Weather: There was that first hint of Spring in the air, still wintery cold in the shade, but you felt the first sense of warmth standing in the sun. And there was sun! Finally.

The start: Many a hangover among us as we had bid farewell to Pat Cuff the evening before. In fact, Pat had so much fun she missed the start. After we were warned about private property (I have no idea where), the hash mobile appeared, bags were tossed and we were on our way.

The Trail: Not bad, for Alice. A little light on the chalk - every arrow was set as if penciled into your day planner, maybe she'd commit, maybe she wouldn't, who knew. Actually, the way we circled through the West Village and Soho showed real attention to choreography. In fact, the trail even seemed a little long. Still, no complaints. Except at a check on 6th Avenue where our hares decided to erase those pencil-marked arrows. I'm not sure how we actually got back on trail, but there we were and eventually we ended up on Harrison Street (Alice's namesake), at the renowned Puffy's.

Early On-In: Well, Scot made some awesome cookies for us (and they were laced only with white chocolate chips, yummy!). I thought I was being an oink-er eating more than my fair share, but looking through the window I noticed a real snarf-er who shall remain nameless. Then came the incoming cell phone call from the JM of the Hashers Who Don't Hash, looking for the on-in location, as the hotline had not been set. ("What's the name of this place, anyway? Antartica? Right, see you in a bit! Ta-ta!)

The pack was tentative about this place…on one hand it seems really nice (for us) with a great jukebox, but on the other hand the beer mugs are sticky with dirt and beer residue and the bartender is more out of her tree on alcohol than any of us will be that evening. Hmmm….

Mid-On-In: I try to be a friendly New Yorker and start talking about how friendly we all are to the sweet-looking visitors from Lansing. Just as we all nod in agreement about how nice we are in New York, I'm summoned for a down-down for cursing at and duking it out with someone in the park the day before.
Down-downs went to Pat Cuff for her outrageous display of concentration the day before when she missed passing off to her teammate during the Powerbar Relay. Cell phone users were also picked on. Cree got the rabbit ears, again (the fast bastard) and virgins and visitors were saluted, while off in the corner some hash recruits decided to drink beer out of their shoe just for the hell of it. Ewa was then pronounced AOTW (with a very strong potential to become Asshole of the Year…) for pulling a Rosie Ruiz in the Park the day before and cutting five miles off of her 20 mile run and placing suspiciously high in her age group (which is a whole other controversy…). Pat was then brought up and given a bottomless tankard from which to celebrate her escape from New York.

As the evening went on: We realized that we couldn't really work the jukebox and Donna from London came up with a great idea for our next haberdashery item - for the men only. A NYCH3 Willy Warmer. Cashmere on the outside (given Crofty's success the evening before in his sweater of the same material), and maybe a cotton fleece kind of thing (or was it Latex) on the inside. Anyway, I think it'll be a big selling item and we may need to pre-order to ensure we don't have a total sell out. I almost made an early escape, with my coat and bag on, but with the merest twist of my pinky, I held out until the hash cash seemed to finally be tallied by our bartender, nearly passed out and bid adieu to our fond friend Pat. On-out.