We were staying with my wife's mother in Windham, NH, about half an hour from the Comfort Inn in Manchester. We left Windham around 9:00, half an hour after the "official" start time for the RinkUnion. On the way to Manchester, I missed my exit, and we ended up having to go all the way to Concord before we found a place to turn around and come back. As a result, we arrived at the Inn at 10:00 -- an hour and a half after the convention began. Sam had told me that it didn't matter if we were there at 8:30 on the dot or not, but I hate being late for anything; especially something fun!

It was pretty obvious where the conference rooms were at the Comfort Inn. Next to the hotel proper is a smaller building that says "Conference Center" right on it. We walked in, and through the open door to a conference room I saw a row of people sitting at long, narrow tables. But--oh no! I didn't recognize anybody! Was this the right place? Was there another room somewhere down the hall? I was looking at this guy with black hair and a mustache seated at the end of the row and thinking, "I've never seen this guy before in my life!" But then I saw the RinkWorks sign next to the door and knew we were in the right place whether I recognized anybody or not. The stranger with the mustache turned out to be Sam's brother Jake (Jaguar).

We walked in and were greeted with a chorus of "Mr. And Mrs. Grishny!" from around the room. I felt welcome. I felt loved. It was great. I looked around the entire room and this time recognized people. There was Sam at the lectern up front, looking all leader-ish. I saw the backs of Matthew and Ayako's heads. I saw Stephen, looking vaguely interested in our appearance. I think Mousie might have been clapping. I did not see Darien and Mina and thought, "Oh good, we're not the last ones here." Then I thought, "That's not a very nice thing to think," so instead I thought, "Oh no! Where's Darien and Mina?"

We had arrived just in time for the RinkUnion Memory Game! We took our seats in the back as Sam began distributing the spreadsheet-like forms for the game. I was sitting right behind Rivikah, who was already hard at work on her mobile. My wife sat behind Cynthia, who, after famous, was the attendee who lives closest to us geographically. Cynthia fulfilled her ambassadorial duties at this point and gave us our hug pins from teach, as well as :rose:s from herself. Ruling!

The memory game was fun, even though neither of us did very well. I scored a 37, which I suppose was halfway decent, but got blown out of the water by quite a few other high scorers. Some highlights from the game: Matthew's favorite item of clothing is pants. Jake's favorite dessert is Snickers Ice Cream. Issachar's favorite month is April.

After the game, I think we had some mingling time while Sam prepared for the next item on the agenda. (If I've got the order wrong, Ellmyruh can correct me.) I presented Mousie and Sam with their gifts of butter and CHEEZ flavored Mikesell's Puffcorn Delites. Both Mousie and Sam were very generous and decided to share their snacks with everyone. Sam said the CHEEZ puffcorns weren't too salty, but he didn't like the texture. Somebody else thought they were like eating Styrofoam packing peanuts. I gave Rivikah my offering for her mobile, and Mousie gave me a bunch of keychains for my collection. I tried Jaffas, which I liked, and Jaffa Cakes, which I didn't. Everyone was wandering around the room, talking to different people, having fun. I took some pictures, including one of Dave hiding behind a curtain. I also got my first chance to see the completed RinkCard that Faux Pas had put together earlier this year. Ayako asked me why I had misspelled "Domain," (I had put a "g" in it). I didn't realize until she asked me that that I had done so, but I recovered quickly and smoothly told her, "I meant to do that. The extra 'g' is for 'Grishny' of course." Oh, and at some point, Issachar and I did a manly chest-butt. That's where you sort of run toward each other and at the last minute jump up in the air and smash your sternums together. Way fun.

After the mingling time (or it might have been before) Sam read some hilarious emails (especially the ones from K).

