Rejoining the group

TerriLee in WA wrote in news:5d15a07e-6bbd-4bf5- snipped-for-privacy@m1g2000pre.googlegroups.com:

Oh... me too! I think I'm back... Not sure. can you see me? I see you! :D

Good to see you again! Welcome back to the group!!

Hi, Donna!! I think I'll be back over there sometime around the end of May. I kept your ph #. :-)

TerriLee > Hi stranger!

Yep - I can see you! Wonderful!!

TerriLee > TerriLee in WA wrote in news:5d15a07e-6bbd-4bf5-

I expect to hear from you! We'll have to do another "Shop Hop!"

Donna in (SW) Idaho

TerriLee > Hi stranger!

Howdy and welcome back!

Monique in TX

Fast beg. Well done. Now our long lost TerriLee will certainly feel right back at home here! Welcome back, girl!

Karen, Queen of Squishies

OK!

Over on the baseball swap there was a suggestion of meeting up in Seattle for a BB game. I was thinking 4 July but now perhaps the Friday before...still working out scheds with the parents!

I'll get back to the group later in the month so we can start a plan :-)

Shona, enjoying the end of tomato season, in NZ

Hi, Sh> Hi TerriLee,

I like baseball, and can sometimes get tickets for less than retail. Email me, and we'll see what we can do, OK?

TerriLee > OK!

snipped-for-privacy@i36g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

.com...

Shona! THANK YOU for mentioning this free server. Now posting via nntp.aioe.org.

Ah, it's good to be back!!!

Dragonfly (Pam) The Seattle native marooned in the high desert of New Mexico Formerly...oh, what was I? The Stash Enabler or something like that?

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@m1g2000pre.googlegroups.com...

Wow! Dragonfly - how terrific to see you. It's been so long. Hope all is well with you; and that you have a better job (in terms of convenience, not money as such). . In message , Dragonfly writes

Thanks from me, too. My ISP supposedly carries Usenet, but I haven't been able to connect to the news server since they were down completely about a month ago. Their tech support was no help. I've been using google, but that is pretty unsatisfactory. It does feel good to be able to use Thunderbird again.

Julia in MN

Well hello stranger!! It is so good to see you here again Pam. Bring us up to date on your quilts, family, chocolate, or whatever!! Grins, PAT in VA/USA

Thanks for asking, Patti!

I've been at my new job for nearly 4 1/2 years now -- it's the longest I've ever been at a full-time job! Great group of people, the job fits my skills well and it is a good fit. Better commute (usually around 45 minutes each way, unless there are accidents tying up a bridge, when it can grow to 2-3 hours). But...I had to take a 40% pay cut to get the job. I'm now, thanks to cost-of-living increases (at half the amount the cost of living increased), and modest merit increases 2 or 3 times, making as much as I was my first job back from being a SAHM 12 years ago...if you don't count inflation!

I was able to get into a house at zero down my first few months on the job, so housing is assured...but the payment is almost all of one of my two paychecks a month! It was bearable when I was getting child support for both kids, but now DD is in college and over 18 and so her support stopped...and XH lost his job again so child support for DS has been ... "erratic" at best since fall.

I'm broke-broke-broke! But a lot happier.

DD is in college, with a very nice, very serious boyfriend she's been seeing more than a year (they met in a class in 9th grade, started dating spring of their senior year). DS is a true almost-6-foot-tall hairy legger in high school. The practically-perfect dog I had, last you heard, was suddenly stricken with kidney disease around Memorial Day 2006 and was dead two weeks later. (I think she got into some raisins someone had picked out of their trail mix and left on the end table.) The replacement dog looks a lot like her but isn't quite so "practically perfect", even if she does try to talk to us.

Oh, and in the past year, I've lost about 28 lbs! I'm back to the size I was pre-pnuemonia (hmm, I guess that news happened in my "I can't reach rctq" years, too? I ate so little while I was sick that I got down to my ideal weight, but messed up my metabolism so much that I gained almost 50 lbs. in the year after recovering). My goal is to get back down to my ideal weight through healthy eating and exercise. I used to hate to sweat and thought exercise was boring, but I'm actually *enjoying* my workouts! What a switch. I even joined a fitness center last week because it's getting too hot to do my workouts outside/at home.

I think that brings us up to today! I've been participating in rctq's Baseball Swap, which has kept me connected with some of the folks from rctq, but I've been missing everyone else like crazy! (And rejoicing every time I see one of my rctq buddies posting on TreadleOn, or WeFixIt, or CreativeMachine, or one of the other email groups I've been reading.)

Dragonfly (Pam)

That all sounds really great, Dragonfly. I'm so glad to hear that things are looking up. Grown up (or practically!) children; and a happier job. I'm really sorry you were so ill. Sounds like you have adjusted to all sorts of new things now. Good for you. The usual sort of ins and outs, ups and downs, have been happening on here, too. Your chair has been waiting, and I hope your new 'reader' (is it?) keeps you around for a good long time.

In message , Dragonfly writes

Welcome back! We missed ya! ME-Judy

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@m1g2000pre.googlegroups.com...

I missed you guys, too! Still can't always get my outgoing messages to "go" without switching the ports around, but eventually they go "out". Gotta love msn deciding we don't need usenet newsgroups anymore, so might as well block the most commonly used ports! (not)

Dragonfly (Pam)

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@m1g2000pre.googlegroups.com...

WELCOME back. It's really good to see you. I can't believe your DD is in college. Gen