Socal Mom by Donna Schwartz Mills

High Desert Driving and Cat Loving Hunks

I accomplished only two things yesterday:

1. I chauffeured my husband to work after dropping his car off at the mechanic -- and then took him back when the work was done.

This doesn't sound like it would take a lot of time, until you learn that my husband's beloved certified Honda mechanic operates out of his home in rural Agua Dulce. It is an area beloved by film location scouts, because parts of it are so desolate looking that it can resemble any number of desert towns -- without leaving LA County.

There are no car rental shops nearby (or any other types of business, for that matter). In fact, this is the place Gertrude Stein should have been talking about when she said "There is no there, there." This is why each time he takes the car in, I have to follow.

"Why is he getting his car serviced all the way out there?" asked a friend yesterday.

Simple: We found a mechanic we can actually trust, who has saved us a ton of money. 

But his place is over 20 miles away from here, and the round trip can take me well over an hour. The car was finished at lunch today, which we took advantage of -- this means the trip back took over two hours. So I spent three hours out of my work day driving and eating lunch.

2. I spent the rest of my day just sorting through my inbox: answering email, deleting email, taking a few actions. This was actually something to be expected, as I took time off yesterday to spend some time with friends and do a little shopping (imagine that!) 

But I paid for it this morning, with 200 new messages in my inbox (which were on top of the 150 that were already sitting there). I've pruned the whole thing down now to 133... but I'm still finding some gems.

I actually didn't know what to do with this one -- except to reprint it below:

Hey Donna- Wanted to invite you to a fun event that the Found Animals foundation is having in West Hollywood next Saturday, Nov. 19, at The Abbey!  

Now, if you know Southern California, you know that Agua Dulce is to West Hollywood what Lady Antebellum is to Lady Gaga. In fact, if you click on The Abbey's link above, you'll see that Logo named it "The Best Gay Bar in the World."

And in case you weren't getting the gist of the thing, there's the invitation graphic:

It actually DOES sound like fun, and you gotta love the wit who named a cocktail Cat on a Hot Gin Roof.

The email concluded with this:

 Let me know if you have any questions and for the latest event information visit Found Animals and The Abbey on Facebook:  and .   

Attention Mom Bloggers: Now THAT'S What I Call Camping!

I've known fellow MomsLA contributor Jen Miner for a few years now, since she was tweeting as "MudSlide Mama" (you'll find her now on Twitter as @JenniferMiner and @TheVacationGals). 

Jen is organizing a conference that sounds fabulous: Mom Blogger Camp will be held January 5-8 at the Velas Vallarta Resort in Puerto Vallarta.

"The Mom Blogger Camp is going to be totally relaxed and fun, and really affordable," Jen says.  "The $150/night double occupancy cost of the resort stay includes attending the Mom Blogger Camp, along with all meals" (as the Velas Vallarta is an all-inclusive resort).

Speakers include a legal expert, technology maven and wonderful Jenny "The Bloggess" Lawson, who is worth the trip south of the border.

Best of all, this blog camp sounds like it will be intimate and accessible -- with time built in for important stuff like lounging around the pool. 

Jen is hoping for a diverse group of bloggers ("because there's always more to learn, right?")

It sounds pretty heavenly to me.

DISCLOSURE: I have no affiliation with The Vacation Gals or the Mom Bloggers Camp and am not budgeted to attend myself, but consider Jen Miner a friend. I hope this event is so wildly successful that she holds it again when I've got more money to spend.

Sometimes, I'm Proud to Be a Mom Who Blogs

We get mail...

From the coordinator of one of the blogging communities I belong to, the Yahoo! Motherboard:

Hi Donna,

I wanted to circle back and let you know the results of the Yahoo! Homepages for Homerooms program.  With help and support from folks like you, Yahoo! has donated $200,000 to DonorsChoose.org to support the funding needs of public school classrooms all throughout the country.  Throughout the time that this program ran we helped 52,452 students and their families, funded 399 projects and supported 146 classrooms.

