I just got home from the frag swap and I had a great time. I would have stayed until the end but my wife kept calling me asking if I was done with my fish Geek thing yet as I left her in the city at my daughter's house not far away where I parked my car, and I took the subway there.
When I got to the swap at Pace University I was early so I went up to the gate and there was hardly anyone there yet. A guy came out and asked me if I was a vendor. I said "sure, why not" and he opened the gate. I am not a vendor but I had some things I was supposed to give to Kathy.
So I go inside and the only people there were Vendors and I walk up to this table where the raffle goods were and I hear this woman yelling and cursing. I never heard those words before so it put me on my guard. She stood up and I noticed it was KathyC. Someone had apparently put a cup of coffee on the table and it spilled all over the table and chair. Now, I am a little afraid of Kathy anyway so I stood at a safe distance away with one foot poised to flee. She then stood up and graciously complimented me on my fish tie (if you can't wear a fish tie to a fish Geek event, where can you wear it? To a funeral?) So now that the coffee was cleaned up and Kathy calmed down she offered me a cream filled doughnut which made me leary because you and I both know those things will give you a heart attack. But Kathy and I are both boaters and we discussed our boats a little. Kathy's boat is on the south shore and the docks and marina's were devastated by hurricane Sandy so I hope she can get her boat launched. A boater who is not able to boat is not a pretty sight so I feel bad for her. Of course I had to show her a picture of my Granddaughter.
Anyway I walked around and saw the beautiful frags, clams, fish and equipment that the vendors were selling and drooled over many of them, especially the huge clams that I wished I had room for. One gentleman at a vendors table gave me a quick lesson on undergravel filters.
One of the Vendors was Jan's Natural Reef food and she said she liked some of my posts and started telling me what was in her reef food.
I was amazed. No, not with the food, I will get to that, I was amazed that anyone read any of my posts. I am quite sure that only me, and maybe the wino I stepped over on my way to the subway read my posts.
Then Jan told me what was in her frozen reef food. She started with the whole clams, mussels, squid, oysters, shrimp, 3 types of seaweeds and even garlic, so right there, if someone would have given me a lemon and maybe some cocktail sauce, I would have eaten two or three packages myself as that was what I had for dinner last night and most nights. She even gave me a package of it to try.
It was still almost frozen when I got home and offered it to my fish who all relished it. I had to stop myself again from sampling it as it does look good and it is basically what I feed my fish anyway, fresh whole seafoods.
So to get back to the swap they make an announcement that the first speaker was about to start so I make my way to the room and get the first chair.
Dr. Todd LaJeunesse Was the first guest speaker and It was a very interesting lesson for me. It was about the symbiotic relationships that go on inside our corals. I really enjoyed it and can only hope one day to be able to pronounce the names of some of the things as Dr. Todd can. I didn't go to college so I am resigned to speak words of only five or six letters while adding a few "ers" and "duhs"
And Dr. Todd pronounces his "Rs" very well. People who have a lot of college experience pronounce their Rs very well. No really. Ask your friends to pronounce the word R I V E R and the ones who went to college will pronounce the last R while cluck's like me will just say R I V A.
Try it. I should get a Government grant but I doubt that will happen.
OK so now there is an announcement to go to lunch so I take the elevator upstairs to the cafeteria and fill up my plate with food and I make my way to the checkout girl. She says, do I have a voucher? I said, what voucher? She then says, give me ten bucks. Remember, big "vendor" that I am, I came in before they gave out vouchers. So I give her ten bucks and sit down to eat and had a nice conversation with a member.
I have to admit, if I had some of that Jan's reef food on me I would have put the tray of food back and chowded down on that, but I digress.
I went back down to the frag and the girl by the tickets says, would you like a lunch voucher?
Now that I am home I read the beginning of this thread and see that they also gave gift certificates for Dr, Fosters and Smith, but us "Vendors" didn't get them. :smash:
Anyway, I had a wonderful time, met a lot of very nice people. Lost my fear of KathyC and unfortunately had to leave. But I hope to go back next year and if I do, I will leave my wife in Lord and Taylor so I am sure I will have 6 or 7 hours to kill and I will bring a cooler to bring home frags in.
It was a pleasure for me to meet so many interesting people.
