FeeFiFoto Blog

Hey, I Got An Award!

Nessa gave me an award for sparking creativity!  Here it is, suitable for framing and hanging on the wall my blog:

Isn't it pretty?  The background looks all festive and bubbly, I love the typeface, plus I'm so glad I got the Creativity part instead of the Controversy part, because I don't want to be controversial.  No, no -- I want everyone to love me.

Thanks Nessa!  You're a gem.

LOL Cats: I Can Haz Christmas?

Thursday Thirteen: Things That Are Hard

1. It's hard to hit a moving target (dirty, fleeing dog) with unstable ammunition (bucket of water) while you are insufficiently armed (not wearing glasses) in a hostile environment (shower).
2. It's hard to get out of bed in the morning when it's still dark outside.
3. It's hard to figure out why my Technorati rating has plummeted lately.  Somebody, please link to me!  Darn Technorati.
4. It's hard to throw away photographs, even of people you don't remember any more.
5. It's hard to believe Christmas is only a month away.
6. It's hard to force myself to eat chocolate.  No it's not.
7. Diamonds are hard.
8. It's hard to choose my favorite give a darn about remember which Jonas Brother is which.
9. It's hard to watch your kids struggle with social politics.
10. It's hard to get all those seeds out of a pomegranate, but so worth it.
11. It's hard to load the dishwasher with a dog standing on the open door.
12. It's hard to hear people singing "Happy Birthday" out of tune and not run screaming from the room.
13. It's hard to resist a kid who sends you the following text message: "Xoxoxoxoxoxo".

Racism? Just Plain Cruelty? Does It Matter?

PS: PLEASE STUMBLE THIS POST.  Thanks.

From today's New York Times, an article about a pastor's fervent ambition to build a new church to house his growing congregation in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bishop Bryant Robinson, pastor of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ, took over the congregation after his father and co-pastor's death in 2001, and decided it was time to replace the church's 100-year-old facility.

"[T]he church on King Street, now more than a century old, could no longer meet the congregation’s needs. Parking was minimal, the maroon carpet old, the windows small and high; Oh Lord, could it get hot in those pews on a late summer Sunday.

We deserve a church meant for us, built by us, he told his congregants, and they agreed. The weekly tithing and special offerings took on added urgency, as the bishop reminded people that when you invest in Kingdom’s church, you cannot lose."

The 18,000 square foot facility would include a large foyer, plush ladies' and mens' rooms, a meeting hall, a set of prayer rooms, a food prep room, a 500-seat sanctuary, and a spacious parking lot. When fund raising flagged, Bishop Robinson announced to the congregation that he hadn't taken a salary in a long time.

"Finally, in April 2007, dignitaries and elders joined Bishop Robinson in breaking ground with shovels painted gold. “I was so elated that day,” he says. “At one point I said we may be standing in the sanctuary. And you know where we were? In the parking lot.”

By November 4, construction was nearly complete:

"As Election Night made way for a new day, pastor... Robinson... clicked off his television to accept a sleep of sweet promise. His mostly black congregation now had two blessings awaiting it in 2009: the inauguration of the first African-American president and the finished construction of a new church...

He could not have been asleep two hours before his telephone rang. It was his brother Andrew, whose home abuts the blessed construction site. 'They’re burning our church,' shouted Andrew Robinson, who still doesn’t know why he said 'they.'

Soon Bishop Bryant Robinson, pastor of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ, was standing at the grassy edge, as firefighters sprayed arcs of water meant not to save the building but to contain a fire clearly set. Black embers the size of fists shot skyward, only to float down like broken pieces of the cold New England night.

Someone eased him into a chair — he is 71, with bad knees and high blood pressure — and placed a blanket around his weary shoulders. He stayed there past dawn, when this new day’s light revealed a smoldering test of faith: a skeleton of scorched steel and a cracked foundation upon which a church could no longer be built."

Photo: New York Times

Investigators believe an arsonist started the fire but so far have no suspects and no evidence that racism was at the root of the incident.

"Still, the bishop cannot shake the timing of it — timing that will now forever link two events, one of joy and pride, another of loss and horror."

Are you as horrified as I am by this story?  I don't know that I could ever become inured to this type of viciousness.

UPDATE:

The New York Times supplied me with the following address for donations to the church:

Macedonia Church Fund

c/o Morrison Mahoney, LLP

1500 Main Street

P.O. Box 15387

Springfield, MA

01115-5387

I sent them a donation.

PS: PLEASE STUMBLE THIS POST.  Thanks.

Auction Time, Part 2

How to create a simple yet impressive class art project for sale at the school's fund raising auction?

