Slow News Day

This is photograph of the Blizzard of 1978. I remember this because school was closed all week long. People couldn't find their cars. It was way above your head... it was awesome!

This is news. THIS is snow. Lately in the New York City Area we have been getting snow. There have been countless hours dedicated to talking about it on the news, emergency reports interrupting scheduled programming, people running to pick up milk and bread before it hits. But you see, it's not SNOW. It's snow.

My cousin who currently lives in Calgary, where snow is no joke, a regular expected occurrence and probably not the main topic of every conversation, made a comment the other day about how the New York news spent multiple hours covering the snow event. Well, at first it was "The blizzard of the century", than later it became "The blizzard of the year" which was right before it was downgraded to "snow storm" and then even further to "snow event." Here is the news from this past week where New York City got 2 inches of snow, most of which turned to slush almost immediately.

NETWORK NEWS OUT OF NYC:

Reporter: "Well, as you see here, I'm standing out in snow folks! See...look!"

(Camera pans to ground. Yes, there is some snow, like a a bit...maybe it just looks moist.)

Reporter: "Travel is hectic around her, people are being extra careful...wearing boots and hats!"

(They stop someone wearing BOTH a hat and boots and hold up the microphone to them.)

Reporter: "What do you think of this! SNOW!"

Person: "Yes. today I saw it was going to snow, so I wore boots. Oh, and my hat too."

Reporter: (laughs hard at obviously hysterical comment by person) "Oh, me too. A hat AND boots...ha,ha.ha.!"

Reporter: "Lets talk to some of the plow guys, they've been working all night...wait..what...sorry I'm getting information from the studio. What's that? Oh, an hour now. Okay." "So, what is your name sir?"

Plow Man: "Joe"

Reporter: "What do you think of all this weather Joe?!"

Joe: "Yup."

Reporter: "You heard that here first! It's snowing! Just look up at how it's coming down!"

(Camera pans up...light flakes flutter down, the stars are shining through the flakes)

Reporter: "Well, it was coming down before. I have this yardstick here to measure the snow."

(She sticks ruler into snow. It falls over due to there being nothing to really hold it up)

Reporter: "Well there you go guys. Winter weather in the Big Apple! Maybe there will be no school tomorrow, what do you think kids?"

Kids: (looking at reporter and saying "YAY!", then looking back at Mom who rolls her eyes and shakes her head no).

NETWORK NEWS SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDWEST LAST WEEK

Reporter: "So, it looks like we've had some weather, with a chance of a bit more by the morning...what would that be, Rob back at the studio?"

Rob at the Studio: "Only 3 feet".

Reporter: "3 feet by tomorrow morning...not too bad since it's only on top of the last 4 feet from last night". So on to more timely news....there's a lost cat named Fluffy in the Easton Park Area. If you find her please call 1-800-555-1222. And now for the sports..."

Well, that's enough of my rambling about snow. I think I'll turn on the news to catch the 3 hour Tiger Woods Apology Special. I think it's being close captioned for the hearing impaired which is always good, but you can also follow it on Twitter.

I think there also may have been a domestic terrorism incident with a plane crashing into the IRS building in Texas, Alexander Haig died, An American won Male figure skating for the first time in decades and I think that Haiti may still be in some need of assistance...but I'm not sure. I think there's still a war in Iraq and Afghanistan too. I'll have to check and get back to you on it.

Valentine’s Knives

Flowers. Chocolates in heart shaped boxes laced in red ribbon. Delicately wrapped packages of expensive jewelry. We rush out to make sure we have something by the 14^th of February to illustrate our undying devotion. After all, that guy in the jewelry commercial that’s been playing for a month now is giving his lady friend one of those sparkly heart necklaces that were designed by an actress known primarily for her role in Lifetime Channel movies.

Nothing says love like that.

I think there was a time when I bought into all of that…actually I know there where was a time. There is one memory I’m particularly ashamed of. It involved knives. To be more clear – Valentine’s Knives.

He was a great guy, a physicist to be exact. You can see already that it was doomed to fail since I’m a right brain dominant writer type and he was, well…a physicist. I wished on stars thinking that somehow they could give me the answers I needed. He told me I was wasting my time on balls of gas; mostly hydrogen and helium. I believe that animals have souls – he didn’t believe in souls, animal nor human. He once told me that I was the “Anti-Spock”. He was right of course, although I tend to think even now, that maybe it was exactly that quality that intrigued him to begin with.

