Blogowhato?

As some of you may have noticed on some prominent blogs there's something a-brewin in the wilds of Colorado.

Most, if not all, of the attendees are calling it Blogorado, a name not officially endorsed by myself or any of the Farm Fam. (Hush, all of you, I told you we're not endorsing it! Who's captaining this ship anyway??*)

Anyway, I've mentioned it in passing over the last little bit but now that it's actually happening I guess I feel more comfortable in coming right out and saying it: my little town will be overrun by bloggers, gunnies, gunbloggers, and, quite likely, large amounts of alcohol.

With a remote pasture and the instruction to bring whatever they would like to shoot, shoot at, or otherwise destroy, along with a few riding lessons and enough snark to drown an elephant, I'm sure we'll find some way to pass the weekend.

Plus, the attendees, who were carefully chosen, screened, and vetted by yours truly (not really) will be getting a singular treat in Farmmom's cooking. My beloved mother has busted her butt to provide a veritable feast for every night we'll have visitors, with peripheral help from myself, Farmdad, and Mamaw.**

I'm sure folks will be dropping notes whilst they're here, and I'll try to get up a few posts of my own, but frankly I'm so excited about seeing folks I've met before and meeting new folks that I don't know how often I'll be able to actually sit down at the computer. Besides, I'll have to keep up the charade that I'm actually a hostess capable of pulling something like this off. Which I never would be able to do without the full cooperation and assistance of my loving family.

Who are doing this all for me, and not at all because they're serious fans of some of the lovely folks that will be attending. At least that's what they tell me. Even when I accuse them otherwise.

I expect I'll spend the first night re-assuring people that we do indeed have such a thing as internet here, even if the county has barely heard of a wi-fi hotspot. And I'll spend Saturday laughing at certain bloggers as they go into iPhone withdrawals. I don't care what network you're on, where we'll be shooting, connectivity is nil.

Not to mention the shooting and tasting home-brewed beers and the story telling and discussions and and and.... Oh crap I still have to do laundry!


*Farmmom is, of course, captaining this ship. Who did you think I meant?

**Mamaw has actually helped more than either Farmdad or I so far, although Farmdad is, as usual, in charge of the industrial smoker for Friday night's bbq. Still, I think at least half of the folks coming are only after Farmmom's chicken fried steaks.

Pioneer Woman

Last night after a five hour drive (with a break in the middle to see my sister from another mother R so she could trim my hair before everyone descends upon us next weekend) and a two hour wait, I had the honor of meeting Mrs. Ree Drummond, aka, Pioneer Woman. For those of you who have somehow missed the boat on this one, she's an excellent writer and a cook to die for. Which is great since I paid thirty bucks for a copy of her cookbook for Farmmom.

Ree didn't even blink at being asked to sign a book to "Farmmom"... probably not the weirdest thing she's seen lately.

Anyway, I arrived at the Tattered Cover on Colfax in Denver about four thirty or five... the exact time was driven out of my head by the fact that there were already people waiting!

I immediately ditched the original plan to get the cookbook, get myself a book, go read and come back about thirty minutes early. Found a convenient piece of wall and stuck around. As a result I was somewhere around fifth in line.

Of course, being me I was dressed in western casual, blue plaid shirt over blue tank top over blue jeans and boots, topped off with my good straw hat. (If you were there and you saw me, you now know you saw me. I was the only one there in a cowboy hat, so I got a lot of attention. And a lot of pictures taken. Eep.)

I was quite out of place at the book signing, although Ree did compliment my hat. I'll be getting a picture in email of myself and Ree from the very nice lady from Kearny Nebraska that was the very first one there! (She was proud of herself so I thought I'd throw that one in.)

A few of us traded blog addresses (ok I gave mine to them. I didn't come prepared, I admit it. I had nothing to write with and nothing but my books to write on. Don't hate me, ladies! Just email me yours and then I'll have them, see? Email, as usual, is in the profile section.) and will probably stay somewhat in touch. They were very sweet ladies and some adorable munchkins who were remarkably patient with the whole process of waiting around for the book signing.

Anyway, Farmmom got her Christmas wish, and I'm contemplating hiding it from her until Christmas actually arrives... but then, she's my mother and she knows very well exactly how much and what kind of torture it would take to make me give up the location of the book, so I'll probably go ahead and give it to her.

Now I just gotta figure out how to justify another trip up that way on December 5th for Larry Correia's book signing.....


Edit: It appears that it was an even bigger deal than I had thought last night from my admittedly foreshortened view of things. Tattered cover ran out of cookbooks, for one, so yay for Ree's royalty check, and apparently there was a lot of line-jumping going on.

I've even found reports of a "Stair People Revolution" which I think is a fantastic concept.

So congratulations to Ree on a hugely popular (if slightly disorganized through no fault of her own) book signing. And, no offense to those who arrived "on time" and had to wait forever, but congratulations me for my neurotic need to get anywhere in the city early just in case. To those people who were on the stairs and waited forever, I love you. You are all wonderful people for being polite and doing things in a mannerly fashion. Viva la Stair People Revolution!