As I mentioned last week, it's school auction time again, and I'm forced privileged to be involved, thanks to my  roommotherhood.  One of our jobs as room parents is to orchestrate a group project to be offered for sale by the third grade to unsuspecting enthusiastic parents.  Our main criteria are as follows:

1. Item must be easy to produce
2. Item must have the potential for bringing in lots of money
3. Item ideally (in my opinion) should originate at FeeFiFoto, my personalized gift web site, because hey -- let's spread some of that wealth around, shall we?

Vicktory Dog Wines

Love your pet?  Put photos of your favorite dog or cat on personalized photo gifts from FeeFiFoto, just in time for Christmas.

Remember Michael Vick?  The guy who set a shining example of exactly how not to treat another living creature?

His dogs are famous.  Their portraits are featured on labels of the Vicktory Dogs Wine Collection:

From sportsnet.ca:

"The Vicktory Dogs Wine Collection features colourful portraits of 22 dogs confiscated from [Michael] Vick's Bad Newz Kennels that now live at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in southern Utah...

Each bottle includes a portrait of one of the dogs on the label. On the back, instead of a description of the wine, there's a brief story about each four-legged friend.

The pit bulls have been living at Best Friends since January while handlers try to reverse the mental damage done at Vick's 15-acre estate in southeastern Virginia. Vick, a former NFL quarterback, is serving a two-year prison sentence in connection with the dogfighting operation.

Artist Cyrus Mejia, one of the founders of Best Friends, began painting the dogs after they arrived at the sanctuary. Gone in the portraits are any signs of snarling beasts fit for a fight ring. Instead, there are cocked heads, soulful eyes and floppy ears...

Ten per cent of each sale goes to Best Friends. The money will be used to oppose dog fighting around the country and to fight laws that target specific dog breeds..."

Michael Vick is in prison, raking in 12 cents an hour.  He hopes to resurrect his football career when he gets out in July of 2009, just in time for training camp.

Meanwhile, want to meet an enthusiastic athlete who thinks of nothing more than the joy of playing the game?  Meet Wallace, and learn what a pit bull can do.

I'm not a fan of pit bulls.  Their power scares me.  I like small, fluffy dogs with floppy ears and tails, the kind whose main activity is cocking an eyebrow at me while they wait for me to jump to attention, rub their ears and serve them treats.  Nevertheless, I believe in giving animals, and people, a fair shake (no pun intended).

Increasing Technorati Linkage

Links, links, links

I don't usually do this sort of thing, but Shinade is one of my faithful commenters, and I could use the linkage.  So here goes:

View blog reactions

Does Anyone want to increase their number of backlinks on Technorati? If so, then join the movement on MoneyBush™ and watch your blog grow with us.

Here are the Rules:

1. Copy the official list below into a blog post of yours.
2. Add your link to the bottom of the list.
3. Comment HERE so that we can update the list with your link.
4. Watch the backlinks to your blog increase dramatically via Technorati.
5. The sooner you join, the more backlinks you will recieve.

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Things I Thought I'd Never Do

• I thought I'd never allow any child of mine to wander the house dressed only in a diaper but Robey's chubby legs were so darn cute I wanted to gobble him up all the time.

• I thought I'd never spend so much time in the car but, I swear, the moment Robey gets his driver's license, mine is going in the shredder.

• I thought I'd never weigh more than 100 pounds but I do now.  My kids owe me a tummy tuck.

• I thought I'd never understand HTML but I still don't.

• I never thought my birthday would come to have less meaning for me, but lately it doesn't seem to matter as much, and it's not just because I'm ::coughcough:: years old.

• I thought I'd never willingly attend school plays or concerts, but I love every one of them.

• I thought I'd never enjoy exercising but with the right entertainment or companion, I still don't.

• I thought I'd never send any child of mine to religious school, but since college I've come to appreciate the importance of being part of a community and I want Robespierre and Cleopatra to understand it too.

• I never thought I wouldn't enjoy shopping but it's become such a burden to navigate the stores; I'd much rather shop online.

• I thought I'd never go camping or skiing but so far I've managed not to.

• I thought we'd never see an African-American president in my lifetime, but yes we could.

• I thought I'd never see my mother pretend breadsticks were tusks, but I underestimated the influence of a grandchild.

• I thought I'd never be so lucky.

Wouldn't This Look Great With A Brown Dress?

Tara at Five O'Clock Somewhere is doing a giveaway from her Etsy site.  I'm drooling over this necklace:

I just picked up a brown dress to wear to Sweet Talker's Bar Mitzvah, and I need something bright and bluish to break up the brown.  Wouldn't this look perfect?

To enter, just click on the link above, but try not to win cause it's my turn, K?

Darn Right It's Unique

Leslie at Unique Charms is having a contest to win a bracelet with scented cupcake charms.  Look how cute they are:

One of Cleo's many nicknames is "Cupcake" so this bracelet would be perfect for her.  Click on the link above to enter, but please don't win because I need this adorable bracelet for my Cupcake.