My friend Lacy asked if I'd pass on some info on a fundraiser she's working on. It's for a dance scholarship in the name of Donna, the little girl who passed away in October.

"Good Art for Good Things is a night of fun and somewhat raucous theater to celebrate a serious cause. All proceeds from this event will go to the Donna's Good Things Fund in honor of Donna Quirke Hornik (2005-2009).

"Donna's Good Things is an agency for good works, good deeds, GOOD THINGS in Donna's name: dance scholarships. Portable DVD players for kids going through treatment on long hospital stays. Essentially continuing Donna's special gift of spreading joy and light.

"Tickets are on a sliding scale: $15 - $25.

"Sunday, Dec. 6 at 8pm. Trap Door Theatre.

"Space is limited: RESERVATIONS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED! Send yours in to GoodArtGoodThings@gmail.com!"

Not sure exactly what the entertainment pieces will be, but I know several of the performers and expect good things. I do know that Lacy will be performing her adaptation of Beowulf using Barbie dolls.

I'm going. Maybe I'll see you there.

I'll try to get and post some info soon on how you can make a donation if you can't attend in case anyone's interested.

Still not sure what to do with this mirror.

It's heavy.

It looks kind of good right there, right?

More houseguests.

Bob and Stacey are in town from Portland where they moved a few years back to open their own comedy theater. Even though it’s their vacation, there are a lot of calls to be taken, emails to be answered. Theater business.

Stacey: This is the first time we’ve gone away for so long since the theater opened.
Bob: It’s a lot like having a baby.
Me: It’s a lot like having a baby that has a job.

I wrote back in March when we first moved in that, "the view from our back deck has a lot of 'Rear Window' potential."

While out in the suburbs for Thanksgiving we picked up some rugs that Sarah's grandmother kindly gave us.

Lugging a large rolled up rug up the backstairs in the middle of the night, I wondered if I was giving someone else a 'Rear Window' moment, spotting me, a kind of reverse Raymond Burr, dragging a body into my home under cover of night.

Out to the suburbs for Thanksgiving with Sarah's family.

Things started winding down around 8. People packing up their kids and heading home.

Sarah's Uncle: Remember when we used to stay up late on Thanksgiving? This family gets lamer every year. We need to rely on the young people here to keep the party going.
Sarah: Oh wait, are WE the young people?
Sarah's Uncle: Yes. You two.
Sarah: Uh oh.

Our lease isn't up until March, but we've already begun getting long official documents asking whether we'll renew or not.

I lived with a different girlfriend once, years ago, and after that came to an end, I kept a blog about getting over it.

I wrote, "I've been thinking about leases and love. I wonder how many relationships end because the lease is up? I mean literally. For N and I it came down to, the lease is up at the end of June, do we sign up for another year together? The answer was no. I don't think either of us were one hundred percent certain that we wouldn't have been able to make another year work, but the chances were slim. And if we were going to lose each other, we didn't want to lose our security deposit too."

It's nice to feel differently this time. Things haven't always been perfect, Sarah and I even came close to breaking up several months back (cut to lots of blog posts about dying plants), but things have also been good, and we're both ready to sign on for another year.

But will we be here? We like the apartment. The neighborhood could be better. So, we're keeping the relationship, but whether we're keeping the apartment is up in the air.

Hanging out on the couch, watching TV, Sarah suddently shot her arms up over her head, forming her hands into beaks, and yelled, "These cranes are happy!"

We laughed about this for a while.

Me: We're the stupidest people I know.
Sarah: Yeah, pretty stupid.
Me: It's a good thing we're together, because no one else would find that amusing. Seriously. Imagine someone else was sitting next to you right now. That would have been real awkward.

Sarah's flattening out her yoga mat, and for some reason it's funny to me that these are the books she used. Satire isn't the opposite of yoga, not exactly the yang to yoga's yin, but still, there's something there.

A surprisingly beautiful November Chicago day.

Still, it's hard not to be jealous of those smart enough to get out of town for the winter.

[Also...

The terrible children next door have mostly disappeared as it's turned cold, but are back out in full force on this unseasonably nice afternoon.

Sarah: There's a five or six year old out there just saying, "sex sex sex sex" over and over again.]

By popular request, a picture of Tetley, the totally blind dog.

Interestingly enough, there have been no requests for pictures of the newborn.