For Valentine’s Day I had agonized over what to give him…my memory is dim but I think it had something to do with Stephen Hawking. When I opened his gift, I found that he had given me a set of kitchen knives. I wasn’t sure what to think? Was this some type of message? I did probably need some…but on Valentine’s Day? A current of estrogen fueled panic flooded my brain. That was when every woman at my job got involved:

“Knives for Valentine’s? That’s the kiss of death!”

“I wouldn’t deal with that, there’s plenty of fish in the sea….why not a nice bracelet?”

“He probably doesn’t know you well enough after all this time…that’s a bad sign.”

It was too much. I was impressionable at the time, being the youngest woman there. These ladies must know something that I didn’t. They said I wasn’t being objective.

For many reasons, that was the beginning of the end. It was probably inevitable and better for the both of us in the long run. Not long afterward, I met the man who would become my husband. He loves Valentine’s Day more than I do. He is too generous and has impeccable taste. Last year he asked me what I wanted for Valentine’s Day and when he wouldn’t accept my usual “I don’t need anything, don’t worry about it”, I finally told him what I wanted. Rubber car mats for my truck. He thought I was nuts, but he actually did it…along with flowers and a necklace. He witnessed the Valentine Knife debacle 18 years ago and I think he doesn’t trust me enough to believe that I’d be fine with a useful gift.

What I didn’t know then, was that those knives were Ever Sharp Henkel’s. They were chosen with a lot of care and probably too much expense. I’d been trying to learn to cook better, and they were a thoughtful gift that 18 years later, still sit in my kitchen drawer. I’ve learned a lot through the years, as I’m sure we all have. Things that seem so important at 25 are clearly unimportant at 45. A token of affection need not be some mass produced, overly advertised item that will be worn once a year. An object should never be something by which you measure your value or self worth.

I still use those knives. I’ve used them to chop onions, take the legs off a couch, plane a door, along with a thousand other uses through the years. Those knives taught me a lesson. They never needed sharpening.

I did.

Home

Where is home?

Where the heart is? Any place where they have to take you when you go there? Be it ever so humble, there's no place like it?

On the range- where the deer and the antelope play?

Or, maybe it's true, like the phrase Thomas Wolfe made famous in his 1940 novel, that you can't go home again.

I've felt that way for a while now. I've even avoided going back because I'm so nostalgic by nature that it's practically painful. I resent the new businesses with their new names, the way they changed the exit ramp to the highway, how they finally rented the buildings near a field where I used to play. Even though it's an improvement, I have fond memories of when it was half completed because the builder went bankrupt, windows broken and empty, the field next to it was dirt, weeds, and litter - trash fluttering around in the breeze - we ran around and played among it.

An unlikely combination of decay and potential that I found oddly comforting.

Today I had to drive down, help some people that mean the world to me. Face the fact that nothing stays the same and watch someone I love struggle with a diagnosis that has already taken her away from me, and even worse; from her husband and daughter. I had no idea that the last time I talked to her, would be the last time she was in there. She looks at me now, and she's gone.

I arrived at the building. I pulled my car up to park next to the sidewalk and saw someone pull in front of me and start backing up to fit into his spot. I turned my car back on and slowly backed up a foot so he would have more room, but left enough space for the car behind me to get out. I was expecting the usual. A dirty look or a rude comment. I got out of the car and when I closed the door a man was standing in front of me. "Oh here we go." I thought.

"I want to thank you Miss. That was kind of you to back up for me." He smiled. It was a little disarming.

"You're welcome." I said. "I don't park in a city too often anymore. I'm a little out of practice." I opened my purse to fish out some quarters for the meter and I hear a voice behind me. It's a large man who looks a bit down on his luck. He smiles and I notice that his teeth are broken and missing, but for some reason I still like his smile. It's his eyes. He means it.

"No money in the meter today Ma'am. It's Sunday and it's free!" He gives me a salute and advises me to button up my jacket so I don't get a cold. Then he walks away quickly, whistling.

I start walking towards the building, buttoning up my jacket as I approach the door.

I've been home five minutes. And I know now, that no matter where I end up in this life and how much things change, the spirit of a place stays the same.

