Joe, congrats on your son! He's beautiful!

It's neat to be reminded of/discover the life changes that have taken place over the years.

I also have met Gudanov, katefate, & Steph L. in person in their various cities along my east-west travel route.

Oh, the dinner of the Inexplicable Fire Alarm that the waiter of another table said could be going off for any number of reasons...but never mentioned that it could, in fact, be BECAUSE OF A FIRE.

The Boy is still sad he didn't get to kick out the window and dive out onto Fountain Square.

It's neat to be reminded of/discover the life changes that have taken place over the years.

t points right back at sarameg You've had an amazing year, and it's been cool to witness it.

Aw, thanks. It's been fun to live! (duh)

OK, fine. If Joe Boucher has posting here, then I will, too.

I'm Hayden Childs, been with the Buffistas since TT, although my contributions have been more limited of late. I use the pseud because I have occasionally blown off some steam about my job online. The pseud comes from the record label for the outsider musician Jandek. I wrote about Jandek and a few other musicians for David's book Lost In The Grooves. I also wrote about Richard & Linda Thompson's Shoot Out The Lights for the 33 1/3 series, and I run the webzine The High Hat, which we haven't updated in a long time. Oh, I'm in Austin, TX. And I've met a bunch of Buffistae, but never been to an official F2F.

the webzine The High Hat, which we haven't updated in a long time

I knew I'd been missing something. Get to work, you slug!

(as my book Lost in the Grooves featured many Buffistae, the High Hat has also hosted a fair amount of excellent Buffista writing)

And got a Wire shoutout as the place with the good pepper steak, too, which thrilled me, as I'm a huge Wirefiend and have been in the Hat either twice or three times, blathering about television mostly, in between sending my friend upthread some of the world's only pitches containing the phrase "Austin cocksucker"(It's a Deadwood thing)

Hello Amy and Barb!

I just realized that I'm not certain of the source of my tag line. I'm going to say I think it's from The Inside.

That's how long I've been away, I guess.

Walkies seem constricting and stressful to me.

I was afraid this would be the case when I got Bartleby. I'm no fan of the winter, but taking him out never really feels like a burden. Plus, I meet, chat, walk with the most interesting, random people as a result.

While I had cats every minute of my life until my late 20s, I have to confess that now...perhaps nonsensically...the cat box (even a clean one) bothers my senses dramatically more than cleaning up after my dog. Fortunately, since I began cooking his meals, his...um...leave behinds...are incredibly low in volume and odor. So, bonus.

billytea, I'd like to see the pet carbon footprint study. Do you have a link? While I once felt virtuous about reusing my neighbor's newspaper bags for pick-up, I was struck my Phillipe Cousteau's quote stating that every single piece of plastic ever manufactured, in the history of petrochemicals, still exists. I'd love to find a better option.

Joe Boucher, that is one gorgeous bobbin you have there. Absolutely charming.

Also, I have only known one other St. John's alum...he was an, shall we say, odd duck who took peculiar pride in how hard he had to work to get thrown out of a college based primarily on conversation. Given his description, I'd have worked very hard to stay in if I had even known the school existed in my day.

To paraphrase Beverly, I spent time working on this in Word, you betcha I'm posting it.

Hooray, Katiebee posted! YAY!!!

I’m Java cat. I live in Marin and work in Oakland. I met a B’fta at work ages ago, someone temping while studying for a Big Licensing Exam. She mentioned BtVS, corrected my impression of it based on the name, and soon I was phoning her during Season 3 commercials asking, Who was that guy? What past event are they referencing? There was a gathering at the Palace Hotel to meet BHP, and I asked if I could go. I was amazed by everyone, and eventually found my way to WX.

Unlike most B’tas, I didn’t then and still don’t have a home computer (Luddites, Represent! Or is it Indecisive Contrarians, Represent!). OMG, an Internet Board!! SO new and exciting! I fell in love. For years, I printed Natter every day (on used paper) & read the daytime discussion at home. If I posted, it was after work, before going home (like now!) There was a regular “night shift” then: me, Australians John, Angus, Moonlit, billytea; Noise Design, other Californians, theater people, and insomniacs.

I organized an SF gathering at American Fencers, where none of us had a camera (!); persuaded Suzi to meet her first B’stas at dinner with me, Katie Bee, Sparky and I think Sparky's DH (I brought tiaras for us all); and organized the DC F2F. I’ve been to the LA and Seattle F2Fs. I’ve taken Katie & Deena camping in a friends funky trailer at Lawson’s Landing on the Pacific Coast; Susan and her DH, Jen K & I think Freya stayed overnight with me, although I was so consumed with packing for my camping trip before the DC F2F, I was not as good a hostess to JenK as I should have been. Consuela and Katie have gone on numerous hikes with me, and Sparky & DH & Consuela & others have been subjected to my Berkeley Rep-going organizing. I’m forever sending Localistas job listings and hope at least one of them will be working here soon. (Check our job website today, Localistas!)

Memorable and exciting nights on-line were the opening of Phoenix, and welcoming Kristin and raising money for NillyTrek. Good times. I have a home DSL line now & can take home work laptops on evenings and weekends, but rarely keep up like that any more. I printed this thread to read while sitting with a terminally ill friend this month. I thought I was all caught up, but had to read 170 new posts tonight! Because of how I read and post, my posts tend to be long, because I’m not around to NOT do post all at once, which makes them TLDR often, which makes me sad sometimes.

I’ve made some really good friends, learned amazing things from the board, supported other people in email as a lurker, felt like I was in Paradise for a long while, and still feel a wound or two from a kerfuffle. I admire lots of people on the board, wish I had their social skills, and am really proud of all the photos I took at the DC F2F with ND's camera.

eta to fix stuff

I know a St. John's alum (Santa Fe). Oh um that's not what I meant to say when I came in here.

I was just going to comment that even the delurker thread meant for lurkers is hard to keep up with!

Hello to all the recently re-delurked. There are so many variants of us. It's fun.