Brian, edited to add at the top, thanks for the great thread! :thumbup:
I can't imagine not having this place. Just like I go home at night and get comfortable. Other forums are fun places to visit and lots can be learned, but this place is chock full of all these kind-hearted people with good spirits.
I crack my wife up, talking about Yangdu and Munk and Nasty (she gets a kick out of that one!), and Yvsa and Hollowdweller and Kismet and Noah Zark and Aardvark and Steely-gunz and Bladite and Brian in Chi and Kamkazmoto (almost forgot!) and Mauirob and Not2sharp and Spectre and Big Bob and Sarge and DannyinJapan and all these other great names that I am not mentioning here (Sorry! feel like I am at the Oscars) and what they posted, but she doesn't know the people behind those names, just that I am a happier person for knowing them. She also knows now about Mike and Dave and Joe and Andy and Dick and Steve and Dan, as new friends that I correspond with as well, so when I mention their names she understands. (I always seem to mention Steve and Ram together, so she probably thinks they really are brothers.)
Of course Kumar and Bura and Sher and Sgt. Khadka are mentioned often as well, but I think she just puts them all in the same mental bucket, which I guess they are. They are all part of the forum.
So, we are all here ostensibly for HI knives, but that's just part of the common glue that holds us together. The real thing is the indefinable spirit of the place.
I know that sounds corny, but hey, it's true! At least for me...
Norm