Megafest 7.0 (part 1)
Started: 2008-05-30 08:40:35
Submitted: 2008-05-30 09:16:48
Visibility: World-readable
Megafest 7.0 wrapped up this week at my house. Since I wanted to run the Bolder Boulder this year, I talked the Megafestors to hold another gathering in Colorado rather than alternating between Colorado and Nebraska as is traditional.
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
I worked a full day. The doorbell rang about 2000, as I was trying to figure out the rules for Carcassonne and play a game with Kiesa. Yanthor, Anya, Humblik, and Linknoid were waiting on my doorstep, having just made the not-so-epic drive from Lincoln. I ushered them in, gave Linknoid a tour of the house, and pretended to help the Festors bring in their gear, which was slightly hampered by my lawn sprinklers. I swore the Festors to secrecy and demoed the Morphlix box; Yanthor started The Worst Sci-Fi Prequel Ever!, was disappointed by the lack of fast-forward, and the box hung half-way through the movie. I talked a handful of Festors into our first-ever game of Carcassonne, which seemed just as advertised: an amusing landscape-building game with simple rules and easy gameplay.
Thursday, 22 May 2008
While Linknoid slept, I had the back yard installed so he could see it for the first time. (He first saw the house in darkness, so there was no back yard to be seen.) Kiesa drafted me to make fried eggs for Balkin's Breakfast. By late morning, I could see an ominous wall of clouds to the north. We discussed meals and contemplated our options for the rest of the day when it started hailing. I pulled out my video camera to document the weather event. On the Internet, I watched the National Weather Service's weather radar, watches, and warnings and saw that there was a tornado watch in place for eastern Boulder county and all of the surrounding areas. While I was standing and on the front porch, protected by the overhanging roof, watching inch-diameter hail wreak havoc on my front-yard maple tree, I heard the civil defense sirens announce a tornado warning. I decided to be safe and followed everyone into the basement, where I continued to document the weather, watch the weather radar, and scan the Internet for news. It ultimately emerged that a massive tornado tore through Weld county, destroying one of Kiesa's coworker's houses.
Once the warning cleared, we emerged from the basement and surveyed the hail littering the lawn and street. Before too long, Fury of Dracula, the board game Yanthor requested, arrived via UPS. Yanthor claimed the dining room table and tried to figure out how to play the game. We settled into a game, with Yanthor playing as Dracula and four other Festors playing as the vampire hunters trying to capture the Count in Europe. The game started somewhat awkwardly, as we tried to figure out how everything worked, but the four hunters eventually tracked down Dracula and managed to stake him, thereby winning the game.
Over the course of the next several days, Humblik and I played as Dracula but both lost in the face of the relentless vampire hunter onslaught.
