Today's picture is our dog, Tiny, in her Halloween costume last year. She loves wearing bandanas, jackets, shirts and anything else we throw on her. She knows what a collar is & that (98% of the time) they're for her & gets ecited when she sees a new one. She's an odd nut, that one.

It was oddly warm this morning, so warm that the windshields of both cars were frost-free & Rhi's scooter started up on the first try (which means I didn't have to drive her to school today). She's feeling much better this morning, although I could tell by looking at her that she wasn't 100% yet. Its almost impossible to keep her out of school, no matter how poorly she feels. Yes, she does love school that much. I'm pretty sure that she'll come home & go to bed, though - she does that most days anyway & I'm sure she'll be wiped out from being sick & going to school anyway.

I know everyone is probably tired of hearing about Rhi's love life by now, and it seems to get more convoluted every time I post, but there is more *L* Apparently, her crush was mistaken about what the girl from his past wanted to talk about. I guess she thought there was something he could do about her ex-boyfriend going to her house & beating her up. I'm sure there is, but it would involve him going to jail, which I'm sure he isn't interested in. So anyway. Rhi was the first person he told what was going on & they chatted for awhile after that. While I was fixing dinner, she came out & told me she wasn't single anymore. I guess he told her, that as long as they didn't have to spend every minute together, that he'd like to go out with her (this is mostly because they have different sets of friends & each want to spend time with their friends at lunch & so on), of course she understood that & agreed to it, as she needs her own space, too. I think really he's afraid of having a girlfriend like the one he had his Freshman year (he's a Senior now) that freaked out any time they weren't together & stalked him after they broke up.

If it sounds like I know him fairly well, its because I do. We've known him since Erin started public high school his Sophomore year. For a short time they were rivals, after that they were best friends. His name is Sean, by the way. Sean had a crush on Erin's then-girlfriend (and for all I know, she may be the one from his past, since he isn't wanting to tell Rhi who she is) and after she broke Erin's heart, Sean believed her lies & wanted to kick Erin's butt. They eventually overcame all of that, the truth came out & they became best friends. They spent every weekend together, either over here or at his house. He's been calling me Mommy2 for most of that time. He got into a lot of trouble sometime near the end of Erin's Junior year & he went to detention for about a month & they kind of stopped hanging out. Erin got new friends, Sean kept his old ones & I'd run into him occasionally at the store. He'd always stop & talk to me, I'd ask him why he wasn't at school or what he was up to & he'd tell me. I didn't see him much in the past year, then he came to Renne Faire one day & we talked a little while.

When school started, Rhi started talking about him, because they had a class together. He gave her a ride back to school from that class one day when she missed the bus (the class is off campus at the tech center), and it sounded like they were becoming pretty good friends. When Rhi & her ex broke up, Sean was one of the first people to notice that something was wrong with her & express concern - she didn't tell him what was really up, because she knew that he couldn't stand her ex & was still in a state of mind where she wanted everyone to not hate him. I started to wonder if he might be crushing on her a little at this point (I'm pretty sure he was when he first started coming around, but wouldn't act on it then being Erin's best friend & all), but I didn't say anything. Erin started up the old AirSoft club that he & Sean originally started & Sean started playing with them, so did Rhi (and Troy & I). I noticed that sometime around the time Rhi finally let herself get pissed off at her ex & started letting go of that relationship, that she started talking about Sean an awful lot, and that he seemed to be finding ways to be near her a lot more & so I mentioned that I thought he might have a crush on her - its all history from there.

We'll see what happens from here on out, but i have to say that I'm impressed with the fact that he told her the truth through all of this indecision & confusion, and made sure that she was always kept up-to-date on what was going on.