> 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.

YES IT WAS

> 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.

Why thank you.

> 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.

TRUE ON BOTH COUNTS

> 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.

You did win once. I did not. EVER. But I enjoy losing just for the chance to play, so it's all good. ;-)

> 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.

YES IT WAS YAY MIA! Although that phone call was kind of disturbing because when I talked to Mia (a first for me) she immediately told me that I sounded like a cross between Dave and Stephen, at least on the phone. As if that wasn't scary enough, when I told everyone else in the room that she had said that, MANY OF THEM AGREED. Sam later recanted, but I think he might have been buckling under international pressure. Of course, I don't mind the idea of having a voice that makes me sound like two guys who are WAY HUGER AND SCARIER than me. I could stand to be a bit huger and scarier.

> 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.

And yet, no bottle game. I'm so disappointed.

> 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.

Mousie: JuliaAM, Selah, Gahalyn and I ate at a Gold Star inside a Bigg's grocery store. TOM ate with us, but he bought materials to make his own sandwiches. I had a regular five-way chili and a bottle of LiveWire Mountain Dew, and I got a leftover Coney, graciously donated by JuliaAM. After having had both Skyline and Gold Star chili, I think I preferred the Gold Star, but they were pretty close. So close, in fact, that when I was eating at Gold Star on Saturday, I thought it had been Gold Star we ate at on Friday because EVERYTHING was EXACTLY THE SAME, right down to the little hexagonal crackers they give you with your chili.

> 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.

53261. I spent a WEEK there and didn't get to go to a place so good that Sam and Leen went with you THREE TIMES? You're just trying to get me to come visit again.

> 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.

Actually, we played Tikal in our room that night, but the night before we had a game of Settlers that lasted until about 1:30.

> 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.

This experience also taught me just how awesome my AMA (Alberta Motor Association) membership is. I'm treated as a member of AAA (American Automobile Association) in every way, and I had called a tow truck and been told that towing would be free for the first five miles, same as at home. When I first got this membership, I never expected to be using an internet psycho's cell phone to call for a tow truck for an Ontarian's car from a park near the southern border of Ohio. WACKY.

> We had a big hugfest

I demanded a group hug from a bunch of people to start things off, and quickly discovered that from the middle, that press of humanity smells like, well, a press of humanity. I tried to track down any individual culprits by hugging each one in turn afterwards, but found nothing. My conclusion is that Rinkies smell far worse in large groups than they do individually. Perhaps some day science can make use of this information to develop some sort of miracle drug.

> 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.

Somewhere in here, Sam humiliated me at two games of chess. He was very nice about it, though.

> 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.

You forgot to mention the SEVERE WEATHER WARNING storm that we had to drive through to get there. It was WICKED cool. Scary clouds, and HEAVY rain, and COOL lightning. The best part is, it had cleared up enough by the time my flight was supposed to leave that we weren't delayed at all, so I actually MADE my connection in Chicago. Lucky me.

> 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.

WHAT THE HECK IS CACHING? I assume something related to birdwatching, but I really have no clue.

> 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. :-)

I'm counting on Travholt's journal to fill in the gaps of the week before. Next time I post, I should talk about the 733Tness that is King's Island.

> Last things to mention:
> - There were only 2 things left at my house: A belt (Monkeyman's) and bread (Sam and Leen's).

I discovered the missing belt this morning, and figured out where it would have to be. I don't wear it very often (usually just Friday's at work, and I have another belt that serves as a decent replacement) so there's no rush to send it back to me. You might as well wait until you have some COOL PRESENTS to send me as well.

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

D"I can ;-)"on