I feel sorry for Laughter and her crew.  She's learned a hard
lesson.  No matter how small, stupid, or insignificant you see yourself,
you are always a target - simply because you are a member of the family. 
If anything, being small, stupid or "insignificant" only makes you more of
a target.  Just look at my dad - kidnapped more times than I care to
remember, twisted into a force of Chaos the last time...though a rather
handsome one, in an Aryan sort of way.  (He certainly made a better
Ubermann than my try at being Latino).

	People do things to us just because we're Amberites.  It sucks,
but it's true.  And now Laughter knows firsthand.  Again.  With the
parents she has, she's got target written all over her, she does.  I wish
it wasn't so.

	She's been so sad.  Laughter Trumped me from "The Lady of the
Lake" and asked me to come through.  After I did, she broke out into
tears.  All I could do was hold her.  We stood there for a long time, her
crying, and me trying to make her feel safe...  I don't know if that's
because she sees me as "dad" or if she sees me as "friend."  It doesn't
really matter - what does matter is if I was able to make her feel better. 
I tried to teach her some sailing techniques to get her mind off of it. 
She's been through so much - she'll be a long time forgetting that.  We
sailed out to the house, and then we pulled the rest of her family
through.  Maybe some time away from town and with the rest of our family
will distract her (and Foster...he needs to be distracted as well).


	So - we've got Ariana's children for an undisclosed amount of
time.  Lucky us.  There's plenty of room at my parents' house - if I try
hard enough, I can avoid them.  I've noticed something disturbing during
this visit, though.  Tamaryn's been hitting Briana after she picks on
Gideon.  She's also been hitting Briana after she talks to me.  Tamaryn
won't explain what she's said.  She tells me it will only get me angry.  I
don't have to know what she said, I'm angry anyway.  Completely
unlikeable, that one...and she's only going to get worse as she gets
older.

	Tamaryn said that she has other sisters like that.  I'm glad she's
not one of them.

	I did a stupid thing - I Trumped Ariana.  I don't think that I was
able to hide my intentions from her ("Briana won't stop picking on my
brother...what's more, she keeps picking on me!  Take your damn kids
back!").  I really didn't mean to bring up the whole house arrest thing. 
I meant it as a vacation away from her kids - some parents like to get
away.  I'm afraid that it only got her angry.  I'm not a bad guy.  I
didn't want to make her feel bad, and now I feel like a complete jerk. 
That, combined with the unintentional Jewish mother guilt trip I pulled on
Foster earlier, I'm doing a great job at winning friends and influencing
people.


	Other than those few incidents, it was a fairly uneventful week. 
I spent a couple of days out with the fleet.  At least that's something I
can do when I want to take a step back.  For all of our sakes, I hope
things settle down.  If only for a little while.