By now, anybody who knows me even in passing, should know how much I love going to the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee.

I’ve always loved the experience, ever since my mom took me when I was just a young rapscallion. The sites and sounds of wandering around the bustling little village of historical entertainment are especially entertaining to me in that I love history. I get downright geeky about history. I’m that guy at a party that will answer your question about some obscure musical group with some obscure fact of ancient Rome.

And I’ll own up to it every time, I love history that much.

Not that the Renaissance Festival is all that historically accurate. The Renssaiance Festival, as the name implies, denotes the Renaissance period. To my knowledge there weren’t that many vikings during that period.

By that time the Viking marauders had moved well away from their raiding ways.

Nor were their barbarians walking around with samurai swords.

Doesn’t matter. The festival isn’t about historical accuracy. I, myself, enjoy dressing up and do so as an assassin based out of the Ubisoft video game series Assassin’s Creed. While the games are based loosely on the real life assassins, the Hashashins based out of Syria, I, however, am not.

And yes, I still play video games and I will now allow you a few seconds to appropriately roll your eyes.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Ready? Okay, onward then.

I’ve stated all this before so if you’re new to this column, one of my 17 readers will be able to fill you in. Just ask them when the fan club meets. I’m not sure where they meet, I just assume they do.

I love the participation we sometimes draw, my girlfriend and I, from those people who don’t dress up and may suspect we are a part of the show.

I love the interaction with others who dress up as well. It’s just a great way to interact with other people. A commonality with other people with the same interests.

Every now and again we are even photographed, which I always count as a win because it means the time I put into the outfit has been worth it and that others appreciate it in some way.

There are minuses of course, as there are with all things. Like the Minnesota Vikings losing to a high school team last Sunday.

Come one, I’m not going to let that go.

For example, this year, for the first time we stood in a line that stretched clear back to the ticket booth. It was a great day, with mild tempts and sunny, so it was no surprise that so many people showed up.

And while I despise standing in lines, sometimes it’s fun to eavesdrop on those around you, like the two kids of about 14 who decided to have a fairly enlightened conversation.

“What do you think the most important invention of mankind was?”

“Like, what do you mean?”

“Like, what invention did the most for mankind?”

Profound questions indeed, though it was kind of hard to take them seriously when the one kid who was asked the question was wearing bright green, plastic sunglasses with marijuana leaves rising above the frames.

But, it was entertaining nonetheless.

It also marked the first time in a long time where I had to wait for over 15 minutes to get buffalo chicken and fries that were less than satisfying.

There was promise in the buffalo chicken and fries, but it became hard to discern just how much promise because half my tongue eventually fell off due to the seasoning. At best it was noticeable in some places, and mouth-cutting in other ways where they concentrated the shake in one or two major shakes.

I was “forced” to buy a beverage soon after, not because I wanted to enjoy a beer, but because my mouth was burning due to the levels of salt.

Still, like I’ve been establishing, the experience wasn’t a complete loss. I had a great talk with two ladies also waiting as we shared barbs about waiting. So much waiting.

Our day started winding down after our accustomed four, five hours at the festival, but we decided on one last stop which again wrapped back to my first years as a young teen.

For the first time in about 30-35 years we stopped to see Zilch the Gravedigger. To me, Zilch is one of the most talented  acts up there only because of what it entails. He tells the story — highly abridged — of Romeo and Juliet, but he does it in a unique way. And by unique I mean, he switches letters or words around to create a humorous interpretation of the famed story.

Honestly, I could try to explain it, but you should probably try and see it on your own. It’s clear, he’s told the stories hundreds, thousands of times even, as he never skips a beat, which in this style I can only assume is tricky.

Granted, it hasn’t changed much. I remembered much of the story as if he was telling it so many years ago, with some alterations to account for the changing times.

See, the Renaissance Festival can be an absolute blast and it was another successful year, leaving us with the desire to go again next year, severely pressing any level of patience I still have — which is horribly little.

Much like Vikings fans who see their team lose to Pop Warner football teams.