I'd love to partake, Betsy. However, my home is a little far off for anyone to visit. However, if I'm in the area, I'd LOVE to meet my fellow Fodorite's in person.

My feeling about visiting this board can perhaps best be expressed by the title of the wonderful 1980 album by The English Beat...

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...=Ajq63tr79kl7x

OMG, Capo! I thought I was one of those few "English Beat" fans. Guess I'm dating myself. Ha!

Hey, if you date yourself, you never have to worry about finding someone on a Saturday night. :)

The English Beat isn't <i>that</i> ancient of a band!

Look! I'm back again! And it's only been 2 hours, 32 minutes...am I less addicted now?

Dln, I quite honestly was just wondering where you'd been about a half hour ago....I'm TOTALLY serious!

Capo, no they're not that ancient, however, some of the older music I still like on occassion baffles me. I even like Iggy Pop, for cryin' out loud.

Statia, I STILL like Led Zeppelin songs I heard for the first time when I was 15 years old! (I don't know if I've ever outgrown my music, in fact.)

LOL, Statia. Aren't you in the Caribbean, you lucky duck? If/when we get a GTG going, you're more than welcome to come to it :-)

Hello my darlins~
I owe Fodors a big Thank you for the lovely friends that I have made in the past 2 years that I have been posting here.
We were on our way to Italy, Oct 12, 2001. We never made that trip, but we have made a few others, and while researching that trip, I got hooked on Fodors.
So - Hello, my name is Scarlett ......

dln, I have to agree....classic rock never goes out of style. DH and I were just listening to some old Zeppelin tunes the other night....as we were going thru our Italy photos once again, of course.

Ok....back to the Fodor's addiction topic. Sorry for getting off kilter there.

Ok..one more post. I'll be there with bells on Betsy! Just name the time and place. Yes, you were right, I'm down here in this darned 365 days per year tropical climate. However, I'd much rather be in Europa!

And, Scarlett dear....can I fit in your carry on? Enjoy and have a fab trip!

dln, if I may... perhaps your feeling about visiting this board can best be expressed by the title of a Willie Dixon song that Led Zeppelin covered on their 1969 debut album...

&quot;I Can't Quit You Baby&quot;

:-O A FODOR'S SF GTG!?!?!?!?

Think I can lose 50lbs by then? :@)

Too busy with work and recovering from a knee scoping to be addicted of late but during slow periods, yep, I'm getting carpal tunnel with the best of them!
@-)@-)@-)@-)

Keep me posted.
Kal

Oh yes, I too am addicted...but I consider it a healthy addiction 'cause it's educational, right? Or am I that much in denial?

I live in Seattle but we're going to the Chagall show in SF Sept 26 (I'm also addicted to art and can't figure out why the hell we can't have a great show like that here...it's not as if there isn't any money or the demand for it)...so if you do a get together, maybe we can stop by...(Susan did this is Paris and it was LOL)...

Hi Scarlett!

I have to read this evey night . Im leaving on Sept.14 for Italy with two other woman. They both think I am so smart because I have put together this trip. Yhanks to you all. Ira ,thanks again for the tip on the limo. Renato e-mailed me last night to reconfirm.

Hi Koshka ! ((F))

I can't be an addict, I waited seven hours to reply. Count me in for a SF gathering.

Another addict speaking up. I check Fodor's on a daily basis. There's a tremendous amount of info here that you wouldn't find in a guidebook. Besides, it's quite amusing. I adore Thingorjus and NYCFoodSnob.

Addicted? After three months, I'm a hopeless junkie!

99.9% of the posts are written by sincere, honest people with a love for travel, for Europe, for...yes, it is very wonderful to read the posts.

A Get Together in San Francisco is such a great idea! We - all six (or is it eight by now?) of me think this is terrific!

Might I - we - suggest that however all of you plan on getting to The City, that you bypass San Jose? :)

The suggestion by that poster who suggested that I suffer from multiple personalities disorder - his/her suggestion that you should come to San Jose and visit such outstanding places as our Sleepy Hollow Zoo quite took my breathe away. I had always remembered SH Zoo as &quot;the place where animals come to commit suicide&quot; (said by one of our better journalists). The rest of San Jose is not quite so dismal, but the life and excitement of San Francisco - ahhh!!! :)

(Writing the last paragraph with tongue in cheek - as if you didn't know!)

I've always avoided my high school reunions like the plague, but I would meet you guys for a get together if I lived in CA. I think it would be a blast!

Sigh...

