"ASK ME, UH-HO-HO, ASK ME"

You guys, the scoop is in o the Maikng Strides Against Breast Cancer event: 12,000 people walked in Chicago and, as of today, we raised $900,000. Not too shabby!

"A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT"

You guys, I met my goal!

Thank you so much to everyone who donated and helped by spreading the word. The event this morning was lovely. The lake was lovely this morning, the sun was shining, my time was pretty fast (I was home and showered and sipping coffee an hour and a half after I crossed the starting line) and I had a great time and felt glad to do my part. See the pink trucks, a better shot of the pink dump truck, and the dog in pink to support his survivor Ma. My absolute favorite moment though, was the 84-year-old woman flashing her decades-old mastectomy scar in a slutty pink bikini top under a t-shirt to raise a few dollars more right before the event. I just loved her sense of humor and can only hope I am that funny and tough of a woman when I'm her age.

I can only hope.

So, I'm done hitting you up for money (for now, anyway!) so let's all take a second and click through to The Breast Cancer Site for free and donate mammography to women in need.

Thank you all again so very much for helping me meet my fundrasing goal. I'll give you an event total as soon as I know.

Now, to bed. I'm that good-tired.

"IF THERE'S SOMETHING YOU'D LIKE TO TRY"

You guys! I only need $105 to meet my fundraising goal for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event that takes place tomorrow. Today is the day! Click here to donate as much or as little as you can to support the cause. Easy. Please help me reach this goal by emailing a link to this blog post to any friends and co-workers you can think of who might want to contribute.

And, just to remind you: I'll promote anything on this blog that you need promoted by writing all about it and I'll do that for everyone who donates today, the final day of fundraising. Already donated? Hook a sister up with at least one more dollar (Sparkypoo and Mermaidhead both came back and were total menschyroos and donated twice, can you believe?) and I'll write about and link to your band, your independent film, your art show, your design project, your awesome kid, your cool job, your book, your whatever. Deal? Donate more than $50 today or tomorrow, and I'll blog about your project twice, donate more than $100 and Ill blog about your project everyday for a week. A week! Donate more than $200 and I'll blog about your project for a week AND run an interview with your about your project. Hello, I get a lot of traffic on this blog. You might as well use it to your advantage. Ready, set, go! When you donate, I'll get an email with your email address on it. I'll contact you and you can tell me what you want blogged about. Deal? Deal.

"OH MY DARLING, WHY DID YOU CHANGE?"

For the month of October, Bigmouth is going pink for breast cancer awareness month. As many of you might remember, it's a big issue to me, in small part because of a scare I had over the summer, the second scare I had over the summer, and largely because some monumentally important people to me have been impacted by breast cancer, either personally or second-hand. And because, let's not kid ourselves, breast cancer is everyone's problem. Anyway, last year, a blogger I know tricked out her blog and made it pink and I thought it was such a great idea that I thought I'd start doing the same when October comes a-knockin'.

Every post, I'll stick a little reminder to click through to The Breast Cancer Site because you can click through every single day and click a button and doing so helps fund mammography for women who need it and cannot otherwise afford it.

Also, everyday until I do the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event on October 21st, I'll provide a link so you can fork over a buck or two for the fundraising effort, if you are so inclined. Which I hope you are. For those of you darlings who have already donated, thank you, thank you, thank you. We've raised almost $1,200! So now, I want to reach the new goal of $2,500. We can totally do that!

And, and, and I'll be featuring cool products and programs that are not only great but also give a portion of proceeds to fund breast cancer charities, like Yoplait yogurt's Save Lids To Save Lives program or KitchenAid's Cook for the Cure products, to make it super-easy for you to be menschy.

That's what I got, that's all I know.

"YOU JUST HAVEN'T EARNED IT YET, BABY"

Hey gang.

Just talked to Mr. Mermaidhead. Wee Neptune, while doing wonderfully and probably very happy to be home, now weighs less than 5 lbs. What a tiny baby. He shrank! When I ditch the sniffles and this cough, I'll go give him his awesome welcome gift-- wanna know what it is? Well, Mermaidhead peeks in here at Bigmouth from time to time (though I doubt she has time to do any such thing right now) so just to be sure, see the awesome thing right here. Adorable beyond!

