Brent and Sandy's Home on the WWW

This is the beginning of our new home on the web. There is still a lot to do. Keep checking back on us.

In Our Beginning

This is a story of how we met, written at first in third party. It happened one night unexpected by either. Brent had been using computers since 1986. His first computer having internet capabilities, however, did not come along until 1997. He had learned to use it to surf internet pages, and to develop an interest in making freesite pages of his own somewhat like the ones that he had seen online.
He graduated from college majoring in Accounting with emphasis on Data Processing. This emphasis piqued his interest in programming with the few courses (BASIC, COBOL) taken in the sub-major. On his own time, he became very proficient at html and somewhat proficient with javascripts, cgi, and perl. He has an enormous fascination with databases (MySQL, php, Alpha 4, etc.). He created some pages over time, eventually graduating to purchasing his own domain(s). After a while online, one night he decided to do a search for online games. One of the searches brought up a Jeopardy game. He signed on as Ninedimes and played the game for a while then found others to fill the gaps of boredom when all the answers each week were the same and became memorized. At some point these Sony game sites led him to Sony Chat. Then he started keyboard chat with others in the rooms. At the onset the rooms were full most of the time with chatters. Later in time, a hacker began systematically destroying the chat infrastructure. Ghost rooms and user names were created by them. As far as is known the chat area does not exist any longer. The fascination with chat went on for just over three years. In that time many good and bad relationships were built and lost. He became dis-interested in chat and stayed offline completely for some time. Finding other things to do was also a good idea. One night in February 2001 when tv watching was not that good he decided to take the plunge back online and then on to see if anything was going on at Sony Chat. For a while not many were in any category of rooms. He chatted with a stranger for a short time. He was unaware at that time that some 1100 miles east of home in the state of New Jersey a newbie to computers was about to log on for the first time. Her sister had brought her an extra computer to try out. While ninedimes chatted with the other person, a new name appeared for the first time in Sony Chat. The name slp63 appeared in the same room as ninedimes and something very new was about to be born! A friendship?, another kind of relationship? Time will soon determine. Ninedimes and slp63 started keyboarding messages in random conversation and quickly it was as if they had already known each other for years. The other person in the room at the time must have believed they knew each other too. They asked if they were interrupting anything. In a regrettable instantaneous heedless jest, Ninedimes typed, "Yeah. Get out!". He figured the person would understand he didn't mean anything but fun by it. But the person quickly disappeared from the screen. He hoped that he did not cause any permanent quandary that would somehow probhibit this person from wishing to use their computer ever again. He may never know.
The two chatted together well into the night, exchanging e-mail addresses at some point before having to unfortunately call it a night. The e-mails to each other increased over time. It seemed their interest in each other also increased over time. Soon the exchange of phone numbers was done and the calls increased over time. Brent (ninedimes) remembers enjoying the talks as well as the nice phone voice of Sandy (slp63). When slp63 had an opportunity in April 2002 she made arrangements to make the trip to Missouri for a first time meeting. Not yet known at the time but their mainstay mode of transportation back to each other would become Greyhound Bus Lines. Who incidently, does not apparently have "frequent traveler bonus miles". Sandy does not fly. Brent has been on 4 flights (2 roundtrip) in his life by commercial jet and doesn't care for it either.
When ninedimes knew when slp63 was expecting to arrive he made some plans of his own for their first meeting. He arranged that she would be staying at a Crosslands Hotel/Apartments (because they looked like a nice place from the outside). He arranged that a limousine would pick him up there and take him to the Greyhound station for their first meeting (because he likes cars, luxury cars, limousines and the thought of not having to drive downtown when avoidable).
As we all know, sometimes things just don't go exactly as planned. Brent arrived at Crosslands in plenty of time to meet the limousine. When it was clear that too much time had elapsed to keep things on schedule, he cell-phoned the limousine company. He was connected to the owner who was to be the driver that day. He had the contract with him but forgot all about this arrangement. So the original plans were somewhat blown. We are improvising now. Brent had on and off contact with the driver over the next few minutes while still sitting on a landscape rock near the entrance of Crosslands. Unknown to Brent, the driver who was already downtown went ahead to Greyhound. He went to their service desk and asked if her bus had arrived. Of course those at the desk didn't know her by name or presence but as it were, when he mentioned her name she was standing next to him about to ask about where I was! She looked at him and said, "I'm Sandy." He let her use his cell phone and we talked some ("What's going on?"; "I don't know."; "Guess we'll find out.", "How was your long trip?", etc.) before they left the station. Finally the long awaited white stretch limousine was in sight. The first meeting and contact with each other in person was not as planned but went about as well, or better, than could have been thought. The driver exited the car extremely apologetic and friendly over the mistake. He opened the door and there was Sandy all comfortable looking in the corner seat of the limo. Brent got in to sit with her, talk with her, and so it went...
He offered to take us for a ride so that we could be TOGETHER in the limo. And he let Brent know that there would be NO charge today. We had a nice tour of the Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri and a nice time together in a nice ride. I couldn't get Sandy to roll down her window and ask someone, "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?"
When we returned to Crosslands the driver was kind enough to carry her luggage in to the lobby. Before that the driver took two photos of us beside the limousine for our first meeting. It was Brent and Sandy, together for the first time.
Now that the limousine ride was over, all that was left to do was take luggage into Crosslands and register. When Brent called to make reservations at Crosslands he was told that none were needed. Just come in and get registered. That's all she needed to do. We told the desk clerk that she needed a room for the specified number of days she was staying. And that Brent had called the day before. He said, "Do you have reservations?". Apparently, there were no rooms available. AND YOU DO NEED RESERVATIONS! Time for the second improvisation. Brent was a bit aggrevated at this time by all the negligence. He walked out of the lobby followed by Sandy. Most assuredly the limousine driver didn't know what to do at this time either. Sandy's luggage was taken to Brent's car and the two went looking for a hotel. After checking with several, no vacancy, hotels, our mainstay became American Inn. It seemed that a convention was in town the same week. After getting to Sandy's room she called some of her family (Mom) to let them know we had met and how well it was going. After a while longer there the couple went out to get something to eat and go see some of Brent's family.
Continues

We will be displaying photos on different pages and creating a photo album for browsing our photos. However this process has been delayed because Brent's 1996 scanner doesn't seem to acquiesce with the newer computer.