Team Lost Dogs Takes The Cake!!!

As you can see above, we have officially taken the cake!!! Our fundraising raffle party at Don Ramon's was a huge success and we had an awesome/emotional time during the event! It was great seeing so many family members, friends, colleagues, teammates, and even a few strangers come together to raise money to find a cure for blood cancers while having a good time trying to win prizes! We hope everyone had as much fun as we did and we want everyone who went, or wanted to be there, to know how much your support means to us! We wish everyone could have walked away with a prize, but in the end we all get to walk away from this event with a sense of pride for where our money has gone!

So about the party...It was a huge success, we hit our minimum (minimum-$6400, we have now raised over $7300 total)! Between presale raffle tix ($600), and the party itself ($900), we raised $1500 yesterday thanks to all of the generous people who donated to help find a cure in memory of Danny!!! We hope you guys had as much fun as we did, and again, thanks for everything!

Special shout outs to Katie Brown for sharing her courageous story of survival, Regina Savage for her generosity in donating a proceed of her book sales to our cause (please check out her amazing books at www.QuietAngelPublishing.com and www.MirrorMakeoversTravelingCancerBook.blogspot.com ), Bonnie Perry and Amanda Wright (mom and sis) from AB Entertainment for donating their karaoke and DJ services, Don Ramon's Mexican Restaurant for donating the room, The Knox Family for all of their help with coordinating the event and selling tickets, Sharon (mom) for helping us out throughout the day, all of the companies and people who donated such great raffle prizes, and Danny's family who's appearance meant a lot to us! We are stoked that they could be there the night we hit our goal, of all nights!

We couldn't have done this without all of you donors and supporters!!! From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU!!! WE MADE IT, WOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!
Phil and Stacy

This just in: Michael C. Hall (star of Showtime's hit series Dexter) has just announced he is Hodgkins Lymphoma free!!! Looks like your donations are making a difference already!!!

Indiana Jones and the Horsethief Trail

Now that is a catchy title, dont'cha think? From beginning to end on this hike, we all felt a little like Indy was leading us on an adventure through the wilderness in South Orange County. It all started with an email which stated that the drive to the trail head off of El Toro Road was only suitable for high clearance vehicles. When I read this, I felt like Professor Jones at the university hearing about a far off place with a mythological treasure that he must find in order to save modern society. Actually, we kind of are doing this to save modern society since we are, after all, doing all of this to find a cure for blood cancers. Without question, we grabbed our gear and headed to meet the team. We headed to the meeting place and got in our designated high clearance vehicles to set off on our adventure.

Once we got in the trucks and SUV's to carpool to the trail head, we found out why they needed to be raised high off of the ground. It felt very similar to my least favorite and most unforgiving ride at Disneyland, Indiana Jones. I love the scenery and theatrics of the ride, but the ride itself is painfully bumpy as the car jolts your body all around and the seat belt feels like it is trying to punch you in the bladder the whole time. Our nauseatingly painful car ride to Horsethief Trail was scarily similar to the ride (see video), the only difference was that we did not have to pop it in reverse to dodge any booby trapped boulders along the way.

As on any Indy adventure, along the way there were ominous signs of danger. The first signs of danger were the native ram shackled huts that we passed in our trucks (cabins which looked eerily like where Jason Vorhees lives at Camp Crystal Lake). We were silent as we waited for the sounds of banjos to signify that we were in unfriendly local territory. Once we were on the hike, we passed other signs of danger such as the abandoned rusty car riddled with bullet holes, and the cave which I passed with caution so as to avoid being struck by poison tipped darts. There were also rumors of dangerous wildlife in the area as told by the local mountain biker tribes and there stories of poisonous serpents lurking in the shadows who rattle their tails and coil their bodies right before they strike your ankles and inject your body with a deadly paralyzing neurotoxin. I could almost hear Indy's fearful cry about his one and only weakness, "SNAKES! I HATE SNAKES!!!"

Indy often goes to beautiful places in search of his archaeologically priceless treasures. As any explorer will testify, when things in nature are beautiful, they are also more deadly. This was definitely the case with the amount of poison oak on the trail. Our rule of thumb was that if it is green, stay away from it. Not easy to do on an overgrown trail, so we were instructed to clean all of our gear if and when we make it home in case our pets might come in contact with it. This lush green scenery would gradually change throughout the course of our ten mile hike as we climbed over 2000 feet of switchbacks and back down over the course of our 8 hour day. When there are drastic changes in scenery, it is a sure sign that the level of oxygen is depleting due to the change in altitude, and your hiking boots are getting their fair share of mileage. The post hike migraine is also a good souvenir to remind you of the hours spent in the sun and altitude.

We made it home safe in the end with no signs of rash from the poison oak, festering puncture wounds from poisonous serpents or darts, or any stories of dangerous run ins with local banjo playing tribes. All members of our expedition were accounted for in the end as they came back to the trucks with stories of narrowly escaping being run off the trail and falling down the mountain to their doom by silently stealth mountain bikers. I even came home with a geographical find, a mysterious clear brown rock too dark to be amber.

