I don't mention it nearly as often as I should, but I have a wonderful partner in tigergladys.

She was the one who encouraged me to get out of Sarges, and get my life started.

She was the one who invited me to join her in the adventure of starting a new life in Maryland.

She was the one who pointed me to my current employer.

She was the one who realized I could do more, and said I should go back to school, and do something that I actually enjoy.

She was the one who found Lucy's breeder, and the dog club where we are now members.

She is the one who corrects the grammar in my LJ posts (FYI).

She is the one who while I am at school, continues to work on making our house home beautiful.

I am so thankful to have her in my life.

It's unseasonably warm right now, the highs have been in the 60's and the lows in the 50's, and tonight how I wish tigergladys and I were camping right now. Instead I've been preparing for a test, and she snuggled Lucy and watched Desperate Housewives.

Ok, so I didn't spend all night studying, I watched some too.

Still, it isn't what I'd like to be doing now.

Five on Friday
1. Eat nothing but chocolate or go without chocolate for the rest of your life?
I’d probably go without. Eating nothing but would get old real fast.
2. Stub your toe or get a paper cut?
Stub my toe. Paper cuts seem to last longer
3. Write the news or make the news?
Ohh…
4. Lose 10 pounds or gain 10 IQ points?
Gain 10 IQ points hands down!
5. Wear a costume to work or wear normal clothes to a Halloween party?
Costume to work, again, hands down!

6. If you're dressing up (yourself or your kids) for Halloween, who are you/they going to be?
I’m going to go dressed as an accounting student.
7. Handmade costumes or store-bought?
I’m going to say the pieces are all individually store bought, but I’m putting them together.
8. What age did you last go trick-or-treating?
I think I last went at 18, but mostly cause I was going around with my sister and several of the houses we stopped at hadn’t had anyone else come by. So they split the candy between all of us.
9. Have you ever egged someone's house on Halloween, or done any other such "trick"?
Never.
10. Do you believe in ghosts?
I believe that there is a whole lot about the nature of the universe (multiverse?) that we don’t understand.

It finally feels like fall, and we’ve gotten 3 days of rain to help make up for the long dry summer!! The downside to this is the fact that everyone around here has forgotten how to drive in anything except clear dry roads. The number of accidents has to have doubled for the last couple of days.

This afternoon we took Lucy to the dog club and practiced both agility and obedience, as well as gave her lots of time to play with her puppy friend Tonks. Now she's all tired out, and the house is quiet. She isn't even crying that Tigs is sitting in the dining room next to it's cage.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow! I'm taking Tigs out on a date. I'm afraid I can't tell you where, because she doesn't know yet. But I know it's something she's definitely going to enjoy. :-)

Last week as I got out of my car for work, trying to avoid being hit by a bus and also trying not to be too late for work, I didn't press down the lock button on my door all the way. When I returned to the car I found it rifled through, and the CD binder that was in it was gone. Somewhere between 150-200 CDs that i've spent years collecting are now gone, taken by someone who I'm sure will be terribly disappointed by their spoils. Somehow I doubt the inner-city hoodlum who took my binder is going to be impressed by my Frank Sinatra, Enya, Filk, movie soundtracks, Gregorian Chants, Star Trek disks, or even the few rock albums that were there. My tastes are too weird, eclectic for anyone but me to really appreciate. And I know that any pawn shop would turn the collection down as half of them were burns, and the other half... well, how much of that would you buy? I bet most of them have been destroyed by now just out of sheer pique at the variety. I wonder if he had bothered to look through it for 30 seconds if he would have bothered to take it.

Either way, its gone.

When I got home I was seriously upset about it. tigergladys came to my rescue, and didn't tell me that she had. The next day Eric called me, and so did my Aunt Kim. She had let them both know about what happened and had enlisted them to help me restore my collection. In about a week I should be getting some MP3 disks, and the next time I go to Kim's house we'll bring the laptop and snag stuff from their collection.

I am saddened that it was taken, that I was violated in that way. Yet I feel so incredibly loved by Virginia, who seeing my hurt wanted to make me feel better. And through her actions I can see the love and friendship that others feel for me. In that way I am truly blessed.

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Happy Birthday cinnabunny!!