1:30 p.m.

I'm not the only lunatic blogging around the clock today for charity! Across the country from me over in California, my friend Katie is participating in the Blog-A-Thon to raise funds for Best Friends Animal Society.

That's Katie and I here on the beach during her visit three months ago to help me carry out my plans for Ethan's 1st birthday party! Katie was an ideal houseguest for us. Why? Because, well, my husband and I...we're cat people.

We're parents to four sweet, sweet cats. Okay. Maybe two of the four are sweet. The 3rd is just kind of...different and the 4th is a teetering on evil. I say that with love, people. With love. With the kind of unwavering love that forgives one of the two supposed sweet ones for peeing all over everything of value I've ever owned. Anyway, Katie was a fabulous house guest because she not only found my cat's usual antics -- like Kennedy knocking a bottle of rubbing alcohol all over the wall in the kitchen and thus ruining the paint -- normal but a little endearing. I didn't have to keep apologizing for Amelia sitting on her or the fact that there were totally tumbleweeds of cat hair bigger than Ethan rolling across the floor.

Chances are, you've seen cats making cameos in every picture I've posted during the Blog-A-Thon so far and chances are you'll continue to. Cats are awesome. Dogs are awesome, too, but I have my hands full with four cats who aren't quite normal (is there such thing as a normal cat?). Major kudos to Katie for blogging around the clock to raise money for animal adoption. All of my cats have adopted me. I phrase it like that because, you know, they totally chose us. From the ones who wandered onto our patio in dire need of a drink and medical care to the ones who came home with us from the shelter after a lifetime battling physical abuse, they adopted us and bettered our lives and are now giving Ethan the best live-in companions he could ever imagine.

Katie does a lot of really cool things with animal rescue and has a lot of really cool features and giveaways going on over at her blog today so don't forget to go check it out at Blogging for Best Friends Animal Society!