WE HAVE A WINNER!!! It's Par4kidssake

The Ofest 2009 group (via your fee) donated one trip to Ofest 2009 that was auctioned off at the Par4theKids golf tournament on June 8. The lucky winner who will be joining us is Eric Everson!!! Eric, it was the best $2850 you will have ever spent! We had a great day of sun and fun. The Ofest 2009 hole was the place that everyone looked forward to reaching. All the golfers thought someone got a hole in one because of all the noise that was being made on our hole. Nope, no holes in one, but the Mass chugging (very similar to the long drive contest) contest (thanks for the idea Der Stinker) was the highlight of the tourney. Each group put in $20 and we timed them to see how fast they could drink a mass. The winner chugged a mass in 7.2 seconds!!! He didn't pass on the mass to his team mates. Not only that, it was his second one on the day. Originally he chugged in 9. 8 secs and he was the leader. Another chugger came by and beat his time. So, at the end of the day Robert Perez came to confirm his victory and he was crushed to know he no longer had the "longest drive." So, he got a mulligan by contributing another $20 and he chugged another one is 7.2 seconds!!! Robert SWEARS he is coming to OFEST with us!

You will be able to congratulate Eric Everson on his winning bid in Munich. His nickname is Blah... look for him as he is highly touted as a rookie of the year challenger.

Thanks to Randy Hahn, Ken Vonderach, Ken Bloom, Jon Borneman, Rusty Clever, Mario Jacques, Dennis Colvin, Greg Desin and the 2 lovely girls who will also meet us in Munich this year, Ricarda from Cologne and Theresa from Italy for making our booth at the golf tournament the one that backed up the entire tournament.

Starting to Get the Fever for 2009

Nevermind the H1N1 Swine flu, Who's got the OFEST FEVER??? Like these people that i saw at Bay to Breakers 2009, the fever is starting to catch on. The phone calls are starting to go around the executive committee. Hahn is finalizing schwag designs. Vondy is starting to set the morning line for the ROY '09. Who's it going to be??? The BEADS ARE IN for 2009. Looks like another great year will be in store.

Last week we had an executive committee meeting. The committee will be representing the entire crew at the Par4Kids fundraiser on June 1 at Ruby Hill Country Club. Thanks to your generosity, we are donating a trip to Ofest 2009 to be auctioned off. Rusty from Ofest 2007 is donating a keg of Hacker Beer that will be sampled on one of the holes with a few committee members (Hahn, Vondy, Roy '06) raising the interest in the auction. We hope to raise $k's for autism research at the benefit.

Keep an eye on the website going forward to stay in touch with the goings on...

Field is Limited To 32 People This Year-WE ARE SOLD OUT!

The Hotel Trypp can only handle 32 of us this year, so we are limiting the number of attendees. As of middle of Feb. we are completely sold out!!! Team Chicago (are we really surprised?) is back for another round at the Wiesn. Blackout and his crew have a year of experience under their belts now... Look out! Joe Sanchez will be attending for a record setting 16th time! Joe recruited a bunch of fellas from Maxim this year so the Maximites will be representing also! And this year Der Stinker has recruited a couple of future AA candidates. Welcome aboard Rip and Stam-Iam. We also have a few guys who are back after taking some time off... Mckibbin, Hahn, and Vondii are all back and rarin' to go. This year's class has 11 Rookies all vying for the coveted green hat. ROY '07 is still scheming to find a way to get the hat back, but it ain't gonna happen. Keep your eye on this space... more info coming

Did our Waiter Christian Really Fly Out From Germany For Our Reunion?

You should never be surprised by 'Da Man! He stepped up huge by flying in from Munich ONLY FOR OUR REUNION!!! Der Stinker and Herr Hasselhoff managed to show him a good time in SF for a couple days along with our wives. We didn't make it out of the Buena Vista Restaurant on the first day to SF, but managed to have some fun in the evening. Dinner at Asia SF (don't ask...) and a late night at Club Infusion topped off a festive day. Da Man dropped off the oldtimers back at the hotel and went out for round 2 late into the night. The next day was Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard St. and other tourist things.

Huge props to Da Man Christian Bullert for making the reunion very memorable.

Thanks to Leppie for letting us use his winery to host the party and to Der Stinker, Mabster, and Dee for helping with the setup. Vondii brought the A/V system that we watched Dee's great video with. If anyone wants a copy of the DVD that Dee made, let me know. I have more copies.

