AFriendlyFace

Awww, that's sweet There is that to consider. Personally I'd only raise my kids in as liberal, accepting an environment as possible, and get them into a private school or something where, hopefully things would be as rough. Apart from which I don't expect this to happen for a good ten years (plus 5 more or so before the oldest would be ready to start school), so hopefully things will get even more accepting and stuff by then. Good luck Awww, yay! Well said, Old Bob

Ohh, didn't see that

I voted, but it would completely destroy the concept of the secret ballot if I told you I thought it must be Shadowgod who added the cliffy and that we must save Eric at all costs, so I won't be telling you that

So I've had a great many very interesting experiences in the last few months that I haven't recounted in my blog due to lack of free-time and/or poor motivation. Tonight I felt like writing up a quick blog, so I've decided to share one particularly harrowing event which occurred about a month ago. It was a typical enough day. I was sitting in class (as teacher not student, unlike any current 'I was sitting in class' stories) and I decided that since I had so much to do it would be good to make a list. So I come up with a very long list of chores for myself...then they announce that I won't be getting an off period because they're short-handed Naturally, I was seriously ticked off, especially since I'd just spent all that time coming up with the list! Well on my scheduled off period I show up in the office to find out where I'm supposed to go and lo and behold they don't need me after all! What good news I thought. So I dash home, have a very fast lunch and get to work on all the things I need to do. lots of cleaning, put away some laundry, took out all my trash, changed Lucky's litter, refilled her food and water, general tidying up. Well at last it's time to go and I realize there's only one more thing to do: I need to clean my toilets and drop in those little bleach tablets. Well the first toilet upstairs goes off without a hitch. So I come down, carrying my toilet brush and toilet tablet and clean the second one. So far so good. Then I decide it's time to drop the tablet in...that's where everything went awry. As I picked up the lid to the tank, while attempting to hang on to the toilet brush and bleach tablet, it slipped out of my hand! Unfortunately I went right into the toilet tank on it's end. In other words instead of horizontal, which would have made it rest on the top of the tank, it turned vertical and went into the tank, slamming into the bottom of it...and SHATTERING it completely. So water gushed everywhere and my toilet was essentially destroyed BUT the problems don't end there. The actual water filling mechanism is undamaged (unfortunately), which means that it's still attempting to fill up a now destroyed tank. So I quickly grab the little floaty thing (I know EWWW right, but I'm already doused in toilet water anyway ) and hold it up to keep more water from further flooding the place. So of course I realize that I need to turn the water off to the toilet (I'm not a total idiot and I actually know my way around plumbing pretty well) and I even remembered that there's always a handy little valve that goes to toilets and sinks so that you can turn the water off and work on them. Unfortunately my little valve wasn't so handy. In fact my little handy was unable to turn the little valvey. It had evidently rusted into place after years of presumable disuse. So I'm standing there in toilet water, contorting myself into all sorts of weird positions as I try to hold the floaty thing with one hand and yank on the valve with the other. I grabbed a towel, the reaching of which was no easy feat, and attempted to use that to get a better grip on the valve...no luck. I contorted myself still further so that I could hold onto the floaty with my left hand and use my right on the valve, hoping that I was stronger in my right hand...I'm evidently not. At last I had the bright idea of rigging up a way to prop the toilet brush against the remains of the toilet and the floaty thing and hold it up that way, thus freeing me from my plumbing prison. I quickly ran upstairs and grabbed a wrench and made quick work of the accursed valve :mace: Then I used what few dirty towels I had (just did laundry remember), plus a few previously clean ones, to clean up my soaked floor. Then I added 'laundry' back onto my to do list, cleaned myself up, called maintenance to replace the tank (I'm actually pretty sure I could have picked one up at Home Depot and done it myself, but I wasn't particularly inclined to undertake that little endeavor) and somehow STILL miraculously managed to arrive back to work before my break was over. Oh yeah, and I honestly managed to avoid saying any bad words or getting angry/frustrated during that whole little battle. I think it must have been the adrenaline or something.

Glad you had fun, Gabe!

