The Big DumpTruck

You can keep your palm readers and your Ouija boards and your tarot cards...I have looked into the future via the all-seeing, all-knowing...juice cap.

I bought a bottle of Nantucket Nectars juice this morning - Pineapple Orange Guava, if you must know. Oh, and it isn't juice, apparently it's "Flavored Juice Cocktail Blend." Mmmm, doesn't that sound nummy? Anyway, the Juice Guys(R) have always put stuff on the inside bottom of the bottle caps. Island history, juice trivia, etc. Today mine said, and I quote, "The Red Sox will win the World Series next year."

Wow. So does that mean I don't have to plan my weekend around this Yankees series? Cause that would save a lot of wear and tear on my heart, to be honest.

Thanks for the heads-up, Juice Guys!

We have a lot of broken phones in our family. How weird is it that right now we are looking to replace 4 phones? My mom's phone (which is on my t-mobile account, so it counts as mine) has been funky for months. I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but in Vermont last month, it would stop functioning. None of the buttons would do anything, including the on-off button. This made it really hard to use, by the way. So we got a replacement for that one - it arrived yesterday, I charged it overnight, and swapped the sim for my parents this morning and sent them on their way with a new phone.

Then there's Mr. Dump's Blackberry, which is flaking out big time. It doesn't ring. Not just the sound, but it doesn't receive calls properly. So if you call him, he doesn't know until a little while later when it says he missed a call or three. This is no good when you're a working parent and the school has your cell phone number for contact, y'know? Or if you are trying to use it as, well, a phone. Oh, the keypad isn't working either, so for a while, the only way he could call someone was if they were already entered in his addressbook. Fun! So he's been trying for a week now to get Cingular to fix it, or sell him a new phone, or whatever, but they wouldn't/couldn't. Last night he got someone who told him he was "unsupported," as in, we didn't sell you that equipment, AT&T did, so we're not going to do anything for you. You have to drop your service (read: plan) entirely and start up as a new customer with Cingular.

What? Who DOES that? You buy out a company, you take on their customers and their customer's needs. PERIOD. Cingular, you SUCK.

So he made the bold switch to T-Mobile, and he's getting a SideKick. I must have finally worn him down.

Okay, last two phones are the ones in the house on the land line. One of them doesn't hold a charge. The other one was making these really awful screechy noises the other night. (I think it was the other one, because we had to switch them to take care of the no-charge issue with the downstairs one. And then the screeching was downstairs. I never liked these phones, by the way, so fine. Good riddance. I mean, you can't pick up both at the same time. As in, I answer upstairs and it's for Mr. Dump, I can't just yell down and have him pick up. I have to actually transfer the call to him. Stupid.

So those are the 4 broken phones. 1 is replaced, 1 is ordered, and the other two are on the weekend to-do list. And who says my life isn't exciting?

I seem to have misplace 150,000 pills. Baby aspirin, by the way. Nothing bad. I had them in a REALLY big child-safe bottle.

Okay, but seriously folks...

We were supposed to have girl's night out tonight, but had to postpone until next week. That's probably for the best because Mr. Dump ended up having to stay home sick today. I hope whatever he has isn't catchy. It's got a sort of a flu vibe...headache and nausea. Of course, because I pride myself on my very well-cared for hypochondria, have personally placed an EEE diagnosis on him. I don't think he's been bitten by any mosquitoes lately, but maybe there's a new way of getting it. I told him to call the doctor anyway, but you know how they overreact. I am pretty sure if he calls them and they make him go for tests or something (spinal tap, anyone? I learned my lesson the hard way to be careful how you describe a headache to a doctor) he will KILL me.

"So, honey, does it feel like your brain is swelling?"

That's probably a bad question. I get sinus headaches that may or may not be migraines, and they ALWAYS feel like my brain is swelling.

I will have him keep touching his chin to his chest, just to be sure. And if he can, I'll tell him he's well enough to throw a load of laundry in the machine. Cause you know, that's how I show compassion.