We have six sequels to this adventure left until we hike in Yosemite on June 19, 2010. We can't wait to see what dangers we might face next week, so stay tuned to not miss another tale of mystery and action packed excitement! On to the next adventure!!! Don't forget to click the title to this story if you would like to donate to our cause! Let's not forget that we are risking our lives on our weekly adventures in search of a cure for blood cancers!!!

"Indiana Jones and the Horsethief Trail"


P.S. One of Danny's closest friends wrote a great blog about when they visited Disneyland on the day the Indiana Jones ride opened and it is a great read!!! They were in line so long that they learned how to read hyroglyphics (no joke)!!! Check it out here: http://www.thepageisblank.com/main/2010/3/4/well-hello-my-friends.html

Win Prizes and Save Lives!!!

This Sunday April 25, 2010 is our big fundraising event that we have been working so hard to put together! We have put a lot of work into it through writing letters and going door to door asking for raffle items to be donated, setting up the venue, getting entertainment and a guest speaker, sending out invites and promoting this event! It is almost here and we are getting really excited! The box above has been decorated with logos from all of the companies who have donated items for us to raffles off, and as you can see there is a good chance of walking away with a prize if one of your tickets goes into this box! That doesn't even count the 6 other raffle boxes for our BIG prizes! These prizes are so awesome that they require their own spefific raffle box for you to try and win one of them! We have tons of prizes to raffle off, so we hope you can be there or buy raffle tickets in advance to win great prizes while saving lives! Remember, all proceeds from this event go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help cure blood cancers. Details about the party are below.

Don't forget, we are also selling tickets in advance if you are not able to attend. All you have to do is:
1. Donate the price of the amount of tickets you would like to purchase at our website prior to April 25, 2010 at 2:00 PM: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ocie/Yosemit110/TeamLostDogs
2. Contact us to let us know you donated and want us to put your tickets in the raffle box. (Phil-(949)375-1273 or pdawgb@hotmail.com, Stacy-(714)394-5407 or rinsky17@hotmail.com)
3. We will contact you after April 25 if you won a prize!

Event Reminder

What: Raffle Party

When: Sunday, April 25, 2010

Time: 2:00-5:00 pm (open house style)

Where: Don Ramon’s Restaurant, 16961 Goldenwest Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Cost: $10 donation per person at the door without prior donation

*We will be selling raffle tickets for $10 a piece or 3 for $20*

Can’t make it? Still want to buy raffle tickets? Let us know!

Prizes include: surfboard, cyclist package, framed signed artwork, “A day at the beach” package, Angels tickets, karaoke party, Trader Joe’s gift basket, Aquarium of the Pacific tickets, Santa Anita Park, Pacific Symphony, Wild Rivers, restaurant gift cards, Hornblower cruises, Nu Image salon, Improv tickets, and much, much more!

Back To Where It All Began

A few short months ago on an early Saturday morning, Stacy woke up early to attend a Team In Training meeting at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I decided I couldn't go because I had just had knee surgery and the "Training" part of the organization's title meant that I would have to hike for miles at a time while gaining altitude every weekend to get myself in shape to hike Half Dome in Yosemite, California by June 19. For some reason I decided to go with her to the meeting and we have been hiking, fundraising and feeling good about what we are doing ever since (and the knee is holding up just fine...knock on wood)! I had no idea when I went to that meeting that I would be registering marathon participants into a computer a few months later in the very building I almost never went to.

I got an email a couple of days ago asking if I was free to volunteer some hours of service at LLS in exchange for some "soft credits" to be put toward my donation goal. Even though I am on spring break from work, It was an easy decision to donate my services for a couple of days that could've easily been spent on the beach or by the pool. My decision to work for LLS was based on the fact that I don't want to look back on this experience and feel like I could've done a lot more to raise funds for blood cancer patients than I did. Whether it be through writing letters asking for donations, putting a lot of work into planning our raffle party coming up, working ourselves to the bone at our garage sale, or putting in office work hours at LLS, I think I feel pretty confident that we are going to feel good about the efforts we have put into this fundraiser when this season is all said and done!

So about my day at LLS...My job today was to enter data from marathon participant's registration forms into the LLS database, except for one little problem...we couldn't log in...for 3 hours!!! While we were waiting for the glitch to get taken care of, I got put to work at the most dangerous place in any office setting...the break room by the water cooler!!! I was put to work putting TNT stickers on registration folders, and paper clipping new registrant packets. While clipping the never ending stacks of pastel colored paper (just when I thought Easter was over), I began to think like an office worker making jokes about paper cuts, typing blisters, and paperclip splinters to anyone who came in to brew coffee or grab a snack. 4 boxes of paperclips later (100 count each), the computer problem was solved.

The rest of the day was spent typing new registrant data into a computer so that marathon runners would become new Team In Training members. This job was not without it's share of inspiring moments, as I got to read every participant's purpose for running a marathon in the section about what they want written on the back of their race day jerseys. Most of them were in honor or memory of someone close to these runners, who have been diagnosed with some form of blood cancer. It was inspiring to see how many people there are out there willing to compete in endurance events, make donations, or simply work for the LLS organization to make a difference in the lives of these patients.

