  |
 ee-MER-jens : noun. 1) The act of rising up or coming forth, as if from immersion. 2) To become evident or obvious. 3) The nightly exodus of a bat colony. 4) The official newsletter of The BAT Cave! Right off The BAT: April 18, 2003: Today is my big Easter Eggstravaganza at my office! This is a giant candy feast that I put on every year as kind of a fun thing to do. It's much larger this year, both for effect and the fact that we have more employees! Here is the complete inventory: Life Savers jelly beans - 1 bag Sweet and Tangy Pops -1 bag Jelly Belly 49 flavors -1 bag Life Savers pastel jelly beans - 1 bag Jolly Rancher jelly beans - 3 eggs Starburst jelly beans - 3 eggs SpongeBob Squarepants tangy candy - 3 eggs Mega Warheads - 3 eggs Skittles - 3 eggs Monty's Emperor Bar with Chili - 3 bars Flyer milk chocolate with caramel - 10 bars Celebrations candy - 1 bag Allen Wertz Carrot Cake nougats - 1 bag Ferrerro Rocher hazelnut candy - 1 egg Skittles - 1 bag Ghirardelli Dark chocolate with mint squares - 1 bag Snickers eggs - 4 Tootsie Rolls - 1 bag Milka - 3 bars Judson-Atkinson eggs - 1 bag Mountain bars - 1 bag Walnettos - 1 bag Dolfin peppercorn bars - 2 Dolfin ginger bars - 2 Cherry Mash - 1 box Flyer #17 coffee - 2 bars Chocolate pigs - 8 Dove solid chocolate bunny - 1 Butterscotch disks - 1 bag Wonka Gobstoppers - 2 bags Life Savers kickers - 1 bag M & Ms speckled crispy eggs - 1 bag Mini Robin eggs - 1 bag Starburst sour jelly beans -1 bag Hershey's Kisses - 1 bag York Peppermint patties - 1 bag Rich Dark Hershey's Kisses - 1 bag Hershey's Cookies'n'Creme nuggets - 1 bag Wild Wedgies Lollipops - 1 bag Jolly Rancher jelly beans - 1 bag Mini bunnies chocolates - 1 bag Wonka Runts speckled eggs - 1 bag Brach's Fiesta malta milk balls - 1 bag Strawberry marshmallow flowers - 1 bag Chocolate mini eggs - 1 bag Michel Cluizel 100% cocoa - 2 bars Feast of Eden - 4 bars Max Brenner Lime Peel - 2 bars Lindt Bugs and Bees - 1 package Hershey's milk chcocolate rabbits - 1 package Chocolate bunny - 1 Yellow chocolate chick - 1 White chocolate rabbit - 1 Kraft caramel apple squares - 1 bag Brach's Milk Maid caramels - 1 bag Torture Scorchers - 1 box of 24 Bizzerks - 1 box of 24 Psycho Pops - 1 box of 48 Willy Wonka Oompas - 1 box of 24 Coffee Crisp - 1 box of 48 Snickers Crunchers - 1 bag Judson Atkinson jelly beans - 1 bag Werther's Original - 2 bags Sweetarts/Spree combo - 1 bag Mega Warheads - 1 bag Nestle Crunch minis - 1 bag Sweetarts jelly beans - 2 bags Milk chocolate easter eggs - 1 bag Hershey's pastel chocolate miniatures - 1 bag Child's Play - 1 bag Cookies and Milky Way - 1 package Cookies and M&Ms - 1 package Cookies and Snickers - 1 package Easter theme chocolates from Chocolate Designs - several Marzipan - several pieces Shrimp-shaped chocolates - 8 Mini metal milk bottle of chocolate cows - 1 Williams-Sonoma Easter lollipops - 1 canister Stuffed M&M characters with M&Ms candy - 2 Giant unicorn lollipops - 2 Solid chocolate eggs in real shells - 6 Extreme jelly lollipops - about 15 Cinnabon rolls - 16 Real custom-decorated easter eggs - 20 Non-edible floral centerpiece - 1 So, never let it be said the Easter Batty doesn't know how to throw a party! March 15, 2003: On the recommendation of some experienced friends, I tried the Excalibur Fantasy Faire for the first time this year. It's held pretty far out in the country in between Austin and Houston. It was pretty fun, a little larger than I expected, quite a few good costumes at the show, plus some of my favorite characters from TexRenFest returned as well! Check the Action Photos coming up! December 8, 2002: Went to the "Dickens on the Strand" festival in Galveston yesterday. It was fun, kind of neat, people dress up in Victorian-era clothes or as Dickens characters and parade around The Strand area of Galveston, Texas. I had never been to this one before, got a few Action Photos that will be appearing on the site soon. I was really surprised to see so many faces I recognized from the Renaissance Festival, there really is a lot of overlap between the two. Not quite as many photo