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My first entry and it's a rant...

The baby-cams show me The Babes are nestling into their naps. They should be asleep any minute. I am fuming because of a call from my husband, L. It starts like this: Last night, because I hadn't been over there in a week or so ( apparently an eternity to The Greeks), and because Yia Yia made meatballs, I drove in the snow to my in-laws house. While I was there, I casually mentioned that L and I are looking at adopting another dog. We want a big one because we really miss having a big dog around. The Big Show died the day after we got back from our honeymoon in October.
Today, L gets a call from Pappou (his dad) that pretty much goes like this: "Your mother tells me that you are getting another dog. I strongly condemn this idea. You have a nice new house, and you need to pay attention to that. "
Here's why I'm pissed: Pappou is a very generous man. He is a Greek immigrant, who worked his way to a place of moderate wealth. He paid for us to move from AZ back to Chicago, so we could be closer to the family. Fine with me, I hated Arizona. He put the deposit down on our apartment. But it's in the burbs, much closer to The Family than Chicago, where L and I used to live. He even put up the money for the down payment on our beautiful first home. But guess who has the third set of keys?
Now, my parents were very young when they had me, and continue to take the hard way to happiness. They love eachother, and their children, but they have a make it yourself mentality. They built their dream home little by little, and taught their children how to make things as well. I mean, they literally built it. The only outsourced labor was the guy that dug the well. I learned how to cut in and roll out paint when I was nine.
So, when it comes to home repairs, I am constantly telling L, "I know how to do that....let me". So far, he has hired out the electrical (ok, I don't know how to do that), the plastering ( I was annoyed.), and then he wanted to hire out the paint. Now that is something I love to do. I have been waiting to paint my own home since I was 19. L and I went many rounds, until I gave in and said he could get an estimate.
The estimate comes back, and yay, it's too much for us. Sweet, I get to paint. What do you know, Pappou offers to pay for the paint. There goes my fun. How can I turn down this gift?
Yia Yia and Pappou are roughly my grandparent's age. Mom and Dad are only 3 years older than L's oldest sibling. I am constantly aware of what I say, wear, and do when I am around The Family. To use L's words, I "opend a can of worms with this dog talk". What am I supposed to talk about around them? Ack.