Saturday, June 3, 2000
Merrick, NY
Schedule
Participants
David (4th), Marc (4th), Matt (4th), Eugene (4th), Russ (4th), Mehr (3rd), Eric (1st)
Breakfast
This year we decided to make a change of location and menu and headed to the IHOP in Massapequa for breakfast. All six participants showed up late (again) and we enjoyed a loud breakfast with conversation about the past year. Some of us had graduated, some of us were working - we were all at new and exciting points in our lives. What better way to talk about what it all meant than at the breakfast for MBBB4.
Home Run Derby, Part One
After breakfast, we headed to the Struck house to prepare for the Home Run Derby. After unsuccessfully attempting to convince Brian to videotape the event, we drove over to Town Park. The plan was to begin the event and then stop in the middle of Dave's turn-- wait a second, that wasn't the plan! But that's what happened. Apparently there was a girl's little league game scheduled for the field we were using for the Home Run Derby. Mehr tried to convince the coaches to switch fields but was cunningly rebutted by the argument, "We have a permit to play on THIS field, we can't use the other one." Frustrated by this logic, we conceded the field and made an impromptu decision to start the Scavenger Hunt early and to return to the Home Run Derby at a later time.
Scavenger Hunt
The Scavenger Hunt was to start at the Struck house. We received the clues that Eric had written for us and we were almost ready to go. But first we had to figure out how to operate Eric's camcorder! You would think that a bunch of computer geniuses like ourselves would have no trouble operating a camcorder but...well, just watch the video as Dave stares at the camcorder for about 5 minutes (apparently trying to make it work by using telekinetics). Finally we figured it out and the teams were off. Mehr drove Russ and Dave for one team and Euge drove Matt and Marc for the other. Eric's clues were great. Some were spelled out: "Find a blue American car made before 1990." Others required some thinking: "Find a park named after a body of water." (And no guys, Lakeside is not a park.) You had to have some humility to participate in this event and, if you did, it was great fun. After two hours of searching and recording, the teams met up at Taco Bell. Although no winner was ever officially announced (partly because watching the videos causes major motion sickness), it appears that the team of Mehr, Russ, and Dave accumulated the most points. Follow the links for full results and videos.
Lunch
Discussion at lunch was dominated by talk about the Scavenger Hunt. "How did you get this one?" "What did this clue mean?" "We got kicked out of The Gap!" Fun talk and good food.
Home Run Derby, Part Two
OK, where were we? Dave crushing a bunch of home runs, leading his team to victory, etc., etc. Well, so much for that! Having the Home Run Derby split into two sections was a major annoyance but we continued on with the competition. The last person to bat was Mehr and he batted lefty just to make things fair. The team of Russ and Matt held a lead over the team of Dave and Marc but Mehr was making a huge push for his team of Euge and himself. At the end though, he fell just short and Russ and Matt were declared Home Run Derby champions.
Mission: Impossible 2
It was time to head out to see our most anticipated movie of the summer (and it wasn't even summer yet). We hopped in our two cars and headed for the Westbury 12, a new theater with lots of leg-room and stadium seating. The trailer plays, the movie plays, the movie ends. There were varying opinions on the quality of M:I 2, but the general consensus was that it was a huge disappointment that didn't live up to its predecessor. The movie contained this line (among other whoppers): "We just took a snowball and threw it into hell. Now we're gonna see what kind of chance it has." (!) Judge for yourself. I have a hard time believing Robert Towne (Chinatown) wrote that but he's credited with writing the screenplay so... Ah well, we've finally learned our lesson. There will be no movie for MBBB5.
Laser Tag
This was another highly anticipated event. After spending awhile before MBBB4 finding out pricing and hours, we finally confirmed Laser Tag at Q-Zar as an event. When we arrived, the arcade gallery was empty and we weren't sure if the place was still open. But it was - there was just a laser tag game going on. We signed up, geared up, and were led into the training room. The guide says, "I know you all know the rules already so let's go!" Well, we didn't know the rules and a bunch of us were confused as to how to play the game. After about 15 minutes of confusion (and frustration for some), the contest ended. There was discussion about trying again but it wasn't worth the cost ($10) to most of us. A friend of Dave's just recently tried it out at Times Square and had a blast so maybe we'll try it again sometime.
Dinner
The end of a long day. After Laser Tag, we headed to Pizzeria Uno in Lynbrook for dinner. We talked about the day and a discussion about movies popped up. It was nice ending to another successful MBBB.
Notes