Less than 24 hours to go. Wooo HOOO!!!
And counting.
Wee hours bump. Just because I can.
As it stands right now we will be there, probably late (as usual) 3 or so. We have to go buy the baby bird a diaper (flight suit).
“I’ll see your bump…” sounds wholly inappropriate right now.
“And raise you one,” as I struggle into the day.
Head’em up, move’em out!
Officially Unofficial not in any way sponsored or approved by the Chicago Reader, the Straight Dope™, Ed Zotti, Cecil Adams, or anyone else, for that matter.
Ringo got there first. He cornered us a table, and put up a sign. Not the regular sign, which took a trip to New York and hasn’t made it home yet. I (Irishman) rolled in next, late but apparently earlier than the other lose… folks. 
When I walked in to Joe’s (Joe’s Crab Shack), I mentioned to the hostess I was looking for a group, she asked if it was “the computer thing”. Yep.
We sat on the porch - fresh air, but a little warm and humid, but not bad for summer in Houston. Sealemon and Bubble Girl arrived next, followed shortly by Road Rash (back from the banned).
We chatted small talk and such, plus ordered some food. 2 different kinds of crab legs, Ringo with the Alaskan and myself with the Snow. Plus crab dip for Sealemon and Bubble Girl. And beer.
Then lieu came out for his first meeting. Fresh meat! And Zap Rowsdower came in, too.
We were all waiting with anticipation the arrival of jinwicked, and did she ever live up to expectations. First, one of the waiters announced her arrival with a fanfare (would have been trumpet if he had one), followed by her dramatic entrance. She was singing, had them crank up the music, and before we knew it she was dancing on the table. What a wild one!
Um, what, that didn’t happen? I must have been hallucinating. After her promise to come, we were all greatly disappointed. I think Sealemon suggested she surreptitiously eyed us through the window, took one look at the crowd, and changed her mind. And I was so hoping to see her hat.
(Note to jinwicked: a sure way to get yourself talked about is not show up. ;))
We had some fun banter muffled by the music blaring from the speakers. The ambiance was awfully intense.
Topics covered EST and it’s spiritual descendent (if not actual one) Landmark. Described as “self-actualization seminars meet multi-level marketing”. Ringo: “I don’t think you should have to buy your way into church.”
Speaking of church, we discussed the Catholic situation. The concensus was that their big problem was covering things up and hiding the problem rather than dealing with the guilty parties (defrocking, criminal prosecution) and protecting their members. I made a comparison to ethical rules about confession regarding murderers. If the priest feels the person is going to kill someone else, there is no repentance , etc, he is honor bound to report it to the police. He can only protect confessions that are sincere, i.e. not a serial killer. So shouldn’t that same policy apply to child molesters? If you suspect them of endangering someone else, you have to report them. Well, child molesters almost never stop at once.
Next, we discussed the spam attack, where many people got 50 to 100 duplicate emails regarding getting stuck onto that music mailing list. We all appreciated that. And then the numerous responses of people replying to the list about taking them off, only dumping more to everyone’s inbox.
We talked about old board stuff - early days, fewer rules, AOL. Back when sock puppets were legal and sometimes used for fun. Of course, it was a smaller board then.
Someone brought up Jack Chick tracts. How they used to be promoted heavily by the christian community, till Jack went all anti-catholic and off the deep end.
There was some discussion of professional fishing and shrimping. Like the one about the guy, “What would you do if you won a million dollars?” “Shrimp until it was all gone.”
Ringo said he doesn’t watch TV, since his went out during the 1992 Superbowl. He got so upset, he quit watching. A few years ago someone bought him a new one as a gift, but he hadn’t bothered to use it till he got a DVD player a month ago.
Ringo gave us some rememberances of his days as a cab driver. He once got to drive Fats Domino. The dispatcher had him call so it wouldn’t go out over the air. Ringo showed up, the bodyguard told him where they were going and when, and not to say a word to the Domino. So he came out, got in the car, drove around the block, and hopped out. Gave a $5 tip. “Thanks, Mr. Domino!”
Also picked up Stevie Ray Vahaghn (sp?), and often had to drive on to a military base. Didn’t know the layout, and the guards at the gate wouldn’t tell him anything, so he had to drive around in circles to figure out where he was going.
Bubble Girl discussed Live Journal, and all the fun there of reading other people’s “private” thoughts and observations. Oh what fun.
Announcement over the speaker: “Attention Joe’s Crab Shack - Code Red.” WTF? Something on fire?
It was fun. We were there from 2ish till around 6. The food was good, the conversation fun. We missed Ayesha and LIONsob. Guess they couldn’t make it after all.
