Clan Tuttle recently traveled to Phoenix for a swim meet, and had the good fortune to visit with St_PatGuy.

I wanted to warmly and publicly thank Sean for being so gracious and so generous with his time.

My wife refers to my periodic Axiom meetups as my “online dating”. While Sean and I do clearly have a budding long-distance bromance, we are both spoken for. Sean continues a long-time Axiom forum custom of being obviously not worthy of his lovely and charming SO.

Due to some pretty bizarre and ultimately unsatisfying swim-team decision-making, we ended up meeting for dinner with my family at Gameworks on Friday night. I had never been to Gameworks before, and fortunately did not misplace any items for which I must return. Those of you that have experienced Chuck-E-Cheese will understand when I tell you that Gameworks takes that particular Hell to a whole new level.

Ambiance notwithstanding, we had a very enjoyable meal. Of course, it is possible that my assessment of the food and drinks was skewed by the high quality of the companionship, but we had a good time. Big mugs of beer with pizza and burgers. What’s not to like?

Sean generously invited me to his home for a listen on Sunday. His lovely home made me wistful for the days when there were not multiple creatures leaving items scattered willy-nilly all over my residence.

Sean is clearly much more into audio than I am, and I cherished the opportunity to experience his systems and to learn from him. I was impressed by his knowledge and experience, and especially his approach

I got to hear his Dodd Audio 120W monoblock tube amps with his Odyssey Lorelei speakers. It is a magnificent system, and certainly changed the way I perceive not only tube systems but also two-way speaker designs. The Loreleis reached surprisingly low and presented a very detailed yet rich soundstage.

I also got a nice tour of Sean’s very impressive home theatre setup.

Mostly, though, we just drank beer and became friends. I liked that a lot. It's fun to be around smart people.

Thank you, Sean, for a very fun and memorable visit.

Sean, what did you think of Tom? You mentioned to me when we met that he was one of the ones from the board you would like to meet. Did he live up to the hype? :p

Tom, I'm glad you got to meet Sean. I would have enjoyed taking up more of his time.

Cool write-up, as usual, Tom! You are a fine story-teller. You were indeed right to issue me some "neener neener"s, for getting to meet Sean first, as you have set the bar high. I'm sure that Sean will think that I am a troglodyte by comparison.

Anyway, I'll be arriving in Phoenix one week from today for a conference and staying two nights.

Sean, I need to PM you further to get your cell/contact info.

Looking forward to seeing you and checking out your sweet set-up!

And my movie script research continues.......

Seriously though. Very cool that some of you get to meet up in person. In my job, I normally preach the dangers of Internet relationships but I don't rule it out either. I dare say this group of veterans has a pretty good read on each other by now. Still, great that you first met in a public place. I'd be willing to bet my well being on meeting Tom or Sean just about anywhere but I get involved in some scary cases (mostly teens) where people didn't 'follow the rules' and bad things happened.

OK, I'm babbling. Time for another coffee from that place that send me ranting earlier this morning. heh heh

I still think we could all meet up somewhere in the middle of the country.

We could all wear "Bose Blose" T-Shirts.

We could all carry Medusa-head carry-ons.

And, at some point, we could ::all run away crying::

I say we all crash at Randy's house in two weeks.

He said it was OK.

Can't we choose a place that isn't haunted?

Plus, his projector is only 720P.

Mark, you are particularly witty today. Did you get a good remodeling bid or something?

No. JP fixed me up with a "Witty" prescription. He called them "Maggie-Do-Alls" or something....

I have Axiom meet-up envy. Let's all move to Bend, Oregon and start a commune.