Hot Damn 3! nodestock
I think the best part about arriving several hours early to a gathering is getting to relax with your noder friends and chit-chat about who's coming, where you've all come from and, of course, avoiding the 100 car pile-up on Rt 68 because it's
Memorial Day weekend and everyone's in a hurry.
I met up with
LaggedyAnne and
cbustapeck at the Columbus
Greyhound station and we headed to
zot-fot-piq's place where we met up with Sean and were soon joined by
BrooksMarlin. I just want to point out, never jokingly put your hand up when there's a ball of any sort in
BrooksMarlin's hand, he'll throw the ball.
You made the "throw the ball to me" hand signal. I cannot be held accountable for the fact that you have no skillz.
After being joined by
thefez,
witchiepoo,
tandex,
enth,
dann,
borgo and
borgette - and some preboozing fun while a small group awaited
nocte - we all piled into cars to head to the camp site. And that's when it happened.
Nocte became a holiday statistic when she plowed into
cbustapeck's mini-van. The intersection was littered with broken plastic car and glass bits. In her defense,
cbustapeck had come to an abrupt stop when it was discovered we were in some weird Columbus intersection that made no sense and left him unknowingly without the right of way and staring into the frightened eyes of a vacationer from
Virginia. Sgt. Hughes (
badge number 1538) advised them against a report and eventually we continued on to Hot Damn.
Tents were raised, a fire was started and fun was had. The highlights of the weekend were:
- Jurph. Do I really need to explain? Oh, ok. There were Coffee Mate fireballs. There was glass sculpture with discarded beer bottles. Oh, and the rocket launches. What? You can't have Jurph and not have rocket launches.
- NoahPierce. Again, do I really have to explain? Ok. Radlab0 shaved his head, so all got to rub the smoothness for good luck. Yeah, that's why we were touching him.. *cough* He also flew a tent. No, that wasn't a typo. Having earlier seen elephino and JessicaPierce playing with a plastic kite, I suppose he got the bright idea to use a spare tent..I hope it was a spare tent. He - with a child in tow - attacked this tent with a sharp knife, leaving it looking as though Freddy Kruger had been there. Oh, and aside from general sweetness and hilarity from the guy, he is very into sharing knowledge. He showed us how to make nifty walking sticks with a branch and a blow torch..he instructed a 13 year old on the proper use of said blow torch then showed her how to make chedder cheese shoes with it. I must accept some responsibility for this (Ok, Mordel, I fess up) since I suggested the cheese shoes in the first place.
- Other highlights? Well other than volleyball, hanging out in the rain around a hot fire, being up at 4am with Sean, Tandex, Mordel and NoahPierce waiting on noders to arrive from their far-off origins after catching the tale end of fireworks in the middle of the street...what can I mention? OOOH! I know..
- Butterfinger McFlurry baseball. Prompted by Avalyn, LaggedyAnne and I purchased a few on a shopping trip and the boys were in baseball heaven. For as long as the desserts lasted, anyway. I believe that dann has some digital photos of the whole thing.
- One night we were visited by a ninja. Clad in black, of course for that is the ninja way, he rolled stylishly around the ground and battled whomever was brave enough to face him.
- At brunch on Sunday it was decided that we really need to start up that "Men of E2" calendar. As a fundraiser, of course. Some months have been passed out already (sorry boys Noah is October), you'll have to contact LaggedyAnne for the complete list as I can't remember them all. Of course it might have been the randy females at the table just getting carried away..
- While some noders played volleyball, other noders launched rockets as bi-planes flew around, and still other noders loaded into a car and went off to meet nocte's mom...cbustapeck, Ch'i-lin and I made our own journey to The Serpent Mound. Eductional, nice drive, you should go at least once to see this nifty burial mound that looks like a snake uncurling and swallowing the sun.
That's all my still travel weary brain can manage for now. Although I will leave you with some of my favorite weekend quote/moments.
BrooksMarlin suddenly crooning "
Put it in my mouth". I guess a 30 minute car ride listening to LaggedyAnne's mix cd: 69 Minutes of Bliss will do that to you.
Jurph focused on the fire and moving the bottles around to make interesting bits of slag, saying to an 8-year-old "I am the king of wang."
NoahPierce looking at me with a goofy grin and saying "You want me to go to....."
me: Funkstown "You want to take me to..."
me: Funkstown "You want to take me to..."
me: Yes, Funkytown "Awesome!"
Photos
Dann's pics: http://doulopolis.net/index.pl?lastnode_id=424&node_id=526
My pics: http://doulopolis.net/index.pl?node_id=528
Katyana's pics: http://katyana.com/album/index.cgi?mode= album&album=/Hot%20Damn%202003
Thanks go to our gracious hosts for a wonderful weekend!!!!