WARNING: this post is rated M for mature audiences. May contain mature language or sexual content.
OK..OK...I know that I am a little late with this post but between recovering from the fest, working, and computer problems this is the first chance that I have had to give you guys a recap. Now I know that there have been allot of posts about the fest, but here is Grump's and I recall of events. Please no loud snoring...and no comments from the peanut gallery. Here we go.....
Let me start by letting some of you in on a little secret. AKfest almost did not happen!
Approximately 9 days before the fest, Wednesday April 1st, Grumpy got a phone call from the hotel manager telling him that there was a problem. Apparently the hotel had double booked OUR ROOMS. And, since the other event was booked first we were going to have to be moved. Our original contract was booked on November 22, 2004, with us having 11 small conference rooms on the main floor...How the Hell did they double book this and no one noticed until 9 days before the event? That hotel was not that big!!! Needless to say Grumpy called me at work and was not happy at all. The manager wanted us to come down and look at some other rooms that were available. I was at work till 3pm, the kids had bowling league from 4-6pm, so we went down to the hotel, with three little ones in tow, to look at these "rooms" they wanted us to use. There was no way in hell that anything he showed us was going to work (can you guys imagine if you had been in the lounge or VIP room? it would not work!). So then we started talking about actual hotel guest rooms. We proceeded upstairs to look at rooms on probably 5 different floors. All the while getting pushed off on different people because the "manager" was too busy to help us. We finally went back downstairs and talked to the manager, he asked exactly how many rooms did we think that we needed. Grumpy and I went outside to talk alone and I told him, based on all the vendors and members that we would need 22-23 rooms. So we went inside and told the manager..boy he was not happy..Tough Shit! So we went home and e-mailed the hotel with our requirements with the promise that the hotel would get us a new contract to sign on Thursday, the next day.
All day Thursday, Grumpy spent calling vendors and members to tell them that the rooms were going to be different, all the while waiting for a call to say the contract was ready. Just a side note here....Every vendor that Grumpy talked to was VERY understanding (What a great bunch). Grumpy didn't really give a shit about the members thought cause they were all going to get their own room, he was more worried that the vendors would pull out (that would have been a nightmare). No call on Thursday from the hotel, Grumpy even tried calling and all the sales reps were gone for the day. By Friday morning he was fit to be tied, He pretty much told them at 11am "If I don't have a signed contract by tonight..then I want all my money back!" I worked until 4pm., nothing was faxed to me. When I got home he called again and was told that it was just faxed, so I went back to work, got the fax, signed it, sent it back and then came home. When I got home I realized that it was worded incorrectly and Grumpy called them again. He was told that it was really late why don't we do this on Monday...Grumpy's response.."BULLSHIT..this will wait till Monday". The hotel promised that someone would be at our house by 7pm with contract in hand...they showed up a little after 8pm. I have left alot of the other issues that we dealt with out. But I wanted to let you guys know why we were on the 12th floor and not on the main floor. I think it worked out...but boy was it work..whew!
ON TO THE FEST:
THURSDAY....
I worked 3:30am - 2pm so by the time I got home Tim & Steph were at my house. Ray was here also. Tim had bought some stuff for my son Matthew and they had unloaded all of it. Everyone was in the house listening to some music, Ray was annoying the hell out of Grumpy by playing Disco..yes I said Disco on Grumpys stereo. Tim, Steph and Ray went to the hotel to check in. Then all of them went out to dinner, I had cakes to bake.
FRIDAY....
Friday was the first really crazy day for all of us. I went to work from 3:30am - 12:30pm. by the time I got home, Ernie was on his way to the airport to pick up Luther. In the process of Ernie going to the airport we found out that another member was arriving at approximately the same time, unfortunately we did not know alot of information other than it was Bob (Cabinover), and we had no way to get ahold of Ernie. We managed to get ahold of Luther, on his cell phone to tell him what was going on, but... Long story short, Bob was never found and ended up renting a vehicle.
By Friday night alot of people were here..Tim, Steph, Ray, Luther, Ken Rimeny, Bill F, Craig, Punker, John Wolf, Gilbert, Mac and his wife Linda, Glen, Scott and many many more! Grumpy was at the hotel to get the master key about 6pm, he wanted to be able to let everyone get into their rooms as soon as he could. He was promised the key at approximately 6:30pm, then 8:30pm, then 10pm. Then was told Saturday morning at 8:30am he could have the key. Well as Grumpy was trying to get things straight, Tim and Steph ordered Pizza. I guess sometime around them eating they had a knock on the door, it was security (boy Tim not at the hotel for more than a day and your already in trouble.....), there had been a complaint that there was smoking in their room (the kicker is even with Grumpy in the room with these guys, they were still going downstairs to smoke). Well I guess the complaint came from a woman...well they ended up throwing the Bitch off the floor!! With all of this going on Grumpy did tell me that most of the vendors did come on Friday night to set up and most were able to get into their rooms. Grumpy came home about 11pm he still had to get his gear ready to load in the morning.
SATURDAY....
