There was a get-together in Portland?!?! When was that? That would have been fun! What do people do at these things? Meet for lunch? Do a kitchen hop of members' homes? Go to granite yards and drool over spectacular granites? Whatever happens, I'm sure it would be fun - and especially useful to get all the collective knowledge in one room!

I'm game. Rhome, faleash, what do you think? Anyone else in the Pacific NorthWET region?

Okay, I just had an image of TKOers whipping out their wallets to show off pictures not of kids, hubbies or grandkids but of their kitchens! LOL

Oops, meant to tell you, alicia, that you have a killer view out your windows! When I was in h.s., I visited SD. It's more years ago than I care to say but I still remember how taken I was with the incredible landscape so unlike anything I'd seen before. In my mind, it looks very much like your window view. It would almost make living through your bitter winter weather bearable for me (I grew up in IL, family in WI - that was cold enough).

LisaA, The Portland get-together was Aug 08...They all had lunch at a Papa Haydn's.

Here is a link that might be useful: Portland get-together discussion

Pauline-- Next time I'm working in your area. Guaranteed. :-)

Thanks, rhome. No wonder I missed it. That was before I started visiting the kitchen forum. I only recognized your name so the others must be finished with their remodels and have moved on to other forums here - or moved on completely. Pity, sure would be nice to talk to other locals and get the skinny on who they used and other insider info.

They picked a great place for lunch. LOVE Papa Haydn's!

I don't have any friends yet but would love to get some.

I am in Northern Alabama.

"Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget." Author Unknown

"A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be." ~Douglas Pagels

I have not had the pleasure of meeting in person anyone on
GW. But I feel as though if I were in a bind (so far on my
kitchen)you are all here to pull me through. If there is
ever a Boston area GW party. I am there!!!!
~boxerpups

And one more quote to make you laugh..."Friends are like bras: close to your heart and there for support."
Author Unknown

boxerpups, you have a never ending humor and delicious look at life - you never fail to brighten this forum!

So - there might be a tea party, if you will... in Boston?

Sorry, could not resist! You are the Queen of all photos pertinent - and my DH thought MY hard drive was filled with TKO pix. ;-) I'm on the left coast, but I'd definitely try and make it to a tea party in Boston. (Hmmm - maybe it could be a "Long Island Ice Tea Party." ;-)

Hmmm... I'd post a picture but don't have one handy so I'll just describe myself: I'm 27, dark blonde with natural golden highlights. I'm 5'8" and just under 115 pounds when I'm holding a steaming batch of fresh baked anything. So now you know....

Faleash, we could almost be twins!!...but I'm brunette. ;-)

LOL

Hi!

I was one of the those who met at Pauline's house-it was a really fun time(with all those equally kitchen obsessed people). My kitchen has been in use now for about four years or so, and I'm absolutely sure it would not have turned out so well without all of the wonderful advice from my GW friends.

Pauline-So nice to hear from you (and Bill)-hope all is well!

Rich

When faleash and I met, we swore we were looking in the mirror and not at each other. hehehe

What I find entertaining is whether my mental image matches up to the person when we finally meet in IRL. Surprisingly, I've been pretty darned close more than once. And no, I don't possess any special psychic skills. I just chalk it up to luck.

And, yes, faleash was *exactly* as I'd imagined her - tall, willowy and blond!

boxerpups, my quote has nothing to do with friends but everything to do with bras. I spotted it on a placard the last time hubby and I were at the beach. "Go braless. It will pull the wrinkles out of your face." :-D

Hi Rich, good to hear from you as well! Hope you are enjoying your gorgeous kitchen space.

Boxerpups, if interested, we could coordinate a Boston get-together. Last time, we met at Legals at the Pru and it seemed convenient for most. Anyhoo, if anyone is up for it, I'll start a thread over at Conversations.

Paulines and Boxerpups, I am up for a Boston get together! I think there was a plan to meet up last September, but it did not really materialize.

I am there... Legal at the Pru just tell me date and time.

I met Pickle2 and semi both at the Local in West Newton. We're all from Newton, MA. I'm up for meeting at Legals at the Pru too.

Wow, so many responses! My in-laws are here visiting so I've not had much time to check forums or be on the computer!