And I know Thomas Wolfe was wrong.

Vampires and Werewolves are Out - Zombies are In

How do you create a trend or a fad? Is it accidental? Do focus groups sit around discussing what should be the next big thing? How do you figure out what the public will latch on to - and what they won't?

I'm voting for accident. In the early 1970's, an advertising executive named Gary Dahl was joking among his friends about the inconveniences associated with pets. They shed, they need to be fed, walked, and bathed. They get sick and die. He suggested that a good alternative to the average pet would be a rock. It was this conversation that would spawn the idea that would make Gary a millionaire...the Pet Rock.

I remember this fad very well. Not being able to afford to buy a pet rock, I went out and found one of my own. Perhaps you could say it was a feral rock. I could never train my feral rock due to its wild nature but I loved it just as you would one of the domesticated ones. Those were hard times but through it all...we had each other.

This leads me to the title of my blog post. Some of you may be thinking "What do rocks and vampires have in common?" "Why is she drawing me in; tempting me with vampires, werewolves and zombies just to ramble on about pet rocks?" Hang in there...I'm getting to it.

Last week during testing at my job, my colleagues and I had some down time with no students in attendance and with our grades for the semester competed - we had the time to talk about timely world events. And, as you would expect from a group of people with multiple graduate degrees, decided that we would devote this rare unscheduled time to a cerebral conversation about several important issues.

1. What should we eat for lunch?

2. Should we order in, or go out?

3. Why are vampires and werewolves the magic bullet in terms of popular fiction, movies and TV? Why not zombies?

This encouraged me to write an introduction (with apologies to the talented Stephenie Meyer), similar to a very popular book that you may have heard of. But, instead of vampires and werewolves - giving a voice to a less popular group - Zombies. Included in the book entitled "Dusk" that takes place in a foggy small town in the Pacific Northwest called "Spoons", is the following:

"Times had changed. It was a new era of diversity. Vampires and werewolves had been accepted into society. The E.E.O.C. had declared them an under represented group, granting them the rights to shop in the mall after midnight and mandating employers to allow required breaks during the work day to morph into canine form.

Blood was the new Snapple.

Being un-dead was cool, swapping species at a red light in traffic- even cooler. But for us, the previously dead, things had gotten worse.

Perhaps it was the smell of decay, or the fact that our limbs had the tendency to fall off from time to time. Where we had before been able to camoflauge our existence by blending into human society as cafeteria ladies and carnival staff - we were now targeted as different. And, as has been the way in the history of the world, different was the enemy."

A future love scene from "Dusk":

"I look into his eye, the other having fallen out leaving his brain exposed through the hole in its absence. Could I have ever imagined such passion?

"I know what you are."

He exhales, the putrid smell of decay arouses me in ways I've never known.

"Say it.”

I hold my breath, partially out of excitement and partially to control the nausea.

"Zombie.”

Something registers in his eye. He knows I recognize him for what he is. I am repulsed, yet my desire is almost palpable.

"Are you afraid?”

“No.”

He comes closer, reaching out to touch a strand of my hair, his thumb falls off. I know I should be horrified - but at the same time it is just so endearing.

"You shouldn’t of said that.”

And he eats my brain.

Okay. I should get back to working on my lessons for the new semester. Besides, there are too many recent references to zombies in popular culture for me to create a new fad, or better yet, a multi-million dollar best seller based on teenage zombies. Zombies aren't sexy enough to generate a large following. How about a high school where everyone sings all the time, never goes to class, and dances in the cafeteria and in the gym during basketball games. There could be the popular captain of the basketball team meeting the smart new girl who is not only good at Science, but can also sing in a 5 octave range at the drop of a hat.

Nah. Something like that would never work.

photo courtesy of photobucket.com. The title Dusk courtesy of Alicia Voss.

Frozen

Okay. I've had enough. This is nuts.

I'm wearing so many layers that I've forgotten what I look like, which may be a good thing since I've been eating Milanos like they're a food group since Christmas.

This is the time of the year when they air those Caribbean vacation commercials at 5 am while I sip coffee and wait for the caffeine to penetrate my brain before I get ready for work. All they do is make me angry. I don't like those tan, fit, happy people prancing down the beach. I don't relate to them. After all, they are tan, fit and happy, (which I am not since it's 5 am and I'm preparing to get ready for work).