I'm addicted, but never enough in a million years to waste any moment on vacation. I know so many who give valuable travel info that we all gain from. Then we have the wonderful as well as informative funny writers like thin. who I know as john, and the recent Degas, and NYCfoodsnob, and shsmiles.
And a few more, who I left out unintentionally. I will always admire the funny posts, enjoy them, as long as you never insult or stork our posters.
we are here to learn, and have fun but not to do anything other.

Hello KAL!!! This is amazing. You've crossed forums over to the European side to show your support for addicts!! We love ya! (How's Mrs. Kal doing?)

Mimi, you've just made the best typo tonight. I can just imagine a big Fodorite meanie on stork legs stalking behind other posters, with horrible screeching noises coming out of its beak...LOL

She didn't mean that we could hire a stork to swoop in, bundle up the posters we don't get along with, and deposit them down someone ELSE's chimney? Well shoot, now I'm disappointed...

LOL...in alsace the storks sit on the chimneys. Here I sat on your words..sorry...LOl..but a few should be carried by the stork and dropped at a few door steps.
Just don't stork me!

An &quot;Intervention&quot; in S.F.!!
Heck yes, I'll be there with my DH and some Fodor addicts, I know. But after October 15th or so. I got to do Italy first.
Really great idea :)

Who me? If I were I'd be posting right now, wouldn't I?

------------

Hey Mucky, looks like we're going to be in Australia the same time you all are, as it turns out. Feed an extra banana to the possums for us in case we don't get to Bendigo.

Addicted? Nah...Twice a day...I just 'have' to check the Fodors message board, scan a few topics, post a few replies, and read and read...I'd usually do this just before every vacation (when I really have an excuse to go to the message board) and then after I come back..I continue reading the board until my next vacation...and the process starts again. :)

Been out on a hike this afternoon, then a film and dinner. Just got back home and of course the first thing I do is turn on my computer, check my email, and check my fodors threads. Me addicted? What makes you say so?

I am stoked about the idea of a get-together in the Bay Area! I have been a bit jealous of other get-togethers I've read about. How do we proceed? I'm in Marin, but will drive to anywhere in the area.

Hi I'm back from visiting my parents in L.A. I am assuming that I was missed. Yes, I am addicted to this board as well! I look forward to seeing when Degas will write his next report which will cause me to laugh out loud! I think about some of you often and wonder if we will all ever get together for a proper chat! Here's to all of you for your wonderful travel reports and your fantastic senses of humor!!!! By the way, where are Ira, Ben Haines, Scarlette and Maitaitom????

'No Worries' Clifton (by the way is that good aussie?)
Muck

Is &quot;No Worries&quot; aussie speak? I was wondering why everyone I meet is saying that! What is going on? Why is everyone saying that all of the time instead of &quot;Thank You&quot; or &quot;Your Welcome&quot; or &quot;Pardon Me&quot;?

I reckon, calamari its because everyone wants to be as laid back as the average aussie, you know the one's that have castors on the back of their head.
Muck

I always get a kick out of the Aussies depicted in the Castlemaine and Fosters beer commercials. I have been known to laugh so hard that my OWN beer comes out my nose, LOL.

Of.......out OF my nose. Didn't realize my southern accent was coming through in my typing! LOL

&quot;By the way, where are Ira, Ben Haines, Scarlette and Maitaitom????'&quot;

Calamari, I can't speak for the rest, but I'm still here in hot L.A. You had some of our new &quot;humid&quot; weather while you were here. I had a mai tai waiting for you. We're off to Europe in about four weeks.
((H))

Mucky, sounds ok to my yankee ears but I think I always misused the phrase! I got a little education the other day.

Calamari, it's funny you should ask that. I have the great fortune to be married to a beatiful young Australian lady and we were just talking about that the other day. I was asking about the context of that phrase as I'd noticed it as a response to &quot;Thank you&quot; in restaurants, etc when in Australia. I'd always taken it is the Aussie equivalent of our &quot;No problem&quot;, which is how I think most of us non-Aussies use it. She was saying it translated a bit more like &quot;Oh, you don't have to say that&quot;. That seems to fit with the unassuming Aussie nature. It's essentially sidestepping a compliment.

Speaking of the land down under, I've always wondered...is it true that &quot;the women glow and and men plunder&quot;? :)

Yes, it's true. I haven't gotten a wink of sleep in years. :)

Maitaitom.

Yes, it was pretty humid, but I was in Malibu so it was still not so bad. If I had known that you and your lovely Mrs. had your blenders fired up, I would have bee lined it directly to your front door!

Re: &quot;No worries&quot; thanks for clearing that up for me. Still, it sounds charming coming from an Aussie but sort of silly coming from a Yank. It is my personal policy not to side step a compliment but to meet it and greet it head on.