Ok, I am going to get serious here, only because I happen to be one of the luckiest people in the world when it comes to family. Not only do I have an amazing husband, Sean, but I have an amazing mother and an extended family to die for. If that doesn't make me lucky I don't know what would.

Sean first. We got married August 1, 1998 and it was the happiest day of my life. He is just the sort of person who is perfect for someone like me. When I'm a flake, he's stable. When he's a flake, I'm stable. I know, everyone says this about his or her husband. You've heard it all before. The sad truth is, everyone may say it, but not everyone means it. You find someone in your life that matches you in every way possible, and it is gold. The idea of romance, bonding, and intimacy takes on whole new dimensions.

Sean surpasses me in ways I can not even count. His intellect is off the scale. He's charismatic and handsome. He's loyal, loving and optimisitic. I just sit back and marvel every day -- I'm not even jealous.

We share our apartment with two very fine domestic shorthair cats -- Equus "Q" and Elijah or "Da Boys". We got them the first year we lived together from Harmony House for Cats. Their litter was found underneath a dumpster in an alleyway and all the kittens were very ill. In fact, a sister and brother of Da Boys died. Our little guys were so shy when we brought them home that they went underneath the futon and didn't come out for a week. We saw they were using their litter box and eating, so we left them alone. One night, as Sean and I were in bed watching TV, we saw two little white ears at the end of the bed. We watched in silent excitement, hoping we'd finally get to meet our new roommates. But, not that night. This went on for a week or so. Another late night watching tv and we had two little ears, then two little paws, then two little blue eyes staring at us from the end of the bed. Nothing for a few more nights. Then, two ears, two paws, to eyes, and *hop* -- a full cat. Equus turned around and around to make a nice divet in the blankets and fell asleep. His brother joined him the next night. These two are adorable and horribly affectionate. Elijah drools and is kind of smelly, but is a tremendous cuddler and now far braver than his brother. He adores Sean. Q is scarily intelligent, quirky and has a siamese miao, very expressive. He adores Steph.

• Elijah and Sean watching TV in their usual pose
  
• Q and Steph enjoying the sunshine after a long Chicago winter
  
• Q and Steph really enjoying sunshine after a long Chicago winter
  
• Steph trying to enjoy the sunshine with Q, but Q is thumping her feet and making her jostle the camera
  
• Steph is so going to kick your ass
  
• Lips Why? Because Q was supposed to be in the shot, but jumped on the camera and that's all I got

And here is my other best friend, my mom Nancy. All the passion I have comes straight from her. She taught me that a living thing doesn't have to be human to deserve kindness and respect. She taught me a love of nature that I will enjoy until I die. She taught me how to be a good person. She is an engineer for the telephone company. She is married to a man suitable to her kind nature named Ray, who spends hard days helping those who need it. Mom and Ray live in a delightful house in Pagosa Springs, Colorado -- way the hell up in the mountains, near Durango.

And my family adds more to this. The T's are my other nuclear family. My Aunt Cynthia is my mother's older sister, her husband is Dennis. They have two kids - Stryder (my junior by 9 months) and Ani (my junior by 5 years). I spent the better part of my childhood at their beautiful house on the Swan River in Montana. Stryder, Ani and had many "Huck Finn" adventures, which no one but the three of us actually believe. They are the closest thing I ever have had to a brother and/or sister.

Aunt Cynthia graduated with a B.A. in Linguistics from University of California at Berkeley on 1998. She graduated with a perfect grade-point average. She is the fiercest competitor I've ever met. I mean that. She is good at everything. Uncle Dennis is a builder, inventor and architect. I've included a picture of Uncle Dennis with one of his inventions "The Computree". He is also a philosopher and a very quiet and genuine man. They live in the Bay Area. Stryder is a senior managing partner in the Carol/Trevelyan Strategy Group, which helps all sorts of policy-makers make more of an impact on the good citizenry of our country. He is married to Nicole, who is a human rights lawyer. They are perfect for each other and I love them both. They live in San Diego, CA and have the cutest daughter in the world, Zoe. Ani is a very, very talented painter and a wonderful, gorgeous person. I've had the great luck of getting closer to her than ever as we travelled into adulthood and can't imagine not having her in my life. She lives in San Francisco.

• Mom and Zoe when Zoe was very new
  
• Stryder and Zoe have a day in the park!
  
• Stryder, Nicole and Zoe take a nice walk
  
• Stryder, Nicole and Zoe when Zoe was brand new!
  
• Zoe and Grandma Cynthia
  
• Zoe with Grandpa Dennis
  
• Zoe and Nicole
  
• Zoe with Aunt Ani and Uncle Chris
  
• Zoe taking after her Aunt Ani in more than just looks
  
• The only picture where some resemblance to Aunt Nancy and Aunt Stephanie begins to show through. ;)
  

My mother's older brother is Joel. He is a painter - a damned good painter. He lives near Portland. He has one daughter named Meka, who is married to Jeff and they have two darling girls -- Madison Sage, Isabelle. They live in Oregon

My mother's youngest brother is Bryan. He is married to a wonderful woman named Maren and they have a boy named Adam Ross. Bryan has two older boys named Chris and Tim, who I grew up with. Chris is a stockbroker and Tim is a teacher and activist for self-sustaining living, the environment and human rights.

Sean has a much larger family - so large that listing them would read like one of those 5 page bible entries with begats and that. So. Here are the folks closer in. Again, pictures to follow at some point.

Sean's parents are Suzy and Dave. Dave is a lawyer in Colorado. Suzy is very active in the Pueblo community and is an orchid enthusiast. They also are into tandem biking and are in fantastic shape. Better shape then Sean and I. They have two dogs that they adore named Bogart (and Airedale Terrier) and Bridey (a Kelly Blue Terrier).

Sean's only sister is about 9 months younger and is also named Stephanie, which has caused no end of confusion. She is a teacher and specializes in the disabled. She is married to a wonderful man named Blair, who is a cop in Colorado. They have three girls: Brielle, Alanna and Nadia.

To the left is a picture of Uncle Sean holding a very new Brielle. To the right is a picture of Steph holding Brielle from her first Christmas.

• Alanna and Brielle, Halloween 2003 Uncle Sean and Aunt Steph gave Alanna her Cinderella costume for her birthday.
  
• Grandpa Vobroucek blowing out his candles at his surprise birthday party.
  
• An old picture of Grandma W. with her parents from the '30s
  
• A picture of Grandma W.'s family from 1943
  
• A picture of Grandpa Ware's family from 1939
  
• Uncle Dick Vobroucek (Suzy's brother), carrying Grandpa V.'s birthday cake.
• Grandpa V. blowing out his candles
• Suzy and Steph when Steph was very preggers with Brielle

In 2002, Steph's parents, Sean's parents, Sean's sister's family and Steph and Sean went camping together in the Colorado Dunes. We had an absolute ball, until a hellacious windstorm came up in the middle of the night, which destroyed Sean and Steph's tent entirely (while they were still in it). Sean had to take refuge in his parent's tent. Steph had to take refuge in her parent's tent and got no sleep because she was hysterically laughing with her mother as their tent collapsed on one side and became a giant bellow, smashing the occupants in the face repeatedly as it blew out.

Suzy getting ready to cook