And, they're prancing. Who prances? Reindeer. Yup, reindeer prance.

Thinking about reindeer makes me think about Christmas. Christmas reminds me of Santa. Santa reminds me that I have wracked up credit card debt because I thought I was Santa.

Thinking about that credit card debt reminds me that I have to go to work, which involves going outside to warm up the car when it's 10 below 0 with the wind chill factor.

Yes. I know how fortunate I am to have a job that I love, even if I hate getting up at 5 in the cold. I also know how lucky I am to have a warm house with a tv, even if annoying commercials make me cranky.

And, I have Milanos.

photo courtesy of outakes.com

"Tales" Available on Kindle

The first good thing about 2010 - Amazon.com fixed the Tales from a Dog Catcher page! The week before Christmas I noticed my Amazon rank rising from the usual 20 to 50,000 mark, (which for someone like me, who is NOT James Patterson or Dan Brown - is really good...averaging about a book a day since mid-September), up to the 200,000 range to 400,000 plus range. Now, for those people who have a life and are not tracking their Amazon sales - low is good, high is bad. It's the opposite of money and stocks - maybe I can equate it to age. Lower is better. (I could argue that, but that's a post for another day).

They were very nice and helpful and got back to me within a few days. It was during the holiday week and even so it was repaired right away. I love Amazon!

Will my sales rank improve to what it was the past few months? Probably not - I have a feeling that holiday shopping may have had something to do with it, but I remain hopeful. The Kindle numbers are great - but then again I think Santa might've brought a Kindle for those of you who were very good - so that may explain that.

So far, Tales from a Dog Catcher is available on Amazon's Kindle and Sony's e-Reader, but not yet available on Barnes & Noble's Nook. I'm hoping sometime in the future it will be, although I don't know the logistics of how that works.It seems to me that the books available so far are either the classics, (no copyright issues), and the big bestsellers. My husband ordered me a Nook for Christmas, and even though it looked like a great product, with the lack of time I have with work, my family, and trying to find time to write - it seemed like something else I would have to plug in and charge on top of everything else I have sitting around on my desk requiring a plug. I've run out of outlets. If I add any more power strips and/or surge protectors to this house, it might explode.

Besides, since I found out that I can download any book I want onto my iPod Touch - I do that all the time and there seems to be no limit as to what book I can select on Amazon. So - if in the future I decide to buy a digital book reader, it will definitely be the Kindle.

Best wishes to everyone for a great week ahead...it may be a bit cold and difficult to rebound from the holidays, but at least we're in it together!

photo courtesy of Amazon.com

Comparisons to James Herriot: An Overwhelming Honor

Thank you "Sam" for this wonderful Amazon Review. This brought tears to my eyes. Of course, five star reviews have a way of doing that and I'm incredibly appreciative of all my reviewers - but this one really captured my heart.

On par with James Herriot!, December 31, 2009

I am a big fan of James Herriot, so when I read the review that suggested her book was similar I thought I would give it a try. Yes, I would say that she is a modern day James

Herriot. Love this book! Excellent stories and writing style...hope to see more works from her soon! I am going to buy this book as gifts for friends.

What some of you may not know, is that James Herriot (his real name was James Alfred Wight), was someone who, while I was growing up, provided a safe shelter in a sometimes stormy life. I discovered these books when my Mother gave me her copy of All Creatures Great and Small in the early 70's. What we didn't realize at the time was that she would soon face an illness that would change all of our lives. While she was hospitalized during the many times in the years to follow, we would share all of James Herriot's books.

These books were based on the life of Alfred James Wight, a Vet who practiced in the town of

Thirsk, Yorkshire in Northern England. Although he wanted to write a book for many years, working long hours as a country veterinarian, fighting in World War II, and raising a family gave him little time to do it. He took the pen name of James Herriot and wrote If Only They Could Talk which was published in the U.K. in 1970. St. Martin's Press eventually published his first two books in one volume in the U.S. The result was All Creatures Great and Small. It was an overnight success. James Wight was 50 years old. More information on his books and life can be found on his official website. His Vet practice is now a museum. James Herriot died in 1995 at the age of 78. The photo of the book on this blog is what my copy looked like in the 1970's, although it's gone through several changes since then. His books were even made into a BBC TV series that was very popular for some time.

