Feeling good about all the progress I made yesterday on one of my holiday gifts.  And with a little luck ( but mostly some perseverance) I could even finish today!

This morning I reached the midway point in Becoming, when Michelle is (reluctantly) giving her “okay” for the 2008 presidential run.  Given the idiot schmuck currently in the White House, her words really struck a chord with me:

In the end, it boiled down to this: I said yes because I believed that Barack could be a great president.  He was self-assured in ways the few people are.  He had the intellect and discipline to do the job, the temperament to endure everything that would make it hard, and the rare degree of empathy that would keep him tuned carefully to the country’s needs.  He was also surrounded by good, smart people who were ready to help.  [emphasis mine] Who was I to stop him?  How could I put my own needs, and even those of our girls, in front of the possibility that Barack could be the kind of president who helped make life better for millions of people? [again, emphasis mine]  I said yes because I loved him and had faith in what he could do.

Yesterday I was in my recliner when I spotted a large dog on our front porch.  I opened the door carefully, hoping to not scare him away, but he was quite friendly and marched right inside at my invitation.  

I was very glad to see he was wearing tags.

Boomer turned out to be one of neighbor Edie's dogs.  

She answered her phone right away, and had no idea the door to their garage had been left open.  Luckily none of the 4 pooches had gone far (I had looked outside again to see if we had any other visitors) though she was really surprised that "old man" Boomer had made it "all the way" to our house.  Boomer made himself right at home, busily exploring our house in the couple of minutes it took Edie to walk over and collect him. 

And speaking of 4 dogs, because of the irrigation schedule for Tuesday, 

Tom G. has moved up his visit to Monday.