Our Lord of the Rings event has always been a 6-disc butt-numb-athon packed into a Saturday. This year we tried out a new format; a banquet on Friday followed by half of the first movie, then re-grouping on Saturday with a much less-pressured schedule.

The change allowed us to better enjoy each other's company. On Friday we ate by candlelight together and toasted our Fellowship properly.

And we presented the "party pieces" some had prepared:

• Bill/Lou began with a reading of Tolkien's creation story, "The Ainulindule", as the universe is sung into being.
• Stuart and Chris added some of Tolkien's more comical poems, with Stuart taking the liberty of making a few event-appropriate alterations.
• Day recounted her ongoing investigations into Tolkien's landscapes and landmarks, ley lines and panantiri.
• Pat and Mike brought us along on a tour of New Zealand with their photo album and stories of visiting the sites used in making the films.
• Sue used passages about Tom Bombadil to suggest a cogent hypothesis of his origins and nature.
• Frances and Jeff 's experiences in New York City connected the 9/11 horror with the comfort and insights of Tolkien's work, and entertained us with Jeff's gripping tale of meeting one of the film's stars.
• A quintet of Frances (cello), Jeff (tambourine), Betty (flute), Bill/Lou (violin) and Sue (viola) played a piece from the film, "Concerning Hobbits" ~~ including an encore performance to get it right!
• And first thing Saturday as we settled in, Jude joined us electronically to recall her experiences as a Marquette University student, being chosen to be the first to unpack and catalog Tolkien's original manuscripts.

This new arrangement was very well received and likely will set a new pattern.

The 16 foot long table held toothsome Middle Earthian fare such as apple-roast chicken, cheese scones, lots of marinated mushrooms, bean-and-bacon soup, rich steamed greens with raisins, goat cheese on fresh bread with olives, and a mulled apple-cream cider. And for this Fifth Annual event, the return of Minas Tirith cake for dessert.

Roll your mouse over the photo at right to compare cake and Zach to five years ago...

To general encouragement, Chen and Zach renacted the attack on Minas Tirith with burning matches.

Quitas exceeded the boys' match-flinging skills, tho' she was less successful with sounding the conch.

Larry talks to Frances ..... Betty talks to Maureen

UW Women ~ Evelyn, Sue & Betty

Monica re-connects with Pat & Mike Culotti

Frances & Jeff finally made it for the Fifth Annual !

Jude's audio-visual presentation absorbed us during First Breakfast.

"Third Time Pays for All"

Jeff was on location with a camera crew one day in Manhattan when he spotted Elijah Wood (Frodo in the films) enjoying a street party. His account had us riveted -- a delightfully self-effacing story of his hobbit-like persistence and courage in a quest for a photo of himself with the star to show Frances.

Jeff nervously fumbled with the camera buttons on his cell phone and squeezed through the knot of people surrounding the famous actor -- to squirm back out and only then discover he'd pressed the wrong buttons. Humorously apologetic in the face of an increasingly irritated crowd, he went in for not one try, not two, but three times before successfully getting the shot. Throughout the epic, Elijah remained welcoming and cheerful.

The third time, as Bilbo would say, pays for all.

The hard-won photo of Jeff with
the classy and very patient Mr. Wood.