Kareneh

Sure, why not? He wasn't the doer anyway. And yeah....our odds haven't changed in the least. Come to think of it, I haven't seen my newest pins yet but I will on Thursday! YAY! Well, that's if I get off my butt sometime this evening and go pack. NOOOOO!!! Oh, that hurts.

Well, phooey! I bet that means no NASCAR endorsements either. :o I think that it takes a lot of guts to stand up and say hit me but leave those other guys alone the way Clay has done in that thread. He continues to amaze me.....just how wide can a person's wide eyed wonder get?

Oh my, going over there was quite an education. I'm one of those people who rarely set foot in the place and if I go, it's because I have a reason to. I had never developed an OFC aversion since I wasn't there enough, I just find the few boards I keep up with plenty. But I got a taste of what I had heard about last night. There was a poster there posting all in caps and calling someone an "idiot." Geez! And there was back and forth and high-fiving and well, yikes! He's an entertainer for God's sake! Yeah, I know there are some with absolutely no sense of perspective and it takes all kinds, but I don't think that's any fun. I really don't get it. (Because there is probably nothing to get other than some people just don't have any manners.) Oh, I wanna see sooooo bad!!!! I have to go out for dinner tonight and all through my appetizer I'm going to be thinking about the vault. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

Yes, couchie, I think that bit about maybe not being allowed in was added. I didn't see that on first read, either. I may have missed it but did anyone bring this over yesterday? From the Broads There's a new one up today that provide a chuckle. More from the Broads

Well, I spent the better part of last night reading that thread and I, too, feel like I know Jaymes a little bit better. I like her and I think I can see some inkling of why she and Clay are such good friends. I have no problem with her posting a smack down to the foolish person who claimed that she and Clay were using their child. I don't blame her for being upset, not one little bit. I don't know the trolls at the OFC from my left foot.....but somehow I don't think her long post in that thread was the best idea. I understand that she had something to say, and has every right as a member to express it, but sometimes exercising a right isn't the best way to go. She isn't exactly just an ordinary member. (I bet she got TWO chapsticks!) I really enjoyed hearing what she had to say and her insights (many which were reflected by the great posts she commented on) but considering the way that place goes over there, maybe she should have let it go. I don't know. It's a tough call and I think her posting that was born out of frustration. I like her take on the entitlement thing....those are the people that make me the most crazy. I think it was all too much to take in last night, after a while all everything started to run together and I think I hung in there as long as I did because there were some genuinely funny moments. Wandacleo, you cracked me up with your humorous wit and wisdom many times. I hate to mention the person who had no trouble with a gay Clay, who didn't like men, in the same paragraph....but that one had me in fits! There were some excellent heartfelt and well thought posts as well. You know what? I am through reading that thread for now. My classes started back up last night now that Houston Community College is up and running again, and I'm beginning to freak since I'm hitting the skies again on Sunday and will be off to my more demanding life for the next month. In the meantime, I am planning to enjoy this next phase of my fandom. I see only good things for Clay and for us once everything settles down again. My words won't convince anyone to change their mind, I'll just continue to enjoy the man, his humor, his music, and his considerable physical attributes. Clay and I were close once, but I haven't had a front row ticket in 6 months. I'm the only one who can end this "thing" I'm so deliciously afflicted with, and I have no desire to do that in the least. I hope that those who are working this through will get to this point and be able to fully enjoy Clay and his music again. Even if it isn't exactly the same as before.....sort of like Christmas once you don't believe in Santa anymore. There's still lots to love about it. Tonight when we get dressed to go out to dinner, I expect my husband to lie to my face and tell me that I look beautiful....I don't need to know whether he sees that or not. That's just one of those little details.....kind of like the price of a broker ticket or how many ways a hotel room is split.

This ^^^^ and Claygsm, your posts from last night are so what I am feeling today. I went to bed early last night, about half hour before this story hit the board and I woke up to a days worth of reading. I'm scared to look to see if my online classes are back up at the college in Houston now! I, too, had a hunch that the "My Story" angle might be a coming out piece. It made all the pieces fit for me. My first reaction to seeing the cover was a big exhale then a close examination of those great big hands wrapped around that cute little baby (who I think looks just like his Dad). **Sigh** I"m glad most fans are being respectful and supportive, and I am so proud of him. Clay looks marvelous. He appears to be so happy. A pretend girlfriend couldn't ask for more. Still crazy enthusisatic after all these years. It's almost 4PM CAT.....3 more minutes. Slams door on the elephant's butt.....it was hogging all the peanuts anyway.

