Thursday, June 16, 2011

SCGS Jamboree 2011 Pictures - Post 3: Geneabloggers Pajama Party

...
The next event on the crowded Geneabloggers agenda at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree was the Pajama Party on Saturday night.  This was an informal "come if you can" event with no planning and no guest list.  Elyse Doerflinger suggested it several months ago on the Geneabloggers Radio show chat board, and a number of us thought that it sounded like fun. 

The problem was "where should we do this?"  Doing it in a hotel room sounded limiting and unfair to the room occupant.  Lining up a meeting room sounded expensive and limiting.  Doing it out in an outdoor area at the hotel sounded unreasonable.  We settled for the area just off the lobby (I called it "Blogger Heaven" because the wi-fi was free there and we had hung out there over the past three years) that was public, had enough room (we hoped) and would not interfere with other hotel activities.

Here are some of the pictures that turned out for me:

1)  Linda and I posed for this picture at the entrance to Blogger Heaven:


2)  Most of the seats in the lounge were occupied - here Donna Pointkouski, Elyse Doerflinger and Diana Ritchie are watching the party.  Peter the Parrot pinata is on Donna's lap:


3)  Lots of picture taking was happening - in the photo below the identifiable bloggers include (from left): Thomas MacEntee (seated, with the knees), Elyse Doerflinger (standing), Angela Kraft (seated), A.C. Ivory (seated), Cheryl Palmer (standing with camera) and Emma (seated, trying to hide):


4)  After the Saturday night dinner, more bloggers came to the party.  The identifiable bloggers in the photo below are (left to right):  Heather Rojo (standing, in nightcap and nightgown), Vincent Rojo (Heather's husband, back turned), Donna Pointkouski (seated without Peter), Daniel Horowitz (standing in back of Donna, checking his email?), Steven Danko (seated, in the white and black PJs), Patricia Stannard (seated, in orange WikiTree shirt), and Susi Pentico (standing, behind Patricia).  In the background are Ron Arons (blue shirt), Steve Morse (seated) and Dan Lynch (yellow shirt):


5)  Heather Rojo had the most creative costume, I thought - a colonial nightcap and nightgown.  Here she is with her husband, Vincent Rojo:


6)  After two hours of the fun and festivities, and many pictures, the "powers that be" decided the the useful life of Peter the Parrot pinata was over - it was time to whack Peter and see what was inside of him.  We all trooped through the lobby, and to a lanai area near the walkway between the two hotel buildings.  Ron Arons provided a rope and a length of PVC pipe, and Sheri Fenley hung Peter from the overhang slat.  Peter was wearing his hula skirt.  The photo below shows Donna Pointkouski (with the Peter whacker) and Sheri Fenley (in the red fuzzy footie) getting ready:


Several erstwhile geneabloggers took their whacks, but Peter's thick skin resisted them.  It fell to Dan Lynch to take a really big whack and relieve Peter of his goodies.  Dan obviously knew how to do this!

7)  After the Peter whacking job, we took pictures in the walkway.  Here is the group of Geneabloggers that "dressed up" in their PJs for the party (from left to right):  Terri O'Connell (standing, in pink), Diana Ritchie (standing), Joan Miller (seated, in gray and black), Linda Seaver (standing in white t-shirt, an honorary genea-blogger), Elyse Doerflinger (seated, in green top), Randy Seaver (standing, in white t-shirt), Donna Pointkouski (seated, in purple top), Sheri Fenley (on ground, in red footie), Steven Danko (in black and white PJs), Kim Von Aspern (seated, in light blue PJs), Heather Rojo (standing on right).


That was a lot of fun.  We got to share more time with our geneablogger colleagues.  Some of the non-bloggers attended the party too, and some hotel guests passed by the Blogger Heaven lounge with horror on their faces.  We aren't sure that we'll be able to do this in the lounge again because it was pretty loud at times, as was the Peter-whacking outside (someone said they heard us on the 8th floor of the hotel). 

That's almost the end of my pictures.  I have a few more...maybe tomorrow.

2 comments:

Jo said...

Love the photos - how funny :-) Maybe at some point I'll fly over the pond and join you. Perhaps with new PJ's tho :-) Jo

Joan Miller (Luxegen) said...

Thanks for the photos, Randy!

It was wonderful to see you and the other geneabloggers this weekend. Jamboree is a fun conference!