So close! We're at 116, and have until the end of the day!

Please vote en masse for The Lower Ninth Ward Village

Thanks!

Grace has another laryngotomy tomorrow morning. If you could keep her in your thoughts, we'd appreciate it. We hope for this to go smoothly.

Today is a day for gratitude.

I heard from my attorney that Hospital A has agreed to pay all the bills for Hospital B, as well as their own. I have not signed the release yet, but for all intents and purposes, it is done.

My gratitude for the support people gave during that very, very dark time is unbounded. My appreciation for the attorney's help is great and I will repay it in as excellent service as I can provide. My relief over having this burden lifted cannot be described.

I am also grateful to the Buffistas who followed my Petflow link and freed themselves from schlepping pet products and helped me to take care of my dog's financial needs.

After suffering the worst financial month I've had in a number of years, I sent out an email yesterday requesting referrals.

So far, two people have come forward as new clients. Continued ~ma for that trend continuing would be as gratefully accepted as these other fortunes.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.

NYC-istas! I'm going to be yon fair city on Monday the 7th, reading as part of Lady Jane's Salon, held at Madame X in the Village. (Other authors are Lauren Willig, Courtney Milan, and Andrew Shaffer.) The event begins at 7PM and admission is $5 or one gently-used paperback romance novel. Book donations and net proceeds benefit New York City groups assisting women in need.

I would love to see any of you there who can possibly make it.

[link]

Groupon this weekend is $10 for $20 at Barnes & Noble. [link]

If you want to see photos of our Polar Plunge, they're here. The Mid-State Sisters of Skate raised $1200 for Special Olympics.

Here's an excerpt of a message I received from the Lower Ninth Ward Village:

As many of you may know, the Village was recently in the running for a chance to win a Pepsi Refresh Grant of $250,000. Voting for this grant, whose winner is entirely decided through online and SMS based voting, ended on the 31st of January. The Village came up just 16 points shy of reaching our goal of making it into the top 100 spots which would have enabled us to start from the same position in the next round of voting. It was a hard defeat only because many of us and many of you all worked very hard getting out the vote, especially in the last week of voting. However, while we did not win, there is a strange feeling around the office; not one of defeat or sadness, but of excitement and invigoration. In the 8 days in which a concentrated effort was made to move our position to within the top 100 we, and this "we" surely includes all of you, were able to move our position from 194 to 116. That’s 78 positions! For anyone not familiar with how the voting works, since we were competing against many other grants it takes many votes from us to move even one position. Therefore, 78 positions is much, MUCH more than 78 votes. The point is: No other organization made anywhere near the huge leap in positions that we did. It was truely impressive! Hence, we at the village have walked away from this experience with a true sense of how powerful and how far reaching our community is.

We plan to reapply for this grant when it opens again in April. From what we saw this round we know we have what it takes to win. We hope that you all will find and take away from this experience the same hope and motivation that we have. We cannot stress enough how impressive the jump in position we were able to make was. Please take our sincere thank you to each of you to heart.

Buffistas, I know that jump was in large part to your faithful voting and promotion. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you, and I'm pretty sure Nora feels the same. For more info about the Village, or to donate directly to their building fund, you can ask one of us or visit their website. [link]

Thank you so much.

I have a funky request. K-Bug turns 21 in late March. I'm sending her a box full of 21s. 21 pennies, 21 small bottles of booze, and so on (still gathering ideas). So many of you buffistas have watched her grow up and have extended many kindesses.

I think it would be fun to enclose 21 birthday cards. I'd have you send them to me before early March to make sure I have them in time to include them in the box. If more than 21 of you want to send cards, that is fine too - not going to turn anyone away - I'll just send those separate from the box. If you are interested, please hit up my profile e-mail and I'll send you the details.

amyth wanted me to let people know that she's sick, so she's not responding to email right now. but thanks for checking on her!