So yes. A few small repairs.

The water pump is misbehaving on our van, it would seem. The van is not overheating, but there is a scary whine now coming from the engine which is not related to the transmission, and the van is intermittently leaking coolant. Sometimes, no leakage, sometimes a whole LOT of leakage. So the family is grounded for a while. Which sucks, but not TOO much. Hopefully we can get this taken care of sooner than later.

We were grateful to get home Saturday after a particularly large coolant dump in a parking lot of a garden store. Schnayboy responded to our plaintive cry for help, via an answering machine and some cell phone calls. It was weird-awesome. We feel so alone out here most of the time when it comes to things like that. No longer do we have aunts / uncles / parents / friends around every corner to come help us. It is very comforting to know we have that to some small extent again-- someone who could come right then.

Yesterday ~G~ spent hours finding four leaf clovers in the backyard. We had a nice batch of them this year, and she even found a five-leaf one, which thrilled her to no end.

We had our first family fondue party this weekend. The kids had a blast, although I won't be making the Swiss for them again. Next time they'll get the cheddar pot! :)

My significantly different-from-me sister has been emailing me again. I am concerned about this. I gave my estranged family my new addresses and phone numbers when I got on the plane in 2004. Not once have either my mother or my sister acknowledged my D's life. No calls / letters / anything to any of us in years, even before we left SC. Now my sister has done two emails in a month and it's nerve wracking for me. My mother signed up to watch my children's youtubes. I got a letter from a cousin of mine on that side, who is trying to plan an impromptu family get-together, so I KNOW they have my address here. They just don't give a shit.

I won't say it doesn't haunt me-- I think the mother wound never heals, really-- but this tentative bullshit isn't working for me either. I am so starved for it that while intellectually I feel like my mother is spying on me, the broken, crying child in me is pathetically satisfied that at least she's curious. My sister will bore of us, and carry on with the rest of her weirdness.