Cathy Raphael

OK, here goes.  I have put this off long enough.  If Steff can do it, so can I.

My name is Catherine (Cathy, always "C" never "K") Raphael.  My husband is 
Ralph, I know, Ralph Raphael is like saying Ralph Ralph.  Amazingly, my
husband is a junior and he and his 1st wife named their first born, you
guessed it, Ralph Raphael the 3rd.  Anyway, I have a son (Richard) and he
has a live in girlfriend that he met on line (Lisa).  She lived in Texas, moved
here to live with my one and only child.  Ralph & I are very close to his
youngest child, daughter Debbie and her husband, Cody. She has two sons.
They are the light of my life.  And the oldest (Mikey 3 yrs old) loves
hippos and is always looking for them for Gramma.  I am working on the young one
(Austin, 5 months) And, by the way, Ralph's ex-wives name was Debbie.

I have been collecting hippos for as long as I can remember.  It was
probably in the early seventies, I think.  I have not counted for a very long time,
but when I did count them there were about 400.  I am thinking I am up to at
least 800.  I have all shapes, color and sizes.  The more unusual the
better.  I have tried not to collect any more stuffed hippos because I just don't
have the room.  I have boxed up 20 stuffed hippos and put them in the
garage.  That's how bad it is.  I do have a lot of favorites.  Too many to pick just
one.  I have a pachinko game that has hippos on it.  I bought it a long time
ago and it has been in the box, in my garage since I bought it.  I bought my
house in 1977 so sometime around then is when I got it.

I have worked for the last 5 years at the District Attorney's office, Family
Support Division.  I like my job.  I would rather be home all day, buying
hippos from ebay but then I wouldn't have any money to buy hippos if I
wasn't working.  So I am stuck between a rock (ebay) and a hard place (work).

I use a lot of ( ) don't I?  Well, I can't really think of anything else at
the moment.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Cathy