Vegas Reunion - Awesome!

[Hank]

Well, it's Saturday morning at 12:30am. I just made it to a computer. The meeting last night was great. We'll be gettin some pics and details online very soon.

Sorry most missed it - but many new friendships were forged.

More later..

Very tired :rolleyes:

[hensylee]

Mornin, Hank - gosh you are up early/late! Sounds like all are having a really great enjoyable time. Thanks for the report and say hi to all. God bless

[Granbonny]

speaking of late/early Ann. 3;56 a.m. Was the cat dragging you in..or out:D :D :D Someone you're not telling us about;) ;) ;) Bonnie

[hensylee]

Answered this yesterday, but ISP disconnected me and it never got on - it's Miss Sally Sue, my big old black and tan hound who wakes me in the wee hrs. She has had a buddy for all her life who picks her up about 4 a.m. or earlier. He makes a really high sounding yip to call her and she can't wait to go out to play. She's been fixed and shot, so only companionship going on there. They have been buddies since she showed up at my house and took up residence, bless her heart. Don't know what they do or where they go, but it's every morning that he shows up. If she's inside, guess who gets woke up. And if she doesn't get me up, then there's Penelope, my kitty who found me at the pound and she owns everything so she bosses a lot!

THIS morning, Miss SS woke me twice. First time she looked outside, decided to stay in. So I stumbled back to bed but not for long. She woke me again and finally went on out. Then I just went back to bed and finished my Kellerman book.

[Ross]

my kitty who found me at the pound
hensylee was found in a pound? :eek: That's a new one. A cat shopping for a human. :p

I can't wait to see the pictures and hear of the good times that were had at the reunion. I wish I could have been there, but then again, you people might have run me out for being the screwball that I am.

[Granbonny]

You will be our Guest Speaker at next year's reunion..Hopefully close to Ohio>:) I guess they will vote while they are in Las Vegas....I still think it's a human howling outside Ann's window wanting her to come out and play;) ;) ;) Bonnie

[hensylee]

That's exactly how it happened, Ross. We both happened to be at the pound at the same time and she filled out papers and all!

[Ron K]

Hi all,

Mary and I flew home last night. The reunion was a fantastic experience for both of us.

It's hard to describe the feeling of meeting such wonderful people after sharing experiences, information and interests on the net over many months. All this quickly developed into special friendships with the people that we were able to meet at this reunion.

We are very much looking forward to next year's reunion and we really hope that many, many more VR folks will be able to attend.

I'll save most of my thoughts and post a few of my pictures in the next couple of days. I don't want to steal any of Hank's thunder.

I would just like to say that we very much appreciated all the work and organization that Hank and Michelle put into arranging this reunion and to tell you that they are such really, really nice people. You should all try to meet them personally (and next year's reunion would be a great time to do that.)

Now I have to catch up on some of the posts I missed last week, help unpack and put stuff away, go through the old mail, pay a few bills, etc. so I'll close for now.

Ron K

[greggo32]

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed meeting everybody. The Friday night dinner at the Olive Garden was a wonderful opportunity for all of us to share and feel a sense of togetherness. I particularly liked being sandwhiched between all of those beautiful women who were clicking away like a fleet of Timex watches. Hank, your ticking was nice too; but, I'm sorry, Michelle's got you!

I hope that we can easily triple the attendance for next year. I am going to hit up the makers of Comadin for some cash to offset the food expenses. We can all organize and get some cash from the people who we made rich (St. Jude, Cleveland Clinic, Sulzer Medica, Regional medical centers, etc.). The least they could do is let us go do some good advertisement for them!! We are consumers and there is strength in numbers. We can form the National Valve Coalition (NVC). By the way, this is my idea and if anybody claims it as their idea I will put an electromagnet on your chest and keep your valve open (or closed) until you submit!! Maybe, we can even put mechanicals/homografts/xenografts/? in people who don't even need the surgery. It could be a fad that would sweep across America? (Joke) Some serious stuff about the power of being an educated consumer

Looking forward to seeing the pictures. Thanks to all and my regards to everyone who I met in Vegas.

Truly

[Ross]

We'll be gettin some pics and details online very soon.
Dang it, Where's the Pics? I need Pics! :D

[Ron K]

Ross,

I forwarded my digital pictures to Hank this morning so he could include them along with the pictures he took. I'm sure you'll be seeing them soon.

By the way, we all wished that you could have been there. Everyone is looking forward to meeting you.

Ron K

[Billy]

Jeeze..........it's TUESDAY and still no pictures.

[Hank]

Go to the home page and you will see the link to the pics - Patience my Irish friend!

[Ross]

Go to the home page and you will see the link to the pics - Patience my Irish friend!
YES!!!!

