Katemas party report

[Steve Schonberger <microsoft!stevesc@uunet.UU.NET>]

The northwest Katemas party was a whole lot of fun.  To my
knowledge it was thae largest Katemas party in North
America.  We had about 26 people, at the Kate House near the
Western Washington University campus in Bellingham (near the
Canadian border).  The guests were mostly WWU Kate Bush Club
members, and there were three of us from Microsoft and
someone else from Seattle.  We didn't have any well known
guests like Andrew Marvick, who went to Tracy Roberts's
Santa Cruz (California) party, or Doug Alan, who went to the
east coast party.  We did however have a woman who dressed
up as Kate in the ``Them Heavy People'' video, and she had a
wonderful costume.

The party started around 3 p.m., though the only ones there
that early were the permanant residents of the Kate House,
and the three of us from Microsoft.  The barbeque fird
didn't start well, even though someone tried to use gasoline
to light it.  Since most of us wanted an unleaded dinner,
and some of us dumped the first batch of coals while someone
went to buy less toxic starter fluid.  Even though Kate is a
vegetarian, we didn't try to do a vegetarian barbeque.  We
also had no smokers (Kate's vice), which was nice.  Of
course, we had Kate music playing loudly and constantly.

After the meal, the videos were started.  We saw _Kate Bush
Live at the Hammersmith Odeon_, _The Whole Story_, and a
number of more rare videos.  Of course there was also a lot
of ordinary pleasant party conversation, and special Kate
party conversation.  Another item of interest was a copy of
the latest _Homeground_, that my girlfriend Kari Haug bought
for me when she was in London.

Another thing we did was to phone the other two known
Katemas parties.  First we called the Santa Cruz party, and
passed the phone around between people who wanted to say
hellos to each other.  We also sang Happy Birthday to Kate,
surprisingly well synchronized, considering most people
couldn't hear the singers at the other party.  We also
called Doug Alan, since the phone idea came up after the
east coast party had ended.

Those of us from Seattle had to hit the road to return, so I
don't know what happened after we left.  We had a nice
return trip.  Toward the end of the evening, the topic of
another Kate party next year came up.  It was very popular,
so we will very likely do something similar again.

-- 
	Steve Schonberger	microsoft!stevesc@uunet.uu.net
	"How do you know when it's summer in Seattle?  The rain is warmer."