Not me. I like it cool and shady.

Hey juju it's too freakin HOT in texas for sunbathing (and being a doc I gotta say USE SUNSCREEN)...but in the other hand I ADORE our new hammock at home...I lounge for HOURS in it--totally decadent. Just swing in the breeze enjoy the shade and look up at the tree and sky. By the way, I am the Prime Minister of the Shiftless Workshy Slackers CLub--JOIN USSSSSS!!!!

I'm goin' swimmin' tonight at the Q club. Indoors. Then I'll hit the outdoor pool scene this weekend.

When I move to the new house in three weeks, poolside will take on a new meaning.

cool! when's the par-tay?

Got move in first, then we'll figger a date for a get together.

plenty of notice... so's I can get a plane ticket!!!

Amen! Stacey in a bikini...

Saturday, May 30th. 4 pm till ??? Email me for the address.

any chance of using that $20,000 for the spring.com to pay for my flight over? ;))

You can dream, Mike.

sorry, terry, am gonna be in a hotter spot!

damn. no can do for 5/30. School is still in session and if I'm springing for a ticket I wanna stay for awhile! Either way, I'll be down later in the summer (I hope!)

what part of the country do you live in, stacey?

It's gonna be a long, hot summer Stacey. Don't worry, we'll party through the summer.

yep, and all of them on days that I hafta work...

I live in Denver ratthing. Technically Englewood (closer to the foothills)

I'll be visiting relatives in Pennsylvania that weekend (like I'd be coming even I weren't going up north!)

Hey speaking of poolside, pool party Sunday afternoon at my place. Email me or call for details (terry@spring.net or 303-4000). Potluck, home made ice cream.

wish i could make it! have a blast!

Wow, a D-Day pool party. Are you going to float around on miniature LSTs and storm the deck with water guns?

now he'll never tell me where he lives...

There'll be another, call me for details, wer.

I suppose a whole crowd will show up for my next fondue party . . . Hey people, will a virtual party not work better, seeing as real parties don't really keep up with the practical fact that we're part of a virtual community? Do you know what I'm saying? l mean, do we live in a hundred different places, or not? So why don't we organize something like a Spring Marathon Day? We fix a date, a time, a conference, and create the topic. Then we see who can get in the most and wackiest responses. The quest on is, of course, whether our spouses and partners will go along with it, but hey, so we just drag them in too!

hmmm...

Was that a 'yes' I heard? Or the humming of your batter beater, or whatever those machines are called?

i don't like to share... (well not everything!)

(or at least not with everyone...!!!) ((somethings should be a "singular experience," huh?))

you always get it right that way!

always? even when it's the wrong person?

Next summer swim party is July 18th at my new place. wer et al invited!

*sigh*

Why the *sigh*?

I'll be at work, of course...

When do you get off work?

usually, currently, all day Wed and Thur, and Fri and Sat mornings...

Speaking poolside, Paul, our pool guy, has kept the Spring's pool crystal clear for the last week. We may get in one last summer pool bash yet.

it's 52 degrees here. No swimming out of doors unless I drive up to the hot springs...

Upper 60s here, although I did have the air conditioning on last weekend. You never know about Indian summer...

Still 90s down here.

It's COLD and RAINY over here! And it grows dark by 18:00 already. Awful!

darkness is falling earlier and earlier... if Colorado weren't so sunny in the daytime, I'd be damned depressed!

I AM damned depressed.

*frown* sorry to hear that.

me too, riette. if there is anything we can do let us know!

No no, it's not too bad - just because of the grey weather. It's hard to live without the sun when one's from Africa where the sun ALWAYS shines, and where winters don't get colder than, say 14-15�C. So winter time I always feel a bit under the weather .... in a manner of speaking!

Went to a ham radio swap meet this weekend and picked up a new server for the Spring: You can read about it at: http://product.info.apple.com/productinfo/datasheets/ss/aixservers.html And here's another shot:

*laugh* boys with toys... men ARE more visually stimulated!

Yep, were vision creatures, Stace. Don't you just drool over the pictures of that server? What an awesome color cutaway. The machine itself is a marvel of engineering and design, with every component (motherboard, hard drives, etc) mounted on a tray that has a silky smooth slide out motion. It's our workhorse of the future. Apple and AIX, what bedpartners, eh?

Lotsa leaves in the pool today. But the poolman cometh.

i love this first cold front of the season! wonderful!!!

booh!

Cool machine, Terry! How much horse power?

It's all in the specs in the url I gave above, my dear. But lots!

