I arrived at the Liberty Grille at about 6pm, which gave me plenty of time to set up all my gear.

My buddy T-Bone and his wife had already arrived and were eating as they could not stay late and wanted to at least be there for awhile.

I was a bit disappointed in how the restaurant set up our space; they left me no room for dancing and / or our entertainment, and the seating arrangements at the tables were rather...well, cramped.

But I didn't have time to complain and figured we would make do somehow.

I got everything set up just as people started to arrive and they started coming in right on time I must say.

Granny Wan showed up with the internet card and within a few minutes we had the webcam up and running! So far, so good!

As more and more people started coming in, both in person and online, I decided it was time to greet the masses!

I'm not going to even TRY to name every name; needless to say it was an amazing turnout and we had bloggers of all ages and back grounds present, from Grand parents to kids there with mom and/or dad!

Some bloggers brought family, some brought friends, some came alone, but just a few short minutes into it I could tell it was going to go well. People were socializing, mingling, and constant SQUEEE's of delight as many discovered just WHO it was they were finally getting to meet in person!

Meanwhile though, things were getting a bit chaotic with the dining situation: Too many bodies, not enough seats and certainly not enough STAFF assigned to help us out!

I get the feeling the restaurant did NOT believe me when I told them I was going to have a LARGE group of people and simply were not prepared for it.

Still, I never heard any griping from the crowd, and I thank you all for your patience and understanding there.

I decided we had enough people to get the trivia game started. For those who missed it the concept was simple: I handed a Star Wars playing card to everyone in the room from a deck, then drew a card from a second deck. If the card I drew matched yours, you had the chance to answer a trivia question for a prize.

It worked pretty well, and we gave away a TON of prizes! I think I even gave some to people who got their questions WRONG LOL.

I need to thank several people for their help with the prizes: Hansgirl, M68 and Jedi Melinda Wolf ALL contributed prizes for the trivia and you ladies deserve major praise for that.

I also need to thank M68 yet again. It was she who found the Liberty Grill for us and was my CA liaison between me and the management there, plus she made the name tags for all of us to wear that featured our bloggers names and avatars on them! Nice work Michelle!

Back to the party...

After some trivia, and a little dinner music, it was time for our first entertainer of the evening!

Amiria Si'ad, the belly dancing Slave Leia, gave us all an exclusive preview of her stage show that she would be performing during C4! She was fantastic and the crowd, of course, LOVED her!

I must admit to having a few bad moments there as she started; when I tried to play her music it wasn't WORKING until Gencrs finally helped me figure out the volume on her iPod was all the way down, LOL.

Thanks Gencrs for the save there buddy.

After Amira finished up I did some more trivia and then our second act was ready to perform.

We were next treated to a very special LIVE performance by Jedi Princess 77, who started with a beautiful original song she wrote that was inspired by Luke's staring at the sunset scene in ANH, (I am still trying to get this video up in its entirety as the file is too large for You Tube! ) then got the crowd on it's feet and the ladies dancing with her snazzy, jazzy reworking of the Cantina Band theme, complete with her own original lyrics!

I must apologize here for the sound quality; she sounded MUCH better than the video clips allow for and also the microphone she was using was NOT my best one...I know most of you probably didn't notice any difference but I did, LOL.

By this time, the party was in full swing, and it was getting darker and darker as we were on the patio outdoors. I know for many of you online it was tough to see but everyone hung in there, and it was a LOT of fun to watch those at the party interact with their friends and loved ones back home online.

It is at this point that I must touch on the "Annoying Drunk Guy" (ADG.)

From what I understand, he was one of several that basically found out about the M&G online through word of mouth and I THINK he said he was one of the vendors at the Con, although I'm not sure which one.

He certainly was NOT one of OUR blogging crew, and once I realized that I went to the bartender to make sure he wasn't putting his drinks on MY tab LOL!

I didn't realize just HOW obnoxious he was until I heard reports from everyone later or I would have had him thrown out by the management.

Towards the end of the evening he came to me and starting busting my chops about how the party wasn't as "Wild and Crazy!!!" as he expected it to be; basically insulted me and accused me of throwing a lame party...so I pretended I was gay and started hitting on him, promising to "make it up to him somehow" which seemed to really fluster him and he finally went away...

Anyway...there is always an "ADG" at pretty much every party like this one, and he gave us something to make fun of anyway...

I must apologize to those who arrived later in the evening and were turned away at the door. I did not find out until MUCH later that the restaurant was keeping people OUT of the party as the patio had reached maximum capacity!

A few notables did manage to make their way in though, including artists Steve Anderson and Joe Corroney, who had made a beeline directly from his induction into the 501st to be at our meet & greet! Joining him was noted author Abel G. Peņa' aka "Halagad" who was kind enough to bring a bottle of Skywalker wine that he later shared with several of us to toast, among other things, a fine gathering of friends!

By this time the laptop had died (power issues! ) but there was one last thing to do...for the one and only Stooge had finally arrived and, after some gentle coaxing by his fellow bloggers, finally got up and gave us a live stand up routine!

For those at home who missed it, here it is!

The Stooge live part 1

The Stooge live part 2

Again I apologize for sound quality and for the fact that ADG was making so much NOISE in the back ground that at some points you can barely hear Stooge. And his opening joke got cut off; it was a comment about how he'd make a killing selling catheters to everyone who attended the movie marathon the day before!

What a killer way to close the party!

I know there were several things we had planned that never happened; for instance, Hansgirl and I never managed to do our song parodies that we planned on, and I also never really DJ'd the event, as we didn't have much room for dancing, plus people were having so much fun just socializing and chatting with folks on the webcam back home.

But I think for the most part the party was a success and I have to one last time thank EVERYBODY who was involved in helping me put it together and everyone who attended and made it so very special for all of us.

Will I do it again at C5? If my nerves can take it...sure, why not?

PS: While all the video here is mine, many of the pictures I "borrowed" from my fellow M&G attendees...thanks for letting me steal them from you since I didn't take too many myself as I was pretty busy hosting the thing!


PSS I totally forgot this! One of the last things we did at the end was get everyone together for a large group photo!

I don't know HOW I missed posting this here earlier...everybody say "Deej, you SUCK...!"