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It has been a long couple of weeks of home and car repair stressors. But I’m finally taking some time to finish my moot write up that I started a couple of weeks ago now. I was a bit absent here in the spring focusing on moot prep, and since it focusing on household stuff that got pushed aside and not so good with keeping up with posts and comments here. I’m working my way back.
So we had this moot Memorial Day weekend. (-:
FRIDAY
The moot started a couple of hours later than planned—Friday morning I heard from poor![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hildigard_brown that her flight out of Austin was cancelled and she was rebooked for Saturday afternoon. I was sad not to meet her that morning and for the time she would miss out on, but I took the time to relax, take a walk before the day got too hot, and then drive up to the bus station in Baltimore to pick up aliensouldream and gabi_fics (from Manchester, UK via NJ, down to DC and back up to Baltimore) getting there just as their bus got in half past noon, and there were their smiling faces and it was a happy reunion! The two of them bought so much happy cheer to be here and with all of us that was infectious.
From Baltimore we went to the hobbity Le Madeleines in Columbia for lunch and happy chatter. Claudia, you remember Le Madeleine’s, right? Actually we talked a lot about politics and I learned some things about Brexit and Rupert Murdock’s machinations thereat (crossing my fingers about the vote today.) A wonderful start to the moot. Then I dropped them at the Greenbelt Marriott to check in, while I went back up to BWI to pick upshirebound in from San Diego and lovethosehobbit from Salt Lake City and collected my lovely hugs with our reunion and brought them back to the Marriott to check in. lovethosehobbit brought really cute Gandalf & Frodo silhouette bumper stickers for all of us. I need to clean a spot on my car for mine.
When they were all settled in, I took them to East Pearl Restaurant in Greenbelt for dinner. Gabi, your lemon chicken looked yummy—I am going to have to one day resist getting sushi and try it. And who should we run into there but my local friendsekaterin24 and her husband Ken who delighted everyone by asking if they were my hobbit posse and showing them pics he took of Tolkien’s grave when they were in Oxford. After dinner, we stopped at my place so I could pack some snacks for the motel, and Moo was very happy to entertain these 4 fine guests while Tuxie went into hiding. I brought them back to the Marriott, and all of us were pooped, so I headed home to finish my packing for tomorrow and hit the hay.
SATURDAY
In the morning we met back up for the yummy breakfast buffet at the Marriott and chatter, and thenlbilover found our table, having driven down from New Jersey and we headed to Greenbelt Lake mid morning. It was quite warm already, but we were all happy to have it a little hot and sunny, rather than the perpetual rainy gloom we had here most of May, especially the UK contingent. The mountain laurels, golden irises, and water lilies were in bloom around the lake along with a plot of poppies with bachelors buttons and a field of sweet williams and daisies. A number of critters cooperated in showing up for viewing. Gabi was on a quest to see a cardinal, which kindly made appearances, along with the American-style robins. Other residents who made an appearance was a raccoon in a tree, instead of it’s natural dumpster habitat, a bunny, a tiger swallowtail butterfly, dragonflies, turtles, a water snake, a frog or two, gray squirrels, a skink, mallard ducks, Canada geese, kingbirds, starlings, grackles, flickers, a loon, and lbilover’s coveted wood ducks—the beautiful males waiting near the end of our walk to show themselves. We ambled around the lake for a couple of hours viewing, and then it was time for another meal—so off to the Silver Diner we went, and stuffed ourselves some more to merry chatter.
Then it was time to pick up hildigard_brown at the airport, so we stopped at my place once more to pick up more snacks for all (but where I sadly forgot to grab my hobbit dolls—meh) went by BWI and found hildi without a hitch, and we caravanned the rest of the way to Westminster. We checked into the Best Western, our traditional Maryland mooting inn. lbilover gave us all cute moot buttons and tasty vegan hobbit feet cookies she made us. Hildi’s and lbi’s hobbit dolls had fun catching up (sniff—mine missed out) while we all went to dinner at Libertories to meetmews1945, the reason we were all here in Westminster, and it was such a delight to see her glowing face. In the tables around us were young people all dressed in their prom finest, glittering gowns and tuxes, so it looked like we were in royal company. It was a really lovely time, then we drove Mews home with a promise of seeing her tomorrow for lunch, and got to see Mews’ awesome daughter A and SIL J.
When the rest of us mooters got back to the Best Western, we hung out in the adjacent rooms and chatted, surfed our computers—lbilover and Hildi had lots of pics and slideshows to show off—colored in a LotR coloring book and worked on a Bakshi LotR puzzle, both brought by lbilover, and chatted Some of us had a Jersey Devil honey wine lbilover brought as well, and made it an early night. I was pretty beat, but very content all connections went off without a hitch on this end and Sunday could be for relaxing. Shirebound is the best roommate, as you all knew, and it was great to have some extra time to chat with her.
