The annual Festival of Children program is kicking off their seventh year today with activities planned throughout September at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. Bring the little ones for art exhibits, arts & crafts, dance performances, live music, face painting, and much, much more. The Festival of Children Foundation strives to connect children, charities, and communities, and all events are free! For a complete listing of activities, check out their events calendar.

[Click to Engorge]

I suppose a more politically correct subject for this post would be Half Naked LDS Boys! It’s just a little something I learned by spending three years of my life in the God-forsaken state of Utah.

Anyway, while perusing the local Calendar Club at Main Place Mall I came across the best calendar in the history of calendars. Ladies and Gentleman I give you Mormons Exposed, Men on a Mission 12 Month Calendar! Behold its overwhelming greatness! Stand in awe of its astounding silliness! Admire all of the puritanical flesh!

When my wife and I eyed this merchandise, we giggled till we nearly peed. There is something bizarrely wholesome and yet outlandishly obscene about this calendar - so of course we bought two. There was one for my wife and I and one for our very best gay!

You’ll either find it gloriously offensive or hideously funny - or both. Seriously, giggle fits ensue whenever we see it. Something about the white shirts and nametags commingling with all those beefcake shots just makes you smile. For some I’m sure it creates a vague stirring of the loins too. Three of the models live in our neck of the woods, so you know, if you see one of them be sure to get an autograph. Or perhaps a phone number?

They have a web site and an official YouTube video which you can see after the jump - it’s a bit spicy so you might not want to watch it around the dinner table with your folks.

You know, it just occurred to me that it might be posts like this that kept me out of Big Brothers Big Sisters. Ah well, too late now.

***** Heads up: I’m headed out of town for a week to the other Orange County so you won’t see posts from me. However, I will be remote posting to my personal blog if that interests you. Happy Chanukah and I’ll see you all in a week!

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Every year, around labor day weekend, the city of Orange shuts down the Orange Circle and turns it in to the Orange County International Street Fair.

Every international food you can think of is availible, sushi, brautwurst, greek desserts, and good old fashion burgers. All of this on each of the diffrent spokes of Old Towne, and you can leave your passport at home.

So mark your calendar for this upcoming labor day weekend and keep the pepto bizmo nearby.

Ok, I realize we haven’t had an OC meetup in a really long time, since Meetup.com started charging, in fact. And I know many of you have asked me when the next one will be. You’ve been asking this for months. Well, I’m here to tell you when it will be:

Metroblogging Orange County Meetup
12 August 2005, 7:00PM
Branagan’s Irish Pub
213 N. Harbor Blvd., Full. 92832

And to give everybody enough forewarning, next month is our first anniversary here at Metroblogging OC, and I plan to throw a party. So you might want to pencil in on your calendar our first anniversary party on September 20th. If you have any suggestions on where to have this party, let me know.

I hope to see everybody this Friday and again next month!

On the heels of last week’s Ben & Jerry’s free ice cream event, Cold Stone Creamery is offering a free slice of “Make-A-Wish” Cake from 5:00 to 8:00 PM tonight. In exchange for the free cake slice, customers are encouraged to make donations to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. There are locations throughout Orange County. Help a good cause and get some free ice cream cake!

Oh, and thanks to the tipster who let me know about this. From now on it will be my duty to help you find free desserts in the county of Orange!

Back in college, my friend Teresa turned me on to Shonen Knife, a pop-punk Japanese girl band. I didn’t know much about them, but their song “Cookie Day” got a lot of airplay on my radio show. My weekly mailing from the Coach House and Galaxy let me know that they were in town this week, playing Thursday, March 24 at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana. Until doing more research, I never knew they were one of Kurt Cobain’s favorite bands, or that they toured with lollapalooza ‘94. If you’re looking for what will surely be a unique punk-pop evening, check them out. Tickets are available from the Galaxy, $12.50 or $15 day-of.