Sheep Guarding Llama

This is it, it is all really happening.  Today is the first day of the first MangoCon event!  It is Wednesday and officially MangoCon starts this evening so we have the morning to get ready.

A lot of the people who were in town on the early side today went to Dinosaur BBQ for a group lunch.  We were all so busy with stuff that we could not spend the time over there with them, but they sent us a picture.  The turnout at Dinosaur BBQ for MC1 was nearly identical to the turn out that we get annually at the opening brunch event at Max’s Wine Dive in Austin, so that is pretty awesome.

It was a busy morning of getting everything ready.  Then once the hotel was available for check in, Dominica and I drove up to Rochester to get to MangoCon.  We were on the early side but were able to get into our room, get all set up and relax a little.  People trickled in all afternoon at the reception desk on the second floor that Jenny Case was manning.

Danielle, Maggie, Jenny, Art and Dominica were very busy with miscellaneous things so they sent me out to find a Subway, over on the far side of Main Street, that I could bring back for all of us.  That took a bit because the order was so large.

We all ate in the little office room that the conference center had provided for us.  It was nice to have a quiet lunch space.  This is it, the last relaxation moment.

At six this evening it was time to begin the welcome event.  How exciting.  I still can’t believe that this got pulled off.  This is so cool, and to be in Rochester!

The opening “ceremony” was a little bit odd but overall went pretty well.  AJ did the opening MC gig and did a pretty good job.  Then there was a weird martini talk with NTG staff that I felt should have been cut. Bits of it were good, but bits of it were really odd and it didn’t fit.  I was never sure what exactly the goal of that portion was.  But live and learn, first years of conferences are always a learning experience.

Jared and I worked hard to be all over Facebook, Twitter and MangoLassi with news of what was going on at the event.

After the event there were drinks in the ballroom.  When those were done some of us went down to the lobby bar but the drinks there were ridiculously expensive so we decided to skip that.

Maggie was hungry, so I took her out to the Temple Bar and Grill on East Ave to get her some food.  While we were there other people started to trickle in.  AJ came and got his first ever garbage plate there.  He is heading out on the train in the middle of the night so is staying up and napping on the train.

It was a good opening day.  Very excited for the “real” sessions to get started tomorrow.  This was just the opener so none of the real meat of the event has been hit yet.

It was late, probably around three in the morning when Dominica and I got to sleep in our hotel room at the Holiday Inn Rochester Downtown where the event is being held.

Today is Tuesday and MangoCon gets started tomorrow.  It is so hard to believe that the event is really upon us.  People started really getting into town today for it all.  We are taking Liesl and Luciana out to Frankfort so that they can stay with their grandparents for the rest of the week as Dominica will also be super busy with the MangoCon event and won’t have any time to watch them.

We left late in the morning for the drive eat and dropped the kids off in the middle of the afternoon.  We did not stay for too long. We had to turn around and drive the three hours back to dad’s house.

We should note that at this point, we still do not have our Chevy Spark back.  It is still at the dealer in Pennsylvania and we don’t know when it will be fixed.  But we can’t do anything about it this week as we are dealing with the conference.

This evening, Dominica and I went up to Rochester and hung out with Paul as he was in town early.  We went to The Old Toad first and had a beer there.  Then we discovered the Ox and Stone across the street that looked interesting so we went in there to check it out.

The Ox and Stone turned out to be an amazing craft cocktail lounge that we had never heard of.  Paul and I both go the “In Tents” which was a bourbon drink that was cedar smoked right on the spot in front of us.  It was so good.

While there Dominica learned of another craft cocktail place across the street.  So we headed over there and checked that place out too.  It was amazing too, and this one had some food.  So we ate there as well.  We learned that Rochester has about a dozen of these cocktail lounges now and has become a major destination for cocktails!  Who would have guessed.  There is even a craft cocktail festival in Rochester now.

It was very late when we got back to dad’s.  This is it.  The conference is tomorrow.  Last chance to sleep.

Monday before MangoCon.  The week has begun.

