What if you threw a party and only the cool kids came?

Last June I held a gun-blogger wing-ding at my humble abode, and it was a lot of fun. I'd been thinking for a while it was time for a repeat, and sometime in the GunNuts radio show chat about a month ago, I allowed myself to be cajoled into setting a date for another Texas gunblogger party. January 31 seemed a good date, so I committed and let area folks from my blogroll know what was in the works.

Friday, Old NFO and aepilot jim came to Dallas, and we were by-golly going to go have steak for dinner. Turned out Ambulance Driver and Farmgirl were in town already, too, so they met us at Texas de Brazil for dinner. We had a grand time and quite the carnivorous feed. Yummm. Beef! Bacon! Pork! Bacon! Bacon! Better than Spam! Everything the gauchos brought on skewers was a hit, particularly the stuff wrapped in bacon, but I lamented the lack of bacon-wrapped bacon. Oh well, one can't have everything.

Saturday I woke up with a beef-hangover (srsly -had NO booze), and I managed to pull things together before the party, even if all the food and implements weren't out yet. Old NFO and aepilot_jim arrived first with spare ice, and then came JR of A Keyboard and a .45 and his lovely Lady(future spades opponents). Other guests who came soon were Alan of Snarkybytes, JPG, Holly, Peter, 2Amusing, Blackfork and the Redhead(fabulous creature), of course Farmgirl and Ambulance Driver, wry-witted commenter Swamp Rabbit and his darling wife (bearing photos of a freshly minted batch of Siberian Husky pups), LawDog, and Matt G, and at least one other person who doesn't blog but with whom I adored chatting and who pretty much never opens his mouth but to say something profound or clever and really should be delighting us all with a blog...

Here's a photo. Everyone put their carry gun on my kitchen counter, along with their knives. Slightly addle-witted by the time the party started, I never thought to put my own carry weapon out until Holly mentioned my own exquisite knife at the end of the day, at which point I lacked whatever it would have taken for me to go upstairs and fetch them for the cache. I did at one point put out my tequila-filled 1911, and that would have to suffice.

Lots of folks brought food and lovely hostess gifts (.38 ammo! China! wine! coffee! exquisite carvings from Japan! Gourmet cookies! Robert Heinlein quote bumpersticker!), not to mention all the lovely contributions to the buffet. Thank you, everyone!

There was no agenda for the party, other than a friendly get-together. I actually believe this may have been the only party I've ever seen where there seemed to be absolutely no conversational lags or awkward silences. Groups chatting ranged from a number of 2 or 3 up to a roomful of a dozen or more. People shifted from one group to another, and each conversation yielded many delights and bits of wisdom. The whole gathering was an incredibly genteel and amiable event and I felt lucky to meet all these nice folks. Of course, I already knew enough of several of them to know that the party was a guaranteed win. Holly could draw a cigar store Indian into conversation, and Ambulance Driver is way more clever and spontaneous in person than may be conveyed in writing - I'm sure those two alone could put on a reasonable half-time show for a major event, only in this case, the wardrobe malfunction would be on the male end of the spectrum. *ahem* SO, yeah, a marvelous, free-wheeling chinwag was enjoyed by all.

At one point I asked Matt to change the two non-functioning lightbulbs on my kitchen fixture, and in full view of an embarrassing number of people. He fiddled with the light, and, alas!, the new bulb did not yield light. On a hunch, he pulled the light cord on the fixture, and what do you know if that darned thing just wasn't turned on - had a 3 way switch? I think I must have turned several shades of red when he asked me how long these lights had been "out" and how long, exactly, I have lived here. Uh... Another hostess-from-hell moment was when one lovely guest (unbeknownst to me) ladled from the salt-pig to sweeten his tea. Uh, not so much. *chagrin! regret! gnashing of teeth!*

Sunday, I went shooting on a ranch with aepilot_jim, Matt, JPG, AD and Farmgirl. We had a blast. First time out with my delicious new acquisition in the form of one Browning .22 rifle and I shot the dickens out of that thing. Yeah, I missed a wee few, but I hit most. It's a delight to shoot, and I'm thrilled beyond description by this gun and I'm so thankful to Peter for so generously keeping his eyes peeled for that for me. I also shot AD's EBR, and it was WAAAAY more fun than I expected. Further, I didn't feel remotely psychotic or blood-lustful afterward, even though I'm okay with the expiration of a litter of Sarah Brady's kittens. I shot at a steel plate and Matt said the plate couldn't take it, so to shoot the cinder block instead. I shot the cinderblock and the concrete powder billowed up in the most delightful way - we're talking downtown Fallujah. I confess I squealed like a-- like a-- well, like myself, which is to say most vociferously. AD said "do that again, JPG didn't see that" so I shot the cinderblock again, and here's what was left of that pesky devil. It was coming right for us. I was in fear for my life. I just wanted to stop the threat, srsly. I threw it into park, flipped on the safety and boogied down right there. The men folk laughed at me, and I was kind of okay with that because their derision was balanced with many mentions of Annie Oakley with reference to me. I also shot a rock consistently dead center at 115 yards. Okay. Did I just do the longest paragraph here about myself? Well, it's not bragging if it's true. And I am a good shot. If the target is, like, a mile wide.

We went to the Ponder Steakhouse for dinner, deftly resisting the calf fries appetizer. I ran off to a pleasant errand and then got home to my humble abode Sunday night, well-tired, but very happy. I walked a bag of trash to the dumpster and decided to check my mail, and guess what? My CHL card came in the mail this weekend. For shooty goodness, I think this weekend will be pretty hard to excel in future. But that won't stop me trying.

As for the party Saturday, his really was a remarkable gathering of lovely people, and I was privileged to have every one of you here. For everyone who couldn't make it and is envious, well, you have very good reason to be so. Since the generous and brilliant Holly and JPG introduced me to shooting about 19 months ago, I have been impressed with the wonderfully intelligent and grounded people who comprise this enthusiastic community. Even being a new shooter, I've been humbled by the respect and good-natured helpfulness I've found from experienced shooters at every step of the way. I felt so at home with all these folks, and somehow my small apartment never felt crowded even with 19 of us packed in and spilling out the front and back doors. I know this group to be the kindest and best of people, and I hope I will see them again soon.

As the bumpersticker Rabbit brought me said quoted so eloquently:

An armed society is a polite society.

Quite!

Thanks again, everyone!