hazelchaz | Saturday morning serials chapters one through fifteen. Fly paper, penny loafers, Lucky Strike Green.

LASFS Aftermeetings part 294: Coral Cafe (Jul/Aug-2007); Remodeling Monster part 1: Garage Door (01-Aug-2007) et seq.; Cosplay Picnic at Laguna Niguel Regional Park (18-Aug-2007); and Infinitely Excellent Picnic (19-Aug-2007) photos are now online. Click on

xkokuux in her pirate garb with her new camera to see the Laguna Niguel photos.

Home front news: we have a new garage door, new shed, new sprinklers (not shown in the photos yet), our side gate has been newly fixed, and our garden is being overhauled.

library_lynn is repainting and reflooring Maria's old room, too, and getting quotes for painting the house.

Picnics: Went down to Laguna Niguel for the second "SoCal Summer Gathering" (4th in the series, held in the spring and summer last year and this year). On the way into the park, we posted

arrow signs at each of the three turnings -- with "10" written in the little box to help people coming after us to find the spot. (The organizers had put up a sign at the first junction, just inside the park, but not at the other two turns.) My assumption is that the people arriving late tend to be the ones coming for the first time, on average, so even though I arrived with my three passengers (they came down on the train) a little late I figured the people arriving even later would appreciate the signs.

This is an interesting event. A handful of fans have organized their own little picnic event. I say "little" but they got about 200 people this time around, so it's not very little anymore. [EDIT: 207 is the official headcount.] They reserve a piece of Laguna Niguel Regional Park, run around taking pictures of each other, and have a raffle and a costume contest.

The big weakness, organizationally speaking, would be the food -- they rely on potluck, which almost works perfectly. But with so many people it gets a bit thin by the end of the day. For example, "Allyunion" brought Korean short ribs, which Jack Kim and Bert Le ("Rostao") cooked up -- and 10 lbs. of short ribs doesn't go very far when you have 200 hungry fans waiting for them. Rostao cooked up some brisket and some chicken, using Arthur Bryant's barbecue sauces. They went quickly, as did the hot dogs...

Chaz Boston Baden, filling the big barrel cooler.

Last year I'd brought my large ice chest, with 100+ cans of soft drinks, and they were gone by halfway through the day. I didn't want that to happen again -- I wanted to help make sure people stay hydrated, in part because I'm prone to dehydration myself. So this time I bought a big barrel cooler, three gallons of lemonade concentrate, and some 2 1/2 gallon jugs of water and 20-lb. bags of ice.

(Note for next time: I need to print up signs to tape to the cooler, instead of using duct tape and a Sharpie marker. I need to bring a giant ladle or paddle to stir it with. And I need to remember to stir the concentrate in last, after the ice and the water go in.)

All day I had ice-cold pink lemonade for people to drink, and plenty of cups to drink it in. I served at least 15 gallons of lemonade that day. When the lemonade level would get about halfway down, I'd fill it back up. At the end of the day, there was a lot of ice in there and a little lemonade in the bottom -- we never ran out.

Somebody emptying the second bucket of fruit punch. It was completely full, all day -- nobody had any from the second bucket. (The spigot wouldn't flow, probably because the lid was on tight.)

Meanwhile, there were two buckets of punch that weren't chilled; a foam cooler with ice; various ice chests with cans of sodas and bottled water, while they lasted, and then 2-liter bottles after that. At the end of the day, the first punch bucket hadn't been emptied -- and the other bucket hadn't been touched, they ended up dumping the whole thing (photo left).

When I got home I washed out my barrel cooler thoroughly, and the following morning I loaded up an ice chest with sodas from my office and brought the barrel cooler to the Infinitely Excellent Picnic to use for water. (Photo above right.) I'm pleased to report that I'd cleaned it enough that the water didn't taste of lemon...