If you are looking for a charity to give to this holiday season, I highly recommend Child's Play. It's run by the guys (from Seattle, notably) who do the web comic Penny Arcade. One day they just decided that they wanted to do something to help sick children. Three years later they've raised nearly $2 million in toys, books, games, and cash for hospitals around the world.

I'm not going to give you more of a sales pitch than that, except to point out two great things:

1) Unlike some charities, Child's Play takes no administrative fee whatsoever. 100% of everything you donate goes directly to the hospitals.

2) You can give locally or globally. There are 37 hospitals around the world that take part, so there is probably a hospital near you that you can give to. This year Nicole and I decided to give to Tulane Hospital for Children in New Orleans, for reasons that I'm sure are obvious.

If you are able to give this year, I think Child's Play is a great way to do it.

  This morning we were reading Hop on Pop, one of Sofia's favorite books. ("Hop pop! Hop pop!")

Me: ALL TALL - They all are tall. ALL SMALL - They all are small.
Sofia: <sniffs the page>
Me: What are you...oh. It's small, not smell.

  Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I've been working on this project at work which has required a startling number of all-day meetings. I have to admit that it was a little surprising how much that messed up my schedule. I didn't realize how much random stuff I get done during a typical work day: emailing so-and-so, checking this, calling this other person. With my work day completely taken over by these meetings, all of that stuff got pushed into after work hours, which are few and far between these days.

You might have heard that Seattle got hit with a windstorm last night. We didn't have much damage at our house - the worst of it is the layer of sap on our deck from all of the downed branches. We've been very lucky that our power has been on the whole time. Huge parts of the city are still without power, including my office and Sofia's day care, which were both closed today. (With global warming and computer use on the rise, I predict that by 2010 "power days" will vastly outnumber snow days.)

The most amazing part of the whole storm for me was the rain last night. I don't think I've seen rain like that in the 10 years I've been in Seattle. It was coming down in sheets, and it just didn't let up. After only 20 minutes or so it was running in rivers down the streets.

There was also a Seahawks game last night, AND one of the bridges was closed because of the wind, which led to prodigious traffic. Sofia's day care is across the street and around the corner from my office - 4 minutes by car or on foot. Last night it took me 15 minutes.

I hope the rest of you Seattle residents are doing OK. If you're reading this, I'm assume that you either have power or a diesel-powered laptop.