ssullivan

Mmmm good place! I ate there several years ago when working in that part of California. Good luck to both of you as you enter the next phase of your lives. Hope you'll both remain active on HAIF!

About halfway through last night's episode I had figured out that the scenes with Jack back home were in the future, and not flashbacks. And I half expected it to be Kate that drove up when he called someone and asked that person to meet him outside the airport. I wasn't expecting him to say they should have never left. I don't see them being rescued in the premiere of the next season either. That would be far too easy and would kill interest in the series. There are still far too many mysteries on the island to be revealed, and part of me does believe that Ben and Locke are correct that they shouldn't have made that call. It's going to be very interesting to see where the show goes from here. I just wish we didn't have to wait until February to find out what happens next.

My boyfriend and I ate at Hungry's about a month ago and I loved it! He had been there several times before but this was my first time. The food was great and very fresh, and I loved the raspberry lemonade. I can't believe I've lived so close to this little neighborhood place for so long and never tried it before now. We'll definitely be back. I've always been a fan of Barnaby's. I do think some of the entr

I still watch Lost also.

In all cases that I know of where a family member was a surrogate, the sperm did not come from the surrogate's brother! For example, partner A's sister is the surrogate, and is impregnated with partner B's sperm. The sperm and egg come from two people who are not biologically related. However, the resulting child has genes from partner B and a close relative of partner A, which makes the child a biological relative of partner A. Hope that wasn't too confusing!

I first came out in 1999, when I was almost 25. I had known I was gay for a very long time

Actually the East Concourse is supposed to be built. It's the West Concourse (where the current concourse American and Delta use is located) that will only be built if air traffic justifies it. Also, the Central Concourse isn't fully opened yet. The east end of it is nearing completion and should be opening soon.

The signs you saw on I-95 were probably for Amtrak's auto train, which runs from the DC area down to Florida. You can load your car on the train, then ride Amtrak to Florida, and then have your own car to get around in while on vacation.

I agree. It's the same reason I see children under the age of 5 in R rated movies at 11:00 PM on a Saturday night, or kids running around a nice restaurant creating chaos while their parents sit there enjoying their meal oblivious to what their precious little darlings are doing to ruin the dining experience for everyone else, or kids running around a store creating a mess while Mom ignores them, or any of the dozens of other examples I see almost daily. Somehow we've ended up with a big group of parents, many from my own generation, that have no parenting skills whatsoever. Yeah I know I don't have any children of my own so who am I to judge... but still, a lot of the stuff I see kids getting away with in public these days we would have never tried to pull when I was a kid, because we knew we'd be in trouble with Mom and Dad and that the punishment would not be fun. I'm not saying I was the perfect child, because I wasn't. But when I was bad, I paid the price and learned that what I had done would not be tolerated, and I shouldn't do it again. It's called discipline, and it's something that's obviously lacking in a lot of homes these days.

There are some changes. If you look at the back of the letter that accompanied the new channel lineup that came in the mail, it details the changes. A lot of the premium channels have changes, such as the elimination of West Coast feeds for most HBO channels. However, the new channel lineup they sent out still says Time Warner Cable. Nothing in it indicated that on May 15 we'll see the switch to the Comcast brand, although I assume that this is the new channel lineup for Comcast.

It's not. But you can still have a wedding and consider yourself married even if it's not a legal marriage. I've even known heterosexuals who have had a ceremony but never got a marriage license and made it all legal. While getting married at Disney World is not my style, I do applaud Disney for giving equal treatment to all couples who desire to have a marriage ceremony at their park.

Good question, but given the safety record of the TGVs in France, both are extremely safe, reliable modes of transportation, and both are much safer than driving.

Great post KinkaidAlum. You hit all the points I was about to make. And also add to that that rail is much less prone to delays and cancellation due to weather, which can be a problem at times. On one of those days when the entire state of Texas is dealing with spring thunderstorms and IAH, HOU, DAL, and DFW are all a mess, high speed rail service could still be making the trip with much less disruption. If Texas TGV had gotten off the ground and we had a high-speed rail network linking the major cities of this state, which terminals downtown and at a few key places along the route (such as Waco and Austin on a San Antonio-Dallas/Ft. Worth trip), Southwest, Continental, and American would not be flying nearly the same number of seats they currently are on routes between Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. Texas TGV was a HUGE threat to Southwest because of all the reasons above, and that's why they fought so hard to kill it. All those Southwest (and Continental and American to lesser extents) "shuttle" flights within Texas that are filled with business travelers making day trips every weekday would have seen a dramatic decrease on passengers if high-speed rail was available as an option that was priced about the same as flying. Of course a lot of people would still fly, but in many cases high speed rail would still be a better option if it existed.

I walked past there today on my way to the Astros game and was amazed with how great the finished product looks. I hadn't been down that stretch of Texas in several months so it was quite a change for me from what I was used to seeing there. I think the Church and Episcopal Diocese did an amazing job with this project.

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing. I'll be going back to San Francisco a month from now with my boyfriend, one of my best friends, and his fianc

Many of those wires are due to the fact that Muni (San Fran's transit agency) uses a lot of trolley buses. All of the streets that the trolley buses run on are covered with overhead wires. Several streets also have street-running light rail and streetcars which also add to the wires. And I don't think San Francisco has much in the way of underground electric and phone cables. Many of the streets there are very cluttered with overhead cables.

Having seen what Rita did to Southwest Lousiana and Southeast Texas, yes, it would have been very devestating had it hit Galveston and Houston head-on.

Great post KinkaidAlum. I totally agree with your last two paragraphs. Just living and enjoying your life is what it's all about after all. It's not an easy path for many of us, but it is a great feeling to know what you've gone through and come out a successful, well adjusted, mature, relatively happy adult on the other side. My only choices in the matter were to stop hiding, and to learn to love myself. It's paid off for me, and it sounds like it has for you as well. And I certainly know that I probably wouldn't be where I am today in some aspects of my life, such as my career, had I been born heterosexual. Even with all the difficulties in my younger years, I'm happy with how it's turned out and look forward to an even better future. I'll say "no thank you" to that cure too.

I don't have to go very often. I use Stamps.com at home to print postage. Sure it costs me a little for the labels and monthly processing fee, but work reimburses part of that. Most of my mailing is stuff I have to send for work by priority mail. About the only time I have to go to the post office is to pick up more priority mail envelopes when I run out. But every now and then I have a package that is shipped to me that for some reason I have to go to the post office counter to pick it up. Clocks or not I'd still notice how long it takes them.

Legos! Those were the best. All my old Lego sets are still at Mom and Dad's house in the closet of my childhood bedroom. I really should get them out and bring them to Houston. I also had an awesome model train set. And of course the bike ranked up there pretty high too, since it was my mode of transportation around the neighborhood.

I've seen far worse passenger behavior on the ground in airports than in the air. I must say that the couple who changed their kid's very stinky #2 diaper on the floor in the aisle in the middle of the passenger cabin ranks up there pretty high for inappropriate behavior, especially when the airplane had diaper changing tables in the lavatories. They were asked repeatedly by the flight attendants to take it to the lavatory but refused. After they were finished, they "disposed" of the dirty diaper by placing it in a seat back pocket, not taking it to the lavatory to throw it away properly. The smell got bad enough that the flight attendants made an announcement to ask everyone to open their air vents fully and then walked down the aisle spraying air freshener everywhere. Those of us who were sitting closest to this classy family nearly asphyxiated on the fumes that came out of their little one's diaper. I'm amazed I haven't seen a lot more considering how often I fly. Maybe it helps that I avoid the "discount" airlines and get upgraded to first class more often than not.

Don't worry, bachanon, I didn't take any of your posts as belittling. For each of us it's a struggle. We all have our different things to deal with in life and struggle with, and each of us has to work through them in our own time.

This thread has made me think about a lot of things, and brought out some old feelings I've not had in quite a while. To be honest, I really don't know why or how I became blessed with a sexual orientation that has me attracted only to other men. But I don't consider it a sin to say I believe I was born this way, nor do I consider that to be the easy way out. Yes, I do believe that there is a good deal of scientific evidence that indicates that sexual orientation is not chosen. Whether that's the result of genes, something in the environment, or hormonal levels during pregnancy, or something entirely different, I don't know, but I also really don't care. The fact is I am who I am, and I spent a lot of my earlier life struggling not only to understand myself but also struggling to find happiness in being a person that everyone else around me seemed to think I should be. I don't believe that my sexual orientation is all that fluid or that it can be changed. Believe me, I tried. While many of my heterosexual peers were loving life during their childhood, teenage years, and early 20s, I was trying to appear happy on the outside while slowly dying of confusion, shame, and depression on the inside. It was only when I let go of all that, and started to embrace who I am, and learn to like myself as I am, that I started to find happiness. It took a long time, and a lot of counseling, for me to be comfortable in my own skin. Now, as a guy in my early 30s, I'm very comfortable with who I am, and I am generally very happy. Forgive me if "taking the easy road" and believing that I was always gay (which I do... HTownWxBoy's posts earlier in this thread on that topic could have been written by myself) is wrong. But the fact is that accepting myself for who I am and believing that this is how I was created and who I was meant to be has given me a lot of peace that questioning my sexual orientation and fighting to conform to society's image of the ideal man could never have provided. Why should I question certain things if all I get as a result is depression and misery, coupled with thoughts of ending my own life? I'm sorry. I had enough of that during my first 25 years. I refuse to go back. Love me or hate me, I am who I am. I'm a man, who is well aware of the fact that I have a penis, which is fully functional and just happens to like other men. I have my masculine traits, but I'm not the least bit ashamed to admit that I have my more feminine side as well. I enjoy going to an Astros game with some of my guy friends just as much as any heterosexual man with a wife and kids. Yet I also enjoy taking care of my home just as much as some of my very traditional heterosexual female friends. I do a great job at that traditional manly task of going out and having a career and earning a living, yet I also am told by my boyfriend that I'm a pretty darn good cook. At times I may be very "butch," and at other times my more fabulous side emerges. The fact is, I don't feel like I have to conform to anyone else's standards of masculinity to be loved or accepted. Being who I am, and doing what comes natural to me may be the easy way out, but it also has brought me the most happiness and success in my life. Just because I'll never have a wife and might never procreate doesn't mean I'm not a man who is mature and makes a contribution to our society. I may be gay and pretty darn happy about that, but I still have a successful career, comfortable home, great friends, someone special I really care about, and the time and resources to volunteer in the community in ways that do make this a better world. This world takes all types, and I don't believe that there is only one way to be a man or a woman. Our world would probably be a lot happier place and much more peaceful if people would just learn to accept and embrace the differences that exist among us and stop trying to force those who are different in some way from the majority to be who they aren't.

No matter what happens with the retail tenants down the road, I hope that St. Thomas keeps the buildings and trees as is, and doesn't wall off that development from Montrose. It's such an attractive building that it would be a huge loss to the neighborhood to see it destroyed.

ApartmentRatings.net is nothing but a website for those who are pissed off for whatever reason at their landlord to vent. Look at almost any property on that site and you'll see that the negative opinions far outweight the positives. The site is far from balanced, and IMO should not be given much credit in making a decision about where to live. At many of those properties the majority of residents are very satisfied and don't feel the need to go online and vent. Those who are upset over something will go out and post as much as they can that's negative in order to get it out of their system.