As an only child, my mother's death in 2003 was incredibly difficult for me. Not content with just the stories I had published in anthologies, she had been encouraging me to write my own book for years. Taking care of two young children, working full-time, commuting, completing my graduate degree and trying to care for her as she became increasingly incapacitated was an exhausting blur of activity - with little time to even think of writing.

After her funeral, when everyone had left to move on with their lives, I sat alone on the living room floor, writing the thank you cards for the flowers and donations to the National Kidney Foundation. The room had become increasingly dark as the sun set, but I hadn't even noticed. All of the cards were spread out on the floor and I was trying to collect them all to put stamps on them. Realizing that I might have lost some of the cards under

the couch, I lied down on the floor and reached under to try and fish out some of the lost cards when I felt something thicker...like a paperback book. I pulled it out and saw it was a dusty mass market paperback copy of James Herriot's last book Dog Stories. I'd never read it...and what's more...I didn't remember buying it. It was in poor condition. Maybe I'd picked it up at a tag sale? I hadn't had time to read for enjoyment for a few years - maybe I'd bought it and put it aside? I couldn't remember.

I pushed the thank you cards aside and turned the light on. I climbed up on the sofa and opened it - thinking I would look at it a bit and get back to the cards. I didn't. I read instead.

Where did the book come from? Why did I find it in that exact place, in that exact moment when I probably needed it the most? Once again, almost 30 years later, James Herriot gave me a place to go when everything around me seemed impossible to deal with. Perhaps more importantly, it

gave me an idea. Maybe even a message.

It was time to start collecting all of those stories I'd written through the years, some published, others not completely written, and put them together into a plan.

There are some similarities and differences- I also ended up working with animals and I enjoyed writing, although he had 56 years of experiences to write about, and I only had 4. He was born in Glasgow, where my Grandparents were born and much of my family still live. He started writing when he was 50. I was 44 when Lyons Press bought Tales from a Dog Catcher. He really enjoyed the people and and animals he worked with -as did I.

He wrote 14 books. I've written 1. After the next 15 or so stories I have to move on to either fiction or if I continue with narrative non-fiction; my experiences as a teacher. There are only so many true stories you can harvest from 4 years.

So, thank you Sam, for calling me a "modern day James Herriot". I'm so very glad that you enjoyed Tales from a Dog Catcher.

To be compared to someone who has meant so much to me, is an amazing honor. I am humbled by it.

photo courtesy of jamesherriot.org

Tonight - A Guest Blogger on Tales from a Dog Catcher Blogspot

Tonights guest blogger is Emma Korpics. It was difficult booking Emma since her agent had her doing an interview on Ellen and then flying back to New York for a spot on the Today Show.

Q. How are you doing tonight Emma?

I'm tired

Q. So, is there anything you would like to tell the book blogging community?

Please let me go to sleep.

Q. Have you read your Mom's book yet?

No. I'm waiting for the movie.

Q. So, since you have tons of free time not being spent reading your mother's book, what are your interests?

I like sleeping. I like TV. I like singing, and I like Pugs and hanging out with my friends. I love my family.

Q. What do you think you want to be when you grow up?

A well rounded human being, with a big house and a room for my Pug.

Q, What kind of career do you think you would like to pursue?

I am going to be one of those people who somehow find a way to make money by sitting on their butts all day.

Q. Sort of like writers?

No, not like that. I'll be a one hit wonder, retire and then watch tv with my Pug...next to the pool...with my 76 inch plasma screen tv....no, I'm kidding. I would like to be a singer or an actor or a movie director/producer.

Q. Are you going to move to California to do this?

Yes, but I'll start in New York just to make sure I can do it.

Q, Will you bring me with you?

Yes, and I'll buy a big house next to me so we can always be together.

Q. Will you read my book then?

No. I won't have the time because I'll be avoiding the paparazzi.

Q. Thanks for chatting with us tonight Emma. It's good to see how grounded you are with realistic goals.

That's how I roll....can I go to bed now?

Yes, goodnight and thanks again.

Well, that brings us to the end of our interview. I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year.

Holiday Thoughts from Tales from a Dog Catcher: Best Wishes for a Happy New Year to All

I spent yesterday racing around trying to finish Christmas shopping. I waited for help at one store where an overworked and overwhelmed teenager seemed to be the only employee handling the fifty or so customers shouting questions at him. They were shopping for the holidays, but they seemed to forget that this poor young man was part of what we should all be trying to remember during this season - to be kinder to people.

