Greetings to you all from Kansas City, where I am back in my apartment for about 36 hours before I head back to Pennsylvania for my cousin's wedding on Saturday.

Speaking of which, and before I get to the recap of my recent excursion south of the Mason-Dixon, I wanted to relay an exciting bit of news in my family, which is that my brother has a girlfriend.

My brother, who is 32, hasn't had a steady girlfriend that we've known about for almost 8 years, so it's a fairly newsworthy item. Not as exciting as when I announce that I have a boyfriend (as that will be unprecedented), but enough to keep the family gossip going for a while.

He's bringing her to the wedding this weekend. All we know about her is that she's 26 (my brother, the cradle-robber) and Venezuelan. Her sister works with my brother on Hilton Head and became his roommate when he bought his house, then brought her parents and sister over from Venezuela earlier this year. Her parents speak about fifteen words of English between them yet are still compelled to answer the phone, which drives my brother crazy, but he lets them stay because (a) they pay rent and (b) they're fantastic cooks.

I'm sure she's very nice. I've always looked forward to the idea of my brother getting married, because I figured his wife would be the closest thing I'll have to a sister. He was with his college girlfriend for over two years, and my entire family bonded with her to the point that we were more upset than my brother was when the relationship was over.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. This is a very new development, and I know for a fact that he is in no hurry to "settle down," so we will just have to see what happens.

This weekend will be the first time any of us have met her; my parents met The Roommate last spring, but it was before the rest of her family arrived. I just hope we don't scare her off.