That time is almost upon us. The time when our huddled mass begins to dissipate. For better or worse, we leave Hamster Time behind and return to our lives~ raw, empty and downcast. The hard part is finding something to do to fill the gap that HT leaves us with, and finding something to soothe our weary souls. Fear not, HTers, you're not alone, for we're all in and out of this together.

My name is tooletta, and I'm an HTaholic.

I, personally, shall be here at HT year-round, roaming it's empty halls, dreaming of that day, months from now that it's members will return~ renewed, refreshed, and rebounded from the season past. I will miss you all and urge you to remember that the doors here are always open for you.

In the meantime, I will be blogging, spending time with family and friends who have all but forgotten me, and having a baby.
What about you?

Writing the rest of Snark. Blogging. Working. Boating and all things boat related. The usual badness of bats.

Well, I think you all know what I'll be doing. Especially as the cooler months are upon us it's time to switch it up to beverages that are more warming and soothing to the cold and disappointed soul that BB8 left in its wake.
Other than that I'll still be glued to my tv as usual. Heroes, JERICHO (I know, I know), The Office, Earl, 30 Rock, Survivor.....I have plenty to watch so I hope some of you will stick around HT in the winter months to discuss.

Oh, and I guess I'll have more time to devote to my husband and toddler now that I will be spending less time at HT.
I suppose I'll have to start cooking dinner again.

My name is Minxy and I'm addicted to HT. I never left after last season and I'm not leaving now. So there. Hrmph!

Aside from hanging around here like an unwanted houseguest, I'll be working on my new blog, breaking up growling fights between my son and the puppy, spending far too much money on clothes and shoes and coming up with new and ingenius ways to convince my hub that there's nothing wrong with my retail habit.

My name is cubkip, and I too am an HTaholic. I am hoping to be watching the cubs for a long time....like Winning it all for once!!!! I am going to remind myself what my boyfriend and children look like. I am going to pay bills on time rather than ignoring them to get on HT. My daugter is in so many clubs that I really doubt I will be bored. But, I will miss this place. And, sometimes when you least expect it, I may pop in and yell, "Boo! or Donato" whichever I think might scare you all more.

My name is mewmom30 and I too, am an HTaholic. Amazing how in less than a month a day does not exist that does not start with an hour or two (or more) on HT!

Off season - the thought makes me feel faint but for me it will be on to Dancing with the Stars (what a culture shock -2 Ds to Marie Osmond)..... I also suppose I can now start getting into work early instead of at noon and maybe even figure out why sales figures are not higher than inventory costs. Yes, BB8 and HT have distracted me somewhat, but major enjoyably so!

ETA: Hey Anders thanks for the remind - I will of course be paying an exorbitant amount to cheer on my beloved Los Angeles Kings and with BOTH of us cursing those damn Ducks they are doomed for sure this year!

My name is RonnieRoller. I too am an HTaholic.

I'm so ashamed that my life has come down to this. I have neglected my family and friends. I have neglected my workload and my household. All for what?

During this down time, I shall be attending various 12 step programs to help with my Hamster time addictions. I will be fighting the urge to come and vist the site all the next year. I know that I have to take it one day at a time. But if I slip up, I hope that some of you are here to catch me if I fall.

I will be trolling the strip all winter so that I can save money for my feeds next year as well. I bought new shoes and everything!

My name is smurf I am a long time lurker new to posting and still rarely posting addict of HT.

For the off season, I will shift my focus to the cute otter cams at the Monterey Bay Aquarium . They will be my online viewing and they are much cuter than any of the hamsters we had this season.

Outside of that I will return my life to normal. Workaholic and Volunteering what is left of my time to charity.. I will miss HT and occasionally look in for a second but will then return to the work/volunteering I listed above.

I too am mainly a lurker though this season has propelled me to actually post a heck of a lot. (Sorry about that.) I could have swore I posted last year but I had no posts when I came back.

Anyway, I will be searching for a new job, Top Model and Project Runway start. Hopefully Lost will start up again before I die. I will also learn more about football as I got into it last year (early on, even before knowing the Bears would do so well) and I think I kind of like it. Oh, and there's a new Duran Duran album coming out and I will listen to it pretty much non-stop. Concerts, spoiling my niece, I'm fairly boring.

I did notice other TV threads so I'll probably show up there from time to time. Or all the time. I really like this site.

I will be watching reality TV (imagine that!) and hanging out here talking about it. I hope lots of HTers stick around!

I will be taking a chemical shower to get the stink of this season off.

But seriously, rooting for the San Jose Sharks and cursing those damn Ducks, America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, the Office, Survivor China and Lost will hopefully keep me occupied until next summer.

Is there gonna be another Comedy Festival in Las Vegas? I might go to that again. Stalk Seth MacFarlane.

Oh, also directing a school musical. And work. Feeding my cat. Stuff like that.

(tremolo, Lost should be starting up in the new year. no more repeat hiatus crap)

Well, I was going to say that since Jameka helped me to regain my faith in OGG, I would spend the next nine months volunteering at

an orphanage or something but after Zach's speech last night I don't think anyone would believe me.

