Central PA Post-Fest Wrap-up

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

Drive Up I had to run out to pick up a prescription. I changed the greeting on my answering machine so that Twickster and Cleophus would know where I was and that I would be back soon. But, it was largely unintelligible when they called, and I would have missed them if I’d gotten back ten minutes later (they had already waited for twenty). I slept during most of the ride. I did learn that Cleophus though he has many computer skills, cannot read a map, directions or navigate. We stopped at a dollar store to pick up hot dog buns (Twickster remembered to bring the dogs, but left the buns at home). Knowing that odd things turn up in out of the way stores such as this, I spent a long term searching the store. My search was rewarded with---- Jesus action figures. Tasteless, kitschy, cartoonish, and best of all, they seem to have been made as a genuine attempt to make a good Christian plaything rather than satire

The Dopelings I had fun playing with the various kids. While discussing Yu Gi Oh!, Matthew said “Never argue with a ten-year-old on matters of anime.” I found this very funny and sought out WeirdDave and Ginger to repeat it. I also told them that Matthew had said something I found odd “Daddy says one day we’ll finish what mister Doff started and put all you people in camps.”. I expected a reaction along the lines of ‘How droll.’. Instead, they thought I was serious. Ginger proceeded to yell “Matthew! Get over here!” in a tone of voice suitable for declaring World War 3. I rushed to explain things before Matthew got to the table.

The Hotel I was able to treat everyone to my unique rendition of I Feel Pretty. While eating pizza, I managed to put my foot in my mouth. Dominic asked If I was a vegetarian. I assumed he asked simply because he had only recently learned the word and concept and asked anybody who wasn’t busy munching on steaks at the moment. I responded ‘If we’re not supposed to eat animals, how come they’re made of meat?’. Oops. At one point in the evening, I uttered a sigh and the traditional “Oy vey.”. Fizzes stunned response was to say (In a fine Southern accent) “Y’all really say that!?”

62

Ass pie? Immediately thought of you, MsRobyn and wanted to holler band name!

[Announcer voice]OK everybody, opening for the Flaming Wasps is Ass Pie, so put your hands together and make some noise![/voice]

FWIW, Ginger- according to Leo Rostens ‘The Joys of Yiddish’, shikseh is a non-Jewish woman. I’m certain nothing ill was expressed or implied.

63

Sigh I haven’t actually seen him. I was calling for him Sunday morning and evening, but he doesn’t know my voice. I figure either he is lurking in the woods and hasn’t quite adjusted to the whole deal yet, or is making his way back to NOVA using that indwelling GPS ability which critters have. :frowning:

I fear that we didn’t start things off well-running a hose on him to remove kitty barf likely didn’t endear him to me.

64

Well, when we moved from Reston to Fairfax, the first couple of weeks we thought he had gotten out. We actually put up fliers in the neighborhood with his picture on them. We hadn’t even moved our stuff into the house yet–it was essentially an empty house–nowhere for a kitty to hide, right?

He was in the house the whole time. About 3 weeks after we moved in (we finally had our stuff) I saw a black shape fly past in the hall… I was like… CLAUDE?!? He haunted our house for several weeks before becoming visible again. I think he was hiding in the air vents, which he could climb into from the area where the furnace was.

What I’m saying is, he’s good at hiding. Hopefully he is still in the yard somewhere.

65

I ampretty sure that what she was saying is:

A) These particular crusts were shitty and
B)She usually makes them from scratch, and frozen crusts in general don’t stand up against home made crusts.

66

You know, I hardly ate anything other than chicken. I was too busy trying to talk to everyone and trying to get the damn chicken to cook.

Lesson One: Don’t try to use an air roaster with a loose lid outside in high winds.

I was glad that Weirddave volunteered to grill the rest of the 40 lbs. I marinated. Thanks again!

I have a dice game called True Greed that someone left on a table. I’ll gladly return it- I was presuming it belonged to Siege, but if not please let me know.

The way home: After we left the grounds we looked for the brew pub. It was hard to read the street signs, but I made my way to the right road and looked for the place. I kept driving until we crossed 15, then I stopped and got the map out again. I backtracked and found just an especially dark section of street where the pub should be, so I turned around again and crept along until I could read the sign on the darkened building. I went up the driveway and saw a stretch limo in the back, with a lot of people in formal attire standing around the only open door.

