* If you are a performance artist, or if you are Claire, anytime I say weird, I actually mean engaging and thought-provoking. Obviously.

This is my bohemian-hipster-artist sister Claire.

This is my baby brother Eric ...

I know it's sometimes hard to tell that we are related, given that he has a steady job, owns a house and knows how to cook, but our mutual love of bacon is a dead giveaway.

Yesterday we married him off, so I had to get dressed up all classy, and put on underwear and brush my hair, and act all sophisticated like, you know?

So my wonderful husband gets the Pulled-it-off Award of 2009. After a great day of birthday lunching with friends, starting a new tradition of buying myself a birthday outfit each year (to cover my ... uhhh ... other birthday outfit ... ) going to the movies and blowing out the candles on my homemade Devil's Food cake, my sly husband pulled a spanking new iPhone from his pocket, minutes before the clock struck twelve.

I give you Rufus (from the German verb "anrufen" which means "to call") ...

Once upon a time we had two cats.

The first was a small, stubborn green-eyed tabby named Tikos, whom we got from the shelter in Anchorage just after we were married. She was (and is) a cat by every definition of the word. She does what she wants, when she wants, how she wants. She is also scared of anything that moves, breathes, walks, crawls, twitches, makes a noise or is bigger than she. Needless to say, Jay and her don't get along very well.

In what is fast becoming a holiday tradition in the Bartleman family, today we dusted off my brother's PlayStation, warmed up our vocal cords and totally rocked the house with SingStar (we also tried our hand at Wii bowling ... but that is an entirely different post).