I just found out that today is World Malaria Day from the Compassion International blog. Here are a couple of facts about Malaria that I didn’t know:

• Malaria is killing one million people a year
• More than 750,000 of these people are children under the age of 5 in Africa

Compassion is trying to provide nets with insecticide to help prevent the spread of the disease, but fewer than 2% of African children sleep under nets.

Cara drinks a Big Gulp from the 7-11 just about every day. And she has a special way that she takes it – filled to the top with ice, mostly Diet Coke with a splash of Dr. Pepper and sometimes a splash of regular Coke. She drinks it all throughout the day, sometimes she even puts it in the fridge mid-day and pulls it out later.

The worst, though, is when we go through the drive-through at McDonald’s and I’m driving (which is usually the case). This is how the order goes: “I’d like a large soda, half diet coke, half regular coke, and FILLED to the top with ice.”

Just in case you ever want to buy Cara a drink, now you know how to make it… �

As I wrote about here, Cara is heading to Cameroon in May. She recently found out that she can bring a second suitcase with her for children’s clothes. Here is an excerpt from an email that she received from the guy who is leading the trip:

Northern Cameroon is an extreme poverty area, and I imagine most of the kids we see will be dressed in older, well-worn, and possibly tattered clothes. If you would like to bring used clothing for the children, of course this would mean using another piece of luggage, which you would check in. It could be a suitcase, or a duffle bag, or whatever.

If you have any clothes – or a bag or suitcase – that you would like to donate, please contact management@caraaustin.com and we will be sure to get the items from you.

Cara’s going to be playing tonight at In A Pig’s Eye in Salem, Mass. I’ll post pictures/video hopefully tomorrow! Hope to see you there!

Chris and I are going to Philly for the weekend to visit our friends Julie and Will and their cute kids in their new house. So there won’t be a post again until Monday (sad, I know!) As part of getting ready to leave, I wrote this blog post (on my work-related blog – follow the link) and Cara read it and told me that she was glad that I wrote it because she was about to give me a speech telling me to take a break from work. And that since I “gave myself the speech” it saved her some time.

She also told me that I should pay particular attention to #3 (I think that she was joking, but maybe not!!) You may all agree. Have a nice weekend!

Also, if you’re really into this whole iMix thing, and you end up on the iTunes site, please search for “Cara Austin” and vote on my iMix – a 5-star rating will help more people see the mix. And maybe they’ll be intrigued by the S***s? (wishful thinking, I know).

Here are the Web-based instructions (you don’t have to go to iTunes) from MacWorld.

This is a link to iTunes that explains how to make an iMix – WARNING it will open iTunes (it’s not a web page). I’ll find another link to a Web page…