Why do you want to meet me? Are you going to kick my tail?
Hank would probably like the first round. :p

[hensylee]

Thank you, Hank - wonderful pictures - impressive. Appears all were in fine fettle and enjoyed immensely.

Hank, see you now have enough hair and some extra!:D

[Ross]

Hey, I see beverages, but a lot of empty plates. You folks afraid of showing us how to blow your INR out of range? :confused:

[Rain]

Hankypoo.....

Are you sure that's Michelle you have your arm around?? :eek:

Did any of the group pictures of the "Valvers" turn out?!

Rain

[Ross]

Are you sure that's Michelle you have your arm around??

http://smilies.networkessence.net/cwm/cwm/eek2.gif

[Ben Smith]

Cindy and I both are very dissapointed that we missed the reunion.
She wasn't happy with me.........I am the reason we could not make it.
Long story so don't ask Billy, my beautifull friend. (lmao)

Appears that all involved had a fantastic time in Vegas.

Hope to see all of you in Chicago next year.

Again, Wish we could have been there.

Enjoy all,

Ben

[Christina]

Hi to all,

It was great to meet all the new people in Las Vegas. Didn't see too much of eachother though. Saw most of you only twice. Everyone doing their own thing I guess. Dinner at Olive Garden was very good and it was great to sit and talk and get to know one another a bit more.
Lady Luck was a wonderful hotel to stay at. We have stayed at many other hotels in the past and the beds were always crappy. Would keep me tossin and turnin all night, even at the very best places. Not Lady Luck. We also thought that the breakfast buffett was great. Nothing bad to say about it. Was just as good as "Golden Nuggett" and we got two for one with the coupon.
Greg kept Rain, Joni and I in shape and we walked and walked and walked. Was fun!
Sunday night we learned how to Play Roulette at "Harrah's"and we each lost $10.00. Well, actually we didn't lose it there, we bet at the slots some more afterwards and the machine gladly took our money. Joni was the only one who came out ahead during our stay and won a total of $280.00.
Saturday evening we spend some time in Greg's room and Rain kept bringing in the beer. Tasted good, but some of us had to get up early the following morning.. LOL!!!
The last evening after most of you already had left we saw the light show at the Fremont. This was spectacular! Unbelievable how they can do this.
All in all, it was a great experience for us and we had a good time. Hope to see more of you next time.


Christina
AVR's 8/7/00 & 8/18/00
Tucson, AZ.

[John & Joann]

Joann and I had a great time in Lost Wages. What a great group of friends! We want to thank Hank for his efforts! We truly appreciate your kindness!

Joann is resting and we are both working to get home ready for winter!

We did work on a new profile. Interesting to see if it works!

God Bless!
Joann still clicking away.
John still causing trouble.

[greggo32]

Dear Joann and John,

It was so nice to meet both of you. I really enjoyed spending the afternoon with you in the shopping center. It was great to meet all of the other people as well and I look forward to more reunions as celebrating life is what it is all about. Joann is a miracle and she needs to celebrate every day. So, John, you need to open up that wallet and spend some serious bucks on that chick!!!

Take care

[Hank]

I wanted to apologize for leaving a day or so early, but our kids and our family demanded our presence. We'll leave them home next time for sure. We love them of course, but parent vacations are a bit less stressfull than family vacations.

I agree that we didn't spend enough time together. Next year we need to find a happy medium between everyone doing their own thing, and everyone doing the same thing. Not an easy task for sure.

We are excited about Chicago and will be picking a date soon.

Once again, thanks to those who came for your presence, and thank you to every one of our VR.com members for your participation in this site.

[Perrster]

Hank,

You shouldn't feel bad because you had to leave early. Family should come first.

Beware we'll have our ways of "containing" you at the next Reunion. Whips and chains-optional. Sounds like everyone just needed more "hang-time" with you.

Thanks again for picking Chicago and I am so looking forward to the 2003 Reunion.

Cheers!

[EVELYN]

Great Pics......Just let us know when and what hotel next year and we'll be there. The end of September is out for us, but just about anything besides that goes. We'll be at the next one with bells on!!! Maybe I should say with clickers clicking!!!!

Evelyn

[Cleojoan]

Howdy Ho!
Just a quick note to all my fabulous new friends. I can't begin to tell you all just how inspiring it was to meet you all and your spouses in Las Vegas!
What a diverse and fun group of people with so many differences and similarities in there journies in their travels of heart disease and surgeries! And enough can not be said for the spouses of these folks. We would not be all the success stories that we can share without our spouses or significant others!
Rain, I'm still looking forward to that new career we were offered in Las Vegas!!!!! We just need to keep Greg around to keep us in shape! :D :D :D
Everyone, take care and keep ticking....except Ron! He doesn't tick!!!!

