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| So, what about that Dorsai Thing? Nice, very nice. Rene, Carol and I were all on the same flight out on Thursday evening, so we drove into the airport together. There we linked up with Dan and Kay Jarrell, who were also on the same flight. The five of us had an uneventful flight, followed by a tour of LAX on the local SuperShuttle. After three cycles around the airport, we were delivered to the Thing hotel about 11 PM. The consuite was already up and running, and we had a nice relaxing evening with the LA crew and the other super-early arrivals. Friday day we spent wandering up and down Venice Beach with lots of commentary about regional differences ("Mommy, what's that bright white thing?" "That's a midwesterner, dear.") ("Sarge, what's that bright yellow thing?" "That's the Sun, Gooch.") We also shopped for kids, grandkids, and ugly Hawaiian shirts for the contest. After fine lunches at various places we decided we were fried enough to go home ("Mommy, what's that bright red thing?") and headed back to the hotel. Things were hopping by then, and we settled in for a fine evening of chat, drink, snack, and food. The octet of me, Carol, Heathyr, Rene, Steve and Dorotha B, Gooch and Marnie hit The Cheesecake Factory for dinner, which was damned good and damned large - almost no-one had room for dessert. Formal stuff kicked off Saturday morning with the brunch, followed by the Business meeting. From there we headed off to the beach BBQ and kite flying. Dorotha Beirnesser had announced there would be a special hula dance as a fund-raiser for suicide prevention, but this was actually a ruse to arrange for the induction of Mike Guiccard as a member. The theory was that he'd have his attention focused on her, and we'd get him from behind. But he kept staying back in places where we couldn't get at him. Well. If Mohammed will not come to the mountain, the mountain will go to Mohammed. So Dorotha started dancing towards Mike. Mike started backing up. Dorotha continued forward. Mike backed up more. Eventually he fled to a spot where we could hit him, and the beret landed on his head. Photo by Dave Stein here. One down. At the banquet that evening, we followed with our tradition (which we'd just made up) of having the newest member served first. A covered plate was delivered to Mike, who opened it to reveal a scrolled note tied with a red ribbon. He opened it, read it, turned to Marnie and said "I think this is for you." She was reading the note and trying to figure out what "Good for 1 free membership in the Dorsai Irregulars" meant when the beanie landed on her head. Photo by Dave Stein here. Two down. At close of banquet, we introduced the Toast to Absent friends and then asked the junior member present to rise and lead us. Marnie stood up. I told her to sit down and asked Doug to stand up. He did, and we dropped it on him. Photo by Dave Stein here. Triple play. During the banquet dessert (how appropriate), Fritha Coltrain gave a wonderful belly dancing show. I hope someone had a camera going, because it was damned good. Following the banquet we used the room for filk, and things didn't wind down from it or the con suite until about 3AM. Sunday brunch included the Ugly Hawaiian Shirt contest and presentation of the Turkey Feather to the 2009 Thing Con Committee. Since the only member of the concom had an early flight, I agreed to take possession of it and will get it into the hands of the Racy Thing (Indianapolis) folks. Other points of note: Tina K-L and Donna Long put out a very nice consuite, stocked with both proper junk and good food. The corn chowder on Friday night was especially good and went pretty quick. A number of other folks said good stuff about the chili. The hotel staff figured out pretty quick that we were self-reliant. They let us have meeting rooms long after the scheduled times, and were quite quite suprised to see us cleaning up after ourselves in the con suite. Apparently they were expecting a drunken party. That's what they got, but as Betty said, "We're responsible drunks." The hotel itself was an excellent venue for a Thing. The bungalow rooms were very big and made prime spots for the smaller conversations and gatherings. The consuite was open and airy, with a small kitchen tucked away in one corner. At breakfast Monday morning Betty was heard to say "...when we do Thing again, we'll look at this place again." We congratulated her on the using "when" rather than "if." For you DI who are reading this, I'll have a report with more, er, internal detail on the maillist and forum shortly. | ||||||||
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