Let's see ... gonna have to dredge up stuff from the memory banks, so there probably won't be much to read, but let's see if I can go through some of the past week ....
We'll start with Tuesday. The Girl and I met with Sis and one of her co-workers (DW) for lunch at El Torito. I've been hearing about DW for quite some time; Sis thinks we have a lot in common and that we'd get along well, so I'm glad I finally had the chance to meet her. And yes, I think we did get along well! Puttered around the apartment for a while after that and then went to meet The Girl and LM (from where I used to work) for tacos. The Boy didn't join us, because he was out getting footage of the fires. Unfortunately, I was a little late getting to Buffalo Inn ... as I was backing out of my parking place, one of the neighbors tried to drive around my vehicle, and I hit the back quarter panel of her car. Not much visual damage to Henry, which is good; nobody was hurt, which is even better. Her car has more damage but the insurance will cover it. What pisses me off is that the insurance company says I'm 100% at fault, since I was backing out. However, I know for a fact that I looked very carefully (I always do) and backed out really slowly. I don't know how fast she was driving, but she said that she saw my vehicle moving and "tried to swerve". I'm pretty sure she was going too fast for the parking lot, but I also know it won't do any good to protest.
Don't remember what I did on Wednesday, so there must not be anything worth mentioning ...
Thursday started out with laundry, packing, and going to the grocery store. From there, I headed out to Bonelli Park for the BIDSC camping trip. I think I got there around 1:30 or so. Happy was watching a movie in the trailer, so I read and relaxed for a while. We went over to socialize with a few other people that had also arrived early. Had dinner after BK and Duh got there and did some more socializing. What was really nice is that I'd already met all the first arrivers on other occasions (the NASCAR parties), so I felt comfortable with them.
Friday was spent setting up "camp" (Duh likes to put out lots of decorations and homey touches when she's going to be camping for a few days) and socializing. As the day went on, more of our group arrived. We had 10 campsites for the motorhomes, and there were a couple of tents set up alongside them. Friday night was also "party night" as people got set up and started rewinding from their workday.
I was a bit anti-social on Saturday, because even though I'd stayed under the shade ALL DAY on Friday, I got a little bit of sunburn on my arms/upper chest and didn't want to overdo it. I went visiting for a little while, but spent a lot of the day in Duh's motorhome. We had a group bbq for dinner, which was a lot of fun (BYOM and a side dish).
The Social Club picnic was Sunday, and we had a lot of additional people show up for the picnic. I think there was a total of about 50 people for the afternoon, and again - everyone was really nice and friendly and I think "a good time was had by all". There was a food competition, and they gave Duh an "honorable mention" for best appetizer (I don't remember which one it was - she brought stuffed mushrooms, which were delicious; and a Monte-Cristo sandwich kind of thing which was even better than the mushrooms. We ended up staying up pretty late on Sunday night, just talking and joking and having fun. Maybe a little bit of drinking was going on, too ...
What was really nice, though, is that everyone treated me like I'd been part of the group forever. In fact, one of the guys started picking on me right from the beginning (which you know is always fun, when people like you enough to pick on you). And at one point, I told him he really needed to have more respect for his elders. He argued with me on that, saying that I'm not older than he is so it doesn't apply. I asked him his age (I knew he was younger, because Duh said that he and his wife were the "kids" of the group); when he said 48, I asked him how old he thought I am. I felt really good when he said 47 .... and he looked surprised when I told him my real age. (In fact, earlier in the day, one of the ladies was surprised that I'm older than Duh, even though it's only 2-1/2 months).
Anyway, yesterday was spent packing up and coming back home. And apologizing to the cat ....
y. I borrowed an outfit from Duh ... wasn't completely "period" but I think I looked ok. There weren't a lot of vendors, but they stuff they were selling was really nice. There were a couple booths that we spent a lot of time at ... the vendors were so much fun to talk to! I was going to buy a tankard (because it felt silly to walk around carrying the plastic Budweiser cup) but the ones we were looking at were pewter - and expensive. Happy bought Duh a really pretty pewter necklace. And a tankard for me. Yeah, I couldn't believe it, either.
ple of Happy's friends from when he used to work the Faire; spent most of the day hanging out at the Mariners Guild. Had an absolute blast - great conversation, lots of laughs, and even tried a couple of micro-brew beers that were really good. It was a lot of fun watching Happy, too, because he was "in character", which meant he was a little bawdier than he normally would be.
