PrivateTim

Well I was tempted to only give the story 4 stars not 5 because Jaws is pretty much a tow in place only, but I had two glasses of wine with dinner so I am feeling pretty mellow so I cut you some slack and gave the 5. Scott (Lark?) was being just slightly creepy, but redeemed himself with some interesting insights. Curious how much Darius spent on the Vegas side trip and what, if anything, anyone has to say about it. Do Brad and Robbie monitor the boys credit cards?

The kind of money Stef and Brad & Robbie have at this point nothing in the 2000 recession or the 2007 recession is going to affect them. In fact jumping in the market after the 9-11 thumping (which is what a lot of smart money managers did) and jumping out in 2007 they would damn near double their money. And cash became king in 2007, Stef could have picked up a lot of real estate on the cheap. There would be no reason for Stef to pull out of real estate in 2005 since so many of his holdings in real estate were bought in the early 70's and 80's, even at the 2007 "crashing" real estate he would still be way up and he knows the way to wealth is to hold on to real estate and lease it out. Who would call you mule-headed??

My Scots roots run deep, we are "tight wi' the brass". I was taught from about age five about savings, interest and compounding. I didn't spend money needlessly. I also had to make my bed like a midshipman at Annapolis from about age 9 on, keep my room "ship shape" and was taught how to do my laundry and iron by my freshman year of high school. My mother still did 90% of my laundry and ironing until I left for college, but learning how to do it was important part of "Life 101" at home. But I know exactly what you mean. I was shocked at how unworldly so many of my college friends were.

2. I guess I forgot that Matt and Gathan had even met. That should be interesting. 3. I agree, but I thought JP had a good perspective. I remember my first love at 14 who didn't love me back. I was crushed. Never did get over him. 5. I'm surprised Kristen didn't read him the riot act (or maybe that is yet to come). She is supposed to be the reasonable one. 6. If Gathan is going to be an effective anything in life he needs to learn to control his emotions, impulses and temper.

Yeah, we didn't care about no stinking Oregon Trail either. We made Missions out of sugar cubes and talked about how the Donners ate each other I didn't.... see previous comments on his immaturity

I get that stories need to have drama and tension and problems and no matter what an immature ass I think Gathan is, but I don't want him to get a gambling problem or a spending addiction problem. I also don't get why Darius doesn't but out his Amex card, I would assume Brad and Robbie wouldn't send him on a cross country drive without a card with a hefty limit.

You forget Matt and I went to school in the Bay Area and Matt would have been in school still when Darius started at Santa Clara. We had our share of friends there too, not to mention Davis, Santa Cruz, Humboldt, SF State, UNR, USF, St. Mary's and SJSU. I knew most of the Santa Clara polo players pretty well and they were more subdued than most of the guys I knew in college and the drinking and drug usage was pretty much non-existent on campus, especially for the underclassmen. A very different experience than mine at Berkeley.

Santa Clara does not have fraternities or sororities. They had some when Darius would have matriculated, but they would have been officially gone by his senior year. Statement Regarding Fraternities and Sororities

"Puka" shells. Puka is Hawaiian for "hole". There is no "c" in the written Hawaiian language, in fact there are only 12 letters in entire Hawaiian alphabet.

In college, driving up to my parents place in Northstar (North Lake Tahoe), I wondered every time what it must have been like crossing those mountains on horseback and with wagons and I always thought of the Donner Party.

Holy crap have you ever done the 10 Freeway from LA to Jacksonville? LA to Boeme, TX (just outside San Antonio) is the most God forsaken piece of real estate I've ever seen in my life. 1,300+ miles of nothingness, dry, hot nothingness. There are minor pockets of civilization, but none of the beauty of the I-70 drive from Denver through the red rock area until you hit the 15. And none of the beauty of the Rockies through WY and the Wasatches through UT. Yeah SLC to Reno ain't pretty, but Reno to SF is. And yes, the TX hill country is great, but once you get away from San Antonio it is back to misery through Houston and Beaumont (ever been to Beaumont TX, yikes!) all the way until you hit NOLA, but NOLA is the last bastion of civilization until you hit the Atlantic Ocean, other than that it is red neck, "I got two good teethess" country.

If we were in a court I'd object to you assuming facts not in evidence. There is a difference between flashy wealth and not being aware you are wealthy. Will might not drive a Ferrari to school, but I also bet it isn't a 1994 used Forerunner. It will probably be a 2003 Range Rover or the like and that is a $90-100k car and it might never occur to Will that that is what a new condo might cost in Claremont. He might take a boy friend camping is Yosemite, but he is just as likely to borrow grands yacht and head to Todos Santos, or fly to Tavarua or Playa Dominical. He would do that not because he is a snotty rich kid, but it is because it is how he has been raised. Has Will ever been on a commercial plane? Does he understand what it is like to go to a normal airport? Mark has never really discussed it (that I recall), but they wouldn't fly out of LAX, they would most likely go out of the Van Nuys airport (VNY) which is what LAX uses for 90% of their private traffic. When you are used to life like that, it is very hard to do things "the ordinary way".

