Corrado wrote:That's right, it's that time of year again.

PENGUIN PLUNGE!

Next weekend (Saturday 2/5/11), I'm jumping into the the 32F waters of Lake Champlain to support the Vermont Special Olympics.

Every year so far, my generous woot friends have helped me surpass the "there's no way I'll raise this much" goal I set. I *think* this year I've set it high enough that y'all can't reach it and I'm so far woefully short of it.

I'm willing to entertain ideas for "incentives" for y'all collectively hitting certain benchmarks for my charity.

..but I'm also willing to just take a straight-up donation @ http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/corrado/2011plunge. Some wooters on Facebook have already found me out and pledged (props to laurachi for her kick-ass donation!)

No donation is too small and I appreciate any support you can give!

Truly, no incentive needed, the recipient is incentive enough.

but, if, an incentive is warranted, maybe gift a wine.woot?

Good luck, and stay warm!

Corrado wrote:PENGUIN PLUNGE!

Supoosed to be Polar Bear Plunge. What happened, the polar bears sue for infringement of defamation of something?

Better name than the Jiggety Jog. Then again, maybe not.

My niece did this in MN this past weekend. Here in CT, they had trouble making a hole for the folks to jump in.

So this year in particular, you deserve support. Good luck.

Corrado wrote:That's right, it's that time of year again.

PENGUIN PLUNGE!

Next weekend (Saturday 2/5/11), I'm jumping into the the 32F waters of Lake Champlain to support the Vermont Special Olympics.

Every year so far, my generous woot friends have helped me surpass the "there's no way I'll raise this much" goal I set. I *think* this year I've set it high enough that y'all can't reach it and I'm so far woefully short of it.

I'm willing to entertain ideas for "incentives" for y'all collectively hitting certain benchmarks for my charity.

..but I'm also willing to just take a straight-up donation @ http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/corrado/2011plunge. Some wooters on Facebook have already found me out and pledged (props to laurachi for her kick-ass donation!)

No donation is too small and I appreciate any support you can give!

glad to see that kids won't prevent you from shrinkage this year!

you know that your sig has an incorrect date, yes?

Think I missed it last year, but all set for this year!

You need to give a girl a little more notice of these things!

Oh, and what is the side bet this year?

Corrado wrote:Hey! You've got (almost) a week!

How about this for incentive.

and everyone who donated before you made this gesture gets two entries instead of one.

joelsisk wrote:and everyone who donated before you made this gesture gets two entries instead of one.

And their entry counts double if he uses highest for Monkey Prize. Right, CJ?

Corrado wrote:Hey! You've got (almost) a week!

How about this for incentive...

joelsisk wrote:and everyone who donated before you made this gesture gets two entries instead of one.

polarbear22 wrote:And their entry counts double if he uses highest for Monkey Prize. Right, CJ?

While I would love to be perfectly selfish and configure a way to rig it so I get the monkey prize (), I'm just not built that way. I think I shall stay out of the fracas.

Actually, I was wondering what the OFFICE side bet is this year? Will it be a return of the Bjork-dress? Will it be providing a tap-dance recital at the office pot-luck? That's the side bet I'm most interested in seeing.

Wheee!!! I got to be the one to push you over the $1000 mark!

When does the challenge close out? I need to shake out the couch cushions for loose change.

The wench obviously doesn't know she's dealing with Team W.W!

Corrado wrote:Holy frighted turtles, batman! nallie, girl, thank you!

cj, realistically, tomorrow evening (we'll go with 8PM Eastern) is the 'drop dead.' for the challenge.

I'll do a draw for the vest tomorrow evening and get size/sex/color for the winner. If I bust out another $500ish tomorrow, I'll do the same for the fleece.

My pleasure, C. Tell that plunge-nemesis of yours that she totally underestimated your fan base.

I want to say that you should give any tickets my donation may have earned to the early givers, the ones who pledged without a thought to their own personal enrichment. That's what I want to say. But it is like 51 degrees here right now so I'm cold. And I am going skiing later in the month. So I could really use a vest.

