Hi Felix, I should have amswered your message right away - no I am afraid that I have deleted it, and so am answering by memory You should be arriving back from Bonnie's this evening, according to what I remember - We are getting another "snow dump" tonight/tomorrow, according to the forecast, Ontario and Quebec. It is now minus 14 out there - and that isn't Fahrenheit. Yes, I got your feedback and I will keep quiet on Bukovina-Gen. But it is going to be hard. Every time I see Richard's signature I want to blurt out and ask if he has ever seen a netiquette FAQ. Slovak-World is sort of civilized these days, but stay with it for a while. They are sure to have another brawl soon. Gen-Slavic is VERY civilized <G>. Tell me something Felix, if I were to tell you that my brother's wife and her two adult children irritate me to no end, and always have, would you think I was being petty? She has never done me any wrong at all except to talk about my sisters as if they were not good daughters to my mother, and my sisters are really terrific. She plays up to my mother and my mother loves her very much, but I know Sanja is a phoney - so is that being petty? Does it sound like old fashioned childish jealousy? She is not the least bit sincere. My father saw through her and kept very quiet about it. What bothers me most is that I let Sanja bother me so much. The only other person I have ever discussed it with (besides Willow and Tamara) is my sister Lynn - Lynn really had it one evening and we ended up having a long talk - Lynn was so relieved that someone else in the family besides her "didn't trust Sanja" - All I hear Sanja talk about is money and dreams of winning a big lottery. She is extremely discontent. The latest that has gotten me going is just a very simple little thing, my mother mentioned that Sanja has to buy a new gown for Daniella's wedding in June, and that Daniella brought her fiance to visit my mother and "they are just a lovely couple". Daniella is Sanja's daughter, my brother's step-daughter. OK, now that simple little statement from my mother should not upset me, except that less than four years ago Daniella had her first big expensive wedding, I spent a lot of time and money for her wedding gift, air fare to attend the darned thing (maybe that's not fair, went to see my parents primarily) and never received so much as even a verbal "thank you" for the gift - - in fact, my mother was the only one who did get a "thank you" My aunt told me that she did not hear from Daniella after that wedding. Lynn was severely criticized by Sanja for sailing the Pacific coast with her husband instead of attending the wedding, but Lynn did send - by courier, some sterling silver to the wedding and did not get a thank you card either. Maybe I will get more to the point, Sanja and Daniella are nice to my mother only because they see dollar signs and we all know it and I really hate myself for resenting them because they make my mother feel very good when they visit her. Sanja is half Czech, a quarter Italian and a quarter Croation, born in Croatia. She is also manipulative, insincere, selfish, and tells lies. If my brother was happily married it would make a big difference to me, but I think he has had a hard time keeping them content. She would leave him in a minute if it weren't for certain things. Now that I have gotten this far Felix, wondering if I should delete all of this or not, but I think I won't because I really am disturbed by those people, when I shouldn't be - after all I am three thousand miles from them and don't have to see them very often, so it's better that I spill it all out to Felix than to my mother, I think. I am also upset with myself for not being able to get it off my mind. All it took was my mother taking an interest in Daniella's plans for her second wedding to set me off. (Daniella is not much older than Megan - she divorced her husband less than a year ago for "mental cruelty" - I thought her husband was quite a nice young man). This is one time I am leaning on you - <exploiting>. I am sure that you will be tired when you get back from Sebastian -I hope you and Jean had a good visit with Bob and Bonnie - the storm hasn't started here yet, but you picked a good time to be down there. Take care Felix, if there was any wine here I would go and have a glass, guess I will help myself to Megan's Coca Cola instead. Margaret