A Tauren's Tale

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Long and short of it all is that we were open to the public for day number 2 and that went well. didn’t seem like as many people as the day before but there was still a good crowd. Since i failed to write this when i was supposed to, it was great to meet everyone and well it sucked to leave..that is why while i was there once i left

Saturday, my mom and sister came down to see the show and that was a really good time. i hope that everyone enjoyed it it was nice to have them come down and see what i have been working on and what others have done with what would seem to be and what is generally percieved as a childs toy. It was also the first day that the public could come and see everything that we collectively got together. I had a few people walk over to me and comment on my boat which was really nice and to see the faces of everyone young and old really made all of the time and the effort well well worth it not to mention the money that was well spent as well. I have to say for me it is probably the highest compliment anybody can get to see the expressions of wow and amazement on everyone’s face. I think that the time that i spent on the details really made my boat stand out of the crowd which really made me feel good. While my mom and sis were down we went to eat and then really just moled along through the brick bazaar and the lego store and all of the exhibits.

I was really worried that i wasn’t going to get to see my mom and sister the whole time because we needed a team to build the new tow truck. it was this years speed build and well we had to beat the German’s at 1000-steine(Be warned the site is in German) they completed the set in 2hours 42 mins and our team in 2hours 36 mins…take that! Since they didn’t have enough people i was going to go and do it but it would have taken a lot of the time that everyone would have been down for so it was nice to not have to.

So after that sat and talked to my sister and mom and then when they left hung out for a little longer then met up for the “brickies” the LEGO version of the emmys which is where I won Best Large Town Vehicle for my boat and Alvin won Best Technic and Best in Show. Congrats. After that we hung around for the LEGO (R) auction as Randall wanted to get the hungry hungry hippos MOC to turn it into a GBC module…but it went for $500 ouch….so once that was over we headed down to Mr. Smith’s just about as far as I would have walked to get to a bar.

When we got there there was like noone there…like litterly 10 people including the 4 of us that went up there. once about 1030 rolled around as we got there arould 10 a lot of people started showing up. I can’t even remember all of their names but it was a good time…laughed a lot as we were touting Alvin’s Best in Show award…now i will say when we first got there i wanted to jump over the bar and just punch the bartender it wouldn’t have solved anything but he was pretty bad and needed an attitude adjustment…which he soon got. By time we hit full force easily 3/4 of the bar was from BrickFest and he started to learn that we would be paying him and that we were all friends so if he didn’t take care of us he wasn’t getting paid. So we trained him to respond to “Star Wars LEGO (R) Set” and then he would walk over and ask how many beers we needed….that was nice but the best part of the night was yet to come. We were drinking for a while and probably around 1130 or so for the life of me i can’t remember his name but one of the guys that was sitting with us did probably the funniest thing i saw all weekend.

Let me set the scene a bit:
We are all sitting at the end of the bar by the jukebox. Like I said about an hour of drinking at the bar(not including at the hotel). This girl walks up and is scrolling through the jukebox to find a song with her friend and this guy says something along the lines of, Hey I bet you that chick in the red shirt and black skirt will come over here and pull up her skirt for me. So she turns around and is like #1 I am not a chick and #2 NO. That had to be the funniest thing i had heard in a long time…so a little while after that we cashed out which was where the bartender tried to make up for everything we think…cause he charged me for 2 beers, 2 mudslides, chicken fingers, and quesadilla’s i think but either way…i had more then 2 beers i know that so at least he tried to make up for it.

Technorati Tags: BrickFest, 1000-Stein, LEGO (R), Speed Build, MOC, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Beer, Drinking

Of course it was a little bit of a lazy day as the public wasn’t there so we pretty much had the whole day to walk around and take pictures and talk to the builders and meet a lot of people.We also went down to Potomoc Mills Mall to the LEGO (R) outlet Friday was opening ceremonies which was cool, we had a fellow AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO(R)) do a magic show which was really nice. Then there was a sandwhich buffet for dinner. The rest of the night was spent talking and drinking at the hotel bar. I chatted with Jeff and Jim from and a few other people about various things. It is really nice to have one thing in common with people and that one thing be so much fun and creative because everyone i talked to and got to meet was really awesome and were just so talented and personable. I really liked that. Everyone was great. Then it was off to sleep…so yeah i really didn’t accomplish much all day. Just got my boat put together, spent money…guess that boils it all down.

Technorati Tags: LEGO (R), Opening Ceremonies, AFOL

Well, Where to start?
I took off from Wednesday to Sunday so that I could finish up my boat and also so I could get down to Brickfest for the LEGO (R) store discounts on Thursday night at Tyson’s Corner details here First LEGO (R) Store event. So Wednesday was fairly uneventful. Tied up the loose ends on my boat, got the crates to pack it in and packed it up. Then came Thursday….wow was this a day…woke up and knew that I had to pack and get things taken care of. Pack up some spare parts and some parts to “build” my name tag. Walked down the stairs to go sit with Alexa…that is where it all went downhill terribly fast…
I look down and there are my glasses in her mouth…
she had enough time to completely scratched up the lens, chew off the Temples So needless to say my frames were bent out of shape from her holding them down when she was chewing on them and the large scratches made them completely useless. So then i remember shit i don’t have any more contacts as i have been lazy about driving all the way up to Springfield PA to get them. So i frantically try to figure out what I can do because though my RX is small .75 in each eye…they do make a difference and I feel better driving with my glasses or contacts in. So i called America’s Best to see if i can get an eye exam (cause they wouldn’t give me contacts without a new one as it has been that long) So the lady answers the phone and is like if you can be up here by 945 it being almost 910 at this point i rush to get everything i need and run up there…it took like a hour and half and 35 bucks to get my exam and my new contacts but at least now i can see.
So i leave Springfield at like 1130 so i ended up getting home like 1215 and rush to pack as i haven’t had the time to do anything this morning and we wanted to be out of the house by 100. So we get out of the house after packing up the truck and all of our stuff around 115 which was nice to be close to when we wanted to leave. So now that I have my contacts i can see but i don’t really like to wear my contacts all of the time so therefore we had to stop to get glasses cause i can’t pick them out on my own…so i print out the directions which I can’t follow cause i went right past where i was supposed to turn and had to go in a big ol loop de loop…did that a couple times. Got my glasses and ate some Quizno’s and got back on 95…then the traffic came and it was terrible only took a 2 times as long and it should have to get to Tyson’s Corner.
Once we got down there we checked into the hotel and got our name badges and signed into BrickFest. Got all of our stuff and went up to our room. Unpacked a bit and called my friend Armena and she came up and we went over to Tyson’s Corner Center to get some dinner. The first place we went to was some wanna be beach restraint and they had a very small menu and it was really expensive. Then we went to an Italian restaurant down the way a little and their menu was also pretty short but we ate there anyway it wasn’t quite as expensive… It was nice to see Armena again, for those who don’t know her and I were stationed together in the Coast Guard. It is nice to hear that everything is going well with her and her teaching and all…it was like a year ago is since I last saw her so that was good it was a nice night that ended short because we had to go to the LEGO (R) Store read about that here

Technorati Tags: Traffic, Glasses, Contacts, BrickFest, Quizno’s, LEGO (R)