Weird and weirder

This has been a strange week. First, I find out that my little brother has a tumor on his knee. I about had a heart attack, as cancer is something that runs in our family. I spent the better part of two days in tears waiting to hear some positive news, and finally got it. He visited a specialist yesterday and found out that everything is going to be fine, just a simple removal procedure and no worries. Whatever it is that he's got (osteochondroma) is benign 99.99% of the time. Thank goodness. I was totally prepared to pack up and head home.

Then today, my mom emails to tell me that she has been manditorily evacuated from her home, as Hurricane Rita prepares to crash into Texas right where she lives. As her house is about 4 blocks away from Galveston Bay, well... not much chance that she is going to avoid flooding if this hurricane stays a Category 4, as it is now. My brother, sister and mom loaded up the two cars they have between them with what they deemed as the important stuff (at least what seemed important at 2 am) and headed north to Fort Worth to stay with friends. After being at home and watching the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans, I can't imagine what must be going through my family's heads right now. We were even joking around that it was bound to happen sooner or later, I just never thought it would be this soon. Mom, let me know if I need to send a care package... I've got lots of soup packets in case all hell breaks loose here.

As for locally, things are heating up a little. The UN report on the readiness of Kosovo to begin final status talks is due out soon, and pretty much everyday there is some sort of protest going on. Nothing to be alarmed about. The one today seemed to be nothing more than a bunch of people standing around blocking traffic. No signs, no chanting, just a crowd - at least that's all it was when I decided it was time to get the hell out of there. No sense in standing around waiting for it to get ugly.

So I am officially 34. My birthday was yesterday. Big plans from the Party Girl? No. Took care of that last week with a big group dinner. Last night I stayed home and made a phenomenal frittata from a new cookbook Mom sent with me and watched "March of the Penguins." It was lovely! My favorite Red-Headed Mexican called me for a nice long chat just as the movie was ending and I went to bed early. Nice and peaceful way to enter my mid-thirties. YIKES, I am getting old.