Trebs

Nope - just the shadowy ones

Umm - TMI? :-P

You bottom boys are hard to shop for...

You mean I have to cancel your X-Mas gift and figure out something else?!?

FANTASTIC - had to share it with everyone in the house...

Happy birthday to a fantastic guy and an even better editor. Thanks for helping to keep Dan in line! :-P

It was under a year ago that I saw you - and you DEFINATELY did NOT look 49... early 40's at MOST. A large part of it isn't so much the number, but how you hold yourself and what I saw in DC was a kind, warm, funny person... Numbers don't matter - people do. And YOU matter <hug>

Linxe (and others) - I think the process so far has been fantastic. But as we are 10 months out, and one of the cheapest carriers for Southwest won't book until at least 6 months out (usually) - how about we use this time to talk about things that can be done, who is "currently interested" in going, etc but wait until a little bit closer to firm down plans. I'll also look up myself if there are any decent discounts places to stay. If you all wanna rush forward - I can understand. But just hoping for a little thoughtful planning and through such, maybe be able to make this an official GetTogether. But in ANY case - it is a testament to Linxe for the progress made so far so

Just a quick note... 1) I've been out of touch with most people recently - sorry. Part of it has been my mood... Ever since early Sept, I'm been down mainly due to having been out of work for over a year, and partly cause still dealing a little with not having my girls (dogs). But I know a lot of you care and have reached out - and I appreciate it, even if I haven't always reached back. WHICH leads me to: 2) GREAT NEWS!!! Tomorrow (Wed) morning at 9AM - I report back to work! WOOT!!! I've been talking with my doctors for a while now, especially the past two weeks, and I've been talking with work and have finally pulled it all together. My doctor does want me to start slow so I don't "set myself to fail" so I'm starting tomorrow at half-time, and then will go back to working full-time after two weeks. We have a new administration (we elected a new Chair back in April and have a new Executive Director - the person I've always reported to directly). So some of my being down has been that I haven't really worked with the new team (and if they got along without me, why would they need me again). But THANKFULLY, they are looking forward to having me back - just a matter of figuring out job duties, etc. Like Dan kept telling me, you won't know how they feel about you until you talk to them - so I'm glad I did (ok - with his prodding). Still have follow-ups with the doctors and occasional tests - but getting cleared to go back to work is for me, the turning point. PS - I be a happy camper right now!!!

HERE you go PS - I just read the story a couple weeks ago via the link from Best of Nifty - and thought about the story again 3 days ago as it becomes obvious the story is set on Mallorca - the island the Boyzone singer recently passed away on.

When all else fails, you can open the text file from nifty of the whole directory (last option under misc) and do a search of that for the file name (ctrl-F usually starts your browsers search). Helpful when someone tells you about a story, but doesn't know if it was college, beginnings, relationships, etc...

WL - Thanks, but we're pretty much stuck to the west coast for the near future (I won't be allowed to fly until December at the earliest). Even past that, don't see any east coast trips anytime soon, unfortunately.

As to the over/under 21 issue - the GetTogethers so far have all been centered on one meal - a lunch or dinner that most attendees try to commit to going to. Then as the date gets closer, whoever is in the area can start talking and ADDITIONALLY arrange a few other events/times to get together. In San Francisco, we arranged a Saturday night dinner, but when people came to town on Friday, we met up to stroll around the Castro and had coffee. People did various things on Saturday like touristing and movies, then we did dinner. Many of us then went up to the top of Twin Peaks. Dallas we again got together Friday night - some of us went to dinner, did a theme park during the day Saturday and had dinner together that night (the official Get Together) and then bowling later. In DC, the main event was lunch on Sunday and Dan and I got together with two long-time friends who are on GA the night before, but the lunch was pretty much the only event of that trip. So - what I'm trying to say - I don't think you have to limit it based on age as long as a bar trip or something like that are EXTRA activities in addition to the main meal.

Ok - as has been noted, it's no longer 3 days left - today, Thursday Oct 1 is the deadline. Send 'em in if you haven't already, and congratulations and good luck to all participants.

Joe posted this in another thread so I'll quote it:

Just a reminder that the deadline for turning in Novellas for the contest is Oct 1 - so you have the rest of today, tomorrow and Thursday Oct 1 to finish and turn them in.

Mike Arram is a wonderful writer - AD just has two of his stories, but you can find all of his stories on crvboy. Chav Prince is the fourth of his Peacher stories - all the rest are great though I recommend starting at the beginning with Toward the Decent Inn. The slight differences in British english (as opposed to US english) are fun for me to experience. And the various subcultures of various parts of England are great to experience as well - definately an author I highly recommend.

One other aspect - you want to contribute and feel like you're giving something to the group. If you leave, and a month later, some other 19 yo comes by the group, is he going to feel like there is anyone there that HE can relate to? In other words, YOU may be a member of the group that helps other new members feel like they could relate to the group as well.

Chat guy that sometimes does and sometimes does not seem interested - ummm - have you let HIM know YOU are interested? Considering how hot you look, he may be interested, then pull back when he figures he has no chance with you... Grass is greener - as you could guess, it's tough being IN a relationship as well... Sometimes (for some strange reason), I actually think I get on Dan's nerves - go figure... And as you'll blow this whole thing off, I guess I have only one thing that you really do need to pay attention to: <hug>

Advil and Motrin are both brand names for ibupofen in the US - though Motrin tends to be more thought of for menstrual cramps (I think because of their advertising campaign) - but both are just pure ibuprofen. I saw nurofen for the first time reading a story (The Price on nifty) with the characters living in England. Similarly for paracetamol - I think it was one of Mike Arram's Peacher stories. In the US, Tylenol is a brand name for acetaminophen (and very famous as it was also the source of tampering in the early 80's which led to increased care in packaging of shelf-drugs such as foil wrappers and shrink-wrapping around the lids). I think it's more of a historical reason as the colonies based their legal system on English Law (also frequently referred to as Common Law). Now, 49 of the 50 states use the precedent based common law system, with just Louisiana using a civil law legal system based on French law (and its predecessor Roman law).

NOTE - I have no idea but a brief look gives: Y Mochyn Du = The black pig in welsh Most of the links seem to reference a famous pub in Cardiff, it looks like the name is from a welsh folk song. Get the impression there are other connotations but can't find it in a cursory look...

In reading stories, it isn't just the idioms, it's also sometimes just other word differences. The main ones that come to mind are "chemist" instead of pharmacy, "boot" instead of trunk (for cars) and the names of various drugs ("paracetamol" instead of Tylenol or acetaminophen, and "nurofen" instead of ibuprofen or Advil). To be honest, in most cases, I find it a delightful way of expanding what I know about - when I run across these differences, I usually take a break and check them out on wikipedia to find out what they equate to. PS - thank you Nephylim for translating "hob" - one fewer word to look up ;-)

Mike - get with the program - once he GETS the guy, he can go to pot ;-)

Thank you to all - had a great birthday and as tomorrow is the first day of school for Dan's niece and nephew, heading to bed now to have an early night. I appreciate all the well-wishes!

I'm not exactly sure but it almost looks like you're implying that it's bullshit... I may be reading too much into what you wrote though - not sure PS Windows mobile FTW!