Family Matters

I've been a little busy. It's a good thing, I've loved every minute of it, but, nonetheless, it's left me without much time to sit and write. So, I've got just a squeeze of time this morning to catch up and without coffee in my system, I will write.

My sister, Kaari, came to town this past weekend and it rocked the full show. Not that we did anything crazy or wild or met anyone famous or swung from the rafters.
But, she was here for four fabulous days. And for two tantamount days, so was my brother, Mike.
Siblings.
I LOOOOOVE my siblings.

If you've read this blog at all, you know I'm downright crazy for my whole dang family. To some, it's strange. I have a lot of friends who don't need to do more than a day or two with their family members. Us? all seven of us, we're the exact opposite. In fact, the word might start to spread about this family of mine... Kaari recently gave an interview to someone that asked her what the next big thing is for her shop, French General:
Kaari: "well, this is just a dream...but a large piece of land where my whole family lives and people can come and learn different crafts or talents. we would each teach what we know best. you can take photo classes or beading or wood working..."
Interviewer: "would people come and live there?"
Kaari: "no, no. WE live there, people just come for a long weekend or week retreat, and then they leave."
The interviewer has called and emailed her a few times since then to dig deeper into this dream and kaari finally had to respond, "you know, i wouldn't make too much of it, it'll probably never happen."
I, for one, wish on a star for it allllllll the time.

So, Kaari came and we worked on Stationary Show stuff and shopped and ate and played and talked and talked and talked. And then Mike came down from Auburn and we sat around and worked on Stationary Show stuff and shopped and ate and played and talked and talked and talked.

It made the whole world brighter.
In fact, the weather we just had in SF was THE best weather I've ever experienced here. It was really hot, really warm wind, and sunny, sunny, sunny. The windows were wide open, we were in tshirts all night and it made everyone seem happier (that might have just been me? hmmm).
On Friday night, RK, Kaari and I went to a really fun party at Dylan's house. I think everyone else was sitting inside watching "the fight" (no, i don't know who was fighting) while Kaari and I sat out on his back deck talking to Regina from Wisconsin. She sat rapt with attention while Kar and I pretty much entertained ourselves (and, apparently, Regina) with stories.
Kaari told one of a classic misunderstanding: At my niece's school, there was a big auction and my sister brought "a dinner of tamales" (in LA you get some of the yummiest & freshest tamalaes and kaari knows where to find the best) to auction off. Apparently, one of the mom's at the auction thought she was auctioning off "a dinner with molly" and so she bid like crazy. She won the "item" and ran over to my sister and said, "oh, im so excited! when is molly coming to town? when can we do the dinner together??" and kaari had to break it to her, "barbara, it's a dinner of tamales, not a dinner with molly." oh, how we laughed! When I was a little kid and my whole family was vacationing in mexico, in a tent, on the beach, I heard a woman calling "HOT tamales! HOT tamales!" and I was about 4 yrs old and didn't quite understand (okay, the truth here is that i was sitting in the tent on my little port-a-potty and didn't actually see her carrying her big box of fresh, hot tamales) and so i leaned my little head out and yelled, "HI to you TOO!" That's right, I thought she was yelling, "HI to molly".
I thought those two stories went together nicely.

Thank you RK, Kaari and Mikey for what a beautiful time we had.