Take a look at the new donation total!!

$1914.00*

Whooo hooo!!!

Thank you so much for your donations!! 

Come on and show your support for the Society.

Donate! Donate! Donate!

With your support we can totally surpass $2000.00!

*Edit 3:06pm*

So I was planning on going for at least a 12 mile bikeride today. But when I got to milemarker 11, I pick up the trail at milemarker 7, something told me that I should turn around and head home.

And that something was so right.

After I turned around and began to head home, I could see the sky darkening to the West. And when I got to the intersection right near my apartment the sky was so dark it looked like it was about 10pm.

As I enter my apartment, I heard the first crackle of thunder.

It's now storming pretty bad outside. It looks like India during monsoon season.



It pays to listen to one's instincts. Had I gone further out, I would have gotten caught in the rain. And that would have been no fun whatsoever.

Saturday my team & I went for a 15 mile bike ride; I wish we could have gone further, as I was really loving the trail (Gravelly Point Park for you local readers) and was feeling pretty confident in my biking ablilites.

But because of the Honored Teammate picnic, the ride was a short one.

The picnic really drives home why we're all doing what we're doing. We got to meet our honored teammates (as chosen by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) as well as  personal honored teammakes (friends/family of participants). It was also a chance for all the particapants for the Fall Season to meet and get to know each other.

Hearing the stories of how people worked to beat their cancer was simutaneiously heartwarming and heartbreaking. 

So far, all of the participants, all 525 of us for five different Fall events, have raised over $400,000, and since fundraising isn't over, they're projecting that we'll raise $1.5 million this season.  $1.5 MILLION; it totally blows me away.

Please help the Society reach that goal, please make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Finding a cure could be just a click away.

... and a whole bunch more to knit.

I finished another "Handbag for Charity" today, and it's now hanging in my bathroom drying after the felting process.




(They're still $35 each, not including shipping, and 100% of the proceeds goes to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Edit: email me at cmcalamita AT yahoo DOT com if interested.)*

And now I commence begging for donations.

I know finances are tough for many people (myself included).

But if everyone who came here (and there's A LOT of you) donated $10.00, (that's 3 "fancy" coffees from Starbucks or two lunches out) after finishing reading this post, I would be over $2,000.00 SO FAST.

And when it comes down to it, it's not about me making goal (ok, maybe just a little) but it's about helping people with blood cancers.

Now go donate!!! A lot of people will thank you for it.

*Quanities are limited, so act now while purses last!

Yesterday I took my first fall off a bike, while in motion, since flying face first over the handles of my banana seat bike back in fourth grade.

We were on the W&OD Trail out in Vienna, VA, and heading west out to Reston. There's this humungo hill on the way to Reston, and we all know how well I do hills, anyways, there were people approaching me from behind, and there were bikers heading towards me. So, being the slowass rider I am, I moved over to the right to let them pass.

I moved too far over. And fell off my bike, rolled down a hill, some how shifted and did a backwards sommersault.

I was quite lucky, the bush that landed my fall was not a briar bush but something soft and cushiony.  And only my arms and legs are scratched up. Because it was so early, the dew hadn't dried so I was also quite wet and covered with whatever was on the bush (after the ride, while washing my hair, I had all of these little things in my hair, where my helemet was covering my head).

Today my back and shoulders are quite sore and I really could use a massage.

So, please remember to wear helmets when you're out biking, because brain function after an accident, is a good thing..

Look at at that total!! WOOOHOOO!!!

$1386.00

I wish I had things to bribe you with to get you to donate or that if everytime you donated your name would be put in a raffle of sorts. Unfortunately I don't.

So come on. Click on that ad. Give a little. It'll make you and lots of other people feel really really great.!!!

I sold my first "Handbag for Charity" today. I should have taken a photo of it, but I forgot. It had a golden yellow bottom and handles and a burnt orange body. It's really really cute.

I just felted another "Handbag for Charity" and here it is drying:



If you are interested in buying a handbag please contact me. They are $35 each (not including shipping), 100% of the proceeds go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Please contact me if for more details.

Today's ride sucked ass. Blew big chunks. The ride out was fine, that's prolly because the wind was at my back. But the ride back in sucked big moose dick. Riding into 20 mile/hour winds is not fun. No siree bobby.

A fellow TNT person said that wind and hill are our friends.

HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA

I know she's right, but it's not always easy to see that.

OH!!! The one good thing about today's ride was that I was finally able to bike up one of the four hills that I've not been able to. One hill down, three to go.

There are three "teams" comprised of the 45 or 50 of us biking the Seagull Century. And each team gets an honored teammate to encourage us and remind us of why we are doing what we're doing.

My honored teammate is a young woman named Courtney. This past January she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma and is currently under going chemotherapy. Because it was caught so early her prognosis looks good.

In addition to biking in Courtney's honor, I am also biking in the memory of Ronell Felton. Ronell was my friend Joanna's (her sister is my sister-in-law) fiancé, who passed away in 1997 at the young age of 24 from Leukemia. It was Joanna who first got me involved with Team in Training back in 2001 when we did the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach.

If someone near and dear to you has passed away from Leukemia or Lymphoma please do not hesitate to contact I would be more than honored to bike in their memory.

AllThingsJennifer asked how much the handbags will cost.

I'm selling them for $35.00 and 100% of the proceeds will be going to my fundraising goal.

Once I've a couple more bags made I will put up a photo of them. So keep an eye out for them!

My life has been consumed by training for the Seagull Century and making felted handbags as fundraisers.

Yesterday was way too hot to go out for a ride, which means I have to deal with the heat today. So, last night I finished up the second of the 15 handbags I'm making and started the third. I'm getting to the point where I wish I had more than one zipped pillowcase for when it's time to felt them. Because, seriously, I don't want to have to felt them one at a time, I would like to felt two or three at a time. By saying this I'm sure I'm breaking some sort of cardinal rule about felting, but I don't care. The keepers of the knitting dogma can suck it. 

While knitting, I realized that I'm going to have to take a day or so off from knitting as my hands are beginning to feel the strain from the constant knitting (having a job where I spend the vast majority of my day on a computer does not help either). I've a wrist brace for my right hand that I wear at night, but I'm going to have to get one for my left hand as well, I've decided. Because, when I'm 80, I would like to have hand mobility. 

Thank you to those who've donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!! Look at that total!

Those of you who are new and repeat readers of my better than Fig Newtons site, you may have noticed the big purple, white and green TNT logo on the right side of your screen.

What is TNT, you ask?

I'm glad you asked! 

TNT stands for Team in Training^®,  the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's fundraising program which raises money for blood related cancer research, treatment, public education and patient programs.

The Society sets a fundraising goal for me, which is established based on the location of the event I've signed up for (the Seagull Century Ride). On October 8th, if I reach my goal of I will be sent off to the Eastern Shores of Marlyand to bike 100 miles.

So, go ahead, click on the logo & make a donation. I and the thousands of people affected with blood related cancers will thank you for it.

(Seventy four percent of the Society's total expenses support cancer research, education, advocacy and patient services. The Society meets the Better Business Standards for ethical conduct and charitable accountability.)