RIP Tom Synder

U2 on Tom Snider Show 06/04/1981

Update on my friend Jen

I just got off the phone with Joey. I knew that Jen was having surgery last week but I didn't want to be a bother. Jen is doing ok. In June they resected her colon and removed the original tumor. Last Tuesday they went in to resect her liver. They had to remove about 85% of it - the tumor was the size of a small basketball. Luckily Jen has enough of her liver left to have it function ok when she gets better. There was a small problem with a clot but as of today she is doing well and looking forward to eating - which is a good sign. She is in pain but her spirits are good. She got to see her baby, Rocco yesterday so that was the best painkiller of all. Joey has set up a blog chronicling what he calls Jen's "Adventure." To read more about what is going on with her click here.
I am asking all of your to keep Jen and her family in your prayers again. Remember life is short so don't sweat the small stuff.

Vote for AWF!

The African Well Fund has the opportunity to win a $10,000 grant from Haines. Please follow the badge to make a donation - the amount of the donation does not matter - it is the # of donations that count -however if we do reach $10,000 Haines will match it.
So check it out!

Surf's Up

OK, this pic was too cute not to post. I jumped the gun before and should have posted this with the other Italy pics.

Sofia's first swimsuit!!!

Bis-nonna

4 generations of D'Angelo/Palumbi

I know I just posted but here is a pic of Sofia with her Great-Grandmother (bis-nonna in Italian). I had to post - it made me cry when I saw her with my nonna who is 86.

Sometimes I regret waiting this long to get married...but it's not my fault I only met Dan in 2005!!! Here's to another great-grandchild soon!

Future business woman of America

Just back from her European vacation - we should all be so well travelled at 4 months old - Sofia got a new chair. Doesn't she look like she is ready to rule the world?

The cuteness is unbearable. I want to hug her forever and ever.

No, thank YOU, Mr. Bono

A response from Bono regarding the 5th Annual Build a Well for Bono's b-day.

Here is what it says (for those of you who do not read Bonoese):

"Well, Well, Well, Well, Well, Well And Well done etc. I think its my favourite birthday gift every year… and this year I wanted to thank you – music is pouring out of the U2 ers at the minute and despite what’s happening out there in a wild wild world I am so happy to be alive enough to give it a good kickin.

There’s no business like shoe business"

Bono

Click here to read the post about the 5th annual build a well for Bono's b-day and see the gift we sent along with the card and the certificate acknowledging the money raised on his behalf.

Yipee!!!

More Philanthropist Friends

I am totally stealing this from my friend Kit's blog entry but I fugured some of you don't read her blog so it is ok.
When I lived in Alexandria I had a roommate, Eleanor, and she had a laid back and super fun friend named Lizzy. Lizzy and Eleanor, Kit, Melissa and I used to meet on Monday nights to play pool at Bedrock Billards in Adams Morgan. After Eleanor got married and moved out I lost track of Lizzy - until this morning when I read Kit's blog. Lizzy and her boyfriend Zack have sinced moved to New Orleans and started the St. Bernard Project. The scope of the project is to help people displaced by Huricane Katrina rebuild their homes so they can move back in. After all this time there are still so many displaced people who because of government red tape have not been able to receive any funds to rebuild their homes. Lizzy and Zack, armed with volunteers and donated funds have changed the lives of so many people that our government has just left behind.
Here they are feature on Anderson Cooper 360. To say I am proud and honored to be their friend is an understatement.

Getting hot in a photo booth - DC meets and beats Miami - White Hot 2007

I spent the past weekend in DC lunching with ex-coworkers and attending fundraisers. In a way I miss my old life. My co-workers from Empson USA are doing well. It was awesome to see them and catch up on every one's news.

On Saturday night my ex-roommate, Gina, and I attended a fundraiser thrown by our good friend Lakisha. In her infinite goodness Lakisha and two other fabulous ladies, Vicky and Betty, have started Giving Tree Charities. Their first fundraiser, White Hot 2007 had a South Beach in DC theme. It was a blast. Gina and I met Jenny for dinner at Lima beforehand. I highly recommend this restaurant if you are ever in DC. Amazing food, amazing atmosphere. Below are pics of me and Gina enjoying cocktails on the white couches in front of the restaurant.

As you can see - the attire for the evening was white. After dinner Gina and I attended the pre-party VIP reception at The Madison Hotel. There was much champagne drinking and strawberry eating for all us "VIP's".

The Empties

Some VIP's

Then we headed over to the party where rockin' band Liquid A pumped out tune after tune. There was lots of dancing and even some removal of clothing - who was that guy anyway?

Liquid A

I proceeded to get more and more tipsy as the night progressed. Those pics will not be posted here only because I look totally beat. As a future teacher I don't think that would be appropriate. However, fun was had by all and the lucky charity of the night was The Alternative House - benefiting abused children in the greater DC area.

Me and Lakisha - philanthropist extraordinaire.

Like I said it was good to be back in DC. I took the metro into Alexandria to have lunch with my ex-coworkers and the metro took me right by my old house. The tree in the back yard is in bloom - I remember when we bought the house it was May and the tree looked dead. In July it bloomed beautiful purple flowers to my delight and surprise. I wonder if the new owner loves the house as much as I did...my first real home...first real mortgage. Walking down King Street there were some new stores and restaurants but there were a lot of the same familiar places as well. As I walked down that street to Cosi, a street that I walked everyday for three years while I worked at Empson, I couldn't help but smile at how far I have come since I first walked down that street. I was 26 years old when I bought that house. Chronically single, working in DC in a job I did not particularly like, wondering how on earth I was going to pay my mortgage and still have a life on my miserable salary. Flash forward 8 years. I sit in the beautiful living room of my second home, 9 weeks away from my wedding. My step-cat is clawing up my rug and meowing to go outside. Dan is already asleep upstairs. I no longer hate my job. I have a beautiful niece. I think I have arrived. Too bad it only took 34 years.