Ain't that the truth. I LOVE this set of pictures from Getty. He looks fabulous in all of them. I can't wait to get over there, now, and take it all in again....um...do with that last line what you will. I woke up this morning at 7:30 (10:30 PM Friday in New York), something I never do....weekends or weekdays.....and I got right up and came in here to check out all the reports and wait for pictures and video. I was so worth it. Yes, muski, five years later still dumbstruck and happy.

:7252: Ldyj!!

Well talk about your WTF? moments....here I am siting over here in Baku, Azerbaijan using the local music video channel as background noise while I do some homework, and right after Christina Aguilera finsihed singing "Ain't No Other Man", There he is...just like she conjured him up with that lead in.....Clay Aiken on my TV screen! They're showing the "Without You" video. And I am gobsmacked. The end. I guess I need to watch the music video channel more often. I was using soccer games. Silly me. Glad to hear that all are well after the hurricane. I hope things return to some semblance of normal for you soon! I guess I'll get to see some of the aftermath since it's only 2 weeks until I am down there myself. It should be interesting, I have a bunch of stuff that HAS to be done when I am down there, I hope the two days I allotted is going to be enough. The car needs to go in on a recall, needs to be inspected and registered. I'm also supposed to clean out one of our storage units and get rid of all the stuff in it. Maybe Love the countdowns, bottlecap and akim.Is it really only 2 more days until Spam? WOW!

I'm on my way to bed but had to drop in and wish everyone of you "back home" good luck in the face of the hurricane. Take care all of you! And don't forget these..... I miss you all and think good thoughts of you often. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I'm all set for October 7th and then again for the 12th of December and the 13th at the matinee. It wouldn't surprise me one bit I I end up at either the show on the 11th or the one on the night of the 13th. I am known to be weak. I wish I could join y'all in January but it won't be possible for me to do the last shows this time around. I'll still be in North America but on the 9th I have to take my daughter to Houston (remember those Celine Dion tickets I bought her LAST Christmas?). They're coming due. I don't think I could afford two trips like that in a week...and heck John might not have gone back to Baku, so double whammy. Oh well....

:7252: Look up! I'm skywriting! Wheeeeeeee!!! Happy Birthday, merrieeee!! I went with the two live performances, myself. There's just something about that ISY that gets me every time. It still makes me tingle when I watch it. I swear every time I do watch......a few of those (well covered but they do exist) gray hairs actually turn back to their natural dark brown. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Would you check on my kids for me while you're there? I haven't heard a word from either one of those buggers in ages. I can only assume that means they have money. L'Oreal Preference....I usually get it done at the salon but while I was over here, I did it myself and used this. Covered great and I swear the salon stuff faded faster. I tried to tell that to my stylist when I was home and she was having none of it, though. Still.... I wonder if Clay has ever used Medium Brown #5.

ausdon, this is the only trouble that I've had with an external so far and I'm not sure that it is entirely its fault. I think I may have transferred a corrupt file to it at some point. I need to try it on another computer to see if it's my computer or the drive. Dr. Watson is a utility that comes with Windows that finds errors when you run programs, it makes a log of the error so tech support people can figure out what is causing the problem. This drive has its own power source but Scarlett, tell me about irregular voltage! When I got back to Baku this time our shipment was here and in it was my handy dandy voltage regulator. I knew we had bad power but now that all the computer gear is connected up through the regulator.....I am shocked at how much clicking that thing does and how much bouncing the needle does some days. Other days it's pretty quiet. I've been told that sometimes the 240 comes in at 320....I am some glad that is not MY flat panel TV over there. IT never blinks, flickers, or gives any indication that all is not well, but I have a feeling it isn't going to make it to its life expectancy. And really fun things happen when you forget to flip the switch on the dual voltage hair dryer back to 240 once you been in North America. That little sucker turned itself on, jumped off the side of the bathroom sink, and twitched on the floor until it died in a haze of smelly sparky circuit burn out smoke. Why I set it on the side of the sink and walked away before plugging it in, I'll never know. Just like I'll never know why I didn't pick it up before I plugged it in. Now, if we could just find hot water heater master things would be hunky dory. He seems to have disappeared. :013085001176249046:

