two dolla

the ultimate gift

This is the official site of the movie “The Ultimate Gift” and the grass-roots movement its starting to help charities and give to others. Why can’t all movies do this?

I like to think that I’m pretty up to speed when it comes to movies and all that Hollywood gossipy crap that I read way too much of every day, but today is the first time I’d heard about “The Ultimate Gift”. The movie, which opens March 9th on a limited release, is giving one dollar from every ticket purchased to the charitable group of your choice. The Fox Film Fund is making this possible.

They’re referring to the first weekend the movie is open as the “Weekend of Giving”, and all movie tickets purchased for viewing from March 9 through March 11 will qualify for the donation to charity.

You guys all know how much I love charity. And you also know how much I love movies. Combining two of my favorite things together is incredible. The only thing that would make me happier is if there was an awesome way to combine brownies and bench pressing, too.

The movie is based on a book written by Jim Stovall, who has overcome blindness to achieve such goals as becoming a success investment broker and even a national champion Olympic weightlifter. The movie itself has a great list of actors – Abigail Breslin (the adorable little girl from Little Miss Sunshine), James Garner (the old guy that made you cry in The Notebook), and Brian Dennehy (Chris Farley’s dad in Tommy Boy) just to name a few.
According to the movie’s website, “more than 300 pre-screenings have already resulted in over $5 million in donations to charity.” How awesome is that? I know it’s just a grass-roots movement and I know it’s not a huge film, but how great is it to know that just by going and doing something like watching a movie in the theater, you’re going to be able to donate money to a cause you support? I hope to see more of this in the future!

and now my dog is licking the wall

According to every weather forecast I’ve heard for the past 48 hours, we’re about to have 298 days of straight snow and 40 feet of accumulation. Or something like that. The Great Snowstorm that was supposed to happen last night and is barely happening right now has been hailed as “the worst in a long time!”, so that can only mean one thing for my plans this weekend – carry on as usual!

Matt’s birthday is tomorrow, so we started properly celebrating last night with hockey and drinks at Liquor Lyle’s, followed by more drinks at Town Talk. If anyone could possibly say they had a bad time, they’re lying. A LOT. The pictures are proof. Bill and I headed south after bar close, and despite reports of our potential deaths happening on the way home, the roads were actually very well taken care of and neither of us met our demise. Thankfully.

Still not receiving the snowstorm of the century, we carried on with the plans we’d made for today – A TRIP TO THE ZOO. What Minnesotan wouldn’t do that in the middle of February? Stephanie and I followed a snowplow along the interstate to meet up with Matt and Jenni at Como Zoo. We had some photography class homework to do, and figured we could get it done and see our favorite animals all at the same time. I don’t know how much of our homework we finished (here are the few I took), but I’m now really in love with polar bears and, as always, the orangutans.

Now I’m home. For now. Matt’s birthday still has some celebrating left to do tonight, and I’m hoping the snow doesn’t get too much heavier. I hate being defeated by a little precipitation!

zookoda

If it weren’t for these fancy pants things called RSS reader, I’d totally have a newsletter of some fashion set up for this blog. Maybe something that would be sent out every week to let people know the exciting posts and/or pictures of my dogs they may have missed, because who could really carry on with their life without it, right?

Or maybe something just like a blog email would suffice. Maybe just a daily, or weekly, or even monthly update to let people know about the important thing they’re missing if they don’t get a chance to visit my blog on a regular basis.

Maybe this is the way to go! I know if I don’t have several times a day to monitor my favorite RSS reader, I may go several days without stopping by my favorite Hollywood gossip site, or my favorite place to get the latest news on trades within my favorite baseball organization. If I had them emailed to me, though, on a regular basis, I know that’s something that would definitely get my attention, and then I’d never have to worry about keeping caught up on the billions of other feeds I have just begging to be read.

The cool thing is that “Zookoda provides blog owners with the tools to manage their mailing lists, design their emails, and broadcast blog summaries”. I don’t know of an easier to get the word out about your blog in a more convenient way than that!