Network Server 500 and Network Server 700 (Discontinued) Features Performance 200-MHz PowerPC 604e processor with floating-point unit and 64K on-chip cache on a removable replaceable processor card (model 700/200) 150-MHz PowerPC 604 RISC processor with floating-point unit and 32K on-chip cache on a removable, replaceable processor card (model 700/150) 132-MHz PowerPC 604 RISC processor with floating-point unit and 32K on-chip cache on a removable, replaceable processor card (model 500/132) Two PCI buses Support for up to six PCI Ethernet cards Two built-in 20MB/sec Fast/Wide SCSI-2 channels Reliability and high availability Optional redundant hot-pluggable disk drives Optional redundant hot-pluggable power supplies (Model 700 only) Two hot-pluggable cooling fans Parity memory protection Optional third-party uninterruptible power supply (battery backup) Expansion and storage 32MB or 48MB of main parity memory, expandable to 512MB Six PCI slots for expansion cards Up to six internal tray-mounted hard disk drives of up to 9GB each, with hot-plug and redundancy option, expandable to up to 1TB; one internal tray-mounted CD-ROM drive standard Two internal fixed-mount disk drives (Model 700 only) Internal CD-ROM drive standard Internal DDS-2 digital audiotape (DAT) drive (some configurations) Optional internal 8mm (20GB/40GB) tape drive External SCSI-1 bus supports up to seven devices Eight ports support a wide range of peripherals Networking Built-in AAUI Ethernet connector Support for PCI Ethernet, PCI Fast Ethernet, and PCI Dual-Attached FDDI cards Support for AppleTalk and TCP/IP networking protocols Two serial ports Enclosure Three key-controlled access levels for tray-mounted front drive bays Key-controlled access to power supplies Key-controlled slide-out module for access to main logic board, processor card, PCI slots, and memory sockets Key-controlled rear access to two fixed-mount half-height drives (Model 700 only) Locking wheels Two hot-pluggable fans Optional 19-inch rack-mount kit Compatibility Binary compatible with thousands of AIX applications Service and support Includes one-year on-site hardware warranty with second-business-day response Includes 90 days of 24-hour telephone software support Description The Network Server 500 and Network Server 700 are Apple's fastest, most powerful, reliable, and expandable server solutions for demanding network file, print, database, and Internet applications. The high-performance Network Servers are based on the 132-megahertz and 150-megahertz PowerPC 604 RISC processors, and the 200-megahertz Power PC 604e RISC processor running the robust AIX operating system for Apple Network Servers. Designed from the lockable wheels up as highly available, reliable, and secure, the Network Servers offer optional hot-pluggable redundant tray-mounted hard drives that slide in and out of the front storage bays in seconds. These bays provide outstanding storage flexibility because they can hold tray-mounted optical drives, tape drives, and hard drives�in full- or half-height configurations. The Network Servers are easy to network, with built-in Ethernet support and optional support for up to seven Ethernet segments using Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) expansion cards. In addition the Network Servers support Fast Ethernet and FDDI PCI networking cards for high performance. The Network Server 700 configurations also offer optional hot-pluggable redundant power supplies that easily slide in and out. Network Servers are designed around industry standards. From the AIX operating system to PCI to SCSI, they're built to fit into your multiplatform network environment. And each features a built-in CD-ROM drive for installing software or serving information to users of networked desktop computers. In addition, they're designed to be easy to reconfigure and service: Each major component�including the logic board�can be replaced in less than 60 seconds. Logic boards on both models can be easily upgraded to 512 megabytes of DRAM main memory, and their PowerPC microprocessors are located on removable processor cards. Network Servers are easy to expand, with six PCI expansion slots and up to 1 terabyte of total hard drive storage capacity. The Network Server enclosures offer controlled, key-lockable access to front-mounted hard disk drives, CD-ROM drives, tape drives, and other media. The most powerful servers Apple has ever built, the industrial-strength Network Servers can meet the needs of the most

HUH-HUH-HUH �Tim Taylor Home Improvement Grunt, that is�

New, in the science conference: Science that, well, doesn't make much sense . . . "History demonstrates that scientific genius is frequently accompanied not only by unreasonable skepticism, but also by ridicule and persecution. Copernicus was outcast simply for theorizing that the earth revolves around the sun. Many people still believe that Tesla was a madman, and I understand Einstein himself did not do well in school."

As for the Einstein, my history of science prof (Bruce Hunt at UT -- I recommend him) said it was a myth that he was a poor student. The German school system changed the grading system while he was halfway through grade school, so if you just look at grades, it looks like he did poorly at first and then improved when in fact he was pretty good all along. One thing's for sure, after college people though so little of him the only job he could get was some flunky file clerk job at the Swiss patent office. T at's where he was working when he came up with the theort that changed the way we think about the world. Right now I have a flunky file clerk job. Coincidence?

not unless you sit around at work imagining yourself flying thru space at the speed of light with a mirror in hand!