SUNDAY
Sunday morning we informally met up at the free breakfast bar at the hotel—thumbs up for their tasty make-your-own waffles. Then while some of us picked up things at the Walgreens and Safeway across the street, others of us sat by the pool with the hobbit dolls (only 2 sets—my Bingo and Sam are requiring me to note that again) and played with the Tolkien coloring book and surfed online.
For lunch, we met Mews at Braughers, a farmers market and homey restaurant just down the hill from the motel, and quite yummy. Mews brought a couple extra oxygen tanks so she could come back to the motel with us and we had a delightfully relaxing time out in the lounge in the lobby for a couple of hours and chatted about fannish things and life. We were all delighted to have the extra time with mews. I drove her back home and it was fun viewing the very hobbity scenery of our Westminster drive with aliensouldream, whose experience with the US was more of the cities. We stopped at Wawa’s to pick up a bunch of Philadelphia soft pretzels for evening snacking.
We all hung out in the rooms together late afternoon into evening and played a round of the card game lbilover brought called Slash and it was loads of silly storytelling fun. Thank you for bringing all the game stuff, lbilover—that gave us more moot-bonding fun. Gabby won a round with some great lines, and Shirebound won the last round by designating Santa Claus as Steven Colbert’s paramour. I won a round pairing Vonnegut’s Kilgore Trout with the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz for obvious reasons. Then we went to the pizza place across the street and everyone bought me pizza for hosting. Thanks ya’ll! It really was my pleasure to help get you all out here.
MONDAY
We had early breakfasts at the breakfast bar and then, after lots of hugs, lbilover took Hildi, Shirebound, and lovethosehobbit to the airport and I took aliensouldream and Gabi to the Greyhound bus terminal. And thus our fellowship parted, this time. I met my friend D at the Wegman’s for lunch, and it was good to visit with a local friend after losing the company of my far flung hobbit posse to ease my transition back into regular life. Until next moot with the very best company there is! <3
So is it too early to start thinking about an autumn MD Moot 2017 ya’ll? :-D
Links to other MDMoot2016 reports with pics and so friendslocked:
shirebound
lbilover
lbilover
lbilover
lbilover
aliensouldream
lavender took
So we had this moot Memorial Day weekend. (-:
FRIDAY
The moot started a couple of hours later than planned—Friday morning I heard from poor
hildigard_brown that her flight out of Austin was cancelled and she was rebooked for Saturday afternoon. I was sad not to meet her that morning and for the time she would miss out on, but I took the time to relax, take a walk before the day got too hot, and then drive up to the bus station in Baltimore to pick up aliensouldream and gabi_fics (from Manchester, UK via NJ, down to DC and back up to Baltimore) getting there just as their bus got in half past noon, and there were their smiling faces and it was a happy reunion! The two of them bought so much happy cheer to be here and with all of us that was infectious. From Baltimore we went to the hobbity Le Madeleines in Columbia for lunch and happy chatter. Claudia, you remember Le Madeleine’s, right? Actually we talked a lot about politics and I learned some things about Brexit and Rupert Murdock’s machinations thereat (crossing my fingers about the vote today.) A wonderful start to the moot. Then I dropped them at the Greenbelt Marriott to check in, while I went back up to BWI to pick up
shirebound in from San Diego and lovethosehobbit from Salt Lake City and collected my lovely hugs with our reunion and brought them back to the Marriott to check in. lovethosehobbit brought really cute Gandalf & Frodo silhouette bumper stickers for all of us. I need to clean a spot on my car for mine.When they were all settled in, I took them to East Pearl Restaurant in Greenbelt for dinner. Gabi, your lemon chicken looked yummy—I am going to have to one day resist getting sushi and try it. And who should we run into there but my local friends
ekaterin24 and her husband Ken who delighted everyone by asking if they were my hobbit posse and showing them pics he took of Tolkien’s grave when they were in Oxford. After dinner, we stopped at my place so I could pack some snacks for the motel, and Moo was very happy to entertain these 4 fine guests while Tuxie went into hiding. I brought them back to the Marriott, and all of us were pooped, so I headed home to finish my packing for tomorrow and hit the hay.SATURDAY
In the morning we met back up for the yummy breakfast buffet at the Marriott and chatter, and then