It was while I was typing in the data that the strangest part of my day happened. Somebody called LLS asking to speak with me on the one day that I happened to be volunteering to work in the LLS office. At first I thought it was probably Stacy, but why wouldn't she just call my cell? They said it was a guy named Dylan, as I thought...Dylan who (Bob?)? It turned out to be a guy I met at our garage sale who offered to host a gold party where we would be able to raise funds through people selling him there used gold. Even weirder was the fact that I wrote down his info on a gold post it note. He called LLS because he lost my cell phone number. I'm sure this phone call was strictly coincidence, but I am still taking it as yet another sign that I was doing what I needed to be doing by working at LLS today.

My purpose of today's blog is simple. Since day one of deciding to participate in Team In Training, Stacy and I have made the most out of every opportunity that comes our way (such as possible future gold parties) to help raise money toward finding a cure for blood cancers. We have been rewarded by donations from many caring and giving people to help us come as far as we have (over $5000 to date), and by the good feelings that come from helping those that can't help themselves. While we greatly appreciate everyone who has supported us along the way, we ain't done yet!!! We still have $3000 to raise towards our goal, and we still need your support! More importantly, blood cancer patients need your support!

If you would like to donate any amount you can to help our cause, please visit our website at: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ocie/Yosemit110/TeamLostDogs

This blog is dedicated to the people who work everyday to help find a cure for leukemia and lymphoma patients, my new office buddies at LLS!!!

In The Spirit of New Life

Since this week's hike fell on Easter weekend, our hike team had a bye week. Stacy and I decided that this would still be a good weekend to get outdoors and explore a new place to hike, even if our team was not training this weekend. The point of this hike was not so much to train as it was to just be out seeing new sites and enjoying some nice spring time scenery. It was actually a very nice way to spend an Easter Sunday since everything on the trail is blooming into life, which is pretty symbolic of what Easter is all about in the first place. In a weird way, everything about this hike kept with the theme of new life (more on that later). Even the 7.2 earthquake kept with the theme as it brought some new life into people to wake up California from everyone's post Easter lunch comas. Signs of new life were everywhere! Great theme considering that we are hiking on a team who is trying to raise money to bring new life for blood cancer patients!

We were originally going to hike in El Moro Canyon, but we found out the park fee raised to $15 (cash only), so we decided to try our luck finding a new spot to hike. We ended up driving a little further down PCH and turning onto Laguna Canyon Road. I pulled over abruptly to what appeared to be a trail head and found out the park fee was only $3 and they had a machine that accepts cards! SOLD!!! Ironically, the trails here all connect with the ones in El Moro Canyon where we were originally going to go.

On the way to the trail head, there was a man sitting at an information table with maps, so we grabbed one and started talking to him for a bit about which trails we should hike. We found out that this area has cellular tours of the trails where you stop at a trail marker and dial the number on the post to hear info about the diversity of plant and animal life living in the area. It is official, there is no place left on Earth that hasn't been taken over by technology! We had to call it at least once to check it out, but we could not bring ourselves to take the whole audio tour. None the less, it kept us in the theme for new life. So did the weird spiky avocado looking thing I saw, it was a new form of life to me!

We were able to choose our own trails and go wherever we wanted to go, which we are not able to do with our team. This led us to deciding to take a trail back down to the main road where we THOUGHT the parking lot would be. I thought we were on the right path since I saw an abnormal rock formation, which is a sign hikers use to let other hikers know that they are on the way to civilization. It turned out that we were a mile or two south of the parking lot where our car was, so we had to hike back up the road. At this point, I was about to hitch a ride. Hitch-hiking is still considered hiking, right?

While we were walking up the road, we noticed that all of the buildings were either animal rescues, shelters, or boarding facilities, and there was even a dog park. We usually get to see some form of wildlife on the trail, but we completely did not expect what we saw next. One of the buildings said it was a seal and sea lion rescue shelter and visitors are welcome. Yet again, we were seeing signs of new life on our hike, and discovering something that we could never have predicted. We walked straight into an area much like a boarding facility for dogs with chain link enclosures for the seals and sea lions, each cage with it's own pool and a few seals, sea lions, or elephant seals. It was like watching, what Stacy called, water dogs because of how some were being lazy in the sun, some were playing and barking, and others were even scratching their ear holes with their hind flippers. Most of these animals had been rescued from oil spills and were being rehabilitated to go back into the wild. In other words, they were being given a second chance at life!

Our purpose for being on a hike team through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is to try and help give a second chance at life to patients diagnosed with blood cancers, so hiking on Easter Sunday and seeing other signs of new life was very encouraging! I could've used our botanist hike coach to tell me what the weird spiky avocado looking thing was though! If you would like to donate to our cause and help give a second chance at life to blood cancer patients, go to our website here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ocie/Yosemit110/TeamLostDogs

Speaking of new life, congratulations to our friends Elena and Scott on their new baby girl, Samantha Olivia Spencer! Hope she gets to come home soon!!!

"Easter Seals"


"Easter Seals 2, The Sequel"