LOL, the "said her prayers" part gave it away for me I love it, Viv! Thanks

Thanks you guys! Awesome! I think I tend to write character (versus plot) based stories so I'm really happy if the characters seem fully formed and fleshed out to you! Indeed one of the challenges I've striven to attain is keeping the cast of characters relatively small and/or not going into as much detail about some of the others. My original story, Indefensible, was even more character driven than this one and it had a huge cast, each of whom I had a lot of ideas for and wanted to fully characterize. Of course in many ways the whole premise of the story was that there were all these people with complicated, seemingly unconnected lives that fit together in the end to tell the whole narrative. Well, I don't want to directly comment on this for spoiler reasons, but I will say (as the story description in eFiction says) that part of the story deals with drugs and addiction. So it will somehow affect someone to some degree. LOL, I'm kinda surprised you guys were kinda surprised. I mean I didn't intend for it to be unexpected. Actually I can sort of see how Giorgio's reaction might have been since really the only clue was Cosmo telling Aaron earlier that Giorgio was mad at him (and then later pulling him away before he got a chance to 'talk' to Aaron). However, I'm not surprised readers would assume it wasn't that big a deal or that he'd cooled down. With Daisy though I meant to paint that picture all along. With that said, since it wasn't expected, did you guys feel that it felt natural and suitably understandable? Aww thanks Niels! I was hoping to post the chapter a day early like I had been doing, but unfortunately this week has been (and will continue to be) extremely busy for me so I didn't get the chance Hopefully this week I can get the chapter up a bit early though

Oh my gosh, Gary! That's wonderful! Congrats! That's how I feel. Having the child be genetically mine, despite the fact that I think I've got good genes, is really low on my list of priorities. I definitely want kids, so I suppose that's one option, but the most likely would probably be adoption. Ideally it would be nice to have the child/children with a partner, but it isn't obligatory to me. I'm thinking when I feel 'ready' regardless of my relationship status (unless I'm in a serious relationship with someone that wants them but wants to wait) I'll do whatever is necessary to begin adoption proceedings. I'm rather counting on it being legal for gay people to adopt by then, but if not I'd be willing to leave the country (don't really expect to live here all my life anyway), or at least adopt from another country (the ethnicity and race of the child are equally unimportant to me). Another option I would have, but would feel guilty utilizing, is a surrogate mother. I have a couple of close female friends who've offered (unprompted, they just know how much it means to me). So that's another possibility too. I suppose in a weird, everything works out, movie sorta way it would be very ideal if I did have a partner and we made an arrangement with a lesbian couple (again I'm close with several) for each couple to have 2 kids (4 total) and then each family unit would have a biological child by each of the two parents. Continuing this lovely little fairy tale we'd live near each other and remain involved in the other kids' lives as well. But yeah, I don't need the fairytale. I'm an independent person; one way or another I'll handle it on my own. (Assuming my health and economic status are adequate when I decide it's the right time. I personally wouldn't want to purposely bring a child into a situation of having a parent - especially a single parent - who wasn't healthy or financially stable enough to take proper care of him/her.) I also want two kids ideally, but am willing to have as few as one or as many as three. I want at least one and failing some sort of twin situation or a death which results in my guardianship I'll stop at three for sure (and probably only go up to three if my partner wants more than two. If I'm a single parent I'll probably stop at one.). Right, I agree. That's why I said I'd be hesitant to utilize the surrogate mother option. Good thread, Procyon Take care all, Kevin

Woo HOOO!! Happy Birthday Vic!!! It's been my great pleasure to get to know you and interact with you over the last 3 years here at GA and I've thoroughly enjoyed your humourous, kind, insightful, and thoughtful posts! As the original and official Domaholic you've kept our spirits and hopes up for more chapters while also helping us get adjusted to general GA life. Thanks! May you enjoy your special day and find much peace, happiness, love, joy, and fulfillment in the coming year! Have an awesome day and be well! (Just 'cause it's your birthday thread I won't say 'take care' ) -Kevin

Pat Benatar - "Precious Time"

