Excerpts from e-mail to Sister In Law Kate.

On the government/business sector:
let me just rant a bit.

hey, thanks capitalism! thanks to your scheming ways (sub prime loan crisis) and no planning for the future, housing will pretty much be controlled by the government. which sounds really creepy to me. and also...slightly socialist? i have not read marx, but i think it's time.

also, i know this will not effect people in places like new england where everyone always wants to live, but i live in the city with the highest sales tax (10.6%!) and highest gas prices. there are condos EVERYWHERE, and i really wonder if buying a condo is actually a good investment here. there's a huge influx of people, but none of them are married and they all want to live downtown. i seriously look at some of the houses in our neighborhood and just think, hmmm, if we could live here forever, in a little house, with a little yard, and our neighbors playing salsa music, i would be happy. but a condo with two bedrooms in the same neighborhood? not so much.

On modern day worries:
also, i had a weird thought...how many kids [should one have]? i often tell myself if SOMETHING happened and tim and i found ourselves suddenly pregnant, we could easily convert a bedroom into a bedroom for a child. and if those kids got older and we still couldn't move, we could always get a hide a bed and sleep in the living room (i know, i'm a big long-term planner, stay with me). but then i thought...what if we had THREE KIDS? and the thought just terrified me. also, although my own parents have four kids, whenever there was a family with the same number of children, i become so confused i usually assume they have five or six kids. seriously. like, FOUR KIDS, that is a LOT of kids. too many to keep track of. but now even three seems like a lot. from a family of five, this must seem crazy. but to me, you're a family of seven! i can't keep track!

i don't know why i am even thinking about this, but i will later tell you the story, perhaps on the blog, of thinking tim had been kidnapped or hit by the blue line el train yesterday. all detective skills were used, including watching gossip girl to distract myself.


On art:
on to sunnier topics---nice new print! i love love love that ink color. hmmm. the clock and color kind of remind me of disney's cinderella, in a very good way.

On my sister:
liz is coming to visit in chicago this weekend, and i have thankfully found lots of stuff to do (i hope) including shopping, classical music at ravinia, farmers markets, theatre, and a free screening of ghost busters in a nearby park. fun! fun! fun!

i was describing this fun to tim after his prodigal return, and he was like, is liz going to drink with us? is she going to get wasted? and i said, no she'll have like, a strawberry daiquiri and call it quits on a crazy night. maybe wine with dinner. and tim was like, no, she's going to get tanked, and start dancing with strange men and we'll be all (crinkly face like he's going to cry) liz! gasp! you have CHILDREN!

sometimes tim is so horrible and forgets details, date and times, and also coffee cups all over the house, and the other times he makes me laugh so much. sigh.

On dogs and my brother working out of town for the week:
you must really be missing aaron right now. if you had a labrador puppy, you could take it swimming and not be sad.

i saw a beautiful pooch this morning, and i always say hi to grownups in my neighborhood (45+) and this man was walking this meaty headed dog, and i said "good morning!" to the man, and "hello pooch!" to the dog, and the man sad "she said hello! say good morning!" to the dog and the dog said "sausages? sausages sausages sausages sausages."

have you seen that commercial? i love it.

okay, to work!
ruth