For several years, Wil and I have supported a handful of our favorite charities with personal financial donations. Two years ago, we decided to start our own charity foundation to expand our ability to help these charities we love by not only contributing financially, but by doing projects to help them increase their visibility so that others may help them in their own way. We are a non-profit 501(c)3 charity with no administration costs (other than our accountant who files the necessary federal paperwork for it) so the maximum funds available can go directly to help others in need.

Our foundation is technically a private foundation because we are the only ones who have donated into it thus far. Since I am the only one running it, I’ve taken baby steps toward doing more with it. I have used it to fund a rescue pet calendar project, as well as create an informational video for the Pasadena Humane Society, and continue to use it to donate financially to Planned Parenthood, NAMI, ACLU, the Ronald McDonald House in Pasadena, and a few smaller, local charities. I am slowly working my way toward doing some projects with these other charities soon but like I said, baby steps.

People ask me all the time if they can donate directly to our foundation (which I love) but I haven’t set up online access to that yet. I currently have a web designer working on designing a website for our foundation (because I am seriously technology challenged and can’t do it myself) and I’m in the process of setting up a way for it to be made a FOR REALS public charity with the ability to accept donations on our site. It’s going to take a few more weeks for that to get all set up and frankly, I’m tired of sitting on my latest idea so I’m just going to start it now.

When Wil filmed the third season of TableTop over a month ago, the game publishers sent Geek & Sundry a huge supply of the games that were being played on each episode. The crew had every guest from each episode they were on sign the covers of the game they played and Sheri Bryant (President of G & S) saved me a set of these signed games to auction off to support our charity foundation. Woohoo!

So, instead of freaking myself out at trying to do a big auction of 19 games at one time all by myself, I decided it would be better to continue my baby steps and auction off each game AFTER its episode of TableTop airs so that you can see if it’s a game you would like (way too often after a TableTop episode airs, the game company immediately sells out of that game and then it’s hard to find a copy) and if you win the auction, you immediately get the game shipped to you with the added bonus of supporting a charity! HOORAY!!

I am going to be starting my first 3-day auction on eBay on Monday, November 24th and it will end on Wednesday, November 26th with the first game of the new TableTop season, “TOKAIDO.” Well, Wil is going to help me with the auction part because he already has an eBay account and I haven’t figured that stuff out yet. Anyway, here is a picture of the signed copy that I have.

If you haven’t seen the full list of episodes for season 3 with the games that will be played and the guests on each show, I snagged it off Wil’s website so you can peek ahead and prepare yourself for the auction of an upcoming signed game that you may want for yourself or as a gift for someone you love.

• Tokaido – Jason Wishnov, J. August Richards, Chris Kluwe
• Concept – Joseph Scrimshaw, Rett and Link
• Roll For It and Sushi Go! – Jason Ritter, Jennifer Hale, John Ross Bowie
• Forbidden Desert – Felicia Day, Alan Tudyk, Jon Heder
• Love Letter and Coup – The Fine Brothers and Felicia Day
• Hare & Tortoise and Council of Verona – Jessica Merizan, David Kwong, Alison Haislip
• Sheriff of Nottingham – Meredith Salenger, Ashley Clements, Derek Mio
• Stone Age – Nika Harper, Jesse Cox, Jordan Maron
• Geek Out – Anne Wheaton, Bonnie Burton, Clare Kramer
• Five Tribes: Jenna Busch, Richard Garriot, Satine Phoenix
• Epic Spell Wars: Jonah Ray, Emily Gordon, Veronica Belmont
• Mice & Mystics, Chapter One – Anne Wheaton, Ryan Wheaton, Nolan Kopp
• Dread – Molly Lewis, Ivan Van Norman, Laura Bailey
• Catan Junior – Emily Anderson, Brett, Baligrad, Adam Chernick
• Libertalia – Karen Gillan, Seth Green, Clare Grant
• Kingdom Builder – Yuri Lowenthal, Tara Platt, Paul Scheer
• Dead of Winter – Dodger Leigh, Grant Imahara, Ashley Johnson
• Legendary – Allie Brosh, Mark Fischbach, Brea Grant
• Tabletop After Dark: Cards Against Humanity – Aisha Tyler, Ali Spagnola, Laina Morris

When Wil and Boyan prepare for filming each season of TableTop, they play test dozens and dozens of games sent to them by publishers to see if the game is fun and will work on camera. Too often there will be a game that is super fun but just won’t work on camera so they don’t use it. When this happens, we donate those games to local community centers and charities who could use them. This season is the first time they have an episode that features kids playing a game. Because of this, we have a bunch of kid-friendly games that are fun but just didn’t make the cut. That supply of games will go to http://www.pasadenarmh.org which makes me really happy to be able to do.

