We had a short week last week to honor the Jewish holidays.  I am not Jewish, so I did other things.  Like emissions testing.  This is a process in which a person takes your car and your government paperwork, disappears for a little while, and comes back to say you're good for another two years.  (It's a government thing.)  Twenty dollars later, I left the garage and went back to my school work at home.

This nice lady with her Madonna-style underwear waved me off.

I came home to a package on my stoop.
It was a present from the very talented and kind Theresa of the Run*A*Round Ranch blog fame.

I won a raffle!  What's better than a day off--except a day off with presents?  She included a nice note and some four-leaf-clovers from Texas.  Her kind words and her tokens of good luck made my day bright.  Talk about nice.  People are good and generous because they want to be and because they can.  That right there is worth thinking about for a long time.
My day only get better because it wasn't long after the mail came that the pups and I went to pick up Adella from school.  Though the taxpayers of Woodbury provide her with her own private transportation--a big, yellow school bus--I like to pick her up on the rare days I am home and she is slaving away over the books.  The canine chorus line enjoyed the trip, too.