All right, what can I say that has not been said in a much better recap yet?

The Costume

The Famous Accessory

Well, I’m not one to toot my own horn, but as most of you already know, my costume kicked ass – if I do say so myself. The reaction when I walked in was priceless, and well worth all the thinking, planning and shopping in the women’s section at Wal-Mart I had to do to get this done. However, I couldn’t have done it without the support of LovelyWife (despite her first reaction when I showed her the original picture: “You’re going to this party naked?”) who sewed the thing together, Dave2 who agreed to bring the famous t-shirt with him when I told him I was worried that the shipping delays would screw with my last-minute idea, and of course Avitable for the inspiration behind the picture that Invaded! our Tweeter Timeline many months ago.

The People

It’s not a successful party unless there’s a lot of interesting people around, and this party was a massive success! I don’t want to forget anyone I met, so I will not try to link to everyone or even mention everyone I met. Just know that each and every person I spoke to, smiled at, listen to while they where at the karaoke station, absolutely made my day. For those of you that I had already met last year, it was a blast to see you again. For those of you who I met this year for the first time, you are awesome! Oh and for the few that I didn’t meet or recognize before I looked at the Flickr Pool, I am so sorry and I can’t believe that I’ve missed saying hi to you!

Of course, I also met people outside of the soirée, and those people now hold a special place in my heart.

Last year I was really anxious about meeting my first 3D blogger (turned out it was Mr. Fab & Turnbaby) so this year I was wondering who I would recognize first or who would recognize me first. The first blogger I met was Robin. She was sitting down with her back to me in the executive concierge area, texting away. I resisted the urge to creep behind her and tell her that I was pulling up to her bumper, but I really really wanted to.  Instead I just said: “Hi Robin!” and her “Oh shit!” reply made me smile. We chatted for a little while we had breakfast and then briefly met with Dave2 – he was meeting with Robin and bringing me the t-shirt – before we parted ways.

Then much later that night I joined Poppy & Dawg in the closing-too-soon Hilton Bar. I did see CMG walk through the lobby, but by the time my brain remembered her real name she was already gone.

The next day we met with The Libragirl. She was just sitting in the breakfast area reading her Amazon Kindle and we chatted about stuff we could be doing. Unfortunately, it didn’t really pan out as LovelyWife and I already had plans for that day. We also managed to walk by SheilaCSR – not literally walkedby, but it sure felt that way - as we were going to see our Blues Traveler show at the House of Blues.

EDIT: WordPress ate the rest of my post! WTH??? I had about 500 more words written here.

Man, the days are just flying by! Vacation is soon over.

I’ll blog more later. I should really do a Avitaween recap, right?

All good things must come to an end, I know. But it still makes me sad.

And so another chapter closes on Avitaween. You can see my pictures on Flickr. I’m sure that soon enough, we’ll create a picture pool of some sort.

Until next year…

All right, if my math is correct, the party has already begun so I can reveal my costume for you folks who are not attending or will be fashionably late.

In keeping with the party theme, I decided to go as something that invaded us this last year:

Mike as the famous “Avitaball’d” picture.

It’s the new RickRolling, I tell ya!

It was fairly easy to do and simple to carry on the plane too! I was just hoping custom agents would not search my luggage and find the homemade accessory needed to pull this off.

Yup, that’s homemade (thanks to LovelyWife)

So there you have it. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of action shots tomorrow.

Oh, and if you don’t get it, you might want to look at this first.

I’ll (We’ll if you watched HIMYM yesterday) be on an airplaine to Orlando. Well, to Montréal first and then to Orlando.

I.

Can’t.

Wait.

Sadly, I now have to go to work. Sigh.

Ok, how many of you are now picturing G.O.B. dancing around with a knife between his teeth?

This is it, it’s the final countdown to Avitaween 2009.

The party is in seven days, but I’ll be landing in invading  Orlando Wednesday around noon. I can’t wait to get there, especially since it’s almost snowing here.

Now I was going to give you some misleading hints about my costume, but after 20 minutes of trying to find suitable images to post here, I give up. I had to turn safe search on. So I guess you’ll have to see it live or wait for the pictures…

I always have brilliant ideas.

