On a personal note, I wanted to mention the loss of our beloved greyhound Soprano. I know that I've mentioned him on this blog before. We adopted Soprano from Greyt Expectations, an organization based in Maryland. He was almost 5 years old when we brought him home to live with us, which is quite old for a retired racer. Two years ago Soprano moved across country with us, and I like to think that he enjoyed his last years of retirement out here in California. This last summer he would go out on the deck to bask in the sun, then come back indoors to find a nice cool spot to doze. He was really starting to show his age & was slowing down, but after we got our Lab puppy Bella, Soprano found new energy. Bella showed him how to play, run and bark at neighbor dogs again, which was so great to see. We'll miss our gentle boy.