FeeFiFoto Blog

I'm... Dreaming... Of A 23 Percent Chance Of A White Christmas: Chance Of Snow On Christmas

Want a White Christmas?  Your chances are pretty slim if you plan to spend the holidays in, say, Tulsa, Oklahoma (chance of one inch of snow: 7%); Huntsville, Alabama (3%); or Phoenix, Arizona (0%), although you'd have a 56% chance of snow in Flagstaff.

Let's dig a little deeper, shall we?

• Columbus, Ohio: 23%.  If you want to spend the holiday in Columbus without taking the chance of being snowed in for days, try Columbus, Georgia: 0%.  For good measure, throw in Columbia, South Carolina, also 0%.

• Bismark, North Dakota: 87%.  Raleigh, North Carolina: 3%.

• Springfield, Missouri: 23%.  Springfield, Illinois: 33%.

• Jackson, Mississippi: 0%.  Jacksonville, North Carolina: 4%.  Jacksonville, Florida: 0%.

• Fort Wayne, Indiana: 47%.  Fort Smith, Arkansas: 10%.  Fort Myers, Florida: 0%. 

• Augusta, Maine: 90%.  Augusta, Georgia: 0%.

• Buffalo, New York: 57%.  Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the buffalo might conceivably roam: 3%.

• Fairbanks, Alaska: 100%.  Honolulu, Hawaii ... wait for it ... 0%.

• State with the widest disparity in predictions: Washington: Seattle, 0%; Stampede Pass, 100%.

Run For The Hills -- It's Auction Time: School Fundraising

Did you forget where we were?  Refresh your memory:

Run For Cover -- It's Auction Time and Auction Time, Part 2.

If we/I wanted to use the site then we'd have to find a way to incorporate photos of the kids or artwork by them into the item. Not only that, it should be large enough and impressive enough to justify the expenditure of many dollars to enrich my bank account the school scholarship fund. Photo mugs? Tote bags? Photo personalized puzzles? 

No -- way too small to incorporate photos or artwork pertaining to 48 kids. Although we could have produced 48 personalized puzzles, that would have defeated the purpose of offering a unique auction item.

Thursday Thirteen: Dear Santa

1. To Santa, Our names are Chris, Sarah and John. Chris is 12, Sarah 11 and our little brother john is 4. We have all been really good this year, excpet maybe John sometimes. We have put up our Christmas tree and we got to put the decorations on. We have bought mum and dad a present and also our granny. Hopefully we will get lots of good presents for Christmas. It doesnt matter is you cant get us every thing we asked for. We will be happy with anything. Love Chris, Sarah and John P.S We will leave out some carrots for the reindeer.
2. DEAR SANTA CLAUS,I KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT REAL BUT I'M 11 AND I DON'T BELIEVE ANYMORE, BUT IT WAS GREAT WHEN I DID O.K. BYE, HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS. *VERONICA* FROM: THE GREAT US OF A *
3. hellow Santa why do you put coal in kids stockings? 
4. I want 2 male guinea Pigs more than anything I know I will get em but I would love you to be on backup just in case
5. I love you vary much I want 37 things. 
6. Dear Mr and Mrs Claus it must be nice there at the North pole if i ever could go there i would it seems so preety there well i got go eat a snak Love ya Lauren
7. dear santa for christmes i want 100 barbies and 20 dolls. i want play do and a gold neclece. and i most want a cd player and i promes i wont brak it. from michelle (& after a little reprimand from Santa... Michelle writes back) dear santa im sorry about being gredy. insted i want 1 barbie an 1 doll an the other 99 barbies be gave to por people and the 19 dollys too. and i realy want mommy and daddy to give me a litle baby sister..please? i wont drop her and i will even chang dipers
8. dear Santa, Hi it is Erin I just wanted to know if I was on the bad or good list . e mail me back ERIN p.s.SANTA PLEAS GIVE ME SOMING GOOD.
9. I would love to be able have my grandma come visit on Christmas. She is all by herself in florida. Could you bring her here? oh, and can you get some toys too so I can play with her? thanks Sydney
10. DOUG I HAVE BEEN A GOOD BOY WAS ONLY BAD A FEW TIMES SORRY
11. hi i just want a suprise for Christmas but what do YOU want for Christmas bye keep on smiling :) :) p.'s im a girl and my name is Ayla
12. dear santy, r frend says ur not reel. r u? luv, megan and edith
13. Hi Santa... My kids have been brats....

