Things have been going ok. I got some shopping done on Saturday. I tried to find my Dad some shirts that were made in the US with no luck. There was Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Ukraine...which would probably be the least offensive to him. I ended up just getting house shoes and a pair of jeans (and there was only one pair in his size). Oh, well. I thought about getting him a shirt made in the US, then lightly stitching a dummy tag over it's tag with Vietnam or something on it just to watch him gourd out. That would be funny.

I got an email from my sister's mom. She wanted to know if I'd like to ride with her to pick Danielle up from the airport. She also suggested that just the two of us hang out together so there's no audience. I'm not sure what's planned yet. I may get her a small gift. I don't know. I feel like it might be weird.

All of this got me thinking about my brother, who has a daughter that he is not in contact with. The mother kept her and did not want him to be in contact with her, or something. I don't know all of the details. She's probably a teenager now. I wonder if my niece knows she has a sister.

I'm going to the aforementioned brother's house tomorrow. I'm hoping we can reconnect. When all of the termite damage drama was going on with the house, we had a falling out. We've never been the same since then. I think the thing that got to him was that I stayed home from work when he and his coworker needed to be in our house to continue the repairs (his company at the time submitted an estimate to repair the damage and was approved by the bank). He felt like I didn't trust him to be left alone in my house. Actually, Jeff wanted me to stay home. (I can't get into what he was worried my brother would take.) I was caught in the middle, so to appease Jeff I stayed home. That was such a stressful time for us, anyway. I'd just had a nervous breakdown from dealing with the bank assholes.

Anyway, I'm trying to reach out to him despite the continued silent animosity from Jeff. He's my brother and I love him, so it's none of Jeff's concern, really.