The parts of
chicklet_girl, devildoll, and girlinthetrilby will be played by themselves.Arrival in the City-State of Minneapolis/St.Paul Airport, which is, by the way, larger than *my home town*, went well chiefly due to the fact that
girlinthetrilby was there to lead me across the wilderness of trams, lightrails, and endless halls that eventually led to a far-off location in Siberia where musesfool was to be found. Afterward, slow naviagation toward The Brick, Bethy's charming name for the minivan that I wanted to name Philippe. This didn't catch on. Hmm.Long story short--food at IHOP, GTKY, nods all around, sleeping.
First of all--I was so right. Twenty-five pound bags of sugar was not excessive. I just want to point that out now.
It was a very long car ride. Luckily, everyone was *very entertaining*. At first, there was residual bitterness that
devildoll was taller than me, and I spent time plotting against her, but luckily, there was pie soon after. When I say pie, what I really mean is, Pie. The Pie of the gods. Wonderful, fresh-baked, deliciously stuffed with fruit or cream goodness that melted on the tongue. By this point, I'd eatn more by lunch than I usually do in a single day, but this was *pie*, and there was coffee. And life was perfect. There was also water and possibly the largest body of water in existence, and then I discovered lampreys and decided I would never, ever, ever swim in there, like, ever.
They are so the equivalent of sandworms. This comes up later, so pay attention.
The condo was marvelous, the weather was beautiful, there was no cell phone access, and as we all piled out, we noted teh scary number of people wiht mountain bikes. Apparently, a popular sport is to get on a bicyle and *ride up a mountain*. Then apparently, come back down. I make no excuses for the sheer weirdness of this, but there you have it. Small child bikes, big adult bikes, scary teams of bikes, and all of them *climbing up a vertical expanses of mountain*. I think that's the point we decided we were the sane ones and to avoid all contact with the weird people.
Next day, Friday, was intensely rainy. We mocked the ones who came here for esoteric athletic events and I was almost killed by an evil fern. We will never discuss that again.
We started off with Alexander, the old version, and then to the newer one. I can honestly say that I have never seen this bad a movie, and this includes Underground. I just--how could Oliver Stone have looked at this and said, wow, *good*. The only order he seemed to give is "please, overact more. And also, make strange faces while doing it." Poor Colin, with his bad dye job and his strange multifaceted eyebrows and my God....
"You left your king in Asia!"
Which led to a pause in the movie, a rewind,
devildoll having to lunge for an inhaler, me unable to breathe, and musesfool and girlinthetrilby and chicklet_girl going into hysterics.But there was Hephaistion, who was so pretty it hurt, and pretty much any scene wiht him is a good scene. Cause wow. My God. He is incredibly, blindingly, intensely pretty.
Troy afterward was a marvel of subtle, expressive acting, beautifull developed characterization, and fantastic storytelling.
Yeah. That movie is bad. But Leto is pretty. So, so pretty.
Gondala ride. I'd like to thank
devildoll for her useful commentary about how high we were and how far down the ground was, and ooh, look, steep embankment!Of course, being out of cash, the ONLY WORKING ATM FOR TWO LONG MILES doesn't work. I went to the office to find out where it was, then thought I'd walk. Yeah, that worked. Getting back, I tried excessive charm and got them to let me use their work computer at the front office to bring my checking back, since it was locked due to being in Minnesota and my card being confused, and transferred funds.
devildoll, chicklet_girl, and I went riding, while Vic and Beth stayed back at the ranch and went swimming. devildoll got pretty much the largest horse I have seen in real life, and they bonded almost immediately. chicklet_girl's horse was darlinga dn liked her. Mine came wiht *instructions*. Such as, Mack will not like to move, thinks the world is a buffet, here is a handypiece of leather to smack him with to get him going.
Hmm.
No one died, especially me, and that is really all I can ask about an excursion.
Dinner included a waitress who seemed to not completely be aware of her job description. We were pleased we got the food we asked for. This was of the good.
Watched both of the Ocean movies that Vic brought, which were incredibly fun. And wow. *Pretty*.
Next day, returned to Minneapolis. Saw Brothers Grimm. Wow. And I mean, the slash quotient was kind of scary when the EVIL QUEEN is making commentary and the kiss of True Love is assumed to be between the brothers. Also, toad licking. It was a very fun romp.
And there is more, but my fingers got tired. We had a *blast*. Everyone was just--wow. It was incredibly, mindbogglingly fun, and being with fangirls makes life so much easier in terms of conversation. Plus, everyone was amazing.
Big blast. Bethy was a total genius for planning. And I'm missing everyone so much already.
*waves at everyone*