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.

The O'Dons are coming! The O'Dons are coming!

At 7 pm Sunday (8 pm EST) our friends the O'Donnells will be featured on ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Watch as their old, moldy house is destroyed and a new McMansion is built while they're skiing in Colorado.

The O'Dons are Patrick and Jeanette and their six kids -- Caitlin, Deirdre, Erin, Meghan, Little Pat and Keirnan. They're like the Brady Bunch, except five of their kids have different forms of autism.

Honestly, I don't know how they survive. Six kids? We can barely handle two.

They're house rocks! My team of high-priced lawyers tells me I cannot discuss the details of the house except to say it includes alien technology from Area 51, an indoor Olympic sized swimming pool, a trampoline room, an eight-person heated massage couch, and a panic room/fallout shelter.

Ok, I made some of that up. But not all of it.