NY Ren Faire - Interested?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Unfortunately, just as my life was pulling up to the platform, the entire roller coaster shifted gears and is running the whole course in reverse.

I have now been sent back across New York state, past the point where I started from. I’m back out of Middletown and won’t be able to attend the RenFaire after all. Annoyingly, it appears the sole accomplishment of my relocation to downstate NY was to cause me to miss last month’s Toronto dopefest (and cost me a vacation and several hundred dollars). With mission completed, Fate has now steered me out of the path of this month’s dopefest as well.

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Could you post the time we’re supposed to be at your house again? I forgot to write it down. : pout : And I have to go to work now. : pout again :

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Y’all are gonna have to do this one without either Racha’ar or myself. Her problems are financial and without her to drive, me and the bug I’ve been fighting (and mostly beating) all week are not up to driving much more than I gotta, which excludes a 200+ mile drive to NY, not to mention the drive back. Plus spending X hours in the hot sun where X equals anything greater than 0 is not, I’m thinking, a red-hot idea (pun intended, of course. I am punha…;)).

Carry on, have fun, all that sort of thing:) I’ll catch y’all later sometime.

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All I can say is, if everyone had half as much fun as I had…well…then I had twice as much fun as you.

Thanks for an amazing time, folks. Mrs. Dave-Guy says you can come over and play any time you want.

Biggirl, I was right about the turtle races, wasn’t I? They really are totally stupid.

TruePisces, thank you for getting the ball rolling on this. It was a fantastic idea. I’m eating banana bread for breakfast right now. It’s really yummy.

Gorgon Heap, I have a terrible crush on your wife, if that’s okay. Sorry, man. But her smile totally blows me away. And you two have an absolutely beautiful child.

Zyada, you can dance with the best of them! There’s no way I can actually write that high-pitched tongue-waggling call, but [sup]brdrdrdrdrdrdrrrrrrr[/sup]! Well, you know what I mean. You’re totally cool and totally hot!

Euty, I’m glad I finally met you. Now that you know the way, the Big Apple and Casa Dave-Guy are always open to you.

Persephone, what can I say? It’s not every day I get to show a goddess the Spongebob Squarepants sheets on my son’s bed. I’m honored. Thanks also for taking me up on my offer to squire you around New York City. Once we finally found each other, we actually had a good time, didn’t we? Anyway, next time you get out this way, I’ll make sure I know which Starbucks you’re in. I promise.

To all who came, you made my little house a place of good fellowship. You are dearly loved and appreciated. Dopers truly are the best.

165

Holy cow Dave, go back to sleep!

Thanks to our hosts Dave and Not Mrs. Dave-Guy who, not only put up with the invading horde, but were wonderfully gracious while doing so.

Hugs and kisses to everybody and I mean everybody. It was especially nice meeting Zyada and her amazing belly control, Eutyhood and his loyal steed The Eutymobile and Persephone who I had only been able to glimpse from afar until now. It was cool being able to bask in your goddessness up close.

Everybody else----- Ya’ll already know—I love you, man!

166

Oh wow! I’ve got to tell you everything!

<Inigo Montoya>No, there is too much. Let me sum up.</Inigo Montoya>

First off, Euty I am sorry I pulled the side off your car with my superhuman strength. Next time I’ll be sure to wear my kryptonite. Thanks for the ride and the fine company. It was a blast to finally meet you and my therapy starts Monday. :wink:

Second, Persephone was truly looking like the Goddess of Spring with that floral crown on her head. A pleasure to see you once more and get to know you even better. My therapy starts Tuesday. :slight_smile:

Third, to DAVEW0071, to Not Mrs. Dave Guy, Sakura, and Halford the Human Eel[sup]TM[/sup], you are a family that truly, truly rocks! Thank you for opening your home to this crazy group of folks. Lindsey, your hair looked great with the flowers and braids and I wish you the best of luck in your college search. Oh, and I’d get you guys that dime for seeing Halford the Human Eel[sup]TM[/sup] but this therapy stuff is expensive. Wednesday’s are devoted to figuring out why I spent 30 minutes watching a turtle do nothing. :eek:

To Gorgon Heap, Acrylic Vessel and the Heaplette: Yet another family that rocks! Your kid is adorable. I shall never forget the image of Nate up there with his staff showing the belly dancer how its done! However the hypnosis therapy starts Thursday. :smiley:

To Biggirl Houseman and Pain and Heartache: Yet another rocking family! Michelle, I sincerely thank you for having the brass to stand up and say, “I’m hot! Let’s go!” My assertiveness workshop starts Friday. :slight_smile:

