Baby Emma

We have a darling new granddaughter, Emma.

She is darling and precious, with dark hair and blue eyes. Her big sister Megan is crazy about her at the moment, but Emma's only been home a day or two, so we are expecting more sibling rivalry in the future. A wonderful sort of cousin, Katherine, has come to help Emma, Megan and their parents by entertaining whoever needs entertaining (including Grandmother Dearest) and she is delightful and a huge help.

Katherine is one of those volunteer relatives (her late father was married to my first cousin) that we treasure more than the relatives we are related to by blood - because we choose to be family.

In other news, we are anxiously awaiting Book 7 of the Harry Potter saga. We have tickets to the movie (#5) and everyone will get a new book at midnight on the 20th. Of course, I've preordered the book and the audio book.

In still other news, I'm working on a project to target one zip code in Dallas for intense spay/neuter promotion plus loose dog round up. An article in the current DMagazine profiles the terrible overpopulation of unspayed/unneutered dogs running loose in some areas of Dallas. The Metroplex Animal Coalition offers free spay/neuter in 14 different zip codes and the City of Dallas provides free spay/neuter if a person is already on public assistance - but many of the targeted population isn't getting the message. And the application (in English only) is long and has to be mailed before an appointment is set. Surely we can do better!

I propose to do a direct mailing to each address in a targeted zip code telling them in English and Spanish how to take advantage of these programs.