Well, I was getting tired, and the mrs. was feeling the effects of the “special sodas,” so I decided to start the four hour drive home.

I figured that it would be easier to go straight back, so we used route 30. I noticed that the people in the area must have a lot of muscle problems, because there were massage spas along the highway ever few miles. They must be very popular because they were often the only businesses open in an area. Yeah, that’s right…

Do you know how relaxing it is to drive in the mountains, making your way along winding roads which climb steeply or descend just as steeply, that have no pavement markings but there are helpful orange and white barrels strewn around, followed by an impatient driver in a pickup using their high beams to flood the interior of my car with enough light to perform surgery? That relaxing.

I had to make a pitstop at Breezewood, where the mrs. woke up long enough to make a munchie run. She returned to the car with a bagful of carbohydrates and preservatives, masquerading as good food. I asked her if she was hungry and she said “I got a couple things for you too.” She ate a cookie and went back to sleep. Boy, those Utz crab chips are good.

I got a call the next morning from my father. At around five in the afternoon, while we were at the 'fest, my uncle passed away from a heart attack. He was mowing the grass when it happened, and he was discovered at the spot by his neighbor. He was single and had no children, but he was only 50. I wasn’t very close with him, but he was the last of the people I know from my childhood other than my father and sister. It was the only bad note in a great weekend, but so goes my life: the good is balanced by the bad.

We’re both looking forward to the next trip. Everyone was so nice, and the mrs. was happy to meet all of you. But next time, I’m bringing a dessert…

67

Steelerphan I’m sorry to hear about your loss (somebody else told me that this phrase has become a meaningless cliche. But I’m not gonna sit here and obsess over the best way to paraphrase it).

I didn’t talk with your wife until late in the Fest. All she had to do was mention Dungeons & Dragons earlier and she would have fit right in. Somebody mentioned I seemed to have everything you could think of in my backpack Iampunha responded with “It’s his bag of holding.” A few other people jumped in with “Nah. It’s a pack of many things.”

The Pics

I generally do not photograph well. Whatever the opposite of photogenic is, I’m that. The camera hates me with the intensity of a thousand suns. But I like the way these pics turned out. Hmm, maybe I should post a link to them and post a poll ‘The Ladies Love The Cloak, Or Do They?’

68

Well I especially liked your yarmulke, and the boots. And the combination of the aforementioned items with the cloak was quite interestimg. ;j

(Maybe next time you could wear a trenchcoat with nothing underneath, wink wink.)

69

By the way, your wife is one cool chick!!

Oh you must be referring to the “special lemonade,” the “special grape juice” or the “wheat juice.”
:smiley:

70

Well I found the Dopefest to be much like a thread - I did a lot more listening than talking. Wished I had talked to a lot more people, but I suppose there may be a next time. I enjoyed hanging out with fizzestothetop, iampunha, and AntaresJB. I also enjoyed the conversations with the others (engineer_comp_geek, why isn’t your wife a Doper?!) and I got to meet the real-life versions of SDMB stars Polycarp, MsRobyn and OpalCat, so my life is now complete. :smiley:

I luurved the chicken and the brownies with the goopy icing on top and I’m real glad you guys either ate all the snickerdoodles I brought or made me believe you ate them all by pitching them when I wasn’t looking. :cool: P.S. Steelerphan if you’re feeling generous, can you post or email the marinade recipe, pretty please?

Sorry about the blurry photos. Some of those would have turned out pretty well. :smack:

71

Well, I do own a nice, hooded, black trenchcoat. The zipper is broken, but upon finally checking out a nearby craft store I found they sell 36 inch heavy duty zippers. Due to advice in a sewing thread, I also inquired about larger thimbles. Fortunatley, I realized what I had said before I left the counter.
“Do you have any really long zippers? I need an extra long zipper. Oh! And a really big thimble. Somebody told me that I can’t use regular ones because my hands are too large.”

There was a pause and I realized my questions could be misconstrued.

“For my trenchcoat! I need the long zipper because the zipper on my trenchoat broke. You can tell what order the repairs to that coat were made because my sewing improves with practice. But the really big zipper broke. And I complained about thimbles while asking somebody for sewing advice and she said my fingers were too big.”

Later on, I scoured the fabric section in hopes of finding the same stuff my cloak is made out of. I want to make a matching hat. Perhaps a derby, fedora, bowler, or maybe that same style of billed cap Antares was wearing. I can never remember what those are called.