Official 2009 Logo Has Been Released

Not sure if it is my favorite logo of all time, but nobody asked me to vote...

Ofest'ers past and future reunion at Ruby Hill Winery Jan 22, 2009

Make your plans to attend the reunion party for anyone who has been in our group in the past or anyone who thinks it looks fun and may join in the future. Mike (Leppie) Callahan will be hosting us at the gorgeous new Ruby Hill Winery in Pleasanton, CA www.rubyhillwinery.net

We will convene the festivities on Jan 22, 2009 at 7:00pm

We will of course have Daryl's (Dee) famous slideshow, great food, German beer and maybe even some barrel tasting from the Ruby Hill wines. We have arranged the shindig during the All Star break in the NHL season so our mouthpiece, Randy (Hahn) Hahn...very original name bro.. can join us. He swears he is coming back for his 6th year in 2009. We may also have an NHL'er with us in 2009, right Randy?

We are definitely going to have a special guest join us at the reunion... It will be worth it for you to arrange your schedule accordingly

SAVE THE DATE FOR OFEST '09 Sept 24-26, 2009

The middle weekend will be rockin' again in the Hacker Pschorr Tent when the fellas turn up the volume!!!

We are also looking at Jan 16 for the OFEST '08 reunion. Time and date to be firmed up later but this is what we are currently looking at... All veterans of Ofests past are welcome

Oktoberfest Memories

Congrats EVERYONE to an amazing trip this year! We all survived and have stories to tell. I have to say, it was my BEST Oktoberfest ever. Maybe it was due to the quality rookies and watching them experience OFest for the first time. Maybe it was partying with all the other veterans and meeting new professional beer drinkers. Or, perhaps it was spending time with family and dancing like a fool with blatant disregard for life's normal responsibility.

Regardless, it was the best. I think we all owe a big 'Danke' to Ken Bloom for the set-up and execution of a flawless trip. The Saturday night meeting at the Tryp hotel was a highlight!

Our Servers! Mathias / Micha / Eric / Dominik ~ the all star crew.

Prost!
Bad Monkey

Team Chicago: Training Hard

Team Chicago is training hard! We are bringing some QUALITY rookies to the Wiesn and are fired up for the Weekend. Only 7 days until departure...

Here are some pics of local training in Chicago. We are going to have another dress rehearsal tomorrow in full 'fighting gear' for the Fest. Yes, every one of us is flying over to Munich with Lederhosen. More pictures to follow.... looking forward to seeing everyone again and meeting some new members to our prestigious / drunken crew.

Viel Spass!

prost!
Jon Sanchez
aka Bad Monkey

Cheat Sheet for 2008

Hacker Festzelt - Bavarian Heaven

The following is what you should expect. It is adapted previous year’s cheat sheet, but still is 99% accurate and will give you a general expectation about what to do and when to do it.

Make your way to

Hotel Tryp Paul-Heyse-Strasse 24 Munich GERMANY 80336

Tel: (49) 89 514900 - Fax: (49) 89 51490701 - E-mail: tryp.muenchen@solmelia.com

Bergman, Azevedo, & Baxter go to Hotel Ibis (details sent separately)

and get checked in. If you take the S Bahn from the airport, you take the S1 or S8 train from the airport towards downtown Munich and get off at Hauptbahnhof Central Station. Transfer to the U4 or U5 one station and get off at Theresenwiese station. It will take about 45 mins or so for the entire journey. It sounds a bit complicated, but it is actually very easy. Print the map of the train system that is located on our website. It is all simple to read and well laid out. The cost of the Ubahn is about 10 Euros/person. A taxi will cost about 50 Euros (if I remember correctly).

9/25 Thursday Arrival day Game day shirt: Black Polo

Arrive early and you will be the first to taste the 2008 Oktoberfest beer. This beer is brewed specifically for Oktoberfest and is arguably the best beer in the world. Once you have checked in, I would suggest making your way over to the Wies'n (vee-sen). That is the piece of land on which the Oktoberfest is sitting. Veterans call it the Wies'n, so start calling it that. Examples, "Are you going to the Wies'n tonight?" "Is Ken still passed out at the Wies'n?" "Did Walt get thrown out of the Wies'n again?" You get the picture. I will get there at around noon on Thursday and will be at the Hacker Festzelt tent. In the map below, that is tent number 4. Ask for directions at the front desk how to get there, but I assure you there will be a steady flow of people heading there. Just follow the crowd. If you are following a bunch of totally hammered people, you are going the wrong way. These are the people who are leaving the Wiesn. Turn around! The hotel is only about 5 minute walk to the Wiesn.

