If I promise to be appreciative anyway, can I opt out? I did the camping thing as a kid, and now unless there's going to be a Lex-clone in leather pants feeding me fresh mai-tais on an hourly basis I don't plan to be going anywhere without plumbing.

I suppose I can cut you some slack.

So, word on the street is I'm getting married in two years.

And....does *she* know this, too?

What street, P-C? The Street of Nosy Relatives?

So, word on the street is I'm getting married in two years.

Nice of them to let you know.

P-C, The Hell?

Gettin away from civilization for a while always feels so good. And you're right, Erin, yuo realy appreciate the amenities when you come back. I haven't been camping in way too long - years. Need to fix that.

I am having trouble understanding the guilt of having a home that is inconvenient or whatever for people to visit. Possibly because we rarely have visitors. Which could be have something to do with the places I've lived always being too small/inconveniently located/far away from the people who might visit.

I also am of the belief that if you are touring someone's house, any statement that starts "It just needs" and doesn't end with "this thing I am giving you right now, enjoy!", doesn't need to be said.

I may be a little touchy on the whole housing thing.

Nora, your relatives should be informed that if they needed you to have a bathroom on the 1st floor, they should have accompanied their request with a check.

I tend to sleep better in the our little tent when camping than anywhere else. Could have something to do with hiking with a pack all day.

Somewhere there is a wacko who will start thinking children should be spanked so that parents can ferret out whether or not the kids are sexually aroused. And then that wacko will start a camp or retreat where s/he promises to fix the kids.

And....does *she* know this, too?

Not yet, whoever she is. They haven't officially begun The Search, I don't think.

Nice of them to let you know.

Oh, they did, directly. Apparently that's why I need more Indian friends, to come to my wedding in two years. Also because non-Indian friends are fickle and won't stick by me ever.

I agree. My home is MY home; I want my guests to be happy and enjoy my hospitality, but there's a line. I had a friend of a friend ask me not to smoke in my apartment, not because she has some kind of illness (which I am happy to make some concession for) but because she doesn't like it.

What the hell? I'd just met her, and here she was in my house, asking this? I thought it very rude, and I just said something like, I'll open another window. If I go over to someone's house, they can shoot up for all I care; their house, their rules. If I don't like it, I can make polite excuses and leave.

because non-Indian friends are fickle and won't stick by me ever

That's like the "old" saying that the friends you make on the Internet aren't as good as the ones you make in the 3-D world.

By the way, thanks again for that phone call while I was in the hospital, dude. I had as many phone calls from my uncaring Internet buddies as I did meat friends stop by my room.