DC Stones Weekend visit...

So... DC Stones posted a while back that he was flying into Portland for a business conference and wanted to have a mini meet. WOOHOO! We are all about those winter mini meets. How else would we get any ink? There's so much snow around - you'd be a dang fool to go out in it. And besides - its usually bitter cold with the Arctic wind blowing around and your ink freezing before you can huff it to get it to the page - and the air from your huff freezes on its way out of your mouth... what's the point? If it ain't inside from November to April - this dang fool ain't going there.



So any who, DC Stones posted the mini meet and a bunch of us signed up immediately. While he was staying downtown - and his original location for the mini meet we convinced him to change - we were excited to get together at Sebago Brewery. Downtown - parking - Friday night - after a snowstorm = not happening. So Friday night we pulled in to Sebago - and low and behold - no parking there either!


Teacup and I rode together bringing along Celtic Farie (needed a DD after all) and Princess mud. They left us at the front door (okay so we parked in the handicapped spot - but we were only there long enough to get the stuff out of the trunk) and the girls headed back to the mall to visit Build-A-Bear. Teacup and I headed to the foyer of the pub and there was Jiffy. She had arrived five minutes ahead of us and found out that the restaurant hand managed to 'lose' our reservation. Now coming from past restaurant experience - not even knowing the group - if someone called and said there would be seventeen people showing up at seven pm - I'd make SURE I had that noted somewhere so that the night crew would know about them. Trying to seat 17 people is hard on a slow weekday - but on a BUSY Friday night - not something you want to mess around with. Well - mess around they ended up having to do.




Jiffy gave them a head's up and then called Mrs. HappyDaze who had called ahead earlier in the day as they don't take reservation but do take call ahead notices... I guess 7 1/2 hours is too long ahead, but I digress. Needless to say, Susan was NOT impressed. She told Jiffy that she was leaving her house and she would have something to say to them when she got there. Let the games begin! So folks started to arrive, and the foyer started to get cozy. We were quickly filling up the space when Susan went in and spoke with the manager who assure her that they were working on getting us a table as close to 7pm as possible. We ended up getting seated at 7:10 - mainly because I think they thought it was best to have the informal 'greeting and exiting committee' not stay any long in the foyer. It was kinda fun though. You gotta make your fun where you can... and we were all pretty silly in the foyer.





So we finally were seated - fighting to navigate our stamping stuff up onto high seats, moving them close enough to reach the table to ink up on and still be able to reach our drinks! When out came the Lips covered Martini glasses! They were awesome! Token special glasses purchased for our resident drunk fairies! We had to convince one of the faries to not dump her drink into the martini glass as she'd probably only make a mess... but they did look smashing on the table! So with drinks in hands - we started to pass around the event stamp while we waited for DC Stones to show up. Since most of us already had everyone's PTs - we mostly did some catching up - and lucky for us, we never lack stuff to talk about. But DC didn't make us wait long. And once he was there we started the process of exchanging - sharing PTs - and offering up a couple retired boxes that represented local history. Ones we had carved for Maine's Nautical Past. The Chamberlains, the Chamberlain House and Admiral Perry. Teacup and I were AMAZED at how many of our local buddies didn't have these stamps. We only place them out during the event because any stamp put on Bowdoin Campus doesn't last very long - and these are stamps carved by deniserows and mstrwndl and we do NOT want them lost.



So the locals managed to get some finds as well that we figured they already had... and we chatted a bit more waiting for our waitress to return. Somehow in the process of ordering drinks and appetizers, she thought we were going to wait for Ashley and Veronica to return from Build-A-Bear before we were going to order. But once she came back to take a second round of drink orders - we managed to put in our dinner orders. Which worked out well since the girls showed up just after our meals were served and Veronica managed to eat my fries while she waited for her dinner! Though she was kinda bummed that they automatically ordered her the children's portions... and she wanted leftovers!



So while the girls ate their mushroom ravioli and chicken fingers the adults were finishing up and having dishes cleared away. Steve disappeared for a bit and when he returned he had this HUGE fabric wrapped something. As soon as he mentioned the Six Secrets, Teacup and I got very excited. (In case you don't know about it, check this out: http://www.atlasquest.com/showinfo.html?gBoxId=73523)

We had been posting messages back and forth between Mama Wolf and Steve to see if he would bring it to Maine, but Steve told us he didn't have it in his possession. We were obviously bummed - but let it go.



As he unfolded it and started to explain the guidelines for handling it... as a group we all went into solving overdrive. How were we going to all get together again so we could help solve it? Who was going to have a first crack at it? Dates started flying around - people were thinking about how they could reschedule some things to work in solving this fabulous box. In the end we put everyone's trailname into a box and drew out atvracer's name. So it went home with Jiffy and Scott for the first crack at breaking the code.

We attempted to make a first stab at arranging a date to all get together at HappyDaze's house - but there were too many obstacles - and we really wanted to pull together when we wouldn't be rushed in one evening. So home it went with Jiffy and Scott while Steve continued to discuss the plans for the rest of his weekend. Teacup and I were at the farther end of the table from HappyDaze - Ray specifically. And before long - we were ponied up to give an early morning guided tour of Brunswick. Teacup looked at me and gave me that knowing look of surprise. Without her even saying it I knew she was thinking "Did we just get volunteered to take someone boxing??? We DON'T group box." But he was coming to Brunswick - and it was home turf for us. And yes indeed - we do like the early hours in the day to do our boxing. So while we went home scratching our heads on how we managed to get offered up by our 'friends' we started thinking about which boxes we could actually attempt to get him in a few short hours.

And we did agree - that getting a local driver would make it more beneficial to Steve. So on the ride home, with Miss Veronica soundly asleep on my shoulder... with Ashley safely navigating us homeward - Teacup and I started 'plotting' our Sunday morning boxing adventure with DC Stones. For if nothing else - Teacup has a list!