A Great Day:
It's really a rarity to have those days where you're so happy you can physically feel it. Today was one of those days.

Though the big party is next Sunday to accommodate everybody's schedules, today was my daughter's third birthday. Which means it was a reminder to me of how much joy and love she's brought into my life, and it also meant I got a chance to see her at her happiest, which always makes me happier too. We went with Grammy and Papa J (my parents, who live here in town) to Geoffrey's Toys R Us, with cash from Pops and Gigi (Suzanne's parents, who we visited last weekend in Dallas) to buy her some presents. And Katy had a great time.

She was really good, too. She knew what she wanted, and she didn't do the greedy kid thing of just taking every single thing. She'd put some things back, but when she found something she wanted, I knew it. And it went in the cart. All told, she got a new pink Barbie ballerina dress (or another "princess dress" as she calls them), some plastic sandals with hearts on them ("princess shoes"), a Tiger electronics stuffed jaguar that lifts its head and moves its eyes, or will when we get batteries for it ("Baby Jaguar," that one courtesy of Dora) a bigger stuffed jaguar ("Mommy Jaguar"), and a Barbie mermaid doll (Katy's real into mermaids right now, and our Little Mermaid VHS tape is on constant daily rotation at our house... wish Disney would put the frickin' DVD back in print). We then had lunch, where she got free cake with a candle in it, and also got to open presents from Grammy, Papa J and (sent by mail) her Aunt Wendy and Uncle Doug. She had a great time, and despite being somewhat sleep deprived (her fault, not ours), was in a pretty great mood.

Then we heard back about our house, and got a counter-offer that we accepted. So it looks like Suzanne and I will be getting the new house we wanted... now we just have to put our current house on the market and hope it goes as fast (and for as much money) as we have guesstimated based on looking around and conversing with our realtor.

I worry a lot. About money (comic book retail is not exactly a job you retire on, or live high on the hog while doing), about politics, about society in general, about little stupid things (like Thing getting cancelled when it's one of my favorite books) and bigger things (like whether or not the government is as well and truly fucked as it seems), and it's nice every so often to realize that all that shit, all that negative shit, doesn't really matter all the time. When my daughter is smiling, my wife is happy, my family and friends are healthy... that's all I need, some days.

And those are the great days.