Caught a headline and when I looked up the story...ugh. Yea Leominster. So much to be proud of.

"Arrests occurred in Leominster over the weekend following the attempted sale of 150,000 ecstasy pills to undercover officers -- the largest ever undercover ecstasy drug deal in the eastern United States."

We're #1! We're #1!

Anji wanted to know what Jon's art looks like when he's not using an Etch-a-Sketch, and he responded with the following:

This is obviously a picture of Tim Burton's Jack Skellington. I love how he captured (quite accurately) the wavy background. Now he's going to try drawing an original in the style of Tim Burton, because there's apparently a contest running out there. I think he'll have a pretty good shot (can't wait to see his entry).

The sunburn is fading, thanks to all who expressed concern at my "I look like Richard Dreyfuss from Close Encounters when he got the sunburn on one side of his face" look. It's not too noticeable now. Yesterday was downright dank compared to Saturday, but I was happy because sitting out at a soccer field for an hour in the full sun would have killed me. I would have been the mom sitting under a tent. But no need, and in fact, yesterday marked my first "wore long sleeves all day" day. Not just long sleeves but fleece. I love wearing cozy clothes - I'm not a fan of having to show a lot of skin. I love summer, but not the constant need to wear shorts. Yea long pants season!

And you?

I feel really dumb. And to make matters worse, I look really dumb, so I cannot hide my idiocy.

"Why Jody," you say, "whatever do you mean?"

"Well," I answer, "did you happen to take a good look at me?"

At that point you either scream in horror or laugh. And point. At my face and neck. Why yes, I did get the worst sunburn I've had in years today, why do you ask?

See, we were going to the Bolton fair for a couple of hours. Get there for 9, leave before noon. It wasn't even 60 when we left, so I had a sweathsirt on and everything.

But then we started having a lot of fun, and watching shows. And next thing we knew, it was 4 o'clock, and we'd been out in the sun ALL day with no lotion on, because I forgot to bring it. Because I wasn't thining about it when covered head to toe this morning.

So my cheeks and nose (of course) are red, as is my neck and the little triangle opening of my shirt. And my left ear. My left side is worse than my right. Oh, and my arms, cause I took the sweater off.

So I look really stupid. Good thing I hadn't looked too closely at myself before I went out to run errands earlier this evening, or I wouldn't have gone.

So not only am I all stupidly sunburned, they didn't even have a stand selling sweet potato french fries. Why did we even bother going?!?

P.s. For the record, read the ad in the paper carefully. They weren't "disco" dogs, they were "disc" dogs. Not dancing, frisbee. So I had told Junior we were going to see some dancing dogs but really, they weren't, unless you count the spinning stuff. And then he got it into his head that we could teach this stuff to Phantom, so I had to buy him a kind of soft frisbee thing at PetCo tonight. Because no amount of me explaining the difference between the skills of a 6 year old border collie vs. A 5 month old cockapoo would convince him that it wasn't going to happen.

It is nedstat, er, webstats for u. Jerks. Big loser jerk heads. I'd say more, but this is a family-friendly site, which is why getting FILTHY pop-ups when I never ever EVER agreed to such a thing has me flabbergasted. Almost 7 years I used them.

So here are the final stats from those jerks.

	Measuring since …	13 October 1998
	Total number of page views up till now	212312
	Busiest day so far	5 May 2002
	Page views	2727

Oh man, I'm not happy. I think that the ads are being served up by the company providing my "free" web stats. I'm 98% sure it's them, especially when I got an email from Dumper Becky last night that she got an ad when I'd already stripped almost everything off. And then this morning I got one at work. GRRRRRR. Okay, that's completely sucky and unacceptable. Now I have to grab all my data from their site, and dump their butts. That also means I can put my weather report back up, and I should probably apologize to Google while I'm at it, but heck, it isn't like I've made any money running their ads anyway. So maybe I'll leave them off. Or change them. I dunno. I'm cranky about the whole thing so maybe I should put off making any decisions.