Oh, cha cha, that sucks, I hope they can get some stuff back for you. I've got me a Western Digital Passport 160GB. It's working fine (knock on wood) but what are the signs? I went to back up some files to another external the other day and my Dr. Watson error has spread to include the whole drive and as soon as I open it up, Windows Explorer freezes. The files are all there but I can't access anything on that drive at all. I have had this problem in some folders on other drives that have video files in them and when I researched it, I found that this is a known problem (that Microsoft hasn't bothered to fix in the few years it's been around) and got a few ideas for fixes, a couple of them I tried and they didn't work. Apparently I can go in to the registry and turn off the thumbnail making process, but I don't want to do that I NEED my thumbnails! Something else I read gave directions to turn of Dr. Watson....not sure if I am asking for trouble if I do that or not. I hate going into the registry and messing with things. I'm really afraid to do it here since I have to have this thing for school, and it's hard to get repairs done when you are communicating in two different languages. I'm happy it's working and I can live without those files for now. Has anyone ever encountered this problem? I was thinking of trying it on another computer to see if it's the drive or the external that's the problem. So far no one has volunteered their machine for a trysie. What's funny is, I can access the files via a media player but not windows explorer. I used to be able to access photo files in these folders by browsing in Photoshop but that isn't working anymore. Now PS tells me it has a problem and has to close. Not all of my folders with videos act this way. If the files are stored on the drive not in a folder, it's fine. I want to get the files off that drive and onto something so I can sort them and get rid of the videos on it. There are only about 10 gigs of data on it so it isn't that bad. Does any of this sounds familiar? Indian food is plentiful here, Twinkies not so much. Welcome Home Scarlett & KAndre! I am almost too shy to post this considering and all.... BUT.....I booked my ticket to Houston this week. October 1st. Someone remind me to go to the airport that day, okay? Please cancel all hurricanes and related activities.

****Sigh**** If that doesn't give you sweet dreams, I don't know what will!!! Keep safe all those on the Gulf coast - and remember your pets!!!!!! Oh, my....they were very fine dreams, indeed. Just wanted to add my concerns for everyone in the path of the hurricane. I hope all those new emergency plans were well tested and work like they are supposed to. Stay safe, guys!

Hey! Couchie, where'd you go? I hopped on over to the Spam thread and when I came back you were gone. Going to bed is not an option. It's lunch time and I have some nice home cooked roast beef here for sandwiches. :PickMe-1: I ordered my pins and it sure was easy, thanks! One of these days I'm going to ask to have something sent to me over here just to see how long it takes and whether or not I would actually get it. I noticed a post office the other day and I'm going to hand write a few letters, get Ali take me to there to get stamps and see what happens. I'm told they call you when you get mail and if you want it delivered they bring it out, or they'll hold it for pick up. Gosh, How did I miss this for my post yesterday? I can use akim's countdown to keep track of the days! Wheeeeee! I mean "Arrrrgh CG, I went to Clayless spam and it was okay, kind of like plain cheese pizza....not quite as out of kilter as a hamburger without a bun...just short a little pepperoni.....okay.....a lot of pepperoni. Caro, you do such a great job with your blog! Thanks for keeping it so up to date and bringing it over for us. I wrote one since I've been back and have begun to do a little maintenance on it, I pulled all the links for now and am going to go through the list and repost the ones that are still active. I had a lot of dead ones on there. I pinched that music widget that you had, Caro, and I'm going to see if I can figure out how to use it. It looks very cool. Oh and I changed the name, though the address is still the same. It's now called One Hand On The Wheel And that's just me....always changing things, just for the heck of it. Bookmarks still work. I get to go to Spam three times this time compared to eleven the last. One trip and one drive by (so I HAVE to stop)....on the drive by on October the 7th, my sister is coming with me and if she has a cataplectic attack from laughing, it should be interesting. I haven't quite figured out how I am going to keep her from laughing too hard....but I have to come up with a plan. (She suffers from narcolepsy with cataplexy so we have some very interesting times.) If we get past intermission it will be a miracle. Anyway, she is really looking forward to seeing Clay live. She doesn't care that it isn't a concert, though I know she would love it! Also, her first trip to New York, so even though we will only be there for an afternoon and an evening. It will be great. I think we will have to do Top of the Rock just so she can see how it all looks from up there. In December, I'm doing a Friday night and a Saturday matinee, but flying in on Thursday.....what are the chances that we'll do something else on Thursday night? The plan is to see the Radio City Christmas Show on Saturday night and we leave on Sunday morning. Could I babble anymore? Guess not....I'll stop now. :013085001176249046: too!