J/K. Divvy up any tixs my donation may have earned between early donors and yo'self. My ample reward is the image of you freezing your buñuelos off.

Seriously, C - good for you and good for society at large. Thank you for providing us with an excuse to support such a worthy cause. Without things like this, it would be too easy for us to forget how much we have been given and how little it cost us, in the grand scheme of things, to make someone else's life a little better.

Stay warm, my friend. And never underestimate the power of ethanol to fend off hypothermia.

I feel robbed of geekdom I wanted to give 30.07 since it could kinda be taken as woot, and then elected to pay the fee so the 30.07 would show up since that's the amount that's actually donated, instead it shows the amount as donation + fee, which is totally wrong.

Now I'm also wondering if the total they show donated includes fees or not. What horrible coding

And yes, I realize the focus should be the donation and not the interface, but that really irks me :P

Corrado wrote:Thanks, nallie! She saw the "challenge" this morning and replied with, "He is a brat, but more imortantly, I'm still kicking his a$$ fundraising!!!!"

All good fun and all for a good cause!

...and there will be consumption of ethanol-containing beverages.

I'm not sure you should count her $110 of "offline" donations... where's the independant auditor for those?!

Corrado wrote:About 2 hours left before I draw for the fleece vest. With ~$400 left to go to hit $2000, it's not looking like the fleece coat is gonna make the draw.

You guys have totally rocked again this year. Makes me feel like it's actually worthwhile to keep doing this year after year!

Thanks so much!!

I like how your nemesis's goal was $1k. So she's probably happy she almost got $2k, and you're probably like ah well, I probably won't hit $2k when your goal was more. The moral of the story is everyone needs lower expectations ;)

Corrado wrote:About 2 hours left before I draw for the fleece vest. With ~$400 left to go to hit $2000, it's not looking like the fleece coat is gonna make the draw.

You guys have totally rocked again this year. Makes me feel like it's actually worthwhile to keep doing this year after year!

Thanks so much!!

Don't be too sure about that. Some of us had to work late...

Done. You should be at or over $2k now.

you, Sir, are currently the #3 fundraiser for the event, and a good $400 above your ex-co-worker.

Corrado wrote:Statistically, nallie had pretty solid odds on getting drawn and that was the result. I think I'm reading her post correctly in saying she wanted to defer to someone else.

...so draw #2 drew Imagine4vr.

I want to give nallie right of first refusal since she did get the draw, but Imagine4vr should also declare sex/color/size (via post or PM; doesn't matter).

I did not make a donation to win a prize, donating is prize enough for me

I also would like to defer the vest to someone else. Even though it's been freezing here in AZ the past week, I have little need for a fleece vest. On to the next name!

Corrado wrote:Re-jacked the pot based on the latest round and, after picking another nallie, somewhat predictably pulled a cjsiege.

Wait, I want a women's vest!

You almost raised more than the rest of your team combined, that's not right :P

Corrado wrote:You people are truly insane! Y'all made this happen (this is the current leaderboard for the event):



At the same time, I curse you all because it's so damn hard to *not* do this year after year when I get such overwhelming support from a group of people who met looking for cheap, quality wine and found something much bigger.

From my soon-to-be-very-cold heart, THANK YOU for your contributions!

Good luck. I hope weather is clear. For you, and my daughter who is doing her brewery tour in VT this weekend.

Great job fundraising. You hit that in just about two weeks, or most of it in two weeks.

tenuki wrote:Wait, I want a women's vest!

You almost raised more than the rest of your team combined, that's not right :P

But, but, they're made of 80% recycled PET! Poor, poor pets. Does PETA know about this??

Corrado wrote:Re-jacked the pot based on the latest round and, after picking another nallie, somewhat predictably pulled a cjsiege.

While I am flattered, you know the fun is in the giving -- not the receiving. Thank you for being willing to risk your body parts in the chilly water!

MarkDaSpark wrote:But, but, they're made of 80% recycled PET! Poor, poor pets. Does PETA know about this??

A delicious pet that keeps you warm and winefarm's going to make yummy cheese from it's milk. Good pet