It's so nice to see that many others have found great friends on here and other forums via the internet. I actually game online (I wouldn't let my 11 year old son at the time play online alone so I played a Star Wars computer game alongside him 6 years ago, even though I dislike Star Wars and didn't know anything about gaming) and have met some amazing people through that as well. Through the game I met a 29 year old guy in London who I would often see in the game. After about 6 months I set up an instant messenger account and would chat with him from time to time and got to know his wife and the rest of his family very well. They had planned a trip to NY a year and a half after we met and they decided to take a side trip to D.C. just to meet us. I had the same scary apprehension about meeting some "nutcase" from online!!! I'm sure they had the same worries, especially considering I was a 39 year old woman playing an online Star Wars game!!! We agreed to meet at a restaurant and hadn't even told one another our real last names up until that point! The moment we all met, my husband and son, his wife and mother, we were like long lost relatives! Since then our college age daughter has visited London and they helped her immensely with the planning and coordination of her trip, including having a friend who is a taxi driver pick our daughter and her friend up at the airport and deliver them safely to the hotel. The driver even game me his cell number so I could call him via Skype and talk to her while she was in the taxi to make sure she got in safely from the airport!!

Then a year ago my daughter was living in France and asked if I wanted to take a week and meet her to tour Yorkshire in England, and I agreed. As soon as my friend Dan found out we would be in the UK he and his wife, mom and step-dad made plans to spend time with us in York for 4 lovely days! It was so wonderful and while waiting outside the Minster in York to greet them, we met a woman from Canada who was also meeting a friend she had met online through a book club. She was really relieved to hear that we were also meeting up with people we had met online, but we explained that we had already met them before, and she looked a bit shocked when my friend strolled up and I explained that she too was meeting an online friend to which he calmly replied "well we met while killing each other with lightsabers LOL!!! Sadly my very dear friend has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and doesn't have much time to live, so my son has suggested that for his senior trip we go back to London to see him one more time. If someone had told me 6 years ago, as I'm the queen of paranoia having been raised around police my entire life, that I would not only converse with an internet friend, much less meet them in person I would have thought they were crazy!

Riverhouse we do still need to go to tea, just let me know when you have a free weekend and we'll plan to meet up. And Traci and Riverhouse, I promise I don't look or act anything like a crazy online gamer, I'm quite boring in fact, but I do wield a mean lightsaber...or I used to anyway! ;-)

Kat :)

I just went and read the Pacific NW gang's lunch plans for last August. I want to come next time---driving up from Medford would be a pleasure!
This has become such a delight, to read others' posts, see their plans, ogle their granite, narrow down lighting choices, and so on. Thanks to all of you.
Now if we'd only finish...sigh.

Kat, I just want to say that it is so smart of you to play on-line games alongside your son. Although we didn't play alongside our sons, we monitored their game playing regularly. Hubby would go in and see what sites they'd been to and knew other ways to monitor their activity regularly. We talked to them about on-line behavior - don't give out your name, where you live, etc, etc, etc. I thought we were doing everything correctly.

So imagine my horror the day I walked in and overheard my 13-year old son talking on-line to - no doubt about it - an adult!!!! I freaked out even more when I discovered that they talked regularly, mostly related to game playing but not always. Son tried to calm me down, "mom, it's all right, he has a girlfriend, he's an EMT, etc, etc, etc." Made not a whit of difference to me. In fact, it alarmed me more that they had talked enough for these types of details to come up.

I grabbed the microphone, introduced myself as X's mother and said that I did not want him talking to my son EVER AGAIN! I told him that if he ever contacted my son again, we'd report him to the police. I also told him he was a damned fool. I don't care if age isn't a factor in the on-line gaming world (as son repeatedly tried to convince me), a 29-year old man befriending and regularly talking with a 13-year old boy is going to raise suspicions and accusations of immoral behavior.

I'm so glad your on-line gaming turned up much more pleasant results and true friendships.

Donnakay, if we do plan a PNW gathering, it would be great to have you join us! Now I'm really curious to know how many of us GWers live on the Wet Coast.

Hi Kat - hope the inlaw visit is going well :) Your story about your friend almost had me in tears! You've mentioned him several times, but I'd never heard the entire story of how you met. I think that's great that you became friends that way! I hope you get to go and see him again!

I have to agree with Lisa A though about it being a little creepy that a 29 year old was communicating with a 13 year old on a regular basis, even if it did involve games. It's one thing while your parent is present and "meets" the person also, but not so much if the parent isn't aware! And I'm sure the guy could have had the best intentions, but when it comes to interacting online, it isn't very smart to be knowingly talking to young kids when you're older.

