Okay, the Casbah Feast rocked. Rilla and Laurel both took some good pictures, and Rilla made some videos. I'll be posting all of this as I get time this week.

The short of it is, though, that the event surpassed all of my expectations. It was amazing to see everyone come together and make such a cool event. I went back to the kitchen pretty regularly to see if I could help out, since I felt pretty bad for the kitchen staff with the workload they were enduring. They all seemed pretty pleased with the way things went, though, as far as I could tell anyway, and they told me they had it all under control.

It was great to see so many non-Amtgarders there, too. My "minion," Shade, is going to become a regular now. He had a blast here and at the raid last fall. I just wish I could get Filadan to move back from TX to join his brother at our park. To see so many parents, friends, and other family members there was really inspiring; it felt like it really legitimized what we're doing. The only downside was that so many of them dressed in garb that I don't think Ursa knew how many non-Amtgarders were present when he went into his rather lengthy oration :).

We're putting together a thank-you card for the church soon, too. They were very generous in allowing us use of the basement for the feast. It was a great venue, and I hope to use it again soon. Next time, though, I'd really like to see Corey (my brother) and Jen (his wife - the pastor) there. Corey would have made an awesome friar, which is about the only thing I would have like to have added to the feast.

My skit with Serrin and Petrus was a lot of fun. Lord Jyotis thought it should have won first place, but I have to agree with the way the majority voted on this one - the rock band playing the theme to Zelda was friggin' awesome! Serrin also rocked as M.C. His coolest part, though, was the intro written by Rune. Genius! The guy's in Utah, gets the info from me on Friday, and has this awesome intro written by Saturday in a style only he can do, written for Serrin's communication style, for an event that he's not even attending. I loved it!

The dessert competition was even better than the one at RQ2, with so many to choose from. I didn't try the Better Than Sex Cake that Serrin made, but maybe someday he'll make a vegan version. Redesta's apple crisp, Kurg's stepmom's pie, and Setsune's inarizushi were more than enough for me, and all were excellent.

Sitting next to Fereck was quite amusing. Redesta thinks that Fereck thinks we're dating, since he escorted her to the dessert table "to make Orkin jealous." He and I were ribbing each other the whole time. He's pretty funny at feasts.

One of the weirdest things was seeing Gina (sorry, Virginia) at the feast. She took a picture of me and Laurel, which just felt like we were back in high school. I think having Laurel there was probably one of the coolest parts of the whole thing. It made me really feel like there was nothing to worry about, at least from the kitchen. If only I could consistently blow that horn properly.

Cleanup was surprisingly efficient, though we did go over our allotted time with the church. Fortunately, due to a church scheduling screw-up, we were able to get more time, and we actually got everything cleaned up in less than an hour. I was exhausted, but so excited that I couldn't sleep. Sarmma, Setsuna, and I hung out watching The Wedding Crashers until sometime after one. What a night!

I definitely want to do another feast this summer at the church. We'll have to take a break for now, since everyone, especially the people in the kitchen, are probably still exhausted just thinking about it.

Next up: goblin raids and video season! Yeah, that's right. For an arts and sciences night, we're making poor-man's steadycams so we can shoot a fun video this spring. The goblin idea is evolving quite nicely, and should be a lot of fun. More to come!