32 replies to this topic

[crackers]

 Yearbook_Powerpoint.ppt   1.76MB   481 downloads
To see the Yearbook as a Powerpoint presentation, you will need to open it as “Read Only” and may need to download Powerpoint Reader

 first_half_of_Yearbook_PDF.pdf   1.6MB   400 downloads
 second_half_of_Yearbook_PDF.pdf   1.47MB   329 downloads
To open the pdf files you must use Acrobat reader 7.0.

(Patience...long load times may be possible)

In honor of Don Rockwell beginning this board a year ago, and to thank him, hillvalley, and everyone else who has made this such a welcoming community, I have put together this first “Yearbook” to capture some of the highlights (and a few lowlights) of the year. Even though Don stays in the background, without his continued inspiration, the contents of this Yearbook would be paltry. True, our livers and waistlines would probably be in better shape, but Davon Crest Farm, the many charities to which we have contributed, and the many friendships that have blossomed would have been the poorer without it.

I hope you will enjoy looking through the Yearbook as much as I enjoyed putting it together. We each have our own special donrockwell.com memories of the past year, and I hope you will share yours as well. I also hope that those who would someday like to sign up for a dinner, or come to a happy hour, or share a favorite recipe, will look through the Yearbook and decide to do it.

Thank you Don – this Yearbook is for you.

If any of you would like me to try to email the file instead,- either as a .ppt. or .pdf, please send me a PM and include an email that will accept a 4 or 5 mb file.

[Tweaked]

That is most excellent!

[erikv]

Wow, that is great! It makes me wish I had joined earlier! Hopefully I will finally get to meet a lot of you throughout the rest of this year!

[Mark Slater]

Nice work, Crackers!

[mdt]

THANK YOU!

Boy did that bring back some good memories. Here is to making many more in the year to come!

[goldenticket]

Thanks Crackers - what a wonderful tribute to our little (but getting bigger all the time) community. As a semi-newcomer to the group, I just want to say thank you to all of you who have made me feel welcome and the many who have become my friends over the past months!

Truth be told, it was the pictures of that ventworm cake that got me interested in this motley crew ! ("who the hell are these people?!" - I'm so glad I took a chance and got to find out!)

[perrik]

"This document might use advanced encryption that is not supported for PowerPoint for Mac. If this document was created with PowerPoint for Windows, ask the author to save it as type PowerPoint 97-2003 and 95 Presentation."

(This happens in PowerPoint 11.2.3 for Mac OS X, which is the latest update)

[Heather]

"This document might use advanced encryption that is not supported for PowerPoint for Mac. If this document was created with PowerPoint for Windows, ask the author to save it as type PowerPoint 97-2003 and 95 Presentation."

(This happens in PowerPoint 11.2.3 for Mac OS X, which is the latest update)

That's what I got too. Guess I will wait for the PDF version.

[JPW]

Superb!
Really superb!

[crackers]

"This document might use advanced encryption that is not supported for PowerPoint for Mac. If this document was created with PowerPoint for Windows, ask the author to save it as type PowerPoint 97-2003 and 95 Presentation."
(This happens in PowerPoint 11.2.3 for Mac OS X, which is the latest update)

This is part of the "technical difficulties" of posting something like this. Saving the PowerPoint as 97-2003 and 95 Presentation created a file too large to attach (14.2 mb). If any of you would like me to try to email the pdf instead, please send me a PM and include an email that will accept a file of that size. (14MB is too large for me to email) If you have any technical advice you're welcome to send it to me in a PM. Thanks.

[Rick Azzarano]

What a wonderful job and presentation. Thank you for this (and for all here who make visiting this site so much fun).

[jparrott]

Brava!

[lackadaisi]

Wow! That is great!

[Jacques Gastreaux]

Crackers: Great POW. Thanks. You don't really realize how much stuff the people on the board did as a group until you see it all summarized.

[Camille-Beau]

Crackers, this is AWESOME! Thanks for spending the time to summarize the year so perfectly and creating such a wonderful story that shows how interesting, diverse and fun this community really is.

Congratulations Don on a very successful first year!

[Heather]

Thanks for the pdf. That was great!

[Barbara]

Thanks for the pdf.  That was great!

Yup. Amazing. I can't wait for next year's installment. P.S.: I thought you had a day job!

[JLK]

Hilarious! And so creative. I had no idea that I was, uh, such a seeker.

Resolving to post less,
JLK

[Meaghan]

Off my 660 posts or however many, I can assure you 440 are in the pale. And this one will be, too. Crackers that was darling. Are the bullets little heart-shaped confections? I'm just sorry that you didn't pay more attention to all my references to stripers and stuff.

