News from the family

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

If nothing else, holidays are a good time to catch up on what everyone’s doing.

My oldest son has a cool new job – he’s temporarily the traffic manager for Wizards of the Coast and is responsible for shipments of Pokemon cards. So if your store doesn’t get theirs, it’s his fault.

Another works for a large northwestern city and is STILL doing Y2K testing on programs that residents have been told were compliant. Why am I not surprised?

Hubby’s youngest step-son (20) who just lost his third job in three years is going to be a father.

My mom’s teeth are falling out – probably a side effect of tons of medication she’s taking, or maybe osteoporosis. She’s lost four in the last few months.

My brother never bothered to put water treatment stuff in his waterbed from several years ago. Now he has a small leak and it stinks so bad, he’s sleeping on the couch til he can get it drained.

The company my youngest son works for had something like $400,000 in fines for safety violations. The inspection came after someone lost a hand in a press, and a woman got her arm caught in a machine that didn’t have a reversing mechanism. They had to sedate her and keep the machine running to get her arm out.

What did you guys talk about at your family gatherings?

2

Well,
Dad had a colonoscopy, that was fun to hear about.
Moms blood sugar was OK when she got here, she tested it 4 times and it still seemed OK, even after eating a bunch of candy.
My one sister and her boyfriend are going to Vegas in Jan and want me to come.
Same sister brought along her “secret farter”- a remote controlled “whoopie cushion” of sorts…Big laffs were had by all.
I’ll spare you the details of everyones health and habits that live in my mother in laws apartment complex :slight_smile:
Zette

Click here for some GOOD news for a change

Zettecity

3

Hubby and son and I went to Amphora’s Diner and didn’t talk about that much, actually…

–
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com

4

I don’t have a scanner but my brother in law does. Sending pictures by e mail sounds OK.You don’t feel obligated to keep them.Now I have to call him and see if I can talk him through an e mail attachment which he’s never done.

5

AuntiePam -

Your son works for WotC?!?!?!?!??

Oh My God!!

That’s my dream job!!

Except moving to the west coast.

Anyway, my family:
My one grandfather is recovering nicely from his really mild heart attack last month, should be off the meds in another couple weeks. The other grands are fine, even if my other grandmother is getting more and more scatterbrained as time goes by.

The aunt&uncle&cousins from Indiana drove over to Jersey for the week, during which my overly competitive jock uncle kept trying to convince everyone that his kid is smarter than I was at that age (freshman in high school). The kid himself is cool, I got no problem with him, but his parents and his little brother drive me and everybody else nucking futs whenever they’re in.

The set of aunt&uncle&cousins on the other side is doing well, they just redid their kitchen. My one cousin (eigth grade) got a fencing foil for his birthday, he’s really excited.

In the immediate family, the 'rents are pretty much good. I’m doing well in my first semester of college at AU in DC. My sister left this morning (Friday) on a big 4-H trip to Atlanta, National 4-H Congress. She was sort of apprehensive, but I’m really psyched for her, I had the time of my life when I went on the same trip to Memphis a couple years ago.

The big to-do this weekend has revolved around our friend Bobby. He died on Monday. He was found on the floor, bleeding from his nose and ears the week before last. Nobody’s really sure what happened. He could have drank a bottle and a half of Windex, he could have eaten 75 Benadryll, or it could have been a genetic liver problem. He was alive on machines till Monday when they pulled the plug. He was 33, it’s not like he was 16 and depressed…I dunno, the general consensus is that he killed himself, but personnally I’m having a tough time accepting that. Everybody’s really torn up.

It’s been a rough week. Everbody always says about dead people “they touched so many lives” but for Bobby it was really true. He played Santa, taught Sunday School, was an EMT, and ran a LARP (roleplaying game, too complicated to explain right here) that made scores of people happy; he created a community, whole, of like-minded people.

Sorry to be long-winded, I don’t want to hijack the thread (I think I might start one dedicated to this particular topic soon, when I can deal with it a little better), but I feel compelled to give a little mini-eulogy whenever he comes up. Anyway, thanks for listening (or reading, or whatever).