Raelene is joining a friend for a vegan corned beef lunch at our new favorite restaurant today. Yum! The place is called Nature’s Express, and it’s a pretty awesome little healthy fast food alternative on Solano in Berkeley. The sandwiches are incredible, and their Chickun patty is amazing. It’s not fancy, and there isn’t much seating, but if you want a quick bite to eat I recommend it.

While I was at the Park with Corinne, Raelene went across the street to see if anyone lost a purse. Instead of our neighbors, however, she talked to the house sitter. He didn’t know anything about a lost purse, but he did admit to having some “females” over the previous night. He wasn’t sure who they were, how to contact them, or what their purses might have looked like, so Raelene left and called me.

The whole thing was starting to smell, and it dawned on me that an open purse and dropped wallet might mean the purse was stolen. Someone probably smashed a car window a few blocks away, grabbed the purse and ran, stopping only to fish out the cash and dump everything else. My suggestion was to call the cops, and I agreed with Raelene that she should post to the neighborhood group as well.

When the Richmond Police CSI showed up, he immediately started harassing Raelene about taking the purse. He kept telling her that if any money was missing, the owner of the purse could accuse us of taking it. I was inside with Corinne, who was eating lunch, when I heard Raelene say, “oh my God, I had no idea that was in there,” and, “are we going to get in trouble for this?” I went outside and asked what was wrong, and Raelene told me there was pot in the purse. The CSI said no, not pot, heroin. Um, what? He then pulled a small baggie out of the wallet and said, “see, black tar heroin.” Raelene went white, and I probably did too.

Holy crap.

Oddly enough, the CSI suddenly became a lot friendlier. I guess finding narcotics made his point much easier to make. If you find a purse or bag, don’t mess with it. Call the police and let them deal with it. The CSI then talked to the guy across the street and tried to talk to the neighbor who found the purse (he was still out for his walk). We didn’t get into trouble, and I doubt we’re going to hear about it again. The owner of the purse is going to get her stuff back, sans the heroin of course, and I doubt she’s going to be claiming someone stole her cash.

The moral of the story? You never know what’s in that lost bag. Call the police, and let them find the owner.

Last weekend was Corinne’s birthday party, and it was a lot of fun. We had a houseful of 2 year olds, all running around and playing and leaving fingerprints 2 1/2 feet up the walls. Raelene decorated the house with a rainbow theme, including rainbow food and a huge rainbow streamer starburst in the living room. She did an awesome job. Corinne loved it when the flashes were going off and everyone was staring and singing at her. I’m thinking maybe we should have named her Baby Gaga (after Lady Gaga). But more than the paparazzi, Corinne loved her cupcake.

On Wednesday, Corinne had her 2 year service at the Pediatrician’s office. She’s doing really well. She’s also mostly sleeping through the night more often than not these days, which is wonderful. It took us almost 2 years to get here, but it looks like maybe we’ve arrived.  :-) That evening Raelene joined some friends for dinner at Gracias Madre in The City, and had a lot of fun.

On Thursday our friends Jennifer and Lisa stopped by our place for dinner and a visit. Lisa is visiting from New York, so this was a special treat. She brought Corinne a hand made Monster, which Corinne loves, and Jennifer brought Corinne a box of puzzles, which Corinne also loves. We were only able to hang out for a few hours before they took off, but we all had a lot of fun.

Yesterday I ran my monthly CthulhuTech game. I think that went really well too, at least everyone seemed to have fun. This the first time I’ve run a game like this, and it’s really challenging me. I am trying to weave an interesting mystery without railroading the players, which means a lot of improvisation on my part. I’m having a lot of fun with it, and I’m inspired to take some classes on improv to improve my ability to think on my feet.

Today I’m going to see if I can get our taxes done, and since the weather looks good we might take Corinne to see the steam trains in Tilden.

Sweet Corinne, we love how easily you brighten a room with your amazing personality. We’re amazed by how well you can express yourself and by all the things you can do. We’re grateful to be your parents and to help you to grow into the strong, loving, joyful person you are meant to be.

Happy birthday, Corinne! We celebrate you on this very special day.

The big news is Corinne is almost two  years old. Yea, I know, already? It’s true, she turns 2 on Monday. Needless to say we’re throwing a birthday bash for her this weekend. The guest list is fairly exclusive, and it’s going to be the in thing for the 2 and under set this weekend. Okay, not really. But because of the storms we’re having it at our house, and we were only able to invite Corinne’s friends and their immediate families.

We spent last weekend on house stuff, and our downstairs living room looks a lot nicer. We’re almost ready to buy that large screen TV. The weekend before that we went to the birthday party for one of Corinne’s friends, and I played in my monthly CthulhuTech game.

Corinne is doing well. Is it normal for child under 2 to have memorized her books? She’s as good at reciting them as I am, and I’m reading the things. She still loves Caillou, but her new things are The Wonder Pets and Yo Gabba Gabba. The strange thing is we don’t even have cable, and she’s still hooked on these shows.

Last night I discovered an application that will allow me to write and upload blog posts directly from my phone. I can’t imagine writing anything but a short update using it, and I’m sure the rate of spelling and grammar errors is going to go way up. On the other hand it could make writing quick updates incredibly convenient.

Other than that things are fairly quiet. No news is good news, I guess.

To be honest I’m happy we got at least some of our money back. I was expecting them to keep everything. But I will certainly never buy anything from The Vegan Collection again.

This whole thing is sad.