The world looks brighter from behind a smile.

After being as into the Olympics last year as I could possibly be without actually being in them, I was thankful for Canada.  It's fabulous to be able to watch sports 24/7.  It's fun that everyone else watches and it provides great conversation for a few weeks.  I am also a huuuuuge sucker for the touching moments.  Oh, those touching moments!  I know other people completely disagree and just want the events, and I do find myself a bit weary of the back stories by the end, but I love me an emotional story. One story in particular that touched me last year was that of the town of Gander, CA.  When the planes crashed into NYC on 9/11, many other planes were rerouted to other places.  That's how Gander factors into the whole thing.  Many Americans were stranded there for days, and the people of this town took them in and treated them as if they were family.  There's much more to it than that, and I encourage you to look it up....

In honor of my girl Justyna Kowalczyk representing for all of us Polish ladies last year, I made a donation to the Piast Institute.  This is the National Institute for Polish and Polish American Affairs. Piast Institute is the only independent think tank and research center in North America devoted to Polish and Polish American affairs. It is also one of fifty-six United States Census Bureau Census Information Centers, the only such center with a special focus on a major European ethnic group. With its staff, boards and international network of fellows, Piast develops conferences, seminars, publications, public programs, lectures, and exhibits that provide accurate, timely and current information about Poland, Poles, and Polish Americans. It also has a special interest in the role of Ethnicity in American Life. With its resources and its position as a Census Information Center, Piast Institute also acts as a data resource center helping Polish, Polish American and other commun...

I turned my computer off last night before I blogged because we were having some weather!  There were tornado sirens and everything.  It kind of reminded me of the beginning of The Wizard of Oz , and I was even a bit surprised to find this morning that our house had not blown to a new location.  It was half scary, half fun.  Well, since we were safe inside (and because we still have power), maybe it was 1/4-3/4. I'll catch up later :).

In honor of my love for Tim Gunn on this day last year (and every day, really), I made a donation today to the Parsons School for Design.  This is the school featured on Project Runway, another one of those guilty pleasure shows I find myself addicted to season after season.  Tim was on the faculty there for a while and has been a mentor to many who have passed through their doors. Tim and Parsons are fabbbbbb-u-lous! https://epay.newschool.edu/C21120_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=1&SINGLESTORE=true ****** Within a span of less than five minutes this afternoon, I got my passport in the mail (name change) and found a cute bathing suit that only cost me $13 (plus shipping and the cost of that other suit I got too).  When I went out with great friends for great times tonight, I wore my "Sun Your Buns" t-shirt.  I can't remember is Manda found this gem at Goodwill or if I did, but I was sporting it today. My vacation fever has kicked in fully and com...

Man. Last year I wrote about an amazing couch nap experience.  Those experiences are rare lately, and this made me feel a little nostalgic for those drooling good times.  However, the good news is that even if I'm not the best sleeper these days, I did find a way today to hopefully make a few other people sleep better. http://www.sweetsleep.org/aboutus/index.html Sweet Sleep is an organization focused on providing beds for orphaned and abandoned children.  And this is important?  Heck yeah it is! Orphaned and abandoned children around the world suffer from lack of sufficient or healthy places to sleep. These children often sleep on old, broken and soiled beds or have no beds at all – forcing them to sleep on paper-thin mats or cold, hard floors, making them susceptible to crawling, biting insects and disease. Donations help get these kids into "healthy, comfortable beds" and provide mosquito nets to protect them.  I would imagine that giving ...

This one is exciting.  A solid connection! I was all excited last year to have Tom home.  I was so excited that I thanked American Airlines for bringing him home.  I'm not an airlines groupie, but that's just how excited I was.  My idea for today was to find some kind of way to donate airline miles to someone else to try to create a similar kind of moment to make someone else's day.  With the assistance of my wonderful assistant (Tom), I found one! The Fisher House Programs help military families in all kinds of different ways.  It just so happens that one of their programs, Hero Miles, fits what I was looking for perfectly.  Through their website, http://209.20.92.145/programs/heromiles.html people can donate unused airline miles to help members of the military to fly to their families (or to help their families fly to them at one of the medical centers).  Tom and I are truly honored to take this opportunity to donate miles to the men a...

Here's a first.  My donation for the day was in Canadian dollars.  This makes sense because last year I wrote about a Canadian who inspired me and touched my heart, Joannie Rochette.  Joannie lost her mother to a heart attack just days before she was scheduled to figure skate in the Olympics.  She chose to continue in the competition, to skate in honor of her mom.  Joannie ended up earning a bronze medal, but her performance was so much more than that.  She exuded such poise and grace in the most difficult circumstances.  It was more than most of us can hope to demonstrate in our everyday lives.  Her moment trascended a skating competition, a sport, and even an Olympics.  I was delighted to discover that Ms. Rochette has since become the spokesperson for a charity in honor of her mom.  She supports the "Heart Your Health" campaign, fighting the number one killer of women and speaking out about the importance of a healthy heart. I t...