from Growley.com

Taking Things A Bit Too Far, Perhaps? Extravagant Christmas Light Displays

When my niece was in preschool my sister listened in embarrassment to moms describing the great lengths they went to in order to help their toddlers celebrate Valentine's Day, including serving heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast.  Curley, never overly ambitious or accomplished in the kitchen, sheepishly offered that she'd discovered Apple Jacks would turn milk pink.

Meanwhile, a few years ago I hung a string of Halloween lights over the windows in our playroom, along with a string of Chanukah stars.  I am so lazy find them so charming that I've never taken them down.

It's a good thing we're Jewish, because it appears that neither Curley nor I could ever hope to compete with this family, the Vaders of Providence Village, Texas:

Hey, I Got An Award!

Nessa gave me an award for sparking creativity!  Here it is, suitable for framing and hanging on the wall my blog:

Isn't it pretty?  The background looks all festive and bubbly, I love the typeface, plus I'm so glad I got the Creativity part instead of the Controversy part, because I don't want to be controversial.  No, no -- I want everyone to love me.

Thanks Nessa!  You're a gem.

LOL Cats: I Can Haz Christmas? Funny Video

Thursday Thirteen: Things That Are Hard

1. It's hard to hit a moving target (dirty, fleeing dog) with unstable ammunition (bucket of water) while you are insufficiently armed (not wearing glasses) in a hostile environment (shower).
2. It's hard to get out of bed in the morning when it's still dark outside.
3. It's hard to figure out why my Technorati rating has plummeted lately.  Somebody, please link to me!  Darn Technorati.
4. It's hard to throw away photographs, even of people you don't remember any more.
5. It's hard to believe Christmas is only a month away.
6. It's hard to force myself to eat chocolate.  No it's not.
7. Diamonds are hard.
8. It's hard to choose my favorite give a darn about remember which Jonas Brother is which.
9. It's hard to watch your kids struggle with social politics.
10. It's hard to get all those seeds out of a pomegranate, but so worth it.
11. It's hard to load the dishwasher with a dog standing on the open door.
12. It's hard to hear people singing "Happy Birthday" out of tune and not run screaming from the room.
13. It's hard to resist a kid who sends you the following text message: "Xoxoxoxoxoxo".

Racism? Just Plain Cruelty? Does It Matter? The Burning Of The Macedonia Church of God In Christ Building In Springfield, Massachusetts

PS: PLEASE STUMBLE THIS POST.  Thanks.

From today's New York Times, an article about a pastor's fervent ambition to build a new church to house his growing congregation in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bishop Bryant Robinson, pastor of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ, took over the congregation after his father and co-pastor's death in 2001, and decided it was time to replace the church's 100-year-old facility.

"[T]he church on King Street, now more than a century old, could no longer meet the congregation’s needs. Parking was minimal, the maroon carpet old, the windows small and high; Oh Lord, could it get hot in those pews on a late summer Sunday.

We deserve a church meant for us, built by us, he told his congregants, and they agreed. The weekly tithing and special offerings took on added urgency, as the bishop reminded people that when you invest in Kingdom’s church, you cannot lose."

Auction Time, Part 2

How to create a simple yet impressive class art project for sale at the school's fund raising auction?

As I mentioned last week, it's school auction time again, and I'm forced privileged to be involved, thanks to my  roommotherhood.  One of our jobs as room parents is to orchestrate a group project to be offered for sale by the third grade to unsuspecting enthusiastic parents.  Our main criteria are as follows:

1. Item must be easy to produce
2. Item must have the potential for bringing in lots of money
3. Item ideally (in my opinion) should originate at FeeFiFoto, my personalized gift web site, because hey -- let's spread some of that wealth around, shall we?

Vicktory Dog Wines: The Recovery Of Michael Vick's Pit Bulls

Love your pet?  Put photos of your favorite dog or cat on personalized photo gifts from FeeFiFoto, just in time for Christmas.

