<p>Oh BTW cheers, depending on which camps you frequent, you could just say "I'm off to an orgy in the desert." ;)</p>
<p>Think we can get the moms who are worrying and clucking their tongues over in the "Naked Parties?" thread to hang out with us on the playa next year?</p>
<p>cheers, if you design it, I'll help build it. And surely we have enough engineering brain-power around here that we can design the misting mechanism in an earth-efficient way!</p>
<p>Cheers, the home version of DDR is a video game. Instead of a hand held controller, it is a mat that you hook up to the TV. Then you just bounce along with the steps as they appear on the screen.</p>
<p>Live and learn in SA.</p>
<p>I'll take a glass of bubbly, barkeep. S1 has just been hired by the local newspaper to write science articles from Washington. Technically, that makes him a foreign correspondent, LOL.</p>
<p>Sorry for the double post but I just got another email saying that he's going to be hired as a full time congressional staffer for the semester. For real money folks. Hah!</p>
<p>It's raining cash!</p>
<p>Congrats, Cheers. My S would kill to have that job! :)</p>
<p>Congrats, Cheers! Usually, it rains alcohol and chicken buckets around here, so cash is a nice change. :) </p>
<p>I guess I can throw my energies into the design of a Burning Man temple/mister/tiki bar.</p>
<p>or Woman without Sunscreen?</p>
<p>My W came home from yoga with news of this amaming sounding experience, Burning Man, had I ever heard of it?</p>
<p>Apparently one of the instructors from here in middle American went and it was a life changing event. In addition to the art, she mentioned a "liberating" all woman bike event? </p>
<p>Do tell SBmom...</p>
<p>Inquiring men, I mean minds, want to know.</p>
<p>I'm tellin' ya, NYABM: The Parents Cafe on the Playa. It's where all the cool kids will be (especially with our finely-designed misting temple!)</p>
<p>Oh there were several liberating events! Absolutely. There was one for guys too. ;)</p>
<p>Basically all stripes of kinky are welcomed at Burning Man, but also plenty of non-kinky people are there too. You can be as liberated as you want, or not, and as long as other peoples' liberation doesn't rattle you, you will have a great time.</p>
<p>I want to see cheers' temple design. I mean I really want to see it. I mean, I will buy it, like that Christo I had the chance to buy, the one of the running fence, in London in 1978 and I didn't because I was afraid. Time to make up for old regrets....NYABM - the theme of our misting temple is Lose Your Regrets in the Mists of Time...</p>
<p>Excellent! And I'm serious about the Parents Cafe on the Playa out back in Sinner's Alley behind cheers's temple with aries's misting mechanism inside -- of course, only WE will know the "true meaning" of "Parents Cafe", everyone else will just think we set it up for those who brought young'uns with them... but the orange naugahyde bench seats and the chicken buckets (start saving now!) and the bad karyoke: I'm tellin' ya, it'll be the place to be.</p>
<p>Oh Alu, you balked on a Christo? Soooooooo sad! Why didn't our parents tell us: "Spend your rent money on art, you won't regret it!!" </p>
<p>I'd better AIM my daughter right away and reiterate that important lesson!</p>
<p>A VW bug would be a rather easy conversion to a marmotmobile, don't you think? I'm sure that Mootie would volunteer her driveway for yet another VW powered by excessive swearing, flip flops, and beer. </p>
<p>As a gift to the Burning People, I will donate a grocery bag full of Origami stars that I made for a Halloween fundraiser in 1992. It was right around the time when Star Trek Next Generation was in full swing, and we were decorating the Second Grade booth to look like The Final Frontier. The paper Ninja stars hung down from the top of the booth and stabbed anyone who dared to navigate around the booth in the eye with ninjutsu precision. :D</p>
<p>Cheers, congrats to S1 on that primo job! :)</p>
<p>m&sdad -- There is something liberating about having your 18th birthday away from home and family. Parents and sibs are missed more during the holidays, but September birthdays are all about friendships, making your own cake, and celebrating college-style. Just keep the birthday boxes coming. I still have a picture of my very own lopsided 18th birthday cake with coconut frosting. ;)</p>
<p>The boys of summer are back, and seven very smelly men are standing around in my kitchen making bowls Top Ramen. Last time I saw these guys (five of them, that is; I don't know the new short guy), they were in high school. They were boys. Now, they are big, smelly men who could just as easily be modeling for underwear ads. I'm seeing a whole lotta underwear from where I'm sitting in the next room...Geez-Louise, I'm about to die from the cloud of man stink. GAWD! </p>
<p>After SluggJr got back from LA, he started hanging out with his home town band friends. They were driving all over the country this summer playing gigs, from New Orleans up to New York and back to Cali across Wyoming and Utah. I talked to them about New Orleans, the mosquitos, the abandoned homes, and the residents who weren't used to seeing visitors on their streets. They had never been to Kentucky or Wisconsin or to the Great Lakes. They can talk knowledgeably about the states and where they've been. </p>
<p>I've got to hand it to these stinky men. They are a better band because they've been touring. They are better men because they are working and self-reliant. They are patient with one another. They seem happy, even though they are filthy. They are polite and appreciative of the a/c in the house and all of the Top Ramen, which one of them happily noticed cost about 25 cents per pack. </p>
<p>So, not everybody goes to college. I'm watching SluggJr's friends making their dreams come true, for now. But, they are willing to rehearse and book their tours and work with other musicians along the way and be broke and do what it takes to keep the van running. Yesterday, I about fell off my barstool when SluggJr announced that he wanted to decorate his dorm room retro-tiki style. So, 18 days before move-in, I guess he's decided that he wants to go to college. I'm starting to think that we might get an Aggie out of this deal, afterall. 17 days and counting...</p>
<p>
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Why didn't our parents tell us: "Spend your rent money on art, you won't regret it!!"
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</p>
<p>Why buy art, when you can create your own? Here's a way to waste some time: <a href="http://www.jacksonpollock.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.jacksonpollock.org/</a> Every time you click your mouse it changes the paint color. Sweep your mouse across the screen and click away!</p>
<p>I knew that someone would share my sorrow over the lost Christo. While I find it reassuring that my taste at 22 was so good, I find it sorrowful that my confidence was so low. </p>
<p>Slugg - we're with ya! Retro-tiki, JUST LIKE OUR MISTING TEMPLE!!! Coincidence? I think not.....</p>
<p>And audiophile - well, welcome! It's been a long, virtually hot summer.</p>
<p>He he. Almost makes that fact that I am not remotely finished with work for the day OK. The Parent's Cafe, on the Playa or on the net, the place to be.</p>
<p>So nice to have another man's voice here in Hot Flash Central!</p>
<p>Next virtual round is on you, in dirty glasses. No flourescent drinks with tiny umbrellas allowed.</p>
<p>Pass AudioP the chicken bucket hat. You 'da man...</p>
<p>slugg: don't forget the blender</p>
<p>And BTW the theme for next year is "The Green Man."</p>
<p>So we need a misting temple that somehow lives lightly on the planet. Or maybe we could have a misting temple with a rainforest theme?</p>
<p>Alu: I share your sorrow because the same thing happened to me when I was 22. It was no Christo; it was by an artist called Galli and it was so emotionally moving I cried when I first saw it (at the FIAC at the Grand Palais). I went back and visited that painting three times. It was about $3,000, roughly equivalent to 6 months of living expenses at the time. </p>
<p>I balked. I regret it to this day.</p>