celticdragonfly

We are home again from FenCon. Wheeeeeeee. What a weekend. It was great.

I am way behind on LJ and my email. I will try to get caught up, or feel free to bankrupt my pants. I want to post about the marvelous weekend - we'll see if that gets written now when it's fresh or later after I have slept.

Wheeeeee! I love love love FenCon.

Okay, let me write up something about Conestoga before I forget too much. I have some pictures, but I need to find one and scan it, so I will toss up pictures later.

I had arranged to carpool and roomsplit with Tamisan from ORAC, the local SF group. We were both going to support the Fencon room parties. We arranged to meet near here when she was done with work and Maggie and I were done with our dentist appointments. I was all packed the night before, the dental visits went smoothly, everything was going Just Perfectly. Suspiciously so. The pickup went great, and we headed north on the 35W!

Which had looked so good on paper. Mistake. Gah, we went through SO much construction! From Denton to past the Oklahoma border was one lane each way, and there was lots more construction after that. And a few missed turns and such. But hey, good conversation, good music, so not too bad. I think I want the Billy Joel collection that she has. We'd hoped to get there between 5 and 6, but eventually got there shortly after 7. Checked in, nice rooms, con registration was closed for the evening.

There was a Harry Potter party that evening, Tamisan had a lovely Hermione costume. I wandered in and out of that at various points, and also spent time wandering and promoting the Fencon room party, went across the street at one point and had dinner, spent time at the Fencon party and at the KC Worldcon Bid party, and more time at the HP party. I went down to see the winners of the costume contest - Tamisan got 2nd - and to hear the pipers and drummer they had to pipe in the book. Highly entertaining. I'd not planned to get the book, I had it on request from the library. But hey, it was a fun party, it's good to support con book dealers, the pipers were entertaining, and this way I got the entertainment fun of reading and understanding all the discussions and snarking that I've seen on LJ the next couple of days. I didn't let reading it take over the con, I read it at solo meals and such. Finished it on the car ride home.

I was going to go to the filk room after the book party, but I heard the con staff talking to the hotel people about it being locked up still, so I went to my room. faxpaladin apparently found Tamisan, because shortly thereafter the two of them showed up and Joe was telling me that the filk room was open, and wasn't I coming? So off I went. Just three of us there, but we had some fun filking, msminlr and I gave up and went to bed at 2 am. She had a good song about the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, and another about Burt Rutan's spaceship, The Great Speckled Bird, I must get her to play that for selenite at Fencon. (Better than what I call it, Wiffleball One)

Saturday morning I woke up on my own at 6:30, and figured since I was clearly awake, I'd get up. I had a long luxurious shower, some relaxing book reading, and a lovely buffet breakfast with more reading. Ahhh. Then I went off to wander the con. The dealer's room was interesting, lots of books. I went to a panel on Firefly, but was annoyed that I knew the show much better than the moderator.

The art show was well organized. They had a sheet of paper on a bitty clipboard - only part of the paper was really on the clipboard, but that was the part you had to fill out to register. A little part off the bottom perforated and tore off with your bidder number, and the part to the left perforated and came off as your form to vote for best in show, best humor, best fantasy, etc. (I never did hear the results of the voting, I wonder if they'll put that online) They gave you a little booklet with a layout map, bios of some of the artists, and a form on the back to make notes on anything you bid on. Whee. I saw one item I really wanted, ended up doing the quickbuy on that so I'd be sure to get it. Saw another I would have wanted, but it was already quickbought. I had fun going around and voting on stuff.

I went to a panel on Firefly, but was annoyed that I knew the show much better than the moderator. After that I went to the second half of a demo/panel/thingy on birds of prey. They had a raptor rehabilitation group there, and Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon. Lots of lovely birds, interesting stories about birds. I found myself really wishing I'd skipped the Firefly panel and been there from the beginning. At the end they said they don't actually own the birds, they can't, it's against the law, so basically they're paying high fees to "take care of our birds for us", and then they invited us to hold them if we wanted to. They would do polaroids for a $5 donation - I had my digital camera and so did others, but I did a polaroid anyway. Larry Dixon had a lovely big Harris hawk named Val (short for Valkyrie), and I got to hold her for a while, I got to hold the kestrel, and the redshouldered hawk, and I even got to hold a crippled baby kestrel in my lap - she was back behind the table with Lackey and some of the other helpers. Awww. It was absolutely fascinating and marvelous.

Lessee, what else happened in the afternoon. Wandering the dealer's room more and buying book presents for selenite. Having a nice chat with Larry Dixon, interrupted by a phone call, I must email him the other things I wanted to say. Chatting with more people. Knitting some, I finished the sock I started last Wednesday and started the next one, and got to chat with a lady crocheting beautiful flowers with size 10 and floral wire. Sat in on the Fan GOH panel, that had some interesting stories. Made several tries to get bid support put through for the Kansas Worldcon, I shall have to do that later online. Eventually went off for an early dinner with faxpaladin and ... Pat somebody, I forget her last name and don't know if she has a LJ.

I went to the art auction in the evening, then changed, and eventually got down for the end of the costume contest. Then they did a spoof play on SWIII - even having skipped the movie, that was amusing, although I was mostly trying to remember stuff to tell selenite Best part - "George Lucas" appearing on stage to insist to "Soda" that he had to lose his duel. GL insisted it was because of GL's VISION, his VISION for the film, like Peter Jackson had his vision of Tolkien! Soda said "yes, but Peter Jackson understood Tolkien! Understand Star Wars, you do not!" Heh.

There was supposed to be a Regency dance after this. It didn't happen. Sigh, me all dressed up in my new swirly skirt and gauzy top and nowhere to dance. Bother. I did more filking. There were more people that time. I gave up a little earlier, though.

Sunday I had a personal side trip in the morning, then another buffet breakfast, redeeming my art show items, and the Suzette Hayden Elgin panel on the gentle art of verbal self defense. Very interesting, clearly something that needs a lot more than 2 hours. I want to have long thinky thoughts about some of what she said, and then go read some of her books. Some great stories.

Ended up not going to some later panels I'd planned, because it hurt too much to sit on the hotel chairs, even with the cushion. I went to lunch with Tamisan and faxpaladin, much interesting conversation. (Some of which is strengthening my resolve to find SOME way to get that fancy hearing evaluation done.) We took the other route home, down the 75, and it was much better, little construction and prettier, really. I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, but that's a first draft, anyway.