Welcome to the Porch. I'm in the SF area too.

Michael

Just one question: does anyone know the origin of the word "galoot"?

>From the FAQ

IX. Why does everyone call me a "Galoot"? According to our illustrious
    GM, Patrick Olguin, the origin of the term "Galoot" as an honorific
    is as follows:

A long time ago, in a newsgroup far away, a discussion of saw-sharpening
arose among the hunched and bent-backed. Several of this curious group,
seeking to find further enlightenment on saw-sharpening (sawsets, and
their operation, in particular), scurried to the relative safety of
4-way e-mail to discuss the arcane nature of this mostly-forgotten tool.

A day or so into the conversation, I was invited by Porthos, Athos,
Darta.. oops! Wrong group. It was Huey, Louie, Dewey.. no no no! Steve
LaMantia, Geoff Mason, Mike Davies, and Bruce Haugen invited me into
their discussion to see if I could shed any light on the situation (some
historians claim that they just needed someone to kick around).

It was fascinating. The discussion went on for days. The productivity at
each of their employers plummeted. Finally, after much speculation,
reading, debating, and almost no name-calling (I think I was called a
few) Mike Davies managed to get his hands on some actual literature on
the ubiquitous Stanley #42. He faxed it to each of "the five", as they
came to be known, and then a strange thing happened. It can only be
described as fate.

Within minutes, each person, on his own, contacted a renowned old-tool
dealer, inquiring as to the availability and cost of a Stanley #42
pistol grip saw set. I think I was the last to contact him (I'm a slow
typist), and the response I got from Patrick Leach was (paraphrased):

WTF is going on here? I'm sittin' here, minding my own business, when in
the span of a couple seconds, I get e-mail from five galoots, demanding
saw sets! What're you guys smokin' anyway?!

The exact verbiage is lost somewhere in cyberspace, but the key word was
there: Galoot. It suited us. We are a little strange.