. . . but I’ll be honest: it’s a convenient lie. Tomorrow is August 26, also known as 8/26, and for anyone out there who has trouble connecting dots, I’ll take it one step further: drop the / and you have 826. You just HAPPEN to have an 826 right in your town.

We call 8/26 our birthday. In truth, our ACTUAL birthday is June 1. But why worry over such trifles? When you are an organization called 826, you celebrate your birthday ON 8/26, easy as that.

8/26 happens, you may be aware, TOMORROW. Aren’t you DYING to know what we’re doing for it? Friends, we have TWO things planned for our fourth anniversary, and one of them, some of you will be excited to know, involves Chris Ware and Shirt.woot.com.

THE FIRST happens tonight at midnight. Are you guys familiar with Woot.com? It’s this sweet website where they sell one item per day until it’s gone. Well, now they have Wine.woot.com, Kids.woot.com, and, more importantly (to the matter at hand anyway), Shirt.woot.com.

Shirt.woot.com sells one t-shirt per day for ten bucks. Tomorrow, 8/26, our (fake) birthday, they are selling a special shirt with all proceeds to benefit US! Sounds pretty good, right? Well, it gets better.

The shirt they will be selling was designed especially for us by famed graphic novelist, designer, and artist Chris Ware. ( I ended that sentence with a period, but I should have ended it with a "!!!!!!!!!") When I first started talking to the Woot people (as I affectionately refer to them), the idea that Chris Ware would design the shirt seemed impossible. The fact that the shirt features the robot from his most famous work, Jimmy Corrigan, Smartest Kid on Earth, is swoon worthy.

How it works: log onto Shirt.woot.com anytime after midnight tonight. Check out awesome shirt. Think, My goodness, I HAVE to have one of those. Order one. In the event that the shirt sells out (which is pretty likely), fear not! You can still order the shirt on 8/27, it's just going to cost you $5 more.

THE SECOND is our annual birthday picnic. Every year, we gather at the West Park band shell for an informal hangout. Bring your own picnic, your friends, and any other picnic accoutrements (puppies, hula hoops, Jarts, badminton sets, bocce ball, jump ropes, roller skates, pinwheels, etc) and join us. We'll be there tomorrow, 8/26, from 5pm until about 7pm. Everyone's welcome!