Pictures posted promptly, as promised!

Roux B Q 4 got off to a rolicking good start with this beautiful reminder of the dangers of driving drunk, distracted, or with four kids in the car.

Then there was the road construction which backed up the Interstate for miles. The bad news is this picture was taken about three or four miles before the lane closures even started. The good news is we took an alternate route.

The bad news is the alternate route also had lane closures.

The good news is it also had mulch. Delicious mulch...

The bad news is this used to be an amusement park. Angela Park was located here. After it closed, they used the parking lot for police driving training. I used to love the parking lot light posts surrounded by a barrier three tires deep all the way around. Some of the buildings lasted a while, but the area started having problems with homeless people staying in them, so they ultimately tore everything down. The good news is I'm not going to continue the good news/bad news thing anymore.

The bad news is I lied. The good news is that the deaf child in the area will never have to deal with people parking in the area from here to the corner, which I can only assume is theirs. Except for the car that is parked between here and the corner.

Meta joke, but not a very good one.

So many ways I shouldn't go here...

Sally Israel and Mary Israel's overachieving sister.

But not consecutively.

Gotta love mining towns.

I don't care if the dog has a license. I am positive that this is not safe. And no, this was not a parking lot. This was on the Interstate.

I swear I do not see an actual driver here, just the dog.

I find something hopelessly amusing about the name G. R. Sponaugle no matter how you choose to pronounce it, and think that—

Wait wait wait. Warehouse space for 19¢? Nineteen cents?! What the hell? Does G. R. Sponaugle's restless spirit still haunt the warehouse, driving insane all who dare to tread her cursed halls and plentiful open space, rendering the structure a hellish Cthulian nightmare? Because I'm pretty sure real estate goes for a bit more than that. There's a story here somewhere. However, I don't care enough to do research. Wild groundless speculation is more my thing.

Camp Tuckahoe? Seriously?

Thurmont Cougarland? Seriously?! What kind of perverted area IS this?!

Ah, a baseball field in Maryland. There has been a lot of progress regarding the spread of baseball in the state, including as-yet unconfirmed rumors of a Maryland team, sometimes implied to be a major-league team, called the "Baltimore Orioles." However, I don't care enough to do research. Wild groundless speculation is more my thing.

Glad we're not going THAT way! (We're taking a different route home, right?)

And finally to the meet, which generally starts with me taking a picture of myself. This was the last time anyone saw me sober that Friday.

As I recall, we offered to shoot the bottle off her head, William Tell style, but she declined on the grounds that she feared for her life.

Yep. Alcohol's already making my vision blurry.

G. R. Sponaugle, about to take a life. (This was not a kill, because of the payment to G. R. Sponaugle's spirit of 19¢. Always carry pennies. G. R. Sponaugle does not give change.)

This makes perfect sense to me.

The obigatory Roux B Q sky shot. (Check the other Roux B Q photosets if you don't believe me.) To mix it up, though, I took this one during the day. The brightest star in the sky was not yet visible, but as always, I am sure I was directly below it.

This picture is part of the photoset, but I have no idea why.

Hey! I thought I was the only one allowed to take photos at meets!

"Yeah, Varjak, you go right on telling yourself that."

Marshmallows roasting over an open fire, which took less than half an hour to get going, as I recall. I may be recalling wrong. My memory gets a bit erratic after this point.

"No no no no, you're doing it all wrong. Here, let me help."

"There you go!"

"Perfect!"

Others prefer a more charcoaled marshmallow, to the extent that it falls into the fire and all that's left is random char. To each their own, I suppose.

"Yep, Sparemeister. That is indeed the ground. Good call. Can I finish my smoke now?"

And then the smoke got a bit out of hand.

Hello there! I'm feelin' fine, how 'bout you?

I remember at one point during this night, I told Sparemeister, "I love you man... But not that way." And he got this big goofy grin on his face and started laughing. I couldn't figure out why. I was later told that was about the eighth time I'd said those exact words to him in the last fifteen minutes. That would explain it. And I still only remember saying it to him once.

Yes, we have another Luggage Pisser [tm], not that I'm mentioning any names here. My phone and camera were okay, but my clothes had to be washed before I could get out of bed, and the bag was a complete loss. And to think my girlfriend moved my bag into the closet so it would be safe. On a side note, MrGreenSmiling's wife thanked me because, as drunk as I was, I was apparently the only person who did not step on or trip over her that night. I'm nice like that.

We are a great group of people, but we are not especially attractive in swimwear. I include myself in that statement.

They actually had the lights on, though it's a little hard to tell in this picture. I had a very witty explanation for it at the time, but I have since forgotten it. Your loss.

Then there was a viewing of Scott Pilgrim (not pictured), complete with open laughter in the theater at the mention of M Night Shyamalan, and then we returned to the party, and it started to rain lightly (pictured).

Rain normally puts fires out, but it just pissed this one off.

Sparemeister sporting the official Roux B Q 4 Commemorative T-shirt (currently sold out). They misspelled Roux B Q, but that's okay.

On the second night, we took steps to protect the closet.

"If you post this picture of me without permission, I will punch you in the face."

The Accordian Building can condense to just two stories tall when not every floor is being leased to companies.

Everyone's too busy on their electronic devices these days to actually interact with other people. I'd have commented on that at the time, but I was busy taking this picture.

Group hug!

A yard full of butterflies.

The arrow pointing at the ground indicates the school students have already been run over.

Yeah, that'll keep people out. The only thing I see to be cautious about here is that you want to be careful not to trip on the caution tape.

If this telephone poll ever gets hit, there will be blackouts from Boston to Miami.

Solar powered street signs. Nice.

This beetle clung to the side view mirror for dear life for roughly 75 miles. Its picture still appears on milk cartons in the Washington DC area, and its spouse has since remarried.

University Of Phoenix: Where you don't start your core courses until year 7.

After a long and exhausting meet, it's important to rest up so that maybe, just maybe, you'll be recovered by the time the next one comes around.