I couldn't handle the New York hotel prices for the weekend I'm going in December the 12th -14th, so I found the Courtyard by Marriott out at La Guardia, which is the airport we are flying into. We are there for three nights and the total for the nights including the tax is $558 (internet is free and I think we get breakfast but that I need to double check). In addition to having a good rate ($161) the room has 2 queens (new Marriott beds), this is a plus if there has to be more than one in a bed. Those doubles can be cozy, no? I flew into La Guardia in April on the day the pope was doing his pope-mobile thing through town. With driving around all of the blocked streets to get from the airport to 8th Ave and 51st St., it still only came to $30 for the cab. And there is a shuttle from the hotel to the airport and on the weekends they run a shuttle to Times Square for $7. I found this on the Marriott website....not sure if I got there via kayak or one of the hotel sites. I know I booked it on marriott.com We have been keeping close company this week. ***God, I have to edit....I got one King and a Sofa bed not 2 queens.*** I made 10 hotel reservations the other night and I got a tad confused! Yes, I am the person who made flight reservations for the wrong day last month.

Cotton, thanks for sharing that email! Cute is right....OMG! Isn't September 19th Talk Like A Pirate Day? It must have special significance for Clay....he released a CD that day and now, he's re-joining Spam on the most auspicious of holidays. Arrgh! I love holidays.

KAndre and Scarlett, thanks for letting us know all the fascinating details of your trip. How much longer are you going to be there? It IS very weird to be confronted with people on a daily basis who have no idea what you're talking about. Sunday we went out to by a table and chair set for the office lunch room. The table and chairs we chose were mismatched in the floor display and we wanted to make sure that the chairs we were buying would actually match the table. Finally, after a lot of pantomime, we understood that the set we were getting would be delivered in a box and master would assemble it when it as delivered. We also got out of the conversation: cash only, delivered by taxi with master the next day, and the color of the seat upholstery. I guess they never got that we wanted the wood to match because when it was delivered it didn't. And John shrugged and said, "It'll be fine." At some point you just have to chuckle and go with the flow. The juxtaposition of wealth and poverty is something that's hard to get used to, though. And I've learned to knock at least 2 stars off any hotel rating. How is the use of credit cards there outside of Hong Kong? Not many places here take them. I think I'm going to ditch the school work for a few hours and watch some videos. I am in major missing him frame of mind this week....and I know I'm going to be seeing him soon! I think it's time I got back into watching tennis. We're getting the US Open in prime time on into the wee hours on Eurosport, it's in Russian but I got through the Olympics with it. I can do tennis, easy. Good Morning Folks!

Tries to figure out which way to point from here, then **waves to Scarlett and KAndre**. For concerts, with the S3 I was using the full Manual Setting "M" and then opening up the aperture to its widest setting (lowest number it will click down to given the focal length (amount of zoom)) you're using. You'll notice that the longer the zoom is extended you get less range of aperture. Anyway, put the aperture on the lowest number and then since there is no spotlight, which made all the difference in taking pictures in low light, use the slowest shutter speed you can and still get good focus. For concerts that shutter speed was anywhere between 1/60 and 1/125 depending on the lighting. I would think it would need to be in the 1/10 to 1/20 range to get shots out the window in the dark but you can adjust it when you see how they look at different settings. If you want nice bright lights then you should expose for a full 1 or 2 seconds....As a suggestion, I'd set the camera on a table or on something stable. It's hard to avoid camera shake at really low shutter speeds and that will help. Also, keep the lens fairly close to the glass and shoot at an angle. Bumping the ISO up to 400 will give you more latitude with the shutter speed but you'll get better shots if you can keep the ISO at 200. There are some samples of shots taken from Hong Kong hotel rooms here. Sadly, none of them mine, but they are worth a look through....as you open each picture you will see down on the right side of the page there is a link to "more properites" about that particular shot. All of the exposure settings and details are there. And that's all I really know about that. Sound like an amazing place to be tonight. I wonder how late I am with this.