There is a main road where all of the tents are located. Hacker Pschorr is between the HB (Hofbrau) and Shottenhamel tent and across from Augustiner Brau. This is where we will hoist a few masses of beer for the next 3 days. Go in the front doors, turn left and head towards the back of the tent down the left hand side.

When you are about halfway (just before the band), look for people in our black travel shirts . We’ll be near the walkway so we should be easy to spot.

We'll stay there pretty much all afternoon and evening and then head for pizza afterward

Friday 9/26 Game Day Shirt White mesh shirt Meet in the Tryp hotel lobby at 8 and we will walk over together. They start serving beer at 10. We do not have reservations for Friday. It is imperitive that you are in the lobby so that we can all sit together on Friday. It is a nightmare saving seats, so meet in the lobby by 8:00 and we will head over to Hacker. We will spend virtually the whole day in Hacker that day. Get to the tents as early as possible, because many of the Germans in Munich will take a half-day off of work Friday and fill the tents. The doors close around 3 or 4pm sometimes, and it is hard to get in. If the doors ARE closed, text me +1 925 518 7437 or Joe Sanchez +44 777 273 185 and we will try to get you in. All of the entrances are numbered and we will tell you what door to go to. Phones are impossible to hear inside the tent so texting is the only real option for communicating.

Saturday 9/27 Game day Shirt Yellow T Shirt morning - Get up at your leisure. Today would be a good day to walk around the Wies'n and see what else there is going on. If you can't bear to smell the beer, jump on the train and go to the town center (MARIENPLATZ). Munich is a nice city. Explore. If you want to get really adventurous, Dachau (concentration camp) is pretty close. The hotel will have information about Dachau. Ask at the front desk. Whatever you do on Saturday, BE BACK AT THE HOTEL BY 3:30PM! We will be meeting in the lobby/restaurant of Hotel Tryp at 3:30pm. We will have our annual award ceremony at this time and it is normally something you do not want to miss. We will be departing for the tents at 5:30pm. We will have our official Ofest Rookie of the Year at this time. We have reservations at tent 4 (Hacker Festzelt) above. We all need to stay together and enter the tent around 5:45. The reservations start at 6:00pm. If you do not come with the group, they WILL NOT LET YOU IN!!! They will clear some tables for us at that time. It's magical. We will drink all night Saturday. If you are not there with our group, you likely will not get in the tent on Saturday. It is packed and impossible to get in w/o reservations on Saturday. This will be a great night, so be sure to meet in the hotel lobby to get your pass. .

Sunday 9/28 Return home. I suggest you take a vacation day on Monday.

Miscellaneous things:

Clothes: This is very informal. Wear comfortable shorts or pants. Have both available. Normally the weather is nice, so shorts are appropriate. If it is raining and cold, then you could still wear shorts, but you’ll get wet on the walk to the tent. Might want to buy a disposable pancho from Wal Mart for the trip so that you won’t get wet walking to the tent. It is dry inside of course. It will not be cold in the tent. If it is 75 outside, it will feel like 175 inside. Lots of smoke, sweaty people, and spilled beer. Your shoes will get beer spilled all over them. Don’t wear nice shoes. You likely will not need a nice set of clothes, although some adventurous people have gone out to clubs after the O’fest closes at 11pm. Take a look at the various pix that we have sent and you can see how casual the dress is. Here is a listing of the shirts that we will all wear: Thursday: Polo Shirt Friday: White Baseball Jersey Sat: Yellow T-Shirt

You should have your shirts, beads, and shaving kit by now.

Weather: Normally it is 75 or so. However, it could be 50 and raining. Bring a light jacket just in case it is raining and you have to be outside for the 200 meter walk from/to the hotel. Bring a jacket that you don’t care if it gets lost or VERY dirty.

Money; Normally I would expect > $350 US to be enough to pay for beer and food and trains, but you should probably count on $400-$500 because you are going to be in a good mood and want to buy your new German friends a few beers. A taxi to the airport is about $70. If you are going to take taxis and buy lots of beers for your new best friends, then you need to bring lots more money. Beers are about $10 each (per liter). USD will not do you any good there. They do have ATM’s that you can get Euros from or you can get them at the airport or at your bank before departure. They have ATM’s at the airports, throughout the city and at the Wies’n itself.