Didja ever see something that made you think "Wow, I have wasted my whole life up to this point because I never bothered to learn how to do XYZ properly"?

My step-son will not be able to say that when it comes to the Etch-a-Sketch. He is the master. We bow down before him. (You! Over there! Bow down, I say!)

He just sent the following to me. Please note that these were done on a pocket Etch-a-Sketch. I don't know if that makes it harder or easier, but it does make it pocket-ier.

Now that Britney Spears has had her baby (you have seen the first photo over at TopFive, right?), which celeb mom-to-be will grace every cover of People Magazine? I mean, they have to have somebody, right?

Oh, by the way, if any of you experience a pop-up ad on my site (i.e. you load my site and get a pop-up or pop-under) and you're pretty sure it's not something from the site you just left, could you drop me an email and tell me who the ad is for, and then make a note of what the ads are over in the right nav bar? I fear that these are somehow related to the stuff coming here from Google and I'm trying to track when it happens. Unfortunately, it's happened to me at least 4 times this week at work, and 3 of those times it's triggered that "YOU ARE A BAD PERSON!" warning when you try to go to a site the company has blocked. I'll be darned if I'm going to get in trouble for something that I didn't ask for or want. And when I click, I'm leaving the company intranet to go to my site, so it's not coming from the site I'm leaving.

I have an email in to their support group, but I want to know if it's happening to anyone else out there. Just use the Jody at this domain name one, and put "pop-up" in the subject line. Thanks for your help.

Oy, I can't believe there's another cat 5 hurricane whooshing through the Gulf. Good luck to everyone in the path. I have a feeling people are taking this one pretty seriously and are getting the hell out of town. I do feel bad for the people who are evacuating from the places they evacuated to. If it were me, I'd say I was being followed.

On one of my regular mailing lists (for Topfive.com contributors, if you must know) someone (Blair Bostick) posted something that made me laugh out loud, and he gave me permission to post it here because he doesn't have a website like this one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey, isn't Trent Lott's porch floating somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico?
I figure Lott's already collected his FEMA handout and has rebuilt his porch. What do you think FEMA was doing the first two days?

Brownie- "On today's "While You Were Washed Out" Ty and Hildi re-do Trent Lott's porch. Let's watch as their neighbors, the Notsomuch's, follow Hildi's ridiculous ideas for re-designing the Lott's front porch."

Hildi-"Bill, Doris, how are you?"

The Notsomuch's- "Um, fine now that we have these shirts."

Hildi- "Great, great. Now I found this huge pile of mobile home siding, right in the front yard, and we're going to turn it into a fun fun fun doghouse under the new porch for the Lott's dog, Dixie. So, while you guys get pulling that soggy insulation off the siding I'm going to go choose some ludicrous color combinations for the walls."

Meanwhile:

Brownie- "So, Lotts, what are we doing to the Notsomuch's house?"

T Lott- "House?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't forget to visit TopFive if you want to see the exclusive first photos of Britney's Baby! (safe for work)

Junior was thriled to see his own breath this morning while we waited
for the school bus. I have to tell you, I was significantly less
thrilled. Call me Debbie Downer, but I am bummed that summer is done and
over with. My sister closed up her pool for the season...I didn't even
get that "one last swim" that you know is the last so you enjoy every
second of it. Dang. Remind me to yell at her.

Speaking of Junior, he's digging 2nd grade. Tonight he showed me all
these patriotic ASL signs (I knew what he was doing when I saw the signs
for "I" and "Love". I did like the sign for flag. I don't know how often
it comes up in conversation, though. Also, apparently he read a history
book, so he was telling me all about it. ALL about it. I may have missed
this in history class, but it turns out that in the 1870s Daniel Boone
fought on the British side when Brazil declared war on the US via the
Native Americans. When the fighting was over, only 5 people survived in
the fort, and old Daniel was one of them.