I log on here at work. Close enough?

George, I think your breakthrough's gonna come any day now...

With a personality like his, who needs a breakthrough?

Ray, what's the San Antonio weather like now? Are you in an area away from the floods?

Floods?

Major, big time floods! The rains have backed off now so things are in recession. Read about it in the austin conference.

I hope Ray is okay - he's been gone for a few days, you know.

He lives fairly near my parents, there are a lot of creeks in the area but drainage is okay and they're fairly elevated topographically. SA just opened up some undergraound tunnels for drainage not long ago... damn good thing!

Damn good thing!

Mahalene finally got out of my Cedar Creek house today. I need to get out there now that the roads are open again.

hi i am back! i was in washington, DC on a business trip. the floods here in the area have been horrible, but thank God our home was spared any damage. a friend of ours was not so lucky. her house was completely washed away in the rain, and she lost all 6 of her cats. her neighbors came and got her out of her house right before the bedroom wall collapsed.

Hi, Ray! I wanted to thank you for your concern for those two weeks that I was so rude. I didn't read my e-mails - my sister in the end printed them out, and showed me them. I'm really sorry I was so rude. It won't happen again. And I'm sorry about your friend's house, but glad that she's alright. Does she have anywhere to stay?

riette, i did not percieve any rudeness on your part at all. we all have to get away sometime and i was just clueless as to what your situation was. our friend is staying with other friends and she and her dog are doing fine.

Ray, did you get to do any sightseeing while in DC? I live 1 1/2 hrs. from downtown.

I'm glad your friend and her dog are alright, Ray. And thanks. �BIG HUG�

no, i never have time to do any sightseeing when on these hateful business trips. i go about once a month to DC, and spend a lot of time around the pentagon, in bethesda, and in herndon. my best friend and his wife live in bethesda, and about the only time i have free is to go and have dinner with them while i am there.

losing cats is a bum deal - i wuv kitties!

I wuv guinea piggies. They're the sweetest animals in the world.

hamsters are pretty neat

They are, but so small and fragile. Two of my guinea piggies are as big as rabbits now! One can really cuddle them and hold them in your arms like babies. And they don't cry, and you don't have to nurse them!

The waters cooling down to 84 degrees from 89 and the leaves are starting to fall. But it's still fine swimming weather here in Austin. I got a combination leaf blower and leaf vacuum-mulcher that I've been working out.

It's nice swimming weather here, too. Sea stays at about 75� all year round. Sounds like your trees are dying if all the leaves are falling off...that is the only reason they do, here! (I miss fall very much - it was my favorite season!)

Wow, do you go swimming a lot, what beach?

No adult locals go swimming much. We all sit on top of the water in little boats and either fish or sail. I used to race as crew and later ran races, but it is too dangerous out in that sun to stay very long. When we first got here, we went swimming every weekend all weekend...on the other side of the island (Hapuna Beach...next beach over from Mauna Kea Beach Hotel) which is coral and shell sand. In Hilo, we have black sand, from the volcano...and at South Point they have green beaches which are made of tiny grains of peridot!

Marcia, do you know anything about sunburn? About 4 months ago I went to a mountain here called Hoch Ybrig. We were just going to do a little walk, but then we ended up climbing the damned thing. Got back, and my shoulders had turned into raw meat. Bobbles, bubbles, purple flesh the whole lot. So my doctor gave me stuff to treat it with, and it got better. Now, however, my shoulders are still covered in freckles, which don't go away like the normal ones, and every time I get exposed to sun, they tur sort of black!! Why is that???

You receoved third degree burns and destroyed tissue just as if you had cooked or burnt yourself. You have disrupted the melanin in the lower layers which usually protect you by darkening the skin. Now that it has clumped it will not be nearly as efficient, and you must be very careful of future exposure. Always use a good sunblock (20 or better SPF) and do it before you leave the house!

You saying it's always going to be like this? In one day I screwed up my shoulder tissue??? How very annoying, since I don't even LIKE the sun that much - I've never had a tan in my whole life! I'll take your advice though, 'cos that was really one of the most painful things I've ever felt - I'd much rather break a leg or bear a child or whatever than burn like that again. I guess in a place like Hawaii one has to be even more careful about things like that, huh?

You can fade those spots with creams which lighten them, but they must never be exposed to the sun again without strong sunblock to protect them, or they will darken right up again. Yup - you did what happens white frequently here to newcomers and visitors alike. Strangely, it does not happen to children. Just the mature of us (including teenagers) who as too stupid to know any better - or are just unaware of how dangerous the sun is in Hawaii. One has to be very careful here - the sun is just about d rectly overhead since we are so close to the equator, where it is most intense.