Well, I've finally gotten a full night's sleep on my own bed for the first time in 2 weeks, so I'm now ready to post.

On Saturday, the 12th, I went to pick up Monkeyman at the airport. He must've flew off the airplane because he was almost the first person that came through the gate. I recognized him right away from pictures and gave him a hug. Then we went down and stood in front of the baggage claim. People came, luggage came. People went, luggage went. And we stood. Finally we realized that his luggage must've been lost and we reported and were on our way to my house.

I showed him around and we chilled out for a little while, then headed to Grishny's to get Travholt. We got there quite a bit before they did so we spent some time driving around. But that got tiring after a while, so we parked and hung out in their backyard. Monkeyman hadn't seen lightning bugs before so we spent sometime running around catching them and setting them free. It was great fun.

Eventually the Grishny's showed up with this REALLY TALL guy who I could only assume was Travholt. We spent the rest of the night trying to think of things we could do, but it turned out that mostly we were all tired. So we talked for a long while then I took the guys and we were off to my house.

I showed Travholt around and then we all headed to our separate "rooms" (I slept on the couch) for some much needed rest. The next morning I was up at 8 and I think they didn't wake up until 11 or so, which was fine. Someday maybe I'll learn to sleep in again.. but it doesn't come so naturally anymore. That morning we found Monkeyman's luggage on the doorstep. Yay for drop offs.

Anyway, I'm going to stop being so detailed and fast forward through the week. If Monkeyman and Travholt want to add to this they are certainly welcome to. I had to work all week so the two of them rounded up a bunch of my movies that they hadn't seen and had one big movie fest. At night we'd try different things to eat, like Frisch's Big Boy, and Skyline and all. And we even got to taste some of Monkeyman's cooking. He does a pretty good job. Certainly pays more attention to taste than I do.. and that's apparent by the line of spices that he left with me, that I'll probably never use. And Travholt had his first s'more ever. I think Monkeyman had had one before, but never as good at famous' s'mores. ;-) Hehe. And we also made them out of Norwegian chocolate that Travholt gave me and that turned out to be good as well.

Oh and we also played a few games of Settlers of Catan. Fun game, even when Travholt beats the crap out of us every time. But I think I did get to win once, so that was nice. My mom even joined in for a game one night when we went to visit her at her house.
Friday I got to take a half day and I went home and we did laundry and cleaned the house up and all that. Then we ran out for Skyline lunch. When we got back I had a message on my voice-mail. It was Sam saying "WE'RE HEEEEEEEEEEEERE. WHERE ARRRRRRE YOOOOOOU? WHY AREN'T YOU HEEEEEEEEERE?". It was pretty amusing, and so we packed up and headed out.

When we got there we got our room keys, and I surprised Sam and Leen by just unlocking the door and walking right in the room. That was fun. Then we met Travholt and Monkeyman back in the lobby after they'd put their stuff down. We got to see the conference room which was HYOOJ, and then we all just chilled out while other Rinkies filtered in and began to meet.

Eventually we got all kinds of hungee and headed off to Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was very good as always and I think everyone enjoyed it well enough. Two tables. One with 8 people and one with 10. Then Issachar showed up and surprised us, so we fit in one more at one of the tables.

After dinner we met back in the convention room and just sat around and tried to get to know each other better. Mia made a phone call that night and a couple of us got to talk to her, which was nice. But by midnight or so we were all tired and decided to head off for the night.

Saturday we woke up and were in the conference room by the starting time of 8:39. Everyone gathered in the room slowly. Sam did some welcome to the RU stuff. And we did a couple of party game things. I'd give more specifics, but some of these things are repeated at RU's and I don't want to give it away for those who've not been yet. All I know is I came away with the most magnetic Bingo chips. Yay me!

After that we broke for lunch. I found myself at Applebee's with 7 or 8 people. Not sure what everyone else did, but I'm sure everyone found somewhere to eat. Then it was back to the room for show and tell time. Grishny played his bass cello (I think that's what they're called) while Mrs. Grishny sang. Mensekemeser played a tune on his electric keyboard that he'd wrote. Cynthia sang her yodelling song (same one as last year, but it still ruled). I sang the RU4 theme song I wrote along with a rap interlude from my main man, Issachar. hehe. JuliaAM - who proved to be not only a Rinkie Mom (Selah's), but a Rinkie herself - came up and showed us some of the books she's made. They were very impressive and I even ended up making one of her more simpler designs for myself later on. I can't remember if anyone else did anything, but I'm sure someone will reply with what I missed.

Then it was time for "Sinbad of the Seven Seas". It's always great to watch this with a room full of people. I think about half had seen it before and half hadn't. I swear that's the only movie that gets funnier every single time I watch it. HA!

Then it was off to dinner and I took some people to Steak and Shake. I didn't realize this wasn't a national chain. It's a great place for a burger and an excellent milkshake. Anyone who visits me should remind me to take them to it.

