Graeme

My weekend is half over.... Last night, for the first time in years, we left the boys with their grandmother and had a night out. We had a quiet dinner and then off to a friend's birthday party. A sleep in this morning, and a leisurely breakfast, before we head off to pick up the boys. Oh, and condolences to the Sabre's fans (my best friend and his boyfriend are both Sabre's fans)... Better luck, next year.

Happy Birthday, Myr! :music: :music: Thank you for all your hard work and I hope you have a great day, and an even more fantastic day ahead. I see I've converted C James to the theory that birthdays should start at the earliest timezone and end at the last timezone -- for a total duration of 48 hours. He jumped the gun by a few hours, but in your case I think you deserve an even longer birthday

The top two links on the NY Times article (the two Study PDF documents) are also very sobering reading....

I feel like doing this in a AA style confession: "Hi, I'm Graeme, and I'm a parent. It has been 14 hours since I last felt like throttling one of my sons." I know it isn't their fault -- they come home from school and they're tired. They are only six and eight years old, after all. But they need to do their homework, which is usually just a case of reading their readers (it should take no more than ten minutes). One of the boys is struggling a little, and is just not interested in reading. He appears to forget words that he's read before, and will even forget a word that I gave him on the previous page. There is no point getting hot under the collar about it, and most of the time I don't, but sometimes I get so frustrated that he doesn't appear to be learning.... Oh, and most of those 14 hours were spent asleep, so I'm not sure if they really count...

Hi, Nerotrob, I'm in the opposite camp to James -- I can't understand your parents at all, or how that must have affected you. However, I'm wishing you all the best for the future -- you've had a rough start and all I can do is hope it gets better from this point on. Cheers! Graeme

I, personally, was disturbed by the movie, and I strongly recommended to my wife that she not see it -- she would also have become upset. However, the reasons for both of those things shouldn't affect the girl in question (I hope). I was disturbed because I saw myself in the lead characters -- and how close I have come at times to destroying my marriage in the way that they destroyed theirs. My wife would have been distressed by the pain the wives in the story felt when they learnt the truth about their husbands. It is possible that the girl in question could have been traumatised in the same way. The article doesn't say why she has her grandparents has guardians -- what happened to her parents? I'm not saying that that is what has happened, but I'm pointing out that it is possible for some people to traumatised by events that don't affect the majority. Equally, the substitute teacher could not have been expected to know that sort of detail about her students.

They changed their licensing agreement -- it didn't used to be that way. I don't know when they changed it, but it was at least a couple of years ago.

I've done some research and they put in something to our gas supply here to make it smell, but it's not Hydrogen Sulfide. The websites all talk about a "gas smell". I know what it smells like, but I'm not sure I can explain it. As for Eric -- I'm not worried. I'm now going for the theory that he's not human and is indestructible. The way he manages to get through all these scrapes and disasters is clear evidence, in my humble opinion. Chris had better have taken a good photo, because if he hasn't, he's up on charges of criminal damage and grand theft auto (the sheriff's car). There are probably also a few other things that he could be charged with (impersonating an officer, for example, but driving a police car with the siren on). Unless there is solid proof against the Piedmont sheriff, or clear evidence that Chris will be in danger if he goes there, it could be a very interesting extradition tussle between the two counties. Does Piedmont have the right to appeal to the state level to get a directive sent to Lonesome Valley to hand over Chris to face charges?

I did 100mph on one of the UK motorways once. A police car pulled up alongside and I saw a policeman shaking his head at me. I decided I should slow down to something closer to the speed limit....

Okay, I stand corrected. It maybe that CJ put in the comment about rotten eggs to explain the explosion that appeared later on, and it was I who was misled into thinking it was a clue....

Neither natural gas nor propane smells like rotten eggs. Natural gas CAN have a hydrogen sulfide content (it's one of the sources of H2S), but as it is a toxic and flammable gas, I would expect that they would filter it out before it was piped to the consumers.

As an Australian, I have not experienced what Jerry Falwell may have done or influenced. However, the essential point that I believe Nick is saying, I agree with. The man is dead. He has a family and friends who loved him (I believe). At this point in time, when they are grieving, it is unkind and inconsiderate to be denigrating him. He was denigrated while he was alive and he'll be denigrated in the future -- let's leave a window open out of respect for a human being who lived, loved and died.

