My Family...

Click on the large names next to the descriptions to see pictures!

Dad: Joseph Carroll Dekat, model 1958, I believe. Of all the members of my family, I think I'm most like him. I get all my bad habits from him, and several of my good ones as well. My burning desire to be around computers can be directly attributed to him teaching me how to format disks when I was six years old. Many years later, I still know how to do it with my eyes closed...

Mom: Carol Louise Retzer, early model '60s, I believe. I always knew when Mom's birthday was. Feb. 17th. How cool is that? Mom has something closely akin to an obcession with her horses. She has so many now that I've lost track of them, and when you combine them with twice that number in cats, a husband named Rick, and a freshly graduated daughter named Katy, you begin to realize why, perhaps, her grip on reality has slipped. Just a bit. We still love her though, and she never fails to rush to the rescue whenever she's able.

Alright, Katy. Give it a rest. I know I messed up.

Joe: My elder brother, Joe is a model '76. The first of four children, Joe had the unfortunate task of paving the road for the rest of us. He probably took more knocks and rocks than the rest of us, simply because he was the first kid my folks ever had to experiment on. Creating a hybrid race of pod-children takes practice, and Joe was always the guinea pig of choice. Despite their experimentation, however, my parents' first born turned out remarkably well. He married in '98 (I think) to a lovely woman named Nikki. The three of us have had our ups and downs, but we always seem to come up on the up side. Bonus!

Lute: Her real name, actually, is Carli. When I was very young, my dad read me a strange story about goblins, and there was a kind old woman in that story named Lute. Don't ask me why the name stuck. But it did, and so she's Lute now. She's a model '79, and while I've tried repeatedly to convince her that she's a blue-light special, she persists that she was a planned addition to the family. (Laughter)

Katy: Katy. Katar the Barbabian, Spookie Doo, Don Juan, The Savage Don Juanian...the names go on and on. But Katy's the youngest of mom and dad's nearly full-grown brood. A model '82, Katy is the best of us kids. She is, I have no doubt, what parents had in mind when they thought about kids. All of us, myself included, have some rather nasty vices. Katy, while having plenty of her own, seems to have controlled them and turned out alright. She graduated this year Cum Laude from high-school, and is, period, the only one of my siblings that I am rightfully afraid of. There was an incident with a purse, full of rocks...

Aunt Robin: My Godmother, Aunt, and arch-rival at one point in time. Aunt Wobbin, Aunty Bobbin, and several other names grace the lips of all the children in the family. We all know her. We all love her. She helped to raise every single one of us, and is the closest thing to a second Mom that we could wish for. For the record, she's mine. MY Aunt Wobbin. Grandmother used to tell stories about how when Aunt Robin was ready to move, I was adamant that her new house have three rooms in it. Hers, mine, and a guest room. Aunt Robin is immortal. She never ages. Never changes. Out of everyone, she is the constant. Always a smile, always an answer to a question. Always beautiful Aunt Robin.

Uncle Mark and Aunt Carolyn: With the possible exception of the above mentioned aunt, these two are probably the most exceptional adults I have ever met. Simply because I knew it all at such a young age, it was quite the shocker when I realized that they both knew more. They are two of the three adults in this world that I assume are smart. They never had to prove it to me through word or deed or otherwise. And they never will. Both fiercely devoted to their families, they are a shining example of how flexible a family should be. And how close.

Time to go home!