Thank you in advance for joining me on this exciting new adventure. Are you ready? I’m ready. This is going to be fun!

Here is the link to the eBay auction page!

There’s a thing you may or may not know about me. I love to see patterns in numbers (#numbernerd on Twitter came from me) and when I see letters on objects, I MUST make them spell something out. Which brings me to this: There are several retail stores that put out monogrammed stockings, ornaments, or even just individual letters found in craft stores that are just sitting there, BEGGING to be made into a word.

Around this time last year, I spelled out a few silly (and somewhat inappropriate) words with the decorations I had found in Target. I posted it on Twitter and as a joke I added “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create your own fun with words and send them to me.” Oh, man. I was FLOODED with some of the funniest things I’ve seen on monogrammed Christmas decorations in a long time.

No matter what festivus holiday you choose to celebrate, whether by religious tradition or just your own family tradition, this time of year always seems to sneak up on us and make us STRESS THE FUCK OUT. So instead of just racing through stores in a panic, why not take a few minutes for yourself and say something funny with letters!

I started a Tumblr for this because I didn’t want to bombard Twitter with retweeting all of the funny that is bound to head my way over the next several weeks. This way, we have a platform in which to admire other people’s work either at the end of the day, or when you’re looking at your phone while waiting in line while that one woman who knew it was her turn and still wasn’t prepared, writes out a check with a pen that won’t work and can’t hear the cashier tell her the total or the date, no matter how loud he yells it at her face.

Just like last year, I encouraged people who spelled out something that may not be kid-friendly to mix the letters back up when they’re done so uptight moms or a couple of nuns out shopping won’t get pissed that you’re spelling out “Dickwagon” with their favorite glittery ornaments. Be sure to keep things in the areas they are designated for. We don’t want that ONE person who freaked out at me last year and decided I was “creating extra work for retail employees” when the ornaments are still in their same location, not over on aisle 6 next to their UNDERWEAR THAT GOT IN A BUNCH BECAUSE THEY HATE FUN. We wouldn’t want  Alex from Target to do something other than look cute while he bags your goods. (Possibly a euphemism)

So have some fun and be the stealthy holiday ninja you’ve been waiting all year to be. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

A month ago, I wrote a blog post about all this weird stuff happening to me and I wasn’t sure if it was my thyroid or what. I’ve known about these thyroid nodules I have for a few years now, so I see an endocrinologist annually to get them checked and to make sure my thyroid is still functioning properly. The nodules haven’t changed as long as I’ve known about them and my thyroid has always been fully functional on its own. I decided I would get another opinion since I’m due for my annual check on this anyway, so I went to see a head and neck specialist at USC Medical Center two weeks ago.

I went over my health history with the new doctor and talked about the symptoms I’ve been having this past year. He said the same thing I had researched on my own, which is that it’s either my thyroid function or the ‘ol body not producing as much estrogen as it used to, because that’s just part of getting older. I went to the lab and had blood drawn to test my thyroid and then had to wait a week to go back and get an ultrasound with another physician to biopsy any nodules that may look unusual.

When I went back for the ultrasound and biopsy, the physician told me that one nodule was large (1.3cm is large, I guess) and it had calcification in it, which is concerning. He did a very unpleasant biopsy with three different needles, getting directly into the calcified spot, and said to call my doctor in a week for the results. Of course, over this last week I made the STUPID mistake of reading way too much online on what it could be, almost all of it saying it was thyroid cancer. I know that is very treatable but still not what anyone wants to hear. I called my doctor on Monday and got his voicemail so I left a message. I did the same thing on Tuesday because he still hadn’t called me back. When I did get a call today, it was from his nurse saying my doctor wants to talk to me himself about my results and he would call me later today.

WHAT THE HELL. Thanks for the paranoia boost, pal.

An hour later my doctor called to tell me my biopsy was benign and that my blood work shows my thyroid function is completely normal. HOORAY! A huge wave of relief washed over me, followed by the realization that all of my symptoms (slowing metabolism, thinning hair, and not sleeping well to name a few) are actually because I’m getting older and not producing as much estrogen.

That is so weird to me.

In my brain, I still feel like I’m in my early 30’s but my body is here to remind me that I am in fact, 45 freakin’ years old. I kind of figured that’s what it was going to be when I used MyFitnessPal for a month to track what I was eating and to make better food choices to see if I could drop the 5 extra pounds I’d been carrying around this year. I was able to drop the weight so now I know it’s because my metabolism is changing and not my thyroid function.

I’m so glad I got another doctor opinion anyway, even if I did feel like I was being a bit paranoid. I will continue to get these annual check-ups  and watch what I eat but BOY, is getting older weird.