Footbag! This is going to be a long post, but I feel like if I don’t get it out at one time I’ll have a tough time getting it done at all.
I had business travel last week that ended up extending until Wednesday evening. Got home early enough to have dinner with the family, and then off to bed. Some few hours later I am at the airport anxiously awaiting the arrival of a certain Kevin Crowley.
Kevin and I introduce ourselves and then head out of Logan to grab a quick breakfast sandwich at an Au Bon Pain and then head over to Pete Bowler’s house where Kevin can relax while Pete and I are at work. I felt bad to barely say hello, but I had to split quickly because my son had a doctor’s checkup I had to get out to attend.
I end up working until about 7:30 to get a couple of things done before my upcoming days off, and then head over to Pete’s. After hanging out there for a bit, the three of us head out to shoot pool for a couple of hours. Time flies quickly, and soon enough it is almost midnight and time to go pick Jim Penske up from the airport. Kevin and I grab Jim, and then drive an hour to my place. We figure out the bedding, bullshit a bit more, and then off to bed.
Because my work trip extended, I hadn’t yet gone grocery shopping. Kevin and Jim were game, so we went on a group shopping trip. Got back to my place, put things away, and started some chicken marinating. By this time it was almost 1:00 pm, and we were expecting more arrivals mid-afternoon so we decided to just go for a walk around my place. We walked around this small lake that I live near and then headed back home. Soon Mathieu and Ianek arrive and then not too long later Hogan and Nick come by. Friday night basement shred commences! The new fluorescent lighting worked out really well, but one side of the basement was a little dusty and soon we had a substantial dust cloud in the basement. It was definitely noticed, but no one really stressed out about it too much, so I was happy people were so chill. That first night shred was pretty awesome. I peel out from shred a little early to make sure I save my legs for venue shred, make some potato soup, and to start grilling the chicken and sausage. I snapped this picture from the outside patio while I was out cooking. It was cold out side, but warming to see my basement full of kickers.
While I was cooking, Matt Kemmer arrives. I invite him into the house and show him to the basement in case he wants to join. I think he was going to, but things may have been wrapping up about then. Pete Bowler also shows up in this general time frame, and soon we are all sitting around eating and bullshitting. Ruari got some time gaming with Jim which he was totally thrilled with.
Piper was also getting a lot of attention.
I’m not sure when they arrived, but the NYFA contingent were the next to show up. I was totally stoked to see all of those guys! Everyone was settled in and having a good time chatting, and I set out to prepare the breakfast for the following morning.
A couple of years back I learned about a dish called strata. A strata is a bread, egg, and milk mixture that cooks up as a bread pudding. It is a perfect dish to make for a large group because it is not that difficult and it can be prepared for baking the night before. In fact, it is usually better if it sits over night in the refrigerator before baking. I made one type that was broccoli cheese that I basically freestyled the ingredients on, and I made another with broccoli rabe and prosciutto where I used this recipe (the prosciutto was a substitute for pancetta):
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/parmes ... d-pancetta
Not too long after breakfast prep was done, Cass arrived. I greeted her and showed her to where she would be sleeping and then went to bed not too long after that.
The next morning Kristin (my wife) and I got up and and started making coffee and threw the strata in the oven to bake. Slow and easy morning having breakfast and hanging out, and then off to the shred site around noon.
Jim and I got there a few minutes before mostly everyone else with the intention that we could make sure everything was ready for us. There were already two guys there that I had never met (NH crew Oli Simpson and I think Erik Larson). In any event, the venue was set up for us (lighting maximized, furniture cleared out, and iPod setup), and we were off to the races with music Hogan selected for us. People were stoked on Kevin’s playlist, and stoked on the venue too.
People shredded for the next few hours, and then we held the request contest at 3:00 pm. I think every single person participated in the request contest. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen 100% participation in a contest at an event before, so I thought that was pretty awesome. It was my first time competing since 2000, so it was fun to get my feet wet there. After request contest, we grabbed a group photo before everyone split back into smaller circles.
