The weekend, starting with Friday, was reserved for the party. And what a party it was! A lot of people, a lot of food, a lot of presents, a lot of fun... and a pool with a lot of water! Splish splash!
On Friday morning, John drove to Toronto to pick up Michal, Nicole, and Torsten. Dar stayed at home in Oshawa, because Tom (Jackiey) and Jen (Jeli) called that they would be arriving around noon instead of during the afternoon. They could not sleep in the night, so they started the drive from New Jersey a bit earlier than planned. When Tom and Jen arrived and rang the bell, there was no answer from the house, but the door was open, so they went in. Someone forgot to close the front door when going to the shower. Luckily Dar had her clothes with her in the bathroom, but she was still a bit surprised to see visitors when she saw Tom and Jen!
The first thing we had to prepare for the party on Friday was the two tents that we would later store food in and sit under. John and Dar go camping often, so it didn't take long and the tents were standing.
Cassandra, Dar's daughter, was helping us too! Unlike Torsten and Tom (Jackiey), who were concentrating on a different, bunny-related project. Since we all know that Lukraak is a bunny killer and that Jackiey often helps him, they wanted to hurt Dar's wooden bunny. During the whole weekend, Michal, Nicole or Dar saved the bunny many times, and Torsten or Tom hanged him again and again... but I'm totally sure that now the bunny is safe again.
Jen loves to make quilts and she indeed makes beautiful ones. She brought one for Torsten and Nicole, one for Dar and John, and one for Michal. Each quilt was made specifically for the receiving person, so you should be able to guess which quilt went to whom just by looking at the the motives on the quilt. Michal plays a druidess in Everquest, so his quilt has a lot of green leaves on one side and a lot of animals, especially druidish bears, on the other side. If you were wondering, the bears are indeed left, right, and center on the quilt.
Nicole's and Torsten's quilt shows a lot of flowers. And, of course, a lot of bunnies. Very cute bunnies. Pappa Bunny, Mamma Bunny, Bunny children - they're all there. Luks pet bunny will be very happy to play with them all!
Each quilt was gift-wrapped and tied with a bow. Bows can be used in various ways; I think Nicole used it to remind Torsten that he was engaged. Jen and Dar were watching and laughing.
Jen also gave Michal and Nicole and Torsten a status of Liberty. It was a small statue, not the American-sized original - I think Tom would have trouble getting that one to his car.
Nicole already had the engagement ring, so she showed it to all of us. It's an unusual, but very beautiful ring.
Oops, wrong picture. Something's wrong with them computers, bzzzzt, they always do the something totally wrong even though the person sitting behind them does everything correct. Ehm, all right, let me try again.
John and Tom drove to the Canadian Tire to buy some more food and drinks for the party. Dar asked John to buy a bottle of Jack Daniels for her. But even though John and Tom followed instructions to the letter, Dar wasn't happy, at least not initially. John and Tom were smiling when they were giving the big package to Dar. When she opened it, she only a very tiny, itty bitty, travel-size bottle. After a while, Dar realized they are only teasing her and the real bottle is hidden somewhere, and she later found it - though we had a lot of fun watching Dar looking for it!
Before the holiday, our Everquest guild had a poll on the forum asking people which one of the party attendees would be pushed into a pool of water. There was a problem though; we didn't have a pool. But John's and Tom's trip to Canadian Tire was about to change that. Apart from what they were supposed to bring, they brought one more item: a pool. When Tom saw it in the store, he immediately said I want that! After buying it, he asked John Oh, will it fit into the van? Yes, it did fit, because Canadians usually have American-sized cars!
When Nicole saw it, she started to bounce like a bunny; she was hopping showing her joy. And she was also hoping that she would be able to get Michal wet again. Nicole tried the pool, but she realized that there was a problem: there was no water in the pool, which would make it somewhat difficult to get anyone wet.
But Nicole did not want to give up, so she came with a plan to fill the pool. But she only had a glass and she had to run to the kitchen to fill it. She used Tom to test whether or not the glass would be enough to make people wet. No, not really, there was still not enough water.
Dar gave Nicole a bigger cup, but even after a while there wasn't much water. Nicole tested it herself, but it was still not enough. Unfortunately.
John and Tom pitied poor Nicole, so they connected the water hose. There was a slight problem, because the pipe was too thick to fit into the hole in the wall. In the end, the hose went through the door and the pool was soon full of water.
Tom went in first. He took of his T-shirt and jumped in.
Michal jumped in next. This was the sixth time for him to get wet in Canada, and certainly not the last time! Splish splash!
Dar and Jen are Michal's friends and friends should hug each other as often as possible. Michal knows that, so he gave both of them a hug! Jen was smiling, but it looks like Dar didn't like it. I have no idea why, I even took a bath to make sure I'd be very clean!
Torsten was the last person to go swimming.
Here's the unedited movie with all the action too (but there's no sound).
And Torsten indeed got wet. And so did John's and Dar's house when we all went to change out clothes. The wet tracks in Dar and John's house are the proof!
Unfortunately, no one else wanted to try the pool. That's too bad, because the water was great! The three wet party attendees changed their clothes and then we all spent the rest of the day by chatting, having fun, and of course eating barbeqeued steaks and sausages.
There's Dar and Cassandra, both having fun.
Tom was also having fun. It had something to do with the bunny ears behind Dar! And the Dar was s sticking out her tongue at the camera (while still having bunny ears)!
Here's Jen and Torsten. I think they're talking about the best possible way of casting KEI, or perhaps about feeding the bunnies.
Tom was driving the whole night before Friday, so the poor fella fell asleep. Zzzzzzzzzzz
We all went to bed around midnight; we had more partying to do during the next two days.
Copyright notice: Text, images, and videos copyright by Michal Řeháček, Nicole, Torsten, John Philip, Darlene Sine.