Birthday Dinner for Verminius Rex

I went to verminiusrex's birthday party last night. Verminius Rex is a not-quite-local friend that I've pretty much only seen at local conventions. He lives about an hour away. It was neat to see him and meet a bunch of his friends, all but one of whom have LJs. I'd link to them all, but there's almost no overlap in our friends lists and I didn't get LJ names, just real ones. The only LJs I got were jensixstones (his best friend, and guessable from Jen) and geekmom (Verminius's wife).

Some highlights:

Verminius Rex: "People say that diamonds are forever. But a Mac upgrade is now."

Geekmom's t-shirt: picture of a hammer captioned "This is not the hammer."*

On acquaintances in fandom:
"I probably know more of you than I realize. It's just that I've never seen you out of costume before."
"Let me get my Darth Vader helmet. There, do you recognize me now?"
"Close! I'm a Mandalorian Warrior."

While saying goodbye, Verminius and one of his friends were talking about the I'm-Not-Gay Hug, which they kindly demonstrated upon request: they clasped right hands in a handshake, leaned together placing left arms around each other's back, and chanted in unison: "I'm" (back pat with left hand) "Not" (pat) "Gay" (pat). Then broke apart. Truly, a thing of beauty.

Overall, I had much fun. Thanks for the invite, verminiusrex!


* It's a "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" t-shirt. And if you haven't seen Dr. Horrible, you should. :)