You know, as he goes into excruciating detail, and the detail is just a
little off kilter, you don't know where to start. It becomes so
overwhelming a task to correct everything that I found myself simply
asking if he could bring the book home some time.

I'm a big fan of the Brazil-Indian-British-American war of the 1870s...

Amazon has some random MP3s available as free downloads. I can say that I ended up buying at least 2 cds based on the free tracks over the past year or so.

Anyone got any other *good* sights with free, legal downloads?

Good God, my stomach is making noises that it should not. I don't think I'm hungry, which means the noises are scarier in nature. As in "oh my God, what's going to come shooting out of me?" But they sound like hunger growls. As a preventive measure, I bought some Rolaids and popped a couple. You know, in case the noises are gassy in nature. Is this too much information for you? I apologize. I know how delicate all your constitutions are.

Been a busy week at work and at home, so I apologize in advance for my low profile. Well, that and MY STOMACH MAKING NOISES LIKE A BULLDOZER which isn't as low profile as I'd like. Also, please do not mix cherry Rolaids with a sip of lime Poland Spring Sparkling Water, for all that is good in the world. Just don't.

Gah.

If I'm not mistaken, last night I dreamt about bacon. Of all the meats in the pork family, bacon is the best, so don't you even try to go there Miss Sausage Patty or Mr. Ham. In heaven, the streets will be paved with bacon, and you'll be able to just pick up pieces and eat it and you won't get sick because you're already dead, duh, and any holes you make from pigging out (heh) will just be immediately re-filled with more bacon.

And it will be the crisp kind, the kind that crumbles in your mouth. None of that chewy fatty bacon. They're saving that kind for purgatory. (If you end up in hell, you only get the smell of bacon, but you never get to eat any. That and the smell of raisin toast. And coffee. Oh ya, all those smells and none to eat. That is definitely what hell will be like.)

You can quote me on that.

Not what I've donated to various relief efforts, although give me another week at it should be about that much, I suspect.

No, that's how much I spent getting the Batmobile fixed this morning. Apparently, I had a frozen brake caliper or something like that. Brake calipers are 'spensive, by the way. And installing them is 'spensive. 368 spensive. Man oh man. I'm headed out to just drive around slamming on the brakes.

You did a heck of a job, Brownie.

A heck of a bad job.

Hey, all, it's payday again! Time to fire up the old checkbook. So far I've given to the Red Cross, sent craft supplies to CoffeeCup, and helped pull together 15 backpacks heading down to Houston today.

My first donation of the day is to an effort for some of the kids in a shelter in Alabama...this grassroots effort is culminating in the kids being taken to a KBToys in the local mall so they can pick out what they want from the store themselves. I love the whole thing, and I love that the focus reminds us that it isn't just the folks from New Orleans who had their lives destroyed by Katrina.

More info about this effort is here: . And thanks to J-Mo for pointing out this great effort on her blog.

p.s. Last day on the current contract, new one starts Monday. I "celebrated" by ordering a side of bacon in the cafeteria. They have the best best best bacon here. I will truly miss it.

p.s. More great pictures of the CoffeeCup efforts on their website (the link is above my menu bar). They also say the following: "There is a great need for long distance calling cards, wrist watches, battery powered clocks, ethnic hair care products, school supplies, backpacks and other luggage."

Happy Birthday Dad!

More photos are up on the CoffeeCup Software Relief site. I know they've received my shipment from Discount School Supplies. Somewhere in there are 10 elephant puppets (only 88 cents each!), crayons, lacing beads, glue sticks, craft sticks, and other stuff that I can't remember.

I didn't get paid last week because I was on vacation the week before (darned contract job!) so I couldn't send out anything else. This weekend I'll probably pull together something else, or a few more backpacks. Something. Anything.

In other horrible devastating news, the DirecTV Receiver/Tivo in our living room died. Oh. My. God. I joke, but it really is horrible. Do you know how much stuff we had on that hard drive? Gone. The customer service woman, in a move worthy of a ___fill in the blank_______, decides I may be an idiot and says "You know, some people copy things off the DVR onto videotapes."