Happy Birthday, dude

Thanks, Procyon! I think you're right too and it does make me feel a bit better

Me? HAHA, no way! On the other hand I will admit that the next chapter of BMAD has the nearest thing to a cliffhanger that there's been up to this point, but it certainly isn't a cliffhanger. Certainly not compared to this! That's like comparing a baseball to Jupiter CJ's already mentioned it, but I didn't think it was odd at all. It's not like they've had time to sit down and work out the logic. The WHOLE THING since Dimitri entered the house has lasted what? 30 seconds? Dimitri is trained for this sort of thing and they're not. I agree that much depends on the AF investigator. Good point, there's been no mention of Jon. So either he's dead, CJ is planning to use him as a tool in the next chapter...or CJ just didn't feel like mentioning him. Exactly, it seems fairly certain to me that Dimitri will not make it out of that house alive (unless maybe he gives himself up and they take him into custody or something, but unlikely). The bikers must be on their way now. A good point. OK here's my theory, help is on the way, and I suspect it was ALREADY on the way. CJ said that the AF guy walked west while on the phone...not sure why west, but the point is we didn't hear the end of his conversation. It's possible he's still on the phone (indeed it seems a bit likely that he either is or that he's just finished up and is on his way back to the house since he's not IN the house), but there's a good chance after giving the initial part of his report the general ordered someone back to the house to pick him back up, or maybe to pick up the others (or any combination of them, maybe just Joe). So I think they may already be on their way anyway, and they'll probably have some sort of emergency first aid kit (plus the choppers to life the wounded away). Yeah, that does seem reasonable. "The Boss" At least I think that's what Dimitri said it meant. Dimitri has one grenade in his pocket that he isn't planning on using because he needs both his hands where he has them. The other 3 are still in the truck. Graeme said (out of quotes): Anyone who believes that those four paragraphs will make any difference to how they feel about the ending of this chapter should go back through ALL the old chapter discussion threads. I can't remember which one it was, but CJ made this offer once before, and it turned out to not help. In that case, the opening paragraphs of the next chapter were to do with The Scar and his plotting, and nothing to do with the situation that had everyone concerned. LOL, exactly what I was thinking at first, but this time he did specify that it resolved the scene we were on. So I think it's 'on the level'. One final observation that I'm shocked that no one's made The chapter title "Dead Man's Hand" obviously refers (perhaps among other things) to Eric's Ace's and 8's in the poker game. That is known as the "dead man's hand". So it maybe just be a reference to what's already going on...or it may perhaps foreshadow his fate. Looking forward to reading the next four paragraphs, lol! Take care all, Kevin

Hey Jamie! Woo HOO! An update of one of my favourite stories! Took me over a day to notice though! Great chapter! It looks like Andy and Seth are really moving in the right direction. Unfortunately it also looks like Seth's getting himself into more and more trouble. Now of course he has the problem of just how he's going to get out of this big meal! My guess would be that he eats enough to look polite, then excuses himself to the restroom and... yeah Can't wait to see what really happens! Awesome job -Kevin BTW: loved Seth's mom's description of Anna!

"Brick" - Ben Folds Five

WOOO HOOOO!! Happy Birthday, Old Bob! You've continually taken the time to share your wisdom and unique experiences with us all and to offer support and encouragement! Your presence here is great enjoyed and appreciated it! May we all learn to have such a sage out look on life and to have so many wonderful and interesting experiences! Thanks and I hope the coming year brings you much health, happiness, prosperity, and joy! Have a fantastic day! -Kevin

Nice second round of pics too!

You know Robbie, that would be an extreme response to a makeover Nice pics btw.

Santana Ft. Rob Thomas - Smooth

A little of both, with a healthy dose of, "I just don't think now is a good time for me to be in a relationship" (which is true!) Well, I honestly think I'd be sending him mixed signals if I did that right away. "We can't go out anymore" "Hey you want to join us Friday?" Apart from which I don't even have time to socialize with my friends right now (with or without him) I've been so busy and stressed out I've turned down or backed out of the last half dozen or so attempts any of my friends have made to get together. I feel really guilty about that too But seriously, one of the reasons I did decide to end things with Ryan was because I just couldn't handle another person on my plate I was supposed to be spending considerable amounts of time with. Anyway, maybe in a month or so when things cool down I'll have the opportunity to go out more again and I'll invite him along (by then it'll probably be less 'mixed signalish' too). Wow! You do have it planned out! *gasp* You're a married man!

Just wanted to let you guys know that the new chapter: The Eyes Have It is now available in eFiction! Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Hmm, well to be honest I kinda want it to be a surprise. Well maybe "surprise" isn't the best word, but I don't want the readers to start anticipating the end. I'll tell ya privately tho Aww thanks CJ! What me with a cliffhanger? Nevah

If anyone was curious I finally did the deed yesterday. I think it went pretty well actually.

Barenaked Ladies - Conventioneers

Is that why roaches have such healthy teeth? I think an anonymous poll would reveal higher numbers of sink pee-ers