michelle...i love bbq! i usually go to university place...have a drink for me!

Rant/Rave: What's even better about the BBQ is that it's being prepared by the owner of the townhouse in her newly planted garden!!! I'm so very jealous...

A decent 1-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is about $1,500 now. A studio is $1,000.

Rant: Someone said gas prices. But can you top the $2.59/gallon we paid yesterday in SF?

Bigger Rant: OK, well I guess it's worse that my poor friend doesn't get to buy gas because his car was stolen out of his driveway!

Rave: 12 days til I go to Rome! :-) (where I won't be buying any gas!)

Hi Grasshopper
$2.59!!! Thats awful. Have a great time in Rome, I'm jealous, I loved Rome!

Oops-getting so tired and spacey I almost missed this!
First of all...
RAVE: I too am a March baby...the 30th to be exact...happy b-day to all the others!!!

RAVE: This baby is due in 3 weeks...here's hoping to a bit earlier!

RAVE: Its 82 in Colorado today...fantastic!

RANT: I'm freakin BEAT. Have a great weekend everyone!

Rave: Loving reading the warm helpful and funny comments & suggestions on this website
Rave: Feel so lucky that I get to go to San Francisco next month -thanks to wonderful hubby who is presenting at a conference while I get to play
Rave: Boston doesn't feel so bad today now that it is 60 degrees
Rave: Did I mention I'm going to San Francisco next month!
I don't have any rants today!

Jasper- My hubby drives the same type of car and he travels from the east coast to the west coast of Fla. 4 days a week. OUCH on the gas.
Rave: He could use my daughters Honda Civic.

sam- sorry my Sox tickets are spoken for. If you can't get Sox tickets, how about doing the minor league tour - Lowell Spinners, Portland Sea Dogs, PawSoxs. We did it last summer and had a ball. In some ways more fun than the majors especially with kids.

Good luck with the trip to Hershey. Post here again if you need any more suggestions. By any chance are you going to Hershey the last week of July? The Red Sox are playing the Orioles in Baltimore on July 26 and 27. It might be worth a side trip. According to Mapquest its only 90 miles from Hershey to Baltimore.

Rant: Nearly unbearable stress, and no future vacations planned!

Rave: Reading other people's raves. It's nice to hear about happy events in everyone's lives.

DebbieAllen, your office sounds exactly like mine!! LOL Creative, relaxed atmosphere and we design all kinds of products, but a few here think who they are!

BTW They are STILL filming this rain machine involved scene outside my office here on 5th Ave. I was told that Jennifer Connolly is in the movie, but I haven't seen her yet and I've been looking out the window all day. (From "A Beautiful Mind")

Another Rave: I will be adopting a cat from the ASPCA tomorrow!

\:D/:
1) Nothing hurt again when I got up today.

2) I actually drove all the way to the old office to have lunch with friends and not once did I want to pull someone out of their car and pummel them about the head and shoulders.

3) NOTHING planned at all this weekend so no FAMILY stuff. Just me and Mrs Kal for the first time in....Kauai????

X(:
1) 2nd softball game tonight and it may rain.

\:D/:
More time for pizza and beer!

Rave:Another vote for Diana's post. Spring indeed.

I'm joining a collection of friends tomorrow evening for a "Post Equinox Party". Naked dancing was listed as one of the activities on the invitation.
If you knew this crowd, it would make you laugh out loud!

X(:
Dammit Pam...Now I got some plans this weekend!!!! After cleaning my long range photo lens!! ((A))

rant: caught a cold from our son.

rave: recently moved near my brother so they took both kids for the night:) i can veg on the couch til dh gets home, then veg some more:)

Suzanne
Really sorry about the stress..can we help?

Ani: We have the same birthday- i'll have a toast for you on Tuesday, and will make one of my wishes for that baby to come out on time and not be late (that is the worst, waiting waitign, waiting, til the due date and then it's late!)

RAVE:
How very cool that so many people celebrated birthdays this month. Mine was 3/23 :)
My son is here visiting from Japan.
RANT:
My son goes back Monday at 5 am.
The biggest bee I ever saw in my life got into the house!

Rave: It's Spring, it's Spring, it's Spring!

Rave: Seagulls are off the deck so no more seagull poop! The tourists are back and feeding them down the beach from us!

Rave: Gas prices are up! Maybe people will give up their over-sized Aircraft Carriers on wheels and return to reasonable size cars. Maybe this country will finally have a reasonable energy policy. Maybe develop transporation around something besides private automobile (TRAIN!)

Rant: None of the above will happen, and all of us (including me) will still be bit-jin about prices next month.

Finally! A spring day today so was able to spend several hours cleaning up yard waste-that's my rave.
Rant: now it's expectd to get colder and rain tonight and tomorrow.

Rave: March 30, Ani, emd, and I have the same birthday

Rant: March 30. I will be 48

Rave: March 29. Will be 22 years since I joined the company I work at.

RANT: March 29. Will be 4 years since my sister passed away when she was 48. On that day, my BIL mentioned that they had planned to travel to London, Paris, and Rome and that, now, that plan was not going to happen. We were coming to understand that the future would be without her and we were calm and it was awful.

mrwunrfl: Since you are being candid, I will too. I will be 49; next year is the big 5-0. I used to think 40 was the big 4-0, ha!
On your sister, god bless you and your family. Don't know what else to say, nothing can measure that feeling.

