1st Annual NRA Convention-related Awards

Midwest Blogger Chick wins the Jules Verne Award for her "Around Indianapolis in 80 Minutes" navigation which she displayed to some of us who followed her to the convention center that first morning because we figured that she knew where we were going.

The Patience of a Saint Award goes to Aaron at the Shekel for putting up with my borderline insanity all week-end as I OD'd on guns and shiny things and far too many free-range idiots like the ones who couldn't manage a parking garage sufficient to keep us from getting trapped in one for almost an hour on Friday while two minimum-wage kids who were supposed to be getting all the cars out screwed around. Had he not been there, I'd have likely hurt someone. (And had I not been there, he'd likely still be down on the third level of that garage somewhere. We work together good that way.)

Keads takes the award for Most Class by showing up in a Mustang with a collared shirt and a tie, and for sharing his beer at the afterparty on Saturday night. My biggest disappointment of the week-end? Not getting to spend enough time with this guy. (Well, Having Sarah Palin come up and tell me that she's throwing her husband over for me and inviting me to return to Alaska with her to begin the secession movement would have been first, but more hang-out time with Keads still takes a close second.)

The Selflessness Award goes to Kelly Grayson for sacrificing much of what could have been hang-out time among guns to put on a nice class on first aid for thirty-two interested bloggers on Saturday morning. And it was professionally-done all the way.

Tam wins "Miss Astuteness" for uncovering my secret identity based solely upon the pistol I was carrying. That was impressive if not a bit scary. And she was as nice in person as she is snarky on her blog. And as promised, next time she comes to this area:

The Grace under Harassment award goes to the guys at Century International Arms for still smiling and showing me their products after I asked to meet one of the flying monkeys with hammers who reportedly bang so many of their guns together. They promise that their in-house quality control problems have been fixed. (But the trigger on their C93 rifle still feels like it came out of a little kid's rubber band gun despite the good-looking welds and overall parts fit. So close, guys...so close!)

And as usual, no surprise to anyone who knows him, Old NFO scores "Most Interesting Man in the World" award. The guy from the Dos Equis commercials just stopped by to drop off the crown and asked if I could please get Jim's autograph for him.