I'm with you, Cashmere. I had an inch of snow on my car (the heavy stuff, blech) this morning.

I am sooo looking forward to Vegas next Thursday--sis says it got up to 90 degrees yesterday!

Sometimes it snows in April.

Sometimes I feel so bad.

Aagh. Oz has been AWOL for 3.5 hours now. He is only out when I'm out, and rarely goes further than underneath my next door neighbours' deck. My neighbours two houses down, in the opposite direction were the last to see him and it sounded like he was heading in the direction of home. But I don't see him anywhere. I've walked the block a few times and I've been banging a fork against a can of cat food, but nada. It's probably too soon to worry, but I'm worried. He's a cat that spooks easily.

Timelies all!

I do not have this Friday or next Monday off. I am taking Friday the 29th off, but not for the Royal Wedding.(It's the first day of Malice Domestic, a local mystery con)

Speaking of weddings, I'm sure Wills and Kate's will be lovely, but no way can it match the wedding I attended this weekend.

My sister and her fiance got married Saturday at this place in Austin outside [link] She had 5 bridesmaids including me and my other sister who all bought a range of green dresses and brown boots. Macon had 5 groomsmen in Chuck Taylors and green ties. The bouquets and boutineers were made of buttons, and we walked down the aisle to this [link] (the recessional was "Sweet Child of Mine")

But more than that, the friends we made who know my sister and her husband were so wonderful, and the new family, 2 brothers and his parents are just amazing people and it was just a fucking magical weekend.

I know it was special for everyone who was there, but I think I can sum up what it meant to me with the toast I gave at the reception. I didn't know what I wanted to say, but a theme kept repeating itself to me, so I dug into it a little deeper and found that it really fit.

I came up with the idea of how this family came to be-Four Weddings and a funeral.

Mom and Gene got married and I got this wonderful dad. A bonus dad to fill in all those places where my own dad fell short. I got 2 sisters and a brother who I already knew and liked, and all was good.

Next, Jon and I got married, and not only is he a wonderful husband, but mom got to feel like I was taken care of, and Alex had a boy to play sax with and talk baseball with.

Then, Alex died, and as horrific and terrible as that was, we really bonded going through that horrible thing together. Robyn, Lee and I dropped the step. I got closer to Alex's mom Sharon and Lee and Robyn's mom, Maryanne, and they became bonus moms.

Then Robyn married Donald, and I got my first brother in law, and his and my sister's marriage is a thing of harmonious beauty. It's amazing how much you can come to love someone you didn't know just on the strength of how much they love someone you love.

And now with the addition of Macon and his family with this wedding, it feels like we're whole again and complete.

I'm telling you this thing was the shit!

It sounds lovely, DJ.

DJ, that's beautiful, and a lovely way of telling the story of your family. Congratulations to your sister and her husband!

I love it, DJ.

Thanks guys! I think we were all still crying tears of joy well into Sunday. Hell, I had to switch off that song up there so I wouldn't start bawling at my desk.

Daisy, I love your family! Big-time congrats to the newly married couple.

My mom's third marriage gave her loads of family, and all three of us kids have been included.

Her husband, Wayne, had three children with his first marriage, two of whom ended up rather estranged from him over the years and weren't fully made up when he died (we actually wondered if his son would even show up for the funeral, and were relieved when he did). But, his youngest (D) was very close to him and when he married Mom, D became just as close to her. Her two daughters, both born after Wayne died, view Mom as one of their grandmas. Wayne's second marriage gave him a stepdaughter, V, who lives only 20 minutes down the road from Mom and Wayne's house, and her kids also view Mom as another grandma.

When Mom mentioned to a neighbor friend that I had requested that we go see D and her family before Mom had her surgery, she was really surprised that I even knew D, let alone view her as a stepsister and relative.