For lunch, we split into groups to do our own thing, rather than burden any single restaurant in town with a sudden influx of 26 people. My wife and I went to lunch with Issachar & Jacqueline, Faux Pas & Tamara, Cynthia, and ahmoacah. Cynthia rode with us, and ahmoacah rode with the Isses, I think. We drove caravan-style down the road in front of the hotel, with Issachar in the lead, followed by the Pas-car, with the Grishnys bringing up the rear. At one point I almost rear-ended Faux Pas, but I braked in time, and I'm very glad about that. I don't think he knows about that yet. We ended up at a fine establishment called T-Bones, where they had an excellent lunch menu. I don't recall exactly what everyone ate (that's Mousie's job, and she was with a different group), but I had Yorkshire Fish and Chips in honor of Matthew. Too bad he wasn't with us to determine how T-Bones' version compared to the real deal.

After lunch, we all met back at the conference room for the afternoon's activities. Dave treated us to a sneak preview of his Leprechaun in the Hood review. He said it still had all the naughty words in it that Sam usually takes out before publishing the reviews on IABBBBM, but I didn't notice anything too naughty.

My wife decided she needed a nap more than she needed to watch the official RinkWorks Bad Movie, so she called her mom to come pick her up after the poetry reading.

The poetry reading ruled, and even included a song by Mia, once she found her music. Mrs. Grishny and I noticed that Mia was singing out of the libretto for Mr. Holland's Opus, a movie that we both enjoyed. The poems all ruled, even THE DEAD ONE. The Pain Poem was great. I regret that I missed the majority of the last poem, which was Mina's--my mother-in-law arrived to pick up Amy during the reading, and she brought Jonathan the Official RinkBaby in for a few minutes before they left. I was rather preoccupied making sure he didn't distract everyone else, and so I didn't hear most of Mina's reading.

I have to say that Sinbad was probably the highlight of the weekend for me. I laughed so hard I gave myself a headache that didn't go away for three days. I can't say much more about it, because I don't want to spoil it for those who have yet to enjoy it, but I finally understand Mina's RinkUnion 2000 report from last year. BUDGE!!!

For dinner, we split into groups again. I went with the Isses and the (Pas? Pases? Passes? Gah.) Deenys (Faux Pas & Tamara) again. Ahmoacah came too. This time I rode with Faux Pas, while ahmoacah rode with Issaliss. Everyone else apparently stayed behind and ordered pizza. Those of us desiring more high-class fare went to an Italian restaurant called Fratellos in downtown Manchester. We enjoyed an outdoor meal, and so did the mosquitoes. Actually, I should say that most of us enjoyed our meals; Tamara had to send her steak back and Jacqueline nearly did the same with her meal as well. My lasagna was quite good, though, and both ahmoacah and Faux Pas had pizzas that looked mighty tasty. Faux Pas had our waitress take a group picture.

Our dinner ran a bit late, and we arrived back at the Inn about half an hour after Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II, the other bad movie we were slated to watch, was scheduled to start. Upon our arrival, instead of the darkened room and attentive movie viewers we expected to find, we found...well, something odd going on. As we approached the doorway, we could hear a syncopated rhythmic beat emanating from within. It seems famous had gotten a group of suckers--er, players together and was teaching them a new game involving clapping and passing bottles in an intricately coordinated web of movement. It looked like fun, and one by one we were lured in. Faux Pas didn't last very long, but I'm pleased to report that I did rather well, at least until Issachar broke my concentration by stealing my bottle and replacing it with his hand. But I got him back. I whacked him in the sternum with the bottle.

The very last thing I recall from the first day of the RinkUnion was Rivikah's completion of the RinkMobile. She had it hung up in the corner of the room, and we made her sit underneath it while we all took photographs.

The Second Day Excursion was a blast. I am a firm believer in the axiom, "Getting there is half the fun." We brought Jonathan with us on the White Mountains trip, so everyone got to ooh and aah over how CUTE CUTE CUTE he is. He behaved himself beautifully, which seemed to astound a lot of people. God has blessed us with a very good little boy.

