Woo hoo!! Alice is 12 today.

Clinton sent salmonella vials. Look, I'm not trying to get overly panicked here but there are a ton of bad to really bad things going on in the world and I find it hard to believe that they aren't related.

I dropped off my Fly Rental Impala this morning with high hopes that my car would be ready for re-entry into the driving world but it was not meant to be. I drove off up 101, stupidly, even though I'd heard that there was an accident near my exit. Traffic was a long 4 lane parking lot and I got to experience my "new" clutch, which not only makes bad noises, but smells. So it's going back tomorrow and this time whatever Fly Ride the rental place gives me is courtesy of the VW dealer.

My love affair with VW is over. My next car will be a Nissan Xterra (because I'm too cheap for a pathfinder), which I will lease while I'm saving up to buy a more GrownUp car like a Passat Wagon, which I'll hopefully be ready for after a VW hiatus. I just don't love my Passat anymore, I know the things that have gone wrong were not her fault, but just the same, I'd like the opportunity to grow dissatisfied with a different brand for a little while.

Time to bring the crop in...
Wednesday, October 24, 9:30 a.m. CST

Weather permitting, Garst Seed Company ProSellers Jim and Sharon Greif, will be harvesting that FINE looking Garst corn that has been growing all season in front of the world famous CornCam. We will turn the "frequency" of the camera up so visitors will be able to see more of the harvesting action on the Web site. Tell your friends and other corn enthusiasts!

DARES INC. is trying to assist the South County Animal Shelter in San Martin, Ca. (near Gilroy) with donations. This shelter recently, under the new, and wonderful management of Phillip Jewit, has gone NO Kill. They need dog & cat food, blankets, towels, volunteers and foster homes. If you can help, please send your donations to:

South County Animal Shelter
P.O. Box 526
San Martin, Ca. 95046
(408) 683-4186

This is the shelter that provides Animal Control services for my neighborhood since we're in an unincorporated part of San Jose. It's a small, kind of sad little facility, I hope that these changes help it become a more friendly place and more animals are adopted out of there.

Last night we were feeling a bit guilty that Rainie had to spend so much time in her crate so we've been trying to leave her out roaming around as much as possible. The problem is, she's 9 months old and the entire world to her is one big adventure to be chewed on and tasted. Last night she came bounding in from outside with poop hanging out of her mouth. Talk about charming.

We said good night to them and went to bed. She whined outside of our door for a little while and seemed to calm down (after I brought her into our room for a bedtime story). Around 4 am, we awoke to the delightful sound of Rainie howling, then Gus, and finally Alice kicked in (Zeus courteously abstains from such nonsense, he prefers barking). It was a chorus I wasn't ready to hear again. I stormed out there and told them kids to knock it off.

While I was getting ready this morning I saw a little mouth under the door with little teeth gnawing on the linoleum, further proof that she's not quite ready to be loose without supervision and that we need to install a threshold between the kitchen and our room.

I am overcome with emotion.

This weekend, 2 very nice middle aged beagles found their way to a wonderful new home. Generally, not an unusual thing in my world, but Lewis and Clark are different. They were found wandering together in the woods over a year ago and the rescue tried earnestly to keep them together but gave up and placed Lewis by himself -- twice. Both times he came back, insonsolable without his pal Clark. They were not in my rescue, but were across the country in North Carolina, where their foster mom was beginning to give up hope that they'd ever get a home. On a whim and with the most hope I could muster, I had Clark (Lewis was trying out his second home at the time) added to our rescue's website here in CA. Within a week, a wonderful woman had called me and I'd thought for sure that it would be too much effort to get them home, that she'd wait for a dog nearby.

Not so. She was in love with Clark when she called me, that has no wavered since. When she heard that Lewis was coming back and could join them, she was ecstatic. We had tried to send them back from Ohio with me earlier this month but it didn't work out so their new mom just did it. She booked a flight and went to pick them up this weekend. They met Saturday, I hear it was love at first sight for all involved. They all made it home yesterday and the guys were busy checking out their new home. I'm proud to be part of finding their way home.

Yesterday, I had a hockey game and was thrilled to see Nadine and Bob enjoying some fine snack bar food before we hit the ice. When I took out a (much larger than me) guy, I thought the cheering seemed louder than just those two but I didn't think too much of it. Besides I was busy trying to get away from the guy I knocked over. After the game (another disappointing loss for the Cones-- us, 3, Lightning 9), I was stunned to see my brother there. I'd asked him to come but he's been incognito for months and I didn't really think he'd make it. As I was leaving the ice, there he was, waiting for me, I got a huge loopy grin on my face and rushed over to see him. It didn't matter that we lost (though it usually doesn't to me, I celebrate things like not falling down and not losing consciousness) but that he was there. As he says "very cool."