Wednesday..lots of fun and our dinner at Sue Grafton's house! woooooooot

Wednesday morning I think I got up first and staggered to the coffee pot. It was a tiny little pot but it got me through the morning. We ran into Kathie, Lynn and Debbie on the way shopping. We moseyed on down to the conference room and then decided to go get gas in the car and find Janell some tea. We didn't have much luck on the tea that morning because what I thought was a Starbucks ended up being a parking garage??? Then we got swooped up in some traffic but never fear the Metalicar made it back to the hotel.

We had snacks and talked to everyone. Name tags and bags were passed out. Jenjen unloaded her books so everyone could go through them and get what they wanted. I brought back a few myself I also got some cool bath cremes. It was a good day for free stuff indeed.

The NO game was introduced. I was a contender for about 6 minutes and I think Lynn took my clips. But that is ok... they had a game just for me... I was the only contestant in the............

RIGHT SAID FRED GAME....

I had to answer questions about Fred. It was a crazy game... I don't know what Janet was smoking when she came up with this one I kept thinking... OH dear lord is fred going to walk in the door at the end or something.... but Fred was a no show

It was all good though. Actually... I had lots more juicy information on Fred that I could have contributed to the game (snort) I was a good sport and won some junior mints, bath and body works spray and a picture of some half naked woman wearing Victoria Secrets.

After all the game play we just kind of fell apart and went every directions... showering... fluffing... primping... ironing (well some of us iron ) all in preparation for our night out with Sue and Steve... I knew we were sneaking to their house so it was exciting thinking about how excited everyone would be when they found out!

Debslo and Craig arrived... just in time to get all gussied up and ready to roll. Deb is gorgeous and has lost weight from the pictures I have seen of her. She looked great! I was so excited to see her. I have to admit that I have had a crush on Craig from the pictures of him that I have seen in the past and he was just as handsome in person. They truly make an adorable couple and were fun to be around.

We meet in the lobby and get our car buddies. The Metalicar transported Janell, RA and myself along with driver Jen. We get to Sue's and it was all oooohs and aaaaahs for a while. I have been to the house before so I had most of my ooohing out of my system but the massive beauty of that house is breath taking even on a second trip. Steve had added more to his treasured garden with that killer to the bone maze. If Noah had been there he would still be running in that maze. Everything goes so well. The food is awesome. I could have lived on the appetizers. I finally had to tell one waiter that if he tried to get me take another meatball wrap I was going to kick him in the kneecap... well maybe I didn't say that but I did tell him not to bring his meatballs near me again... He didn't but some other guy kept bringing me little grilled cheeses.

We finally sit down to dinner after eating a weeks worth of appetizers and wine... RA, Janell, Jenjen and I nabbed a table together... The Metalicar girls stick together. Steve sat with us and that was nice. He talked about his Enigma machine... but I already knew that from last time... Janell seemed to bond with him on that
He also told us some interesting things on Sue and how she writes and gave us a little more perspective on HIS Sue... He is still in love with her after all these years.. you can tell that. He told us about their Thanksgiving traditions with family and that believe it or not he does most of the cooking on Thanksgiving. Liz doesn't have to do it all even if she is there with her husband... Liz has a pretty neat husband too and I think Steve enjoys his company. We just learned a lot of cool things. We learned what their favorite Thanksgiving appetizer was, etc etc.

Gifts were passed out to Sue for her Birthday. She like her bookends. Poor dear must have mistaken them for earrings at first She loved them and Genny gave her that really nice needlepoint. It was a good day for Sue. Good for us... but Steve told us that this was Good for her. She gets letters all the time nit picking and criticizing her for cursing and this and that and it made her feel good to know she is appreciated. I can't imagine how just the past few years this has been done for this woman. I think she knows that we love her to pieces... and I think she likes us a little bit too.

After dinner we were given the upstairs tour. I will let some of the first timers go more in detail of that. I enjoyed seeing it all again of course. I will never take a trip to Sue's house for granted... it is a wonderful place and I cherished every moment of it and the time spent with all of my friends there.

Sue politely ushers us to the door and we get in the Metalicar and make it back to the hotel. We get upstairs and remove all high heels and dress clothes, put on pajamas and go downstairs to drink wine and play catch phrase ok ok I admit... I like catchphrase

We play, laugh talk and then retire to our rooms and go to bed. We stay up to late that night too talking about the night... giggling and all that girl stuff....