We had to bring Jonathan's car seat with us, so we chose to ride in the larger van, which turned out to be a good idea. More Rinkies = more fun! People were talking and laughing most of the way up, with a few quieter moments interspersed throughout the ride. We made fun of and/or laughed at the names of many of the towns we went by on the two-hour drive north, including the town of Thornton, which is apparently named after Ticia and Don. [Note from Sam: Just a bit southwest of Thornton, close enough that I'm surprised there aren't signs for it on the interstate, is a town called Ellsworth. An hour west of Manchester is a town called Stoddard.]

Our first stop, the Old Man in the Mountain, was a quickie. We got out, looked at the rocks, and took pictures. The 733t people went up the hill with Sam to see the Old Woman and take more pictures. Sam climbed on every rock that was there, and then we got back in the vans and drove to another area where they had bathrooms and ICECEAM. We took a RULING group photo there with everybody standing on a BIG ROCK, Sam-style. That was fun.

Our second stop was Loon Mountain. Loon Mountain is one of the many mountains that make up the White Mountains. I didn't see any loons, though, other than the ones we brought with us (nyuk nyuk). It is interesting to note (as we did) that the Loon Mountain logo design, with loons flying horizontally across the two o's in "Loon," looks almost like it says "Leen Mountain." R0XX0R!111 Loon Mountain has a gift shop, where I bought a twelve-dollar hat to keep the sun out of my eyes. I noticed just as we were leaving later that one side of the bill was coming away from the stitching, but it was too late to return the hat. The next day the strap on the back broke. Stupid cheap crap hat. Oh well. At least I didn't have to pay sales tax.

Sam got the Loonies to give us a group rate for the gondola ride to the top of the Mountain, $1.50 off. Jonathan was free! We rode up with Cynthia. It took about ten minutes to reach the top. Right where we got off the gondola, there were three of those thingies where there's a picture with a hole for you to stick your head through and get your photo taken. There was one with a mountain man and a bear; Amy and Jonathan stuck their heads in that one, and we took pictures. There was another one with a moose, so naturally someone had to get a picture of Mousie conking it soundly.

After that, we wandered over to a walkway overlooking the Mountain Man's cabin. According to Sam, the Mountain Man is REAL. He lives in a log cabin up on the mountain that they built for him, but he says his old place is about six hours' walk "over the ridge." He still hunts his own food because he "can't stomach city food," but he has to go over to his old place to do it, because they don't like him to hunt on Loon Mountain. Apparently he comes out of his log cabin and talks to the tourists every hour or so. Sam asked him if he had a social security number.

We all had lunch at the little snack shack at the top of the mountain. Mousie already explained what we all had to eat in her write-up, so I won't go into detail. When Matthew and Ayako came in, I asked him if he'd ever had a Philly Cheesesteak before, and he said no, so I told him he needed to try one. I saw him eating one later, but I never asked him how he liked it. I'll have to ask him in chat sometime.

After lunch a largish group of us headed out to tackle the caves, which, as Dave pointed out, were really just rocks piled on top of each other with places to crawl around underneath. If you ever want to see real caves, don't go to Loon Mountain -- go to someplace like Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, or the Ohio Caverns, or Forbidden Cavern in Tennessee. Amy and I almost didn't do the "caves" -- there was no way we were going in there with a baby -- but the claustrophobic Leen gallantly volunteered to watch him for us, so in we went. We totally conquered the caves, and Sam's brother earned the nickname "Jake the Snake" when he slithered under a rock that everyone else said was impassable. Those Stoddard boys are both obsessed with rocks; Sam climbs on top of 'em and Jake goes under 'em.

Having finished totally conquering the rock piles, we all piled back into the gondolas just in time to make it back down for Sam's deadline. We piled back into the vans and headed for the third and final attraction of the day, The Flume.

"You are entering a unique geological area with many scenic wonders." "The Flume is a natural gorge extending 800 feet (241m) at the base of Mt. Liberty. The walls of Conway granite rise perpendicularly to a height of 70 to 90 feet (21-27m) and vary in width from 12 to 20 feet (3.6-6m)."

