Hello, half day! I love you!

Because I worked such long days earlier this week, I got out early today! I'm going to spend my afternoon napping, catching up on 30 Rock, and baking brownies and making guacamole. I'm pretty freaking excited about this plan.

Because it's not fair for me to leave you hanging, here's some other shit going on around the internets:

• Juniper Moon Farm is giving away a miniature donkey. It's part of a fundraiser for Pete Johnson, an organic CSA farmer in Vermont whose barn was destroyed by fire three weeks ago. (Y'all, the barn stored all his farm's produce and equipment and was under-insured. Check out what you can do to help, if you feel like it.)
• Do you read The It List? It's a weekly roundup of interesting stuff from various blogs, put together by Jill over at Good Life for Less.
• The Pioneer Woman has made your life easier by creating a "Superbowl" holiday category. I'll be making my ridiculously good guacamole, and Andy's making his Buffalo chicken dip, and I'm baking the aforementioned brownies. 
• I have been spending hours of my life staring at Pinterest. I love seeing what other people pin. I requested an invite a week ago, and it came today! I can't wait to get out there and start pinning things. One thing, though: I WISH PEOPLE WOULD STOP FUCKING PINNING ITEMS WITH MISSPELLINGS. It seriously isn't that hard to run spell-check. This goes double for mis-attributed quotes/sayings, especially well-known ones. I saw one that was the Mary Oliver line "Tell me, what is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?" attributed to some shmoe. So join Pinterest, and pin pretty things, but do it right, okay?
• Thinking about trying this spicy hot chocolate recipe from Alton Brown to keep in my desk at work. 

What are you up to this lovely afternoon? Are you on Pinterest? Do share!

I've had enough of this bullshit, Facebook.

I was late to joining the Facebook party. I didn't have an account until last summer, when I joined because my coworkers and I could goof off through it all day (never mind that my boss created an account two months after I did). I don't really like it, but I do like being able to see what out-of-town friends' lives are like.

One of my biggest problems with Facebook is that people think the things they post matter somehow. I first saw it last October when ladies were encouraged to post the color of the bra they were wearing "for breast cancer awareness!!" Of course, this makes no sense, but whatever. Then again this October: "Post the phrase 'I like it' then the place you keep your purse! It will confuse all the guys and raise awareness of breast cancer!"

The thing is, this does absolutely nothing to fight cancer. I'm pretty sure everyone is aware of breast cancer. Reading slightly suggestive posts from people my mom's age is creepy and it doesn't raise a penny for research, or give hope to a woman with cancer, or do anything useful.

So I do my best to ignore that shit when it happens. However, this morning, I see that a dozen or so of my contacts have changed their pictures to cartoon characters "to join the fight against child abuse!" This is not cool. Child abuse prevention is too important to mess around with, and I'm certain that people who buy into this crap on Facebook are less likely to actually give their time or money to agencies desperate for resources.

If you want to actually help fight child abuse, here are some agencies that can give you useful information:
1. New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
2. Bivona Child Advocacy Center. This is a local agency that allows provides counseling and child-friendly spaces for interrogations and examinations. Really, they do amazing things.
3. Child Abuse Prevention Association. Pretty succinct name, no?
4.  Information on becoming a foster parent. Many states have policies that let the parents approve someone they already know as a foster parent. This is especially helpful if you know a kid in a bad situation.

Sorry to get all preachy, y'all, but the victims at that shelter I keep talking about weren't just adults, so this is an issue I'm pretty passionate about.