Beer & Food We will pay for our own beers at the tent. We will take a small collection at the beginning of the day to ensure we have good service from our waiters and also to grease the doormen. Beers are served in liters only and normally cost about 8 Euros (+/- $10 US) Food is <15 style=""> Normally we buy pizzas after the festivities across the street from the Wiesn. This costs another 10 Euros or so.

A good website to keep track of between now and the beginning of Ofest is the official Ofest website: www.oktoberfest.de/en

OUR WEBSITE IS

http://www.ofestforever.blogspot.com/

Our website is the best resource for the trip. It has lots of info. Play around with it and you will see lots of useful info

PRINT THIS OUT AND TAKE IT WITH YOU TO MUNICH

Preview the Schwag...

Our supermodel for the 3rd consecutive year is Sylvia...Randy Hahn's better 1/3! Thanks to Paul Mitchell for doing Sylvia's hair and to Max Factor for doing her make-up for the special shoot.

Training for the Wiesn is now complete

Herr Hasselhoff, Der Stinker, Dee, Leppie, ROY '07, Der Pudge, and Rando had a big weekend and they have officially finalized thier last hardcore training session for Ofest '08. They will now be tapering for the stretch run leading up to the entrance to the Hacker Tent. Festivities kicked off in Las Vegas at Hofbrauhaus. If you haven't been there yet, you need to get there. It is an exact replica of the HB haus in Munich. Hasselhoff, Der Stinker, and Dee met up with some of our German friends, Anna and Craig for some serious workouts. We had our some of our family members with us and now they all totally understand why we would travel to Munich for a weekend of beer drinking. We had a great time and the headaches in the morning to prove it. This was followed up by another training session for Hasselhoff as he joined Roy 07 to celebrate his big 50 birthday along with Rando, Pudge, and Leppie. We spent a day on the SF bay aboard a beautiful boat and then polished off the night with a roast of Roy 07 (lots of material).

We have a few pix from the various festivities, I hope you enjoy them. If there are any other training pix, please send 'em in.

A report from the front lines by our uber scout Leppie (AKA Callahan)

I have completed my advance scouting mission concerning our impending invasion of O' Fest in Munich and submit the following report.I landed in Munich at appx. 14:00 hours on 7-1-08 traveling undercover with wife and children. We engaged a taxi and headed for Hotel Maria. Taxi ground speed 150KPH (fast). taxi fare 60 Euros, elapsed time to destination: 40 minutes.Upon arrival found weather to be quite nice, appx 23 c or 80 degrees.We entered hotel lobby and found very friendly staff. While in the hotel lobby area I visited the site of the former bio hazard. The water closet seemed to be in good working order and clean, scent was fresh. facility appears to have made a full recovery.We then made our way to the outdoor garden area. fresh plantings abundant, new tablecloths, appears to be very suitable for convening of forces. A visit to the mess hall was then completed. Food appeared to be fresh, flavorful, and abundant. Hotel California by the Eagles was playing in the background.After solving the mystery of the door locks we entered our spacious rooms. Bedding areas seem simple, however sufficient for our needs. I found sufficient supplies of toilet tissue on hand.My understanding is we have switched sites fro our bedding needs. If that falls thru Hotel Maria will be suitable.On three separate occasions we visited the Hoffbrau House in town square. The beer was cold and tasty The umpah bands were tuning up for their impending festival .I conversed with the local who were sporting their native attire, lederhosen. It is said that the terminology for the style surrounding the use of lederhosen during O'Fest is commonly know by the locals as the metrosexual look. This should be considered prior to acquiring lederhosen for your troops.I then visited ground zero. The locals were starting to construct the beer halls and assemble the rides and vending booths. From my vantage point I could view the Hill of Shame. It was unoccupied at the time. I trust that the intense training program we have all been on this year will keep any of our troops from visiting this dreadful site.After much research it is my humble opinion that the invasion of O"Fest by our forces is well timed and has a high probability of success. Please circulate this filed report.Respectably submittedField Marshall Der Leppie

Rusty's Bar is on for June 20!!!

Rusty, Rusty, Who the F... is Rusty???

