I'm baaaaack

Didja miss me?

I've written this post in my head 200 times (at least) since Sunday....  Which of course makes it harder to write.

Where to begin?

So Friday I was supposed to get up at 3am to be at LAX in time for a 6am flight.  But DH turned off the alarm in his sleep and we woke up at 5.  YEEOUCH!

Flew to the airport, only to be told that I had missed the bag check cutoff by 10 minutes.... So I called using the little phone and changed to a flight laving at 7am.  And they only charged me a $25 same-day confirmation fee, rather than like $100 for changing my ticket.  Thank God for Travelocity travel insurance.  I usually never get it, but I did this time because I was making other stops (more about that later).  Good thing.

So I left at 7am, and arrived in Atlanta about 2:30.  I got a taxi to the hotel and transferred a few things to a smaller bag.

At 4 pm the Mulleted one arrived and whisked me away.  Well, whisked is probably a strong term considering that it took us two hours to get out of Atlanta.  Damn Friday rush hour traffic.  And we only had to turn around twice! :-)

He even took me to Chick Fil A!  What a nice guy.

So eventually we get to the hotel in Tennessee, and finally on to our destination, the Straight White House.  I walked into the house, and instantly got swallowed up in a sea of bloggers and blog buddies:  Sissy, Bou, Bou's sister Morrigan, Jimbo and his bodyguard Kenny, Denny, T1G, Redneck, Johnny-Oh, RSM, Yabu, Recondo32 and Georgia, Eric's buddy J, and of course the SWG and the SW Missus.

I felt comfortable immediately, and let me tell you, this is a good bunch of folks.  Fun AND funny.  And it was awesome to put faces with names and to get to give my Adopted Blog Mom and Sis hugs!

On Saturday morning we all went to breakfast.  I didn't realize it was still possible to get more food than you can eat for $4!  As we pulled up to the cafe, Teresa arrived, too.

While I'm on the subject of breakfast, Boudicca can really put away the food.  She may be little, but there's a lumberjack in that little body!

After breakfast we returned to Eric's, with only a few people getting lost, and soon there were more folks to meet:  Ellison and SWMBO arrived right after breakfast, and then Velociman, Dax Montana, and Big Stupid Tommy joined the party.

Did I miss anyone?

Saturday's highlights included breaking shot glasses (hot glass + cold Vodka = crack!), a rocket attack, and Dax et al ACTUALLY sleeping out by the fire.  No.  Really.  When they actually slept.

Saturday also featured a yummy dinner of barbecued ribs, beans, and biscuits, followed by birthday cake.  It seems that SWG, Ellison, Zonker, Jimbo, and Denny all have birthdays in the last 10 days.  So we had two cakes, and a singalong.  Seems the Debonair One is also quite the songwriter, and he wrote a great song commemorating the event and the Straight White Birthday.

And then Ellison and Jimbo made up a song about getting older and slamming your dick in the door.

Yep.  You read that right.  Zonker has the video.

Sunday featured breakfast cooked by the Ellisons and Yabu ducking out of doing the dishes. Velociman left early because he had a long drive.  Except that he forgot his laptop, and had to return for it.  But the sneaky bastard thought he could grab it and go.  He didn't reckon on the alarm, though.  The rest of us were in the kitchen when he sneaked in, and I heard the alarm and saw him sneaking out the door.  The only words I could get out were "There he goes!" and the rest of the crew took off out the door and made him pay for trying to pull a fast one.

 Then we left and drove down the back roads back to Atlanta, where I got back into the swing of things at the meeting I actually came to town for.

But that's another post entirely.

More on everyone and pictures and more stories later.  It's just too much to remember.  Check everyone else's stories, especially Ellison's latest.