Remember Michael Vick?  The guy who set a shining example of exactly how not to treat another living creature?

His dogs are famous.  Their portraits are featured on labels of the Vicktory Dogs Wine Collection:

From sportsnet.ca:

"The Vicktory Dogs Wine Collection features colourful portraits of 22 dogs confiscated from [Michael] Vick's Bad Newz Kennels that now live at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in southern Utah...

Each bottle includes a portrait of one of the dogs on the label. On the back, instead of a description of the wine, there's a brief story about each four-legged friend.

The pit bulls have been living at Best Friends since January while handlers try to reverse the mental damage done at Vick's 15-acre estate in southeastern Virginia. Vick, a former NFL quarterback, is serving a two-year prison sentence in connection with the dogfighting operation.

Artist Cyrus Mejia, one of the founders of Best Friends, began painting the dogs after they arrived at the sanctuary. Gone in the portraits are any signs of snarling beasts fit for a fight ring. Instead, there are cocked heads, soulful eyes and floppy ears...

Ten per cent of each sale goes to Best Friends. The money will be used to oppose dog fighting around the country and to fight laws that target specific dog breeds..."

Michael Vick is in prison, raking in 12 cents an hour.  He hopes to resurrect his football career when he gets out in July of 2009, just in time for training camp.

Meanwhile, want to meet an enthusiastic athlete who thinks of nothing more than the joy of playing the game?  Meet Wallace, and learn what a pit bull can do.

I'm not a fan of pit bulls.  Their power scares me.  I like small, fluffy dogs with floppy ears and tails, the kind whose main activity is cocking an eyebrow at me while they wait for me to jump to attention, rub their ears and serve them treats.  Nevertheless, I believe in giving animals, and people, a fair shake (no pun intended).

Increasing Technorati Linkage

Links, links, links

I don't usually do this sort of thing, but Shinade is one of my faithful commenters, and I could use the linkage.  So here goes:

View blog reactions

Does Anyone want to increase their number of backlinks on Technorati? If so, then join the movement on MoneyBush™ and watch your blog grow with us.

Here are the Rules:

1. Copy the official list below into a blog post of yours.
2. Add your link to the bottom of the list.
3. Comment HERE so that we can update the list with your link.
4. Watch the backlinks to your blog increase dramatically via Technorati.
5. The sooner you join, the more backlinks you will recieve.

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Things I Thought I'd Never Do

• I thought I'd never allow any child of mine to wander the house dressed only in a diaper but Robey's chubby legs were so darn cute I wanted to gobble him up all the time.

• I thought I'd never spend so much time in the car but, I swear, the moment Robey gets his driver's license, mine is going in the shredder.

• I thought I'd never weigh more than 100 pounds but I do now.  My kids owe me a tummy tuck.

• I thought I'd never understand HTML but I still don't.

Wouldn't This Look Great With A Brown Dress?

Tara at Five O'Clock Somewhere is doing a giveaway from her Etsy site.  I'm drooling over this necklace:

I just picked up a brown dress to wear to Sweet Talker's Bar Mitzvah, and I need something bright and bluish to break up the brown.  Wouldn't this look perfect?

To enter, just click on the link above, but try not to win cause it's my turn, K?

Darn Right It's Unique

Leslie at Unique Charms is having a contest to win a bracelet with scented cupcake charms.  Look how cute they are:

One of Cleo's many nicknames is "Cupcake" so this bracelet would be perfect for her.  Click on the link above to enter, but please don't win because I need this adorable bracelet for my Cupcake.

Run For Cover -- It's Auction Time: School Fundraising

School auctions sure are annoying exciting, aren't they?

Raise your hand if your kids' school conducts fund raisers.

Say Aye if your kids you sell any or all of the following: pizzas, candy, coupon books, cookies, donuts, bagels, BLTs, gift wrap, raffle tickets, candles, cookies, nuclear armaments or personalized clothing.

Clap your hands if your school engages in walkathons, phonathons, bikathons, book fairs or craft shows.

Now, stand up if you enjoy any of these activities.

I thought so.

Our school's main fund raiser, aside from the persistent polite reminders to pledge to the annual giving campaign, is a biannual auction, where we raise XX dollars to benefit the blah blah fund (do you think I actually pay attention to these things?)