For example, last Thursday LovelyWife tortured me watched all 116 minutes of Australia. I gave up about 45 minutes in. Wolverine hadn’t used his claws yet, and I sorta guessed that he wasn’t going to.

That left me plenty of time to engage in brain-developping activities Twitter and surf the Web, and connect dots in my brain. That’s how I came up with a brilliant costume idea for Delmer for next Avitaween, he should totally go as Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander aka Zedd from the Sword of Truth book series or the TV series the Legend of the Seeker. played by Bruce Spence.

Left to right: Delmer, Bruce Spence, Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander.

So what do you think? Pretty smart when I have 116 minutes to myself, right?

*It’s pronounced “From Dee to Zedd”.

Other clever titles for this post could’ve been “What’s a Delmer could look like?”, “One of these things is not like the others” and “I hated Australia”.

Wow, look at that:

My first Zazzle sale. I’m 2.60$ closer to Avitaween 2009. W00t!

I just hope the buyer is not LovelyWife.

FAIL!

Some people commented that I had failed them by not recaping Avitable’s Neverwas Fair. So here’s an actual recap of my Orlando Extravaganza. Enjoy! 

My Orlando trip started on the Tuesday, but the interesting part started Friday around noon. That’s when my conference was over and I drove to the Hilton in Altamonte Springs to check-in and hopefully meet bloggers!

I did not have to wait very long.

I got to the Hotel around 14:00, and was allowed to check-in immediatly. The Hilton rocks. I took about 30 minutes to settle in, and then my plan was to head down to start hunting / gathering for food. My morning eggs & coffee were a distant memory. I figured I would call Avitable to ask him what was going on with other bloggers.

“Hi, is this the famous Adam Avitable?” I asked, trying not to sound too much like a schoolgirl in awe. I guess it works, since we had a short but pleasant conversation, where I was told that Poppy and Dawg were already at the hotel (I knew through Twitter) and I was given Poppy‘s cell phone number to text her.

As an aside, I’m not much of a texter, but I was not going to pass the chance to text the Poppy. Thankfully the rule is not “Don’t text the Poppy“. So I did, and did not get an answer.

I decided to proceed to the lobby anyways, and look for food on my own. That’s where I discovered that Vulkon 2008 was also at the Hilton. Wearing my t-shirt that reads “My other T-Shirts are funnier”, I was identified as a Trekkie (which I am, to a certain degree) and I was asked a lot of questions about the convention, which I knew nothing about.

And then I saw them. My first 3-D bloggers. Right in front of me were standing Mr. Fab and Turnbaby. They started walking away torwards the elevator. I ran behind them and said “Excuse me fine bloggers”. I’m such a geek. They turned around, I introduced myself and Fab said: “I’m gonna need to see the other t-shirts”. We chatted for a bit, they told me not to eat at the hotel. They were tired from their flight and retired for a nap.

I was a little stumped, I did not know where to go for food, so I asked the reception. As I’m going back up for my keys, Poppy and Dawg stepped out of the elevator. I shook Dawg’s paw and hugged the Poppy. To hell with the rules! Dawg was heading out for a make-out session, so we stood outside for about an hour chatting about all and nothing. It was great. Other bloggers arrived and joined us outside. Pretty soon PocketCT, Crystal, Poppy, Dawg and me moved the party inside to the Lobby Bar. We were joined by Mr. Fab and Turnbaby and ordered drinks. Sheila (Charm School Reject), Becky and Janelle arrived. Janelle recognized Dawg and the girls all checked-in and then joined us for more drinks.

A word on the drinks: It was very hard to get a decent drink. You’d think they’d mess up Mr. Fab girly vodka raspberry drinks, but no, it’s the Margaritas and Bourbons that were hard to get.

After a few rounds, Delmer arrived and quickly proceeded to play beer catch up. I’m telling you, that man can down a beer like the best of Canadians! Karl and his beard wandered in and were added to the group. We took the shuttle to Bahama Breeze, where we had more cocktails, beers and also food. Mr. Fab was dressed like one of the waiters, and walked around asking people how their meal was. It was hilarious. We left before getting kicked out.