Really.

Well, hot shot, my VCR isn't even hooked up to the TV any more. I don't really watch video cassettes on any regular basis (we have two of them, but not on the living room TV). Oh, and if you hadn't decided to limit the functionality of the Tivo (apparently taking a cue from T-Mobile, those crack phone company fiends who have turned off some of the standard functions of the SideKick that our friends using other carriers get, like, say, being able to use free ringtones) I could hook the damned thing up to my computer and back everything up that way. Then, if something breaks, I could restore the vital stuff.

Of course, nothing is truly vital, but there were shows and movies that we hadn't watched yet - stuff that won't rerun for ages. And now I have to remember what all my season passes were. Junior was very sad to lose some of the shows he'd asked me to record for him. Nothing like losing your house and all your belongings in a hurricane, to be sure. But enough to make me grumpy.

Oh, and because that means we don't have a DirecTV receiver on that TV (until I take the one in the basement and move it upstairs) we haven't been able to actually watch television. Last night I realized why we let Junior watch so much TV - because if we don't, he will literally talk us to death. I got a 45 minute non-stop explanation of some version of Pokemon that he had invented to play after school with his friends, and the level of detail he provided was beyond what any human should have to endure. I love him dearly, but they could have taped him and then used that to blast out of speakers when they are trying to get people to come out of a building they've commandeered. You know what I mean? I literally begged him to go get a book or a game or something. Anything to stop talking for 2 minutes.

I do love him, I really do. But you had to be there.

The new Tivo is on order. I just hope they put a rush on it.

I have decided to go back to the pointless, mundane posts. I'm sure you guys won't mind. If you're looking for non-mundane, there's plenty to find over at dailykos.com and metafilter.com. No need for more crap from me, right?

Oh, other than this one last thing. Cooler than cool friend of the Dump Becky pulling together a Spongebob-themed backpack to send down to our friends at CoffeeCup Software - and in it she put a note from Sandy Cheeks welcoming the child to her home state of Texas. How brilliant is that? Any Spongebob fan knows Sandy is from Texas. Prophetically, in one episode she sings "Wish I was back in Texas; the ocean's no place for a squirrel."

(If you haven't send your backpack yet, this is a great idea, to include a note. The folks over at http://www.projectbackpack.org have also suggested this.)


Okay, so enough about generous thoughtful people. Back to me.

I am trying a new deodorant. It's Lady Speed Stick 24/7 Antiperspirant Deodorant, Satin Pear scent. Very pear-y. I mean, I like the smell, but it is on the fruity side. I'm thinking maybe I can layer it with my Secret Solid Shower Fresh scent that wasn't working so well any more. Maybe Shower Fresh Pear will be my new signature scent?

I left my phone home today, so I've already got the DTs because I can't read any of my email.

Lastly, dear Big E:
Dear God, find a few dollars and go redo your radio ad campaign. I mean, NOW. I know you have a Mardi Gras parade (apparently) but when you said something about "just like in New Orleans" in the spot intro, I wasn't expecting to hear some guy talking to his [child? baby?] telling her how to shake it to get more beads. It's offensive even WITHOUT the fact that New Orleans doesn't really exist right now. My jaw effectively dropped into my lap. Pull those ads right now.

That is all.

Here's the Big DumpTruck bag collection. These (minus 2 I have to pick up from my sister) are from my aunt and uncle, my parents, and me, Mr. Dump and Junior. That puts us at about 12 backpacks. I did some great shopping yesterday, if I do say so myself. I didn't pay more than $5 for the 10 backpacks, and I found boxes of crayons (24) for SEVEN CENTS EACH! I have to tell you, I felt like the bargain shopper of the century. And props to Junior who told me when he and grandma had been to the mall earlier in the week there'd been a big sale at KB Toys, because we got all SORTS of stuff from the bins, including some dollar card games and other dollar toys (Mighty Beanz, little race cars) and then some other stuff from the $3 and $5 bins. I got a couple of Barbies for $5 each, and some handheld electronic Scrabble games for the same price. I mean, I felt like the queen of shopping. These kids are going to get some good stuff in their backpacks!

