Well here it is, my 1,000th post on the DIS boards. I was thinking of just putting in a quick fart joke and leaving it at that, but you guys are much too cultured and refined to accept that, right?
Actually, I just wanted to say how glad I am that I stumbled in here way back when. I'm sure you guys know well the dangers of posting messages on the internet. It's so easy to start flame wars and stupid arguments over nothing when you have the anonymity of the internet to protect you. (You don't have to look far, just check out some of the other threads here.) But this group is a rarity. As near as I can tell, we have represented among us Northerners, Southerners, East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, and everything in between, blacks, whites, Jews, Christians, agnostics, liberals, conservatives, moderates, rabid football fans, people who couldn't care less about football, doctors, lawyers, engineers, soldiers, artists, computer techs, brand new dads, grandfathers, natural fathers, adoptive fathers, Coke drinkers, Pepsi drinkers, people who appreciate the finer things, people who appreciate simple pleasures, fishermen, hunters, car geeks, golfers, movie buffs, cheese ball lovers, and cheese ball haters (actually, only one that I know of. Sorry, stopher).
The point is, we've got people from every walk of life actively participating, and talking about just about anything. And yet, I have never seen a group that is more accepting, more friendly, more tolerant (perfectly willing to state our opinions yet never denigrating those who disagree), and just plain hilarious than this group.
Of course, we have the one unifying thread among us: we're all dads. We love our families. We're invested in both their happiness and their success. My dad likes to tell me that having kids is God's way of teaching you how not to be selfish, and I think there's a lot of truth in that.
Plus, we're still kids at heart, too. We can still have our imagination captured by a place like Disney World. And we can find joy in having our children make the same discoveries we did at that age.
So thanks, guys. Thanks for making this little outpost on the interwebs great. Thanks for making me (and everyone else) feel welcome. And thanks for loving and being so invested in your children. This country needs more dads like you. As the years go by, I hope I'll have the opportunity to meet more of you in person and shake your hand. In the meantime, I'm honored to be here, and privileged to call you my friends.
Now somebody pull my finger!
, Dad, I guess I'm in the minority, at least in the real world, as far as my display of my Disney love. 
