All for a Good Cause

Yesterday, SQPN went bananas as they held their second annual podcast marathon. I wasn't able to watch the whole thing, but there are a few highlights I wanted to share with you.

On the serious and sane side: Many many thanks to the iPadre for using his half an hour for a Virtual Holy Hour. He prayed Compline with us whilst exposing the Blessed Sacrament. It was *wonderful*.

The prizes for "taking one for the team" go to Louisa and the trio of Fr Roderick, Mark, and Inge. If I've done this right, the videos will be embedded below.



Louisa sang sailor songs and wore her wetsuit, complete with brightly coloured yellow flippers, and raised money for the cause. She got up early (or stayed up late, depending on perspective) and was carrying out these antics at 3.00 am BST. She did a wonderful job, and everyone enjoyed her hour and change.

The grand prize, IMHO, goes to Fr Roderick, Mark, and Inge for enduring not just one, but two Scary Smoothies! People pledged money to SQPN for ingredients to go into Fr Roderick's blender, and the results would be consumed by the three of them. I will admit to laughing really hard as they put it together, and feeling lots of sympathy for them as they drank it. I missed smoothie #2 but I'm glad they recorded the video for us to enjoy over and over again.

Smoothie #1: ice, yoghurt, banana, potatoes (they looked like small new potatoes), garlic-flavoured olives, Dijon mustard, and grated gouda cheese.

The verdict: it's not completely bad, but it's weird. The three of them managed to finish it without too much gagging.

Smoothie #2: milk, ice, 3 oreo cookies, licorice-flavoured gumdrops, tuna, 3 pieces smoked sausage, 1 kiwifruit (skin and all), about half a can of Sprite, half a spoonful of Sambal Ulek (an Indonesian chilli paste), and about 3 dashes of Tabasco sauce.

The verdict: well, the texture is chunky, and the colour ... you should see the video to see that. I'm so glad we don't have smell-o-vision; they were complaining about the smell as it came out of the blender. You'll have to watch the video to see their reactions. Suffice to say, as I was watching this, my eyes were tearing so much from all the laughter! But they did manage to drink all of it, and lived to tell the tale.



I heard that they were feeling awful and nauseated for the hours that followed. (Since Amersfoort, Netherlands is six hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time, it was around 8-9 pm their time when they concocted and drank those smoothies.) But it was all for a good cause. They raised $2,000 toward their overall goal of raising $10,000 during the thirteen-hour podcast marathon, and they reached the goal!!! Well done, everyone! Read Fr Roderick's summary post here.