Always,
Joni

[Hank]

With Ron, it's more "ick" than "tick".

[Ron K]

Hey, don't forget Bill Hall. He doesn't tick either.

I'm sure I can speak for Bill too when I say that some of our best friends are clickers!!!

Ron K

[Rain]

Christina and Joni,

These people are gonna think I’m one wild chick! :D Serving everyone beer and getting hired as a stripper all in one day! :eek: Well, I was in good company while I was doing it!! :p
Rain

[Billy]

_________________________________________
Well, I was in good company while I was doing it!!
_________________________________________

Doing what, Rain???:confused: :confused: :confused:

:D :D :D :D :D

[Cleojoan]

Now, now, Billy.
Don't you know it's not nice to ask such personal questions?????:D :D Don't let Rain try to fool ya, she's the one who taught Christine and I all the NEW things we learned while there! Rain tries to come off being meek and mild BUT there is a tiger hidden in there!;) ;)

[Rain]

Now Billy, you know that even tigers don’t ‘kiss & tell’!! :p

Hey Ms. Joni!! :eek: ......Just who got the first necklace? :D

Probably a good thing we were trying to keep up with Greg and Christina!!

Innocently,
Rain

[LUVMyBirman]

Seems I missed out huh Rain?;)

[greggo32]

OK, girls ante up. Since you ladies have a one track mind, we are going to have a Women of Valvereplacement.com calender. Maybe, Hank can market it. I'll be doing the photography with Ron since he has a great digital camera. The girl of the year will be determined by the mean rise in blood pressure among the males! Rain, I think you, Christina, and Joni will get us guys to a 170/100.

[Christina]

Hi Greggo,

Calendar sounds great, but we need a "real" photographer to do the honors. Billy, where are you?
The drink of the Las Vegas reunion for me was "White Russian" and another one with Kaluha in it. Joni is the expert here guys, she knows her stuff when it comes to the schnaps. She got me hooked alright. I didn't want to check my INR because I knew it was high. She checked hers at the dinner and it was 6.2. Wew!!!
Ask about her famous Martini with Olive juice, mixed and shaked.. That'll get your blood pressure up!

Christina
AVR's 8/7/00 & 8/18/00
Tucson, AZ
Dr. Gulshan Sethi

[Rain]

Now Christina...... Do you really think our Billy has a zoom that powerful?? :eek:

[Granbonny]

I want to be Ms. May...Cause, I MAY or MAY NOT;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) show my Zipper.:p :p :p :p Bonnie

[Jan]

Hello Dear Friends

Bill and I have just arrived in San Francisco,

We have had the most fantastic time but meeting you all in Las Vegas was the best, we have been to so many places and seen so many great things,

I have tried to read the reunion posts but I will save the pictures until I get home

Hank, thanks for the sweatshirts we have needed them with some of the weather we have encountered

Must go now I will post next week when we get home

Jan & Bill

Ps Bill and I will be in the USA for the Harley Davidson Event in Millwaukee next Aug so the first week in Sept would be good for us

[Cleojoan]

Hey new and OLD friends! (And you know who you are!)

I must explain that my vast knowledge of adult beverages (he he) is my past career in the food and beverage business for 20 years! ;) ;) As for educating Christina about drinks, I have NEVER encountered a more willing pupil!!!!!:D :D :D

The calender idea is a great one, Rain. I guess YOU are going to be the one to choose the models! Tiger girl, keep on purring!!! I am sure that we could get Perry and Hank to sell them through the website. Talk about increasing membership!!!!

Greg, I finally figured out why you and Rain hit it off so well your first meeting......She being Tiger woman and you with the animal print undies. It was a friendship destined to happen!

Everyone, I must tell you that Christina's birthday is Saturday! I think she said she will be 65. She has really held up for someone that old!!!! I want her secret!:D :D :D :D

Happy Halloween to all! Be safe and happy!

Joni

[Christina]

Hi guys,

Poor Joni is in lala land and got this all mixed up. 65 is not my age but my triple D bust size..:D :D :D :D :D
Off to the store to buy me some more of that good stuff. Talk about being addictive....LOL!!


Christina
Just down the street from Joni in Tucson, AZ.

[Granbonny]

Whatever yall are on..I WANT some:D :D Bonnie

[greggo32]

Dear folks in the pictures from my camera,

I just wanted to let people know that there are some photos on a website that my family uses for photo processing and on line photo album display. You can sit back and watch the slide show and see everyone. I had fun doing it today.

The site is below.


http://members15.clubphoto.com/helene650035/990373/guest.phtml

Take Care,

Greg