i used up my ten votes today..i don't always use them up...sometimes i get busy and forget to finish (or even start) voting.

i am voting for Turtle Gardens to get a new van and the BCSPCA to help educate and control pet overpopulation and several of the other animal rescues because i do love animals and some humanitarian things too like affordable housing, ending bullying, music therapy for alzheimers patients, helping the homeless, an elevator for a hospice...gosh...every hospice needs an elevator, those people are very ill!

there are so many good things to spread our votes around.

i just want to make something clear here tho..it is physically impossible to vote for everyone in return who votes for us and asks us to return the favor.

both Turtle Gardens and the BCSPCA..i have a very close working relationship with and i want both of these colleagues to succeed...i value the work that they do and i know that each of them will use that money responsibly.

of course i vote for saints each day too (when i actually remember...which is MOST days) cuz i really value the work that we do..or quite frankly i wouldn't be doing it!

i am a sucker in all other ways...i want to vote for everyone who has a dream of making things better. but there are only 7 votes left each day so i try to spread them around in the very best way.

please don't vote for us if it is only because you want our votes back again. vote for us if you value the work that we do...and i will try to vote for as many others whose missions deeply move me as i am allowed and that is the best that i can promise....but the reality is..there are more moving missions then i have votes for each day.

the pepsi challenge is a wonderful thing...for any of us it would be a wonderful thing to win...we just need to remember that the challenge is as much about caring about others as it is in actually winning...so when we care about what someone is doing we try to support that by giving them our vote.

so just to reduce the obligatory stress that others might be feeling just like me...no one that i vote for needs to feel obligated to vote back for saints...my simple vote is a freely given gift and it comes without strings attached.