Stop. It ain't even 2001 yet.

If Darius thinks I-80 is the most boring highway, he really never wants to take the I-10 across country! Wonder what is being set up here. It is also about time for Stef's intuition to kick in on the market. Oct 1999 was a peak and now it is building to an Oct 2000 peak before the run down to the low in July 2002. Brad should challenge Will to give up his wetsuit and surfboard since both are both heavily dependent on petroleum products.

You can hardly take the extremes for the norm. There are all kinds of sociopaths in the world, some even have kids. There is no indication of the Hendricksons ever having been bad or abusive parents. The psychology of being a parent is way different from the psychology of being a sibling. Maybe if Gathan had raised a two year old Ella from the time he was 14, there could some feeble comparison, but two siblings a year apart it doesn't wash. Everyone else here seems to have no problem getting into Mr. Hendrickson's head and what he was thinking during the apology, etc, but finds it inconceivable for anyone else to get into Gathan's head or think Gathan behaved badly at a time he could have exhibited some growth and maturity.

Hey Nick, what happened against St. Ignatius???

I thought Gathan handled the talk with her father badly. If I really loved someone and I knew their parents loved them too and weren't bad or abusive to them, I'd want them to like me too. I would have been more sympathetic with the father and I would have addressed what I knew his concerns were, I am not good enough for his daughter, I come from a bad family, etc. I would point out I am going to the second most prestigious university in California, that my extended family of the Hayes-Schluters is going to help me find my way in the world and that I really love his daughter and I will what ever I can to convince them I am going to be good for their daughter. Even if I wanted to call the father a miserable son of a bitch for thinking I am not good enough, I would still try to schoomze him and the father did apologize.

Meh, I just don't find Kristin and Gathan as interesting as other characters. It also kind of ticks me off that Gathan couldn't have been more mature with Kristin's father. He thinks he mature and ready for a serious relationship, but he isn't smooth enough to handle the dad? I also wonder if either really does know what love is at 17 & 18. If Gathan is going away to college, he ought to be able to enjoy himself and Kristin needs to be able to enjoy her senior year, go to Homecoming, Senior Prom and all the other senior activities you can't do with a boyfriend who is 2,000 miles away. I mean even Andy and Angie were split up during college. This cross country trip is going to be interesting. I have to go to the history books and figure out what happened along I-80 or I-70 in August 2000 that the four stumble into or how the Kursk tragedy can be worked in

I guess not having a desert or maybe being exposed to the desert, you don't get it. Yes, there are retired people, yes there are golf courses, but it is mostly about warm and dry. Besides old people and golfers you also have the tennis set, resorts, spas and casinos and of course, the clothing optional resorts. Of course they would have their ski homes too. The first one would have been at Lake Tahoe and while they would have kept that one, they would have gotten an Aspen place in the late 70's, sold that one and upgraded to to Vail in the 80's, Bachelor Gulch by the 90's and eventually wind up in the Yellowstone Club, but Stef would probably hang onto the Bachelor Gulch pad and buy a large place in Deer Valley so they'll have some place to stay in 2002 for the SLC games.

Hmmm, Google "thongs", especially "thongs for men".

Cool chapter, but I admit I don't get it. They drove two hours to look at the guy and turn around and go home?

Cell phones with pics hit the US in 2002, by 2002 in Japan they had almost 50% of the market. Was Everwood that show with the hot, shy boy who played the piano or something like that? A mountain town in CO? Loved that show, wanted to just hug the cute boy

Your friend at Apple is partly wrong, partly right. There were no phones in Italy capable of pictures or video in 2000. Japan did have a phone from Kyocera that debuted in May 1999 and Sharp followed a few months later and they could take pics, but no vid. But the Japanese phones were CDMA and Europe operates on the GSM standard and there were no dual mode phones in 2000. So in theory, a Japanese visitor with a non-working cell phone could have snapped pics of the hot gaijin dancing, but no video.

Cool new chapter of PMS. This is Shark Week (thanks Discovery Channel for reminding me, I almost had it put out of my mind from last year). Brad surfing clicked this for me. Just 500 feet offshore is a favorite feeding ground for juvenile great whites (that means only 7-9 feet or so). They only eat fish at this age, but the fact that they are there still freaks me the hell out.

Wow some people are tough critics, only three stars? I gave five because I am pretty much a push over. I am glad to know that the trip to Bakersfield is something mysterious because I thought I missed something. Hopefully is is Darius doing his enrollment at Cal State Bakersfield. It would be justice for his having too much fun in high school, honestly there are a lot of Cal State schools he could get into like Chico, L.A., San Marcos, the Beach and Northridge, the Harvard of the San Fernando Valley. Brad took the news pretty well, maybe he is growing up too or maybe in the scheme of things with how close he and Will came to bad things, it doesn't seem that bad in the rearview mirror. As to will we see a video some day, cell phones in 2000 were not capable of video. The first cell phones that had cameras didn't appear until 2002 and I am not sure someone would be allowed into a gay club carrying a video camera, which were still pretty bulky in 2000.