With that being said, it's a good thing that I don't have kids because I'd have to be one of those "do as I say, not as I do" parents - haha :) I've "met" so many people online, and usually eventually in person (just local people) through various groups. And while it's normally just meeting at a restaurant or other public place, right after moving to GA, I contacted a group and the group organizer was having a get-together at her home. After very little contact, she gave us the address and we went and had a great time! Even so, I'd probably never recommend anyone doing that, and definitely not a child, so I'm a poor example I suppose :)

I've not met anyone on GW, but would certainly be open to a chicago-area meeting if there's anyone out there. Meeting online friends is somewhat like internet-dating in many ways. My husband & I met on match.com seven years ago (oops.. almost 8 years since we met... doesn't time fly). Before meeting him I met lots of other guys, but none were "the one". I had a vetting process and (i believe) all the people I met were on-the-level and good guys, so there ARE really great people out there.

b

I finally had a chance to catch up with this lovely thread. Me? I feel like I've come full circle. Back in the days before the world wide web I had a great group of online friends who became IRL friends, and who greatly affected the course of my life. I travelled a lot for my work, and got to see ever so many of these friends fairly regularly. But because of a lot of these course changes, and because my longest, bestest friends moved away, it got to be that all of my really good friends were scattered around the country and the world. When I stopped travelling I got very lonely and set out to do different things to meet local people.

Now I have a great circle of IRL friends who live within a few miles of me, and I'm making online friends here too. While I have some people I e-mail with, mostly it's "forum friends", and I love seeing them all here.

Oh yeah!! First thing I did after reading the OP was search for my name (lowspark) and gina w and paulines both mentioned me.

As Gina said, over on cooking, we've had lots of get togethers. I've met several cooking and kitchen forum people (some of whom participate on other forums as well, such as home decorating) and consider them to be friends. I've driven to Lake Charles, Austin and San Antonio for meet ups, along with a very fun week spent in Tennessee with forum friends. And yes, when I visited Boston with my son, I visited Pauline, who was a very gracious hostess! (My son ended up in NYC for college in the end.)

I've also participated in swaps both on the cooking forum and even here on kitchens way back when!! (Pauline organized a couple of them here on the kitchen forum several years ago and they were great fun.)

As sweeby mentioned, there actually is a group of us in Houston who get together regularly. That includes riverrat1 (who drives in from Lake Charles when she can), dktrahan, sweeby, lyfia and our newest friend, bestyears. We meet for lunch at one of our homes or at a local eatery several times a year.

Boston area folks -

We have a thread going over at 'Conversations' re' the get-together, please join in!

(if you need directions to 'Conversations', just give a holler)

Through GW I have had the privilege of meeting several local lovely women who have been just wonderful in person, but the people who I met whom I would consider friends now, were Josh and Mimi Schaefer of Creative Soapstone, who went above and beyond in helping me to fix the finish on my soapstone so that I, too could love it! We found we had much in common and it has been a joy to get to know this amazing couple, despite the fact we are in NH and they are in FL.

Paulines - How do I get over to Conversations?

thanks

Here you go:

Here is a link that might be useful: Conversations

Lisa_a that is exactly why I started playing, too many scary people on the internet, plus the whole language thing! I bet if half the people knew what their kids were hearing on Xbox 360 and Playstation they would throw the game consoles out the window!

I can't even imagine my son talking to someone 29 online, whether it was gaming or otherwise and you did the right thing to tell them to have NO contact! I understand the 13 year old talking, but it has to make you wonder why a 29 year old would even want to converse with a 13 year old!!!

I used to sit behind my son and make him leave servers that were using bad language, or had people chatting in-game about weird stuff. Of course I also gave my son lots of advice like "look out bad guy, bad guy!"...so as you can imagine he LOVED that lol! Finally one day he said, "why don't you just try it instead of telling me how to play!"...and I did. Since I was one of maybe 2 or 3 women my age playing I became the unofficial "mom" of the game and people would actually quit swearing when I would enter a server, and I would type and ask why some kids were on so late and if they had done their homework, and when they would give out personal info while in the game (it was all typing, no voice chat) I would tell them not to do that. I would NEVER have chatted with them though, that is just weird and scary!!! I don't think parents realize how much kids will sometimes say when online, my husband used to have to remind me that I wasn't their parent and didn't have to tell them not to give out info, but as a mom I couldn't help it!

