Thanks Again, and a Word About Sponsoring

Another successful Blogathon is over, leaving just a few administrative bits to sweep up! My thanks again to everyone who helped, in every way they helped. Your support and encouragement made a tough 24 hours fly right by!

If you enjoyed the blog and would still like to sponsor us, you can still sponsor through Blogathon (and have your pledge added to the overall event total) through July 31st. The link is here.

Comments will close in about a week to fend off spammers, but the blog will remain up permanently. If you have something to say about the blog after comments have closed, you can e-mail blogathon (at) darkfriends (dot) net.

AdSense ads were enabled this morning. Ads are not permitted during the event. However, after the event, I enable ads. All ad revenue from my Blogathon blogs is donated to the National Kidney Foundation. Currently, this is about $300 per year.

Thanks again for all of your support! We'll be back next year with another exciting 24 hour blog marathon!

Good morning, and good night.

And so it ends, another Blogathon has come to a close.

Twenty-four hours. Forty-nine posts. A lot of food, fun...and exhaustion.

We stayed up late, and we made a difference - The Chef's Table raised $843 for the National Kidney Foundation, and the participants of Blogathon collectively raised more than $41,000 amongst all their charities! Amazing!

Love and brightest blessings to all of you. It's time to hang up my hat, so to speak.

Until next 'thon, I remain,

Missy, signing off.

Gratitude

There are some people who need thanking.

First, above all, my wonderful sponsors for their donations - of money, of time, and of give-a-damn. Without you, I would have been blogging into the void. For all of your help and support, I thank you from the bottom of my very tired heart.

KT, my Blogathon monitor - and really, the whole Blogathon family - for being a tireless cheerleader and a great source of encouragement. It takes a lot of time and effort to bring together an entire community in just over a month, and they've put forth a PHENOMENAL effort.

My family, for coping with my yearly pre-Blogathon panic and fuss, and for all of their help with getting this year's theme off the ground - Maus for brainstorming the idea of a tasting menu to begin with, and the Monsters and Other Children for serving so competently as my Kitchen Crew. It is so gratifying that, even though the NKF is my "pet charity", the Blogathon event to support that charity is always a family effort. It means a lot to me.

And David, in whose honor I blog, for appointing himself my personal DJ as the evening turned to night turned to wee hours of the morning. It always has come down to us sharing music in the middle of the night, hasn't it? Some things never change.

Your support means the world to me. Thank you so much.

It's not too late to sponsor us for Blogathon 2009 and the National Kidney Foundation!

The Blogathon crew tells us that official sponsorships will remain open until July 31st. Of course, you can still donate to the NKF any time after the close of sponsorship - simply go directly to their donation page!

I am profoundly grateful for the support of all of my sponsors. It's folks like you who make the NKF's vital work possible in these days of reduced government funding for important research.

To all of you, from everyone here at The Chef's Table, our deepest gratitude.

Our After Blogathon Plan

My Kitchen Crew worked so hard all day and through the night, and they're still chugging away! They're very excited, as this is the first year we haven't lost one or the other of them in the wee hours of the morning.

We're rarely able to sleep past one the day Blogathon concludes, so we have determined that we will be having ourselves an afternoon out.

We will drop into bed at 9AM, rise at 1PM, and leave the house at 1:15PM to go to the movies and out for dinner. We are seeing UP (the second time for Ernie and me) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and we will follow it up with dinner at the Elephant Bar.

This has become something of a post-Blogathon tradition - every year we've participated, we've gone to the movies on just 4 or 5 hours of sleep.

I expect we'll all collapse half dead into our beds when we get home around 8:30PM tonight!

What's on your agendas, 'thonners?

Time for Breakfast!

All of this coffee and no sleep is really upsetting my stomach. Fortunately, my tummy is easily soothed with a smoothie:

1 cup apple juice
1 cup almond milk
1 banana
1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries
1 cup strawberry yogurt
1 scoop protein powder (we use Gaspari)
1 tbs. honey

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.

Kidney.org Showing As Malware

Several of my sponsors have reported the the National Kidney Foundation's home page is being reported by both Google and Firefox as a malware site.

Kidney.org is not a malware site, but rather the official homepage of the National Kidney Foundation - a federally registered 503(c) non-profit organization. You WILL NOT get a virus from visiting the NKF home page.

The "safe search" provider claims the site is "under review". Until they pull their heads out, please use Internet Explorer to visit the NKF homepage.