As you know, we asked our Mother Board members to help this effort and your post on socalmom.com drove the most clicks!  Because of this we'd like to provide you with a $500 DonorsChoose.org gift card that you can use to support the project (or projects!) of your choice...

Thanks again for all of your support!

Yahoo!'s Homepages for Homerooms may be over, but there are still thousands of classrooms throughout the United States that need help -- and many of them have listed their needs at DonorsChoose.org. Give what you can -- aggregated small donations can make a help teachers create innovative lesson plans for our kids.

Now, if you'll excuse me... I'm off to see what some of the schools in my community need.

PSA: Fabulous Napa Valley Event Package - Benefiting City of Hope

I was going to spend my morning ranting about the "joys" of going through menopause -- but decided to spare you all (for 24 hours at least). Instead, I'm responding to an email from a publicist friend, who wants to get the word out about this fundraiser for one of my favorite charities, City of Hope.

City of Hope has two great auction packages available now for a very cool, exclusive upcoming event in Napa Valley – Live in the Vineyard presented by Aloft Hotels, taking place Nov. 5-7 – that combines food, wine and a once-in-a-lifetime music experience with artists like Daughtry, Michelle Branch, Jack’s  Mannequin, O.A.R., Christina Perri and many more.

 The auction went live last week, but the packages are still a steal, as each includes hotel, flights, transportation and all performances. 

The eBay auction is live through this Thursday, October 20 at 7 p.m. PT. All proceeds will benefit City of Hope’s lifesaving cancer research.

Each exciting package includes:

•             All access passes for the auction winner and guest to ALL acoustic concerts

•             Cooking demos and wine tastings during the 3-day period (November 5-7)

•             Southwest Airlines (2) green passes travel vouchers

•             Accommodations at either the Westin Verasa Napa or the Napa River Inn

•             Transportation from hotel to any of the offsite Live in the Vineyard shows/events

•             Gift bag with wine and special promotion items

Bid here for these once-in-a-lifetime experiences: www.auctionsforhope.org

With October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, one of the highlights of this amazing culinary experience is that Live in the Vineyard executive chef Lisa Stalvey will treat guests to a delicious menu featuring select superfoods studied by City of Hope including blueberries, pomegranates and white button mushrooms. City of Hope is a pioneer in the research of superfoods, which are healthy foods with natural compounds that may help fight or prevent diseases like cancer. City of Hope researchers have found that smart food choices may be an easy and practical way to reduce cancer risk. For more information and to download City of Hope superfoods recipes, please visit: http://www.liveinthevineyard.com or www.auctionsforhope.org . 

DISCLOSURE: I received no compensation of any kind for running this release. If I had the money, I would bid on this package myself -- it sounds like my kind of weekend, AND my family has a long history of supporting cancer research by City of Hope. If any of my readers does bid on this and wins the package, I hope you will let me know so I can enjoy your experience vicariously.

 

Back to School: Homepages for Homerooms

As many of you know, I'm a longtime member of the Yahoo! Motherboard, the online portal's community of mom bloggers. I'm also a public school parent, and have written a number of times -- both here and on the political site, MOMocrats -- about the effect of declining budgets on our kids' schools.

So I wholeheartedly support Yahoo!'s latest promotion: Homepages for Homerooms, where they have partnered with DonorsChoose (another organization I support) to donate up to $200,000 to classroom projects around the country -- at no cost to me, or you.

Participation is simple: All you have to do is visit the Homepages for Homerooms page and vote for a classroom project by making Yahoo! your home page. Each week of the promotion (through October 16), Yahoo! will donate $25,000 to the project that receives the most votes. 

Best of all, by clicking on the Homepages for Homerooms link on my blog, your vote gets tripled the privilege of being part of the Yahoo! Motherboard family. The current leaderboard features projects from two of my local Los Angeles schools; I applied my votes to one of them. 

Pretty easy.

DISCLOSURE: My relationship with Yahoo! does not involve monetary compensation. My involvement with this program is uncharacteristically altruistic -- if a private company is making funds available for education, I want to see my local schools get a piece of it.