wendy’s Neighborhood

I can't believe it's 11 AM and I'm up and around on a Saturday!  Usually I sleep in until 9 or 10 and putz around in my pj's for a few hours. This morning I was up, showered, dressed, hair done, the whole shebang by 8:30.  The hubby and I decided to take his younger brother (23? 24?) out to brunch this morning.  He is a video game animator, and just finished working on the Marvel Superhero Alliance game that came out a few months ago.  He got to animate Captain America, The Hulk, The Fantastic 4, Iron Man, etc., which I think is pretty cool.  We got to tour the company that he worked at this summer (I think I wrote about it during my Maine blogs).

Now that the game is done, though, he is between jobs.  He received an offer to move to Germany for a year to do animations for commercials and webpages (at least that's what I think he will be doing).  We are going to miss him terribly, but we're so happy that he gets to live in Europe for a year.  The hubby was giving him a hard time this morning, telling him he would have to eat blood sausages and say "Alo" all of the time.  It was all in good fun, though. 

The hubby and I started dating in 1994, when J. was seven or eight. The hubby has another brother, A., who is a couple of years older than J.  When I think back, I realize that I've been able to watch them grow up, and I've grown right along with them.  Fifteen years is a long time!  I can remember many happy days spent at the grandparent's pool, football games at the family house, all of us playing basketball until the sun went down, jumping on the trampoline, playing hours and hours of Mario Kart, the list goes on and on.  I rarely talk to my own sister, due to much family drama that I just don't want to deal with anymore. The hubby's family has always been so open and accepting, and I guess I've always felt like his brothers were kind of like my brothers, in a small way.  I'm happy we were all able to spend so much time together over the years.

A. has a wife and two kids now, and we don't get to see him as much anymore, because they live a couple of hours away.  J. has been away from home for awhile, first at college in Florida, and then in New York for his last job.  He's been home for a few months, which has been nice. I like that he and the hubby have been able to spend time together again, whether it's going to Penn State football games or watching games at home.   It's going to be weird to have him on another contintent, but I know he is going to do great.

I had my pocket camera today, so I snapped a pic at brunch.  I didn't use the flash (because I didn't want people to stare at us), so it's a little blurry.  Because it's people, it's neighborhood only (like always):

• 19:45 Getting in bed & watching a movie w/ @sacentrepreneur also finishing off L's Halloween candy. #
• 19:47 Well this is a little comforting: More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes. #omgfacts (via @OMGFacts) #
• 20:14 Was told by @sacentrepreneur that the candy I was eating smelled like cleaning supplies. They kind of tasted like it too. #

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• 09:38 @RenovationThrpy that happens to me sometimes too. What causes that? #
• 10:22 @rainnwilson that's really a very creepy looking poster. #

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This year's gift to Madonna Fan Club members is

Madonna2009

I can't wait! I still haven't framed the other lithograph I got through ICON (Madonna's Fan Club).