Remember, keep your brush on the ice

City hockey fans have yet to recover from the whooping that Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins inflicted on the Ottawa Senators in the playoffs last spring.

Now we hear that Sid the Kid recently took time out from being a shinny phenom to create some art for a charity auction to benefit people stricken with Parkinson's disease.

Is there nothing those penguins can't do? Apparently not.

Behold Patrick, flightless bird, artist, philanthropist. The little critter's work will be part of next Tuesday's Art by Animals auction sponsored by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Maybe the on-ice Penguins can put the NHL Senators to shame. But charity or no, we can't let real penguins show up our genuine senators.

Colin Kenny, surely you have some etchings that could fetch a few bucks on eBay for a good cause?

Aggie's Post

It's my turn to blog. As some of you know, my new schema is to spend more time living offline. So far I've discovered that life offline isn't any better. Stay tuned, though. I'll be giving occasional updates on this.

Yup. Photoshopped. Absolutely...

...but I dare you to prove it ain't, truthfully, an improvement on the original...

RNDP 14: Back to the Future

In Single Parent Rantings on Making Lemonade (the single parents' network), dating coach Jodi Seidler writes about a "new dating paradigm". Unfortunately, it is not a revolutionary new paradigm, it is a dating paradigm that the newly single get "lost in":

...especially ... ex-husbands and men who have been out of the dating market for a while. Sometimes you guys are the most romantic daters - old fashioned and sweet...just looking for a recipient who can appreciate and acknowledge your uniqueness. But alas, in a perfect world that would be so and I wish we could get back to the times when daters courted more frequently. Please don't ever tell me that is a lost or forsaken art form that our children will one day read about in history books.

Ms Seidler gives us no more explanation on either the new or the old dating paradigms, saying she'll leave the topic of how to be romantic to another time. Instead, she advocates that the newly single move slowly and cautiously. She has a rule that she won't "date anyone just out of a relationship or out of a marriage for under a year" and she recommends writing lists of what you're looking for in another person and identifying the lessons you've learned from your failed relationships.

4D Analysis: It appears that Ms Seidler prefers the "courting" model of dating with lots of dates and men acting sweetly.

Given that it has been 3 years since she said she would leave writing about how to be creative in romanticsim to another time, I suspect she broke her rule about only dating someone who'd been single for at least a year and fell into a relationship that gives her reasons to write about something else.

Emergency Meeting Minutes: 2008-09-07

Venue: The Usual Spot

Present: 4th Dwarf, Conch Shell, Chair, Coyote, Independent Observer, Woodsy
Guests: Harmony, Painted Stick

Breezed in with no excuse: Agatha, Shaggy Waiter

1. Woodsy Reports on the Blogger's Brunch
Woodsy has kind words for all of the bloggers she met. "A bit anti-climactic" someone suggests. [Perhaps it would have been more exciting if we had sent the Dwarf.]

2. How can we support Coyote in his efforts to keep the blog alive?
It is mentioned that since the agenda went out, both the Chair and the IO have posted. [Expressions of surprise from those who can't keep up.]

IO: I think we should go back to the schedule where everyone has a day on which they post.

4D: I'm on board with that.

IO: But only post per day.

4D: But I've got a lot of RNDP postings to go through and this would mean only one per week.

IO: You could do two a week.

4D: But there are 7 ESIs and 7 days in a week.

IO: Oh.... right.

After some discussion, it is agreed that a blogger may post as many items as they like on their day and breaking news may be posted as it is breaking, so that the Chair is not restricted from updating his insightful election coverage.

People begin choosing days as Aggie arrives. We stop to update Aggie on the new plan. Aggie has a momentary seizure but collects herself in time to prevent collapsing to the floor. [Note for a future emergency meeting agenda: How can we better accommodate of Aggie's ODD issues with rigid plans?]

Posts are expected by 9am

Sun: The Chair
Mon: 4th Dwarf
Tue: Aggie
Wed: Independent Observer
Thu: Woodsy
Fri: Coyote
Sat: Conch Shell

[p.s. A shout out to Megan from the ESIs and the IO especially, who says he did see you around the time of the Bluesfest, but didn't realize it until you'd passed each other and you were with someone and he thought it would be awkward at that point.]