Thought I would start a thread for things from 'Real Life' that we feel are pertinent or just want to share.

I will be going up to New York, Manhattan, this weekend for my birthday. No computer, my cousin is a holdout . Lots of TV, Scrabble, shopping and visiting. I should be back June 1st or 2nd.

Sounds like fun, actually. I've only been to New York once, a long time ago, but it was an amazing place just to wander about. I loved the subways, but I had my cousin as a guide because I think I'd still be lost on my own.

For myself, I will be visiting San Francisco about the same time. There is a good convention happening there this weekend that we try to attend every year. This is work, however, rather than just play. I work for a game company and we will be selling our games there. Still, it's a lot of fun connecting with old friends (I used to live there) and meeting all kinds of new ones.

I am back from a good time in New York. Made out like a bandit. The weather was hot which is unusual for this time of year. New York is always a fun and interesting place to visit. It reminds me a bit of Rome, without the ancient ruins of course, but you never know what lies around the corner.

I will never forget in Italy on a trip getting tired and sitting down on a stone only to leaped up realizing I was sitting on a ruined something that was over 2000 yrs old. I felt a bit sacrilegious sitting on it.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and are in good health.

My weekend was also good. Weather was delightful - warm, sunny - which is very unusual for San Francisco this time of year. It rained the day we got there, but stopped before we actually got into it and the fog didn't roll back in until we were packing to leave. Almost feels like it was arranged for our benefit.

Convention went well and I saw a lot of old friends, several who have promised to come to our party this summer as well. And, I got two new T shirts, my convention indulgence. I will really enjoy those at conventions to come. Plus, I found a new card game to try out. It's called "Kitten Wars", and yes, cutest kitten wins. Now, determining which kitten is cutest is the problem.

Note one: Online real life: I cannot believe that a Board as intricate as Sorcerers Place has NO Happy Birthday or huggy emoticons. Tsk Tsk.

Note Two: I hate Windows 7. I was installing a game. PC crashed. When I got it back on I had lost all my downloads that were in Orbit my download Manager. What one thing had to do with other I do not know.

Hmm. I'm waiting until you solve all the problems with Windows 7 (and explain them and solution here) before I upgrade.

You may waiting until the next Windows pulication. Not an upgrade of W7 but a whole new concept.

Not to worry. My desktop is still on XP. (I waited past Vista for that.) The laptop came with Vista and I'm still trying to figure out how to do that basics for that. Probably, it won't upgrade to 7. It doesn't do anything else worthwhile.

Unfortunately I expect the next Windows generation to be even more user unfriendly. There are times I am tempted to switch to Linux or something else. I have a link to W7 tutorials but my eyes get tired just looking at the contents page.

The heat wave is really getting to me. The weatherman keeps promising a thunder storm but it never gets here. We need the rain not only to hopefully break the heat wave but water is being restricted. At least the beach merchants shpuld be making a profit.