Welcome, friends!

I am just soooooo excited about this new adventure--my first blog! Or, as my husband of 23 years says it, "blawwwg". Just so you feel at home, here's a picture of my husband and I, taken at a party last summer:

My husband's name is Egan, and he manages country clubs for a living. That's why we've been moving all around this country, living like gypsies, all these years. He loves what he does, and so we feel very blessed!

Here's a photo of my daughter and I:

Her name is Abigail, and she's 6 feet tall! Where that height comes from, Lord only knows; I'm only a stumpy 5 foot 5 inches these days. Abbie is a sophomore at the University of California at Berkeley, so very far from home! She is majoring in Peace and Conflict Resolution, and minoring in French.  She comes all the way home to her mama and papa every chance she gets for some clean laundry and home cooking.

We also have a cute mutt from the pound named Wee Willie. He just cracks me up. His teeth are very crooked--he has a fang that sticks out in front, although you can't tell that here:

We also have 3 cats, 2 of which we've dragged here all the way from "Kollyfornia", as Arnold says it. Their names are Jack and Pee Wee:

Our 3rd cat is named Margaret, though her nickname is "Little Bit"--you can see why, here:

She looks like a kitten, but she's not--I think she's about 8 years old now. Weighs about 6 ounces. Seriously. And she's always CCCCOOOOLLLLDDD--this is her usual spot, by the fire.

That's our whole family, at least here in New York. Everyone else, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins, are all out west. And they think we're crazy, living here like we do. Did I mention that it gets SERIOUSLY cold here? Like, 40 below zero cold? Well, it does, and we get around 100 inches of snow in a normal winter, too. Can't say that I'm a huge fan of winter, but I've made peace with it, and I tell you what: I really do enjoy the seasons we get here in the Northeast. Autumn is my absolute favorite time of all.

A little about myself now. I have a college degree in business and have a background in retail management/giftshop ownership, but these days I'm pretty much a housewife. A housewife who writes. I want to work more, but I can't right now, as I suffer from a bummer of an autoimmune disease that pretty much limits what I do on a daily basis. In fact, I'm on my way to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore next week to really get to the bottom of this whole illness B.S.--my hope is that the doctors there (world's leading specialists, they are) can help me get my life back, at least a little bit. I'll keep you posted. But enough of that boring stuff--this weekend I am having FUN, gosh durnit (!), with my girlfriend Leslie. We're heading down to the charming Fingerlake towns to do some serious Christmas shopping at two of my favorite stores. Come back for pictures, ya hear?