Saturday, July 16, 2005
Thank you ...

to Cecily Stewart, Emily Bloemker, Ryan Wallace, Emily Biagioni and Steve Scharre who showed up for Habitat for Kinmanity II at the new house (and to Andrew Langan, who was there for hours for HFK I several weeks back). Thanks to this mighty crew, we got the walls of the master bedroom completely clean of wallpaper and glue (and almost all the mold), moved all the boxes from the dining room to rooms on the second floor (making room for the floor refinishers to come), tore all the carpet and padding in the house (except for the boys' room) and took it out to the garage, ripped up all the wood strips that held the carpet in place at the baseboards (don't mess with Steve and a crowbar), and pulled about 9 billion staples out of the wood floors that had been holding the carpet pad in place.

WHEW!

Anyway, the company was great and the work you all did was phenomenal. It would have taken me all week to get all that done by myself. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! |
Mike at 7/16/2005 08:52:00 PM

Thursday, July 14, 2005
I knew her when...

I just know that you were perusing the official Emmy Awards website and saw this listing:

Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series
Da Ali G Show • HBO • Talk Back/Fremantle Media Group
in association with HBO Entertainment and C4
Sacha Baron Cohen, Executive Producer
Dan Mazer, Executive Producer
Peter Fincham, Executive Producer
Jeff Stilson, Supervising Producer
Erin O’Malley, Producer

That's right ... Erin O'Malley is up for an Emmy. Now, if you don't know who Erin O'Malley is, you just haven't been paying attention! You probably remember her work on the short-lived but critically acclaimed (it had to be by somebody, didn't it?) Greg The Bunny, or perhaps her higher-profile work as a co-producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm. But I first met her as a second-grader at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Day School in Tucson, where I knew her then as the kid sister of my great friend, Ian O'Malley (who is currently bragging on his sister to anyone who will listen ... and who can blame him!).

But now Erin is all grown up and nominated for her first Emmy. And even though I've never seen Da Ali G Show (don't have HBO ... sorry, Erin!), and even though it is up against a show I watch almost every night, I will actually watch the Emmy's this year and hope to see Erin strolling up on stage to claim her statuette!

Whatever your field is, it's great when you get recognized for being one of the best. And that's what Erin is.

Way to go, Erin! |
Mike at 7/14/2005 08:00:00 PM

Monday, July 04, 2005

If you haven't already, sign the Live 8 list ! I know Amy Porterfield was at the concert in Philadelphia (the closest I got was being caught in Live 8 traffic driving to Cape May, NJ from Washington, D.C.). Anybody else see one of the concerts.

Also, read this article about how religion and faith communities are playing a large role in this movement (thanks to Beth Maynard's U2 Sermons Blog for this link).

We're with Robin's family (11 of us total) at a house in Cape May, NJ this week. The weather is wonderful -- 80s -- the kids are having a great time playing with each other (Schroedter and Hayden with their cousins Adrian and Olivia) and everything is wonderful in general. A great vacation. Tonight we'll watch fireworks on the beach.

Got an email from James Sarpei, the amazing guy I lived with in Ghana for six weeks last summer who is the founder and executive director of CENCOSAD - an NGO doing AIDS prevention, reproductive health and capacity building. He and his wife Elfrida are hoping to visit in the fall and stay with us for awhile. I am very excited ... not just to be able to return the hospitality but just to see them again! |
Mike at 7/04/2005 07:37:00 AM