And here is Phantom, checking to make sure I remembered to zip them all up.

Okay, kids, call to action time. After posting my Thursday message about how if I had unlimited resources, I'd provide a filled backpack to every child survivor of Katrina, my message was forwarded to a local company, and a grassroots effort was started by the employees to do just that. 200 employees have pledged to bring in a backpack on Tuesday, and the company has said they will ship them to Houston and arrange to have them delivered. Oh, and for every backpack an employee brings in, the company will match with one. That could mean 400 or more backpacks, each with a stuffed animal or toy, crayons, markers, etc. Some people have said they'll put in clothes, art kids and handheld games. Oh my God, can you believe this? I'm not at liberty to give more details than this at this time (or even the name of the company), but hearing this brought tears to my eyes, and makes me want to do more.

So now I'm challenging all of you.

Can you get the word out, have others pull together a backpack with boy or girl-specific items in it, and then send them to the people at CoffeeCup? How awesome would it be if we could somehow get 10 or 20 or 100 people to send a backpack? (I can't begin to hope we could get one for EACH child, but darn it, I want 1000 backpacks to head to Texas!)

CoffeeCup Software
c/o Hurricane Aid
226 South Tancahua Street
Corpus Christi, TX 78401

I wish I was in a position to gather and ship them myself, but I really have no room to do that, plus, it isn't like all of you life in the Leominster-Fitchburg area. But if you do send something, can you let me know - drop an email or post a comment to this message? That would be FANTASTIC

[Updated:
Another family started an effort very similar to this one, and in fact they are far more organized. I'm not looking for glory - I'd be happy if we hitched up to their wagon too. The whole point is to get stuff to the kids, not to have the best backpack drive. http://www.projectbackpack.org/

Here's another link I received for a similar effort. These people are trying to pull together school supplies for the thousands of kids pouring into Texas school systems. Another great effort! http://backpack.random-assortment.com/link.html) ]



=============================
From Agathena in the dailyzos.com's comments section:
Just say 9/01 - That is the day that Bush said:

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

PBS did.
National Geographic did.
Popular Mechanics did.
Scientific American did.
Army Corps of Engineers did.
Scientists at University of Louisiana did.
Scientists at Louisiana State University did.

"Ah don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees"- GWB, 9/01 2005

DailyKoz has lots of interesting info on this train wreck of a FEMA head.
That sound you hear is what's left of my respect for Bush circling the drain.

Don't forget to read the comments. LOTS of good stuff in there.

Also, here's what the Secretary of State was up to this week:
http://in.sys-con.com/read/125393.htm

I didn't hear about this until I read an entry in my friend Gina's Livejournal. She's from New Orleans, and her parents (God willing) still live there.

I do not want to see George Bush's face or hear his voice for the next few weeks. His reaction to Katrina sickens me. He cut his 5 WEEK vacation short by TWO WHOLE DAYS (what a gem) to come back to DC. Why not fly back the minute everyone knew NO was a target? Because he doesn't care. Nothing that doesn't impact him directly gets him to move his keister.

The relief workers/FEMA/National Guard should have been staging in Texas BEFORE Katrina made landfall. Everyone knew NO was in danger a day or two ahead of time. Yet W has the nerve to say that "Nobody could foresee the levees breaking." Excuse me? There have been reports for years that a direct hit hurricane would devistate New Orleans. The weather guys were saying it before the storm hit. What color is the sky in W's world?

Oh, and he defended himself by saying he told everyone to have reports ready for him when he got back to the white house, telling him what they planned to do. So basically, he is providing ZERO leadership. NONE. It's up to the department heads to make all the decisions, and then he'll rubberstamp them? This is so not the guy I want running the country. And he proves it more every day.

