Halfway through Sean's pictures, Yahoo decided to pretend it doesn't exist. Bad Yahoo. No biscuit.

any closer to actual procurement of tickets, and date-setting?

I don't want to commit to anything before everything is cleared with the visa (and getting a USA visa is what bureaucrats plan when they have a really vicious mood). But if everything goes smoothly, my very vague plans, as for now, are to arrive to LA sometime on the second or third week of August.

I should never volunteer when someone says, "Hey! That chaise lounge needs someone to vamp on it!"

And deprive us of classic photos like that one? Sean took a great photo and you look muy foamy.

Dear god. No more screwdrivers at gatherings for me.

I understand the individual words, but together? Not with the sense-making.

Halfway through Sean's pictures, Yahoo decided to pretend it doesn't exist. Bad Yahoo. No biscuit.

I think we used up the bandwidth again, Tep. That happened to me the first time through. It will probably be back in a little while. (Doesn't help the "wanna see foamy people NOW!" instinct, me knows)

But if everything goes smoothly, my very vague plans, as for now, are to arrive to LA sometime on the second or third week of August.

Cool! Third week would be OK for here, I think, but second week would be perfect, assuming it works out for Allyson and the Angelenos; we could do the big party up here and, money permitting, I could recuperate for a few days and then go to my adored juliana's wedding in Minneapolis. I'm getting info on our local kosher food suppliers from Ayelet Waldman, so I can stock up.

Back to work. Writing work, not physical work. That's later, methinks.

Oh, please don't bother yourself! As many amazing things I've heard about your cooking, I'm coming for the company.

Nilly, would I be right in assuming that you almost certainly wouldn't be in LA the first week in September? I need to figure out my trip to Maine, and I am trying to decide if I want to make it a Labor day trip (first week of September) or a birthday trip (mid-september).

would I be right in assuming that you almost certainly wouldn't be in LA the first week in September?

Yes, that's the plan (to arrive to LA earlier, that is. And meet you).

And ninjaGreg! (because of the stealth, yo. If he lurks, he does it very successfully).

He doesn't lurk. I've tried to get him to sign up and at least check out the Jossverse and show threads since they're very much up his alley, but he won't. I told him what you said, though, and he said to tell you he "only lives vicariously" through me.

Oh, please don't bother yourself!

(blinking) Bother? You do understand that I adore cooking, right?

Besides, we're talking about a BBQ in your honour.

You do understand that I adore cooking, right?

Oh, yes, of course! I was talking about all the kosher rules. I mean, I keep them daily and have done so all my life, and still there are things I have to check up and ask and find out what I need to do - there are just so many, and they vary between people from different immigration-states and so forth, so they're really confusing (something that's OK for me, whose parents came from North Africa, isn't OK for, say, my roommate, whose parents came from Europe). I'm afraid it'll spoil the cooking, not the other way around.

[Edit: I hope I'm explaining myself OK, here. I'm so grateful, and you guys are so wonderful, and all those rules are difficult for people who followed them all their lives - I can only imagine how complicated they may seem to anybody who hasn't - and I don't want to make the fact that I'm observing them any sort of fuss or bother or disturbance on any of the wonderful people here who make me already feel so grateful. Grr, I'm going in circles. I'll try to think of a better way to say this]