You all remember Rusty, and his hoofs that he traded for??? Well we are going to hang out with Rusty and his wife at his bar in Tracy. The location is 320 W. Grant Line Road, Tracy and we will be hoisting the first stein of Hacker at 7pm. Wives are invited to attend and so are any of your buddies.

Come one, come all. Join Rusty, Eddie Haskell, Wally, and Mr. Clever at Rusty Clever's bar.

check out the article on the place from the newspaper.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20070131/ai_n17162964

Details about Ofest '08

Looks like we are going to have about 25 of us in the group this year. We are changing hotels due to the fact that the Maria didn't have enough room for us this year. This year we are staying at the TRYP Hotel Munich. The rooms are reserved for arrival on Sept 25 and depart on Sept 28. If you are arriving earlier or need to stay a day later, contact Ken Bloom asap! The hotel is just as close as the Maria, but in a slightly different direction. When you arrive on Thursday, head directly to the hotel and then to the Hacker Tent. We will be in the same area that we always are, in Matteus' section. Friday morning we will meet at 8:00 am in the lobby of the hotel and do the death march over to the tent so we can all sit together. Saturday morning we will likely do a tour of some sort (everyone liked the bike Tour last year so we can do it this year with a different itinerary). We will have reservations at the Hacker Tent on Saturday night like we always do. Saturday will be the good day to nurse the 2 day hangover. Party like rock stars on Saturday night up in the balcony and then head off back home or into Europe on Sunday!

You need to make your own flight arrangements this year. We are making the shirts and bags for you right now, so i should have all of your nicknames, sizes, etc. If you want to change them then let me know!

Hotel info 2008: http://www.solmelia.com/solNew/hoteles/jsp/C_Hotel_Description.jsp?codigoHotel=6502

Ofest '08 Information Sept 25-28

Well, after another successful reunion dinner, it is time to move on to Ofest '08! We had a Glocken good time at the dinner and the DVD that Daryl made was a winner. Let me know if you need a copy of the DVD as i have a few extras. Many people took an extra one for you if you didn't attend, so ask your buddies first if they got one for you and if not, let me know.
If you need to send money for your hotel, tent reservations, shirts, travel bags, etc. Here are the details:


By Check: $975 to Ken Bloom 119 Neal St. Pleasanton, CA 94566

By paypal $1000 (to cover the paypal fees) kbloomrhp@yahoo.com

Information about the reunion dinner

Host:
Herr Hasselhoff
Location:
Renaissance Club Sport Walnut Crk2805 Jones Rd, Walnut Creek, CA 94597
When:
Thursday, January 31, 7:00PM
Phone:
9255187437
Cost: $40 per person

Time to relive the old memories from Ofest with your buddies. All are invited and invite your firends too. The cost will be $40/person including dinner, beer, music, and the famous Ofest '07 slide show that Daryl (Dee) created from all of our pix. You can pay via paypal (kbloomrhp@yahoo.com) or bring cash to the dinner.We will also begin collecting $900 for Ofest '08. We aren't going to do a deposit and then a final payment. We are just going to collect one payment to reduce the time and effort of being the treasurer. This year's price will include the gratuities for the waiters and the security staff.Please RSVP for the dinner. You don't have to go to Ofest '08 in order to attend the reunion. They are independent activities. This is a good thing to invite your buddies to who may be interested in Ofest '08!!! Great recruiting tool.

Jan 31, 2008 is the date for the Reunion

Save the date... Get ready for some more Hacker Pschorr beer, pretzels, sauerkraut and of course Hendl!!! We will have the reunion at the Renaissance Club Sport in Walnut Creek. Thanks to Steve Gilmour for providing the venue. Invite all of your friends who may be interested in attending Ofest '08 to join in the party. Cost for the dinner will be about $40, but we will advise exact amount shortly. Also, this is the date that we will begin collecting the $900 for Ofest 2008!

Of course the highlight of the evening will be a video montage of Ofest 2007 as created by Daryl (Dee) Sequeira.


Directions to Club Sport:

http://www.renaissanceclubsport.com/walnut-creek/maps-transportation.do

How Huge Were the Beads???

If it weren't for some outstanding individual performances, the BEADS may have won the ROY '08

Sept 26, 2007 Finally Arrived. Let's Get This Party Started- The Shuttle Flight Crew

The 25 people on the Delta Shuttle got the party started early...03:15 at Randy Hahn's house. They continued to party all the way to the Hacker Tent 18 hours later. These guys are the Super Troopers!!!