Meet the newest members of our family.

Meet the newest members of our family.

Obviously you already know our first robot, Leotron 3000. He's been with us for several months. He was getting lonely all by himself, so a couple of months ago we made him a little brother, Dorchester 22. I've been meaning to tell you all about him, but I just never got around to taking pictures of him. You know how it goes -- after the first child, you just never take as many pictures of the others.

Over this past weekend, while both robots sat on the shelf watching, we made another baby. (Gasp!) It took a few hours, but when it was all said and done, Nick and I made Dorchester and Leotron a brand-new baby brother, Tork 1448. The boys are adjusting to having another robot around the house and haven't been showing too many signs of jealousy, although they generally are home alone together all day unsupervised, so who knows what happens while we're away.

We spent some time this weekend taking pictures of our new robots so that you would be the first ones to know. We even got a cheesy family portrait done by yours truly, not professionally because THAT would be embarrassing. (Because you see, it's not embarrassing to have a portrait session with your robots on your front steps, complete with a blue sheet chip-clipped to the bushes in several locations, while people drive by slowly and stare. But it IS embarrassing to load up your robots in the car and head out to the Sears Portrait Center.)

And you probably won't believe how much restraint we practiced in not purchasing white shirts for everyone, along with adorable wee little neckties. You know, because we wouldn't want to be accused of being over the top or anything.

We actually plan on selling our little guys (or if you'd rather, "putting them up for adoption") as soon as we can decide on a name for our line and as soon as I can get the necessary stuff designed, such as a logo and hang tags and a website and whatever other marketing materials my heart desires. Oh yeah, and we need to probably have an inventory of more than three. Just guessing.

Once we're ready to launch though, of course you all will once again be the first ones to know, so that hopefully our little ones will all be going to good homes where they will be properly loved and cared for. We probably won't even require visitation rights.