Chris Fisher of StagersLISTWebsites.com

When: Sunday, September 28, 2008 from 8am to 3pm
Where: 1175 Carey Drive in Concord
Why: Because we’re saving lives one mile at a time!
Great deals - Great cause

Just some of our quality items:

Golf Clubs
Tivo
Clothing (children and adult sizes)
Good condition toys and stuffed animals
Furniture
Staging items
Photo frames
Good quality household items
And much more

If you are unable to come to our garage sale, please take a moment to make a tax deductible donation at:

www.AdryonRocks.com or

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/nikesf08/Tpaculba

This is a hard time for most of us, we are shorter on cash than we are used to. Most of us, however, are lucky enough to have a place to live and enough to eat. It's important to remember that our local food banks help families ALL YEAR LONG, not just at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Can you take a moment to clean out your cupboards or pantry? Maybe donate $15-20 bucks and make your coffee at home instead of visiting Starbucks this month? Every little bit makes a difference!

Here's what I read in the Contra Costa Times, written by Tanya Rose:

The Monument Crisis Center, a Concord food pantry that serves 5,000 people a month, was forced to close its doors this week after it ran out of food to give away.

Sara Loquin, assistant program manager for the five-year-old pantry, said the hope is to get sufficient food donations, and to buy food at good prices, to be able to reopen Monday.

"We closed early Tuesday because we ran out of food - there is just nothing on the shelves here," Loquin said.

The nonprofit emergency pantry relies on food and cash donations from the community and from businesses to feed more than 1,600 families.

Despite continued support from community food drives and from large corporate donations, food reserves have been low since last year's Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season, Loquin said.

At the same time, more people are coming through the doors each day asking for bags of groceries because of the ailing economy, she said.

"More individuals are losing their homes, jobs and spirits, and thus are coming to food pantries for help," said Sandra Scherer, the center's executive director.

Last week alone, she said, the pantry gave food to 75 families, and Scherer expects that number to rise each week.

Both women said they hope publicity about the center's plight will result in donations this week.

The center is located at 2350 Monument Blvd. To donate food or other resources, call 925-825-7751.

According to my mother, Terrylynn Fisher, who is a regular supporter of the Crisis Center, this seems to happen yearly around this time, I guess people just run out of steam of forget. So let's take some time to help those less fortunate. No one should go hungry. Thanks!

The 87-year-old Broadway star fell last week and fractured her hip and femur.  She had to undergo surgery and her doctor said absolutely NO concerts, so the San Francisco fundraisers were cancelled. Ms. Channing has been known to go on stage with a broken rib, arm, fresh stitches, etc.  This is the first time she's cancelled shows in 70 years. She is a firm believer that "the show must go on".

Tonight's event was:

"The concert was to be the official kick-off event for HELLO, CAROL! A Celebration of Carol Channing, the first major retrospective exhibition ever mounted on the life and work of this Broadway and Hollywood legend, as well as the official launch of a major fundraising and public awareness campaign by the Dr. Carol Channing & Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving arts education in California schools (drchanningfoundation.org). The exhibition is still scheduled to run at the Museum of Performance & Design beginning Friday, September 26, 2008 and running through March 14, 2009." (- from BroadwayWorld.com).

Rhiannon is a very big Carol Channing fan and of course made her a get well soon card immediately.  We were lucky to see Ms. Channing and her husband at a fundraising event for their foundation at Sonoma State University a couple of years ago.  She's still got a personality about 100 times bigger than her body... and that giant smile. 

Carol Channing was in the news earlier this year when the dress you see pictured here was stolen from her hotel room.  It was, obviously, recovered and will be on display at the Museum of Performance and Design, but I don't know the details about the recovery.

I found an old magazine on ebay with Carol Channing on the cover promoting Hello Dolly and was able to have it autographed for Rhiannon.  She also has an autographed photo of Carol Channing prominently displayed in her room.  We're certainly hoping for a full, speedy recovery for this amazing entertainer.

As some of you know, my friend Adryon is running the Nike Women's Marathon to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. As some of you also know, I think that she is insane for doing this. Great, doing it for a good cause, but insane.

One thing I can get behind, however, is the carb loading Friday nights before her run. (She's currently running 20 miles in San Francisco as I type this). She texted me this week & said, "I need to carb load, want to go out & eat spaghetti?" Um, Italian food, YES.

So we decided to go to Evana's Italian Kitchen. It is in a strip mall with a Trader Joe's, a pet store, etc., but I've checked it out before and found the food to be delicious. Inside, it's very cute, as you can see. Quite small with very good service. Once I asked for just an eggplant appetizer (I have a lapband and can't eat a lot early in the day... I don't LOOK like I can't eat a lot, but I am aware of it). Our server kept asking me, are you sure that is enough, like a good Italian mama would do. Finally she said, "May I please put spaghetti with it?" Basically, I felt I had to say yes to ease her worries about me not having enough to eat. (I was not charged for the extra spaghetti).

Last night I had the Spinach Ravioli with Creamy Pesto Sauce and I am very afraid that this may become a craving that I will have to indulge more often. The pasta was fresh, the sauce was perfect... Delicious. Adryon had Chicken Putanesca and was also quite pleased. Adryon had water, I had water too but also Pinot Noir (Hey, I'm not getting up at 4:30 to run 20 miles tomorrow!). In fact, I'm already thinking about going back for dinner tonight. My daughter loves Italian food... we could bring my grandma... sure, I can justify this!

Anyway, if you're in the East Bay Area of California, this is a restaurant worth trying. 785 Oak Grove Road in Concord, California.

On the third Saturday of each month, the Lafayette Pet Shoppe will host rabbit adoptions for the Contra Costa County Animal Services.  September's adoption day coincides with the Lafayette Art & Wine Festival, which gives us all even more reason to head over and check it out!

When:  September 20, 2008
Where: Lafayette Pet Shoppe, 3517 Mt. Diablo Boulevard in Lafayette, CA. 925-284-5212
Why:  Because rabbits make great pets! 

Did you know:

• Rabbits can be house pets (without a pen/cage)? 
• Rabbits can be litterbox trained? 
• Rabbits have unique personalities just like your cat or dog? 
• Rabbits can have attitude that rivals any cat's?  (I have one of these bossy guys, he's hysterical).
• Often people who are allergic to cats are NOT allergic to rabbits?

Come on down and learn more about why rabbits are such great pets.

Some buns you might meet when you drop by: