My dad used to introduce my mom as his “First Wife” to get a raised eyebrow. My mom would reply that he was her “most recent husband.” They had not ever been married to anyone else…

So in that train of thought… this is me with my FAVORITE brother. I have no other siblings, but this man is truly a joy in my heart every time I think of him.

I call him Eric Oscar Ole Olson Troldahl Cranberry. My dad started that, too. He figured that “Ole Olson” was the most Norwegian name ever. Eric Oscar Troldahl is a pretty good Norsk combination, as well. So he became Eric Oscar Ole Olson Troldahl.

Then one night when we were probably in Middle School, we were playing hide and seek with neighborhood kids. there were two Erics. My Eric was wearing a burgundy pair of pants and burgundy top. The other Eric was wearing blue top and pants. I was born focusing on color more than anything else (really?) and declared them “Cranberry and Blueberry.” For the duration of that game, that’s what we called them rather than Eric.

This guy was my “Dude of Honor” at my wedding to Brian. This guy was with me the day my father died. We were together the day his first wife Kelly died (at age 27, out of the blue). We know how to do up *and* down together. We are a team of the best sort. I don’t like to cook, but I always loved cooking when we cooked together at Mom’s house.

This photo was taken by Eric Oscar’s wife, Diana. I call her my “Sister in Love.” I’m passionately unhappy with the phrase Sister in Law, anyway… it makes it a government assignment rather than relationship… and can either mean my brother’s wife or my husband’s sister… a wholly unacceptable English phrase in my mind. So Sis in Love it is.

Friday, Mom and her partner Fred, his granddaughter V who is visiting Michigan for the first time, Eric and Diana, and Brian and I all had lunch in Ann Arbor. We met up at Zingerman’s Deli which is the most AMAZING place for customer service ever (and for food, as well). Had a wonderful time.

When lunch split up, Brian and I went to REI and bought some foam pads for camping in the tent. Mike, our helper in that store, was equally excellent at customer service. I did not imagine a large store like that would have such excellent, friendly service.We went next door to Whole Foods and had more friendly service… a great day being a consumer, which I don’t do as often these days.

Good news doesn’t make it to TV broadcasts. Let me tell you that it was a great day in Ann Arbor, with my family. It was a great day for Customer Service. And the weather did not hurt, either!

Happy 50th Birthday to my favorite brother. Many, many more!

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 10th, 2010 at 2:03 pmand is filed under Relationships, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.