lbilover found our table, having driven down from New Jersey and we headed to Greenbelt Lake mid morning. It was quite warm already, but we were all happy to have it a little hot and sunny, rather than the perpetual rainy gloom we had here most of May, especially the UK contingent. The mountain laurels, golden irises, and water lilies were in bloom around the lake along with a plot of poppies with bachelors buttons and a field of sweet williams and daisies. A number of critters cooperated in showing up for viewing. Gabi was on a quest to see a cardinal, which kindly made appearances, along with the American-style robins. Other residents who made an appearance was a raccoon in a tree, instead of it’s natural dumpster habitat, a bunny, a tiger swallowtail butterfly, dragonflies, turtles, a water snake, a frog or two, gray squirrels, a skink, mallard ducks, Canada geese, kingbirds, starlings, grackles, flickers, a loon, and lbilover’s coveted wood ducks—the beautiful males waiting near the end of our walk to show themselves. We ambled around the lake for a couple of hours viewing, and then it was time for another meal—so off to the Silver Diner we went, and stuffed ourselves some more to merry chatter. Then it was time to pick up hildigard_brown at the airport, so we stopped at my place once more to pick up more snacks for all (but where I sadly forgot to grab my hobbit dolls—meh) went by BWI and found hildi without a hitch, and we caravanned the rest of the way to Westminster. We checked into the Best Western, our traditional Maryland mooting inn. lbilover gave us all cute moot buttons and tasty vegan hobbit feet cookies she made us. Hildi’s and lbi’s hobbit dolls had fun catching up (sniff—mine missed out) while we all went to dinner at Libertories to meet
mews1945, the reason we were all here in Westminster, and it was such a delight to see her glowing face. In the tables around us were young people all dressed in their prom finest, glittering gowns and tuxes, so it looked like we were in royal company. It was a really lovely time, then we drove Mews home with a promise of seeing her tomorrow for lunch, and got to see Mews’ awesome daughter A and SIL J.When the rest of us mooters got back to the Best Western, we hung out in the adjacent rooms and chatted, surfed our computers—lbilover and Hildi had lots of pics and slideshows to show off—colored in a LotR coloring book and worked on a Bakshi LotR puzzle, both brought by lbilover, and chatted Some of us had a Jersey Devil honey wine lbilover brought as well, and made it an early night. I was pretty beat, but very content all connections went off without a hitch on this end and Sunday could be for relaxing. Shirebound is the best roommate, as you all knew, and it was great to have some extra time to chat with her.
SUNDAY
Sunday morning we informally met up at the free breakfast bar at the hotel—thumbs up for their tasty make-your-own waffles. Then while some of us picked up things at the Walgreens and Safeway across the street, others of us sat by the pool with the hobbit dolls (only 2 sets—my Bingo and Sam are requiring me to note that again) and played with the Tolkien coloring book and surfed online.
For lunch, we met Mews at Braughers, a farmers market and homey restaurant just down the hill from the motel, and quite yummy. Mews brought a couple extra oxygen tanks so she could come back to the motel with us and we had a delightfully relaxing time out in the lounge in the lobby for a couple of hours and chatted about fannish things and life. We were all delighted to have the extra time with mews. I drove her back home and it was fun viewing the very hobbity scenery of our Westminster drive with aliensouldream, whose experience with the US was more of the cities. We stopped at Wawa’s to pick up a bunch of Philadelphia soft pretzels for evening snacking.
We all hung out in the rooms together late afternoon into evening and played a round of the card game lbilover brought called Slash and it was loads of silly storytelling fun. Thank you for bringing all the game stuff, lbilover—that gave us more moot-bonding fun. Gabby won a round with some great lines, and Shirebound won the last round by designating Santa Claus as Steven Colbert’s paramour. I won a round pairing Vonnegut’s Kilgore Trout with the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz for obvious reasons. Then we went to the pizza place across the street and everyone bought me pizza for hosting. Thanks ya’ll! It really was my pleasure to help get you all out here.
MONDAY
We had early breakfasts at the breakfast bar and then, after lots of hugs, lbilover took Hildi, Shirebound, and lovethosehobbit to the airport and I took aliensouldream and Gabi to the Greyhound bus terminal. And thus our fellowship parted, this time. I met my friend D at the Wegman’s for lunch, and it was good to visit with a local friend after losing the company of my far flung hobbit posse to ease my transition back into regular life. Until next moot with the very best company there is! <3
So is it too early to start thinking about an autumn MD Moot 2017 ya’ll? :-D
Links to other MDMoot2016 reports with pics and so friendslocked:
shirebound
lbilover
lbilover
lbilover
lbilover
aliensouldream
lavender took
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I forgot about that! :)
I loved reading this, my friend. I'm incredibly happy I was able to attend this moot that you so beautifully organized for us. It was a glorious weekend.
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Thank you, bb. It was a glorious time.
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Hey, I've been thinking of you every time I hear the reports on the floods in WV--how did you and your area make out in all that--were you affected? I'm so hoping you weren't. *hugs tight*
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Thank you for this lovely report. It brings it all close again and makes me so happy.
I wonder if the person in charge of organizing Aragorn's coronation happened to be named Lavender Took????
((((You))))
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Yay! We have to hang onto the happy times. (-:
:-D
*squooshes*
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I'm hoping to get out that way next spring (which is also what I said for this year... perhaps if I knock on wood this time?).