Save Second Base!*

October is (was) Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And as you all know, breast cancer research is my crusade, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation is my pet charity. So I got organized, and had all of the people at work wear pink and give $5 on the last Friday of the month. In fact, we asked everyone to wear pink every Friday, but only collected money and had a pink party on the 26th. [And in an organization that is 75% men, I offered them the option to pay $10 to not wear pink. It worked!] We had pink cupcakes, pink rice krispie treats, chocolate chip cookies with pink m&m's, and pink ribbon prizes! And we raised over $250! It was very exciting.

Then I left work and went to the gym (and wore a pink t-shirt, natch), and my trainer made me do an hour of squats and lunges and frog-jumps and crunches... needless to say, I couldn't walk much on Saturday! But I still went to the UT-Nebraska football game with Janie. And now I can say I've seen the "Godzillatron!" But it was chilly, so we left the stands and went to the Alumni Center. Where it was also chilly, but we watched most of the rest of the game on the big screens.

The whole day, I was tortured by the fact that I wasn't watching the USC-Oregon game, and was forced to wait for the scores to roll around on the side scoreboard, or at the bottom of the screen. And then I didn't really want to see the scores roll around at the bottom of the screen. It was sad. The Trojans, it seems, are fallible. Hard to swallow, but in some way it was inevitable. Last year was supposed to be a rebuilding year, and it was fantastic. Maybe this year is the rebuilding year? I sure hope so.

Monday night, after yet another business-related dinner where we ate great BBQ, Marcia and Rebeka and I went to the bar at the Four Seasons to have their "Batinis" -- named for the largest urban bat colony in the United States, living under the bridge that's just beyond the bar's patio. We were too late for the bat flight at sunset, but not for the drinks! But instead of the Batini (made with raspberries and champagne), I had a Pink Ribbon Martini (made with cranberry juice - almost a Cosmo) that came with a giant pink fondant ribbon in the middle. Half of the proceeds from the Pink Ribbon drinks go to the Seton Hospital Cancer Center. Hey, a new sport -- "Drink for the Cure"! Yay! (Ha ha, no, I only had one.) My cell phone camera doesn't take good pictures in the dark, but it was beautiful.

* Among the Breast Cancer Awareness t-shirt designs at CafePress was one with baseball gloves in the proper places that said, "Help save Second Base!" and another with a little pink owl that said "Save the Hooters." There are thousands of designs.