1st day of the AKfest. Everyone had an early day, Grumpy and Matt left our house at about 7am to go and make sure that he could get the master key and to set up his room. I left the house about 8am and went directly to the lounge to unload all the food, pop, plates, cakes and everything else we needed for lunch for the next two days. By the way Thank you to everyone who brought a cooler..it really helped us alot! Grumpy started asking for the master key to all the rooms on the 12th floor approximately at 7:30am., at 8:30am he told them to give him the ****ing key..and they did. Before the fest Tim had posted on AK that if anyone had walkie talkies that we would have them at the fest and they could bring them to help us keep in touch with each other. Well Scott (ARMY) brought 4 Pairs which helped us out so much. Thanks Scott!!
Steph did a great job setting up the registration area..Thanks Steph! We were not sure how many people to expect, so imagine our surprise when the first hour was non-stop people. No one complained or questioned the $5.00 entry fee. We sold tickets for $1.00 each for a 50/50 raffle and $1.00 tickets for a raffle for one pair of NHT Model SB3 Speakers. We sold T-shirts, pop, water and had tables set up with all the door prizes, all in the registration room.
All the guys were busy setting up their gear and we were busy making sure that everyone had everything that they needed. Everyone knew that if they needed something or someone they could come to the registration room and we would use the walkie talkies to find whatever they needed.
Before we knew it, it was time to set up for lunch in the lounge. I had alot of help from my oldest kids. My oldest daughter Jennifer was a huge help in organizing the menus and doing the shopping. Saturdays lunch consisted of Pizza (I have a friend who gave AK an awesome deal), Salad, Pop, Cookies (donated by Becky, JimBecky's wife), Zuccini bread and cookies (donated by Stephanie), brownies and the AKfest cake (made by me). During Lunch is when the swap meet went on. As we were eating we had door prizes drawn and then Tim took the stage to talk to the members. Tim talked about how important all the raffles and donations are throughout the year. "We do those kind of things on AK so that we can do things like AKfest to give back to the members" Tim told the group. It was definitely a heartfelt speech. Fisherdude (Clay) picked up his bottlehead preamp (many people were drooling over that one). Member of the year was announced.....Echowars (Glen) and a plaque was given to him by Tim. Then Tim called up Scott (Army). Scott started reading a plaque which was a Lifetime achievement award. Imagine Grumpy's surprise when it went to him. He was definitely humbled by the award (at least for a minute or two). Tim finished off by having all the mods on stage and Thanking them as well as all the members.
After lunch we all headed back upstairs for more great music. We continued to pull door prizes every hour. And people continued to arrive all day. Tickets were purchased all day. It was bigger and better than anyone of us could have imagined.
OK..OK...I know that I am a little late with this post but between recovering from the fest, working, and computer problems this is the first chance that I have had to give you guys a recap. Now I know that there have been allot of posts about the fest, but here is Grump's and I recall of events. Please no loud snoring...and no comments from the peanut gallery. Here we go.....
Let me start by letting some of you in on a little secret. AKfest almost did not happen!
Approximately 9 days before the fest, Wednesday April 1st, Grumpy got a phone call from the hotel manager telling him that there was a problem. Apparently the hotel had double booked OUR ROOMS. And, since the other event was booked first we were going to have to be moved. Our original contract was booked on November 22, 2004, with us having 11 small conference rooms on the main floor...How the Hell did they double book this and no one noticed until 9 days before the event? That hotel was not that big!!! Needless to say Grumpy called me at work and was not happy at all. The manager wanted us to come down and look at some other rooms that were available. I was at work till 3pm, the kids had bowling league from 4-6pm, so we went down to the hotel, with three little ones in tow, to look at these "rooms" they wanted us to use. There was no way in hell that anything he showed us was going to work (can you guys imagine if you had been in the lounge or VIP room? it would not work!). So then we started talking about actual hotel guest rooms. We proceeded upstairs to look at rooms on probably 5 different floors. All the while getting pushed off on different people because the "manager" was too busy to help us. We finally went back downstairs and talked to the manager, he asked exactly how many rooms did we think that we needed. Grumpy and I went outside to talk alone and I told him, based on all the vendors and members that we would need 22-23 rooms. So we went inside and told the manager..boy he was not happy..Tough Shit! So we went home and e-mailed the hotel with our requirements with the promise that the hotel would get us a new contract to sign on Thursday, the next day.
All day Thursday, Grumpy spent calling vendors and members to tell them that the rooms were going to be different, all the while waiting for a call to say the contract was ready. Just a side note here....Every vendor that Grumpy talked to was VERY understanding (What a great bunch). Grumpy didn't really give a shit about the members thought cause they were all going to get their own room, he was more worried that the vendors would pull out (that would have been a nightmare). No call on Thursday from the hotel, Grumpy even tried calling and all the sales reps were gone for the day. By Friday morning he was fit to be tied, He pretty much told them at 11am "If I don't have a signed contract by tonight..then I want all my money back!" I worked until 4pm., nothing was faxed to me. When I got home he called again and was told that it was just faxed, so I went back to work, got the fax, signed it, sent it back and then came home. When I got home I realized that it was worded incorrectly and Grumpy called them again. He was told that it was really late why don't we do this on Monday...Grumpy's response.."BULLSHIT..this will wait till Monday". The hotel promised that someone would be at our house by 7pm with contract in hand...they showed up a little after 8pm. I have left alot of the other issues that we dealt with out. But I wanted to let you guys know why we were on the 12th floor and not on the main floor. I think it worked out...but boy was it work..whew!