So, I to will return to family and friends and hope that after months of neglect they will except me.

I will also commit to giving 100% at work instead of trying to come up with an excuse for why sales have been

dropping since July. (I'm sure BB starting in July is purely a coincidence)

I would like to take this time to commit to staying in touch with HT friends (from both sides of the line drawn in the sand ) that have

meant so much to me this summer.

I'm Puff, and I...

I'll be updating my Butterfly and Moth website, and maybe starting a blog. Grading papers. Ordering seeds and winter sowing. reading about gardening. Practicing my Scrabble so MAYBE I can go to the Scrabble club again without kgetting my ass kicked.

Coming back here regularly.

Hey, maybe I'll have more fun in the off season at Ht, without BB8 to distract me. Heh.

I will happily watch less tv. This show sucks me in every year, it's a pleasure to share it with all of you. I have a TBR pile a mile high, some of my favorite authors, languishing in a nasty stack in my office. The kids started a new school, which means I'll be hanging around there alot. The remodeling project is nearly over, my mom got her cast off (finally!). I'll tutor every Friday for Literacy Volunteers (pm me if you want to hear my passionate speech about this).

And I have committed to making three meals a week from scratch. I love to cook, so it's no hardship. But they have to be different every week. So I'll be trolling for recipes, hardcore. We have all sorts of food allergies in the house, so that'll keep me on my toesies. I predict this will cost me a mint at Williams Sonoma...I'm a sucker for gadgetry.

Favorite KT gadget - the torch...it makes everything better! Where else can you get targeted heat like that? Plus it scares the hell outta the kids, like I have a super power. Second fav gadget - foil. Because Oh OGG I hate cleaning up...and that was so OT.

So in short, I'll be reading, cooking, and volunteering. And dropping on chat when possible/relevant.

Gosh, I guess I will have to actually pay close attention to my new project, which won't be too hard seeing as how its a new luxury resort for Motorcoaches. Lots of actual work, lots of details to be sorted out, oh joy. And Bunny Rhumba was rescued from the project site, so there's already a sweet charm about the place for me.

Planning for the Society of American Mosaic Artists yearly international conference will ramp up big time in about a month, and since I'm on the Board of Directors, I will be swallowed up for a few months with that. Then the payoff is the big event in Miami this March. I'm really excited about that since the only time I've ever been to Miami was to fly in a pick up a car I bought (on ebay! hush!) and drive back home again.

In between, I'll be checking in here for the new television season, Survivor, Amazing Race, Heroes, and who knows what else....I never leave Hamstertime for too long at a time. I just love this place.

Mr. Flamingo just walked past and asked me why I don't jump in and write with the recappers, because he says "after all, you're just as funny and snarky as them."

"Uh," I say, "dude....you and our boys count the jokes I have actually made in the last 24 years on one hand. Are you kidding me? Its a topic of conversation at every dinner we have together. Remember when mom made that one joke....?"

Everyone laughs. I can't remember the joke.

Maybe I'll spend some time trying to get funny for next year.

I'm going back to try and finish up culinary school and I'm also going to branch out and take some of the initial Sommelier certification classes. I'm going to be watching Lost religiously when it starts back up. I'm going to play my XBOX 360 more. I'll actively seek out opportunities for face-to-face engagements instead of trying to keep a steady list of excuses put together so I could stay home and obsess over BB throughout the summer without being bothered by social occasions and/or events. I may even finally start a regular blog. Around March I'll start jonesing for a snark fix and begin plotting how I can spend outrageous amounts of time watching the feeds next summer without it appearing that's exactly what I'm doing.

Nothing too exciting...I wish there was a regular HT community devoted to full time snarking - similar to TWOP I guess but I like the people here better.

Oh, and I'm going to have to start campaigning the wife to go back on her pronouncement earlier this week that she isn't watching BB ever again because she was so disappointed with this season. I've tried to explain to her that's how the Universe has to stay in balance - that we as recappers have to suffer through the eventual disappointment of the finale to atone for the level of unabashed joy we fill early in the BB season when we get to snark on and feel superior to the Houseguests. She doesn't understand the concept but I've got six months to psychomanipulabamboozelize (ala Eric's supposed powers of persuasion) her to watch the show again.

*cough* Look below this forum *cough*

I feel like such a used and dirty segue.....

I'm thinking of adopting another puppy so I can name it Sweet Chicken.

Seriously, though, I have totally been neglecting Fred, Evie, and Porter (my gaming computer, my plasma TV and my 3D projector). Dickus drove me back to Morrowind and I actually thank him for that. It's a place where you can kill the demons rather than just sitting there watching them spit and fart. I am ready for some more new games, now. Something with shotguns, preferably.

