Well, I've got a one day trip to Dallas planned, compliments of IBM. It's an all day Microsoft developers summit. Too bad we don't have any Dallas springeurs that I can think of right now.

This is ideal. I will be going back on the road as of Saturday. All over the US and southern Canada, courtesy of the company.

That's great, Tim!

It has always been a joke among truckers. We call ourselves professional tourists, and call the dispatcher, travel agent.

Leaving for San Francisco on Sunday. One week Authorware Attain class in San Ramon. My first business trip (where I have to take a plane!) Be back 1/24!

for a whole week they'll train you how to obtain the clothes of your favorite writers? I'll be flying right underneath your jet in my self-propelled glider (when I pedal the pedals, it makes the wings flap) I'll be back on the 25th (I'll need another day to get from Denver to Austin since my glider won't be able to crest no more on the air currents of a big fat jet) I hope they put some extra effort into showing me how to nick Nick's clothes all the way from San Ramon (remote nicking)....sounds like a pretty fun class cuz I only got 2 sweaters layin' around and I low on bright multicolored socks I bet whenever I do ever read any your poems, Stace, I'll feel uncontrollable urges to nab your afghan......sometimes I drool myself to sleep thinkin' what it'd be like to sneak peeks in your journal while tryin' on yer little (oops....not little) cuddly brassieres

roflmao! Little yet firm Jim...

What are you gonna wear Stace?

on my breasts or in general?

Both.

Edith Wharton has a line out which is just smashing.

With more emphasis on the breasts than the general plumery, Stace. So ...

I should check other conferences/topics more often...

*laugh* lots of tight shirts with my 38 triple D bazongas hanging out! Actually I dressed rather smart-like and brought along a couple o blazer/jacket thingamajigers to wear with slacks. The whole event ended up being pretty casual and everyone wore jeans on the last day A really excellent trip... I was offered a job (and wasn't even looking!) by the class instructor! I learned a lot and enjoyed the humidity immensely. I drove over the Bay Bridge, wandered around Golden Gate Park, the Science museum, the Haight and the Castro districts. I ate Fabulous food everywhere I went and had a blast with the public transportation. I stayed w/ B's brother and sister in law for the weekend and they had quite the soiree last night! I met lots of new people and saw lots of new things. The area was physically beautiful and it felt good too!

Man what a rush hearing about your great time in SF, I get a contact high just reading this, and I never would have guessed you for a 38-3D! Do you remember any of the names of the places you ate? Did you make it to Chinatown or North Beach?

(that's cuz they're not that big Paul!) I ate at... hold on lemme review the cards/receipts and I'll mention them later!

I have them. Rafikki sent them on to Jah. Go figure (I dunno what she was thinking) Ya want them back?

S. is in Fayetteville, North Carolina this week (Ft. Bragg). The girls are begging him for a souvenir, God knows what he'll bring back from there...

hopefully, it won't be contagious...

B left today beginning a month of horrendous travel for business... 2/3 - 2/5 Ohio 2/8 - 2/9 Tennesse 2/10 - 2/12 Washington 2/15 - 2/16 Canada not enough time in one place to have any fun but gone too long to spend much time at home.

LOL, wer!! (actually turned out to be camouflage pencils) What a screwy travel schedule Stacey, hope you won't be too lonely. :-(

okay so it's not MY business we're traveling for but... the next trip is "dragging" us to Berlin, Germany for one week, Prauge the next and then off to Venice and Milan and possibly Zurich before flying home from Munich! Ahhh... what a life! I'm quite excited! Not sure what I'll find to eat in Germany but friends have pointed out... "Who needs to eat, you've got liquid bread!" anyway, I'll take tons of pictures and scan them in when I get back! BTW, I've become quite the FrontPage Mistress... perhaps in the near future I will simply beg Paul for a password to post my own damn $hit!!! Yea!!!

Have a blast, Stacey!! Zurich is my husband's favorite major city.

on that suggustion, I htink I will have a blast!

htink-htink...

or, maybe I should have posted something else...

at least whatever you chose to post, couldn't have possibly been spelled more incorrectly than my post...

either you haven't noticed, or are discreetly(sp?) ignoring what I posted... Paul/Terry, Ray, and/or I will have an account for you set up on access for your stuff when you get back from Europe...so e-mail me the name and password(to start off with) that you want...

what am I ignoring??? will do with the password thingy!

oh...nothing... okay!

awww... 'cmon, tell me so I don't have to open up my browser!!!!

good point...don't know if what I'm doing shows over telnet or not... oh, well...

huh???!?!??!

doesn't matter...moment's gone... so, what are you bringing me back from Italy?

whaddaya want??? (from Italy!)

oh, just find something that screams, "WER!"

or someone...

i'll see what i can find...

you don't hafta, you know... (keep it cheap, too, otherwise I won't be able to reimburse you all at once)

Stacey, last Time I was in Berlin... (see Berlin Topic! You find it here: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/travel/31 and I hope you'll post all your adventures in Berlin... ;=} )

she will she's like that, you know...