ON TO THE FEST:
THURSDAY....
I worked 3:30am - 2pm so by the time I got home Tim & Steph were at my house. Ray was here also. Tim had bought some stuff for my son Matthew and they had unloaded all of it. Everyone was in the house listening to some music, Ray was annoying the hell out of Grumpy by playing Disco..yes I said Disco on Grumpys stereo. Tim, Steph and Ray went to the hotel to check in. Then all of them went out to dinner, I had cakes to bake.
FRIDAY....
Friday was the first really crazy day for all of us. I went to work from 3:30am - 12:30pm. by the time I got home, Ernie was on his way to the airport to pick up Luther. In the process of Ernie going to the airport we found out that another member was arriving at approximately the same time, unfortunately we did not know alot of information other than it was Bob (Cabinover), and we had no way to get ahold of Ernie. We managed to get ahold of Luther, on his cell phone to tell him what was going on, but... Long story short, Bob was never found and ended up renting a vehicle.
By Friday night alot of people were here..Tim, Steph, Ray, Luther, Ken Rimeny, Bill F, Craig, Punker, John Wolf, Gilbert, Mac and his wife Linda, Glen, Scott and many many more! Grumpy was at the hotel to get the master key about 6pm, he wanted to be able to let everyone get into their rooms as soon as he could. He was promised the key at approximately 6:30pm, then 8:30pm, then 10pm. Then was told Saturday morning at 8:30am he could have the key. Well as Grumpy was trying to get things straight, Tim and Steph ordered Pizza. I guess sometime around them eating they had a knock on the door, it was security (boy Tim not at the hotel for more than a day and your already in trouble.....), there had been a complaint that there was smoking in their room (the kicker is even with Grumpy in the room with these guys, they were still going downstairs to smoke). Well I guess the complaint came from a woman...well they ended up throwing the Bitch off the floor!! With all of this going on Grumpy did tell me that most of the vendors did come on Friday night to set up and most were able to get into their rooms. Grumpy came home about 11pm he still had to get his gear ready to load in the morning.
SATURDAY....
1st day of the AKfest. Everyone had an early day, Grumpy and Matt left our house at about 7am to go and make sure that he could get the master key and to set up his room. I left the house about 8am and went directly to the lounge to unload all the food, pop, plates, cakes and everything else we needed for lunch for the next two days. By the way Thank you to everyone who brought a cooler..it really helped us alot! Grumpy started asking for the master key to all the rooms on the 12th floor approximately at 7:30am., at 8:30am he told them to give him the ****ing key..and they did. Before the fest Tim had posted on AK that if anyone had walkie talkies that we would have them at the fest and they could bring them to help us keep in touch with each other. Well Scott (ARMY) brought 4 Pairs which helped us out so much. Thanks Scott!!
Steph did a great job setting up the registration area..Thanks Steph! We were not sure how many people to expect, so imagine our surprise when the first hour was non-stop people. No one complained or questioned the $5.00 entry fee. We sold tickets for $1.00 each for a 50/50 raffle and $1.00 tickets for a raffle for one pair of NHT Model SB3 Speakers. We sold T-shirts, pop, water and had tables set up with all the door prizes, all in the registration room.
All the guys were busy setting up their gear and we were busy making sure that everyone had everything that they needed. Everyone knew that if they needed something or someone they could come to the registration room and we would use the walkie talkies to find whatever they needed.
Before we knew it, it was time to set up for lunch in the lounge. I had alot of help from my oldest kids. My oldest daughter Jennifer was a huge help in organizing the menus and doing the shopping. Saturdays lunch consisted of Pizza (I have a friend who gave AK an awesome deal), Salad, Pop, Cookies (donated by Becky, JimBecky's wife), Zuccini bread and cookies (donated by Stephanie), brownies and the AKfest cake (made by me). During Lunch is when the swap meet went on. As we were eating we had door prizes drawn and then Tim took the stage to talk to the members. Tim talked about how important all the raffles and donations are throughout the year. "We do those kind of things on AK so that we can do things like AKfest to give back to the members" Tim told the group. It was definitely a heartfelt speech. Fisherdude (Clay) picked up his bottlehead preamp (many people were drooling over that one). Member of the year was announced.....Echowars (Glen) and a plaque was given to him by Tim. Then Tim called up Scott (Army). Scott started reading a plaque which was a Lifetime achievement award. Imagine Grumpy's surprise when it went to him. He was definitely humbled by the award (at least for a minute or two). Tim finished off by having all the mods on stage and Thanking them as well as all the members.
After lunch we all headed back upstairs for more great music. We continued to pull door prizes every hour. And people continued to arrive all day. Tickets were purchased all day. It was bigger and better than anyone of us could have imagined.