Ron lives 400 miles away from me. Max 320 miles. Don 225 miles.

As you might expect, that sort of precludes us from nipping down to the pub together on a regular basis.

While Don is still a carefree bachelor, Ron, Max and I are all married, each with two children.

So taking off for a weekend every few weeks isn’t really an option either.

But, every year, once a year, we work really, really hard to get our schedules in synch, our spouses mollified, and a little time off from work.

For years now, the best time to do this has been in October. So, for over ten years, we’ve been getting together for a long weekend in the Fall. We’ve been gamers forever, so we bring our computers and network them together for some good electronic mayhem. (We’ve been doing this since the time of Doom, when networks were in their infancy and hardly anyone had heard of the Internet.)

We also each bring four (or more) six-packs of something interesting. We’ve even been known to take notes and rate the beers we liked.

We cook meat over fire. We eat potato chips and Doritos. We order in pizza and hot wings. We usually manage to pop out to a brewpub or a good beer bar at least once. And, of course, we drink that “interesting” beer and sit and talk about what we’ve been doing all year.

Last year I hosted the guys. This year Ron’s hosting. He’s worked real hard to have a new family room ready in time for us. (He has been posting about it on his personal blog, and it’s fascinating reading.) He also says he has a couple of “surprises” for us. Woo-hoo!

It’s also this weekend. As such, Ron and I will be rather scarce ’round these parts until at least the middle of next week. We’ll try to pop in now and then, but content will be light for the next few days.

Enjoy the weekend. I know I will.