After dinner we headed back and grabbed the smaller of the convention rooms to play games in. There was a game of Scum where I worked my way up from Scum's assistant all the way to king (queen). And then we had a game of Settlers and a game of Tikal going. Great fun. Then around Midnight we called it quits though I know some of the guys stayed up to 3:00 in their room playing Settlers again.

Sunday morning we all got up and met around 9:30 downstairs. Some grabbed breakfast and the rest of us lounged around while we made the plans. Eventually we headed off to Eden Park. We were heading to a spot called twin lakes were two lakes were supposed to be right next to each other. So much for that. They were like tiny ponds at the most. But it was a nice spot anyway. Mostly we lounged around getting used to the heat and humidity. Issachar started talking about a Sinbad of the Seven Seas game that he thought of creating. Some people started up a game of frisbee while li'l Grishny searched for any kind of dirt he could find to play in.

I took the job of grilling as Sam wanted to join in the fun and I didn't mind. We didn't have any aluminium foil at first, but I convinced Sam that the burgers weren't going to cook on that grill without it. Thankfully Rivikah stepped up and went out to find some for me. In the meantime JuliaAM showed us how you can cut cans and make make-shift aluminium foil out of them. But just as we were about to try Rivikah showed back up and we didn't need to. Sometime though I might try this for fun.. just to see how well it works.

We all ate kind of sporatically, but it didn't matter. I think most people just had fun talking more, and getting to know each other even better. Throwing frisbee and swinging was also done by some. Bye the end of the day we were fairly beat and everyone gathered together for that last big group picture. After that there were lots of hugs because most people would break off once they got to the hotel.

When Sam, Leen, Travholt and I got back to the hotel we chilled out in the lobby. Sam, Leen and I were waiting on Monkeyman to return since he was going to my house that night with us. But then the Grishny's showed up and informed us that Rivikah, Mensekemeser, and Monkeyman were stuck at the park because Rivi's car had broken down. They'd brought back ahmoacah, but couldn't fit anyone else into the car with them and Jonathan already in there. So Sam and Leen went back while the rest of us left at the hotel just played around with Megahal and chatted. Thankfully Rivi's car started again and they all came back safely.

We had a big hugfest and then we were off for home. We spent the evening looking at the RU pictures and just chatting, but it was easy to see we were all wiped out. So everyone went to sleep.

Monday morning, I woke up at 7 and at 7:30 Monkeyman and I headed for the airport. We were actually kind of quiet (unusual for the both of us) on the ride there because we were still pretty tired. I walked him to the gate, hugged him goodbye and headed back home. Sam and Leen still weren't up when I got there but awoke a bit later on. We spent a lot of the morning chatting and all. I can't remember what else we did that day (my mind is all blurry), but I know it involved at least a trip to the mall. And I think that was the night we went to Steak and Shake again. They loved it so much the first time that we had to go back. It was really good. And then it was back to the house for more talking and then more sleeeeeeeep. Yay.

On Tuesday Leen had made a list of caches we could do and once we got excited enough we headed off. We found Keehner Park in West Chester, which was a very nice park. But the caches were off in the woods. Leen, being the expert, was smart enough to wear jeans. Sam and I, being the tough guys (hehe), opted for shorts. All I can say is that I have a ton of cuts on my legs and a bazillion skeeter bites. But I lived and it was FUN! At one point Leen and I gave up on trying to cross the little river thing, and just walked right in. Made it easier the rest of the day not having to be so careful and we could get to our destinations much faster. Caching is fun.

After that we came home and Leen and I went shoe shopping. She needed knew ones anyway, and since her old one's were soaked we thought it was the best time to do it. Sam stayed home and did Sam-like stuff. I managed to control myself and not get any shoes, but I did pick up a new earring for my cartilage piercing.

Can't remember what we did for dinner that night. It's crazy how bad my memory gets sometime. Sam and Leen are likely to be able to help me out here. :-)

Wednesday I had to go back to work while they stayed at the house. Sam AIMed me all day long while Leen went out trying to redo some caches because one of the cache owners was all crappy about some details (I'll let Leen post about that if she feels like it).

When I got home we took off to try to find Ohio playing cards for Sam. We went to both Target and Wal-mart but had no success. So we opted to head for dinner at Steak and Shake yet again. hehe. I've had more milkshakes lately than ever. But the food there really is great. And this time we learned not to sit so close to the smoking section. Then we headed to Meijer where we finally found Ohio State Buckeyes playing cards. Yay.

We rounded out the night by chilling in the living room and chatting. But I had to get up for work the next day. So I said my goodbyes to them then, and went to bed.

Thursday Sam and Leen left while I was at work, and I came home to an empty house for the first time in quite a while.

The whole time was a blast. I'm up to 49 RinkMeets now, tied with Sam and Leen. I'm happy to stay tied with them, but still am eager to get more and to see some of my friends many more times.

Last things to mention:
- There were only 2 things left at my house: A belt (Monkeyman's) and bread (Sam and Leen's).
- The best line of the RU: "Darien's so late, he hasn't even shown up to RU3 yet." - Sam
- Much love and hugs to James who helped out with the captions on my pictures which you can find in the link below.

fam "I can't believe I wrote that much" ous