Whoo. I just met a bunch of neighbors because someone's 2 Great Danes got out of their yard and decided to hang out in my next door neighbors' yard.

I should note that the dog owners aren't home.

I texted The Boy, and he said he thought the dogs lived on a side street that's just one house down from us (on the other side of that house, I mean). So a neighbor and I tried to herd the dogs that way by walking over there and making encouraging noises.

(At this point, the dogs seemed amiable, but we didn't know for sure if they were totally friendly, and even if they were friendly, if a Great Dane lunges for you to jump up in a friendly way, you can still get hurt or at least scratched to hell and back.)

So when we got to the side street, the Great Danes started trotting with purpose towards one house. With a backyard gate wide open. They headed that way, walked into the yard, and then turned around and came back out. So I moved towards them to herd them back, and one of the dogs, perhaps sensing that I was going to trespass, made a jaws-of-fury lunge towards me.

I don't know what possessed me, but I just stuck my arm out and made a fist and then yelled "NO!" like some kind of demon. The dog stopped dead in his tracks and went back to his yard.

I figured if I ran he might chase me, and I certainly wasn't going to try to hit him, so I figured I should just look as authoritarian as possible. The outstretched arm was to protect my torso, and the fist was so I didn't get a finger bitten off.

Even though the dogs' humans weren't back, they seemed like they were staying in their yard, so I came back home. Crazy times in the nabe, man. Crazy times.

[link]

a British actress who worked on the director’s 1986 film Pirates has come forward to accuse him of sexually abusing her when she was 16. Earlier today, Charlotte Lewis held a press conference with her attorney, the ubiquitous Gloria Allred, and made the charges public, saying Polanski had “forced himself upon” her in his apartment in Paris and abused her “in the worst possible way.”

What are people doing this weekend?

I have two parties this weekend! One tonight, and one tomorrow!

The only problem with the party tonight is that I don't want to go all the way home before I leave for the party, so I'm kind of hanging around at work right now.

I ... good lord, I don't have any plans for this weekend! Other than writing and working on organizing the newly-cleaned storage room. Maybe I'll sew a skirt.

Saturday we have movies with friends and Sunday, Brother-in-Law comes for a visit! We are meeting SiL at Roscoe's for a chicken-and-waffle feast while we plan the celebration for Parents-In-Law 50th anniversary in a couple of months. Right now, the plan is a big family dinner, plus giving them a luxury cruise to Alaska so Dad in Law can visit the one state he has never been to.

I think I might try making orange marmalade this weekend, because I've got 12 oranges that I need to do something with soon.

I'm volunteering tomorrow afternoon (putting up shelves in a new warehouse for an org that redistributes office supplies, I think), going out for Ethiopian tomorrow night, and otherwise getting a mani-pedi, going to the library, and possibly shopping for a sweater to go over some dresses. Tonight I am making a dent in the DVR...

Reading articles for next Thursday's class, cleaning tomorrow and maybe going to the farmer's market (if it's open), and seeing my dad on Sunday--he's bringing his pictures from his recent Southwest trip (he spent three weeks driving around UT, AZ, NM, CO, NV, and CA, hitting as many national parks as he could).

Oh yeah, the boring stuff for this weekend is cleaning, laundry, dying my roots.