Geneapalozza: A Celebration Of All Things Gene

[Grahame]

Back in the bay area

And so it ended as it began ...

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[Voltron]

Back in the bay area

And so it ended as it began ...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4090[/ATTACH]

Y'all be crazy!

[Voltron]

More pics from the wonderful TamJam weekend.

Starting off with more food pics from Bern's Steakhouse:

Seared Ahi tuna with some stuff

Oyster Beignets

Blurry Prawns

Delmonico Steak with onion strings

Our sommelier, Trey Cristy (photo credit Bern's)

One of his/our selections

Now in the dessert room, awaiting Bananas Foster while enjoying a flight of the Macallan

Bern's candid shots. Some of these are dying for subtitles, but I am tired and uninspired so mine are lame.

Interrupt Jim again and I am show you what head I control!

MD: I asked for Baker's and he brought me Maker's. Nothing ever works out for me.

VPI: I'd better check the meet thread to see if anything is going on.

Shelly: No fucking way the HD800 sounds as good as the LCD2 out of the BA! Moron.

VPI: I'd better check the meet thread again to see if anybody posted pics of this food yet.

Which bottle was mine, again?

Sure, he finally takes a picture when I'm smiling and that giant hand is the only thing in focus. Moron.

I can't haz pichers?

This way for the tour of Bern's with our great waiter

Cheese cave

[Voltron]

What do you know, more pictures of food! La Teresita was a muy bien.

Our gold-toothed waitress was quite strong

She carried lots of trays containing lots of Cuban food

Before

After

A little fuel shooter

Back again to Cigar City for one of many trips to the Tampa beer Mecca

Matt the Younger shared some of his treasured liquid black gold

Vicki liked the non-beer part of Mecca

Once more into the breach. Ella's American Folk Art Cafe for Soul Food Sunday brunch. Thankfully for you, other pics of the food have been posted so here are a few shots of the place and its art.

OK, I lied. More food pictures, of a sort. I give you, Mongo Meets Chocolate Bacon!

Thanks for the memories everybody. Gene-a-palooza was awesome.

[Iron_Dreamer]

Back home, at last. Nice summary, Al, I should have some to add to that tomorrow if I'm not too busy.

[Edwood]

You're all making me hungry and thirsty.

[nattonrice]

Chocolate bacon!?

That sounds amazing... fuck living in the southern hemisphere

[agile_one]

Thank you all for attending and making an awesome weekend. Brent, sorry you caught the crud on way home - feel better. Scott, sorry for the unscheduled night in ATL. Photogs - thanks for the great pictures - I seem to have misplaced my S95 somewhere in luggage/gear bags, so nothing from me yet. Al, the pic captions are priceless.

Grahame and Peter, thanks for being TeamVan for the weekend - all who benefited should shoot a few bucks Grahame's way to make up for the not insignificant upcharge to rent van vs compact. Oh, and Grahame, love the new sig.

Mike - find a good lawyer to fight that 101 mph. Justin ... what happens at TamJam stays at TamJam. Thank you again, everyone, for making this a fun and memorable weekend.

[The Monkey]

I love the pictures, gang.

[Voltron]

I love the pictures, gang.

You were missed Dinny. Don't let it happen again. And that goes for the rest of you too!

[Voltron]

I forgot to add the the captions my son dictated earlier last night:

Mongo Meets Chocolate Bacon!

Chocolate bacon? O rly?

Mmm. Nom Nom Nom.

Mongo Like Chocolate Bacon!!!1!

[shellylh]

Al, the pic captions are priceless.

^This, they made my day.

[MexicanDragon]

Well, I guess it's about time for me to post my pix. I finally got well enough to hop on the computer and throw these up. Let's see if it'll let me post 'em all.

Ari and fuzzy Shelly at Mazzario's, this moments after I touched down.

A big tree while we were walking around in St. Pete

These people, undoubtedly, called their friends to say "I'm on a boat, mother (shut yo mouth)!"

Ari, as Wayne

-apalooza

Walking like an Egyptian

Peaceful garden @ the Vanoy hotel (where a friend of mine, it turns out, works)

You don't wanna know...

Chihuly chandelier in the Grand Ballroom at the Vanoy

Trying to make Al more attractive

Raffy doin' what he does

Ari, Scott and Nebby at CCB

Fitz, Ken and the rest of Ari

Colin has a tall head

Al with only a slightly fuzzy Shelly this time

My Chateaubriand from Bern's

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_QOdWqEy_gZo/TQd-joRqDhI/AAAAAAAABFU/U3rXOBp_z60/IMG_6259.JPG

Jeff contemplating a redecoration of his home...

These need to be upside down and full, but I dug the shot

I took this picture while looking through a chain link fence

Tiffany light flanked by drop ceiling in the original dining area of Bern's

Macallan flight - 12/18/21

Bananas foster, just before conception

Bananas foster, just before consumption

I <3 Alex and his traveling Grado Museum (with a special guest appearance from Al's PS-1s and my RS-1s

The front end for our dynamic rigs, along with my Aripower

Audio Aero Prima DAC -> Balancing Act -> PS-1 -> Screaming Oranges

I want one...

My vote for budget rig of the meet (we're so jaded, aren't we?)

For DannyB

The Queen and her loyal subjects

Was this the 3rd meet room?

NIKONGOD with a CANON S90 - (He used his nikon powers to make it a little out of focus, I don't know how. He's good.)

