Charles is my husband, retired from the National Guard. I retired after 20 years with civil service (and being a curriculum editor) at the end of March 2004. Our Raggies are Willow, Whiney-Pot, and Fuzzy-Wuzzy. They are seal bi-color, blue mitted, and black in color. We also have two dogs. Chance, a liver-colored Flat-Coat Retriever, is the gentlest love-bug ever, and belongs to both of us. He is Charles' devoted slave, however. Into our home came a 2-year old Miniature Australian Shepherd--named Toto--two years ago. He's a black tri-color and has taken me to raise. Being a "working dog," he feels everything (including cats) must be herded. We're still trying to convince him that Chance is the alpha dog and we are the alpha humans. We live in the country, in a log cabin we built, and which has brought great joy to us and the animals living here (where else can Ragdolls use the walls as scratching posts with the full consent of meowmy and meowdad?). We're in rural Alabama, north of Montgomery but south of Birmingham.

Reading...from poly sci and great fiction to good trash. The animals ... grooming. Writing...but unpublished, alas.

Happily retired from civil service e-mail: patricia.self@gmail.com