Category: Uncategorized

Every year at work, we have an auction where we all donate stuff to auction off, and the proceeds go to buy Christmas presents for kids in foster care. My co-workers surprise me every year with their generosity. I always want to donate something cool, and this year, for whatever reason, I decided I would make a pumpkin roll.

One problem, though… I couldn’t figure out how.

I read a bunch of recipes online, many of which got rave reviews, but I just could not picture how this whole thing was going to work. Wrap up the cake in a dish towel? Huh? Who wants to eat dish towels?

Imagine my glee when I saw Memarie Lane’s Works for Me Wednesday in which she describes exactly how she makes pumpkin rolls every year. WITH PICTURES. She’s so good at it that she takes orders and pays for her Christmas expenses! I am impressed.

You must check out these instructions! She makes it SO easy, even a dummy I can do it!

In fact, I’ve made four thus far! Two for Thanksgiving (one of which I ate nearly entirely on my own, but don’t tell anyone) and two for the auction.

I hope the cakes for the auction were good, because they sold for $22 and $25! Score! And the auction as a whole raised more than $1500. That definitely Works for Me!

For more WFMW tips, check out Rocks in my Dryer!

Remember a few days ago when I said I was going to hibernate? Well, this is what was outside my front door when I woke up this morning:

Soooooo, I am going to begin TODAY. Nighty-night everybody! Talk to you in three months! Emily, please don’t let the blog fall apart while I’m snoozing, mmkay??? Now, where’s my NyQuil??

Sunday, Andy and I were watching 60 Minutes and heard the story of Nicholas Negroponte, a professor at MIT. Two years ago he founded a non-profit organization called “One Laptop Per Child,” through which he recruited a bunch of techies to design a low-cost computer for children in need.

This laptop is sturdy, meant to stand up to the harshest conditions (like being owned by a child), and small. It runs on a Linux operating system and has a built-in wireless connector, among other super-cool features. It costs $200.

For children in countries like Pakistan who don’t have schools to attend, Negroponte calls his laptop “school in a box.”

This laptop isn’t for sale in the United States, but from now until the end of the year, they have a program called “Give 1, Get 1,” where the general public can go online and, for $399, donate a computer to a child in need, and they will then send a computer to the donor as well. Since the fair market value of the computer is $199, $200 of the contribution is tax-deductible.

I was so intruiged by this story, and I spent some time yesterday searching the internet for various stories about this mission and this computer. Like everything, it has some naysayers, but most of what I read was very positive.

I had been thinking about getting a door-buster $400 laptop after Christmas, but now I think I may do this instead.

Did anyone else see this piece on 60 Minutes? Have you heard of this program before? I’d love to hear your thoughts about it… please leave a comment on this post!