I think that radio interview was with Z100 and it was in mid 2003.....not too long after AI was over....like I said, I think. I just checked, its from May 27th and uploaded in three parts in the CH vault....must be the same one. I loved that interview!

Yep, that "Leno thing" I was referring to was "bread-bread-meat." I think I'll go back and watch that one again, it's one of my most favorite ones, too. I forgot to wish clayzedover a good recovery when I posted and this morning. I hope we get to see her at Spamalot, too. Thanks for letting us know how she's doing, annabear. I realized this afternoon that the best place I had heard OMWH yet was in a car, and that I now had my good stereo speakers all set up and ready to deliver. Yowza! They delivered all right. :9: It was a verra verra nice day in the neighborhood. I sat here by a sunny window, edited pictures and had a perfectly loverly afternoon. If all days could be like this.....but..... Now that I have all of my wrinkled clothes unpacked, I've come to the conclusion that I should have packed a do-at-home-lipo kit. I ain't gonna git in my gala get up, after all. For one brief moment there I wished akim's countdown was backed up a little bit. I need TIME!

Love the new banner, cindilu2! I kind of feel like I'm in the middle of a Spam sandwich where the meat and the bread got mixed up.....Oh! Wow! I bet that Leno thing was a sign! Ya gotta be on the ball around that Clay guy....all the time. I'm pretty sure I have extras of these (somewhere), if you can hang on a month or so, I'll bring what I have here back with me at the end of September. Love the new design, too! Sign me up for two of them and if there is another doing-redoing pin, I'm up for that, too. Would be a shame for him to become undone just because he's a father now. (I'm going to mull that line over a few times to get the most out of its possible meanings.) I'm sitting here counting on my fingers what the time is in Newark now. I think it must be 2:30 am since it's 1:30 pm here. I woke up this morning to the news about Nuri and it's soon to make landfall at Hong Kong status. :thtwister2: Safe travels to you, KAndre and Scarlett. I hope you get out of there soon! Keep the updates coming in all their glorious detail....getting there is half the fun, right? Right? Clay Aiken, I have 5 words for you..."Get your ass to Korea." The more money you make, the better it is for me.....sort of in the same vein as the more money my husband makes, the better it is for me......er.....I guess that should be you, too. And besides all that, yes, couchie, it is very cool indeed. I've unpacked the wayward shipment that finally arrived in Baku. Not too much was broken, a few plates and a picture frame, but I counted 107 pieces of clothing that are unwearable until they are ironed at home or pressed at the cleaners. Can't dump all this on Lena.....and I told those packers I wanted to pack the clothes myself but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, they knew how to do it...... Okay, I am done bitching about my move from this point on. Though I do hope all the customs duties have been paid and its contraband status has been lifted. When did BMX biking become an Olympic sport? I'll be in Houston on October 1st, I have a tattoo with that date on my wrist. Hopefully, Scarlett and KAndre will be back from Hong Kong by then. preden! Do you like profiles by any chance? Good Morning Peeps!

Hey, shamrock! I'll take this over a Feast of the Epiphany Tour. I'd have to stay home and take my tree down that day anyway. So, my invisible friend and I got tickets for her invisible birthday on 12/12.....we had talked about going back to NYC this fall just because we both were going to be turning 54 and we were born in 54....and I'm like almost a whole month older than she is BUT........someone said that is your Champagne Birthday, who knew? I guess we'll be tacking on a matinee or so that weekend, too. Besides, that weekend, I bought a pair for the 7th of October. I don't think I can do closing weekend, I have to be in Houston with my daughter the BIG Celine Dion fan...she has tickets for the show at the Toyota Center on the 9th.......we could drive to Houston (who cares if it's January) and road trips are sort of a thing we do.....and we do have a closing Spam weekend tradition built up...... I wonder how she feels about broken homes. Would she like one for Christmas? All I can do is ask her, I suppose. See what she says. John was cold today and didn't pack a sweatshirt (did he think he was going to the south for his vacation and not Canada?). I told him I had a big white one with a chicken on it if he didn't mind wearing that, he could. He wore it all day. It was my Cafe Press Sir Robin one.....I think it was a sign. Though I am still shaking my head at how much I can still be surprised after all these years. Who would have thought John would wear my chicken sweatshirt and that Clay would be going back to Spamalot? Gosh! I was just there last week! Guess Clay will get his buses back from Drew. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!