Declan is the only one in the family willing to photographed with me anymore.

With the New York Rangers’ 2-1 Game 4 win over the Washington Capitals last night, the Broadway Blueshirts are guaranteed to survive at least to Game 7, and are pretty good bets to advance to the next round to face the Boston Bruins. As a result, my Pathetic Playoff Beard Fund to benefit Anna House currently stands at $74.

Things I’ve learned/heard so far through this experience:

1. These things itch.
2. Babies like to grab whiskers.
3. My mother asked me how much she’d have to donate to get me to shave it off.
4. I’m pretty sure my oldest daughter is actively rooting against the Rangers at this point. She likes the fact that this money helps other kids have preschool and infant care, but she’s not kissing Daddy anytime soon.
5. Being half-Filipino, I still can’t grow enough beard to look like I just haven’t washed my face yet. Although it grows more on my neck than on my face.
6. I’m a lot more appreciative of the great child care my own kids get. And I’m grateful that unlike the Anna House kids, I’m not having to drop them off at 5AM.

We’re still accepting pledges– you can pledge either to sponsor my attempt to grow something resembling a playoff beard for each day the Rangers are alive, or you can pledge a set amount if you were told there wouldn’t be any math. Contact me at Ian@IanLozada.com for info or check the Anna House website for donation information.

For more information about Anna House and the Belmont Child Care Association, please visit BelmontChildCare.org or click here to see the Anna House video.

Paul Mara has his playoff beard all year long.

So the New York Rangers (and a few other NHL teams) are having a playoff charity promotion, encouraging fans to grow a playoff beard with the team to benefit Madison Square Garden’s in-house charity. Maybe it’s because I’m not sure I want to involved with anything called “Beard-A-Thon”, but I wanted to do something that fit a little bit better with my interests and that more of my friends across the country might want to be involved with.

Since so many of my friends are either Kentucky-based, parents of small children or, like me, interested in all things horse racing, or some combination of the above, I hit on the idea in conjunction with fellow New York Rangers fan Teresa Genaro of the Brooklyn Backstretch blog, of doing the playoff beard to benefit Anna House, which provides child care to backstretch workers at Belmont Park. Basically, what we’re asking you to do is pledge a small amount, a nickel, a dime, a quarter, a dollar for each day that the Rangers stay in the playoffs (which started on Wednesday, April 15th). Since the Rangers won their first two games, your minimum commitment is twelve days, and your maximum commitment (and unfortunately for me, very unlikely– we’re seeded 7th of 8 teams in the Eastern Conference) would be to June 15th (or 62 days).

Now, of course, there’s only one problem with this whole thing… I’ve never been able to successfully grow a beard. So this may get quite comical. Here’s what I look like after Day 5 of the experiment:

Oh dear.

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Please contact me at Ian@IanLozada.com to make your pledge… I’ll email you the information on how to make your donation to Anna House so that you get your tax benefit documents. In addition, the person who makes the largest pledge will get a print of my photo of General Quarters winning the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland last week.

Furthermore, any Kentucky or New York based 2009 brides, who make a pledge will get a free two hour photo session with me this spring!

So, if you don’t have a hockey rooting interest, hopefully you will now, and we can do some nice things for the kids of the people who make horse racing go for all the rest of us!

Say it with me, kids: Let’s go Rangers!

As spring begins to appear in bits and pieces, I’ve been starting to get the e-sessions going again. I recently had a week where I had four of them, two in Lexington, two in New York. Oddly enough, three of them were for Lexington weddings, however.

I started off on a Tuesday with Heather and Vann, who chose Keeneland, before we moved to downtown Lexington.

The next day, Carlyn and Scottie met me at the UK Arboretum, followed by Jacobsen Park.

After a travel day, I was back in New York, and Sunday afternoon, Julia and Vlad (and Julia’s daughter Nicole!) met me in the Conservatory Gardens in Central Park, before we moved on to the Harlem Meer in the Northeast corner of the park. (A week later, I did their wedding in Brooklyn, so look for that here on the blog shortly…)

Finally, Neema and Arjun met me on Tuesday. They’re getting married in Lexington this June, but he’s a resident at New York Hospital, so they asked to do their session in Central Park. We started there, but before long, we were wandering Chinatown and the West Village, before trying to get to the Brooklyn Bridge by sunset. We realized we weren’t going to make it when we got out of the subway, but lo and behold, we were at the docks for the Staten Island Ferry, which just happens to A) be a free ride, meaning no lost time getting tickets; and B) it goes past the Statue of Liberty. Which isn’t a bad place to find yourself when the sun’s setting.

As always, you can see more from each album on my business Facebook page…