Another successful Build a Well For Bono's Birthday

Over $34,000 Raised for Clean Water in Honor of Bono's Birthday!



The African Well Fund is thrilled to announce that the total for this year's Build a Well for Bono's Birthday fundraising drive is an astounding $34,414.14 !!

The funds from this year's drive will be used by African Well Fund and our partner organization, Africare, to team up with Invisible Children to build wells at schools in Uganda. Invisible Children is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of war-affected people in Northern Uganda through the advancement of education. We will have more information on this exciting project in the coming weeks.

Donations were collected from March 22nd to May 15th. Donations were also received from the U2 Live photo auction, the auction raised over $7,000 for the fundraiser. The fundraiser also benefited from the sales of the The Little Red Book of Poe-ee-tree, a collection of poems and short stories written by a handful of U2 fans scattered across the globe.

Fans who donated were invite to sign an online birthday card for Bono. The signatures and birthday wishes were incorporated into a beautiful handmade card that was sent to Bono in Dublin. You can view a slideshow of the gift here

This year marks the fifth in a row that U2 fans have contributed to the African Well Fund to commemorate Bono's Birthday. More than $100,000 has been raised throughout the years and has been used by our partner Africare to implement water and sanitation projects in Uganda, Angola and Zimbabwe. AWF wishes to thank all donors and volunteers for their generosity. You have helped to make a significant improvement in the lives of so many!

Cat Cuteness

This is an old picture but too cute not to post. Sometimes when Dan is away JD sits by his shoes until he comes home. Adorable.

Envelope licker

I am taking a break from the heinousness of doing my wedding invites to complain about the heinousness of doing my wedding invites. For any of you contemplating on getting married do yourselves a favor and elope. The mad detail of the invitation process is excruciating. So many pieces to put together. I decided to run labels which I must have checked a million times and still found typos - I apologize in advance. I am really hoping that people just glance at the outer envelope, rip it open and just throw it away.

I am sealing the envelopes now and cannot help but think of poor Susan from Seinfeld who perished licking her cheap wedding invite envelopes.

RIP Susan, I am using a moist sponge.

8 fun facts

I have been tagged by my good friend and fellow blogger Kit.

The Rules are: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Fact 1: Yellow Mustard is my nemesis.

Depending on how well you know me, you already know that I abhor French's Yellow Mustard. Like completely and totally hate it. If I am at a Phillies game, and someone sits behind me with a pretzel with yellow mustard on it, I will get up and move away until he has finished eating it. My fear runs that deep. If, God forbid, I should ever actually get yellow mustard on my skin I cannot be held accountable for what happens next. I have no no idea why I feel this way towards a condiment but I do.

Fact 2: I failed my permit test for my drivers license the first time I took it because I did not have my glasses. In my defense, I had just started wearing them and was not used to having them with me at all times. My dad, who worked in the car industry at the time, had bought me a used Audi which he was going to surprise me with when I got home from getting my permit. Except that I didn't get my permit so my mom had to find a phone (pre-cell phones) and call my dad to tell him to get the car out of the driveway because I failed my test. Luckily for me I re-took it a few weeks later and passed. Thank goodness.

Fact 3: I used to have a speech impediment a la Elmer Fudd. Thanks to many hours of intensive speech therapy I was able to overcome mixing up my w's and my r's - unless I get really, really drunk and am super tired. Then it comes out.

Fact 4: I have a secret love for Hall and Oates. I am not sure if I can justify this except that when I was a young girl Hall and Oates Live was always on HBO and I must have watched it a millions times. Daryl Hall has one sexy voice. I will totally understand if you don't want to be friends with me any more.

Fact 5: My first pet was a bunny named Buttercup. He was an awesome bunny. My Uncle Italo built Buttercup a two-level townhouse in our back yard - it was orange and black. We had to take out the top level because Buttercup kept pooping up there and there was no way to clean it - the bottom floor was made out of mesh wiring so the poop would drop down into a pan. In the winter we added a "bedroom" with straw to keep him warm. We would let Buttercup out during the day and he would hop around our yard - at about 7pm he would hop down to the bottom of our driveway to wait for my dad to come home from work. When my dad would drive up the drive way Buttercup would follow him. He was a smart rabbit. Buttercup lived for about 5/6 years and died one snowy winter morning. My dad broke the news. I was sad but Buttercup had a good run. We would have buried him but the ground was frozen. Lord knows what my parents did with Buttercup.

Fact 6: I failed my entire year abroad. So essentially I graduated from Georgetown in only 3 years. Luckily I had lots of AP credits and college credits from high school. Being a nerd in high school paid off in the end.

Fact 7: My most favorite painting of all time is the Madonna and Child with Angels by Filippo Lippi in the Uffizi in Florence.

I think she is the most beautiful Madonna in all of the Renaissance works out there. If you are ever in Florence you should go and see her. She is exquisite.

Fact 8: There is no way I am going to be able to find 8 friends to tag. The only other person I know that uses blogger is Kit and she tagged me. Oh well.

Happy Friday night!

Back in town

I am back from San Fran and will be posting about my trip this afternoon. Started Summer 2 at Cabrini and while I am loving the class there is so much work I am contemplating quitting my part-time day job. I am not sure what has gotten into me that I am completely unable to focus and do the million and one things I used to - old age is a bitch.

I have to run to the Post Office to get stamps - mailing out the wedding invites this week - yikes!!! I am feeling so much pressure - I hope that I don't leave anyone off the list. I wish my mom were here and not in Italia to help with the process. Oh well.

Back in a bit.