Hi Gina, I'm Cheryl. And I'm a chicaholic too. Four years ago a friend offered to give me a dozen chickens for free. So I decided to have a small shed built for them, $700, and the enclosure with gate $150. But the chickens were free, remember? When we finally brought them home, I was absolutely hooked. I love my chickens. We were so successful at raising our chickens that pretty soon our small 16'x16' enclosure and 8'x8' henhouse was deemed too small. So we built a larger enclosure, 75'x 110'($450) and had ANOTHER shed built 10'x12' ($900) this time to accomodate all our new arrivals. Now we have a huge area for our chickens to live in (roughly 3x the size of our own home) but our flock unfortunately has decreased due to predators that inhabit the area. And all the while did we enjoy the advantages of fresh chicken dinners on Sunday? Oh no! We named each of our chickens, and as anyone knows, you can't eat an animal who has a name. We do get lots of fresh eggs, which we usually wind up giving away to family and friends because we can't eat them all. So why do we keep doing it? We're both hooked. Chickens are fun. They're interesting to watch. Besides, all our kids are grown and gone from home and we both still work full time, so what else do we have to do with all that disposable income but blow it on a bunch of spoiled birds? My name is Cheryl and I'm a chickaholic.

I had hesitated writing the spam thing. There were two that showed up recently and a few of us got caught by it. I really want to apologize, it just seemed a bit connected with the other experiences. No problem with the link either. As I said, the ad is still bugging me so options are welcome. And, actually, maybe this is a bit humerous considering your user name. Anyhow, forgive me for going a bit overboard and OT.

I have this very same situation happening to me all the time at work. Only I'm the quiet one. There are two people in two different offices near mine, one male and one female, who both have what I call "strident" voices. They, as you say, project very well. Their voices are loud and strong, particularly when they are on the phone. The noise is quite disrupting and distracting to me. I haven't had the nerve to close their doors. I wish I did. When they are really really ticking me off, I finally get up and close my door, tune in soft music on my computer, and/or turn on my tiny heater/fan. All to mask their noise. And fume to myself that they have the ability to bother me like that. It's gotten so bad that I have to force myself to be civil to one of them. She just irks me so, especially when she is working on her computer and talking to someone on the phone via the speakerphone option. Augghhhh! That really drives me nuts because then she talks even louder. In a small way, I sympathize with you because you say you just speak loud naturally and don't mean to offend. On the other hand, since you have become aware that it apparently bothers others, I suggest that you investigate every option available to minimize the disturbance you create.

I'm just venting here. She reminds me of Johanna, who we hosted last year, only 100 times worse. Johanna's family was well off and was kind of self centered, expected everyone to do her laundry, get her drinks etc...mostly Maria, our other exchange student. They had a maid at home because her parents worked long hours out of town. She was a slob too and at the end it affected her and Maria's relationship. Maria was always cleaning up her messes. Liza is 16 and will be 17 next month. Talking to her via e-mail before she came, she seemed so mature and level headed. The coordinator, me and Liza did have a meeting last month and I told Liza I was considering having her find somewhere else to live. That's how bad it was. We went over the rules again. Her coordinator from the main office called me too, but I was driving with both girls at the time and couldn't talk to him. I tried calling back but didn't get an answer. Then got busy working, etc... She is from a single parent home, mom is a pharmacist and she is used to getting whatever she wants. She has expensive things and likes to shop at the mall every chance she gets. I don't worry about her stealing from me because she not only gets scholarship money from CIEE but has personal credit cards from her mom. She was shocked when I grounded her after the lying/party thing. She said she's never been grounded before. She also said that it was ok with her mom if she went to parties not supervised by adults. And no, I get no money for hosting them, just a little tax credit.