Catherine is getting to the stage where she is starting to actually have conversations with us. And occasionally they are pretty darn funny.

Like this afternoon….

Catherine was standing in front of the tv with a stuffed animal in her arms opening the entertainment center doors saying something about watching bear. Now she doesn’t usually watching anything with bears in it so i asked “Who do you want to watch?” and she replied “I don’t want to watch Doctor Who.” I said “Ok you don’t want to watch Doctor Who…. Who DO you want to watch?” She repeated “I don’t want to watch Doctor Who”, in a slightly irritaned tone….

We went back and forth a few more times… just enough to make me begin to feel like I was in a who’s on first sketch…. when I asked “what do you want to watch?” To which she replied “Blue’s Clues.”

when we found that Jersey had died last night. We will miss her. She was a good dog.

edit: and the day gets EVEN BETTER … When the kids went to feed Andrew’s Cambell’s dwarf hamster Sam we found that she had died last night as well.

The tree lighting at the Jefferson Hotel last night was beautiful. A huge tree was standing decorated in the center of an ornate lobby.
They played some live holiday music. Which was followed by a parade of real people and costumed characters from Richmond. The parade was started by the Richmond Christmas Mother and included casts from both of the area’s Nutcracker performances (Richmond Ballet and Concert Ballet of Virginia). The Parade ended with Santa descending the stairs to light the tree.

Well I finally got a chance to get started on my novel this morning. This is going to be REALLY slow work. I just don’t get much quiet time without kids bother me for something to fighting with each other to really think about it.

I posted Chuck’s old dorm fridge on my local freecycle group this morning. Through the Yahoo groups just like I’ve done a half dozen times. I was delighted when I got an email less than 30 minutes later.

Sure It was a bit odd that she refered to her son as going to uni.

But when she asked for my postcode because google maps didn’t recognize my address… I got suspicious. Then I checked her email address. yahoo.co.uk.

It turns out she lives in Chester, Cheshire, England… not Chester, VA… where the group I posted to is located. How this happened I have no idea.

I feel like I have to ask folks who reply to my posts if they are actually in the US.

It drives me insane.

Every time they call – “When are you coming home?”

We are home.

Our bed is here.

Our stuff is here.

Our kids go to school here.

We have friends here.

OUR FAMILY is here.

WE ARE HOME.

Why is the burden of expense put at our feet?

Why do you think that we should haul our family to you when you want to see us?

Roads go both ways.

Airplanes do too.

And OMG – your phone dials out as well.

IF we choose to move back to the area we were raised in – it will be OUR decision – NOT YOURS – no amount of nagging and haranging will have input on OUR decision.

IF we choose to visit you for our vacation – that again is our choice. Just as it is our choice if we choose to go someplace else.

DO NOT call and lament that you haven’t seen us in years – and tell us you can’t afford to come see us because you are saving to go to Hawaii with people you see every other weekend.

WE are a family – you are extended family.

YOU do not get to have input on where our family lives or what we do on vacation.

(I found this on another website… it hit too close to home not to repost.)

and I am determined to post more often.

We’ve already done the fireworks thing…. busch gardens has fire works every evening from the 1st thru the 4th… so we went on Thursday. We had a good time.

Cool surprise seeing Brent yesterday… hope the rest of histrip goes well.