*grin*

Oh boy, am I excited! I'm going to Northern Germany, with a side-step over to Hamburg, which I'll graciously declare a business trip! We're gonna walk around, maybe meet some superstar-appreciators, and try to make it to a local radio called FSK. Visit a radio show, do some chatting, play some stuff, etc. (if we ever make it on time, that is...). Friday afternoon to Sunday morning - does that count? (Maybe I'll even announce a twelve hour segment to be proper holidays... not a first in this aging decade, ut nearly...)

Wow! My biggest travel plan at the moment is going to Philadelphia for a wedding in 2 weeks (1.5 hours away). Woohoo! No kids!

my biggest travel plans are the ten minute drives to and from work...

Where are you working??

LI...that's about how far it is from my house... (it's seven minutes with no traffic and perfect traffic lights... up to twenty minutes with bad traffic...)

i thought you quit??????

notice is in...I (in theory) work through Mother's Day...

ah ha! i get it now... your a short timer... makes getting up and going in even MORE difficult!

If you quit there, do you retire, too (like me pretty soon)?

if only...then I could manipulate the Spring full time!

Alexander, are you still chattering about cashing in on that life insurance policy???

Oooops, I wanted to keep mumm about that, right? Well, I'm curious, if my fave Werby kicks the apron at that much-fabled place, which better offer does he have? Just wann know NOW! QUICK! WERBY, YOU MUST TELL ME NOW!

the better offer of enjoying each day as opposed to dreading it with all his being...

Hmh. That bad? So, Stacey, will he now retire, or become a freelance-chef ("Have apron, will travel")?

i hope he becomes a computer geek!

Oh. That exciting. Hmh, but he is already a computer geek, isn't he? He's got so much geekismo, how much geekier could it get? (Dear Philologists of the future, please note the all-time first use of the termini "geekismo" and the comparative "geekier" above, and credit correctly to Alexander Schuth, Esq. Editor, superstar Thank you very much.)

the comparative above has existed for quite some time however, to the best of my knowledge, you have indeed 'discovered' geekismo

;=/ + ;=} !

patent pending??

no better offer... Stace's answer is as close to anything, I guess... so, you think I make a better geek than cook, huh? *sigh*

How excitingly american! To quit a job because you don't like it anymore, can't bear seeing that face again, hate even the bathroom's tiles, whatever - without a better offer in sight! Wow! Well, I don't think about your cooking - pure lack of experience; but from hints around this place, possibly there's a reason behind that honorific "KitchenManager"... What do you enjoy more, serving nasty and ignorant eaters and having sore feet, or serving nasty and overexpectant clients and getting a flat butt from sitting all day (with bad eyes to match)?

au contraire WER... the samples of your culinary expertise were fantastic HOWEVER, it just seems that finding a comfortable (nurturing?) environment where you can also express your chef talent will be rather difficult to find. And, one added element (thta I would not have added until 6 months ago) better money helps. More travel, less worry. I'm not at all suggesting choosing money over happiness. I am merely suggesting that a new learning curve, in an environment where you've shown talent and interest, might compensate you more fairly both with its working conditions and financial rewards. And, as I have ALWAYS said... life is to short to spend it being unhappy. Find something that makes you happy!

Autumn? Do you concur?

Speak up! Maximum input wanted, por favor!

oh... and get something with business travel (my feeble attempt of topic staying-on

I miss you, too, Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday!

thank you and thank you. (smile)

I think I blanked out there for a while...what did I miss?

Oh my God! Stacey had a birthday!!! Happy birthday, Stacey!!!! Sorry I'm late!!! :-/

*laugh* thanks Ree-head! my half birthday is coming up in a month and a half... you are early for that one! (when's yours?)

�burying my head under a stone� Oh, how embarrassing.... Hey, but if your half-birthday is in 6 weeks, it'll be around mid October?? That's my wedding anniversary! Okay, maybe I'm not entirely married at the moment, but this means I shall remember! YES! Mines December 9th. And I shall be spending it in London!!!!!!! JJJJIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPEEEEEEEE

Not entirely married- whazzat? Boer, African or Swiss custom?

The kind of custom that doesn't confuse travelling with being a tourist, sex with sleep, or togetherness with a single roof. On thoroughly good terms, of course. That's as clear as it gets in this topic!

what day is your wedding anniversary?

