snagabag

Well, even though I’m fairly certain my email request for donations went to a much wider audience than my blog gets, I figured I’d post my request here too. This weekend, I’m participating in my second Chron’s and Colitis Foundation of America walk, and as part of that I’m raising funds for the CCFA. If you’d like to donate it would be greatly appreciated.

Click here to donate.

Here’s the email I sent out asking for donations. Oh yeah, I’m currently the #2 fund raiser. Help me get to #1 again!

Hi Family and Friends,

Aparna contacted many of you a little over two years ago to let you know she and Liah were participating in a 5k walk for the Chron’s & Colitis Foundation of America.

Since that time, I’ve had two more flare ups, one in the fall of 2006 and another in the summer of 2007, so my Ulcerative Colitis continues to be an active part of our lives. However, since that last flare up I’ve taken a number of positive steps regarding my disease. I started attending the monthly Austin CCFA Support Group meeting last Fall, and I’ve found those meetings to be very rewarding. It’s been long established that exercise reduces the effects of UC, and I made a commitment this year to exercise regularly. I started in February and continue to exercise on a consistent basis. I’ve lost almost 25 pounds, and it’s not a stretch to say I’m in the best physical shape of my life. (yes, I realize it also doesn’t mean much to say I’m in the best physical shape I’ve ever been in. Finally, the CCFA has free camps around the country each year for children and teens afflicted with Chrons or Colitis, and I’ve applied to be a camp counselor at the 2008 Texas camp this August.

This June 28 is the 1^st ever Austin Chron’s and Colitis Walk, and I’m excited to be a participant. As part of that effort, I’m raising funds to support the research and education efforts of the CCFA. For the inaugural San Antonio walk in 2006, we were the top fundraisers, and I’m hoping to repeat that accomplishment at the inaugural Austin walk later this month.

That being said, I am asking for any donation that you feel comfortable in giving to help eradicate this disease.

If you’d like to donate, you can do so online by going here: www.active.com/donate/takestepsAustin07/mo

Take some comfort in knowing this is the only email I’m going to send out asking for donations. (You’ll hear from me again after the walk.)

Well, I turned 35 today. It was actually a pretty mild day…which is perfect when you’re 35. Since I am the sole editor of this blog, I’ll once again chose to make public a private ego boost. Here’s one of the birthday emails I received today.

happy birthday!!!!! you’re so young. seriously, when i was looking at your b’day party pics, you look 25 years old. i couldn’t get over how youthful you looked. anyway, i hope you are having a great day with aparna and liah.

Who knew bangs could make such a difference?

If you are thinking, “there sure have been a lot of birthday posts,” you’d be right. My birthday celebration has been going on for a few weeks. We did do a little bit more of an official celebration on Saturday night. We went to dinner with our good pals Herb & Sheila at an amazing restaurant, Restaurant Jezebel. We then met up with some of my other pals, Garrett, MIke, and Amy, at a bar downtown to ring in my birthday. According to my mom, I was born at 12:02am on June 22nd, so it’s not terribly hard to be up at my exact birth minute. Of course, my mom also likes to tell if the clock in the delivery room was fast, my birthday could very well be June 21st.

You can a see a few pics here or by clicking the photo below.

Today would be Aparna’s mom’s 58th birthday. We celebrated by having some close friends over and having Aparna entertain us with fun stories of her mom. We also enjoyed a few of her mom’s favorite things: Gatti’s pizza, Coke, Napolean cake. It was a wonderful evening.

The photos from the oh-so-fun surprise birthday party have been updated with comments, but I wanted to highlight point out the very cool & creative invitation Aparna sent out for the party. I didn’t see it until the day after the party, but I’m glad I did.

Also, for the record, I did not get my hair highlighted! I’m well aware it has a brownish/red look to it. It was supposed to! I used my colored hair gel that I bought 6 years ago! One of my ex-coworkers at AvantGo sometimes showed up to work with his hair having some crazy color, so I asked him what was up with his do. He told me about “ICE Colorz” (yes, they really use the ‘z’) colored hair gel. Of course, I immediately ordered some. Specifically, the “twisted copper” color. I actually hadn’t looked into it in years, and I just dicovered that specific color is discontinued. Anyway, I bust out the colored gel every now and then when I’m feeling like looking especially ridiculous.

Aparna threw me a surprise party for my 35th birthday this past weekend! I had a great time, and the party was planned perfectly. Of course, it’s easier to surprise me when the the party is 2 weeks before my birthday. In this case, I had an inkling that something was going on. It wasn’t the 100% complete and total surprise that accompanied the last surprise party Aparna threw me, for my 30th birthday.

Thanks to Aparna and everyone who was able to make it. I had a ton of fun. Click the photo below to see some fun pics from the party. (Don’t forget to vote for your favorites and leave comments!)

Mr. Rohan Shrivastava

Here’s Liah with her Dadi on Saturday. Aparna went to her cousin Sindhu’s graduation this weekend, so my mom came down to Austin to help out. It was fun hanging out with mom. Liah loves her Dadi (though she doesn’t always show it.) hrmm…sorta like me with my mom. Thanks for coming down Mom!

I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this weekend with my pal Captain. I was worried the movie would not be very good before I saw it, and I’m disappointed to say my concerns were well placed.

The fourth Indiana Jones movie is not very good. Far and away, the main problem is the script. Too many completely and totally unbelieveable things happen, too many things happen to move the story along with zero explanation, and the science fiction aspect as written was pretty ridiculous.

In other words, once again George Lucas has messed up a great movie series.

So I’m currently experiencing an odd situation. I’ve actually been told I’m funny by some unexpected sources in the recent past.

A guy at the Colitis support group I attend remarked that I was funny. This is within the context of the actual support group meeting as I’ve only spoken to him during a session.

One of my closest friends told me her husband, who I always assumed did not find my humor very appealing, thinks I’m funny.

And then I just got this from a friend who I’m close to, but have spent very little time with in person.

By the way, I wanted to tell you that man, you’re pretty f**king funny Mo. I read your blog a little while ago when you told me to and I mean, really, not bad. I was actually laughing my ass-off at a couple things you wrote. I’m impressed.

So what’s the point? Well, much to dismay of everyone I know, this can only encourage me. More importantly, I figured I should put this up so I can read it every time I tell another ill timed joke that brings an uncomfortable silence to the audience due to its inappropriateness. In other words, I’ll be reading this post a lot.