We mill around a bit and Charlie's brother Frank (Big100HD) zero's in on Merry and puts her right to work for the welcoming committee. She's filling out nametags, helping with the raffle tickets, laughing and joking with all the folks as they come in...Just like Merry, we've been here 5 minutes and she is already having fun.
I wonder around, met a whole bunch of people in real life, that I only know by their online CP name. Within minute or two they recognize me as "the guy from Florida" or "you are the one that made that ashtray", which is immediately followed by "Hey, I've got something for you"...I think I left that night with 40 cigars! I was going to pack my giant cigar caddy, but with all the stuff I was bringing, it just seemed like too much....so I wasn't able to reciprocate properly during the Herf, but while I was stashing my cigars in my goodie bag, I was also sending myself a text message or two....I got all your names....we'll see about that after I get home.
Some time goes by...I discover that the bar has Guiness on draught...that is some good beer! Here's a pic of the Herf in full swing:
There were some more folks behind me and sitting down just out of frame on the right. By now, Merry, although still in the minority, is joined by maybe 8 or 10 other women....Most of them smoking a cigar! Merry has 3 brothers and has always had more fun "hanging out with the boys"....
Here is the back porch...looks like a great place to spend a summer evening.
Right around 4, Charlie starts giving away the door prizes.
Merry wins one of those capsules where you can carry lighter on the plane.
I get HumidiPuck (from Mark at Cigarmony) for my "bag o'goodies" and a CigarPass hat (thanks Rod!).
Later, when they start calling numbers for the raffle, they ask Merry to be "ticket girl" and she gets to pick the tickets out of the cigar box. Of course, all the guys are now yelling her name whenever something good comes up for raffle (which is everything!). I'm thinking by the end of the night everybody is going to know me as "Merry's husband" :laugh:
After the raffle and another beer, Merry and I go next door for dinner. We have some soup, a salad, we split a porterhouse (Merry adds a lobster tail)...the meal is excelent and I am totally stuffed. We head back to the bar for some more herf fun. The party has thinned out some but is still going strong. We have more fun talking cigars, watches, kids, racing....the conversation is easy, the cigars are good and I switch to drinking Fonseca Port. Before the night is done, we get a few more pictures, but by now I'm having trouble keeping track of the camera....
And before the night ends, one last one of us with the master of ceremonies himself:
We manage to hang on until almost 11. That's 9 hours of partying and I ain't as young as I used to be....although I pace myself better. We each smoked 2 cigars and we walk out of there with a giant bag of cigars and goodies.
We had a smoking good time!
Thanks to everybody who worked on the Herf, thanks to the sponsors for making that giveaway table a real "Wow!" when you walk in the door and thanks to everybody who walked up, introduced themselves and made us feel like old friends.
edits:typos