I have two important program notes to post today, before I get busy writing today's column (yes, there will be a real column today).

The first is that it's been so long that I basically forgot how the notifications for donations come in to my email from PayPal. What this means is that there were a lot of donations last week that didn't get included in the thermometer bar for the Holiday Pledge Drive graphic. I will get all of the data together later (after today's column posts), so by this evening the graphic will reflect reality once again. The thermometer has to be adjusted by hand in Photoshop (it's not automatic or anything), so I'll get to that later today. My apologies for this oversight and delay, and thank-you notes for donations should get to everyone tonight as well.

The next program note was actually contained in last Friday's column, but it kind of got buried, so I thought I'd repeat it here. I was interviewed Friday morning on a San Francisco Bay Area radio station (Talk910), so if you'd like to hear my take on the Republican race, check it out. My interview starts at around 77 minutes in. The host and the weather/sports guy had just done a bit on Barry Bonds, in case you're wondering why I mentioned him right off (pun intended) the bat. Hey, I'll talk politics all day long; but I refuse to get into REALLY contentious issues (in the Bay Area, at least) like Barry's legacy. Heh.

In any case, as I mentioned, stay tuned for today's column, which should appear in a few hours. And then later this evening, check the thermometer bar to see where we are in the fundraising drive.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant