Greetings and Salutations ::tipping my hat:: I cannot keep it to myself any longer. I'm gonna bust. Now, before I tell you what I'm about to tell you, I have to lace this post with ferrety words so that BIG does not tell me it's off topic. So just ignore the random ferret references. Many of you met my two boys at the Atlanta ferret symposium a few years back. It was a great experience for my boys if you can imagine. The most precious thing that they took back with them was the great feeling of being "accepted" into such a loving community. They felt like they had extended family. And indeed they did. Well, it turns out that my ferret friends weren't done "giving" to my family. My oldest son, Chet, is a beach boy. Ferret. And just like many of us, he had California dreams. Ferret. Over the years, our family has had contact with many ferret people in California. Ferret. My best friend, Robin Jones, lives there. Ferret. She came to love Chet (and Sean) from afar. Ferret. And they referred to her as "Aunty Robin". Ferret. So began the huge brainstorm, of sending Chet out to California someday. Ferret; is that enough ferrets yet? My son is hugely responsible and for not so happy reasons, he is very independent and self sufficient for his age. A perk that comes with a brother like Sean, and a mom that has become incapacitated in the past. Chet has worked since he was twelve years old. I mean steady jobs. He actually has many bills, believe it or not. But despite the cost of high school (yes, we pay for that here), band, and a car, he saved enough and earned our trust enough for the big trip. Ferret; that's just in case. So last Monday, we waved as the Chetinator fly off into the horizon bound for California and all it's lunatics it has to offer. He was heading right into the hands of people worse than your average Ca lunatic. He was going to be entrusted into the hands of Ca ferret ... lunatics. ::shiver:: He was so cute in running to Walmart the day before to get special new shoes, and spending the entire day packing just the right things. Sean helped. Sean said he had to do the actual packing for him, because "Chet didn't know". Chetmeister ran into a bit of trouble on his way out. A flight got canceled and we had the choice of loosing a day of travel, or letting him drive off in a limo to Atlanta to get off the ground that night. It was an adventure. And that was no choice for a 17 year old boy. We sat on the curve waiting for a ride next to a transvestite (well, not really, but wow, did she look and act like one) who we thought was going to travel in the car with him. Chet broke a sweat and with wide eyes, shoved some ear phones into his ears that were not connected to anything but air in his carry bag. Lol. Turned out the lady didn't ride with him after all. But already the tone was set for the week and off he went. I'll tell you in a series of much shorter posts what happened during the week and who he visited. Maybe even some others here might have some imput about the experience of sending him off with me (in a virtual way), and those that generously received him as their guest. So in any case this is the background to Chet's great adventure. Ferret. Do you think I tricked BIG? Wolfy ... ferret [Moderator's note: This post scored so high on the ferret-related list indicator that I had to put it up front! BIG] [Posted in FML issue 5230]