[ustreetguy]

Crackers - just throwing more love your way! When you mentioned you were putting this together, I had no idea how well laid out it would be. Very impressive!

[DonRocks]

This evening I had dinner with two of the finest people I’ve ever known, Thérèse and Francine, two widowed sisters from Nice, France, who could be nuns if not saints. One lost her only child to AIDS, and the other lost hers to cancer - both children were in their early 30s, and everything these ladies had lived for was taken away from them on the whim of an angry God.

We dined at Restaurant Eve. Before dinner, I snuck-ordered them a “Pineapple and Pig” cocktail, Todd Thrasher’s latest concoction.

“It has almost no alcohol,” I told them.

We spent the next two hours eating and drinking – me going at both with great élan and gusto, and the two teetotaling dames taking polite sips of wine as they enjoyed their meal. At one point, I looked over at Thérèse, and saw tears in her eyes, the first time I’d seen this in over three years. I asked her what was wrong.

“It’s easy for me to think about Karen here,” she said.

About twenty minutes later, the three of us were laughing so hard about something - and I honestly can't remember what it was - that we couldn't catch our breath.

--

This community was born out of a sense of loss. It is worth nothing without its members, and I want to reiterate that every individual here is more important than the site as a whole. If it continues to grow, then we need to welcome members 1000-2000 with the same open-arms as we did the first 1000.

And more than anything else, I want to use the power of our numbers to actively help others in need. (*)

Crackers, thank you.
Rocks.

(*) And to maximize our fun while doing it!

[Mark Slater]

We spent the next two hours eating and drinking – me going at both with great élan and gusto, and the two teetotaling dames taking polite sips of wine as they enjoyed their meal.  At one point, I looked over at Thérèse, and saw tears in her eyes, the first time I’d seen this in over three years.  I asked her what was wrong.

“It’s easy for me to think about Karen here,” she said.

I think about Karen. Rest her soul.

[robert40]

After reading some recent comments and discussions on other boards. I not only was getting disgusted with food boards but beginning to question the true nature of people.
Thank you Rocks! For the aspiring post and your perfect timing.

[Mark Slater]

After reading some recent comments and discussions on other boards. I not only was getting disgusted with food boards but beginning to question the true nature of people.
Thank you Rocks! For the aspiring post and your perfect timing.

[Nadya]

Crackers!!!!!!!!!! Baby!!!! Thank you for a wonderful way to start my (work) week on a right note!!! You made me laugh, you made me tear up. You are fantastic.

[RissaP]

This community was born out of a sense of loss.  It is worth nothing without its members, and I want to reiterate that every individual here is more important than the site as a whole.  If it continues to grow, then we need to welcome members 1000-2000 with the same open-arms as we did the first 1000.

And more than anything else, I want to use the power of our numbers to actively help others in need. (*)

Crackers, thank you.
Rocks.

(*) And to maximize our fun while doing it!

Absolutely brilliant and clever! I love it Crackers! Thanks for doing this. Now old and new members have something to remember and cherish! It's amazing; I do believe that this site has spawned to a real community. Don, your message is powerful and very inspiring--it is a blessing in disguise. Thanks for your generosity and kindness. And to Hillvalley, you have contributed so much to this site! Thanks for putting up with us!

[starfish]

cracker's, i would like to add my thanks for your wonderful effort. the yearbook was a wonderful synopsis of the year.

[Halloween]

Crackers, The yearbook left me speechless. You continue to amaze me! I joined dr.com in May, 2005 (which i will post about in detail later), and it has been an adventure ever sense. Hillvalley encouraged me to attend my first dr happy hour, and then you, crescenfresh, blacksheep, mdt and others welcomed me with open arms once I arrived. What a community! Thanks, crackers.

[Audrey2025]

A beautiful labor of love. And a worthy subject, I might add.

Cheers!

[ScotteeM]

Crackers,

I'm late saying so, but I thoroughly enjoyed going through the yearbook last night--it turned a bad night into a good one!

Finding this group has been a great thing for me, and reading the yearbook just reinforced why I've made this website my home page.

Thank you for this beautiful memento! It brought back some great memories.

Cheers!

[zoramargolis]

Adding some kudos, here. Great job, Crackers!

[shogun]

Dude! That's my fish!!

Seriously awesome work! Tracking down all this must have taken forever!

Thanks!

[squidsdc]

I needn't have stayed up this late, but I was riveted...with a silly smile still glued to my face! Great work!