And, of course, there's ZCAN (Zombie Citizen's Action Network). But I'm not allowed to talk about that. *coughBaltimorecoughyellowalertcough*

I'll soon be setting off on the Presidential campaign trail. I am not a Secret Service agent, but they always needs assistance on such labor-intensive operations and they borrow agents from other agencies, so I volunteered for the detail. Will you see me standing behind the candidates wearing my cool dark shades? Not bloody likely. But I may be that isolated and forlorn figure standing at in the midst of a vacant lot, an empty stairwell, or a long, deserted stretch of railroad tracks wearing my cool dark shades. Oh, and protecting, defending, and all that stuff.

I look at the detail as a chance to get away from the grind of the investigations and the internal bureaucracy for a year and recharge my batteries, so to speak, in what is sure to be a target-rich environment for the snark. So I may be coming soon to a town near you. I hope to be back here next year, if less consistently.

Edited 'cuz I actually do have to do more than wear sunglasses.

What shall FMC be doing for the next 9 months or so?

I will be preparing for something very important!
It's sooooo important, that I'll need help from all of you here at HT
(you too, Haunted!! *tappity, tap*).

I'd tell you, but I'm just gonna direct you to read my post under "Psssst...Guess Who" (read the whole topic first).

Then you shall all understand!

(I am not kidding.)

as I had *thought* that I was done with BB8 as the show is pretty much done this year for me, with no real reason to even care who wins at this point.....

I was wondering what I would be doing... and I will be watching Survivor, wishing that Surface and a few of the other sci-fi shows that ended in November a few years ago and were thrown into the twilight zone or the bermuda triange never to be heard from again.... darned cliffhangers....

so anyway, I plan to follow Survivor, The Apprentice if Donald plans to do another show, and then watch things such as Desparate Housewifes, House, Law & Order *with Det. Goren*, Private Practice, and I'm sure a few other shows.

I'll surf the internet looking for cool places like HT to chit-chat about the shows.

And I'll happily look forward to another summer of Big Brother and pray OGG that they aren't like this year.

This is a bad time of year for RC because:

1. BB is over. (2-4 hours a day devoted to BB/HT, then nothing)
2. The Braves are either: out of the play-offs or will be eliminated in the 1st round.
I think Cubkip understands my baseball pain.

I will mope about for a while but I think this year, I'll stick around HT.
I will have equally strong opinions about famewhores on all other shows and I will share them with you all, sparing no one. You've been warned.

After this season is in the history books I will move my recliner and laptop into ChatHT for the fall, winter and spring seasons of reality TV watching:

Survivor: China
Top Chef
Project Runway
Dancing with the Stars
Kitchen Nightmares
The Amazing Race
America's Next Top Model
The Apprentice: C-List Famewhore Celebrity version (if it happens)
American Idol

I will resume posting to my blog, LifeOffHold and resume daily surfing of my other HT and other blogs. Zgeist, and any others who take the plunge, make sure your blog is listed at HT.

I will also return to my project to make all things digital. I'm in the last leg of this project, scanning all papers, memorabilia, etc. My music and photos have already been digitized so once the papers have been scanned I will be in maintenence mode. My target is to begin 2008 fully digital.

After that I plan to catch up on all the movies and books I have missed these past few years. I also have my first quilt, which I began in 2000, to complete along with some other sewing.

I also have to wrap my mind and will-power around the task of losing some weight and getting back to exercise. The results are great, but the effort is hard. If anyone would like a diet partner this Fall, PM me.

I'll miss the HT community that leaves "Camp Hamstertime" for the off season and hope we'll all be back next summer, or in chat for some favorite shows.

Just as I was lamenting the ending of the season with nothing more than a recrap show and a contentious finale to look forward to fate dropped new hobby into my lap in the wee hours.

A tow truck putting a pickup on a flat bed at the top of the hill had a chain snap. The pickup rolled down the hill, gaining speed, and crashed into Grandma's house. Grandma of course didn't call me noooooooooooo, the nice fireman across the street with a scanner came a running to let us know. Can I just say a love my "city" 50,000 people and it still feels and acts like a small town.

So I'll spend the off season fighting with insurance companies over levels of structural damage and what Grandma's crap, all Grandmas have a ton of ceramic crap ya know, is worth. How long she and her boyfriend need a hotel, yes my Grammy has a boyfriend and he looks like Jack Lemmon, etc., etc., etc.

Most importantly, I'm making a note to myself, don't whine too much about BB ending or the fates will give you something else to do.

Much like Fisty's cousin the groundhog, I burrow down deep in my hole come September, only to return in late June. If at least three prospective HGs are employed in the food industry, I predict three more months of snarking.

In actuality I spend most of the cooler months recovering from the hurly burly pace of my summer schedule.
Or at least I trick my mind into believing that three jobs, volunteering, and learning to knit is "winding down".

I shall also be trying to satisfy my New Year's goal of watching the 52 classic movies I never saw. It's sad-I love movies but have somehow manged to miss out on most of the major ones over the years. And yes, that means I haven't seen any of the Godfathers.

Also, if things work out, I might, possibly, maybe, potentially, be starting to think about buying my first ever Big Girl home.

*crosses fingers*