Parkour Done The Right Way, And The "Needs More Work" Way: Santa Claus Video

Have you heard of Parkour? If you've seen a movie, commercial or video in the past decade you've probably come across Parkour, even if you don't recognize the name. According to an April 2007 article by Alec Wilkinson in The New Yorker:

"Parkour, a made-up word, cousin to the French parcours, which means “route,” is a quasi commando system of leaps, vaults, rolls, and landings designed to help a person avoid or surmount whatever lies in his path—a vocabulary, that is, to be employed in finding one’s way among obstacles. Parkour goes over walls, not around them; it takes the stair rail, not the stairs. Spread mainly by videos on the Internet, it has been embraced in Europe and the United States by thrill seekers and martial-arts adepts, who regard it as part extreme sport—its founder would like to see it included in the Olympics—and part gruelling meditative pursuit. Movies like its daredevil qualities. A bracing parkour chase begins “Casino Royale,” the recent James Bond movie. It includes jumps from the boom of one tower crane to that of another, but parkour’s customary obstacles are walls, stairwells, fences, railings, and gaps between roofs—it is an urban rather than a pastoral pursuit. The movements are performed at a dead run. The more efficient and fluid the path they define, and the more difficult and harrowing the terrain they cross, the more elegant the performance is considered by the discipline’s practitioners."

Personally, I find Parkour fascinating, not just for its death defying qualities, but because most of the terminology is in French.  You have your "roulade," which is French for "roll," and is not to be confused with "remoulade."  There's "lache," which is using an object to swing between two points.  A "traceur" is a practitioner of Parkour.  And seriously, doesn't anything sound better if you say it in French?

It's Always Appropriate To Say Thank You To A Teacher

Do you give teacher gifts at Christmas time?

My parents taught me the importance of expressing gratitude.  The Man From D.A.D. conducts himself graciously with everyone he meets.  He ran a large manufacturing company for more than 40 years, yet never felt too important to recognize anyone who made his day a little easier; he once stopped to compliment a maintenance man changing light bulbs for "making our lives a little brighter," (yes, corny). Considering how selective my dad's memory can be for names (but still not as porous as mine), I'm fairly certain he didn't recall the man's name, but that didn't stop him from offering praise and thanks.

My mother, Schpilkes, has been a non-professional fundraiser for a long time; her network of nearest and dearest friends and associates numbers well into the hundreds.  She sends a thank you note to everyone who invites her to a wedding, party, bar or bat mitzvah, luncheon, rubber-chicken dinner or official gala.  She knows how hard people work planning events, and she makes sure to acknowledge their efforts and thank them for including her and my father.

Amy at Chicago Moms Blog says:

"Now that Halloween is a pounding, sugar-headache memory, it’s time to start thinking about the other holidays... No matter what you celebrate or how you celebrate it, there’s a gift or two involved, right? ... There will be giving and hugging and “oh you shouldn’t haves.”...

I was a preschool assistant teacher for a few years... [L]ast year, the holidays came around and I got one gift. One. I didn’t teach for the gifts but I didn’t get cards or thank you’s. Honestly, I don't think anyone uttered a Happy Holiday sentiment. So, no apple mug, no chalkboard appliqued tote bag. OK, I coped. I got one gift card for which I was very grateful. It was more of the sign that no one was really appreciative of the time and effort and love I had for their child when I was with them. And according to feedback and reviews -- I was doing a good job..."

We Were On A Break: Punning

My apologies for being somewhat incommunicado the past week.  We had some birthdays, some school events, and then my mother had surgery on Wednesday.  She's doing well and coming home tomorrow.

She had part of her colon removed, so now she's left with a semicolon.

Hey, wait!  Come back!  I've heard way worse puns than that, I swear!

Hmph.

Heard On NPR (I Think)

Rosa sat so Martin could walk.

Martin walked so Obama could run.

Obama runs so our children can fly.

Just Watch This: Reaction To The Election Of Obama

The excitement of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election

I have never seen The View.  I'm posting this so I can remember where to find it when I need to see it again or when I need to show it to my kids to remind them of how things used to be. Thanks to Madeline Holler at Strollerderby.