We also snapped a couple of photos of the champs.
Another hour or so of shred, and then we headed back to my place. I had a pork roast with a jar of tomatillo salsa dumped over it going in the crock pot since that morning, so I removed the bone from that and and shredded it up when we got home (pulled pork sandwiches). Kristin had been working on the mac and cheese while we were all shredding at the event. She made a Nacho Mac and Cheese recipe that also uses tomatillo salsa, but we also kept some plain in case any folks in attendance do not like salsa. People grubbed and visited. This is one of my favorite pictures from the event.
After dinner Kristin was doing dishes and cut her finger open really deeply one one of the food processor pieces. She needed to go to the ER and refused to allow me to take her insisting that I stay at the house with the kickers and with Ruari. She sneaks out the back door with Aubrey who takes her to the hospital to get cleaned up and glued (instead of stitches). She was so stealthy, I bet most folks don’t even realize she had a mid-event trip to the ER.
In addition to capturing a lot of shred on his GoPro, Nick was also wearing it as a headband to capture some of the evening mingling. I gave him crap that the camera was at an angle and probably just shooting my ceiling all night. Soon after that, he enlisted Matt and I snapped this funny picture.
After dinner Nick went geocaching with Hogan and Ianek, and at some point later those guys returned. Nick had the idea and the means for fire hack and asked if he could get it going in my back patio. I was concerned about leaves catching fire and was feeling lazy at that moment, so I made him rake off the patio. Here is a cool picture of Hogan shreddin the fire hack.
Later that evening Kevin’s girlfriend Sarah and their friend Alan arrive. I was pretty tired by then and went to bed shortly after that.
The next morning I wake up and Kristin is already downstairs preparing home made maple donuts (essentially fry bread with maple frosting) with Oli Simpson. I slip into the kitchen too, and start the first batch of coffee. We had one strata leftover from the day earlier, so I threw that in the oven and we also served up a bit of yogurt.
Back to the shred site for noon, and we get to kicking right away. Kevin was a few minutes later than me so I started up a playlist on my iPod, and I was glad when he rescued everyone a few songs in from my stuff. We had a second single trick both sides request contest that everyone participated in again. Again, on a personal level I was fairly pleased with how I did.
About 20 minutes before we were supposed to pack it up the lady in charge of the venue tells me we could go a bit longer than 3:00 if we want, maybe even as late as 4:00. I am pleased that they allow this. I don’t make any kind of announcement, but many people continue shredding on their own.
Toward the very end, Jim came to kick with me. This was one of my favorite moments of the event. It was the two of us sometimes with Matt and sometimes with Ianek. There was only one other circle going and most people were off to the side just chilling and watching. I can’t even come close to hanging with those guys in terms of density, but I told myself I was going to have some decent length strings and I feel like I did that. I wanted to try to outlast Jim in the circle, but eventually I had to bow out respectfully because my legs were starting to feel like ground meat.
After shred there were a few goodbyes right at the event site from people heading straight out. The NYFA contingent, Cass, Jim, Crowley, Hogan, and Bowler came back to my place for some pizza. By about 7:00 pm everyone but Jim and Crowley had head out and we had a quiet evening at my place.
The next morning we got up and had one more shred in the basement! This time I mopped the floor ahead of time and it was perfect. A quick cleanup after shred, and then off to Beverly to pick up Hogan and Sarah. We headed in to the North End of Boston for a quick lunch at an Italian place, and then we had to book ass to the airport to get Jim to his flight in time. Dropped Jim off, back to Beverly to drop off Hogan and Sarah, and then back to my place with Crowley to pick Ruari up from aftercare. Ruari was already bemoaning the fact that the house would be back to normal. He really, really liked having so many people to play games and nerf gun battle with.
Another chill evening with Crowley and then an early morning drive to Logan airport on Tuesday. Two days back at work so far, and I keep finding a smile pop across my face when thinking about the weekend.
Thanks everyone for coming and helping to make this a kick ass jam!