Stryker LAN Oct. '07 Report

This past weekend Stryker held one of his semi-annual (or is it tri-annual? I can’t keep track) OMM LANs. For me the LAN started early last Thursday as I still needed to pick up some supplies for the weekend. Unfortunately the day started out on a bad note. Thursday morning I woke up to a house that was an uncomfortable 62 degrees. It turns out my 5 year old furnace was out. A call to the local HVAC shop had me sitting standby all day for the next 8 hours. Knowing that I had 2 house guests scheduled to spend the sleep over that night I was really feeling some bad karma there for a while. I gave the CS rep my cell phone and told her I’d be home as soon as I could when they called but I had errands to run and we’d just have to work it out best we could. 

I left to pick up an 8’ table that barely fit into my Trailblazer then drove another 30 minutes the opposite direction to get a 24 port switch from Gypsy (a local LAN regular) so that we could start doing some pre-wiring. After getting home Castlemonster and I managed to spend an hour or so playing double team on XBL before he had to leave to catch his flight. We were getting totally pwnd all afternoon after having a pretty successful run the previous days we had played. More bad karma I suppose. Finally, around 3 pm I got ready to head over to Stryker’s house to start getting some power and Ethernet cables run and wouldn’t you know it, the HVAC guy calls just as I’m heading out the door. Fortunately my wife (The Librarian 1) was just getting home and though I’d rather be there in person to deal with repairmen, I had a schedule to keep. 

Around 3:30 I arrived at Stryker’s to find that the one and only PapaHamster had already arrived. This was my first time meeting Mr. Hamster and he seemed to be just as genuine in person as he is online.  DKHodz arrived a short time later and we did a little work, and then headed for the airport to pick up the first round of guys coming in for the weekend. About halfway there I got a call from The Librarian. “The repair guy says that we have a bad something or other and he needs to replace it. He doesn’t have the part and the shop won’t have one in until tomorrow. Oh, and it’s going to cost us $500.” Yippee! Please tell me this is the last of the bad news for the weekend.

I did my best to set that all aside and focus on the LAN ahead. When we arrived at the airport we quickly found BroDee21 and WallyBR. Castlemonster got in about a half hour later and fortunately everybody made it with their luggage and equipment intact. We decided to get some dinner at Logan’s Steakhouse while we waited for the last arrival for the evening, Tait. During dinner Stryker received a good news/bad news call from Mr. iTait. Seems like he met a girl at the airport bar while waiting for his flight but unfortunately was too enamored with her to notice that he was being paged for his final boarding call. The plane backed away from the gate just as he arrived and he would have to take a later flight out. Fortunately for us The Librarian was kind enough to volunteer to come back out to the airport to pick him up so the rest of us could head home to start the party.

Fortunately that was the last of the bad news for my weekend. We all hung out at my place Thursday night shooting pool and hanging out. Several of the guys decided to try out Portal (from the Orange Box). I had no real interest in that game, but for the next four hours several of the guys seemed absolutely mesmerized by it. Luckily they played it on my GT so I got a bunch of the achievements for it.  CMA and his wife arrived, followed by JRock and his wife and a little later and The Librarian and Tait finally showed up. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and we indulged in a fancy Halloween themed dessert Lisa made for us. Papa H. kicked our butts in pool for most the night but was gracious enough to give me a few pointers, though I’m not sure how good a student I really am. Finally around midnight or 1 am everyone headed  their separate ways and I crashed out almost immediately.

The next morning we all met back up again for breakfast at what is fast becoming a LAN staple, Original Pancake House. OPH, has some of the best bacon on the planet and great food all around. I had the usual Apple Pancakes and Lisa got eggs – hard. I’m not sure how they get the eggs hard but Tait and I assumed that they had a professional back there masturbating the chickens. In hind sight that makes no sense but it was funny at the time, particularly when Lisa mimicked chicken “completion”. After breakfast we headed back to my place to pick up a few monitors and TVs and then travelled on to Stryker’s to finish up the set up. Things went pretty smoothly and by 1 or so everything was set and games were already being played.

By that evening most of the rest of the guests arrived and H3 games were going full force. Halo was the game de jour for the night intermingled with pizza (which a fellow OMM member who couldn’t attend graciously donated for the evening) and lots of treats made by The Librarian and Gaius. Gaius, among his other talents, makes one of the best cheesecakes you will ever have the pleasure of putting in your mouth and was kind enough to send a couple our way for the LAN. He even sent me my very own mini-cake! Gaming, snacking and general nonsense went on ‘til the wee hours of the morning and we finally called it quits.

The next morning I had everyone back to my place for breakfast which included eggs, some special bacon that was sent by Gaius along with the cheesecakes, bagels, donuts, OJ, some chocolate drink that was supposed to be milk but no one quite figured out what it actually was, and other sweet pastries. Once everyone got their fill it was back to Stryker’s for a day of gaming. The Librarian, iTait and Mrs. Jro headed downtown for some sightseeing and Mrs. Stryker and Mrs. CMA headed out for some shopping. Most of the day was spent in H3 though there were a couple of breaks for Forza and Gears. That afternoon Castlemonster started up the grill and prepared some awesome wings and ribs for everyone’s supper that evening. Mrs. Stryker (aka St. Stryker, for putting up with all of us terrorizing her house) helped keep everything going and kept a watchful eye on Stryker as he made his famous beans and an apple pie. We turned on a football game for a bit during dinner but it was just college football so I couldn’t tell you who was playing. Afterwards there was more gaming, more socializing and more eating. A poker game broke out later in the evening and even though I graciously let Tait take over my hand, he managed to lose all my chips in short order. I finally gave up watching but Stryker, SRTBrad and Aviator were the last ones in when I left. I think Aviator might have won. A few folks had to head home for the weekend that night and we said our goodbyes to the CMA family, JRo family, Appropriate and Aviator.

Sunday morning, those of us left in town met at Cracker Barrel for one last breakfast. Afterwards I took Castle and BroDee back to the airport and then headed back to Stryker’s to finish the clean up. Luckily by the time I got there he, Wally and DK had most of the work done and all that was left was to pack up some things in the truck and move them back home. We sat around and watched the Colts vs. Panthers game for a bit which was nice since Wally was there (Wally being from Charlotte) and the Colts were kicking their butts. DK took Wally back to the airport at half time and Lisa took Tait out a few hours later. I had a soccer match at 6:00 and by the time I got home I think all remaining energy I had left in me was spent. 

This morning as I sit at my desk at work I feel like I need another weekend just to recover from the last one. Big parties like this can be exhausting but they are definitely worth every moment. I’m always amazed that people would actually spend the money and time to fly in or drive great distances for a LAN that only a couple of years ago was a few local guys hanging out on a Friday night. It was absolutely wonderful to meet guys like BroDee, Kid Mach and Papa for the first time and to further cement great relationships I’ve had with guys like Castlemonster, Tait, JRo, CMA and Wally. I’m probably forgetting to mention some guys and I know there were some locals there once again like DK,  Darby, SRTBrad, Gypsy and so forth but the guys who make that special effort to be there really impress me and I hope they all had a great time. I really enjoyed seeing all these folks once again.

A very, very, very, very special THANK YOU, to Stryker for organizing, hosting and just generally being an all around great guy in putting this thing on. Without him, none of it would be possible. There is a ton of behind the scenes effort that goes into something like this and he is always on top of every detail to make sure everyone is comfortable and has a great time. Thanks. Also a big thank you to my wife, Lisa. She puts up with my addiction, makes tons of goodies for us, made several trips to the airport for us and is a great sport about something that most wives would just roll their eyes over.