I left.

Was I totally altruistic? No, probably not. I didn't want to wait either. It was worth it to go online and order it there and pick it up later today. - but perhaps I was partially altruistic because I didn't have the heart to ask him to help me when I noticed him leaning against a display case taking a moment's breather. I watched a very purposeful couple march over to him when they noticed he was alone, like they'd caught the big one. That's when I left. Got in my car and out of the parking lot, only getting beeped at twice. Picked up my kids and took them to Olive Garden for lunch, where after a while I remembered how children are like dogs.

One is a pet. Two are a pack.

I remembered Christmas's with my Mom, when we had nothing, yet she managed somehow to put presents under the tree. Waking up Christmas morning when I was 7 and lived in Arizona, to find my father had flown in from New York in the middle of the night to be there in the morning. Midnight Mass and holding candles in the darkness of the church. Holidays with so many of my favorite people, so many of them gone too soon. I thought about those holidays when I had no tree and no plans and worked through the night to allow others to spend the time with their family. I remember a Christmas Eve working a police dispatch desk on a midnight shift with my 11 month old son in a car seat next to my feet...a part-time job I took when I left teaching for a year to raise my son. Or, even better - the Christmas's when my children were new - when wrapping paper and boxes were more fun than anything inside of them. The years when my cousin and I would walk through the streets singing Christmas Carols - no malls, no crowds, no presents, no need.

I'm not saying I'm self actualized or anything...I can be just as materialistic as the next person. I once spent a holiday in so much self pity that I didn't want to even put up a tree or hang any lights. I didn't care. It was my good friend Michele who told me: "Go home, put up some damn lights and a tree. Get over yourself and remember that this is not about you." Smart advice from a smart woman.

Happy Holidays to everyone out there. Whether you celebrate Christmas, or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, or that made up Seinfeld holiday. Even if you don't celebrate anything at all - take a moment to appreciate all that you have. My friend Bud at work said it best. "No matter how bad you may feel, you're on this side of the dirt and breathing."

I have many wise friends!

I wish all of you the best. Thank you to all my readers for your support and friendship. Much happiness and good health for a wonderful New Year.

Adopt Two Purebred Beautiful Young Trained Siberian Huskies- Free to the Right Home!

Kodi and Mason are waiting for their new home- could it be yours?
Kodi and Mason are beautiful, smart, well trained and loving Siberian Huskies in need of a new home. Mason is a little over a year old and Kodi will be a year in January. Their owner took incredible care of them, but unfortunately due to an unexpected move and extended work hours, she is no longer able to provide them with the room and attention they are used to. Rather than taking the easier road of keeping them anyway and having them try to adapt to a more lonely and restricted lifestyle, this young woman has made the brave, unselfish decision to find them a home that will be the best for THEM - an incredibly difficult and heart breaking decision for her.

MASON: (Above) - Born June 6, 2008 Pure Bred Siberian Husky - ACA Registration Papers available - not

filed yet. House Broken and Crate Trained. Black and White with Blue Eyes. Approx 58 lbs.Up To Date Vaccinations. Neutered. Loves Everyone and Every Animal. Extremely Well Behaved. Ok on Leash but he is strong and also a husky so he knows how to pull

KODI: (Below on Right) - Born January 26, 2008

Pure Bred Siberian Husky - AKC Registered,

Black and White with Blue Eyes. Approx. 54 lbs. Up To Date Vaccinations. Home Again Micro Chip. Neutered. Does NOT do well with other dogs or small animals besides Mason. Very Gentle and Loving with all people. Ok on Leash but he is strong and also a husky so he knows how to pull. House Broken and Crate Trained
Kodi and Mason MUST be adopted together! *They are very dependant. They have only known having each other and will NOT do well on their own.*
Fenced in Yard or Pen necessary as they love to be outside and play.

If you have the room in your heart and in your home to adopt Kodi and Mason, please email me at lkorpics@gmail.com or add a comment on this site and I'll put you in contact with their owner. She wants only the best for these two exceptional dogs and I know there is a wonderful new home out there somewhere just waiting to add Kodi and Mason to their family!

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