A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little sister, Fatima. I don’t see her as much as I’d like, but when I do, it’s tons of fun. Can’t wait for sushi tomorrow!

Hey all you Chicago area people…this weekend is Misericordia’s annual Candy Days, where workers and volunteers get out into the streets of Chicago to get donations and give out candy. In the past it’s been Fannie May suckers, but this year they’ve got yummy Jelly Bellies.

As I might have mentioned, my sister works for Misericordia and I’d actually volunteered for Candy Days in the past (you meet a LOT of interest people when you’re standing in the middle of an intersection asking for money). Here’s a little more information on them:

About Misericordia: It’s a residential home for children and adults (about 560 total) with developmental disabilities, some with physical disabilities. All proceeds go towards upkeeping their homes, making sure they have great programming and overall maintaining the best care that they can receive to live life to the fullest. For more info, go to http://www.misericordia.org/.

So if you’re driving around and you see a volunteer in the intersection, dig up some loose change, make sure you don’t run them over, and get yourself some sweets, then give yourself a pat on the back for helping out. You might get lucky and see my sister out there (I’m not going to post it here, but I’ll post it up on twitter and facebook tomorrow morning.

In about 5 hours we’re boarding a flight to Vancouver, then taking a 3 hour bus ride to Whistler for some snowboarding, snow tubing and all-round Canadian winter fun (though Dave’s going to attend a conference for work, but hey, he can have fun with us when he’s done). So it’s 1am, and I discovered that my fish tank filter is on the fritz, and finishing up one last load of laundry before we head out, which means that I’m probably NOT going to get much sleep tonight! I guess we could have passed on heading out to the children’s museum earlier today, but Ben always loves going to those places.

Anyway, looks like I’ll have internet access there, so I’ll try to post pictures when I can!

Today Dave has a big board exam that he’s been studying for for the last year. It’s a really big deal - it’s an oral exam. We’ve been listening to some taped exams (everyone has different cases and scenarios, so it doesn’t matter if you hear someone else’s) and let me tell you - it’s HARD stuff. They ask hard questions and they’ll make things difficult just to see if you get rattled. So he’s been in studying overdrive over the last half a year or so, which means we haven’t watched any moves (Dark Knight!) or really gone out. Usually when I go to parties, it’s just me and Ben - Dave’s studying back home. Even when we went on vacation, it was just me, Ben and Dave’s parents. So hopefully he passes and we can have a normal life again.

So please, please keep him in your thoughts today. I know he’s been stressing about this a lot!

• @kmguillo kenley should have been cut just for her attitude alone. that, and she completely missed what the challenge was about. #
• @daysies Aww, I’m working when @ABCPieHole will be in Chicago! #
• asks if anyone knows an easy way to clean up music info in iTunes #

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• is watching some Light Room tutorials and is getting pretty excited to work on my pictures #

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• says i love that ben’s little injuries can be entirely healed by a mere kiss from his mommy #

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• has won this week’s work football pool. Money shall be mine! #
• says 16 year old Charice Pempengco, the Filipino singing sensation, is rockin’ the house on Oprah! #
• says the next Batman movie has Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin…HOLY AWESOMENESS! #
• @brewtownandy watching the Hubbard Glacier calve was pretty awesome, heard a crack, the sound of thunder, and it fell into into the ocean #

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• is watching Oprah’s Olympic special, and I appreciate that she’s also focusing on the non-stars… #
• says Hot Damn, HBO’s “True Blood” is a pretty awesome show #

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• is feeling my carpal tunnel flare up again…ouch #
• says my body is still in Alaska time! #
• is heading out to a festival #

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