1 Year of derryX

You’ve seen it on the blog; you’ve seen it on the twitter; you’ve seen it on the facebook.

June 11, we had a gathering, a get together to celebrate one strong year of what has become derryX.com. It was a gathering that one post can’t even contain!

The party started at 1PM at Gus’s Hot Dogs, home of the greatest Yelp! review ever, in Watervliet, NY. So many people came, it’s tough to even run through them all. But I think I got pictures of everyone but two people.

Also present were Genwar and friend, Keith Stone, who joined us slightly late because of golfing obligations out of town; unfortunately, I did not snap a picture of them.

We all ate lots of hot dogs and drank lots of grape soda, then many of us headed over to Snowman ice cream in Troy, NY, but that’s another post.

We had many laughs; had many conversations, some about derryX.com content, some about other blogs or other platforms like FUSSYlittleBLOG, Albany Eats!, Cute~Ella, Not the Life I ordered, Chuck Miller, Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen, and MANVille. (find the links in my blog roll to the right; all of them were at this thing). We also talked about other blogs, some good, some bad, some shit. Too bad you weren’t there to hear what we were saying about you.

Another item of business on the 11th was the distribution of the “1 year of derryX” funpacks, a hodge podge of various items that I single-handedly put together using my own resources. But, just like the review of the food, that’s another post.

There was also a giveaway. The person who came with a piece of paper with the most popular blog topic/post that I have written in the past year won a free sealed copy of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Admittedly, only three (maybe four) people participated in the giveaway, mainly because nobody remembered but probably because nobody cared. Only 3 of the entries were submitted on a piece of paper, so only these could be considered. The winning entry was given by Daniel B., proprietor of FUSSYlittleBLOG, who guessed Dinosaur BBQ. While this answer is incorrect, it is the third highest visited post in the past year. Runners up were Dino Covelli, who guessed this post, and Ashley Covelli who loves The Twitch. Dino C.’s guess is a great guess, but, since that is a recent post, it doesn’t have the steam that the actual #1 post does. The twitch is actually has the  fourth highest visited post, so that’s a good guess too. No, the number 1 post of the past year (by a galaxy) is this old gem, detailing my trials and tribulations with UPS, and a post that has gotten attention from executives at UPS who have spoken directly with me regarding my issues.

Anyway, congratulations to Daniel B., who now gets to enjoy Pee Wee’s Big Adventure for the remainder of his life.

I went dressed in the following outfit:

It got really hot wearing that while I was eating hot dogs, so the jersey came off.

All in all, I can say I had a great time. It was a special day for me, and knowing that so many friends and local favorites would come out, join me for lunch and ice cream, and have a good time with me means so much.

I can’t say that I’ll ever throw a party to celebrate any other milestones for the blog, but I know that what I do makes a difference in many peoples’ lives, at least enough for them to spend their free time to have a hot dog with me.

Thanks to everyone who came, and all of you who read everyday!

(ohh…and one other thing that came out of that afternoon…the one thing I actually may end up regreting–I’m not sure–…I agreed to go for lunch with Daniel B. at The Cat’s Meow in Guilderland, NY. So I guess that’s gonna happen now…)