The day started fairly early, packing in some morning errands before taking the Big, Fat, Black, Capitalist Car (BFBCC) to Ken’s (my friend and bodyguard) house, where I would turn over the keys to him for the duration. There were various pre-planned phone calls, which would enable us to meet Teresa (coming in from Massachusetts) and the Wiseass Jooette upon their arrival at Penn Station in beautiful downtown Newark. They met up, as planned, in New York’s Penn Station and trained into Jersey.

After a quick tour of the Ironbound Section of Newark with a side trip (no extra charge) to Kearny (my stompin’ grounds as a yoot) for a look-see (a bargain at twice the price), we aimed the BFBCC toward Princeton, which permitted our guest travelers to behold New Jersey’s tank farms on the Turnpike (What’s not to like?).

We arrived at the hotel, met up with Gregor and, within ten minutes, we all assembled at the hotel bar, where, as I previously noted, they stocked Three Olives Chocolate Vodka. Ken’s son stopped by to welcome us to Princeton and to share a pint or two. He also shot pool with Erica, who travels with a special pool glove (talk about dooshbags). I suspect she lost, even with the glove, because, had she won, the entire place would have heard about it.

At the appointed time, we piled into the BFCC for the short trip to the Triumph Brewery for the shindig. I must have already been pretty limber, because I programmed Mr. Tom Tom to lead us back to the hotel, for which I graciously accepted the ration of shit heaped on me by the vehicle’s occupants.

Upon arriving at the Triumph, I finally got to meet Fausta, who really did the heavy lifting to make the party happen. She is a delight, and the snazzy red heels were straight out of the Wizard of Oz. Very cool.

The place was full of old friends, whom I had met before: Suzette, TigerHawk, Shamrocketship, Mr. Surly (my son-in-law), KateSpot, and, of course, the incomparable Denny, the Grouchy Old Cripple, who motored in from Atlanta. There was lots of catching up going on.

I also got to meet some excellent new peeps, such as Eric of Classical Values, Judith of Kesher Talk, Joated of Compass Points, and Mr. Bingley of the Coalition of the Swilling. Time didn’t permit me to spend much time with Mary of Exit Zero or the Baron of Gates of Vienna, but I know there’ll be a next time to get to know them better.

The beer was outstanding as was the food, but blogmeets are mostly about blabbing, and there was plenty of that, for sure.

After the party broke up, those of staying at the hotel along with Mr. Surly returned to … you guessed it … da hotel bar for more chocolate vodka and bullshitting until the bar closed.

It was a great party.

Well, I survived another blogmeet, where I had fun meeting some old friends and making a few new ones.

I knew we would be in trouble when I saw that the hotel were we stayed in Princeton had Chocolate Vodka at the bar. The bartender had to keep going into the storeroom to get new bottles. Yeef!

Too tired and toxic to write at the moment.

It was a good time.