15 October Your half year thang?

the 16th is my half-year thang! and, after going through all the wedding planning details for March 5th... it just may be our wedding anniversary too! can you say elope? I can!

Can you say Huh? i can!

elope... sounds like antelope but means you avoid the majority of wedding hassles!

EEEEEE-LOPE!!! That's COOLLLLL!!!! That way I'll ALWAYS remember your wedding anniversary! I'll be able to send you a card every year! AND a half-year birthday card!

I remember being offered the same option by my fiancee just after I was told my my mother that my wedding was Not for me, but for her friends and Daddy's business associates. Sheesh! We went for it and did the aisle trip in white and everyone staring at me as though I was the sacrificial Virgin of the day being led to my deflowering by my own father...How ritualilstic... and, in a way, how obscene!

See, THAT's why I got married in red!

I always said that was my favorite color and I look great in it, but my Mother and Father would never have allowed it (...not to mention the Episcopalian church in which the rites were held...!)...If you did, you have my utmost admiration. Brava!

Thanks! No, I really did. I was 4 months pregnant, so I decided it was going to be no use getting married in white - it would just be a farce. So I did it in red instead; then again I had no parents here who could tell me what to wear. When Mum saw the photos she phoned, and there was a long long silence, then she said: 'Well, at least you're not hypocritical about it - you're pregnant, aren't you?' ha--ha! At least I could not possibly have looked 'stranger' than Chris - he wore his kilt, showing ALOT more leg than I did!

You must have the most amazing wedding pictures on earth. *lol* I am all amusement just thinking of them. Something to show your future in-laws!!!

ha-ha!! They're pretty amazing, alright! His mother went on for ages and ages about the slut from the bush who corrupted her innocent son! ha-ha!!!! As if he couldn't take care of himself. I swear the greatest dissappointment he ever caused her, was being straight. AFter all those years the dreaded female competition! Mothers in-law are weird thangs!

Hey! I do not like her from this far away for treating you like that! I guess that is what you meant when you once wrote that you had two sets of out-laws?! They do not deserve you, My Dear! Or your precious daughters!

BTW, just to satisfy my curiosity, what did Chris wear under his Kilt?

A willie warmer! I had it made especially!

Ask and I shall receive. I recall knitting one once for a guy who was being transferred to an astronomical observatory in Alaska...but I was not invited to the stag party at which he received it...fortunately, I guess!

Who took the measurements?

(hehe...)

Another biznes trip to Hamburg coming up - no radio show this time, but a big party on Saturday. The DJs of Hamburg's Get Country & Rhythm night - always on the first Saturday of the month at a club called Knust - invited superstar up, as they are great supporters and friends of our mag, contributors or friends of good friends. So they invited superstar to co-host this time - Get Country & Rhythm presents: Meet your superstar inna barn! We'll have Hank Ray (of The Raymen fame) on stage, also Peta Devlin (of Die Braut haut ins Auge) performing with our autheur extraordinaire Hank McCoy (formerly Columbus, Ohio and there with the Dead Ringers on OKra Label and then the OKra All-Stars - now living in Cologne and writing our country column) and a bunch of friends (normally together with Peta D. Hamburg's new country band Cow - featuring members of Die Sterne and Die Goldenen Zitronen). And the Get Country...-folks will DJ. I expect it to be very late when the place finally closes... It'll be good to meet these folks again, as we often exchange mails, work together, talk on the phone, but rarely meet in person. And some of the people involved are, I thwear, really some of the nicest people around! The editors will cruise up there Friday or Saturday, maybe shop for records or something to wear, or hit a fleamarket on Sunday before driving off into the sunset, either by train or car (not decided yet).

Now I'm jealous. You will not miss having not been in Austin for SWSX weekend (or did I get it backward?). Enjoy! And be safe....

Well - courtesy of the current batch of flu, we'll only drive up on Saturday with a colleague and back on Sunday by train. Marcia, you're right - that'll be major fun, but SXSW... That's something special, a chance to get to see stuff that doesn't tour over here, and to discover the coming and happening bands, the stories for the next year. A great place to preview acts, so you can already have a story in store when their stuff gets released here. And everybody sez it's so much fun, too! And I won't get to shop for records on my trip, perhaps fleamarket on Sunday. But hey, many good friends!

There you Go! Mayhap one SWSX we can all Jam together in Austin. Would that not be a gig of the first order...or whatever? Cool to da Max?

Uh...that's South-by-SouthWest, isn't it? Perhaps if I knew what it stood for I could remember the order of the letters...! SXSW