As we were leaving, the waitstaff did their dance to the music gig. I almost wanted to stop and watch.
Anyone else got anything to add?
Sorry… I had to work all day Thursday (my day off) and then late unplanned on Friday night, and though I woke up at 12:00 on Saturday, two hours wasn’t enough time for me to work up the energy it takes to put on a show and go out. If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t even work up the momentum to start a new painting until almost 10:00 Saturday night.
I’m also not really comfortable meeting people that I haven’t seen pictures of, and I couldn’t manage to find pics of anyone that was going. It creeps me out because everyone knows what I look like and recognizes me instantly. I thought I could get myself there, but I guess not. Oh well.
It takes a lot to get me out of the house on the weekend, especially considering that it was over 30 miles to the restaurant, and I had no idea what to expect having not made a dopefest before but I enjoyed everyone’s company immensely and am very glad I went. What a nice group of folks!
Thanks once again to Irishman for being our loyal scribe - BTW, that was the '92 playoffs when the Oilers were ahead of the Bills 38-3 at the half, and then…
Road Rash and lieu are both Baylor alumnus, so that provided much reminisce. And it’s always good to see Sealemon and Bubble Girl (they act like they like me, so I encourage 'em). And Zap, pal, if you do move, let us know - we’ll try to organize a send-off for you. Otherwise, just stay in touch (Didja solve the mystery of the high curbs? I meant to ask you about that.).
We missed Ayesha and that LIONsob; I know you’ve got stuff going on - I hope y’all can make the next one. And jin, that entrance was supreme…
Seriously, any and all Houston Dopers please feel welcome to attend the next one, which may be late summer in honor of the possibility of Pantellerite signing on to our scrabbly crew (if that happens, I hope you can join us lieu; I enjoyed meeting you).
starfish, you tease!
Anyone in town good at taking pictures?
Well Poop! :rolleyes:
I disappear for a month and you all have a damn HouDope without me. 
I am sorry I missed it. Hope we can get together soon again.
Thanks, I’ll keep ya’ll updated. Aslo on the curbs so far I have not seen a definite answer, but the consensus seems to be to allow water to runoff and prevent flooding. I’ll let you know if I learn more.
Hey, jinwicked, there used to be pictures of some of us on the People Pages, but they’re now in limbo. There was some sort of crash and they haven’t been recovered/restored.
However, if you scroll down to the third picture here,
http://www.geocities.com/techchick68/vegas/casino.html , you can see a picture of me. Note that I no longer braid the hair, and only wear the hat to work.
(Okay, there’s a story behind that pic. We were wandering through the casinos and I spotted that on a hat rack in The Aladdin. What was immediately obvious to me was apparently unrecognized by anyone else who looks at the pic. I thought of Bugs Bunny a la the Wagnerian opera, with Elmer Fudd running around behind singing: Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit! Kill the WABBit! Kill the wabbit! I guess I’m the only one who spent too much time watching Bugs Bunny.)
And then there’s these pictures of beatle, the former incarnation of Ringo.
http://www.geocities.com/techchick68/vegas/beatle.html
So there’s a couple of us I could find offhand. Feel better now?
Hey, since we’re both down this way, email me sometime and maybe we could get lunch or something. Then you can’t say you never met one of us. My email is in my profile.
Sorry I missed this one, all previous, and probably all since, because…
Well, the bad news is that I’m not getting a job in and moving to Houston after all.
Hold on, for me, anyway, that’s actually good news, because it means that I got the full-time faculty position at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina!
Which is better, but I was still looking forward a bit to Houston and also hangin’ with you guys! Like Road Rash and lieu, I’m also Baylor alumnus (well, I’m still enrolled in exactly one dissertation hour–btw guys, get the premier issue of “Baylor” magazine?)… in fact, lieu and I are both Baylor Geology alumni (with a slight unconformity between our respective tenures there).
Anyways: I’ll catch y’all at one eventually…
Sorry I missed this one, all previous, and probably all since, because…
Well, the bad news is that I’m not getting a job in and moving to Houston after all.
Hold on, for me, anyway, that’s actually good news, because it means that I got the full-time faculty position at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina!
Which is better, but I was still looking forward a bit to Houston and also hangin’ with you guys! Like Road Rash and lieu, I’m also Baylor alumnus (well, I’m still enrolled in exactly one dissertation hour–btw guys, get the premier issue of “Baylor” magazine?)… in fact, lieu and I are both Baylor Geology alumni (with a slight unconformity between our respective tenures there).
Anyways: I’ll catch y’all at one eventually…
I promise I’ll make the next one.
One bump for jinwicked.