Team MOAR GOATZ! at the Pub Quiz. Standing: a gilas girl, ProvokingMeaning, peregrine kate, TrueBlueMajority. Seated: tgypsy, hayden, figbash, Dragon5616, Tim DeLaney, Puddytat.
Good evening, Kibitzers! I must say that a solo round trip drive from New Jersey to Detroit and back takes a lot out of one. Route I-80 in Pennsylvania, in particular, is about 300 miles of "
East Jabib, next million exits". Further, there are lane closures for construction throughout the Greater Jabib area. The only reason I am not still sitting on I-280 E in Ohio is because I happened to be shouting into the bluetooth speaker at the wonderful
Onomastic when I reached the back of a massive traffic jam, and she looked on the internetz and alerted me that this would be a good time to make a U-turn and retrace my path to reach I-80 another way. The GPS lady was very angry with us, but all she could do was recalculate.
I felt as if I didn't take many pictures this year. I was tired and discombobulated the whole time and think I missed a lot of stuff (but luckily not Rev. Dr. Barber. If you have not seen/read his speech, you really should). As it turned out when I finally downloaded, there are quite a few pictures, although only a handful of fabulous ones. Today I will post the Kossacks, because I know that everyone longs to see their friends. We will leave food pr0n and scenery for another time, because this is already huge. A couple of these photos were not taken by me but involve me; I will credit where appropriate. Join me etc. etc.
Wednesday night after the Cheers & Jeers dinner, we were at one of many overflowing and constantly cast-changing tables in the hotel bar. The staff appeared quite alarmed at the size of the crowd, which seemed to us odd for a giant convention hotel (also hosting a scifi convention at the time). Have all other conventioneers quit drinking??
At the hotel bar Wednesday night: TrueBlueMajority, smileycreek, paradise50, side pocket
Because it's where I snapped the most pics, I will devote the bulk of this diary's space to the Chairman's Pub Quiz, where I was proud to be affiliated with the awesome
MOAR GOATZ! team. I do not personally like to play competitive games, but I was able to participate in my favorite way, by making props for the
cast team. Many thanks to
elfling for photographing some GOATZ for us, and to
navajo for blowing up the high-res photos and photoshopping out their tiny, tiny flaws. I received a stack of printed GOATZ at the C&J dinner, and with my scissors and hot glue gun I was able to whip up enough GOATZ to be brandished by the team of 10, plus some signs for the cheering section.
ProvokingMeaning, tgypsy, and hayden -- or so we think!
figbash talks with Dragon5616, while Tim DeLaney and Puddytat are ingoatnito.
smileycreek gets blurry sometimes! Seated: a gilas girl, peregrine kate, ProvokingMeaning.
The MOAR GOATZ! cheering section: NormAl1792, (my empty chair), smileycreek, and paradise50.
NormAl1792 says that he is not actually that cool; it's just that his sunglasses are also reading glasses. However, he
is actually that cool.
smileycreek leads the team cheer!
What do we want?
MOAR GOATZ!
When do we want 'em?
Baaaaaaaaa!
I'm happy to report that Team MOAR GOATZ! not only tied for 17th place (out of, like, billions and billions), but was also awarded a
special prize: BEST RUMINANT SIGNS!!!
a gilas girl graciously presented the Giant Hershey Bar of Honor to me in a small ceremony, aided by
NormAl1792.
Photo by smileycreek. I'd like to thank the Academy...
Knowing better than to keep a giant Hershey bar in my room, I hastily awarded it to
navajo later that evening, in thanks for her photoshop work. She, being of the same mind, proposed that it was best delivered to
elfling for photographing the goatz.
Some portraits from here and there around NN:
Denise Oliver Velez
Ian Reifowitz
TrueBlueMajority
Puddytat
a gilas girl
nomandates
paradise50
nomandates & smileycreek
Dragon5616
figbash
Bill in Portland Maine & Common Sense Mainer
Dragon5616 & Tim DeLaney
Seated: tgypsy & hayden
Behind them: BruinKid; brillig (taking photo)
maggiejean & paradise50
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The closing party on Saturday night was at the Michigan Science Center. As smileycreek has observed elsewhere, many of us were severely fried by that time, as shown here: |
Three couch potatoes
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But there was one more piece of urgent business: Saturday was my dad's 84th birthday. He was supposed to have come to NN with me, but he was having some health issues and I got talked into going without him. He really wanted me to go and have a good time, and I was determined to send him a birthday greeting that would show him I
was having a good time, surrounded by wonderful people. Using my gift from
a gilas girl of a huge box of crayons, I made some signs, and stuck them in my purse.
I knew the party would be the best place to find a lot of people I cherish all at once, but the party was quite spread out, taking up the entire museum as it did. smileycreek walked with me and we found a "starter" knot of people near the refreshments. She took off running and, within minutes, had flushed a whole flock from the museum underbrush, including navajo, who composed the group so we could all be seen, and then handed her phone to an onlooker so she could be in it too.
My dad was delighted with the picture! A million thanks to those two friends who helped me, and to everyone who took the trouble to come over and pose!!! Special thanks to Adam B, who I am sure really has no idea who I am, and who was plainly having a much less fun weekend than he might have expected; it was extremely gracious of him to participate.
Yes, not everyone is looking at the camera and maybe a couple more takes would have helped, but this was a party, not a photo shoot, and we'd held everyone long enough waiting for one more and one more and one more to arrive. I love this picture, exactly because of its spontaneous feel, and I will treasure it. A million thanks to everyone, including those who didn't make it over to get into the image, and those who weren't even in Detroit at all. You are all in there. ♥♥♥♥♥
Front: paradise50, smileycreek
Row 2: gotmooned, peregrine kate, a gilas girl, jotter, 4Freedom, Tim DeLaney
Row 3: ProvokingMeaning, aha aha, jlms qkw, ericlewis0, maggiejean, nomandates, Meteor Blades, tgypsy, (me), Adam B, thankgodforairamerica, Brainwrap, navajo, Ian Reifowitz
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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