Now, my husband, my son, and I all play a WWII game. It still amazes me that I game online, but it's been a wonderful experience for all of us. I have the title of "cool" mom when my son's friends come over and realize that not only do I play, but I'm actually pretty darn good at it! We play with a group of other parents all ages 30-70 and we run our own servers where we don't allow any bad names, language, etc. so even though my kids are much older, it's a nice environment for me as well. The group even gets together once a year in Maine for a big get together, but we have yet to be able to make it. We have police officers, EMT's, fire fighters, retired and current military, IT admins, people who own their own businesses, you name it! Of course I'm one of only 2 women among the 60 or so men who play, but again I get the "cool" wife award! LOL

Though we have lots of friends in RL, the internet has allowed me to meet some wonderful people I never would have otherwise.

Traci, don't make me come down to GA and give you a lecture on "stranger danger" and how you shouldn't go to people's homes unless you know them! ;-)

Kat :)

Links are great, but a road map is good too.

Look on the page of thread titles. At the top of the list, next to where it says "On-Topic Discussions", over to the right a little, are two links. One is for "Gallery" which is a good place to post slow moving stuff, like how to choose stone, though it was originally intended for pictures. The other is "Conversations" which is where the off-topic stuff, like planning a meeting, goes.

Kat, I couldn't imagine either of our sons talking to someone so much older either. Up until that point, both only talked online with school friends, almost all kids we knew, and their cousins. Our older son had a Facebook page, hence our rules about information posting. Foul language would also upset me. I tried to get into gaming with them but it's just not my thing. No wait, I can't say that. We used to play Pac-man on the computer. Now that's a game I enjoyed! But it wasn't long before they had outgrown that one.

Funny how you were the "mom." Once a mom, always a mom, it's hard to quit even when it's not your kid.

Austin area folks!!!

Patty_cakes is organizing a get-together in your area, get thy over to 'Conversations' (directions furnished above), if interested.

Traci, don't make me come down to GA and give you a lecture on "stranger danger" and how you shouldn't go to people's homes unless you know them! ;-)

But Kat, that means I can't come to your house since I technically don't "know" you - haha :)

My husband & I met on match.com seven years ago (oops.. almost 8 years since we met... doesn't time fly). Before meeting him I met lots of other guys, but none were "the one". I had a vetting process and (i believe) all the people I met were on-the-level and good guys, so there ARE really great people out there.

I have to agree. It all comes down to using common sense, just as much as if you're out in public in real life. I, too, met my wife on line, and it wasn't even on one of the match sites. We actually met in a 40's chatroom. We "knew" each other about 4 years before we met in person, and it was about another year before we got married. We're coming around on year #9 right now, and I have no regrets whatsoever.

What I find odd are the people who are normally quite sensible about meeting people IRL and yet they become completely naive about meeting people on the 'net. They also seem to believe *everything* that is posted or sent by email no matter how tenuous the claim. Does anyone remember the hype about subliminal messages in ads and such that was so big in the '70s? I think it's kind of like that, some type of hypnotism going on that makes common sense fly away.

So .... would it be completely hypocritical of me to now propose a Portland area get-together? ;-) Rhome, I know this means you have to travel (and I hope you do!) but so far, I don't know of anyone but you in WA who posts with some regularity. With the holidays quickly approaching, we'd either need to do this soon or wait until 2010. Anyone game?

I agree lisa_a, people do let down their guard with the internet, kind of like when people visit a foreign city and let down their guard because they are on vacation! eek!

I was one of those naive people when I first got on the internet, just not about giving out personal info thankfully. I assumed that when people told you stuff about themselves they were being as honest as they would be if they were standing right in front of you. I had one guy who was my age, so late 30's at the time, who told me he was an engineer by day but in a garage band on the weekends. He even sent me a couple mp3's of their music, which were really good...a little too good if you know what I mean. I was suspicious as always and said to my husband and kids, "listen to this it's really good isn't it?!" They agreed and my daughter said "you know mom you can do a lyrics search," so I did and it came back to a real band. So detective that I am I then looked up the band and no where on their website did it say they were anything but an up and coming band, with NO engineers and no garage, they were all professional musicians hoping for a break! In fact they were to appear on the Tonight Show in a few weeks! It turned out to be Switchfoot and the guy who pretended to be in the band creating their songs was a total sham!!! I don't think he realized they were about to make it big on the national scene...either that or he was REALLY stupid! The best part about the whole thing was that he gave out lots of other personal info about working for the Navy as an engineer and even mentioned people he knew on my coast that were engineers who I knew...but I never gave him any info and never said that I knew the people he mentioned! That was my introduction to the internet and now even when people tell me they do a certain job or live in a certain place I'm still very suspicious and only completely believe them when I have proof...:-(

Traci, I almost put that at the end of my post, that you shouldn't go to visit people you don't know EXCEPT me of course LOL!

