***Please note: I wrote this post yesterday, but couldn't get it uploaded. Some things may be a little out-of-date.***

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you lovers out there. Right now, you might have noticed that the comic isn't appearing. Well there was yet ANOTHER problem with the logs on this computer, so we are hoping to get that fixed today. Since there isn't a comic, I thought I should get my blog on.

Something of importance is this Real Life Forums Gathering. For some reason I felt that there would be more people on the east coast who would be interested in a vacation with us and yet only one or two extra people have signed up. If we don't get more people, then we are going to cancel the entire week-long event. We might even be out a very large deposit on the place. In fear of this happening, I am going to pimp this again on the front page. Since I have discussed this now TWICE, I expect you all to be calamoring for that forum thread with wads of bills being waved above your heads. Its just the polite thing to do. =)

This is what has been posted in the forum:

Location: Duck Landing, NC (a little north of Kitty Hawk, NC)
When: April 1 through April 9 (split into segments of Apr 1-5 and 5-9)

Minimum deposit rate: $90 per two or four days planned
Preferred deposit rate: $155 per four days planned
Total two-day overall price (including deposit): $90 to $150
Total four-day overall price (including deposit): $155 to $250 per four days (PLEASE READ THE PRICE NOTES BELOW)

Due date for signups: February 28 -- deposits due ASAP before this.
Payment method: Cashier's check, money order, or PayPal (PLEASE READ PAYMENT NOTES BELOW)
Closest airport: Norfolk, VA (airport code: ORF, and yes, the closest airport is in another state) Distance from house: 1.5 to 2 hours.

Pricing is based on splitting the available eight days into two four-day segments. It's not quite what we were planning on, but it's still a goodly amount of time, and pretty inexpensive on a daily basis. The prices include the following:

* House rental
* Rental taxes and fees
* Airfare and food for the hosts (Greg, Elizabeth, Jez, and Martin)
* Food and some incidentals for the guests

If you can only make it for two days, the price will be 60% of the normal price. This means that the cap will be at $150, which allows 48 hours in the house. Some people have asked about this, and while it was not considered a possibility before, it is now available.

There will be no pro-rating. If you can only make one day, you have to pay for two. If you can only make three days, you're still required to pay for the full four. No one who has not paid will be allowed in the house. We really do apologize for this, but it's the only way to be fair to those who have paid for guaranteed room, and to ensure that I don't go insane balancing the schedule.

At this point, couples are permitted. However, this is contingent on the number of forumites who wish to go. If pressure starts coming about, we may ask those intending to travel as couples for volunteers to go only as forumites.

Deposits: Minimum deposit due by February 28 is $90 per segment, for those that need a little time to get together some money. However, it is strongly requested that you pay the preferred deposit rate of $155 per segment, as it will make life much easier on us.

Please include with your payment your forum name, real name, age, and a valid e-mail address so that you can be contacted with updates. Also include how long you will stay (for clarity's sake) and who, if anyone, is coming with you.

Basic deposits are based on the minimum amount that we need to secure the rental. Preferred deposits are based on the minimum level at which a four-day stay will be priced, that matching with 20 people staying the entire week (40 segments), or $155. If we get a solid 40 segment bookings, then there will be no extra amount. However, if it falls below that, then there will be a remainder due ten days later; the amount of the remainder will be posted, and notices sent out. The highest it will likely be is $235, if only 22 bookings are made. We figure it will settle out to about $185, maybe less. It's a little higher than I had listed before due to a slight spreadsheet construction error on my part. Sorry if this causes any inconvenience.

PAYMENTS Important: Payments are non-refundable after February 1.

Payments will be accepted via cashier's check, money order, or other secured instrument. Personal checks will NOT be accepted. Money orders may be purchased from the US Postal Service for 95 cents, but pretty much any money orders will be accepted.
Payments may also be made via PayPal. You can use PayPal to send the money via credit card, but there will be a surcharge on each payment, as credit cards are not factored into the costs, and PayPal takes 2.9% + 30 cents on each transaction; it works out to about $5 extra initially, and about $7 total maximum if only 11 people show up. Use the following links for PayPal:

Deposit (preferred) for PayPal transfers (NOT credit cards)
Deposit (minimum) for PayPal transfers (NOT credit cards)
Deposit (preferred) for PayPal transfers (USING credit cards)
Deposit (minimum) for PayPal transfers (USING credit cards)

A surcharge has been added to the credit card payments ($4.94 for the preferred deposit and $3.00 for the minimum deposit) to reflect the additional amount that I get charged for accepting them.If you're planning on staying the whole week, make sure that you change the quantity to 2, because your guaranteed spot is based on your deposit.

So as you can see, this can be a VERY inexpensive vacation, where your food and hotel are taken care of in one price. I have had readers who have stayed there before email me and tell me how awesome this place is and how they would love to go back in a heartbeat. So if you are on the fence, maybe you should check out the listing again. When are you ever going to have the chance to stay at a BEACH HOUSE for this price ever again?

Now on to other subjects. Perhaps you remember that healthy living forum I was trying to build? Well we were finally given our own forum instead of just one thread! Go HERE to check it out. We will be adding a section also where people can talk about quitting smoking or alcohol or any kind of unhealthy addiction you might have. We are only a week old, yet I have already learned SOOOOO much! I think others have learned immense amounts of information as well. Its really nice to see that other people are in the same situation as you.

I have learned so much that I have actually lost some weight! The kind of sad thing is that I actually weighed more last week than I thought I did, so I am back to my starting point. Not that I think thats a bad thing! I am just excited that I lost almost 4 lbs! So here is my ticker. I'll keep all of you updated.

I really wish I knew what happened to the site the past day and a half...but thank god we're at least back up. That's one of the weird things about the cached page setup we have, though... the database could be totally down, but still look like it's up. Sorry about that. :(

New comic tomorrow and friday. Stay tuned. :)