I keep finding out about new people who read my journal. I know my mother reads it, and I think my father does now too. Obviously most of my writer-type friends glance at it on occasion. A while back I found out that my brother, Mike, reads it, and then this morning I got some great email from Mike's mother, Sally, telling me that she reads it too! Cool!

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My brother:

Three years ago I never knew I had a brother. Then something totally cool happened and my mother told me that I had a half-brother whom I'd never met (or even heard of at that point.) Well, me being the pushy bitch that I am, I wrote him a letter.

"You don't know me but I'm your sister..." Sounds like a Doobie Brother's song, eh? So I wrote this letter, included tons of pictures of myself and the family, and sent it off, not knowing if he had any desire to get in contact with me. About three days later I had a message on my answering machine from a very excited Mike saying that he couldn't wait to talk to me.

So, we kept writing and talking. He's ten years older than I am--my father's son from before my parents were married. Eventually Mike came down south to visit and we had a fantastic time. He got to meet dad for the first time, and they got along splendidly! Shortly after Mike returned home he bought a computer and got connected to the internet, so now we're all able to stay in touch much more easily. And even though there's no legal relationship, Sally (Mike's mother) is officially my honorary step-mother.

And the coolest thing is that my brother and his mom live in the Seattle area, so I'll get to visit with them when I go up there!

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Picture time again! This time of my kitties. (These are the cats that my parents now have custody of, but I still have visitation rights.)

This is Bo, one of the two boys. It's tough to see in this pic how big he is, but trust me... he's big.

The other boy, Strider. He's about as big as Bo, but he can be a bit of a wimp.

This is Jersey, who is most definitely a little girl kitty. She knows exactly how cute and adorable she is.