Okay, I'll start the ball rolling.... Chris noticed a smell of rotten eggs. Now, I personally have never encountered a rotten egg, so I don't know what it smells like, but I believe it is supposed to be the same as Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S). To have enough H2S in the sheriff's house for Chris to notice the smell (especially when you consider what was going on around him), implies that the house was being used as a chemical lab. This then tends to imply that at least of the things that they have been up to is the manufacture of drugs. The wikipedia entry on Hydrogen Sulfide gives some tantalising hints as to what they may be up to, but not real clues. However, a quick google search on hydrogen sulfide and drug manufacture reveals that it can be used in the manufacture of methamphetamines. That means at least one of the operations that the sheriff has been up to is probably illicit drug manufacture. No proof, but strong circumstantial evidence. I don't know what the $50K of equipment that is waiting the datastick information would be, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

Thank you, everyone! I had to work today, but it was an easy day so I wasn't stressed. I headed off a little early so I could go to my boys' basketball games (they've just started the sport). As a consequence, it was a busy night -- but fun. They lost their games, but they enjoyed themselves, which is the important thing at their age. There are too many posts to respond to individually, so I'll just reply to two.... We had cheesecake rather than a cake (cheesecake is my favourite). However, both boys bought me boxes of chocolates, and they both asked me to share.... Definitely an excellent day for a birthday I had thought by bring attention to the fact it was YOUR birthday, too, people might not notice it was mine, but I suppose I was being overly optimistic.... Thanks again, everyone! It was only three years ago that I finally accepted my sexuality and came out to my wife. The last couple of birthdays, and this one in particular, are the happiest I can remember for a LONG time. You are all part of reason for that.

I agree that the teacher made a mistake, but suing the board because of the action of ONE substitute teacher? If it had been any other R-rated film (eg. Saw), would it be news?

What a boring chapter! Nothing happened! Absolutely nothing! Now, if you had put in a car chase, or a fleeing from homicidal maniacs, with the odd explosion thrown in for good measure, I think it would have met the required Hollywood action/thriller standards, but as it is.... Oh, and thanks for the birthday present -- it was really appreciated PS: Whenever I read the title for this chapter, I can't help thinking of The Guns of Navarone....

An interesting problem.... You could try setting up an electric fence around the catnip to protect it, but those thieving cats are just SO ingenious they'd probably find away around it. As I'm a nice law-abiding (usually) citizen, I can't really help you drug-lord ambitions, unless, of course, the drugs are legal. Have you checked? Is catnip a legal or illegal drug?

You ask some interesting questions, Mark I don't think I can answer this one. I believe I'm my true self all the time, because my "true self" is part of me, not a situation I'm in. If the question was where am I most comfortable, I would have to say being quiet with company (who don't have to be quiet). I don't like being alone, but I'm not a party person. I like to have people around, but I don't need to be interacting with them -- listening them to interact with each other is often very enjoyable.

Damn! I was hoping it would slip through unnoticed.... For the record, I'm 22x2

Happy 20th Birthday! No longer a teenager but there's still lots of fun times to come.

That's one of my favourite's too. I remember times when I thought it was very appropriate to me....

I don't have a lot of regrets in my life. There are things I would have liked to have done differently, but if I did, then I wouldn't have the life I have now. Overall, I have tried to be consistent, living ethically and as honestly as I could. If I could go back and do it again, I would have accepted my sexuality in my late teens, but then my life would be completely different to what I have now. I wrote an essay a couple of years ago on the subject of being gay and married to a woman. It concludes with the following statement which is still true for me today: Someone asked me once what I thought about the idea of a gay person getting married just to have children. While I can appreciate the desire to be a parent -- my two boys are the centre of my life -- this is not the way to do it. It is incredible selfish and cruel to the partner who is effectively being used and abused. Find another way of becoming a parent that doesn't involve causing this much pain to someone. On a final personal note, I hope that mixed-orientation marriages, such as mine, are a cultural phenomenon that is dying. I believe they are caused because of the lack of open acceptance of GLBT in the society in which my generation grew up. The success of my marriage so far looks like it is the exception rather than the rule, but both of us are working hard to keep it successful. The vast majority of mixed-orientation marriages fail and fail miserably, hurting many people, especially when children are involved. If I could have been more confident in myself when I was younger, my life would have been very different. Almost certainly I would not have married. Having said that, I once said to my wife that we can't regret the things that could have been, we just have to celebrate the things we have. I'm now off to continue my celebration.

I've just seen this at another forum. Since the authors have indicated that it can be distributed to other sites, I'm posting it here. Johnny is the author of A Smokey Mountain Christmas which is a favourite of several people I know. He was also an early supporter of my own writing, and hosted my stories for a period of time before he close his website.

I was able to get on a couple of hours ago and can't now -- yep, it's down

Happy Mother's Day to all.