Road Trip!

I'm going to take a vacation next week. We're driving to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. It's a 19 hour drive from the San Francisco Bay Area, and since that won't be enough time for the four of us to really get to know one another, Jennifer, Abby, Henry, and I will be driving north for a day to Ashland, Oregon first. Then we'll head out east over back roads to get to Jackson Hole sometime early next year. Er... week. We'll be driving back the following Tuesday so I can fly to Des Moines for Gnomedex on August 23/24. There's nothing like a road trip to really get a family at each other's throats. I'm planning to shoot it on video in hopes of selling the rights to MTV. I will be offline the entire time, and since we've been having some trouble with trolls in Leoville in the past few months, I've decided to take some steps to protect the integrity of the message boards. 1. No new message board users will be approved while I'm gone. That alone should keep the troublemakers out. All our current members our great. I apologize for those new folks who have to wait the two weeks to get in, but you can read the posts without registering, and I promise to approve you the minute I get back. 2. I've upgraded a number of people to moderator status. They'll have the power to delete messages and threads and ban users while I'm gone - just in case some trolls do sneak in. The new moderators are the most long term members of the Town Square and have earned my trust over more than a year of posting. You'll notice that their names are now in red (or green if they're assigned to patrol a particular Forum). Be nice to them - the pay is low and the work hard. I'm also going to put someone in charge of this Blog to keep an eye on the comments. I'll miss you all. Have a great time while I'm gone and try not to stain the carpets.