To Zyada our gypsy wanderer from Texas, it was great exploring the fair with you all day and I sincerely thank you for saving me from the Icky Spider of Doom[sup]TM[/sup] and I’m sure the lady in the Port-o-Privy understood. Watching you bellydance was a true treat. My lessons start Saturday. :wink:

Lastly, to Billdo Green Bean and the Beansprout, the last rocking family type people on my list thanks again for wonderful talks. Bill, not many can handle a conversation with me in full science mode and I appreciate you giving it a try. Beansprout kept smiling and laughing at me. I choose to believe he liked me. :slight_smile:

All in all, it was a wonderful fair day. The Bishop blessed many people, I got baptised under a water spray by a monk that assured me that Jesus’s first miracle was not turning water into wine at the Wedding of Caana, but turning water into beer at the bachelor party the night before, the pun Ivan the Terrapin will live with me for years, and they make a mighty tasty gyro at that place. Oh, a true word of thanks to the Renn Fair lady that, upon hearing two out of our group needed tickets, reached into her bosom and slipped us two on the sly. A truly class act!

Mental note: Walking with a staff and True Pisces in a wench outift will draw a lot of attention in Penn Station. A young girl was truly jealous at hearing of our trip and her eyes went wide as I gave up our spare coupon slip. Later on, a guy on the train asked what the staff was for half scared the leader of the druids was on the train or something. chuckle

A truly wonderful day. Thanks all. Let’s do this again real soon!

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Yeah. Sure am glad I still have some beer in the fridge.

:smiley:

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:slight_smile: Arthur slept through the night! Arthur slept through the night! Arthur slept through the night! :slight_smile:

Thank you thank you thank you all for whatever you did to make this happen. Maybe it was the fairy dust, but I think it was you.

Great to see you all as usual. And to all the folks I haven’t met before:
Zyada–wonderful to meet you finally, and I was so glad to be able to see you dance. Yowzers.
Euty–Excellent to meet you too, at long last. And that Robin Hood hat is too cool for school.
Not Mrs. Woo and Halford the Human Eel–Of course I expected that the Dave Guy would have a neato family. Thank you for living up to my expectations. :wink:
Bill–No, not that Bill, you Bill…Yes you. Hopefully you’ll come check out the boards and come to another gathering.
Heapette–You are too cute! And you are a very delightful baby. Arthur and I look forward to playing with you again soon.

Now I wonder where I can find a gargantuan barbecued turkey leg in Central Jersey…

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:eek: Holy moley!! I forgot about those. I guess my wife threw them out …
Mmmmm … Heaping turkey legs … (drooooool)

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Remember, When you get too arrogant, years from now, just look into the mirror, look yourself in the eye, and say:

“I spent 25 minutes of my life watching turtles do NOTHING!”

Also, I would like to gloat. Many dopers have not even seen Euty, but I got to start his car! Yeah! Me one, You nothing!
Ok. I’ll leave now.

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[snort]

172

Ok, I missed something here.

Who the hell is Zoltarb? :confused:

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Thanks to everyone for making this the …

Best.

Weekend.

Ever.

Even after spending two hours trapped on the Cross Bronx Expressway.

This was my first time ever in midtown New York City and I was certainly impressed by the influence of one of our noble General Questions moderators. I mean almost everything in that town was named after him!

The last time I was at the NY Ren Fest was back in 1986 and they have certainly expanded since then. Definately a must-attend event for any NY dopers who missed it this year. And we will do this again next year.

I won’t go through name by name since I have no desire for my high regard of everyone I met there to be turned into sig material. Suffice it to say that you all were everything I expected and more and a hell of a lot of fun to hang out with for the day.

The Turtle Races. Trust me, you have GOT to see the Turtle Races. The Doper section of the seats turned into the official "laughing"section since we were all just completely cracking up over this guy.

One turkey leg can apparently feed a family of four.

Special thanks to the Dave-Guy and Mrs. Not the Dave-Guy for putting up wth us for the better part of the evening, and for their warmth and hospitality.

Best quote of the evening come from Dave’s lovely daughter Sakura : (close approximation of quote since I wasn’t writing stuff down) “I don’t know how you can be Roman Catholic and keep up with all those rituals and traditions and obligations. To be a good Baptist all you have to do is make a halfway decent pasta salad.”

Thanks to all for a rockin’ good time!

P. S. Banana bread … mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm …

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The son o’ Biggirl and Houseman who promised that he wouldn’t actually drive the car and then got dissappointed when it didn’t make enough noise. :slight_smile:

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Actually, I missed that quote by Sakura, but she still managed the best quote I heard:

“Hormones, Dad, hormones”

BTW, the girls got taste. This was after a discussion of some of her favorite actors which led to a near-meltdown: Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Cary Grant…

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Thanks to everyone for making this, as Euty said, the best weekend ever.

