Family Ties...

....are strong in my family.  Just got back from our amazing annual weekend in Indianapolis of family fun for whoever can make the trek.  This year, my sister, my oldest brother, my sister-in-law who's more like a sister, three of their four kids who all of a sudden are adults, and one of their girlfriends descended on Mom's to spend a glorious four days of nonstop talking, laughter, love, and fun.  Boy, I'm lucky.  I mean supremely lucky.  Such great folks, so singular and intelligent and caring and interesting and opinionated and informed and quirky and funny and fabulous.   My voice is raw, my heart is full, my mind is reeling that time goes so frickin' fast.  It seems like we were just planning it, and now it's already over.  I wish we weren't all scattered across the country....I love them all fiercely.

And because family is always with us, even those who have departed, here's a picture of the pottery kick wheel that my grandfather, my Papu Ben, Mom's extraordinary and magical father, made for Mom when she was into pottery way back in the '70s.  He was all kinds of awesome, just one of the many things he pondered and then fabricated.  Now a plant stand, forever glorious :-)