Fern! Maggie! Hi!

Glad to see your pixels, Karl.

Quasi-lurker here, delurking.

Only real change for me since last year is my job. I'm still working for the same employer, but in a different lab, in a different building. I'm about 10 years older than my new boss, and this is her first time heading a lab. It's been interesting, and will probably continue to be so for a while.

Otherwise, same DH, same cats, same house.

I post occasionally, but mostly I lurk.

This place is always entertaining and often informative. For that I thank you all.

Fern, welcome to the BayAreaistas tally! And Maggie, you are a serious hard-core longtime lurker, given your ID#. I'm impressed!

This year was much like last year: still waiting for the job situation to get resolved, still spending a lot of time looking after/worrying about my folks. Still running & climbing & dealing with canines. Not, sadly, writing as much this year.

But I did get to go to Chicago twice, and Boulder once, and I spent two weeks in Spain with my nieces, and those were all great trips. My health is good and I'm employed and pretty much everyone is healthy and employed, so I'm in no position to whine.

I do hope I can shake myself out of this rut this next year, though.

On and off lurker, this year. Really, really, really grateful for all of you here, because this one has been so spectacularly hellacious, I'd like to erase it from the calendar.

Still working in a job I hate, still in the DC area (though that will probably change), and I'm now a widow. Trying to figure out where I go from here.

I am reading, and always sending out the ~ma to those that need it.

t hugs, Maria.

I'm another long-time lurker getting in just under the wire. I meant to post all month and kept forgetting. I used to be a fairly regular poster several years ago, but nowadays I just lurk.

Capsule biography: I live in Minneapolis with my 2 indoor cats, Leo and Matilda. I also feed and generally look out for a feral cat who's hung around my neighborhood for years. When I delurked last year at this time I was unemployed and had been for quite a while. Now I've been employed for almost a year, working for a company I find pretty interesting, even though the job itself is rarely interesting. But I really dig having income and benefits again. At least unemployment taught me to be much more careful about money.

As much as I love Minneapolis, I feel like my state and city have let me down this year. We've got two hurtful amendments on the ballot next week -- one to define marriage as between one man and one woman, and one to require photo ID in order to vote. I'm voting a resounding NO on both. Also, the musicians of both of our world-class orchestras have been locked out by management because of a breakdown in contract negotiations. All of these things make me sad.

I tell myself I'll participate on this board for real and then I get intimidated and continue to just lurk. But maybe this will be the year.

Oh! A couple of weeks ago I saw Harry Groener, aka The Mayor, live and in person, playing both Abraham Lincoln and LBJ. He was *fabulous* as LBJ, but I kept waiting for him to ascend.

Not a lurker, but jumping in under the wire to say HI LURKERS!

Hello, Lurkers!

Oh! A couple of weeks ago I saw Harry Groener, aka The Mayor, live and in person, playing both Abraham Lincoln and LBJ. He was *fabulous* as LBJ, but I kept waiting for him to ascend.

Ha! I did a show with him last spring (he was playing General Sherman) and I felt much the same way.

I'm currently three months into my first real full-time-with-benefits job after 12 years of free-lancing. I guess you'll have to tune in next time to see how it works out.

Hello lurkers!