Break out that tiara you bought for your Labrador retriever-mix last spring. The San Diego Humane Society and SPCA’s 17th annual Fur Ball will be held Oct. 18, and (friendly, leashed) dogs are invited to attend. Enjoy dinner, dancing, silent and live auctions at the gala event with your four-legged furry friend. All proceeds benefit animals and community programs. The theme of this year’s event is “Best in Show.” For information or to find out about great sponsorship opportunities, call (619) 243-3408.

During October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and throughout the year, the American Cancer Society staff and volunteers suggest that women tell their friends and family the following five important facts about breast cancer: All women are at risk for breast cancer, even those who have no family history of the disease. The two greatest risk factors for breast cancer are being a woman and growing older. Survival rates are high for women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, when the cancer is small and has not spread. Get annual mammograms beginning at age 40, and start regular breast exams by your doctor by 20 years of age. Smart strategies to reduce your risk of all kinds of cancer include regular physical activity, maintaining an appropriate weight for height, and limiting alcohol intake. Through early detection and improved treatment, more women than ever are beating breast cancer.

If you or someone you know has been touched by breast cancer, contact the American Cancer Society anytime, day or night, for information or support at (800) ACS-2345. To celebrate survivorship or honor those who have been lost to the disease, join other walkers at the fifth annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, Sunday, Oct. 19, in Balboa Park. For more information, to register or to make a donation, call the local ACS office at (619) 682-7445 or visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to their web site.

Soraya Bittencourt, author of My Road to Microsoft, will be at Obelisk on Sunday, Oct. 19, for a book signing at 5:00 p.m. My Road to Microsoft is the chronicle of a young woman’s rise as an engineer in the male-dominated field of technology and how her concept became Microsoft Expedia, the first successful Internet travel site.

Woven throughout this memoir is her personal story of coming out as a lesbian and sharing her life with her partner of 20 years. The book starts in Brazil, covering the struggle of becoming an engineer despite society’s limited ideas about what girls could achieve. After hitting the glass ceiling at age 23, Bittencourt immigrates to America and works as a cleaning woman to survive until obtaining papers to work as an engineer.

Eventually her idea became the nucleus of Expedia, after she became disillusioned with Microsoft and left in 1998.

Enjoy cocktails, photo and video displays, a sumptuous gourmet buffet, excellent entertainment and one of San Diego’s best silent auctions at The Center’s gala on Saturday, Oct. 18, in the Sunset Room at the San Diego Convention Center.

The Center’s gala is the cornerstone of the GLBT community’s autumn social calendar and is the largest and most established black-tie event held in our community. Tickets for the event are $125 or $250 (VIP). The VIP ticket price includes a reception at a private home on Friday, Oct. 17, valet parking and a reserved table.

The event will celebrate The Center’s 30-year history as well as the history of San Diego’s GLBT community. The event will feature three “decade lounges” representing the style, entertainment and 30-year history of The Center, a timeline of Center and community history, recognition of the many “pioneers” who founded The Center and an opportunity to participate in a unique, strictly limited recognition opportunity. The Gala logo tag line “Yours in the struggle” honors The Center’s founder, Jess Jessop, a longtime community activist, who signed his letters in this fashion.

For more information, call (619) 692-2077.

Grand Marshals for this year’s Greater Palm Springs Pride parade are Deyna Hodges, member of the Palm Springs City Council, and Chris Rees, owner of The Tool Shed, a popular Palm Springs bar and gathering place. Jeanne Reller-Spurgin, also a member of the Palm Springs City Council, has been named Pride Woman of the Year for her dedicated service to the community. Don Wardell, a local radio personality and Community Health Educator with the Desert AIDS Project, has been named Pride Man of the Year.

This year’s parade steps off at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 2, at the corner of Alejo and N. Palm Canyon Drive, and proceeds south on Palm Canyon Drive through the heart of the Palm Springs business district to Ramon Road. This year’s Pride festival will be held Nov. 1 and 2. Admission to the festival grounds is $5. For more information, call Jack Schloeder at (760) 416-8711.

The Imperial Court de San Diego’s XXXII Reign, the Court of Charity and Diversity, in partnership with The Center, Bienestar and the National Leather Association-International (NLA-I), present a domestic violence awareness event on Wednesday, Oct. 15, from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. at The Center, 3909 Centre Street, Hillcrest.

The event is geared to educate and heighten awareness of domestic violence within the GLBT community, as well as offer participants the opportunity to network with organizations, charities and businesses that focus on, advocate for or are otherwise concerned with domestic violence issues. On the schedule as keynote speakers are Denise Brown and Danielle Hickman.

Denise Brown has been a staunch advocate for domestic violence awareness for the last decade as a leading speaker regarding the horrifying experience her and her family endured as a result of the vicious murder of her sister Nicole Brown Simpson in 1994. Danielle Hickman works with the San Diego City Attorney’s Office Domestic Violence Unit. For more information, call (619) 795-6991.

Nina Revoyr, author of Southland (nominated for an LA Times Book Prize, an ALA Stonewall Book Award, and was selected as a Book Sense 76 pick), is one of the freshest young voices in American fiction. In Southland, Revoyr (The Necessary Hunger) returns to the gritty, central Los Angeles of her debut with a compelling tale of a headstrong Japanese-American lesbian law student obsessed with discovering her family history and solving a murder mystery.

Revoyr’s only San Diego reading will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, at Current Affairs Bookstore, 2536 University Ave. For more information, call (619) 795-9899.

La Jolla Playhouse announces the final discussions in its 2003 Discovery Sunday Series, introduced as an opportunity for audiences to strengthen their theatre experience through interaction with guest speakers on topics relevant to the themes of each play. These discussions are free and open to the public.

On Sunday, Oct. 12, following the matinee performance of Beauty, audiences are invited to engage in an open dialogue with Gertrud Mueller Nelson on the topic of “Beauty: Shifting Ideals.” On Sunday, Nov. 9, following the matinee performance of Comedy of Errors, Peter Meineck and Robert Richmond, co-creators of The Aquila Theatre Company’s adaptation of the play, will lead a lively discussion entitled “Shakespeare: a Kaleidescope of Comedy.” The discussion will cover the broad scope of Shakespeare’s comedy.