Stately Mercotan Manor was graced this morning by the presence of Broomstick, with whom I’ve enjoyed cross-posting and keeping updated on for nigh onto 15 years here at SDMB. We’d never met in person before or even spoken by phone until just the other day, but as soon as it became apparent she’d be in my neck of the woods (via a recent thread of hers), we both committed to a meeting.
She hardly got lost at all on the way to my door, so we had maximum time to sit on the deck overlooking the lake, she and I and Mrs. Mercotan, as we enjoyed a repast of baked goods (thoughtfully provided by our gracious guest) and caffeinated beverages. We both relished the opportunity to flesh out our past tales of adventure, glory and woe for each other! Hangar flying took up a great chunk of time, and while she could not match my tale of crashing a plane, she did surpass me in her success at failing to crash a plane by about 20 feet.
After giving her the Manor tour (she only got lost in the quirky, a-maze-ing Qadgopian architecture once) we all wandered along the shores of Lake Michigan, then ventured deep into Lost Mercotan woods to eventually make it to the horse pasture, where my tenant’s mare had just foaled unexpected twins earlier this AM. Sadly, the female twin was stillborn, but the male, the tiniest foal I’ve ever seen, was appearing to win his struggle for life, being hand-nursed with colostrum expressed from his mom by experienced horse people. The vet pronounced his chances ‘good’.
It being time for her departure, I then gifted Broomstick with the traditional summer sausage of farewell (no, not that kind of sausage you deves), a blue ribbon winner of the Jalapeno variety, produced by my favorite sausage monger at Kewaskum Frozen Foods, and coveted by many.
It was fun. I hope to cross paths with her again. She goes now on that extremely short list of dopers I’ve spent quality time with.
And now it’s time for my noon repast. Neutronium and marmite for me. Further updates on the colt as events warrant.
Dammit, where’s a Like button, so I can let you know that your post has filled me with joy? Oh well, I guess you’ll just have to assume it did. Glad you guys had a good time.
I presume he doesn’t know half of us half as well as he should like, and likes less than half half as well as we deserve.
It’s threads like this that always make me feel a little sad that I live on a different continent to most of the board, so there’s lots of interesting people I’d love to meet, but there’s a dirty great moat in the way of most…
Thus far I’ve met in person: Arden Ranger Ginkgo Sewalk Silenus and his lovely bride, whose doper name (also from the greek pantheon, IIRC) escapes me Ferret Herder
I’m less than a social butterfly but I don’t actively avoid all dopers.
I’ll see if I can post some pics of the colt. The Mrs. has them on her phone. Broomie took a few snaps too, perhaps she’ll contribute.
You know, I didn’t think to ask about the what’s-it-ite…
Only took me 5.5 hours to get home today. Let’s see:
Milwaukee Summerfest traffic.
Someone managed to get into an accident south of Milwaukee in a construction zone.
So… two hours to get to the Wisconsin-Illinois border. And the worst part of the trip.
The Illinois Trollway (no, not a misspelling) was, in some ways, better than other times, although traffic was sufficient to drop the average speed to around 55-65 instead of the usual 70+ (and that’s for the slow lanes).
Also, took longer than usual to get through the cash toll lanes due to the volume of people for whom trolling is an infrequent occurrence out “enjoying” a holiday drive.
One gaper’s delay due to a bad accident on the Trollway going north. Because people just have to gape at the misfortune of others, I suppose.
Random disabled vehicles causing minor delays.
Three hours from the Illinois-Wisconsin border to the homestead in Indiana.
Meanwhile, it seems my computer is having nervous breakdowns on a regular basis. This could make uploading pictures interesting… heck, it could make posting here interesting.
Let’s see, how to describe the Mercotan Mansion… have you seen those tiny houses that use every nook and cranny for storage? Like that, but a big, rambling house that looks like 3 or 4 houses all smooshed together and joined up, but neatly. All sorts of neat cubby holes, secret passages… What was that, 3 attics or 4? Because one attic isn’t enough. Borderline Time Lord TARDIS technology, seriously, I’m not entirely sure all the inside was the normal geometry of space-time.
Wow! Hard to believe it’s been 15 years but… yeah.
It doesn’t help that Wisconsin has such helpful intersections as Washington and Washington (in Grafton - Washington and Port Washington formally but guess what the locals call it), GPS/Garmin/Mapquest/Google/TomTom/etc. all randomly locate buildings everywhere but where they actually exist, and Sauk Trail Road does this weird thing where it runs in every cardinal direction with limited to non-existent signage (that’s where I got lost - missed Sauk Trail going right/north and wound up in some small town, realized this wasn’t working, turned around, would up on Sauk Trail, missed the turn again, doubled-back, and finally got it right. Did I mention inadequate signage? I was half expecting to be told “turn where the oak tree burned down 40 years ago”.)
Mmmm… caffeine…
That’s OK - I’ll happily forgo winning the Crash Landing competition and stick to the Amazing Landing one.
Whereupon we all went “…awwwwwwww… so cute!”
That was a tiny colt. Poor little guy was really struggling to stand, you have to let us know if he’s OK.
Update on the surviving twin colt: Doing much better, nursing effectively and walking around.
And there are actually 5 discrete attics, Broomie. What can I say? Our architect specialized in non-Euclidean geometry. It was sort of a tribute to my granduncle, Cthulhu the Pilinixin.
Oh, we did break into the sausage. I had some fear what with “jalapeno” on the label it would be some firery concoction but it was actually quite delightful. A slight zing, and you could really taste the pepper as a flavor rather than a pain.
You know, I put on 5 pounds while staying in Wisconsin* and that sausage will NOT help me take it off again! (It’s OK, you’re forgiven…* nom, nom, nom*…)
Admit it, QtM - somewhere you have a wardrobe with a passage to Narnia in your Mercotan Manor. It’s that sort of place.
why, yes, I DID eat a lot of cheese, why do you ask? Oh, and this place.
