luckiest1

Can someone who knows what happened fill us in? I am not familiar with the OFC member who passed.

Well since there are already 4 announced.........LOL. I have tickets to Shippensburg but it's an 8 hour drive. Hoping for something closer.

Why the heck haven't we heard about any more Christmas shows yet? I'm trying to plan my last few vacation days!

It amazes me that we don't have any pictures of Parker from these casual encounters.

That's awesome for your son, Fear! I am so glad that we had full coverage of the Olympics on CTV. So sorry to hear most of you didn't. Puppy is up to 6 3/4 lbs now but my concern is that it's too little, too late. From what research I did yesterday on German shepherds, he should be about 20 lbs by now. So even if they get him up to weight eventually, I doubt any vet is going to give him a clean bill of health. Without that, you can't buy pet insurance, which is the path my son was hoping to go down. Ugh.

Did anyone watch the closing ceremonies yesterday? OMG, the Eric Idle bit had me on the floor! Seriously, it was a scene out of Spamalot, right down to the roller skating nuns. Between Mr. Bean & James Bond in the opening ceremonies, and then this, I love the way they used humour. I don't think I've ever seen that at an Olympic Games before. I also loved their "Imagine" with the children's choir, and especially John Lennon on the big screen and the cool replica of his face they built on the ground. The rest of the musical acts? Not so much, but hey, they had Paul to open so what more can you ask for? Well, personally, I would have loved to see Elton John. I can't believe they completely skipped over him and his music. I wonder why?

Sad news about my grand puppy....my son took him to my vet to be checked out (at my insistence), and she recommended he return him to the breeder. We knew he was v.v. skinny, but he had gained strength in the week we had him. However, she said he was emaciated and needed intensive care. I feel so bad for my son. Of course, he had already formed an attachment to the little guy. I really hope the breeder does the right thing and gets him the care he needs so he eventually will be healthy enough for my son to adopt.

Fear, my garden is over abundant most years, but because I wasn't comfortable canning, I always just freeze everything. The demo was very good and now I think I will feel comfortable putting a few things in jars. I might start with pickles.

I may never have grandchildren, but I have another grandpuppy! His name is Oakley and he is about 10 weeks old. He is a white German shephard but right now he is oh so tiny and weights maybe 5 pounds. He's been dropped off a number of times for babysitting this week. This morning I am attending a canning demo at the farmer's market. My big chest freezer if full to bursting with who knows what. I'd like to be able to preserve things without freezing.

Wow, I was just having lunch with cindilu2, claymatron and my daughter crimsonice and we were discussing gala, JNT tour dates and travel plans. Florida is probably a bit too far to drive for us though. Bring on the Michigan date!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes for Stuart. We celebrated by taking him out for lunch to an upscale hamburger joint that he was interested in visiting (it was featured on our Food Network). I posted pictures on Facebook for anyone who is interested. He sure towers over me now! I got my Luhr's Centre tickets in the mail already. Woo hoo! Now we just need the rest of the dates to be announced.... :eusa_whistle:

Thanks so much merrieeee, this is just what I've been looking for. I have the opening ceremonies PVRed so I can rewatch again once I read through and get the significance of everything that passed me by. My son Stuart and I are planning a trip to London, Liverpool, and possibly Edinburgh as well next year, to commemorate my big 5-0. It's always been my lifetime dream to get to the UK so this is really getting me excited! BTW, for those who remember him, today is Stuart's 21st birthday. How time flies, right?!

I just got back from an internet-less weekend in Collingwood for the annual Elvis festival. I had my iPhone, of course, but the only time I had wifi was in Starbuck's and in one restaurant during dinner. Between Elvis events, we watched the Olympics. There are a few channels here to pick from, so if you don't like what's on one, you check the other. We do get live coverage, and then they just start repeating things once the events are over (because of the time difference). I really enjoyed the opening ceremonies...the Queen, James Bond, and the corgis was hilarious, as was Mr. Bean and the Chariots of Fire sequence. I was patiently waiting for Sir Paul right until the end! But he was tweeting from backstage so I knew I hadn't missed him, LOL. I thought he looked pretty good (as he has been looking a little haggard lately IMO) and I love that he did his usual "just the men, now just the ladies" bit in Hey Jude at the Olympics, no less! The freaking vocal few fans always ruin it for the majority, don't they? When I saw Clay's tweet, I knew without even looking what was going on. But I'm pumped to hear about a Michigan concert, since it's the closest state to me. I fully intend to buy probably more tickets than I will be able to use, since any road travel from here in December is going to be weather permitting. We had very little snow last year, so what are the odds we'll have another winter like that again?

I am not sure that the tweet is related to the concerts at all. Maybe he just wants to know where to go on holiday? LOL I don't know why, but ever since I switched over from a Blackberry to an iPhone (same phone number) I no longer get Clay's tweets as texts. I haven't changed the settings in my Twitter account. Must be a setting on the iPhone somewhere......