Let's see, what else do I know? We've raised 70% of my fundraising goal for the Making Strides event, which is awesome and I thank you all. I'm the #12 fundraiser for the event, which is fine by me-- I don't care who is raising the money as long as it gets raised, so it only means someone else is raising more. Dig. Want to help? Click here to donate and while you're clicking, we should all click here to get corporate sponsors to fund mammography for women who can't otherwise afford it. See, I'm handing good deeds to you for the doing.

Now.

My guest spot continues at Jewcy for another month starting today. I'll link it up proper when I get the post up in a bit. I had a brainstorm about letting my almost-finished next novel absorb a half-finished novel that I've had in the hatch for several months, and I like this idea very much, as it fixes where I was held up/in need of a little polish in both texts.

My awesome coffeeshop friend, Montana the Canadian World Sailor, just offered me an extra Cubs-Cards ticket for today. I can't go because theres much to do today, but it did remind me I've only been to one baseball game this summer. For shame!

I want to go to Buenos Aries and Santiago. Big time.

"THE STORY OF MY LIFE"

Oh my, I have a lot to tell all of youse.

So, I fainted yesterday, twice. I think the unforch sniffley-sinusey thing reached my ears or something. It happens. I'm a fainter. I've fainted before and always when I have a good head cold. Anyway. It wasn't a big deal-- I was awake about a second after hitting the ground both times, but still. Fainting. How Victorian! The first episode was on the sidewalk in front of a bunch of construction workers. I felt it coming and started to bend and reach for a stoop, so my head wasn't far from the ground, at least, and I opened my eyes right as I heard, Damn, that hot bitch just fell the fuck out. Uh, thank you...?

The second faintyroo was leaving the Mac store. What was I doing int the Mac store? Well getting a new laptop, of course. Long story, but my harddrive was dead as a overdosing coke whore yesterday. One minute in full action, the next kaput. Luckily, I back up my work and had my ass covered for the most part, so I left with a new MacBook, only slightly awesomer than the MacBook I watched die moments before.

Anyway, I got that taken care of and bonk. And, again, I came to a second after I hit the ground. I felt kind of brain-freezey for a few minutes after, but fine the rest of the night. Today, on the mend. Just sniffley today. No throatey hurty or nothin'.

Anyway. What else? Yesterday I got a sweet invite to do The Nod-- a cool show men-about-town Joe Janes and Done Hall put up where bloggers read some of their favorite-est, fun-est posts before an audience. That'll be Wednesday the 19th at the Uptown Writer's Space and it's a kickass deal for only a $5 suggested donation. (Fear not, I'll remind you.) But, that's not until I get back from the (Downtown) Omaha Lit Fest. Which will be awesome. Just as it was last year. In fact, I think this year will be way bettah.

Speaking of good, we're over halfway to my fundraising goal for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event. And guess what? Because of all of youse and your support, I'm in the top ten fundraisers for this event in Chicago. How cool is that? Got a buck or two burning a hole in your pocket you want to fork over to the cause? Click here!

"STRETCH OUT AND WAIT"

I'm taking applications for a houseboy. No, that's not true, of course. I'm still sick, and don't want to go to the store. But, I need Pepsi, Spaghettios and a grilled cheese to go another round with these germs and so I must. It's just as well. Youse know how a Type-A aspiring to be a Type-B like me does. I'm trying to rest and feel better, but I'm laying around going rest, type, rest, type, email, gather, move, file, organize, find, look at clock, rest, type, cmon feel better... nnnnow.. Okay nnnnnow! and not really resting.

I get up early but when Ma Guth called today and said, at like nine in the morning, Oh shit, did I wake you up? I sounded like a cross between a two-pack-a-day octogenarian and a squeaky door. Now, post steamy shower to clear the nose, maybe just the squeaky door. Plus Minnie Mouse. Bleh. Today is the worst of it, but maybe that means I'll start perking up tomorrow. In the meantime, my brain is in a fog. Bloop, blee, blee, bloop, bloop bloop. If anyone wants to run a crazy idea by me, today is a good day to do it.

But, I do have sense enough to recognize three positive haps today. One, Mermaidhead's baby is being born as we speak. Two, The Prosecutor's birthday is today, too. Three, you guys-- we've already raised almost half of my fundraising goal for the walk, and I haven't even been taking donations for a solid 24-hours yet. Good, Good, Good.

Wait, what's that you say? What walk? Where can you donate? Oh, well click here, of course, for everything you need to know.