I have no facts to back this up (yet) but I hear the reason FEMA's response has been so piss-poor is that guy leading it got one of those good-old-boy political favoritism appointments. [update: Here is a link to a Bloomberg article on how bad FEMA has been and why.]He has no disaster experience. None. He was a lawyer. Oh, and get this, he told reporter Brian Williams last nite that FEMA had just learned about the dire situation with the people at the [edited to correct the location] Convention Center that day. WHAT? GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES! [Update: He also said the same thing to two other reporters at different times, making it look very much like a CYA lie.] Anyone whose screw-ups and incompetence have caused people to suffer and die for lack of basics like medicine and water and food, should go to jail. Period. If you get paid to do the job and cannot do it, you have been stealing from this country and are now guilty of murder. If you cannot even figure out how to airlift in WATER, you are not fit to make my fries at McDonalds, never mind run FEMA.

Oh, and according to Metafilter, "While FEMA is slow to reach those in New Orleans, they were quick to promote Operation Blessing, Pat Robertson's controversial faith-based "charity", linking their website second only to the Red Cross. Hours after the federal agency was exposed by the blog Sploid today, they quickly tried to hide their support for the pastor's organization by changing their web pages." Unbefrickinglievable.

Can you tell how angry this makes me?

$3.29 a gallon to fill up this morning. I can't help but think how much prices on EVERYTHING are going to go up because of the increased costs to transport goods. So if you think this is bad, wait until you have to pay an extra buck for your box of Captain Crunch.

For those of you who want to donate to the Red Cross, to help get the basic necessities right to the people who need it most:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/philanthropy/red-cross.html/104-8552742-4709549


Additionally, I received an email from the president of Coffee Cup software, Nick Longo, that was sent out to their corporate mailing list. (I am a user of their FTP software). They raised 1 million dollars for 9/11, and 50k for the Tsunami victims. Now they want to help the Hurricane victims.

They are located in Corpus Christi, TX, and are offering their warehouse for storage and their staff and trucks for delivery of the "non-essential" stuff that will help the tens of thousands of refugees arriving in Texas to get through the dark, dreary days when they'll be living in shelters with not much more than the clothes on their backs. Because the Red Cross and other relief organizations are handling the basics like food and water, Coffee Cup is recommending people donate "goods". Over 25,000 people will be arriving at the Houston Astrodome in the next day or so, and Coffee Cup wants to help provide them with toiletries, small toys, and other items that will make life a little more bearable. They don't want money, food or water.

You can buy things from online vendors like Amazon, Target and Staples, and have them delivers right to Coffee Cup, or you can pack up your own boxes and mail them. Here is the address, and a list of some of the items that would be very welcomed. He says that they'll be documenting the effort with webcams and photos.

Coffee Cup Software
c/o Hurricane Aid
226 South Tancahua Street
Corpus Christi, TX 78401


Diapers, Baby Wipes, Infant Care Items
Personal Care Items (Soap, razors, shaving cream, toothpaste, hygiene items)
Clothing (socks, underwear, shirts, shoes, pants)
Phone calling cards, batteries, FM radios, walkie-talkies
Toys (books, drawing paper, Coloring books, crayons, puzzles, any activity toy, small stuffed animals/dolls/action figures) [Jody's note: I'd try to keep these things small - I was thinking about the little handheld electronic games, or travel games]

I will also let Nick know that I'm posting this on my site, just to help get the word out. I think it's great that they are willing to use their warehouse, staff and time to do this. For a child who just lost everything, having a stuffed animal to hold can mean the world.

In a perfect world, where I had unlimited funds, I would start an effort to send backpacks to each child, containing fruit snacks, a stuffed animal, crayons, drawing paper, and a book. That way they'd have the backpack to store their things so they wouldn't have to worry about losing them again.

Thanks for reading this far.