Thanks to TruePisces for being such a lovely and generous hostess. And her banana bread totally rules. :smiley:
Thanks to Verrain for being warm, witty and generous. You’re a peach! And you looked resplendent in your robes!

Thanks to **beerchick, Biggirl, ** and family, for being incredibly awesome! I didn’t get to talk to Biggirl when I was there in January, but this time we finally had the chance, and BOY does she EVER rock the freakin’ house! OH yeah!

Thanks to Gorgon Heap and the Heap family, for also being extremely cool! Gorgon didn’t wear The Hat this time, but he still kicks serious butt, and Baby Heap is too cute for words.

Thanks to GreenBean & BeanSprout, for being so nice. And the Sprout is also too cute for words. Gotta hook Baby Heap & BeanSprout up sometime. Oh boy.

Thanks to Zyada, who is just lovely. And when I get the spare cash, I’m coming to your house and you’ll teach me to dance.

Thanks to Billdo, who is ALWAYS AWESOME! Thanks for braving the heat and having lunch with me, and I have SO got dibs on your floor when I come back. WHEN I come back. Because I’ll be back.

Thanks to **manhattan, ** for being his usual kind, warm, generous self and lunching with me, too. You’re a prince among men, manny, and I adore you.

Thanks to **Halford the Human Eel, Sakura, and Not-Mrs-Dave, ** for being everything the Dave-Guy says you are–the best family anyone could ask for. And thanks for letting me borrow Dave on Friday. I’d have ended up in New Jersey or something without him.

Thanks to Dave, for being one of the best friends a wanna-be-raging-b**** like me could ever ask for. I’ll be back, and I’ll have better directions. I promise.

And finally, thanks to Euty. You’ve been so good to me for so many years now, and getting to meet you not once, but twice this year has been wonderful. I’ll see you again too, my friend.

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Well, you’ve graduated from whiny b**** to annoying b****, so that’s an improvement. Keep working on it. :wink:

And if you can’t get better directions, at least show up with a cup of coffee, willya? But I won’t let you down. That’s my promise to you. I don’t want to jeopardize my god status.

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I was going to post a link to the drinking wenches picture, but that sucker is way, way to big (125k) and I have no idea how to make it smaller.

If anyone has any type of clue how to do this, you can go right ahead and tell me.

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I had a blast, but then I expected no less from a Dopefest. This was about the perfect size for me – small enough that I could talk to everyone, but large enough that two or three conversations can get going.

Dave is even more fantastic than I had imagined. His neighborhood is gorgeous, the sort of place that has to have been around at least 60 years. His wife is wonderful, putting up with all us nutcases. These are people that I wish lived next door to me. TruePisces and Verrain are an adorable couple; I enjoyed hanging out with them at the Faire (I wish I had had a timer to time that kiss :wink: ). I loved getting to see Persephone, Euty and Billdo again, and getting more time to interact with them. Gorgon Heap is an awesome dancer! Biggirl is the doll I knew she would be; I want to take her home and keep her. Her husband and kids are very, very quiet. I wonder why. :smiley:

Favorite memories: Sakura’s quote that I posted before: “Hormones, Dad, hormones!”; talking wedding disaster stories; talking about re–instating flogging and I said some people might like that – they thought I meant people would like watching them so I had to clarify that it wasn’t the watching that people might enjoy; Biggirl ’s story about her grandmother; the Turtle races (really!); getting to dance for my friends; girly talk with the two new moms, Not Mrs. Dave–Guy, TruePisces and Sakura. Sakura: “I think I should be taking notes” And the player pulling tickets out of her bodice!

I had a hard time leaving. These people are wonderful (I can’t say that enough) and I’ll make sure I get back up there again for another dopefest.

But next time I’m not staying in Newark.

Funny story for y’all: I was telling a woman today about going to NY for the weekend. She told me she has a cousin who lived in New York. I asked her: “City or State?”
She asked “What’s the difference?”
I explained “Well, there’s NYC, which is a city, and then there’s the state” (With appropriate hand gestures to indicate that the state is larger)
She said…“I didn’t know that there was a state!” (Turns out her cousin lives near the Apollo, so we decided he lives in the city)

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Well, if he lives in the city, he lives in the state.

But I live in the state, and I don’t live in the city.

I was so impressed that you flew up just for the day. I can’t imagine doing that, but I am so glad you did. I’ve already added you to my list of favorite people (and it’s getting to be a real long list, cause it includes everyone who was there Saturday).

Thank you for the kind words. I wouldn’t mind living next door to you at all.

And everyone – I mean EVERYone – next year, my place, RenFaire. I’m not kidding.

I’ve already decided to whip up a batch of ribs in homemade Jack Daniels BBQ sauce for the evening. So don’t miss it.