hours. I will be blogging on behalf of Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund. If you would be interested in sponsoring me, Blogathon will accept new sponsors through Tuesday, August 9. If you cannot be a sponsor, then by all means stop by PTMYB and say hi. I will accept all comers (although I reserve the right to draw the line at trolls).
Since I’m sure you’re bursting at the seams with curiosity, here is some random assorted PTMYB Blogathon trivia:
That nifty new button at the top of my sidebar is the Blogathon webring. This is a kind of shortcut between participating blogs, and it is a neat thing indeed. If you click on the link in the center, you will be redirected to the Blogathon home page. Clicking on the “previous” and “next” links will link you to my webring neighbors: on the previous side is the the charming Eric at The Fire Ant Gazette, blogging on behalf of Midland Fair Havens; on the next side are the raucous caucus at the John Spencer Estrogen Brigade Blogathon site, raising money for AIDS Walk Los Angeles’ Team Spencer. Do stop by and say hi to them; feel free to tell them I sent you. Feel free also to say hello to the hot little biscuit that is Bunni, who is raising money for the American Heart Association in memory of her father.
In fact, you should be sure to visit Bunni all day tomorrow, because her site will be a stone cold groove. She has picked a superlative theme, which I will not give away here because really, you should go visit her; she will be blogging from the bucolic splendor of the Hudson Valley, while I sit on my lumpy armchair under a hot laptop in my dirty living room; and best of all, while she is doing this, her mother is hosting a margarita party. Oh, yeah, this is the girl you want to dance with.
So what are you blogging about, Jen? Let’s just say that I don’t have a consistent theme so much as three or four themes. There will be food here, yes, but there might also be some words about books, movies, television, current events, all the novel ways that New York City Transit finds to piss people off, maybe some nudie pictures if you’re very, very good. (Well, no. I just threw that last one in to see if certain people were paying attention. Give it a rest, you perverts.)
How in the world are you going to stay awake all night? You’re no spring chicken, you know. Thank you for your input. I am going to be well taken care of on this ‘thon, thanks to the advice and counsel of the staff of the Upper West Side Lush store. Yes, I know that I’m running the risk of turning into a whore for bath products, but I can’t deny it: Lush stuff is good stuff, and the staff of the UWS Lush are the nicest people in retail, or at least tied for the nicest people in retail award with the staff of Kitchen Arts and Letters. Under their tutelage, I have amassed a stash of soaps, lotions, creams and unguents that will charge my batteries and make me smell like the best dessert you’ve ever eaten, including but not limited to a temple balm; a seawater-based toner living in my fridge; a yogurt-and-lemon face mask also living in my fridge; a shower gel that is literally jelly, a quivering luminescent slice of jelly in my fridge (which was actually donated to me by the store manager from his own private stash – Brian, have I told you that you’re a gentleman and a scholar? Would you like to hear it again?); a lime-and-grapefruit-based liquid shower gel in case I need a few extra cold showers; a cinnamon-and-clove-rich massage bar currently living in my freezer; and other assorted stuff that may not keep me awake, but will keep me – and the apartment – smelling gorgeous.
I will probably also get over my vague distrust of Red Bull and try a few cans of that. Hey, it’s once a year. And if it doesn’t do the trick, there is always Lloyd, maker of pressed coffee that sits in the press for half an hour before we drink it. This is the reason I married him. (Well, actually there are three reasons that I married him, but the other two are probably best left unshared. 
What it’s all about, Alfie: To date I have raised $290.00 from eight sponsors (for some reason Bunni’s donation shows up on another page, not my main donor page, but trust me, she was right there from the beginning) for a really, really good cause. To everyone who has donated, you will hear from me after the Blogathon is over, but in the meantime, thank you all for opening those hearts and wallets. You have done a good thing here. Thank you, a hundred thousand times.