when I started this blog five years ago, I was a pet sitter and the name animal-crackers made sense. now I'm a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, but rather than confuse everyone by getting a different blog, it's just easier to keep posting things here.

This blog was never intended to be a family picture gallery. But that's mostly what it's been for about four months now. Starting today, you will see a wider variety of reading material -- usually involving outrage.

For example:

Someone I know received the following message from her mother:

"Hi. We got your Christmas gifts and we're sending them back. We're not sending you any Christmas gifts because you never come to visit."

More or less. I didn't hear the exact words.

Of course my friend doesn't visit her mother. Her mother kicked her out of the house when she was 15 because the step-father could no longer tolerate her teenage behavior.

What's worse, even though my friend suspects her step-father is insidiously behind her mother's more recent rejection, she still blames herself. She thinks she did something wrong to incur such wrath.

No. Her mother's just evil, selfish and devoid of compassion.