Yep, more concerts would be great. This one is 8 hours one way for us, but since there is nothing else, we went for it. It's been too long since we saw Clay in concert!

Well we managed to do alright in the Shippensburg PA ticket sale this morning, although it was a bit dicey at first. It was one of those applications that you have to pick your own seat, and every time I picked 2, it would say they were already taken. You could tell people were hitting the site fast and furious! But I ended up getting seats in row E which is pretty damned good. Now for the weather in December to cooperate!

Early on, for the NAT in 2004, my daughter and I decided, again on a whim, to attend both Clio shows. We found tickets online and I remember walking through some restaurant calling out "Fran?" until we found the woman who was selling them to us. We did not have a hotel booked to stay the night however, but we had found someone online who said we could share their room. Too bad they went bus chasing after the concert *cough* so we finally tried to sleep in our car. Woke up about 2 a.m. and were FREEZING so we drove to the next little town on the highway (everything in Clio was taken) and booked ourselves into this little fleabag motel for the rest of the night. I guess taking 3 trips to NYC by plane, in the span of a few months, when I'd never been there in my life, spending *mumble mumble* dollars on tickets to 10 showings of Spamalot for me and random children, styaing with strangers, riding the subway and air train there like it was my job is pretty crazy, when I look back on it. But man was it fun!

ebird'spig picking BBQ. Good times. Fear, good luck with your cat. I hope the vet can tell you what's going on. Craziest? Probably our last minute, whirlwind drive to Fort Wayne last year. I went to work that morning, got emailing with cindlu2, ended up leaving work at noon, jumped in her car, drove 5 1/2 hours, lucked into the best seats my life, my daughter lucked into a free M&G, drove home and was back at work at 8 a.m. the next morning with very little sleep. Either that or flying to Vegas for 5 days to see Clay sing in the Xmas skating show. We stayed at Hooters. It was a riot. We saw Elton John at Caesar's Palace. We save the Beatles' Love too. We had a great trip. Farthest I've ever flown for Clay!

Yes, it was definitely the IT in Winston-Salem. That was my break out moment, I think. I saw the IT in Detroit (a mere 2 hour drive) and on a whim, my daughter and I booked flights to Raleigh for the next day, so we could follow the tour to NC. It was a whirlwind 24 hour trip! But we managed to rent a car, use mapquest, and see all the sights. I don't think we slept much! I met my first CHers at that party. By the time the NAT rolled around I had drunk the koolaid. I went to 7 stops, including Greensboro, and the two in Raleigh at the Dort N'Arena. I have holidays booked in October this year. I have two days booked off for the Gala and then two days booked off for Skate Canada in Windsor, ON. I am reserving a few days in December for JNT dates as well.

Happy belated birthdays Scarlett and Carolina for Clay!

I just read some speculation elsewhere about a possible concert (not confirmed!) near Syracuse NY, at Turningstone. I hope they can firm that one up this week, before the Shippenburg PA venue goes on sale. Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far, with temps reaching 36 C before the humidex is factored in. They have closed most of the outdoor camps, etc. And here I am in my office, with the A/C blasting, and a sweater on.

I took computer programming in high school. We had to code cards with our programs and hand them in to be run. Fast forward 15 years and my then hubby brought home a PC (without asking, I might add!) I went to classes to learn how to use the damned thing....first Windows, then Internet Explorer. I used it to follow the results from figure skating competitions that I couldn't attend, and also got the "luckiest1" handle back then when I discovered message boards. Then I decided to go to college and get my programmer analyst diploma, and finally here I am working in the programming field. The programmers in our department have recently been given the title "software engineer" which is a bit of a stretch for what we are doing, but hey, I'll take it!

Is it really jmh123's birthday? If so, hope you had a great day! My day was very interesting......saw a lot of people who I haven't seen in years, including my ex's brothers' ex's, if that make sense. It was a sad occasion, but kind of cool to meet up with old friends. Too bad it couldn't have been under better circumstances.

I'll be travelling with 3 others, so I'm not sure yet what is happening. I will let you know asap!

Thank you for explaining all the AI twitter activity! Apparently I missed the few retweets by Clay, and I couldn't for the life of me understand why ANYONE thought him going back to judge AI was a good idea. Would I watch? Of course. Do I think it's a good idea? Not really. I missed gala last year and it sucked (but the cruise I took was fabulous!) So I sympathize with those who can't go this year. But I've had to travel at the minimum 2 hours to any show of Clay's I've ever attended. Usually the drive is between 5 and 12 hours though....or I fly somewhere. Like Vegas the one time. Hee, that was the farthest I've travelled to see Clay. Can I afford any of this? Hell no. I will be paying off the debts I've accumulated until I'm in a nursing home. But it's been worth it. I say live while you can. My ex-BIL died this past week at the age of 59. He was diagnosed with cancer 6 weeks ago. I am heading north for the funeral today. 17 years ago, my dad died suddenly at age 60, just months after he was forced into early retirement. I think it was then that my outlook on life changed. I believe in living every day like it could be my last.