Both quotes are from "A Guide to the Flume," the pamphlet provided by the NH Division of Parks & Recreation to everyone who visits the Flume. Sam got another group rate thing going for us, and in we went. We joined the 733t cr3W riding the bus, while the so-called h4rdc0r3 group took the trail, crossed the river even though the signs clearly said, "Do not leave trail," and got yelled at (sort of) by the bus driver while those of us on board covered our eyes and said, "We don't know them." In actuality, the driver never spoke to the buffoons in the river; he simply stopped the bus in the middle of the river, said, "Hold on a minute, folks," and then radioed home base. "I got some people on the north shore of the Pemigewasset River, and you said you didn't want anybody over there. You want I should flush 'em out?" I didn't hear the reply, but the driver didn't have to do anything because by then our friends in the river had figured out they weren't supposed to be there and were scurrying back to the trail like scared children. BURN.

We met back up with the others at Boulder Cabin, which was the drop-off point for the bus, and headed up the Flume trail. It led up, up, up through the gorge, a good bit of it on a wooden walkway that clung to the left side of the gorge. We saw many scenic wonders, including Table Rock, the spot where the Hanging Boulder used to be (wow), and Avalanche Falls. For the return trip, the group split up again, most of us going back down the short trail to Boulder Cabin and the bus, while the h4rdc0r3Z took the long trail, I imagine hoping to leave the trail and endanger their lives again, this time away from the watchful eyes of the bus driver.

Somehow, we all managed to make it back down to the visitor center again in one piece, where we milled around buying souvenirs and things to eat and drink before we left. It was at some point around this time that Rivikah had her little tirade about American money. "How do you people tell these things apart?!?" We all sat on this big square bench thingy in the middle of the room and took another group picture too. I don't know whose cameras were used.

The two-hour drive back to Manchester was much quieter, and a lot of us took naps on the way. Jonathan fell asleep too but woke up when we were about twenty minutes from our destination and decided he wasn't enjoying life anymore and began crying. We managed to calm him down a bit with some water that Issachar generously donated, but it didn't last long, and we were all glad when the van finally pulled into the Comfort Inn's parking lot.

Though the RinkUnion was now officially over, most of the RinkyDinks who weren't leaving right away were planning on going to Newick's for dinner that evening. However, Newick's is in Portsmouth, at least an hour's drive from Manchester and nearly an hour and a half from Windham. We were dog (DOG!) tired and decided to opt out of that little excursion. From several people's posts about it, it seems we missed out. C'est la vie. We went back to my mother-in-law's house, and I got on-line and posted a few blurbs about the RinkUnion and went into chat for a few minutes before we retired for the night.

Meeting 23 RinkyDinks in person, 20 of them for the first time, was an overwhelming experience that I will never forget. Even if we hadn't done any of the fun stuff, we would have had a wonderful time. It was really interesting to see how people acted and interacted in person in comparison to their on-line personas. Some people were exactly as I expected them to be -- Issachar & Jacqueline for example, or Faux Pas and his wife. Others surprised me. Matthew seemed a lot quieter in person than he does in chat. The same seemed true of both Ayako and Mia. Dave is a really funny guy in person, just like in chat, but face-to-face he manages to be funny without any hint of the gruffness that he often displays on-line. (Part of this can be contributed to his very very deep bass voice. My wife later commented that just about anything Dave says is automatically funny, because of his voice.) Then there were those with whom I had not interacted very much with on-line, like Cynthia or ahmoacah, and some I had never even met at all, like Tim & Rebecca. Everyone ruled.

My wife is something of an outsider to RinkWorks. She has only been in RinkChat twice and knows nothing of the forum except for the tidbits and anecdotes that I've mentioned to her. She said something that really intrigued me on our way home from the convention. She said that it felt almost surreal -- Twilight Zone-ish, how so many different people could come together from so many different places and backgrounds and enjoy the same things and find the same kinds of things funny. I think she finally got a glimpse of what our on-line community here is like.

RinkWorks rules!