I just discovered I could use a DVD writer we got from a casino a couple of years ago to transfer my old VCR tapes to DVD. I selected it from a list of gifts thinking I could use it as an external DVD drive for my computer, but the packaging lied when it said it worked with a PC, it only works with digital cards from cameras, direct input from a Sony (only) video camera or a VCR.

So that's what I did yesterday, I moved my cousins' 1950s and 1960s home movies on a VHS tape to a DVD. These are my upper class cousins, who lived in snitzy Chevy Chase, Maryland and went to private school with the Kennedy children, then went to Ivy League schools and now are 'somebodies.'

Their mother was my dad's younger sister, and they were very close, so we visited back and forth with them while I was growing up. They are silent movies, but that's fine; I'm just glad to have them.

My birthday and one of their son's birthday are a day apart, although he's five years younger, so there are a couple of joint birthday parties captured on tape. It's fun to see us as youngsters in motion, so different from still photographs.