I'm in a heap this weekend, huddled under massive amounts of blankets and a general fog which hovers over my brain.

Which would normally be awesome, since I get to whine and complain and garner sympathy for having a cold. But my backlog of work screams louder than my sinus headache so I am attending to that instead.

I've had the olympics on in the background all weekend. One of the rare instances these days when I watch NBC. It's amazingly how far it's fallen in just a few short years. I don't know if it's because they've been too afraid to put anything on their regular network that is even slightly daring (pushing it instead to cable) and that's why they've become so dull. But any network that banks their entire primetime lineup on Leno--Leno for god's sake, the least funny person on television--clearly is out of ideas. I don't know. They just look pathetic.

But apart from that, the latest show destined for crap would be the Marriage Counselor. Or... Ref? It looks like something Fox would have scooped up in a heartbeat to stick between Our Little Genius and The Moment of Truth.

But it's not without humor. I start laughing every time I see the promo with Alec Baldwin giving a couple marriage advice.

Because that last marriage worked out so well for him...

I hate you, Blogger. May you burn for making me have to figure out how to switch.

I was taking a nap this afternoon (look, I was up all night. I get to nap) and I was drifting off to sleep. You know the point where even though the television's on you can't really hear it?

That's the point I was at. And I wasn't paying attention to what was on (some bad scifi movie) so the sound was down low. When one of the over-actors screamed, "Where, Candy? Where is he hiding the heads?!?!"

That's my new favorite phrase.

It's Burns Night tonight!

Excellent...

Okay, for the record I may not have posted every day this week but I did donate. Work got too hectic and I just didn't have the time to write in here. So I decided I would go the presidential route.

Red Cross : 'cause you should listen the the First Lady
Clinton Bush Haiti Fund : 'cause it makes me laugh

Not the fund, mind you. I think that's awesome. What makes me laugh (and not in my usual, cynical way) is the whole phenomenon of the ex-Presidents club. It's like this super elite group of dudes--some who have joined before they would have liked and some who wouldn't have minded joining a few years earlier--who have been through something so draining that they just don't sweat any of the petty crap anymore. Like at a certain point they just went, "Fuck it. I did my time and I'm not bound to the everyday bullshit of partisan politics anymore."

True? Probably not. But ex-Presidents always seem to have this calmness about them that is alternately comforting and eerie as hell. And there's something oddly enticing about seeing a Clinton and a Bush side-by-side, working together.

So that's why I gave them money. Because the whole thing makes me giggle.

And for this Wednesday my donation of the day is:

Doctors Without Borders (www.doctorswithoutborders.org)

From their site:

"MSF has been working in Haiti for 19 years, most recently operating three emergency hospitals in Port-au-Prince, and is mobilizing a large emergency response to this disaster. Our immediate response in the first hours following the disaster in Haiti was only possible because of private unrestricted donations from around the world received before the earthquake struck. We are currently reinforcing our teams on the ground in order to respond to the immediate medical needs and to assess the humanitarian needs that MSF will be addressing in the months ahead."

Emphasis mine. Because that's pretty awesome.

Today is the American Refugee Committee (www.arcrelief.org/):

...On the border we are working with a clinic that has been flooded by between 300 and 500 wounded and their families. There are estimated to be 2,000 people in total. To give you an idea of the scale of need, this small clinic has conducted more than 60 amputations in just the last two days. Today, we are working to support the clinic by delivering very basic supplies that they need such as sheets, chlorine, and other cleaning supplies. At the same time, we are working to provide the 2,000 displaced with a safe, temporary place to sleep and recover.

In Port-au-Prince, most of the main roads have now been cleared and cell networks and internet are beginning to return. But there is still very little electricity in the city. Despite the incredibly challenging conditions, the relief effort is vigorous....

In Port-au-Prince our response is:

• Immediate Distribution of Relief Supplies: We will support the work of local NGOs to distribute relief items immediately. Local Haitian NGOs have been developing a system to access people in an orderly and equitable way. We are partnering with them to identify community leaders; produce informational materials in Creole; train community leaders on registration and reception of aid; and link the UN, US government and other actors with these communities.
• Working with Local NGOs: Work with local NGOs to import (1) medical supplies to distribute to community clinics and (2) plastic sheeting to distribute to displaced communities in several locations throughout the city. This will also provide some employment to Haitians.
• Reconstruction: We also plan to work with local Haitians to rebuild structures destroyed in the quake. During our efforts in the wake of the Pakistan earthquake, we were able to develop pioneering technology in building reconstruction, which entailed building seismic-resistant 3-story structures. This building technology could be taught to local people.

So I'm not much for much lately. An over-abundance of work has me occupied about 16 hours a day.

But even focused on work it's hard to escape the images of devastation in Haiti. And I know it's not much, but I decided to do my little bit by donating to one charity every day this week.

So Monday is the World Food Program : http://www.wfp.org

Latest from Haiti Operation (www.wfp.org/stories/latest-haiti-operation)

Here is the very latest information from our team on the ground in Haiti:
In the week since the earthquake struck, 250,000 daily food rations have been distributed by WFP (120,000) and the US military (130,000) in Port-au-Prince and other areas.

• An aircraft with 86,000 rations of High Energy Biscuits landed on Monday in Port-au-Prince from El Salvador. 16 million Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs) are also enroute, provided by the US, Italy and Denmark.
• WFP is in the process of procuring 4.2 million rations of supplementary ready- to-use food designed to provide children with their daily calorific and nutritional requirements
• Within the next week, WFP aims to move the equivalent of 10 million ready-to-eat meals so that people whose homes have been destroyed, and who have no access to cooking facilities can feed their families.
• As part of our lead agency role for the UN on logistics, WFP has secured a system through which humanitarian flights are guaranteed landing slots at PAP airport.
• WFP is establishing 4 humanitarian hubs to deliver food assistance in Port au Prince, and at least 30 others at locations across Haiti.
• We have started to shuttle humanitarian staff essential for the crisis response to PAP from Santa Domingo using UNHAS (the Humanitarian Air Service) WFP operates on behalf of the UN system – 30 today; goal : 100/day.