Caption contest photo entry:

Vicki's gift from her gift exchange partner (from an obviously better photographer)

View from one of the rooms

This is how the world looks after an Ostrich burger with pepper jack and applewood smoked bacon (aka awesome (though seems some of the other burgers were so-so))

My friend Kim (well, my OTHER friend Kim)

Little place we went Saturday night

Postgame

Seriously, guys? This is a HORRIBLE job of setup

After one (three?) too many

This was the crowd around 3:30am, blowing off finals steam. This gets the nod for the 2nd least favorite place to eat of the weekend, right behind the hotel breakfast.

I hate when people wear headphones backwards. Wait, what's that, you mean Sennheiser DESIGNED them that way?

Carl with his portable rig and some Grados... while sitting next to an Exemplar 2900 -> BHSE -> O2s

Da boys

A boy and his (new) toys

Mmmmmm... menu with food

I SWEAR I didn't see "Quesadillas" on there til I looked at the picture. SO would have gone for a duck one

Some kind of bean dip/guac/queso

Sangrias all around! (Just imagine there were 5 of them)

Colin with a fancy background

Alex drinking a beverage I can't pronounce he went nuts over and had to call someone to tell them about it, then he started speaking in tongues, and I just zoned out a bit...

Duck tacos

Whatever-justin-had tacos

My duck tacos with the red chili jelly on the side (wasn't sure about it). Turns out it was soooooo deliciously tasty I just wanted to drink it

Something filet, or filet something deal... "make your own taco" kit, enough for us all

Alex's shrimp and duck tacos

Some pictures from the Red Mesa Cantina (where Toole, SO, Justin, my OTHER friend Kim (who shows up as the "who is the chick who isn't Vicki or Shelly" in the Bern's pics from earlier) and myself dined Sunday night)

After starting to feel ill, this is how things started to look for me (if you look in the center, you will notice a face on the back of that vehicle. I think it could be Jesus, or John Lennon. Or maybe Jesus Lennon, perhaps?

Gingers will rape your bottles and drink your women... or something like that. IDK, I was pretty out of it by then, going by the time stamp. Actually, I'm pretty out of it now (remembers to take lots of prescription drugs).

Wing/emergency exit seat. Last one with the extra legroom. Thanks for the heads up, Grahame.

I touched down to this. Some of you see this as a light dusting. Grawk sees it as summer. Chattanooga shut down schools yesterday, hour delay today. Some local schools were out today as well, with one surrounding county out until at LEAST Thursday...

I had a blast, guys. I got to see a bunch of old HCers I already knew/had met, meet some I had only dealt with online, and even ran into some Kims from my past. A ton of great food, lots of hanging out, and even a little music. I'm rather grateful to be a part of this community, it really is amazing the connections we've made over just one little hobby that is just a part of each of our lives. I can't wait to do it again. Now I'm going back to bed to shake this bronchitis thing.

Stay safe, Tampa.

**BRENT**

[Aura]

Awesome pics everyone.

[Torpedo]

Amazing pics. I'm glad you had that great time, and a bit envious too

[Voltron]

Great pics and stories, Brent. Sorry about the sickness but glad you powered through the -palooza.

[ironbut]

Chocolate bacon? Shit,.. my two favorite vegetables!

Amazing photos you guys. Looks like a fantastic weekend!

[bozebuttons]

Great pics,

Man I wish I could have made this meet,looks like everyone had a great time.

[Duggeh]

I echo the envy of the distant observers. Great to see you all had an awesome time.

[CarlSeibert]

First off, thanks to Gene and everyone for an awesome meet! A truly special time. And Bonnie had a blast!

Now then - group buy for t-shirts.

Bonnie will get a quote based on how many we might want. She expects the shirts to be under $10 a unit, probably a couple bucks less if we get a good quantity.

Flat rate priority mail appears to be about $4.90

Here's the Sigmund Freud/Gene/Me/depending on who you ask image, with a picture of the two colors that seem popular. (I have two of the red color - one has the starfish for Jerry's newspaper and the other just says "Baltimore" - and for whatever reason, I tend to wear them all the time.) I think that's fractions of Jerry and Mary Kate in the colors snapshot, if that matters to anyone.

[Asr]

Vicki's gift from her gift exchange partner (from an obviously better photographer)

IMG_6472.JPG

Geez, looks like a whole bunch of people got some swanky gifts for that Gift Exchange thing. A framed pic is a great idea, wish I'd thought of that. I almost don't want to know what other people are getting now. All I got for folks were CDs. Gonna have to step it up next year methinks.

[tyrion]

Ticket update. A lawyer quoted me $500 to represent me and my fine could be as high as $1,000. :palm: I think I will wait a while before getting an estimate on the door. Sorry, I know I'm being a downer but had to vent. I picked the worst county in the State to get a ticket.

Carl, I'm in for a shirt.

[guzziguy]

Carl, I'm in for a large.

Mike, sorry about the bad aspects of your weekend. The ticket and, especially, the dent are real downers. Maybe you could include the ticket costs on your insurance claim for the door?

Edit: I'd prefer a red tshirt but can live with blue.

Edited December 14, 2010 by guzziguy

[agile_one]

Carl ... Bonnie did a fantastic job on the shirts, and I am definitely down for a Blue XL

[Tyll Hertsens]

I'm with Gene! Just let us know where/when to PayPal.