Today I was very busy posting and writing all day.  The infamous Curtis who has Internet stalked me for years tracked me down on MangoLassi today and started trying to harass me.  That went hilariously well.  Nothing like having a personal stalker.

Dominica and I put in some time doing sorting of stuff down in the barn today.  There is so much to be gone through.  We got out what we could, but there is so little that we are able to take with us when we go and only a little bit more that the Ralstons are able to take when they go.  The storage unit is going to remain mostly full for the foreseeable future.

Today was all errands and posting.  Tomorrow we are taking the kids to Utica to drop them off with the grandparents where they will be staying all weekend.

Sunday before MangoCon!  Things are starting to get close.  Hard to believe that the conference is about to begin.  So much to do and what a crazy week it is going to be.

Lots of NTGers are en route to head quarters today.  Gene drove from Kentucky up to Michigan, picked up Mike and drove out to New York.  They had a long day.

This evening everyone came over to dad’s place and we had an NTG staff bonfire out there.  We had Art, Danielle, Dominica, dad, Gene, Mike, Maggie and myself plus our girls were there.  Not the full staff, of course, but a good number of people.  Jenny did not come out, Mike Davis is not coming into town until closer to the conference, Nick could not make it up from Texas, etc.  But it was nice to have everyone together in one spot.

We got pizza and then roasted s’mores over the firebit that dad has in the back yard.  It was a fun evening and a good chance for everyone to relax before the craziness of the week hits us.  This week is going to be completely nuts and already there is very little time for any of us to relax and it is only going to get worse and worse until a week from tomorrow.

Today we got Maggie from Geneseo and we drove her, along with the kids, out to first see the Erie Canal and then out to Niagara Falls.  She did not have a visa for going into Canada, though, so we were stuck on the American side.

Before leaving Geneseo, Maggie and I grabbed lunch from the EuroCafe downtown which turns out is a little Ukrainian spot.  I’ve heard good things about it but have never been there myself.  Their menu was pretty limited but they had pirogies and Maggie had never seen a pirogies before so we had those.

First trip was up through Batavia to hit Tim Horton’s for coffee and lunch.  We got sandwiches and the girls had a good time sitting by the fake fire and hanging out.  We all got egg sandwiches and donuts and coffee (well, no coffee for the kids.)  Then from there we drove north out of Batavia.

We made it maybe half an hour before Dominica realized that she had left her purse behind at the Tim Horton’s back in Batavia!  We pulled over and she called, they found it and we turned around and drove back down there.  So our quick trip up through Batavia suddenly turned into a very long trip.  We lost more than an hour there.

We got up to the canal, finally, and the girls got out and ran around for a while.  Maggie did some filming and we did a little walk down to one of the locks.  It was a nice day, but the sun was getting low.  It was sunny and warm, though.

From there we drove west along the canal and in about twenty minutes we went from a warm sunny day to driving into an epic rainstorm that came upon us very quickly.  The ran was so heavy that we could almost not keep moving forward and were worried about visibility which was nearly zero and slipping off of the road.  It was quite extreme.

The rain let up, mostly, and we made it out to Niagara Falls, drove through the city and parked at the falls themselves where we were able to get out and take a walk around.  We only got a few minutes before the rain was back, however, so it was cold and wet, but at least Maggie got to see one of the most iconic natural wonders in the United States.  And the girls have never seen it either, so it was nice to take them, although they were not so impressed and really did not want to be there for long and Luciana did not like it as it was all too scary.

We fled back to the car and decided to take the kids (and Maggie) to the Rainforest Cafe there in downtown Niagara Falls for dinner.  We had a nice time there, the food is always good and the girls always enjoy it and Maggie had never been to one before.

After dinner it was pretty late.  We took the slightly longer drive along the lake so that technically Maggie could get to see Lake Erie and downtown Buffalo, although it was super dark between being night time and there being the storm blotting out the moon and stars as well so really she just saw the darkness, but technically, she made it there and got to see it.  It was raining as we came through Buffalo so was very hard to see as well.

It was pretty late when we got back and dropped everyone off for bed.