First off, y’all should know (if you don’t already) that I work for the Eastern Illinois Foodbank, where I head up the Marketing & Development Department. But even if I was still a stay-at-home/homeschooling mother of two, I’d be all over this… OK? I’m proud to be part of a growing group of local bloggers who’re Blogging Against Hunger as part of Food For Families 2007 - our local communities’ food and fund drive benefiting the Eastern Illinois Foodbank, its agencies and programs, and ultimately, the clients of those agencies and programs - people in eastern Illinois who aren’t getting enough to eat. The Foodbank, through a network of affiliate food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, and other agencies, serves an average of 34,000 people each month in its 14-county service area.



I encourage any and all locals to consider contributing food or contributing funds to this effort - there’s a plethora of details regarding where food can be donated, the kids of foods needed, how local schools are involved, and how to donate funds (for every dollar donated, the Foodbank can acquire, store, and distribute ten dollars’ worth of food). Click the logo above to get directly to the website. You can also click here to listen to a short piece I did with our local NPR affiliate last week describing the Foodbank and what we do. Now, most of my readers (those of you who’re left, anyway), don’t live in C-U. In that case, I encourage you to find out who your regional food bank is and think about giving them some time, some food, or some money. Times are tougher in food banking than they were even a year ago - the amount of food donated to food banks by food companies is down (they’ve gotten much more efficient at what they do), so food banks purchase food to give away. The cost of doing business is going up due to rising costs of food and transportation.



Anyway. You can find your local by going to America’s Second Harvest’s website - A2H networks together over 200 regional food banks throughout the United States so every county in every state in the US is covered. Click here and enter your zip code to find your regional food bank. Food banks are in the business of alleviating hunger - making sure they’re doing everything they can to prevent residents from going to bed without having had something to eat. I encourage all of you to join the Champaign-Urbana community in its quest to to alleviate hunger in the area for the next two weeks by joining forces with your own food bank to do the same in your area. As my boss likes to say, no one should be hungry.

The following is from an as-yet incomplete story called Secret of the Wind. Lilly is its author; I have typed exactly what she’s got here in her notebook.

“The Eillan Lord has brought back icy thunder, frosted with shadowy forms that lurk among the snowflakes,” Chellen sighed. “Forever will there be no moon at nightfall, spattered with dark drops of dew? “Will the dew on the forest leaves turn to frost? Will trees and branches fall bare, leaving a barren, icy land in their wake? “Forever will the clouds ice the stones with tingling, arctic glitter? Will the stars never again shine down from the sky, sparkling with frosty teardrops? “Is there any hope left for this world? Eillan [winter], Panaal [fall], Wonme [summer] and Einn [spring] will come together and shake this earth to its root. Will we survive, or will the roots crack and wither? “But ah: there is hope still. The Season Bender has returned. This time he will not fail.”

Quite a bit of Avatar, a little bit of The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I like it so far. No - I love it so far. Why should I write when my kid does it so much better?

Here’s how I spent my 3rd birthday with my aunts and uncles on October 7, 1971: If you’re interested in seeing how I spent my birthday on October 7, 2007, go here. It was unlike any other birthday I’ve had in the midwest - it was 92 degrees today, humid, and felt all kinds of wrong, weather-wise. I’m relieved, in so many ways, to be beginning my 40th year.

It’s already been a hell of a morning. We’ve had a Cat Incident (With Neighbor), a missed bus, an unplanned trip as a result of the aforementioned, and a rather utilitarian trip to the Farmer’s Market. [To be blunt, I hate the end of the growing season (although cannot tell it is, in fact, the end of the growing season if one steps outside. Today’s forecast high is 90 degrees, and tomorrow it’s supposed to be even hotter). I hate it in my own garden (rotting tomatoes smell like hot ketchup, and not in a good way), and I dislike it at the Market even though some of my favorite foods are ready to eat. Brussels sprouts are in effect (though I didn’t see any today), broccoli and spinach are back, there’s all manner of squash… but it’s still the end of the season and there’s no sweet corn left and whatever beans there are are kind of dry and stringy, and today was the last of the potatoes and, damn, no garlic at my favorite stall today.] Today I plan on taking photos, cleaning, writing, being a fair-weather Big Ten Football fan (I’m not a huge football freak or anything, but when one live in a Big Ten town, one finds oneself getting involved in the Big Game whether one wants to or not - traffic, constant topic of conversation for most people, etc), getting a couple packages ready for mailing on Tuesday, taking my blog out for a good shake and hanging it on the line, and trying to figure out the best time of day to bake a cake tomorrow. I’m thinking in the AM. I’ll be back!

I’m in the process of “redesigning” this “design”. Life has been crazy nuts for months, and unfortunately I’ve been hammered with a quite obnoxious fibro flare for about 3 weeks. It’s on its way out, but c’mon. Three weeks??? The last few weeks have been glorious in their own right, however. As approach my 39th birthday (and the beginning of my 40th year) I’ve had a lot to think about. Oh, thinking! In the meantime… … anyone know what it is in Mozilla that lets me test-edit CSS using a split screen? I had it on my old laptop, but have forgotten what it was called.