Above: Let me tell you, Ray Benson is tall. As in TEXAS TALL! Photo by Tracie B.

Wow, what a night last night at Vino Vino in Austin, where some of the town’s top musicians donated their time to help raise money and awareness for Partners in Health and the Stand for Haiti project. Check out the highlights as photographed by Tracie B.

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who came out and put up with my Catskills jokes between sets and listened to me talk about why I think Partners in Health is such a great cause. The concept is simple: health care should be free for everyone. Sounds good, no?

Thanks to everyone who donated their time and to everyone who made a contribution. And thanks to all the folks who sent excellent wine my way! We raised a good chunk of money and most importantly we helped to raise awareness of how we can help.

In other news…

There was a lot of love last night in Austin but love has been reaching us from other parts of the world, too. Thanks to everyone for all the thoughts and wishes, emails, comments, and cards. They mean the world to us.

Do Bianchi also got a little blog love from a wonderful wine blog in the Netherlands, Ombre Rosse. The author, like me, is a Venetophile, hence the name ombre rosse. In Venice a glass of wine is called an ombra. In the not-so-distant olden days, you would meet some in the shadow (ombra) of the bell tower in Piazza San Marco in Venice, where the wine vendor would seek refuge from the sun. By metonym, the term came to mean a small glass of wine. Thanks for the shoutout, Pascal! How can do bianchi (two glasses of white) resist a blog named ombre rosse (two glasses of red)??!!

And in New Jersey, blogging colleague Sue Guerra, who’s also become a friend through our bloggy blog connection, wrote this wonderful tribute to the greatest pairing I’ve ever had to pleasure to know: me and Tracie B. ;-)

What an incredible week this has been! And we’re not even married yet!