We couldn’t find a karaoke bar, so we headed back to the Lobby Bar. With Marcus on duty, drinks were a lot better. We proceeded to make our own karaoke – no music – to the amazement of all the costumed trekkies. Overheard: Did you know it was Sweet Caroline before the chorus? No! Me neither”. We had fun. I was asked a lot of questions about Canada, which I answered by making up as much stuff as I could get away with. It was a blast and it became a theme of the weekend. Adam even joined us around 1:00. Eventually Sarah made it safely to the hotel, and the crew was complete. We called it a night around 2:00.

Party day!

Saturday was more mellow. After my little flight incident, I had breakfast at the buffet – impromptu Cereal Wednesday! – with Poppy, Dawg and Karl, we went our separate ways. Some of us had to shop for costume parts or costumes, and Karl and myself went to Adam‘s house to help him with some finishing touches to his setup. Meeting Adam and Amy was very cool, he’s a very very nice guy, if a little on the control freak side (like me!), and she is the greatest hostess ever. Well except for the part where she did not recognize me at the party, but I shaved my hair and was covered in white and black make-up at the time. Spending those couple of hours just decorating and chatting was very pleasant, plus I got a sneak peak at all the props! We went back to the Bahama Breeze for a late lunch where we met the rest of the gang, minus Mr. Fab and Turnbaby. Dave2 walked in, looking for Geeky Tai-Tai. After lunch we met Poppy and Dawg at the movie theater for Zack and Miri make a porno. We then went back to the hotel and got in costume.

The Neverwas Fair

We took the shuttle from the hotel to Adam‘s place. The house looked even better at night! I won’t recap the party much, because there’s so many pictures floating on-line that it would be more of the same, but it was a kick-ass party. Some of the highlights of my party was:

- Some people knew of me or of my blog. I did not expect that.
- Britt is so funny! I sorta knew that, but it still was a highlight. However, her karaoke performances are etched in my brain forever. She was so sweet she gave a shout out to her friends from Canadia! Awesome!
- Crystal is one of the sweetest people in the world.
- Everyone was very nice (if a little tipsy) and almost no one made fun of my accent.
- I managed to acquire a stalker. But she’s a professed stalker, so that doesn’t scare me nearly as much. Right?
- I was in all kinds of pictures.
- I know what’s a Delmer look like.
- I got a lift from Dave2!

Things I regret a bit:
- I didn’t do karaoke, but I think I should have. Next time.
- I didn’t do Jager with Dave2. Darn! How could I forget that.
- I didn’t talk enough with Hilly, Geeky Tai-Tai, Hello Haha Narf and Britt. I was a little shy.
- I only met Certifiable Princess while making the goodbye round. I really enjoy reading her blog.

All in all, it was a blast. I know it’s been said before, but it’s really true.

Sunday

I got up at 7:00 and packed my gear. I relaxed a bit, updated my blogroll, added people to my twitter and wrote a few canned posts for my returning trip and yesterday’s Vulkon 2008 recap. Breakfast with Poppy and Slightly Hungover Dawg, goodbye kisses and hugs to them plus Karl, Sybil and PocketCT. I missed Crystal as she ran through the lobby to catch her cab.

A short drive later I was at the airport, waiting to board the plane, writing this actual recap. I landed around 20h00, it was 4C and I was hungry since Poppy had taken all the bacon at the buffet. My friends Peter and John picked me up, and I had a burger, salad and a Guiness before getting home to talk Lovely Wife’s ear off about my amazing week-end. I tried to keep it down a little, you know so as not to act like I was rubbing it in, but I think she knew I had a good time.

Ask Canadia’s Blogger!

Inspired by recent events, Canadia’s Blogger (hey, look at my nice banner, complete with Canadian white-out!) will answer any and all questions about Canada. You only have to make your question in the from of “Do you have [this] in Canada?”. I’m hoping I can make this a weekly event. You know you want to ask me something, right? Well go ahead!

I’ll try to make it easy for you to ask me a question by putting up a special Canada page. In the meantime – read if I can’t finish this tonight – send me an e-mail at LeSombre at gmail dot com.

Some example of questions I am fully qualified to answer:

Q: Do you have white-out in Canada?
A: I use some in my banner!

Q: Do you have Twitter in Canada?
A: They activate Canadian accounts when we cross the border between Canada and the States.

Don’t be shy! I wont bite. Will you?