opportunities as the Renfest (Today's Action Photo is a picture of an older gentleman in a black suit, Today's Action Photo is a picture of an older gentleman in a black suit, Today's Action Photo is a picture of an older gentleman in a black suit...), but it was fun to see as something different to do. November 17, 2002: Today was the final day of the 2002 Texas Renaissance Festival. The show was great and a lot of fun as always, got quite a few good photos. The big difference this year was I got to meet many of the performers behind the characters, can be a bit confusing sometimes whether to call someone by their character name or their real name, but it was neat to learn a bit more about the goings-on that make the show what it is. Thanks to everyone who wrote in to the site offering assistance with my horribly written and often wrong photo captions, or just providing encouragement. Special thanks to Stacy, Angela, Lee, Kristin, Nina, Rosella, Ken, Tina, and Sarah for help and ideas for the site. Many thanks for the comp tickets, I won't stop you if you'd like to do that again next year! Thanks to the blue dragon fairy for consistently calling me Lord Batty, in an English accent no less, I kinda like the sound of that! Thanks to all the performers for putting up with my sometimes overzealous picture taking, the proper balance between pushy-ness and missing a great shot is something I always struggle with. Lord Batty shall return next year! November 10,2002: Well. What can I say. Such a perfect day at the Texas Renaissance Festival for this humble maintainer of The BAT Cave. Upon arriving at the show not only was I acknowledged by three of my favorite performers, they presented me with a very appropriate and much appreciated batty gift!  The response this
year to the Renfest photos has been great, the site hit its all-time usage
peak last Monday, pretty much solely due to the Renaissance Festival
photos and the many performers and their friends who have visited.I'll be back up at the show on closing day next Sunday, even if I don't get any more good pictures, this has already been my favorite Renfest of the five I've been to so far! October 12, 2002: Arg, my last post was talking about the Renfest in April, and here it is Renfest time again, be sure to check the Action Photos for a bunch of shots from it. I did go in costume last week, as discussed below (see it here), but unfortunately my tender feet couldn't handle new boots, they rubbed massive blisters in my feet so painful I could hardly walk for two days! I had to return to the festival in sneakers today, it went much more smoothly. Many thanks to festival experts Nina and Kristin for filling in my missing or wrong photo captions! There are quite a few new features at the show, the jousting track is now just a jousting area surrounding by additional seating, the battle mound is a little gardenish thing with seating that looks like it might be for weddings, and I noticed a few new merchants as well. Festival favorite Kiva Fyrewulf is absent this year (gasp!), since the actress playing her is trying out a new Indian Princess character, I'll put some photos up later this week. April 8, 2002: Wow, I can't believe it's April 2002 already, my first post of 2002, time flies. Only six months to the next Texas Renaissance Festival, time to get my costume ordered! Here are my tentative choices so far, images admittedly swiped off the Net but I feel justified considering what I'm paying for this stuff:  The centerpiece, a suede
jerkin, the picture is the green version, but I figure black with brown
accents will suit my look more. Next comes a renaissance shirt, most likely white instead of red but I'm open to suggestions:  Next are the fencing pants,
most likely black instead of red. Next are the thigh-high
musketeer boots, folded over to be around knee-height, black instead of
brown: Optionally, a double-wrap
sword belt will be neat, possibly if it's too warm for the jerkin. And lastly, some black
gauntlets will finish the look, although how I'm going to wear these and
still use my camera is beyond me:
|