NRA Convention Super Mega Post, Part 1

(Part two comes at the end of the week when I do the blogroll additions and such).

I am going to attempt to list everyone from the gun blogosphere and related habitats that I talked to, schmoozed, squeed over, met, or otherwise interacted with in some capacity over the weekend at the NRA convention. If I spoke with you and somehow omitted your name, I'll apologize in advance - while I tried to write down or otherwise document in some way the names and/or blogs of everyone I talked to, I am only human and in some cases was hindered by beer...

So here goes nothing:

Chris: Contacted me prior to the convention getting together for a shooting event. The timing didn't work out, but it was still great to get to meet Chris.

Mike W.: young! He and Weer'd shared a room at the "other" Hyatt; he's somewhat quieter and less curmudgeonly than online. Even forgetting his press pass didn't phase him. Mike was present for an actual, honest-to-goodness moment of Jay G. road rage, too.

Nancy R: Wow. I got to meet my one and only blogdaughter. She's "about seven feet tall" per Uncle (heh), is "wicked smaht" as we like to say here, and my biggest regret is that I didn't have more time to chat with her. She's a simply amazing woman who does 18th century history re-enacting with her husband and daughter as well as teaching her daughter to slay the big bad wolf. You go mom!

Rick R: Rick is Nancy's "shorter half" (her words) and was as far as we could tell the only person brave enough to walk by the HS Precision booth with Stingray's shirt on.

Susan R: she is just the *cutest thing ever*. She handled dinner with this insane crowd with commendable aplomb. I'll get that jacket in the mail soon. I've seen kids twice her age that would have freaked out at the crowd we had at that restaurant. She's going to go far, mark my words... Especially now that the wolf has been banished.

Michael & Beverly: One drawback to the large group Saturday was that I didn't get to chat with everyone as much as I would have liked. I barely had time to say hello to this lovely couple (and friend of the aforementioned Nancy and Susan) before my attention was torn away.

Wai: We designated Wai the "crazian" for "Crazy Asian" for good reason. From giving Breda some squid jerky (which was yummy) to talking about "Grock" pistols (he's a good sport about his accent and Asian background), Wai takes it all in stride and gives as good as he gets (mostly). Note to self: Add Wai to blogroll.

SayUncle: How do you describe SayUncle? The dude's gotta be the biggest gunblogger out there; has a personal stake on the gun business; by all accounts you'd expect him to be full of himself. You'd also be about as wrong as you could possibly be about a person. He's incredibly down-to-earth and really mellow - I called him the "anti-Caleb". At one point on the convention floor Unc went off to talk to one of the vendors (one of his suppliers) and turned to me and asked me to wait up for him. I'm standing there thinking, "wow, SayUncle wants *me* to wait for *him*!"

Sebastian: I didn't get much chance to talk to Sebastian, which is the biggest drawback to the convention - there's simply not enough time to get everything in...

Rick: Runs the Firearm Academy of Detroit, which is a herculean task unto itself. Was at the shindig Friday night and the delish dinner after. About as shy and reserved as I am, which you know means we got along great...

Joe Huffman: Took a picture of my "guns don't kill people, dads with pretty daughters do" T-shirt. Joe is one *seriously* smart dude (per weer'd - "he can kill you with his *mind*") - you've got to be on your "A" game to go with Joe...

Caleb & Lindsey: Got to meet the infamous coffee thrower himself (and his very patient wife) at the dinner. Swapped a few stories, learned more about whoring myself out from the master... ;)

PDB: I met the "Hulking Hebrew" himself. He really is about 8 feet tall and the size of a small office building, but at least it's an extremely nice office building.

Alan Gura: Yes. I met Alan freakin' Gura. I chatted with Alan for a few moments about the sad state of MA gun laws, and thanked him for his help with GOAL in the Runyan case. Alan is to law what the entire cast of GBC is to porn. He knows a LOT about it...

Alan Gottlieb & Julianne. Yep. I met the founder of the SAF and his wife. I find it simply astounding that I got the chance to sit down to eat with such amazing folks.

XRLQ. Will be adding him to the blogroll on Friday; spent Friday night and a good chunk of Saturday running into XLRQ in the press room and at various social events.

Countertop: After several unsuccessful attempts, we finally managed to get together for dinner. It was fantastic getting to meet the man, the myth, the legend; equally great given his stupendous choice of restaurants.

Scott McCray: Another guy I need to add to the blogroll, I got a few moments to chat with Scott at the blog dinner, mostly as we attempted to keep up with the blur-that-was-Breda as we moved the event outside.

Michael Bane: Gotta drop the big names here. Even if I didn't recognize him at first (if I didn't mention that, Unc would set everyone straight I'm sure - I thought Unc's eyes were going to pop out of his head when I asked who it was). I plead insanity.

Newbius: He should be called "the Fixer". If there was something that needed doing, Newbius got it done. Usually resulting in several people with hurt feelings and/or sucking chest wounds.

UJ, Dixie, & Dixling. I've chatted with UJ and Dixie in the GBC since long before they became parents, and it was just awesome that they were able to make the dinner. They also allowed me to hold their baby girl and rock her to sleep, vicariously re-living my own children as babies while not having to change diapers...

Lars Dalseide: Also known as Larzy, Lars was one of the NRA Media Specialists assigned to keep an eye on the rowdy "new media" people. He should have brought a net...

Danielle Sturgis: besides having a really cool last name, Danielle is a force of nature. Along with "Larzy", responsible for arranging the super cool Hollywood Guns photo shoot.

Seriously, thanks a million for that one, guys!

Denise & Sam: This one got an actual squee out of me - I've been reading The Ten Ring since pretty much the internet started, and getting to meet the folks responsible for it was quite a treat.

Alan: Despite giving Alan a ration of shit on a pretty regular basis, I'm proud to call Alan my friend. He's very easy-going, hard-to-rile (except when I get into a whiny bitch mode), and has excellent taste in knives.

Breda: Where do I begin? Breda is smart, funny as hell, and packs a mean wallop when you crab too much at the end of the day. Lots of fun to be around; even cuter in person than online; and did a fabulous job arranging the blog dinner. Breda and I have been e-mailing/chatting/IRCing/etc. for years, and finally getting to sit down and have a beer with her was another highlight of the convention (and worth the 14 hour drive all on its own).

I cannot wait for Pittsburgh!

That is all.