Or I could just by a lab coat from that uniform shop in University City and go to town with fabric paint.

72

I think I will leave it as an exercise in “Would iampunha really do that?” judgment to the individual to determine if I actually ran through the fest nekkid. I realize this will probably produce conflicting results, but such is life:D

Anyway, fizzy and I are (were, rather; she has class tonight) back from the unwilds of NOVA and back to Rural Virginia, otherwise known as That Place With All The Heat. It was fun for the most part (except the driving; the older I get, the more I detest driving. I want me a monkey butler with a license!), and meeting brutally attractive people is always fun except for the whole inaccessible thing.

Doc, I think we still have your pen/lightsabre/thing. We found something under a seat, and it sure as hell ain’t mine and ain’t hers, and ISTR you pulling out something like that in the car.

MD, perhaps next time ckhd and I won’t spend three hours talking about DiabloII:D It gave you a chance to amuse yourself otherwise, though, so there is that:)

More thoughts later when it is not oppresively humid.

73

Iampunha I’ve got my lightsaber pen and my 3 LED flashing boogie wand right here. The LED flashlight is still on my keychain. I don’t think I had any other LEDs with me. Though it’s hard to be sure. I do love those light emitting diodes.

74

Opal (or anyone else who is interested), I tried to put all of the original pics before I shrunk/cropped them up on my web site but it gacked from lack of space. If you want them I can e-mail them to you or possibly use a friend’s box to host them temporarily. Send me an e-mail if you are interested (just add @yahoo.com to my doper ID). Or, of course, you can just download the edited ones I already posted if you’d prefer. You have my permission to use them.

I’ll see what I can do!

75

Email pics to me at opalcat@fathom.org and I’ll put them up in the gallery :slight_smile:

76

And, as of this morning, and the grace of God and His servant Triskadecamus, Polycarp and Skulldigger are indeed back on line.

We journeyed several hundred miles (approximately 330 each way) with Tris and, for the last half of the trip north, with the estimable Dwalin – for whom this was the first Dopefest without a pubescent female to occupy his lap, though I gather he had a good time anyway. We were accompanied on the trip up also by the kimchi.

Regarding the first picture in the initial grouping, the mysterious fourth gentleman is in fact a Doper, though more a lurker than a regular: HJay, published author (of SF, mysteries, and other material), scholar of matters religious (Christian or Pagan), and the third member of the Poly-Siege-HJay triad.

Needless to say, we had a wonderful time. There were several people I was looking forward to seeing again and several I was looking forward to meeting IRL for the first time.

77

As Pun noted earlier we are back in SWVA. The drive was long but uneventful, just as it always is.

I had a great time at the picnic and I really enjoyed meeting y’all. Big Thanks to danceswithcats for hanging out with Patrick and I Friday night and making sure we weren’t bored in the hotel room sittin’ and twiddling our thumbs!

I didn’t get to talk to a whole lotta people but those I did talk to, I enjoyed your company. And I finally got to meet Antares so yay for that!

The food at the picnic was good and I really liked the chicken. I hope whoever took the watermelon found good use for it.

If I never see another round-a-bout for the rest of my life then I can safely say I’ll die happy. I hated those things.

78

It took me forever to look at everyone’s pictures since my connection is so slow and crappy. Everybody’s came out really nice. Especially Triskadecamus’s. You’re quite a photographer, Tris! I finally got a chance to look at my own pictures, and they are utter crap in comparison to everyone else’s… I am so NOT good at that, I guess… ::sigh:: Plus I didn’t get a wide variety of people so it looks like I was playing picture-favorites. :o I don’t know if I’ll bother putting them up. I find myself wishing I’d talked to more people… I get kind of nervous around large groups of people I don’t know, so I kind of stuck to fizzy, punha, Magickly Delicious, and theckhd, with a little bit of chatting with **The 27th Evil ** and Frank #2. I should have mingled more. :frowning: I loved meeting everyone I did talk to, though, as I’ve said before, you were all great.

79

Please send them to me and let me add them to the dopefest gallery, even if you don’t decide to post them yourself?

80

Thanks for the kind words!

I’ll let you in on the dirty little secret. I posted, what, fifteen picutres? I took forty six pictures. No one will ever see the other thirty one.

It’s not as hard to get one in three shots right.

Tris