McAuliffe!!!

That was the sound of my brain deflating... aaaahhhh. Thanks so much Aimee!!!

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day with your families. I have been in San Diego for the last week visiting my parents, who are renting a condo, and my grandparents (who now live out there). We had a great time-- my dad has mellowed so much since becoming retired, and he and my mom crack us all up! He's like a kid again, and so silly.

Here's the kicker, though: while Laura and I were visiting, my father asked us at lunch one day where we thought he and my mom should move to, now that he's retired-- and without hesitation, we both said, "Milwaukee!!!" We have been saying this ever since we MOVED, of course, in 1988, but for some reason this finally sank in, and my dad actually started getting excited about the prospect of selling the house in Granger and splitting their time between San Diego in the winters and Milwaukee the rest of the year. I thought you would appreciate this, Andy. It only took seventeen years, but I think we're finally wearing them down!!!

We lured them with the usual: getting to go to Summerfest all week if we wanted, eating at Mader's, visiting Marquette, their alma mater, going to Brewers games, finding a place on a lake (my dad is obsessed with lake frontage for some reason), getting in touch with their old friends from Franklin. We brought up the fact that both of my sisters are thinking of moving there, and of course I capped it with the "When we have kids we'll be closer to visit, and the drive is so much easier"... yeah, we brought out the big guns. Probably the funniest thing was my dad talking about what neighborhoods they might like to live in, and he said "Wauwatosa", referring to the classy crib that the Stoffelses lived in!!! The irony is so thick you could choke on it...

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed, people. The Strans may be returning to their roots. Ya-Ya Milwaukee!!!