Rant: It just breaks my heart to hear of so many people passing away so young. I'm so sorry about your sister mrwunrfl - there are no words but i hope God heals your hearts. By the way, love your screen name - are you related to my hubby clark? Hes a mrwunrfl, too. :)

Rave: My birthday is march 30, too! I will be ... ahem ahem .... 39!! Ok, ok, i'll be 45, and truly thankful for my full, sweet life. Happy birthday to us all!

Rant: The weather sucks, its gonna be chilly and rainy all weekend.

Rave: Basketball season is over in town and we're home cozy and warm on a friday night, yay! And the warmth (usually) found on this forum is touching.

Holy smokes: <b>49!</b>
Rave: I'll be <i>only</i> 48!
Rave: kind soles who post at fodors

45 on the 24th and loving it!! Took up two new sports this year and looking forward to learning and trying more.
Diana: Hooray for a successful foaling.

Rant: I'm not even going to tell you what number I hit on the 18th, but I've got you all beat.

Rave: I just came in from a wonderful run along the bay in cool, dry 77 degree air, and can honestly say...there IS life after 50 and it's beautiful! :D

Happy Birthday everyone!

That's good to know, OliveOyl. My birthday is tomorrow, the 28th... and I'll be running along the waterfront in a few moments, maybe in the rain. Happy Birthday fellow Aries.

Rant: I have to spend the next few days helping my son and his friend with their 7th grade science project (testing bacteria in expired vs. non-expired milk). Couldn't they have picked something easier???

Rave: Close to 70 degrees in Buffalo tomorrow...YIPEE! I don't know what to do first.

Buffalo, just be sure you prominently label the expired milk in your fridge as a science project. We once had a science project like that in our house and my husband ate the outdated item in the middle of the project. That was very bad. Guys (at least the ones around here) will eat anything.

rant. $1500 for a one bedroom apartment and $2.59 for gas in SF!!!!!

rave. I'm glad I don't live there but its a nice place to visit. My mortgage is $850 for a three bedroom house on ten acres, and gas is $1.46.

Kal~focus that long range lens darling and look for something that resembles a scene from &quot;Cacoon&quot;:)

Rant: Some sort of large, vicious bird of prey is carrying off my cats, killing them, and eating them.

Rave: My father has promised to kill it, and if it is still moving when it hits the ground, he will hit it with a stick until it stops moving.

Rant: My mother is upset that her eyesight is so poor that she cannot see to personally shoot the hawk or whatever it is.

Rave: If it's still alive when it hits the ground, she wants first crack.

Rant: The bird has probably carried off three or four cats.

Rave: The eight cats that remain tend to stay a lot closer to the porch nowadays, where they're safe and the new kitten we got today stays inside.

...and on a happier note...

Rave! -- the city of Asheville has finally approved a redesign plan for Pack Square and City-County Plaza that will turn them into a grand urban courtyard and central park respectively, which is much better than the lovely but inadequate traffic island and clutch of grassy &quot;doormats&quot; they are now.

Rant... -- the project won't be finished until 2007.

Good gawd haunted!

Good golly. I see the plot developing along these lines:

1) Father knocks bird out of sky, somehow.
2) Bird flops about a bit, alive.
3) Father grabs stick and runs toward bird.
4) Mother fires at bird, hits father (God forbid) and misses the bird.
5) Bird snatches a cat and flies away.
6) Father and mother both get in trouble with law for this caper.

Rave: Son home for Spring Break!
Rant: I will be 49 this year too!
Rave: 50 is the new 40!
Rave: At this age I have the means to travel more than I did when I was younger!
Rave: Beautiful weather in Southern California, everything is blooming. I can still smell the orange blossoms in my neighborhood thanks to my neighbor who never chopped down the tree in her yard!

Thanks for your concern, mrwunrfl, but having been raised by these people, I can safely attest that they are not that stupid.

Rather, I see a plot developing along these lines.

1 -- Father shoots bird out of sky with whatever gun he happens to be carrying at the time, seeing as they live deep in the middle of a forest and frequently have problems with vicious, poisonous snakes, which really can only be dealt with by killing them. We prefer to shoot them, but at the same time, cats are very effective snake control, which is on of the reasons we have them.

2 -- Bird falls to earth. May or may not still be alive. If dead, will be tossed into the woods to be eaten by vultures, foxes, and whatever it is that lives in the large hole in the hill under our barn -- probably some sort of wolf or panther.

3 -- If bird is still alive, Mother will hit it with a shovel or rake, or whatever is handy. She may keep hitting it until it is dead, but if she decides just to hit it once or twice...

4 -- Father will continue to hit the bird until it is dead, using either shovel, rake, or handy stick.

5 -- Dead bird will be tossed into the woods to be eaten by vultures, foxes, or whatever it is that lives in the large hole in the hill under our barn -- probably some sort of wolf or panther.

6 -- With bird out of the picture, cats will continue to enjoy affection, ample food and water, and live long lives making themselves useful killing snakes, rats, mice, moles, and other pests.

7 -- All cars that park at my parents' house, for whatever reason, will go away decorated with pawprints, which is as it should be.

Rant: I have to run 16-18 miles tomorrow morning.
Rant: And it's been kinda cold in the mornings nowadays. Brr.
Rave: I'm in Honolulu.

Rant: I have to run 26 miles <i>next week </i>Sunday.
Rave: In the Paris Marathon.
:*

Oh I'm so jealous! Run Melissa run. Good luck. Gosh...wish I'd known...I could have gotten motivated to trained for that one!

hauntedhead,
If I were there, I would be waiting with a big stick too! Poor little cats!
I would be worried about what is living in the hole under the barn though~
We used to always have to make noise with the car doors so the cat that was invariably sleeping under the hood would get out safely before my Dad started the car~