IN REVIEW: SDMG 52nd ANNUAL SPRING BARBEQUE
By Angie Cannon, BBQ Chairlady
Mother's Day weekend was a busy one, with our 52nd annual barbecue being held on Saturday, May 11th, under sunny skies. Hopefully, everyone's first stop was the Hostess Table where Nancy Brescia, Denny Turner, Rich Yarbrough and Diane Willner were helping everyone get signed in, set up to bid on the silent auction items, and in between, selling the few remaining tickets, handling ticket pick-up and answering any and all questions. It's a big job and they deserve a lot of thanks!
There were tables and tables of great silent auction items,from gemstones to lapidary equipment. Many of you now have these treasures at home being put to good use or in your collections. Thanks to everyone who participated!
For those who couldn't wait for the auction to end, there were many dealers with all the right stuff: Gerry Alvarado and Robyn Coon of Gem Guru, Richard Mueller of Miner's Gallery, John Glasier, Paul Williams, Jim Claypool, Gene Stebley, Cathy Davis (Joe Roger's estate), Marty Roks, and Les and Linda Wadsworth.
Thanks go to the BBQ Pit of El Cajon for another perfectly cooked lunch! They got rave reviews as usual, especially since they brought two desserts: chocolate chip cookies and chocolate chip brownies.
Much appreciation also goes to Tom and Lucia Barkley for their dedication to keeping the Ugly Rock Contest running smoothly. Thanks to them, all those ugly rocks were corralled and voted on! [See list of winners below.]
Of course, the grand finale is hosted by Simon King and Gladys Walker, who gave out the seemingly endless raffle prizes. Robin Coon was the big winner of the amethyst cathedral. Thank you to everyone who donated to the raffle.
Set-up and tear-down only gets done because of all of you. Here are some of the faces that I saw: Anne Schafer, Wayne Moorhead, Doug Peeler, Mike Harlow, Jim Stafford, Jane Roush, Tim Tickford and his sidekicks, Donna Casey, Garry Cannon, Andy Anderson, Dee Smith, Dick Mayer, Jim Parrish, Sally Parrish, Ellie Martinez, Gerry Alvarado, Paul Williams, Jim Mellos, Carl Shugart, Wayne Leibitzke, Peggy Leibitzke, and Peggy Thomas. I'm sure there were many more helpers; thank you, one and all.
Lastly, a big round of applause goes to the hardest working team of all, those who scrub and clean, sort, pack and label all the wonderful donations that the club receives throughout the year, so we can have that special big silent auction: Wayne Moorhead, Anne Schafer, Mike Harlow, Doug Peeler, Garry Cannon (and me), Jim Parrish and Roger Merk.
Thanks again to everyone!
2013 Results: Ugly Rock Contest
By Anne Schafer, SDMG Roving Reporter
On May 11, 2013, at the annual SDMG Barbecue, ugly rocks abounded! (Well, that might be because we were having an Ugly Rock Contest^hellip; Our beautiful Ugly Rock chairpeople, Tom and Lucia Barckley, ran a clean election and salute the winners. Without further ado, here are this year's highly awaited results.
It was a tight race in the Just Plain Ugly Rocks category this year, with multi-year champion Dolores Wheeler's "Conehead" winning by a nose. Warts were an apparent theme this year – as they are in many years – with second and third place going to "Rockwort" entered by Robert Bradley, and "Warthog's" owner, Mike Copeland, respectively. We hope they have a plentiful supply of Compound W.
Mimic Rocks are supposed to look like something – we don't actually care what – but should definitely be recognizable. No problem You could call it a Toothy Tyrannosaurus or a Snarky Shark, but Dave Smith's "Alien" was a crowd pleaser and ran away with first place. Wayne Moorhead's "Petrified Foot" couldn't run away (that's how he caught it), but was good for second place. Over at the Mackintosh household, Bonn overcooked a "Baked Potato", entered the result in this contest, and took home third place money, enough to buy a fresh potato (just kidding.)
Angie Cannon assembled rock pieces to make a furiously finning "Feisty Fossil Fish", this year's Embellished Ugly Rock first place winner Was that a crinoid cheerio, Dolores Wheeler, that you used in creating "Whistle Blower"? Very nice, and a close second. Charlie Wallace turned to a Japanese theme: a dainty plastic Toyota truck under a Bonsai Tree, on a huge mound of dirt, sitting in an ugly lava rock bowl. And how do you say third place in Japanese? 
(Jun-jun-Yuushou).
Congratulations to all sixteen contestants for their savoir faire in selecting choice ugly rocks. The rest of you, keep on looking – and ask Jim Mellos to run a special ugly rock field trip next fall!