I don’t think I can make it. 
My dad leaves Sunday afternoon for a week in Europe, and like a DUMBASS, I told my parents to call me before they left for the airport. It’ll also be the conversation from HELL, but that’s beside the point.
Sooo…I have to be back here in Columbia by noon Sunday. I don’t think I can drive down, then turn around and come back in enough time. Which sucks.
Sorry, y’all.
That’s a bummer, Falc.
This is gonna be bizarre - I’ve been to a dozen Dopefests, and you’ve been at all of them. (Unless you count the Norfolk Dopefest. ;))
You mean they’re allowed to have Dopefests without you? 
RT, she came to the Norfolk Dopefest much more thoroughly than almost anybody else. But you know about these psychological problems…
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they take a long time to change! 
:::: g, d, & r :::::
Poly, you gotta be careful with those small words. You used ‘to’ instead of ‘at’. 
You’re both in SO much trouble. I just want you to know that.
Buahahahahaha!
Nice one!
Seventeen (well, 17 + epsilon) of us showed for the Raleigh Dopefest: Polycarp and Skulldigger, Mrs. & Mr. C3, Tygr & Jkayla (and an epsilon-sized TygrCub), Cabbage, aenea, Andy (a friend of aenea’s, who also came to the Norfolk Dopefest last August), Smoothie & Mr. S., Fretful Porpentine, Hamadryad and Tark, and yours truly, accompanied by his lovely wife. We met at Tir na nOg, where we had tables waiting (thanks to some quick thought by Poly), and proceeded to eat, drink, talk, take lots of photos, and have a generally good time.
After a few hours at the pub, a number of us went on to Jillian’s, where we played a lot of air hockey. At some point, Hama said something about being a dork, and I disagreed, on the grounds that it was fundamentally impossible for a bisexual woman to be a dork. (I’m still not sure how I lost that debate, but I did. )
Hamadryad said she’d have her pix up by the following evening…ok, so she’s not very fast. But she’s not a dork.
Mrs. F. and I got together with Poly and Skulldigger for a leisurely brunch on Sunday, and then we hit the long and winding road.
Blehhh… I had a great weekend job, but I really missed y’all!
Trust me. Hama is a dork. And a weenie.
runs off, giggling
You said that to a member of the male species a female bisexual could not be a dork, and I said that males could not reproduce amongst themselves, and that males were a GENDER, not a SPECIES, and you granted that I was a dork for arguing that point.
Falcon, I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that. Heh.
We had an absolutely wonderful time, although we pooped out before the Jillians run Saturday night.
Did anyone take minutes? At either end of the table? Someday can we get a Dopefest where the participants are not strewn the length of seventeen tables shoved together? Are there restaurateurs in the world who believe that large parties exist with emphasis on the second word?
After brunch (at Tir na nOg with the Fireflys!) we went to Moore Square Park with them, and proceeded to demonstrate to the world why RT and I should never be brought into the same vicinity without a critical mass of dopers to serve as insulation and pun absorbent. Both wives were groggy from watching pun and bad joke volleys.
Following seeing off the Fireflys on Sunday we went to Casa Tygre, and got the tour of the Tygr/Jkayla household. My wife is now avidly searching out for-sale signs everywhere we go. Thanks a bunch, Tygr!
I somehow overlooked the beginning of the escapade - my wife and I had planned on getting into town by about 3pm, and suggested to the Smoothies and the Polycarps that they drop by our room around 4:15. A late start, underestimating the length of the drive, and construction on I-95 near Emporia, slowed us down so we were just pulling in at the hotel at around 4:15. The aforementioned Smoothies and Polycarps were in the hotel lobby, wondering where the heck we were, when we came in off the road, so we got hugs all around, even before we checked in to get our room.
Then we hung around the hotel room for an hour or so - which is when it fortunately occurred to Poly that maybe we’d better be sure that Tir na nOg was ready for us - before heading on over to the pub.
Thanks for reminding me how I lost that point, Hamadryad! OK, I concede - you are a dork. (Good thing we’re not in GD, huh?)
So, where are those pictures?
My apologies for leaving YWalker off the list of attendees. It was great to meet you - hope we didn’t scare you off!
And am glad that all of you were able to attend.
Especially the late night crowd!
Not like I was the only one there with a camera, you jerks.
All right, some pics are up here. Hope y’all enjoy them. I did the best I could.
Great photos, Hamadryad!
It was great getting to meet all of you! Sorry for being kind of aloof and out of it as the night wore on, at that point I was rather inebriated and exhausted, but I had a great time!
Thanks for the photos, Hamadryad!
I like the pics Hama, thanks for posting them. Yeah, post the one with the demon eyes. Let the real me show through…lol.
I greatly enjoyed myself at the dopefest and enjoyed meeting all of you. It’s good to put faces with poster’s names.
Hama and Tark, it was great meeting you two since I had chatted with you before on #straighdope.
Claudia, great meeting you too. I wish you didn’t live in SC and that you posted more. I think if you still lived in Raleigh that Murray would eventually shoot me. LOL!
RT, Mrs. RT and the Polycarps it was a pleasure as usual.
Aenea, it was good to see you again. Wish I could have gone to play air hockey with you guys after the meal.
Dang.
I live in the Triangle area and just spotted this thread today. Hope y’all will have another get together sometime … and that I find out about it before it’s too late!
I feel like the proverbial mushroom … always kept in the dark and fed lots of um, well, you know.
We’ll do it again soon, I’m sure.
If only to shut up Surgoshan, who complains that we never have them when he’s in NC (his home is in Greensboro), only when he’s in New York State at college.