Welcome binskki and janvan

[BeiNtelligentLater]

<<tosses binskki and janvan a swirly FRU

Grab a comfy bean bag, flop on down, there are snacks on the counter and iced tea and other beverages in the fridge....sit back, read some...post some and make yourselves at home!!!!

Hey everyone binskki is a new found BNL friend in MA....going to her first ever BNL concert in New Hampshire.....everyone say HI!!!! Now bin you have to post!!! LOL

[no nickname, just Andrea]

Hi binskki!!!

... somehow that made me feel like the beginning of an AA meeting....

Welcome to Random, I hope that both of you feel welcome and just jump right in and start posting as opposed to just lurking.... *coughhackcough* We really are very friendly people!!!

Welcome janvan, too!!!

[Barenaked Flipper]

I'd splash the newbies, but they don't seem to be listening...

[Robin the lurker]

Hi...this is binskki, posting finally. Sorry to lurk and then not sign in to post this, but it has been a day of EMAIL HELLLLLLLLL, the latest aspect of which seems to be that I can't get a confirmation code to verify my registered account here <sob> even though my webmail is working fine. Don't discuss Microsoft Outlook with me. In fact, don't discuss Microsoft at all, lol, not to mention various tech support people at both Verizon and Yahoo...may their undies climb up their unhelpful bums.

Anyhow, hi all; Sallie (not sure which name she is on here, sorry) has been helping initiate me into the wonderful world of actually getting to a BNL concert; she helped me get a presale ticket to Manchester, NH (just joined Ladies Room late August, so missed the cutoff for the presale codes) and then I went slightly insane today and got tix for Amherst and Boston off Ticketmaster. Sallie has assured me that this does not make me a dangerous loonie; rather, it apparantly makes me a person who ought to come and post here with this very wonderful group of close-knit people. Ummm....can I buy you all a round of virtual drinks?

Okay, this is all backwards...normal people would probably introduce themselves, talk about the reason they are posting, and then moan and complain about their email. I do apologise. Have always had moderate difficulty behaving like normal people. So, for that "hi, this is who I am" bit that I missed, here goes.

I am a female, 40, called Robin, and I live about 20 miles west of Boston with my two daughters, aged 11 and 4. The older just started 6th grade and is so far surviving, if anyone has preadolescents they want to commiserate about; the younger has mild Autism Spectrum Disorder, if anyone loves to chat about that cheerful subject. They are both awesome. There is also with my slightly neurotic, smallish, Portugese Water Dog - which, believe it or not, is a breed. Oh, and I got a Honda Fit this spring, if anyone wants to know more about that - and it is orange, which is a hoot! I didn't pick the color, but it's fascinating having an orange car; strangers walk up to me from 100 feet away in the parking lot and say, "Wow, cool car!" Honda should pay me a commission, or send someone to wash and wax it three times a week, or something.

I only discovered BNL in the past year or so - suddenly looked at my music collection and realized I had not really added to it since I graduated college....a length of time that was rapidly stretching into decades, ack! So I started listening to the radio while I was taxiing my kids around - and, lo and behold! I kept hearing these very cool songs that made me sit in the car to wait for the end of the song to see who the artist was...and it always seemed to be Barenaked Ladies. So I bought an album, then another. Wow, ALL the songs were good!

I was thrilled with my brilliant new discovery and mentioned it to a very good bud who happens to be Canadian; he pretty much wet himself laughing. (come to think of it, that's not the first time he has wet himself laughing at me...hmmmm.....) So...okay, I am about a decade behind...but wow, how great are they?

I have discovered that it's best to confess your utter ignorance right up front and have a good laugh at it

I have spent way too much time typing to really nice folk online, as I play some mmorpgs from time to time; primarily Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft. I have a couple of "virtual bros" I play with (the Canadian guy and one in Houston), and the three of us have hung together for ...good lord, nearly 4 years now. We have been taking a wee break for the last month or so, but may be hopping back into WoW on a player-vs.-player server. I used to be a wuss when it came to trying to beat real live players (aaaaahhh which key do i hit ahhhhhh), but the guys have taken great pride in coaching me to become more bloodthirsty and efficient.

It has been a tough few years (am currently going through a divorce, hearing Monday Sept. 11 - horrid date, but thank God I will be getting it over with) but things are on an upswing, so I can come out from under my rock and go....COOOL, I am gonna go to some BNL concerts, woot me.

