We are now the proud owners of two singing anorexic bimbo dolls.

Katie got a toy store gift card in her stocking and, foolishly, I promised her she could spend it on whatever she wanted. And she wanted the other doll's partner in crime. She had her dad rip it right out of the box on the way home, and the minute she walked through the door, she found the first one and set them off at the same time. They're designed to sing in harmony, you see. They sing a duet.

Oddly, the brunette, which she acquired on Christmas morning, is the better singer. Her associate, a blonde, is wearing pink. The brunette, in my opinion, is way hotter. She's wearing blue. And she has a neat haku lei.

I got a me a gym membership for my gift. Ryan was given a free guest membership when we signed up, so we've both been going. And it's fantastic. I feel great. Ryan wants to join, too. At the very least, it gets me out of the house for forty minutes. At best, I lose all the weight I've been carrying around since I got pregnant with Katie.

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Getting Katie that doll was actually quite an adventure. Ryan had Monday and Tuesday off and we decided to use those days to take Katie shopping but also to distribute leftover gifts. We had yet to hit my brother's house by Pearl Harbor, so we got in the car and headed over in the general direction of Pearlridge.

Luckily, my sister-in-law and the kids were home. She invited us in, and I was going to say "no thanks", but I hadn't even met my niece (who was born two days after Alex) yet, so we decided just to stay for a few minutes.

Now, I've previously hinted at the state of things between my brother and I. We don't talk much and I always suspected that it was because of his wife, and I really kind of didn't want to go over there, but ignoring them at Christmas wouldn't have been cool. So I swallowed my pride and went over there. She said again that she doesn't get out much; that she appreciates the company; that we should keep in touch. She says that a lot. It never works out that way, though. And I can't figure out why. She and my dad don't get along; maybe she'd just rather not talk to any of us.

So we went inside and the kids played for a few minutes and we decided it was time to get over to Pearlridge before parking got too bad. We got in the car and Ryan started it up and the thing made this sound: vroomgrrrrrrrrrrrgrrrrrrrr.

Uh oh.

My sister-in-law came out and invited us back in. So we went back inside while we waited for the tow truck. Ryan called his mom. The tow truck eventually came and somehow, Ryan talked his mom into ditching work early so we could make good on our promise to Katie to visit the toy store.

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So now, I really feel crappy about holding such a grudge against my sister-in-law. It became clear to me on that visit that the situation is completely different from what I imagined. I hope all the perfunctory "let's get together"s really mean something this time.

Posted by: Jeff at January 21, 2005 07:46 AM

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