Bill, I think that's cool that you met your wife online and it clearly has worked out really well! Every time I mention your name my husband says "hey does GW Bill want to come do our backsplash tile?!" Even he knows the names of some of you on GW!

Bethandkevin...you're not one of those people on the match.com commercials are you?! I have another friend who met her husband on match.com and they are very happily married!

"hey does GW Bill want to come do our backsplash tile?!"

Where abouts are you?

Re your group meeting up here in Maine, where abouts?

Lisa- I'm in... but I would LOVE to do it after the new year. Course I'll make whatever work, but I kind of feel like that scene in Star Wars where the huge trash compactor is closing in on them!

Bill, I'm in Maryland...where are you located?

Kat :)

Lisa, my older daughters & I are trying to plan a visit to Powells' bookstore (we are used book addicts) and maybe Multnomah Seminary...It's a lot to ask and hope for, but if we could somehow get both that and a GW get-together scheduled together, that would be great. Otherwise, it's a pretty long trip for lunch. Not that you're not all worth it, though!

Hi Lesmis, no, we're not one of the people on the commercials... though we were a bit older than some when we met, so i always thought we would have made a good commercial. And you're right, the whole internet-meeting idea does take caution, but I'm a debate/communication professor so I rarely take anything at face value!

Bill, i love hearing that you too met your spouse online... its becoming more common!
b

Kat-- I'm in Bridgton, Maine. I thought you were in Mass.-- that's why I asked. :-)

Well Bill, if you ever feel like making a trip down south my way, let us know! :)

I've only been here a few months, but everyone has been really helpful and encouraging. And way smarter than me at this!

I'm not good at going beyond the board - something that I really should get better at, huh?

If there's another NY/NJ g2g, I'd be up for it. As long as I can have a mojito. Or a tile sample. :-)

How special that so many of you have met. I haven't yet put names to kitchens, let alone names to places. I still feel very much a newby, but have jumped in and posted anyway. So here is another post, I hope is well received. Rhome, I come from a family of avid readers. Especially my Mother and Sister. They used to travel to bookstores and gather bags of used books. A few years ago, my sister opened a used bookstore in WV. It is really cute and very well organized. She has a web site too, so I am going to post the name.
www.pbkpalace.com

Chiming in late because I rarely have time to check in these days but YES - the NY group -- Trailrunner, Cat_Mom, and a couple of others that I keep in touch with. It is so great to have met face-to-face! Hope to see you guys again in the spring if the stars line up and the dates are right.

Rayna

Hi Rayna!!!!!! Hope you and DH are doing well. It's been way too long since we had a NY area get-together--this spring for sure! (Hear that trailrunner? We're giving you plenty of advance notice to get up here! LOL)

Rayna! Great to 'see' you!

Fleur222, thanks for sharing. Maybe we have a bookstore in our future, the way we collect books. :-) My dh would be glad to hear that... We keep buying, and I can never get rid of any.

Hey, Rayna! Speaking of those you stay in touch with. . . did you get the voice mail message I left for you yesterday? I'm still looking to play catch up. Call me! :-)

I'm in. Any opportunity to come to Ptown is always great! After the start of the New Year would be best for me. Want anything from Harry and David?? I could bring goodies!

Not yet, but I did just join today after lurking for a while!

I'm hoping zipdee will tell me where in NC she lives? (Sorry if that's a bad thing to ask; I've tried to learn all the rules before posting.) I want to hire her to be my interior designer!

Anyone else in the Triangle area in NC?

lisa_a, we spent last Christmas in Sherwood OR. (LONG but great story, if there's a place to tell it elsewhere on here.) In a nutshell, our baby had been born in Hillsboro the day before we left (Dec. 21... Happy Birthday, Baby!), so we went to get her and stayed in a house on the highest point in Sherwood. Took us 36 hours to get to the hospital because of the awful weather. Wonderful experience though! I'd love to go back in the summer.

Thanks for being so willing to share all your kitchen experiences! We are getting ready to pull the trigger on a reno right after Christmas. I'm nervous!