<looks around for publisher for this novel>

Will try to get Random login squared away soon....thanks for reading this, sorry to run on, and, hello again, all.

--binskki (Robin)

[BeiNtelligentLater]

WOOOO HOOOOOOO BINS

I am glad you posted, even if in a state that is not quite yourself. Just in case you did not know it, this is Sallie. I hope your like lots of dogs, I kind of forgot to tell you that Random has a ton of them...in fact I don't remember how many. They are lovable, but watch where you put food or drink!!!!

[Dragonheart]

Hello Binskki

A warm (literally) welcome from Australia...I have 2 kids 17 yr old son & a 11 yr old daughter (she got me into BNL when she was 3 and a half) gee that was a long time ago...

Hopefully to see you around....

By the way also watch out for the glomps too they will come out of no-where!

[mobitz]

Welcome!!

;D

[binskki]

Hmm, did we hit a limit on the "General/do me a favor open the door" thread? It doesn't seem to want to let me post a reply there to you nice folks - so I will just inflict it on you here...

Linnea loves her horse therapy; they are just at the point of teaching her to post a bit at a trot (as opposed to bouncing up and down squealing with delight). She generally does her session with a therapist and two assistants (so she has someone on both sides); her trunk stability has improved a lot, though, so they don't need to hang onto her much.

One of the cool things about it is that she integrates games and answering questions and looking for objects out on the trail with the physical skills she has to use to keep her balance on the horse - which is awesome because autism is primarily a processing problem. People on the autism spectrum have really small neural pathways between all the different parts of the brain, which means every time the frontal lobe (which is the decide-what-to-do bit) needs to come up with a direction and sends out to the places where we store emotional memory and motor processing and speech it has to work really hard. I kind of think of it as being like you might feel when you are trying to remember someone's name...you have to consciously concentrate and push for the answer. Dunno how accurate that is, as I am not "on the spectrum," but it seems to make some intuitive sense. Many on the autism spectrum also have some sensory integration issues, which in Linnea's case means she can get "overloaded" with a lot of noise and she is very touch-sensitive on her upper body (she never hugged me until she was about 3). Also, when she gets overwhelmed her auditory basically turns off (she can't hear you at all) and producing speech becomes very difficult, for her so you have to get down and get eye contact and sometimes use a picture or something to help her know what to do.

She is a great kid...loves people, verbal skills are actually on the charts for her age group now (yay!!) and she generally charms the socks off everyone. She often finds herself very puzzled by the stuff I want her to do, though, and gives me the "I am surrounded by idiots" look.

Dragon, how is your daughter doing with the dyslexia, and how long has she been doing the riding therapy? I have a couple of (I think) mild dyslexia symptoms to do with right/left identification and flipping letters and things when i get stressed - thankfully nothing that ever was a problem for me, though. Color blindness must be quite awkward. Plus, anything that makes you "different" when you are 11 just sucks, as everything is horribly embarrassing then anyway.

Eggs Benny were good this morning; split them and a blueberry waffle with my brother, yummy.

[BeiNtelligentLater]

binskki, we shut all threads down at 10 pages, however, a new one is opened to take its place. I don't remember what I called the new thread...something about coming in or who's here. Breakfast sounds good, I had a ham and cheddar omelette at our usual breakfast place. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.

[binskki]

Wuwu I went blah blah blah until I filled up an ENTIRE THREAD! /takesabow

[Dragonheart]

the colour blindness does stress her a bit & its even worse around christmas time when the red/ green colours appear...I try & buy furnishing that are light pastel colours and less of the red/ green combination to confuse her...

My daughters dylexia is bad, but is improving since she has changed schools and has a teachers assistant with her 3 days / week, and the horse riding has been beneficial, she is al ovely caring child who has a lot to give to others...*hums chikity china, the chinese chicken*

[binskki]

Gah...hadn't thought of Christmas with red and green. Must be very frustrating.

I hope the teaching assistant and the new school make a better situation for her. She sounds great.

[Dragonheart]

she got me into the Ladies, when she was 3 and a half, asking for "chicken" which she was hearing on the radio (One Week) and it got me hooked and as they say the rest was history...

[binskki]

Smart kid.

Linnea loves a bunch of their songs; I think she likes all the vocal harmonies and how they change them up, particularly. I stick my own harmonies in too while I am taxiing her around places, and we have a fine old time.