He's one of the oldest in the business

Who is he? I didn't know the story.

Suzi, are you all done with the move now? Are you all settled in the new place?

Who is he?

Dalik Volinitz (goodness, I have no idea how to spell his name in English).

You probably weren't even born when they showed "shminiot ba'avir" (um, it roughly means, "shapes-of-8 in the air", and it's an expression, meaning trying-really-hard).

I have or had 6 cousins on my mother's side (Joanna died of a brain tumor many years before I was born) and 7 on my dad's side.

Of the ones on my dad's side, I've met 6 of them, but not often. I have more of a relationship with my mother's family, though I've rarely seen my cousin Tom, who is the oldest cousin of all. (I think he's 50.)

The nearest to me in age is a decade my senior, as my mother was the youngest of 5 and my brother and I came along late in life. My sister, however, is about the same age as the rest of the bunch, and as she was in the same country as the rest of them until she was 7 or so, had more of a childhood-with-cousins thing going on.

Suzi, are you all done with the move now? Are you all settled in the new place?

We are all moved - Colorado driver's license is in process and I just changed over our cell phones. As for being all settled - we do still have boxes lining the hall and I need to sort through those in the garage, but we are doing pretty well for the most part. CJ starts school next week, so that is the next big hurdle.

Well, that plus selling the house in California. Nothing is happening there and it is very frustrating. But ignoring that and the fact that I miss the Bay-istas like mad, things are going really well.

I'm glad things are going well after the move. I hope school goes well.

ION, really cool carpark signs.

[link]

I have 18 surviving cousins on my mom's side (there were 21, but three died 25 years ago) and only two on my dad's. Interesting thing is that my mom has a similar number of maternal cousins, even though she had twice as many aunts/uncles as I do (Gramma was one of twelve, and Mom is one of six).

I have 18 surviving cousins on my mom's side (there were 21, but three died 25 years ago)

Not to be intrusive or morbid but three died at the same time?

My dad's an only child so no first cousins on that side. Loads of other cousins though. All in Texas.

had more of a childhood-with-cousins thing going on.

In my experience, this is key. There's a cousin a couple of years older than me, I hardly get to see her lately, what with nobody ever having enough time (she has two adorable little sons, on top of everything). When we were kids, our mothers pretty much made sure we spent time together every summer vacation, and we even used to correspond for a while (with actual letters! With stamps). Nowadays we hardly ever meet, mostly in big family events and the like, but when we do, it's like we're little kids telling each other stories to babble ourselves to sleep during long hot summer nights all over again - it's like we never left. I think it's all thanks to the shared childhood memories, and I'm grateful (because she's great, and did I mention the adorable sons?).

CJ starts school next week, so that is the next big hurdle.

Oh, good luck with that! I hope he has a great start.

plus selling the house in California

Lots of selling~ma.

I miss the Bay-istas like mad

Sorry, I don't even know what to wish regarding *that*. I bet they miss you lots, as well. Not that it helps, but still.

I bet they miss you lots, as well.

We do! We do!

Not to be intrusive or morbid but three died at the same time?

I talked about it once at World Crossing. I'm not going to bring everyone down here, but if you're interested, I'll white-font the info and leave it at that. My aunt killed herself and my cousins back in 1982. So, I sort of freaked out when the Andrea Yates verdict was handed down, which is what made me post about it.