The Fuzzy Morning After

Last night (and early this morning) was the first gathering of the Toronto-area blogging community that I was able to attend. I took my digital camera along, in hopes of being able to match faces to well-known names, but my poor photography skills let me down (as the photos below will attest). If you think these reduced-in-size images are bad, I can assure you that resizing them improved them!

Damian "Keep your hands off my beer" Brooks was the advance scout, locating the bar and holding it in position until reinforcements arrived. I was the next arrival, and by Damian's timing it took just under eight minutes for us to move the conversation into the political realm. Typical bloody bloggers, say I.

Nick "Ghost of a Flea" Packwood and Mike "on the attack" Brock were next in the door, and after that I lost track of who was arriving. Eventually, the space Bob Tarantino had reserved became free and we moved as a straggling mob downstairs. I finally remembered that I wanted to take a few photos at that point. Ben "Tiger in Winter" and Mike Brock were the first victims of the digital fuzzification process:

My next targets of opportunity were both trying to add a touch of dignity to the proceedings: Nick Packwood and Chris Taylor.

Next to suffer the indignity were Debbye "American in T.O." and Austin, the "Transplanted Texan":

To my utter shame, I can't remember the names of these two gentlemen, although I had long and involved conversations with both of them over the evening. I can only plead youth and ignorance plus a side order of memory loss Nick kindly provided me with the essential information; this is Michael Kelemen (of Canadian Headhunter) and Rick McGinnis:

Greg "Political" Staples and the gentleman on the right is a new blogger who publishes Free Advice:

Having a laugh by the fireplace were Meatriarchy and Kathy "Relapsed Catholic" Shaidle:

The lady below isn't a blogger, but somehow can tolerate 'em in medium-large quantities. Beside her is Mike Brock:

The next photo shows what appears to be an occupational hazard for bloggers: hair loss!

From left to right, Chris Taylor, Nick Packwood, Bob "Let it bleed", and Damian Brooks.

Finally, as the evening wore down to the wee small hours of the night, a tiny remnant of bloggers were left solving the world's problems by the fireplace:

Apologies are offered to all my victims here, and do feel free to correct my errors or add missing information, please!