Eat. Drink. Play. Sing. Belch. Crack wise. Repeat. Enjoy. 'Nuff said.
Brief, because the history of Man Weekend is brief. Well, it was brief, but now it has six years of historic weekends behind it. First, the backstory:
In 2002, Squiggy and MooCow attended a weekend-long bachelor party in the Poconos. A good time was had, to the point where Squiggy thought, "Why do we only get together like this for stuff like bachelor parties? Why can't we just get together for no good reason whatsoever?" The idea mouldered in Squiggy's brain for a few years. Money was tight; there was no way a Man Weekend could happen.
Money issues were solved over the next couple of years, as they tend to be. Long about 2006, DaveHo and Shekkie were poised to become new fathers. Squiggy decided that a weekend in the Poconos, complete with "drinking, eating, belching, scratching, farting, gambling, and telling lies" would be an excellent way to give them the send off into responsibility they richly deserved. And so, April 2006 saw the first Man Weekend in the Poconos, with roughly twelve attendees and an agenda, in Squiggy's words, no deeper than "hey, I haven't eaten in the last two hours, let's fix that." Highlights included taking nearly forever to create pork barbecue, keeping a drunken DaveHo from calling his pregnant wife, and the first audio mash-up, "Homestoffice Space".
The following year, 2007, saw a need to find a place larger than the house in the Poconos. We wound up in Rehoboth Beach, DE, at a huge, rambling house about a block from the shore. To date this remains the most-attended Man Weekend in its short history. The highlights from this weekend included the hottest Dunkin Donuts counterperson ever, the Wii ("Wiiiiiiiii!"), losing The Swede a block away from the house (we assume he saw something shiny), the Nissan Armada ("Where's the lever for saucer separation on this thing?") and the birth of a new inside joke: "Fuck bacon!"
MW08 saw the group migrate to Cambridge, MD, perhaps the best rental house to date, but also the worst pollen weekend - the cars had a solid layer of green on them. The house was not divided in the center, but had four floors that could keep multiple activities going on, with the Kitchen on the 3rd floor, complete with an elevator to reach it. Attendance returned to normal, and saw first-timer Beer fly in from Orlando for his first MW. Rock Band and Venture Brothers dominated the 3rd floor, billiards and craps the 1st floor, and the recording studio was on the 2nd floor. Extensive time was spent rehearsing several new arrangements by West and Horan, and those were recorded along with many old standards. It served to learn the lesson about direct writing to a HDD while recording, though the audio engineer (Played with aplomb by DaveHo) recovered by leaps and bounds for the final product. The outdoor hot tub got great use late on Saturday, where a group stayed up late discussing life, and the goals and wishes for the upcoming year. Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss won the 1st annual beer bracket, defeating Franziskaner's Hefeweizen in the final.
MW09 was relocated upon learning that Cambridge, MD, had taken issue with non-related large groups renting the house we had for MW08, so we headed to the Poconos and a place overlooking Big Boulder Lake. The cookout Friday night was masterfully handled by grillmaster Wes, and the home-made sausage brought by Brent was to die for. Rock Band again was huge, while the Wii and craps went on downstairs. Saturday saw a "siesta" where we all sat and vegged while watching Dr. Horrible, and previewed the D20 DVD's documentary. Early evening saw a much smaller recording fest, with three new arrangements. The Swede actually made it to breakfast this time, and the Sweede award went unpresented two years in a row. Bacon explosion was the talk of the day, and the Lindeman's Peche Lambic won the 2nd annual beer bracket, defeating the defending champion in the 2nd round, and winning the final over Woodchuck Cider.
MW10 was the first repeat venue, with a return to the Moose lodge of MW09. Bratwurst from Herwigs graced the menu, the MW09 video was shown, and Beatles Rock Band debuted on Friday. Saturday's menu was chili, cornbread and corn dogs for lunch, and smoked pulled pork and pork roast and vegetables for dinner. Saturday entertainment included Family Guy Star Wars, The Amazing Screw-On Head pilot, more rock band, 3+ hours of red-book singing, dreamers tunes and barbershop tags (preserved for posterity by Brent), Texas Hold-em, hot tub action, Scene-It, and Ghostbusters. Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss won the 3rd annual Beer Bracket, though it required a tiebreaker to defeat the Victory Whirlwind Witbier. Sunday featured a tribute to Robert Culp in the form of the pilot to The Greatest American Hero, and a special presentation to rookie Muha.
MW11 marked the third straight year in the Poconos, but this time further north around Lake Ariel/Mt. Pocono area. It was the "Game Lodge", named such as the basement had six classic arcade games, a jukebox, pool table and air hockey table. 20 Manweekenders were present for the weekend, with a cameo on Saturday from Norm. The TV fare included the MW10 video on Friday, the three Family Guy Star Wars based specials on Saturday, several episodes of Archer, and part of the Roast of William Shatner on Sunday morning. And a new game was introduced Friday night, known simply as WODT.
The 4th-annual Beer Bracket featured 22 entries, but there were no Lambics this year. Instead, the window was open for Samichlaus Classic to defeat the Hacker-Pschorr Weisse Dark in the final round.
MW11 also featured leftover food, since Saturday's dinner consisted of pulled pork and potroast, in that there were leftovers bagged and sent home amongst those leaving on Sunday. It might also have been noteworthy in that no Guitar Hero/Rock Band having been played at all, something that was a staple of MWs 08-10. The singing was shorter than planned, but likely it was about the right amount, broken up for the group photo before Norm had to leave. Like the three prior years, there was a hot tub for soaking, and MW11 site added a campfire setting for more stories of olden times.
MW12, the seventh annual, promises more of the same. We're all looking forward to it. And please stop calling me Shirley.
