My little brother has yet to make an appearance on our revamped website. He was the one who secured our domain name and started designing our first website. I am grateful he did. It would have been several years, at least, before anyone else in our family got Ross NW Watergardens online. In the old version of our site, he had his own page. Today he gets a blog post.

I have written about Kyle before. I recently realized, however, that something was missing. An apology. I can't really talk about Kyle without saying sorry to some people. So here we go....

Grandma Bowen: I think I can speak for the entire family when I say that we greatly regret not stopping Kyle from putting a chip on your head. Yes, he was hoping one of the nearby birds would swoop down and take it- but no one who was there thought it actually would. What? You didn't even realize he did that? Well we got it on video, maybe we can put that on Youtube so you can watch it.

Juno: I don't think that Kyle can be blamed for your demise, but I guess he didn't help. Yes, when he was 13 he wrote a little program that removed ads from your free email service. Yes, he then spammed Juno email addresses offering to sell the program for a small amount. But, in his defense, he used his Juno address to send the spam. It's almost like he wanted to be caught. Is our entire family still banned from whatever services you still offer? Either way, please accept the apologies of the Bowen family.

Random Quickbooks User: OK, I have no idea who you are and I am sure you will never read this. But I am very sorry that my little brother threatened to hack your computer and destroy it. He was just trying to get the most recent year's tax tables for free. For his mother. That's why he was using her email address. It is also why she was the one who opened your profanity laden response. He tried to just chat you up in the forum, but being only 12 or 13, he wasn't so great with rapport building.  He would never have actually done that. I don't even believe he knew how. Anyways, please accept our apologies.

Disneyland: You used to sell bricks in your plaza with a name and date engraved on them. You made it pretty clear that these were to commemorate a visit, nothing else. I am very sorry for tricking you. You did nothing to deserve this and have given us nothing but joy (and some big credit card bills). I won't do it again.

Someone recently said that my oldest son was like 'confetti'. If you have ever known a child like that, you know what it means. Kyle was like that. He had a short attention span, energy that never quit (mouth too), and attempted to own every room he entered. We lost my little brother in a car accident when he was 15. Loss has scarred our family, but has also bound us together. We miss Kyle terribly and can't wait to see him again.